Monks/black belts need love too

[Erdrick Holmes]

Why is it that people hate the black belt/monk characters in the games? They're probably the most versitile job class in the game. They can do more damage bare-handed than any other physical fighter that requires a weapon.

So the point of this thread is: black belts need love too, go!

[NeoCracker]

No they don't

[Zeromus_X]

Black Belts and Monks just require more Job levels to be effective with bare fists, which makes players that can already equip a new melee job with weapons to be effective be turned off.

Also, Black Belts are the best way to max out your party's HP with powerleveling.

[ljkkjlcm9]

they have their advantages, and in FFV can teach a few good skills to use

THE JACKEL

[NeoCracker]

Tactics Monks Rocked Hard.

[Bunny]

They can do more damage bare-handed than any other physical fighter that requires a weapon.

Are you saying that they do more damage with their fists than, say, a knight would with his fists? Or that they do more damage with their fists than a knight would do with a sword?

If it is the first one, sure. That is because fists are the black belts weapon and they are more proficient with it. But it still takes a long time for them to build up the strength to deal a lot of damage and truly become useful. A knight can be a heavy hitter, with good defense because of the armor they can equip that a black belt cannot, pretty early in most games.

Take FFV Advanced for example. At level 50, I had a knight dealing 6000+ damage each time. At level 50, I had a monk dealing less than 2000 each hit. This is with the same character (Bartz) as well.

[Dell]

Tactics Monks Rocked Hard.

Yup! I have Ramza as my monk, he rocked!

[Captain Maxx Power]

Red Mages are better though.

[Martyr]

In Final Fantasy 1, monks are the least versatile, and they only do more damage than an Xcalibur Knight around mid-upper level 30s, and it isn't necessary to level that high to beat the game. Otherwise, They can only best the fighter by measly amounts (like 50 damage tops in the latter half of the Silver Sword Days), and the horrible defense and lack of magic makes it enough that I'd rather have any other class in that position.

In FF2, bare fist fighting is the cheapest, and is extroardinally strong. Yes.

In FFIII, monks are never better than the Fighter, but the Master/Karateka is better than the Knight (mostly). But nobody talks about that because nobody cares since nobody should be playing it except as the very new and recent release (Which i don't know the numbers on)

In FFIV, I went a long way without missing Yang.

In FFV, the Monk provides valuable abilities in the arena of HP gain and cute skills like Chakra, but there are much better classes. Like in FF2, the novelty of being able to fight w/o weapond is the specialty.

FFVI had Sabin, who was more than just a monk.

And so, in conclusion, The BB only sucks in FF1 and 3. But he sucks hard because, well, everybody else is better. And if you like him, that's fine. He's like, good at what he does. He's like a champion pro wrestler. 400 lbs of raw muscle, 7 ft tall, trained by the best guys ever, and he's on his way to conquer a small country. I mean, he's awesome, but he's way too high level, his defense sucks, and, frankly, you'd be better off with a 90 pound nerd piloting a bomber jet.

[dodhungry]

I always enjoy having a monk in the party. Matter of fact thats my FFXI main job.

I really dont have any particular reason "why" I like the monk I just do.:rolleyes2