As per title. Im soloing the game in PoTD (trial of iron) and so want to be as survivable as possible, to this end i want a big ass shield to hide behind, with a shield should I then leave my other hand unarmed or not. also to those who have said you should give your monk a weapon I think you need a very good weapon for the trade off to be worth it, just switching between weapon sets its pretty clear from watching the combat log that unarmed does cray damage

As per title. Im soloing the game in PoTD (trial of iron) and so want to be as survivable as possible, to this end i want a big ass shield to hide behind, with a shield should I then leave my other hand unarmed or not. also to those who have said you should give your monk a weapon I think you need a very good weapon for the trade off to be worth it, just switching between weapon sets its pretty clear from watching the combat log that unarmed does cray damage

Any follow-up on this?

From what I've gathered there's no real benefit from going unarmed. If you were unarmed with one hand and another weapon in the other I think you'd be better off because the bigger shields give such a poor debuff for accuracy on top of kinda poor to average accuracy with stuff on your hand.

 

Plus, you can enchant weapons and can't enchant fists. There's one higher lvl monk skill that adds decent damage and accuracy, but I don't know how it would work with shield. Maybe at the least it would negatw the accuracy penalty?

Edited April 2, 201510 yr by Falkon Swiftblade