Braven

I don't remember seeing anything (before wm2) that required more than 10, though some traps required 12 to disarm, but those could just be triggered or avoided. If there is only a single secret that needs 12, it might be better to just use the stronghold rest bonus (or gloves if you find them), though that still requires knowing exactly where that secret stash is. Before patch 3.0, this used to not matter since all of the skills were basically useless besides mechanics. However, with athletics and survival being much better (and central to some builds), it would be really nice to know exactly how little mechanic you can get away with. This is particularly true for those who play solo and must invest in it. For those who say 13 is needed, what exactly do you miss out on by not going past 10?

True, lots of strategies will work, which is why you should do what is fun for you. Monks are very powerful regardless of what you do, or stats you take (though, high con is always a good idea). However, twice as much endurance can mean the potential for twice as many cool abilities, something which is unique to the Monk class.; it probably only really matters when tanking a dragon or trying to take on higher level encounters too early. Also, a non-crush weapon is handy anyways for crush-resistant/immune enemies. It is very sad running into an elemental and having no way to kill it. A problem I had when playing Monk on version 2.0*, was that my wounds would annoyingly expire all the time, preventing me from reaching 10 wounds (I was trying to make full use of turning wheel). If you just use them as you get them, it doesn't matter, but I liked the idea of sitting at max wounds for Extra damage and DR. That build was focused on max defense (shield) and had only 4 INT, which made wound count grow slowly. Does anyone know if wound expiration is influenced by Intelligence? Boeroer: don't forget about that awesome "wound binding" talent. 40% more health with the monks 6x health multiplier and max con is like 60 more torments reach.

The monk has always seemed a bit counter-intutative to me because they encourage use of "fists" (high damage, but no other effects; basically a fast weapon version of a Saber), but what monks really need is a solid source (flood?) of endurance regeneration to be able to leverage the enormous health/mana pool to spam wound abilities endlessly. Sadly, they don't have a single healing class ability. Monks benefit far more from endurance regeneration than any other class, even more so going Solo where you have to absorb every enemy attack. Veterans recovery will help some, but the low INT means it won't last long and would only put a tiny dent into your massive health potential. Moon godlike regeneration helps some. Healing potions take up valuable quick item slots that could be used for other potions or figurines, and take time to drink, so I was never a big fan of them. Shod-in-faith would help quite a bit, if your defenses are not so high to avoid a critical when it is needed. The best source of endurance is probably endurance draining weapons instead of fists, so you can heal a bunch with every Torment's Reach. Finally, healing multipliers will make all those endurance sources even better. In my opinion, fists are better as the trash mob cleanup weapon set where endurance doesn't matter, and draining weapons are better for the tough fights. Fists are also great for party-based monks where money is tight and other people need the good weapons (or a cipher can buff them). Sadly, Peasant weapon focus has terrible weapons for endurance draining, except for that customizable spear, but it isn't available until the start of Act 3. Or I guess you could just run way and recover endurance if needed, in which case items don't matter much and the biggest problem is getting paraylzed to death.

I do! That name makes it sound much more impressive and I like the unstoppable despite fragile appearance analogy. I hope you enjoy trying it out. This build is also very damaging, particularly against lower DR enemies. They just get butchered by the extremely fast attacks, high might and accuracy, and the fighter's instant cast buffs, which is quite satisifying. Even without Durgan steel, there is almost no recovery bar while wearing plate armor and It does not rely on potions or per-rest powers so you can use all your powers in every battle, without regrets. Of course, you can always use something else like a soul bound weapon, crit weapon (since the Tsunami has high accuracy), or two-hander; whatever fits your style the best. Weapon choice is not important for the core tactics and it can easily be adjusted to accommodate personal preference.

Your formula looks correct, except that minimum damage is calculated only if 80% would be eaten up by DR. In that situation, it is a simple 20% of total damage attempted and the DR number is not part of the equation at all. Because of that, more damage is always better; some kind of ultra low damage strategy will not yield any extra value. Also, base damage is much better than it seems since it is the only part multiplied; everything else is just linear addition.

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I have updated the build description to reflect the changes. I think it is much better now. Let me know if you have other thoughts. I am not too familiar with all of the new expansion items, but the glittering gloves I read about on the forum look like they could also help fix the low resolve concentration problem (and they seems very powerful in general).

True, that actually happens a lot in tough fights as the crit that triggers the boots often momentarily drops endurance below half. High INT ensures it lasts the whole battle. I think I will rename this eventual build "The Unbreakable". I think the flavor description text of "Cloak of the Tireless Defender" describes this hero best with the last lines: "When survivors returned to see what was left of Mercy Vale, this cloak was the only item that had escaped the flames. Completely undamaged, it draped the corpse of a warrior who had fallen in the middle of town. The body was so covered in wounds that identification was impossible". That is what it would take to bring this guy down.

Thanks, I'll check that out. The scars armor looks interesting for late game. With Durgan Steel, the Sanguine won't be needed for max attack speed anymore. The ultra-healing strategy would actually work much better with a higher con build - just for the larger health pool, and to better handle burst damage. But... The main goal of this play through is abuse triggered immunity, so I will stick with the 3 con. Bigger health pool won't matter if you are immune to damage.

I tested wound binding. It does indeed work in battle. It is Over 13 seconds, so best used at about half health. Also, if that wasn't enough endurance regeneration, I unbending also seems to stack. It was showing well over 300 endurance for me during the Druid fight, while getting beat down with stun-lock Lightning.

I don't think anyone has ever used them. . According to the description, the only difference between the two is that Field Triage targets an ally, while wound binding targets self only. Also, I think shod-in-faith also stacks. I am seeing four different green numbers tick. The endurance regeneration is insane.

To test the regeneration (with rapid and cloak), I went to the "Druid proving ground" near Dyford village at level 8. I rested right before and choose the 40% multiplier. Normally, those Druids absolutely slaughter me, if solo and no summons. Despite Lightning bolt after lightning bolt striking our hero, he did did not fall. He eventually died, but it was from an empty health pool, not lack of endurance. So... I think wound binding does indeed have potential. I don't even know what the animation for it looks like, but it will be fun to find out if it is viable.

Thanks for the advice Boeroer. I thought about the tireless defender cloak, but I already had an amulet of +25% healing boost, which resulted in about the same healing gain. However, if the cloak boosted the "base" endurance, that could be very interesting since it would boost existing benefits of STR/survival/belt, which are additive bonuses. Also, I am not sure if the amulet stacks with the belt or survival bonuses, but the cloak should. I will do some testing and post the results. I retrained to 20 might (18+human+background), and just dropped PER to 15, which is still plenty good. I just hope I don't run out of health! I have been wanting to try out the little known "bind wounds" utility talent that gives +40% health (I think it can be used in battle). Could be a huge boon for ultra-high regeneration fighters.

The first item I got from the stronghold (minor quest) is a belt that passively gives +25 concentration. Many need-low-deflection builds that rely on items that trigger when receiving a crit (shod-in-faith, Sanguine,etc) only need resolve to prevent interruptions. With this belt, you can transfer those 10 or so resolve to a different stat. Given the shortage of good early game belts, I thought it was a pretty good deal.

I also still gave this issue in the latest patch, making the boots unplayable. Sad, since otherwise these are my favorite boots since normal Paralyze is a game over when playing solo.

Turns out the boots don't stack with constant recovery (UPDATE: they actually do seem to stack), which heals for nearly as much late game, so I am looking for new boots. The fenwalker boots look like a great alternative since they on paper offer massive protection to some of the worst ailments, and I tried them out, but they seem bugged right now. Instead of reducing the affected debuff time by 3 seconds, they make it so it never ends (never ending paralyze is a death sentence). Maybe that happens when the reduction makes it a negative duration? (a glancing hit) I did find an interesting belt early on which provides a huge passive concentration boost. The whole reason I didn't completely dump resolve was to avoid being constantly interupted. With the belt, I have retrained all resolve to additional STR. Along with the newly improved rapid recovery talent, constant recovery heals for around 14.5 endurance at level 8 for the entire battle (with high STR/INT), which actually makes a low con fighter quite hardy now. But the insane thing is stacking healing multipliers on top. There is a really early amulet that provides +25% healing. Then there are the 20/40/60% survival resting bonuses. I am not sure yet if they all work with constant recovery yet, but that could mean over 30 endurance passive regeneration!

Here is a build I have been thinking about trying for a solo play through on easy difficulty. The idea behind it is to ultimately abuse Triggered Immunity for tough end game boss fights while remaining a strong, high DPS fighter that just won't die throughout the game (most key items are available at the start of act 2). This goal is accomplished by having a maximum intelligence, minimum constitution and deflection, and lots of passive endurance regeneration. The low CON and RES help triggered immunity "trigger" (and other on-crit items) and the high INT ensures they last as long as possible. Intelligence also helps the duration of many other fighter abilities, which have been improved in recent patches. Most important, constant recovery benefits greatly since the duration was nerfed. Class: fighter Race: human (synergies well with the high intellect and low con) Starting stats STR: 11 - UPDATE: 20 CON: 3 DEX: 18 PER: 18 - UPDATE: 15 INT: 18 RES: 10 - UPDATE: 4 (Alternatively, RES can be raised to around ~10 and PER dropped by the same amount. This helps concentration, but hurts armor, boots, and triggered immunity activation. Also it goes against the "glass cannon" theme of the build. I suggest this only if you do not plan on getting any concentration boosting items) Prioritize buffing STR and INT with items and rest bonuses, as those are most important. I suggest a +STR helmet (WM has a few good ones) and +2 INT armor enchant (For Sanguine Plate) since the other slots hold key items. Late game, consider the +4 INT ring (and a different enchant for Scars armor). More INT late game is important since not all your healing scale with level and you will soon have access to the ultimate fighter ability, triggered immunity, which needs all the INT it can get. Abilities/Talents Constant Recovery (a) Knock Down Two-weapon Fighting Disiplined Barrage (+20 accuracy) Weapon Focus - Noble Vigorous Defense (+20 all defenses) Vulnerable Attack Armored Grace (+20 speed) Rapid Recovery (!) Weapon Specialization - Noble Weapon Mastery - Noble Unbroken (!) Outlander's Frenzy (change out of Sanquine armor now, since it does not stack) Unbending (or sundering blows for dragon killing or Charge for back row caster killing) UPDATE: wound binding (+40% health) (!). Yes, it is a real talent and works in battle. Triggered Immunity (!) Aspirant's Mark (or extra item slots, if soloing) Primary weapons (all three have +speed, obtainable early, and are "noble") Sword of daenysis rapier March Steel dagger Spell tongue rapier UPDATE: late game, you could retrain and use a better late game weapon and double it with wax box. Maybe double "Strike Hard" war hammers or vent picks. Armor: Sanguine Plate (more speed and survival bonus is also nice. Also available pretty early.) UPDATE: late game, switch to: He wears many Scars Other Key items: Shod-in-Faith boots (!) Update: belt of bountiful healing (+15 heal multiplier) OR belt of chimes (+25 concentration) Glittering gauntlets (for the concentration buff, and because it is just powerful in general) cloak of the tireless defender (!) Key skills: 14 survival (for third tier. Heal Multiplier rest bonus). - for this reason, I suggest "colonist" background) Other Strategies: Start with Outlanders Frenzy to lower deflection in order to trigger Sanguine and Shod-in-Faith. After they trigger, use Vigorous Defense. Knockdown and Charge is great for locking down enemy casters, who have low Fort. Using barrage before knockdown can help get a longer prone with a crit.