Help with Monk Stick Build

[Arikzael]

Hey folks. Planning on TR'ing a toon into his third life (36 pt build), and I'd love to make a stick monk using the Henshin tree. I've never played a monk before, and I was curious as to stat distribution and splashes that would make him viable in EE content. I've seen a few things, but without having to scroll through pages of possibly outdated info, I was hoping someone would have some pointers. I know STR and WIS are important, but it looks like Henshin mixes well with the Fire stance, so I don't quite know how to balance those since you lose WIS.

In terms of feats I know that IC feats with Monks (at least 20 base crit weapon monks) don't shine the way they do with other weapons, so other than the THF line, I was wondering if the cleave line would be a good route or if whirling blow would prove to be a better route. Stunning Blow is nice too I know but the DCs in end game seem like they would get easily made without fighter Tactical DC boost or LD DC boost, if not both.

In any case, any suggestions would be awesome, as I hope to TR him by next week

[unbongwah]

IMHO, every staff build should have at least two rog lvls for Acrobatics (+15% atk speed) and Quick Strike (Acro ver. has 12-sec. CD vs Henshin's 20-sec. CD); your DPS takes a significant hit w/out both. You will also definitely want +1 crit range & multiplier bonus from either Staff Specialization (rog or monk 5) or Holy Sword (pal 14+). After that, you have some flexibility with the rest of your levels.

[ddorimble]

IMHO, every staff build should have at least two rog lvls for Acrobatics (+15% atk speed) and Quick Strike (Acro ver. has 12-sec. CD vs Henshin's 20-sec. CD); your DPS takes a significant hit w/out both. You will also definitely want +1 crit range & multiplier bonus from either Staff Specialization (rog or monk 5) or Holy Sword (pal 14+). After that, you have some flexibility with the rest of your levels.

Seconded.

Also, for full disclosures sake, I haven't really tried Henshin...but as a one-time exclusively Monk playing person...I really can't find anything to be attracted to there. The screwed up half-ass castery-ness of it looks so unappealing. I'd personally not go beyond Monk 6 for Shadow Veil and a little bit from Henshin or Shintao and leave it at that. There are some good Dodgey updates planned for Thief Acrobat, so I'd probably look at the good old Rogue 12 / Monk 6 / Something 2 (probably Paladin). Tier 5 Acrobat, Shadow Veil, and a little bit from everything else.

You can also get some pretty good benefit from 3 Druid with Ram's Might, Shillelagh, and Fatal Harrier. Trade the defense of Paladin 2 for some offense. I might look at Rogue 11 / Monk 6 / Druid 3 for that.

I've also given up on Tactics (Stunning Blow and the like) because I got tired of chasing every single last +1 DC bonus just to get them to work. They don't work on bosses anyways and I've ended up much less stressed from it (every time I fought something I couldn't use tactics on I just couldn't help but think "Whelp, that's like 6 equipment enchantment slots and I don't know how many Enhancements and ED abilities that are doing absolutely NOTHING for me right now..."). Not sure how other people feel about that though.

[Arikzael]

Okay all good to know. So if delving more into TA, would you max DEX over STR and would Power Attack/Cleave be a better route than Precision/Whirlwind (or something else)?

[Arikzael]

Ah well to take THF you need 15 str, so I guess that answers that.

[Sunnie]

As far as I know, Whirlwind Attack is unique in that it only works properly when you're fighting unarmed, if you're using weapons you want the cleaves. Though with the high attack speed of Q-staves and all those glancing blows, cleave and GC may actually end up dealing less damage than simply swinging away does. Additionally, Cleave and GC do NOT proc doublestrikes and as such do not benefit at all from Quick Strike.

I did some testing to check that a few days ago since I'll TR into a barbarian with a stick soon. I've decided to ditch the cleaves and focus on glancing blow damage and doublestrike instead.