Is Monk Helwalker worth it or even viable?

[cane]

I decided to go for a Helwalker Monk as my PC but I'm already having issues keeping him alive. I feel like my monk don't have the high deflection / Armor needed to properly survive. Sure I could throw some heavier armor on him but it feels like that would hurt his damage too much. I'm only level 6 so haven't gotten that far into the game but I'm really thinking about restarting and going for PotD instead of Hard but also going for a regular monk or even the shattered piller one.

 

What are you guys thoughts? We are talking Hard/PotD difficulty

[AndreaColombo]

I personally wouldn't do Helwalker as a single class; especially not for a melee character. It may work as a ranged character, but think Helwalker's at its best when multi-classed with Fighter to synergize with Constant Recovery (which is boosted by MIG.)

 

If you go for Devoted/Helwalker (which is my go-to build for the Watcher), you can be a powerful melee combatant and get plenty of healing boosts from items, but you probably shouldn't be the only melee character in the party.

 

For single class, I'd rather go with any other Monk class (including no subclass.)

[hilfazer]

Helwalker's penalty far outweights its bonus. Judging by what you said you should totally avoid Helwalker on PotD.

 

Keep in mind Shattered Pillar has max wounds of 5 or something. Since you wanted to play HW you probably wanted to stack wounds. SP is bad for that, it's a subclass for wound spender monks.

[ntavanga]

Try a ranged Helwalker using dual scepters + scepter modal. You damage yourself and proc helwalker passive. Plus the self-inflicted damage from the scepter modal doesn't end Dance of Death, so you can stay safe at range and have all those amazing monk buffs rolling on you. The unique rifle Dragon's Dowry also has a chance to inflict damage on you and can be used with this playstyle. One of my hired adventurers runs this build and reaches ~ 30 might, +12Acc from dance of death, and stacking constitution from the monk modals to offset the self damage. 

[flamesium]

Playing a dual sabre Helwalker / Berserker on Veteran. It is definitely less forgiving of sloppy play compared to my companions, but it seems manageable enough once you have a full party to divide the enemies’ attentions. One important thing with the Helwalker sub is Wound management: if you’re in an advantageous position you can stack them high for bonus damage; if you’re obviously about to take a hammering then burn them off doing some cc.

 

If you are open to multiclass you could try Helwalker / Wizard. Build up wounds and then deploy the Wizard’s immense deflection buffs.

 

Helwalker is a ‘walk the tightrope’ class, but that’s what I like about it.

[dudex]

helwaker is one of the most powerful ranged multiclass.

[dunehunter]

After the might nerf imo not worth on melee build now, better just do normal monk.

[Voltron]

Imo no, for pure monk imo Shattered Pillar is best as you can just spam skills and torment reach all day long and you can stack everything else to avoid damage and not be punished by it.

Helwalker would be good if for example he was taking 2% more dmg per Wound.

But 5% is waaay to much for what he gets in return.

[Haplok]

Well I wanted to try living dangerously and rolled a Berserker/Helwaker. He sure earns his wounds quickly. To mitigate the risk somewhat, I maxed his Con and made him a Moon Godlike.

Of course with Confusion, he also heals enemies. But it's not so bad and eventually I should be able to counter confusion.

 

Something else concerns me though. Does Moon Godlike's Silver Tide scale at all? At level 4 and power level 2 it still heals the same amount (10 boosted to 16 by might bonus). It's ok for now, but would become pretty useless later on. Was going Moon Godlike a mistake?

[cane]

I was looking to go pure Monk as my build and  pick up some more multi classes in the companions but it seems that the general consensus is that a pure helwalker monk is too fragile to properly use especially on higher difficulties

[Ashen Rohk]

I rolled a Helwalker/Bleakwalker on a Fire Godlike to roll some sweet burns.

 

However, even with the ridiculous Paladin defence boost it's still not a great melee class. SPill is a lot better for frontline.

[luciffer]

I don't think helwalker can be safe even in range

[Lokithecat]

I've been running Berserker Helwalker, and its wicked.  I think its much better than Shattered Pillar.  It is very unforgiving, and you don't want to attempt it solo, or as a tank.

 

I found 15 Con, 15 Dex, 18 Might worked out well for stats, Nature Godlike.  

 

Early game I did borrow Eders armor, mid game with a 20% reduction (one of the leather styles) still attacks very quickly.  Wounds get maxed very quickly, but being able to Leap into the back ranks and massacre everyone is quite fun.  Gatecrasher gauntlets help a lot, you'll be critting all over the place.  Early game spend wounds to survive, 3 - 5 is your happy place, by mid game I found I didn't care about staying near max.  You do need to be pro active with healing, try to drop consecrated circles, if you can stand the bird Paladin as a multiclass Ancient Memory + the Defense / Healing Aura is usually enough for a non boss fight.

[theBalthazar]

Penalty is a little bit too powerful, sadly.

 

You can create a troubadour in your team with the shield of 10 pt of damage + Healing.

 

If not... DPS is not a good and efficient DPS if he fall all 5 minutes.

 

Obsidian must be reduce slightly the malus, I think. 5 % by wound -> 4 % by wound for start.

Edited May 16, 2018 by theBalthazar

[dunehunter]

The penalty was to compensate the 10 Might when it was a multiplier. It was very good before nerf.

[Awsumpossum]

I'm running Sharpshooter/Helwaker with this Frost Seeker bow and it's the most obscene thing imaginable.  I wish I were playing on POTD, but I'm playing on the difficulty just below it for the first play through.  I literally instantly 1 shot the entire screen in every encounter off of a single arrow.  The multiple projectiles from the bow + chaining from ranger + proccing extra attacks on crits from monk + bow effects (such as AoE damage on crit, which then procs additional projectiles again) leads to an infinite number of projectiles shooting around the screen.

 

I uploaded a couple of screenshots to try to catch this in action, which I've linked below.  Keep in mind this is from a SINGLE shot.  Also, I did not come up with the initial concept for this, saw someone else with it and then modified it to my own needs.  I couldn't even scroll up far enough to catch all the attacks from the single shot for the screen shot.

 

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198005772592/screenshots/

[Lokithecat]

I just threw on some moderate armor to compensate for the wound penalties at lower levels, by mid game I no longer cared. 

 

That said my Ber/Hel does have more HP than my Rog/Fig Eder tank character...  But throwing the tank out first, letting him draw initial aggro, is more than enough time to self buff the Ber/Hel, and then leap into the back ranks.  I probably don't spend Wounds as aggressively as a Shattered monk, who needs to keep burning them to justify the subclass, but my  'basic' attacks do so much damage that most opponents only live long enough to swing at me once before dying.  

 

I'm sure some multi of Hel are even worse (more fragile) than what I'm using, Berserker does get a lot more Armor innately than the rest, the exception being classes which can cast a +Armor buff.