Few monk questions

[Maldavenous]

Two Things (assume pure level 20 Monk fairly balanced STR/DEX/Con/WIS):

1. Human Monk or Halfling:
a. Human - Is the extensive healing amp worth it or even remotely necessary?
b. Human - The extra feat is useful but how well does this compare to halfling bonuses?
c. Halfling - Sneak attack, how useful is this for adding to monk damage how does it compare to human monk damage output? (is the sneak attack damage a small bonus comparably or a large bonus?)
d. Halfling - Does their size reduce the chance of landing abilities with DC vs. larger foes? (Stunning Fist, Quivering Palm, Trip, etc.)

2. Light Side vs. Dark Side:
a. Light Side - There are more abilities available, but how useful are they? (a rez is nice but not necessary, and 10d4 healing AoE is okay but yet again not necessary, and +2 morale bonuses are coverable by bards)
b. Dark Side - Freezing the Life Blood looks like a useful attack and if Karmic Strike ever works it seems like it'll be very strong. How do these and their lead ups compare to the finishers and lead ups from the light path?
c. Both - The list of PREs posted by Eladrin previously, do any of these seem like they'll be path dependent?

Over my latent desire is a high HP good AC earth stance dark path human monk with healing amp but the logical side of my character building self is telling me that the halfling will be almost completely better and there has to be a good reason almost everyone follows light path. On a side note I did some numbers and made a Human monk with over 500HP and 74 buffed AC that looked pretty solid.

[Monkey_Archer]

1a) Taking all human + monk is probably overkill, while nice, i think 2 human + 2 monk combined will give you the most for the AP spent. Really depends on what else you have AP to spend on.
1b) Extra feat is always nice, but monks (usually) have enough feats for everything they need. Again, this really depends on how you want to build him.
1c) As monks can be realativly low in dps already, 8 sneak attack damage is quite alot vs 1-2 extra damage per hit from a human's strength.
1d)Not that I know of.

2a) Most light monks i know do not invest in the curative/res abilities... usually cheaper to use pots/res clickies. Apparently the +2 attack bonus is not a morale bonus and will stack with bards. Fists of light is the main reason to go light path, combining high ac with constant regen everytime you hit something makes light monks very survivable.
2b) Dark monks are not as useful to the party (no buffs/healing) but usually will do more damage. Karmic strike is bugged when using hanwraps. After performing the autocrit the monk can to NO actions for 3 seconds (making it completly pointless). It does however work great with kamas/staves, and is a very nice dps increase when you need to use transmuting, as well as useful for auto banishing/smiting. Freezing the lifebood is great for humanoid targets since all finishers have a higher dc then stunning fist/qp. Blind/nauseate are both good for defense.
2c)Unknown. There is specualtion that ninja spy might be dark path and shintao monk might be light path.

[BlackRage]

Two Things (assume pure level 20 Monk fairly balanced STR/DEX/Con/WIS):

1. d. Halfling - Does their size reduce the chance of landing abilities with DC vs. larger foes? (Stunning Fist, Quivering Palm, Trip, etc.)

2. Light Side vs. Dark Side:

Over my latent desire is a high HP good AC earth stance dark path human monk with healing amp but the logical side of my character building self is telling me that the halfling will be almost completely better and there has to be a good reason almost everyone follows light path. On a side note I did some numbers and made a Human monk with over 500HP and 74 buffed AC that looked pretty solid.

Depending on how balanced you want to go there is a good thread that involves quite a bit of reading debating the point.

Monkey did a good job, but just quickly touching on these:
1d – Halflings suffer an additional -4 to their trip attempts as they are smaller. They do get their +1 to AC & Saves for this same reason though.

2 – Dark does more average damage, but Light is easier to play. Your character will generally be more effective going dark, but the party may harp on your for not buffing them.

Again from the balanced Monk debate, Earth seems to be the weakest stance. Especially at Monk20.

[Mobeius]

I have my personal preferences, my monk is human, very balanced with a focus on Wisdom. You want to play AC build and thats it? Go Halfling Monk with Windstance. Trying to play rounded monk that debuffs, buffs, resses, etc. Its very clicky intensive than other classes (especially since buff timers are 1 minute mostly, Earth Dragon is 30 seconds).

My monk has healing AMP 1 (Monk and Human)and Healing AMP 20 from the DT robe which gives me 40% boost which helps A LOT. I use all the stances and buff and debuff.

The MAIN question you need to ask about your monk is how intensely are you going to play them? Intensely and working on them hard and their gear? My monk uses weighted and stunning fists a lot. Done right it works really well in the Refuge quests. I am definately of the minority here in Human Monk. Seems the favorites are Halfling and WF monks. I have a post on my monk here, and quite frankly, a lot of people that group with my monk I think walk away with a difference of opinion. I can crit in to the 90's with my fists now.

If you get Tharnes Goggles and a Bloodstone, that goes for a great deal of improving your DPS.

My Top handwraps I use.

1. +2 Acid Weighted 5%
2. +2 Maladroit Weighted 4%
3. +2 Holyburst of Deception
4. Greater Bane Handwraps
5. +4 Holy Returning Shuriken of Pure Good.


but like I said, I am definately in the minority here. Again I dont think people factor in what buff/debuff/stun monks give to the party. Like the comment I got the other nite, soemone was mentioning they were consitently doing insane damage from crits and other things. Well thats from Unbalancing Stirke, Eagles, Stuns, etc. Light side gives you Healing Curse which I think when Mod 9 is released will realize how good it actually is for a party and raids, it also allows you access to Rise of the Phoenix (monk raise dead)

All in All

Monks are HIGHLY under rated and valued in a party or class, and Halfling and WF monks are the Norm for races.

[Maldavenous]

Follow Up:

How much does fists of light heal for per hit? (assume level 20 monk)
Does healing amp effect how much this will heal you for per hit?
-With grazing hits going in this may be a beloved attack in mod9.

As to the question on how hard I would intend on playing him, I'd say as hard as all my other capped raid geared GS equipped characters.

I'm happy to hear that Karmic Strike does work with non-hand wraps. I intend to mostly use hand wraps but if I'm using power Smiting, Banishing and other on crit weapons I could easily see it worth switching up to Kamas or maybe even staff for some auto-crits to make up for the 19-20 best crit range for monks.

I had a tactics fighter I was going to level but never really got around to, mostly because he was pretty much the same character as all my other DPS guys except with a few more feats. The monk can pick up all of that as well as his own unique and harder to save against stuns and even instant kill attacks.

[Aerendil]

For what it's worth, I went Human for a couple of reasons:

- easier to start with a higher STR. I previously had a Halfling Monk, with a starting STR of 12, and was waiting on a +1 tome for PA. His dps was noticeably weak. With a Human, I can get a 15 starting STR without too much difficulty, and get an extra +1 STR from racial enhancements, which puts me at a nice number. As my level-ups are going into DEX/WIS (3 into DEX, 2 into WIS I think), a decent STR was key for my build.
16 + 2 (tome eventually) + 6 (item) = 24, not counting any other buffs I might have. Not great, by any means, but should help to overcome any DR I might encounter. With PA on and Human Versatility that's an extra +10 dmg.

- as I often find myself tanking in group situations, sneak attack damage on my Halfer wasn't being used a whole lot. Maybe if he had been a higher level and been able to take advantage of stunning fist more often + sneak attack damage it could have been worth it, but at lower levels I rarely got my sneak damage in. Besides, it's fairly AP intensive to get your guile/cunning up. For the same cost, I can get Human Versatility instead.
Having +5 to AC, saves, or dmg when I need it, even if it's only for 20 sec, can make or break a situation.

Either race make excellent Monks, though.

As for Light vs. Dark - I went Light for the same reason as listed above. Fists of Light.
On any high hp monster, it allows for near-full heals without having to expend a Wholeness of Body charge. I've entered instances before with 1/3rd hps, and easily healed myself up on trash mobs as I went along. It's not as useful with an overzealous healer, but in smaller groups (or solo) it's a godsend.

PS - Fists of Light tends to do 1hp per hit healed, although with Human + Monk healing improvements, you can scale that up to 2 per hit. Doesn't sound like much, but with GTWF and wind stance, you get a LOT of attacks

[Mobeius]

Follow Up:

How much does fists of light heal for per hit? (assume level 20 monk)
Does healing amp effect how much this will heal you for per hit?
-With grazing hits going in this may be a beloved attack in mod9.

As to the question on how hard I would intend on playing him, I'd say as hard as all my other capped raid geared GS equipped characters.

I'm happy to hear that Karmic Strike does work with non-hand wraps. I intend to mostly use hand wraps but if I'm using power Smiting, Banishing and other on crit weapons I could easily see it worth switching up to Kamas or maybe even staff for some auto-crits to make up for the 19-20 best crit range for monks.

I had a tactics fighter I was going to level but never really got around to, mostly because he was pretty much the same character as all my other DPS guys except with a few more feats. The monk can pick up all of that as well as his own unique and harder to save against stuns and even instant kill attacks.

I am just now playing with elemental strikes, they dont seem to land nor very effective on big mobs. Takes a lot to build up and usually doesnt land and with everything else I am usually to busy trying to get everything else off. 3 fists of light and you can do Mass Cure Mod as well which adds up as well.

Elemental Strikes
Storm + Storm + Storm = The Gathering Storm (Reduces Enemy Attack Bonus)
Fire + Fire + Fire = Burning Hands (1d4 per level) - (5d4 max)
Water + Water + Water = (20 seconds - Slow)
Earth + Earth + Earth = The Trembling Earth (Critical Threat Range Increased by 2, Partial Bewilder)


Fist of Light aka Healing Curse - Heals 1 to 2 HP per hit you land, Healing Amp can increase that to 2 to 3 per hit. With my set up on my monk, I can fight Sorjak in SOS with his blue shield up and healing curse and no sustain ANY damage.

Kamas, you know what Kamas I have? I have a Vorpal set of kamas that I RARELY use. Why? Because of my stuns and debuffs. DDO does not calculate nor show v ery well what a monk does to a party when played to the fullest extent.

For Example.

Healing Curse on big red named guys (Cept for Harry and Sally till Mod 9). you have 8 Melees in a raid, they hit 4 out of 5 times (fuzzy math) on average they would get healed 6 points that go round. Add that over 3 minutes of fighting which would probabaly equate to healing 180 points of damage. Its actually quite a bit better but was trying to show the math.

Eagles Strike is basically destruction but -4 AC (which helps you hit more and HEAL more)

Unbalancing Strike - One of my favorite attacks - -2 AC, -10 Balanace (comet fall and trip), AND makes them vunerable with Sneak Attacks (Rogues and others with Sneak Damage in their DPS)

Walk the Sun - +2 to hit, saves and skills for 1 min, sure you can figure this one out

Aligning the Heavens - mana buff, if you have 30 KI you can give this to your party or raid in the intial buff up phase which saves mama. Hard part is getting to the casters consistently, but Rangers and paladins can use it too.

Grasp of the Earth Dragon - 30 seconds of immunity to Stuns, Dazes, and sleep. Hard to keep going bet another buff that doesnt really factor in to combat in visualizations of the contributions to a party/raid

Dance of the Clouds - 1 minute of undispellable blur

Rise of the Phoenix - Basically a free rez you can cast even under beholders magic. Saved many raids.

So in the end of a major fight and constantly refreshing you can give to a party/raid

target Mob -6 AC, -10 Balance, Sneak Attacks.

+2 Hit, Saves, Skills, 20% Blur, healed 1 to 2 per hit and potentially blured for 20% miss chance as well.

All of which can not be removed or dispelled and you can Rez, Remove curse, blindness and disease.

Finally I also use Fist of Iron and Strke of the Enduring. Why fist of Iron Mob? Well because if a target is stunned stoned, frozen, etc. and you are allowed to auto crit, Fists raises your multiplier from 2 to 3. Not a huge deal but every time it recycles I can punch in to the 80 to 100 range. Strike of the Enduring is 8 additional untyped damamge and if you critical you do 2d6 acid damage.

My Animal path is different, I took way of the Clever Monkey 4, which gives a stackable Energy Resitance 8 on all resistances that STACKS. Which Done right you can achive a 48 to 53 resistance in 1 or more types of energy.

[Halock]

Couple corrections

Fist of light is 1d2 when it procs, this adds up very quickly

Fire+fire+fire = breath of the fire dragon = 1d4 per level, no max