My level 3 Monk got this (And level 4) serves him well since he doesn't have anything for ears anyway. but seeming as this dropped from Nro and WC its obviously a low level monk ear not meant to be uber. If you wanted uber you guys should have tried EK or RM ;)
Yep, this item was pretty much the booby prize in the werewolf event. But some nice monk items did drop, even for higher level monks. The shoulder item especially (fine silken mantle); it's better than a wu's fighting mantle. But I lost out on getting it (which I've think I've stated in too many posts now, so this is the last time!) because when it was shouted out that it dropped, the corpse was on the eastern end of the zone, and I was clear over by the Kithicor zone, I had no chance on getting to it first, especially without SoW. Oh well, no sour grapes or anything. Good ear items for monks are hard to find, but this is going in the trash as soon as I can acquire or afford to buy a pair of cougar claws.
By the way, this item isn't quite the utter crap people make it out to be. People love the cougar claws, and pay around 300pp for them, and this is almost as good. Look at the math:
Sad to say that to me, a level 33 monk, this earring was actually an improvement over what I had (an earring of fire reflection). Seems like all the earrings that do me any good are either too expensive or hard to find. During the werewolf event, amidst rampand KSing, I only managed to kill and loot 4 werewolves. Most any of them had was 2pp, and a rogue only dagger. Somebody shouted out there was a monk shoulder item, couldn't get to it. Just barely made it to this one, seconds before another monk showed up. Nice item, and although it's not uber item of the century, it does improve my dex and str a little, stats that are important secondary stats for monks.
By the way, I'm the one who sent in the picture of this! Woo-hoo!
Generally, I agree. Strength helps a very tiny amount with increased damage, but unlike with other classess we have a very definite weight limit regardless of strength, so it doesn't help with anything else. Dexterity has been confirmed as only helping with weapon skill rises and "procs". However, these give such a tiny bonus to each that it really isn't worth it. If they only had 2-3 AC on them, and weren't LORE (so you could wear 2), it would have been worthwhile (perhaps) for a sub-20 monk. As it is... it'll get trashed next time I need to tidy the bank.
I did get several very good items (tunic, mask, shoulders and POSSIBLY the belt) out of the events, and missed out on the UBER 2HB by about 30 minutes (I was next on the group list for the drop from KeVagon when the zones were reset -- I was gutted!) -- but the better monk gear seemed weaker , or dropped off tougher, rarer mobs. Also there being 2 facepiece seems like a mistake.
Stregth is one of the main determining factors as to how hard you hit, either with a weapon or your bare hand. I admit that 2str by itself isn't much, but every little bit helps. Compare a monk with 80str and one with 100str, you'll definitely see the difference.
By the way, dexterity also helps to raise tailoring and fletching, the same way strength helps smithing (which is why so many ogres and trolls pick smithing as a trade skill, their high strength makes up for their low intelligence). Not that that means much to most monks, unless they want to make their own wu's.
This is probably the worst of the monk drops, I missed out on getting the shoulder item. That was a good item, better than a wu's mantle. But someone got to it first. This earring is all I could manage to get, every werewolf was attacked before I saw it, and one was blatantly kill-stealed right in front of me.
Oh well. I'm keeping the earring until I can afford to replace it with a cougar claw earring, that's my next goal for earrings. Since today's patch, melees such as myself (and hybrids) can be bound at the dock in Iceclad, so I may actually go after the snow cougars myself and save some money.
1. its a no drop free earring 2. it adds dex, a good stat, and str, what can be a very good stat if you get enough of it. 3. the weight is very low 4. ITS NO DROP. All the person had to do to get it was to kill something, fricking spoiled noobs. /boggle