Marigoldran

You're wrong, see, I don't assume all people will like to read about it. Only some people will or do, most won't. And for the ones who don't care, why should I care about their opinion of my posts? Besides, my advice is good. Single class monks and heralds ARE the easiest and noobiest way to beat the game at POTD upscaled. What people underestimate is the power of repetition. If you repeat an idea enough times, OTHERS START DOING IT, TOO. You can already see it happening. It's great.

Yes, but no one is reading any of those old posts anyways, which is why you constantly have to refresh ideas discovered in the past so people new to the forums will know what's going on. You're assuming everyone reading this is as jaded as you. That's a bad assumption.

I agree heralds are better, but the synergy between monks and heralds is strong.

The answer to your problems is Tekehu: Specifically, Moonwell (AOE heal that lasts a long time) and Chill Fog (which in Tekehu's case is Foe only). Multiclass your chanters with paladin and send them in first. Or build your party in a way that it doesn't matter if one or two characters die.

That's why you use chanters, heralds, and monks so there's no way for friendly fire.

Well, the author WAS asking about how to keep his strikers alive, and the simplest answer is: Use monks 'cuz they're the tankiest ones of all. And heal them with heralds. The AI always targets your easiest-to-kill characters, so the counter to that is to make EVERYONE A TANK. High-level monks don't need recovery speed to do damage because of Whispers of the Wind, so you can put monks in heavy armor making them tankier than the other DPS options like Rogues or Barbs, which DO need to wear ight or medium armor to do their damage. My point is that instead of just thinking "how do I heal my squishies," a better idea would be to think: "how would I make my squisihes less squishy, but still effective at damage?" And the answer is: THE SINGLE NO-SUBCLASS MONK. They do a ton of damage and they're incredibly non-squishy and they're amazingly noob-friendly, just like heralds.

No limit. Just make some for the early game, but you'll discover quickly that nothing is as noobishly effective as a team of chanters or chanter/paladins (with the occasional monk thrown in).

But now everyone knows how awesome heralds are. So now it's time to praise monks. Besides, why not both? My party comp at this point is monks and heralds. The monks aren't even optimized- like I forgot to get the "do raw damage to yourself and get wounds ability" for Xoti and she's still destroying things with her bare fists. This is an example of a top-of-the-line class. Like you can be a noob or braindead with this class and still be OP, just like Heralds. Just spam "Whispers of the Wind" and get healing from the Heralds and everything just dies around her.

Well, yeah. My party composition at this point is basically heralds and monks and 1 chanter to use that "return resources to party member chant".

It doesn't matter. You can't go wrong with a herald as long as you give her heavy armor, a shield, and give her summon invocations and Lay of Hands.

But can any of this compare to what a single class normal no subclass monk can do?

Put everyone in heavy armor. Also, for striker get a monk or two. Single class monks don't need recovery speed when they get Whispers of the Wind, which is where most of their damage comes from. They're also tanky as hell with Iron Wheel. If the AI is going to focus the easiest to hit, you may as well use a class that benefits from it.

Excellent. I will.

No, I agree it can be optimized. But the effectiveness to effort ratio of this character (and heralds in general) is the highest in the game. All the other "powerful" builds requires some "trick" or that you go out any hunt out some important item. Heralds don't need any trick. Any noob can do it, and it works from the very beginning of the game. Just give them the best heavy armor and large shield you can find and they steamroll through almost everything. Turn game on to fast speed and watch them slowly "autobot" through everything. Also, all of this marketing has worked. As you said yourself: heralds have become ubiquitous. They weren't as ubiquitous until I started posting.

Blunderbuss module... Only problem is that it blows up your own team, too right?

Look, if you intend to abuse stealth and DOT mechanics, nothing beats a holy slayer. I quit halfway because it was so boring. At least with heralds you get to watch the futility of the enemies attacking you, which is entertaining.

And did that Assassin/Skaen solo Belranga?

Chanters. Get chanters at the local tavern and summon tank your way through the fights. A party of 3 Chanters has no problems with either of those fights.

The DLC Seeker Slayer Survivor needs well thought out builds but the base game doesn't. Monks and chanters are really all you need, even for the DLCs. If you're going single class melee, go monk. The reason is because unlike the other melee classes monks NEVER RUN OUT OF RESOURCES. For example, once the rogue, barbarian, or fighter is out of their power resource, they're effectively useless. The monk on the other hand is NEVER useless because he gets his resources from getting damaged.

What happens if you use it with unorthodox weapons like Arbalests or Wahai Poraga? It's a full attack, after all. Does it proc the Wahai Poraga multiattack bonus?

They're probably stronger as a single class. Hell they don't even need weapons, which saves resources for other chars. The monk class is as tanky as a paladin (without the heals though) but has much better offensive capabilities. People think of monks as a damage class, but it's actually an excellent tanking class with decent damage abilities. Iron wheel is seriously OP.

This ability is AMAZING and easy to spam. The strategy is this: 1. Iron Wheel (extra con and armor) 2. Hellwalker (more might) 3. Heavy armor and a light shield (survivability). 4. Surround the monk with 2 heralds. 5. Profit. With the constant regen and healing of the heralds, and the heavy armor and high deflection, the monk is almost as tanky as a paladin. Get hit. Regen. Get wounds. Activate whispers of the wind. Repeat. The reason it's so powerful is that it doesn't cost any non-renewable resources. Both wounds and chants come back quickly in a fight. And if the enemies ignore the monk, who else are they going to target? The even tankier heralds? The summons? Heralds + Monks is going to be my next party comp.

I see. Alright. Next time then.

1. She can't be flanked. 2. It's 19 AR with Stoic Steel. 3. Shield cracks has to hit her, as do the follow up attacks to maintain it, which is impossible when the deflection is a permanent 160+. It might just come down to the stripping option.

Sure, but it's permanent defenses without any buffing. And no, regenerating is NOT very high health pool. Potentially, it's INFINITE health pool.