Endless Paths 1-15 PotD solo Monk achieved (story also ofc)! Build and details inside!

[Voltron]

First of all, BIG THANKS to Alnaimi for his Triple Crown solo monk guide, it helps me a ton in creating this beast!

 

Build is called "Nirvana", and It is dam strong tank monk with decent damage output and crazy defenses against everything this game can throw at you.

 

When I think about Endless Paths solo on PotD- I have in mind just one thing- perma CC! Petrify, Paralyze and Stun. Nothing piss me off more. So while struggling to achieve it I built decent all around monk, but then I got some good tips from Alnaimi thread and decided to build my monk as walking fortress.

 

The idea of this build was to stack as much defensives against any CC abilities/attacks in game as possible and pick up all abillities and talents that can help me get rid off those CC statuses!

 

Since I personally have opinion that 80% of monk abilities are useless- I picked only those which I think are awesome and build my defenses even more. Same was with gear.

 

BUILD (end-game stats after killing Adra):

 

 

Race: Moon Godlike- there is no better race for Monk. Period. Self heal is free 150 Endurace for you on level 12! let you get more wounds and outlast battles when otherwise you woud die. Also your heal is AOE, works good on your figurines summons .

 

SILVER TIDE- best racial in game:

 

 

Stats were:

 

MIGHT: 16

CON: 16

DEX: 10

PER: 10

INT: 10

RES: 16

 

Yup, stats were important. Goal of this build was to achieve hight defensive rolls in all three attributes: Fortitude, Reflex and Will. I knew that I cannot let my self go to low with MIGHT, CON and Deflection, that is why I decided to Give more points to them. Between Resolve and Perception, I prefer to have higher Will then Reflex and it worked well. It gave me good all-around values in all three.

 

TALENTS AND ITEMS THAT MADE THIS BUILD:

 

 

As you can see I focused here or increasing my defensive rolls against almost every possible CC in-game. This cut all CC on me in game and in Endless Paths by HALF at least! And even if I had CC on me, its duration were mostly so short that it expired before enemy recovered from attack. Two underestimated talents here make it possible: Mental Fortress and Body Control. Add to it two more quest talents plus ring and you have insane defensive just with it. But that is not all how we boost it and protect ourselfs- TWO MONK ABILITIES WILL BOOST OUR DEFENSE AGAINST CC EVEN MORE!

 

 

Abilities and Talents:

 

 

Here is bread and butter of this build:

 

1. Duality of Mortal Presence giving us +8 to all defenses all the time.

 

2. Clarity of Agony (ANTI-CC): Awesome skill! It cuts EVERY negative status effect on you (all CC included) by half for 10 seconds!! It has instant activation and do not trigger recovery time. Against Petrify mobs or Vithracks it is live safer! Absolutly greatsynergy with this build. Use it when you fight against pack of CC mobs if you can't engade one at time.

 

3. Crucible of Suffering (ANTI-CC): It gives you +10 to Fortutude, Will and Reflex for 20 second each time negative effect expire on you. With our defensive rolls and Clarity of Agony it means perma +10 bonus that do not get in way woth your items bonuses to your defensives in fights against CC mobs. And it is passive. Superb!

 

4. Long Stride- + 2 movement speed in combat! Super skill- You kite your enemies to split them into smaller groups (further ones give up and return to previous postitions). Also very good skill to kite enemies to choke points/bottle necks to to eliminate mages/rangers before engaging melee enemies. Or just run till aggro finish. TAKE IT AS FAST AS POSSIBLE!! Passive. Whats not to love?

 

5. Rest Important Monk Skills were- Torments Reach (your main damage dealer in my game), Swift Attacks (most useful of rest useless stuff), Lesser Wounds for more Wounds, Savage and Vulnerable Attack for more damage, Weapon Focus: Peasant for Accuracy bonus.

 

Talents I didn't bother with: Dual Weapon Talent- 20% attack speed I could easly get with Swift and I wasn't worth giving up anything I had on me. Turning Wheel- useless, I burnt every Wound for Torment Reach so stacking wounds just for this damage bonus is big loss in DPS. Rooting Pain- useless, Wounds are not generated fast enough on solo and damage is low. Rest.

 

 

Results with all those defensive rolls and skill  that cut CC by half was that CC time and number of CC on me was cut in-game by HALF at least compare to my other solo and party runs!!

 

In fights I remember struggling to win becasue of CC I was now mostly storming through with breeze. I died only once in Endless Paths against Vithracks lider, because I used figurine in wrong moment.

 

DAMAGE OUTPUT:

 

Do not underestimate Tormets Reach!! NEVER! Even with 19 Might (16 base) I was out DPSing everything in Endless Path. Torment Reach is your main DPS. Our Deflection is just about enough to get Wounds.

 

Remember: Tormets Reach damage type depend from weapon you have equiped. If you fight unarmed: TR will deal Crush damage, if you use Spears- Pierce, if you use Hatchets- Slash.

 

As a Monk you do not need high Might. Torments Reach will let you dish out awesome DPS.

 

I used only fists 99% for whole Endless Paths, switched to dual spears in level 14 sometimes. With Plate armor and 12 DEX and Savage attack your Recovery Time on Spears is quite long. However on fists with Swift is fast enough to out DPS most targets. And there are few enemies with decent Crush DR.

 

GEAR:

 

 

 

GEAR STATISTICS:

 

Lilith Shawl: +3 Perception

Sanguine Armor (Superb): +2 Dexterity

Bracers of Deflection: + 10 Deflection

Broad Belt of Power: +2 Might, +2 Resolve

Ring of Protection: +10 Will, Fortitide and Reflex

Orlan's Barble Ring (here nothing add directly to stats): +15 Hobbed, Paralyzed, Stuck

 

Spears are:

- Ritezzi's Thorn (Corrosive Lash, Valiant, Draining)

- Danulya (Burn Lash, Speed 1.2)

 

Hatchets: (They are also very good, they add +5 Deflection for each and stack!):

- Reaghar Konnek (kith, Predatory, Speed)

- Hearth Harvest (burn lash, Rending [3DR pass])

 

Of course figurines are must. You can't do some fights without using them for various of puropuse. Rest gear was to reach good Deflection and balanced defensives.

 

One of most important item here is: Shod-in-faith boots, that trigger Consecrated Ground when enemy crit you- with Moon Godlike racial it is a lot of healing around you :D. More heal- more Wounds! More Torments Reach!

 

Good Alternative to boots are: Animancer Boots, which hold 3x Jolting Touch spell in it. It is 3x per rest, its instant cast and its a "melee attack" so it benefit from all your bonuse damage modals. 3x Jolting Touch use is enough to win some hard fights if you feel like they might go wrong.

 

Moon godlike is best race since you do not need Draining Weapons or Shod-in-faith boots that much. You can use your fists since Crush is in 80% time better damage as there is not much enemies with Crush DR and Animancer Boots are power-hose, ready to use ^^

 

And it suits my Character- shoting melee lightning in CQC ^^!!

 

CONCLUSION:

 

Awesome build with let you tank everything, defend yourself against CC and still dishout great DPS on enemies!

 

It is however very end-game depend for soloing Endless Paths. You will have no problems playing crit path and all story quests. However leave Endless Paths 10+ levels for last when you will have 12 level and all talents and gear you need. Then go and have fun ^^.

 

TIPS: Use Accuracy Potions, DR potions and all other potions but do not BUMP DEFLECTION HIGHER! You need Wounds to spam Torments Reach!

 

With this you can go on everything in game .

 

Cheers!

 

EDIT: Added Geat Statisctis since I got some questions about it.

Edited April 27, 2015 by Voltron

[Squibsallotl]

Well done, very interesting build and great avatar

[knownastherat]

Out of curiosity, how long it took you to achieve this? Because it was 24 hours ago you said you were on it.

[Concordance]

How did you deal with the Adra Dragon?

[peddroelm]

this makes me want to test healing effects next .. 

 

How much healing/health regeneration does moon god, shod-in-faith, lay on hands, kind wayfarer kill, flames of devotion activation, priest health/regeneration spells, barbarian savage defiance, endurance immediate & regen potions , etc ..provide  ..

 

Might help put some things into perspective ..

[Climhazzard]

If I understand how consecrated ground works, when it says 7.8 healed over 1.3 seconds, and lasts for 25 seconds, it's healing for 150 HP, i don't really know if that's the case but I think it is.  "Shod in faith" work the same as far as I can tell, they're pretty amazing for monks.

Edited April 27, 2015 by Climhazzard

[petrivanzyl]

Awesome!

 

*goes off looking for a decent moon godlike monk portrait*

[Squibsallotl]

I wonder how well this would work with Aumaua. You'd get more anti-CC and a Helm slot at the cost of the Moon Godlike heals.

[Voltron]

Out of curiosity, how long it took you to achieve this? Because it was 24 hours ago you said you were on it.

 

I was already playing my monk and pretty much I had most of those talents already, becasue I like on solo to build my character more tanky then DPS wise. I prefer outstand enemies while punching them. But then whole Idea of this build stroke me and I finished building him in this talents in mind and becasue I already had gear. I had to reload one save becasue one talent was bad and I speed run story as much as I could to get talents.

 

I went to EPs and I used shortcuts. I already did earlier 1-7 couse you don't need to be lvl 12 for it. It is 10-15 that will test any build. 8 was alrady cleard up (Only fapmyr boss remainded but it was easy fight) and I speed run 9-14. In 13 for example I took out two biggest pack of mobs of animants and banshees (never remember correct name) so I proofed that smaller groups around won't be problem so I didn't bother since there are all the same enemies there and proceed to level 14.

 

Biggest problems: level 12- Vithracks, Level 14- adragons, but not too much, it was important to lure them properly using your +2 speed and figurines. Vithracks are biggest pain in the ass in game!!!!!

 

Most boring: level 13- there is a lot mobs in one group and they deal super small damage (Animants) and die super fast from TR (banshees), so it was booooring as heeeeelll standing in those small doors and kill them. Figurines helped at least to speed it up as well as Animancer Boots.

 

How did you deal with the Adra Dragon?

 

Here I have nothing to be proud of. Standard solo tactic, tested with my TC retal barb. It was not matter of my build. Stack might from food and potions, swap some gear for more Might, potion of accuracy, Animancer's boots (3x Jotling Touch instant cast, got critic here),Torment Reach, 3x Shades from obsidian lamp and of course: Petrify Trap. There is not way to kill it without it, petrify is a must. There are couple of threads where you have details abut placing traps and luring Adra to it and then melt it.

Edited April 27, 2015 by Voltron

[Voltron]

I wonder how well this would work with Aumaua. You'd get more anti-CC and a Helm slot at the cost of the Moon Godlike heals.

 

It wouldn't work imo, especially on level 13 where you have to tank HUGE group of mobs in doorways and bottlenecks. Thing about Moonlike is- imagine this situation:

You fight petrify mob, like adragon or crystal spider. You are it by petrify and mob manage to lend next attack just before your petrify ended- with any other race you loose almost half Endurace. With Moon gold like it triggers your self heal or 2x (25% and 50% HP ones) and you almost full again. It just helps monk a tons in this game.

 

I think any race would work on critic path, but I honestly think on PotD solo you need moonlike for 10-14 Endless paths. With any other race you would have to bump more points into Cinstitution. With moonlike you have free Endurace points per encouter with your self heals.

 

But story can be with all races, so I just wanted to proof myself that monk can do Endless Paths 10-14 . It is not like there is some awesome loot there really. The only thing REALLY worth is adra dragon scale for superb Sanguine Armor. But using high stealth character it is also possible to get do Adra and avoid some hardest fights. And Adra can be killed with petrify by any class imo.

 

MY AVATAR if anyone is interested:

 

http://imgur.com/WMQ1B6c (large)

 

http://imgur.com/zf4kSZF (small)

Edited April 27, 2015 by Voltron

[Alnaimi]

Loving that Avatar, and awesome build !

[Voltron]

Loving that Avatar, and awesome build !

 

Thanks! Your inspiration . I wish I had better knowledge about what defensive is attacked by particular mobs by their particular attacks to have better knowledge which defensives need to be higher, which can be lower.

 

Pron, Stuck or Stun is not such a problem. Paralyze, Domination and Petrify are biggest enemies, so you want to have highest rolls for it. It is also important to balance Deflection- too much and you have problem with getting wounds, too low- too many hits reach you and even your CC defense won't help you and you get CCed much more.

 

Balanced builds wrok best in solo PotD imo.

 

Well, Wizard next!

Edited April 27, 2015 by Voltron

[Voltron]

Added Gear detailed Statistics under GEAR sections. Enjoy!

[Vivi]

Hi,

 

Just wanted to say- thank you for this build! :D I was looking for some decent build for my monk that will let me solo whole game. Good to see you managed to do it with. Very original build.

 

Truth to be told I wanted to pick up different race, but seeing your avatar made me want to play Moon :D :D. And also you explenation about Silver Tide- man, 150 Endurance for free? This race is little OP imo .

 

So far I am at Defiance Bay with this build and so far its doing great. I thought that you need to dump some stats for min-max but I see now that balanced stats are also good and help in general.

 

Anyway- awesome build and great detailed thread! Kudos! 

[Voltron]

Hi,

 

Just wanted to say- thank you for this build! :D I was looking for some decent build for my monk that will let me solo whole game. Good to see you managed to do it with. Very original build.

 

Truth to be told I wanted to pick up different race, but seeing your avatar made me want to play Moon :D :D. And also you explenation about Silver Tide- man, 150 Endurance for free? This race is little OP imo .

 

So far I am at Defiance Bay with this build and so far its doing great. I thought that you need to dump some stats for min-max but I see now that balanced stats are also good and help in general.

 

Anyway- awesome build and great detailed thread! Kudos! 

 

Ty man, appreciate it ^^. And yes- I tend to dump some stats also but I learnt that balanced stats in the end work better imo. This is becasue whole defense system where each stat increase one of your four defensives.

 

And yes- Moon for the win . I love Moon godlike.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Voltron

[Climhazzard]

I just wish I had some better portraits for Moon Godlike, female in particular.  I've found a lot of good portraits but none for Moon Godlike.  I guess it's okay that I don't have any though because I get the feeling that Moon Godlike would make the game to easy when you aren't soloing.

[Squibsallotl]

It wouldn't work imo, especially on level 13 where you have to tank HUGE group of mobs in doorways and bottlenecks. Thing about Moonlike is- imagine this situation:

You fight petrify mob, like adragon or crystal spider. You are it by petrify and mob manage to lend next attack just before your petrify ended- with any other race you loose almost half Endurace. With Moon gold like it triggers your self heal or 2x (25% and 50% HP ones) and you almost full again. It just helps monk a tons in this game.

 

I think any race would work on critic path, but I honestly think on PotD solo you need moonlike for 10-14 Endless paths. With any other race you would have to bump more points into Cinstitution. With moonlike you have free Endurace points per encouter with your self heals.

 

Challenge accepted    

[Voltron]

I just wish I had some better portraits for Moon Godlike, female in particular.  I've found a lot of good portraits but none for Moon Godlike.  I guess it's okay that I don't have any though because I get the feeling that Moon Godlike would make the game to easy when you aren't soloing.

 

I know the pain, but belive me it was MUCH harder with male moon. Here is gallery with couple of moon-female-like graphics: http://imgur.com/D0oXNQc,Co3HEmG,sOvk4M9,9czRHi7,0w69zZ3,yBciGgs,38wt48Q,nFuTluv,uvzYe0h,hPufTq3,0s59zM8,Dh1QhK6. Maybe you will like some. Of course you will need to cut and edit them properly . Give it a look.

 

It wouldn't work imo, especially on level 13 where you have to tank HUGE group of mobs in doorways and bottlenecks. Thing about Moonlike is- imagine this situation:

You fight petrify mob, like adragon or crystal spider. You are it by petrify and mob manage to lend next attack just before your petrify ended- with any other race you loose almost half Endurace. With Moon gold like it triggers your self heal or 2x (25% and 50% HP ones) and you almost full again. It just helps monk a tons in this game.

 

I think any race would work on critic path, but I honestly think on PotD solo you need moonlike for 10-14 Endless paths. With any other race you would have to bump more points into Cinstitution. With moonlike you have free Endurace points per encouter with your self heals.

 

Challenge accepted    

 

 

:D Well, thats how build are born! :D Good luck mate! At least take Shod-in-Faith boots with you :D

[IndiraLightfoot]

Voltron, a very interesting take on the monk (a CC brickwall), and a lovely avatar as well! Congratz!

[Voltron]

Voltron, a very interesting take on the monk (a CC brickwall), and a lovely avatar as well! Congratz!

 

Thank you! I loved playing monk in D&D most becasue of their awesome defensive rolls nad magic resistance etc. They were awesome against mages. Add to it drow race and any enemy mage had huuuge pain to harm you ^^. It suits them so good, whole mental and body control!

 

The only thing that I miss in this build is some item gear that would give me more resistance to charm and domination. There is only such item in game, neckle, however only for rangers, which is a big waste .

 

This one: http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Torc_of_Defiance - I wish I could use it.....

Edited April 29, 2015 by Voltron

[Danthar]

Wow, this looks great!  I know there have been some changes in 1.05, but I'm hoping this build is still viable - I'm definitely going to try it out.

 

Do you have any recommendations/guidelines on what skills to take?  I'm sure Athletics is important to cut down on the frequency of resting.  How do you balance Lore vs. Stealth/Mechanics?  What was your order of importance?

[hilfazer]

 

Voltron, a very interesting take on the monk (a CC brickwall), and a lovely avatar as well! Congratz!

 

Thank you! I loved playing monk in D&D most becasue of their awesome defensive rolls nad magic resistance etc. They were awesome against mages. Add to it drow race and any enemy mage had huuuge pain to harm you ^^. It suits them so good, whole mental and body control!

 

The only thing that I miss in this build is some item gear that would give me more resistance to charm and domination. There is only such item in game, neckle, however only for rangers, which is a big waste .

 

This one: http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Torc_of_Defiance - I wish I could use it.....

 

Hand and Key.

Sure, it's not "everyone's favourite armor", but you should love it anyway.

[bescheid]

Is this build still viable after 2.X?

[hobbitmonk]

 

 

 

Challenge accepted    

 

 

:D Well, thats how build are born! :D Good luck mate! At least take Shod-in-Faith boots with you :D

 

 

 

Is this build still viable after 2.X?

 

 

Hopefully this isn't seen as necroposting, but since this is more of a build review/tweak/respin/3.0 update rather than a new build itself, I figure it's better just to piggyback here rather than start my own thread. I suppose if a mod feels differently they can spin it off.

 

Now first off, a disclaimer: I haven't finished my run yet, but since I've managed to beat Concelhaut with it, I'm fairly confident that it'll carry me to the end of the game, though whether it can beat all superbosses I can't personally vouch for yet. I'll edit accordingly when (or if!) that happens. I also never use potions, food, or scrolls, but I do use summons, so if you're the sort to stuff your face with food and guzzle potions before every tough fight, things will be even easier for you. PotD, because self-inflicted misery is the only way to play games like this.

 

Secondly, props to Voltron for the build, it's a really solid platform to work off, made soloing a much less frustrating experience than I was anticipating, given this is my first solo run. Now that said, and due respect to Voltron, I'm just going to run through the changes I made to the build for 3.0 and where I feel it works and doesn't work, some things I changed etc.

 

Anyway, wall of text time.

 

Race war:

Probably the biggest single change I made was to change the race from Moon godlike to Wild Orlan, but lets just have a quick race overview of the contenders (or the highlights thereof anyway):

• Moon godlikes' free heal is nice, of course, but I'm not sure Moon godlikes are quite the be-all and end-all race they once were now. White March introduced a swathe of new helmets, some of them quite tasty, that I feel has made godlikes of any variety, even Moon godlikes, a lot harder to justify (pity the poor Nature godlike, now even more thoroughly cursed than before). The Executioner's Hood, introduced in WM2, looks like it might come close to almost totally deprecating Moon godlike; I haven't got it yet to test though (I'll edit later just to confirm). I mean sure you could stack them for even more healing, but there's other options that are opened up now. Some of the helmets in the vanilla game, like the Stag Helm (immunity to Stuck) and Hermit's Hat (immunity to Confuse), got updated to be more useful too. That said, if you want things to be easier in Act 1, then Moon godlike is still nice, I just feel its usefulness is on the wane, and just continues to be felt less and less as you go through the game. I never really felt like I was missing it. Also, I'm sorry, but Moon godlikes just look like dorks.
• Wild Orlans have the advantage of more defensive stats, first with +1 Resolve, second (and more importantly) with Defiant Resolve. When playing solo you'll be barraged by Will attacks of one sort or another. Now imo I found (a bit surprisingly) that most Will attacks aren't that punishing, but they're common enough that Defiant Resolve will trigger pretty often. It's not the most 'felt' or obvious of racials, but it helps to prolong the life of your PC anyway. I'm not a mathamancer, but I doubt the boost to defenses is sufficient to entirely offset the loss of Moon godlike racial healing, but non-godlikes can wear hats, so pick your poison I suppose. The anti-orlan racism in the game also provides some funny dialogue at times. There's also something that just tickles me about the idea of a kung fu hobbit.
• Coastal Aumaua is probably my favourite tank race in regular party play, but I wasn't sure if the big guys' racial would bring enough to solo. In hindsight, I totally think it would have worked, maybe even my race of choice for solo if I were to try again. I just really hate Prone, it's super common, and while Heldrik's Coat (+30 to resist Prone) plus maxed Might/Con/Fortitude make you very resistant to Prone, enough enemies still knocked me over to annoy me. My previous PotD run with a 3-man party included a Coastal Aumaua tank who was basically immune to Prone and I loved watching the enemies futily try anyway. Coastal Aumaua also has the Might edge over Wild Orlans, 9% extra damage (assuming Might 17 vs Might 20) is nothing to sneer at.
• Boreal dwarf might be an option if you really hate the Lagufaeth in White March, but personally I didn't find them too much trouble (you'll have Boots of Speed around that point anyway, so Long Stride + Boots of Speed will grant you +5 movement, plenty to kite/split them). Ogre druids are something I despise and the Boreal racial allows you to carve them up more easily, but hard to justify taking for that alone, especially when you can get +10 accuracy from a measly Survival 4 now. Wilders and Primordials as a group are pretty common but probably not threatening enough to justify taking over a different racial imo. Still, if you want a more offensive oriented tanky monk, Boreal dwarf might be an interesting contender. You can also hit Might 21 with the Living Lands background, so there's that to consider too if you want more damage.
• Mostly I'd just like to emphasise that Moon godlike is no longer quite the default race it once was, not even when soloing. On musing I'm not sure race really matters all that much. Just choose what you like. Sadly my usual favourite, Hearth Orlan, is probably the most useless on solo. Sure you can do some cute things with summon flanking, but not enough to warrant choosing them. Most other races should be fine.

Now lets talk a little more about Will status effects. The worst offenders are, of course, Charm/Dominate/Confuse/etc, but on solo I really found these not to be much of an issue. The way it works is as soon as you're charmed (or whatever), the enemies will just mill around or start wandering off, the charm will last about 1 or 2 seconds then deactivate, and you'll be back to fighting like nothing happened. Mildly annoying, but not annoying enough to warrant pumping Will over Fortitude. My anticipation before soloing was that my PC would go wandering out of position when charmed while trying to tank a doorway, but that turned out not to really be an issue in practice. Probably the biggest problem is that if you have a summon out then the charm wont immediately deactivate and you'll fight your own summons until they despawn, so don't expect to get too much mileage out of your summons against persistent charmers.

 

Other than that there's Frightened/Terrified, but with high accuracy this isn't actually too much of a problem. Unfortunately Frightened/Terrified is most annoying when the enemy has it as a passive aura in which case even with Wild Orlan and high Will, you'll still have it on you almost permanently since it just keeps getting reapplied enough for it to be permanent even when grazing I found. Better to just try to overcome it with more accuracy imo. This is also why I skipped Mental Fortress/Bull's Will in the end. Apparently there's now a Soulbound weapon that grants immunity to fear/terror, so that would be an interesting left-hand weapon for the monk (will edit when I've tried it).

 

What changed:

Since Voltron's build was originally posted, Perception changed to granting accuracy rather than Deflection, so accuracy is more abundant these days, though still not enough for my liking (I hate strings of misses with an intensity to scare a Bleak Walker), and conversely Deflection is now a bit harder to easily acquire.

 

There have also been prominent changes to some skills. Fatigue is out (praise Wael), so Athletics, previously an automatic 3-4 investment, is now borderline useless, adding a piddly per-encounter heal. Not bad at the start of the game (functions similarly to one of Moon godlike's heals but only to yourself), but quickly approaches uselessness after Caed Nua, especially when you get Shod-in-Faith boots.

 

Also added are changes to Survival, which is worth more consideration. Now on solo, you don't really have the skill points to be funding both Survival and Mechanics to the hilt (it only gets more awkward if you're trying to juggle Lore in there), and you really can't afford to neglect Mechanics. That said, imo you'll want Survival 4 for +10 accuracy against the most annoying enemy type on the map, or just +1 movement speed or +1DR when the only thing you're fighting is humans. You can probably just about squeeze Lore 2 in there, but I wasn't tempted to go any higher personally, I just passed on Lore entirely myself.

 

I also decided to dump Dex, not so much because it's bad, but because I needed something else to dump other than just Int in order to free up points for some min-maxing nastiness, and there just isn't much competition for cutting except for Dex. If slow attacks make you reach for the bleach, then feel free to go Dex10/Per10, but I'd rather have slower but more accurate attacks every time myself.

 

Con has been buffed from +3% to +5% since 2.0, so I maxed that. More Con helps resist those annoying Fortitude-targeting status attacks anyway.

 

Speaking of which, many annoying status effects target Deflection before they target Fortitude, so high Deflection adds an extra layer of defense against those effects. Note that with high Deflection there will be times when your Wound count wanes a bit, but Lesser Wounds alleviates that somewhat, and in tough fights you'll never be short of wounds anyway.

 

Stats:

17/18/3/17/3/20

If you decide to change the race, then adjust accordingly. Basically dump Int and Dex, max Resolve for Deflection and conversation options, max Might+Con for damage, health, and Fortitude, then put whatever is left into Perception (should be enough for a nice accuracy boost and some conversation options).

 

e.g. if you go Coastal Aumaua, something like:

20/18/3/15/3/19

etc. Or a simple 18/3 spread if you like symmetry, all good choices.

 

I went with the Drifter background for +Mechanics +Stealth, but whatever works if you want something else for RP reasons. Just keep in mind that Mechanics is king in solo if you aren't going for a pacifist run.

 

Some more Dex and accuracy would have been nice, but there's just too much to squeeze in to a solo build to have everything. Particularly more speed would have been nice to interrupt casters, but oh well.

 

Gear highlights:

• Heldrik's Coat - I'm really fond of this armour. You can get it early (Crucible Keep in Defiance Bay), and it'll serve you well throughout most of the game. That easy bonus to defense against Prone is just really nice given how common Prone is as a status effect. Stacks with Coastal Aumaua racial btw, so the two combined make you almost impossible to knock down. The oft-recommended Sanguine Plate has had a very ugly makeover since its glory days and is now thoroughly deprecated imo, swapping Retaliation for Frenzy, so pass.
• Stag Helm - relatively easy to acquire (one of the bandits in the dragon egg quest at Dyrford has one, seems to be random drops elsewhere too), recently had immunity to Stuck added to it. Not the most amazing immunity perhaps, but I like it. There's also the Hermit's Hat which grants immunity to Confuse if that annoys you.
• Shod-in-Faith boots - really helpful for prolonging your longevity early on, but wanes in usefulness as you progress through the game imo. I replaced them with Boots of Speed when I got them because I'm a sucker for greater mobility.
• pet skull - this summon is pretty overpowered. I try not to use it too often since it stomps just about anything. I keep it in reserve for the most annoying fights, when someone absolutely has to die to ensure I'm not overwhelmed, especially when kiting/splitting isn't viable or would take too long. An aside: anyone else disappointed that no one mentions your pet cackling floating skull when it's following you around? Especially given the distaste for animancy from many in the game, you'd think SOMEONE would mention it!
• sidearms - 3.0 introduced enemies with outright immunities rather than high DR, including to Crush, so our monk is now in a bit of a pickle, since he can't even tickle his enemies to death with his bare hands anymore. Just use whatever pierce/slash weapons you prefer, it doesn't matter too much. I'm currently rocking Edge of Reason axe (Superb, Draining) and Drawn in Spring dagger (Superb, Wounding). Vile Loner spear is underrated, since -5 accuracy to the enemy is basically the same as +5 Deflection for you in many situations, I used that for a while before free Superb weaponry began to appear.

 

Revised build and notes:

I tweaked the build a bit and and went with:

 

• lv1 - Torment's Reach

∘ even with dumped Int, this still rocks. Note though that with low Int, especially fat enemies make hitting anyone behind them almost impossible, but it does chain comfortably through smaller regular enemies. The low Int didn't matter most of the time though, and it's for that reason that I dumped Int to spare some more points for other things.

 

• lv2 - Weapon Focus Peasant

∘ For an early accuracy boost; at this stage you want every drop of accuracy you can eke out.

∘ Survival 3 for kiting wolves into bandits in Valewood, rest into Mechanics (Mechanics 3 for me).

 

• lv3 - Long Stride

∘ Survival 4 for more accuracy, rest into Mechanics (Mechanics 4 for me).

 

• lv4 - Vulnerable Attack

∘ At this stage, the ability to punch through DR really helps a lot, and with dumped Dex we're a bit on the sluggish side anyway, a bit less speed barely matters when you're slow anyway, but hey, slow and steady wins the race. Or slowly grinds the enemies to bloody dust anyway.

∘ Stealth 3 (in prep for Caed Nua), Mechanics 5.

 

• lv5 - Clarity of Agony

∘ Not exactly a game changer, but a nice panic button, saved my ass a few times, even with the mongoloid Int. Probably safe to change to Turning Wheel if you want though. If you don't mind loading a lot when fights go against you due to status effects you can't escape from, then you can probably skip Clarity and swap it for something else (Turning Wheel is the obvious candidate since we're taking it later anyway), but on balance I'd say Clarity is probably still worth it, just about. My main gripe is it just feels a bit buggy. There are times that, for whatever reason (bug? My own idiocy? Possibly an AI issue if this wasn't a problem in 2.0) it just refuses to fire. It seems to be something to do with you (or the script AI) telling your PC to Torment's Reach, then before they've done it to Clarity instead... and often they'll just stand there and do nothing at all instead, getting punched and stabbed in the face all the while. Quite frustrating, especially since I liked to use it as a panic button - what's the point of a panic button if it isn't sufficiently reactive? So take or pass, but just a friendly heads-up about its limitations. Unfortunately Turning Wheel doesn't truly thrive until later imo when you're often taking enough damage to wrack up a ton of wounds quickly anyway. This early in the game most enemies aren't hitting hard enough to get Turning Wheel humming.

∘ You should be hitting lv5 before Caed Nua if you've been wrapping up all the local quests around Gilded Vale. If you get lucky (or you've been save-scumming like a wretched hobgoblin) and found Boots of +2 Stealth in Raedric's Hold, you'll only need Stealth 3, otherwise you'll need Stealth 5; then rest into Mechanics, and more for every level after this. White March added some unpleasant traps so Mechanics 10 is no longer fully sufficient, I haven't fully tested yet but you'll want at least Mechanics 12 if possible to clear all the traps (this was on PotD, so mileage may vary on lower difficulties, maybe the game is more forgiving with traps there). Alternatively there's always respec, but I feel that very much goes against the spirit of the game. You want Stealth 5 so you can sneak past the perma-stunning phantoms in Caed Nua's hall. Stealth to the door to the dungeon, the statue will talk to you, forcing you out of stealth and into combat when the conversation is over. Use the animat summon to distract the ghosts, run through the door to the end of the corridor and wait for combat to end. Then you can safely go down the stairs. It's possible to beat the phantoms, but it's really not worth the hassle imo. In my tests I only managed it once, so I'd rather just stealth past them and call it a day.

 

• lv6 - Savage Attack

∘ accuracy issues wane a bit here, so perfect time for easy increased damage.

 

• lv7 - Duality of Mortal Presence

∘ I almost never made use of the non-Deflection defense modal, so really this was just a +8 Deflection talent taking up an ability slot. Totally worth it! Smarter use of this one probably could have helped in some fights, but oh well. Whenever I used the second modal I ended up just missing the Deflection more.

 

• lv8 - Body Control/Bear's Fortitude

∘ By this stage I was getting really annoyed with perma-paralyzing Xaurip skirmishers sending me fleeing in embarrassed terror whenever they appeared, so I took Body Control and finally stomped their heads in with ease, allowing me to comfortably breach Endless Paths floor 2, and surprisingly enough managed to keep going deep enough to beat everything there (minus Adra dragon).

∘ Body Control probably edges out Bear's Fortitude slightly since some of the most annoying status effects don't solely target Fortitude (druid lightning Stun doesn't for instance), though Bear's Fortitude has the advantage of being able to be taken earlier if your rage against perma-stun eclipses mine, and also helps against common status effects like Prone. You can swap Savage Attack here if you like and take the defensive bonus at lv6 instead, but personally I favour early Savage Attack just to get damage output up. You can always kite/run-and-gun perma-stunners before then, embarrassing as it is for a monk to resort to that.

 

• lv9 - Crucible of Suffering

∘ combos really nicely with Wild Orlan's Defiant Resolve, but I prefer more Deflection, hence Duality at lv7 and Crucible at lv9, but feel free to swap them if you prefer.

 

• lv10 - Lesser Wounds

∘ At this point, Wound accumulation was becoming something of an issue so this is a good time for it. Before now, low Dex meant I was getting enough damage for most of my attacks to be Torment's Reaches anyway, but around this point it was no longer always enough.

 

• lv11 - Iron Wheel

∘ Helps suffer through some tough fights, and the usual annoyances like paralysis or Petrify become less traumatic, which is nice. In principle you can combo it with lighter armour to scrape out some extra attack speed, but personally I always missed Prone resistance when I moved away from Heldrik's Coat.

∘ I passed on Swift Strikes for a couple of reasons; first, I found managing both Reach and Swift Strikes awkward on testing (yeah I'm lazy, sue me), and second, my PC's rock stupid Int meant the Swift Strikes duration was pitiful anyway. I'd rather spend the Wounds on more Reaches, or stacking Wheel.

 

• lv12 - Two-Weapon Style

∘ By this stage, I wanted more speed one way or another to crank my dps, and since Swift Strikes is out we'll take this instead.

 

• lv13 - Turning Wheel

∘ more damage. Stacks with Iron Wheel! By this stage you'll probably be taking enough damage, especially in tough fights, to have some Wounds in reserve and still have plenty for Reaches.

∘ Around this point I killed Concelhaut (really annoying fight, whenever I saw him sparking up his hammer spell, I'd flee in terror and he'd still get me most of the time, that thing has a brutally fast cast time) and switched to using Boots of Speed.

 

• lv14 - Gallant's Focus

∘ a few more drops of accuracy for helping against bosses. Misses have always annoyed me, so I always like to eke out a few more points of accuracy where I can. With low Int, your radius wont help your summons too much though, unless you're standing right next to them.

 

• lv15 - Enervating Blows

∘ not really so much for the status effect itself, which is a nice little bonus side effect but relatively minor imo, but rather for what it allows us to make use of:

 

• lv16 - Apprentice's Sneak Attack

∘ more damage!

 

Overall, fun build!

Edited July 20, 2016 by hobbitmonk

[Kazuma]

^ Nice post. Though I might have missed it in the wall of text (or I'm being a noob about monks), but how does this build manage healing if both Moon Godlike and Shod-in-Faith are optional?

Edited July 15, 2016 by Kazuma