final fantasy xi gil info game guides

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).

If I had to list an order of important definitely agility and strength are the most important,

followed by stamina and the other stats you can do without.

Agility is the primary stat that decreases your damage over time via avoidance. I.e. agility

improves your armor class (AC)4 and avoidance skills: defense, parry, and deflection. As

a result, the monsters (mobs) will hit you less often and you will block/parry/dodge more

often. For monks, it’s extremely important to avoid damage since our damage mitigation

is substandard versus the other tank subclasses (e.g. Guardian, Paladin, etc.).

Arguably agility is the most important stat for the monk, but for the other fighter sub-

classes strength or stamina is the most important. Why? Monks are considered

“avoidance” tanks since our successful tanking requires us to avoid damage versus taking

damage. Other fighter subclasses are ”mitigation tanks” and tank successfully because

they have heavy armor that allows for significant damage absorption. Overall they will get

hit more often, but for less damage.

Agility and the monk’s reputation

Agility is the #1 stat for the tanking monk and will directly relate to the reputation. A monk

that can tank well (and believe me, monks can out-tank any other fighter subclass

assuming their agility is high enough) will be well loved by all groups. Monk’s especially

need a reputation boost in the tanking role since there is a widely held belief by a lot of

EQ2 adventurers that monks can not tank and are strictly a DPS subclass. Compounded

with the fact that there will be other monks out there that are convinced they are not tanks,

your role in a group will be limited to DPS.

Agility effectiveness table (for tanking)

Effectiveness Agility Value

3 Stats refer exclusively to strength, agility, stamina, wisdom, and intelligence.

4 AC is an overall quantitative value that measures your ability to sustain damage over time. The

higher the AC value, the less damage you will take over time.

Substandard < 100

Average 140-170

Above

Average 170-200

Exceptional > 200

These values are most relevant for a monk who is trying to tank and the higher agility

scores (e.g. 140+) are generally not possible to achieve unless you’re grouped with a

fellow adventurer that can buff your agility. As a general rule of thumb, once your agility is

above 170-180, your ability to tank group mobs will be better than any other fighter class.

Agility scores of <140 will cause you problems when tanking, and agility scores of 140-170

will put you on par with your fellow tank subclasses.

Expected agility values (solo)

Effectiveness Agility Value

Substandard < 100

Average 100-139

Above

Average 140-180

Exceptional > 180

These values represent the typical agility scores you could achieve based solely on your

self buffs and quality of items. I.e. Higher quality items will yield higher agility modifiers. I

would strongly recommend trying to maintain an agility value of >120 so if you ever decide

to group, you would prove to be at least an average tank. Again, that would assume

someone (e.g. druids or bards) in the group could buff your agility to at least 140 or

greater.

Do I need to have a high agility score when soloing?

No! Agility is generally only valuable in groups and only when you are tanking. The solo

mobs in EQ2 are fairly easy to kill and are ”tuned” so that any class, even if they have

substandard equipment and stats, can kill these mobs. If you are strictly soloing, I would

primarily focus on strength versus agility. However, it should be noted, if you ever plan to

group and tank in your EQ2 adventures, you definitely want to maximize your agility

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