Rockan Robin, pure monk build and philosophy

[Anthios888]

Please see original post for level breakdowns.

[Elazul2k]

How new person friendly is this build in the long run? I have been trying it out for the first 4 levels and I am having a blast so far, but I am having a little bit of trouble acquiring 1 or two pieces of the low level gear you recommended, namely the Weeping Handwraps(farmed captives on elite til chest was ransacked with no luck) and there does not seem to be many other decent handwraps in the AH or brokers. Though I am unsure if these handwraps bind to account or character. If account I could easily bring my fighter in and go more rounds and just toss by bank. But really how important is this?

[Anthios888]

The gear is just ideas/suggestions. If you haven't pulled the handwraps in a few runs, don't sweat it. They're barely better than "flaming" or "acid" handwraps, which are in turn just that much better than Min's Handwraps, which you get for free in Korthos.

Think about it this way. What character are you going to level that wouldnt be a bit better with this item or that item? Every fighter needs a weapon. Handwraps can be hard to pick up on the AH, but at least they are plentiful in end reward selections!

(BTW - weeping handwraps are bind to character)

[SickCat]

Fantastic read btw. I'm looking forward to lesser reincarnation now so I can tweak

I'm quite confused about the sneak attack aspect here. You talk a great deal about it, while my understanding is that only rogues and those wielding a backstabbing weapon get SA. I've even tried it out...attack a mob with a non backstabbing set of handwraps (while on my monk of course), and swap to a BS set during the fight. I notice another number show up in the floating damage string after the BS wraps are equipped.

I've TReinc'd and I'm now a 1/2ling...but I haven't put anything into 1/2ling guile since I thought it didn't apply. Would you mind, terribly, clearing the air on this for me?

(quick thing...top of page 5, you have "Voice of the Master (Tangleroot)", where I'm pretty sure the Voice comes from Delera's as an end reward.)

Thanks for the effort you and the community have put into this endeavor!

-Qetsil/SickCat of Thelanis

[Anthios888]

Thanks for your reply and the correction on the Delera’s trinket.

You were slightly incorrect about the way Sneak Attacks work. There are a number of different ways to get backstab damage, from being a halfling to using a backstabbing weapon or accessory, to having rogue levels or enhancements.

The part you are missing is that Halfling Guile 4 (requires Halfling Cunning 4) will give you +8 damage on any attack that counts as a sneak attack, regardless of your class or equipment.

Combine that with another 6 or 8 damage from one of the backstabbing items (Backstabber’s Gloves, Tharne’s Goggles, Goggles of Intuition, Wretched Twilight, Epic Bracers of the Hunter, Epic Vulkoorim Fighting Leathers) and it’s 16 damage per swing that counts as a sneak attack. And, anything you have stunned will automatically be sneak attacked, as well as anything on which you land your Unbalancing Strike. You’re talking about a ton of damage, especially on a character that attacks 260 times/minute. This is why halflings, although without flashy racial weapon enhancements like dwarves, elves or drow, are popular choices for DPS builds. The damage is applied on anything that counts as a sneak attack, as long as the monsters are not immune.

Here is the damage formula you might see flanking the walrus in the Tower of Despair in part 1 with some holy + greater bane handwraps:

Punch Damge + 2d6 Holy + 3d6 Greater Evil Outsider Bane + 2d6 Holy (ToD ring) + 1d6 Shock (ToD ring) + 1 force ritual + 16 backstab damage

Or on a stunned, autocrit devil:

(Punch damage+seeker)x2 + 2d6 + 3d6 Greater Evil Outsider Bane + holy burst + shocking burst + 1 force ritual + 16 backstab damage

For me, a monk isn’t about seeing the occasional big crit, but a long line of add-ons in rapid succession, to take advantage of the unmatched swing speed. Make no mistake that it pays off.

[SickCat]

BAM!!! That was EXACTLY the information I've been looking for. Thanks for putting that out there. Now I'm doubly glad I went Halfling!

[Sir_Chonas]

Let us pretend that someone does not have the means to grind for the rings and handwraps. . . what non named items should such a person be looking for?

(take for instance someone intends to NOT be a monk after their final reincarnation but wants to reincarnate monk 3x. They are not a monk now, but they are the build they plan to end on [a melee which does not fight centered] therefore they haven't got the bank/inventory space to hold all the items needed for grinding, and don't want to waste exp by grinding with higher levels on their reincarnation.)

AKA what sort of gear should I be looking to reasonably obtain on my first reincarnation, and first character that is a monk.

[QuantumFX]

You were slightly incorrect about the way Sneak Attacks work. There are a number of different ways to get backstab damage, from being a halfling to using a backstabbing weapon or accessory, to having rogue levels or enhancements.

36pt monk with “Disciple of the Fist” and “Sneak of Shadows”

[stainer]

I haven't been playing that long. I have a lvl 17 ftr, lvl 11 bard and I have this monk to lvl 9. The other toons must feel neglected, because I only want to play this one! This is a fun one to play. I dont have any uber items and I do just fine. Thank you for sharing this build! Anthios888, it won't let me give you anymore rep. I would if I could. Thanks again!

[Anthios888]

Let us pretend that someone does not have the means to grind for the rings and handwraps. . . what non named items should such a person be looking for?

(take for instance someone intends to NOT be a monk after their final reincarnation but wants to reincarnate monk 3x. They are not a monk now, but they are the build they plan to end on [a melee which does not fight centered] therefore they haven't got the bank/inventory space to hold all the items needed for grinding, and don't want to waste exp by grinding with higher levels on their reincarnation.)

AKA what sort of gear should I be looking to reasonably obtain on my first reincarnation, and first character that is a monk.

After reading this, I just can't help but think, "Run Tower of Despair for XP. Pulling any trash ring and crafting holy burst and maybe even shocking burst on it is going to save more time than it costs you, especially if you are rerolling 3 times."

Otherwise, it's fairly straightforward. Any dragontouched robe+chaosguardes or icy rainments+armored bracers. Handwraps of weighted, maybe some metallines, and any greater banes you can pick up (remember these you can re-sell later, the handwrap market is booming). Get your dex, wis, con, str, heavy fort items... some barkskin and lesser restoration pots ... and you're just fine.

[JinxedWarrior]

I'm another copycat

I followed the build with a few minor tweaks. I cut back on some of the halfling attack/dmg boosts to raise the monk paths to higher lvls. I splurged extra points into tumble just to be able to do sommersaults Neglected spot, and balance so far. I went 32 point build and ate a +2 INT tome at lvl 7 for the extra skill points. Ate a +1 STR tome for the Fire Stance. I am currently sitting at lvl 13

My question is more on gears and weapon choices. Heres what I have so far:

Head: Minos Helm (Heavy Fort, +20 HP)
Goggles: Intricate Field Optics (+13 Spot, Secret Door Detection, +2 WIS) hey I had an extra one laying around
Neck: +6 WIS / 2nd tier Silver Flame Pendant (Thinking about upgrading to tailsman and wearing a WIS ring)
Robe: +5 Protection / Mantle of Worldshaper (I never actually used this)
Trinket: Bloodstone (+6 Seeker) / Deleras Voice / Pendant of Time (who doesn't like the speed boosts in town?)
Belt: Belt of Thoughtful Remembrance (+5 CON/ +13 Concentration / 20% Negative Energy Absorption) I'm short 1 CON, 2 Concentration, but I think this saves a lot of gear slots and the 20% absorption is nice bonus
Bracers: +5 Armor bonus (I have a +7 AC min lvl 15 waiting). I'm not sure how chaos garde would work with this build, but I do have several of those
Gloves: Spectral Gloves (+5 DEX, Ethereal, +2 Attack Bonus)
Rings: +5 STR (I may eat a +2 str tome once I find a +6 STR ring)
Ring of Shadows (+10 Hide / +10 Move Silently / 10% Dusk)
Boots: Boots of the Innocent (+5 Resist / +15% Striding) speed doesn't seem to be an issue with this build so 15% seems plenty

Outfits: Fearsome/Invulnerability or Deathblock/Invulnerability
Complete set of Greater Elemental Resist Outfits (Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Sonic)
Bunch of Outfit with clickies (lesser restore, remove curse, etc)

Handwraps:
+5 Flaming Burst
+5 Icy Burst
+4 Shocking Burst
+3 Holy Burst
+3 Anarchic Burst
+1 Paralyzer
+1 Crippling / 5% Weighed (I never actually used this one)
+1 Weakening of Enfeeb (never used this either)
+1 Banishing (haven't used this one)

What gears should I be looking for?
I'm still trying to find a set of metalline handwraps
I currently am collecting White dragonscales, but it seems that its not even close to a great robe for my monk... Should I start doing Subterraine for Icy Rainment?

[Riggs]

I'm another copycat

I followed the build with a few minor tweaks. I cut back on some of the halfling attack/dmg boosts to raise the monk paths to higher lvls. I splurged extra points into tumble just to be able to do sommersaults Neglected spot, and balance so far. I went 32 point build and ate a +2 INT tome at lvl 7 for the extra skill points. Ate a +1 STR tome for the Fire Stance. I am currently sitting at lvl 13

My question is more on gears and weapon choices. Heres what I have so far:

Head: Minos Helm (Heavy Fort, +20 HP)
Goggles: Intricate Field Optics (+13 Spot, Secret Door Detection, +2 WIS) hey I had an extra one laying around
Neck: +6 WIS / 2nd tier Silver Flame Pendant (Thinking about upgrading to tailsman and wearing a WIS ring)
Robe: +5 Protection / Mantle of Worldshaper (I never actually used this)
Trinket: Bloodstone (+6 Seeker) / Deleras Voice / Pendant of Time (who doesn't like the speed boosts in town?)
Belt: Belt of Thoughtful Remembrance (+5 CON/ +13 Concentration / 20% Negative Energy Absorption) I'm short 1 CON, 2 Concentration, but I think this saves a lot of gear slots and the 20% absorption is nice bonus
Bracers: +5 Armor bonus (I have a +7 AC min lvl 15 waiting). I'm not sure how chaos garde would work with this build, but I do have several of those
Gloves: Spectral Gloves (+5 DEX, Ethereal, +2 Attack Bonus)
Rings: +5 STR (I may eat a +2 str tome once I find a +6 STR ring)
Ring of Shadows (+10 Hide / +10 Move Silently / 10% Dusk)
Boots: Boots of the Innocent (+5 Resist / +15% Striding) speed doesn't seem to be an issue with this build so 15% seems plenty

Outfits: Fearsome/Invulnerability or Deathblock/Invulnerability
Complete set of Greater Elemental Resist Outfits (Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Sonic)
Bunch of Outfit with clickies (lesser restore, remove curse, etc)

Handwraps:
+5 Flaming Burst
+5 Icy Burst
+4 Shocking Burst
+3 Holy Burst
+3 Anarchic Burst
+1 Paralyzer
+1 Crippling / 5% Weighed (I never actually used this one)
+1 Weakening of Enfeeb (never used this either)
+1 Banishing (haven't used this one)

What gears should I be looking for?
I'm still trying to find a set of metalline handwraps
I currently am collecting White dragonscales, but it seems that its not even close to a great robe for my monk... Should I start doing Subterraine for Icy Rainment?

Juggle whatever gear you have, if you dont have the best listed monks are good at making do.

use the weighted wraps more (a lot more, you will see why)

Run for icy raiments maybe, but run Refuge for DT robes as soon as you can - runes on the robes are better in the long term anyway (3 slots means maybe 2 less items you need later).

Forget white scale robes - DT robes!

[winsom]

I've been playing a halfling monk that is nearly-identical to this thread's build.
These items/slots have been working very well for me:

Low-Mid Level strategy:
Chose the Animal Path = Energy Resistance 2 (stacks with items and potion/spell buffs) Very, very useful !

Use lesser fire and lesser acid resistance items. This is very important ! A lot of incoming damage will be small amounts of fire and acid. You want to stop all (most) of it. Have potions of Fire Resistance ready to drink when fighting a fire-caster (kobold, hobgoblin, trogledyte, drow)

Use Wind Stance almost all of the time for killing. (if below 1 Hit Point, turn off Wind to raise your HP/CON score, then drink a Cure Wounds potion !)
Use Sun Stance when you want to practice building up Ki and learning the Finishing Moves.
Switch to Earth Stance for DR 2 if you fight a Bludgeon damage creature that can beat the tar out of you (Ogres) or better still switch to Hammerblock robes.

Use Bracers of Spearblock or Axeblock (swap) until you get Robes of Invulnerability (4th)
These bracers are DR 3 verses either piercing or slashing. Invulnerability is DR 5 vs. non-magic weapons. This is very important and useful at low-mid levels !
Drink potions of Mage Armor until you get Black Widow Bracers (armor 4) and then you still probably want to wear the DR bracers until you get Invulnerability robes.

Use items of +1 ability score, STR, DEX, WIS being the most important.
Item of CON +1 or +2 is not important at low-mid level. Wear a ring or belt of Lesser False Life.
Try to get a "Necklace of Contemplation" (False Life, Attack +1, Concentration +5). Otherwise wear the best helmet or ring of Concentration.

Use light fortication (belt or ring) and then moderate fortification (7th) as soon as you can. You want to minimize high amounts of incoming damage, even if they happen infrenquently due to your high armor class. If you have to then wear a robe of fortification.

These are how I slot items at low-mid level:

Ring of Resistance (saves)
Ring of Constitution, or Lesser False Life, or anything else that helps at the time
Helm of Wisdom, or Concentration +3 / 5
Goggles of Spot, or Insight (attack bonus +1)
Trinket of Wisdom +1 (or Str, Dex), or Voice of the Master (Delara's tomb)
Necklace of Contemplation: False Life, Attack Bonus +1, Concentration +5
Cloak of Protection (deflection armor class)
Belt of Fortification, light or moderate
Gloves of Strength (or Dexterity)
Bracers of Spearblock or Axeblock or Black Widow Bracers (Armor Bonus +4)
Boots of Dexterity
Outfit of Invulnerability (or whatever until I get Invuln. very important!)

[Elazul2k]

With the new changes to monk just in the last update is there anything you would change in your build or plan on updating it?

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=206066

Class Changes

Monks

Monks now automatically receive the first tier of elemental stances for free. These are available in the character’s Feat list as a granted feat. Selecting a philosophy will now automatically grant Fists of Light or Fists of Darkness, which will also be found in the character’s Feat list.
Lists of common finishing moves are now visible in the feats list. As a result of these changes, most monks should find that their enhancements have been reset.
The Monk's Curse of Healing and Touch of Despair effects now have visual effects on their targets.
The Two Weapon Fighting and Two Handed Fighting feats have been added to the martial arts feat list available to monks at levels 1, 2, and 6.
The original monk paths have been replaced with new paths that better incorporate the changes that have been made to the class. Characters that are currently on one of the three paths will continue to remain on it, but newly created monks will have a choice of the Shintao Monk, Ninja Spy, or Henshin Mystic paths.
Skills

During skill advancement stages, the current rank of a skill will be set to your current rank instead of 0. When you put points into a skill, the number will change colors so it is more obvious which skills have had points put into them.
Feats

The cooldowns for Whirlwind Attack and Great Cleave have been lowered to 5 seconds to match the Cleave feat's cooldown.
The cooldowns for Sunder and Improved Sunder have been reduced by 5 seconds each.
Effects giving players and monsters the chance to negate constitution damage were previously not working, and have been fixed.
You can now teleport to Meridia with the Greater Dragonmark of Passage, providing you have completed the quest "Meridia."
The cooldown timers for dragonmark abilities and the spells they mimic have been made separate, allowing you to cast each without affecting the cooldowns of the other.

It looks like touch of death on the dark path does 500 damage. Would it make more sense to spec dark monk then if focusing on DPS?

[Sir_Chonas]

Update with new granted enhancements and feat coming next. Will have tier 1 of all elementals and something else. . check release notes.

[Anthios888]

It's like 4 AP, I think I can deal

I'm exploring the possibility of going dark monk when, but that wouldn't change anything else about the build.

[Slaynen]

I'm wondering...

This built seem perfect except for one thing...

It lack of self healing...

Is that a problem at mid-high lvl ...

So far i m lvl 6 and things go very well and smoothly

Thx

[stainer]

I'm wondering...

This built seem perfect except for one thing...

It lack of self healing...

Is that a problem at mid-high lvl ...

So far i m lvl 6 and things go very well and smoothly

Thx

This build self heals with a strike, with a finishing move, with wholeness of body, with potions, and with wands (with umd). What exactly are you talking about? At level 9 I was able to solo the lvl 10 and 11 dungeons in Sands.

[Anthios888]

Slaynen has a great point and that is the #1 weakness of monks, the lack of burst healing. A lot of the options that are available (strikes, potions, wholeness of body, etc.) are not available when you most need healing. The way I have coped with this is to combined DR (Garzard's helm until level 9, Golden Greaves until level 20), pre-emptive healing (keeping my bar full in between battles), and stopping damage before it happens through stuns. Curse of healing rocks. The AC is also sufficient enough to help in most content, and in a lot of the nastiest stuff, there's usually some kind of mass healing going on at endgame.

At level 20, I have all 3 tiers of healing amplification to help stretch every potion and incoming heal. Is it always enough? This is no battle cleric (my favorite character), but as someone who thought I could never play a class without big heals, I happily manage with this monk.

[Rabscuttle]

This looks like a solid build, and probably well suited to your style of play

There are a couple minor things, though. For the AC breakdown, both 6 robe and 4 Insight DT are listed. Is this the Dragontouched armour or something else? Also, enhancements list Way of the Patient Tortoise 3, but only list 10 HP on the HP breakdown instead of 15.

One suggestion I would give would be to swap out tortoise (15 HP, 3 concentration) for monkey (6 stacking resist all elements, 3 haggle, and 3 saves vs traps). 3 concentration is great to have, but more at lower levels. By the time I got the capstone, I had more ki than I knew what to do with oftentimes. I'd never turn down free HP, but it only takes 3 elemental hits for monkey to be more valuable, and the trap save is definitely helpful when us monks get... volunteered to run ahead and set off the traps hehe. The haggle is simply icing.