Originally Posted by
khorpulent
Here are my monk's CMs at 51. I'm sure some folks will disagree with my choices, but it works nicely for me so far. Just about everyone will tell you to go Krynch over Flurry of Blows, but I'm still liking Flurry at the moment, in part because I'm using some gloves with major fire flares. I imagine I'll have to switch to Krynch at some point.
I know a lot of people advocate getting Perfect Self as quickly as possible, but I don't think it's worth the training points early on. I'm working toward it now.
I don't have any problems against magic at the moment, but I'm sure that will change sooner or later. I have access to a lot of outside spells, too, so my choices would likely be different otherwise. I only learned spells up to 1216 and don't plan to learn any more for a while. A lot of folks seem to train their monks like a semi class, but that 38 MTP per spell rank sure cuts into your other skills.
Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Combat Focus focus 1
Combat Mobility mobility 1
Combat Toughness toughness 1
Surge of Strength surge 1
Evade Mastery emastery 3
Punch Mastery punchmastery 3
Kick Mastery kmastery 3
Flurry of Blows flurry 3
As far as race goes, I think halflings make the best choice from a mechanical standpoint, if for no other reason than the inherent TD bonuses. Dwarves also have some pretty good natural TD bonuses. Monks have access to some decent spiritual TD, but don't get much to help with ETD. Halflings' inherent +40 ETD and +20 Sorc TD make a huge difference. And with UAC, the negative STR bonus has much less of an impact.
There's nothing wrong with playing a HK, though, if you don't mind absorbing exp more slowly. But still, the extra 2-4 exp a pulse that other races get adds up in the long run.
I've really enjoyed playing my monk thus far, but of course at 51 I'm sure I don't really have a complete picture of the class. I rolled up the monk because I sold off my capped warrior and got bored with my UAC rogue. So far at least, I'd call monks my favorite class among squares or semis (but pures are still more fun, of course).