Not liking Frontline? Also, is there a point in brining a melee?

[PenutButter]

Am I the only one not liking Frontline?

First of all, there's nothing to work towards. Unless you really enjoying it and won't get bored of it, the only reason to do Frontline is to get tomes when you feel dungeons are too much of a bore. For me, progressing to better gear and getting stronger has always been a big factor in what kept me pvping in other games. I know it would be a big issue if the pvp gear were too strong but if there's nothing to progress towards at all, it takes a lot of drive out of pvp after awhile.

Second, melee is a freaking mess right now. There's pretty much no reason to bring a melee except to limit break a healer. Unlike in other games, melee don't even really have more HP or defense than range. Monks have it especially bad. They have as much def and HP as a bard but less damage due to not being able to attack and DoT multiple enemies from afar and less survivability cuz they have to charge into the fray of things. Their natural mechanics of relying on lightning and positional just kills their damage potential and knocks them off their specialized role, single target damage.

The only range that has a big comparative disadvantage is black mage because they have to cast. However that weakness is more than made up for the fact that they have the highest damage potential and that you usually always have people to back you up.

The only advantage I see in melee is that most people tend to go for the range and healers first, probably cuz they feel melees just aren't as threatening and I don't blame them. What they don't realize is that melee goes down faster than anyone else cuz they have very little means of escaping.

I have never seen a melee top the DPS chart, ever. I do more damage as my marauder than I do as my monk and dragoon. My range classes can do twice as much damage as my melee and though I do do more aoe damage as my range (which is another advantage), that is not enough to make up for the damage difference. I wouldn't complain if melee has more single target damage but thing is, they don't. I haven't done any extensive testing but from what I can tell, they don't do more single target damage at all. Maybe there are some melees out there who is absolutely dominating and the rest of us are just noobs, which is possible, but I have never seen such people, ever.

[vcjester]

Just the other day I had 11 kills, 1 death. I usually Dps in the high 30k zone during most matches. While Monks don't have the best set of skills for PVP, with some creativity, we can be useful. Running into a pile of casters and slamming our silence can annoy the heck out of them. :-) Swapping to our wind stance at the proper moment, using our rush, burst run and TP renewal skill comes in handy for chasing people down. Perfect balance combined with slamming our cone aoe can also raise some havoc. If nothing else, pester a healer so they can't sit still or watch their group mates.

[Koltik]

I've done 118K damage as a monk, but as low as 38k. On average I'll pull 60 - 80k damage, but it varies greatly depending on how much fighting you are actually doing. Some games it can be difficult to keep up with positional requirements as well.

If I am in a group with no other Melee but all casters, then I will usually have to work harder for kills. It isn't uncommon for people to be dead before I can even reach them!



As a MNK I am severely reliant on my healers; to the point where I don't even want to queue without a healer with me. If I get a healer who can keep me up then it is beautiful.

I'll post a video within the next couple of days. Have about 18 matches recorded that I need to comb through.

[ish007xx]

lol i average 10kills per game as a drg even while going for OP's and def spots, best thing about playing drg for me is fking over all casters they are so squisy lol... then again i have alot of wolves den experience and utilize all my pvp abilities to its fullest. A good drg/monk should be able to solol a heals in frontlines.

[vcjester]

There must be a lot of LB action to hit 109k. I save LB for the casters.

[Koltik]

There must be a lot of LB action to hit 109k. I save LB for the casters.

LB only does 5k on LB 1 - I may have used it twice in that game, tops.

[Shake0615]

I do agree that it's very tough on MNKs since you have to get GL3 for full damage unlike other classes - outside of Axe Kick and Perfect Balance it'll take time to build that up and if you don't stay engaged then you lose it fast. But I think their role changes slightly from PvE to PvP, i.e. they seem like more of a Swiss Army Knife to me. When I play Monk I don't care about topping the damage charts, I care about assisting my teammates and winning skirmishes. If my BLM can out-dps me then that's fine as long as I can pressure the healers enough so that BLM can nuke their target. Focusing solely on damage is shortsighted in my opinion.

[Koltik]

I don't care about topping the damage charts, I care about assisting my teammates and winning skirmishes. If my BLM can out-dps me then that's fine as long as I can pressure the healers enough so that BLM can nuke their target.

Except that the doing the most damage you can do & pressuring the healers go hand in hand. You pressure the healer by destroying them, and you win these skirmishes by doing the same thing to everyone else. Maximize your damage against those healers/squishies and you will be doing your job; add that to the BLM damage that you mentioned and things will melt.

[Spyrit]

How much magic defense does a monk have? I know my black mage is pushing 600 in a mix of ilvl 90 and 70 gears, I read on these forums that Drgs were very low on this stat, is it the same for monks?

[ZhycranaDranix]

Lol Nothing is funnier than breaking out the LB on a single SCH or WHM ...DRG , sigh but that Attune tho