fists of light tactic

[Asanarama]

I doubt I'm the only one to have thought of this, but I've never read about it before so I thought I'd mention it. A tactic to use with Fists of Light is to intentionally equip weak weapons--I use a pair of plain kamas--to "milk" an opponent for HP. I was driven to try this because so many opponents die before I can use them to restore much of my HP. If, for a given group of opponents that aggro together, you save for last the one that does the slowest damage, you can kill it slowly with those weak weapons, giving you more time to restore your HP via Fists of Light. As long as you fill your HP more quickly than the opponent damages you, it works. Mountain Stance helps. Keep in mind though that if you do 0 base weapon damage you don't get Ki--maybe no HP either. Also, I acknowledge that the circumstances in which this is helpful are somewhat limited, but I also suspect that there are circumstances in which it can save the day, so guy buy a pair of cheap kamas and scrape any offensive enchantments off them. Hmm. I should look into defensive enchants for those. Parrying comes to mind.

[Soulfurnace]

I'm just going to ask; when does killing your dps save the day?
I'm just not seeing it being a viable way to heal. Well. Beyond level ~6 anyway.
What sort of level/quests are you talking about?
(and it's pretty hard to heal faster with fists of light than a scroll/pot/wand/etc)

[Asanarama]

I'm just going to ask; when does killing your dps save the day?
I'm just not seeing it being a viable way to heal. Well. Beyond level ~6 anyway.
What sort of level/quests are you talking about?
(and it's pretty hard to heal faster with fists of light than a scroll/pot/wand/etc)

I guess it would "save the day" when it's your only reasonable way to restore your hp and you don't want a re-entry penalty. Your healer(s) is/are dead, there are opponents between you and all shrines, and because you don't consider them affordable, or because you forgot to refill, you don't have many potions. You fight your way onward using this tactic, conserving your potions so you have as many as possible to use when you get to the boss in the room before the shrine. So yeah, pretty particular situation I guess. ;p

Funny you should mention level 6 because that's where I'm at now. I read that light monks can solo well. Someone even wrote something specific like "really solo, not even with a hireling." I took that to mean that Fists of Light scales well with monk level and would always grant reasonably potent HP restoration. Maybe they were referring to half-elf monks with a dilettante that lets them cure/heal with wands and scrolls. Pure monks' UMD caps at half their level, they don't have build points to spare for Chr, and it would be hard to squeeze in a skill focus feat or spend skill points on UMD, so I don't see scrolls and wands being viable for other races. It's a no-brainer to have potions handy in case they're the only thing that's going to save your life, but they have a cooldown and cost more PP than Fists of Light.

[EllisDee37]

Regarding the specific idea in the OP, your best bet for FoL milking would be cc wraps like paralyzing or maybe even slowburst. Even the stat draining ones (dex is probably the best bet to get to 0 the quickest) would probably work.

For low level alts/players, crafted Maladroit of Slowburst is probably the best way to go if you wanted to use this technique.

I read that light monks can solo well. Someone even wrote something specific like "really solo, not even with a hireling." I took that to mean that Fists of Light scales well with monk level and would always grant reasonably potent HP restoration.

Fists of Light is a piece of the puzzle, not the whole solution. (Lesser) Vampirism weapons are another. Vampiric Stonedust wraps, Ivy wraps, Grave Wrappings, etc...

I have a dedicated challenge farmer/crucible swimmer human pure monk who stays level 15 forever. (Build linked in sig.) Here's how he solos without a hire, both in challenges and elite quests at level. (He occasionally bails out an elite crucible wipe for bravery.) He doesn't use hires.

1) Normal wraps are crafted +5 Screaming of Pure Good for max dps against all targets. Spams fists of light very frequently, as well as the light finishing move to restore ~50 hp at a time.
2) If he starts losing hp more than the FoL + finishing move combo restores, I switch to lesser vampirism wraps, always continuing the FoL+finisher spamming. (Currently I use crafted +4 Holy of Lesser Vampirism for this, but I may switch to ML15 Ivy Wraps.)
3) If this gets me back to full strength I switch back to 1. If I continue to lose hp I switch to crafted +1 Holy of Vampirism wraps. These are the big dogs of the self-healing world. For my monk they return 1, 3 or 5 hp per hit. But he's only level 15; this number likely skyrockets for epic alts with real healing amp.
4) In really dire combat situations I down my crystal cove heal flask for 194 hp. (5:00 cooldown.) Occasionally I'll also dip into his small collection of heal-over-time pots I get from free daily silver dice rolls. They can also be acquired from collectors, but I haven't had need for more than a handful yet. I've used maybe 3 ever.

The +1 Holy of Vampirism wraps let me stand toe to toe with level 20 Devashta with little concern, though I avoid 20 because the highest level where I can still open challenge chests is 19.

I normally play challenges at level 17 just because everything is so much easier and faster; level 17 Devashta requires no vampirism of any kind. Just fists of light + finisher is sufficient there, allowing me to use my crafted +5 holy of evil outsider bane wraps to slice right through her.

He does have a stack of 100 cure serious pots, but they are so rarely needed I moved them off his hotbar in favor of the HoT pots. I don't think I've ever used wholeness of body, but of course that's always an option between fights.

[Soulfurnace]

I guess it would "save the day" when it's your only reasonable way to restore your hp and you don't want a re-entry penalty.

Funny you should mention level 6 because that's where I'm at now. I read that light monks can solo well. Someone even wrote something specific like "really solo, not even with a hireling." I took that to mean that Fists of Light scales well with monk level and would always grant reasonably potent HP restoration. Maybe they were referring to half-elf monks with a dilettante that lets them cure/heal with wands and scrolls. Pure monks' UMD caps at half their level, they don't have build points to spare for Chr, and it would be hard to squeeze in a skill focus feat or spend skill points on UMD, so I don't see scrolls and wands being viable for other races.

The plat cost is minimal, for one.
And it IS possible to get good UMD cross class, without charisma, or rogue levels. Helf just makes it easier without the silly amounts of gear I chug around on lives now.

I don't care what class you are. You can solo if you gear yourself, have a good way to heal yourself, practice at dodging traps (or rogue levels) and some practice. My dark monk solo'd (not duo'd with a hire), my fighter managed (albeit, some deaths to traps. Gonna get /2 rogue next time, but different story), arti, no brainer, solo'd, sorc, druid etc. Even my barb should be able to solo, elite, at level, with a few exceptions (due to nasty traps or requiring more than one person)

However, monks in general are a strong class. Good AC, dodge, dps, stun, etc. Esp at epics with destinies, they can solo eHard with ease, and do okay at EE (I was 28 pt and undergeared, sadly enough)

But yes, I assumed around level 6, just because then your dps is decent, AC will matter, and enemies have low(er) damage than higher levels. Esp if you play elite, I found fists of light would give me ~30 hp over an enemies life. Although, that's only on stunned mobs. On un-stunned, I'd take more than 30 damage, requiring another form of healing. And while Healing Ki makes a difference, it wasn't enough for me. (Esp not when I met the Droamm, hits got worse, their hp got bigger, and my AC felt smaller)

Oh, and you claimed milking them might save the day, not me!
I personally see a stunned mob as being preferable to a live-but-hitting-back mob. They'll die, sure. You won't get much hp, sure. But better they be dead than hitting you for a while, at least imo.

Just one personal note; don't depend on a healer. They're notorious for dying, the **** things!
(That and they don't like my 4-man shroud groups. :c)

[Munkenmo]

Funny you should mention level 6 because that's where I'm at now. I read that light monks can solo well. Someone even wrote something specific like "really solo, not even with a hireling." I took that to mean that Fists of Light scales well with monk level and would always grant reasonably potent HP restoration.

If I swap from DPS to Heal amp mode on my pure, level 25 monk i reach > 450% heal amp.

This means per hit i'm either getting 4 or 9 hit points from fists of light, as well as 4, 9 or 13 per hit from my vampiric wraps.

getting back up to 22hp per punch is definitely useful, even at level 25. Though I prefer opting for dps, and using heal scrolls / ED healing abilities.

[johnnyputrid]

Funny you should mention level 6 because that's where I'm at now. I read that light monks can solo well. Someone even wrote something specific like "really solo, not even with a hireling." I took that to mean that Fists of Light scales well with monk level and would always grant reasonably potent HP restoration. Maybe they were referring to half-elf monks with a dilettante that lets them cure/heal with wands and scrolls. Pure monks' UMD caps at half their level, they don't have build points to spare for Chr, and it would be hard to squeeze in a skill focus feat or spend skill points on UMD, so I don't see scrolls and wands being viable for other races. It's a no-brainer to have potions handy in case they're the only thing that's going to save your life, but they have a cooldown and cost more PP than Fists of Light.

Fists of Light does not scale with level, it always remains at 1-2 points healed per hit over the course of 10 seconds. What will make Fists of Light more potent is healing amplification. When you hit the 150% amp mark, Fists of Light now hits for 1 or 3 points. At 200%, it becomes 2 or 4 points. At 250%, 2 or 5 points, etc. High healing amplification combined with a Devotion item to boost your healing ki finisher is what makes Fists of Light really shine at higher level play. When you can hit an enemy and get back 2-5 points every punch and build up a healing ki finisher that can hit for over 150 points, and drink CSW pots that heal for 40-50+ points, that's when the excellent self-healing aspect of a light monk really kicks in.

[Toro12]

I doubt I'm the only one to have thought of this, but I've never read about it before so I thought I'd mention it. A tactic to use with Fists of Light is to intentionally equip weak weapons--I use a pair of plain kamas--to "milk" an opponent for HP. I was driven to try this because so many opponents die before I can use them to restore much of my HP. If, for a given group of opponents that aggro together, you save for last the one that does the slowest damage, you can kill it slowly with those weak weapons, giving you more time to restore your HP via Fists of Light. As long as you fill your HP more quickly than the opponent damages you, it works. Mountain Stance helps. Keep in mind though that if you do 0 base weapon damage you don't get Ki--maybe no HP either. Also, I acknowledge that the circumstances in which this is helpful are somewhat limited, but I also suspect that there are circumstances in which it can save the day, so guy buy a pair of cheap kamas and scrape any offensive enchantments off them. Hmm. I should look into defensive enchants for those. Parrying comes to mind.

FoL works better at high levels when things last more than a hit or 2.
You have the right idea though at times when out of pots at low levels it isn't a bad idea to drop the icy bursted holy of lacerating wraps to gain some more ki for FoL and healing ki finisher.

I personally like to keep a plain +0 handwraps of lesser vampirisim for such a time. That way you get 1 point from vamp and 1-2 from FoL.

Later on I almost always have vamp of some sort on my wraps starting at 12 with vampiric stonedust wraps for a stun plus as well.

By the end tack on DT armore with 10&20% amp , human amp 3, monk amp 3 , jid'z'teka bracers for 25% and ship buff for 10 more and your FoL is healing for 3-6 and lesser vamps for 3 per swing. Healing ki for avg of 100. Cure serious pots for 85ish. Able to solo a whole lot of stchoka.