OP Monk Combo

[mepp22]

I am not sure if people are aware of this combo but it is game breakingly strong.  Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak + Boots of the Stone+ Ring of the Marksman +Ring of Focused Flame (if not nature godlike then add Acina's Tricorn) + Scordeo's Edge+ Keeper of the Flame + Saint's War Armor  all on a Monk with Whispers of the Wind + Imagined Pain is absolutely ridiculous. Keeper of the Flame does a religion scaling area of effect burn damage attack that is both friend or foe on hit. The area of effect attack is treated as a ranged attack therefore Ring of the Marksman will increase it's penetration and accuracy, Ring of Focused Flame increases accuracy another 10 since it is a fire attack, and Scordeo's Edge can increase the accuracy by 20 or 30 depending on your upgrade (the +20 upgrade is probably better because you still need your first hit not to miss and vs Mega bosses you need all the accuracy you can get). The Stalking Cloak gives extra accuracy for attacks from stealth and your attacks will stun which is already excellent with Whispers of the Wind.  The amazing thing is that the area of effect attack from Keeper of the Flame will hit you and it is vs Reflex, and Saint's War Armor is immune to Reflex until hit by something else two times. This means that the attacks from Keeper of the Flame AOE will count as a miss vs you and Imagined Pain turns these misses into wounds! You can now spam Whispers of the Winds non stop and will constantly trigger Rooting Pain. Keeper of the Flame AOE doesn't have the highest penetration however you can get the accuracy up to around 180 and the flail modal reduces reflex by 25 which will make you crit all the time getting your penetration above 20.  The Boots of the Stone are there to protect you, in case you some how get hit twice you wont be stunning your self all the time. I would also put on Gauntlets of Greater Reliability vs some of the Megabosses so you are guaranteed to get some grazes in which will in turn inprove your accuracy but really any gloves can be effective.
Sadly for some reason using Avenging Storm some how causes you to hit yourself but that means you can put your skills into Alchemy and have some potions and drugs last all fight. While under the effects of Blade Cascade you can gulp down potions like no tomorrow. Don't forget you will be doing a ridiculous number of hits for Resonant Touch. A tight group of enemies will end up with over 20 stacks after only one use of Wispers of the Wind.
I think the best build for this would be a Nature Godlike Hellwalker. Although it also works fine on Xoti.

Edited April 24, 2020 by mepp22

[AeonsLegend]

OP Monk*

 

Fixed title.

[mepp22]

Yeah except this is waaaaaay waaaaay stronger than any normal monk builds. Normal monks can't solo mega bosses in minutes.

[AeonsLegend]

Yea it looks really strong. Gotta hand it to you. You're sure you're not killing yourself with the AoE?

[mepp22]

What makes it so sick is the AOE is vs Reflex and Veteran's Maneuver makes you immune. These misses will then feed your wounds. If you are fighting a Megaboss where there is only one enemy and you can't use Whispers of the Wind just equip Belt of Magran's Choosen and Spam Stunning Surge until a Fire Blight spawns now you can use Whispers of the Wind and have a chance of spawning another Fire Blight to keep your combo going. You really just have to make sure you don't get hit so if you have a party make sure you dont have any characters with retaliate gear or single class barbarians. If you are doing some fight where you keep getting hit and don't need all the extra accuracy you can equip a shield in your offhand (I recommend Nerian's Ward with Father's Masterwork and medium shield modal).

[Waski]

55 minutes ago, mepp22 said:

Normal monks can't solo mega bosses in minutes

Why?

[mepp22]

5 minutes ago, Waski said:

Why?

Why what? Do you know a better Monk build? Monks are strong but this combo is just silly. 

[Waski]

It's extremaly good combo, espacially for FF but helwalker can spam WotW with melee weapons just by equping hylea talons 

 

[Boeroer]

Whispers of the Wind with Stalking Cloak and all sorts of AoE weapons is really strong (and that has been known for a while now), same with Scordeo's Edge being one of the most OP weapons, BUT your combo of Imagined Pain + Keeper of the Flame + Saint's War Armor is something new, clever and really neat.  Never read about that here and also never thought about it myself.

I think offensively the same setup but with Hand Mortar (+Blinding Smoke) + Fire in the Hole (+ Chain Shot) has more damage potential due to being able to use Poweder Burns and more importantly Avenging Storm (Blinding Smoke cones - which will trigger hundrets of extra hit rolls with enough enemies around - trigger Avenging Storm as well!) which you can't do with Keeper of the Flame (because for some reason it messes up Avenging Storm) and thus more Resonant Touches being generated:

However: the constant wound generation from Imagined Pain + Saint's War armor should be very handy - especially vs. bosses. I also didn't take Swift Flurry into account - no idea if that makes a huge difference since it usually doesn't proc the AoE but only the discrete flail/crush attack roll...?

You could also try Sungrazer + Keeper of the Flame. Sometimes the two (pretty hefty) burn AoEs of Sungrazer proc multiple times (especially when Swift Flurry procs) which then do craaazy dmg. 

Another nice candidate for WotW is Current's Rush (scepter). It's very potent if its "High Tide "procs - because High Tide seems to be able to proc off itself which can lead to a deadly chain reactions. High Tide also procs Avenging Storm.

I also had good effects with Watershaper's Focus + Blast and Ondra's Wrath (+Avenging Storm).

By the way: Keeper of the Flame + Scordeo's Edge is my most favorite combo for Ranger's Whirling Strikes. Really powerful. The only (albeit huge) disadvantage compared to Monk is that Ranger's can't get Bond back (besides Brilliant) - so no spamming against Megabosses unfortunately (all by yourself).

 

Edited April 24, 2020 by Boeroer

[Boeroer]

35 minutes ago, Waski said:

It's extremaly good combo, espacially for FF but helwalker can spam WotW with melee weapons just by equping hylea talons.

 

Same with Nalpasca and drugs + Dance of Death (and Hylea's Talons because they are great anyway  ). But still: "abusing" Keeper of the Flame's friendly fire with Saint's War Armor and Imagined Pain is pretty smart.  

I wonder if Tuotilo's Palm would proc its retaliation effect if you get "missed" by KotF's burn AoE due to the armor? That would be kind of cool as well. Not that it does a ton of damage, but still nice, would generate Resonant Touches en masse I guess? Also it should trigger the small shield modal (which doesn't stack with Dance of Death, but still...)

Edited April 24, 2020 by Boeroer

[Waski]

It's great, don't get me wrong, but does not bring anything new on the table for helwalker or nalpazca. But looks spicy for FF.

7 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

I wonder if Tuotilo's Palm would proc its retaliation effect if you get "missed" by KotF's burn AoE due to the armor?

Against who it will riposte???

[Boeroer]

Hahaha - good point. Myself? Than that misses again and *pooof* universe explodes.

[mepp22]

I would think the retaliation would strike back whoever did the attack and in this case that is you  also the AOE is viewed as a range attack and Outward Spikes is for melee attacks. I was originally trying to make a KotF build with a Ranger that would bounce from the AOE but I couldn't get that to work. It was annoying to keep hitting myself so I was looking for ways to prevent or reduce the damage (Pale Elf Armor/other fire AR) when I realized it was a Reflex attack and you could use the Saint's Armor to completely negate that. I then looked for on miss abilities and realized how crazy it would be for monks.

Edited April 24, 2020 by mepp22

[Boeroer]

Right, was just doing wild brainstorming there without looking stuff up.

Hitting yourself with KotF is great if you have Rekvu's Scorched Cloak...

Edited April 24, 2020 by Boeroer

[mepp22]

I actually still think there must be some way to safely use Avenging Storm but I can't figure out how I keep getting hit because as soon as the attack starts the combat log is absolutely flooded. I suspect it is a Fortitude attack some how related to the Stalking Cloak but I am not sure. It is possible if you stack Fort saves with Con and Mig (Helwalker) you will be able to safely use Avenging Storm.

Edited April 24, 2020 by mepp22

[Boeroer]

You mean Avenging Storm?

You can use Deltro's Cage. It has a 1/rest protection against shock. If you are immune to MIG afflictions you could also use Deltro's Cage Helmet to gain the shocking lash - only need to outheal the shock damage then. Only...

Edited April 24, 2020 by Boeroer

[mepp22]

3 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

Right, was just doing wild brainstorming there without looking stuff up.

Hitting yourself with KotF is great if you have Rekvu's Scorched Cloak...

Yeah it isn't bad but you really only go up by 1 or 2 hp per hit. It is better to have a constant stun effect. I am not even sure if the stun uses a separate roll or not and if it doesn't they you can regularly to a +200 accuracy stun which is enough for Mega Bosses.

[mepp22]

12 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

You mean Avenging Storm?

You can use Deltro's Cage. It has a 1/rest protection against shock. If you are immune to MIG afflictions you could also use Deltro's Cage Helmet to gain the shocking lash - only need to outheal the shock damage then. Only...

But without Saint's Armor you wont get unlimited misses... There probably is some better way to optimize this combo but I only discovered it yesterday so I haven't had time to test things through

Edited April 24, 2020 by mepp22

[mepp22]

19 minutes ago, Waski said:

It's great, don't get me wrong, but does not bring anything new on the table for helwalker or nalpazca. But looks spicy for FF.

Against who it will riposte???

It is also great vs the Ooze and Spider. Especially with Belt of Magran's Choosen.

[Kaylon]

Crazy combo with Saint's War Armor.  

[dgray62]

Am I right in assuming that Helwalker for this SC monk build isn't too dangerous, since you'll be using wounds as fast as you gain them to spam WotW, right? So it's really a trade off of high-risk/hight reward Helwalker or the safer Nalpazca with the downside of constant drug micromanagement, right?

[Boeroer]

Once you get WotW and can spam it Helwalker's increased dmg received doesn't really matter: you will be invisible most of times anyway - and the targets stunned.

[AeonsLegend]

Does whispers of the wind count as a stealth attack?

[mepp22]

Yeah that's why the Stalking Cloak is so effective. 

[dgray62]

18 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

Once you get WotW and can spam it Helwalker's increased dmg received doesn't really matter: you will be invisible most of times anyway - and the targets stunned.

Thanks. You'll just have to manage the wounds carefully until then.