Mountain Stance IV Video

[Marten]

In the latest Lamannia Release notes here, is the following:

NEW: Mountain Stance III and IV now also increase the critical multiplier of monk weapons (and unarmed combat) by 1 on rolled of a natural 19 or 20.

So I decide to go test it and this is what I have learn.

For those that would like to see Earth stance in action but do not have a monk or want to install Lamannia, you can see it in action here.

Testing the new changes to Earth Stance Crit Damage. Used is Martens, Shintao Quad-Master 36 Point Half Orc Epic Monk Build. Most crits were in the 140 -170 range with lows in the 130s and a recorded max of 240 (not recorded was a double strike for 250 & 269). Since Earth Stance was something I would never use in the past with this change it is something I might play with more which is a huge improvement, however I am not yet ready to retire Sun stance, but I am happy to see improvements.

As two other posters stated in the Lamannia discussion, I would love to see the DR from Earth start using the new shield blocking mechanic and to see some work done on Water stance... and of course for all my Dark brothers out there Tier 3 of their Pre.

PS:
As an added bonus I thought I would cover this as well:

NEW: Disruption, Banishing, and Smiting weapons now do 4d6 damage on a hit, and have a chance to kill the target outright on a confirmed vorpal hit (natural 20) if the target is below 1,000 hit points. If the target has more than 1,000 hit points, they will take 100 damage. Hit die caps and saving throws have been removed from these weapons.
Weapons with the Greater Disruption effect deal 6d6 additional damage on any hit instead.
Greater Disruption Guard will apply its death effect with no saving throw at its previous percentage chance, but will not deal additional damage.
Banishing Fists will grant the vorpal banishing effect to unarmed attacks, but will not do an additional 4d6 damage.

Short demo of Epic Wraps of Endless Light test after Disrution change, here.

And a pic of a Crit using them... Since it was Death Warded it did not Disrupt but took the 100 points of damage.

[Taimasan]

This is great news, I need to get my monk up to 20. He has the epic monk bracers and unarmed die step + crit sounds spiffy.

[Kargraz]

Hmm, interesting... Rahls might or Dream Edge with a x4 crit? Yes please...

[DevHead]

Yeah...it's nice to know that all these monk weapons I have (several Dream Edges and a couple Rahl's Mights) could now have a good use on say....a light monk? I wouldn't use Earth Stance on a dark monk for this feature with weapons; no ToD.

And Epic Wraps of Endless Light now more Epic? Shibby.

[DustTheWind]

I am trying to find out about Monk mountain stance III and IV. It says they effect monk weapons. Under my ninja monk prestige it says treats short swords as ki weapons. It also says I treat my bow as a ki weapon (Zen archery).

So my question is does them being ki weapons mean they are monk weapons. And if so does anyone know if monk mountain stance III and IV increase the crit multiplier of short swords and bows as well? Thanks.

[Aerendil]

I am trying to find out about Monk mountain stance III and IV. It says they effect monk weapons. Under my ninja monk prestige it says treats short swords as ki weapons. It also says I treat my bow as a ki weapon (Zen archery).

So my question is does them being ki weapons mean they are monk weapons. And if so does anyone know if monk mountain stance III and IV increase the crit multiplier of short swords and bows as well? Thanks.

Haven't tested the bow, but I did briefly test out dual shortswords on Llama with Earth stance, and the dps did seem to improve. So nothing definitive, but I'd say that yes, all monk weapons (provided you're centered) will be bumped up +1 crit multiplier in Earth 3 or 4. That's my gut feeling, anyways, for what it's worth. Would love to see some proper testing with numbers, however.

Essentially this makes handwraps the equivalent of khopeshes on crits now, which is a huge dps improvement.

One thing Martens didn't seem to have tested, but which really blew me away, was crit smites for Light.
Find an undead such as in the Sub, and Smite Tainted it. On a 19-20, the damage is ..... rather impressive, shall we say. 300-350s. And I didn't even have a seeker item (Blood Stone, Arrowhead) on my gimpy Monk. With that, and a max Str build like Mart's Half-Orc, you could easily be seeing 500-600 point crit smites I'd wager.

[AylinIsAwesome]

Haven't tested the bow, but I did briefly test out dual shortswords on Llama with Earth stance, and the dps did seem to improve. So nothing definitive, but I'd say that yes, all monk weapons (provided you're centered) will be bumped up +1 crit multiplier in Earth 3 or 4. That's my gut feeling, anyways, for what it's worth. Would love to see some proper testing with numbers, however.

And it's just 19-20, or all crits? I want 15-20 3x with my 2 CC shortswords!

Essentially this makes handwraps the equivalent of khopeshes on crits now, which is a huge dps improvement.

One thing Martens didn't seem to have tested, but which really blew me away, was crit smites for Light.
Find an undead such as in the Sub, and Smite Tainted it. On a 19-20, the damage is ..... rather impressive, shall we say. 300-350s. And I didn't even have a seeker item (Blood Stone, Arrowhead) on my gimpy Monk. With that, and a max Str build like Mart's Half-Orc, you could easily be seeing 500-600 point crit smites I'd wager.

It should be better than Wind or Sun now for 0% Fort mobs, but as Fort goes up, Earth's new power goes back down... Wind will still be better DPS than Earth provided you have a good to-hit, and Sun will still be better if you don't.

[Aerendil]

And it's just 19-20, or all crits? I want 15-20 3x with my 2 CC shortswords!

It should be better than Wind or Sun now for 0% Fort mobs, but as Fort goes up, Earth's new power goes back down... Wind will still be better DPS than Earth provided you have a good to-hit, and Sun will still be better if you don't.

Just on 19-20s, so it works perfectly with handwraps. If you score a crit, it's going to be X3.
It's a bit trickier with the CC shortswords, in that 15-18 = normal crit, and 19-20 will be X3.

I'm thinking it'll be a popular stance for the light monks due to the chance at crit smites, whereas dark I'd still be more inclined to go fire (for increased ki for ToD) or wind (for double/triple ToDs). Especially with helpless mobs taking +50% damage, that should up ToD damage noticably, even on a failed save.

[Aerendil]

Just tested by the way. Crit smite on a held mob in Shroud in Earth 3 stance = 482 crit.
A mere 32 Str and no +seeker item, so on a properly geared and str-boosted toon, that crit would have been much higher.

'Course, the Barbs are getting >1k crits on held mobs now, but hey, it's not bad for a Monk!

[Calebro]

One problem that I just noticed with the 100 points vs the giant skelly that I didn't notice in the previous thread.
Yes, it did the 100 damage.
No, it did NOT do it's normal bludgeoning damage.
I'd call that a bug and file a report.

edit:
NM. I* read the "You hit with disrupt" as the next attack. It did, and I misread it at first.

[Kinerd]

Against 0 fort (and confirming all criticals), Earth stance gets more DPS per damage bonus (about .139 for things like Strength or Claw set, .025 for Earth strikes, .005 for Smites), Wind stance gets more DPS from any magical effect (about .186 for things like Holy or Bane, .033 for non-Earth elemental strikes); Earth stance with Jidz bracers or Garments of Equilibrium has a head start of about 7.68 DPS from die step, and Wind stance generates more ki which is worth an amount difficult to directly quantify.

So, if we have a set of +5 Holy Greater Bane handwraps, two ToD rings, 36 Strength, Crane IV to generate 72.6 ki per 15 seconds in Earth stance, and using Smite Tainted, Earth IV, Lightning IV, and Lightning III on cooldown, we have:

base dice: 2d10
Strength: 13
Greater Bane enhancement: 4
Weapon enhancement: 5
subtotal: 33

Earth IV: 16 + 22 / 20

Smite: 67

Total gain for Earth: 33 * .139 + 17.1 * .025 + 67 * .005 = 5.35

Holy: 7
Greater Bane other part: 10.5
Holy Burst: 7 + 14 / 20
Shocking Burst: 3.5 + 11 / 20
subtotal: 29.25

Lightning IV: 21
Lightning III: 11
subtotal: 32

Total gain for Wind: 29.25 * .186 + 32 * .033 = 6.49

.

So, if this monk didn't have on Garments of Equilibrium or Jidz bracers on, Wind would be better DPS. The slight increase in ki generation from Earth to Wind wouldn't be enough to make up the die step otherwise.

[Gulnar13]

My gut feelings tell me that, against a 0% for mob, if you deal >20 damage/hit, you should switch from fire to earth, and if you do >120, from earth to wind. This, provided you use a oremi in earth/air, so you can keep up with the ki difference, and that you hit from 2. The number should go to fire < 40 < earth < 120 < wind for a 50% fortification monster, and to earth < fire < 120 < wind if the monster has 100% fortification.
BTW, those are all gut feelings, and they do not count the jidt-tezka, nor the robe of fortification. Why 40, you may ask? Because, well, fire stance is +2 damage over earth stance (+4 str), and so deal +2 damage /hit (over 20 hits, it's 40 damage). Since you crit two times over those 20 hits, with earth stance, you're doing 2 more "virtual hits" from the bigger multiplicator.

This said, i'm not a math uru. maybe i'm wrong. Anyway, i'm crushing peoples in mountain stance, now.

[Kinerd]

For some reason my earlier post suggests that Garments of Equilibrium offer a dice step head start for Earth stance, which is obviously not the case. Only Jidz bracers do.

[FuzzyDuck81]

I've got a helf shintao monk im levelling at the moment, pretty high healing amp.. am tempted to try running in earth stance with a whole bunch of guards & see how it goes

Could be interesting to try making a monk/paladin intimi/hate tank who uses earth stance3, divine righteousness (& maybe wf brute fighting)