What else do I need?

Hello, I'm in need of some current advice. I'm returning to the game after a very long absence (I played at release for about 6 months).

I want to play a monk, specifically a spirit disciple. I'm not really interested in leveling multiple classes, but I'm not averse to grabbing a few levels in a couple just to make my life easier.

I've seen mentioned that I need to get to level 2 warrior for parry? Is that when the skill is mastered, and is that low level of a skill going to benefit me at level 100?

I've also seen both druid and cleric mentioned. Which one should I take, and why? And to what level do I need to take it?

For crafting I primarily want to be a confectioner (I've been told I will have to level gathering) but I'm also interested in tailor to make my own armor, jewelcrafting for my jewelry, and alchemy. Is there any particular order I should do them in? (aside from holding off on gathering due to deconstruction issues) I also plan to take at least blacksmithing (possibly fitter) to offset my poor strength gains as a monk.

I think that's everything for now, thank you in advance for your help.

Slow day at work, so.... :)

Adventuring:
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Parry skill will help you all through your career, so go and grab it.

Cleric will be good for getting heals and some buffs (Gift/Enhances/Raises) that are very nice to have. Get it to 10 rather quick so you have some heals available early on.
After levelling monk to 20 you might want to add another few levels to your cleric.
Getting it to 20 (and having added 1 skill point to Augmentation skill pr. cleric level increase) you will get access to Tier2 Gifts, and have the Dispirit Foe (lvl 9) ability mastered.
Then start on your Spirit Disciple. With access to some decent heals and augmentations.

Druid you can wait with. Main attraction there would be Resilience (lvl 1 - adds +18 slash/crush/pierce resistance), Nature's Fury (lvl 7 - 12% increase to damage), which will be mastered at lvl 14, so if you feel you will need it, go and grab it.

Revitalize and Improved Rev needs either Life or Nature skill to learn.
For access to the other healing spells (that you can use as a Spirit Disc.) you need Life skill.
- Minor Health, Health, Major Health, Group Health

Alternatievly you can level druid in stead of cleric to get the main heals and augmentations, but then the augmentation spells will come much later. Druid to lvl 29 to get access to Tier2 Gift spells if you do not use any training points in Augmentation skill (druid gains 7/lvl, vs. cleric 9/lvl), and you will miss out on Dispirit Foe (Halves a critters attack speed.)

Personally I would go for Cleric (and after lvl 20 CLR do Healer) as a support class.
Add in some Mage (to lvl 8) to be able to use Ice/Flame/Energy Attack spells for damage conversion.
Every so often switch back to cleric/healer and add a few levels so you can get ahold of new healing and buff spells along the way.

At a later time I would also add in Spiritist to get a better Spirit skill. At least to lvl 72 so Spirit Walk is mastered, but preferably all the way to gain access to the full range of tier5 spirit spells.

After that I might add druid all the way to get access to the various Nature spells, but would at least make it to lvl 14. Or to lvl 56 to get Detoxify Self ability mastered, and on the way pick up Vivacity at lvl 20 (+34 Crush/Slash/Pierce resistance.)

Your rating will be a bit higher than your adv. level, but shouldn't really cause much problems.
20 levels of Cleric, 20 levels as monk (and 14 levels as druid) wouldn't add so much to your rating when playing as a SPRD that it would be unplayable and impossible to get decent xp, so don't worry too much about that.



Crafting:
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- Outfitter to lvl 10 to qualify for Tailor (if pre req is 80, to lvl 13 if pre req is 100.)
- Blacksmith to 19 to qualify for Fitter/Mason/Carpenter. Gains 8 str/lvl.
-------------- Mason gets 9 str/lvl and would be the easiest to level up to get some decent STR.
-------------- Fitter gets 10 str/lvl, but working with metals after tier2 can become tiresome.
- Scholar to lvl 15 to qualify for Alchemist/Confectioner. (or Gatherer to lvl 10)
- Scholar to lvl 19 to qualify for Mason, Enchanter


You will only feel the effect of the salvaging skill if that skill is higher than the skill you use for making/deconstructing other things. If that happens you will need to deconstruct manually (with a beginner salvaging awl in hand to lower the salvaging skill) to gain xp from the decon operation.

With the schools you have mentioned you are interested in doing, it would be the sculpting (or metalworking skill if Fitter), tailoring and jewelcraft skills you need to keep higher than the salvaging skill to avoid having to do manual decon.
Alchemist and Confectioner have nothing to decon in their levelling, so for these schools you can ignore the salvage skill.


The way I would go. Since I don't like working much with t3 and up metals. :p
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scholar* 15 -> Confectioner xx
----------- -> Alchemist xx (Level Alch on making dyes)
Scholar* 19 -> Mason xx (Level MSN on stone tools)

Outfitter 10 (or 13) -> Tailor xx
Jeweler xx
Blacksmith xx (For making metal tools. Levelled by con/decon of stone tools mainly.)
Gatherer xx for increased forage/fishing/preparing/essence gathering and shaping skill as/if needed.

* After the recent scholar revamp I think the only skills lost are Spinning and Clothworking, so using scholar to qualify for mason and confectioner should work just fine.


Irramor - Chaos

Thanks so much for the detailed information!

and most welcome home, glac!!

Welcome back!

For what it's worth, my old welcome guide to monks still seems to apply.

http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=14806

When they introduced handwraps and we got parry it was one of the MAJOR turning points in Monk survivability so yes, 2 levels of warrior won't even show up on your rating (it takes 4 levels I think) and is a lifelong return.

You may not want to multiclass, but I suspect you'll be at a major disadvantage long term. You will probably want to pick up Druid or Cleric as well to compliment SpiritD... You will need some healing somehow. Cleric/healer also gives you great healing, Gifts and enhances, druid however gives you earthen crust, AoE stuns and Dark Cyclone among other goodies with healing. I don't think that you can cast ANY of the health line of spells as a SpiritD though.

Your choice of crafting will be important too since you are missing strength, so as you said blacksmith, it would work, but without that strength you'll be really behind. On the plus side confectioner and foraging, etc are dex based so you'll be doing great from your monk side.


-HratLi