PDA

View Full Version : Touch of Death in U5 and Ki Management.



SolarDawning
05-30-2010, 11:17 AM
Here's the touchy topic for me now: Currently, my dark monk in Wind IV with Oremi's Necklace equipped has enough ki to use Touch of Death when it comes off cooldown, provided I keep an eye on my ki total and use my other strikes judiciously.

In U5, it appears that we will have a total of 15% less attacks, and thus 15% less incoming ki gain. Will Touch of Death still be worthwhile, or will we have to cut more ki strikes from our attack rotation? Also consider that, although minor, there's another 15 ki per minute expenditure for the Ninja Spy Shadow Fade.

Anyone have ideas, guesswork, input of any kind?

I'm honestly thinking I may just forget about touch of death, and put the enhancement points elsewhere. I'll miss it, but it's hard enough to use constantly already.

Hydro
05-30-2010, 11:20 AM
Ki management was also my biggest concern with the incoming nerf. I am hoping the Ninja Spy PRE's extra ki is going to help but I doubt it.

I was going to post on the other thread but by the time I got around to it there were 40+ posts.

SolarDawning
05-30-2010, 11:22 AM
Ki management was also my biggest concern with the incoming nerf. I am hoping the Ninja Spy PRE's extra ki is going to help but I doubt it.

I was going to post on the other thread but by the time I got around to it there were 40+ posts.

The ki gain from a Ninja Spy being stealthed is +1 every 6 seconds. That's not useful in a combat situation, as you won't have it. It's only when in stealth mode.
It could possibly be used to sneak around and slowly build up Ki for a single touch of death, but won't help in a fast-paced fighting situation.

Timjc86
05-30-2010, 11:26 AM
While I understand and share your concerns about ki generation with the TWF changes, I'm not entirely sure scrapping ToD will be a good idea.

Assuming Wind IV will retain it's 10% double strike chance, ToD will have a 10% chance to hit twice for 1000 damage, increasing it's DPS a bit.

The reduction in offhand attacks will decrease the DPS of your regular ki strikes, since they will be hitting for double 80% of the time instead of 100%.

However, regular ki strikes will also go off on double strikes 10% of the time, similarly to ToD.

I'm not nearly awake enough yet to do that math correctly but I'll come back to it in a few hours.

I think ki generation's going to be a b*tch, especially with the new Ninja Spy abilities, but ToD may be worth keeping around (I also think it's a prereq for NS II isn't it?)

Edit: Had my double strike percentages off.

SolarDawning
05-30-2010, 11:36 AM
While I understand and share your concerns about ki generation with the TWF changes, I'm not entirely sure scrapping ToD will be a good idea.

Assuming Wind IV will retain it's 10% double strike chance, ToD will have a 10% chance to hit twice for 1000 damage, increasing it's DPS a bit.

We're not sure that it'll work with Double-Strike. Eladrin wrote the following:
No changes have been made to the mechanics behind Touch of Death, Stunning Fist, or Quivering Palm at this time. I'll have to go in and check to see the exact way we're currently triggering these - it's possible that my earlier posts regarding these specific attacks are in error. Other ki strikes (the ones that don't require the unarmed combat style) would absolutely be triggering on the extra attacks. We'll have to wait and see, but I'd stake a lot on these attacks not proccing Double-Strike, as they're a single hit not part of your attack chain.



The reduction in offhand attacks will decrease the DPS of your regular ki strikes, since they will be hitting for double 80% of the time instead of 100%.
Yup.


However, regular ki strikes will also go off on double strikes 10% of the time, similarly to ToD.
Yup.


I'm not nearly awake enough yet to do that math correctly but I'll come back to it in a few hours.
It's pretty simple.
80% of offhand attacks = 10% less attacks.
10% more main hand attacks (Instead of the current +10% insight speed)= 5% less attacks than current implementation of Wind IV.

Total: 15% fewer attacks.


I think ki generation's going to be a b*tch, especially with the new Ninja Spy abilities, but ToD may be worth keeping around (I also think it's a prereq for NS II isn't it?)
Nope, not a prereq for NS II. NSII requires any one of ToD's pre-req curse moves.

Quijonsith
05-30-2010, 12:03 PM
If ki management becomes a major issues I suppose crane will be the go-to animal path for dark monks after U5, maybe even the go-to for shintao monks aswell with the addition of smites. Thing about that is crane IV gives what, 4 ki on crit? So 10% of your hits will give you +4 ki if you have (and why wouldn't you?) improved crit bludgeoning.

That "might" break even with where we are now (I'll let the number knowers figure that one out). If it doesn't, and considering the that wind IV will be much closer to the other stances after u5 in terms of DPS, dark monks might all be running around in fire stance for the Ki generation combined with oremi's necklace, maybe even those two and crane. I know on my light monk I'm briefly in fire with oremi's when know the trash mobs will be short lived and I need to quickly build ki for buffing.

If you have to give up ToD because of lack of Ki for strike rotation I'm pretty sure you'd get more DPS in fire if hasted than in wind.

Atoro87
05-31-2010, 12:30 PM
Admittedly I'm a newb, bout 3 months in game with a 15 finesse halfling and 7 str WF and a mob of alts, but it seems to me that flame stance is pretty overlooked. With haste everpresent from low-mid levels on from either pots or casters, it would seem more than viable for cranking up ki quick enough while adding some damage to boot.

I'm specced to take wind, flame, and earth 4 on my WF at the expense of dumpstating the rest but I dunno if I'm actually going to pick up any of the enhanced wind line at this point. The to-hit bonus from the bonus str offsets some lost from PA and being str based in general. On top of that more ki means more ToD easier with the option to spam Strike of the Enduring 4 in between, not that I've hit that point yet thus more DPS from an already harder hitting, higher HP stat/stance configuration. If you're using weighted 5%(no such luck for me atm) and crane path, which I might respec for down the road when I buy or pull some nice weighteds (tortoise atm), and the stunning fists/blow fix coming seems like ki gathering can be done pretty easily.

And this is before the proposed nerf. Seems to me that Wind is currently nice but not nearly deserving of the "must have" status it currently enjoys. But like I said I'm a newb, be gentle with me if that's way off base.

Valakai
06-01-2010, 06:50 AM
I think switching to fire (when hasted) and having animal style crane is enough to build ki rapidly enough to make good use of ToD.

What I'm really interested in is if ToD will work with weapons in the future or not?

tfdac
06-01-2010, 08:35 AM
What do you think about the double strike mechanic and possible changes to items such as Jorgundal's Collar?
Currently, it doesn't do much for a monk but if it gives a (assuming stacking) benefit to double strike it might be worth wearing. Thoughts?