Help Building My Gear?

[Sunarch_Kunari]

Ok, I recently leveled my monk to 18. I decided then that I had passed enough undead in the game that light monk would not give me enough dps to be worthwhile in a group. So, I took my free LR and because a dark monk. I love, love, LOVE dark monk. Across all of my lives, DPS, buffbot, healbot, ect I have never had the most kills, but everything's dropping left and right on this character now. But, I am running into some bumps in the road, and I'm pretty sure it's my equipment, because I have never built equipment for a monk before.

Head- Alchemist's Crown (for +6 wisdom)
Neck- Golden Guile (helps get sneak attack in from dark monk)
Trinket- Sustaining Symbiont (lots of hps)
Cloak- GS trip positive con skills HP item (hps and raise dead clicky!)
Belt- Health +5 belt (definitely looking to replace this)
Ring1- L12 Ring of the Buccaneer (underwater action)
Ring2- Katra's Wit (looking to replace this, now that I am not light monk)
Hands- Fabricator's Gauntlets (set bonus activated)
Boots- 30% Striding Boots of Tumble +3 (replacing with boots of propulsion real quick)
Wrists- Fabricator's Bracers (bonus set activated)
Goggles- Ambushing +2 Goggles (looking to replace, too, but adds to my dark monk atm)
Body- Black Dragonscale Robe (do NOT want to replace this)
Wraps- +5 Impellent Handwraps (+2-12 force damage)


My goal is to maximise DPS but to have good survivability. So far DPS is pretty good, but there's room for improvement, right? I'm also worried about my survivability. Can I get help/feedback? Thanks

EDIT: I'm especially worried around his HPs. 450 with ship buffs

[jsm123]

For your handwraps, I would look into crafting some Alchemical wraps that are like this:

Byeshk (+0.5[W])
Stunning +10
Lightning Strike
Electric Storm

These are some killer wraps. Gives +2.5[W]

[Kinerd]

The #1 thing you can do for your survivability is... be a light monk. Sorry! But Fists of Light provides a fantastic source of healing once you load up on heal amp.

All is not lost, however. Although it's a bit of a squeeze, you can still take heal amp on a dark monk especially if you are human or helf, then grab some wraps of Lesser Vampirism or Vampirism. The traditional choice are the Stonedust Handwraps, which combine Lesser Vampirism with Stunning +10 and are reasonably easy to farm out. A new set with update 15 are the Ivy Wraps. I haven't farmed them myself but given that they are BtCoE you could presumably just snatch some off the AH if necessary. They range from dumpy DPS and Lesser Vampirism to impressive DPS and Vampirism. A third option is Cannith crafting, although for full Vampirism you need to craft it yourself at the moment.

Raw HP values aren't that important. Damage mitigation is good, but if you want to be survivable you need a significant source of self-healing. If you're not willing to compromise your DPS with Vampiric wraps, your only real option is to farm out Silver Flame healing potions.

[Sunarch_Kunari]

For your handwraps, I would look into crafting some Alchemical wraps that are like this:

Byeshk (+0.5[W])
Stunning +10
Lightning Strike
Electric Storm

These are some killer wraps. Gives +2.5[W]

Will have to flag for MA and **** then, *sigh*

They range from dumpy DPS and Lesser Vampirism to impressive DPS and Vampirism. A third option is Cannith crafting, although for full Vampirism you need to craft it yourself at the moment.

Raw HP values aren't that important. Damage mitigation is good, but if you want to be survivable you need a significant source of self-healing. If you're not willing to compromise your DPS with Vampiric wraps, your only real option is to farm out Silver Flame healing potions.

Just got flagged today for eveningstar, so will see if I can get some of those ivy wraps. But if I go back to the stonedust, the parties I run with will complain about everything being stone and stunned again The min level 17 ivy wraps actually look like I'm getting more DPS than now so will definitely try that. Thanks!

[StrixAluco]

I would prioritize getting flagged and getting a holy burst ToD ring over getting alchemical wraps. Both takes luck and grinding so you might work on both (considering timers if not buying bypass) and while alchemical wraps are nice there is other nice wraps as well while breaking good DR on all wraps and getting burst damage from your ring is hard to replace. You could take a look on cannith challenge stuff like Ring of the Stalker and Spare Hand, and Frozen Tunic if you considered changing your outfit. Dragontouched heal amp outfit is pretty nice too. An Amrath 6 con GFL belt is also nice. Then clickies and situational items (like unsuppressed Pale Lavender Ioun Stone) of course make a difference. In a few levels Eveningstar will give you a lot of possibilities in good lootgen and named items.

[Sunarch_Kunari]

I would prioritize getting flagged and getting a holy burst ToD ring over getting alchemical wraps. Both takes luck and grinding so you might work on both (considering timers if not buying bypass) and while alchemical wraps are nice there is other nice wraps as well while breaking good DR on all wraps and getting burst damage from your ring is hard to replace. You could take a look on cannith challenge stuff like Ring of the Stalker and Spare Hand, and Frozen Tunic if you considered changing your outfit. Dragontouched heal amp outfit is pretty nice too. An Amrath 6 con GFL belt is also nice. Then clickies and situational items (like unsuppressed Pale Lavender Ioun Stone) of course make a difference. In a few levels Eveningstar will give you a lot of possibilities in good lootgen and named items.

Yeah, wanted to get the Ring of the Stalker. Actually almost done with the mats for it. The spare hand is iffy for me, because its a belt slot, and I hide my con items in my belt slot. Frozen tunic is completely out of the question for me at this level at least. Taking away too much from my current outfit than it is giving.

[StrixAluco]

The spare hand is iffy for me, because its a belt slot, and I hide my con items in my belt slot.

You could go with a ToD (monk) necklace for con, though that leaves you with more swapping. I'm always happy to equip my Shintao set when I reach lvl 18 on my monk