Trying a monk

[Zeacia]

I am a new player. Been playing about 2 weeks now and have been trying out various classes that look interesting to me. Today I made an elven monk. I would like to go with Shuriken for ranged and handwraps for melee. I seem to be doing ok but finding somethings confusing. I am still on the island. Are handwraps considered unarmed?

I am finding the combat abilities tired to the stances always greyed out. I am not sure what I am doing wrong. Even when I have lots of Ki they are greyed out. Also the finishing move button says it changes to various moves as they become available but its never changed when I have been in combat. I have been using the Mountain stance mostly for the added defense.

My other question is do ranged feats effect skurikens or is that just for bows?

To start I did:
Strength. . . . 12
Dexterity . . . 16
Constitution. . 12
Intelligence. . 10
Wisdom. . . . . 16
Charisma. . . . .8

Skills so far:

Concentration: 4
Spot: 4
Move Silently: 2
Hide: 1
Jump: 4
Tumble: 1

Feats:

Least Dragonmark: Shadow
Deflect Arrows

Only level 1 so don't mind starting over if I need to fix something lol.

Thank you.

[peng]

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...nk-build-guide is a great place to start.

Some monk attacks work differently or not at all while truly unarmed. You'll be better off wearing handwraps. Most builds will focus on either ranged or melee. Even with monks' extra feats, you don't have enough to fully spec for both.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Finishing_Moves explains how finishers work, and lists them. Until you choose the dark or light path, the only finishers available to you are 3x a specific element. Eg 3x fire lets you use an aoe fire breath attack. There's no indication of which attacks you have on the way to charging up your finisher, and there are many actions that will interrupt you building up a finisher, including interacting with doors/levers, climbing ladders/ledges, and item swapping. You just have to remember which attacks you've used, and try not to interrupt it while charging up.

Most ranged feats except manyshot (bow only) and rapid reload (crossbow only) will affect thrown weapons like shuriken. In addition, quick draw (you can get it freeish from henshin or vistani core 3) increases thrown weapon attack speed, shuriken expertise lets you throw extra shuriken based on your dexterity, and 10,000 stars gives a buff to ranged weapon dmg and doubleshot for centered monks.

Main feats for an unarmed monk (not in order):
twf (two weapon fighting)
itwf
gtwf
improved critical bludgeoning
stunning fist
whirlwind attack (aoe attack that can hit each enemy around you multiple times. the rest of these feats are prerequisites for whirlwind)
dodge
mobility
spring attack
combat expertise

Main feats for a shuriken monk (also not in order):
point blank shot
precise shot
improved precise shot
rapid shot
shuriken expertise (free for drow)
imp crit thrown
10k stars
quick draw (free from enhancements)

A shuriken monk will generally be dex-based, as they get dex to attack and damage and 2x dex score extra shuriken per throw (ninja spy core enhancements and shuriken expertise). Unarmed monks are usually either dex based or wis based. They can also get dex to attack and damage from ninja spy, but there are several monk attacks with wisdom based DCs like stunning fist. I prefer wisdom, but some prefer dex based. Both are good options.

[unbongwah]

Are handwraps considered unarmed?

Yes.

My other question is do ranged feats effect skurikens or is that just for bows?

It depends on the feat:

• Universal (i.e. affect any ranged or thrown weapon): Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Improved Precise Shot, Precision, Rapid Shot (doesn't affect all ranged weapons equally but does boost attack speed on all of them IIRC), Shot on the Run (not worth the 3-feat cost IMO but it works), Zen Archery (centering effect only applies to long-/shortbows but any ranged weapon will gain WIS to-hit if it's higher than DEX)
• thrown-only: Brutal Throw, Quick Draw (although QD also reduces delay on weapon swaps and action boosts)
• shuriken-only: Shuriken Expertise (kind of a no-brainer)
• bows-only: Manyshot
• crossbows-only: Rapid Reload
• ranged ki weapons: Ten Thousand Stars (effectively just shuriken and bows w/Zen Archery)

The drawback to using shuriken+handwraps is you need to invest in Shintao to boost unarmed melee and Ninja to boosts shurikens. Whereas if you use other ki melee weapons like kama or short swords, Ninja boosts them as well as shuriken. See my drow ninja thread for a shuriken+melee hybrid monk.

[Zeacia]

Thank you for the explanations and the suggestions. Lots of fun stuff to experiment with.

See my drow ninja thread for a shuriken+melee hybrid monk.

Will be trying this! I do not have drow yet but will be working on that too.