[CLASS BUILD] The Flagellant
Helwalker Monk
Not intended for solo
POTD
Stats (Human):

MIG 17
CON 7
DEX 18
PER 18
INT 12
RES 4


The Flagellant is a ranged character that takes advantage of the Helwalkers passive might generation through wounds. The primary way of doing this is through dual-wielding Scepters and using their modal, or through the unique rifle Dragon's Dowry (this rifle has a chance of inflicting damage on yourself when you fire it, and has a huge action speed buff that does minor damage over time to you). These weapons and their self-inflicted damage are the "safest" way to make use of the Helwalker.


This synergy in combination with the fantastic damage buffs (Lightning Strikes, Dance of Death, Thunderous Blows) give this class awesome damage output. Being at range means you are less likely to be hit, which removes some of the danger of a helwalker (and lessens the possibility of losing Dance of Death). 


Single Classing monk means you still have access to the extremely powerful 9th level monk skills. 

Edited May 12, 20187 yr by ntavanga

Deleted...

Edited May 20, 20187 yr by Climhazzard

I've been thinking about how to make this build compete with a shattered pillar/long pain build, little puzzle stuck in my head, since shattered pillar/long pain would be able to use monk abilities from range and still generate a decent amount of wounds.  And long pain has a much better base damage than scepters which would make up for your helwalker buff....

 

But then I got the idea of just off handing the scepter so you could still use your monk abilities on anything that came into melee range.  The only full attack abilities that work with the scepter anyways are stunning blows and flagellants path, everything else is primary attack and could be used effectively with a single fist.

 

You're still going to get **** on by enemy firing squads that look in your direction, but maybe you can find some items that will help you manage their attention.

 

EDIT:  Actually I just learned that shattered pillar doesn't gain wounds using the long pain, so that definitely puts the Flagellant ahead for ranged monks.

I think there are better ways to build this ranged monk style anyway, now that I had some more time.  Shadowdancer seems superior because you have some good attack abilities like finishing blow and blinding strike. And of course all the nice passives from rogue. Escape is actually a really good tool for this ultra glass cannon as well

I just completed a POTD run with a ranged monk/wizard build using the Nelpazca subclass. I think it's the best for ranged. There's nothing to even spend wounds on as a ranged monk for half the game so you don't need to worry about running out of drugs, just pop em for big fights. Also, there's so many ranged enemies/movement abilities in this game, I worry helwalker's increased damage received would be pretty bad. Plus, your drugs start to last crazy amounts of time pretty quickly. I actually think Nelpazca might be the strongest of the three monks in general. If you stack armour and use whiteleaf on a Nelpazca monk with maxed alchemy you are basically unkillable. It regens something like 15+hp/3s for 1000s towards the end of the game.

I just completed a POTD run with a ranged monk/wizard build using the Nelpazca subclass. I think it's the best for ranged. There's nothing to even spend wounds on as a ranged monk for half the game so you don't need to worry about running out of drugs, just pop em for big fights. Also, there's so many ranged enemies/movement abilities in this game, I worry helwalker's increased damage received would be pretty bad. Plus, your drugs start to last crazy amounts of time pretty quickly. I actually think Nelpazca might be the strongest of the three monks in general. If you stack armour and use whiteleaf on a Nelpazca monk with maxed alchemy you are basically unkillable. It regens something like 15+hp/3s for 1000s towards the end of the game.

shattered pillar is the best melee spec and helwalker is the best ranged spec for monk. with current state of potd you barely have to micro ranged helwalker to keep it alive. nalpazca isnt bad the others are just better at what they do

I'll have to try Nalpazca sometime.  Shattered pillar has very consistent wound generation on a melee build and I like it a lot, but I noticed some of the drug effects are very strong, and it'd be nice if turning wheel went up to 10 wounds instead of 5.

I'm cheesing this on a Nature Godlike for that sweet power level bonus. Running this on normal, and it's a joke.

LOVE this build concept. Willing to build out a little further? Gear recommendations? Any other party members that would be good to have with it? Imagine priest blessings would be nice for ACC.

One thing of note, you should actually be able to just offhand the scepter with the way offhanding ranged weapons works in this game.  You will still receive the benefit of dual wielding, but you'll be able to use your abilities with your main hand.  There's not much downside to doing it since very few monk abilities are full attacks.

 

Being able to use your abilities would let you CC anything that got close to you, or allow you to move into melee and use your fist when you want to do more damage.  With instruments of pain it might even be possible to use your abilities at range while generating wounds with the scepter, then you could just sit behind your team+dichotomous soul and blast/cc your foes to oblivion.

Edited May 21, 20187 yr by Climhazzard

LOVE this build concept. Willing to build out a little further? Gear recommendations? Any other party members that would be good to have with it? Imagine priest blessings would be nice for ACC.

I didn't go into too much detail because this build is really just a shell for multiclassing. look up nerd commando on YT. he has a helwalker/streetfighter version of this that goes into detail.