Lessered to a Dark Monk any advice?

[Kielbasa]

So after playing a light monk for my whole monk career I've decided to try a dark monk. Initial thoughts are that game play seems much different than how I played my light monk. I went from a strength based tactics light monk to a wisdom based dark monk. Just looking for some advice on how you approach combat on your dark monk.

My first problem is that I don't have nearly enough ki for what I would like to do. Wind stance and tier two of elegant crane does not seem to be enough for my usage.

So far the things that I miss most are dismissing strike, a ranged stun, tomb of jade. and stunning blow. With three stuns and picking my targets wisely most everything I fought was stunned. With only one stun that seems more difficult to pull off. Do any of you actually use freezing the lifeblood, falling star strike and pain touch to supplement this? Any time I've had dark monks in my groups I don't see them use the dark finishers so I'm curious.

I will say that between the spring attack feat chain and shadow fade I do seem to be hit noticeably less than than I am used to which is the biggest plus so far. Not noticing a huge difference in kill speed yet but that is probably because I'm not used to playing the dark side yet and need to set up my hot bars better.

Can anyone explain how karmic strike works? I tried experimenting with it tonight but I'm not sure if it was working other than taking 20 hp every time I used it.

Any advice would be welcome.

[Potta]

Ki is a bigger issue for Dark than it is for Light. If you're not already using a Ki +1 item, you should make it your priority above all others to get one.

Dark Monks typically do not use most of our curses. Mobs don't last long enough to make them worthwhile. The only curse that's really worth it is Touch of Despair from Dark/Dark/Dark. Anything else isn't worth the time or Ki. If they didn't receive another chance to save every few seconds, they might be worthwhile, but as it is, no.

It's really a sort of blessing though, because we don't have enough Ki to use them. All your Ki should be going to Stunning Blow, Touch of Death and Drifting Lotus in that order.

You should definitely be killing faster though. 3d6 sneak is a significant bonus on a class that can perma-stun its enemies. Touch of Death is another big bonus. ToD on a stunned mob is almost always an instant kill even in Epic Normal and on lower HP mobs in Epic Hard if it procs more than once.

One feat that really helps with ToD damage is Improved Sunder. The stacking -3 to fort saves can be used on trash, bosses and minibosses to quickly bring them down to the point that they're nearly always failing their saves.

Though you'll be killing faster, you'll also probably be dying faster. We don't have the survivability of Light. You'll need to find other ways to keep yourself alive or you'll never be satisfied with Dark. If you don't already, start carrying around Silver Flame pots. Bump up your healing amp so even Cure Serious pots will hit ~50. Invest in UMD - it's possible now with epic levels to get no fail healing scrolls even cross-class. Or, my favourite at the moment, Twist in Healing Spring. It heals 1d100 every 20 seconds. Not a lot right? Well, it's affected by spell power. So swapping in a +devotion item when you use it gives it ~120% boost in efficacy. An average of 50 becomes an average of 110. Which with a 200% amp is ~220hp average. This can be very significant for self sufficiency, especially when used in conjunction with the GMoF heal, Wholeness of Body, Healing Pots, Cure Crit Wands, Healing scrolls and Cure Serious potions.

[Kielbasa]

My initial testing was done in epic hard big top with no hireling. I completed it just fine. It just wasn't noticeably faster than when I was a light monk. I do have healing spring twisted definitely a nice solo twist. Good call on the devotion item for when you cast it I didn't think of that. When I get another twist I may twist in another use of it per rest for when I solo. I've got umd but its pretty abysmal sitting around 20 after my lesser not sure if I want to invest in that much gear to up it more. I was really hoping with the changes to low level spells that blur scrolls would give 5 minutes of blur but they still only give three minutes. Between that shadow fade and the occasional shroud displacement I am pretty happy with my miss chance. I don't have access to silver flame pots this life.

I'm testing out max dodge chance right now roughly 19% because the seal of dun robar is only giving 3% until they fix it. So no room for improved sunder right now I don't miss it all that much. I'll probably play with fred a few times before I finally tr for a fighter or pally past life.

In a few days I may try maxed fire stance just to say I did so. I'm a big proponent of keeping as many things on cool down as possible. Any time I see a monk with a full ki bar I cringe.

Thanks for giving me some stuff to think about.