newb wanting to build a solo, elven monk

[MithrilSoul]

Brand new to DDO (less than 24 hours lol) and wanted to get some basic advice here. Before I jump in with my questions, just a bit about of what I am looking for in my character and in this game.

I would like to play an elven monk as basically a solo-only character. Why solo only? Because I am a 40 year old man, living alone in my parents' basement with no social skills whatsoever, living on a diet consisting mostly of cheez whiz and beer? Um...er...no! Because my "main" MMO that takes up most of my time is LOTRO. I am an officer and co-founder of a kinship (guild) there. Which means when I am on there is a pretty constant stream of "officer duties" to take care of. Our kinship is in a formal alliance with 20+ other kinships. So I am also in regular contact with the officers (and members) of tons of other kins. It is not unusual for me to be in-game and have 5+ different chats going on at once; kin chat on some topic, alliance chat on something else, perhaps officer chat on a third topic, and maybe personal (PM) chats with 2-3 other players. All happening simultaneously. Plus of course quite possibly voice chat as well. I have every character slot used (9 chars), multiple at the level max (level 65 currently), and nearly all 9 characters are Supreme Master crafters in at least one crafting profession, so I am also almost constantly crafting things for myself, kinmates, etc. In that game, when the necessary officer/kin responsibilities have settled down for me to actually do some killing, more often than not I am in groups running instances, helping kinmates pound out group-only quests, and/or partaking in 12-man raids. All of that I like, and all of it I enjoy. Usually.

But there are times when it all just becomes "too much." Those of you who have been an officer in a guild probably know what I am talking about. Maybe two folks got into a fight and one quit in a huff. Or maybe there was a certain raid scheduled and halfway through forming the group someone suggested an alternative raid instead and so a fight breaks out about which raid is better to do. Or whatever. There are a million and one ways that 'drama' (to give it a name) can occur in an MMO.

At times like that, after I've solved the problem or at least done whatever I can, or when it's been a long day and our raid has just wiped for the 4th time on the same boss because [insert name here] seems completely unable to [insert task here] at the proper time...I just want to be able to leave it all behind and be alone. Get away from people--both real and virtual (haha). So rather than create a character in LOTRO on a different server to be able to play a game solo when I want to just escape from everything, I figured why not try DDO? So here I am.

I remember playing Neverwinter Nights way back when and enjoying immensely the monk class. So I bought some points in DDO store to open monk. But reading on all the forums here, it seemed that monks who didn't have 32 point builds would really struggle and basically suck. So okay, I bought 32 point build in DDO store. And as for why elf, rather than the "best" races (halfling, or perhaps human)? Dunno. I've just always enjoyed playing elves. So I figured, why not.

So I have my lvl 1 elf monk. Since this is my "get away from people and just solo" character, I am not interested in building a monk for a grouping role...just solo. Raiding, of course, is completely out of the question. I don't need something utterly uber, just something that is competent and will let me hop on here in DDO from time to time, spend an hour or two of open-fisted mayhem, experience some moderate amount of "success," and then happily log off and call it a day.

Not much on the forums regarding elf monk. (If I was wiser, I would recognize that is a REALLY bad sign but I'm ignoring my common sense for now.) The one person I have seen on these forums advocating this combo goes by the name of lyeman (hello if you are out there reading this!) and so I followed his (her?) advice and started with:

STR 16
DEX 16
CON 14
INT 8
WIS 14
CHA 8

For initial feats I took Toughness and TWF. Initial skills I maxed concentration, took 1 in Tumble, 1 in Spot, and the rest (2 or 3) in Balance.

My questions:

1. Given my stated goals, is this going to be a viable character or am I really kidding myself?

2. PLEASE enlighten me about enhancements. I spent my first AP on Monk Concentration I, but I now have 2 more AP and really have no clue what to pursue. This is probably my biggest issue at the moment. (Plus, how do we get AP anyways? Are they XP based, or given for completing certain quests, or what?)

3. Looking ahead, what should my priority for my next couple of feats be? Power Attack? Dodge? Stunning Fist? Something else?

4. When exactly do I get to add skill points? Referring again to the one thread I've seen on elf monk builds, lyeman had arrows next to three stats that seemed to indicate stat gains but I am not clear what they all mean. Next to STR he had (<-- level points here), next to DEX (<-- race points here) and next to WIS (<-- class points here). No clue what that means. I think level points refers to the ability to add +1 to a stat every 4 levels, right? So what are race points and class points? Help!

5. What the heck is the deal with Dragonmarks? I have seen recommendations that for a solo elf monk both the Invisibility and Displacement are really helpful, but are they anything I need to worry about in the first few levels or no?

6. This sounds so totally n00b I know but so far (halfway through level 1) honestly all I am doing is basically randomly button mashing. I really have no concept of any kind of *strategy* during the course of a fight. I realize that is a massive question but even the tiniest of tips about skill sequences or something would be good. Because essentially right now I am winning battles basically just by autoattacking everything to death with occasional random special attacks--either normal ones (like Trip or Sunder) or the Tier I elemental ones (when I have ki for them). But there is not any rhyme or reason to what I am using when. (Told you I was noob!) I figure at some point, probably sooner rather than later, this will NOT be good enough even though it certainly seems to be in the newbie island where I am now.


Sorry if this was long. Or if I am so new to the game that I wasn't even able to properly clarify my questions. Any help at all is most appreciated!

[Impatiens]

So I have my lvl 1 elf monk. Since this is my "get away from people and just solo" character, I am not interested in building a monk for a grouping role...just solo. Raiding, of course, is completely out of the question. I don't need something utterly uber, just something that is competent and will let me hop on here in DDO from time to time, spend an hour or two of open-fisted mayhem, experience some moderate amount of "success," and then happily log off and call it a day.

I assume you chose elf for aesthetic reasons. Nothing wrong with that, but for soloing you might be happier with a Dragonmarked halfling for extra healing abilities. There is nothing bad about an elf monk, but halfling and human tend to have better synergy with the class as far as enhancements go

Not much on the forums regarding elf monk. (If I was wiser, I would recognize that is a REALLY bad sign but I'm ignoring my common sense for now.) The one person I have seen on these forums advocating this combo goes by the name of lyeman (hello if you are out there reading this!) and so I followed his (her?) advice and started with:

STR 16
DEX 16
CON 14
INT 8
WIS 14
CHA 8

This is certainly a fine stat distribution. I prefer races that I can easily get to 16 Con with in order to be able to get 18 con with a tome for the last tier of earth stance. You, however, are certainly not gimping yourself with the stat distribution you chose. A fairly even distribution between strength, dex, con, and wis is the way to go and that's exactly what you have.

For initial feats I took Toughness and TWF. Initial skills I maxed concentration, took 1 in Tumble, 1 in Spot, and the rest (2 or 3) in Balance.

My questions:

1. Given my stated goals, is this going to be a viable character or am I really kidding myself?

It's definitely viable, but you may be happier with a halfling or human for soloing purposes. Halfling have the healing Dragonmarks and Humans have both monk and human improved recovery (which stacks) to get more healing from potions, healing ki, wholeness of body, etc. Those two races just feel more survivable to me and are also easier to start off at 16 con with.

2. PLEASE enlighten me about enhancements. I spent my first AP on Monk Concentration I, but I now have 2 more AP and really have no clue what to pursue. This is probably my biggest issue at the moment. (Plus, how do we get AP anyways? Are they XP based, or given for completing certain quests, or what?)

There honestly isn't much to spend your initial AP on now that they give us the first tier of stances for free. You'll have to throw a couple in things like Monk jump and whatnot before you open up the actually useful lines. For an elf I'm not sure exactly what your ideal enhancements would be. You'll get racial enhancements for Dex, so that's always a good option If you look at your xp bar you'll see little bubbles to the side. You get an AP every time you fill a new bubble, 4 every level. It is XP based.

3. Looking ahead, what should my priority for my next couple of feats be? Power Attack? Dodge? Stunning Fist? Something else?

PA and SF are both decent options. Dodge is nice if you have room for it, but not necessary. You won't have super high wisdom with the build you are looking at so while SF will probably be pretty good early on, you'll notice it not hitting very often as you get higher level

4. When exactly do I get to add skill points? Referring again to the one thread I've seen on elf monk builds, lyeman had arrows next to three stats that seemed to indicate stat gains but I am not clear what they all mean. Next to STR he had (<-- level points here), next to DEX (<-- race points here) and next to WIS (<-- class points here). No clue what that means. I think level points refers to the ability to add +1 to a stat every 4 levels, right? So what are race points and class points? Help!

By race points he means the racial enhancement points you can add (that I mentioned above) and class points are the class enhancements you'll also have. Level points are indeed the +1 stat every 4 levels. For an elf you may well want to put those in strength. If you decide to switch to halfling you may want to go with Dex or Wis instead.

5. What the heck is the deal with Dragonmarks? I have seen recommendations that for a solo elf monk both the Invisibility and Displacement are really helpful, but are they anything I need to worry about in the first few levels or no?

You access Dragonmarks by doing a quest in the marketplace. This opens them up to any character you make on the server. They are special racial feats. Some races have much more valuable ones than others. Since monks are generally far from feat starved it's usually pretty easy to fit them in if your race has useful ones. Invis and Displace are super nice things to have, especially displace. Displace will become more important at higher levels when your AC starts to not be as meaningful without a lot of tweaks to your gear.

6. This sounds so totally n00b I know but so far (halfway through level 1) honestly all I am doing is basically randomly button mashing. I really have no concept of any kind of *strategy* during the course of a fight. I realize that is a massive question but even the tiniest of tips about skill sequences or something would be good. Because essentially right now I am winning battles basically just by autoattacking everything to death with occasional random special attacks--either normal ones (like Trip or Sunder) or the Tier I elemental ones (when I have ki for them). But there is not any rhyme or reason to what I am using when. (Told you I was noob!) I figure at some point, probably sooner rather than later, this will NOT be good enough even though it certainly seems to be in the newbie island where I am now.

Since you don't have a path chosen yet you don't have access to a lot of the finishers that you'll be using later on. Your most powerful ki strike is your earth one, use that as much as you can. Generally you just want to spam your ki strikes as much as possible. Early on it's harder to build ki and you may even want to use fire stance instead of wind at the early levels for the extra ki gain.


Sorry if this was long. Or if I am so new to the game that I wasn't even able to properly clarify my questions. Any help at all is most appreciated!

Answers in green. Hope it helps.

[Arkat]

First, welcome to DDO.

Second, to be frank, Monk isn't the best option for your first toon. Pick something a little easier like a Barb or a Fighter. Learn the ins and outs of the game first and along the way, observe other Monks and how they are played. Some people play Monks poorly and some play them well. Figure out who plays them poorly and then don't do what they do. Another reason to wait to play a Monk is because, more than any other class (including Paladin), they are stat-dependent. A 32 point-build Monk can really make the difference over a 28 point build.

Third, if you insist on playing a Monk right away, go here:

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=235513

Sure, it's a WF build and you wish to play an Elf. That's fine. But go there anyway for ideas on Feat selection, skill point distribution, a few play tips, and equipment ideas.

Finally, for an overall Monk "guide," go here:

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=214991

Good luck!

[TPICKRELL]

First, welcome to DDO.

Second, to be frank, Monk isn't the best option for your first toon. Pick something a little easier like a Barb or a Fighter. Learn the ins and outs of the game first and along the way, observe other Monks and how they are played. Some people play Monks poorly and some play them well. Figure out who plays them poorly and then don't do what they do. Another reason to wait to play a Monk is because, more than any other class (including Paladin), they are stat-dependent. A 32 point-build Monk can really make the difference over a 28 point build.

I agree with Arkat, but on the flip side, Monk is one of the best classes for a solo build . Given your MMO experience, and assuming you are willing to persevere through your learning curve with the Monk on top of the DDO learning curve, then it will serve your purposes well. My first toon was a Drow Monk and it worked very well up until late game Raid Content. So I know it is feasible as long as you are willing to grind through both learning curves simultaneously.

For a solo build, I'd recommend light path. Be aware that you won't feel most of the Monk solo benefits until around level 7 when you get Wholeness of Body and start to generate enough ki to really start using your Monkly abilities.

[elgranmago13]

Hmmm... be careful, I came from LOTRO to DDO for many of the same reasons (on a much smaller scale) and now only play LOTRO 1/week on my Kin night.
Welcome to the game!

[Arvess]

Looks ok I prefer CON at 16 but as an elf, it costs too much.

enhancements are XP based and you get 4 per level. elven enhancements don't synergize with the monk too well. get spot and jump i guess.

FEATS: look at your AC. if its not in the low 30's by level 5 or so, consider taking the elven dragon mark line for displacement. Displacement is the 2nd dragonmark so you need to take the near worthless invisibility dragonmark first. Get Power attack but not before lvl 6. I have an elven pally that uses dragon marks. I took the 1st at 3rd and the 2nd at 6th. I wouldn't recommend stunning fist for a toon with your wis and lack of racial boosts to the ability. Dodge is pretty good. grab weapon finesse.
You can access dragonmarks by finding lockania in the marketplace and talking to her and taking her stupid pop quiz.

don't worry about button mashing and **** like that. every game has a learning curve and the first 3-4 level are for that purpose. The main trick is to manage aggro and damage.

One major piece of advice: make sure you put your strikes and finisher on the hotbar and bind keys you can reach for them.

[Ode1st]

Hiya, welcome to DDO. Sorry for the length, I try to be as informative as possible :P.

My friend and I recently made monks (I made a human light path monk and she made a halfling dark path monk) and we're just soloing/2-manning the game with those characters, so I figured I'd give you some advice on soloing with a monk from our experiences.

Be a light path monk for soloing. You get to choose either light or dark path as a feat when you hit level 3. Light path monks get various abilities that allow them to solo really, really well.

1) The two most important things are: your fists of light ki strike. If you land this on an enemy, the enemy gets a "heal shield," which, when someone attacks said shield, said person attacking the shield gains a 1-2HP heal per hit for free. The shield lasts quite a while, and it lasts long enough to where if it runs out before the enemy is dead, you have enough ki to put another heal shield on that enemy all over again. If you get the Monk Improved Recovery enhancements (and Human Improved Recovery on top of that if you're a human), the 1-2HP heals from the heal shield improve to like 2-4HP, which may not seem like a lot since you aren't accustomed to the game yet, but a constant 2-4HP heal per punch is quite a bit in most leveling areas.

1b) When you do 3 fists of light ki strikes in a row (they don't even need to hit enemies, you can just punch the air) you open up the light finisher, which is a free AOE heal for you and anyone in your party that is close to you (honestly, they have to be pretty close). The heal is a 1d4 and you get another 1d4 added to that heal every 2 monk levels. Also, there are various items that can improve that AOE heal finisher up to 30/40/50% (improved/greater/superior potency/devotion; potency affects damage AND heals while devotion only affects heals).

2) Light path monks get status ailment cures for enhancements, so you can perform a remove disease, remove curse, lesser restoration (to fix stat damage), and remove blindness. All monks gain a disease immunity feat at a certain level, though. They also get a raise dead spell, but since you're playing solo, it won't come into play since you can't raise yourself :P.

3) The fists of light ki strike also does an extra 4d6 damage to undead and on a critical roll does a 1d50 to undead on top of the 4d6. From my playing experience so far across my three characters, undead are one of the most annoying enemy types in the game (they have various resistances/immunities, can't get sneak attacked, ghost enemies require a ghost touch item or else you miss them 50% of the time, etc.). So, having a built-in undead advantage is really, really nice for soloing. And on top of all that, skeletons are resistant to everything but bludgeon weapons (which just happens to be your handwraps) and zombies are resistant to everything but slash (which just happens to be your kamas).

4) The finishers that come up with the path of light are all very helpful, especially for soloing (even though all of the finishers are AOE and will hit anyone in your party close enough to you), and seem to last 50 seconds (more than enough time to do some more combos to open up the finishers again). The fire*light*fire combo opens up a finisher than grants you better fighting ability (+ to hit and damage, things like that). The air*light*air combo opens a finisher than grants you a free blur (+20% evasion for your character). The earth*light*earth combo opens up a finisher than grants you immunity from stuns/dazes/immobilizations. The only one you won't care about if you're soloing is the water*light*water combo, which opens up a finisher than grants an AOE 25% spell point cost reduction (spell points being something monks don't use).

That isn't to say dark path monks aren't good, they pretty useful. They do a lot of fast damage and have neat status ailments they can affect enemies with, and at level 9 even get an attack that does 500 pierce damage per use. Just in terms of soloing, which is what you asked in the original post, you usually can't beat a light path monk.

[MithrilSoul]

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has posted so far and provided all the helpful info as well as the warm welcomes to the game. I have learned a lot in the thread already. And I did want to say that if anyone else out there has anything to add, I will most certainly be checking this thread on probably a daily basis for the next week or so, so rest assured if you add anything I will most certainly see it and read it.

P.S. -- level 2 now. I can almost palpably feel my utter uberness...

[Arkat]

P.S. -- level 2 now. I can almost palpably feel my utter uberness...

Nah, that's just me posting in your thread!

[Arvess]

What server u on mithril?

[Gnorbert]

One bit of advice I would offer... until you get a better feel for the game, don't accept twinking items from generous players. Yes, it's nice to help new players and it's also nice to receive gifts, but having weapons and items that are more powerful than what you can find in the quests you are completing will ultimately hamper your learning. Twink weapons will inflate your power beyond your skill and will make things too easy. If a weapon kills a monster in one hit, even through DR or despite natural resistances... then you will take longer to learn "what works best on X monster" or "what tactic should I use in X situation".

Later on, twink your new character with items from your higher level character... will really change the experience in the harbor and marketplace. But what you learned along the way will serve you better than any +1 Handwraps of Pure Good can.


That being said, if you are on Cannith and want to bounce some questions around while playing then send me a tell on Chugger, Arizt or Gnit.

[Ode1st]

Gnorbert offers pretty good advice. You barely pay attention when you have twinked items.

[MithrilSoul]

Good advice about twinking. So far nobody has offered me anything. I just hit level 3 (fun fun), got my Harmonious balance ki strike attack, but overall I am finding (at least on "normal" setting quests) that I basically kill things way too fast for it to really make a difference. Even boss mobs--or whatever passes for boss mobs at level 2 (lol)--seem to die in about 3 hits.

The biggest disappointment I have found so far is that when doing quests in all these dungeons, there are TONS of times when I know there is a secret door around somewhere but I can't find it since Search is cross-class and I haven't invested any points in it. As an INT 8 monk I don't even have enough skill points each level to level up the (supposedly) important things, so I defiinitely don't have spare points to put in Search. But the net result is I feel like I'm missing out on tons of stuff in each dungeon/instance since I am not able to do any of the extra stuff that is behind those doors.

Other than that, I am finding the class to be a hoot and am enjoying my time.

Oh and Arvess, I am on Orien server. I had no clue what server to pick but I know in LOTRO what they tend to do is put the servers that most need population at the top of the list so I figured Turbine might do the same in DDO.

[Arel]

It's worth noting that, once you level up to ~lvl 8, you're going to want to switch to handwraps almost exclusively, particularly if you've found a good pair by that point. Monk DPS is built around our insane attack speed while in wind stance, our increased base damage while fighting unarmed, and our ki strikes, particularly lightning and earth strikes at end game. While Kamas are ok at low levels where good handwraps are really hard to find (not counting the two Korthos named wraps), by 8th level a pair of handwraps will beat any two equivalent kamas (the exception being Vorpal, which don't come on handwraps).

Also, keep up your TWF feats. Although you can only equip one set of handwraps, it counts as two weapons for the purpose of the combat feats. iirc, unarmed monks even get a larger than normal benefit from the TWF feats, so skipping them is a bad idea. Likewise, make sure to get the higher wind stances asap, and be sure you switch to them (you need to manually put the new stance over the old one. Keep Earth stance up if you can, and the second rank of water (the first one you spend AP on) isn't bad to unlock Unbalancing Strike.

Oh, and don't waste points on Search. You won't get it high enough to matter, and there are other ways to detect them, namely Detect Secret Doors 'clickies'. Keep your points focused on Concentration, Balance, and tumble/jump/spot.

And since you're on Orien, feel free to whisper me on Aretina if you have a question. She's my first TR, and a monk, so I feel like I've picked up a good bit