Monk builds

[astroice]

Planning on playing as a monk.  Looked over some vids and posts.  When in character creation it says Constitution and Dexterity are the most important, with might being next.

 

Wonder how some of you that are also planning on playing the monk are going to divey up your attribute points?

[Heijoushin]

Hey Astroice.

 

I'm also planning on playing a monk first. I'm going for a scholar background, so I also want high intelligence for role-playing purposes (though INT is apparently a great stat for all classes anyway)

 

So I'll be going Might, Intelligence & Dexterity.

Edited March 23, 2015 by Heijoushin

[astroice]

See. I'm still not clear on all the interactions of the attributes.  Since the Monk really has no aoe stuff, cant intelligence be a dump stat?

[budyn]

but int increase duration aswell, so stuns and knockbacks etc will last longer, tho i would suggest something more mixed.

like 16might, 14 dex, 12 int 14 conc, 13res 9 perc

[Heijoushin]

See. I'm still not clear on all the interactions of the attributes.  Since the Monk really has no aoe stuff, cant intelligence be a dump stat?

 

Yeah, it's all pretty vague at this point. I recommend checking out this thread: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71245-which-attributes-for-which-class-and-how-high/?hl=intelligence

But I'm waiting to read in-game tool tips for final confirmation.

 

Still, it sounds like all the attributes are pretty useful in PoE. I'm going to try avoid making a dump stat in this game, because I don't want to miss lots of dialogue options.

 

 

[gkathellar]

Monks get less out of Intelligence than some other classes do, but there are only a few specialty builds that can actually afford to dump it.

 

With the armor system as it is, I'd advise monk players to figure out whether they want to run an aggressive plate-and-shield tank or slightly-hardy padded armor DPS. The tank will want Might, Perception, and Resolve, dropping Dex and (weirdly) Con. On the DPS side, focus on Might and Dexterity, and don't worry too much about Constitution or Resolve.

[budyn]

if you're playing on easy/normal difficulties you can bassicly do anything with your stats.On harder diffs i wouldnt drop cons and resolve ( ok maybe on hard its ok ) but it you wanna play potd ( or even more ToI ) doing a semi tank monk is crucial.

[portedgoblin]

How would you build an unarmed DPS monk?

[budyn]

It depends what role you want from him and what difficulty.

if youre playing on easy normal.Amaua with 21 might, 12 conc, 15-17 dex and 10 in everything else would tear apart everything basicly.

On hard and potd i would go for like 14-15 might, 12 con, 14-15 dex , and depends what u rly want perception is good 1v1 with interuption and good defense vs mage spells. Int is pretty  much dump stat unless you want longer stuns or knocks.Resolve if you want to fight as semi tank vs fighters.

And i would go with either wild orlan/fire godlike for offtanking and human/nature godlike for mage killer

Edited March 23, 2015 by budyn

[portedgoblin]

I am playing human.

My idea so far is

MIG 20

CON 12

DEX 18

PER 3

INT 10

RES 15

 

Not sure how much you miss out on one of your party having low interrupt chance. 

The idea is to have high attack speed with some light armor and dish out damage with Turning Wheel, Scion of Flame, Swift Strikes. No idea if it will be any good, works good in BB but who knows. I dont have the knowledge about the game yet.

[Luckmann]

Generally speaking, you would probably want to avoid doing an unarmed monk, because weapons can be enchanted, your hands can't.

 

The game is a bit odd like that; fully armoured monk tanks, rogues that are terrible at stealthed backstabs, resolve being terrible for non-tank paladins, intellect being a prime attribute for barbarians, etc. It's pretty unintuitive in a lot of ways.

 

Just a heads up on the weapons, since unarmed monks is a bit of a staple of the genre.

[portedgoblin]

Yeah I know about the weapon travesty, still like to give it a go however. I guess the enchants out scale the Transcendent Suffering? I am not looking to be optimal, just good enough to be able to enjoy the game, on hard. 

Whats the attack speed of unarmed, Fast like some other weapons? I cant find any in-game info of it.

 

I guess my question is if you can build a viable build around Turning Wheel with fast attack speed?

[Odd Hermit]

I've found a few successful monk builds. All feel a bit lackluster at low levels though, and in the beta low level is actually lower mid-levels. I tried many different tanky monk builds 'cause I really wanted it to be as good as Paladin, it just isn't - at least not until you get Duality of Mortal presence for the +10 to all defenses which comes at level 7 and even then Paladin is ahead in deflection and has 3 extra DR from Zealous Endurance potentially.

 

Monk has a few things that make it compete and have its own unique strengths though, mainly control abilities and reflective damage(particularly soul mirror). I also think they're more interesting to play.

 

First build I had success with is a Monk tank built around Force of Anguish. Max out Perception, Resolve, keep a decent amount of Int as well. Spend all of your wounds to prone stuff. Take the no-brainer deflection talents: Cautious Attack, Weapon and Shield Style.

 

Second is a hybrid tank/damage character that swaps weapon sets depending on situation. Uses turning wheel for high burn damage on attacks, rather than spending wounds on force of anguish. Takes high might instead of intellect, and picks up Rooting Pain for AoE melee damage. This character will be a little less high on defenses and will need more support, but does significantly more damage than a normal tank build.

 

 

Personally, I haven't found a good use for a purely damage focused monk though. They have to take damage to use their special abilities, so they need to not just be able to take hits, but they need to intentionally get hit. If they're not a fairly tanky character this can be a complication - being wound starved or being knocked out if you can't find a happy medium.

Edited March 23, 2015 by Odd Hermit

[dreamrider]

I've been playing a monk 'semi-solo', an I think it is a great solo, or early game solo selection. 

 

I didn't really meant to go solo; it isn't really my usual choice in BG/IE/etc games.  I'm more of a completionist, story liner, roleplayer.

 

However, after Cilant Lis you are forced to solo for about 1 & 2/3 maps.  Following my completionist nature, by the time I met Aloth and Eder, I was already closing in on 3rd level.  Continuing for awhile solo seemed to fit the persona of 'student of discipline monk, now saddled with Watcher', so I decided to see if I could complete everything prior to / north of Caed Nua (stronghold) with my persona character alone.  Then maybe gather the early companions to the Stronghold and see if I wanted to solo some more, follow their quests, whatever.

 

As it turns out, it is quite do-able to solo a monk through these early northern quests/story elements.  Anyone should be able to reach 5th level (on Hard) if you single your way through all the Gilded Vale Quests/tasks and the initial clearing of Caed Nua.  With some player experience of a previous run at the beginning of the game, and careful/ lucky play, I think I can make 6th lvl solo, before bringing any Companions on board or heading to Defiance Bay. 

 

(Note: From what I have seen so far I would NOT recommend attempting this this on PotD; it may be possible, but I estimate that it would move from 'fun challenge' to 'tedious, frustrating exercise in gaining bragging rights'.)

 

The build I am using on my current, 2nd run at this (ToI masochism will do that to you) is a slightly modified 'dev recommendations' Monk:

 

- Fire Godlike, from Deadfire Archipelago, with Merchant background.

     (That gives me minimal starting ability in every skill.)

     (The Fire Godlike <50% Endurance Burn Damage and Deflection bonus really help a solo character.  Also, Fire Godlike really matches well with several monk abilities.)

  - Might             15

  - Constitution   17

  - Dexterity        20

  - Perception     11

  - Intellect          7

  - Resolve         9

 

I do not claim that this is optimal for a solo or all-arounder Monk, but I do have reasons for the choices:

  M: she's alone; her hits, ranged or close, HAVE to hurt some.

  C: no party; she needs a decent pool of End to survive those times when she has to be close, and to provide raw basis for those Wounds.

  D: again, she's alone; no way is she going to pure power her way through; she mainly has to rely on hitting more often, more accurately (more crits!) and on running and dodging.

  P: Deflection!...and gotta give some love to those Interrupts, since she if trying to hit rapidly and repeatedly; also, notice bad stuff in enough time to react.

  I:  probably least important, but can't be just a dump stat, because you need AoE/ depth on things like Torment's Reach, and useful durations.

  R: Deflection!...and avoid some return Interrupts (especially when trying to quickly gulp a P. of Minor Endurance!)

 

My initial Monk Ability was Torment's Reach, because I thought that when the action got close up, she would need something to impact multiple opponents simultaneously.  You could probably make Swift Strikes work, but the tactics would be different, and I think it would be tougher in the first few maps.

 

If you were using this build for an all-arounder/ off-tank in an early collected party, you might not need SPEED as much, but for the solo path, speed is your friend.  I took Fast Runner and Long Stride as soon as I could.

 

Despite the Monk's close combat forte, as far as I am concerned this is a shooter build, at least in the early going.  The best way to survive is to hit (er...sometimes plink) while not being hit.  Sneak, shoot, run, shoot, dodge, kite, etc.  Use the pause a lot.  Choose your retreat paths.  Plant traps on your exit route when you have them.  The rapid pounding close combat, and Torment's Reach, is your insurance policy for those last couple of guys that you just can't outrun.  However, sometimes you just HAVE to do a couple of initial close combats, soon after you've entered the map, in order to create some run back room for later.

 

Scout the opposition first, then back off before the confrontation.  Look for your fighting withdrawal path.  Also, very important, note 1-2 places in the target room, and along your back path, where you can get into a narrow space or corner.  If you have to switch to melee, when you are solo you absolutely want to do it where you can't be flanked and they have to come at you no more than 1-2 at a time.  If you are using Torment's Reach, this also clusters the enemy in a nice fan where several can be smacked by the force of your focused soul power.

 

I've tried a lot of different weapons/ armor combos on this gal.  (Playing a solo character you soon have a LOT of choices of gear!)  These are my current insights:

  Flexibility:  You need to be prepared to trade gear around to suit the situation.

  Ranged weapon:  I usually carry the fastest shooting weapon, the hunter's bow as standard.  Since I am relying on all that Dex, Accuracy, Action Speed, Movement, etc, as the main tactic, I want to minimize the Recovery time and get off shots as quickly as I can.  For those times when it is clear that I'm only going to get one shot before I need to switch to pummeling, however, I generally also carry in the backpack the heaviest practical ranged hitter.  Also, there ARE times when you can get the chaser to turn away at the edge of its 'territory', giving you plenty of time to recover/ reload a heavier piece.  At various times I have used pistol, arbalest, fine crossbow, or fine warbow for this role.

  Melee weapon:  Hey! Why not?  After all, the 'slot' for your fists is always a freebie.  My choice may surprise you:  usually dual hatchets.  For the explanation, look at the special feature of hatchets as a type.  +5 Deflection!  AND it stacks!  So, +10 Deflection!  There are lots of times when that is more important than the extra damage that the fists do (usually at those time when I get caught in a close fight when I've been running around in minimal armor, because who is gonna catch 'Speedy', after all.)  Now, if I could just find some Fine Hatchets to further enchant.   Fine Quarterstaff, or the Fast Unique (Draining) weapon that it is possible to find early on are also good choices.

  Armor: In the open, or even indoors when I'm confident there is enough run room to break contact 90+% of the time, I often just wear some very stylish Dyrwoodan outdoor attire.  Minimizes Recovery time, remember?  But following the 'flexible packing' policy outlined above, I also pack the heaviest armor found so far.  In some 'may come to blow' situations that can be anticipated, Deflection wins out over Recovery (like when you are trying to take down an armored paladin in a smallish room - time for the arbalest one-shot from the doorway, the suit of plate, and 'Chopsticks' played with hatchet and spinkick.)

 

So, those are the parameters of my monk adventure so far.  I expect that she will eventually want to find some friends to share her house and struggles. 

 

However, it occurs to me that my Watcher is leveling up much faster while she is solo.  Then, when she does pick up some friends, the first thing she will get to do is level them up to something closer to her level.  Sounds almost like free experience points for the Companions to me.  I suppose the devs may have done some things to mute this a bit, but I already know from my previous aborted game that if I pick up a party pal after I've got a few levels, I immediately get the 'gold cross of elevation' on the new party member, so clearly I do get to customize those party members at least somewhat.

 

Still learning,

 

dreamrider

[dreamrider]

Hmmm - have to be careful.  Seems that if I go too far in the story line (to chap 3) with my solo Watcher, I run the danger of cutting off some of the Companion Quests due to death of required NPCs, etc.

 

I'm at lvl 11, well on the way to 12, but running out of things to do without triggering Chap 3.  The only way to get enough xp may be to delve VERY deep on the Endless Paths.

 

(I think if I had optimized every story line choice I could have made it by now, but I was RP, AND not reading ahead.  BTW, like I thought, this solo Monk is awesome!.)

 

dreamrider