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Arkemy'rs Wondrous Torment? https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Arkemyr%27s_Grimoire /confused .. what spell? Sorry it is the level 6 one. Brilliant Departure Thanks. I tried to do a quick test, and it looks like it breaks on attacking? Yes, as I said in another thread, it breaks on attacking, but u can still cast offensive spells without break invisibility. That seems like an oversight. I can see a spell that grants invisibility for 20 seconds until dealing damage allowing a character to rebuff/buff during combat but it makes no sense that offensive spells can be cast and you stay invisible and not generic weapon attacks.

Here are the best selections per level I think, you want them in the grimoire or to complement with grimoire + per level selection: Level 1 Eldritch Aim (2.1 its a fast cast) ! Dazzling Lights (gather enemies to nuke from stealth/ splitpulling) Spirit Shield (good +ar and fast cast) Slicken (nothing immune to prone) Fleetfoot (fast cast good buff) Chillfog* in early game or steetfighter flanked builds Level 2 Infuse with Vital Essence ! Mirrored Image ! Combusting Wounds Bulwark Grimoire Slam (melee) or Rolling Flame (if you choose a damage spell on evoker but optional) Level 3 Deleterious Alacrity of Motion ! Llengrath Displaced Image ! Expose Vulnerabilities Arcane Dampener Fireball (comes in most grimoires) after those Ryngrims is good but not as good as the level 5 version which is great and Blights has its uses in certain builds Level 4 Ninigauth's Shadowflame (in grimoire only) Ironskin ! Wall of Flame Pull of Eora (nice spell, slow cast, unfortunately) Level 5 Rymgrim's ! Llengrath Safeguards ! Citzal's Lance * on martial builds Torrent of Flame or Blast of Frost for your damage spell Level 6 Minolletta's Precice Missile Burst ! nothing else is perticularly good at this level though ...Arcane Reflection is nice Level 7 Crushing Doom (grimoire only) Delayed Blast Fireball (comes in most grimoires) Wall of Draning Citzal's * martial builds Level 8 Piercing Sigal ! best spell at this level technically Wall of Many Colors Wilting Wind ! (on evoker) Level 9 They are all good but it's easier to say that Petrification, Corrosive Skin and Citzal's are probably less useful than the others Honestly, for versatility, I would take one of meteor storm or missile salvo and then take something else for the utility like Cloak of Death or Llengrath Reflection. Edit: but technically at level 8 and level 9 there are very few wizard spells and I think all of them are represented in grimoires so you might at that point start taking talent points into lower level spells you may have skipped or into passive talents as well as empower talents.

Except at least for me "at max focus" conditional does not seem to work from that mod as I often see an ascendant cipher still auto-attacking even when the condition is set that they should not when ascended.

Two-Weapon is for dual wielding Kitchen Stove and Thundercrack Pistol for their per-encounter/per-rest focus gain abilities. You don't need it unless you are planning to auto attack with those weapons...but why should you? if you are in an auto attack situation it is better to switch to the red hand or a huning bow with the modal on Hrm, fair point. I'll grab Two-Handed then. Also, do you think there's any way a build like this would work in melee? Or are there no melee weapons that have such big focus generating attacks? Sure there is Whispers of the Endless Paths with that 1/encounter cleave attack and Espiers Estoc and even Wohai Poraga. But....in melee you will have to put on some breastplate probably and in general play more defensively or have a pocket healer handy. Overall if you are "stuck" in a situation where you have to Auto-Attack to gain focus I think no melee weapon auto-attacks beat auto attacks from Animancer Bow or Aamina's Legacy with the hunting bow modal on. If you have ring of marksman and Acina's Trihorn and even accuracy bracers equipped, which completely cancel the penalty from having hunting bow fast modal on.

First I suggest "modding" Xoti with Unity console into Woedica/monk of course. But if you don't want to do that Xoti has her spiritual weapon too, which you can use, and you can use that. If you want to "dual wield" the sickle though you have to equip it in your off hand and not use anything in the main hand. And of course the default priest selections from the Harvester of Gaun may mess up your talent distribution somewhat and you won't be able to take all the absolute goodies on that subclass. And lastly and this is of course a big component of a monk/priest build is that the woedica spiritual weapon is special because it completely integrates with monk's transcendent suffering bonus to fist attacks.

Two-Weapon is for dual wielding Kitchen Stove and Thundercrack Pistol for their per-encounter/per-rest focus gain abilities. You don't need it unless you are planning to auto attack with those weapons...but why should you? if you are in an auto attack situation it is better to switch to the red hand or a huning bow with the modal on

Thanks for the tips Man2si! And I linked to your page to help people for gearing/ talent selection if they play solo. Yes and for solo play lower the dex for more resolve...you can live longer if your are a bit slower overall but not get cced and insta gibbed due to low resolve.

Since this was requested I will type up this build. It does require a mod from nexus to unlock Woedica Priest subclass - but if you play monk/priest you may as well go all out and play the Woedica priest because of the excellent spiritual weapon synergy on Woedica: +20% raw damage on "summoned fist" attacks that synergize with monk bonuses to fist attacks. Unmodded Skaen/Helwalker also works but is not quote-unquote absolutely optimized and "op". Note: Helwalker can be replaced by Nalpazca if you don't want to be super squishy although barring death's door kind of solves the squishiness later. This build does excellent single target and aoe damage and is very versatile. This is the general guide, for a more solo specific Contemplative playthrough check this excellent guide as it is more focused on solo play: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/105553-build-servant-of-death/ Woedica is a more powerful priest subclass for monk combo than barath so this one is definately adabtable. Race: Human or Death Godlike - human if you want more accuracy on cc attacks and death godlike for more damage potential Stats: (no bonuses) Might 14 + 1 (Human) Constitution 7 Dex 15 Perc 18 Int 18 +1 (old Vaila) 3 +1 (Human) note this is strictly the stat distribution for party play if you are soloing you probably want to lower Might and Dex and not dump resolve or con so much - although this build can handle the low stats once you get barring death's door + salvation of time. And even in Party play going dex 10 / con 12 is not a bad idea if you want more room for error and be on the safe side of things. There are some variations in the ability selection involved ! = mandatory , r= highly recommended Leveling 1. Swift Strikes!/ Restore r default spell: Writ of Engagement 2. lesser wounds! 3. halt (early game) / later can be replaced by suppress affliction r or arms bearer or keep halt. Suppress Affliction is probably the best choice 4. Two-Weapon style! / Withdraw ! default spell: Summon Spiritual Weapon (Fists) 5. Dance of Death ! 6. Clarity of Agony or Weapon and shield style (solo), even The Long Stride is an option in strictly party play but you will probably go with either weapon+shield or Clarity of Agony in solo play or if you want to off-tank 7. Torment's Reach! / Dire Blessing! Default: Writ of Consumption 8. Lightning Strikes or Swift Flurry: choose one...Lightning Strikes probably is the more consistent dps choice, in a party setting, you may get more mileage out of Swift Flurry since the party can buff/debuff enough for you to land lots of crits. Overall Lightning Strikes is probably the more sound choice. 9. Stunning Blow r ...while optional and not a core ability to the build it is highly recommended, and the alternatives are pretty underwhelming (combat focus???? really) one of the Bulls/Snakes/Bears talents or the excellent Clarity of Agony if you haven't picked it up yet - but those are more options for solo play where some extra defensives are prioritized over offense. 10. Duality of Mortal Presence! / Scion of Flame! Default spell: Divine Terror note: here things get tricky on the priest side. Scion of Flame is the strongest selection for the end-build but you won't need it immediately so you may take Litany for the Body or Devotions for the Faithful. Out of the two I like Litany for the Body slightly more because it is a fast cast (and +2 ar on top of a good armor is very good) cast but given the aoe effect Devotion for the Faithfull is very good in a party setting. In party probably Devotions is better. Absoluely and in my opinion don't fall for the trap of taking Shining Beacon - yes it is an excellent spell, but one that can be more effectively cast from a scroll. Just keep in mind that for the end build Scion of Flame is the thing to take for the end build and all of your other tier 4 abilities will go into the monk tree. 11. Enduring Dance ! 12. Thunderous Blows 13. Raised Torment ! / Barring Death's Door ! Deafult spell: Writ of War 14. Rooting Pain r 15. Stunning Surge r 16. Turning Wheel !/ Salvation of Time ! default spell: Pillar of Holy Fire 17. Flagellant's Path r 18. Litany for the Spirit r - note: around this time it is a good idea to respec and take Scion of Flame at Priest lvl4 And take either Litany for the Spirit here (recommended) or Keep Devotions of the Faithful at level 4 Priest in addition to Scion of Flame 19. The Dichotomous Soul ! / Storm of Holy Fire ! default spell: writ of sorcery note: I now recommend Dichotomous Soul over Heartbeat Drumming as in patch 2.1 the soul summons will be buffed so in the end they will be more effective than Heartbeat Drumming. You can opt to take minor avatar instead of dichotomous soul though - it is a question if you want 2x very effective summons or if you want to boost your own stats a bit more - with the monk bonuses I personally do not think minor avatar is necessary. 20. Skyward Kick ! Alternative Variation: It is also interesting particularly when soloing, to go for a "kiting" approach: in that case you would stack stride via The Long Stride, Boots of speed etc and take The Long Pain (without upgrade) - that way you can run around and attack from range with your buffed fists. It is definitely an interesting approach. Also if solo play is the focus you should probably give up stunning surge in favor of 2 more defensive talents - definitely clarity of agony and upgrade. Overall assessment: This character is very strong from start and gets even more power to the endgame. As you see by the time you hit level 4 your damage engine is already in place: you have the Spiritual summoned fists on the Priest side and Swift strikes from the monk with generous healing abilities in withdraw, restoration and holy radiance, from there it progressively gets stronger. Another milestone is at level 13 with Barring Death's Door and finally the capper at level 19 with Storm of Holy Fire. It tested very favorably in terms of dps beating out a strong witch rdps meaning it should actually exceed aoe avenging storm blunderbuss scouts - but more importantly it does very high single target damage along with aoe damage and is efficient in doing that seamlessly especially at high levels: after casting storm of holy fire it is free to move in with high single target pressure thanks to skyward kick + stunning surge or further aoe pressure through pillar of holy fire and raised torment and flagellent's path. Further, and this is specific to the Woedica subclass of priest, not only does it get a bonus +20% raw damage to your fist attacks through the spiritual weapon, but you have access to nasty "writ" spells that can pretty much disable enemies: How does Writ of War (level 5) sound? Enemies cannot use active abilities (in a small aoe) for 20+ seconds (up to 30 seconds with high intelligence). Or Divine Terror terror (level 4) - frightened for up 40s with high intelligence. Or Finally Writ of Sorcery (level 6) - cannot cast spells for another 30 seconds. You can disable dangerous targets that way while you pummel them. Also even though I do not use ranged weapons, Acina's Trihorn hat is a very good headgear for this because it gives you +5 accuracy on such attacks. Typical play/ ai behaviour is such: (simplified) Always choose by list order First defensives: 1.) If health under 50%-> Second Wind, Holy Radiance, Restore 2.) If near death -> Bearing Death's Door, Withdraw Offensive list order Turning Wheel is active 3.) Lightning strikes 4.) Dance of Death/ Enduring Dance 5.) Storm of Holy Fire 6.) If attacking high armor target -> tenacious blows 7.) if engaging -> spiritual weapon, dire blessing 8.) If target is bloodied -> Stunning Surge 9.) If engaging/engaged by multiple enemies -> raised torment 10.)lowest fortitude -> Skyward kick 11.)weak to fire-> pillar of Holy fire If soloing you want to buff up first with barring death's door +salvation of time before going into attack mode and keep an eye on the buff bar and be ready to withdraw should you need it. Abilities like the writ abilities, summons, and others you can control by hand Recommended gear: Acina's Trihorn head if not choosing death godlike - boosts accuracy on lots of your spell attacks Armor: If you are soloing you want plate until you get death's door/ salvation of time otherwise I like High Harbinger Robes, Pale Hide, Bloody Links or Gipon Prodensco as well as Garari Cuiras. Pale Hide or Bloody Links is probably the best overall choice here. Rings: Ring of Focused Flame (especially later), after that it depends on situation, solitary wanderer if you are soloing and greater regeneration or Kuaru's Prize if you are in a party. Also Ring of Minor Protection is handy too. Neck: Strand of Favor Cloak: Greater Deflection , Frostfur are nice and of course Nemnok's Cloak if you pferer that Boots: there are boots that give you an extra second level priest cast, those are good Belt: I like The Maker's Own power here personally Bracers: Rekvu's are good when soloing because consitution afflictions are nasty, otherwise Accuracy bracers or Hylea's Talons are nice here going with the "fist" attack theme. Weapons: The beauty of summon spiritual weapon: fists is that it replaces any weapons you have equipped with summoned fists so you don't need an extra weapon slot for more versatility. Otherwise, as fire stat sticks you can't really beat Sun and Moon + Marux Amanth, though Magran's Favor + Marux Amanth may be more consistent Magistrate's Cudgel is great against kith and allows for some really nasty things like marked (+10 accuracy for 30 seconds) followed up by writ of war on the target with a very good chance to hit and poof! suddenly because of your ultra high intelligence thanks to monk they can't use active abilities for 35-40 serconds easy. Follow this up by switching to to something like Frostfall and killing things and the duration of writ of war gets extended on the target. Club (especially the modal) is crucial here to debuff enemy will save further if you want to land those nasty writ spells. And your dps bread and butter is the summoned fist attacks. With turning wheel active you get the following bonuses +10 might (if helwalker) +15% lightning strikes (non conditional), +20% fire damage (turning wheel - but average is closer to 10-15% because you won't be at max wounds all the time) , +20% raw (summoned weapon:fist), and of course there is tenacious from thunderous blows for another +2 penetration. In general to take advantage of the fire stat sticks you want to start a fight by doing storm of holy fire and pillar of fire and then transition into monk melee pummeler mode with summoned fists after buffing with dire blessing. Anyways this is a beautiful build and looks badass to play because of the vampiric summoned fists, enjoy and definitely try this one out, I think it is one of the more fun melee pummeler/offensive spell caster hybrid builds out there.

Best weapon and I tested this extensively and it works in practice is up to about level 14 any good weapon will do like The Red Hand, a unique hunting bow or dual mortars or Frostseeker will be fast in getting to max focus, but after level 14 going into level 16+ the focus pool becomes large enough that only special attacks from unique weapons like Kitchen Stove, Thundercrack Pistol and Amira's Wing will generate 1 shot max focus consistently and basically on ascendent you are really gimped if you don't hit max focus as soon as possible and maintain it through an encounter. And especially because at those high levels other classes like monk, barbs and whatnot get some sick abilities and start to out damage you if you are not spamming nukes from the time combat starts to the end of combat. Also on ascendant you want to pump your Int through the roof...sac the companion max it in anyway possible like the more the better 25Int is good to aim for. It hursts your disintegrate burst damage but you make up for it by longer ascendant state and time parasite and borrowed instinct state which makes more than up for it. Priest is you best friend ... he gives you acute inspiration at start of combat and once you hit ascendant+have time parasite and some buffs on he casts salvation of time on you and then it's gg. Who should I sac then? Aloth, because no one likes him? Do you think Ascendant by itself is top tier ranged DPS? What do you recommend for armor? If you should sac someone it is up to you rp wise...just saying that pumping Int through the roof is a good idea. As for second question it depends...it is certainly a very good ranged dps and a great rdps if played with precision. As i said if you use items to max focus instantly and stay ascended the whole encounter or as long as possible it is certainly top tier. Wizards have the advantage in that they can boost their action speed faster and easier through alacrity of motion while you still have to setup 1.)max focus 2.) borrowed instinct 3.) time parasite. Wizards will have the faster bigger opening spell bursts no matter what I think but after you set up the cipher it will have longer high sustained dps if you maintain ascendant state. Though in a well managed party at high level usually things just don't last that long. Edit: and also cipher are effective to op at high levels with the right party composition in a priest that buffs and extends buff duration on the cipher and with a brute tank or off tank who uses a morning star to lower fortitude on enemies and bosses. That leads to a situation where you can easily damage and prone lock the whole screen with amplified waves.

Best weapon and I tested this extensively and it works in practice is up to about level 14 any good weapon will do like The Red Hand, a unique hunting bow or dual mortars or Frostseeker will be fast in getting to max focus, but after level 14 going into level 16+ the focus pool becomes large enough that only special attacks from unique weapons like Kitchen Stove, Thundercrack Pistol and Amira's Wing will generate 1 shot max focus consistently and basically on ascendent you are really gimped if you don't hit max focus as soon as possible and maintain it through an encounter. And especially because at those high levels other classes like monk, barbs and whatnot get some sick abilities and start to out damage you if you are not spamming nukes from the time combat starts to the end of combat. Also on ascendant you want to pump your Int through the roof...sac the companion max it in anyway possible like the more the better 25Int is good to aim for. It hursts your disintegrate burst damage but you make up for it by longer ascendant state and time parasite and borrowed instinct state which makes more than up for it. Priest is you best friend ... he gives you acute inspiration at start of combat and once you hit ascendant+have time parasite and some buffs on he casts salvation of time on you and then it's gg.

I'd probably just get either puppetmaster or Ringleader not both. I like the range on puppetmaster but ringleader is good because of aoe. Other than that try to get Accurate empower instead of eyestrike and potent empower instead of something else liike tough but that is your choice. Those are up to you I just like to empower disintegrate or death 1000 to better land on bosses. Late game Recall Agony more useful than mental binding. Either way you either take mental binding for paralyze or charm/dominate spells to charm not both - that is a bit more efficient.

Im trying to get Gipon, but I seem to have run out of pirate ships to hit so I can reduce my principi rating... any advice? There is a mod on nexus that spawns the ships. Or you can kill some pirates like the ones in the undercroft but yeah the mod is the easiest because you have to lower your rep to -3 to get it normally.

Probably power level increases jumps (projectiles)?

I think there is food that gets you to 14 pen with spells, That is what you should be aiming for. With expose v to when you run into something that has 16 ar.

I have not run a hard practical test yet, but in theory cipher ascendant should hold up to wizard or evoker quite well, as long as you never actually auto-attack with the cipher (ascendant) - because that is what results in a dps loss or at least a pause on the cipher. That usually involves making sure you run with three items: Kitchen Stove, Thundercrack Pistol and Amira's Wind Rod. Basically you rest once before every encounter you will have an attack from each one of those three items that give you instant ascension: Thunderous Report from Kitchen Stove, Storm rune Shot from Thundercrack, and Wilting Wind Attack from Amira's Wing. That should allow you to give 100% ascension uptime pretty much in every encounter and play your cipher (ascendant) like a wizard nuker.

Just note I think you were going for a defensive "solo" setup. In the build I tested I took: -suppress affliction instead of arms bearer -skipped clarity of agony -took long stride instead of weapon+shield but yeah in solo weapon+shield is no-brainer -skipped clarity of agony and took raised torment upgrade as well as stunning surge -took heartbeat drumming instead of dichotomous soul - but yeah the twins are probably more useful now although heartbeat adds more raw dps which is not everything, skyward kick is too good to pass up anyways so it is a choice between dichotomous soul and hearbeat -took dire blessing instead of shining beacon but other priest spells were similar - I mainly used storm of holy fire and pillar of holy fire to nuke -only took scion of flame but instead of other element talents took rapid casting and I think uncanny luck+improved critical. Edit: and marax amanth us great but is Magran's Favor a better stat stick than Sun+Moon or is it the other way around?

Go for the High Harbinger Robe, Skaen Effigies Husk or Miscreants. Those are the best dps option. If you want to sacrifice dps for looks you go for Gipon Prusensco (very elegant and classy) or Garari (also can look cool with nice shades like blacks and greys but is not a robe unfortunately). If you want ultimate fashion deadfire just go with dancers outfit non skimpy one or the Vaillain Frock Coat lol. And Modal swap is really easy with unity console where you just copy the enchantments of the armor to any other armor but I would suggest using the same base armor type like leather and leather or clothing and clothing otherwise it is a complete modification and creation of a nonexistent armor.

If you are soloing you go for plate. But if not you are better off in a fast breastplate like Devil of Caroc or in one of the better leathers like Gipon Prusensco, Garari or Fleshmender - it depends on looks. Miscreant's is actually a very good armor for dps. If you want something sturdier you generally go for Devil of Caroc or Bloody Links.

This was my test of Berserker vs Helwalker in beta 2.1 featuring mirror classes multied with priest

Beta 2.1 Patch test: Shaman Woedica / Berserker 9,288 dph Contemplative Woedica / Helwalker 12,520 dph Witch (rdps) 11,943 dph Cipher asc 10,670 dph This was a very curious and "close" run now in beta 2.1 patch. I primarily wanted to test monk vs barbarian after the dual wield and lion's sprint nerfs....and the results are pretty sad for barbarians in the upcoming patch. While before they could compete and surpass the likes of strong monk and rogue dps thanks to the permanent +15 accuracy stat from lion's sprint, without it their dps drops significantly I would say and the nerf to dual wielding does not help either. Before the patch The Shaman of Woedica (or Skaen)/Berserker could put out overall damage similar or just a bit lower than a Witch Rdps, while maintaining overall better single target damage which in my book was impressive for its versatility. Now it is significantly lower almost by 2500-3000 dph. This is very important to note because the Shaman gets hit particularly hard by the adjustment to Lion's Sprint, while the Witch can compensate by using Borrowed Instinct - so you can pretty much see very clearly how much 15 less overall accuracy/per encounter hurts. With the nerf to Barbarian Lion's sprint and dual wield attacks even a single class cipher ascendant now does much better by default as you see from the numbers-because dual wield attacks became weaker, barbs became significantly weaker. Enter a new star kid on the block for hybrid spellcaster/pummeler- the Contemplative. To see how many bonuses I could stack I went Woedica/Helwalker, because I wanted to use fists for the great monk bonuses to unarmed+woedica spiritual weapon. With lashes you can get +15% shock lightning strikes, +10-20% (on average) from turning wheel, and finally +20% raw from spiritual weapon woedica to your super fast fist attacks. Helwalker might bonus on top of that and dance of death accuracy. This guy is very efficient because after launching a massive damage over time aoe attack in storm of holy fire, he goes in pummels things to death. Anyways that character won this latest test although I suspect with the buff to eldritch aim casting time a wizard/ evoker has distanced himslef from the rest of the field even more in this upcoming patch.

For Wizard you need the head slot though for immunity to interrupt it + the vapourous grimoire kind of outweighs the +1 powerlevel from ngl now.

+You definitely need nemnok's cloak, because you can't see your health bar in frenzy status. It is usually not a problem because you set something like second wind (when near death) to high priority in ai, as well as any potions.

Whats Lion's Spirit? He meant Lion's Sprint. It was bugged and still is and will be patched in 2.1. Until now it was a must on a barb because you were getting +15 accuracy for the whole encounter once you activated it.

It is a strong multi but as I said both classes do very similar things just slightly differently so you are basically "doubling" the same type of attacks/buffs in that case a lot. Like you would use Frenzy and Swift strikes and one buff would I think override the other, at least parts of it.

So I am gonna start this topic because I'd like to gather more experiences from players what they think since to me there appear to be several factors that favor berserker over any type of monk. Both classes are very similar and very strong in the current game. In terms of single class Zerkers get the better higher level aoe attacks while monks get inner death which is the best single target nuke in the game? Monk also now gets the fixed dual twin summons which adds versatility since Zerkers can't summon anything. Both are "fast" martial classes with a bias towards cleaving/ aoe damage dealing, speed and killing efficiency buffs. They are strong in the same things and generally have the same type of role in a party and mirror each other but do things slightly differently. Zerker/Barb passives are universal and apply to any type of damage or killing strategies- spells scrolls consumables anything, while on Monk their passives enhance and favor melee weapons mostly - the extra lashes, extra attacks from swift strikes and finally heartbeat drumming. In terms of survivability, I actually find Berserker sturdier compared to the monk type (Helwalker) that can potentially dish out the most damage, though a case can be made for Nalpazca monks. And here we come to the big difference for me and why I generally find Barbarian particularly Berserker more efficient (if not better)- On Zerker you have the 1 rage cost Frenzy (which upgrades quite nicely) but even as a level 1 ability pretty much is like two of the monks most essential buffs (Swift Strikes+Tenacious blows) in one ability. Sure the two monk abilities can sometimes do more combined thanks to swift flurry procs but Frenzy gets a lot of stuff done for being one ability that activates instantly. Also Frenzy lasts longer/cast than the monk buffs. I think the damage abilities and passives - ie. barbaric smash vs stunning surge, blood thirst vs heartbeat drumming kind of equal out. But the self buffs slightly favor the barb due to how they are designed. (This was particularly true when lion's sprint accuracy lasts all combat long but even after the patch it is an instant cast +15 accuracy on any attack you choose). All in all these two classes seem pretty close to each other and on paper actually, it would appear the monk can do some nasty things with the extra lashes, swift flurry stunning surge and heartbeat drumming. But whenever I ran monks and barbarians in a party the barbs seemed to in the end distance themselves from the monks because the barbs never needed "chance" conditions to trigger damage cascades from crits to cause extra damage - it was always a bonus if they did, but their primary damage from Frenzy (tenacious) + Blood recovery passives and rage refund from Barbaric Smash on bloodied/near death targets was always more reliable - perhaps the bursts where lower but they could start dealing solid damage faster and once they got going they were a sight to see (frenzied lion sprinted barb dashing around the battlefield and chain eliminating each target triggering no recovery after each killing blow.)