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 Post subject: Monk Class Guide
PostPosted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 12:21 pm 
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MONK CLASS GUIDE

Monk AA’s can be broken down into 4 main categories: DPS, Defensive, Utility, and Junk. Junk AA’s are ones that serve little to no purpose, and really probably shouldn’t even be AA’s, and you should avoid them. Being that monks are first and foremost a DPS class, we will begin there.

DPS AA’s

For purposes of taking a really complex subject such as DPS, and boiling it down to basics, we are going to break down the Monk AA’s into a few categories: Hit Quantity, Hit Power, Other, and Burns.

Hit Quantity can be defined as the number of attacks per cycle of auto-attack. AA’s focused on during this phase will increase the maximum number of strikes a monk is capable of doing. Monks DPS is centered on the idea of speed or quantity of strikes. To follow is a list of AA’s which modify Hit Quantity, and are listed in order of priority.

1. Ambidexterity
2. Fists of Steel (Max for your level, and try to always keep it maxed for your level)
3. Burst of Power (through rank 10/20 at least)
4. Rapid Strikes (Maxed)
5. Burst of Power (finish it off)
6. Ferocity (Maxed)
7. Technique of Master Wu (While this modifies special attacks, it increases the over all quantity of hits, and is a very good AA)

Hit Power is defined by how hard you hit or kick. Keep in mind though that monk hit power is never very high, and that our goal when burning (explained in detail later) is to achieve a combination of our speed and stack as much hit power as we can. Towards this goal hit power AA’s are instrumental to your progression as a monk, but are only effective once you have reached the maximum quantity of hits possible.

1. Combat Fury
2. Veterans Wrath
3. Sinister Strikes
4. Kick Mastery
5. Stonefoot
6. Stunning Kick* (see below for special details)
7. Heel of Brithrax
8. Punch Mastery

*Stunning Kick: While this AA falls under basically ever subset of DPS AA’s I have decided to place it with hit power, as its main purpose during all content is as an additional high damage flying kick. The stun component to the ability is nice in group content, but often useless during raids. As such, try to think of the ability as a DPS tool.

“Other” is the group name I will use which refers to AA’s that do not fall under either of the previous categories. Most of these AA’s fail to fall under previous categories due to their limited impact on your DPS in contrast to the aforementioned AA’s. With the exceptions of #2 & 3, which will in fact have a noticeable impact.
1. Pressure Points
2. Master’s Hastened Combination
3. Hastened Stunning Kick
4. Twinproc
5. Ingenuity
6. Enhanced Ingenuity
7. Weapon Affinity

“Burns” is a category which encompasses AA’s that either directly modify a discipline or in itself an ability which grants a buff that modifies your DPS for its duration. I will break this list down into two categories: Discs and Buffs. While it is up to you which of these you work on first I’d recommend alternating between the lists.

Discs:
1. Extended Speed Focus
2. Hastened Speed Focus
3. Extended Crystalpalm
4. Extended Heel of Kanju
5. Extended Scaledfist
6. Destructive Force
7. Hastened Destructive Force

Buffs:
1. Zan Fi’s Whistle
2. Extended Zan Fi’s Whistle
3. Hastened Zan Fi’s Whistle
4. Infusion of Thunder
5. Hastened Thunder
6. Fundament of Combat (Max through third Spire of the Sensei)
7. Five Point Palm
8. Hastened Five Point Palm


DEFENSIVE AA’S

Defensive AA’s consist of abilities which make you harder to kill. For purposes of clarity I will break them down into two categories which by no means isolate them as a specific type of AA, but simply emphasizes their most common function. The two categories are: Tanking and Pulling.

Tanking AA’s are ones which modify how hard you are hit, and how often you are hit. In addition, some that are included here are ones which will only benefit you while a mob is actively beating on you.

1. Combat Stability: This modifies how hard you are hit. As a base line monks avoid more damage than they mitigate. Focusing on Combat Stability to start will lessen the impact of hits which is balanced by our innate avoidance.
2. Combat Agility: This modifies how often you are hit. Monks have a natural ability to avoid incoming damage, and as such this is less of a priority than Combat Stability. However, once you are getting hit for less, it is ideal to ensure that you are in general hit less.
3. Return Kick
4. Double Riposte
5. Unflinching Resolve
6. Extended Impenetrable
7. Armor of Wisdom

Pulling AA’s are ones you will notice mainly when you pull. Although some, such as ones which modify feign death, are noticeable at other times.

1. Rapid Feign
2. Stonewall
3. Imitate Death
4. Hastened Death
5. Heightened Awareness


UTILITY AA

Utility AA’s are ones which serve a unique function. They encompass pulling tools, run speed, and some from the “General” tab of AA’s.

1. Innate Run Speed
2. Weightless Steps
3. Distant Strike
4. Moving Mountains
5. Planar Power + Earthen + Dreamlike + Veil Stat AA’s
6. Physical Enhancement
7. Natural Durability
8. Packrat (While weight should not be an issue these days with coin having no weight, packrat has its uses as you level up)


Of course how you progress through AA’s is entirely up to you. I know that when I was leveling up and progressing through the bulk of AA’s I focused on DPS, but often times had to break from that to add in a few defensive AA’s so I could continue to tank for groups. In addition, having been playing a monk since the inception of AA’s, some like innate run speed or rapid feign I have had maxed since Luclin. I would recommend each category of AA to be completed in the order referenced here, but shy of burns and utility, a mixture of DPS and Defensive AA is likely ideal. It is often said, dead dps is not dps.

Monks interested in joining should be attempting to progress through their AA’s and need to consider that without about 1500-2000AA you will struggle. Being below that mark you will find your dps is subpar and that you die rather easily, but do not let that discourage you from pressing on as a monk and learning the class. While other melee’s are tied into seemingly one single solitary role, monks have the ability to bounce from DPS to Tank to puller seamlessly, and can even bring home the bacon and fry it up when its time to burn. Knowledge of all of these fields (dps, tank, pulling, burns) can be shared by Diligence’s elite monk team if you think you have what it takes to join our ranks.

As for gear or unique items worth having: monks should attempt to acquire a “Dispel BP” from either Omens of War – Anguish or The Serpents Spine. If at all possible, the best dispel BP click is available from Solteris (The Buried Sea’s end game raid zone). You will want to work towards acquiring “circle clicks” (Circle Clicks are often range or ring items which have Circle of Power or Guardian Circle on them). These are often times rare though, appearing in top tier group zones or occasionally on raid items. Working to acquire one of each is an admirable goal. There are a few items through the game which are often referred to in game as “summon throwy clicks”, items which when clicked summon an item which you can throw. While not necessary for pulling much these days it is often useful to have an item which can do this in the event the raid force utilizes “Range DPS”. Admittedly, the dps done by such items is almost useless, but nonetheless having such an item is worth while.

Our Epic 2.0 is worth having as well. It can be utilized as a small heal every 3 minutes, a small proc buff, and while not often used as such it can be used in conjunction with bandolier macros to take advantage of its worn focus (Hastened Innerflame). The last mentioned function of the 2.0 is a profound and useful perk which is often under utilized by monks. Innerflame in conjunction with our 2.0 has a 13 minute refresh as opposed to Diamondpalm’s 22 minute refresh. As such often times during raids one can use Innerflame early on, and have that discipline timer refresh in time to use Diamondpalm (the current upgrade to Innerflame) later on an event.

Lastly, I would say that as for disciplines it is ideal to have every discipline ever made. Key discs from past expansions you will REALLY want to track down though are as follows:

1. Speed Focus (Our current PRIMARY burn) (Plane of power Expansion)
2. Impenetrable Rk II (While rank1 is good, rank2 has the chance to proc a much better rune) – keep in mind, there is no rank3 of this disc despite what allakhazam.com says. (The Serpents Spine Expansion)
3. Drunken Monkey Style Rk2 or 3 (Underfoot Expansion)
4. Cloud of Fists Rk2 or 3 (House of Thule)
5. Thunderkick (Kunark)
6. Innerflame (Kunark)
7. Voiddance (Kunark
8. Master’s Aura (Prophecy of Ro)
9. Dreamwalk (Omens of War)

If you ever have questions about the monk class or are interested in joining the ranks of Diligence’s elite monk team, contact Aaddarya, any officer, team leader, or member of Diligence.


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