U33 Unarmed Monks - Any Success Stories ?

[DrawingGuy]

Know the Angles is for Quivering Palm and the ~+10 damage. While it's true that 10 Melee Power from a fourth Henshin core is more DPS than that, KtA bumps my Quivering Palm into the 80s, and at that point it is pretty effective. Insta-kill > a little more DPS on the mob. And Harper has melee power in it, so you could get up to 3 MP along with KtA for 10 AP.

KtA also allows me to use standard CC like trip:
10 base
20 item
6 insightful item
4 quality item
3 past lives
2 tactics feat
4 Astral Scion
6 Legendary Tactics
10+ KtA
-----
65 base to any tactics check.

8 base STR
7 tome
2 ship
2 litany
2 completionist
1 exceptional
8 augment
2 augment or potion
5 Primal Scream
4 Tenser Transformation
----
41 = 15 STR to tactics. Higher with Shop, Yugo, any real STR items, or STR investments.

That puts even standard tactics at 80+ DCs on a dump STR character. Before the Jade Strike boost, Trip was my CC for golems, constructs, and undead when Jades failed. Coupled with Unbalancing Strike, Trip was actually quite effective. Now that Jade Strike and Tomb of Jade are much more useful, this CC effort is not as needed, but why not have a backup CC in case the others fail?


And, of course, there are certain targets with saves over 100, so you'll actually need KtA to be able to land your Jade Strike or stuns since for those you need to reach 120 for no-fail.

Personally I think Know the Angles is worth it.


[EDIT] - I missed people asking if Know the Angles works for the Jade line. It does indeed. Anything that is helped by Tactics in any way is helped by KtA. That means the Jade Line, Dismissing Strike, Stunning Fist, Dire Charge, Unbalancing Strike, etc. Hopefully they'll add tactics of some form to the DC of all monk abilities.

[Gargoyle69]

Should be better in Fire-Stance by the moved Crit Multiplier. That´s just half the truth, coz Empty Hand Mastery from Shintao compensates, and adds another one to Fire Stance still leaving it superior DPSwise.
They higher crit-range is independant from stance. The logic tells Fire should be better. Maybe my Impression was the mixture of Viability, DPS and Chance/random that makes me feel earth still gave better DPS.

Hehe, I was the same, unsure if my impression matched the numbers. After so long of Mountain being the only stance for unarmed, it'll take some shifting I think.

Would love to hear back from you once you've played with it some more.

[Gargoyle69]

I missed people asking if Know the Angles works for the Jade line. It does indeed. Anything that is helped by Tactics in any way is helped by KtA. That means the Jade Line, Dismissing Strike, Stunning Fist, Dire Charge, Unbalancing Strike, etc. Hopefully they'll add tactics of some form to the DC of all monk abilities.

Ok, that's good to know.

I just hope when they bring out their NUET (New Universal Enhancement Tree) they have a Wis-based version of KtA as well as the Wis-based version of the Strategic Combats ....

[HuneyMunster]

Know the Angles is for Quivering Palm and the ~+10 damage. While it's true that 10 Melee Power from a fourth Henshin core is more DPS than that, KtA bumps my Quivering Palm into the 80s, and at that point it is pretty effective. Insta-kill > a little more DPS on the mob. And Harper has melee power in it, so you could get up to 3 MP along with KtA for 10 AP.

KtA also allows me to use standard CC like trip:
10 base
20 item
6 insightful item
4 quality item
3 past lives
2 tactics feat
4 Astral Scion
6 Legendary Tactics
10+ KtA
-----
65 base to any tactics check.

8 base STR
7 tome
2 ship
2 litany
2 completionist
1 exceptional
8 augment
2 augment or potion
5 Primal Scream
4 Tenser Transformation
----
41 = 15 STR to tactics. Higher with Shop, Yugo, any real STR items, or STR investments.

That puts even standard tactics at 80+ DCs on a dump STR character. Before the Jade Strike boost, Trip was my CC for golems, constructs, and undead when Jades failed. Coupled with Unbalancing Strike, Trip was actually quite effective. Now that Jade Strike and Tomb of Jade are much more useful, this CC effort is not as needed, but why not have a backup CC in case the others fail?


And, of course, there are certain targets with saves over 100, so you'll actually need KtA to be able to land your Jade Strike or stuns since for those you need to reach 120 for no-fail.

Personally I think Know the Angles is worth it.


[EDIT] - I missed people asking if Know the Angles works for the Jade line. It does indeed. Anything that is helped by Tactics in any way is helped by KtA. That means the Jade Line, Dismissing Strike, Stunning Fist, Dire Charge, Unbalancing Strike, etc. Hopefully they'll add tactics of some form to the DC of all monk abilities.

Are you using Dex for hit and damage and wind stance?

Gonna be doing another monk life this week was gonna stay human and drop wis down to 16 this time so can take 16 str and go sun stance. Usually do 14 str, 12 int, 18 wis. Other option I was thinking was 18 wis 16 dex 8 str.

Build stats would be
16 str
14 dex
12 con
14 int
16 wis + level ups
8 cha

Main reason I ask is for what peoples to hit is like in LE content. No point having high dc is your gonna get grazing hits when attempting to use cc.

[vampiregoat69]

I had unarmed monk and was doing real bad damage 40-50 a hit IF that, I decided as a str based monk to instead try q.staff and I am now doing 200-300 a hit before crits. Yeah never going unarmed again they are weak as all get out, took me hours to kill one monster why others slammed all other monsters around me.

[adrian69]

My problem is that new Monks will become faster paupers with repair costs in ooze-filled early quests. it would be nice if there was a way to quickly un-equip handwraps (or any weapon) for this purpose.

From your items screen, just put an empty green box on a hot bar. It will unequip your weapons by clicking it.

[DrawingGuy]

Are you using Dex for hit and damage and wind stance?

Gonna be doing another monk life this week was gonna stay human and drop wis down to 16 this time so can take 16 str and go sun stance. Usually do 14 str, 12 int, 18 wis. Other option I was thinking was 18 wis 16 dex 8 str.

Build stats would be
16 str
14 dex
12 con
14 int
16 wis + level ups
8 cha

Main reason I ask is for what peoples to hit is like in LE content. No point having high dc is your gonna get grazing hits when attempting to use cc.

Yes, I use Dex for my attack and damage. My to-hit is in the 120s - Can't log in right now as I'm out of town, so I don't have the exact number, but I have it high enough that I usually don't flop CCs from glancing blowds. I also typically run Ocean and Mountain stances. Ocean for trash killing, and Mountain for bosses so I can keep aggro as I play a tank role for the party. If you are looking for DPS instead, go Sun if you use a lot of Monk moves, or Air just for straight DPS.


@Vampiregoat - Unless you were low level, you should most certainly be getting more damage than 40-50. If you ever make one again, post what you have and we can let you know how to close the gap. You won't reach meta-build levels of DPS, but you should be able to be competitive with other weapon types.

[HuneyMunster]

Are the Smite Tainted and Jade attack now considered light attacks for building up healing Ki finisher?

[HastyPudding]

Are the Smite Tainted and Jade attack now considered light attacks for building up healing Ki finisher?

They used to be a long time ago, but not now. Only fists of light works.

[Taimasan]

How are you guys getting dex to damage with unarmed?

[DrawingGuy]

How are you guys getting dex to damage with unarmed?

They changed how the Ninja Spy training works - it now applies to all weapons you're centered with. This means Handwraps (not literally unarmed as nothing works with unarmed), Quarterstaves (which it didn't before - not even with slash/pierce staves), or anything you're using with a Centered Kensai (though typically those run STR as they're going for max +x[W] on a two-hander).

[Steve_Howe]

I had unarmed monk and was doing real bad damage 40-50 a hit IF that, I decided as a str based monk to instead try q.staff and I am now doing 200-300 a hit before crits. Yeah never going unarmed again they are weak as all get out, took me hours to kill one monster why others slammed all other monsters around me.

Doing 200+ BASE (no crits, no elemental, no sneak) damage with my WIS-based Monk and handwraps now...

[moo_cow]

Doing 200+ BASE (no crits, no elemental, no sneak) damage with my WIS-based Monk and handwraps now...

Seeing easily the same. 50 damage. Not even possible.

[Robbenklopper]

Seeing easily the same. 50 damage. Not even possible.

I can confirm 200+, doing pretty well. Are you MC´ed? Pure Monk Lvl25, past life, martial arts: Antipode 8.8x1D6, Adamantine Knuckles+Arkat´s Cord 10.3x1d6. Plus all the candy ...

[LavidDynch]

Not sure about success.. but for a melee they are quite fun. They would be top notch if we had wis to dmg.

A short vid of my Scion-monk (~80% geared, haven't even locked my bars due to constant changes... no KTA... yet?, or extreme luck with crits in the vid,,, take it for what it is )

[Kuunkukka]

Not sure about success.. but for a melee they are quite fun. They would be top notch if we had wis to dmg.

A short vid of my Scion-monk (~80% geared, haven't even locked my bars due to constant changes... no KTA... yet?, or extreme luck with crits in the vid,,, take it for what it is )

That is... quite impressive. Would you like to write out what you have done to push those numbers out? Lots and lots of melee power?

[LavidDynch]

That is... quite impressive. Would you like to write out what you have done to push those numbers out? Lots and lots of melee power?

I lost my wife, kids and job; running slavers and cannith crunching the leftover...

I'm sure there are people in this thread who has higher numbers than that, but:
20 monk for max MP
Human for the double actionboost -- haste + dmg for bosses, DMG + DMG in Slaver's, if your lucky your Whirlwind-strike will hit something before it's blasted away by the better kind....
Pastlife Rogue (great for bosses and portals!)
Max Hide skill, max SA gear. max strenght, and everything else associated with base dmg.
Unbalancing Strike -- "Saves" one item slot compared to a Scion-ranger, makes mobs vulnerable to SA.
I don't fully understand Jade Strike but I love the ability.

Gear is standard Power Gamer Light. I got full completionist and such but you don't really need that these days -- but it adds up.

I'll probably post more monk vids in the near future.

Edit: Max dps wraps would probably be a 12mnk/6ftr/2x (or more ftr) would probably be a much better monk..

[TallMikeM]

just a quick Q for you puncher monk types, are you taking the PA, cleave, gt cleave route on your punchers?

[LavidDynch]

just a quick Q for you puncher monk types, are you taking the PA, cleave, gt cleave route on your punchers?

I tend to rush Whirlwind while leveling. I take PA, cause im stupid, but Precision probably wins at "end game".

[TallMikeM]

I tend to rush Whirlwind while leveling. I take PA, cause im stupid, but Precision probably wins at "end game".

ah, that makes sense. I thought I could see PA on your hotbar but couldn't see cleave etc. So WW replaces the cleaves, was wondering how you deal with large areas of mobs. thanks for clearing that up.