Having Void IV vs ToD vs Both?

[Newbie]

I haven't played a monk up to the higher levels yet. I'm currently using someone's build that incorporates both Void IV and Touch of Death. I was wondering if getting void IV and ToD was actually good. I know monks tend to have ki generation problems especially if they're going to use ToD regularly.

So will it end up that I'll be using Void IV and ToD depending on the situation or is just ToDing or Void IV be better off?

[SensaiRyu]

Void is only 5 ki.
ToD is 50 ki.

As a dark monk I used void/dark/void a lot and was able to gain ki for ToD.

I used both. ToD a bit less often than my first life without the void line at all.

Actually if I refrained from using AS all the time I had enuf ki on most runs.

[SpearKicker]

I consider both very usefull. When I play a dark monk, I usually use both.

Problem is monks have a lot of different speciall attacks. What happen to me is that sometimes I simply dont use some of them, even knowing they are very usefull, just because I choose to use others. With my last monk I had void, tod and earth IV. What I noticed was that I used earth a lot, but not so much void. So sometimes it should be better to spend not so much used attacks somewhere else.

Anyway, its a personal playstyle issue. What I recomend you is to try both of them. If you think its wirth it keep them, if not, reset your enhancements and choose other thing more usefull to you.

Hope it helps.

[Newbie]

What stance do you guys recommend to keep my ki up enough? Or should I switch between wind and sun?

[SensaiRyu]

What stance do you guys recommend to keep my ki up enough? Or should I switch between wind and sun?

First life monk I had no void line and stay'd in wind stance all the time. 4x ToD rocks. I was pretty much a ToD monkey - it was the only monk attack I used.

Second life when I started mixing it up I only used sun stance for ki gen. 17 lvls dark monk and 3 lvls light.

At lvl 18ish you can pick up Orimi's necklace so you can use other stances (I use mountain now). If I were dark I'd probably use wind for the extra hits with ToD.

[SpearKicker]

What stance do you guys recommend to keep my ki up enough? Or should I switch between wind and sun?

First life I wet Wind too (I was a WIS/DEX based monk). Now usually I play in Fire, since I like paying STR based monks, nad specially because I love that extra 25% Heal Amp from Jidz-Tet'ka.

Anyway, all stances have benefits (except Ocean, I think... ). If you want more heal amp and ki/hit go fire. If you want more HPs, defense, ki on been hit and more damage on crits. Wind mainly if you are dex based...


SensaiRyu,

I am thinking of TRing my main ina a Monk AA that will fight mainly in Earth 3. Since I never played in this stance, would you mind telling me how does it goes?

[SensaiRyu]

I use ocean for +4 to saves sometimes. That and resilience (shintao pre-req feat) for a quick +8 to saves is nice.

Mountain rocks with the +1 crit multiplier - my crits are often around 170. Cut off a third of that when I'm in another stance. And since I don't use garments of equilib anymore, I get the extra +1 die step (stacking with monk past life +1 die step) with Jidz.

Is it better DPS than wind? If I remember correctly, yes - there's at least one math thread that crunched the numbers somewhere. If not, it was close enuf to make it a better choice with the +HP and extra DR.

If I had to pick a dump stance it would be wind. Fire for Ki, Ocean for saves, Mountain for 1/3 more crit dmg. Wind for +10 jump

I was dex/wis on my first life also. Str/wis this build - I like it much better.

[Dark-Star]

Use both, they are incredibly good.

[Masadique]

I'm a str/wis monk, and, until 18 and Oremi's came back on, I sat in fire because I needed the Ki for ToD. My build is not pure monk, it is 12 mnk/7 ftr/1 rgr. I now sit in wind almost all of the time with fighter haste boosts going. Never have a problem with Ki. In my opinion wind without Oremi's is fairly useless, but with the necklace it becomes a very worthwhile stance.

First life I was light and sat in fire the entire time for healing amp. If you are not main tanking, you do not need that much amp. Most healers are tossing mass heals, my main is a healer, so the heals they are throwing need to get the barbs/fighters/pallies to full. Hence they will easily top off a lil monk with any amount of healing amp. While it is amazing when you are tanking or outside of raids, it just doesn't matter when you are part of raid DPS.

[Kinerd]

Mountain rocks with the +1 crit multiplier - my crits are often around 170. Cut off a third of that when I'm in another stance. And since I don't use garments of equilib anymore, I get the extra +1 die step (stacking with monk past life +1 die step) with Jidz.

Is it better DPS than wind? If I remember correctly, yes - there's at least one math thread that crunched the numbers somewhere. If not, it was close enuf to make it a better choice with the +HP and extra DR.

They are very comparable against 0 fort, it comes down to gear specifics. Against 50 or higher fort, Mountain doesn't stand a chance.