Making first monk

[JeisonBlade]

Im planning to TR one of my toons into a monk, based on the Metaru build (WF dark monk, dps first and foremost, fire and earth stances)

He'll be a 36pt warforged with a FvS and two Paladin past lives. I'm thinking one of two ablility score sets, which one I take depends on whether or not I can get his DCs to meaningful levels without sacrificing straight melee ability. Assume everything gets a +2 tome (+3 for DEX), and STR gets level ups

Option 1 (pure DPS)
STR 18
DEX 16
CON 18
INT 8
WIS 6
CHA 6

Option 2 (sacrifice a little for more WIS, still meeting stance prereqs)
STR 16
DEX 16
CON 16
INT 8
WIS 14 (should end up as a base 24/+7 by endgame with tomes and gear I have available)
CHA 6

If my maths are right, without any external buffs, just Option 2 should give me the following base DCs. I'm not sure what situational or raid buffs monks get, but I could squeeze another +1 or +2 out of enhancements (WIS III instead of I, and Tactics III instead of II, tho itd be pretty expensive APwise). If I could get the Epic Spare Hand belt I could boost those another +5, but I don't have that pack, and its not in my near future.

Monk Finishing Moves (10+WIS(+7)+Monk Lvl(+20)+WF Tactics(+2)) = 39
Stunning Fist (10+half level(+10)+WIS(+7)+WF Tactics(+2)+Wraps(+10)) = 39
Trip (10+STR(+11)+Epic Blademarks(+15)+WF Tactics(+2)) = 38
Improved Sunder (14+STR(+11)+WF Tactics(+2)) = 27

So the question is, are those DCs good enough for high end stuff (raids and/or epics)or should I not bother and just dump WIS, dump Tactics, and focus on pure dps? Would they be good enough after factoring in say ship buffs, yugo pots, and whatever else would benefit monks? What the heck else DOES benefit monk DC buffwise for that matter?

edit just realized that Sun stance gives him a -2 WIS, so I guess that'd lower some of his DCs by 1 a fair amount of the time, but boost his Trip/Sunders by +2 *shrugs*

[GlorifyQuC]

Half elf is by far the master race of the monk class, I'd suggest switching to a half-elf simply because they are far stronger in terms of versatility and damage. Monks innately gain disease and poison invulnerability, thus that's a wasted race ability. Also monks get increased healing, which does not affect repair spells

Rogue dille for dps(3d6 extra sneak attack damage stacking with ninja spy) or Cleric dille for 95% heal scrolls(Heals my monk for 300 self cast due to healing amp) and other useful things like resto/res.

Dex can dip down to 14, it's pretty meaningless providing you can afford a +3 tome. If you can't, you can afford a +2 tome by the time you hit a 36 point build.

Con can be whatever you feel is comfortable, I have 14 base on a 34 point build and easily hit 500+ hp with ship buffs.

Wisdom should be spiked as high as possible in my opinion, it affects a lot of your dcs.

Strength should be maxed obviously.

[TPICKRELL]

I'd go with your second set of stats. Do you plan on acquiring a KI+1 item (Oremis, Alchmist Pendant, Frozen Tunic)? If so, I'd consider going WIND and EARTH stances rather than FIRE and EARTH. With todays implementation, Wind and Earth are the two best DPS stances, and you need to be able to switch out of earth in a tanking situation where you are not the tank.

Stunning fisst 39 is marginal in easy epics, and not good enough for hard epics. If you want to be a stun build, you will need the epic spare hand. You might consider going VIP for a month and pounding one out. The +5 would take you from marginal to solid.

[JeisonBlade]

Yea I know WF is not the best racial choice for a monk, but its not about making the best monk possible overall, its about making a warforged into the best monk possible, because...I just really like em, and this toon will always be one, and its fun to figure out how to work around the weaknesses and capitalize on the strengths

I dont see the spare hand in my near future until I grind out the TP to buy the pack (believe me if i could afford VIP again i would lol) so I'll just have to work around that.

I do already have a +3 DEX tome for him, he's on his first pally life now, i'll be TRing him into a pally again before monk, hopefully I'll have another +3 or two by the time I do monk

I'll take a look at wind stance, I know it was changed since the original mentaru build (i went with fire/earth since until I try monk and learn for myself the ins and outs I like having a guide to follow) but I've seen mention that the extra doublestrike/attack speed is a good complement to the tharaak wraps (which I do have banked) for high end content.

[arrethyn]

Dex can dip down to 14, it's pretty meaningless providing you can afford a +3 tome. If you can't, you can afford a +2 tome by the time you hit a 36 point build.

otherwise agree with you but i'd just like to note you still need 18 dex for GM:wind which is generally the best dps stance, though gm:earth comes very close depending on gear. i'd shoot for at least 15 base dex with +3 tome

also i'd take a look at void IV, if you plan to run lob much having void IV for taking down pillars is a huge boon, especially since your dark so you can water stride out to the pillars.

[edgarallanpoe]

Dex can dip down to 14, it's pretty meaningless providing you can afford a +3 tome. If you can't, you can afford a +2 tome by the time you hit a 36 point build.

Well, in order for him to take TWF he will need a 15 and a 17 for ITWF and GTWF. I know the +3 tome will give him that but that will delay *when* he can take them. If he takes the +3 tome at 11 he will need to take his TWF chain at 12,15,18...along with Improved Crit. That's 4 feats for 3 slots. If he starts with a 14 he *has* to eat a +1 dex tome to get TWF as soon as he can.

I know that the +1 tome is no big deal but starting at a 14 Dex does require some planning if you go TWF...and I cannot imagine why any monk would want to forgo the TWF chain.

[TPICKRELL]

Yea I know WF is not the best racial choice for a monk...

I tried to reply yesterday, but the forums were borked and it wouldn't let me post.

If your goal is purely DPS, Helf is the current min/max flavor. But there is nothing wrong with a WF monk, especially if you are looking to have the option to fill more roles than just DPS.

My Main is a WF monk, and that is not going to change any time soon. Mountain IV and Wind IV add a great deal of flexibility, and I am a big proponent of taking advantage of that flexibility.

My main is a light path WF monk and I fill any or all of the following roles depending on the party and quest:

1: DPS
2: Crowd Control (Stunning Fist, Ku Kan Doh, Jade Tomb)
3: Light/Medium AC Tank (mostly in TOD- jailor/sulu, VOD, HOX, EChrono)
4: Buffer -- mostly Grasp and Aligning

It takes some gear to be able to fill the roles, and you have to be willing to reconfigure gear and stances as appropriate, but its not that difficult.

Also despite many writings to the contrary, I'd look at trying to have a gear configuration with a meaningful AC. You have to give up a lot to get to a 80/90 AC, but 65-75 is achievable without too much stress.

My main walks off the boat with a 68 AC (74 against tainted) and has hit low 80s in tank/raid buffs. Thats enough to make a significant difference in a lot of level 20 content.

My newly leveled HORC Strength Build Void IV monk has only cove/challenge/crafted gear so far and walks off the boat with a 65 AC. Still enough to be noticable in normal/hard raids, and the challenge gear has great guards as well.

[JeisonBlade]

Also despite many writings to the contrary, I'd look at trying to have a gear configuration with a meaningful AC. You have to give up a lot to get to a 80/90 AC, but 65-75 is achievable without too much stress.

My main walks off the boat with a 68 AC (74 against tainted) and has hit low 80s in tank/raid buffs. Thats enough to make a significant difference in a lot of level 20 content.

What kind of AC gear do you have ?

With a 16 DEX/14 WIS, and gear I already have (Epic Blademark w/ ritual, Epic Jidz, MinII goggles, Cloak of Night ML 16), he'll be walking around with a base 54 (too bad I didn't make one of the natural armor +5 hats in crystal cove, but oh well, hindsight). I could get another blademarks and add +4 natural armor instead of Toughness.

[TPICKRELL]

What kind of AC gear do you have ?

With a 16 DEX/14 WIS, and gear I already have (Epic Blademark w/ ritual, Epic Jidz, MinII goggles, Cloak of Night ML 16), he'll be walking around with a base 54 (too bad I didn't make one of the natural armor +5 hats in crystal cove, but oh well, hindsight). I could get another blademarks and add +4 natural armor instead of Toughness.

I use DT with insight 4/healing amp/healing amp (will change to dodge 3 and add 3 AC to my total when I get air/air/air alchemical wraps). I also wear an Epic Chimeras crown for the natural 5 and have dodge 2 on a mabar cloak. I might switch to the Cloak of Flames from the challenges, move Dodge 2 to a trinket and swap out the dt rune sooner

You can look at my normal gear on myddo: http://my.ddo.com/character/khyber/grubbby/ if you care to. I'm in Wind stance on the current Myddo screen shot. AC goes up by one and HP goes up by 60 in Earth.

[JeisonBlade]

I use DT with insight 4/healing amp/healing amp (will change to dodge 3 and add 3 AC to my total when I get air/air/air alchemical wraps). I also wear an Epic Chimeras crown for the natural 5 and have dodge 2 on a mabar cloak. I might switch to the Cloak of Flames from the challenges, move Dodge 2 to a trinket and swap out the dt rune sooner

You can look at my normal gear on myddo: http://my.ddo.com/character/khyber/grubbby/ if you care to. I'm in Wind stance on the current Myddo screen shot. AC goes up by one and HP goes up by 60 in Earth.

Ah I forgot about the epic chimera's for natural, thats something I can work on without too much trouble. i'll have to go through my DT rune collection and see what i have too