Shintao attack questions

[SensaiRyu]

Well, I LR'd my dark monk into a light monk with Rogue dillys, Vers III, Shintao III, Void IV, Sun IV, Trap sense II, and Monk Recover III/Human Recovery I.

Other than the finishing moves, I've got the Shintao I and II attacks - I'm lvl 17 atm and won't lvl up until I get closer to lvl 19.

• Smite Tainted Creature - 17 points extra dmg?

• Dismissing Strike - does great in Running with the Devils. Almost always a 1 hit KO.

• Jade Strike - works on specific creatures.

• Fists of Light - works only on undead. Haven't seen the healing shield work on me yet (but I wasn't really looking.

Shintao III attacks

• Kukan-Do - stuns using Cha mod but includes SB/SF enhancements such as +10 stun. Does this stun only tainted?

• Tomb of Jade - stuns using Wis mod.

I ran Bastion of Power yesterday. Didn't try dismissing. I assume dismissing doesn't work on their plane. Used smite and jade mostly. Couldn't tell if either of them actually did anything...

Nice not be able to bypass DR of the marilith with wraps.

For running with the devils I can dismiss/SB/SF almost anything in there. I use SB/SF almost everywhere - I've become a stunmonkey

So for boss tactics, I party support with walk of the sun and clarity. But I don't know the best light attack to use against bosses to get the combos. Is smite tainted my only viable boss attack? What do you light monks use against trash mobs?

Do you use smite tainted strike more than jade? Or both while each cools down? What's a good way to use these 6 attacks against bosses/trash?

[dkyle]

• Smite Tainted Creature - 17 points extra dmg?

I don't even put it on my hotbar. It blocks off-hand attack from proc-ing, so it's useless. It just lowers your DPS.

• Dismissing Strike - does great in Running with the Devils. Almost always a 1 hit KO.

It's less effective at higher level. Works nice on the Elementals in ToD, though.

• Fists of Light - works only on undead. Haven't seen the healing shield work on me yet (but I wasn't really looking.

The healing shield should work on everything; the only the damage is limited to undead. When you use it, a white icon should appear over their heads, and you'll get 1-2 HP back per hit (subject to healing amp, but not ardor/potency)

• Kukan-Do - stuns using Cha mod but includes SB/SF enhancements such as +10 stun. Does this stun only tainted?

Works on everything with eyes that can be stunned. Not limited to tainted.

• Tomb of Jade - stuns using Wis mod.

Yes. And uses full level, instead of half, and gains nothing from stunning wraps, so it's nice if you want a quick stun with DPS wraps on. Unfortunately long cooldown, though.

So for boss tactics, I party support with walk of the sun and clarity. But I don't know the best light attack to use against bosses to get the combos. Is smite tainted my only viable boss attack? What do you light monks use against trash mobs?

I don't generally bother with either of those finishers vs bosses. Better to keep dealing your own DPS. If anyone actually needs the to-hit on any but a handful of bosses, their DPS probably sucks anyway. My Monk is usually Madstoned anyway.

As I said, Smite Tainted is a waste against everything. Against bosses, I just go with Earth strike spam, and a Air strike if I have time during the rotation, plus a Jade Strike every 15 second cooldown (rarely lands, but is sweet when it does). Fists of Light on some bosses, but that doesn't work on Pit Fiends (it's nice for Orthons in VoD as a second method of painting).

In ToD, when I'm on anti-stun duty, I just use Earth IV-Jade Strike-Earth III to setup the Grasp.

Against trash, I don't usually bother with Jade Strike. A 1-in-10 chance of possibly stunning them doesn't seem worth it, nor does the bonus damage. I used to use it on already-stunned mobs if I thought they'd survive the 6 second duration or normal stuns, but that's gone thanks to the U9 helplessness change.

I use Earth Strikes if I have spare Ki after stuns.

[DrunkenBuddha]

Endgame - loving Jade Tomb in combination with Stunning Fist. I dump-stat'd Charisma, so my Kukan-do isn't swell, but with epic item slotting +6 Cha, this also can be quite effective. Find that I am cycling between the stuns and quivering palm. Enjoying it immensely. With the light monk DR/bypassing, gives you a lot more creativity in wraps.

[dkyle]

Endgame - loving Jade Tomb in combination with Stunning Fist. I dump-stat'd Charisma, so my Kukan-do isn't swell, but with epic item slotting +6 Cha, this also can be quite effective. Find that I am cycling between the stuns and quivering palm. Enjoying it immensely. With the light monk DR/bypassing, gives you a lot more creativity in wraps.

Yeah, on my 6 starting-CHA Half-orc, Kakun-do is his most reliable stun. Vs. Will really helps, and the DC is actually higher than his stunning fist (his WIS isn't spectacular).

[DrunkenBuddha]

Yeah, on my 6 starting-CHA Half-orc, Kakun-do is his most reliable stun. Vs. Will really helps, and the DC is actually higher than his stunning fist (his WIS isn't spectacular).

Really? I don't have any +Cha items equipped so I haven't seen it land enough to reliably useful. I pumped Wis on mine, so SF and Jade Tomb work well in conjunction with one another. I will have to test it out since my Cha is just 8 unmodified in any way.