Questions regarding my class choice and "bashing"

Alecks

Hi everybody! Achaea (so far) seems like a great game with some great people, and I'm really excited to dig deep into it!

Now, here's my little dilemma. Over the past several days, I've played a multitude of classes (everything except Jester and Sylvan). I've played them to around level 35-40 to get a feel for them, maybe note some little things I like or dislike. I figured I liked monks and blademasters the most, so I decided to play a monk to 51. Monks just don't feel... competent.

What do I mean? First and foremost, I'm talking about "bashing" (hunting monsters, I think this means. Someone correct me if I'm wrong), not PvP which I haven't even dipped my toes in. Monks feel really weak, maybe a bit stronger than the heavy armour classes. They also feel really squishy. To be fair, I haven't spent any money and I'm totally willing to if it means my character doesn't suck. However, I'm not willing to spend $1000 bucks for my guy to be mediocre.

So, before I spend money, can any experienced monks tell me if it gets any better after lots of time and cash? Or am I just better off playing blademaster? Am I better off playing neither?

EDIT: Shoot, I forgot about the class-specific forums. I guess I should have posted there, my bad.

Kiet

Monks are just really bad at bashing, but I was under the impression they got buffed a bit recently. Blademaster is pretty bad at bashing, too, though.

Xaden

Monk and Blademaster are two notoriously bad bashing classes. Ironically some of the best bashing classes are the ones you say felt a bit weaker: Knights. (Except SnB. Fuck SnB)

What monk lacks in bashing is made up for by the fact that it's a PK power-house. Massive group utility as well as some excellent 1v1 kill paths.

If you're picking a class purely on it's bashing ability then you will want to look elsewhere.

Alecks

Well, that's unfortunate. Thanks for the answers! I think I'll stick with monk, it'll make it that much sweeter when I'm a high level.

@Xaden About the Knights, does SnB mean Sword 'n' Board? Funnily enough, that was the style I tried.

Solnir

Yes, SnB is Sword n' Board, and it is extremely ineffective at hunting. 

Mindshell's recent thread (link below) compares hunting effectiveness across many different classes, but take it with a grain of salt as he is testing with maxed artefacts for each class.
http://forums.achaea.com/discussion/5800/pve-analysis

Aralaya

SNB hunting is horrendous, just don't even make the attempt