What About Monk Helps a Bleak Walker Multiclass/Can I Be a Helwalker Tank?

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

Hey guys,

 

So I've been trying to get some opinions here and on the Steam Forums about a multiclass for a Bleak Walker Paladin. Essentially, I'm tired of playing backrow/squishy melee characters in these sorts of games, and I want to play a character that can take a few hits while dealing respectable damage. I've considered going Fighter, but I've also heard people say that I should go Monk. However, looking at the skills, it really doesn't seem like there are a lot of Monk abilities that synergize all that well with Paladin, or that offer things that Fighter doesn't. For example, Fighter offers amazing reductions to recovery time for wearing heavy armor with Mob Stance and Armored Grace, while Monk offers faster action speed through Swift Strikes. Some of Monk's best damage increasing capabilities come from the Helwalker subclass, which seems like it would possibly hamper a tank. Fighter doesn't offer much in the way of raw damage, but it does seem to offer slightly better AoE through Charge and Cleave. 

 

So, I just wanted to get some opinions on which would be the better choice for a more well-rounded character. If I went with Bleak Walker/Fighter, would I be specializing too much in defense when it's really not needed? Would Bleak Walker/Helwalker be able to defend against attacks that'd otherwise clobber me because of the 50% extra damage enemies would get? 

 

This isn't so much a 'rate my build' thread as it is a 'please explain the pros and cons of taking each' thread. So far, all people have really said is "You don't need Fighter, take Monk," and I don't really understand why they're saying that on paper. 

[Climhazzard]

Hellwalker is just about seeing bigger damage numbers, they are viable right now because the difficulty is non existent.  Monk in general brings a lot, mostly offensive buffs, but also the best status resistance in the game imo (enlightened agony).  Btw Flagellants path = charge, you just get it later.  You also have stuff like turning wheel, rooting pain, lightning strikes or swift flurry, raised torment, thunderous blows, etc.

Edited May 27, 2018 by Climhazzard

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

Hellwalker is just about seeing bigger damage numbers, they are viable right now because the difficulty is non existent. Monk in general brings a lot, mostly offensive buffs, but also the best status resistance in the game imo (enlightened agony). Btw Flagellants path = charge, you just get it later. You also have stuff like turning wheel, rooting pain, lightning strikes or swift flurry, raised torment, thunderous blows, etc.

Alright. So would you recommend Helwalker or Shattered Pillar for a Bleak Walker mukticlass?

[Dorftek]

 

Hellwalker is just about seeing bigger damage numbers, they are viable right now because the difficulty is non existent. Monk in general brings a lot, mostly offensive buffs, but also the best status resistance in the game imo (enlightened agony). Btw Flagellants path = charge, you just get it later. You also have stuff like turning wheel, rooting pain, lightning strikes or swift flurry, raised torment, thunderous blows, etc.

Alright. So would you recommend Helwalker or Shattered Pillar for a Bleak Walker mukticlass?

Monk lashes and FoD is insane dmg. I'm gonna recommend drugmonk like I always do. Pillar have less max focus so ud be nerfing ur lash dmg. Helwalker is squishy and u wanted to avoid that. There's so much money in this game that ull never run out of drugs anyway and if u wanna min/max ur DPS wich i assume u do since ur asking on forum there's no reason not to use drugs. Deadeye is amazing with high alchemy (wich is a very easy stat to boost).

 

Drugmonk is amazing give it a try

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

 

 

Hellwalker is just about seeing bigger damage numbers, they are viable right now because the difficulty is non existent. Monk in general brings a lot, mostly offensive buffs, but also the best status resistance in the game imo (enlightened agony). Btw Flagellants path = charge, you just get it later. You also have stuff like turning wheel, rooting pain, lightning strikes or swift flurry, raised torment, thunderous blows, etc.

Alright. So would you recommend Helwalker or Shattered Pillar for a Bleak Walker mukticlass?

Monk lashes and FoD is insane dmg. I'm gonna recommend drugmonk like I always do. Pillar have less max focus so ud be nerfing ur lash dmg. Helwalker is squishy and u wanted to avoid that. There's so much money in this game that ull never run out of drugs anyway and if u wanna min/max ur DPS wich i assume u do since ur asking on forum there's no reason not to use drugs. Deadeye is amazing with high alchemy (wich is a very easy stat to boost).

 

Drugmonk is amazing give it a try

That honestly sounds amazing. A Bleak Walker who spends most of his time coked out of his mind. Edited May 27, 2018 by Cyrus_Blackfeather

[Ganrich]

Lol. Nazpalca/Bleakwalker sounds like a series of bad trips. Sounds fun.

[KDubya]

Shattered Pillar is hard to beat. As long as you do damage you get wounds to do more damage. It works great at all levels, not just when money is limitless like the drug monk. Unfortunately the power level nine teleporting kill everything ability is so brokenly powerful that its hard to justify not going single class Shattered Pillar. Plus multis miss out on the power level eight upgrade to Flagellant's Path that knocks enemies up in the air which is pretty fun.

 

Another good combo is Bleak Walker/ Berserker. Lots of on kill effects and at level ten you can get rid of the confusion. Also has a few armor increasing abilities that can get you a pretty good armor rating. Plus its a good role playing fit.

[Clerith]

Monk multiclass is fantastic as long as your other class has good damaging abilities. You get great melee buffs as monks, honestly even just Raised Torment and Flagellant's Path spam can carry you even if you use nothing from your other class. But it gets even better with Charge and what not.

 

Single class monk is broken and any monk/martial classes are also broken :D

Edited May 27, 2018 by Clerith

[Dorftek]

Shattered Pillar is hard to beat. As long as you do damage you get wounds to do more damage. It works great at all levels, not just when money is limitless like the drug monk. Unfortunately the power level nine teleporting kill everything ability is so brokenly powerful that its hard to justify not going single class Shattered Pillar. Plus multis miss out on the power level eight upgrade to Flagellant's Path that knocks enemies up in the air which is pretty fun.

 

Another good combo is Bleak Walker/ Berserker. Lots of on kill effects and at level ten you can get rid of the confusion. Also has a few armor increasing abilities that can get you a pretty good armor rating. Plus its a good role playing fit.

I just like that 50% lash too much

 

Svef and/or Mordryn sword also gets rid of that confusion. I just can't stop promoting drugs! ;P

[Climhazzard]

Shattered Pillar is good for offensive cc/interruption due to the way they generate wounds.  Helwalker gets bonus might and a stronger turning wheel, Nalpazca gets wound generation through drugs and a stronger turning wheel. They're all good really, but once durability counts for something Helwalker would be on the bottom of my Monk play list.

[KDubya]

A Shattered Pillar still gets a +25% lash which is plenty, especially since you replenish wounds with doing damage instead of taking damage. You can cast Skyward Kick forever as it'll generate the three wounds needed to pay the cost and get you +50% damage and +3 penetration.

 

You can set the AI to use Skyward Kick all the time and you'll never run out of wounds to fund it. No other Monk can generate wounds that fast forever. Heck you can go with a Morningstar with the body blow modal on and get +25 to hit with a -25% damage and crit to your hearts content. Skyward Kick is even a Primary attack so you don't get penalized for using a two hander. Make it a Devoted and get even more out of a crit.

[Braven]

Well, you listed two DPS subclasses... so that is not really the optimal makings of a “pure tank”. Paladin works great with monk because they can heal and provide extra defenses and armor to dramatically increase survivabilty. Monks gain power with wounds (taking damage) so they pair well with healing classes. Kind wayfarer paladins makes excellent healers while not slowing down DPS because thier white flames ability is effectively “instant” cast. Monk, without multiclass support, are not good tanks in this game; they are best at DPS (lashes from lightning and turning wheel; rooting pain; helwalkee might; powerful fist weapon) or for pairing with casters who use duration and/or AOE abilities because they can increase INT by +15 for a 75% increase of all durations. Also, swift strikes speeds up casting time.

 

That said, fighters can be good tanks. People often talk about the cleave damage and accuracy buffs, which are for DPS, but they also have decent tanking abilities. The stance that increases engagements, and importantly reduces damage, is very good. Combined with a medium shield’s modal ability and a class like paladin with high defenses and armor and they are really hard to kill or for enemies to ignore... but they give up a lot of DPS for this playstyle. The defense-focus builds are not talked about much is because it is over-kill given the game’s current easy difficulty and the fact there are OP items and late game abilities that can make any character of any class or build invincible with crazy high defenses.

 

Since enemies have low health pools, the best defense can be a good offense. Dead enemies can’t hurt you, afterall, and many can be killed in a couple hits.

Edited May 27, 2018 by Braven

[Keldaur]

I paired it with berserker and he just tears stuff up and he is pretty much immortal in PotD. He is not a tank, but who needs a tank anyways ?

[Lokithecat]

Monk, would be fine, even Helwalker, for jumping your DPS up.  Helwalker might be difficult, especially as a tank, early game, but by end game you're trying to go out of your way to wound them as its so easy to kill everything too quickly to generate much wounds. 

 

As for the 'Shattered r best' I still don't see it.  Even chaining their Skyward (as suggested) you're doing 50% (25 v 50 for Turning, 30 for Hel Might Wounds) less damage and attacking slower than a fully wounded Helwalker.  Admittedly its pretty easy to max (35) your might, for most characters with drugs, and if you plan on doing that then Helwalker loses a lot of its appeal.  If you could (this might be possible) have 100% uptime with Blade Turn, as a Shattered, then I might seriously look at a build around that; but most of the pro Shattered stuff doesn't seem to suggest that.  No other monk would want to (or be able to) spend Wounds in a fashion that makes them immune to most damage, and not run out of Wounds.

 

With the 'I'm unkillable' paladin nonsense, there is no reason to worry about taking extra damage as a Helwalker (and the +10 Int from monk = longer durations).  You could take a (minor) recovery hit, and wear enough armor that it doesn't matter if you're getting beaten up (probably not a solo build for high difficulty).  

​As with most builds, you'll only ever struggle in the beginning / mid parts of the game, by the half point you just rofl stomp anyway.

Edited May 28, 2018 by Lokithecat

[KDubya]

Monk, would be fine, even Helwalker, for jumping your DPS up.  Helwalker might be difficult, especially as a tank, early game, but by end game you're trying to go out of your way to wound them as its so easy to kill everything too quickly to generate much wounds. 

 

As for the 'Shattered r best' I still don't see it.  Even chaining their Skyward (as suggested) you're doing 50% (25 v 50 for Turning, 30 for Hel Might Wounds) less damage and attacking slower than a fully wounded Helwalker.  Admittedly its pretty easy to max (35) your might, for most characters with drugs, and if you plan on doing that then Helwalker loses a lot of its appeal.  If you could (this might be possible) have 100% uptime with Blade Turn, as a Shattered, then I might seriously look at a build around that; but most of the pro Shattered stuff doesn't seem to suggest that.  No other monk would want to (or be able to) spend Wounds in a fashion that makes them immune to most damage, and not run out of Wounds.

 

With the 'I'm unkillable' paladin nonsense, there is no reason to worry about taking extra damage as a Helwalker (and the +10 Int from monk = longer durations).  You could take a (minor) recovery hit, and wear enough armor that it doesn't matter if you're getting beaten up (probably not a solo build for high difficulty).  

​As with most builds, you'll only ever struggle in the beginning / mid parts of the game, by the half point you just rofl stomp anyway.

 

The helwalker will have possibly +10 might and +50% from Turning Wheel, that's if and when you get injured enough for ten wounds. At which point you are also receiving +50% damage so you'd best have some healing. At this point you are auto attacking.

 

At 20th level my Shattered Pillar has +95% from Transcendent Suffering so we'll use this as baseline. Shattered Pillar gets to five wounds from the first Flagellant's Path which takes the first few seconds. At this point his damage is +95% +25% (turning wheel) +50% (skyward kick) for +170% damage and skyward kick generates enough damage to replenish the three wounds to do this forever. The teleport death attack generates enough wounds to allow usage continuously until everything is dead but makes it hard to calculate.

 

The helwalker has +95% from Transcendent +50% turning wheel +30% (+10 might) for +175% damage, takes +50% damage and needs to take 80(?) points of damage to get the first ten wounds. If you spend the wounds on attacks or abilities you need to wait to take damage to get more.

 

The beauty of the Shattered Pillar is that you don't need to suffer any damage, you just start attacking and it just gets better. As you spend the wounds you do damage which gets you more wounds and activates more Rooting Pain and so on  forever.

[Razorchain]

I'm playing Bleakwalker/Shattered Pillar

 

Having good defence means that generating wounds with damage is a good option

 

My monk has 21 Dex with Beraths Blessing so boosted she has 26 in Dex. She just melts everything, stun and melt.

 

Paladin and Shattered Pillar fit like a hand in a glove

[Siegdarth]

I am waiting for the 1.00 patch, so I can properly roll my Monk. Played a bit, but it was too easy even on PoTD.

Did a Shattered Pillar plus a Barbarian - Ravager and I loved it. Barb has a lot of great passives for DPS and the best full Attack of the game: Barbaric Smash because of the  + 30% crit chance  + 50% crit DMG and the bloody slaughter passive: + 20% of crits + 50% crit dmg if the target is Near Death.  If kills you get the rage is refunded - 20% recovery for x seconds + refresh.  And it's amplified by the 30% lightning Fist, the + 25% DMG from Burning Wheel and the sheer amount of stats from the buffs. 

The Rooting Pain + Carnage makes me always full on Wounds because of the constant AOE

So I usually engage with Fists and Fury on, turn the Thunderous blows, use flagellant path (Giving me full wounds) and Barbaric Shout to remove their deflection and power Level and + 3 Engagement. After that is Skyward Kick + Barbaric Smash. If you targeted a squishy you will be full of wounds again and get a kill so - 20% recovery and a refresh and do it Again. 

If you get yourself into a tough spot you can use blade turning + the soul mirror passive will keep you alive and still doing dmg. 

Gear I had before waiting for the patch.

 

- Head - Woedica hood - Cowl of piercing gaze or blackened helm. Not any good picks for a fist monk

Body - Devil of Charock breastplate- +2 all resources - 20% recovery, heal on crit and immunity to mind afflictions

 

Neck Baubles of the Fin or +2 resolve 

Bracers - Gatecrashers + 2 might and prone on crit. 
 
Cloak - Anything + 2 resolve or + 2 might

Rings - Chameleon touch + 1 might and etonia's ring + 3 defenses per engagement or 2 improved regeneration rings 
  
Boots - Boots of Stone. 

Belt - The undying burden