Theory crafting the celestial monk

[DrawingGuy]

A Henshin has about 30 more PRR and 10 more dodge than the average Monk, and there are Rogue splits that can give you even higher dodge with temporary 100% dodge clicks. Stick builds are the dodge kings, and between the higher defenses, Cauldron, and cleaves, are more passively adept at handling mob groups. The key term there, though, is "passively". A Shintao Monk has Dire Charge (or should), Stunning Fist, and Jade strikes - on Henshin where a spawn of Crowns/Reapers can mean death, a Shintao can control it. Pretty much Stunning Fist and Dire Charge should always be used on CD unless they're stun immune, in which your Tomb of Jade would be used (such as Reapers or crowned undead). Jade Strike and Smite should also be used on CD as they can be free CC and are extra DPS, though I'll use those specifically on Reapers if Tomb is on CD.

One thing that can help you is if you establish combos and attack priorities. For example an already tightly set group of mobs you'll want to enter with a Dire Charge > Helicopter Kick (WWA) > Stunning Fist/Tomb most dangerous mob... a spread out one you would Abundant Step in > Stunning Fist/Tomb most dangerous mob > (and assuming mobs have come in on you so they're closer together) Dire Charge > Helicopter Kick... and those are just intro combos. They can be made more complex with weapon swaps (such as to get 1k HP trigger before swapping back to Duality), and how you'll handle mobs in priority down the line. You may be more single-target focused, but that Helicopter Kick hits hard, and often by the time I'm done using my single target DPS to kill priority targets, the rest died to the spins.

Though you're comment of trash dying too fast to get to use your Action Boosts... LD is built around the use of Action Boosts -- not only are you getting 100mp with Prowess (the 100mp is a remnant of the original coding. I expect it to be nerfed/fixed to the 75 stated), you are getting +1[W] and 50% helpless. You should be using ABs on those trash fights, and if you reach a Shrine with leftover Action Boosts and had a fight where you did not use one, you're doing it wrong. I load both 30MP and Haste boosts from LD. If you know that the gap between shrines will be longer, you can interject Unmovable and Thick Skinned into the AB rotation. Like a caster uses shrines to get their blue bar back, you use it to get your action boosts (and clickies if you use them) back. As long as you properly rotate boosts, you have 10+ minutes of continuous boosting with a few Unmovable/Thick left at your fingertips. That is before considering gaps between fights and any AB recovery you could do with a TF weapon (a TF weapon for Vuln stacking and AB recovery is a good thing to have in your pocket). I usually last 15-20 minutes easily before running out of boosts, and rarely need to even consider using the free defensive boosts from LD as shrines usually are close enough together to be fine with just MP/Haste usage.

[Vish]

Ya,
I know how to play monk...
Just been a year since I was last Shintao
And I've a preference for henshin
It's gonna take me a few weeks to get back in the swing,
Just been generalizing what I'm experiencing
I have to go back to stunning fist and ww kicks
With a dire charge thrown in there
But so far I've been leading groups, and thus having to front attack most stuff
I was running this morning with locks, and they were es blasting their way through everything,
So I got some side attacks in, and started seeing avg 300 for sneak attacks
Hell, I don't even have my Phoenix set up yet, totally forgot that nice little spell
And I'm not playing knock or unbalancing strike yet,
Like I say it'll take a few weeks to get my licks down
Haven't run a raid yet either, but I'm off timer, so today likely
Will post a build and reaper stats next
So far I'm just observing damage
And seeing what the fuss is about
But I'd say at least double damage over the henshin
In the end, I would like better staffs for more w
But I'm not sure how that will ever play out

[Vish]

Reaper
Ld, water, meditation, CE
Str 20
Dex 74
Con 60
Int 31
Wis 78
Cha 30
Hp 1671
Hamp 90
Sp 340
Pos 208
Ki /455
AC 199
Dodge 41/41
Fort 83
Reflex 101
Will 95
Bab 20/25
Doublestrike 57
Melee speed 15
Melee power 134
Sr 30
Fort 218
Prr 189
Mrr 40

Dread 2
Dire 2
Grim 30

Balance 80
Concentration 111
Heal 67
Hide 104
Jump 55
Move silent 95
Spot 81
Tumble 55
Umd 46

Gear executioners prot8 mythic1
Neck Fleetfoot power250
Eyes cc accuracy23 conc22 inswis7 festwis
Trinket cc dstrike17 dodge15 insstun8
Body disciple defense16 mythic2
Cloak shadowhail
Bracers packbanner goodluck mythic3
Belt cutcord mythic1
Ring1 pinnacle true blood
Ring2 slavers con17 resist14 wis4 reaperprr
Boots flightfoot cha7 reapermrr
Gloves crumbling falselife40 mythic1
Duality 16.5w +98 +86

Notes
Gotta reslot my draconic gem
I do have a mythic1 pinnacle, haven't reslot it, or don't want to
Running sense weakness, grim precision, cocoon, dance, enlightenment
34 reaper points. Slow going in ravenloft, I don't do dailys too much, but sometime get on a reaper train, like r5 archons or r7 memoirs. All into hp, reflex and prr.
Ran da in fire stance, was checking the multiplier. Saw one crit of 7800. Lotta crits of 30-3600, but that's normal it seems? Base damage 550-600, with blitz and boost 1000. And sneak is always hard for me to tell, because I do a lot of front fighting, but I see 300 and bigger? 600? Not sure I will try to track it better.
one weird thing. Invisibility guard, from ethereal. Really does turn you invisible, procs a lot, and you get the red eye over monsters, goto town on sneak attacks. I kinda don't like it though, you actually disappear from the fight scene.
Ran a r1 shroud. Did fine except for end fight. No luck on that one. But I didnt check. Ever since I been running Shintao my water stance switches off. Every time I log in, I have to turn on water, meditation, and CE. Normally CE off, but I'm used to water stance persisting. Must have to do with meditation of war? So anyways, I'm now just ware of it, maybe stance turns off on death too? I was getting killed a lot. We were gonna do r1 baba and Strahd, but my confidence was shaken. I'm not used to dying more than once or twice, this was like a half dozen or more. God it ****es me about ranged, but we didn't have a tank. Had great dps tho. First time I did an r1 raid. I'm sure I can handle the others, as always it's about the right team.
Ran an LH Strahd this morning. Easy enough. Mostly Chinese. Theyre good at the puzzle room now, and we had good dps. Went pretty smoothly. That's what I enjoy most, raids in the morning.
Getting my tombs down for reapers. Re ap dismissing strike in. Still not using stunning as much, it's almost as fast to auto attack them down as it is to set up a stunning fist. But I'll keep working it in. That and veil, again I dont like defensive clickies.
Oh and running in dreadnaought. Got 10 charges each on attack, haste and melee power boosts. So that's 30. I usually cycle mp, but for extended romps I throw in haste, and sometimes attack. Because that's one thing this build is short in, accuracy. I wish I could get +5 more, because I do see grazing hits. Maybe it's better to runn attack adds to avoid grazing? That means I have to watch the die roll, sigh. More testing. Maybe +15 is enough difference, I dont usually pay attention to grazing damage. I mean, this thing is so monster, you don't notice it.
Ya so I don't run in fire because it lowers dodge to 28. I'm sorry I'll run the 41 absolutely. And saves, and DCs. Mostly all dodge.
Bought an eternal death ward flask. Is very useful, just gotta know which monsters can neg level you. But has saved me problems many times now.
Other than that, my general report is that this thing is a boss killah. Halved my times over the henshin. And everything else is butter. So I don't know what to say. I've waited two years to play this monster. If they nerf it, I'll probably quit. I've had enough of forum rages resulting in nerfs. And they still haven't op clerics yet. Maybe I'll stay if they do that.

Ps
Vampirism works on duality. I've seen it ticking for 1/3/9. Little bit but it helps.

[Kodwraith]

Your gear layout looks more or less identical to mine except I don't have the fleetfoot raid necklace yet.

What feats/AP split did you take? I'm assuming this is the Shintao split from up the thread?

[Vish]

Kilgore, the supreme monastic
Ln aasimar
20 monk
Shintao

Str 8
Dex 18 +7
Con 14
Int 14
Wis 17
Cha 8
+6 tomes
+2 complete

Umd, hide, conc, balance, jump, heal, move silent

1 monk dodge
Feat twf
2 monk stunning fist
3 monk mobility fist of light
4-6 monk spring attack
Feat CE
7-9 monk whirlwind
10-12 monk ic blunt
13-15 monk itwf
16-18 monk completionist
19-20 monk

21 oc
24 imp martial arts
26 PTWF
27 gtwf
28 elusive tgt
29 dire charge
30 ethereal
Pl SOS

Ap
41 Shintao
18 ninja
14 henshin
8 aasimar


Notes
This is the LR
Only thing I would do different, would be put points into search. With int goggles and key lock, can find secret doors in rl. Would drop heal and move silent for it.
Ap is secret.

[Vish]

Gulthias staff
Ran a r1 baba the other day. We were weak on one side, and in the end the bees got us on the second run. It was definately harder than a LH, what reaper being half damage. I had a more tough time versus the scarecrows, it's not like using a staff to sweep and center on one, because they kinda mob u. The Shintao has the dps it's just more one tgt, so a lot more switching tgts to keep them even. Staff definately wins here. But the r1 failed. I blame the 27 we had in the group. Useless, was dying all the time. I mean it's reaper, you better bring you're best at 30. It was a long wait to fill too. I hate that. I prefer to join when group is mostly formed. I hate waiting. And there was no talk. Man, I'm telling you I'm gonna hafta start leading. Most on the server know me. And I raid with everybody. Because fails are just a waste of time, when you know what to do...
That said, ran a LH baba yesterday. I really wanted to test dps on baba and was looking for non reap. We had a decent group. We made it through all the puzzles at pretty good pace, we made it to the end. Some of the new strategy is just to kill all the trash around baba, the scarecrows too. I guess it helps with wipes, since if you don't have a dedicated kiter, you get mobs wandering. So I thought we killed everything, and I was going to town, getting blitz on and cycling boosts, but something went wrong. It's those mounds. Same thing, if someone don't kite them, they wander, into baba. So one thing about this raid is situational awareness. You gotta know what's going on around you. Especially with no kiter, and earlier when the hut can chase you. I've had blitz going and get chased by the hut. Oh well, laps for me. And monks are super fast, with step, so are good kiters. I just did it till it aggro somebody else, then went back to baba. But where it went wrong was mounds on baba. I was trying to continue dps since I didnt have aggro, but they got some heavy aoe hits, and I got killed. It was going south at that point, the aoe killed like 3 or 4 of us. Then we wiped. So we were all dead and sitting there, waiting for timers. And we talked about not clearing the trash, and keeping within range of the healer (enlarge ftw here), and started again with ppl jibbering. But one would get up, maybe raise another and both get killed. So we waited and did it again, then again, and finally it was even my turn. I popped jibbers raised the cleric, kited away, and selected next person, got Rez off but got killed. Rez didn't take. And then they died. So it looked hopeless at this point. I think the strategy may be 2 ppl jibber at same time, just saying. So we were all dead and asking if any more rezes, and we had a warlock give last efforts. But this time ppl got up and we had 3,4,5. Then I got Rez. And soon whole group was back up. And we went back to work, since baba was at about third, and I dodged and kited mounds for about, and got back to baba for the killing blow. Nice recovery!
So there was kinda elation after that. And we got to chests.
I didn't pull anything, but saw someone pulled the Gulthias staff. Just what I wanted for my henshin, I was saving runes for it.
I asked if it was up, and then I spoke up, since it was glam that pulled it. Short story, I talked him into it, and he passed it.
My thanks to glam!
That's 2 bis raid items I've been passed. Ppl are so good.
So now I'm not searching so much. Got my loots. Will go back to raids when off timer, twice a week. And try and be more selective ESP if reaper. But I know I can do it

Other notes
Been paying attention to grazing hits.
Ok so got it wrong. What I thought was sneak damage is grazing hits. Man this is definately making me a better player?
So now I understand damage, because you know, it's mostly just a wash of numbers going off over your head. But I'm still not sure where the sneak is. I've gotta do more side attacks and watch. That and somehow slow down my attacks enough to watch the die, and seeing what hits are grazing, on what die rolls. Because so far it looks like about a quarter, or a third? That's a lot. I was worrier because I'm only sporting +100. Been using attack action boosts, but haven't been able to tell yet. But this is my current investigation.
Also, moved thick skinned up to top bar. It's a defensive boost, can click while the others are active. Didn't notice it before. But I'll start using it now, that and veil at same time. I had it below by unstoppable and greater pin, my cc breakers. Though I rarely get cc.

In other notes
Resolute gem to 6 slots.
Guild rank 66

And in even other notes
Been tasked with explaining duality in ravenloft
"be better than you ever were"

[Vish]

So,
An int goggle and keylock does the trick
Got my search to 68
Can find secret doors in r1 ravenloft. Tested.

I was seeing monks and rangers find the secret doors,
And even tho I had no points into it, 11 max anyways,
I had like base 30 search
With hot swap during non fight, can boost to 68
I thought rl doors would be high,
But wiki said 61-65 so must be for purposes of quest completion
So don't need points into it,
Just cc 15int7 goggles and keylock
Nuff said

[Tilomere]

1 monk dodge
Feat twf
2 monk stunning fist
3 monk mobility fist of light
4-6 monk spring attack
Feat CE
7-9 monk whirlwind
10-12 monk ic blunt (If you use wraps of enlightenment, why not move this to 18 for grave wrapping at 20?)
13-15 monk itwf (move this up to 12, move GTWF here))
16-18 monk completionist (move this to 27, move IC:B here)
19-20 monk

I think completionist is not as good as 20% offhand strike? Also if you are using wraps of enlightenment which already have IC:B on them at 13, why not move IC:B to 18 for grave wrappings at 20?

Grats on staff. You know, I heard a rumor that staff wielding TWF ninja/henshin builds make great tree builds, with HeM abilities fueling spirit regen, and shadow double and quick strike bumping your doublestrike to cap for horrific tree form cleaves. Just in case you want a taste of the dark side.

[Vish]

The sweet thing about 30 LR,
You don't have to level it

So as long as everything was included,
I was happy
But I don't really believe in off hand strike
I tested for it, couldnt see it, so doubt it
I see doublestrikes and sneak
But I don't see that extra attack

Unless.
I was attack the dummy the other nite
Seeing what numbers it gave
I could take dummy down in two hits
And one strike resulted in 3 attacks
So maybe one of them is off hand.
But during normal combat I can't seem to notice the difference
20% over +2s.
I'd rather play the middle and take completionist for epics
Maybe pl SOS sooner too
Either way it didn't matter to me
But I like having completionist sooner

As to trees,
There are 2 things I don't like in a party,
Druids, and trees
Druids mess up the fighting ground,
And trees glow so you can't see what you're hitting
Neither one is really welcome in my groups
That's as monk melee
Otherwise I wouldn't care so much

Also I've found trees to be squishy,
And I'm a purist

[DrawingGuy]

Tilomere is right - Completionist is nice, but is pretty far down the list, so you should be taking GTWF or Imp Crit before that. I'd also suggest Precision over Completionist on a DPS Ethereal build - it helps with the grazing hits you are seeing and will help apply your SA damage on high fort. Simply use CE when you're on higher reaper and taking aggro, and swap to Precision when on bosses/don't need the survival boost. I also wait until 18 for Imp Crit as I use Scraps of Enlightenment until 20.

As for the extra attack, that is indeed one of the 3 attacks when you do a single attack click -- it is in fact usually the proc you're getting when you see only 2 attacks rather than your doublestrike as it is a 90-100% proc chance (80% with GTWF + 10% shintao + 10% if traited Wind stance) where most people have a much lower DS chance. Add in the fact that offhand also has a chance to doublestrike with Perfect TWF, and Offhand becomes even more important and you may on occasion see 4 attacks. It's actually where Vistani snags a lot of its power - not only does it have fast attack animations, tons of regular doublestrike, but it can get 100% offhand strike chance as well as additional offhand doublestrike. Currently off-hand doublestrike can reach 45% (10% PTWF + 10% in Vistani + 25% Tempest capstone). So, yes, you should be seeing the difference with each TWF you take.

If Completionist is truly important to you, delay Imp Martial Arts and/or OC rather than GTWF.


Going back to your grazing hits, here are things to help:
- Precision, as discussed earlier. Where CE penalizes attack by 5, Precision gives a flat 5% bonus no matter how high the AC of your target.
- Eagle Claw ki strike. Armor Destruction lowers AC by up to 15, and each AC you lower on a target is like getting +2 to attack due to the way the formula works, so is like giving yourself +30 attack. Unbalancing Strike does -2 AC, so is another +4 attack.
- Accuracy items

The changes to attack formulas from MOTU essentially made attack both more important and less important in a way. By vastly increasing the range, giving players a flat 20% proficiency bonus, and adding Grazing Hits, you are guaranteed to hit with no accuracy investment, and likely to land in the effective range still without investment, making Accuracy invesment less important. However if you are trying to get your hit chance to 100% (-5% for rolling a 1), it takes a lot more work than it did before as instead of simply needing your attack to equal enemy AC to have 100%, you need a factor (2x if not proficient, 1.6x if proficient, 1.5x if using Precision and Proficient) of it. I don't know if it changed with Reaper, but the rule of thumb is enemy AC is 2.5 * Enemy CR. That should give you some numbers to wrap around what to get your attack to for avoiding grazing hits.

[Vish]

Notes
Duality
16.5
7 wraps
3.5 monk
3 Shintao
1.5 dance of flowers
1.5 superior fists fleetwood

Light means evil aligned
Dark means good aligned
"be better than you ever were"

So, the story of Strahd, and duality for monks
With the introduction of aasimar

Duality is the strongest power on the prime material plane
Why did aasimar goto strahds realm for duality?
The wraps made of brides veils?
From the shroud of Strahd?
Or a quest to complete, ending in strahds domain?
The demiplane of dread
A quest by the good? Or by all?
Because the wraps become evil aligned
Like the cowboys gun, whether in the hands of justice or not, they kill.
Since it was an expansion, with 12 quests and 2 raids, that would make it a legendary saga, a legendary quest
The best items in the game, in ravenloft.
So to destroy a great evil is to reward great good.
But those who middle the two are rewarded the highest.
Because if good you lose a level? Or like LGS.

Fleetfoot
It feels like you're wearing nothing at all

Pinnacle
Dance, like the wind, like the flames, like the sun. Dance with your bare feet touching the earth and water.

Disciple
An outfit from a long deceased monk, this garment is woven with silver threads.

Flightfoot
Be the wind in the trees.

Duality
True strength comes from within, and true power comes from rising above.


The most I can piece together is that this should be a ninja story. That the ninjas are shortsworders, and thus use the suns word. But they aren't available? Or do not serve in this mission? And it falls to the Shintao, who strike the balance. And can shortsword.
But it is not the weapon per SE, as much as it is the monk wielding it. Without raid item and twist, 13.5w, with 16.5. Shintao is 6.5 without wraps. So the weapon is best, but is only half the equation.
So I'm thinking of a celestial mission to disrupt the plane of dread. And all are rewarded, just Shintao seem to be clear winners. They become the Strahd killers.
Told from a celestials point of view

Story1
I have left the monastery of Avalon
My mission is simple, to destroy Strahd.
With the help of the harpers, we have found entrance into the plane of dread. Ally's there, the vistani, have no prophecy for this.
Such is the place of no hope.
We have set pace through the land, and come to the abbey of saint markovia. Here we found the sunsword, which will vanquish the vampire. I am proficient, and tasked with its use as we storm castle ravenloft.
We meet Madame eva inside. She tells us our fortune. She has been with us all along, guiding us behind the scenes.
To penetrate to the heart of the castle, we must first take out its guardian, rahadin. We meet him in the crypts, guarding the entrance to Strahds tomb.
He and his hate monsters are no match for our group. I keep restoring the balance to keep the curses from us. The monsters fall first, then the guardian. We return to find Von richten.
He gives us missive to break the heart of the castle, above in the never ending staircase.
We fight our way through, finally landing next to the heart itself.
I plunge the sunsword into it and we are transported inside, to do battle with Strahd himself. He has summoned himself and his monsters to stop our advance.
Staying out of the mists, we battle furiously and quickly to dispatch his minions. Just within our grasp, he escapes away. I gather up the sunsword, as we exit the heart.
Continuing upwards, we come to Esmeralda, who tells us we must traverse the crypts in the order of Madame Eva's telling. We accept the challenge, and boldly step through the portal.
Inside, we huddle together for safety. No knowing what horrors lay within. We found crypts and in some them representation of our fortune. But the horrors appeared, greater hate monsters and their kin, and flameskulls. Staying together, we took out the fiends, and made our way through the crypts.
We found all the cards, marking them using bibgys magics. And then we pulled them in order, opening the way into the tomb.
Here, finally, the resting place of Strahd. And his three brides.
I leap to the attack, knowing the one thing Strahd fears I wield.
We battle furiously, everyone converging on the monster, and bring him down to half his health. The he evaporates, the mists arising, and we have to leap to one end.
One is keeping the attention of the brides, as we return to the vampire. The sunsword cuts him again and again, allowing the others to hit him too. Soon the villain is at deaths door, and we slay him, and turn on the brides. They fall, and I turn to the body of the vampire laying in the tomb, and plunge it into his heart.
The vampire is finally laid to rest, and the curse of Strahd is lifted.
I take the necklace from his corpse, and fashion wraps from the brides veils. My reward, the freedom loving Fleetfoot, and the moral compass becomes by guidance. The monastery will be pleased when I return with such relics.

[Vish]

Story2
On duality
It is the reflection of consciousness
From one, two
The light,
And it's opposite,
The dark
Taking a circle,
And stretching it into a line
Gives rise to our birth
Our death, when the line ends
Seeing this,
You can traverse the horns
It is a spiral you see,
An encirclement of the line,
Leading ever upwards,
To the realm of celestials
Trapped within the line,
On one end, repeating things ad naseaum
On the other, every moment unique
Continuously, in a spiral
That also leads up,
Or down
To be ascendant
To go beyond good and evil
Where true strength,
And true power,
Reside
Is the truest test of character
And that enlightenment comes
To all forms
And in understanding
Is the basis for all that is
Duality shows us this in spades
Always presenting a dilemma
And that the best answer
Is to go within,
Beyond
And transcend our mortal bonds
This is how you become an immortal

Notes
Slotted draconic in Fleetfoot
Slotted one against many melee power into slot6, now 140mp base
Finding blitz isn't as important as boosts, boosts are 100-130, blitz is 70. Only blitz bosses now (because everything dies so fast)
Glammered celestial outfit. Now am properly attired. Wings look much better in white. Oh, ya, guess what. Since I've been wearing reaper mail, I've never used wings. Ne var. Am changing my tune, and getting into angelic monk character. Sorry the red mail means bloodthirsty. So now I'll be more graceful.
Guess I've been running the dark,
Now I'll come to the light

In other notes
Running saga at r2

[Vish]

Notes on baba
So now r1s are being pugged.
Ran an baba yesterday. Strategy changed. Kill everything before baba. Yes there are still deaths, but no wipes. I guess it's the guarantee now. It seemed to work. We completed.
But you know what I'm seeing as powerful? Level 18 clerics with implosion. That's just killer timesaver with scarecrows. And that part is timed, so doing it fast means no bees. And reaper, half damage, so instakill superior. Yes, I think I need to tr vish into a pure. For the turns too. For a raid piker.
Pulled torn. Didn't plan on any thf builds, so passed it.
I think that's the trick now. R1 for loots, we had lotta drops, 4 or 5.
And ran a LH Strahd before that. Again, tried some new strategy in crypts. Guess there is a window to open doors without spawns, so we spread out and opened doors. Works if ppl got markers. I didn't, but also didn't find any cards. We died a little bit when spawns. I think I prefer staying together and have a scout team do the doors. Because when you lose half, it gets dicey unless together.
But in the baba I was running a bit different ap. I've switched out 2 pts wisdom for con. Brings my elite up to 1400. 1701 in reaper. Yay, constitution class! Also using eagle claw and unbalancing attack. Was cycling them on baba, didn't see any real difference, but I figured I was stacking her, so all for team effort. Ya, this run was different. Even killed the mounds. Lotta deaths doing that. They can one shot toons on reaper. Lotta instakills.
Because hp is the measure of a toon. If you dont got at least a 1000, then kick for you. And I'm seeing monks have 1100-1300, so I'm ahead of the curve. Seeing clerics to 2000, and tanks to 4000. If you're close to 2000, you're in good shape.
And on grazing hits. Seeing 8s or nines graze. So half the spread. Seems attack boosts drops it by half, to like quarter. So I use that against tougher mobs now.
Ya about pugging. Seems Sarlona has healthy 30 population. Usually it's the heavyist concentration of one level. We can support 2 raids at once, even tho they are usually different circles. I see Strahd baba and shroud up all the time. Ppl must be burning timers. But I'm good. I got my loots, it's for fun now. And challenge. I'll hold out for the r1s now.
Oh ya, and raid alts. I'm seeing ppl have 2 or 3.
But my deepest impression of a Shintao running duality is that's it's payback for reaper. Even in r5 I'm doing 300 base damage. All you need is a tank so I don't get hit, and I'm boss killah. Every time. It's no joke this thing is monster. Why I'm going to r2 sagas. But I'm keeping 28-30. You can't usually hang unless you got at least slavers. And ppl dying are just a waste of your time. I do not run tours. But the caveat is knowing I can solo them. Except the Strahd dinner fight and 4 dragon exit. That's pretty rough even with a team.
Now I'm seeing ppl asking for my build, and seeing monks farming for the gearset. So ppl are looking, their migrating. Coming to the promised land.

[DrawingGuy]

Yep, the Cleric pass that provided domains gave clerics a nice DC boost along with useful SLAs and/or other boosts. The additional boosts to turns makes them god mode in Heroics (especially since you can just light-cast respectable DPS for everything you can't turn/instakill), so they're very good for PLs too. They're bigger problem is they don't have the CC/DPS a warlock has, or the CC/Instakill depth a Wizard has. Generally, though, any one of those classes will make a quest much easier if built/played properly.

The damage penatly of higher reapers is also where a DC build could fare better than a DPS build for Monk as being able to instakill means it doesn't matter. Unless they nerf Duality, it really has put the risk of melee on the table... though I'm sure you've seen the DPS of the new shuri, which can be done from the safety of ranged.

HP is the reason why I'm struggling between Fallen and Protector for Aasimar. Protector equates to a couple hundred more HP along with the +30 HAMP, +10 to PRR/MRR, and +3 to saves. Getting ~200HP is a pretty big deal, but that is competing against +2 tactics, 5% doublestrike, 10 MP, and vuln stacking. We'll see - I'm saving my Aasimar lives for last (down to my last 11 racials...).

[Vish]

Yep, the Cleric pass that provided domains gave clerics a nice DC boost along with useful SLAs and/or other boosts. The additional boosts to turns makes them god mode in Heroics (especially since you can just light-cast respectable DPS for everything you can't turn/instakill), so they're very good for PLs too. They're bigger problem is they don't have the CC/DPS a warlock has, or the CC/Instakill depth a Wizard has. Generally, though, any one of those classes will make a quest much easier if built/played properly.

The damage penatly of higher reapers is also where a DC build could fare better than a DPS build for Monk as being able to instakill means it doesn't matter. Unless they nerf Duality, it really has put the risk of melee on the table... though I'm sure you've seen the DPS of the new shuri, which can be done from the safety of ranged.

HP is the reason why I'm struggling between Fallen and Protector for Aasimar. Protector equates to a couple hundred more HP along with the +30 HAMP, +10 to PRR/MRR, and +3 to saves. Getting ~200HP is a pretty big deal, but that is competing against +2 tactics, 5% doublestrike, 10 MP, and vuln stacking. We'll see - I'm saving my Aasimar lives for last (down to my last 11 racials...).

Ya, on clerics
I've had some stuff on the drawing board for vish. A 17/3 splash lock build called divine wrath. A 15/5 splash soul build I called heresy. And a pure fvs, his divine grace, the vishinator. That last I was gonna twist turn undead into it. Max cha build. They would all be nukers.
But what I'm thinking now is 17/3 splash pally, for the hp and saves, and go shield, and have implosion. Prob a evoker build. Don't know the domain yet, was trying to put together a ravenloft set or some slavers ccw stuff. But that's what my gut tells me. For a raid cleric. That prob has to block a lot and glow around baba and Strahd. Unless sunsword, but that won't be likely I think. Usually goes to tank. But I do see clerics tank. Heavily. But still just on drawing board. I'd have to remake slavers set, and I don't have the shackles for it. Maybe 1 or 2 but not 5. And prob no LGS. Since I have raid weapon maybe. It's a shame can't recraft slavers. That's why I try to build generic items, more for tr than specific, but multi useful.
So cleric is still on hold for me.

On aasimar
Ya, so long term plans.
I have 1 racial ap. if I tr this build I get 3rd aasimar for 1. I've got half Orc and dragonborn 1 each for 2 more that's 4. But really. For the pinnacle of this Shintao build, I would need 10. But that's 18 lives away, which is like 6-9 months. So all this year, by which time they would have new bis.
But yes 10. For 17 ap total for the protector bond, and 10% hp. 10 would be racial, 7 budgeted. Because right now I'm running 8 points, just so I have wings.
I think protector better than fallen, unless a str build. But that ain't monk. Maybe fighter or barbarian.
Because I just got 1 more reaper pt and I put it into grim for last point of con. Brings con even in reaper, so now I'm 1739. And only way I could stretch 2k would be go protector bond. That would be a fully charged death star. That and more reaper points of course. I could imagine 10 more by that time. Even tho it's slow going rl, why I'm up to 2.
And on the utility of loh on a melee build.
I mean it's a main part of my fight style having lay on hands. On a wisdom build 3000hp heals so max hp, even worth good in reaper. It's a lifesaver. Battle till half hp then loh. Teammate in a pinch, loh. It's the best race for melee. Hands down. I mean ability to self heal is critical to winning, and having this work in reaper is a godsend. And they regenerate. So space your big fights 3 min and you got twice your hp. Not as good as triple pos wraps, but that's half damage over duality. So quite the trade off. So far, the best defense is a strong offense. Definitely the motto behind this monster.
But loh is best thing for melee monk in this game.

Notes
Twisted perfection of body for grim precision. Was getting killed by beholders in shroud. And am too lazy to hot swap optics. Besides now lag when hot swapping so. So tried to erase fort fails on 1. Also brought fort save up to 90. So all saves in the 90s.

[DrawingGuy]

Beyond simply wanting Pinc to be a uber completionist, the racial APs go a long way. I'll end up having 12, needing to spend only 4 more points to get the Ascendant Bond. However Fallen providing vuln stacking is no small potatoes. Vulnerability can add up to 20% damage to the whole party, and with the death of TF being end-game weapons, it is much more rare (I carry one to give vuln stacking and recharge action boosts, but it is a DPS loss for myself to use it). Unless you have a Warlock invested into SE, it is likely you're not getting any vuln stacking. This translates to a pretty large DPS boost, and add in the fact I do build for QP, +2 tactics matters. But does it matter more than the strong defensive boosts?

I will agree Aasimar is a very strong race, though I do think there is competition:

Bladeforged gives -10% damage from slashing (that can also stack 20 PRR), a self heal that has no use limit other than SP (though it does cost more AP than Aasimar's does if you want to lower the cost and cd), and all of the useful WF immunities. The tree also provides +3 tactics, -2 to all saves on enemies you hit, and a very strong action boost. While it may be counter to a Monk as the -2 DEX/WIS hurts and WF penalties make FOL near-useless, it is a very strong race for other melees... and even on Monk, it giving essentially +5 to Quivering Palm (and all your other tactics) counters -4 to Wisdom making it one of the strongest DC races.

Halfling also has strong self-healing, though it does cost a feat. But that Heal comes with additional cleansing benefits, along with Leeches for neg-level removal. They're also a DEX based race and SA die, making this give solid DPS boosts. Though the feat cost really is the lich-pin on this race for a melee - it's tough to fit it on a Monk as you'd have to give up other useful feats, so knocks it out of contention compared to Aasimar for them.

Human you already know. Feat and skill bonuses are very strong, and the Action Boost abilities and bonuses gives it same stat potential as any race while having no penalty. These easily outweigh the bond bonuses, but does come at the cost of not having native self-healing. But if you're a melee class that dumps WIS, the Aasimar heal loses a lot of potential.

The list can go on, but the strength of a race will often depend on your build. Aasimar plugs perfectly into Monk, so I agree it is the best possible race for that class - just saying that doesn't necessarily mean it does for all melee classes. Though it is indeed a top contender. I do hope this won't cause it to translate to a nerf of any kind as them adding more self healing in the face of Reaper does seem a little counter-intuitive (high level reaper still eliminates all of it).


Also what do you mean by dying to Beholders? Is it that you don't have a Deathblock augment slotted? Or dying to a rare disintegrate that you don't save against? Though I will note that Dragonhide provides +3 AC on top of the +6 Fort and no-fail, and is only a T1 twist. That is one of my frustrations with GMoF - on top of being filled with non-scaling damage that is useless in current game, many of the abilities it has that is similar to other trees is weaker than other versions. I can make quite the list, but specific to the saves for GMoF, they are placed in high tiers making them uneconomical, and provide less of a bonus than other classes have. As stated, the fort save from GMoF is T3 and provides no other bonus while Draconic's does and is only T1. The Will save from GMoF vs the one from Magister depends if using up a T4 slot to get an additional bonus against specific spell types is better than a T1 that gives +6 concentration - and considering that twisting a no-fail is usually done on someone that is at no-fail DCs, the GMoF bonus is pointless. The Reflex save has the fact that it is the only no-fail reflex for EDs, but as a T5, can't be twisted and competes high tier AP spends - other abilities that provide +6 Reflex are also giving dodge+dodge through enemies or 3 PK DCs + 6 to skills/fear saves. I'd just take Epic Reflexes over bothering with GMoF... but I'm digressing now.

[Vish]

You know,
I appreciate the view of the min max
Tho I often don't follow it for role playing purposes

First,
Everybody so op right now that we can pug r1
So that means that 20% vuln won't be needed,
But you know what, that 200 hp will
But if you got it in you,
Or you run a tight group where it's a factor
Then you can play it
But I'd take the hp
Because monsters are out there
Tearing it up
Of course with vuln,
Maybe you are one of those monsters?

Ya, on dragonhide
I'm not a dragon this life
Not a dragonborn sorc or bard
I'm an aasimar monk
Grandmaster like
So I want perfection, not dragonhide
Get it?
Idc the twist
It was easily traded for grim precision
Again,
Here the op damage fudges everything
I don't need the fort bypass
Ya it looks good on paper
But as it plays,
I destroy everything
And that's running a non wisdom build
I mean, I'm seeing 1000 damage base when buffed
We ran brothers of the forge on r3
Another quest I've never seen
So had talkers in the group, tarzaan
And we wondered what we could handle,
Had only 2 melee
But it was 28 quest, and got inside
And remarked monsters only had 10k hp
That's like a couple seconds to me
Even without dr
So,
It's like I don't need enlightenment twist either
Always running maxed out ki
But I take it because I'm an enlightened monk
It adds more depth to me than pure min max
And I don't notice the difference anyways
Here's another point
Oops, left vom on
Lose my trinket that's got 15 dodge 17 doublestrike
Do I notice it?
Not on r2
So there's lotta fudge when running a monster
The dps means you don't need as much defense
But 200ac 200prr and 40dodge is pretty **** good
So what you need is more hp, not more dps

[Vish]

Aasimar protector bond
So I refigured my ap
41 13 11 16
And toggled on protector bond
Hp was 1405 to now 1512. 1879 in reaper.
Had to give up sneak, mdb, and pt dex and con. But picked up 10 prr/mrr and saves and hp. And 40 hamp now 130, and 4 wings. Saves all in low 90s. Dodge to 39.
Running with it now to see the difference. I only picked up 100 and 150hp, not 200. So it's not that much. But pushes 2000. So better. Also caps mrr at 50 for me. So that too. And in reaper with blitz 230 prr. Lost some AC to 195. And lost a dc. But it's a lawnmower.
Only downside is the toggle. Goes off even when it says it's on. Every time you zone a quest. Or die, or. I rember this. I guess I'm gonna hafta bug report it now, unless WAI? But how can you tell...
Ya. 2 more racial ap would get me +1 con and 30hp, so 1900. Then about 10 reaper points to 2000. A more short term goal, tho 10 reap will take 6 month prob. For when I go back on the tr train.
So I definately think it's worth the trade offs. Will run this ap for a few raids and see how it looks.

Edit,
Oh this is about ascendant bond,
Sorry

Addendum
Ok ran some r1 solo this morning, rl c2
Also did search and pulled empowered dragonscale
And looked at it
Qual con and false life trinket
So I got to swapping around,
Could get hp to 1976 reaper. That's good enough for me
However I was sitting at 33 dodge and 40 dstrike.
So more for tank moments, because I don't have reaper ap into dodge, and in reaper I can rearrange and get it back to 39, lose 6 prr. But that's easy trade off.
Also earth stance and maybe 2200 hp.
Food for thought. Maybe as a theory max hp for a standard dex wis monk.
With 34 reaper ap

[DrawingGuy]

The ~200 HP was more what I was expecting to land on rather than what you should expect as I'll have racial PLs (4 CON), and I'm willing to use clickies (Tensers 4, usually run scream for 5), so same-gear I'd have ~200 more HP than you before reaper points. Admittedly I haven't sat and crunched numbers, so breaking 2k HP outside of Earth (while in Reaper) may have been optimistic. Some day I'll have a final life, final gear SS.

[Vish]

Story3
A council of archons
On the progress and results of ravenloft
The spoils of war
In the game, the celestial paragons of the archons are collectively known as The Celestial Hebdomad (and sometimes "tome archons"). The members include (click on the numbers following the names for images):

Barachiel, the Messenger [8] - Ruler of Lunia, the bottom layer of Celestia, also known as the Silver Heaven.
Domiel, the Mercy-Bringer [9] - Ruler of the Golden Heaven of Mercuria, the second layer of Celestia.
Erathaol, the Seer [10] - Ruler of Venya, the Pearly Heaven, the third layer of Celestia.
Pistis Sophia, the Ascetic [11] - Ruler of Solania, the Crystal Heaven, the fourth layer of Celestia.
Raziel, the Crusader [12] - Ruler of Mertion, the Platinum Heaven, the fifth layer of Celestia.
Sealtiel, the Defender [13] - Ruler of Jovar, the Glittering Heaven, the sixth layer of Celestia.
Zaphkiel, the Watcher [14] - Ruler of the Illuminated Heaven of Chronias, the seventh layer of Celestia.


Zaphkiel the council convenes
Barachiel news from ravenloft!
Zaphkiel how goes the crusade?
Raziel the assault is over. Our teams have returned with relics.
Zaphkiel the sunsword?
Raziel it has escaped us. Nothing but an echo of it.
Barachiel but there are others. Great relics. We have found sanctity and divinity!
Pistes Sophia and a monk has returned with duality.
Zaphkiel we found duality in the dread plane?
Pistes Sophia it is a most entertaining story of a monks enlightenment. He was a celestial.
Sealtiel we have also found savior! The priesthoods rejoice.
Erathaol many items have come forth...
Raziel we are totally triumphant! The spoils of war!
Domiel yes, we have destroyed Strahd, once and for all.
Zaphkiel the balance shifts in our favor. But we thought duality was trapped on the prime material? Tell us this story, pistes!
Pistes Sophia the legend of duality originates on eberron. It is there, on the prime, that the power resides. But this story is of an aasimar monk, from the monastery of Avalon.
Barachiel His name is Kilgore.
Erathaol it was a mystic that did all the legwork...
Pistes Sophia yes, but a Shintao with the ability to use the sunsword. His training in the ninja arts paid off. He was able to traverse the path of duality...
Sealtiel ... And be rewarded.
Pistes Sophia it was an act of his enlightenment to gather up the brides veils, and fashion his morality from them.
Erathaol it is only a enlightened one that can wield evil in the name of good.
Zaphkiel That is the crux of duality, is it not? That you cannot do good without doing evil? Such are not our concerns, we are the archons of righteousness!
Raziel but it commands the greatest power! The monk is twice that of the next man.
Domiel truly enlightenment has prevailed!
Raziel it is the power of the whole prime material plane behind him. Truly the most powerful artifact we have ever acquired.
Zaphkiel all that matters, it is in the hands of good.
Barachiel I will trumpet his name!
Zaphkiel Raziel, continue the deep mining.
?* ?* ?* ?* ?*Council adjourned.


Notes
Ran an r1 Strahd this morning.
With the Chinese.
Had a wipe in the crypts. Recalled and reset. Ran it again after extensive strategy notes. They talk Chinese but sometime type instructions in English. That and type Chinese too. I just follow along and Kil stuff.
Also learned more strategy on this one. Way of marking the crypts, using a grid system. A-h and 1-5. So you can call them out without bigbys. Smart way of doing it.
So second time around, got to crypts, had the 10 sec delay to open doors, so we spread out and did that. I found 1 and called it out. But then we had to regroup, sw, and started losing ppl. I tell you, having a tank makes all the difference. Need somebody to tank greater hates and Strahd, and so as the tank went the group goes.
We did ok but the tank went down. And then we wiped. So we spent timer time talking about where all the cards were, and what order. So when Rez we can get them. So I self Rez, and got the tank up and got the cleric up, but the cleric runs off, I get aggro and get killed. But others Rez one at time, and cards get pulled and we get complete.
So pulled it off. We regroup and take on Strahd and it was good fight, we had to pause and take down brides some, but we killed him on first try. Definitely due to my dps
Well there was one other duality monk. And we did it with 11 man, lost one in the heart. Nobody picked up his stone...
I pulled the sickle. Didn't put it up for roll but asked if anybody could use. Oh well, I'll have to make a story about it, I told them.