Tips on Zahua and my overall party!

[SparocheeDoom]

I was just reading a guide on monks and it said to leave them without armor and weapons UNLESS you are fighting high levels and tough enemies like dragons. I am level 12 right now and finished the game, except for the last part from which you cannot come back. So I don't know how to build Zohua, but I did get rid of Kana to get Zohua because Kana dies fast and seems useless. I gave Zohua Kana's equipment.

 

I was wondering if people here could advice on what equipment to use OUT OF WHAT I ALREADY HAVE for Zohua?

 

I also would not mind if someone could go through my inventory and Caed Nua stash to see if it makes sense to wear other armors I have and use other weapons I have ( I saved quite a few! ). You can also re-purchase some that I sold to Caed Nua merchant because I have waaaay too much money!

 

Here's my savegame and I appreciate the help ahead of time. You can just upload the new savegame with re-organized party equipment!

 

 

[KDubya]

I'm not going to load up your save game - first because I am still trying to download the damn 1+ GB 2.0 patch and second since I'm too lazy:)

 

What I will give is some advice on Monks -

1.) Treat as a durable melee combatant not a rogue like flanker - by this I mean get some heavy armor like plate, have all stats 10+ and fairly balanced between might, constitution, perception, and resolve. Grab dual wielding for +20% attack speed, swift strikes for another +20% attack speed and the lightning lash that adds +25% electricity lash to all your attacks. Have a fist+shield on one weapon slot for when you need more deflection and a quarterstaff for a reaching weapon on the other slot or dual spears. This uses one ability and two talents plus one wound to get your attack speed boosted by +40% with a 25% electricity lash.

 

2.) Use AoE abilities like Torment's reach and rooting pain. Keep your speed boosted with swift strikes and spend your wounds on the AoE cone attack of Tormen't Reach trying to line up to hit multiple enemies. Whenever you receive a wound rooting pain will dish out a retaliatory AoE attack.

 

3.) Use mobility to attack the weaker caster enemies. Flagellents Path gets you an awesome teleport+AoE attack along the line between you and your target for 3 wounds. Start off at the frontline, get your speed up, drop a cone attack and then zoom across the battlefield to hit the backline while disrupting their entire frontline.

 

You're not a frontline tank who will stay in one place, once you get 3 wounds you can rush into the backline. You'll need others to stay at the front because once you rush their backline their frontline may decide to go after you backline instead of chasing after the monk.

 

Using lighter armor would get you faster actions but at the cost of greatly increased damage. This would get you wounds faster but might become too much. Play around with it and see if you need the heavy plate for maximum DR or if leather or padded is enough protection.

[Ymarsakar]

I think of a monk as having per encounter abilities similar to a cipher, so I need to spam them as fast as I can, while having the health pool of a barbarian but the DR/dps of a rogue.

 

In other words, complicated and doesn't fit easily into the main tank or primary dps role. It does fit into the off tank dps role listed above, however. Mobile reserve. Flying column. Similar concept.

 

Role wise, they're closer to the barbarian in how they play and what they can take. High health pools and endurance, but generally low DR or deflection makes them easy to spike damage down with crits or numbers.

 

I haven't looked into the save game, so I'll give some general pointers.

 

Generally try to wear medium armor to full plate, just to learn how the class is played. Get items that have resolve, constitution, perception, and then might. In that order. The shield in the off slot trick is very nice, I pretty much use that on all characters. It's good for when your endurance drops and you need an immediate deflection boost without lag time.

 

So try to use increase the monk's deflection as high as you can with buffs or items or talents. 60-80 is a good spot to be in for off tanks. 90-110+ is generally what a main tank has.

 

Also, there was a potential build I thought about that used dangerous implement talent with wands to get wounds. Not really sure if that works or not. So if you're in heavy armor and nobody is attacking you, and you want wounds, there might be some ways to get it.

 

Kana the chanter can be pretty good as an off tank, but you need 4 defensive talents at least for him. The AI makes him a little bit more useful, I think, because you can set up his respec to only activate certain summon spells or buffs. I often forget what chant Kana is on or how many verses he has, so he's normally powerful at the end of a fight where you have lots of time to build up verses. And are running out of endurance and spells of course. Kana in full plate, using the white spire estoc and switching to the special hearth hatchel and buckler shield, is pretty versatile. In Path of the Damned, he was MVP of a few fights. In shorter fights, Kana's potential generally isn't seen.

 

Kana's 3rd tier fire buff to the party is very good for the dps characters like rogue or cipher. I think of it has having free, although sometimes unpredictable, paladin auras. Whole party buffs, but unlike the priest, he doesn't use spell slots for it.

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/81483-rolling-a-2nd-character-in-potd-what-are-some-must-dos-and-must-not-tips-you-could-offer/?p=1725765

Has my general recommendations on party composition. Not sure how much of that will apply to you.

Edited August 31, 2015 by Ymarsakar

[Doppelschwert]

Also, there was a potential build I thought about that used dangerous implement talent with wands to get wounds. Not really sure if that works or not.

 

It works partially. You can accumulate wounds, and you can speed it up with 'Lesser Wounds'. However, wounds only last a limited amount of time, so for the most part I had like 2-3 wounds simultanously, as the new ones replaced the expiring ones.

You could combine it with 'Veterans Recovery' to never run out of endurance, but even without it you usually have enough health to compensate.

 

The catch, however, is that turning wheel does not affect implements (only melee), so from range you can only really use the wounds by using 'Swift Strikes' (better: 'Lightning Strikes', which works OK, but not great). 'Dichotomous Soul' (LVL 13 required) would be nice, but I can't see reaching 8 wounds without being attacked.

[MunoValente]

Zahua seemed a little squishy to me, so I set him up for quarterstaff DPS, which he did quite well at.

[Ymarsakar]

 

Also, there was a potential build I thought about that used dangerous implement talent with wands to get wounds. Not really sure if that works or not.

 

It works partially. You can accumulate wounds, and you can speed it up with 'Lesser Wounds'. However, wounds only last a limited amount of time, so for the most part I had like 2-3 wounds simultanously, as the new ones replaced the expiring ones.

You could combine it with 'Veterans Recovery' to never run out of endurance, but even without it you usually have enough health to compensate.

 

The catch, however, is that turning wheel does not affect implements (only melee), so from range you can only really use the wounds by using 'Swift Strikes' (better: 'Lightning Strikes', which works OK, but not great). 'Dichotomous Soul' (LVL 13 required) would be nice, but I can't see reaching 8 wounds without being attacked.

 

 

That sounds doable. A monk would only use the wand if everyone was ignoring him in favor of the main tank, and the monk can do little if his wounds don't go up I noticed. So switching weapons should be pretty fast. Maybe shoot a few wand bursts at a mage/archer behind the front lines, then burn towards them as weapon switches to fists, using wounds to activate the special powers.

[KDubya]

If your monk is not receiving any wounds he is still dual wield attacking at +20% attack speed with fists that do average speed weapon damage at the speed of fast weapons. His auto attacks with fists will do more damage then enchanted weapons unless the weapons have lashes and slaying enchantments. I don't see the point of wasting talents to take a bad self damaging talent for use of a bad weapon (implements) just to obtain a wound. If you really want a wound on your monk just hit him with an AoE spell with friendly fire.

[Doppelschwert]

If your monk is not receiving any wounds he is still dual wield attacking at +20% attack speed with fists that do average speed weapon damage at the speed of fast weapons. His auto attacks with fists will do more damage then enchanted weapons unless the weapons have lashes and slaying enchantments. I don't see the point of wasting talents to take a bad self damaging talent for use of a bad weapon (implements) just to obtain a wound. If you really want a wound on your monk just hit him with an AoE spell with friendly fire.

 

If you want your characters to perfom most efficiently, you're certainly right. I was just using fun-builds in my last playthrough to see how much you can bend the classes roles while still being somehow fun and viable for the game. If you want your monk to be a ranged character for that reason, implements are quite fun, because you can maintain a persistent lightning strike on them. And if someone rushes your backline, the monk can switch to melee and pick them off. It's not particular efficient, but it's fun to play around with.

[SparocheeDoom]

Kana sucks as a tank with heavy armor and amazing enchanted sword. I gave him an awesome gun, but reloads are slow.

 

I never figured out how his verses work.

 

This game is more complex than chess, but I love it!