You know, i find it very entertaining that everyone is trying to put classes in to tiers. Bottom line, you have a party, and every person can pull their weight in the party. Without Eder i'd b wrecked, without Durance, Eder would drop, without my monk, the big bosses would take forever to drop, without my chanter the summonings that help immensely would be wasted, but till then his chants help in small subtle invisible ways, and without Aoth and a druid, huge expanses of enemies wouldn't suddenly be confused, flamed, iced, etc... etc... Bottom line, no class is better than another, because aside from the hard core people that can solo at POTD, a party is needed.
Also, my two cents about the monk, I fought yesterday some creatures that was in the water area that had 34DR, my monk held him by himself, smashing him for 4-12 damage, but then crit it for 24 at one point, despite the crazy DR. Oh, that creature spent 10 seconds sitting on the ground crying...
all characters are necessary, and monks played and spec'd right are amazing and very multidimensional. They can tank, DPS like crazy, attack with fire, bypass DR, etc... etc... Those that are having issues with a class, don't yet know what the class represents. POE is based on baldur's gate 2 in a way, which is AD and D, which means fights are the ultimate tanks, Pallies will NEVER match them. Monks are the jacks of many trades, pallies are the holy warriors that can cast and be in the front, rogues are amazing DPS when not tanking and backstabbing, etc...
Obsidian, well done on this game. Amazing character classes and amazing story.