3 life monk, starting on 3 fighter lives... advice please

[Marnin_Wood]

So yeah, I'm at the end of my 3rd Monk life, and getting ready to start on my 3 fighter lives. Beyond that I may do some Barbarian and possibly Paladin lives before finishing up with a final Monk life.

I'm looking for suggestions for what is the best way to go about building a 36pt fighter that will be fun to play, balance well between solo & group action, and will be useful overall. It doesn't have to be uber, as it is a means to an end and I will be TR'ng asap every time I hit 20 until I get through the lives and take my final Monk life.

I've got some good Monk gear after 3 lives, so should I do a fighter/monk split and stick with my fists?

Should I craft some GS weapons to use for my fighter lives and possibly beyond, even knowing they'll be useless for my final life?

I'm not interested so much in tanking, and I doubt I'll stick around long enough at 20 to worry much about epic farming or raid running between TR's...

After some thought I'm looking at either a 12/6/2 Fighter/Ranger/Rogue build so I can solo through most content... OR, going 11/9 Fighter/Monk so I can still rely on my wraps and focus on DPS with Dark Monk abilities, while still having decent solo ability with no trap-skills.

However, I'm open to suggestions and would like some input on what others who may have been in similar positions have done.

Cheers!
~Sookeh

[Adrian99]

It depends on if you want to fight unarmed or not and what kind of flexibility you're looking for. For me, I'm getting my monk's fighter lives by going 9 fighter / 9 monk / 2 rogue, half-elf with cleric dilletante. That's because I like fighting unarmed, stunning, touch of death, shadow fade, using heal/raise scrolls without UMD, getting traps. But that's me.

[Marnin_Wood]

I do enjoy the unarmed fighting, and I love playing monks, so I'm naturally leaning towards mixing monk/fighter levels... your build sounds pretty good, and along the lines of what I'd like to do. I had not considered the helf/cleric-dil yet... that may be a great fit.

Just wanting to get an idea of what other options I'm missing, and making sure I don't hobble myself by making it hard to level up when lfm's are scarce and no one is in range within the guild.

[Dwarfo]

With the right stats/gear for your lvl, you can make a 12 fighter 8 monk pretty viable (high ac, high damage output).

I suggest taking monk the first 8 lvls and going light, then going the rest fighter. Or, since your not staying at cap long, take 9 monk for tod and then the rest fighter...personal pref. really.

[Beethoven]

Here is what I did for my fighter, monk and Pally TR's.

Fighter I went 12 Fighter (Stalward II) / 3 Monk (Light) / 3 Paladin.
Monk I went 12 Monk / 6 Fighter (Stalward I)
Paladin I went 12 Paladin / 6 Monk

The reason for going 3 Paladin over 6 Monk on my fighter TR was the combination of slightly higher AC and Saves (Paladin Aura) and fear immunity (which came particular handy in quests where they spam fear/symbol of fear, Necro III and IV, and Sands).

The other obvious advantage of these builds was that I could re-use my gear through all lifes for the most part. You want I can give you more details on the builds. I was pretty happy with them, zerging through content with a ~200 leet streak was a breeze and found them fun to play.

[Marnin_Wood]

The Pally/Monk mix is very interesting. After some research I have a lot to consider...

Should I not worry about a Rogue splash for trapping if I solo much? Those occasional failed trap saves on elite can be a real bummer, plus, the extra xp for disabled traps would be nice.

Found a nice 12 fighter/7 monk/1 rogue build... the Nutslander build, quite groovy... seems like a solid all-around build for soloing... light monk to take advantage of self-healing

The 12 fighter/3 monk/ 3 pally sounds good too, but where do the extra 2 levels go? Player's choice, or fighter for the extra hp/feat?

11 fighter/9 monk is what I was initially thinking, with ToD... dps and decent AC... plus that'd get me the improved evasion, making traps not a big deal.

Any of these go well with human or helf-cleric for the healing amp and self-healing.

Thanks for all the feedback so far... I'm beginning to tell this won't be an easy decision, but there are a lot of good options!! Probably can't really go wrong with any of them

[Mrmorphling]

The 12 fighter/3 monk/ 3 pally sounds good too, but where do the extra 2 levels go? Player's choice, or fighter for the extra hp/feat?

The extra 2 lvls should not mtter much as you usually plan "mid TR" lives with 18 lvls as you'll be holding lvls thus you'll cap from lvl 18 then TR again so the build ought to be optimized with 18 lvls in mind.

[Kinerd]

I don't like deep splashes for transition lives, so I would go 18 (16) fighter / 2 monk, maybe 17 (15) fighter / 3 monk. I mean, consider the 12 fighter / 6 ranger / 2 rogue build. 12 fighter has a lot going for it, 6 ranger same, 2 rogue same, but you don't get all of them until level 20, which you'll see for about 10 seconds. You need to get the ranger ASAP to not screw up your feats, so what you'll have in practice will be a 6 ranger / 2 rogue with fighter levels. If you just went fighter / 2 monk, you'd still have ITWF at level 8, plus you'd be only 6 levels away from your tier 2 fighter prestige instead of (effectively) never getting it.

[Bacab]

Take some MNK levels...with fighter and even PLD.

I would plan on crafting at least 1 nice weapon though for your Barb lives. BRB/MNK does not work due to the whole lawful thing.

As far as the nice weapon, I would suggest a Lightning Strike Falchion. Though, you could prolly just take it to tier 2 and save your larges for guards and stuff.

Also, get a "Terror" for levels 18-20.

Short list for lowbie weapons that are nice...

2 Maelstrom (Greataxe from Tempest Spine)
4 Carnifex (Greataxe from Delera's)
10 Sword of Shadows (From VoN Series)
Use Carnifex until Greensteel if you lack SoS
12 Greensteel
18 Terror
20 TR

[Beethoven]

Should I not worry about a Rogue splash for trapping if I solo much?

Well, I didn't. Lots of traps can be timed and all those builds ended up with pretty decent saves so when solo'ing I ran simply through them.

Found a nice 12 fighter/7 monk/1 rogue build... the Nutslander build

It's a good build too. Lots of it comes down to playstyle; when I was comparing the builds it came down to Pally Aura (AC/SAves) + Fear Immunity vs Trap skills. Pally Aura/Fear Immunity won out in my case. I also noticed (on past lifes) that even with trap skills I rarely take them time to actually disable them. I solo, I often zerg and fear immunity + saves/AC complimented that style better in my case.

The 12 fighter/3 monk/ 3 pally sounds good too, but where do the extra 2 levels go? Player's choice, or fighter for the extra hp/feat?

You don't really need to bank a level anymore these days, but old habits die hard and I just cannot keep myself from running high xp quests a couple times (ie: Shadow Crypt, VoN3, Wizard King, etc.). So, by the time I hit the Vale I ended up level 18 in all those life's. There was no need to worry about the last two levels. Players choice really. You could probably fit in rogue on those builds.

[jojoalva69]

I highly recommend The Blender

Self Sufficient, can hold it's own with no issue. As long as you have a few minor pieces of gear, the AC(Can't remember exact numbers) this build gets works just about everywhere, aside from a few elite quests. You can get your traps skills up high enough to do any trap along the way while leveling as well.

Some modifications must be made for it to work unarmed, like going Half-Elf for one, that way you can get the Cleric Dilly, that's what I did. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to be human though, just gets you an extra feat, either way.

Since you can get an amazing DC for it(I recall about 46, no spare hand), you'll want Stunning Fist in place of hamstring, or something of the like.

I've leveled as both this and the 12Fighter/8Monk. This was 100 times more enjoyable.

Whatever you choose, best of luck to ya! I just capped on my final monk life doing the very same you are now. Aside from one fighter life. :P

[oogly54]

Because fighter gets so many feats, it is easy to build a variety of differenet splashes or pure builds. Do whatever is fun for you and I would reccommend changing it up for each of the three lives to keep TRing interesting while increasing your overall knowledge of the different aspects of the class.I have 4 fighter PLs, 3 Monk, 1 pally, 1 barb, 1 rogue. I had intentions of getting three rogue PLs for the max DPS possible, but go burnt out on TRing. Making sure TRing is fun for you and allows you to keep progressing is just as important as finding a very good build for content.

[Chette]

My pick for a fighter life, if you're going to stay at cap for any amount of time, would be 12 fighter, 6 monk, 2 rogue for Kensai II, Ninja Spy I, UMD and trap skills (second rogue level is to shore up your skills part way through, but could take another monk level for next tier of healing amp if you want).

It's a really solid build at end game, with great AC and survivability for leveling. Go half-elf with cleric dil if you don't want to rely on UMD to heal while leveling, and you can switch to rogue at end game once your UMD is high enough.

If you just want to cap and TR again, then your final split doesn't really matter as long as you get the fighter icon, so I would recommend 9 fighter, 9 monk, 2 rogue in that case. Rogue levels are again for UMD/trap skills, if you don't care about that then you could do 2 ranger for free TWF and sprint boost. Cleric dil again for ease of healing while leveling.

[karl_k0ch]

If you enjoy playing as a Monk, a 12 Fighter/8 Monk (eg a Godhand build) might be a good choice for your Fighter life.
If you want to just get the Pally past lives and be done with it, maybe either of 18/2mnk (revisied solar phoenix), or 1Arty/9Monk/10 Pally (in that order; no kidding, a guildmate of mine is actually TRing on that for his second time).

[Varashad]

Half-orc fighter(18)/monk(2) = done. Just run that 3 times and play it like a monk with less of their fun abilities. Though in my opinion going with 3 fighter past lives is silly. The active past life isn't good, and the passive is kinda "meh" as well. If you're having to-hit issues as a monk, then it's a gear problem. Barbarian or paladin past lives are much more useful imo.

[Marnin_Wood]

Some real good advice here, thanks all!

Gonna replay to posts individually below this.

[Marnin_Wood]

The extra 2 lvls should not mtter much as you usually plan "mid TR" lives with 18 lvls as you'll be holding lvls thus you'll cap from lvl 18 then TR again so the build ought to be optimized with 18 lvls in mind.

I didn't even consider this, but you're very correct! Thanks

[Marnin_Wood]

I don't like deep splashes for transition lives, so I would go 18 (16) fighter / 2 monk, maybe 17 (15) fighter / 3 monk. I mean, consider the 12 fighter / 6 ranger / 2 rogue build. 12 fighter has a lot going for it, 6 ranger same, 2 rogue same, but you don't get all of them until level 20, which you'll see for about 10 seconds. You need to get the ranger ASAP to not screw up your feats, so what you'll have in practice will be a 6 ranger / 2 rogue with fighter levels. If you just went fighter / 2 monk, you'd still have ITWF at level 8, plus you'd be only 6 levels away from your tier 2 fighter prestige instead of (effectively) never getting it.

I'm not a fan of deep splashes either, I'm far too impatient, I'd rather see the benefits of 1 class sooner than waiting for 3 to gel at 20. But thats just me, and considering I'm gonna TR immediately at the end of each life, I just want to git-r-done.

[Marnin_Wood]

Take some MNK levels...with fighter and even PLD.

I would plan on crafting at least 1 nice weapon though for your Barb lives. BRB/MNK does not work due to the whole lawful thing.

As far as the nice weapon, I would suggest a Lightning Strike Falchion. Though, you could prolly just take it to tier 2 and save your larges for guards and stuff.

Also, get a "Terror" for levels 18-20.

Short list for lowbie weapons that are nice...

2 Maelstrom (Greataxe from Tempest Spine)
4 Carnifex (Greataxe from Delera's)
10 Sword of Shadows (From VoN Series)
Use Carnifex until Greensteel if you lack SoS
12 Greensteel
18 Terror
20 TR

Right on, my Barb lives will be full on Barb... I have a crafting toon, so I'll make something for pre-level 4 (or get Maelstrom), I have Antique & Hellstroke for 4-11, I'll definitely craft a GS weapon, got the Terror... those will be fun lives, I do like Barbs

[Marnin_Wood]

Because fighter gets so many feats, it is easy to build a variety of differenet splashes or pure builds. Do whatever is fun for you and I would reccommend changing it up for each of the three lives to keep TRing interesting while increasing your overall knowledge of the different aspects of the class.I have 4 fighter PLs, 3 Monk, 1 pally, 1 barb, 1 rogue. I had intentions of getting three rogue PLs for the max DPS possible, but go burnt out on TRing. Making sure TRing is fun for you and allows you to keep progressing is just as important as finding a very good build for content.

Keeping it interesting and fun is a big part of it, and part of my concern... I don't want to burn out midway through and stall because I'm not having fun anymore. Probably won't happen, but its always a fear. Thats good advice to switch up the fighter feats and level builds. Like you, I anticipate going for Rogue PL's would just be too much... not even sure if I'll go for all 3 Barb and Pally PL's for that same reason, though I probably will!