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Posted

I'm new to POE 2 and wanted to play my first game as a monk, which was my favorite class in POE 1, and I understand is quite powerful in POE 2. I am a bit bewildered by all of the choices, however. I would appreciate suggestions for an initial run as a single class in "classic" mode before I try out multiclassing or higher difficulty levels. I was considering playing a Nature Godlike monk for the power boost when inspired, which is pretty much constant, I understand, so long as swift strikes is active. I would also like to focus on unarmed combat. I was considering starting with STR 15, CON 15, DEX 16, PER 15, INT 10, and RES 7. Does that sound like a good stat spread? I would also appreciate advice regarding which abilities and skills to take when leveling up. There are so many compared to POE 1, and I am not sure which are the most important to select at the beginning. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Posted

Stat spread is good.

Unarmed combat is good, especially for single class monks. That's because Tanscendent Suffering scales with Power Level - and single classes can reach higher Power Levels and also reach them sooner.

Nature Godlike is also good: your assuption is correct and also you gain scaling for your fists (since they scale with Power Level as I said).

All active abilites scale with Power Level as well. Most notably all damaging abilites gain 5% base damage per Power Level. 

Usually you don't want to pick all the different attack abilites since they will be competitors for your resource - but twith a Monk it's not that much of an issue since wounds are replenishable.

Still - my recommendations would be Force of Anguish-->Efficient Anguish because it targets fortitude and can be very handy when you meet enemies with low fortitude but high deflection (some spirits and stuff). It's also very cheap and scales well with Power Level (because it's a level-1 ability it will have gained +45% multipl. damage at Power Level 10 for example). If you take Envervating Blows and use Stunning Surge you can even lower enemies' fortitude by 20 points and then use Force of Anguish for great effect.

The two most impactful abilites by far (for a SC Monk) are Resonant Touch and Whispers of the Wind. Other good ones are Stunning Surge and - as in PoE - Torment's Reach, especially Raised Torment. Although it's a bit expensive it's still no problem since healing is very potent in Deadfire and wounds are easy to come by.

But to be honest: once you gained Whispers of the Wind you can as well retrain and only take other non-attack abilites because you will only use that from that point on. Or mostly. That and Resonant Touch.

 

 

  • Thanks 1

Deadfire Community Patch: Nexus Mods

Posted

Thanks, Boeroer. I appreciate the excellent advice once again! What do you think of playing a single class Shattered Pillar monk? I get the impression that it is quite powerful for a DPS oriented build. How would it compare to a vanilla monk? Is the limit of 5 wounds problematic?

Posted

If you plan to make good use of the Duality modal (+X CON or INT, where X = number of wounds held), then I would not recommend the Shattered Pillar monk.

Furthermore, with all the talents and the unique monk shield (I won't say more in case you don't want spoilers, although this is a spoilers forum section) you can gain plenty of wounds without trying to get wounds as a Shattered Pillar monk, ESPECIALLY since Shattered Pillar monk ONLY gains wounds on auto-attacks, not ability attacks.

If you are playing in a party, the Helwalker can be quite good (you can get the maximum MIG of 35 with Helwalker bonus + Tenacious Blows). That being said, if you don't like the malus of the Helwalker, a normal monk or a Nalpazca (especially in a party) can be amazing.

  • Like 2
Posted
1 hour ago, dgray62 said:

Thanks, Boeroer. I appreciate the excellent advice once again! What do you think of playing a single class Shattered Pillar monk? I get the impression that it is quite powerful for a DPS oriented build. How would it compare to a vanilla monk? Is the limit of 5 wounds problematic?

I find it quite problematic, yes. Not only because of lesser Turning Wheel or Iron Wheel bonus but also because you can't spam Whispers of the Wind then or follow Whispers with Resonant Touch like other Monk classes can. WotW already costs 5 wounds...

The Shattered Pillar got nerfed so that only non-ability attack generate wounds. Yet his wound max wasn't raised then. For me it's the weakest Monk class currently.

I personally like Forbidden Fist a lot - but you need to build it rather special in order to be great (max RES, stack reduction of hostile effects). Helwalker and Nalpascas are safe picks. Nalpasca with Hylea's Talons, a drug and Enduring Dance can spam Whispers of the Wind with nearly no pause. Helwalker does more damage but is more risky. With some regeneration gear it's not too bad though.

  • Like 2

Deadfire Community Patch: Nexus Mods

Posted

Many thanks to both of you, Hansvedic and Boeroer.  I will stick with a vanilla monk for my first run through, and try Forbidden Fist later. I imagine that Clarity of Wounds is particularly important for this subclass, right?  I also want to try a monk/druid hybrid, and will go with Helwalker then. 

Posted

Clarity of Agony can help, yes. Especially at the start of fight in order to be able to spam Forbidden Fist more often.

However it is not mandatory to use all the time after some point. Once you stacked up some RES and "-x% hostile effects" gear and food you don't need it to manage your Forbidden Fist Curses. Often the curse is below 2 secs then. It doesn't make sense to use the wounds for Clarity. Because its recovery is quite long it can get in the way sometimes and I just tend to skip it often then.

But if you get hit by something nasty it can be really good to have: it not only frees you from the affliction but also gives you back wound(s) and a bit of healing then. 

Should you ever try a Nalpasca (there's plenty of drugs to find and to buy cheap - no reason to not use them all the time) : he has this main weakness where Arcane Dampener removes drug effects and gives him a drug crash. With a lot of Alchemy it's not too bad stats-wise but it prevents healing and degrades wounds. This can be annoying as heck. Some encounters love to spam Arcane Dampener at the start of fights, so... :)

  • Like 1

Deadfire Community Patch: Nexus Mods

  • 11 months later...
Posted (edited)
On 10/22/2019 at 6:00 PM, Boeroer said:

I find it quite problematic, yes. Not only because of lesser Turning Wheel or Iron Wheel bonus but also because you can't spam Whispers of the Wind then or follow Whispers with Resonant Touch like other Monk classes can. WotW already costs 5 wounds...

The Shattered Pillar got nerfed so that only non-ability attack generate wounds. Yet his wound max wasn't raised then. For me it's the weakest Monk class currently.

I personally like Forbidden Fist a lot - but you need to build it rather special in order to be great (max RES, stack reduction of hostile effects). Helwalker and Nalpascas are safe picks. Nalpasca with Hylea's Talons, a drug and Enduring Dance can spam Whispers of the Wind with nearly no pause. Helwalker does more damage but is more risky. With some regeneration gear it's not too bad though.

 

Sounds like a ridiculous nerf. Good thing I found this thread before trying a Shattered Pillar.

Edited by Lampros
Posted

It can still be good with certain multiclass combinations. Especially with Riposte and/or Offensive Parry builds where you get so many wounds on the fly that the lesser max doesn't matter too much. But a solo class it's the weakest monk subclass in my opinion. 

Deadfire Community Patch: Nexus Mods

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