20 Monk: Shintao (reaper-optimized)

[Symbiont]

There have been a numerous amount of statements regarding the disadvantages of melee in high-skull reaper; after exponential mob and difficulty scaling, the base hits taken from generic mobs are colossal enough to absolutely annihilate a traditionalist character. Having to stand toe-to-toe with these mobs, while penetrating a plethora of damage-mitigating factors (AC, DR, etc) to physically inflict damage, is overwhelming. The sheer amount of reaper-related (and champion) abilities are numerous enough to vaporize anyone at a second's notice; the slightest deviation of attention, the slightest inconsistency in your optimization, the unluckiest (and most common) pulls of enemies all frequently result in your becoming of a soul stone. With the meta supposedly favoring those in the back-lines, and the stereotype for melee nearly desolate because of this; how could a melee possibly not only survive - but effectively perform - versus adversaries of this caliber? The solution is as effective as it is momentous: overpower your opponents with a build that is as devastatingly destructive as it is invulnerable.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...l1U/edit#gid=0

General Overview:

• HP (in Reaper): 2,500+
• Sustainable Dire Charge DC: 115
• Sustainable Jade/Shintao DC: 112
• Sustainable Stunning Fist DC: 108
• Physical Resistance Rating (PRR): 241; 70.67% damage mitigation
• Magical Resistance Rating (MRR): 50; 33.33% damage mitigation (monk cap)
• Dodge: 49%
• Incorporeal Miss Chance: 25%
• Armor Class: 226 (81% defense chance at level)
• +30% Passive Movement Speed and Abundant Steps
• Fortitude Save: 110
• Reflex Save: 110
• Will Save: 87
• Standing Doublestrike: 66.91%
• Fully-buffed Doublestrike: 103.91%
• Melee Power: 326
• Healing Amplification: 191

In this spreadsheet, every single item, everything taken during level progression, the DCs of every ability, and every aspect of performance is listed and elaborated upon in meticulous detail; this class, with the allocation of abilities and enhancements showcased in the file above, incorporates a maelstrom of abilities to debilitate and dismember anything unfortunate enough to stand in your hitbox, with an arsenal of primary and emergency CC (crowd-control) utilities to ensure that whatever you are attacking is too overcome to fight back. This build specializes in raw damage, with a truly scary amount of helpless amplification - while honing its ability to bring mobs to a helpless state. Numerous videos of the monk's performance in reaper are shown, and any questions/concerns are welcome!

[Tilomere]

The solution is as effective as it is momentous: overpower your opponents with a build that is as devastatingly destructive as it is invulnerable.

General Overview:

• HP (in Reaper): 2,500+
• Sustainable Dire Charge DC: 115
• Sustainable Jade/Shintao DC: 112
• Sustainable Stunning Fist DC: 108
• Physical Resistance Rating (PRR): 241; 70.67% damage mitigation
• Magical Resistance Rating (MRR): 50; 33.33% damage mitigation (monk cap)
• Dodge: 49%
• Incorporeal Miss Chance: 25%
• Armor Class: 226 (81% defense chance at level)
• +30% Passive Movement Speed and Abundant Steps
• Fortitude Save: 110
• Reflex Save: 110
• Will Save: 87
• Standing Doublestrike: 66.91%
• Fully-buffed Doublestrike: 103.91%
• Melee Power: 326
• Healing Amplification: 191

Does it have all of that at once?

What does this allow you to solo without the use of a hireling or consumables?

[Symbiont]

Does it have all of that at once?

What does this allow you to solo without the use of a hireling or consumables?

Yep, the screenshot of stats is in ocean; you can get all of this at once except the "fully-buffed doublestrike", which is in wind. Soloing mid-skulls is actually relatively easy; Dire Charge + Whirlwind absolutely disintegrates mobs, with the boss dps to shred most red-names extremely quickly. The only major problem is recovering from damage taken, but lengthy pauses for multiple cocoons between fights is more than sufficient. You can solo old baba's hut too (as aasimar, if you run back to the shrine every 15 minutes)

[blerkington]

Well done. It's a great write-up and a nice service to the community for people interested in running harder content on a melee.

I'd also like to extend a big LOL to SSG and their pretence of concern with class balance and maintaining challenge overall in the game. Keep up the good work guys!

Thanks.

[DrawingGuy]

A very nice setup. This does bring a question for me to feel stupid for never trying: Quick Strike, a "Melee Quarterstaff Attack", does not require a Quarterstaff? If not, going to punch myself and take it from now on.

I do have a suggestion if you are willing to kick your LGS HP to the side - change the following items:
Trinket: Echo of Ravenkind
Boots: Cannith Crafted - Dodge 15, Strength 15, Ins DEX 7
Goggles: Cannith Crafted - Concentration 22, Melee Alacrity, Ins WIS 7
Quiver: Quiver of Alacrity

Swap Slavers CON 17 with False Life 68
Swap Good augment with Deconstructor

You do give up the HP, Unconcious Range, 11 Accuracy, and 61 (41 after set bonus) HAMP... but gain:
+ Destruction on hit which builds up to 15% bypass and -15 AC (which translates to 30 Accuracy for everyone)
+ Adherent Set Bonus: 20 PRR, 20 HAMP, 10 MP
+ Allows you to drop Blinding Speed giving room for feats like Epic Reflexes for no-fail reflex, Precision for a accuracy and bypass (though is a survival hit), Vorpal Strikes for slashing bypass, Completionist, etc.
+ 3 more CON, 7 more DEX, 7 more WIS
+ Imp Deception for passive SA application
+ True Seeing that can't be dispelled


As for self healing, you can carry some swaps. Silverthread belt and/or Hands of the Dawn give you POS spell power that stack long with crit - Sadly Null uncenters you (though gives 104 more POS over Hands). Add in a LGS or GS hamp weapon, and you'll give yourself a pretty mean cocoon heal. For real efforts to counter Reaper penalties, you could also swap on a Mysterious Cloak.

For max self healing, you could temporarily uncenter yourself and use LGS main + Null offhand + Silverthread Belt + Mysterious Cloak. That would give 543 POS power and 30% crit chance along with 220 HAMP just from items. Monk and PLs add to both those numbers. Outside of Reaper it's possible to see Cocoon ticks for over 1k, and of course FOL would full heal you easily.

Personally I plan on running Aasimar for the LOHs and the 10% HP bonus. I'll be building other things a bit differently than what you have, but hoping I can be rolling with 2k+ HP in Reaper, same or higher defense stats, with QP in the 90s and DPS not far off from what you have. We'll see - still grinding those racials.

[Symbiont]

A very nice setup. This does bring a question for me to feel stupid for never trying: Quick Strike, a "Melee Quarterstaff Attack", does not require a Quarterstaff? If not, going to punch myself and take it from now on.

I do have a suggestion if you are willing to kick your LGS HP to the side - change the following items:
Trinket: Echo of Ravenkind
Boots: Cannith Crafted - Dodge 15, Strength 15, Ins DEX 7
Goggles: Cannith Crafted - Concentration 22, Melee Alacrity, Ins WIS 7
Quiver: Quiver of Alacrity

Swap Slavers CON 17 with False Life 68
Swap Good augment with Deconstructor

You do give up the HP, Unconcious Range, 11 Accuracy, and 61 (41 after set bonus) HAMP... but gain:
+ Destruction on hit which builds up to 15% bypass and -15 AC (which translates to 30 Accuracy for everyone)
+ Adherent Set Bonus: 20 PRR, 20 HAMP, 10 MP
+ Allows you to drop Blinding Speed giving room for feats like Epic Reflexes for no-fail reflex, Precision for a accuracy and bypass (though is a survival hit), Vorpal Strikes for slashing bypass, Completionist, etc.
+ 3 more CON, 7 more DEX, 7 more WIS
+ Imp Deception for passive SA application
+ True Seeing that can't be dispelled


As for self healing, you can carry some swaps. Silverthread belt and/or Hands of the Dawn give you POS spell power that stack long with crit - Sadly Null uncenters you (though gives 104 more POS over Hands). Add in a LGS or GS hamp weapon, and you'll give yourself a pretty mean cocoon heal. For real efforts to counter Reaper penalties, you could also swap on a Mysterious Cloak.

For max self healing, you could temporarily uncenter yourself and use LGS main + Null offhand + Silverthread Belt + Mysterious Cloak. That would give 543 POS power and 30% crit chance along with 220 HAMP just from items. Monk and PLs add to both those numbers. Outside of Reaper it's possible to see Cocoon ticks for over 1k, and of course FOL would full heal you easily.

Personally I plan on running Aasimar for the LOHs and the 10% HP bonus. I'll be building other things a bit differently than what you have, but hoping I can be rolling with 2k+ HP in Reaper, same or higher defense stats, with QP in the 90s and DPS not far off from what you have. We'll see - still grinding those racials.

Interestingly enough, some of these recommendations are what I'm currently doing. This is a spreadsheet I made two months ago; I'm actually currently running an Aasimar monk with Protectior Bond. Gave up the LGS set since Protector bond would offset this to a point; traded LGS boots for Legendary Flightfoot Greaves, and replaced Tier 2/3 of unconscious health with +11 insightful/+6 quality hide. I sat down and thought about +7 Dex versus +11 Accuracy pretty hard at the time, but at level cap, I find myself grazing much more than I'd reasonably want to be - and that's the #1 thing interfering with my ability to land my CCs, not so much the DCs. I'm also running Precision over Improved Combat Expertise to reinforce this (with more fortification bypass), and the amount of hits I'm able to consistently land on red-named/trash is very noticeable. On top of this, I have an inexhaustible supply of Insightful +2 Potions, so the difference is a bit more narrow in that sense.

As an Aasimar, I'm also running 26 APs into Ninja Spy, for +30% helpless (to offset losing Half-Orc +20%), and only 1 AP in Henshin; with an additional +10 MP from Adherent set, it's a 10 MP loss for a +10% helpless gain, which is a good trade imo. Morninglord's Handwraps deal slashing damage, and I just swap to it for an ooze-beater/DR breaker when it's relevant. If I had to swap the trinket for something, I'd put Insightful Combat Mastery +6 on a separate CC trinket - as that's the one super-important DC effect I couldn't fit. For 100% maxed self healing, I have a LGS kama + shuriken swap, but swapping multiple items for heal-amp after the induced 1 second cooldown is extremely taxing and a bit irrelevant when there's a dedicated healer in the group, which is generally the case in my static.

There are quite a few interesting things that can be done without the LGS Opposition set that I might look into; I've just ultimately decided that retaining accuracy with more hide from an LGS item (and the unconscious HP) would outweigh pretty much any other gear-combination that could be set, though I could be wrong there Quick Strike is Quarterstaff exclusive - I put a note in the spreadsheet directly over the enhancements table; swap to it to proc the doublestrike, then swap back to handwraps to gain +25% for the remainder of the duration. Though after SSG lets us buy the +1 racial tome with DDO points, I'll end up going back to Half-Orc for both Brutality and No Mercy x3, since I can't get both of these maxed with only 11 racial points. This has opened my eyes to shuffling gear around without the required LGS crutch though, we'll see what happens

[DrawingGuy]

Not a bad LGS item, as that dex skill is 1 point of hide away from giving a full 6 SA damage, which translates to 38 damage with 326 MP.

One thing you can do to help with accuracy is to be applying destruction - full destruction stacks equates to 30 Accuracy for everyone in party. Eagle Claw attack is a good way to apply it. If you can't afford the skill, then there's the Deconstructor augment. There's multiple ways you can give yourself Good bypass: flipping Cannith Crafted to boots (they too can have Ins CM, but not hamp sadly) and wearing Ravenloft trinket. Crafting LGS bypass clickies. Simply just using Scraps or another duality swap with good when that bypass is needed.

Precision is a pretty strong skill for the factor of avoiding grazing hits. The way that the formula works, it essentially means you need 10% less accuracy to avoid grazing hits, which means it is more powerful against high AC targets.

Really my hard decision comes with DCs. It doesn't matter how much Reaper kicks your DPS in the teeth if you can instakill, so giving up 10 DEX for 10 WIS is a no brainer to me - level ups into WIS is simply better once you have effective DCs. Also that means that I would take Insightful WIS over Insightful Combat Mastery in a second if you're not fitting Ins WIS elsewhere. That essentially translates to +3 to all your tactics including Quivering palm, which needs it the most. I should be able to have my QP in the 90s while only losing a tiny amount of DPS (we're talking double digit tops off a 4 digit number).

Another thing to debate is Completionist feat vs Sneak of Shadows vs Precision. SoS feat is indeed a strong burst, but only lasts 3 minutes per rest. Completionist gives +2 to all skills and abilities, which is +1 damage and +3 to hide (which is +1 SA) permanently, along with +1 to DCs (+2 if that is enough Int on KtA), +3 UMD, +1 to all saves, 30 HP, etc. To me, Completionist wins over SoS. SoS vs Precision is a bit tougher. I like CE as the 20 PRR and 20+ AC bonuses is strong, but the accuracy struggle is real for Reaper bosses. But being able to plip a button for 100+ SA damage on said bosses is also strong, especially considering you still get SA on grazing. What are your thoughts?

I also find going hard into helpless damage interesting. I'm still a little peeved they kept Ninja Spy's No Mercy at 2 AP a pop. I find that a bit tough to chew, though you do get more SA die along the way. Also Henshin was giving more than just 30 MP from the 3 cores -- Quick Draw halves the time it takes from using an Action Boost to being able to attack, 6 PRR, 20 HP, a Ki Strike... and more points into Henshin could mean 3 more dodge cap or 25% neg absorption from Vistani. But I may play around with that to see how I like it.

Side Note - The concept of weapon swapping for a 10s buff is ambitious, especially considering the 1s nerf they put on swapping. While the 25% ds buff is strong, not sure if it is practical.

[ifumoveudie]

So after reading this post, it clicked that I had seen your name before. 2 man Strahd. I was wondering what the chances were that I would ever see the build for that Monk, and here it is. I have always been a Barbarian, for over 9 years now actually. This though, is the turning point for me, as the game has become largely solo driven. I applaud your effort in making this build, and will most definitely be giving it a shot. One question tough, why make it Dex based, and not Wis??

[Kaboom2112]

I'd also like to extend a big LOL to SSG and their pretence of concern with class balance and maintaining challenge overall in the game. Keep up the good work guys!

Thanks.

Pendulums swing.

[Tilomere]

One question tough, why make it Dex based, and not Wis??

When handwraps became weapons, the dex to hit/damage from ninja spy applied to them. You can't get wisdom to damage with handwraps.

What are your thoughts?

Quick Draw halves the time it takes from using an Action Boost to being able to attack.

Precision + Elf wins boss dps, but as Gimli says, that still only counts as one!

They removed action boost delaying melee attack this last update.

[RS-Makk]

I may just use my +20 heart of wood on my capped ranger (that has most of the gear listed already and is sitting in 1250 Strahd runes I can turn in for the wraps) to switch to this. Lots of pugs have dried out lately and I want to solo some, and this would help.

Question - he’s a human so has an extra feat. Recommendation for that feat?

And real dumb question given I’ve never done a pure monk.. spell points just come from SP items?

[Arkat]

And real dumb question given I’ve never done a pure monk.. spell points just come from SP items?

Mostly, yes. 25 SP comes from a certain ship buff if your ship has it.

[DrawingGuy]

When handwraps became weapons, the dex to hit/damage from ninja spy applied to them. You can't get wisdom to damage with handwraps.

Precision + Elf wins boss dps, but as Gimli says, that still only counts as one!

They removed action boost delaying melee attack this last update.

Point for my not reading the release notes... so essentially between them removing the weapon swap purpose and now activation recovery being universal, Quick Draw is essentially 100% useless outside of throwing builds and melee casters. That definitely lowers the importance of the 3rd capstone beyond the 10MP/3PRR.

As for DEX vs WIS, there is an important reason for WIS: DCs. My opinion is it's all about Quivering Palm. With 34 tactics available in gear alone, you can reach extremely effective DCs on a secondary or tertiary stat. However QP does not benefit from gear, so it takes main-stat WIS, KtA/DW/CKT, and past lives to reach extremely effective DCs. Kick it to the curb, and there is no real reason to lose the small amount of DPS from mainstatting DEX.

Symbiont, however, has the past lives. He could main stat WIS, put Ins WIS on his trinket, possibly put WIS on his Slavers, and be rolling 80/90s on his QP. Why spend 5 seconds killing a wisp when it can be done instantly? The same efforts will also help make your Unbalancing Strike more effective as you're lacking a Vertigo item (or Eagle Claw's shattering if you roll that). And, of course, help push your other DCs to "no-fail" on more targets.

I personally am going WIS.

@RS-Makk: There are multiple sources for SP
Ship 25
Past Life - 120 available here
Enhancements - a pure Monk can get up to 120 from Harper, though going for just SP is a waste
Epic Destiny trees - though Legendary Dreadnaught is the heavily suggested tree, which comes with no SP
Items - There is over 700 SP available in items, which can be expanded with LGS bonuses. However with only caring about cocoon and KtA for SP spending, no reason to put any off gear to fit it. 250 augment is all I use.
Reaper Trees - The caster tree gives nice chunks of SP, and as most of it comes from cores, you don't even need to be in Reaper mode for it. This would be one of the last trees to spend points in... though you'll still want to eventually for the WIS, extra activations, and the SP. 12 AP into the caster tree would net you 4 WIS, 100 SP, another reaper activation, and 10 spellpower for FOL/Cocoon, which I consider the "sweet spot".

Symbiot has 415 from the following:
120 past life
25 ship
250 augment
20 Harper Enchantment (Harper Agent enhancement taken for the +1 weapon enhancement bonus, but comes with 20 SP as well)

[Symbiont]

Not a bad LGS item, as that dex skill is 1 point of hide away from giving a full 6 SA damage, which translates to 38 damage with 326 MP.

One thing you can do to help with accuracy is to be applying destruction - full destruction stacks equates to 30 Accuracy for everyone in party. Eagle Claw attack is a good way to apply it. If you can't afford the skill, then there's the Deconstructor augment. There's multiple ways you can give yourself Good bypass: flipping Cannith Crafted to boots (they too can have Ins CM, but not hamp sadly) and wearing Ravenloft trinket. Crafting LGS bypass clickies. Simply just using Scraps or another duality swap with good when that bypass is needed. As for the Deconstructor augment, I might try that right when I log in to see how well this performs versus bosses.

Another good point is Completionist feat vs Sneak of Shadows vs Precision. SoS feat is indeed a strong burst, but only lasts 3 minutes per rest. Completionist gives +2 to all skills and abilities, which is +1 damage and +3 to hide (which is +1 SA) permanently, along with +1 to DCs (+2 if that is enough Int on KtA), +3 UMD, +1 to all saves, 30 HP, etc. To me, Completionist wins over SoS. SoS vs Precision is a bit tougher. I like CE as the 20 PRR and 20+ AC bonuses is strong, but the accuracy struggle is real for Reaper bosses. But being able to plip a button for 100+ SA damage on said bosses is also strong, especially considering you still get SA on grazing. What are your thoughts?

I also find going hard into helpless damage interesting. I'm still a little peeved they kept Ninja Spy's No Mercy at 2 AP a pop. I find that a bit tough to chew, though you do get more SA die along the way. Also Henshin was giving more than just 30 MP from the 3 cores -- Quick Draw halves the time it takes from using an Action Boost to being able to attack, 6 PRR, 20 HP, a Ki Strike... and more points into Henshin could mean 3 more dodge cap or 25% neg absorption from Vistani. But I may play around with that to see how I like it.

Side Note - The concept of weapon swapping for a 10s buff is ambitious, especially considering the 1s nerf they put on swapping. While the 25% ds buff is strong, not sure if it is practical.

These are all actually excellent points. Armor Destruction was something I took a look at, but the way I currently have my APs allocated won't allow me to acquire this - as much as I'd like to utilize it. It'd be something mainly for bosses, and most trash wouldn't live long enough to stack enough of this - but your point was most likely regarding bosses, and I might do a little something with this on a different split. Precision vs Sneak of Shadows vs Completionist was probably the most difficult choice I've had to make on this split; burst DPS for bosses versus much less grazing on all mobs, versus more DCs/hide/stats universally. On my current aasimar though, I disregarded SoS and Comp and ended up grabbing Precision.

In terms of Combat Expertise versus Precision: this was an especially difficult choice since Combat Expertise is a prerequisite and an absolute required pick, and Precision would take up a valuable feat slot. Due to how accuracy and % to hit works though, started running this, and I haven't been disappointed. Quick Strike became absolutely frustrating after the 1 second cooldown, you can probably imagine how much swapping/reswapping between weapons and items aggravated me (considering how I actually used to swap two items for intelligence; I had both the Legendary Phasecloak and a Sentient Weapon with +7 intelligence in filigrees to get the most out of it)

I maxed helpless damage since trash clearing is so stupidly instantaneous when everything is CC'd. I've seen base hits of 700 versus helpless mobs in R10, and base hits of almost 8,000 outside of reaper (with almost 50k crits ); and that's without synergizing No Mercy in tandem with Brutality. Even though an instakiller can take care of a lot of the mobs, with helpless amplification to this extent - with this much power behind every strike - you vaporize quite a few mobs between cooldowns. I've played with both max MP and max Helpless setups, and I personally find the performance to favor maxed helpless. Obviously boss DPS is considerably lower, but the difference in helpless hits is colossal.

As for DEX vs WIS, there is an important reason for WIS: DCs. My opinion is it's all about Quivering Palm. With 34 tactics available in gear alone, you can reach extremely effective DCs on a secondary or tertiary stat. However QP does not benefit from gear, so it takes main-stat WIS, KtA/DW/CKT, and past lives to reach extremely effective DCs. Kick it to the curb, and there is no real reason to lose the small amount of DPS from mainstatting DEX.

Symbiont, however, has the past lives. He could main stat WIS, put Ins WIS on his trinket, possibly put WIS on his Slavers, and be rolling 80/90s on his QP. Why spend 5 seconds killing a wisp when it can be done instantly? The same efforts will also help make your Unbalancing Strike more effective as you're lacking a Vertigo item (or Eagle Claw's shattering if you roll that). And, of course, help push your other DCs to "no-fail" on more targets.

Now, I'm actually considering doing something completely different; the potency of a truly high Quivering Palm is truly devastating (which you're obviously aware of), and I'm debating on taking a step in a different direction with this monk. A Wis dump monk is definitely much more viable than a Dex dump - I specialized this build for the ravenloft raids and quests, mainly - where lots of stuff was not prone to be affected by your stuns or QP, and to where you didn't need a tremendously high Jade DC at all to CC anything. However, since I have all the ravenloft gear, here's what I'm thinking:

Instead of going 20 Monk, despite its potential and current over-performance compared to other melees, a build specced heavier for maxed QP seems very attractive; 18 Monk 1 Fighter 1 FvS (or something along these lines) might be a better way to go about this. Maxing wisdom (with the new FvS Divine Might that adds Wisdom to your DCs/damage instead of its intelligence like its counterpart) grants way more DCs. This minimizes the amount of gear swapping, scales the bonus to damage higher (since wisdom would be much higher than intelligence), and gives you additional feats to offset the lack of freedom after the essentials are taken. Since the Shintao capstone can't be acquired, you don't need to dump 41 points into it; on top of this, you'd only need to reasonably dump 3 points into Warpriest to grab Divine Might, versus the 7 for KTA. You lose 25 MP/+2[W], though you have more free APs to dump into henshin. You'd ultimately net less DPS, but as you indicated, it's two digits (maybe 100+ish) off of a four digit number. Speaking of which, I'd honestly expect standing QP DC to enter the three digits in Dreadnought - and if you can instakill a mob every 6 seconds with a DC that large, this could be more worth it overall. I'd have to play with the AP setup quite a bit.

As for incorporating a lot of these features into 20 Monk (without a class split change), it's something I'm heavily considering. I'll probably burn an ETR and see how maxing DCs on an Aasimar turns out, and if it's noticeable enough in R10s outside of ravenloft, it's something I might stick with. I've been running nearly the same build for quite a while now, and this could be a very nice change of pace

So after reading this post, it clicked that I had seen your name before. 2 man Strahd. I was wondering what the chances were that I would ever see the build for that Monk, and here it is. I have always been a Barbarian, for over 9 years now actually. This though, is the turning point for me, as the game has become largely solo driven. I applaud your effort in making this build, and will most definitely be giving it a shot. One question tough, why make it Dex based, and not Wis??

Thanks! Drawing answered this before I did, though it's mainly my greed for DPS. I'll probably end up doing wisdom to increase DCs higher, but on my current Aasimar monk, I actually maxed Con to reinforce my ability to take hits in R10.

[DrawingGuy]

18 Monk / 1 FvS / 1 x is a split I like very much, though the capstone loss is more noticeable than a DEX vs WIS mainstat. There are options I like more than Fighter:

1 Rogue or Arti gives you trapping. Arti gives you a dog and a +1 enh spell, but prefer Rogue as it comes with a SA die and more skill points (with Hide as a class stat)
1 Wizard for the 10% AC with Imp Mage armor + Quicken (speed up cocoon) or Mental (sp and 1% crit chance for heals) + Shield spell

Fighter is still very nice for the extra feat and 3 ABs, but I'd rather take trapping or survival over those.

As for AP spends, I consider 35 AP to be the "minimum" AP spend within Shintao so you can get Empty Hand Mastery, Rise, and Void. That gives 45 AP to spend.
4-5 into Aasimar to get the 10% HP depending (11 racial PLs + 1 tome lets you spend only 4, but you'll need 5 as you didn't pay the silly special edition price)
3 into War Soul. I'd only go 3 as a 1 minute timer slots nicely with your Veil and Tenser durations for a consistent buff cycle, but 1 more would net you 2 minute duration

That leaves 37-38 AP to spend as your build dictates.

Rogue Examples
4 AP (+12 bonus racial) aasimar, 23 Henshin, 12 Ninja, 35 Shintao, 3 War Soul, 3 Vistani (3 Vistani nets 25% neg absorption + 3 PRR/MRR, though this AP can be spread if you can't afford due to racial)
Alternative No Mercy spend: 4 AP Aasimar, 12 Henshin (or 11 if you need the 1 point for Aasimar), 26 Ninja, 35 Shintao, 3 War Soul.

Wizard Examples:
4 AP Aasimar, 4 Eldritch, 21 Henshin, 12 Ninja, 35 Shintao, 3 War Soul - 1 AP leftover, in your case likely Aasimar
No Mercy spend: 4 AP Aasimar, 4 Eldritch, 6 Henshin, 26 Ninja, 35 Shintao, 3 War Soul. 2 AP can go wherever you want - SA die, Ki Strike in Henshin, 1 Aasimar + Warsoul, etc.

Fighter Examples:
4 AP Aasimar, 7 Kensai, 12 Henshin, 12 Ninja, 35 Shintao, 3 Warsoul, 6 Vistani - 1 AP leftover
No Mercy spend: 4 AP Aasimar, 7 Kensai, 1 Henshin, 26 Ninja, 35 Shintao, 3 Warsoul, 3 Vistani - 1 AP leftover

Warlock Examples: (Soul Eater's Taint the Blood means your Dire > WWA preps everything for QPs)
4 AP Aasimar, 2 Soul Eater, 21 Henshin, 12 Ninja, 35 Shintao, 3 War Soul, 3 Vistani
No Mercy spend: 4 AP Aasimar, 2 Eldritch, 6 Henshin, 26 Ninja, 35 Shintao, 3 War Soul, 3 Vistani - 1 AP leftover


Most of my racial PLs have been 1 Rogue, 1 FvS splash as the Rogue splash means trapping bonus. My final life, though, is almost guaranteed to be pure. Not counting PL efforts, she has been stubbornly pure Monk through all the ups and downs of Monk. We'll see if the FvS new tree has anything that I can't pass up from a 1 or 2 level splash.

[Kodwraith]

Wow that's a lot of gear.

Why NightfallRing? Just the +Int? You've already got Insightful Deadly from KTA, Deadly from the gloves and +reflex from the avenger set unless i'm missing something.

So DrawingGuy's proposed layout would be this:

Silver Set:
Armor: Disciple of Dawn (PRR / Parrying / Fort / Profane)
Cloak: Shadowhail Cloak (Ghostly / Deception / Hide / MS)
Belt: Cutcord (Dex / Qual Dex / Qual Dodge / Blurry)

Adherent Set:
Trinket: Echo of Ravenkind (CON / Ins Deception / Holy Strike)
Bracers: Lore Fueled PackBanner (Ins Con / Ins Doublestrike / PRR)
Neck: Fleetfoot Necklace (NaturalArmor / WIS)
Gloves: Molten Silver (DoubleStrike / AP / Deadly)
RingA: Nightfall (Ins Int / Ins Deadly / PRR / Deadly)

Other:
Boots: CC: Dodge / Str / Ins Dex
RingB: Slaver's False Life / Accuracy / Stunning / Qual Con
Goggles: Concentration / Melee Alacrity / Ins Wis
Helm: Executioner's (Seeker / Ins Deception / +5% dmg buff)


So the basic idea is you get one degree of freedom to choose the last Adherent set piece (a ring or boots) and you need 1 CC item for dodge and it pretty much has to be boots or a ring. I came up with this:

Avenger:
Armor: Strahd Cloth: PRR / Ghostly / Profane / Deathblock
Cloak: Strahd Cloak: MRR / Deception
Belt: Cutcord: DEX / Qual DEX / Blurry / Qual Dodge
Adherent:
Gloves: Molten Silver (DS / AP / Deadly)
Necklace: Fleetfoot (WIS / stuff)
Trinket: Echo of Raven (CON / true Seeing / holy)
Boots: FleetFoot Greaves: (Speed / FoM / Nat armor)
Wrist: Lore Fueled PackBanner (Ind Doublestrike / Ins Con / PRR)
Other:
Helm: Executioner’s (Seeker / Ins Deception)
Ring: Prowess
Ring: Slavers: Fort / Resistance / Stunning / Qual WIS
Goggles: Concentration / xxx / Ins Wis

Basically missing Ins Dex for +8 mp. Note that the Strahd armor is not all that useful since MRR is not all that useful, so wearing the regular named armor in the set and getting the first slaver's slot back gets rid of Fort frees up for False Life.

[zurnad]

You can check my "Faceless Assassin" built for max quivering palm DC with easy debuff synergy.
And comments welcome.

[DrawingGuy]

I never tested, so didn't realize that Ins Deadly and KtA damage did not stack. I just assumed that since Ins Tactics from KtA stacked with Ins Tactics items, the damage would as well. Looking through the forums saw a post from you, so assuming you actually tested this.

I figured the Ins Deadly, Ins INT, and the Ref 16 is why Symbiont ran the ring (he didn't have the boots previously that also gave Ref). Even without the ins deadly, the Ins INT is still a good reason, though Perfect Pinnacle would be actively better. Perfect Pinnacle would allow you to slot Vertigo on your slavers for much more reliable Unbalancing Strike application along with auto-trip procs that can help in high reapers. The only real question is that worth needing to swap two items for KtA usage instead of one? Pre-swap nerf that would have been no issue... now? Though if you're willing to, there is the very good option of the second swap being a named main-hand with 7 INT filigrees and a LGS offhand with +7 Ins INT and +2 Exc INT. That would make the effort much more worthwhile as you would have 6 higher INT than the single swap option while gaining the use of Perfect Pinnacle. Or a "healery" option could be deathwarden ring for 29% pos crit chance -- give up Accuracy 28 on the Slavers and you could load 185 POS power. And as you can always clicky or pot haste, you could put the Accuracy on your goggles instead of melee alacrity. Though that is still giving up some DPS losing the LGS goggles. More food for thought.

As for gear flexibility for Adherent Set, it is Boots or Trinket. Ring does not have a dodge option, so to give it up for Prowess or something else while still going for the set bonus will cost you dodge... and that matters in Reaper. One of your rings needs to be Adherent if you want an effective set bonus as they have much better options than goggles for melee Monks.


As for gear options, this is what I am suggesting for a max DPS/DC option and is what I'll likely be going for:
Goggles: LGS Unconcious 128/Ins Hide 11/Ins Hide 6 - Good Weapons active augment
Helm: Legendary Executioner's Helm
Necklace: Fleetfoot Necklace
Trinket: CC - Dodge 15, Heal Amp 61, Ins WIS 7
Cloak: Legendary Shadowhail Cloak (Legendary Phasecloak swap for KtA)
Belt: Legendary Cutcord
Gloves: Molten Silver Gauntlets
Boots: Legendary Flightfoot Greaves
Bracers: Legendary Lore-Fueled Packbanner
Ring 1: Legendary Ring of Nightfall
Ring 2: Slavers - CON 17, Accuracy 28, Stunning 20, Qual WIS 4
Armor: Legendary Disciple of the Dawn
Main Weapon: Duality (Deconstructor and Endless Night slotted)

A "tank mode" setup could be achieved by swapping to:
Goggles: CC - Concentration 22, Ins Concentration 11, Ins WIS 7
Trinket: CC - Dodge 15, Heal Amp 61, Ins PRR 18 (or DEX 7 for 3 AC, Reflex, accuracy, and damage)


Non-LGS setup:
Goggles: Cannith Crafted - Concentration 22, Accuracy 23, Ins WIS 7
Helm: Legendary Executioner's Helm
Necklace: Fleetfoot Necklace
Trinket: Echo of Ravenkind
Cloak: Legendary Shadowhail Cloak (Legendary Phasecloak swap for KtA)
Belt: Legendary Cutcord
Gloves: Molten Silver Gauntlets
Boots: CC - Dodge 15, STR 15, Ins DEX 7 *or* Boots of Blessed Travels (covers Haste and FOM at the cost of DEX and STR)
Bracers: Legendary Lore-Fueled Packbanner
Ring 1: Legendary Ring of Nightfall
Ring 2: Slavers - False Life 68, Devotion 185, Stunning 20, Qual WIS 4
Armor: Legendary Disciple of the Dawn
Main Weapon: Duality (Deconstructor and Endless Night slotted)

This setup loses 128 unconscious range making 1-shot death riskier, ~30 SA damage on a properly buffed toon, and 61 Heal Amp. It gains more powerful healing (which helps counter the hamp loss for self healing, and if you flip on a LGS, the 70 doesn't stack with the 61 anyways), more HP, passive good bypass, more Ki Shout without swapping, and DEX. The LGS option is stronger IMO, but those that don't have the LGS gear farmed or don't want to can use this to cover it. To me, Accuracy clearly wins over Melee Alacrity as alacrity can easily be covered by a buff whereas the Accuracy is not.


I do see two main points of contention with these gear setups:
- Nightfall Ring vs Perfect Pinnacle. Nightfall can save you a swap, which is important as the 1s nerf makes it clunky, but also costs you 1-2 KtA tactics, auto-trip, 2 stunning DCs (on top of the KtA tactics loss), and 20 Vertigo DCs. ** Edit. Swapped my gear lists back to Nightfall as Symbiont's testing confirms the Ins Deadly and KtA stack, so while a double swap would yield superior DCs, and pinnacle with vertigo on slavers would lead towards much better Unbalancing Strikes, double swapping is currently too clunky.
- 4 Quality WIS vs 4 Quality CON. This is 2 DCs + 2 WILL + 2 AC vs 60 HP + 2 FORT. I would choose the WIS, but both are important, so up to you. A soul stone can't CC/QP.

[Symbiont]

Why NightfallRing? Just the +Int? You've already got Insightful Deadly from KTA, Deadly from the gloves and +reflex from the avenger set unless i'm missing something.

Insightful Deadly from Legendary Ring of Nightfall stacks with KTA; I tested this a month or so ago. Static target, no vulnerability stacks, and deliberately scaled down the amount of total Melee Power I had to pinpoint a difference. Both tests with and without the Insightful Deadly had the same amount of Intelligence from KTA. The damage does indeed stack with each other; this, with the Intelligence boost, makes it an extremely strong ring slot.

I never tested, so didn't realize that Ins Deadly and KtA damage did not stack. I just assumed that since Ins Tactics from KtA stacked with Ins Tactics items, the damage would as well. Looking through the forums saw a post from you, so assuming you actually tested this.

I figured the Ins Deadly, Ins INT, and the Ref 16 is why Symbiont ran the ring (he didn't have the boots previously that also gave Ref). Even without the ins deadly, the Ins INT is still a good reason, though Perfect Pinnacle would be actively better. Perfect Pinnacle would allow you to slot Vertigo on your slavers for much more reliable Unbalancing Strike application along with auto-trip procs that can help in high reapers. The only real question is that worth needing to swap two items for KtA usage instead of one? Pre-swap nerf that would have been no issue... now? Though if you're willing to, there is the very good option of the second swap being a named main-hand with 7 INT filigrees and a LGS offhand with +7 Ins INT and +2 Exc INT. That would make the effort much more worthwhile as you would have 6 higher INT than the single swap option while gaining the use of Perfect Pinnacle. Or a "healery" option could be deathwarden ring for 29% pos crit chance -- give up Accuracy 28 on the Slavers and you could load 185 POS power. And as you can always clicky or pot haste, you could put the Accuracy on your goggles instead of melee alacrity. Though that is still giving up some DPS losing the LGS goggles. More food for thought.

As for gear flexibility for Adherent Set, it is Boots or Trinket. Ring does not have a dodge option, so to give it up for Prowess or something else while still going for the set bonus will cost you dodge... and that matters in Reaper. One of your rings needs to be Adherent if you want an effective set bonus as they have much better options than goggles for melee Monks.


As for gear options, this is what I am suggesting for a max DPS/DC option and is what I'll likely be going for:
Goggles: LGS Unconcious 128/Ins Hide 11/Ins Hide 6 - Good Weapons active augment
Helm: Legendary Executioner's Helm
Necklace: Fleetfoot Necklace
Trinket: CC - Dodge 15, Heal Amp 61, Ins WIS 7
Cloak: Legendary Shadowhail Cloak (Legendary Phasecloak swap for KtA)
Belt: Legendary Cutcord
Gloves: Molten Silver Gauntlets
Boots: Legendary Flightfoot Greaves
Bracers: Legendary Lore-Fueled Packbanner
Ring 1: Legendary Perfect Pinnacle
Ring 2: Slavers - CON 17, Accuracy 28, Vertigo 20, Qual WIS 4
Armor: Legendary Disciple of the Dawn
Main Weapon: Duality (Deconstructor and Endless Night slotted)
KtA swap: Whatever (haven't decided - dream would be if a proper INT/Qual INT mainhand was made so Phasecloak would be unneeded) with +7 INT Filigrees / LGS Int 15, Ins INT 7, Exc INT 2

A "tank mode" setup could be achieved by swapping to:
Goggles: CC - Concentration 22, Ins Concentration 11, Ins WIS 7
Trinket: CC - Dodge 15, Heal Amp 61, Ins PRR 18 (or DEX 7 for 3 AC, Reflex, accuracy, and damage)


Non-LGS setup:
Goggles: Cannith Crafted - Concentration 22, Accuracy 23, Ins WIS 7
Helm: Legendary Executioner's Helm
Necklace: Fleetfoot Necklace
Trinket: Echo of Ravenkind
Cloak: Legendary Shadowhail Cloak (Legendary Phasecloak swap for KtA)
Belt: Legendary Cutcord
Gloves: Molten Silver Gauntlets
Boots: CC - Dodge 15, STR 15, Ins DEX 7 (or Ins Combat Mastery if you're still struggling on tactics)
Bracers: Legendary Lore-Fueled Packbanner
Ring 1: Legendary Perfect Pinnacle
Ring 2: Slavers - False Life 68, Devotion 185, Vertigo 20, Qual WIS 4
Armor: Legendary Disciple of the Dawn
Main Weapon: Duality (Deconstructor and Endless Night slotted)
KtA swap: Whatever with +7 INT Filigrees / LGS Int 15, Ins INT 7, Exc INT 2

This setup loses 128 unconscious range making 1-shot death riskier, ~30 SA damage on a properly buffed toon, and 61 Heal Amp. It gains more powerful healing (which helps counter the hamp loss for self healing, and if you flip on a LGS, the 70 doesn't stack with the 61 anyways), more HP, passive good bypass, more Ki Shout without swapping, and DEX. The LGS option is stronger IMO, but those that don't have the LGS gear farmed or don't want to can use this to cover it. To me, Accuracy clearly wins over Melee Alacrity as alacrity can easily be covered by a buff whereas the Accuracy is not.


I do see two main points of contention with these gear setups:
- Nightfall Ring vs Perfect Pinnacle. Nightfall can save you a swap, which is important as the 1s nerf makes it clunky, but also costs you 1-2 KtA tactics, auto-trip, 2 stunning DCs (on top of the KtA tactics loss), and 20 Vertigo DCs.
- 4 Quality WIS vs 4 Quality CON. This is 2 DCs + 2 WILL + 2 AC vs 60 HP + 2 FORT. I would choose the WIS, but both are important, so up to you. A soul stone can't CC/QP.

Yeah, I agree that the LGS setup is stronger; though I should also mention that I didn't include all of the gear that I periodically swap to in the spreadsheet. I usually swap to Legendary Mantle of the Dwarven Commander prior to beating on bosses if they save my initial Unbalancing Strike. I might find a +20/+22 item to swap to instead, as I'm swapping an item anyway. Deconstructor is something I'm definitely going to look into. Whenever I get more larges, going to craft Good Weapons as an active and replace Ruby of Good with Deconstructor. Good call on this one If the 1-second delay gets removed, I had plans on running Nystul's Mystical Defense instead of Prowess - and swapping to Prowess only prior to action-boosting. Most of my deaths are from magical damage, and mitigating as much of it as possible is essential. To meet this MRR cap, and to squeeze in a little more DPS, I was also planning on removing the Unconcious Range +128 entirely and replacing it with Hide +22. From there, can swap Legendary Shadowhail Cloak for The Invisible Cloak of Strahd; and then Legendary Disciple of the Dawn for Patience Through Peril, for slightly more sneak dps.

If I were to do this, I'd be taking dangerous steps away from physical survivability to lean towards magical absorption. I figure I can stomach -9 saves, as I'm already not failing anything unless it's a 1 (my saves are even higher on Aasimar than Half-Orc), though the -9 AC and so forth will hurt. I can simply augment a Heavy Fortification sapphire to offset the loss of Legendary Disciple of the Dawn. I'd be more prone to die from physical damage, though MRR and absorption from the filigrees themselves provide a much-needed barrier versus magical. I'd get +100 HP from using this 5-Piece set anyway; all of which make the drawbacks seem worthwhile for the benefits. All of this depends on the 1-second cooldown being eliminated, though, as I'd lose too much time off of the 10-second Prowess window due to weapon-swapping.

[DrawingGuy]

I've thought long and hard about fitting Nystul's Mystical Defense - 100 HP and 40 MRR is no small thing, but then I thought about what I died to the most:
- Horrid Wilting from Fear Reapers is untyped, and would get no benefit from more MRR. Only bags of HP can save you from this, which the 100 HP would help on... but is that worth 100 MP?
- Necro Damage spells -- this is why I'm keen on the 3 AP spend into Vistani as that is 25% neg absorb to counter this rather than Nystul's.
- Force burst and other non-Shield blocked force spells -- though sadly another thing not helped by MRR
- Rays. Many of these spells have no save, so are guaranteed to shoot your face. However it is very rare to have these on bosses, so I find CC/QP to be an acceptable option to handle these.

There is no question it would help, but if one were to be picked, I think Prowess wins. However there is always the option of both. Though eating into your Fort I think is a mistake - you're going to get crit quite a lot with only 100ish fort, and I think that will lead to more deaths than spells do currently. Instead of changing armor to get Ghostly, drop your Endless Night augment and slot a Ghostbane. 202% fort and 9 saves is better imo than an augment that only randomly helps with trash killing (which is not something you struggle with really anyways).

Another option for getting MRR is to go with the Echo of Ravenkind trinket and slot 45 sheltering on the Slavers, then using some dodge boots. If you truly want to avoid the usage of Haste pots/clickies, there is always Boots of Blessed Travels. Those would give you speed and FOM at the cost of the 7 DEX or Ins Combat. The only real loss of that setup would be the 61 HAMP and 7 WIS, but feel those would be smaller losses overall than the cloak/LGS switchup.