[Khammet]

I dont know if its ever beneficial, you might do more over-all damage if you have staff highenough to hit most of the time and you do hundred fists with it.

for fun sometimes I go MNK/NIN and dual wield clubs.

[Dage]

Staff gets an AoE weaponskill (Earth Shaker) before H2H does (Spinning Fist). Earth Shaker is at Staff skill 70 @ level 24 and Spinning fist is H2H skill 150 @ level 49. An AoE WS is very useful for farming vs. to weak mobs and you don't have to wait until level 49 to do it if you can get your staff skill up! Also, having a variety of light (club)/earth (staff) WS's lets to change up Renkei if necessary.

[Kletian999]

I'd love to see a video of someone using Hundred Fist with a Staff.

[Dragonix]

I think it's good idea to leveling up your staff cuz someday you may feel like resort to mage class. You wouldn't have to worry about leveling up your staff because it would be already at its max.

Not to mention, mage class rarely had time to melee so you won't have luxury of increasing your staff level until you're pretty high level enough to solo.

As thief, everytime I level up, I resort to hand-to-hand first. When it's max, I resort to sword til it get max then resort to dagger (my weapon of choice). That way, I was able to max all three of them as role of thief. I believe it is useful to level up your weapons as much as you can. Why limit yourself to one weapon when it's already max and the next level won't be like for hours?

[motoh]

Poles are vicious, too. BLM solo weapon of choice, MNK stickfighter weapon of choice. Avoid the crook staff, go with the solid stick.

Windurstian Pole - +ATK goodness.

[capncrackfiend]

There are quite a few poles made specifically for attacking, as opposed to the INT, MND and MP bonuses that the others give.

However, the main reason you see high lvl players using Poles is for greater Renkei flexibility, as otherwise, Mnk is a bit limited in H2H in terms of renkeis. Not incredibly limited, but enough that against certain mobs, a Drk or a Drg might get invited over a Mnk.

[Tavia]

Hmm... I have a video capture program. I'll try and get a video of hundred fists with a stick.

[Tavia]

Alright. Here's the video of me getting my @$$ handed to me on a silver platter while tossing Hundred Fists.
Stickfighting.avi [2.5mb]
For those of you who don't feel like downloading, here's a quick synopsis:
Me (wielding ash pole): Yagudo! ATTACK!! *Hundred Fists*
Yagudo: *dia* punch punch punch...
Me: miss, miss, miss, hit for 8, miss...
Second Yagudo: Ambush! *banish*
Me: Argh! *dies*

Keep in mind, my staff skill was capped (at 19, but capped nontheless). If I'd been wielding claws, I could've taken both of the stupid overgrown birds.

[Sabastian]

/// LOL Awesome!

[Kletian999]

Sorry the whole pole thing didn't work out too well, but you were hitting a lot more than you let on.

[grainy62]

Well ya staffs or Jos or Bos would be great for martial arts. it has a longer range and good for tripping up people, also good for multiple enemies, i would use a staff in a fight over my bare hands most of the time, but in real life there isn'y a great chance that you would be attacked with a staff in hand. I liked EQ monks better, because monks could dual wield staffs and be great with it.

[Turdfurgeson]

If you have never seen or tried 100fist + staff you are really missing out. Aside from hella damage, it's very hilarious.

[Onorgul]

Just using a staff with Counter is funny. Very spastic.

[Melamoth]

Since my main character was so ahead of my g/f's character in levels, I decided to create a new one so I could play with her. I thought, why not try something different? I have tried all of the basic jobs and all the extra jobs I found interesting already.

I decided to try to make a monk solely fighting with a pole, not to be stronger or anything, just because it's fun and different. I chose Elvaan because I find their polearm/staff stance the neatest, and to make my g/f happy (lol).

I am now Lv6, and it's working out great. I am not noticably weaker than if I had used hand-to-hand, at least not weak enough to not do this. I have a blast, I deal enough damage to be happy, and Hundred Fists with staff both looks great and is quite powerful! ^^