Monk is incredibly fun and quite competitive in the end. It's by far and away my favorite class to play, but in solo content it is probably at its worst. A big issue is at around 30~35 a lot of other jobs begin getting their big power spikes and some defining abilities whereas Monk doesn't see this until level 40 with the ability to stack Greased Lightning up to 3 stacks from 2 and the addition of Fists of Fire which is an additional static 5% damage increase. Basically, a 14% increase at 40 when it's all said and done. If you can stomach the crappy levels ahead and make it to 50+, though, Monk stands at the peak of competitive damage and is a blast to play.