To the New Monks/Disciples!! UNOFFICIAL WELCOME GUIDE!!!!

Greetings Folks!

I have been seeing a LOT of new Monks/Disciples out there lately! It's a most welcome change! And this was even AFTER I warned them that we were gimps :)

Anyways, here are a collection of some of the best threads from our past discussions on the Unarmed Paths. It became harder to wade through the posts since all the forums were consolidated.

A lot of these are from a WHILE ago, so take everything with a grain of salt, but the fundamental information is good.

If anyone has any suggestions please feel free to add a pointer to the post or the info directly to this Thread.

My thoughts as a 100 SPRD Looking back:
http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...ead.php?t=8221

2HC and monks/Disciples:
http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...ead.php?t=7752

To Handwrap or not:
http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...ead.php?t=2368

General thoughts on Equipment, through tier III:
http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...ead.php?t=4174


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Definitions:
Mystic : Nature/Spirit casters. Casts Enhances buffs, also Surges.
Arcane: Mage spell casters, Flame/Ice/Energy. Casts Raise buffs (Slightly weaker/Shorter duration 'Enhances').

BOTH types cast Gifts if you take Cleric/Healer. And will be able to cast Revitalizes and IMPROVED Revitalizes. These can be teched with Cleanse to help get rid of debuffs.

General bottom line :
If you have a build idea, Try it out.
Meleers, Get Strength (however you can).

Disciples, your spells probably won't start landing until around level 55.

Spellcasters, Get Power (however you can).

Get Warrior 2 (Parry), Druid 16(Nature's Fury), and Cleric 18 (Dispirit), and Mage to around 8 (Fire/Ice/Energy attack I).

Be careful when picking your fights. You are a 1 on 1 based fighter, and don't be afraid of working monsters of significantly lower level than you :)
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MultiClassing: There are a lot of ideas, ask around. Generally you want a class that will supplement your play style. Heals/Buffs from Cleric/Healer is ALWAYS good.
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MELEE focused, might wish to try 2HC, there are a number of ways to approach that. Mystic classes might want to try Guardian, Arcanes might wish to try something like Chaos Warrior. The Secondary (BUT HUGE!!!) Bonus is that they get more Health and STRENGTH. Also they might give you additional utility by giving you Nature (Guardian) or Energy (CHSW) skill.
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Arcane CASTER Focused (Ice/FlameDs), Might want to try Mage for flexibility or one of the specializations. This will give you INCREDIBLE flexibility and MUCH MUCH needed Power/Focus. For example, If you are FlameD, Mage will give you Ice and Energy Bombs along with Mind spells which, though few, are INCREDIBLE helps.
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Mystic CASTER Focused (Spirit/Stormies): You can cast Enhances and Surges to your benefit. Take SOME class to boost your power/Focus.

SpiritD's consider something like Shaman for Skill in Nature and also blight for debuffs. You can then Expulse/Corrupt the enemy buffs then. Or maybe Spiritist for additional Spirit Skill, and it will also give you Blight. Both of these will give you significant POWER/focus gains. Learn to use the ROOTs of Nature. It will increase your XP (MultiXP) and save your butt more than once. ALso you get some limited Farming power with the AoE's. Also you get the advantage of Nature and Blight Resist/wards. (I don't advise Druid simply because they get mediocre stats and 2hc, but it's VERY doable, they are easy to level and very flexible).

Stormies Consider taking Spiritist for the Spirit/Blight addition to the already wide utility of your Nature Spells. You will gain Paroxysms and Leeches which make EXCELLENT pulling spells. Spirit Bolt will also help for the Nature Resistant Mobs. MOST monsters are at least moderately vulnerable to Spirit damage. You'll gain Spirit Ward and Ethereal Armor spell for special cases.

BOTH Mystic classes, consider taking SOME sort of mage class for the Power/Focus AND also the Ice/Flame/Energy attack buffs. It changes your attack type from CRUSH to Ice/Flame/Energy, which will help with Golems, and trust me... you will be fighting a LOT of golems in your career. (They're slow and play perfectly against your strengths ).
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-HratLi :D

Thanks Hratli.

Can this be stickied?

Some additional comments.

For MELEE based characters. You can get additional strength either by levelling CRAFT or Adventure levels... go to horizons.gamersinfo.net to look at the gains in different schools.

CRAFTING:
MOST folks go fitter, because it gives them 10str/level. However if you are already doing something like Mason/miner or another class with 9/level it might not be worth the effort to level up Fitter too unless you just like crafting. Heck, even if you are doing a class that has 8/level it might not be worthwhile to you to go crazy Min/Maxing to get 10/level. 8 is doable, 6 (which is what comes with the class) is NOT.

Adventure:
If you are adventure oriented, may as well choose one that complements your weaknesses. You have Dex from Monk/Disciple, try to chose a complementary class as I mentioned above.

-HratLi

Grem!

Where are you? You are the OTHER side of the equation. A build that is focused on SPEED and VOLUME of hits. :D When you get a chance can you post some of your design thoughts on building the perfect piston popping Gnomian Flurrying Death Machine?

Note my perspective is from a decent damage per hit for the drain build. More BASE dps the more I heal as a spirit disciple. Grem works from the other side, Flame Disciple and Stormies might fall under this category since their fist abilities are based on a per HIT chance, and more hits is worth more than more damage most of the time.

Post your thoughts here and help out the new folks! Else I'll populate the entire world with just SpiritD's and Stormies since that's all I know :D

-HratLi

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HratLi

Get Warrior 2 (Parry), Druid 16(Nature's Fury), and Cleric 18 (Dispirit), and Mage to around 8 (Fire/Ice/Energy attack I).

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I suggest druid 18. Pertify

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eni

I suggest druid 18. Pertify

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Quite right! Too bad I can't edit :(

I think I should post my hotkey bar of common attacks and most used abilities. That will also help answer a lot of questions.


-HratLi

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HratLi

Grem!

Where are you? You are the OTHER side of the equation. A build that is focused on SPEED and VOLUME of hits. :D When you get a chance can you post some of your design thoughts on building the perfect piston popping Gnomian Flurrying Death Machine?

-HratLi

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Hah, my build is indeed for max unarmed damage output, so I'll lay it all out, but (and I will repeat this part) I would recommend for most people a variation with a bit more survivability.

For those who don't know, I am a flame disciple, and am quite possibly the highest damage dealing unarmed user in the game.

The basic ideas behind this build are:
1. Maximize number of hits. Since Fists of Flame is per-hit and not delay adjusted or affected by melee damage modifiers (positively like Nature's Fury or negatively like Melee Flurry), the more times I can hit the more damage this will do.
2. Maximize strength and unarmed. Because of how armor works in this game, if you don't have strength and unarmed high enough, both your Fists of Flame and base melee damage can fall below a mob's armor threshold, particularly on well armored mobs.
3. Maximize Damage Per Second. Damage and DPS modifiers don't affect Fists of Flame, but will raise your melee damage, particularly with special attacks.
To achieve these ends, particularly 2., I made some tradeoffs that decreased my ability to live in tougher situations, particularly against multiple mobs. However, it gives me more attack power, so for soloing it ends up as a matter of 'kill the mob before it kills me,' and the fights are much shorter. One side effect of this is that a flame disciple built for damage can level faster.

Attack speed modifiers: Alacrity V, -25% delay; level 82+ healer or level 89+ cleric (without TPs). Alacrity is your main delay modifier, and having healer or cleric levels for buffs/heals is extremely helpful.
Gummy Maggot, -25% delay; requires a high level confectioner to make. Limits speed to 8, so is only useful if you don't need to move quickly. Duration is 10 minutes, and they can be used continuously. Yummy!
Gnomian Prowess, -50% delay; gnome racial ability. Exceptionally nice for burst damage with Flurry, since it lets you attack twice as fast for 30 secs, 5 min recycle.
Unbridled Energy, from level 20/40 chaos warrior, gives -20% delay, attacks do 120% damage, 1 min duration, 5 min recycle. Very nice ability, but doesn't stack with flurry. Still, quite useful when flurry is down, especially with chain attacks/crit/multi.
Saja's Puissant Elixer, -10% delay, need to complete Saja's quest in the Yew Outpost. They last for 30 mins, and once you've completed the quest you can go back as many times as you want to get another potion, but can only carry one at a time (and they are attuned).
(Silken) Banner of the Tempest, -8% delay; silken is the highest type. Lasts for 3 minutes with 30 minute recycle and expends an Energy Bone Splinter with each use (which cost 33s apiece from Nadia now). Also gives a 5% chance for a 6 second stun, which is overwritten by Stun III. Costs too much to use regularly unless you have money to burn.
Boar Hide Mask, -15% delay/recycle; doubles attack damage, lasts for 51 seconds, 20 min recycle. Also increases armor, two hand slash, and gives a 10% chance to inflict stun III on your target. This is very nice for damage, but can be very hard to get one of as they were a reward from a quest over 2 years ago.

For most mobs I just have Alacrity up, and use flurry/gnomian if I start to get adds.

Unarmed skill modifiers: 920 base from being level 100 flame disciple, and if you take monk to 100 it would end up 1000 base. Also, I use full Training Points (TPs) in unarmed, +200 unarmed (at level 100) for 1200 base.
Put Unarmed anywhere you can on armor and jewelry. It doesn't raise damage as much as strength, but affects to-hit as well as chance to parry when using handwraps.
Reklar's Sash of Fury, a belt with (among other things) +35 unarmed and a 5% chance (when attacked?) for +150 unarmed and evade, for 25 seconds... *drool* I would love to have that much unarmed, but there are *very* few of these completed in game, and would be near impossible to get.
Jewelry Crystal of Unarmed, +33 unarmed for level the 100 (radiant) crystal; if you prefer a socketed necklace, this would be a handy crystal to have in.

Strength skill modifiers: 594 + racial base for level 100 flame disc (or any monk class; 6 per level, no strength for level 1 of a class). This amount of strength is just laughable, and to maximize I would strongly recommend fitter, for 990 + racial base. With full TPs at level 100, 1140 + racial base strength. Gnomes are the featherweights for base at 30 at start, but more than make up for it with the Prowess.
Put strength anywhere you can on jewelry and armor, and use a strength armor crystal in socketed headgear, strength jewelry crystal in socketed necklace, and perhaps a strength weapon crystal in socketed handwraps. Strength cannot go on rings and bracelets, so use strength jewelry for those. For earrings, health jewelry teched with strength is better.
Minor Strength, +10 passive strength; reward from a Wishgiver quest (in Tazoon near the bind crystal). I would recommend getting all the Minor stats (power, dex, strength, armor, health, focus) by doing Wishgiver quests.
Strength Boost I, +10 passive strength; from ~level 7/14, warrior and warrior prestige classes.
Strength Like the Bear I, +54 passive strength; from level 28/56 guardian.
Gift of Strength V, +80 strength, 2 hour duration.
Raise Strength V, +70 strength, 15 min duration; 84+ levels healer or 92+ levels cleric to cast. Flame disciple, ice disciple, and monk can only cast raises, but a storm or spirit disciple can cast enhance strength V (+109, 30 min duration) and surge of strength V (+115, 3 min duration, 5 min recycle, stacks with raise/enhance).
Elixer of Aegis Might, from the yew outpost quest from the NPC on top of the small tower (can't recall the name at the moment); +50 strength, +50 blight resistance, 30 min duration. Same handling as Saja's Puissant Elixer, except that Saja's and Aegis Might pots do not stack effects; the most recently used one overwrites the other. However, it does stack with alchemist potions and confectioner +strength food.
Bolster Strength V, + 75 strength, 30 min duration; from your local neighborhood alchemist.
Pumpkin Seeds?.. they or a similar confectioner food buffs strength, I don't recall which one, or how much strength it adds. These, alch pots, and outpost pots should all stack effects.
Half-Giant Brawn, +50ish? strength; reward from half-giant racial quest, only available to half-giants.
(Silken) Banner of the Volcano, +35 to +70 strength; also increases armor and adds a 25% chance with each successful attack to add a flame damage hit. Same duration, recycle, and timer as Banner of the Tempest, and uses up a flame bone splinter (33s from Nadia) with each use.
Aura of the Bear I-III; nonmasterable group buff increasing strength, would need to be grouped with a druid to get.

I usually just use passives + gift / raise strength, but the other stuff is good for big fights.
Okay, this is getting a bit long, will try to keep the rest of this post shorter.

DPS Modifiers: Guardian's Force, +3 DPS, converts damage to nature; from level 32/64 guardian. Its damage converting takes precedence over Flame/Ice/Energy attacks, though it stacks with them.
Flame Attack, +1 DPS per tier (+5 DPS for Tier V); converts damage to flame, stacks with guardian's force, and for now stacks with Ice and Energy attacks (fixed on blight). Need flame skill to scribe/cast.
Ice / Energy Attack, +1 DPS per tier (+5 DPS for Tier V); converts damage to ice or energy respectively, does not stack with each other, but does stack with other DPS modifiers. Need ice or energy skill respectively to scribe/cast.
Power Style III, +6 DPS, all unarmed classes (and most melee classes) get. Doesn't stack with Melee Flurry.
Weapon Adept, +1 DPS, level 16/32 warrior and warrior prestige classes.
Special Attack Adept, +1 DPS with special attacks, level 30/60 monk.
Veteran Dark Garnet Weapon Crystal, +1 DPS; goes in weapon socket.

Damage Modifiers: Nature's Fury, 112% attack damage; level 7/14 druid, 1 min duration 1.5 min recycle.
Unbridled Energy, 120% attack damage; level 20/40 chaos warrior, 1 min duration, 5 min recycle.
Chain Attack effect, from using a chain attack (non masterable, all monk classes get); 120% attack damage, 6 sec duration.
Blue/Green/Red stances for some special attacks; in particular, with Blue Stance, Critical Strike does 120% damage.
Melee Flurry III, 40% attack damage, 3 extra attacks; duration 1 min, recycle 4 mins. Best for flame disc burst damage, since there is a Fists of Flame hit with each additional melee hit. In effect, each attack round -> 4 FoF hits, 4 melee hits.

There are other abilities I use for defensive purposes, but instead of listing all those in detail, I'll just list the classes for my build.
100 flame disciple - main class.
100 monk - unarmed, evade, dex, armor use, foresight, detox self, special attack adept.
100 fitter - strength, and the ability to wear ironsilk padded cloth when in a low adventure class.
100 healer - focus, buffs, heals.
100 mage - power, flame, energy, ice, mind, armor use (same as monk), mainly for AoEs and flame/energy/ice attack.
64 guardian - guardian's force, strength like the bear I
60 druid - nature's fury, detox self (also have from monk), forest mist.
44 berserker - battle hardened I (passive +health/armor), parry, health boost I, strength boost I
40 chaos warrior - unbridled energy
40 sorcerer - blur (passive +evasion)
18 cleric - dispirit foe

There are other good skills and masterables from classes I don't have, but it gets into a question of greater time, smaller returns - battlemage, spiritist, conjurer, and shaman in particular come to mind.

Also, I am working on ice disciple as an alternate main, but it would be better suited to a two hand crush / melee aoe build to get the most out of Freezing Touch.

For a more defensive setup? Max TPs in evasion / health, and use health rings / bracelets. Use resist and ward teched gear, particularly socketed with crystals against the damage type you are fighting. Your damage and hit rate won't be quite as high, but you'll live a lot longer.

I think that pretty well covers the basics of it!
- Gremblthrg

EDIT: Almost forgot to comment on racial abils! My build relies rather exclusively on Gnomian Prowess, though other racial abils are useful too (Elven leadership), particularly if you prefer to live longer (dryad, dwarf, half-giant, saris, satyr, sslik) or hate casters (fiend) or want to ..umm... be human (human).

Hi guys,
I'm a 100 Storm Disciple and am working on Monk as well now (I know I must be insane), and I find this guide EXTREMELY useful! One thing I really didn't think about was getting a crafting class that will up my strength more. As a carpenter my best attribute I get is Dex, and still its only marginal at best. I did find that by maxing out TPs in Evasion really gave me a solid defense especially when I'm in cargos or working on a lower class. Any other ideas to help augment my current skills, besides what may have been mentioned already?

Well, I think we've about said it all. The one additional tip since you also have a crafting class is if you get the class to 99, then you can wear Padded Ironsilk armour, as well as mithril health jewelry when working on your second and subsequent classes. Cloth armour and jewelry can be worn based on your current Adv OR craft levels.

Grem,
Thanks for your thoughts!

-HratLi

I agree with the 5-star rating. Good job monks!

Great guide! I started a new monk last week and am trying out the class. I'm currently level 8. What is a good time to start multi-classing? Is it better to bring your primary class up quite a ways and then start a second? Or is it better to get a few different classes and move them up generally together?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kerech

Great guide! I started a new monk last week and am trying out the class. I'm currently level 8. What is a good time to start multi-classing? Is it better to bring your primary class up quite a ways and then start a second? Or is it better to get a few different classes and move them up generally together?

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Wow... great question, and one that I have been avoiding :D

I don't have a good answer for you though. I have seen a LOT of folks bringing up a lot of the multiple classes early. This is for several reasons.

1. The first 4 levels don't seem to come with an Adventure Rating hit due to the calculations. (WARRIOR to 2 for parry, and at LEAST cleric to 3 to be able to cast revitalize 1 and maybe higher to get Gift 1's and other buffs. )

2. It's easier to kill monsters with the secondary classes than with your fists, especially at first! For example until you get your unarmed a little higher, you might find it easier to kill monsters using teched, repeating lightning bolts, while wearing your handwraps to parry.

3. With Cleric it's easier to hunt because you get Gifts, Enhances/Raises. As well as less downtime due to having heals. You can have Armour, one PHYSICAL attribute, and one MENTAL attribute enhanced/raised at once. So you can have armour, Focus and Health buffed at one time.

4. Along with #2, Monk/disciple is a lot of fun in Mid/Higher level because of it's animation variety and 'responsiveness', but at lower levels you only have 1 or 2 chain attacks. Also it's plain HARDER to kill stuff as a monk/disciple. Having Dispirit and the other abilities evens the gap some more so that you are more competitive. And makes the levelling more 'fun'.


Bottom line, earlier rather than later is a good choice. :D But then again I am STILL adding bits and pieces to my SpiritD (what else is there to do? :) )
so it's never too late.

A big benefit of having Monk/Disciple is that when later adding multiclasses you 'transfer' Unarmed Mastery at 1/2 your level. So even as a level 1 new class you are never really at a major disadvantage without a rare item like the Saris Blade of Rending (which is a MAJOR exploit in my opinion). From experience with MY build, I do unarmed, double teched bucket/Bag until around level 30-40 then switch to staff.

Welcome and Good Luck!
-HratLi

EDIT: Anyone who has further opinions on this PLEASE speak up! :)

More great info, thanks :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HratLi

2. It's easier to kill monsters with the secondary classes than with your fists, especially at first! For example until you get your unarmed a little higher, you might find it easier to kill monsters using teched, repeating lightning bolts, while wearing your handwraps to parry.

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How do you get lightning bolts? Mage class?

I looted some handwraps from a skeleton I killed. I put them on, but my damage output seemed to drop in half. Is that normal?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kerech

More great info, thanks :)
How do you get lightning bolts? Mage class?

I looted some handwraps from a skeleton I killed. I put them on, but my damage output seemed to drop in half. Is that normal?

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Lightning bolts are Nature damage bolts that comes from Druid, so when you level druid you would start being able to cast them.

As for the wraps, be careful and look at the LEVEL of the wraps, the damage is scaled directly to the level of the wrap, for instance if you loot some level 10 handwraps, and you were level 20-25, then your damage would drop to a level 10 monk's.

Also monsters have resistances to certain type of damages. If you loot some Blight-Striking handwraps, obviously undead would be more resistant to it. Or if you loot Pierce-striking handwraps you would do MORE damage to golems. As far as what to use on different monsters ask around or experiemnt :)

-HratLi

Someone posted the Ice Tomb and Shatter on Ice Desciple is not working on the live servers, is this true?

Ice Tomb and Shatter have never worked on the live servers, to my knowledge; they got it working on Genesis last month, but Horizons was sold and the staff let go before those changes ever made it to the live servers. I don't know if it reached blight or not.

Personally, I only have ice disciple high enough to test Ice Tomb, and it does nothing - without that, Shatter cannot work. If a higher level ice disciple can test them, I would like nothing better than to be proven wrong.

It is certain, however, that the other changes Amon listed as coming to live in the next patch (see Monk Issue List, post on 7-14-2006) have not made it; Aura of Flame still does pierce damage, True Grit still blocks use of Iron Body, and Group Ice Armor still just has a brown blot icon instead of using the icon for Ice Armor. No doubt the working Ice Tomb and Shatter would have gone live at the same.

And yes, I am the one who posted that ice tomb and shatter still do not work on live... it may be difficult to find another ice disciple to confirm or deny, they are an exceedingly rare breed. There is more to the class than just that one-two punch though, I encourage you to give it a try.

- Gremblthrg