Solo reaper Handwraps or Staff monk?

[Aarvex]

doing a monk right now, have a few past lives some gears, mainly looking to solo r1-r4ish and stick around at the cap a while.

Will henshin/staff just be the way to go because of AoE + Sustain? I was looking at that the patch notes coming up and it looks like they're looking into the Grand master of flowers strike with handwraps to get all 3 hits in so kinda swaying my thought process as well.

Is one absolutely better than the other for this? I know 1-20 staff monk is pretty great but how about 20-32 kinda looking at this part a bit harder

 

[ACJ97F]

There's nothing I can really say about the handling of Monk over the years, that won't sound like I'm throwing them under a bus.

I'd say just play whatever you feel like, and don't wait for us to QA what breaks next. You can always change it.

 

[moonhaven]

I personally love tabaxi trailblazer staff monk. The permanent 30% action boost to run speed plus abundant step and spring attack, I can run across wilderness areas faster than horseback, at least until red alert Good AOE and decent defenses.

 

[YoureDown]

I am personally a huge fan of qstaff monk (especially as trailblazer), but fist monk is also great. They're both in a good spot right now, just in different ways.

I found that qstaff monk is better in lower reaper simply because in low reaper questing you don't really have to care about what you're doing and by having strikethrough you just clear stuff faster (and if you're trailblazer you also get very nice AoE trips and jumps), while handwraps monk is better in high reaper because you get more stuns (whose DCs get high enough to guarantee a hit) and since positioning and actually thinking the engagements through tends to synergize with that.

But, and it's a big one, both are perfectly viable and even good in both scenarios, especially with the right gear.

The only scenario I'd give handwrap monk a definite win is raiding, since as a melee dps you'll find yourself fighting one enemy at a time and handwraps out-dps qstaffs in single target.

 

[Contessor]

So handwraps monk don’t synergize with Fury of The Wild, and staff monk does. That’s the difference to me if you want to do more DPS.

And levelling staff monk has access to Elemental Bloom, which is great, until next update.

 

[Shear-buckler]

So handwraps monk don’t synergize with Fury of The Wild, and staff monk does. That’s the difference to me if you want to do more DPS.

And levelling staff monk has access to Elemental Bloom, which is great, until next update.

Elemental Bloom will be OP in the next update too. Losing 2 damage per hit is not worth the crying you all are doing.

 

[Fisto Mk I]

Elemental Bloom will be OP in the next update too. Losing 2 damage per hit is not worth the crying you all are doing.

If it's 50% your damage dice - no, it clearly worth.

 

[Shear-buckler]

If it's 50% your damage dice - no, it clearly worth.

2 damage per hit. You won't notice it.

 

[dur]

There's nothing I can really say about the handling of Monk over the years, that won't sound like I'm throwing them under a bus.

I'd say just play whatever you feel like, and don't wait for us to QA what breaks next. You can always change it.

Seems like you could say that about every class.

Was a time that I had to rebuild toons every week, it seemed.

Ahh, the MMO.

 

[Fisto Mk I]

2 damage per hit. You won't notice it.

You don't think that you can decide for me what I notice and what I don't? 8)
Mob have 6 HP, my weapon do 6 damage - i need 1 sweep to kill him. Mob have 6 HP, my weapon do 4 damage - i need 2 sweep to kill him. You really think i and all other don't notice difference?
Too fat, my little green Freund. Get back under the bridge where you crawled out.

 

[Shear-buckler]

You don't think that you can decide for me what I notice and what I don't? 8)
Mob have 6 HP, my weapon do 6 damage - i need 1 sweep to kill him. Mob have 6 HP, my weapon do 4 damage - i need 2 sweep to kill him. You really think i and all other don't notice difference?
Too fat, my little green Freund. Get back under the bridge where you crawled out.

If you need such a contrived example to motivate why it's a problem I am even more convinced you are just blowing hot air.

 

[dur]

:insert eye-roll emoticon: on both.

 

[dur]

from 61.1 upgrade alone:
Balance adjustments:

• Swashbuckler
  • The Action Point cost of the Double Strike Action Boost has been reduced to 1 action point per rank.
• Archmage
  • Damage dice of SLAs has been increased to match modern values.
  • Damage SLAs now scale with highest of all spell schools.
  • Energy of the Scholar's Spell Point cost has been increased to 100 in its third rank.
• Harper
  • Increase universal to match 1 mp/rp = 3 universal.
  • Harper Leadership now has its proper minimum level.
• Sorc
  • Tier 5 Spell Like Abilities now scale with Evocation and Conjuration.
• Vistani
  • Fan of Knives now breaks breakables.
• Frenzied Berzerker
  • Power Rage has had its Action Point cost reduced to 1 per rank.
• Ninja Spy
  • Diversion now grants +5 to Assassinate DCs when active.
  • Shadow Double Tier 5 now grants +5 Assassinate DCs when active.
  • Crippling Strike Tier 5 now grants +3 Assassinate DCs.
  • Critical Multiplier in Core 20 moves to Core 18.
  • Flash Bang and Touch of Death now factor in Assassinate bonuses.
  • Poison Exploits now scales with higher of Melee/Ranged Power.
  • Deadly Exploits is now fixed, is 1 rank 2AP, causes your poison exploit to deal double damage, and scales with higher of melee/ranged power.
• Warpriest/Warsoul
  • Divine Vessel is now just a Cleave, no stack requirements.
• Falconry
  • Practiced Accuracy now has a 3rd rank.
• Nature's Protector
  • Rage of the Beast, Primal Beast, and Enduring Beast now have 3rd ranks.
• Battle Engineer
  • The Critical Multiplier in Core 20 moves to Core 12.
• Dark Apostate
  • Imbue dice moved to 1d8 to match other Spell Power scaling imbues.
• Arcanotechnician
  • Core 1 is now: you gain 5 Electric, Force, and Fire spell power per core, and 1 universal spell power per point spent in the tree.

 

[YoureDown]

u62 updates include a significant change to monks, in Drifting Lotus

1. DL now hits twice. Handwraps used to hit once. Other weapons used to hit 3 times.
2. DL now does +10% instead of +5[w]
3. DL animation matches whirlwind attack animation

Which basically means Drifting Lotus is a worse Whirlwind attack, except for the crit range and multi.

No point in using DL over adrenaline now.