Monk Fix Skills

[SoupyPoopy]

Fix skills are in 21 days, I still have mine available from this prior year. Been gone from the realms for a couple of years and would like some opinions on my monk. I think I have may have been forcing spells a bit too hard. If anyone can see some glaring issues that I haven't noticed please let me know.


Race: Erithian Profession: Monk (not shown)
Gender: Male Age: 113 Expr: 900468 Level: 28
Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 78 (9) ... 78 (9)
Constitution (CON): 76 (23) ... 76 (23)
Dexterity (DEX): 82 (16) ... 82 (16)
Agility (AGI): 69 (9) ... 69 (9)
Discipline (DIS): 72 (16) ... 72 (16)
Aura (AUR): 87 (18) ... 87 (18)
Logic (LOG): 79 (19) ... 79 (19)
Intuition (INT): 75 (12) ... 75 (12)
Wisdom (WIS): 87 (18) ... 87 (18)
Influence (INF): 58 (14) ... 58 (14)
Mana: 91 Silver: 0

(at level 28), your base skill bonuses, ranks and goals are:
Skill Name | Actual Actual
| Bonus Ranks Goals In-Game Time to Goal
Two Weapon Combat..................| 70 15 15
Combat Maneuvers...................| 117 29 29
Brawling...........................| 160 60 60
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 117 29 29
Physical Fitness...................| 156 56 56
Dodging............................| 156 56 56
Harness Power......................| 114 28 28
Spirit Mana Control................| 30 6 6
Mental Lore - Transformation.......| 5 1 1
Perception.........................| 114 28 28
Climbing...........................| 70 15 15
Swimming...........................| 62 13 13

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 4 4

Spell Lists
Minor Mental.......................| 20 20
Training Points: 7 Phy 0 Mnt (626 Phy converted to Mnt)

21 days remain until the annual FIXSKILLS is to be granted, on 05/20/2020.

Your 30 day migration period will begin when you choose to degrade a skill.

[Elgrim]

There are a lot of different takes on how to best train. I'd use Flimbo's guide as a baseline.

Personally I prefer the slow and easy route on spells, they aren't as critical as making sure your base skills are solid. I prefer 2x brawl, CM, PT, 3x dodge, 1x MOC and perception, and .5 TWC as my baseline. I make sure that is done every level. Then fill in the gaps as you can. With 3x dodge the higher end spells are not as needed for a good while, and you will have a strong physical skill base.

I HIGHLY recommend fitting in armor training when you can. I got mine up to 60 ranks so I could use light armor mastery, which is a complete game changer for monks and their horrid spell warding defense. Plus evasiveness is absolutely top notch.

I did 20 ranks in minor spirit and mental by 90, with 40 ranks of harness power and 25 mental lore - transformation for boosting 1202. But those are not essential until later levels, especially if you catch Dreavenings on the regular.

Skill Name | Actual Actual
| Bonus Ranks Goals
Two Weapon Combat..................| 195 95
Armor Use..........................| 160 60
Combat Maneuvers...................| 290 190
Brawling...........................| 290 190
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 195 95
Physical Fitness...................| 290 190
Dodging............................| 385 285
Harness Power......................| 140 40
Mental Mana Control................| 15 3
Mental Lore - Transformation.......| 105 25
Perception.........................| 195 95
Climbing...........................| 160 60
Swimming...........................| 170 70

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 20 20

Spell Lists
Minor Mental.......................| 20 20

[Alashir]

I enjoy grabbing my spells early so I don't have to worry about fitting them in later and I love being beholden to no one in order to hunt effectively. You're already at the point where you've got 20 mental which is an excellent stopping point. Up to you if you want 107 for deep blues or continue pushing for alkars at 120.

Light armor mastery is awesome. Second that.

[Elgrim]

Looking at your training I can tell you that you are going to get far more from doubling in CM and all the things that come with that than you are with rushing your spells. I have never seen a singled CM monk, but that definitely isn't normal :) Monks are a class that rely on a LOT of passive cmans. You could almost have perfect self by now if you were doubled, plus some other ones. And +10 to every stat is not duplicated by any spell on our lists :)

[SoupyPoopy]

So going a more physical route would look something like;
12 Armor Use
60 Brawling
15 TWC
56 CM
28 MoC
56 PF
84 Dodge
20 Harness
6 Mental Mana Control
Minor Spell to 103
Minor Mental to 109
1 Transformation
.5 Climb/Swim
28 Perception

Not sure what the spell goals should be. I was just rushing both mental and spirit to 20

[Alashir]

So going a more physical route would look something like;


Not sure what the spell goals should be. I was just rushing both mental and spirit to 20

Mental to 20 and spiritual to 20 would be the end goal. Important spells at 9, 16, and 20 for mental. Spiritual has goodies at 1,2, 3, 7, 12 (if you're in river's rest), and 20.

Here's why I'd recommend "rushing" spells:

1) It's confusing on when to pick them if you're doing it over time. Very subjective pros and cons of weighing skill ranks vs holding off to obtain another spell.

2) I don't know the math on dodge ranks vs spell ds, but as someone who "rushed" spells on their monk, it felt stupidly easy. I think the hardest part was getting to level 10 and after that I never looked back.

3) The skills you'd be missing out on by getting spells first are important and very fun (1s mstrikes, light armor mastery, perfect self, etc) and if you have a pocket mage or only hunt with dreavenings then I'd go for it, but were not nearly as valuable to me early on in hunting solo.

TLDR: I found it much easier to be self sufficient via grabbing spells first and then saying okay here's my goals of 3x dodge, 2x pf, 2x cm, blah blah, so now that I'm done with spells what do I want to prioritize first? I'm already hunting effectively so now I get to choose which skills to grab first that I think are the most fun.

...not really a TLDR but anyway

#monklife

#rerolltohalfkrolvin

[SoupyPoopy]

I'm hunting just fine, on my last step of Voln and I grab the occasionally Dreavening or trade some monk spells for wizards but it isn't really needed. But since I have a free fixskills and another one coming up Ill try out doing a more physical build and see how things go for me.

[Alashir]

I'm hunting just fine, on my last step of Voln and I grab the occasionally Dreavening or trade some monk spells for wizards but it isn't really needed. But since I have a free fixskills and another one coming up Ill try out doing a more physical build and see how things go for me.

I was going to say - you've got two fixskills so use now one and do something different and see where it puts you.

[Elgrim]

So going a more physical route would look something like;
12 Armor Use
60 Brawling
15 TWC
56 CM
28 MoC
56 PF
84 Dodge
20 Harness
6 Mental Mana Control
Minor Spell to 103
Minor Mental to 109
1 Transformation
.5 Climb/Swim
28 Perception

Not sure what the spell goals should be. I was just rushing both mental and spirit to 20

That looks pretty much like my path. Maybe more harness than I would have had at 28. I picked it up later because you only need enough to pop yourself with a refresh after each hunt. I think I was .3 harness for a long while, and am still under .5. Armor use is something you will probably have to wait for, because it takes a LOT of physical and you probably won't have the points until later. Your breakpoints are 20 ranks for light armor mastery #1, and then 50 for #2. Then I pushed to 60 ranks for chain based TD. I'd ditch MMC completely for now. It does very little until 25 ranks. The only reason I have any is because I hunt with a bard on occasion and never use mana while hunting, so I can toss it to them in chunks. Its just too expensive otherwise. You really don't spend mana while hunting, so who cares what your mana regen is? :)

Transformation is something you can also do in chunks, and do it later in life.

Spells look right for 28, that is almost exactly where I was. I pushed for Brace before I started my 100's because I wanted that parry and disarm chance to add to the already healthy dodge defense.

There are lots of ways to monk, and honestly they all work. Its just finding that sweet spot that feels right for you personally.

[audioserf]

I've got a lot of monk opinions, not all of which line up with conventional wisdom or Flimbo's guide.

This is from the perspective of having been GOS until 50 or so and then gone into Voln. The only thing I'd have done differently if I stayed in GOS is probably delayed getting 120 a bit since I wouldn't have hunted the Rift.

- baseline of 2.5x dodge, 2x CM, 2x PF, 2x Brawl. I was 3x dodge by the time I capped.
- get MOC in chunks to hit focused strike thresholds. I hit 30 ranks at around 25, I think. 55 around 40, 90 around 75. I'm still at 90 having just capped.
- spells aren't super important to rush. You're a square, not a semi. 1x spells is insane, especially at the cost of 2x CM, which is a monk core skill. At 40, I knew 1220 and 103. I got 120 at level 67, just in time to start the Rift. If you don't plan to hunt the Rift you can put 120 off a lot longer if you want. Without 120 you'll have a very bad time in there.
- I was .5x HP until I realized spellburst existed and that I'd want to carry elementals in Nelemar/Sanctum, at which point I kicked it into gear and capped with 1x HP. 100 ranks of HP is enough for a full wiz spellup without any other spellburst skills.
- Lores. I went for 15 Telepathy first by around 60-65 to bump 1213 up to 30% stamina reduction. As a monk, mstriking a lot and 1213 are your life blood. 1213 is incredibly good. I never ran 1216, if I needed more DS I'd use 102. Give me all the stamina now. I later got 15 Transformation by level 75 in order to have AsG 13 (monk level 75 bonus plus 15 transform lore gets you there).
- Everyone beats their dick raw about Perfect Self ASAP. I think that's insane. There are a lot of far more useful CMans than just having ePeen stats. I had Krynch 3, Punch 3, Kick 3, Evade 2, Toughness 1 (halfling life) Surge 1 and Burst 1 all before I even started working on PSelf which I finished at level 73. I never once missed it.
- LAM didn't exist when I was leveling, but I don't think I'd change my training to get it pre-cap. A lot of this is because my monk's a halfling. That TD bonus is wild. I can see fitting in 20 or even 50 ranks of armor use and learning 120 later or something.

Monks are awesome. They can't do anything except combat, but god damn do they crush at combat. You'll probably be fine whatever you do, but what I laid out above worked really well for me and I didn't have any struggle points 0-100 (minus the 88-93 or so window being awful like it is for pretty much every class).

PS BUY STAMINA RECOVERY ENHANCIVES

[khorpulent]

+1 to everything Audioserf has to say. Spells are only important up until 1214, maybe 1215. Doding>spells in terms of DS.

Also, why are you recomending 6 MMC ranks? MMC has no real benefit for monks.

You will want 6 telepathy lore once you get 1213. Using 1216 is for suckers.

[Donquix]

if you wanna skimp on spells skimp on 100's, going to 1220 early is good.

1213 > 1216 but using 1216 situationaly (bandit bounties comes to mind) is good.

1214 gets you an extra parry chance, 1218 is super useful in certain situations, and 1219 if you have logic enhancives is perfectly usable early. I think everyone can agree 1213 is basically mandatory then continuing the last 7 ranks you get all that stuff, the 20 DS from premonition, maneuver defense (unfortunately not to smrv2 for whatever reason), 1 more generic TD from 1208 scaling (every bit helps? lol), a few more levels worth of scaling for 1207 (honestly no idea how that would play now with the change to smrv2, before it was ported over i definitely felt it lessen in reliability sometime in the 50-60 range with 20 ranks of 1200's only)

If the thing you (mostly) give up is some > 2x dodge training you're trading basically 8 ranks of dodge per spell rank, depending on how severely you're converted PTP <-> MTP. 20 DS from 1220 is equivalent to like 26 or so ranks of dodge for DS anyway, in offensive which is the only time it matters.

Either way it completely works fine. Hell you could do 1207 or 1202 only if you're crazy then just train armor use now and it'd be fine. It's good we have options, they're all pretty interchangeable i think with the state of things now and a lot of it comes down to personal preference. I personally like spell heavy cause not having abilities I could have grinds my gears.

[SoupyPoopy]

I'm leaning towards spell heavy myself. Only been two days doing a more physical focus build and I am not hunting any faster and for some reason, I seem to be getting hit more often. It could just be my imagination though.

[Donquix]

I'm leaning towards spell heavy myself. Only been two days doing a more physical focus build and I am not hunting any faster and for some reason, I seem to be getting hit more often. It could just be my imagination though.

Honestly the only thing that will make you kill way noticeably faster, will be moc. 55 / 90 ranks is night and day for mstrike killing. Then it just gets silly after that.

[Alashir]

Honestly the only thing that will make you kill way noticeably faster, will be moc. 55 / 90 ranks is night and day for mstrike killing. Then it just gets silly after that.

Are you talking single target, multi, both?

[audioserf]

Focused Mstrike is what you're going to want to be doing more often than not. Open mstrike can be decent to tag a stun onto everything in the room, but once that's done, you clean up with focused mstrikes.

[Donquix]

also i'm a little wrong, getting more stamina/stamina recovery (via enhancives, physical fitness, telep lore, whatever) lets you quickstrike and mstrike more so that also increases your speed, but getting your focused mstrikes up to 4+ is by far the biggest difference.

[Fortybox]

I'd reroll ... erithians suck

[audioserf]

I'd reroll ... erithians suck

Bald is beautiful

[Fortybox]

Bald is beautiful

Bald halfling

[Elgrim]

Bald halfling

^^^
This TBH

[SoupyPoopy]

I had all this erithian gear from something so figured I may as well put it to use. Race has never been much of a deciding factor to me when I make a character.

[Donquix]

just play a whatever and be like "something something i'm an orphan got adopted by asian elves. i asian elf halfing"

[Alashir]

I had all this erithian gear from something so figured I may as well put it to use. Race has never been much of a deciding factor to me when I make a character.

Play whats fun - I promise you when you're 29392238932 hours into your character, a few extra CS/AS/TD whatever will not be the deciding factor.