Unarmed Monk - DEX or WIS?

[GawainBS]

Hey guys,

I'm going to start an unarmed Monk. Going for Shintao, with 10 pnts in Ninja Spy (for Veil). Is it worth spreading the talentpoints to Falconry (no worries about purchasing it) to get max WIS and better DCs, or are the DCs not that important and can I stick with a DEX setup?
As for feats: The TWF line, the Whirldwind line and perhaps Power Attack + Cleave, or WF: Bludgeoning & Impr. Crit: Bludgeoning?


Thanks in advance!

[psykopeta]

Hey guys,

I'm going to start an unarmed Monk. Going for Shintao, with 10 pnts in Ninja Spy (for Veil). Is it worth spreading the talentpoints to Falconry (no worries about purchasing it) to get max WIS and better DCs, or are the DCs not that important and can I stick with a DEX setup?
As for feats: The TWF line, the Whirldwind line and perhaps Power Attack + Cleave, or WF: Bludgeoning & Impr. Crit: Bludgeoning?


Thanks in advance!

Ignore clave and grab atunning fist (did u miss it? XD) if you can, purchase falconry, and go wis based, then add aasimar and u will be the typical OP monk

[GawainBS]

Ignore clave and grab atunning fist (did u miss it? XD) if you can, purchase falconry, and go wis based, then add aasimar and u will be the typical OP monk

I assume you mean Stunning Fist?

Is Aasimar better than Human?

[Cernunan]

I assume you mean Stunning Fist?

Is Aasimar better than Human?

Yes and yes. Aasimar is a +2 Wis race, although the loss of the human feat makes things tight. Whirlwind is a must for excellent DPS. Using Falconry and being Wis based means excellent DPS and most of your DCs hitting .

Counter with being Dx based, Dx based uses less AP investment, will have a better Reflex save. You can use the APs for Aasimar race tree, which is nice.

It is good to have choices

[GawainBS]

Alright, that seems settled then. WIS Aasimar it is then. Thanks.

Oh, final question: is Power Attack worth it?

[unbongwah]

If you have Falconry, the usual AP split is something like 41 Shintao / 27 Falconry to start. After that, it depends on whether you have any racial APs and what race you pick. So a human would do 11 Ninja / 1 human (Damage Boost). Whereas Aasimar might put it all into racial tree (+2 WIS, Healing Hands, etc).

[GawainBS]

I'd just pick Killer Instinct I and II from Falconry and go for Ninja Spy's Veil. 25% misschance seems awesome.

[unbongwah]

I'd just pick Killer Instinct I and II from Falconry and go for Ninja Spy's Veil. 25% misschance seems awesome.

Tier-4 is what gets you No Mercy and Deadly Instinct. You're going to want those on a WIS monk IMO. That said, redoing Enhancements is easy.

[GawainBS]

Tier-4 is what gets you No Mercy and Deadly Instinct. You're going to want those on a WIS monk IMO. That said, redoing Enhancements is easy.

Makes sense. Final question: which should be my go-to stance?

[Nickodeamous]

Stances are situational. I like fire due to the ki generation in heroics. I like water in legendary for extra dodge. Not getting hit is a very good thing.

I have the following:

Shintao - 41
Falconry - 26
Aasimar - 7 cores only for healing hands
Ninja spy - 10

I have extra AP from racials, so you may have to pick and choose.

Wis based all the way. Second stat is dex, third is con.

Hope this helps,
Nico

[unbongwah]

Makes sense. Final question: which should be my go-to stance?

Usually Wind for the extra doublestrike, attack speed, and (with Meditation of War) offhand attacks. Sometimes Ocean for the extra WIS and Dodge bonus. But you switch it on the fly as needed.

[GawainBS]

Thanks, guys, I'm off to huild my Monk!

[Kodwraith]

Thanks, guys, I'm off to huild my Monk!

At cap, I actually run mostly in Ocean Stance for the saves and extra wisdom. Keeping in mind that WIS is also hit and dmg AND DCs of your stuns. It's a win win.

When leveling, I will switch to fire stance sometimes if I'm running out of ki (usually because things are dying before I can hit them because of the sorcs).

+ki items are super helpful, alas, many of them are also quite crappy items. The new Sharn +ki bracers being the exception. AT cap, I'm still runnign the RLoft hws which also have +ki so I find I can't spend ki fast enough.

AAsimar wis monks are buildable essentially identically one way, there's a standard feat order everyone takes to get whirlwind attack early (level 6). AndPowerAttack is not worth it, you don't have the feats.

level 1: Dodge, Stunning Fist (monk)
level 2: Mobility (monk)
level 3: Combat Expertise
level 6: Spring Attack, Whirlwind (monk)
level 9: TWF
level 12: Imp. Crit. Bludgeon
level 15: ITWF
level 18: GTWF

You can wield hws or a staff up to 9. Stunning fist only works with HWs so usually that is what most folks run. Taking whirlwind early speeds up leveling a lot by giving you an AOE attack. Put all your point in Falconry up until you get ~12 AP for Wis hit/dmg. Then shintao, then back in falconry. I dumped Ninja Spy at cap as I found the extra 15% incorporeality (since you run a 10% ncorp item normally) was less useful than the unlimited LoH from the Aasimar racial tree.

The main odd choice is in Epic levels to take Mass Frog. Since you will have a very high WIS, mass frog can actually get pretty high DCs.

[Saekee]

Tier-4 is what gets you No Mercy and Deadly Instinct. You're going to want those on a WIS monk IMO. That said, redoing Enhancements is easy.

unbongwah have you done the math for heroics of tier 5 ninja vs tier 5 shintao? I am looking at 12-18ish before 'endgame' etc. Before people max out doublestrike, ninja spy is putting it at +50% nearly constantly and will also add No Mercy at tier 4. I think that would be more DPS than what shintao can put out until one gets No Mercy and other goodies from Falconry. Just thinking out loud as one progresses.

[LucasMacKinnon]

I would say if you don't have the Racial past life ap then a higher dex vs wisdom build is better since you can get dex to hit and damage in ninja spy for a few ap. Aasimar can take up a good amount of ap in racial tree for some good things. Falconry is great for Wis to hit and damage but you have to invest a lot in tree to get it.