[Class Build] The Ascetic: No-Items Solo Monk Guide

[Harpagornis]

You were raised by lonesome monks in a small monastic order. The lessons learned there through many hard years of prayer and flagellation still live on.

You are stronger and better in body and perception, but you reject vain worldly possessions that would lead down a path of sin.

 

 

===================================

The Ascetic

 

There is no way to material happiness, happiness consists in less is more

 

Difficulty: Solo, PotD

Class: Monk

 

Rules to avoid the path of sin:

• no Weapons (except against enemies that are immune to your fists)

• no Armor (normal, unenchanted Cloth - 0 DR - is allowed)

• no Amulet, Rings, Girdle, Boots, Cloak, Helm, Gloves

• no Food-Buffs (except for non-combat-purpose)

• no Salty-Mast-Whores

===================================

 

 

Choosing your Race

 

Moon Godlike: Without any armor you will get hurt a lot. Thanks to the healing waves you can tank and outlast your opponents much better.

 

 

Adjusting your Stats

 

Might: 18 This is straightforward because you want maximum damage to get through DR. You could drop some points here for Dex or Res if you like.

 

Constitution: 18 You need high endurance and high health to compensate for the lack of armor. Also nice: Together with Might 18 you will get very high Fortitude that will help avoiding harmful knockdowns.

 

Dexterity: 10 More would be definitely better but we run out of stat points.

 

Perception: 18 High accuracy will help a lot landing your attacks, especially at the beginning. Worth to remember: Thanks to your precice punches and your fast attack speed you will frequently interrupt enemies. You could drop some points here for Dex or Res if you like.

 

Intellect: 4 Its true that many of our attacks are AoE or duration based. But in my experience it doesnt matter that much for the playstile of the Ascetic. Sure more would be better but we are running out of points.

 

Resolve: 10 As a frontline melee it would be nice to get more deflection and more concentration but as i stated earlier: We are running out of points. On the good side you could argue that enemies will hit you more often so you will generate wounds faster.

 

 

Thinking about Skills

Everything is up to you here. Mechanics is always nice for trapping but maybe you prefer Stealth to avoid encounters. Or maybe you like to use the powers of scrolls. At least three points in survival are also nice so you get the movement bonus. Your choice!

 

 

Choose your Talents/Abilities

 

Level 1 : Torments Reach

Hands down – this is one of the best monk skills. Double AoE damage is too good to pass on. After several monk playthroughs i would say that the low Intelligence doesnt hurt that much as it will still hit several enemies with proper positioning.

 

Level 2: Weapon Focus Peasant

I like this one a lot as it pushes your accuray +6 right from the start. This will help especially in the beginning where missing your enemies can sometimes be more problematic.

 

Level 3: Long Stride

This will make your life much (!) easier. Thanks to this talent you can outrun most opponents, lure them into other monsters and – the best: You can easily splitt-pull large enemy groups into smaller ones. This little trick will remain useful till the end.

 

Level 4: Two Weapon Style

This is quite simple: Thanks to the +20% attack speed you will attack even faster now.

 

Level 5: Force of Anguish

Kicking your enemies around will be a lot of fun. Works best against heavy hitters like mages: Kick & Hit so they never really get the chance to hurt you much. Always keep in mind your positioning!

 

Level 6: Vulnerable Attack

More pain incoming for your enemies. The +5 DR will nearly always be useful.

 

Level 7: Duality of Mortal Presence

+8 to either deflection or defenses. To make it short: Buffing your defenses is always nice.

 

Level 8: Bloody Slaughter

Increasing your crit chance and damage is always welcome. Thanks to your high accuracy this will proc quite often and helps a great deal finishing your enemies.

 

Level 9 – Enervating Blows

Once i realized the good crit chance of ~40 % i dropped „Rooting Pain“ for this one. The reason is simple: Reducing Fortitude by 20 will help knocking enemies down with „Force of Anguish“. The improved knockdown will synergize well with „Apprentice Sneak Attack“.

 

Level 10, 12, 14, 16 – Its your choice

You can buff your defenses with Superior Deflection or talents like Mental Fortress. You can buff you damage with Savage Attack or even Apprentice Sneak Attack. You might also consider buffing your utilty with Interrupting Blows or Deep Pockets.

 

Level 11: Iron Wheel

Finally some kind of armor for us. The +1 DR per wound is nice and will be negate incoming damage a lot because of your high wound generation. You may swap this with Flagellant´s Path if you prefer higher mobilty.

 

Level 13: The Dichotomous Soul

This one is still too good to pass. The two clones will add a lot of damage and can be used as decoys. Only downside: The duration got nerfed to 15 seconds.

 

Level 15: Resonant Touch: This ability is pretty awesome and especially effective against tough mobs with high endurance. Stacking the resonance and finishing them off with a burst of raw damage is very pleasing. Also nice: The raw damage may also crit for even higher numbers. If you more higher mobility take "Flagellant`s Path" instead.

 

 

What about the other abilities?

 

Swift Strikes: I dont know why but i am still not a big fan of this one as i personally prefer „Torments Reach“ spamming. Yes we could combine these two for even faster spamming but our low Int would hurt the duration quite a bit. Still an okay choice imo.

 

Turning Wheel: This works great in combination with „Swift Strikes“ but unfortunately the fire lash is not applied when using Torments Reach. If you are still aiming for an autoattack build this is a good choice!

 

Lesser Wounds: Is it worth a talent point? Playing with and without i would say: Probably not. Your wound generation is so fast that often times you will have a hard time spending them all.

 

Mortification of the Soul: Damage yourself to get a single wound? Oh dear! Taking damage happens pretty fast so wound generation isnt a problem at all for your Ascetic Monk.

Stunning Blow: Yes this is a nice one but the duration isnt that long if we count in our low intelligence. Would probably work great with high Int but for me „Force of Anguish“ is the better CC.

 

Rooting Pain: I still like this very much. Yes the damage is not that great and the AoE gets hurt by your low Intelligence. But: Without Armor you will generate wounds like crazy so the rooting pain will get triggered a lot and hurt the enemies that are close to you. Also nice: The damage can crit and even trigger the bloody slaughter bonus plus it will cause interruptions!

Clarity of Agony: The effect isnt that great and its questionable if it would be a big deal against permastunners. As you have other ways to deal with them i would pass this skill.

 

Crucible of Suffering: Getting +10 defenses after a hostile effect expires is quite ok especially if you want to build a more defensive monk.

Soul Mirror: Ranged attacks can be annoying but thanks to your high mobility you have more than enough options to kill archers fast.

 

The Long Pain: I havent tested it for long but it seems very promising. If you prefer keeping your distance this is the way the go. The damage is higher than your normal fists at the cost of lower speed. Only downswide: Abilities like „Torments Reach“ and „Force of Anguish“ will be deactivated.

 

Skyward Kick: I dont like it that much - seems like a weaker version of Stunning Blows. If you want to build a CC machine: Take it. Otherwise i would prefer „Force of Anguish“.

 

Flagellant's Path

A swift teleporting attack that damages and debuffs everyone between you and your target. With this skill you can teleport across the battlefield like there is no tomorrow. Great tool for engaging backline mages. Port in, Kick them down, kill them.

 

 

Monk Synergies – Some examples

 

Torments Reach + Swift Strike = Fast AoE Damage

 

Swift Strike + Lightning Strike + Turning Wheel + Interrupting Blows = Great Autoattack and Interruption Build

 

Long Stride + Fast Runner + The Long Pain = Master of Hit & Run

 

Enervating Blows + Force of Anguish + Apprentice Sneak Attack = Knock, Knock, Knocking them on Gaias Floor

 

Rooting Pain + Bloody Slaughter + Interrupting Blows = The AoE Damage & Interruption Machine

 

Flagellant`s Path + Force of Anguish + Torments Reach = Goodbye Mages

 

 

The way of the Ascetic

 

Will you miss your armor? No - because you are fast! With Interrupting Blows you will interrupt your enemies quite a lot. Sometimes mages will not even be able to cast their spells before they are going down. Spamming Torments Reach on the other hand will do tons of damage even with your low Int – its often times just a matter of proper positioning.

 

For CC you have Force of Anguish. Thanks to your fast wound generation you can run from foe to foe and knock them down one after another. This works best against spellcasters as they normally don't have high fortitude saves.

 

Iron Wheel will later on provide some nice protection and will also lower the damage from disengaging when you need more wounds. But as you are lacking a real armor you will be more vulnerable than other monks.

 

This means: You always have to keep a closer look at the map. Tight corridors are your best friends to minimize enemy engagement. If the enemy still hurts too much try to split them into smaller groups. Once you got „Long Stride“ at Level 3 this will work pretty easy.

 

Another bonus of not using any items is that you will be able to buy the Animat Figurine pretty fast. Use this to your advantage and always remember: Summons are your best friends. Positioning will also be the key for your victory – be it for maximizing „Torments Reach“ damage or kicking enemies into the right direction with „Force of Anguish“.

 

If you plan ahead and play in a cautious manner your Ascetic Monk will be able to banish the darkness. Beating Thaos, finishing the White Forge and killing Concelhaut is all possible. May the fists of light be with you! ;o)

Edited February 24, 2016 by Harpagornis

[MaxQuest]

Difficulty: Solo, PotD

 

Rules to avoid the path of sin:

no Weapons (except against enemies that are immune to your fists)

no Armor (normal, unenchanted Cloth - 0 DR - is allowed)

no Amulet, Rings, Girdle, Boots, Cloak, Helm, Gloves etc.

no Food-Buffs (except for non-combat-purpose)

no Salty-Mast-Whores

Aaaand no Figurines! To make it the most sadistic playthough ever

[the_dog_days]

You were raised by lonesome monks in a small monastic order. The lessons learned there through many hard years of prayer and flagellation still live on.

What does it say about me that I first read that as flatulence?

[Elric Galad]

And if you don't want to play solo, you can build a whole team of ascetic using Novice Suffering 

[Harpagornis]

And if you don't want to play solo, you can build a whole team of ascetic using Novice Suffering 

Hrhrhr... sure you can... gogo!

 

 

Aaaand no Figurines! To make it the most sadistic playthough ever

Yes, this would be a pain in the ass for sure. Maybe thats a challenge for the future...

 

 

 

You were raised by lonesome monks in a small monastic order. The lessons learned there through many hard years of prayer and flagellation still live on.

What does it say about me that I first read that as flatulence?

 

You are walking on the path of sins - stop eating!

[Harpagornis]

Changed the build a bit as "Resonant Touch" is pretty awesome so far.

Stacking the touches and bursting tough opponents down is just great.

Also nice: The raw damage may also crit for even higher numbers.

 

P.S. Its quite a pity that Rooting Pain doesnt seem to stack any resonance - would be too cool no?

 

P.P.S. Tested it again: "Rooting Pain" also triggers Resonant Touch - how cool is this!!!!

Its only the question how often its damage will surpass the required 10 damage to trigger the effect. Interesting!

Edited February 24, 2016 by Harpagornis

[Boeroer]

Rooting Pain's damage is just too low to make it really awesome with Resonant Touch. That's also a reason not to pick too light weapons when you want to use that ability. Torment's Reach also builds up Resonant Touches in an AoE by the way. Very nice synergy - especially with fists (=high base damage and full attack - meaning two Resonant Touches for each enemy that got hit most of the time - sometimes more if your damage is over 20).

Edited February 24, 2016 by Boeroer

[Elric Galad]

Does 20 damages lead to 2 resonant charges ?

 

And does it work with lash by the way ? Does main and lash damage count separately to reach the threshold ?

Edited February 24, 2016 by Elric Galad

[rheingold]

I must say I think intelligence is seriously underrated for a monk. I realize that this is a solo build and min/maxed but torments reach and anguish are absolutely insane with reasonable intelligence. Had good results and loads of fun with around 12 int. It makes much bigger difference than you'd think.

[Harpagornis]

I must say I think intelligence is seriously underrated for a monk. I realize that this is a solo build and min/maxed but torments reach and anguish are absolutely insane with reasonable intelligence. Had good results and loads of fun with around 12 int. It makes much bigger difference than you'd think.

More Int would be better for sure but its the old problem: We are running out of points. For this special solo run i rated Str, Con and Per higher. And: I played Monks with 18 Int in the past. Yes the range of Torments is crazy and the duration of knockdowns are cool - no doughts about that. At the end its a matter of playstyle. The low Int Build for the Asscetic Monk works fine for me and put me through all challenges so far.

 

 

Rooting Pain's damage is just too low to make it really awesome with Resonant Touch. That's also a reason not to pick too light weapons when you want to use that ability. Torment's Reach also builds up Resonant Touches in an AoE by the way. Very nice synergy - especially with fists (=high base damage and full attack - meaning two Resonant Touches for each enemy that got hit most of the time - sometimes more if your damage is over 20).

Hhhhmmmm... so far i would say that you only get one resonance stack per attack. My monk regularly hits enemies for 20+ damage with Torments but - if i watched correctly - i never got two stacks per hit. Maybe we need some further testing?

 

Rooting Pains base damage isnt that high but with all the crits its good enough to get past the 10 damage mark. And thanks to the high wound generation it will trigger a lot. Hhhhhmmmm... maybe i will give it a try and see if it works - or not.

Edited February 24, 2016 by Harpagornis

[Boeroer]

Hehe - of course you should try.

 

About 2 Resonant Toches: you should deal 2 of them because a full attack hits most enemies twice. Would be weird if it didn't work that way. I tested this ability with those new ranged fists (which are so superawesome that you can easily invent a wohle build around that - Sandals of the Forgotten Friar, Blood Testament, Turning Wheel and Lightning Strikes all work with it). And whenever I did more than 20 damage the enemies received 2 charges of Resonant Touch if I recall correctly.

 

Edit: Oh, and you could also test if Ryona's Vambraces work with Rooting Pain (or any other thing except MIG that could boost the damage of Rooting Pain - maybe also these amulets that give +10% to spell damage). Hell - if there would be a way to boost retaliation's damage over 10 it would be superawesome. Fire Godlike with Sura's Supper Plate, another retaliation item and Vulnerable Attack and lots of dmg. mods to boost it over 10 after DR would be so awesome! Wait - does Turning Wheel also work on retaliation? Then just stand in the middle of a mob and keep get hitting until you pull the trigger - boom! Man, you have to test this please!

Edited February 24, 2016 by Boeroer

[rheingold]

^^^ yeah absolutely the stats do come down to personal choice. For me the only time I take perception is with the low accuracy classes, as they benefit the most from it. So barbs and druids get perception but rogue and monks don't:)

Edited February 24, 2016 by rheingold

[Boeroer]

But then you cause less interrupts.

[rheingold]

Ha, yes you do. But you can't have your cake and eat it too!

[Harpagornis]

Havent been able to test the "Rooting Pain" + "Resonant Touch" Synergy in combo with Ryona's Vambraces or the +10% spell damage amulet. Someone else has more time?

 

If this works i would bump INT up again and - like Boeroer described - stand in the middle of the mobs... charge the stacks up... and BOOOM. Hell, that could be so much fun!

 

Only thing that could disturb the fun: It seems that the maximum numbers of stacks is 10 - at least my counter stopped there. Can anyone confirm this?

 

My Ascetic Monk is Level 16 now and i have chosen a pretty offensive path with things like "Apprentice Sneak Attack" + "Savage Attack" + "Interrupting Blows" on top of the other damage abilities/talents i took on lower levels. It seems offense is the best defense for the monk - hope i wont regret it at some point.   

[Boeroer]

Maybe 10 is the maximum - but even then it's a lot of raw damage.

[rpmfla]

Pardon me...newby here. I wanted to try out this build and when I went to select the attributes I ended up with one less point than you have. Is there something you didn't mention (or I overlooked) for that additional point?

 

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[rpmfla]

Ok, please disregard my previous post. I just needed to go one more screen into the character build to see that one gets a bonus of 1 point to whichever stat they choose.

[rpmfla]

So far so good. I usually play range characters...using magic or range weapons. I happened across this build and liked the minimalism of it. It will be interesting to not have to deal with weapon stats or armor or anything else. I've been taking damage but fights are over so quickly it is not a problem so far. Thanks for the unique build concept.

[Harpagornis]

So far so good. I usually play range characters...using magic or range weapons. I happened across this build and liked the minimalism of it. It will be interesting to not have to deal with weapon stats or armor or anything else. I've been taking damage but fights are over so quickly it is not a problem so far. Thanks for the unique build concept.

 

Yeah, this build is big fun for sure. One of my favourite runs. Good luck!

[rpmfla]

Well, I will say this is a fun and different build, but I am struggling in key areas. I do fine if I have a way to use the environment to my advantage, but in closed spaces with mobs I don't last long. I have started trying to save certain fights for when I am higher level. The sanitarium basement (Uscgrim, etc.), the trade deal on the bridge, the missing sentries,...basically places where I have no way to pick off one or two at a time. As soon as I have to deal with a mob in a closed area I'm dead. I am just about to level up to 9. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Harpagornis]

Sanatorium: Skip it until later or - even easier - just run to the exit while using summons as decoy. You can now either move on or use your superior positioning for splitpulling.

 

The Forgotten at the bridge: With summons and lvl 10+ you can split them. Force of Anguish (and potions) are your best friend here. Should be no real problem.

 

But you are right: Battles in close rooms are hardest. If summons + CC + Potions do not get you through: Come back later. And never forget: You dont have to kill everything!

[rpmfla]

Sanatorium: Skip it until later or - even easier - just run to the exit while using summons as decoy. You can now either move on or use your superior positioning for splitpulling.

 

The Forgotten at the bridge: With summons and lvl 10+ you can split them. Force of Anguish (and potions) are your best friend here. Should be no real problem.

 

But you are right: Battles in close rooms are hardest. If summons + CC + Potions do not get you through: Come back later. And never forget: You dont have to kill everything!

Thanks for the tips! I haven't used potions or summons yet. Somehow I got from your description that they were not allowed. How do you use summons? From scrolls? I haven't used scrolls either.

 

...just an occasional banana before battle...that has been it for my consumption of any "buffs".

 

By the way, I waited for your (or anyone else willing to help) response before leveling up to 9. Knowing the trouble I'm having, is Enervating Blows still my best choice at 9? Thanks for the help.

[Harpagornis]

The rules of the Ascetic Monk allow you to drink potions and use summons or scrolls - its not a strict no-items-at-all-run. This should make things much easier.

 

Havent played the game for some time. If you are not sure about Enervating Blows: Look at your stats and your average crit chance. Its synergy with Force of Anguish is very nice!

[rpmfla]

Well that sure made it easier! Thanks. I am still hesitant to try Cinders of Faith, but was able to do each of the ones I mentioned without too much trouble. Downing a few endurance potions did the trick.