Oh, that melee/ranged divide! Monk struggling Hell.

[Elric of Grans]

Hah, forgot about Amethysts My current weapon is not socketed, but next good socketed weapon I find I will definitely do that! Checked the Auction House and *anything* I can afford has a dramatic DPS drop. I must have got a pretty decent roll

I used Mystic Ally for a while. I definitely felt it was a good skill, but I wanted to press more buttons The long cooldown makes it so I am still not pressing it much even now, so it makes perfect sense to switch back. May even be better DPS in the long run!

I jumped onto the Auction House. I bought a Spirit Stone with spirit regen, and replaced my three worst armour items with ones having +dex/+vit/+res modifiers. All cheap (10-15K) upgrades. Not a dramatic change, but slightly better defences, slightly more life and slightly more DPS. I also switched from Mantra of Evasion to Mantra of Conviction/Overawe. Suddenly, it feels like I am playing in Normal difficulty again. The difference is insane! Minor, minor gear upgrade and the whole game feels entirely different. I think I now understand why people say some classes are more gear dependent than others.