Help on how to melee with a Monk

[pappo]

I have my first Monk up to level 9. It is a Light Monk, Human, and I have Stunning Fist, Stunning Blow, Void strike, and the Attack and Damage boosts from Human versatility.

Here are my stats: STR 21 DEX 19 CON 17 INT 8 WIS 24 CHA 8
Fort: 12 Reflex: 13 Will: 17
AC: 28 +2 BAB 9 FORT: 75%

http://my.ddo.com/character/khyber/stegamonk/

I have all of the stunning and void strike things assigned to 'hot keys' but I am not sure what order to use them and don't seem to stun much and my damage averages around 25 - 30, with crits around 90. I also have the Harmonious Light on a "hot key' so I can heal myself when fighting.

Are those damage numbers what I should expect to see with a level 9 monk ?

Also, what "Stance" is considered best for a new Monk player ?

The toon is so keyboard intensive I have trouble playing it.
I would appreciate any playing tips from "seasoned" Monk players on how to play a monk.

Thanks

[sebastianosmith]

Allow me to refer you to the Book of Syncletica. Of particular interest would be the section on Finishing Moves and keyboard usage.

Best of luck!

[pappo]

Allow me to refer you to the Book of Syncletica. Of particular interest would be the section on Finishing Moves and keyboard usage.

Best of luck!

Thank you very much sebastianosmith. That is exactly what I was looking for to help me understand how to fight.

Are the damage numbers, I posted, normal for my level 9 monk ?

[sebastianosmith]

Thank you very much sebastianosmith. That is exactly what I was looking for to help me understand how to fight.

Are the damage numbers, I posted, normal for my level 9 monk ?

You're welcome.

At level 9... that would be about right.

2d6 fists averaging 7-8 damage, +5 from Str, with wrap enhancements, effects and maybe HV boost is 20-30 per hit; give or take. A crit will push it to 50-60 and max out around 80-90 for stunned mobs.

Light/Shintao monks are not really DPS kings (EDs aside). They rely on steady, dependable damage delivered very quickly with the extra benefit of DR bypass and special attacks for things like aberrations, undead and extra-planar critters. Against those they can be overwhelmingly brutal. Against everything else; stun, stun, stun, beat it for a while and then stun some more.

[Spoonwelder]

Correct me if I am wrong - but I noticed this the other day and didn't get around to testing it to make sure but.....the various levels of elemental strikes are on separate timers:

Ie. you can fire off storm strike I, storm strike II and storm strike III without waiting on cooldowns then fire off the finishing move.

Now I don't actually recommend this due to hot bar usage issues and the fact that the base elemental finishing moves are only meh in my opinion.....But this could be used to setup the Path finishing moves more quickly - maybe saving a second or so overall but also not requiring you to pause in your key strokes (ie. current would be 1-2-longpause-1-shortpause-3 vs. 1-2-3-shortpause-4)

I noticed this the other day as I accidentally had both on my bar as I was levelling up and rejigging things and noticed that the cooldowns were separate. Now this was a few weeks ago and I may be recalling it incorrectly so would welcome anyone to correct this understanding.

[sebastianosmith]

Correct me if I am wrong - but I noticed this the other day and didn't get around to testing it to make sure but.....the various levels of elemental strikes are on separate timers:

Ie. you can fire off storm strike I, storm strike II and storm strike III without waiting on cooldowns then fire off the finishing move.

That is correct. Each level of elemental/void/light/dark strike uses a separate cool-down timer. Some players will devote entire hotbars to the various combinations of these in order to quickly execute specialized finishers.

Now I don't actually recommend this due to hot bar usage issues and the fact that the base elemental finishing moves are only meh in my opinion.....

On the whole, they aren't super. The two I use on a semi-regular basis (in Heroic content) are Breath of the Fire Dragon and The Trembling Earth. BotFD with 10-15[d6] and AOE-Cone at level is nothing to sneeze at for mobs that still take fire damage. It can be increased with any Combustion or Potency item as well. Trembling Earth is very nice against casters after running through the melee trash to get at them. One just has to remember to use them accordingly.

[Spoonwelder]

Cool - thought I had that right but couldn't get on line to test when this post came up....

As to the finishers....my problem is I am too busy spamming Imp.Sunder/QP(orTOD)/StunBlow/StunFist/Void etc to try to fit in finishers and at lower levels when you don't have as many of these strikes the need for a Fire or Earth finisher is nominal at best. In fact my hot bars are setup with ImpSunder, StunFist, QP/TOD as my 123 slots so I can move and hit those easy 4 will be light/dark 5 void if I have it 6789 are elements and 10 is finisher. Sometimes I even drop an element out and throw in abundant leap as 10 and 9 is the finisher.

But that is my play style. I just find stuns and instakills so much more effective than then elemental strikes.

On my light monk I will use the Light Path finishers a bit more (spell point one all the time, stun one when needed - fire against a boss). And almost all of the dark finishers are meh except on bosses and guess what -since they are fort saves they rarely if ever land. But I am probably doing it wrong

[pappo]

You're welcome.

Against everything else; stun, stun, stun, beat it for a while and then stun some more.

Thanks again for the info. As far as stuns, what can a monk do to increase his chance for a stun to occurr ? Is it with gear/ feats / enhancements ??

[Seb]

Thanks again for the info. As far as stuns, what can a monk do to increase his chance for a stun to occurr ? Is it with gear/ feats / enhancements ??

Look for Handwraps with the "Stunning +10" suffix. You will start seeing them at level 10 (or race restricted versions at level 8).

Personally I use a pair of Vampiric Stonedust Handwraps from level 12 right up to level 20. They don't have the best stunning but the overall package is really nice.

If you are a dwarf or warforged you can take enhancements to improve the DCs of your tactical feats (which includes stunning). Otherwise the only non-gear thing you can do is gain levels and increase your Wisdom score.

When you get to epic levels definitely take the Legendary Tactics ability at Tier 1 of the Legendary Dreeadnaught destiny. It is an easy twist since is at level 1.

Also at higher levels, the Seal of Dun'Robar is nice because it can have Stunning +10 on it, allowing you to use any set of handwraps. Of course two very nice epic wraps, Antipode and Grave Wrappings, already have Stunning +10 built in.

[pappo]

Look for Handwraps with the "Stunning +10" suffix. You will start seeing them at level 10 (or race restricted versions at level 8).

Personally I use a pair of Vampiric Stonedust Handwraps from level 12 right up to level 20. They don't have the best stunning but the overall package is really nice.

If you are a dwarf or warforged you can take enhancements to improve the DCs of your tactical feats (which includes stunning). Otherwise the only non-gear thing you can do is gain levels and increase your Wisdom score.

When you get to epic levels definitely take the Legendary Tactics ability at Tier 1 of the Legendary Dreeadnaught destiny. It is an easy twist since is at level 1.

Also at higher levels, the Seal of Dun'Robar is nice because it can have Stunning +10 on it, allowing you to use any set of handwraps. Of course two very nice epic wraps, Antipode and Grave Wrappings, already have Stunning +10 built in.

thank you very much. Great info. This, along with the Monk Guide I was pointed to, should answer all my Monk questions. The monk is becoming more and more fun to run as I level it.

[fco-karatekid]

Blunt end goes in the other man...

Hat tip to Zorro

[Missing_Minds]

Thanks again for the info. As far as stuns, what can a monk do to increase his chance for a stun to occurr ? Is it with gear/ feats / enhancements ??

Stunning Fist: Monk level, stunning + weapons/items, combat mastery + gear, wisdom, + any racial combat enhancments, + fighter based combat enhancments (if you cross class).
Stunning strike: your str I believe, + any racial combat enhancments, + fighter based combat enhancments (if you cross class).

But I'm going to make a comment. You may end up ditching void strike because of how expensive it becomes.
I also ditched Stunning strike to make room for other feats.

[fco-karatekid]

Stunning Fist: Monk level, stunning + weapons/items, combat mastery + gear, wisdom, + any racial combat enhancments, + fighter based combat enhancments (if you cross class).
Stunning strike: your str I believe, + any racial combat enhancments, + fighter based combat enhancments (if you cross class).

But I'm going to make a comment. You may end up ditching void strike because of how expensive it becomes.
I also ditched Stunning strike to make room for other feats.

I never took stunning strike (stayed with fist due to better wis than str), but Void Strike I had and loved the entire time I was leveling her.

I took a break from her, went and TR'ed another character, then came back to her. Because it had been a while I had forgotten about void strike for a couple weeks... THAT's when I realized I really didn't NEED it.

That said, when AC and To-Hit were tougher, the Light Monk Finisher was absolutely necessary.

[pappo]

That said, when AC and To-Hit were tougher, the Light Monk Finisher was absolutely necessary.

Sorry, but I don't understand a lot of the nuances of DDO.

I don't know what you mean by your sentence above ? AC and To-Hit tougher , and Finisher absolutely necessary ?

[sebastianosmith]

Sorry, but I don't understand a lot of the nuances of DDO.

I don't know what you mean by your sentence above ? AC and To-Hit tougher , and Finisher absolutely necessary ?

Last summer when U14 was released, the AC system was substantially changed. As a result the To-Hit calculations were slanted in favor of the character - at or near Mob CR level - while AC was somewhat nerfed at the upper end of the spectrum. What fco-karatekid was attempting to imply, I think, was that the Moment of Clarity finisher which required a Void strike became much less useful than it had once been because of the aforementioned changes.

[Missing_Minds]

Sorry, but I don't understand a lot of the nuances of DDO.

I don't know what you mean by your sentence above ? AC and To-Hit tougher , and Finisher absolutely necessary ?

on a light monk, Light + dark + light = 10 seconds of +5 to just about everything, save damage.

In weak parties it helped the hitting a lot. Over all I really didn't need it myself. But I'd throw it from time to time just to see if the HP boss guage would drop faster. If it did over a period of time (normally I'd throw it 3 times for 30 seconds) and I noticed a decent increase I'd keep it up.

These days.. not needed.

[fco-karatekid]

Last two posts were what I was implying, sorry.

[pappo]

Last two posts were what I was implying, sorry.

Ok, thanks fco-karatekid. I understand what you mean now. I have not even used these moves yet. Up until I started reading the monk guide, all I ever did was a stunning fist or void strike, or use the light move that gives me hp when I attack, and gives the party hp on the finishing move. There are so many more moves that I never knew about. That is was has been confusing me on running a monk.
For example, I see where fire stance gives more Ki, to allow me to do more of these finishers, but then I have to trade off better CON, or STR, etc from one of the other stances.
Another thing I hope to learn from the Monk guide is how and when to use these stances.
I know the Monk can be a very powerful toon and I just want to use him best so I will not be a burden on a party I run with. If I don't figure it out soon I probably won't be invited back to a party when they see what a GIMP Monk I am....

[TeacherSyn]

Ok, thanks fco-karatekid. I understand what you mean now. I have not even used these moves yet. Up until I started reading the monk guide, all I ever did was a stunning fist or void strike, or use the light move that gives me hp when I attack, and gives the party hp on the finishing move. There are so many more moves that I never knew about. That is was has been confusing me on running a monk.
For example, I see where fire stance gives more Ki, to allow me to do more of these finishers, but then I have to trade off better CON, or STR, etc from one of the other stances.
Another thing I hope to learn from the Monk guide is how and when to use these stances.
I know the Monk can be a very powerful toon and I just want to use him best so I will not be a burden on a party I run with. If I don't figure it out soon I probably won't be invited back to a party when they see what a GIMP Monk I am....

As you're likely discovering, even a couple of levels of Monk make for very useful toons.

A pure Monk is arguably the most self-sufficient and versatile melee class in the game--especially since they're doing this only in cloth armor and a few bits of gear.

You'll hardly be a burden to a party. You'll have great saves, be able to take down mages to keep your tanks concentrating on the heavy targets and letting healers and specialists do their jobs. Your ki regenerates so you'll be able to keep up your work all day.

Many people on the forums have helped in getting the Monk guide in shape to answer the very questions you've got, especially Sebastianosmith (who, with thanks, added the toolbar mapping suggestions) and others who suggested quite a lot of edits. I've got to add more to Shadowdancer ED for Monks; it's pretty useful for the stealthy types.

Just remember that balance is all to a Monk early on. Keep your main stats high and relatively even, with emphasis on WIS. And don't overlook Hide/Move Silently, Diplomacy, Jump, and even a few points into cross-class Intimidate if your build supports it. The Finishing Moves chapter should help you train up better. You're at the point where you've got to use them reliably or things will become more difficult.

[t0r012]

The keyboard mapping function is you friend as a monk.

Map your ` key (right next to 1 key) I put stunning fist there for easy access. I also mapped Q ,R, F,G,H,V.
I also mapped alt +0-5 for less frequent uses in my case hand wraps for easy switching when needed.

Still not enough for easy access to all your monk strikes and abilities but you can get those most important to you.