Monk's spice of life.

[silvertrit]

I was wondeirng with Dark Monks doing Fire/Wind and Light Monks doing I think??? Earth/wind??


Are their any effective side builds that doesn't sololy focus on these two effects; or does but in a differnt way then the cookie cutter builds.

[Jaid314]

any monk can focus on any stance, if they want. the general trend is that people will choose the stances that are best. fire adds ki generation, wind adds a very significant damage increase, earth adds useless DR that is surpassed by your capstone in 99% of the fights you'll ever be in, water adds a saving throw bonus that is largely not needed for most monks.

then you start adding in the optional gear effects: fire can add +25% healing amp (huge), wind can add +10 jump (err... ok, that's... decent...), water can add a crappy poison that won't work on stuff that lasts long enough to matter, and anything that it does work on will be dead well before it has a useful effect, and earth gets a damage boost that can be duplicated with a very nice robe (non-stacking) and a petrification guard effect which is at least not totally useless.

the net result is that people tend to go either fire (ki generation, healing amp, higher strength = more damage per hit), air (more attacks = more chances to proc stuff and more damage in general) or earth (for the guard and possibly the extra damage from jidz-tet'ka), while water is largely ignored. in fact, earth is also largely ignored, just not as much as water.

so really, if you're wanting to talk about trends, it's more like: dark monks go fire/air for stance, light monks go fire/air for stance, and both take earth stance for the earth strikes but very rarely enter the actual stance.

you could build around any stance (i know someone who has a dark monk that likes earth stance for tanking), but in general, the "best" stances are fire and air, and most will build around them for that reason. you can build around any of them if you want, though.

[TPICKRELL]

Note that most monks who take EARTH do so for the earth strike not for the stance. I've taken it on several of my monks and I don't think I have ever used EARTH stance in anger.

[djsonar919]

At level 20 your ki generation is so high that the only benefit from fire is the healing amp.

[CrosisBlackwing]

Personally Earth is the most important stance to take, those earh strikes are just too much of a DPS increase.
Air is great for Solo-ing and if you don't enjoy cycling 5-6 strikes (which is part of Monk DPS) Fire is wonderful for the boost to Str and Ki-Geneartion.

On my Monk (Dark, Void IV) I have GM Earth, Fire, Wind and Void IV

When I am running Raids I find that If I am cycling all of my good strikes Air 3,4 Earth 2,3,4 Void 3,4 Touch of Death I am quickly losing Ki, even with Oremi's and in Fire. My TR plan is to have a WF Monk that will be at about 700 HP (Easily) in Earth Stance so I can main tank many raids. As for Side builds, you could certaily play a Monk that focuses on Water and Earth or Water and Air, its a matter of preferance.

Maybe Dwarf Stun build?
18 Wis+5 Level Ups+3 Monk+2 Tome+6 Item+2 Exceptional+2 Yugo+4 Stance= 42 or +16 Wis
SF DC= 10(Base)+10(Monk)+3(Dwarf)+10(Stunning 10s)+16(Wis)=49 or the Stun DC of a 68 Str barb

[silvertrit]

Personally Earth is the most important stance to take, those earh strikes are just too much of a DPS increase.
\b

May I ask how a set amount of damage is compared against a possibly of the random damg of the other stances can do greater dmg?

[redgod]

Note that most monks who take EARTH do so for the earth strike not for the stance. I've taken it on several of my monks and I don't think I have ever used EARTH stance in anger.

i actually ran a 34pt life built for earth based in strength con like a barb ended up with about 800hp and decent dps it was a fun build but not for beginers.

i am curently running a water stance build and love the dc's on strikes also very fun, those who try to pigeon hole everyone into wind / fire have limited vision.

[TPICKRELL]

i actually ran a 34pt life built for earth based in strength con like a barb ended up with about 800hp and decent dps it was a fun build but not for beginers.

i am curently running a water stance build and love the dc's on strikes also very fun, those who try to pigeon hole everyone into wind / fire have limited vision.

I did say most...

And I've no problem with experienced players building builds for water or earth or void strike or anything else, but I don't think those builds are a good starting place for new to monk players.

[dunklezhan]

From reading this, I really must learn to cycle attacks, but I couldn't honestly say I understand why.

Up to now (L16), I find I actually only use the strikes themselves to work up to a finisher, though occasionally I'll let off a fire strike if I'm fighting a regenning creature. The vast, vast majority of the time, using stunning of weakening handwraps as my main wraps and alternatives for specific DR, stuff dies so fast in wind stance that cycling attacks for anything other than the finishing moves is a waste of Ki that I could be saving for stunning blow.

Generally find that a Stun works most of the time now they fixed stunning wraps, and since i'm then getting autocrits (which generate more Ki) by the time the stun cooldown is done I'm onto the next mob with enough ki to stun them as well. Every so often when fighting multiple mobs I find the stun doublestrikes, and there's always that 3% chance as well....

And then after the fight - sometimes in the middle - I'll quickly cycle three attacks, hit a finisher centered on the person that needs the buff (spell point buff for the casters, sun buff for everyone else), and onto the next fight.

Am I doing it wrong? Probably, yes. But it seems to work pretty well. I die through stupidity and bad positioning usually, not lack of DPS.

Tsorte, my light monk on Argo, is a Wind stance, Way of the Monkey stunning speed freak. He's so fast I'm not sure I could actually keep up with him if I started spamming strikes for actual damage.

[wax_on_wax_off]

May I ask how a set amount of damage is compared against a possibly of the random damg of the other stances can do greater dmg?

Perhaps the way that it interacts with criticals?

Though, the average damage of the earth strikes (if the dice aren't loaded) is slightly more than the other strikes.

I personally think that earth and water stances are designed as utility stances and that most monks should have both of these at least up to master level at level 20 and most monks should focus on fire or wind for their run of the mill stuff. Bonus to saves and DCs from water can be very useful for wandering through those elite/epic traps or stunning high fort mobs. DR and blocking DR can be useful for those times that you need to, well, block, or just just need the extra HP.

[Jaid314]

*in theory* assuming we follow standard pen and paper rules (which is why i emphasize the 'in theory' portion of this statement) a set number is multiplied on a crit (aka earth strikes) while a random number (aka every other strike) is not.

but yeah, against trash i suspect you'll usually be fine just spamming stun and beating the crud out of them. no need to kill them so fast you don't build up ki, after all.

but don't forget raid bosses... you aren't going to be stunning them, so you may as well spam your other strikes for great justice!