Feydark monk

[Rexen]

Since greater color spray works with wis i was trying to think of a way to use the fancy force shortswords with either SWF or TWF and going wis based. Probably focus on ninja spy for sneak with greater color spray but i'm not sure if this build would work out in the first place. Would something like this work on a monk? I was thinking the damage potential would be high around level 8 and would likely keep going up as you kept pushing sneak attack dice from there. I'm definitely not a good builder but the idea of it has been stuck in my mind.

[DrawingGuy]

Could you get a Monk past life done this way? Sure. Would it be good compared to other options for a Feydark build? Not really. Unfortunately Ninja Spy has many issues that make it an underperforming class tree... no melee power, AP costs are too high, multiple things are broken such as not providing SA die in cores and exploit options not working, not getting your full crit profile until level 20, etc.. These issues have put pure monk far behind other classes for weapons (even though dagger can be carried by VKF, other classes still bring more to the table for it). Monk is currently stuck with handwraps, shuriken, or staff (and even then, TA Rogue does staff better) if you want to go pure. Cross classing I don't really count as at that point you're taking the other classes actually good trees, and at the most you'll dip far enough into Ninja Spy to take Shadow Veil.

I digress though... being meta doesn't really matter as you should always play what you want and have fun.

A few things to note:

- Shadowblades, while great at first and make universal DR breakers with ghost touch, are outperformed by many weapon options. They also can't be made sentient once you hit level 20. I did do a life with Shadowblades just for fun and they are not bad weapons, but if I were to do a serious shortsword build, they'd be nothing but DR breakers.
- Color Spray has been fixed, so you do need to fit in Illusion DCs for it to really work. I was able to easily do it through leveling on the Tempest Ranger Feydark build I did, but it wouldn't have held up in end-game DCs. Also Color Spray range (and width it seems) gets kicked in the face if you use Epic Defensive Fighting in epics.

If you really want to go for an effective Shadowblade Feydark build, what I would consider over monk:

- Bard. With the buff to SWF, greater color spray working with CHA, giving you full CHA to hit/damage, and other CC and abilities utilizing any spell DCs you build for, this would have some good synergies. This is the option I would personally pick if I were to do another shadowblade build.
- Rogue. While nothing really beats the match made in heaven of VKF + Assassin for TWF DPS, an INT based Rogue could still make good use of color spray and the blades. SA damage is amazing, and trapping is always nice.
- Ranger. While the massive buff to THF put Tempests back (though the recent small nerf to THF should put Tempest back in competition), they're still a great class for TWF.

Unfortunately with the weakness of Ninja Spy, you can pretty much pick any non dedicated caster class and get more out of Shadowblades. Even Barbarian where you can't rage and use Color Spray at the same time would be better DPS not raging. Again, a Monk Feydark build would be able to level just fine so you can still try it out and have fun, it just isn't the most effective option.

[Rexen]

I really appreciate the detailed response. I'll wait on this type of build for now then. Maybe i'll look back at this if ninja spy gets some buffs.

[Arlathen]

There is an upshot now on this type of build - Esper. So you have something to aim for to put a Sentient Gem into at Cap, or could farm out using Runes beforehand.

On the subject of Ninja-Spy, yeah, its full of holes and and is poor compared to a lot of other weaponised Enhancement trees or even class abilities. That said, in Epic Levels, it really does pickup as you finally have those abilities you've been waiting 20 levels for - the extra Sneak Attack, the Critical Multiplier.

I very recently tested a WSS-based Longsword Ninja-Spy, and with a major amount of min/maxing Melee Power, Crit Multi, Sneak Damage, some top end raid gear including Suulo Set from VoD and twin Soulrazors, it gets really decent. But that's as far as it gets, just 'decent'. I'd still rather have a THF Paladin if I'm doing challenging content like Reaper Raid pushes. That's because a WIS-based Ninja Spy can have alot of tricks for DPS, Instant Kills and CC, but its soooooooo majorly Glass Cannon. She barely scratches 2K HP, 175 PRR, and of course is majorly limited on MRR, as soon as hit lands in High Reaper through all the dodge-style defense, it's good night Vienna.

I'm keeping my WSS Monk, its a fun flavour of character to play, but its a sideshow character in my small stable.