Couple Monk Questions

[Nivek555]

I'm new to Monk and fairly new to DDO and I had a couple quick questions I was wondering about. I went with a Drown Monk, Starting Stats...
Str: 14
Dex: 16
Con: 12
Int: 10
Wis: 16
Cha: 10

I am level 5 and so far have TWF, Stunning Fist, Toughness, Dodge, and Harmonious Path for my Feats.

1. First Question I have is about my Feats. At level 6 I was planning on taking Mobility and Spring Attack, and I was just wondering how useful Spring Attack is. As much as enemies seem to move around it does feel like I'm always running and chasing them, so I can see the use of the extra +4 to hit. Also though it feels like half the time when I swing at them when they are dancing around I never even get an attack roll. As for feats go levels 9, 12 and 15 will be taken up with the TWF ones and Imp Crit, which only leaves me with level 18 free.

2. The next thing I was wondering about is about the stances and spending my ability points to make them available. So far I took the first rank of each of the stances, but I really only use the fire one. I've read that air is the way to go and was wanted to know when that becomes apparent. As it is now I just never seem to have any Ki available unless I am in fire get the bonus, plus the extra +1 to hit and damage from the Str is nice. At level 4 I put my point into Dex and I figure I should be able to grab a +1 tome so that way I could eventually get Grandmaster in Air. Then I was planning to put the rest of my leveling points into WIS.

So the question here is it worth putting those points to WIS. Later in the game how easy is it to hit with Monk special attacks? Would the extra +4 into WIS be needed? Or would it be better to put the points into Str for the increased to hit and damage, plus unlocking tier 3 & 4 Fire stances?

3. Last question I had was a fairly simple one. Are any of the Monk special attack enhancements useful? I think there is Eagle Claw, Void Strike, Unbalancing Strike and Fists of Iron (which I'll probably never get with my Con only being 12). I am Grouping with a Rogue, so I would think Unbalancing should be good, but what about the others?

Alright thanks for any help you can give on this.

[Kintro]

I'm new to Monk and fairly new to DDO and I had a couple quick questions I was wondering about. I went with a Drown Monk, Starting Stats...
Str: 14
Dex: 16
Con: 12
Int: 10
Wis: 16
Cha: 10


Hi, welcome. I'll have a go at answering your questions.



I am level 5 and so far have TWF, Stunning Fist, Toughness, Dodge, and Harmonious Path for my Feats.

1. First Question I have is about my Feats. At level 6 I was planning on taking Mobility and Spring Attack, and I was just wondering how useful Spring Attack is. As much as enemies seem to move around it does feel like I'm always running and chasing them, so I can see the use of the extra +4 to hit. Also though it feels like half the time when I swing at them when they are dancing around I never even get an attack roll. As for feats go levels 9, 12 and 15 will be taken up with the TWF ones and Imp Crit, which only leaves me with level 18 free.


I wouldn't bother with Mobility/Spring attack. It's expensive for a situational benefit.



2. The next thing I was wondering about is about the stances and spending my ability points to make them available. So far I took the first rank of each of the stances, but I really only use the fire one. I've read that air is the way to go and was wanted to know when that becomes apparent. As it is now I just never seem to have any Ki available unless I am in fire get the bonus, plus the extra +1 to hit and damage from the Str is nice. At level 4 I put my point into Dex and I figure I should be able to grab a +1 tome so that way I could eventually get Grandmaster in Air. Then I was planning to put the rest of my leveling points into WIS.



Ki is a problem at lower levels. Make sure you're maxing out your Concentration skill and try to get a Concentration item. As you gain levels you'll see it become less and less of an issue and Air should become a more viable option.



So the question here is it worth putting those points to WIS. Later in the game how easy is it to hit with Monk special attacks? Would the extra +4 into WIS be needed? Or would it be better to put the points into Str for the increased to hit and damage, plus unlocking tier 3 & 4 Fire stances?


I would put all ability points into dex, take Weapon Finesse as a feat and take your 1750 favour +2 tome as wis. This way you will have better to-hit and access to the top tiers of both Air and Ocean stances allowing you to flip between even more to-hit and better monk attacks as required.

Higher to-hit will allow you to use feats like Power Attack and Defensive Fighting more often.




3. Last question I had was a fairly simple one. Are any of the Monk special attack enhancements useful? I think there is Eagle Claw, Void Strike, Unbalancing Strike and Fists of Iron (which I'll probably never get with my Con only being 12). I am Grouping with a Rogue, so I would think Unbalancing should be good, but what about the others?

Alright thanks for any help you can give on this.

Unbalancing Strike is incredibly useful if you're a halfling with the Guile enhancement line or grouped with a rogue.
Void Strike I don't rate very highly as it doesn't scale up like the Air/Ocean attacks. Only benefit is it's Force damage which hits pretty much anything.
Eagle Claw I don't think would be much use, if you're having trouble hitting you'll likely miss trying to land this attack too.
Fists of Iron can be a nice DPS boost against stunned enemies.

[Arvess]

Mobility and Spring attack are rather useless on their own. While it looks great to not lose 4 points of attack, you're attacking at a much slower speed than when standing still. Learn to wait for guys to stop running and return to attack mode before chasing them down. Or get paralyzers at lvl 10.

If you don't get weapon finesse, you need to up your STR. You'll need WIS if you want to overcome your opponents (usually fortitude) save with any special attack. Someone made a very compelling arguement for high dex and wis as it helps both AC, to-hit and DC of your strikes.

You need a minimum 10 concentration to hold on to a finisher. Anything less will be an exercise in futility as you'll be able to kill things faster than you can accumulate 30 ki to execute the whole chain. With 10 concentration, you can hold onto the charge until the next battle or until you meet a ladder.
You should be able to get the Mask of the asylum from the Catacombs quest chain which adds +5 concentration.

I had stunning fist on one of my monks early on and it was a chore to build up and hold the 30 ki to execute it...then miss. man that sucks. At later levels when you need to have some reason...any reason to fire off your excess ki, it would be cool. At low levels, I found it frustrating personally.

[Arvess]

One thing to keep in mind when you are working on your builds. The monk can get up to 10 attacks per animation sequence. With the Wind stances you can increase the speed of your attack and get a whole mess of hits in per minute. What do you want to do with those hits? Straight damage? Stat Damage? Cursing? Paralyzing? even mobs with decent save fail if they are saving 15 or so times in a row. Figure out how you want to use that and build your character accordingly.