Hi all,
Couldn't sleep so did some reading and stumbled across this.
Found much of the following interesting, as it relates the Monk and some general thoughts on builds, feats, etc.
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=149947Originally Posted by Zaius
So, a few things I've learned playing to 15 as a monk.
Allocating stats is tough. But a little tip some people forget- don't forget about constitution. It keeps you alive.
Deflect arrows is kinda lame. I wouldn't recommend it unless you get pelted by arrows a lot. I suppose I should test if it works on the heavy repeaters orthons use..
Slow fall is not feather fall. At low levels, sometimes it will work, generally it will not. It seems to have more effect over longer distances, over shorter distances you will pretty much always take fall damage. At level 15, I have never taken fall damage, but still fall pretty fast. So it is wise to carry a featherfall item because it slows you down more and lets you cross farther distances.
Concentration is not that important. Put ranks into it, but don't necessarily max it. Don't worry about a concentration item or feats, you'll have enough ki. Bare minimum, you will want at least 20 unbuffed concentration because it gets refilled every time you enter a dungeon. Why 20? It allows two abundant steps, to be covered later.
At the minimum, get the tier 2 earth stance and tier 1 water stance. All monks should do this.
Turn on water stance before using wholeness of body. You'll gain more hp.
Quivering palm is bad at endgame, which is when you will get it. The DC will only be okay if you max wisdom. 18+6(item)+4(levels)+3(enhance)+2(tome)+3(stance)= 36 = +13 (a human with a shroud item could feasibly get more, but that may be overdoing it..). So 10 + 8 +13 = 31. 31 = decently specced level 16 sorc Finger of Death DC, except- FOD is instant at range and can be used much more than quivering palm. And getting to a 31 DC requires a ton of wisdom concentration, plus if you are in water stance, you will find it hard to ever get 50 ki if you make use of any other ki strikes. Oh right, and it's fist only, is blocked by deathblock (should be, but still), it uses 50 ki and does nothing if you miss, it uses 50 ki and does nothing if someone is blocking, it uses 50 ki and does nothing if you have any other weapon out. And 50 ki is a terrible thing to waste
Wind stance doesn't stack with haste. Therefore- wind stance is useless. unless you want some more dex. Oh, you'll be faster versus beholders and... that's it. awesome. Why not go water stance to get more Wisdom, which gives you the same AC boost and saves.
Handwraps are buggy. Ghost touch works a little. Vicious is lame. The devs said greensteel wraps don't work at all (may have misinterpreted, not sure). Even with your uber 2d8 fist damage, max strength with fire stance and power attack, you will never come near the dps of another melee class. Why? Your criticals are 20/x2. Oh- and because wind stance doesn't stack with haste..
And because twf doesn't work with fists, because unlike Chuck Norris, your fists are not classified as weapons. They're just bludgeoning instruments apparently..
Even though Weapon Focus- bludegoning increases your unarmed to-hit.
However, you will get LOTS of handwraps. Your end rewards will be full of handwraps if you have class based rewards turned on. So think twice before you spend plat on any of them (even though I made a small fortune selling wraps early on)
Of course thf doesn't work with quarterstaffs. Which are also 20/x2 btw.
TWF does work with kamas, but.. they're 20/x2.
Finishing moves never get better. Your DCs may get higher, I think that the light x3 move adds some of your level into the health, so that may raise; but the effects never change, your blur will always be 20 seconds, your burning hands will deal 1 damage, etc. And yes, the water/light/water grants a 0% reduction in spell point costs to allies. Not a typo.
Unless you are saving up ki for raise dead or wholeness of body, you should try to never have more than 50 ki. Use your ki strikes relentlessly. Always open with fists of light if you have it then continue spamming the rest of your elemental attacks.
Being able to raise dead costs 12 action points to take. To use; 50 ki, 50 health. It has a 30 second cooldown. It acts as a spell, so you can't use it while madstone raged. The 4 cleansing spells all cost 30 ki, have 15 second cooldowns, and can extremely easily be replaced by clickies at the sole cost of an inventory slot.
Tier 3 stances are 2d6 damage + 2d6 damage on crit. not 3d6. Earth is 8 damage + 2d6 on crit. not 8 damage + 8 damage. Take the tier 2 mountain stance for the +8 damage, it's better than all the other strikes because it works on anything (and because of some calculations probably)
But don't take tier 2 mountain stance for DR. It's terrible. you get 3/-, at tier 3 you either get 4/- or 5/-. You gain an almost negligible amount of ki from being hit unless you love to jump in the middle of tons of things. And if you like to do that, you're going to quickly die because you have 1 less AC from the stance and a potential 2 or 3 less AC because you're not in the wind or water stance.
Way of the tortoise has a confusing description. It adds +5 hp each upgrade you get. With tier 4 tortoise and 10 action points spent, you will gain 20 hp. lame.
Why take stunning fist when you can take stunning blow. Just get some weighted handwraps and it's better. Or use any other monk weapon and stunning blow will actually work
Flurry of blows sucks. It's supposed to gives you additional attacks with a decreased to-hit, yet it gives you the same amount of attacks with an increased to-hit. Well okay it puts you at a +16 BAB at level 16, but.. the last unarmed attack (a backflip kick) in the monk chain is awfully slow, like the last attack in the THF chain. I think it actually hurts your (barely existent) DPS rather than helping. To make up for this, perhaps the wind-stance could have granted an additional alacrity bonus with haste...
Tier 3 stances are +3 base stat, -2 other stat. So wind is +3 dex, -2 con. We don't know what tier 4 will do.
Tier 3 fire stances still generates 2 ki per hit. lame.
Tier 3 wind stance by itself is about the same attack rate (if not the same) as being hasted. However, did I mention it doesn't stack with haste?
There are no tier 3 enhancement special attacks you can take. Tier 2 makes some available, but not 3. lame.
Fists of iron currently does nothing. Even if it worked, it's basically worthless since you won't be critting much even with improved critical.
Until you get improved two weapon fighting, kamas will be 90% worthless even if you have twf. Use your handwraps.
Dex based halflings will populate the servers and are the safest thing you can roll. Halfling guile makes up for the damage that you lose by going halfling, you get more AC, a higher to-hit, higher saves, and more cool points. With the +1 to-hit you gain, take a toughness feat instead of a weapon focus feat. With the +1 AC, take a toughness feat instead of dodge. Or don't, whatever
I actually built a strength-based dwarf who is incredibly gimped and all I can effectively do is vorpal things, but oh well.
So almost all of this is bad, however-
Abundant step is awesome. Everyone should go make a monk, get them to level 12, then abundant step around everywhere. It costs 10 ki, has a 3 second cooldown, and is maybe a 300% speed boost for .5 seconds. It can be used while jumping and while flying.
Whirlwind attack looks cool unarmed.
Monks are proficient with handaxes. You won't be centered, but maybe you have a nice vorpal handaxe sitting aound.
Fists of light works on every mob in the game I have encountered EXCEPT Arraetrikos. I first took the light path with a very high emphasis put on being able to use this attack on the pit fiend. Then I finally got to him. And it didn't work. It works on Velah, it works on the Stormreaver, it works on undead, oozes, even constructs! But not the pit fiend. He's that special. Regardless, I did enjoy using fire stance and nonstop ki strikes on the pit fiend with my +3 holy burst silver kama of maiming.
Your monk running speed DOES stack with haste. To test this, roll a monk. Get hasted. Race next to someone else with haste and then win. It also stacks with warp time, so you will zoom around faster than any other class in the game in Stormreach. (Can someone tell me if this also stacks with barbarian speed?). You lose this bonus if you become uncentered.
The wisdom bonus to AC is nice. You do not lose this if you become uncentered (bug?)
Your innate monk AC is nice. You do not lose this if you become uncentered (bug?)
You don't have to carry poison proof or disease immunity, your spell resistance is okay.
that's all for now. discuss, question.
edit: Even though the wind stance not stacking is my biggest gripe, I'm not saying it should stack entirely. Any little bit to make it closer to tempest would satisfy a lot of people, though
Enjoy your monk.
Hope it helps.
Prin
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