Tabaxi Iconic Quarterstaff monk

[catweasle]

Has anyone attempted a quarterstaff build combining the new Tabaxi Iconic racial tree along with T5 Henshin and T4 Falconry enhancement trees yet? There looks like there's plenty of potential there if you can squeeze it all in. Please share your build if you have.

[Arkat]

A build like that where you would need to use a good number of the racial enhancements would work best with a toon with a lot of the racial action points you get from doing all the racial past lives.

If you have those racial action points, give it a go. I'd be curious about what you come up with.

[Agr33n3]

Howdy! Phloat here from Argonesson. Here are a few details about my next-life Wisdom-based Tabaxi Staff Monk, using some knowledge from my Wisdom-based Aasimar Staff Monk.

Also, take a look at Strimtom's Strength-Based Half-Orc Staff Monk. It is quite powerful, but doesnt use T4 Falconry. Less Helpless damage, higher base damage.

Henshin is in a great spot, and has a higher base damage than handwraps, particularly while levelling. Add in THF feats, Adrenaline, and Cauldron of Flame, then BAM, whack someone for 100k damage at level cap. I have a few racial points, but will build it with only 80 AP. If you have some extra racial AP, sink them deeper into either Tabaxi or Shintao. AoE Jade Strike is good.


Let's get to it:

Stats:
Max Wisdom
15 Strength for THF feats, 17 for GTHF
13 Dexterity for Precision
Max Constitution

Skills: (in order of importance) Concentration, UMD, Balance, Tumble

Heroic Feats:
1) TwoHanded Fighting
1) Monk bonus: Dodge
2) Monk bonus: Mobility
3) Completionist or Precision
3) Monk Philosophy: Path of Inevitable Dominion: Fists of Darkness
6) Spring Attack or Toughness
6) Monk Bonus: Swords to Plowshares
9) Improved Two Handed Fighting
12) Improved Critical: Bludgeoning Weapons
15) Greater Two Handed Fighting
18) Precision or Weapon Focus: Bludgeoning Weapons

Epic Feats:
21) Overwhelming Critical
24) Improved Martial Arts
27) Epic Damage Reduction
30) Epic Will or Epic Toughness

Epic Destiny Feats:
22) Perfect Two Handed Fighting
25) Crush Weakness
28) Deific Warding or Doublestrike

Scion feat: Arborea or Ethereal Plane


Enhancements:
These are a bit messy, given the number of racial points you have.

ALWAYS:
41 Henshin Mystic
26 Falconry

Some variations for the rest:
28 Falconry (gives T4 Bird attack and 50% fort bypass)
12 Shintao for Jade Strike (10% physical damage vulnerability)
13 Tabaxi for better Feline Ability and sneak dice (more speed and a bit of physical damage)
13 Trailblazer for Strikethrough and other goodies (though, better with racial points for T4 Wide Sweep and Fast Sprinter)


Epic Destinies:
T5/T4 in either Grandmaster or Fury. If you have more points, there is HP and Tactics in Dreadnaught.

Grandmaster of Flowers gives us a lot of utility and defense while levelling and at cap, great for solo-play.
Fury of the Wild is all about daaaaamage with Adrenaline.

I recommend trying both T5 and T4's out, and figuring which epic strike is your style. The Fury mantle gives more helpless damage (but just a smidge), while the Grandmaster gives more flat damage as well as added defenses while centered.

The Grandmaster Epic Strike is great while THF: the AoE stun and extra range/multiplier on the strike is great.
However, please try Adrenaline while in your Cauldron of Flame. It is.. a lot of damage.

[Memnir]

I'm building a kitty monk along those lines - and it's actually been a lot of fun. Not up quite that high in Falconry yet, tho.

Wide Swing is a great tool to have in the toolbox. Looking forward to coupling that with the helpless damage in Falconry.

[ClanBastage]

Working on my 3rd Trailblazer life on similar build...I am taking the Power Attack route vs the Precision route and I am focusing on GMoF destiny with splash of tactics and taking Avatar for Cocoon and extra Wis points. Finding this is a lot of fun to play...may stay at cap in 3rd life for a little bit, especially since I already knocked out my 3x vanilla Taxabi to lock Racial Completionist back up again. Not many downsides to the staff build vs any others...plus they look super cool in the ninja suit cosmetic!

[Intensik]

Currently leveling a tabaxi staff monk... wondering how the regular tabaxi race compares to the iconic.

Looks to me like the iconic is a bit better given the enhancement tree (cores give +2 wis, some strikethrough and doublestrike, wide swing if that's decent) but is there anything I'm missing?

Seeing some posts in the last few weeks about the animation being broken, and causing slower attacks (less attacks/min), not sure if this is still true, or was true before, as I haven't seen any/don't own the race currently.

[DoctorOfLiterature]

Has anyone attempted a quarterstaff build combining the new Tabaxi Iconic racial tree along with T5 Henshin and T4 Falconry enhancement trees yet? There looks like there's plenty of potential there if you can squeeze it all in. Please share your build if you have.

So I am currently a lvl 21 Tabaxi Iconic Dexterity Henshin quarterstaff monk. I followed Strimtom's build here but used the Trailblazer racial tree. I went Dex to align with the +2 Dex from Trailblazer.

I am taking the enhancements in Trailblazer that boost Dodge, buff quarterstaff use, Dexterity, and Feline Agility.

It is playing really well! Far exceeding my expectations! Tons of fun. Very mobile and agile and evasive but also pretty good melee dps.

https://forums.ddo.com/forums/showth...Druid-and-Monk

[NemesisAlien]

So I am currently a lvl 21 Tabaxi Iconic Dexterity Henshin quarterstaff monk. I followed Strimtom's build here but used the Trailblazer racial tree. I went Dex to align with the +2 Dex from Trailblazer.

I am taking the enhancements in Trailblazer that boost Dodge, buff quarterstaff use, Dexterity, and Feline Agility.

It is playing really well! Far exceeding my expectations! Tons of fun. Very mobile and agile and evasive but also pretty good melee dps.

https://forums.ddo.com/forums/showth...Druid-and-Monk

Problem is its too fast, with the lag keeps face planting into walls.

[SylvanPhoenix]

I have never played a monk and interested in trying this out next. Is there a recommended guide to playing a henshin staff monk?

[NemesisAlien]

I have never played a monk and interested in trying this out next. Is there a recommended guide to playing a henshin staff monk?

Its the hardest class to play, lots of clicking, so if you used to holding down the mouse button it will be difficult.

Doable if its only heroics, but if epic and above it becomes much more difficult.

[SylvanPhoenix]

Its the hardest class to play, lots of clicking, so if you used to holding down the mouse button it will be difficult.

Doable if its only heroics, but if epic and above it becomes much more difficult.

Understood. I've played casters and melees that have 10+ hotbar items that I have to manage actively throughout a quest. Lately, I've been playing a warchanter bard that is constantly renewing short term buffs and cycling through several abilities in fights.

I'd love to see is what that looks like for monks? Are there specific sequences you do for this type of monk vs others? I can figure it out but one of the things I love about these forums is veteran players sharing their insight on how they best play a specific character. Thanks!

[SylvanPhoenix]

So I found this thread, https://forums.ddo.com/forums/showth...-So-many-moves, fairly helpful. The question I have after reading that is what sort of finishing moves do you typically use? Do you use a specific elemental attack or do you just swing your quarterstaff? Maybe with monk you never just attack, you always use one of the monk specific attacks.

[NemesisAlien]

Understood. I've played casters and melees that have 10+ hotbar items that I have to manage actively throughout a quest. Lately, I've been playing a warchanter bard that is constantly renewing short term buffs and cycling through several abilities in fights.

I'd love to see is what that looks like for monks? Are there specific sequences you do for this type of monk vs others? I can figure it out but one of the things I love about these forums is veteran players sharing their insight on how they best play a specific character. Thanks!

Mostly start with light light light, gets cure light wounds effect and lesser restore if you got the toggle active.

Also it gives you something like vampiric attack when you hit.

When i deal with something like fire elementals i use water.

[DoctorOfLiterature]

I am sure Nemesis is much better monk than me, but I disagree that you should be afraid to play this or plan to stop at 20. I am not a great player and this is first monk life, but I am holding my own in R10 end game now. I definitely don’t use finishing moves optimally but I’m so fast and evasive w dodge so that I don’t get hit much and I have about six hot bars that I randomly hit on offense and mostly do ok. Not as easy as Lock blaster, but very fun and you will be ok as you learn. Worst thing? How slow meditating is…

[SylvanPhoenix]

Great, thanks for the tips.

[NemesisAlien]

I am sure Nemesis is much better monk than me, but I disagree that you should be afraid to play this or plan to stop at 20. I am not a great player and this is first monk life, but I am holding my own in R10 end game now. I definitely don’t use finishing moves optimally but I’m so fast and evasive w dodge so that I don’t get hit much and I have about six hot bars that I randomly hit on offense and mostly do ok. Not as easy as Lock blaster, but very fun and you will be ok as you learn. Worst thing? How slow meditating is…

How you evade and dodge R10 lag in pyjamas?

[Wildseed]

Howdy! Phloat here from Argonesson. Here are a few details about my next-life Wisdom-based Tabaxi Staff Monk, using some knowledge from my Wisdom-based Aasimar Staff Monk.

Also, take a look at Strimtom's Strength-Based Half-Orc Staff Monk. It is quite powerful, but doesnt use T4 Falconry. Less Helpless damage, higher base damage.

Henshin is in a great spot, and has a higher base damage than handwraps, particularly while levelling. Add in THF feats, Adrenaline, and Cauldron of Flame, then BAM, whack someone for 100k damage at level cap. I have a few racial points, but will build it with only 80 AP. If you have some extra racial AP, sink them deeper into either Tabaxi or Shintao. AoE Jade Strike is good.


Let's get to it:

Stats:
Max Wisdom
15 Strength for THF feats, 17 for GTHF
13 Dexterity for Precision
Max Constitution



Skills: (in order of importance) Concentration, UMD, Balance, Tumble

Heroic Feats:
1) TwoHanded Fighting
1) Monk bonus: Dodge
2) Monk bonus: Mobility
3) Completionist or Precision
3) Monk Philosophy: Path of Inevitable Dominion: Fists of Darkness
6) Spring Attack or Toughness
6) Monk Bonus: Swords to Plowshares
9) Improved Two Handed Fighting
12) Improved Critical: Bludgeoning Weapons
15) Greater Two Handed Fighting
18) Precision or Weapon Focus: Bludgeoning Weapons

Epic Feats:
21) Overwhelming Critical
24) Improved Martial Arts
27) Epic Damage Reduction
30) Epic Will or Epic Toughness

Epic Destiny Feats:
22) Perfect Two Handed Fighting
25) Crush Weakness
28) Deific Warding or Doublestrike

Scion feat: Arborea or Ethereal Plane


Enhancements:
These are a bit messy, given the number of racial points you have.

ALWAYS:
41 Henshin Mystic
26 Falconry

Some variations for the rest:
28 Falconry (gives T4 Bird attack and 50% fort bypass)
12 Shintao for Jade Strike (10% physical damage vulnerability)
13 Tabaxi for better Feline Ability and sneak dice (more speed and a bit of physical damage)
13 Trailblazer for Strikethrough and other goodies (though, better with racial points for T4 Wide Sweep and Fast Sprinter)


Epic Destinies:
T5/T4 in either Grandmaster or Fury. If you have more points, there is HP and Tactics in Dreadnaught.

Grandmaster of Flowers gives us a lot of utility and defense while levelling and at cap, great for solo-play.
Fury of the Wild is all about daaaaamage with Adrenaline.

I recommend trying both T5 and T4's out, and figuring which epic strike is your style. The Fury mantle gives more helpless damage (but just a smidge), while the Grandmaster gives more flat damage as well as added defenses while centered.

The Grandmaster Epic Strike is great while THF: the AoE stun and extra range/multiplier on the strike is great.
However, please try Adrenaline while in your Cauldron of Flame. It is.. a lot of damage.

6) Monk Bonus: Swords to Plowshares Does not need to be taken if you go deep into the racial tree. It is given in the racial tree for the iconic.

[Anzanel]

Howdy! Phloat here from Argonesson. Here are a few details about my next-life Wisdom-based Tabaxi Staff Monk, using some knowledge from my Wisdom-based Aasimar Staff Monk.

Also, take a look at Strimtom's Strength-Based Half-Orc Staff Monk. It is quite powerful, but doesnt use T4 Falconry. Less Helpless damage, higher base damage.

Henshin is in a great spot, and has a higher base damage than handwraps, particularly while levelling. Add in THF feats, Adrenaline, and Cauldron of Flame, then BAM, whack someone for 100k damage at level cap. I have a few racial points, but will build it with only 80 AP. If you have some extra racial AP, sink them deeper into either Tabaxi or Shintao. AoE Jade Strike is good.


Let's get to it:

Thanks for posting this build. I've been using it to finish off my 2 remaining Monk lives, but with a regular Tabaxi instead of Iconic. I'll probably be lvl 30 tonight and was wondering what an optimal (or at least near-optimal) gear set would be.

I'll be playing at cap for a bit before TRing and would be willing to invest the necessary time/raid runes/crafting materials ot get some good gear, especially if I use the same build next life to do it all over again :P

[NemesisAlien]

6) Monk Bonus: Swords to Plowshares Does not need to be taken if you go deep into the racial tree. It is given in the racial tree for the iconic.

Spring attack and deflect arrows in in the tree also, do not need to be taken, also you dont need feather fall, cat drop for no damage, although a few quest you might need it for falling slowly. Do note monk fall half slowly anyway.