I LR'd my monk last night trying to fix his stance

[Chauncey1]

And I TOTALLY screwed him up.
IS there anyone that can point me to a decent build?
I wasn't able to find much.
Apparently my google-fu is borked as well.

[IronClan]

man there are a million builds out there, what were you trying to do with him, what are your interests (what content do you run and what difficulty) and what did you find fun? What race? Pure or multiclassed? dark or light path?

There's so many ways to build a monk you have to start with some basics or you're liable to get build suggestions that are all over the place, from EE focused uber clickie monks to FOTM deep multiclassed Kensei/Monks.

Stances didn't require an LR, they were autogranted with monk levels, unless you have a small number of monk levels you've got them in the feats tab of off the C menu... they are easy to miss and in multiple places "Master of forms" "Adept of forms" and the stance buttons themselves are in a third location "way of fire, water, earth etc."

[Chauncey1]

man there are a million builds out there, what were you trying to do with him, what are your interests (what content do you run and what difficulty) and what did you find fun? What race? Pure or multiclassed? dark or light path?

There's so many ways to build a monk you have to start with some basics or you're liable to get build suggestions that are all over the place, from EE focused uber clickie monks to FOTM deep multiclassed Kensei/Monks.

Stances didn't require an LR, they were autogranted with monk levels, unless you have a small number of monk levels you've got them in the feats tab of off the C menu... they are easy to miss and in multiple places "Master of forms" "Adept of forms" and the stance buttons themselves are in a third location "way of fire, water, earth etc."

Thanks for the reply.
He's a helf, light monk, no multi anything, but has a barb dilly. Was maxed out with fire stance. I've been running mostly epic hard content, (eveningstar for the most part lately, but I want to be able to go wherever), usually in a group, but would solo sometimes.

I was trying to get him maxed out with mountain stance, and it appears I've only got the lowest stance on all four stances.

The reason I LR'd was because my feats were a mess anyway, This was the 3rd toon I'd ever created, and my first monk.
But I think I have a better grasp on where I made my mistakes, thanks to your reply. :D

I'll try to fix it tonight.
Very much appreciated.

[rest]

Thanks for the reply.
He's a helf, light monk, no multi anything, but has a barb dilly. Was maxed out with fire stance. I've been running mostly epic hard content, (eveningstar for the most part lately, but I want to be able to go wherever), usually in a group, but would solo sometimes.

I was trying to get him maxed out with mountain stance, and it appears I've only got the lowest stance on all four stances.

The reason I LR'd was because my feats were a mess anyway, This was the 3rd toon I'd ever created, and my first monk.
But I think I have a better grasp on where I made my mistakes, thanks to your reply. :D

I'll try to fix it tonight.
Very much appreciated.

The stances changed. At monk level 1, you get the lowest level stances in your feat list. Those are what you drag to your hotbar to activate. At monk level 6, you get Adept of Forms. At 12 Master of forms. At 18 Grandmaster of forms. However, you still activate you stance using the lowest tier version. On your hotbar it will show the lowest level stance. On your BUFF bar, you see the highest tier stance you have. It puts you in the highest level of whatever stance automatically. That means that you don't have to spend enhancement points getting the other stances. You also don't have to meet the previous stat requirement for the stances.

In addition, Adept, Master and Grandmaster forms are now purchasable feats, provided you have at least 1 level of monk. In your case you'll get them for free, being a pure level 20 monk.

Don't be dismayed, you're still getting all the stances. In fact, it's a great time to be a pure monk as you get all levels of ALL stances for free! Previously they were gated by both AP cost and also by having to have a amount in a stat. Not anymore! So I'd say you didn't screw up as badly as you thought.

[Kalimah]

I think its lvl 6 for adept, 12 for master and 18 for gransmaster forms. Those are autogranted to you at appropriate monk level. So if you are all monk you should have all those available to you already. Basically, you enter the Windstance like normal and the form that you have unlocked applies (so if you are lvl 20 monk then your grandmaster of forms will benefit your windstance).

[Chauncey1]

The stances changed. At monk level 1, you get the lowest level stances in your feat list. Those are what you drag to your hotbar to activate. At monk level 6, you get Adept of Forms. At 12 Master of forms. At 18 Grandmaster of forms. However, you still activate you stance using the lowest tier version. On your hotbar it will show the lowest level stance. On your BUFF bar, you see the highest tier stance you have. It puts you in the highest level of whatever stance automatically. That means that you don't have to spend enhancement points getting the other stances. You also don't have to meet the previous stat requirement for the stances.

In addition, Adept, Master and Grandmaster forms are now purchasable feats, provided you have at least 1 level of monk. In your case you'll get them for free, being a pure level 20 monk.

Don't be dismayed, you're still getting all the stances. In fact, it's a great time to be a pure monk as you get all levels of ALL stances for free! Previously they were gated by both AP cost and also by having to have a amount in a stat. Not anymore! So I'd say you didn't screw up as badly as you thought.

Well...I'll be a Kobold's Uncle.
Thanks!
I was so upset with myself last night, lol.
I feel like a dang noob now.
Geeez.

[GlassJaw]

It gets tricky if you multiclass and take 6+ monk levels and purchase the stance feats. If you purchase Adept of Forms and then take Monk 6 later, your feat is wasted since Adept is autogranted. You want to take your stance feats after you take monk 6 or 12 so you only purchase the stance "tier" you don't already have.

[IronClan]

Yeah was excited to see my Elf shadow Ninja no longer requires natural wisdom to get GM ocean stance, I am not a TR fan, but I was going to have to TR twice to get her GM ocean stance for the passive Ki, along with faster sneaking and +1 passive Ki while sneaking + the ED she'll be abundant stepping nearly as often as my FvS even in public areas.

she also no longer needs weapon finesse and she's still Dex based and going 8 fighter 12 monk to get Kensei focus/crit range EIGHTEEN FEATS (15+3 epics) holy... So many that she can have whirlwind, cleaves and can throw a couple feats away to make cocoon twist healing really effective (magical training, empower healing and Extend for 4 minute displacement)...

It's a good time to be any flavor of monk.

[Chauncey1]

OK, I took my monk to the (epic) Stormhorns this evening to try him out. Not bad. But he seems a bit squishier than before. Even though his AC is around 85 and his fort at 110.
His ability to deal out death and destruction however, is quite nice.
Granted, it's been a while since I've ran this toon, so I forget the details on how to use the clickies and whatnot in the right order so he's the most effective.
I was just punching and kickin' like a Kung Fu Chicken.

[Marewood]

The problem with monks post U19 imho is that there were a lot of fundamental changes to this class.

However, Turbine don't really seem to bother to document any of them.

The, unfortunately, wiki is not up to date on this and mostly reflects the state pre U19.

I burnt the free +20 heart. After that I basically knew what was going on but my build was borken.
It took me another store bought +5 to get things right...

[Therigar]

OK, I took my monk to the (epic) Stormhorns this evening to try him out. Not bad. But he seems a bit squishier than before. Even though his AC is around 85 and his fort at 110.


The problem with monks post U19 imho is that there were a lot of fundamental changes to this class.

However, Turbine don't really seem to bother to document any of them.

I feel badly for the players who did not spend time on Lamannia testing out U19 in advance. I also feel badly for the players who did not take advantage of the final couple of weeks before U19 went live to max out their epic destinies on their L25 characters. This is where most players missed the boat.

For characters the will go through the whole leveling process, including the trouble of capping epic destinies, it is going to be a lot more challenging with the raise in the level cap to L28. Until characters have maxed out their destinies and earned the fate points to enable all of the twists they are going to have challenges in content.

Storm Horns can make a character feel squishier. It is a L27 area and running there on L25 or lower characters can be a bit difficult. Like always, the choice is between greater protection and greater DPS. There is no "right" answer to that.

I am running with >100 AC and >100 PRR and with >150% fortification. Combine that with blur, incorporeal and dodge and at L25 I'm having no problem in the Storm Horns explorer areas or in the quests themselves on eNormal.

Some people might scoff at eNormal but I'm satisfied running L27 quests at L25. Keep in mind that on TR lives I typically try to remain 2 character levels above the quest's normal setting. That means that if I could I'd really want to be running Storm Horns quests at L29 -- something that isn't even possible. For me, running them on eHard or eElite on a L25 character isn't my goal. It isn't even realistic for me -- although it might be for others.

The secret for me is that I was able to test the build on Lamannia before U19 went live and then I was able to spend the time getting all of my epic destinies to cap (or at least close to cap -- I used a fate point tome). This let me get the feats right ahead of time as well as the destiny choices and twists.

Until a player gets those things worked out their monk will be squishier than before -- because the content they are trying to run is harder than before. The solution to being squishier is to get the full gamut of defensive boosts. Having AC and fortification doesn't do it. As I've noted in the monk forums, on a first life L25 monk I'm running with >100 AC, >100 PRR, >150% fortification, 10 DR/epic, 10 DR/good, 10% incorporeal, 10% blur (25% when Shadow Veil is running), 25% miss when Sun Soul procs with earth stance, and 26 dodge (28 dodge max). I combine that with Ivy Wraps whose vampire effect regenerates HP and I almost never end an encounter at less than full HP.

That all gets better as the character gains the last 3 levels.

The problem isn't with Turbine not documenting the changes but with players not taking the time to test their builds on Lamannia and to prep for the changes that U19 brought in the final weeks before the update. So, players are now playing catch up as they figure out the differences.

Last thing, regardless of character and character class players should throw away all of what they thought they knew from before U19. I see a lot of threads on updating old builds to U19. That is the wrong mind set. U19 changes everything. The right way to think about things is to look for entirely new synergies and entirely new build ideas. That is true for monk and for every other build out there.