Monk/Druid or Similar Combination

[Shandrakor]

I have a question about Monk/Druid and/or similar other combinations with Druid. Do the unarmed bonuses that Monks get from Transcendent Suffering or other classes with Monastic Unarmed Training apply to the druid while in SpiritShift forms? I.e. do the SpiritShift "weapons" count as unarmed?

[HiddenWings]

Spiritshift weapons are unfortunately not unarmed, but do not have a weapon type either (so there's no way for Devoted to be proficient with them). That's not to say that Druid/Monk is bad, but it doesn't get anything from the monk's unarmed damage bonus.

[Shandrakor]

Spiritshift weapons are unfortunately not unarmed, but do not have a weapon type either (so there's no way for Devoted to be proficient with them). That's not to say that Druid/Monk is bad, but it doesn't get anything from the monk's unarmed damage bonus.

Hmm, I see. Then what's the best way to get a Druid more accuracy? I see Zealous Aura from Druid/Paladin, but at that point you might as well just run it from a party member and stay straight Druid.

[Braven]

I posted a paladin/druid build. They are very nice because the paladin powers all work while shape shifted (as shifter subclass). Monk is good for the same reason, trading better health management for higher dps.

 

At least for the shifter subclass, all the “martial” classes are best when subclassing since you can’t use “spells”.

Edited May 28, 2018 by Braven

[Lavitage]

Shifter spamming a 1 cost full attack ability is a good mix of durability and damage.

 

Flames of devotion - Paladin

Crippling stike - Rogue

Penetrating stike - Fighter (strongest one, but unavailable til lvl 7)

 

Paladin is the best tank, Rogue is the best backline diver, Fighter is a mix of both.

[Lokithecat]

While a monk / druid does lose a lot of the cool factor of monk (kickass unarmed) everything else works fine.  A Shifter / Helwalker would be interesting, and the scaling of the animal weapons would be comparable to that of monk unarmed.  You'd gain self buffs to the monk side, as well as the perks of the form you chose (DR, Attack speed, or whichever you chose) and self healing.  The druid side gets a lot more 'activated' attacks while shifted, you could even spread around your talents, and a pile of Elemental Damage Lash onto your attacks.  The Fury Druid you could intentionally self wound with a variety of spells (Touch of Decay for eg. will catch you in the area when you hit someone with it) and the (up to) 30% bonus damage from Helwalker wounds could make even a Caster style druid more offensive, with a variety of knockbacks (and blade turning) from monk side if something closes and you don't want to fight it hand to hand.

[shonix]

I’m actually running a Fury/Shattered Pillar on PotD myself (currently level 13). After restarting so many times to find the character I wanted to play, this one is my favorite.

 

I put in max PER, INT and high DEX while taking some (not all) away from CON and RES - MIG was left alone. With this combination you have a character that can function very well at any range - a backline caster or a second line fighter (not entirely great up front). You also have access to a bunch of different damage types, so you have an answer to pretty much everything.

 

At the beginning of the game, I was primarily sticking to long ranged fighting: I used my monk side specifically for the self buffs, and switched to storm blight once I was out of spells. Typically the fights were over before or by the time I did all that. But when you get better gear, you can start being more flexible with what you can do during combat.

 

But, what I’ve been doing now in fights is to start them off with Swift Strikes (with the flurry upgrade) and Dance of Death so I can generate wounds for the Dual modal for more INT. Then I use Nature’s Mark as an opener to all the appropriate nukes I’m gonna throw (I save my Lv III and V spells for the storms). Once that is done, I go ham with all my monk stuff.

 

IMO, the Chromoprismatic Staff is a core item for this build (I didn’t have TOO much trouble getting this at level 10-11); you have powered up elemental druid spells, and can bash heads in with the staff itself with high metaphysics (which is even better with storm spells activated) once your spells are used up.

 

I currently have The Long Pain which I plan on upgrading to the weapon version at 19 (which isn’t very much time to play around with it sadly) so I can stay in the back for as long as I want. But that’s just personal preference for me - you have to spend a good chunk of the game without it so if you got that far, you’re doing well enough without it.

 

You can tweak around with subclasses and such, but overall I find the combo of the two very good. I’ve had a blast with it.

[hansvedic]

I am currently working on a build similar in scope to Braven's Druid/Paladin build, except I am going Nalpazca Monk instead of Paladin. I am using a Moon Godlike with high MIG, CON, and PER, above average INT, dumped RES and nearly dumped DEX. The idea I'm shooting for is to use Swift Strikes as my Mortification ability (with perhaps a Flagellant's Path thrown in when necessary) and stack lashes from Lightning Strikes, Wildstrike (Corrode or Freeze, not sure which yet), and eventually Turning Wheel.

For spells, I intend to use the rejuvenation spells, especially the Nature's Balm (Robust inspiration), and a bit of the storm spells too, to set up before I dive into combat (w/ Swift Strikes to speed up casting as necessary). The only problem will be when I face Arcane Dampener users, but with Clarity of Agony pretty much always being one of my starting casts, along with other measures such as Ripple Sponge, I should be okay.

EDIT: Perhaps this info may help in your quest for an Ascetic (Monk/Druid)?

Edited May 29, 2018 by hansvedic