What kind of equipment should I be looking for on a dark monk?

[Maelodic]

Currently I have:

Weapons:
(Festival) Icy Burst Weakening Handwraps of Enfeebling
(Festival) Icy Burst Seeker +6 Handwraps of Pure good

I don't really have any good robes/outfits. I use them for clickies at the moment and the only constant one is a robe of invulnerability for low levels. I do have a Deathblock of Heavy Fort though, so there's that.

Other than that, random stuff:
Trapblast Goggles, how long will I use these? I love, just love my evasion and basically being immune to traps.
Greater False Life Belt (I'm thinking ideal is GFL and +6 CON)
Don't have a bloodstone, but the seeker wraps make up for it.


Content I own is gianthold and vale, but I have enough for a pack or two more. Suggestions with that would be great.

The only other classes I plan on playing in the future are Wind Savant and FvS. I adore monks because they are zippy. Gotta retain that zip yo.

I have a 12 wizard that can grind mid level gear if needed, but I'd rather just grind gear when I get there. I do not have anything higher than 12 unfortunately.

And for now I'm just looking for cheap +6 items to slot for STR/DEX/CON/WIS. I'm thinking I can use a couple pieces of the wrath of sora kell set for +6 items and then some, so we'll see.

[Kinerd]

A monk has access to the best melee CC maneuver in game: Stunning Fist. To get as much use out of this as possible, you will want Handwraps of Stunning +X. The highest value from random generation is +10, the highest value available in Cannith crafting is +8, and there is a named set of handwraps (Stonedust) with Stunning +6 that you can add Lesser Vampirism to. This mechanically requires the 2nd Lordsmarch pack, but I'm pretty sure when made they are Bound to Character on Equip, so you should be able to pick them up off the AH.

Seeker is a very weak enchantment for monks. +6 on crits is worth 12/20 damage per swing against 0 fort, or 0.6 damage per swing. You would be better off with even +1 damage. Something like Shock blows it right out of the water.

It is important to bypass boss DR. As a monk, you will have Adamantine, Lawful, and Magic type damage at cap. The important boss DRs are Silver & Good, Cold Iron & Good, and Adamantine & Good. This means you need to be on the lookout for Silver and Cold Iron wraps, or slave away at Cannith crafting until you can get Metalline (level 100 arcane iirc). There is a named set of handwraps (Devout) that are Metalline and Pure Good, but they drop (rarely) in the Shadow Crypt in Necropolis 2.

Regarding robes, Deathblock of Heavy Fort is a fine choice. Dragontouched armor (DT) from the Reaver's Refuge pack would let you add 10% and 20% Healing Amplification, making it much easier to self heal. Icy Raiments from the Subterrane are nice if you signed yourself up for the AC treadmill.

Regarding Trapblast goggles, eventually you would want a Resistance 4 or Resistance 5 item, which would cover Reflex as well as Fortitude.

The Devils of Shavarath pack (Amrath) has a lot going for it. For starters it gives you access to high level content. There are also very good items there: a named belt with 6 Con and GFL, a named necklace that gives you +1 ki on hit, various interesting set bonuses, and most importantly Tower of Despair (ToD) rings, each of which you can craft on to add a Burst effect to all your unarmed attacks.

The Vaults of the Artificers pack (Cannith challenges) also has a lot going for it. Unlike all other content, your second and all subsequent completions of whichever objective give identical XP, and 75% of the non-Epic challenges go all the way to cap. You can get epic tokens, which you can use to TR your character without spending TP. You can get halfway decent XP potions. There is a named outfit which has the same +1 ki on hit as the necklace from Amrath and a bunch of other oddly collected enchantments. There is a named belt that gives you +5 to your Stun DCs. For cons, several challenges are extremely difficult to solo (even with hireling), and many challenges have severely inferior ingredients/xp awarded per time spent. There have also been quite a lot of frustrating and vaguely motivated changes to the challenges, including changes that specifically reverse previous changes for no apparent reason. The price tag is through the roof. Finally, it is very difficult to get a group going for them.

[CheeseMilk]

I haven't played a Dark Monk yet (just bought monk a little while ago, decided to try Light first), but from what I've seen:

Spare Hand: Belt, Cannith Challenge item. Any tier gives at least +1 (up to +5) stacking bonus to combat feats, including Stunning Fist. the higher tiers give some other cool bonuses, Staggering Blow, Doublestrike, Craftable... Some of the Cannith Challenge items are buggy, not sure if this is one of them though.

Jidz-Tet'ka: Bracers, Sentinels of Stormreach pack. +5 Armor bonus, +2 will save, and other enhancements depending on the stance you're in. You can buy the base item (Torn Chitin Bracers) from the AH, but you'll need to get Sigils from the actual quest chain to upgrade it. Also goes Epic.

Icy Raiment: Outfit, Subterrane rare Garamol: +4 dodge, +4 protection, +3 resistance

Enlightened Vestments: Outfit, Vision of Destruction: +6 armor, +6 wisdom, adds Banishing to your attacks.

Garments of Equilibrium: Outfit, Siegebreaker (end reward): Heavy Fort, Concentration +13, increases unarmed damage by one die step

Minos Legens; Headgear, Turn in 20 Tapestry Shreds in Necro IV. Heavy Fort, stacking +20 hp. Generally considered a must-have for most toons, can be acquired without buying the Necro IV pack by getting the Taps from the AH and getting a guest pass to get to the turn-in npc.


Most of the stuff I have for my monk is Cannith Crafted, and I'm only lvl 14, so I really don't know what else to tell ya. The Vampiric Stonedust wraps can be bought, but they'll be expensive. The Lordsmarch II pack will let you upgrade the item (base is found in Eyes of Stone, even the base item is pretty decent). Once you get to Shroud level, you'll start making some Green Steel items for clickies and more HP. Definitely recommend getting the Reaver's Reach pack for Dragontouched robe, since it can be customized to fill in holes in your equipment while you farm everything else you need, and is still a pretty good endgame choice. The (arguably) best all-purpose handwraps available now come from the U11 Cannith quests, but they'll take a long time to grind out. (I assume. I haven't even tried the raids yet.)

Good luck, and have fun!

[Maelodic]

So, I can go the guest pass route for Minos, and that won't be a problem for my monk and his subsequent lives.

However I do have an issue with various equipment.

Knowing the only characters I plan on making in the future are either monk (bow and melee), battle fvs (melee wf and/or caster), and dps caster; what pack(s) should I get for equipment? I have gianthold and vale so my exp will be fine. I have 927 TP at the moment, and won't be buying new TP for a while.

Shavarath? Sentinels?

I plan on epic tokens for TRing as well, though I'm not sure how hard those are to get.

[AmatsukaIncarnate]

Shavarath is an important pack for monks in particular because you can add "bursts" (such as holy, shocking, ect) on your rings that drop from the raid, Tower of Despair, which then add to your fist damage.
Shavarath is an awesome pack for loot and almost all, if not all characters can benefit from the loot that comes out of there. But be warned, Shavarath is home to some difficult quests for unprepared Stormreachers.

Reaver's Refuge and the DT armors are also great but lots of characters will "move on" from DTs to epic armors. If epic isn't your thing though, the DT armors are really great. The quests here are also much easier than Shavarath but the grind for your perfect DT armors may be frustrating.

I'd say pick either of them up or even both if you plan on being at endgame for awhile.

edit: For token farming, the challenges apparently are really good. But for TP reasons, I'd pick up Carnival. The House P epics are very forgiving and easy to PuG and some of the most commonly run epic quests are found here.

[CheeseMilk]

House P epics are definitely the best to "cut your teeth" on. There's some good stuff in there for any build, and it's quite easy to find a group/guide for them, and undergeared toons can still contribute.

If you're planning a melee WF FvS you're definitely going to want the Sword of Shadow from Vault of Night, epic or otherwise. It's arguably the best melee weapon in the game. Vault also gives a whole lot of experience for its level, toons, which is a big help if you ever TR. The epics are much harder than House P.

Keep in mind that you'll be earning more TP as you go, through favor, and you can get first-time bonus TP on each server, so the more you play, the more you can afford to get without spending any more actual money.

[Paleus]

If you want to use the Sora Kell set for your +6's then you're going to need the second Lords March Quest Chain. This would have the added benefit of letting you get Vampiric Stonedust handwraps. But, if you only have enough TP for 1 or 2 more packs (and you have GH and Vale) I'm not sure I'd pick up that pack personally. I'd aim for Necro IV (excellent Vale level XP and Minos) or Reavers Refuge (excellent end game XP, iffy on if you want to invest the time on armor crafting) or Devils of Shavarath (just for the ToD rings for damage) or Deleras (excellent low level XP).

On your handwraps aim to get paralyzing for mid-levels, stunning +10s for high levels, banishing for the vale, disruption for undead, smiting for constructs. Also, screaming of bleeding handwraps are fairly easy to make with cannith crafting and do good enough all purpose damage.

Side note: I know dark monks are fun, but light monks are slightly easier to gear out because they have inherent abilities to bypass dr with their prestige and the ability to self-heal better. It's something that makes them first life friendly when you don't have all the DR-breaking or HP regenning gear.

[Kinerd]

So, I can go the guest pass route for Minos, and that won't be a problem for my monk and his subsequent lives.

However I do have an issue with various equipment.

Knowing the only characters I plan on making in the future are either monk (bow and melee), battle fvs (melee wf and/or caster), and dps caster; what pack(s) should I get for equipment? I have gianthold and vale so my exp will be fine. I have 927 TP at the moment, and won't be buying new TP for a while.

Shavarath? Sentinels?

I plan on epic tokens for TRing as well, though I'm not sure how hard those are to get.

I think your best bet pack for pack is really the Cannith challenges. It has mildly interesting equipment for all your build options, you get XP from 4-20, you get the easiest epic tokens in the game.

TP for TP is a very different question. For the 1495 that challenges cost, you could get Sentinels, Reaver's Refuge, and Shavarath for 45 less TP (1450). Put that way, it's impossible to argue for challenges, especially since they are so astonishingly unpopular for pugging (at least on Argo). With this second set-up you still get pretty easy epic tokens, extremely interesting equipment for all your build options, and your possible XP options at high level are still pretty good. With the free level 15 pack, Gianthold, Vale, Reaver's, Shavarath, and the imminent 17 pack, you shouldn't have too much trouble even on your third+ lives.

[Maelodic]

Well, I'm actually a light monk now, so that's a thing.

Also I have around 950 TP, but what I do know is that every time I look at neat equipment it's usually either from the Devil's of Shavarath or the Sentinels of Stormreach (for the upgrade items), apart from maybe the bloodstone (Demon Sands) which I know is incredibly important to like archers and THFers, also the SoS, but I definitely cannot get both Shavarath and Sentienels at the moment, though an extra 150 TP isn't that hard, so I totally could get both I guess.

Anywho. Is this a bad plan?

[Kinerd]

Sentinels and Shavarath is a fine selection.

Do not get Sands just to farm for The Blood Stone. If you want it that badly you can pick it up off the AH, but it's really not that important.

[Quetzacoala]

Garments of Equilibrium: Outfit, Siegebreaker (end reward): Heavy Fort, Concentration +13, increases unarmed damage by one die step

It also drops fairly commonly from chests in Siegebreaker