Void Strike worth it for Shintao?

[awesomekill]

I've got a Shintao monk up to level 8 so far... so far I hardly ever use Void strike due to the usefulness of healing buff... Also I just realized that to go all the way up to void strike iv, where a vorpal attack actually kills target one has to master all the elemental paths... is that worth it?

[Dwarfo]

i dont think so..ive heard monk are tight on AP already.

[Munkenmo]

i've got void 4, and i always will, cause no matter how nice the DR bypassing is with shintao, i've now got silver / cold iron wraps, and nothing is more fun to me than seeing a near full hp epic trash mob get erased.

If you trade shintao for it you'll be losing

DR bypass + some stuns

you'll gain

omg cool did you see that insta killed mob.
some versatility from being able to switch to any stance

[TeacherSyn]

Void Strike IV is arguably one of the fastest and continuous ways to disintegrate an enemy. It works on anything except red-named bosses, even in Epic. Unlike their spell casting counterparts, Void IV has a 6 or so sec cooldown, is powered by renewable ki.

It is worth retooling for it, yes. To do so, you also have to get Master elemental stances, which really help the hit power, especially Earth stance.

By capstone, a Dark Monk will have Touch of Death, VS IV and Quivering Palm as instadeath strikes. Shintaos have Tomb of Jade (which doesn't kill instantly but effectively is a death sentence against a party), Quivering Palm and VS IV. The Dark Monk's Touch of Death is excellent as well.

[SensaiRyu]

Absolutely worth it.

[solacerodgers]

Hotbar strike 1 SF 2 Void 4 - cant live without it, cheap on ki and 6 sec cool down.

This mssg is endorsed by tygerstylz -

[Tharlak]

Hotbar strike 1 SF 2 Void 4 - cant live without it, cheap on ki and 6 sec cool down.

This mssg is endorsed by tygerstylz -

Absolutely worth it.

My tier III Shintao monk uses Void 4 every six secs of combat.

[edgarallanpoe]

It depends on the race of the Monk IMHO. Having the full tactics lines of the WF or Dwarf is more useful and you can't fit Void in with that. Again, this is just my opinion so take it for what it is worth. A race like Horc has little in the way of useful things to spend AP so they could and should get Void IV.

[SensaiRyu]

It depends on the race of the Monk IMHO. Having the full tactics lines of the WF or Dwarf is more useful and you can't fit Void in with that. Again, this is just my opinion so take it for what it is worth. A race like Horc has little in the way of useful things to spend AP so they could and should get Void IV.

Having never looked at WF or Dwarf tactics until now, I'm assuming you mean the +1DC to combat feats. A total of 12 AP spent for +3 DC to combat feats.

Just what combat feats would a monk have that would benefit from this? SB, trip, and sunder? Is that it?

[edgarallanpoe]

It adds to all of a Monk's stunning feats. SB, SF, Kukan-do, and there might be others. +3 DC to SF and Kukan-do (I am sure I am spelling that wrong..lol) are huge for a stun based ShinIII Monk. My Dwarf is and absolute stunning machine. SF DC is 43, SB DC is 34, KD DC is 43 as well.

Don't get me wrong, a complete wipe with Void IV is nice but there are other paths that are equally as nice for certain races.

[sebastianosmith]

For a Shintao, having either Void I or Void IV is useful. The first rank of Void cost but 1 AP and allows you to use the Moment of Clarity finisher which is s huge party buff, if somewhat limited in duration. With Void IV, the benefits are obvious but the APs are very tight and generally force one to specialize in a single stance. So, either stop at the first rank or find the AP to go all the way. Anything else is a waste of AP.

[SensaiRyu]

That's really interesting... I never knew about tactics and stuns... +rep :D

Taking the challenge I rolled a Void IV, Spy (I/II), Shin III and Tactics (II/III) Dwarf and WF for kicks...

The light builds have Shin III and Void IV
The dark builds have ToD and Void IV

WF Dark:
Spy I, Tactics III, PA III
Spy II, Tactics II, PA III

WF Light:
Recover III, Tactics II, PA II (Does recovery even work with WF?)
Phoenix, Tactics III, PA II

Dwarf Dark:
Spy II, Tactics III with 7 ap left over

Dwarf Light:
Phoenix, Tactics III with 5 ap left over
Recovery III, Tactics III with 1 ap left over - took dwarf spell def II to do this.

I tried to select useful enhancements to get the shin/void lines.

Hmmmm
The problem with going the recovery-line to shin III is that you have to waste a bunch of AP up front to open up the recovery II and III enhs.

Going with phoenix allows you to spend some of the AP early on to get shin III leaving you with more AP to spend after shin III. Never really looked at the AP benefits of taking phoenix over recovery III for shin III. I'm going to see what doing this on my HElf would give me...

[awesomekill]

Thanks to all. Interesting reads...