Level3 monk can't kill anything stronger than plasm beasts in the arena.
Definitely not newbie friendly. How bad/hard/un-balanced would it be to make them a tiny bit stronger in the lower ranks?
Locked Monks are weak.
You can still use regular weaponry until you level up to a point where it makes hand-to-hand worthwhile/until you can buy that pet that's very strong for such a low rank. Ranking a little slower than how your typical giant warrior would rank (unless you have the pet), sure, but it's the same for a lowbie cleric/battlemage/whatever. I took up a monk to 15 fairly recently, and ranks 1-10 didn't take any longer than it would have done for again, some of the magey types.
And anyway, saying that a level 3 monk can't kill anything stronger than a plasm beast in the arena is a blatant lie, as I took down frilled lizards and hyenas easily enough (using hand-to-hand, no weapons), wolves a little longer but still pretty easy with dodge. 
Dey
Not a lie at all.
So you're telling me that a level 3 monk cannot kill anything other than plasm beasts in the arena, in a reasonable length of time?
I'm telling you, I was taking everything with the exception of wolves out in reasonable time, wolves becoming easier at around 4, 5.
H2H not working for you? Weapons, my man. Weapons. Between ranks 1-10, wielding store-bought weaponry, you are practically ranking a cleric except you have dodge and they don't.
If you're finding it a REALLY big problem (for whatever reason), hitting plasm beasts to level three should be fast enough, and you can do your guild quests from there to boost your level a little further to make H2H that little more worthwhile.
Dey
wolves a little longer but still pretty easy with dodge.
Dey
DUDE. Do NOT take advice from anyone who plays a monk and practices dodge before mastering second hand parry. EVER.
Why?
If you're having trouble ranking past LEVEL THREE simply because you don't want to practice your defense for ease of training later on (especially with a monk, where the long time it takes spending to train second parry would be spent training weapons anyway, assuming you wanted to maximise the classes potential) then that's your own damn fault.
Dodge makes a monks life a lot easier in the lower ranks. Use it, love it, but don't complain when you decide not to use it and can't kill anything.
Dey
All im going to say is its obvious Dey has never tried training second hand parry when dodge or first hand has been practiced.
All im going to say is its obvious Dey has never tried training second hand parry when dodge or first hand has been practiced.
Uh, I've trained three monks to fifty that way. It's pretty easy.
All im going to say is its obvious Dey has never tried training second hand parry when dodge or first hand has been practiced.
Wether I have or have not, isn't the point (but for the record, I have mastered second hand parry after training dodge, AND first parry, fairly easily, with a few select pieces of kit).
The point is, you have tools at your disposal to help you rank. Saying, "Oh my god, this class is underpowered at low ranks because I'm CHOOSING not to practice these skills given to me because I want to make things easier for myself later on" is not a valid argument towards saying monks are weak at low ranks.
If anything, it might be saying that monks require an incredible amount of time to train (which I agree with) but they are not underpowered at low ranks.
Dey
You do realize who you're arguing with, right, Dey? 
Any class can get to lvl 8 with a combination of lowbie arena and quests. Then you can buy that sweet pet and even solo getting to 15 is a breeze. By 15 you should have enough skills/spells to be somewhat useful and find a group.
With first parry/dodge practiced, it maybe takes an extra 10-15 minutes of training, tops.
It's really not a big deal.
With first parry/dodge practiced, it maybe takes an extra 10-15 minutes of training, tops.
It's really not a big deal.
Especially if you lower your dex with EQ to help keep from dodging so much.
And being weak at level 3 is really not a big deal, just cuz bards have dual wield by then it doesnt mean monks are weak as a class.
go ahead....practice dodge, parry, and second parry. THEN try to master horse stance. 
Took me a while to figure THAT one out.
Horse stance is the monk's tanking stance. It's always auto-mastered for me just via tanking.
I couldn't get it to kick in when training. It was hard to get to go up. Took me four hours to go from 75-100. 
Why don't you just rank with guild quests if you have problems getting your first couple ranks?
Get your description done early, if you earn the 2000 experience then you also get a nice boost.
As a lowlevel monk, I'd always practice sword, pick up a longsword or katana and rank with those the first few ranks. Most classes don't get second attack until rank 5-8 or something anyway.
With Silviana I mastered dodge, first-p and second-p all at the same time...by the time trip, air thrash, kick, double kick are mastered you should have all three done pretty easily.
The idea of not taking dodge until you get second parry is just silly...so yeah you practice second parry quicker, but it will get mastered anyways if you train your other key skills...
Monks are far from weak, yeah you have a little rough time in the low levels....but early dirt kick works wonders, and once you break 15 you start to move pretty quick.
I love monks, but can only do one a year...since the training is such an involved pain in the butt.