Comprehensive Monk Guide

Comprehensive Monk Guide File:Monk.jpg Type Square Spell Circles Minor Mental, Minor Spiritual Prime Requisites Agility, Strength Mana Statistics Wisdom, Logic

Physical Skills Skill Cost Ranks Two Weapon Combat 2/2 2 Armor Use 10/0 2 Shield Use 8/0 2 Combat Maneuvers 5/3 2 Edged Weapons 2/1 2 Blunt Weapons 3/1 2 Two-Handed Weapons 5/2 2 Ranged Weapons 4/1 2 Thrown Weapons 2/1 2 Polearm Weapons 6/2 2 Brawling 2/1 2 Ambush 3/2 2 Multi Opponent Combat 5/2 2 Physical Fitness 2/0 3 Dodging 1/1 3

Magical Skills Skill Cost Ranks Arcane Symbols 0/6 1 Magic Item Use 0/7 1 Spell Aiming 5/20 1 Harness Power 0/6 1 Elemental Mana Control 0/15 1 Mental Mana Control 0/8 1 Spirit Mana Control 0/8 1 Spell Research 0/38 1 Elemental Lore 0/40 1 Spiritual Lore 0/12 1 Sorcerous Lore 0/35 1 Mental Lore 0/12 1

General Skills Skill Cost Ranks Survival 2/2 2 Disarming Traps 3/4 2 Picking Locks 3/3 2 Stalking and Hiding 3/2 2 Perception 0/2 2 Climbing 1/0 2 Swimming 2/0 2 First Aid 1/2 2 Trading 0/3 2 Pickpocketing 2/2 2

About the Guide

This guide was originally created by Kithus and has been expanded upon by members of the Gemstone community from discussions via various forums, Discord chats and direct player input on GSWiki. Any and all contributions from the community are welcome!
Last Updated: 8/1/2020

Race and Stat Considerations

Racial Bonus To Starting Statistics (Sortable Table)

Race	Strength	Constitution	Dexterity	Agility	Discipline	Aura	Logic	Intuition	Wisdom	Influence	Total
Aelotoi	-5	0	5	10	5	0	5	5	0	-5	+20
Burghal gnome	-15	10	10	10	-5	5	10	5	0	-5	+25
Dark elf	0	-5	10	5	-10	10	0	5	5	-5	+15
Dwarf	10	15	0	-5	10	-10	5	0	0	-10	+15
Elf	0	0	5	15	-15	5	0	0	0	10	+20
Erithian	-5	10	0	0	5	0	5	0	0	10	+25
Forest gnome	-10	10	5	10	5	0	5	0	5	-5	+25
Giantman	15	10	-5	-5	0	-5	-5	0	0	5	+10
Half elf	0	0	5	10	-5	0	0	0	0	5	+15
Half krolvin	10	10	0	5	0	0	-10	0	-5	-5	+5
Halfling	-15	10	15	10	-5	-5	5	10	0	-5	+20
Human	5	0	0	0	0	0	5	5	0	0	+15
Sylvankind	0	0	10	5	-5	5	0	0	0	0	+15

What the UAF

Most monks are going to make use of Unarmed Combat (UAC). There are two factors that determine success with a UAC attack, Unarmed Factor (UAF) and Multiplier Modifier (MM). A monk's stats, specifically Strength and Agility, only have an impact on UAF. The UAF formula makes use of truncated STR bonus / 2 and truncated AGI bonus / 2. With that in mind the races provide the following total UAF increase, in descending order:

Race	STR Mod	AGI Mod	UAF Mod
Half-Krolvin	+10	+5	+7
Elf	0	+15	+7
Giantman	+15	-5	+5
Half-Elf	0	+10	+5
Dwarf	+10	-5	+3
Aelotoi	-5	+10	+3
Human	+5	0	+2
Dark Elf	0	+5	+2
Sylvan	0	+5	+2
Forest Gnome	-10	+10	0
Erithian	-5	0	-2
Halfling	-15	+10	-2
Burghal Gnome	-15	+10	-2

AgiDex

While a majority of monks make use of UAC, others have found a build utilizing Two-Handed Weapons or Polearms quite viable. For those builds one important factor is AgiDex, or the sum of the bonuses of a character's Dexterity and Agility. This combined total helps reduce the Roundtime of a physical attack by a specified amount:

Agility + Dexterity	Roundtime reduction
8 - 22	1
23 - 37	2
38 - 52	3
53 - 67	4
68 - 82	5
83 - 97	6
98 - 112	7
113+	8
Roundtime reductions above 5 are not achievable without enhancive items.

Pairing that table with the stat table above we can break it down to see each races theoretical maximum AgiDex, before enhancives:

5 RT Reduction	4 RT Reduction	3 RT Reduction
Halfling	Aelotoi	Erithian
Burghal gnome	Dark elf	Human
Elf	Forest gnome	Dwarf
	Half-elf	Giantman
	Sylvankind
	Half-Krolvin

This is important because weapons have a minimum RT, and a base RT. By taking the base RT and subtracting the AgiDex bonus we can find the unencumbered swing RT.

Strength

Strength bonus adds directly to melee AS. Any weapon using monk is going to want a decent Strength stat and will want to pair that with a decent AgiDex possibility. The table below shows the Strength stats of races compared to their AgiDex capability:

5 RT Reduction	STR Mod		4 RT Reduction	STR Mod		3 RT Reduction	STR Mod
Halfling	-15		Aelotoi	-5		Erithian	-5
Burghal gnome	-15		Dark elf	0		Human	5
Elf	0		Forest gnome	-10		Dwarf	10
			Half-elf	0		Giantman	15
			Sylvankind	0
			Half-krolvin	10

Other Racial Factors

Bear in mind that there are many other mechanical factors to consider when selecting a race. Not to mention all the role playing decisions. The weaker races, such as halflings and gnomes, tend to have much better maneuver defense than bigger, stronger races. As a trade off they also tend to have terrible encumbrance, while bigger races are able to carry quite a bit more. Elven races have bonuses to resisting disease and a small one to poison, but are slightly weaker against warding spells. Dwarves are less resistant to disease but also resistant to poison and have a bonus to warding off elemental magic, a major monk weakness. Halflings are slightly more resistant to poison, disease, and elemental magic than dwarves. Half-krolvin have natural heavy crit padding against cold attacks and suffer less from cold weather effects.

The races of Elanthia all have their pros and cons. They are well balanced and any one could make an excellent monk. Take into account the full picture, including mechanics and their cultural backgrounds, before you decide on a race for yours. Then you can likely pick a Half-Krolvin for that sweet UAF boost!

Skills

Physical Skills

• Armor Use Monks do not wear armor.
• Shield Use Monks do not use shields.
• Brawling Raises UAF.
• Weapon Use Raises AS with a particular Weapon.
• Two Weapon Combat Allows the monk to parry with both hands for extra DS.
• Combat Maneuvers +.5 UAF and Melee AS per rank and access to combat maneuvers.
• Multi-Opponent Combat Reduces penalties from force-on-force and allows for mstrike.
• Ambush Assists in aiming physical attacks.
• Physical Fitness HP growth, Stamina, Maneuver defense
• Dodge Generates evasion DS, a monk's primary defense.

Magical Skills

• Arcane Symbols Allows the use of and improves durations from scrolls.
• Magic Item Use Allows the use of and improves the durations from magic items.
• Harness Power 3 mana per training up to your level, 1 per after that.
• Spell Aiming Weapon training for bolts, which monks also do not use.
• Mana Control Allows the sharing of mana and improves your own mana regen. As the mental/spirit square monks have somewhat cheaper access to those two.
• Spell Research Learn spells and make those you already know better.
• Lores Incremental improvements to specific spells related to that lore.

Meditate Damage Reduction

Monks have the ability to MEDITATE on a specific damage type to receive resistance to that damage type for the next 4 hours and 10 minutes, or until they meditate on a different damage type. The amount of resistance is 10%, plus a 2% per a Seed 1 summation of Mental Lore, Transformation. The following damage types may be resisted:

• ACID
• COLD
• CRUSH
• DISINTEGRATION
• DISRUPTION
• ELECTRICAL
• GRAPPLE
• FIRE
• IMPACT
• PLASMA
• PUNCTURE
• SLASH
• STEAM
• UNBALANCE
• VACUUM

General Overview of Minor Mental Spells

Monks are the most magical square. That means they do not really have their own spell list but are expected to train in spells. Fortunately no one else is really using the Minor Mental list right now.

Buffing Spells

• Iron Skin (1202) Makes the caster's skin like armor. Monks gain a bonus to the AsG provided based on their monk levels.
• Foresight (1204) Generic DS bonus.
• Mindward (1208) Mental TD bonus.
• Dragonclaw (1209) UAF bonus and able to hit magical creatures with UAC.
• Brace (1214) Ability to PARRY physical attacks with bare hands.
• Blink (1215) Give a chance for a second opportunity to avoid a physical or bolt attack that would have hit.
• Premonition (1220) Generic scaling DS bonus.

Group Focus Spells

Focus spells provide a bonus with no set duration to the monk's group but each monk many only run one focus spell at a time.

• Mind Over Body (1213) Reduces stamina costs of abilities.
• Focus Barrier (1216) Large group DS boost.

Attack Spells

The minor mental list has several attack spells but only a few of them apply to a monk.

• Powersink (1203) Increases the time it takes for a target to prepare a spell.
• Force Projection (1207) Attempt to knock down a single target and inflict RT.
• Thought Lash (1210) Warding attack with a high chance of knockdown, causes negative crit padding on the target for 30 seconds.
• Confusion (1211) Warding attack that gives a target a chance to not attack or attack allies.
• Mental Dispel (1218) Dispel a single spell from target.
• Vertigo (1219) Warding spell that causes RT and knockdowns.

Miscellaneous Spells

• Soothing Word (1201) Removes negative emotion effects from a target (i.e. rage, fear, calm)
• Provoke (1235) Increase the spawn rate of creatures in an area.

Lores

Even though monks are a square they do get some benefits from lores. The primary benefits to a monk are found in Mental lores, specifically Mental Lore, Transformation or Mental Lore, Telepathy. While other spiritual and mental lores provide some benefit they are not generally worth spending points on.

Transformation lore provides the following benefits:

• Iron Skin (1202) Increases the AsG of Iron Skin by 1 every 5 * Seed 1 summation ranks.
• Dragonclaw (1209) Increases the UAF bonus by a Seed 1 summation.
• Brace (1214) Increases the chance to disarm an attacker by 2% per Seed 3 summation.
  

Telepathy lore provides the following benefits:

• Soothing Word (1201) 25 ranks grants the ability to remove sheer fear from a target and provide immunity to it for 30 seconds.
• Confusion (1211) Improves the chances for the target to perform a more favorable action every 20 skill.
• Mind Over Body (1213) Increase the stamina cost reduction by 5% per skill/10 on a Seed 3 summation.
• Provoke (1235) Increases the generation rate for sentient creatures in the area by 1 per 15 ranks.

Training

This is broken down into Core Training, and Discrete Training.

• Core training includes skills you train in a certain amount each level for that build.
• Discrete Training includes skills that you want to hit a breakpoint on.

Common Core Training

Core training for ANY monk:

• 2x Dodging (3/3)
• 2x Physical Fitness (6/0)
• 2x Combat Maneuvers (15/9)
• 1x Perception (0/2)
  

Total: (10/30)

Common Discrete Training

• 50 Ranks Climbing
• 50 Ranks Swimming

Unarmed Monk

For the most part, when it comes to monks, everybody is kung-fu fighting. All the cool kids are, in fact, as fast as lightning, due to Burst of Swiftness. In all seriousness the release a monks prompted a whole new combat system to be created and they are designed to take advantage of it. While it could be argued that rogues are the best UAC users, monks make a pretty strong case.

Unarmed Monk Core Training

#	Cost	Skill
2x	3/3	Dodging
2x	6/0	Physical Fitness
2x	15/9	Combat Maneuvers
2x	6/3	Brawling
1x	0/2	Perception
.5x	1/1	Two Weapon Combat
.33x	0/2	Harness Power
	31/20	Total

Unarmed Monk Discreet Training

# Ranks	Cost	Skill	Notes
56	Spell Research	To learn 120 and 1235, plus one rank to gain some extra points of TD and DS from spells.
50	2/0	Climbing	By level 100, train this as needed to make climb checks prior to that.
50	2/0	Swimming	By level 100, train this as needed to make swim checks prior to that.

Optional Additional Training

A list of the most common skills to use your additional training points on.

#	Cost	Skill	Notes
3x	4/4	Dodging	Monks gain roughly .75 offensive DS per dodge rank, making the difference between 2x and 3x at cap an amazing 75 DS. This is a huge buff to survivability.
55 ranks	5/2	Multi Opponent Combat	UAC mstrike is impressive and gains the benefit of an extra free jab on fresh targets.
30 ranks	3/2	Ambush	Useful, especially at higher levels, to target attacks at critical spots once the critter is tiered up.
5-75 ranks	0/12	Mental Lore, Transformation	Increases the AsG of Iron Skin (1202) at 5, 15, 30, 50, and 75 ranks.
6-30 Ranks	0/12	Mental Lore, Telepathy	Increases the stamina reduction of Mind Over Body (1213) by 5% each at 6, 15, and 30 ranks.
25 ranks	0/8	Mental Mana Control	Share with other mental casters, gain a use of MANA SPELLUP.
25 ranks	0/8	Spiritual Mana Control	Share with other mental casters, gain a use of MANA SPELLUP.
	0/6	Arcane Symbols	For scroll reading.
	0/7	Magic Item Use	For magic items.

Spell Training

Monk spell training is best done in bursts. It can be good to pick up multiple ranks of spells, even at the cost of letting core skills slide a bit, to reach a specific spell.

• Minor Mental to 1220 and Minor Spiritual to 103 - By early 30s
• Minor Spiritual to 120 - By 60s
• Minor Mental to 1235 - By cap

Combat Maneuvers

As a square, monks have access to a large variety of combat maneuvers. There are more useful maneuvers than any monk will ever have the points to train in. There is one monk only maneuver that stands above everything else and should typically be the first taken by any monk. That maneuver is Perfect Self, which provides +2 per rank to every single stat, up to +10 total. Unfortunately, this maneuver requires 3 ranks in both Surge of Strength and Burst of Swiftness as prerequisites. They are both good maneuvers on their own right and the benefits of Perfect Self would make them worth it even if they were not.

Perfect Self cannot be maximized before level 30, due to the cap on points for a single skill per level. A monk that is 2x in combat maneuvers will find that there are more CM points available than can be spent on Perfect Self and its prerequisites. Those points are best spent in a few key areas, as are the next few after maximizing Perfect Self.

The other "must have" maneuvers for an unarmed monk are:

• Punch Mastery/Grapple Mastery/Kick Mastery: These skills increase the monk's MM with the requisite skill by 5 per rank over 3 ranks. As the unarmed monk's primary attacks one or all of these should be trained.
• Combat Mobility: This simple, two rank maneuver will provide a 50/100% chance to stand up automatically when attacked while not stunned but knocked over.
• Evade Mastery: Improves the chance to outright dodge an attack for someone wearing robes by 9% per rank, up to 27% total.
• Rolling Krynch Stance: Allows the monk to carry over their attack tier from one foe to another if done in quick succession.

From there it is personal preference but other greats include:

• Combat Focus: A generic +2 TD per rank to help cover a monk's greatest weakness
• Ki Focus: Gives a 33/66/100% chance to automatically tier up on the next UAC attack used.
• Inner Harmony: Shake off negative status effects every 30 seconds, rank 3 should be the goal to immediately remove a status upon switching into this stance from Krynch.
• Feint: Make something flinch to open them up to a bigger attack.

For those that do not want to think about it:

Surge of Strength - 3 ranks (12 points)

Burst of Swiftness - 3 ranks (12 points)

Perfect Self - 5 Ranks (30 points)

Punch Mastery - 3 Ranks (24 points)

Kick Mastery - 3 Ranks (24 points)

Grapple Mastery - 3 Ranks (24 points)

Rolling Krynch Stance - 3 Ranks (24 points)

Combat Mobility - 2 Ranks (15 points)

Evade Mastery - 3 Ranks (24 points)

Combat Focus - 3 Ranks (12 points)

Total Points - 201

UAC Tips and Tricks

Tiering Up

When first attacking a target, assuming Krynch Stance is not in effect, the attack will start at decent positioning. At decent positioning, UAC attacks are at their weakest in both damage and crit potential. Tiering up simply requires hitting a target and following up appropriately. Masteries will occasionally (up to 15% of the time) cause an automatic tier up with that specific attack form. Jab also has an improved chance to tier up. Most often an opening to a specific attack type will allow for an increase of tier. Specifically "strike leaves foe vulnerable to a followup X attack". After receiving this message, simply perform the specified attack. That will tier the target up to good, and then excellent positioning. Each tier increases the damage and crit potential of UAC attacks against the target.

The first attack at decent positioning:

You attempt to punch a krag yeti!

You have decent positioning against a krag yeti.

UAF: 434 vs UDF: 348 = 1.247 * MM: 122 + d100: 26 = 178

... and hit for 28 points of damage!

Low punch bruises the inside of the krag yeti's right knee, but barely causes a limp.

The krag yeti starts to favor its wounded leg!

Strike leaves foe vulnerable to a followup punch attack!

Roundtime: 3 sec.

Then at good positioning, note the lower UDF, Higher MM and much better overall damage and crit:

You attempt to punch a krag yeti!

You have good positioning against a krag yeti.

UAF: 434 vs UDF: 323 = 1.343 * MM: 122 + d100: 60 = 223

... and hit for 57 points of damage!

Rotating backhand cleanly snaps tibia!

A krag yeti collapses to the ground and grasps its mangled right leg!

The krag yeti is stunned!

Spirit Barrier (102)

As a Monk, it is typically not hard to hit things, even if they are in stance defensive. Spirit Barrier (102) lowers UAF and increases DS. Often this trade off is worth it for a monk. In the first example below the monk has Spirit Barrier on. For the second it is turned off. Despite the difference in UAF, neither have any trouble hitting a like-level creature. As such it is often appropriate to take advantage of the increase DS.

>jab

You attempt to jab a krag yeti!

You have decent positioning against a krag yeti.

UAF: 439 vs UDF: 410 = 1.070 * MM: 99 + d100: 84 = 190

... and hit for 5 points of damage!

Low jab glances off the right thigh.

Roundtime: 2 sec.

A krag yeti tries to ensnare you!

AS: +373 vs DS: +439 with AvD: +38 + d100 roll: +41 = +13

A clean miss.

>stop 102

With a moment's concentration, you terminate the Spirit Barrier spell.

The air calms down around you.

>jab

You attempt to jab a krag yeti!

You have decent positioning against a krag yeti.

UAF: 468 vs UDF: 410 = 1.141 * MM: 107 + d100: 94 = 216

... and hit for 9 points of damage!

Solid blow to upper left arm.

Roundtime: 2 sec.

A krag yeti tries to ensnare you!

AS: +373 vs DS: +410 with AvD: +38 + d100 roll: +1 = +2

A clean miss.

Rolling Krynch Stance In Action

When Rolling Krynch Stance is active the monk will position themselves in order to apply momentum from a previous unarmed strike against one foe to their next unarmed strike against a different foe. Thus providing a chance to immediately raise their attack tier against the second foe. Essentially it is a chance for a free tier up to good or excellent on subsequent creatures after killing one. There is a message to show that the bonus was received, highlighted in the example below. Note that this attack was made just after killing another creature at an excellent positioning.

You attempt to punch a krag dweller!

You exploit the momentum of your previous strike to make a stronger attack against a krag dweller!

You have excellent positioning against a krag dweller. < ---- Start at excellent positioning

UAF: 439 vs UDF: 368 = 1.192 * MM: 91 + d100: 36 = 144

... and hit for 34 points of damage!

Well executed strike to the krag dweller's left leg fractures the fibula.

The krag dweller is knocked to the ground!

Roundtime: 3 sec.

Two-Handed Weapon Monk

Monks are built from the ground up to use Unarmed Combat, just like Wizards were built from the ground up to use bolts. Obviously some wizards buck the trend and swing around a big weapon instead and some monks do as well. While many minor mental spells will provide no real benefit to a Two-Handed monk, the excellent combat maneuver selection and cheap Dodge training make it a surprisingly effective build. Not to mention the one-two strike of Force Wave followed by a katana to the face. Note that Polearms are a possibility but they will cost an additional 3/0 TPs per level to train in, making points even tighter.

Two-Handed Core Training

#	Cost	Skill
3x	7/7	Dodging
2x	6/0	Physical Fitness
2x	15/9	Combat Maneuvers
2x	15/6	Two-Handed Weapons
1x	0/2	Perception
.33x	0/2	Harness Power
	43/26	Total

Unarmed Monk Discreet Training

# Ranks	Cost	Skill	Notes
56	Spell Research	To learn 120 and 1235, plus one rank to gain some extra points of TD and DS from spells.
50	2/0	Climbing	By level 100, train this as needed to make climb checks prior to that.
50	2/0	Swimming	By level 100, train this as needed to make swim checks prior to that.

Optional Additional Training

A list of the most common skills to use your additional training points on.

#	Cost	Skill	Notes
55 ranks	5/2	Multi Opponent Combat	Swing a big weapon around at multiple things or several times at one thing
30 ranks	3/2	Ambush	The only thing better than a big hit is a big hit in the right spot.
5-75 ranks	0/12	Mental Lore, Transformation	Increases the AsG of Iron Skin (1202) at 5, 15, 30, 50, and 75 ranks.
6-30 Ranks	0/12	Mental Lore, Telepathy	Increases the stamina reduction of Mind Over Body (1213) by 5% each at 6, 15, and 30 ranks.
25 ranks	0/8	Mental Mana Control	Share with other mental casters, gain a use of MANA SPELLUP.
25 ranks	0/8	Spiritual Mana Control	Share with other mental casters, gain a use of MANA SPELLUP.
	0/6	Arcane Symbols	For scroll reading.
	0/7	Magic Item Use	For magic items.

Spell Training

Monk spell training is best done in bursts. It can be good to pick up multiple ranks of spells, even at the cost of letting core skills slide a bit, to reach a specific spell.

• Minor Mental to 1220 and Minor Spiritual to 103 - By early 30s
• Minor Spiritual to 120 - By 60s
• Minor Mental to 1235 - By cap

Combat Maneuvers

As a square, monks have access to a large variety of combat maneuvers. There are more useful maneuvers than any monk will ever have the points to train in. There is one monk only maneuver that stands above everything else and should typically be the first taken by any monk. That maneuver is Perfect Self, which provides +2 per rank to every single stat, up to +10 total. Unfortunately, this maneuver requires 3 ranks in both Surge of Strength and Burst of Swiftness as prerequisites. They are both good maneuvers on their own right and the benefits of Perfect Self would make them worth it even if they were not.

Perfect Self cannot be maximized before level 30, due to the cap on points for a single skill per level. A monk that is 2x in combat maneuvers will find that there are more CM points available than can be spent on Perfect Self and its prerequisites. Those points are best spent in a few key areas, as are the next few after maximizing Perfect Self.

The other "must haves" for a Two-Handed Monk are:

• Combat Mobility: This simple, two rank maneuver will provide a 50/100% chance to stand up automatically when attacked while not stunned but knocked over.
• Evade Mastery: Improves the chance to outright dodge an attack for someone wearing robes by 9% per rank, up to 27% total.
• Slippery Mind: This is evade mastery but for warding spells, and a martial stance, granting a robe wearer 27% chance at rank 3 of outright avoiding a warding spell. Since THW Monks are not using Krynch, they get to use this.

From there it is personal preference but other greats include:

• Combat Focus: A generic +2 TD per rank to help cover a monk's greatest weakness
• Inner Harmony: Shake off negative status effects every 30 seconds, rank 3 should be the goal to immediately remove a status upon switching into this stance from Slippery Mind.
• Feint: Make something flinch to open them up to a bigger attack.
• Disarm Weapon: As a THW monk actually uses a weapon this can be beneficial both offensively and defensively.
• Internal Power: Recover health points and heal minor wounds at higher ranks.

For those that do not want to think about it:

Surge of Strength - 3 ranks (12 points)

Burst of Swiftness - 3 ranks (12 points)

Perfect Self - 5 Ranks (30 points)

Combat Mobility - 2 Ranks (15 points)

Evade Mastery - 3 Ranks (24 points)

Slipper Mind - 3 Ranks (24 points)

Combat Focus - 3 Ranks (12 points)

Disarm Weapon - 5 Ranks (30 points)

Feint - 4 Ranks (17 points)

Inner Harmony - 3 Ranks (24 points)

Cunning Defense - 1 Rank (2 points)

Total Points - 202

Societies

Elanthia currently has 3 Societies to choose from; The Council of Light (CoL), Voln, and Guardians of Sunfist (GoS). Each offers unique bonuses and role play opportunities.

CoL

COL is the society for people who love big numbers. The society offers very little outside of the core AS/DS benefits, but those additional benefits are pretty nice mechanically.
Sign of Staunching stops all bleeding for 1 mana.
Sign of Healing is full Health for 2 spirit.
Sign of Wracking is full mana for 5 spirit.
Sign of Darkness is a teleport back to town for 6 spirit.
The other signs offer an overall gain of 35 AS, 35 DS, 20 Ranged/Spell DS, and 15 TD.

Keeping some of these signs up costs spirit. Fortunately, CoL sign duration is 10 seconds per level. At cap that is a duration of 16 minutes, 40 seconds. Even a dark elf could stagger signs enough to regen the 3 spirit required for the AS/DS/TD signs, and still remain barely static. Although, a dark elf cannot reasonably do that before level 90, they could always just leave off one of the 3 spirit using signs. Of course, a Dark Elf could not make the same use out of Sign of Wracking, due to the slow spirit regen.

Overall CoL offers decent abilities and low upkeep costs, but spirit can be burdensome for some races.

GoS

Sunfist is an attractive option, depending on your playstyle. It provies less overall AS/DS than CoL, at only +30 max but more TD at +20. The Sigil of Major Bane also offers heavy crit weighting to all AS/DS attacks against Hated Enemites. On the defensive side, they receive -5 DS relative to CoL, but they also get Heavy Crit padding with Sigil of Major Protection.

Sigil of Power converts 50 stamina to 25 mana, which can be great for Archer rangers who have little use for stamina, leaving stamina free
Sigil of Escape provides protection against Stun/web/binds/etc, once per day. This is definitely going to save your life at times and is a nice alternative to 1040.
Sigil of Mending provides a +10 boost to health recovery and allows you to eat any herb in 3 seconds.<br. Sigil of Concentration provides a +10 boost to mana recovery per pulse.
The other major attraction of GoS is the ability to Warcamp. These self contained hunting grounds generate Grimswarm creatures of a specific race; Troll, Orc, or Giant. They can be one of many professions and have the abilities to match. Camps can be more dangerous than regular hunting grounds but they are also a place you can fry very quickly.

The downside to Sunfist is that the duration and costs of their sigils are static. You are going to be spending a large amount of mana/stamina to keep sigils up throughout a hunt and it takes some effort to keep them running. For the base AS/DS boosts, you are only looking at 10 mana/10 Stamina every 5 minutes. If you want the Sigil of Major Bane and Sigil of Major Protection for the additional +10 AS/DS and heavy weighting/padding it will cost an additional 20 mana and 25 stamina per minute. Compare that to the 6 mana and 3 spirit CoL members pay for 15 minutes of all of their AS/DS/TD signs. The sigils are a much higher mana cost but at the same time, they do not cost spirit.

Voln

Voln was recently redone. It now offers +26 AS to all critters, +39 against undead, +26 DS, and +13 TD.

Symbol of blessing allows for easy hunting of undead. The ability to UAC without needing a bless can be helpful but gloves and boots will not add their bonuses unless they are blessed. The Symbol of mana is attractive at 50 mana every 5 minutes. It is not as powerful at the top end as others but there is no downside to usage.

Symbol of dreams is nice, health/mana/spirit/stats recovery. Good to use post-death along with Symbol of Recall, which restores your spells after you die.

Additionally, Voln has a societal teleportation system where the back of their society has pocket portals to everywhere. One of which is the Rift. It is a godsend for Rift hunters.

Voln's symbols work off favor, which you accumulate through hunting undead. This is a non-issue if you are hunting undead regularly. With the ability to strike undead without needing a bless, UAC monks have a very easy time. Two-Handed Monks will need to have a blessable weapon. Undead are typically pretty easy targets to hunt relative to other critters at like levels, so a lot of time is typically spent hunting them.

Useful Links

• Flimbo's Monk Guide: This guide has a lot of useful insights and a colorful sense of humor. Some of the combat snippets here were borrowed from Flimbo's guide.
• Unarmed Combat: All the information about the UAC system.