I’m a Dr/M/N/Mo, and this is my first char. That said, I found a bull whip today and decided to try striking with it wielded. Apparently, a bull whip is a pointy weapon?
I can understand that when wielding a sword/axe/pike/club/etc, it might be tough to maneuver yourself so that you can get just the right angle for a striking blow. I don’t think a whip would impede that kind of precision, though.
Is there any kind of weapon that allows strike? I can’t really do much damage bare-handed, because Monk is my quad class, but I’d be willing to take a decrease in weapon damage if it let me use strike instead of kick. Or am I going to just wish I’d picked Warrior instead of Monk until I make a new character?
It is a pimpin good classo. By the time you hit 38 prime you will just shift all the time anyhow. That said I don’t believe there is anything you can wield while still striking. Would be nice though.
Everytime I see your name, I think longingly of O fries.
The reason your strike doesn’t do much damage is not that monk is your quad, it’s that you have low monk levels. Your strike will get bigger when your monk levels do.
Dr-Ne-Ma-Mo here and, while my dispel good is mightier than my strike, my strike definitely is better than my kick. The same mob lasts about 25% less rounds with my hands empty and using strike than with a mace of bane and kick - and I’m only monk 8, with the str of, of… of a druid!
Barehanded attacks are actually “emptyhanded”. You can’t do them so long as you have a weapon, whatever it is. No kamas, kukris or other excuses for monk wannabes.
I wasn’t saying that my strike doesn’t do much damage, just that I haven’t noticed my bare-hand attacks being all that good.
If you say MOBs are 4x easier (die in 25% of the time) barehanded and striking, then I guess I need to look into that more. I have 8lvls in Monk myself, so I’d expect my results to be fairly similar to yours.
I have another question that I thought of after posting this last night: While I’m shifted, I can strike (even though I can’t kick shifted). Even with strike at 85%, I miss 95% of the time (while shifted). Is this because I’m shifted, and animal forms aren’t supposed to get strike? Or is this something that will improve w/levels in Monk?
PS - I love Antoons. Haven’t had O’ fries in over a year, though. Too greasy for my tastes :-/ Besides, you can’t eat O’ fries and MUD, you’ll get your keyboard all covered in grease ;-)
Barehanded attacks are kind of fun. I have a little monk and he hits much weaker with a weapon in his hand, not to mention losing strike. Strength is a key factor in bareharded attacks though. I’m running 18/100 str (+6 dam) and just +3 handdam equipment and I’m getting 100% massacres at level 20. Barehanded attacks also seem to have very little variance in their strength, unlike weapons which can run from 3-18 points of damage (for a 3d6).
As for the original question, any weapon is not a barehanded attack, and disables strike. On the plus side, there are several hand equipment in the game that are +handdam, such as handwraps and elegant leather gloves. These are the closest things you’ll find to weapons for monks.
Howl, what is your str (if you don’t mind)?
You say the strength of a Druid, but that obviously depends on how many times you rerolled :-P
I am running with a nat str of 12, or 14 with strength spell. I’ve been told by many people my stats are relatively good for a Druid (12 16 17 16 14 nat, 12 18 18 18 14 w/eq), but I’m wondering if this will make a big difference if I try to fight barehanded.
Thanks!
I don’t have the old web page to refer to, but if I remember correctly, you recieve damage bonuses for strength at 17, 18/01, 18/10, 18/80, 18/90 and 18/100.
Basic moral: If you’re strength is only 12, you’re doing 6 damage less than someone with 18/100. Multiply by however many attacks you’re performing.
Or you can just shift, gain several hard hitting attacks and not worry about it.
I did some very quick analysis of a few battles last night, and it looks like I average about the same damage whether I go barehanded or with a weapon. My weapon damage had (as mentioned in other posts) a much wider range, while my handdamage was fairly consistent.
I tried some small MOBs (okay, field mice :-[ ) without using kick/strike, and I also tried some not-quite-as-small MOBs (poozers) with kick/strike. While strike certainly has a more impressive ‘indicator’ (“You land a powerful strike” vs “Your boot needs polishing again”), I didn’t notice any real advantage to striking over kicking. Both battles took roughly the same number of rounds.
I also did some more looking into my strike % while shifted, and noticed that I did not land a single hit all of last night. Does anyone know if that rate will improve with time, or is strike something that we really aren’t supposed to have access to in shifted form? If that’s the case, why doesn’t it follow kick’s example and tell us we need to practice it first? I know these are probably better questions for the Druid section, so I’ll ask them there too.
Thanks for all of your input!
Forgot to log in again. That was me.