So, people complain about monks. A lot. They can't be nerfed because that will make them useless or too much like warriors, they're too strong right now, their hunting is too fast, they... you know.

So, because of all of that, I would like to propose a very rough idea of a possible way to balance them out.

1. Upgrade the maximum momentum to 10 or so. Make this provide 2500 ka or something like that.

Shaping up great so far, huh?

2. Momentums 0 and 1 offer 250 ka, 2 350, 3 450, and then... 4 750. So, smooth out that progression, and up all the ka weights of various skills.

3. Make each skill require a certain momentum level to hit with the desired affliction, as well as having ka weights.

I'll use as an example butojo, the Shofangi skill that at 0, 1, 2, or 3 momentum prevents speaking and at 4 and 5 slits throat.

Raise the ka weight to say, 900, and make it require a momentum level of 8 before slitting throat. Or, look at Buck. Say that at 7 momentum, it would mangle a limb like normal, but anything below that and it's just a high ka-weight kick that causes you to lose momentum.

Basically, it would slow down the rate at which monks could fire afflictions without making them too similar to warriors. Instead of being reliant on wounding, you become reliant on momentum not only for your ka but for your afflictions. Prone a monk long enough for them to lose 2 momentum or so and it's equivalent to rubbing a medicinebag/applying a health potion.

Think about a mid-tier, non-Demi warrior. In single combat against anyone with a decent deepwound curing system, they can't stack wounds worth anything. When Ila was an Axelord, the only reason I could stack any sort of wounds at all was because I had a 510 precision greataxe, and even then I could only pull that off against people below about 65.

So, in single combat under this potential system, hindering the monk for a few seconds at a time virtually does the same thing, prevents them from building up to decent 'wounds' for their high-level afflictions. An axelord, for example, that was abusing knockdown/stun would completely dominate a mid-level monk under this system.

The numbers are, of course, completely arbitrary, mostly there to give a sense of what I'm thinking of. Let me know what you think, including if you think I'm a flaming idiot.

EDIT:: The other thing I think this would help do would be to expand the use of the skillsets in general. In my experience, most people that use monks go for a few key afflictions and forget the rest of the set. Why use Heelslam when you have Buck? Why use Butanj when you have Butojo? Making those less-debilitating afflictions the only things available at lower momentum would cause people to stop using just whibuta/butojo/buck, rinse, repeat, and force them to maybe actually use things like Tomati and Stomp.

Also, Estarra, could we maybe have a decent grapple-ender in Shofangi? Please?

Monks can be, and are being nerfed. It would be nice for them to be different to warriors, but oh well.

At this point, I think we're just going to have to keep holding our breaths for the final (?) monk revisions to come out of the current special report.

I've thought for a while, though, that more levels of momentum and higher ka costs for the nastier afflictions would've been nice.

Shiri, I know that they're being nerfed... I'm just looking at a possible nerf that would balance them without making them completely unusable.

I think it's too early to judge that they're unusable considering nothing has happened yet.

I don't really think you can make a claim on whether they're going to be unusable. They're just not going to be as stupidly overpowered as they are right now.

I think with the current set of revisions suggested in the changes, monks will be more brought down to par and not nerfed into uselessness. I know for a fact a lot of work went into making them more balanced but not useless. Don't knock it until the changes take place, but I have faith they'll be on par

I dream of a day when I can beat someone and the response isn't LOLOPmonk

Good luck with that even if they're the worst class in the game

I think you may have misunderstood me... I'm not saying that they will be completely unusable. As you've said before, we can't know yet. All I'm saying is that if these revisions go awry, they could become terrible. This is just one of multiple possible ways to balance them out without screwing them over that I wanted to throw out there. The gods do a good job of keeping things level, and I'm confident that they can handle this. I'm sure they already had/have something in mind, but another idea can't hurt.