Rockan Robin, pure monk build and philosophy

[Anthios888]

I should have said, a human version would work fine if that's what you prefer. A bit less AC, and less DPS due to less sneak attack. Just make sure to start with 16 dex so that you can still qualify for grandmaster of storms, and don't forget to take advantage of the human healing amplification enhancements.

[Fafnir]

How do you find the Radiance II cloak?

It'd been suggested to me that I make a triple earth cloak - 45 hps, 6 con skills, earthgrab guard, summon earth ele 2/d. That requires 2 large scales.

The Radiance II is 4d6 light damage + blindness, right? But it requires 6 large scales.

[Anthios888]

How do you find the Radiance II cloak?

It'd been suggested to me that I make a triple earth cloak - 45 hps, 6 con skills, earthgrab guard, summon earth ele 2/d. That requires 2 large scales.

The Radiance II is 4d6 light damage + blindness, right? But it requires 6 large scales.

It's expensive, but I LOVE it. It blinds things, which makes you get auto sneak attacks. It's easy to hit things on epic that have been blinded. It also makes stuff hit you 50% less. For me, that's both offense and defense.

It's by no means a requirement of the build; earthgrab is quite nice and much cheaper.

[Kalthanos]

Hi,

Very new to the game. Always liked monk. Always like dwarf. Would this build work for dwarf? What would need to be changed as far as enhancements/skills/stats/feat if any?

Thanks

[SickCat]

A quick comment on the jump skill...I was reading earlier about what skills to take...now, I didn't read much beyond that point, and don't remember if this has been covered, so I'm going to cover it anyway...the jump skill. I've found that you don't need any more than 10 in this skill. You might be able to leave it alone completely! Turbine capped jumping at 40, and a stack of jump pots (+30 to jump skill at lvl 20) will just about keep you at max whenever you need it, letting you focus on other skills, should you want to do so. I LR'd my monk and leveled jump to 10, then ignored it...even THAT was too much! I started with a 10 STR and use a +6 item giving me a standing 13. Plan it out right, and you likely don't have to put any points into jump at all...even a 33 jump is great.

Tumble...yea, like the man said, this is such a fun skill. Me, personally, I leave this at N/A though. A lvl 20 monk can, with slow fall OFF, fall from any height and not take damage. This won't fit every play style though...if I LR again, I'm going to take some tumble. My thief/acrobat can get out of a bad situation FAST by backflipping out of the fray! It's actually a pretty useful skill...it just doesn't help a monk take any less damage...ever...you, as a monk, at lvl 20 will simply never take fall damage...at all...no matter how hard you try. I've tried. I failed...

[Anthios888]

A quick comment on the jump skill...I was reading earlier about what skills to take...now, I didn't read much beyond that point, and don't remember if this has been covered, so I'm going to cover it anyway...the jump skill. I've found that you don't need any more than 10 in this skill. You might be able to leave it alone completely! Turbine capped jumping at 40, and a stack of jump pots (+30 to jump skill at lvl 20) will just about keep you at max whenever you need it, letting you focus on other skills, should you want to do so. I LR'd my monk and leveled jump to 10, then ignored it...even THAT was too much! I started with a 10 STR and use a +6 item giving me a standing 13. Plan it out right, and you likely don't have to put any points into jump at all...even a 33 jump is great.

Tumble...yea, like the man said, this is such a fun skill. Me, personally, I leave this at N/A though. A lvl 20 monk can, with slow fall OFF, fall from any height and not take damage. This won't fit every play style though...if I LR again, I'm going to take some tumble. My thief/acrobat can get out of a bad situation FAST by backflipping out of the fray! It's actually a pretty useful skill...it just doesn't help a monk take any less damage...ever...you, as a monk, at lvl 20 will simply never take fall damage...at all...no matter how hard you try. I've tried. I failed...

Hey, thanks for your input. That's pretty much where I come in on the matter, too:

From the original build.

Skills:
Max ranks in concentration, hide, move silently, and use magic device. The remainder are split between jump and balance. One rank in tumble enables the tumble function.

Tumbling, contrary to our wonderful load screens, is not about falling damage, but about being able to backflip out of combat. This is something I use constantly on my monk to help maneuver side to side quickly.

[starflight]

At the expense of sounding like a noob, How do I get access to the "curse of healing" skill. You mentioned earlier you liked using it a lot.

[Anthios888]

At the expense of sounding like a noob, How do I get access to the "curse of healing" skill. You mentioned earlier you liked using it a lot.

Level 3 monks who take Path of Harmonious Balance get a ki strike called healing ki. If you use it on a monster (10 ki cost), it curses them so that any one who hits that monster heals 1-2 hp per swing. It also damages undead. If you use it three times in succession, you get a finishing move called Fists of Light that is a small mass heal.

[starflight]

Thanks fro the help. Just one more question.
does the 10 damage reduction you get at level 20 from perfect self, stack with mountain stance damage reduction?

[Dim_Mak]

This build rocks.
LVL12 atm and with each login I love it more and more!
Cheers

[Adoraro]

Thanks fro the help. Just one more question.
does the 10 damage reduction you get at level 20 from perfect self, stack with mountain stance damage reduction?

No, in general Damage Reduction does not stack. The mountain stance (untyped) DR will help against creatures (bosses on Epic difficulty mostly) that bypass the DR10/Epic that you get at level 20. Personally I'd stay in Wind stance for better DPS.

[Dim_Mak]

Hey guys!
Did you read about the TWF nerf coming soon?
I mean..what the hell?
How will that impact this build.
I really don't want that to happen!!!
Please comment

[starflight]

In one of your postings you indicated a Battle cleric being one of your favorite characters.
Would you mind posting a build (or a link) to a good battle cleric.
I have been playing for about a month and have picked up a lot of good information from this monk build and all the feedback from others.
I am presently using your monk build at fifth level. He is awesome. He can solo some of the elite missions with just the starter gear and a ice cloak that does d8 damage to attackers.

[Anthios888]

In one of your postings you indicated a Battle cleric being one of your favorite characters.
Would you mind posting a build (or a link) to a good battle cleric.
I have been playing for about a month and have picked up a lot of good information from this monk build and all the feedback from others.
I am presently using your monk build at fifth level. He is awesome. He can solo some of the elite missions with just the starter gear and a ice cloak that does d8 damage to attackers.

here you go

[Anthios888]

Hey guys!
Did you read about the TWF nerf coming soon?
I mean..what the hell?
How will that impact this build.
I really don't want that to happen!!!
Please comment

The change is not going to affect how this build performs. Everyone is getting their damage lowered, regardless of styles.

Wind stance will still increase our attack speed, because we will get double strikes. That is just a renamed version of attack speeds. Double strikes have a chance to proc offhand attacks, as well, so that means both main hand and offhand gains 10% attack speed.

I am not too excited about Shintao monk, but this character as written would easily fit the prerequisites for it. I would probably skip it and take dodge instead of combat expertise (having taken past life: monk instead of CE), but if the tier 3 turns out to be neat, it'd be easy to fit back in.

Quivering palm got better, as you can now get a doublestrike and have twice the chance to autokill something.

If anything, the update to weighted handwraps affecting stunning DCs and the relative weakening of weighted weapons to render mobs autocrit without stunning blow / stunning fist made this build a whole lot stronger. With up to 71 self-buffed armor class* with handwraps and power attack -- using virturally no ac gear other than chaosguarde and dragontouched robe, the AC changes may well affect this build's performance in epic, too -- and it was doing fine just relying on DR. A stunning DC of 42-45 depending on where you are with rerolls and gear is very respectable.

This build would be a wonderful candidate for a dark monk because it has some AC to keep it from dying and it has a strong synergy with stunning, unbalancing, and using wisdom-based DCs. I would love to hear feedback from someone who tries it.

This build was starting to become less edgy, and update 5 brings it back as the group's focused stunner.

Just to mention, I am still 12 fighter / 8 monk and enjoying that very much. It's like a monkey barbarian. I am one of those people who was using weighted handwraps to incapacitate monsters instead of stunning blow or stunning fist. This change will make speccing for these tactic feats much more practical. 3% weighted will still stun enough to make it worth wearing for a character like this.

So, despite the doom and gloom, I am very optimistic about this build, and when I reroll back to monk, an 18 wisdom + level ups halfling is where I will land.

* note - this is my 36 point build version. 32 point would have 1-2 fewer AC depending on tomes.

[Kintro]

It's expensive, but I LOVE it. It blinds things, which makes you get auto sneak attacks. It's easy to hit things on epic that have been blinded. It also makes stuff hit you 50% less. For me, that's both offense and defense.

Don't you find it a massive pain on epic? When my rogue uses Radiance it makes stunned/held monsters slide all over the place and mobile ones swing randomly doing more damage than if they could see.

If they've fixed that with the Deception/etc fix on Lammania I'll be very happy

[Anthios888]

Don't you find it a massive pain on epic? When my rogue uses Radiance it makes stunned/held monsters slide all over the place and mobile ones swing randomly doing more damage than if they could see.

If they've fixed that with the Deception/etc fix on Lammania I'll be very happy

It incapacitates them well enough that I ignore bugged out mobs or just chase them and kill them. I'm aware of the problem, but I feel that the benefits outweigh the annoyance. Blindness makes mobs much much easier to hit, and on epic, that's as good as a free stun for most groups. Partly because of radiance, I can go in and kill 3 tharaak hounds in Von2 alone. Also, the 4d6 light damage hits everything, including raid bosses. So, I'm a huge fan, but I know there are others who prefer other upgrades. That's the beauty of the Shroud =)

[Kintro]

It incapacitates them well enough that I ignore bugged out mobs or just chase them and kill them. I'm aware of the problem, but I feel that the benefits outweigh the annoyance. Blindness makes mobs much much easier to hit, and on epic, that's as good as a free stun for most groups. Partly because of radiance, I can go in and kill 3 tharaak hounds in Von2 alone. Also, the 4d6 light damage hits everything, including raid bosses. So, I'm a huge fan, but I know there are others who prefer other upgrades. That's the beauty of the Shroud =)

True enough, I was thinking mainly of situations like Von1 where casters have the agro most of the time anyway. What I didn't consider was with it being on a guard it would only go off when you have agro and need the blindness.

You have me thinking of slots I can fit a second shroud item now

[Alintalkin]

here you go

Fixed. You accidentally put two h's on the http
(Not meaning to be rude, just something I noticed when I tried clicking on it and it didn't work looks good btw)

[Brega]

+1

Came back to play after a 3 year hiatus and have been unable to find a build that interest me, after a week of trying different ones over and over I gave this one a try and I am hooked! Only level 4 so far but having an absolute blast and I hope it stays that way

Thanks for going out of your way to post this build and the detailed level by level breakdown - much appreciated!