Tips, tweaks, advice for acquiring first ToD Rings

[TPICKRELL]

Everyone,

I was reading through a number of posts yesterday, and I realized that while their are tons of posts about new monks and tons of debate about light vs dark and str vs dex and, TWF, and Stunning Fist... Their doesn't seem to be much content available about some of the things I've found to be more difficult.

So, my challenge for this thread is to provide the answers to the questions that a higher level monk should be asking. New questions are welcome... But I'll kick it off with a couple of my own:

Question: The ToD rings are required gear in order to do DPS for a high level monk. But the Amrath quests you need to run in order to get the rings are pretty difficult until you get the rings... So, how should a monk prepare for Amrath quests before they have the ToD rings? What equipment should the have? What build tweaks would help...

Question: A similar line, a well geared level 20 monk needs a ton of bound, named equipment. Similar to the ToD rings from above, a lot of the equipment is hard to obtain without the effects that equipment provides. What items should a high level monk be working for and what order should you grind for items?

Thanks in advance for your questions and answers...

[Arkat]

1. Vorpal Kamas are INVALUABLE for Amarath content! If you do it right you can lead kill counts by using dual +3 or better vorpal kamas.

2. Other loot (some of it raid loot, some of it not) I feel is super important are Levik's Bracers and Tumbleweed (at least untill you get the Shintao set from Amarath quests and ToD) from the Hound, the Bloodstone from the Desert, Tharne's Goggles from VoD, Greensteel HP item, Minos Legens (Orchard tapestry turn-in), Icy Raiments (if you're a Fleshy, Docent of Defiance then upgraded Quor-Forged Docent of Battle if you're a WF), and decent boots (Boots of the Innocent are my favorite).

[r3dl4nce]

weapons good for shavarath quests are 2 kama vorpal and holy/shock handwrap of greater outsider bane. Invasion Sins and Genesis are all easy quest, Bastion with the stupid dungeon alert can be a problem if the party has not a good dps

[ezgoezit]

1. Vorpal Kamas are INVALUABLE for Amarath content! If you do it right you can lead kill counts by using dual +3 or better vorpal kamas.

2. Other loot (some of it raid loot, some of it not) I feel is super important are Levik's Bracers and Tumbleweed (at least untill you get the Shintao set from Amarath quests and ToD) from the Hound, the Bloodstone from the Desert, Tharne's Goggles from VoD, Greensteel HP item, Minos Legens (Orchard tapestry turn-in), Icy Raiments (if you're a Fleshy, Docent of Defiance then upgraded Quor-Forged Docent of Battle if you're a WF), and decent boots (Boots of the Innocent are my favorite).

Once you have this equipment (and boots or mantle), you should be ready to run ToD. I ran the Shav quests over and over in order to get my boot ingreds and never scored a Shintao Cord or Oremi's Necklace. There is a high drop frequency for those set items in the chest at the end of part 2 in the ToD and there isn't usually more than another monk or two to compete with for them (and most of them already have at least the necklaces and belts). I had a Shintao Cord, Oremi's Necklace and Kyosho's Ring in my first 3 runs (highly unusual to score the ring that fast).

One other piece of equipment you will want for when you run ToD (assuming you have weapons by now like the Devoted wraps that bypass boss DR) is greater elemental bane wraps. In part one, as a monk your job will be to run around and kill the fire elementals in the lava before reporting in for boss beating duty.

Good luck,

Ez

[Aziiz]

for whatever reason, it's much easier for me to get up to the platform at the end of Bastion if I have monk slow fall turned off. If your party is expecting you to get up there to unlock the 3rd chest and you are having trouble, try that and abundant step.

Don't try to melee the marilith unless your healers give you the green light; kill the other trash and let the kiters take care of her.

If you haven't picked up a good set of "portal beaters" yet for your shroud runs, it might not be a bad idea to get some for Bastian. For me, portal beaters = holy of greater construct bane.

Join weapons shipment groups that are farming for baubles. They will welcome you because you don't use mana (i.e. don't want their precious bauble), and you can sell or trade the extra Iron or Keepsakes you get for an Artifact (if you don't like running New Invasion or have a hard time finding groups to go there).

In Sins, if your group is marginal in ability then you might have some mana issues before you hit that first shrine. If you are lazy about keeping up Aligning the Heavens, stop being lazy for that quest (then go back to forgetting about monk buffs when you finish your Sins runs).

If you are really really really new and putting up LFM's, keep in mind that something like, "New Invasion. Flagging for ToD!!!!! Need Guide" probably won't fill, or at least not with the people you want filling it.

If you do get a spot in a competent group and it's your first time or you still don't understand the objectives of the quest, it's better to say something up front. Only the most *****y[sic] will penalize you for being honest about needing to learn.

[Taimasan]

Even though I had to learn all those quests myself, from my first completion in Genesis Point being with 5 buddies and a hireling.. I find that how you learn the most is just putting up a lfm, I would start with Genesis Point its the easiest by far of the battleground quests(and weapons shipment and wrath of flame do not count). Just put up a lfm for the quests you need for flagging/boot materials. Then when you get a full group, pipe up on audio that you don't know the quest well, and any help would be appreciated. Never had anyone drop group because people were asking for help, and if they do, they are probably a ass anyway. 1 out of those 5 people are more than likely to have some inking of what to do in the quests, so your good. If they don't, then its going to be time for a adventure. And adventure is always fun.

Guide for Genesis Point: Go through Pull the Portal lever, look down and make sure the level is pulled for the door to be open on the bottom. Go in the circle doing all the portal lever/door levers. Enter the portal from first room to the north. bust crates, hit switches on jail cells, kill the army. Send person up to do prisoner levers in the north through the portal again. Then send rest of group through the maze. Have the 1 person doing prisoner levers go to the south and hit the switch on the left to disable the traps before the party goes into the maze. Have party go into the maze, hit the 3rd circle lever from left to right to let down first barrier, then hit first circle lever from left to right to let down second barrier(if party is approaching from where the shrine is). Then have someone in the party pick up the water and destroy the water(do not walk into the light). Then kill, go through portal, DO NOT, hit any levers. Have 1 person go to the south and hit that lever. Thats the mephits. Go back through the maze to south exit. Hang right in the tunnel, enter portal. Have 1 person go inside portal to the left. Inside portal room there are 3 levers Center lever=platform to mephits left lever=right side, right lever=left side. Have 1 person in group not in portal room go gather up the 3 named mephits on the center, left and right side with a ranged weapon, make sure they have True Seeing. Bring all mephits back to the group. Kill everything. Completion.

[Rumbaar]

As a new player and my first monk and first character to L20 it's been tough working out how to get the much needed gear, thanks for this thread. I hope to learn a lot from it.

[TPICKRELL]

Thanks everyone for the advice...

But, I don't see any advice on build tweaks that would make it easier? Anyone have thoughts in that area?

[Taimasan]

Thanks everyone for the advice...

But, I don't see any advice on build tweaks that would make it easier? Anyone have thoughts in that area?

People already gave that advice, good AC and vorpals. Often what makes a quest come down to easy or hard isnt the build or the gear, its knowledge of the quest and how you play your character imo. Only hands on experience is going to make it easier.

[TPICKRELL]

People already gave that advice, good AC and vorpals. Often what makes a quest come down to easy or hard isnt the build or the gear, its knowledge of the quest and how you play your character imo. Only hands on experience is going to make it easier.

OK...

I understand that gear is important, I was looking to see if their was advice on allocation of feats or stats or enhancements that would make it easier. I've got vorpals and use them in Amrath all the time. So, I was fishing to see if anything else besides AC and VORPS are useful. For example do DEX/WIS builds work better (would have higher AC) than STR builds (would have better damage), and is AC a better alternative than more HP...

AC and Vorps may be the end of the story, but the posts above didn't make the clear to me.

Again, thanks for your time.