Need help learning how to play a monk

[pappo]

I created my first Monk, but I know nothing about how to play them. I am following the Rockan Robin - Halfling - Light - Pure Monk build.
I am 32 point veteran but I decided bypass going to level 4 right away so I could learn better how to play a monk for levels 1 - 4.

I downloaded "The Definitive Monk Guide" and read some of the forums, but I am still not certain how to make attacks or which Path is best in the early levels.
For example, I read where for a certain Finishing Move I needed to do an air +air +air. Does that mean I stay in the Air path for 3 attacks ?

Also, I don't understand how to make a Finishing move happen.
I put the Finishing move buttons on my Hotbar and I can see them light up after I attacks, but what then ?
Do I have to click the Finishing Move before attacking a target ?

Any help or a link to a good Monk tutorial / guide would be appreciated.

ps: Please don't assume because I have been a user since 2006 that I should know this stuff. I bought this account so my kids/grandkids could play, but now I am becoming interested in playing it since my retirement. It is a great game.

[Marnin_Wood]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Monks

**Disclaimer, please see the forums about the wrap issues upon switching... make sure you're up to speed on what is occuring and what you'll need to do to work around it until the devs fix it**

Here's some quick tips, hopefully they help:

- You'll be pulling active feats and enhancements down into your hotbars for clicking, set your main ones up to your hotkeys. I use Stun Fist/Fist o Light/Void IV/Quivering Palm/Finishing Move as my main 5... at level 1 you'll be looking for your Disciple of 'element' ki strikes to place. You should have all 4 main elements. Anytime you use a Ki strike you attack with the bonus elemental damage.

- Depending on your build, as you take the adept/master/grandmaster of your stance lines you'll need to swap out the better damaging ki strikes. These are also your 'Air/Fire/Earth/Water' strikes for purpose of finishers...

- Your path dictates whether you'll have light or dark finishing moves, and which prestige class is open to you. I highly recommend Shintao I-III. This enhancement line will open up to you other 'light' moves which will act as your 'light' ki-strike for purposes of a finisher.

- In your Feats, pull down your 'finishing moves' square and put it on a hotbar/key (whatever is easy for you to hit)... its the red square... as you hit ki-strike combos you'll open up various finishing moves... your red box will become whatever icon of the move that is available. Keep your eye on it when it changes and if you have enough ki you'll be able to trigger your finishing move by hitting your hotbar/key. Example: Fists of Light is a 5 ki light monk ki strike... if I hit that, or any other light ki strike, 3 times in a row without disrupting the path (normal attacks are fine, so is stun) then your healing burst finishing move becomes available and can heal you and those around you for a bit of hp.

- So a fire/light/fire finisher would require : fire strike, then light fist strike, then fire strike again after its off cool-down (six seconds)... then you have the Walk of the Sun finisher open, which I believe gives a short boost to skill checks and saves for all in the area.

- It is NOT making 3 strikes in a row while in a stance... each stance grants you a boost to a various stat, as well as detracting from an opposing stat. They can be used situationally. Wind gives you more attacks and higher double strike percentage, fire gives you more str and more ki on each strike, water ups your wisdom and overall saves, and earth gives more con and at tier 3 & 4 can up your critical multiplier (me likee this one right now!)

- Concentration is crucial to keep your ki... fire stance is best for quickly accumulating ki

- Get used to hitting lots of buttons to be the best monk you can be... light monks are great for party support.

- Pay close attention to your enhancements and what you're taking. A lot of times you'll have new stuff to swap out into your hot bars... same for feats!

- If you don't have enough ki for a particular ki-strike it will grey out until it is available. Good to know when you're looking at your rise of the pheonix after the party cleric just went down.

- You can hold the finishing move until you have the ki to employ it... just don't open any chests/doors or take any pots, or swap items. Those actions will throw off any finishing path you've started, or move you're holding and you'll need to start the process over.

I'm sure there is stuff I missed, and others will fill in the blanks!

Cheers and have fun

**edit**

Should have mentioned too, I still place my full finishing move icons on side bars so I can reference to see what patterns I need to hit for each finisher, and to reference what each finisher does. Most useful for Light Monks are the fnishing moves of Align Heavens, and Grasp the Earth (I think thats the one)... the former reduces sp cost by 25% for 1 minute (great before buffs), and the latter makes all in the area immune to stun and other affects for 1 minute (great for some specific end game quests).

[Kadjel]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Monks

**Disclaimer, please see the forums about the wrap issues upon switching... make sure you're up to speed on what is occuring and what you'll need to do to work around it until the devs fix it**

Here's some quick tips, hopefully they help:

- You'll be pulling active feats and enhancements down into your hotbars for clicking, set your main ones up to your hotkeys. I use Stun Fist/Fist o Light/Void IV/Quivering Palm/Finishing Move as my main 5... at level 1 you'll be looking for your Disciple of 'element' ki strikes to place. You should have all 4 main elements. Anytime you use a Ki strike you attack with the bonus elemental damage.

- Depending on your build, as you take the adept/master/grandmaster of your stance lines you'll need to swap out the better damaging ki strikes. These are also your 'Air/Fire/Earth/Water' strikes for purpose of finishers...

- Your path dictates whether you'll have light or dark finishing moves, and which prestige class is open to you. I highly recommend Shintao I-III. This enhancement line will open up to you other 'light' moves which will act as your 'light' ki-strike for purposes of a finisher.

- In your Feats, pull down your 'finishing moves' square and put it on a hotbar/key (whatever is easy for you to hit)... its the red square... as you hit ki-strike combos you'll open up various finishing moves... your red box will become whatever icon of the move that is available. Keep your eye on it when it changes and if you have enough ki you'll be able to trigger your finishing move by hitting your hotbar/key. Example: Fists of Light is a 5 ki light monk ki strike... if I hit that, or any other light ki strike, 3 times in a row without disrupting the path (normal attacks are fine, so is stun) then your healing burst finishing move becomes available and can heal you and those around you for a bit of hp.

- So a fire/light/fire finisher would require : fire strike, then light fist strike, then fire strike again after its off cool-down (six seconds)... then you have the Walk of the Sun finisher open, which I believe gives a short boost to skill checks and saves for all in the area.

- It is NOT making 3 strikes in a row while in a stance... each stance grants you a boost to a various stat, as well as detracting from an opposing stat. They can be used situationally. Wind gives you more attacks and higher double strike percentage, fire gives you more str and more ki on each strike, water ups your wisdom and overall saves, and earth gives more con and at tier 3 & 4 can up your critical multiplier (me likee this one right now!)

- Concentration is crucial to keep your ki... fire stance is best for quickly accumulating ki

- Get used to hitting lots of buttons to be the best monk you can be... light monks are great for party support.

- Pay close attention to your enhancements and what you're taking. A lot of times you'll have new stuff to swap out into your hot bars... same for feats!

- If you don't have enough ki for a particular ki-strike it will grey out until it is available. Good to know when you're looking at your rise of the pheonix after the party cleric just went down.

- You can hold the finishing move until you have the ki to employ it... just don't open any chests/doors or take any pots, or swap items. Those actions will throw off any finishing path you've started, or move you're holding and you'll need to start the process over.

I'm sure there is stuff I missed, and others will fill in the blanks!

Cheers and have fun

**edit**

Should have mentioned too, I still place my full finishing move icons on side bars so I can reference to see what patterns I need to hit for each finisher, and to reference what each finisher does. Most useful for Light Monks are the fnishing moves of Align Heavens, and Grasp the Earth (I think thats the one)... the former reduces sp cost by 25% for 1 minute (great before buffs), and the latter makes all in the area immune to stun and other affects for 1 minute (great for some specific end game quests).

Nice guide, man! I've noticed that most people suggest Light-monks, are dark-monks that bad?

[Saaluta]

Hi Pappo, welcome to the game. Which server are you playing on and what are your usual times/days you login? Also if you give your character name, you will find that people on your server will a lot of times be happy to invite you to party and help you out with any questions thru party/voice chat. Others will send you gifts for starting out

Monks can be easy or difficult depending on your playstyle. Assuming from your OP that you are a mature player(you mention kids/grandkids and retirement) most of what you need to know is on the forums if you search for it, the biggest problem is separating the wheat from the chaff...and there is a lot of chaff out there.

I run with two hotbars showing, 1 permanent, 1 cyclical. On my monks, (I have 2 atm and about to reincarnate one of my clerics into a monk build), I have in spots 1-4 the 4 elemental strikes...usually alphabetically...so air, earth, fire, water. Then comes my path in slot 5 so dark/light then the next 5 are specialty moves. On my dark monk, slot 6 is void strike, 7 is finishing moves, 8 is quivering palm, 9 is stunning blow and 10 is my invisiblity move. On my light monk, 5-10 are my light based attacks, but same basic set-up. Feel free to set these up as you will, this is just easiest for me.

I would suggest you keep end rewards based on class since this will get you handwraps, shuriken, and outfits without breaking your bank. I prefer to build my own monks so, not sure what the Rockan Robin build has going for it(again matter of preference for me). Concentration is a must on a monk, so max it out. Jump and tumble are good to have as well.

Hope this helps a little bit and if you see a Saaluta running around on your server, feel free to ask me any questions you might have also use /advice in your chat channel...or try to find out what the server advice channel is....and yes, these will probably be two separate channels, one is the general advice channel, the other is usually knowledgable people who can help you with questions...although many of us monitor both channels when searching AH or doing character maintenance

Saal

[Saaluta]

Nice guide, man! I've noticed that most people suggest Light-monks, are dark-monks that bad?

Not if you know how to play them, but light monk is better starting out as you get the triple light finisher and if you hit an enemy with the light strike, you get hp back for a short time as long as you are hitting that enemy.

Saal

[sebastianosmith]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Monks

Yes, welcome. Monks are tremendously entertaining to play.

One addition I'd like to make to Marnin's excellent summation is use of the modifier key. I have mine set to "Home" and have mapped one of the side buttons on my mouse to "Home" as well. That way I can have the various levels of elemental, void and class strikes mapped to the same keys in two hotbars. With the press of a button, I can hit any elemental combo as fast as the timer will allow using the same set of keys. This has greatly increased my ability to play my monks effectively by keeping one hand always on keyboard and the other on mouse.

[Kadjel]

Not if you know how to play them, but light monk is better starting out as you get the triple light finisher and if you hit an enemy with the light strike, you get hp back for a short time as long as you are hitting that enemy.

Saal

Glad to hear that, I'm more than fine with a learning curve! Happen to have any links to good dark monk builds?

[Marnin_Wood]

Here is a link to the Horcrux build... by the same guy who created Rockan Roban:

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=283734

This is a Half Orc Dark Monk build... an excellent and fun build

My main toon started out following this build for her first life. Dark monks are great too! Don't let my preference for the light monk fool ya, its a slim, slim margin between the two for me

First life went Dark, loved it, second life, just capped at going full Light monk, and loved it too! Now I've started to tweak on the Horcrux build to suit some personal tastes and seeing if working in the Grandmaster Earth stance is worth it before going after it in my 3rd reincarnation.

The biggest difference between light/dark is party support/dps. Really a matter of personal choice.

The Rockan Roban build is great for the light path, and focuses on a Dex/Wis build, the Horcrux is great for the dark path and focuses on Str/Wis. However, I liked my Horc with Light path mucho... having that 'rise of the pheonix' saved plenty a parties' butts when the healer was taken down with no shrine in sight, or cured the blindness for the party member who forgot they make pots for that The higher level you go, the better light gets for end game content... you're a beast against 'tainted' creatures... and thats about 90% of what you're facing after level 16-17. Nothing is cooler than seeing some moderately tough boss go green on a Jade strike... sometimes I just gotta stop, and kiss myself!!

[Arel]

It's worth noting that monks have a really, really, REALLY hard time beating boss DR compared to other melee, particularly dark monks. Good handwraps are hard to come by, and crafting bossbeating handwraps is just as hard if not harder - Silver-studded handwraps only drop in Devil Assult, in normal or hard, and only rarely. Most monks have to farm the Shadow Crypt (Necro II) for the +2 Metalline of Pure Good named wraps that drop (again, rarely) there.

Light monks have a bit of an easier time of it, however, as the light-side PrE (Shintao) gives the monk's unarmed attacks different material properties, including silver at tier III. It's still rough going up till there though, unless you get really lucky with the random loot generator. Definitely stick to class-specific end rewards, you'll need all the chances you can get.

[pappo]

Hi Pappo, welcome to the game. Which server are you playing on and what are your usual times/days you login? On the Orien server and I play almost every day. Usually afternoons and evenings.
Also if you give your character name, you will find that people on your server will a lot of times be happy to invite you to party and help you out with any questions thru party/voice chat. My monk is called Stegamonk, just made level 5, and I am on Orien.Others will send you gifts for starting out

I run with two hotbars showing, 1 permanent, 1 cyclical. On my monks, (I have 2 atm and about to reincarnate one of my clerics into a monk build), I have in spots 1-4 the 4 elemental strikes...usually alphabetically...so air, earth, fire, water. Then comes my path in slot 5 so dark/light then the next 5 are specialty moves. On my dark monk, slot 6 is void strike, 7 is finishing moves, 8 is quivering palm, 9 is stunning blow and 10 is my invisiblity move. On my light monk, 5-10 are my light based attacks, but same basic set-up. Feel free to set these up as you will, this is just easiest for me.
I am also using "hot-keys" for my elemental strikes, void strike (only I so far), and finishing moves. I do not have quivering palm or stunning blow yet.

I would suggest you keep end rewards based on class since this will get you handwraps, shuriken, and outfits without breaking your bank. I prefer to build my own monks so, not sure what the Rockan Robin build has going for it(again matter of preference for me).
Here is a link to the Rockan Robin build: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=210181 Concentration is a must on a monk, so max it out. I maxed Concentration and UMD at start and add to it each time, plus alternate between jump and balance. I was wondering if UMD is good or bad. Jump and tumble are good to have as well.

Hope this helps a little bit and if you see a Saaluta running around on your server, feel free to ask me any questions you might have also use /advice in your chat channel...or try to find out what the server advice channel is....and yes, these will probably be two separate channels, one is the general advice channel, the other is usually knowledgable people who can help you with questions...although many of us monitor both channels when searching AH or doing character maintenance

Saal

Thanks for the advice to all who commented. I am having fun with it so far, but I know I could do much better if I understood these moves and how best to do monk melee.