[MONK BUILD] - Let's start buildin some hurtin bombs - POTD, TOI, Blind

[Schyzm]

yah I don't think you people are using the word blind correctly. it doesn't even make sense, the game is complicated enough are we suppose to believe you intuited all the optimal solutions first time through while eating nachos? yah, no.

Edited May 14, 2015 by Schyzm

[Raven Darkholme]

yah I don't think you people are using the word blind correctly. it doesn't even make sense, the game is complicated enough are we suppose to believe you intuited all the optimal solutions first time through while eating nachos? yah, no.

 

This. Especially since he always dies before Def-Bay, so whatever fight he can't do (I'm guessing phantoms) is NOT BLIND, let alone all the content leading up to it. Also @OP how can you do Trial of Iron but redo the radric fight, wouldn't you have to start up a new game?

[luzarius]

OLD:

 

 

 

 

 

yah I don't think you people are using the word blind correctly. it doesn't even make sense, the game is complicated enough are we suppose to believe you intuited all the optimal solutions first time through while eating nachos? yah, no.

 

This. Especially since he always dies before Def-Bay, so whatever fight he can't do (I'm guessing phantoms) is NOT BLIND, let alone all the content leading up to it. Also @OP how can you do Trial of Iron but redo the radric fight, wouldn't you have to start up a new game?

 

 

For most games I just go all the way through, but for games like POE I start over a lot to try new classes because the game is addicting and fun in that way, however............ You are correct, I do die sometimes on POTD, TOI.  It happened yesterday during the Raedric fight, I was overconfident and drunk with MONK POWER and wanted to see if I could muscle through the Raedric fight on POTD which failed (lol).

 

I've spent the last few hours catching up and I'm almost caught up to the conversation with Raedric.

 

Here is my game plan:

 

1. My formation looks like this, I've been using this formation the whole time up to this point.

 

 

2. Before talking with Raedric drink ALE & eat Pearlwood chicken, something I always do most fights, depending on how much intel I get from scouting (everyone has 2-3 stealth). I spend a lot of coin on this food combo.  Usually beer & cheese for fights that I don't think are that bad.

 

3. Talk to Raedric then TELL HIM HE'S GOING DOWN TO HIS FACE.

 

4. Immediately his people will try to swarm us, but the above formation should keep the squishies semi safe, while I formulate a game plan.

 

5. I'll move everyone back disengaging like crazy.  I'll have Aloth cast FLEET FEET on Eder or my character to help them disengage better and retreat to the door.

 

6. If I can make it to the door without eder  or my character going down, it should lead to victory.

 

 

OR .................

 

I could try to muscle through the fight again, not moving back, but holding my ground. Keep in my mind my party is level 4.

 

IF ONE OF YOU GUYS CAN MUSCLE RAEDRIC WITH A LEVEL 4 PARTY, NO CUSTOM COMPANIONS, PLEASE DO SO AND REPORT YOUR VICTORY HERE SO YOU CAN BRAG TO OUR FACES. ROFL   EARN GLORY!!! 

 

Regarding Fist of Anguish

 

I took this skill instead of turning wheel since my death yesterday.  IMO this skill is not reliable enough to prone enemies that are worth knocking down.  I wish I took turning wheel instead for the extra damage from spare wounds that accumulate.

 

 

 

 

REGARDING BLIND PLAY THROUGH ON TRIAL OF IRON

 

Very rarely can I go through an entire game the 1st time and be victorious in a blind no death play through, aka dead is dead, ironman or in this case Trial of Iron.  Getting through the game in a blind play through ON THE FIRST ATTEMPT equates to a 100% blind victory.  This is extremely difficult and I've only done this with a few games. Most games I die a few times, check this out.

 

Here is what usually happens:

 

- FIRST ATTEMPT: I get 15% of the way through the game and die, therefore the first 15% of the game is no longer blind.  I have 85% blind play through left.

- SECOND ATTEMPT: I get 65% of the way in and die, therefore the first 65% of the game is no longer blind. I have 35% blind play through left.

- THIRD ATTEMPT: VICTORY .. I beat the game in a blind play through with 35% of the game conquered BLIND.  

 

Therefore my blind play through score would be 35%.

 

It's not an exact percentage, but you get my drift. Can you guys do better? See how fun it can be? See who gets bragging rights.  But honestly, it's more about immersion for me. I could never bring myself to get into save scumming. Nothing is better than defeating an end boss THE FIRST TIME YOU EXPERIENCE IT, it's like a holly wood movie playing out.  Very entertaining way to play RPG's.  I've done this with many, many RPG's. I've done 100% blind victories, but I had a lot of help from the viewers in my twitch channel. What does this mean? It means I'm pretty decent at doing blind play throughs in trial of iron, dead is dead, ironman mode, however I'm sure other gamers can do it better than me. I'm becoming slower in my dotage (lol).

 

CONCLUSION

 

I'm not sure how long this game is. I have not gotten to defiance bay yet.  I'm going to guess that I'm maybe 5%-8% of the way through the game possibly?  Therefore I may have 80% of blind play through left.   I'm trying to find a class I really like and I think monk is it.

 

The big question is, shouldn't I post the build after I beat the game?  Well, I'm too lazy to do that. I'd rather post the build that is showing extreme success leading up to a blind play through and let you guys knit pick it OR TRASH TALK IT (lol).

Edited May 14, 2015 by luzarius

[knownastherat]

 

In general, I start over a lot to try new classes.

 

The joy of creation

[Raven Darkholme]

I muscled Raedric on my first playthrough, I might do it again and record just for you.

[luzarius]

I muscled Raedric on my first playthrough, I might do it again and record just for you.

 

Oh god, now you got me wanting to try muscling it again, lol   What did that Varric guy say once, oh, I'm green with envy...   If you do record it, you could link it here and i'll put it on the first post, or maybe you can post your build in a diff post and link the vid, totally up to you

OR IF YOU WANT TO RUB IT IN, You can not only link your video here, but link it to your post and say: "HEY GUYS, SCRWE THIS BUILD, CHECK OUT MINE, IT"S BETTA".. lol

 

FORCE OF ANGUISH UPDATE

I need to neutralize an enemy priest, but a paladin was in my way. I used force of anguish on the paladin and it actually worked, but i needed a roll of 82. There has to be a way to use FoA more reliably against heavy fort foes.

 

 

Okay, I think I know how to use Force of anguish properly now.

 

I'm testing the waters, thrusting myself into tough scenarios without using choke points.

 

My monk got surrounded by three sellswords, so I used force of anguish and knocked them all back.  They had 58 fort against my 43 accuracy.

 

See the pic, I knock the first one back, then i was able to do the same to the 2nd and 3rd, foa worked every time.

 

 

Against enemies like rogues, sellswords, thugs, raedric guards, FOA works decently, but against paladins or heavy, heavy tanks it's not reliable. So there is a time and place for the FoA skill.

 

Sitting there and letting 3 sellswords hit me is BAD, but FoA let me knock them all back.  Good advice.

Edited May 14, 2015 by luzarius

[luzarius]

Okay, I was able to beat the Raedric fight on POTD with a level 4 party, no custom companions by muscling it, although it wasn't easy.   This build is tried and true so far.  

 

First, I got lucky and found these two rings at raedric's hold which helped in the fight immensely.

 

I'm putting them in spoiler tags in case you want to save the surprise for yourself:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The most important things for this fight were:

 

- scout before hand

- eat & drink before fight

- +2 resolve inn rest bonus (113cp)

- entire party in the heaviest armor I could get. Since the start of this fresh game, I've put all the companions in the heaviest armor I could get. For this raedric fight, everyone ended up in plate armor, if i needed shock protection i would have kana use that one chant that gives everyone +10 shock protection.

- hatchet & shield on eder & the monk before speaking with raedric

- lay down consecrated ground

- summon animat

- slicken + chill fog

- the two rings I found, the first ring let the monk break free (suppress affliction), the second ring gave me 3 free heals that Kana used to keep the monk alive.

 

SCREENSHOTS - The monk gets into deep trouble at the start of the fight.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 15, 2015 by luzarius

[luzarius]

Continued..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HIGHLIGHT - RUN RAEDRIC RUN, LOL

 

 

 

 

 

 

aww man, 3 more exp! come on!

 

 

Edited May 14, 2015 by luzarius

[Raven Darkholme]

Oh, so I speed soloed my monk to level 4 in vain.

At least I got 62 highest damage out of him. :D

[luzarius]

Oh, so I speed soloed my monk to level 4 in vain.

At least I got 62 highest damage out of him. :D

 

Good lord, 62?  my current highest is like 42 or something.

 

Heya, you mentioned solo? What difficulty was that on?

Edited May 15, 2015 by luzarius

[peddroelm]

it is not that hard to get "huge" damage number for the sake of it .. 2 handed weapon crit on a 20 base damage roll 

Torment's Reach, Two Handed Style, Turning Wheel, Lesser wounds. Max constituion, injure , heal to injure more (stack wounds)

 

30% might bonus,  15%  Fighting spirit , 15% two handed weapon,

 

20 * (1+ 0.3 + 0.15 + 0.15 + 0.5) * (1 + 0.5 + 0.25 + 0.05*NrWounds )

Will give 90+ damage per swing with 8 wounds .. can you get the rabbit's 10% crit item before lvl 5 ? Might could go above 20 at level 4 with buffs ..

 

Discharge torment's reach against undressed (not to lose damage due to DR) party member until you roll a 20 . .. Congrats, your lvl 4 monk did more than 100 damage once .. Might get  better numbers with AOE damage scrolls ..

Edited May 15, 2015 by peddroelm

[Crucis]

Why take turning wheels if you are going to spam torment's reach? Better to take FoA for long duration prones and knockback for situational use, or long stride for a massive movement speed buff.

 

I'd look to take dual wield for +20% attack speed and savage attack for +20% damage before vulnerable attack.

 

 

I think that this suggestion is a very good one.  I used a monk as my last party's PC, and one thing that stood out is how great monks were at dealing with enemy squishies in their rear, particularly if you could get at them one on one.  And this was without Long Stride or the general Fast Runner talent.  I'd think that with a speed enhancing talent, a monk would be able to zip into an enemy's rear (best done after their melee fighters are engaged with your own, I'd think) and get at enemy spellcasters or archers and pummel them to death in a real hurry.

 

The one thing that slightly concerns me about Long Stride is that it's apparently a combat only ability, unlike the Fast Runner talent or the Boots of Speed, which work outside of combat as well.  I bring this up because one of the great uses of fast movement with a monk is to run in while under stealth and get really close to the enemy before you're spotted to initiate combat.  But if Long Stride is combat only, then it won't help you in this regard.  That said, combining Long Stride and Fast Runner may (if the speed bonuses stack, which I don't know), create one scary fast monk! Might just have to call him The Flash^TM.    Maybe put him in that late game red padded armor, too.

[Razorchain]

I have a Might 19 Dex 19 monk in my party at lvl 6 using only fists in the Saints War armour (love it when the monk goes down only to stand up and spam TR). God damn she is a beast, with two weapon figting, swift strikes, WT Peasant, Torments Reach and Turning Wheel.

 

I decided to skip priest this time around and with a Barbarian in shod in faith and Moon Godlike monk you barely need healing.

 

This is probably one of the most fun Potd playthrough I've had and after my party reached level 4 nothing has been a challenge. I kinda forgot about Raedric and didn't go after him until lvl 5 and boy did he get spanked like the naughty boy he is.

 

As for long stride, I feel I have no need for it in my current party. I have a Ranger and a Cipher as hvy artillery. The Ranger has couple of Arquebuses and the Cipher had couple of Arbalests. So when I see a squishy he gets paralyzed and shot like a rabid dog.

Edited May 15, 2015 by Razorchain

[Raven Darkholme]

it is not that hard to get "huge" damage number for the sake of it .. 2 handed weapon crit on a 20 base damage roll 

Torment's Reach, Two Handed Style, Turning Wheel, Lesser wounds. Max constituion, injure , heal to injure more (stack wounds)

 

30% might bonus,  15%  Fighting spirit , 15% two handed weapon,

 

20 * (1+ 0.3 + 0.15 + 0.15 + 0.5) * (1 + 0.5 + 0.25 + 0.05*NrWounds )

Will give 90+ damage per swing with 8 wounds .. can you get the rabbit's 10% crit item before lvl 5 ? Might could go above 20 at level 4 with buffs ..

 

Discharge torment's reach against undressed (not to lose damage due to DR) party member until you roll a 20 . .. Congrats, your lvl 4 monk did more than 100 damage once .. Might get  better numbers with AOE damage scrolls ..

Why go to all the trouble if there is a stiletto with jolting touch in the game? :D

Only had 12 base might, too.

[luzarius]

I need to test a weapon in the off hand again.

 

 

This is probably one of the most fun Potd playthrough I've had and after my party reached level 4 nothing has been a challenge. I kinda forgot about Raedric and didn't go after him until lvl 5 and boy did he get spanked like the naughty boy he is.

 

Indeed, I liked my ranger build, but I think I like this monk a lot more.

[Raven Darkholme]

Yeah, I don't think offhand will stay that good for monk forever, it seems broken, but while it still is possible, why not use it?

Funwise I think you have the most fun in a monk if you solo the early levels, don't know about later tho, never played monk till level 3, in 1 and 2 he's op, but he never gets anything beyond torment's reach, no really high saves and his good accuracy on mostly single target attacks will only get him so far...

In a party monk is probably awesome all the way through to Thaos if you have high fort saves the statues can probably soloed by him and the rest of the party can concentrate on Thaos.

[Tigranes]

You only played up to level 2? So, uh, you only played the Valewood and not even did stuff in the Gilded Vale? 

 

It is true though that the monk is best off foregoing most other active abilities and just loading up on passives to maximise TR. A monk can basically smash everything in Act 1 with impunity, and then gradually declines, but is still decent for the end. I solo'd on Hard, I'm sure POTD is doable too but might take a few tricks for survivability late game.

[Crucis]

You only played up to level 2? So, uh, you only played the Valewood and not even did stuff in the Gilded Vale? 

 

It is true though that the monk is best off foregoing most other active abilities and just loading up on passives to maximise TR. A monk can basically smash everything in Act 1 with impunity, and then gradually declines, but is still decent for the end. I solo'd on Hard, I'm sure POTD is doable too but might take a few tricks for survivability late game.

 

I found this to be somewhat true myself.  As the game progressed, I found that my monk PC wasn't able to tank in the melee wall nearly as well, because too many foes would overwhelm her.  She was better if she could stick to one on one duels.  So what I did to avoid getting he stuck in the melee wall at the start of battles was to keep her in the row of a 2-2-2 formation, and start off using a bow (for RP reasons).  Since she had good DEX and a fast armor recovery speed, she could pump out a lot of shots with pretty good accuracy.  But usually I'd switch her to fists and have her flank the enemy, particularly if the enemy had some squishies in its rear that she could take 1v1.

 

I'll readily admit that her overall damage production probably went down some when she was playing the archer, but it still felt very much within character for a monk to be using a bow, when she wanted to hang back for a bit.

[Raven Darkholme]

You only played up to level 2? So, uh, you only played the Valewood and not even did stuff in the Gilded Vale? 

 

It is true though that the monk is best off foregoing most other active abilities and just loading up on passives to maximise TR. A monk can basically smash everything in Act 1 with impunity, and then gradually declines, but is still decent for the end. I solo'd on Hard, I'm sure POTD is doable too but might take a few tricks for survivability late game.

If that was directed at me: Act 2, my bad. And I played till the end of Act 2 but couldn't be bothefed to go into Act 3 and started my cipher instead, beat the game with it, and then beat the game with pala, both Potd solo.

[Razorchain]

I need to test a weapon in the off hand again.

 

 

This is probably one of the most fun Potd playthrough I've had and after my party reached level 4 nothing has been a challenge. I kinda forgot about Raedric and didn't go after him until lvl 5 and boy did he get spanked like the naughty boy he is.

 

Indeed, I liked my ranger build, but I think I like this monk a lot more.

 

I always play with a custom party and this time around my monk, Serenity, is ruling the damage board.  Often I find it is the wizard that dominates in my games but this time around Serenity is bringing the Hurting Bombs, closely followed by Arcana, the wizard and Kull the Conquerer an Estoc wielding Barbarian.

[Crucis]

 

I need to test a weapon in the off hand again.

 

 

This is probably one of the most fun Potd playthrough I've had and after my party reached level 4 nothing has been a challenge. I kinda forgot about Raedric and didn't go after him until lvl 5 and boy did he get spanked like the naughty boy he is.

 

Indeed, I liked my ranger build, but I think I like this monk a lot more.

 

I always play with a custom party and this time around my monk, Serenity, is ruling the damage board.  Often I find it is the wizard that dominates in my games but this time around Serenity is bringing the Hurting Bombs, closely followed by Arcana, the wizard and Kull the Conquerer an Estoc wielding Barbarian.

 

 

Monks can do an amazing amount of damage.  They just don't do it in big chunk like some other classes.  They do it with moderately sized hits, but a LOT of them.

[Tigranes]

 

You only played up to level 2? So, uh, you only played the Valewood and not even did stuff in the Gilded Vale? 

 

It is true though that the monk is best off foregoing most other active abilities and just loading up on passives to maximise TR. A monk can basically smash everything in Act 1 with impunity, and then gradually declines, but is still decent for the end. I solo'd on Hard, I'm sure POTD is doable too but might take a few tricks for survivability late game.

If that was directed at me: Act 2, my bad. And I played till the end of Act 2 but couldn't be bothefed to go into Act 3 and started my cipher instead, beat the game with it, and then beat the game with pala, both Potd solo.

 

 

Right, I thought it was strange, since you probably spend about 3 minutes as Level 2. Fair enough.

[the streaker]

So it looks like the monk doesn't really excel in any one aspect, but rather is a good tank with good melee damage output. Is that a fair assessment? It seems to me I'd rather have a fighter tank, and a barb for AoE or melee rogue for single-target damage.

 

(ignoring roleplaying aspects, this being the builds forum)

Edited May 16, 2015 by the streaker

[Crucis]

So it looks like the monk doesn't really excel in any one aspect, but rather is a good tank with good melee damage output. Is that a fair assessment? It seems to me I'd rather have a fighter tank, and a barb for AoE or melee rogue for single-target damage.

 

(ignoring roleplaying aspects, this being the builds forum)

 

Actually, I think that monks are very competitive damage dealers.  The thing is that they're not about the single high damage strike.  They're more about producing a LOT of respectable damage hits that add up over the long haul into a lot of damage done.  They don't require someone creating afflicting conditions to do sneak attack damage like a rogue.  They can just get in just about anyone's face and take them one on one.  They don't have the defenses to hold their spot in the melee wall, nor do they do barbarian's AoE attacks.  They're great for flanking and/or streaking into the enemy's rear and going after their softer targets, their spellcasters and ranged combatants.

 

Sure, if you enjoy that single high damage strike, rogues are probably more your speed.  But don't sell monks short as 1v1 damage dealers.  They just don't do it the same way as rogues.

[Tigranes]

In a 3 person party, for example, the Rogue has a ratio of, let's say, 1000 damage, 200 hits and 150 crits over the whole game; the Monk gets 750 damage, 600 hits and 200 crits. Or something like that was my experience.