solving some monk problems with alot of paladin

[Snapdragoon]

i really like pure 20 monk and have enjoyed playing it but there are some problems with it, and issues i have personally, things i want out of a build, and paladin tends to solve everything so for those looking for a very relaxed, very survivable setup, behold:

the punk

the split is 14 paladin, 6 monk, Aasimar (my cutoff point for paladin ran all the way to 12 so you can stop their if you so choose, but i wanted T4 spells)

of note im rocking +8 supreme so stat requirements are kind of out the window for me, you might have issues if dealing with less, plan feats and attributes accordingly.

Wisdom based, water stance, with handwraps.

im not listing feats because its all pretty obvious at this point if you PLAY DDO, twf line, whirlwind line, yada yada.

35 Kotc (immunity to energy drain was something i tend to require)
16 racial (endless LoH and aasimar bond, i chose protector personally because i lean on the defensive but you can easily run fallen if its your jam)
23 falcon (all the wis to hit and damage and tactics)
______
74, ~6 flex

i personally put them in Sacred Defender for 25 more Prr and Mrr, as stated i lean defensive, but you can put them in falcon for sense weakness, or anywhere else you want.

so whats the point?

-handwraps ignore ooze, rust monsters, etc, they are incredibly comfortable as far as ease of use, get good ones equip them, never take them off if you so choose. sure their not an SOS during heroic leveling, but ever barb is tough until that rust monster snaps their sword.
-KotC gives 2 more cleaves on top of whirlwind and TWF main weakness right now is its only single target, and as we know were currently in a meta of huge packs, being able to spam 3 cleaves back to back really solves the mobbing issues.
-high saves, like VERY high saves, monk, water stance, pally charisma bump, protector aasimar, etc.
-high dodge, standing dodge sits around ~40
-decent PRR and MRR, one thing i didnt like about pure monk is the terrible numbers in that regard, you dont get hit often but when you do it always feels like a crit, SD and angel skin let me hit decent numbers to mitigate that issue.
-neg level immunity, i hate neg levels with a passion.
-lots of heals, aasimar LoH can often be enough, but we get little heal out of pally during heroics, and more then enough SP to liberally spam cocoon in epics, combined with the high defenses it all goes a VERY long way.


summation, dps is not AMAZING, sure, but death stops all dps, and you should have a VERY hard time dying, much better mobbing then straight monk, very relaxed and comfortable playstyle.

[FTPDDO]

8 points in shintao monk gets you 20 more PRR when centered which someone with racial/global ap tomes or racial past lifes can fit in on top of your split.

[Snapdragoon]

8 points in shintao monk gets you 20 more PRR when centered which someone with racial/global ap tomes or racial past lifes can fit in on top of your split.

totally true

[Saekee]

what about a WSS build? You get Knight’s Training free from Pally tree and the favored weapons will get a damage boost

I don’t like the pally tree for TWF though

[Snapdragoon]

what about a WSS build? You get Knight’s Training free from Pally tree and the favored weapons will get a damage boost

I don’t like the pally tree for TWF though

you *could* use WSS, but as i mentioned i am specifically trying to avoid things like rust monsters, ooze, etc. with handwraps you can set and forget, and while they dont occur often they still pop up often enough that its annoying, much like neg levels.

if you want to use weapons and not wraps their are far better builds, in fact just going 2HF full bog standard pally would be more then fine.

and KotC is fine with TWF, the only thing you obviously dont use is the strikethrough enhancement or the favored weapon line, everything else scales fine.

[FTPDDO]

I would think a staff build would work great and you can use a blueshine quarterstaff against oozes. The 45 PRR/25MRR for relatively low investment is quite good and swords to plowshares is a monk feat.

[Snapdragoon]

I would think a staff build would work great and you can use a blueshine quarterstaff against oozes. The 45 PRR/25MRR for relatively low investment is quite good and swords to plowshares is a monk feat.

i have loved the idea of Q-staff builds and it would be easy to fit in a tiny bit of rogue for the +attack speed, but there just are not good staves at end game. that said it fills a similar niche im trying to pull off though of a good compromise between high single target attack speed with strikethrough for mobs.

build wise, Q-staff is in a GREAT place, gear wise, prette terrible.

[FTPDDO]

i have loved the idea of Q-staff builds and it would be easy to fit in a tiny bit of rogue for the +attack speed, but there just are not good staves at end game. that said it fills a similar niche im trying to pull off though of a good compromise between high single target attack speed with strikethrough for mobs.

build wise, Q-staff is in a GREAT place, gear wise, prette terrible.

There is some new raid items coming out soon - it would be great if that changes

This is not too bad: https://ddowiki.com/page/Item:The_Staff_of_Shadow

And once you factor in swords to plowshare and pulverizer from legendary dreadnought the critical profile is getting there - but agree even this should be a little better.