Monk Past Lives

[voodoogroves]

I need to churn out 3 Monk past lives on one of my toons. I'm almost assuredly going w/ short swords as I've got tons of them on her.

Any point in going pure if I'm going to TR shortly after 20? Am I better off doing a monk / rogue / something split?

[Lil'man]

I need to churn out 3 Monk past lives on one of my toons. I'm almost assuredly going w/ short swords as I've got tons of them on her.

Any point in going pure if I'm going to TR shortly after 20? Am I better off doing a monk / rogue / something split?

As of right now, a pure monk is weak in EE content. If you want more background on why just look at the "State of Monks" thread. I'll assume that you're rolling a 36-pt character so if you want a solid monk build, check out post 158 on Sestra's build thread: https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...s-Build-Thread
This build is an AA Monk that takes advantage of 10k stars and manyshot to create a ranged powerhouse. If you want he has videos demonstrating how good its DPS is, and since you're kiting around all day you don't have to worry about wearing pajamas, although I hear the build starts really slowly at lower levels, but really picks up later.

He has an index in the beginning of his thread so you can check out what else he has if you want. Monk/Rogue isn't recommended because you'll have to spread out your stats extremely thin, and monks are one of the more stat-intensive classes right now (STR, CON, DEX, WIS) and adding INT to the mix would be a bit too much.

However, if you just want to roll around in Heroics and immediately TR at 20 then you should be fine if you have dual GS shortswords, a DEX based ninja-spy isn't bad at heroics, but you'll fall off hard in epics.

[voodoogroves]

Lil'man!

I'll check Sestras ... is he still active on on G-land?

I'm not likely to go AA as this character has metric tons of shortswords and repeaters ... but not so many bows. As I said, it's a heroic PL - so really a L18 build is fine. I may go w/ a 6/6/6 (which I know Sestra used on many, many lives)

[Lil'man]

Lil'man!

I'll check Sestras ... is he still active on on G-land?

I'm not likely to go AA as this character has metric tons of shortswords and repeaters ... but not so many bows. As I said, it's a heroic PL - so really a L18 build is fine. I may go w/ a 6/6/6 (which I know Sestra used on many, many lives)

I think he's still active, his forum account was last used today so I'd assume you'd be able to hit him up there too. But as far as heroics a pure L20 ninja-spy dex-based shortsword Monk is fine. If you go halfling your sneak attack will deal a ton of damage, especially if you have a GS shortsword that blinds on crits.

[Zoda]

I'd suggest going with qstaves and rog splash. Cleaving your way to 20 is way faster than twfing and qstaff is really strong at each level. A rad2 staff is all you need (there are some decent named ones too, like Stave of the Seer or the new TOEE named one is pretty uber and only ML 7). Staff builds are by far my favorites for grinding any kind of past lives, you get great umd, AC for heroic stuff, trap skills if you have some1 to zerg ahead and even wings (or abundant step if you go deeper with monk). If you are using wooden sticks 1 druid level gives you deadly and ram's too, but the variations are limitless.

[Qhualor]

I wouldn't say better. Its more personal choice. You wouldn't notice any more difference between going pure or not. If I'm just doing past lives I don't worry about what is better to do or not. Heroics are easy enough to not have to over think how to build what is better to do.

[TheGuyYouKnow]

as far as monk is concerned
level 1-6 a high priority for t2 stance, shadow fade (25% incorp), 6% dodge and 10% move speed
level 12 abundant step, t3 stance, 20% move speed
level 15 quivering palm
level 18 t4 stance

unarmed with stun will almost always be better, especially if your getting 8+ monk levels

multiclass options
fighter - feats are nice, defender stance, haste boost, stun dc boost*badly timed monk or fighter level can lead to unwanted feats*
paladin - divine might, cha to saves, defender stance
ranger - manyshot, twf, rams might(2str, 2damage)
cleric - divine might, 5dr(fantastic up until gh), small heals, fom and dw with bigger splash
rogue - sneak attack(auto sneak damage with stun), traps xp bonus, secret door xp bonus, locked door optionals xp

i suggest a few builds (all melee unarmed focus with stun)
12 monk 4 pal 4 fighter -massive saves, loh, divine might, defender stance
8 monk 6 ranger 6 rogue - manyshot, auto bluffs, sneak damage
12 monk 8 rogue - traps, sneak damage
10 monk 8 cleric 2 ranger - manyshot(3feats), cleric buffs, heals, divine might, 5dr
12 monk 8 cleric - cleric buffs, heals, divine might, 5dr

[Bart_D]

These days I like to play with iconics, but for quick heroic TR how about just aiming for level 18 (i think pretty much anything will work):
- 15 monk with one of 3 pally, or 1 cleric/fighter and 2 rogue/ranger/pally/fighter
- 12 monk with one of 6 ranger/rogue/paladin
- 6 monk with 2 of 6 ranger/rogue/paladin

(ranger for free feats, manyshot, ram's, sprint, dancing death or killer; rogue for trapping, umd, killer; paladin for stance, divine might, saves, core damage)

- or 6 monk/7 cleric (ameliorating strike, fom, dw)/5 rogue drow? ... should work well with shortswords but probably more healing than you'll know what to do with

[Munkenmo]

I need to churn out 3 Monk past lives on one of my toons. I'm almost assuredly going w/ short swords as I've got tons of them on her.

Any point in going pure if I'm going to TR shortly after 20? Am I better off doing a monk / rogue / something split?

Not much point in pure at all if you're interested in speed and efficiency. I'd recommend utilizing the pastlifenmo template for heroic monk lives.

[Therrias]

I need to churn out 3 Monk past lives on one of my toons. I'm almost assuredly going w/ short swords as I've got tons of them on her.

Any point in going pure if I'm going to TR shortly after 20? Am I better off doing a monk / rogue / something split?

Pure shuriken ninja is currently the best monk build. Farm out a shadowstar and a frozen tunic and you are good to go. You'll still be able to use a shortsword if you find the need to melee something...(but you won't)

[Makkuroi]

I wouldnt recommend shuriken on a non-iconic life, at low lvls shuriken are just too slow (low dex, no whirling wrists or shiradi, no ninja capstone). Either go iconic (shadar kai) or go dex-based staffy (with rogue levels) and respec to shuriken at higher levels.

For simple past lives, id go something like 6 monk 5 rogue 4 pally str based staffy, remaining levelups dont really matter but you probably need 8 monk to get the PL. This works very well on bladeforged.

PDK with fighter instead of pally would probably work, too, but your self-heals would be limited (fists of light, lay on hands, UMD) and you dont have divine might. On a PDK build you could go 12/5/3 for abundant step.