Strength affects the amount of damage dealt, ability to hit, total power pool5, and carrying
weight. Arguably if you are tanking, damage dealt is not as important as holding agro,
taking damage, etc. However, doing more damage does increase agro (via hate) and is
always a bonus to a group since mobs will die faster. For all fighters, strength increases
your power pool which in-turn, has other indirect benefits: more buffs/skills can be cast in-
battle, more damage, less down-time, etc. Strength is also extremely important for a monk
if you decide to play a DPS role. You will notice that monks tend to have the highest DPS
output of any fighter subclass (and even scout classes) and the more strength the better.
Also, if you interest is to eventually raid (I.e. kill baddies such as Venekor, Darathar,
Kra’thuk, etc.), strength will be the primary stat to increase since your primary role will be
DPS. Why do I say that? At the raid encounters, monks are no longer considered to be
viable tanks because of their lower health and damage mitigation. As a result, most of the
tanking is left for the Guardians. Don’t feel bad, Beserkers and Paladins won’t be main
tanks either and the Monks will dominate in the damage output category.
How much strength do I need when soloing?
As we pointed-out early, strength is the stat for soloing. I have done many experiments on
enhancing strength versus agility and visa versa. For example, the choice might be
between having 200-strength and 140-agility versus 200-agility and 140-strength. It’s is
overwhelming to me that you should always prefer strength versus agility and your time to
kill any given mob should significantly improve. In addition, I was able to solo group mobs
(greens and barely blues) with the higher strength values.
So how much strength do I really need?
This question is fairly complicated since if you try and increase 1-stat (e.g. strength) you
will generally need to sacrifice other stats such as agility and stamina. However, I would
suggest, if you are tanking for a group, maximize agility and if you are DPS (or solo),
maximize strength. As for me, I always carry 2-sets of gear and weapons, one for tanking
and one for DPS.
Please note that other classes derive their power through other stats. E.g. The scout through
agility, the mage through intelligence, and the priest through wisdom
On a more technical side, strength affects both your melee damage and your combat art
damage. The below table outlines the damage modifier bonuses per strength step:
Damage Modifiers for Strength
Strength Damage
Value Modifier
100 125%
200 135%
300 145%
400 155%
I have yet to see my strength reach a buffed 450-points, but its quite common to have
200-300+ strength, especially if you are grouped with a healer and/or bard class. In those
situations, you should see a healthy 40% increase in your total DPS output. Also keep in
mind, that strength has a compounded benefit with haste buffs and ”to-hit” percent, so a
10-point improvement in strength could easily equate to a 2% improvement in damage
(i.e. 1% from strength and 1% from the ”to-hit” and haste modifier)
To bring these stats down-to-earth, let’s assume you are a level-30 monk, 99-strength,
and your DPS rating is 70 or 70-damage points per second. Now let’s also assume you
are hunting turtles in Enchanted Land and they have around 2000 health points. On
average, you should be able to kill these turtles in about 30-seconds. Now with a modified
strength of 150, you have a +30% damage bonus or a DPS of 98. In addition we will add
another 10% damage because of the improved chance to hit (from the strength bonus),
with a total damage modifier of 40%. This improved strength would result in a 33%
improvement in the time to kill the turtle which then could roughly translate to a 10-15%6
improvement in your exps / hour rate.
Strength and ability to ”hit” the mob
Strength is the determining stat on the percent chance to hit (the mob) and will enhance
your attack rating. However, I have yet to come across some definitive evidence to the
6 Its not a 23% improvement in exps rate since you will spend the same amount of time just to find
the mob. The 23% improvement only applies to the time you are actually in battle.
actual impact of each point of strength to hit probability. From personal experience, the
improvement to percent chance to hit seems to be in-line with the strength damage
modifier bonuses. I.e. 10-points in strength will improve your chance to hit by 1%.
Furthermore, this modifier is applied to the base to-hit percentage which is determined by
attack/defender level difference, attacker’s attack value, and defender’s defense value.
I.e. A 10-point modifier to strength does not mean +1% chance to hit the mob and is most
likely less.
Strength and the monk’s reputation
As with agility, strength is the second stat that directly relates to your fame and reputation
in the world of EQ2. As we will explain later in the guide, your monk will be renown for the
massive amount of damage you can bring to the group and the famous monk will be
sought-after continuously. Your fellow adventures will put you on their friends list and
quickly send you invites as-soon-as you login.
2.2.3. Stamina
Stamina affects the total health of the monk. Personally, I find stamina as a secondary stat
for monks because mobs tend to hit you for large amounts of damage (especially for
monks) and the extra health from higher stamina isn’t as significant versus having higher
agility which avoids damage altogether. I have also found that items you find will either
improve your agility/strength versus stamina/strength. You will then need to generally pick
from agility gear versus stamina gear.
2.2.4. Intelligence and Wisdom
Although these stats might provide benefits for resists and skill-ups they aren’t very useful
in fulfilling the monk’s primary roles of either tank or DPS. In eq2, there is no such thing as
the ”wise” monk (at least from a stats perspective).