HOW DO I MONK?

[Climhazzard]

Pretty sure one hand style won't work with fist and shield, it doesn't work with any other weapon + shield.  To know if weapon and shield style works with fist + shield should be easy to check though, just equip a shield and see if you get the bonus deflection and reflexes, I'm sure it will work.

[mintberrycrunchs]

Hey guys n girls and everyone else,

 

i just wanted to share my Monk-Companion Build and ask for some Feedback/Diskussion, since i thought this is the right thread.

I play on PotD and my Party setup is Eder(Full S&B Tank) Durance (S&B offtank+Healing) Monk(Offtank/DPS) Ranged Rogue(Main/Full DPS) Grieving Mother (Ranged Cipher) Kana (Ranged Buffs) im currently level 10 and at the end of the 2nd Chapter.

 

My Monk is a Moon Godlike with the following Attribute Spread: 16 12 10 18 4 18 (I would go 18 might/10 con, if i where to rearrange his stats)

He is mainly uses his basic attacks (Fists - Vulnarable Attack, Savage Attack, Two Weapon Fighting)  with turning wheel and the ocasionally Swit Strike Spam.

He seem to do very well and it looks like he isnt suffering too much from the lowish dexterity and is dishing out some very reliable damage while beeing able to hold himself dently well (moon godlike *wink wink*)

I havnt tested it reliably, but i think he is still attacking faster or at least nearly as fast as my full min maxed cloth wearing ranged rogue with Persistence (Hunting Bow), even with his -30% recovery time leather armor ...

Keep in mind, that he is designed to be as least micromanagement intense as possible, thus not using a lot of active abilitys.

 

I think monk offers a lot of build flexebility in regards to how you spend your attributes according to what you want your monk to accomplish ...

Maybe some of you want to share your builds for some disucussion about it?

Also, take a look at this if you also think that we need a little more information about the wound mechanics:
http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/77166-monk-wound-duration/?do=findComment&comment=1668224

[Climhazzard]

Does your monk have any problems with having to much deflection?  I mean are the wounds stacking up enough for you to benefit from turning wheel?  If you aren't having any problems with wounds then your build is probably just right for a passive monk offtank/dps, if you are then having less points in perception/resolve and more in constitution may be the better option.  I'm assuming that on PotD you probably don't have too much deflection, and therefor your build is working pretty good.  I know that if you were playing on hard though that would be to much.

 

My preferences lean towards an active monk playstyle that requires more micromanagement, so I can't really provide much more feedback unfortunately.

[taek]

 

It should also be noted that i sometimes purposely use friendly fire to generate wounds faster, fireball for example is really good for this ...

 

 

 

 

Reason #256 why Monks are awesome.

 

They perform better when you hit them with friendly fire.

Edited April 21, 2015 by taek

[Exyll]

Dang. This would have been great to know before I made a character. Oh well. I guess I'll just wait till someone makes a character editor. Obsidian games are always the most fun when you have eighteens in every stat except for intelligence, which is 1.

...

Anyway, until your monk has some abilities under his belt, he his definitely a glass cannon and needs for your tank to engage 1st

You also want him in a robe (I enchanted clothing for mine, even less recovery). Get him TW fighting and spec peasant or whatever unarmed is under.

Once he gets that monk speed ability, he takes and keeps top dps spot - you can literally watch him fly from mob to mob killing them while your team is still on the 1st mob from when the engagement started. He is ridiculously powerful but needs to be watched in the beginning'

Monk speed is better than boots of speed to me cause I dont want anyone flying off and away from the party during dungeon crawls, monk speed is combat only and rocks

Edited April 21, 2015 by Exyll

[The Josip]

Anyway, until your monk has some abilities under his belt, he his definitely a glass cannon and needs for your tank to engage 1st

 

 

Only if you use clothes, which you really don't have to. Put him in proper armor and he's going to do fine.

[Exyll]

 

Anyway, until your monk has some abilities under his belt, he his definitely a glass cannon and needs for your tank to engage 1st

 

 

Only if you use clothes, which you really don't have to. Put him in proper armor and he's going to do fine.

 

True but his speed is incredible in just clothes, and it's only a few levels before he starts coming into his own. End game my monk had 96 deflection and I figured the chants I wouldnt use for his weapons I put towards clothing. But in the end I ended using that robe ffrom the tier 3 bounties, still incredibly fast and very decent damage for fists.

[KDubya]

Pretty sure one hand style won't work with fist and shield, it doesn't work with any other weapon + shield.  To know if weapon and shield style works with fist + shield should be easy to check though, just equip a shield and see if you get the bonus deflection and reflexes, I'm sure it will work.

 

I tested in game with hired adventurers fighting in the tavern and checking the combat log. When one handed style activates you get a message.. With fist & shield I punched out my five companions and read the message for every hit, the single handed never activated.

 

One handed style while holding a shield works with weapons but not fists.

 

Weapon and shield style works with fists and shields.

 

With weapons you can have both one handed style and weapon and shield style active at the same time

 

One of them is bugged, either one handed style should not work with a shield or it should work with fists.

[peddroelm]

>>One handed style while holding a shield works with weapons but not fists.

 

"While wielding a single one-handed melee weapon, 20% of the attacker's Grazes are converted to Hits."

 

If one doesn't consider fists one-handed melee weapons, then it seems everything works as designed..

 

Curious about how 1h style + flail + confident aim works (with shield in off hand) .. 70% Grazes -> Hits ? ..

[KDubya]

>>One handed style while holding a shield works with weapons but not fists.

 

"While wielding a single one-handed melee weapon, 20% of the attacker's Grazes are converted to Hits."

 

If one doesn't consider fists one-handed melee weapons, then it seems everything works as designed..

 

Curious about how 1h style + flail + confident aim works (with shield in off hand) .. 70% Grazes -> Hits ? ..

 

 

Two weapon style does work with fists. It also has the same/similar language concerning holding a weapon in each hand.

 

If two weapon style is supposed to work with fists then one handed style should as well.

[Climhazzard]

As far as i'm aware those combat only skills don't turn on unless you initiate real combat, smacking your team mates doesn't count.

[peddroelm]

As far as i'm aware those combat only skills don't turn on unless you initiate real combat, smacking your team mates doesn't count.

Copperlane cattacombs - have one lousy archer ( some white bow with low armor penetration/damage per hit ) initiate combat on immobile Dank Spore..  Have your other characters beat on each other "during combat" .. Great for testing "combat only" abilities those dank spores ..

[luzarius]

UPDATE

 

I prefer using pure unarmed and no weapon in the off hand, for some reason torment's reach does far more damage this way.  My advice, use pure unarmed.  Try it yourself in game.  Put guan's flail in your off hand, play for a bit, then take it off and you should notice torment's reach doing more damage, please let me know.
 

You can check my original post int he spoiler tag, it has screenshots of my research.

 

 

OLD

 

Question: Why would a monk not equip a weapon in the off hand?

 

Screenshots for comparison:

 

PRIMARY: FIST

OFFHAND: FIST

 

 

 

PRIMARY: Fist

OFFHAND: Guan's Share (Flail)

 

WE LOSE THE Transcedent Suffering Ability (+5 damage unarmed, +4 accuracy) in the off hand, but............

 

WE GAINED +12 accuracy (because he's using only one weapon, hence getting the single weapon focus bonus?)

 

From all my tests, it seems having a weapon in the off hand is better. Torment's reach still hits twice when I use it during the off hand flail attack.  Torments reach still hits twice with hitting with primary fist.

 

 

I don't get it, is this a bug or am I losing some kind of benefit that I don't know of?

Edited May 14, 2015 by luzarius

[Raven Darkholme]

Offhand weapon for monk is kinda buggy, there is no reason not to use it, if you actually consider it a legal strategy. (Which you totally should. ;P)

[Razorchain]

I remember someone had tested that during auto attacks you only attack with the offhand weapon. Not sure myself but I used it myself abit but I got the feeling I could spam TR faster without an offhand weapon. Could be that we lose the dual weapon speed bonus

[KDubya]

Using an offhand weapon in the left hand slot in order to benefit form both hands during a torment's reach is obviously a bug and an exploit. If you place the one handed weapon in your right hand you only use the right hand during a torment's reach.

 

It is a single player game so cheat all you want but don't try and claim that this is behaving as designed or is just good tactics.

[luzarius]

Using an offhand weapon in the left hand slot in order to benefit form both hands during a torment's reach is obviously a bug and an exploit. If you place the one handed weapon in your right hand you only use the right hand during a torment's reach.

 

It is a single player game so cheat all you want but don't try and claim that this is behaving as designed or is just good tactics.

 

For some reason torment's reach works better with pure unarmed, I'm doing a lot more damage.  So I've ditched having a weapon in the off hand.

Edited May 14, 2015 by luzarius

[Raven Darkholme]

 

Using an offhand weapon in the left hand slot in order to benefit form both hands during a torment's reach is obviously a bug and an exploit. If you place the one handed weapon in your right hand you only use the right hand during a torment's reach.

 

It is a single player game so cheat all you want but don't try and claim that this is behaving as designed or is just good tactics.

 

 

For some reason torment's reach works better with pure unarmed, I'm doing a lot more damage.  So I've ditched having a weapon in the off hand.

Nah torments reach has a fixed damage value. Use the jolting touch stiletto offhand for maximum cheese. :D