Build Critique: 1 Monk/12 PM/7 Dru

[droid327]

I dont have Monk so I cant actually test this myself, but it got me thinking, and I couldnt find anything already like it in the forums....

The crux of the build is basically a PM in Wraith form, using Monk to boost unarmed attacks and do finishing moves (I know, only 1 monk level and not pumping WIS means low DC), with a full suite of Druid-enhanced pets.

Monk gives Wind stance for a bonus to attack speed, elemental unarmed attacks and finishers, a little dodge.

Druid gives Harrier stance (compatible with Monk Wind stance?) for more attack speed. Wolf (gimpy) specced for -hate, skelly, nature's ally/summon monster, hireling, all with hate reduction from Pack Mentality, and benefiting from Blood Moon Frenzy to make up for their individual gimpiness. 1d6 damage against hurt monsters. DR 6/- if you spam Intimidate, on top of the high incorp/blur chance.

Wiz of course gives PM, and some (albeit relatively unboosted) offensive spells and buffs; Haste, Blur/Displacement, and Tensers (for BAB) being key.

So please shoot this full of holes now and tell me why this wont work - its a lot better than learning the hard way :)

[Daemoneyes]

why not 2mnk for evasion

also u maybe want to take wiz lvl13 for 5 lvl4 spells, so u can have Acidrain/Icestorm/Ddoor/DeathAura/Neg.energieburst all at the same time.
gives dps a real boost with acidrain and icestorm active at the same time.
ddoor is always nice and last two are needed anyway

i would and have taken fighter instead of druid, its a feat intensive build.
But i hope u can make it with druid.

my Build to give you maybe some ideas:

13 Wizard / 2 Rogue / 5 Fighter
Human 34p
Str 18 / Dex 8 / Con 15 / Int 16 / Wis 8 / Cha 8
Tomes: + 2Str, +2 Dex, +2 Con, +2 Int, + Wis, +3 Cha
Skills: Intimidate, Bluff, Concentration, Balance, Spot, Search, Disable, maybe UMD, some Jump & Haggle if points left.

lvl class / Feats
1 Rogue / Human - normal / Toughness - Insightful Reflexes
2 Fighter / Fighter / Power Attack
3 Wiz / Wiz - normal / Extend - Cleave
4 Wiz / /
5 Wiz / /
6 Wiz / normal / SF Necro
7 Wiz / Wiz / Maximize
8 Wiz / / <- Zombie Form
9 Wiz / normal / Great Cleave <- Death Aura / Neg Burst
10 Rogue / /
11 Wiz / /
12 Wiz / normal / GSF Necro
13 Wiz / Wiz / Mental Toughness
14 Wiz / /
15 Wiz / normal / Quicken <- Wraith Form
16 Wiz / /
17 Fighter / Fighter / improve Critical Slash
18 Fighter / /
19 Fighter / normal - Fighter / 2hf - improved 2hf
20 Rogue /
21 Epic / Epic / Overwhelming Critical
24 Epic / Epic / greater 2hf

Enhancements
Acid and Cold damage 7/1/1 (1 into Force for IceStorm)
PM 2, Wraith, Int 2, Wiz. Energie 2
Human Boost max
Human Stats Con / Str
Rogue Sneak Damage
Rogue Trap Sense
Fighter Str 2
Fighter Item Defense 1
Fighter Critical Accuracy 1
Racial and Fighter Toughness each 2


could you post yours once your done?
thanks and good luck

[Daemoneyes]

ps:
atm lvl8 with that build and its been a real fun time

only thing i miss is a good undead beater only got a flametouched Greataxe nowhere to get a Maul on Argo ><

best get Adamant Fullplate for 1-6 then swap to absolute minlvl 4 fullplate.
with shieldbuff and armor pot you almost never get hit and with blur/displace and Human Armor buff you never get hit, its so funny to have 10+ elite mobs trying to hit u and all u see is miss.miss.displ.miss,displ.displ ^^

with 8 now i swapped to light armor (Snakeskin Vest) , still nice AC (only 4 lower then my plate) and with 10% spellfailure you can cast all day.
Rockboots is next to get to up my Acidrain

btw
blur and displace dont have ASF checks and with extend its nice to buff on quest start and swap to heavy armor

[dterror]

The wolf will never be more than level 7, so completely useless beyond level 8 or so, and druid is really only useful if you go pure. Same thing goes for the skeleton. You won't be able to get much more than the basic garbage skelly, useful at lower levels as a distraction for mobs. Level 6 summon monster or level 4 nature's ally, neither of which will give a summon that is useful at moderately high levels (15+) as anything more than a distraction.

What you'll end up with is a small army of weak distractions that are unable to BE a distraction because you're reducing their hate generation. The only thing in the whole list that could be moderately useful at higher levels is the hireling, and they are of questionable assistance in those same higher level quests. Might be a fun build to play around with, but is not one that will be useful in any 15+ group.

[droid327]

why not 2mnk for evasion


Because you need druid 7 for Harrier and wiz 12 for Wraith...only leaves one level to spend :) And those are cornerstones of the whole theory.



What you'll end up with is a small army of weak distractions that are unable to BE a distraction because you're reducing their hate generation.

Useless as in they wont even have enough to-hit to land attacks? Or monsters DRs are too great for them to break?

I was thinking, with Augment Summon and the druid pack buffs, that it'd be a zergling strategy, lots of little damage all adding together, and ideally they never get aggro from me, so they're essentially little DOTs that follow me around...but if their damage is actually zero, that of course doesnt add up :)

[Daemoneyes]

Because you need druid 7 for Harrier and wiz 12 for Wraith...only leaves one level to spend :) And those are cornerstones of the whole theory.



Useless as in they wont even have enough to-hit to land attacks? Or monsters DRs are too great for them to break?

I was thinking, with Augment Summon and the druid pack buffs, that it'd be a zergling strategy, lots of little damage all adding together, and ideally they never get aggro from me, so they're essentially little DOTs that follow me around...but if their damage is actually zero, that of course doesnt add up :)

@druid7
ah k, dont have druid so thought maybe u can lower it

@small army
your monster would hit (well not often) but they would do little to no damage
and the first AE or single hit of monster in later quests kills them instant (best case twohit)
so no use at all

pure or almost pure Druid/Artie pets are good
epic lvl add to Druid/Artie pet level, so 10druid/10artie/epic5 would have lvl15pets but i cant see a way to make such a build viable

[Hewage]

I didn't see it specifically mentioned, but reaving roar is very nice extra damage and you can get that at druid lvl 7. Although it would seem to be designed for use while in an animal form, it currently works in any form.

Regarding the pets - as others have said, it's not really worth it.

Sounds like a fun twist on the pale monk idea. Like most of these hybrids, not typically cut out for EE questing, but different and at worst, you can always tr and pick up a wiz past life in the process.

[Stormraiser]

The druid really will not provide much. If you want a melee wraith build consider any of these:

18 wizard 2 monk
13 wizard 6 monk 1 artificer
12 wizard 6 artificer 2 monk
17 wizard 2 monk 1 artificer

[legendlore]

I dont have Monk so I cant actually test this myself, but it got me thinking, and I couldnt find anything already like it in the forums....

The crux of the build is basically a PM in Wraith form, using Monk to boost unarmed attacks and do finishing moves (I know, only 1 monk level and not pumping WIS means low DC), with a full suite of Druid-enhanced pets.

Monk gives Wind stance for a bonus to attack speed, elemental unarmed attacks and finishers, a little dodge.

Druid gives Harrier stance (compatible with Monk Wind stance?) for more attack speed. Wolf (gimpy) specced for -hate, skelly, nature's ally/summon monster, hireling, all with hate reduction from Pack Mentality, and benefiting from Blood Moon Frenzy to make up for their individual gimpiness. 1d6 damage against hurt monsters. DR 6/- if you spam Intimidate, on top of the high incorp/blur chance.

Wiz of course gives PM, and some (albeit relatively unboosted) offensive spells and buffs; Haste, Blur/Displacement, and Tensers (for BAB) being key.

So please shoot this full of holes now and tell me why this wont work - its a lot better than learning the hard way :)

I'm currently playing a build with a similar class split, but with artificer and fighter instead of druid and monk (build in link if interested).

I can currently do the one man party summon; arti dog, pale skeleton, regular summon, gold seal panther and regular hireling for a total of 5 active summons.

But as damage dealers they are sadly not a viable tactic (they die very fast from aoe's etc), there are 3 things that I currently use them for however (the non hireling ones); to mimic a mirror image, if you're lucky they soak up a nasty spell/hit, to clog up a pathway in hard encounters (if you hold aggro enemies will try to pass them to get to you even if they can't) and the ever trusty lever puller.

Don't think the druid enhancements will make much of a difference since it's mostly the survivability that is lacking for the low level pets to be viable.

[Kadran]

The druid really will not provide much. If you want a melee wraith build consider any of these:

18 wizard 2 monk
13 wizard 6 monk 1 artificer
12 wizard 6 artificer 2 monk
17 wizard 2 monk 1 artificer

Why 1 artificer on those 2 builds? The only thing I can think of is trap skills, whicch rogue would be better for (more skills) and grant +1d6 sneak attack situationally. You also don't have to be vip, buy or unlock it.

If it's for enchant weapons, that's really not much of a benefit for a level. You'd be better off with 1 fighter. 1 BAB and a bonus feat.

[Daemoneyes]

Why 1 artificer on those 2 builds? The only thing I can think of is trap skills, whicch rogue would be better for (more skills) and grant +1d6 sneak attack situationally. You also don't have to be vip, buy or unlock it.

If it's for enchant weapons, that's really not much of a benefit for a level. You'd be better off with 1 fighter. 1 BAB and a bonus feat.

Artie:
more SP
damage enhancements
lever-puller
repeater
p2p

Rogue:
sneak damage
bit more skillpoints (nice but no big problem on a Wiz)
2lvl Evasion
f2p

For me it boils down to the Question 1lvl splash or more?
If you take at least 2lvl go for Rogue, evasion on a high reflex char always good.
If you take only 1lvl it will depend on your playstyle, melee damage? rogue for sneak or do you still cast more? then Artie
If you take more level it again comes down to playstyle.

[inspiredunease]

Intriguing. Got a similar feeling to this: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=390133 and another couple of threads I've seen. You're not going to get as much out of it as a toon with majority monk levels though, as it's the attack speed boost from harrier on top of the stance that really kicks this build into the stratosphere.

[Spartywinz]

Like most of these hybrids, not typically cut out for EE questing

This was an interesting piece of feedback, I solo EE content on my 12w/2m/6f build, I wasn't aware they couldn't perform, I'll have to stop doing it.

[droid327]

Intriguing. Got a similar feeling to this: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=390133 and another couple of threads I've seen. You're not going to get as much out of it as a toon with majority monk levels though, as it's the attack speed boost from harrier on top of the stance that really kicks this build into the stratosphere.

Yeah, thats the one that got me thinking about co-opting that idea for a PM. Originally I was thinking of Vampire form, taking advantage of the high attack speed with the life-on-hit, but the incorporeal for Wraith seemed like it would negate more damage than Vampirism counteracted, even if you stacked the innate vampirism with vampiric weapons...

Incidentally, you only lose 5% attack speed and 5% doublestrike going from the L12 Air Stance to the L1 Air Stance. The real loss is the difference in hit dice between L12 Monk (2.5[1d6]) and L1 Monk (1[1d6])....though 1 Monk is still 1d6 vs 1d3 for a no-Monk PM unarmed, AFAICT. And, of course, the lower BAB for Wizard, until you get Tensers.

[Dexxaan]

Let me start by stating I only play Multi-Class builds as I believe (and have proven) that 90% of Classes can benefit a lot more from Multi-Classing (1 - 6 Levels) and be far more useful, effective than a Shmapstone Pure-Class.


Having said that, and reviewed your idea, I suggest you do not pursue it as it simply is not worth it. IMO it wont even qualify as the "Fun Builds" I have capped and played (Wraith 12 Wizard, Battle Engineer 6 Arti w/Evasion 2 Monk) for example.


You asked for us to punch holes and I'm seeing so many holes I doubt even my attempt will just pass on through! :D


There is some good advice in the thread and the Wiz-Monk (18-2 or 12 7 1) are nice options, heavily Gear Reliant, but fun.


.

[fodder-cannon]

pure or almost pure Druid/Artie pets are good
epic lvl add to Druid/Artie pet level, so 10druid/10artie/epic5 would have lvl15pets but i cant see a way to make such a build viable

Unfortunatley you can only have one arti/druid pet out not both.
So either the Arti pet or the Druid pet

[Daemoneyes]

Unfortunatley you can only have one arti/druid pet out not both.
So either the Arti pet or the Druid pet

doh when do the devs not ****up?
the pet is part of the power balance aspects but when you multiclass you can only have one? thats so much fail...

not that i would have build one but i think playing one could be fun as roleplayer, you would be like twoface. :)