Gimped my monk - time to start over.

[sephiroth1084]

Probablem with pure builds is other then the Rokin Robin build, you won't find meny named ones for Monks.

My advice... hmm...

There seem to be 3 basic ways to build a pure monk atm. (All of whichtake 16 con, with +2 tome making the 18 for granmaster earth)

STR Based, 16(+5), 16, 16, 8, 8, 8,(Highest DPS, Sun Stance for KI, often lowest WIS so lower monk special DCs)
DEX Based, 14, 16(+5), 16, 8, 14, 8(Weapon finese(-1 toughness), Highest AC, Wind Stance + crane deale with KI/Damage)
WIS* Based, 14, 16, 16, 8, 14(+5), 8(Highest AC, Highest Monk Specials, possibility of to-hit issues)

Note:*I don't know if the WIS based routes are able to hit everything with no trouble, but I've seen plenty of builds that imply it is possable.

I suspect the nigh untouchable monks you've seen are one of the latter two, but even STR based monks can get very good AC.

Skill Wise

Take
Max Concentration - Better ki storage.
High Balance - Stand up quicker when fallen.

Then consider
Hide/Move silently - work well with ninja spy/halfling, the latter works well with the invisability, the former aganst true-seeing.
Jump - Jump caps at 40, so if you have a jump clicky you will likly not need any.
Tumble - Always take one point to unlock the roll for faster shallow water movement e.t.c. Can max for flips if points to spare.

Path Wise

Light - Healing fists are nice at lower levels, and can keep a party topped off, but don't scale as you level, late game has some buffs of varing debateable usefullness. Useless PrE(Being rewritten in Update 7 aparently).
Dark - Massive DPS with Touch of Death(9th level), 500 damage that can hit twice (two weapon fighting) or even 3 times (wind stance), very nice PrE (NInja Spy II gives a total of 3d6 sneak attack damamge, some stealth skill bonuses, 25% stacking displacement/invisability ability, a water walking ability and ki regen and faster move speeds when sneaking).
'3rd Path' - Anouther commen trick is to take Light to begin with, then switch at 6/9/12 to Dark using your free feat swap, giving you useful healing in the low levels, then gaining large DPS when Touch of Death/Ninja Spy is available.

You could be seeing either kind of monk. Stunning + ToD's quick kills + 25% stacking displacement + high AC = nigh untouchable, yet Light's constant healing + High AC means nigh untouchable and no need for pots.

Feat Wise

Take
TWF - 20% more chance of second attack, also works on ki strikes/ToD e.t.c.
ITWF - 20% more chance of second attack, also works on ki strikes/ToD e.t.c.
GTWF - 20% more chance of second attack, also works on ki strikes/ToD e.t.c.
IC:B - Double crit region will mean a lot more damage, and faster ki regen.
Stunning Fist* - Stun mobs for auto crits/unable to move, fast ki regen with fire stance/crane.

Situational
Monk Past Life - If you have it, take it.
Dodge - +1 AC, needed for Ninja Spy.
Power Attack - If you can hit with it, use it.
Toughness - Fill the remaining slots with this.

Don't take
Combat Expertese - INT Requirement interfears with already point staved requirements(18 base STR/DEX/CON/WIS for Grandmasters, 17 Base DEX for GTWF). Use the points in DEX/WIS instead for higher AC, DC's, Hit e.t.c. If you need the AC use defensive fighting.

*Note
I say to take fist and not blow, as it is a 6 second cool down, and is 10+half level + wis, so unless your STR mod is 10 higher then you WIS mod(unlikly), it will have a better DC(And shorter cooldown of 6 vs 15 seconds))


Race Wise

Top 3

Halfling - Halfling Guile/Cunning Enhancements and inherent skill/stat bonuses synergy VERY well with a monk. I recommend them highest in general.
Human - +1 skill point is always useful, +1 toughness is nice too. Easyer to get some stat distrabution on, and the racial enhancements are generaly useful. If your a light path monk, Human healing amp allows you to get 1-2 instead of 1-2 on healing fists.
Warforged - I've seen a number of builds that use warforged. Warforged tatics work with stunning fist, racial immunities are nice, and is often seen in high AC/Hate tank builds. Also has WF Power attack which can negate some of the loss from low STR typical of the builds.

Stances/strikes

Almost all take Earth and a DPS/Ki Stance(Fire/Wind) up to IV. The idea is to use the DPS/Ki stance, while using earths ki strikes. Don't take more then 2 Grandmaster Stances, as it wastes AP.

Take
Earth - Take up to IV for the best ki strikes (non-elemental flat damage thats multiplyed on crits) and Fists of Iorn (+1 crit level attack)
AND
Fire* - Ki regen on hits, more on crits for amazing ki regen
OR
Wind - Up to 10% double strike chanceand perma haste(attack speed only)

The other stances are
Ocean - High saves and bonus to WIS DCs.
Void - No Stance, but you buy the strikes. Void IV has the ability to Erase(instakill) enermys that have epic deathward (immune to vorpal). Light Path Monks should consider this. It's too expensive to fit in most dark builds(Requires all Master Stances + 1 grandmaster). The Void Dark Void finisher can charm mobs however, so some get the lower levels for it.

*Note: At low levels for non-firestance users it's often a good idea to use the lower level fire stances for ki generation, and respeec the points out when you reach the higher tier stances (And get access to other sources of ki generation.)


Animal Path

I recomend Crane or Monkey. The nigh untouchable guys are probably using monkey which nullifys all the low end plinks and DoTs.

Crane - If your not using Fire Stance, this is a good option for the Ki generation, as even with the 10% double strike of wind, it's hard to keep up with stuns+ToD. (Also Oreimi's necklace will help too)
Monkey - Energy Resitance is very nice aganst DoTs and archers, especaly when leveling up.
Tourtoise - +5HP a stage, +1 concentration a stage. I personaly recomend Monkey over this, the HP is too expensive for the AP cost IMO
Hound - +to hit flanked oppenednts. Only useful if your normal to hit + flanking bonuses couldn't hit anyway. very rarely useful
Badger - +ki regen when <30% hp, slower meditation. Near useless.

Special Attack Enhancements.

Dark Monk Attacks - Take all 4, they are needed for ToD. ToD is 500 untyped damage that works with GTWF/Wind Stance for up to 1500 damage.

Light Monk healers - Waste of AP, all can be done with pots e.t.c. Raise of the Pheonix is not worth the ap spent on the other requirmeents and ais a very poor raise dead anyway. Find a clicky. Use the extra Ap to invest in the Void strikes instead.

Other - Take Fists of Iorn and use it as part of your usual earth-earth-earth in you usual attack rotation. The others are not worth the AP cost, or are nigh usless unfortunatly.


Other Enhancements

Racial

Halfling - Take Guile and cuning as much as you can afford
Human - Healing Amp, versitility and adapatability enhancements
Warforged - Power attack, brute, tatics

Monk

Capstone - is awsome (+1 ki regen, + 10 concentration)
Improved recovery - Always nice if you have the points. Stacks multiplicitly with Human amp (110% monk + 120% human = 132%)
Monk Wis - +Wisdom is good
Monk Jump/Tumble II - Ninja Spy Reqs.

Racial Toughness is a good one to spend aP on if you need the progression e.t.c.


How to use your Monk.

The general trick to monk is a combination of ToD(if you have it), Stunning Fist, Critical Ki generation and ki strikes. As a dark monk for example, you would use:

ToD
Stunning Fist
Earth IV
Earth III
Fists of Iorn

And repeat if not dead. The tricks here is firstly, you can stun a mob every 6 seconds. Stunned mobs take auto-crits. The earth series of strikes do amazing damage on crits. You also gain more ki on crits from Fire Stance/Crane. This allows you to do very high damage, regain ki quickly, and then use said ki to fuel more ToD/Stunning Fist/Ki Strikes. Combine this with High AC, and potentialy stacking displacement from ninja spy and you have your high DPS, High AC soloing monks that do amazing things.

And this post is so long it's more a mini-guide to pure monk builds ^^'

Not going to /snip it because it's so good it bears repeating. +1 rep to you sir.

[SINIBYTE]

Not going to /snip it because it's so good it bears repeating. +1 rep to you sir.

Agreed. (I ran out of +1's to give yesterday)

Using that as a rough guideline, and discussing different possibilities in this thread (and the several others in the monk forum), I came up with the build below. I think it's pretty much exactly what I'm looking for. I GR'd my gimp-ass monk last night, bought some new paralyzers, flagged for TOR start to finish, and picked up a level. It is definately a very fun build (although I do miss FoL, but the first time I ToD'd a rare in GH and it fell over I forgot all about it). I think I chose, in my opinion, the best Enhancements that focus mainly on maximizing DPS, while keeping an "appropriate" amount of survivability.

DEX-Based Halfling Dark Pure Monk with Earth/Wind & Ninja Spy.

The Sin Monk

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 3.5.1
DDO Character Planner Home Page

Level 20 Lawful Good Halfling Male
(20 Monk) 
Hit Points: 302
Spell Points: 0 
BAB: 15\15\20\25\25
Fortitude: 17
Reflex: 19
Will: 16

                  Starting            Ending          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats         Base Stats         Modified Stats
(32 Point)       (Level 1)          (Level 20)           (Level 20)
Strength             14                 14                   14
Dexterity            16                 21                   23
Constitution         16                 18                   18
Intelligence          8                 10                   10
Wisdom               14                 14                   16
Charisma              8                  8                    8

Tomes Used
+2 Tome of Constitution used at level 7
+2 Tome of Intelligence used at level 7

                  Starting            Ending          Feat/Enhancement
                 Base Skills        Base Skills        Modified Skills
Skills           (Level 1)          (Level 20)          (Level 20)
Balance               7                 29                   29
Bluff                -1                 -1                    2
Concentration         7                 27                   37
Diplomacy            -1                 -1                   -1
Disable Device       n/a                n/a                   n/a
Haggle               -1                 -1                    2
Heal                  2                  3                    3
Hide                  3                  6                   10
Intimidate           -1                 -1                   -1
Jump                  5                 16                   20
Listen                2                  3                    5
Move Silently         3                 27                   29
Open Lock             n/a               n/a                   n/a
Perform              n/a               n/a                   n/a
Repair               -1                  0                    0
Search               -1                  0                    0
Spot                  2                  3                    3
Swim                  2                  2                    2
Tumble                4                  7                    9
Use Magic Device     n/a               n/a                   n/a

Level 1 (Monk)
Skill: Balance (+4)
Skill: Concentration (+4)
Skill: Jump (+3)
Skill: Tumble (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Stunning Fist
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Two Weapon Fighting
Enhancement: Monk Jump I
Enhancement: Monk Tumble I


Level 2 (Monk)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Weapon Finesse
Enhancement: Halfling Cunning I
Enhancement: Way of the Clever Monkey I
Enhancement: Monk Wisdom I


Level 3 (Monk)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Feat: (Monk Path) Path of Inevitable Dominion: Fists of Darkness
Feat: (Selected) Power Attack
Enhancement: Halfling Dexterity I
Enhancement: Halfling Guile I


Level 4 (Monk)
Ability Raise: DEX
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Enhancement: Static Charge
Enhancement: Monk Jump II
Enhancement: Monk Tumble II


Level 5 (Monk)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Enhancement: Way of the Clever Monkey II
Enhancement: Porous Soul


Level 6 (Monk)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Dodge
Feat: (Selected) Weapon Focus: Bludgeoning Weapons
Enhancement: Monk Ninja Spy I


Level 7 (Monk)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Enhancement: All-Consuming Flame
Enhancement: Winter's Touch


Level 8 (Monk)
Ability Raise: DEX
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Move Silently (+1)
Enhancement: Halfling Cunning II
Enhancement: Adept of Wind


Level 9 (Monk)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Move Silently (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Two Weapon Fighting
Enhancement: Touch of Death


Level 10 (Monk)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Move Silently (+1)
Enhancement: Halfling Dexterity II


Level 11 (Monk)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Move Silently (+1)
Enhancement: Halfling Cunning III
Enhancement: Halfling Guile II


Level 12 (Monk)
Ability Raise: DEX
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Move Silently (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Bludgeoning Weapons
Enhancement: Monk Ninja Spy II


Level 13 (Monk)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Move Silently (+2)
Enhancement: Master of Thunder
Enhancement: Adept of Rock


Level 14 (Monk)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Move Silently (+2)
Enhancement: Master of Stone


Level 15 (Monk)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Move Silently (+2)
Feat: (Selected) Greater Two Weapon Fighting
Enhancement: Halfling Guile III
Enhancement: Way of the Clever Monkey III


Level 16 (Monk)
Ability Raise: DEX
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Move Silently (+2)
Enhancement: Monk Wisdom II


Level 17 (Monk)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Move Silently (+2)


Level 18 (Monk)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Move Silently (+2)
Feat: (Selected) Toughness
Enhancement: Grandmaster of Storms
Enhancement: Grandmaster of Mountains


Level 19 (Monk)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Move Silently (+2)
Enhancement: Fists of Iron
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II


Level 20 (Monk)
Ability Raise: DEX
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Move Silently (+2)
Enhancement: Monk Serenity
Enhancement: Adept of Rain

[Slugnutty]

SINIBYTE - Great work - Great thread!
A guildy has a lvl 16 Light path Monk - and some friends online are also Monks and keep extolling how cool they are to play. I've capped a Fav Soul and an AA Ranger and was looking for something new to bring up.

Found the Rockin' Robin thread for a Halfling light Monk and played it to lvl 9 thinking how great it was going to be to have raise dead.... only to realize - I solo a lot! What good is raise dead if it's only me......

Found your thread and converted several days ago - WOW what a difference - even at level 9 - I posted some damage screen shots on our guild web site and last night our lvl 16 followed your build in his conversion to the dark side also..... He said he couldn't wipe the grin off his face form all the whoop ass he's bringing now too.....

I find it odd the Turbine makes an AA wait to level 18 to get slaying arrows but at level 9 we get ToD - not complaining just strange that the level disparity is so great for a 500 hit point attack.

Anyway +1 to you Sir for bringing a few more of us to the Dark side..... Thanks.