Dark or Light

[Vengenance]

So at current end game, which path do you monks prefer, Dark or Light? My monk is currently at level 23 and is on the Light Path, but contemplating going dark. I did my first life as a Light Monk, then a life as a Dark Monk, and now back to Light. While I really like the CC, buffing aspects of a light monk I'm really missing the DPS of a dark monk.

[JollySwagMan]

I can't comment on current endgame so much, but one option is to do your initial shrouding/TOD raiding/Devil Assault farming as Light Path, then switch over to Dark when you have silver and cold iron wraps + TOD rings.

[jbleargh]

While I really like the CC, buffing aspects of a light monk I'm really missing the DPS of a dark monk.

Have you tried some Fury of the wild twists? Sense Weakness, Tunnel Vision and Injury add lots of numbers to each swing. :)

[Vengenance]

Have you tried some Fury of the wild twists? Sense Weakness, Tunnel Vision and Injury add lots of numbers to each swing. :)

I've been focusing maxing destinies on my Rogue and FVS so haven't played with Fury yet on my monk, but I loved Fury on my Rogue and can only imagine how good it will be on my monk.

[HatsuharuZ]

So at current end game, which path do you monks prefer, Dark or Light? My monk is currently at level 23 and is on the Light Path, but contemplating going dark. I did my first life as a Light Monk, then a life as a Dark Monk, and now back to Light. While I really like the CC, buffing aspects of a light monk I'm really missing the DPS of a dark monk.

Well, with all of the evil outsiders and undead in the MotU expansion, I'm finding Light extremely useful. Not to mention being able to self-heal a bit.

[Fejj]

Push "button" for 250-3000 damage every couple seconds - YES PLEASE

I see it as you play a light monk for the greater good. Buffs and small healing to all.

You play a dark monk to just punch the junk out of things.

Its not rare to double or even tripple strike with Touch of Death. Quad strikes for 750 each are rare, but so much fun to see.

For my playstyle, Dark > Light.

[Therigar]

The issue for me, and I suspect for many, has always been bypassing DR. This seems the major reason to choose Light path over Dark.

IMO the buffs and other finishers are a bonus that is attractive to people who really focus on and use them. But, I don't think that it is the primary reason for selecting the Light path. In my experience it all comes down to DR.

Pre MOTU it made a lot of sense to choose the Light path because the top end bosses pretty much needed Silver and Good. And, there were few wraps available giving monks DR breakers for those quests.

Now, however, it seems that getting metal threaded wraps is becoming more and more commonplace. We have had ToD rings for a long time as well.

I think this means there is a shift back towards Dark path monks because DR breakers are a lot easier to get. Also, the newer content doesn't feature the same sort of DR needs. So the content that we were looking at with Silver and Good has become secondary for most players.

While I am still playing my Light path monk, I think that there is pretty good rationale for going Dark path instead. If you manage to find the right epic twists to go with whatever destiny you are pursuing it seems to me that Dark path might make even better sense.

I know that most of my other monk characters are planned using the Dark path.

[rimble]

I feel Dark has been diminished a little recently, for a few reasons:

- Shadowdancer is a pretty strong ED, even with all its problems, and it covers the 25% Incorporeality from Dark...plus several more very fun 'Dark-like' things.

- Mabar is coming, so you can get 10% Incorporeal on there again now, or soon to be on a few other items in U16.

- It's much easier to fit Overwhelming Critical on a Light Monk.

- With alot of the ED stuff available now, you can do regular crits for almost as hard as Touch of Death hits...it's kind of freaky.

- Several good named handwraps available which you can bypass DR with as a Shintao, primarily Grave Wrappings

Of course Dark doesn't have a full PrE, so I wouldn't expect them to be entirely equivalent anyways. 'Dance of the Water Strider'...hah!

[HatsuharuZ]

I feel Dark has been diminished a little recently, for a few reasons:
- It's much easier to fit Overwhelming Critical on a Light Monk.



How so? shintao monk has more feat prereqs.

[rimble]

How so? shintao monk has more feat prereqs.

Shintao and Overwhelming Critical share feat pre-reqs--ie, Cleave.

Perhaps 'much easier' is a bit strong since it's just a matter of one Feat...but it's an important one...usually gotta make a sacrifice to do it as a Ninja Spy, whereas Shintao can slide into it alot smoother.

[TeacherSyn]

Light? Dark? I'll take Extra Crispy, please.

Oh, wait. This isn't about chicken.

Both are playstyle-situated as well as tactical. Dark Monks excel at removing and punishing the living. Light Monks support parties a bit and can remove all manner of undead and extraplanar things, and are highly solo-capable.

The Dark path could REALLY use a little Dev love, but even with its limited PrE (Ninja Spy) there's plenty to be said for how fun it can be.

If you're starting out and are new to Monks, build a Light Monk first. Since the difference are based on one feat (Fists of Light or Dark) and a few enhancements, it's very easy to use Fred to change your Fist of Light to Dark and vice versa, then reset your enhancements, should you find interest/disdain in a philosophy. You can swing both ways through the dojo!

[inspiredunease]

I prefer dark for my current post 20 game, which consists mostly of "soloing" with a portable moron. The main reason is Curse of the Void; not sure whether other people use this, but I love it. Also better boss DPS: Gravewrappings + improved sunder mean bosses always end up with dark curse on them pretty quickly, and I think, from my rudimentary calculations, that TOD with this assumption works out as a DPS increase of 80ish as long as you are making sure you're hitting it every 15 seconds (which you should be) I don't think light has anything that matches up to that. Also light monks smell :P

[Uska]

I always like light for self healing and dr breaking gives more handwraps that I can use especially since I have the shinato set.

[FuzzyDuck81]

My personal preference is for light - less hassle about DR-breaking means you can slot in more consistent damage-dealing effects when needed (or even still do reliable damage while, say, holding a heal scroll when doing a solo eDA run), the constant trickle of self-healing while fighting makes a noticeable difference for survivability while soloing & for assisting a group, and i love having the extra crowd-control options from kukan-do & (where appropriate) jade prison... dismissing strike is pretty nifty in a lot of places too.

[Mastikator]

Also worth noting in favor of Light is that up to around level 16 the Light->Light->Light mass healing finish is incredible and potentially on par with clerics and favored souls in normal questing. After that it's still useful but not enough.

[anttoni11]

Push "button" for 250-3000 damage every couple seconds - YES PLEASE

I see it as you play a light monk for the greater good. Buffs and small healing to all.

You play a dark monk to just punch the junk out of things.

Its not rare to double or even tripple strike with Touch of Death. Quad strikes for 750 each are rare, but so much fun to see.

For my playstyle, Dark > Light.

Hmm i dont know any small heals healing touch 7/slap healing ki 150 norm crit 12% 350 i bearly see redbar moving

[Rawel_San]

I have for a long time played a light monk on my first life. Originally for dr breaking puropses (Though I did farm
out devouts quite fast (about 30 runs)) and then just from inertia and like it a lot. After I tr'd I was persuaded to
go dark (since I have good crafted dr breakers now) and I also like it. I think the ease of use of sf pots along with
ee ivy wraps makes it slightly easier to stay dark now since you don't lose all that much self sufficiency, but in my
opinion it really is a personal choice. The difference in dps isn't that huge and is even less if you are soloing and
not getting many SA's in anyhow.
Just my 2 copper,
Rawel

[goodspeed]

Light monk the first time around to get into the groups and raids you need for your stuff. You know keep em buffed with that annoying short timer your to hit sucks but I can make you viable buff, whip the sun buff, make healers lives actually bearable, all that. All the while using them all for your greater gain.

Once you have your stuff; Dark monk the second time around for some I'm a living god time!

[Arlathen]

After the preview of Henshin Mystic, I'm inclined to go for Light path alot more. Grave Wrappings plus that Neg Level Tier 5 move looks like a lot of Epic elite awesomesauce to me.

That said, I have both Dark and Light Monks. I like both equally, and choose the path to suit the build of character I'm developing.