What major trait should I choose?

Tanaar

Finally, at long last, I am approaching Logosian. Help me choose my third major trait.

Tanaar Al'Jafri, Targossian Scholar (male Dwarf Miner)
You are level 78 (Transmortal) and 94.3% of the way to the next level.
Health:       4486 / 4486     Mana:         2565 / 2565
Endurance:   20680 /20680     Willpower:   16000 /16000
Strength: 12  Dexterity: 10  Constitution: 16  Intelligence: 12

(Above includes weathering and split mind)

Racial:   Earthborn
Level 20: Nimble                   
Level 30: Admiral                  
Level 40: Master angler            
Level 50: Receptive body           
Level 60: Health weaver            
Level 70: Triage                   
Level 80: Empty
Level 90: Empty

Lucky                - Some people are more lucky than others.
Aim to kill          - Make them count!
Improved physique    - Who doesn't want bigger muscles?
Brilliance           - Brains over brawn.
Agile                - Fleet-footed.
Robust               - As unmoveable as the hills.
Light stepper        - Slippery little sucker.
Reinforced           - Not even a scratch!

I am completely disinterested in bashing to Dragon, so the crit-improving traits are not as appealing to me as if I were. I wear leather armor, so Reinforced is not appealing. I don't use an autowalker, so I don't care about Light Stepper. Effectively, I'm trying to decide which stat-booster to choose. Strength for the Tekura damage, Constitution for the further-increased health, or Brilliance for the Telepathy/Choke advantages?

Xith

You're deciding which stat. Str, Con, or Int.

You have plenty of Con to survive as a monk. So buff your offense. At this stage I'd say with 12 str you're going to be a prep monk and +1 str won't change that. But when it comes to being useful in raid/defense your int will probably be more useful.

Of course if you might ever change spec or get a strength artie, the extra strength could be worth it. But as you don't have Dragon goals, sounds like int is the better choice.

Sena

Tanaar said:

I don't use an autowalker, so I don't care about Light Stepper.

I'm not sure what this means. Light stepper improves your chance of dodging.

Eld

Sena said:

Tanaar said:

I don't use an autowalker, so I don't care about Light Stepper.

I'm not sure what this means. Light stepper improves your chance of dodging.

I'm guessing the misinterpretation was thinking that it's like the mhun movement bonus, but I'm not sure what autowalking has to do with that. I certainly get plenty of "don't be so hasty" messages when walking manually.

Tanaar

Ah, I knew I'd discarded it ages ago. Yes, I did think it was similar to the Mhun celerity bonus. Still, I have no Dexterity and don't use a mount in combat. Dodging is practically useless to me.

Silvarien

I would suggest either Str. or Con. I personally picked Con. because with Dwarf Miner, the total Con is so strong that you become tanky and hard to kill. If you were interested in more strength, then Brawler would be good, but with Miner, I think the great boon is the tankiness.

Hope I was able to help...

Nizaris

Generally speaking in RPG's, it is best to pick an aspect of your character, and increase it to all get-out. Better to be a 'master of one trade', than a jack of them all. So, if I had to pick your scenario, I would pick con. You've already decided that you want to play defensively, so you may as well get even better at it.

Then again, you're getting the opinion of someone who is not as much of a combatant as he would like to be, and therefore doesn't really have as much of a clue as he would like to.

Sidonia

Int. Who needs health when you have kai heal

Nemutaur

If you want to 'magic' raid take Int for better kai chokes and crushes, if you're more of a melee monk take Str for the better hurting finishers.

Either way take a +Stat, just look at the artie prices for a lvl1 stat artie, you're getting 400-500 cr worth of stuff for free.

Achilles

i'd change race specialisation to the INT spec (and change to Horkval if you were min/maxing/don't mind being a bug).

I'd then take the extra INT.

Rispok

Achilles said:

i'd change race specialisation to the INT spec (and change to Horkval if you were min/maxing/don't mind being a bug).

I'd then take the extra INT.

I'd reroll as human Infernal, then pick the str spec and buy gauntlets... Oh wait

Tanaar

I do have a free reincarnation, and while changing from dwarf is not on the table, I have no compunction against changing specialisation.

The question then seems to be whether I want to become a painful-in-melee monk (respecialise to Brawler and choose either +Str or +Con) at the expense of some health and ranged, or a powerful ranged monk (respecialise to Foreman and either +Int or +Con) at the expense of some health and melee ability. Alternatively again, I could stay as I am and provide a slight increase to one of those categories.

For the record, any stat-improving artefact is out of my current price range. I'm looking for a better job that will give me some more artefact money, but it isn't materialising, not matter how many times I click my heels.

ETA: Can someone (@Sena) tell me exactly how much health I'd lose if I dropped 1 CON or 2 CON? I don't mind losing a little health, but I like being in the mid-4000s

Sena

16 con, level 78, 3% bonus: 4486
15 con, level 78, 3% bonus: 4245
14 con, level 78, 3% bonus: 4004

Health is (3*Con+4)*Level+300, then a 3% boost from health weaver.

Eld

Sena said:

16 con, level 78, 3% bonus: 4486
15 con, level 78, 3% bonus: 4245
14 con, level 78, 3% bonus: 4004

Health is (3*Con+4)*Level+300, then a 3% boost from health weaver.

Reduced by 20 per level over 100, but if you're not going to bash to dragon, that's not a concern.

Iocun

I wouldn't pick con. Your tankiness as a monk is defined by your ability to heal back the damage to take, and not by "absorbing blows". Go for strength or int. Strength helps you more directly in melee combat, int helps in range and has the additional advantage of giving you more mana to transmute, so it's a bit of a defensive boost as well.

Also, you can boost your health any time by getting a few more levels, but you can't boost your damage dealing potential as easily. You can almost always survive with a bit less health by being careful and having a good defence, but without a decent damage output, you'll have an incredibly hard time killing some people.

Tanaar

I think I may go with a switch to Brawler and Improved Physique. It'll hurt my ranged, but the way I'm heading, and the way Targossian team combat is going, melee is "in". Besides, I already invested in other melee-oriented traits, Nimble, Receptive Body, and Health Weaver. The 500 or so health hit I'll take is something I can live with, and I can look into a Hunter's Belt.

Thanks all for your input!