Leafiara (prime)/Mechanical Musings/The Autumnwinds' Magical Monk Guide: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:45, 2 March 2025

This is a guide, tutorial, or gameplay strategy written by one or more players to better assist others with their gameplay enjoyment. The information presented here may be subject to the personal opinion of the contributor(s), and may additionally require periodic updates to keep current as the game environment changes.

Title: The Autumnwinds' Magical Monk Guide

Author: Leafiara

Date Published: 2024-06-19

Updated: 2025-03-02

By Leafiara Autumnwind, in loving memory of Saraphenia Autumnwind.

Last updated March 2, 2025.

Feel free to message me on Discord, send a thought, send player mail, or otherwise get feedback to me.

Introduction: How to Use This Guide

This guide is for all magical monks from 0 exp to 46,000,000! (What do I mean by a magical monk? One not using Kroderine Soul. Somebody else will have to write that guide!) I'll go over monks' strengths, weaknesses, other unique qualities, things to consider, others' perspectives that I hear about, training plans, and so on.

This guide is exhaustive within its scope, or at least it can be.

If you want an exhaustive guide, read through it in order.
If you want the opposite of an exhaustive guide, jump to the "tl;dr Recap: Cookie Cutter" section at the end.
If you're not sure whether you want an exhaustive guide, read the "Why Play a Monk" section to see if monks sound cool, then jump to the Cookie Cutter section at the end, then read the rest if you're intrigued afterward. The Cookie Cutter section provides an overview of what to do and gives a small window into what the rest of the guide covers, which is why to do it.

I've made each section collapsible for easy navigation, but I try to scatter nuggets of wisdom for all experience levels all throughout!

Speaking of experience, what's mine? I capped my monk Tarine before the combat modernizations of 2020 and 2021, helped Saraphenia with her training (both on paper and as a hunting duo) from level 43 to about 9 million exp between 2022 and April 2024, and I'm now working on my monk Sariara, who filled in my knowledge gap before level 43 in the modern world.

Speaking of Saraphenia, who created many monks and enjoyed them more than any other profession, I think of this guide like our joint project. She would have had the passion and interest to create it, but not the knowledge and time. I have the knowledge and time, but wouldn't have had the passion or interest--at least on my own. When I say I've written this guide in loving memory, I truly mean it. If even a few more players find monks even half as exciting as Phenia did because of what they read here, I'll call it a job well done!

No further ado. Let's get on with it!

(Want to read the entire guide? Click here to uncollapse all sections at once!)

Why Play a Monk or Why Not Play a Monk?

Pondering the appeal of why to play a monk at all? Click here!

Character Creation

Need to walk through the creation of your monk? Click here!

Unarmed Combat Primer

Still figuring out how unarmed combat works? Click here!

Let's go over the unarmed combat system in more detail! If you're familiar with more conventional melee combat, put that knowledge aside--a great deal of it won't apply and might even interfere with understanding!

Beginner Basics

JAB, GRAPPLE, KICK, and PUNCH are your tools of the trade. What's the difference? Have a look at this table from the unarmed combat system page.

Attack Type	AG	Cloth	Leather	Scale	Chain	Plate	Base RT	Min RT	Damage Type
Jab	DF	.100	.075	.060	.050	.040	2	2	Jab
Punch	DF	.275	.250	.200	.170	.140	3	3	Punch
Grapple	DF	.250	.200	.160	.120	.100	3	3	Grapple
Kick	DF	.400	.350	.300	.250	.200	4	4	Kick

The higher the decimal numbers, the stronger the attack, but the lower the RT numbers, the faster the attack. Summarizing these tables:

Jabs: Weak, but fast.
Punches: Moderate speed and moderate power.
Grapples: Moderate speed and moderate power, but less of the latter than punches.
Kicks: Powerful, but slow (at least by UC standards).

The use case for punches and kicks seems clear, but why jab when it's so weak and why grapple if punches are the same speed with more strength?

One answer that applies to both jabs and grapples is the defining component of unarmed combat: positioning. There are three positions: Decent, Good, and Excellent. Going up the ladder drastically increases the power of all four attack types. To improve your monk's position, follow the combat prompts as they appear. Here's an example:

You attempt to jab a mezic!
As you strike, a deep golden light surrounds your hands!
You have decent positioning against a mezic.
 UAF: 244 vs UDF: 210 = 1.161 * MM: 85 + d100: 39 = 137
 ... and hit for 4 points of damage!
 Fast slap only reddens the cheek.
 Strike leaves foe vulnerable to a followup grapple attack!
Roundtime: 2 sec.

Let's take the cue to grapple:

You attempt to grapple a mezic!
You have good positioning against a mezic.
 UAF: 244 vs UDF: 269 = 0.907 * MM: 100 + d100: 60 = 150
 ... and hit for 41 points of damage!
 Repeated blows to both sides of the head dizzies foe!
 The mezic is stunned!
The mezic's movements slow to a crawl!
A mezic appears dazed and unsure.

As you can see, the followup was significantly more powerful. That's partly because the endroll is higher, partly because grapples are stronger than jabs, and partly because good positioning is much better than decent positioning. Here's one more example, this time going from good to excellent:

You attempt to jab a mezic!
You exploit the momentum of your previous strike to make a stronger attack against a mezic!
You have good positioning against a mezic.
 UAF: 244 vs UDF: 223 = 1.094 * MM: 87 + d100: 51 = 146
 ... and hit for 15 points of damage!
 Blow to kidney!
 The mezic is stunned!
 Strike leaves foe vulnerable to a followup grapple attack!
Roundtime: 2 sec.

[2 seconds later...]

You attempt to grapple a mezic!
You have excellent positioning against a mezic.
 UAF: 244 vs UDF: 223 = 1.094 * MM: 106 + d100: 43 = 158
 ... and hit for 48 points of damage!
 Powerful tug pulls right hip, and leg, free of the socket!
  A mezic falls to the ground grasping her mangled right leg!
Roundtime: 3 sec.

This time the jab started at good positioning because of Rolling Krynch Stance (more on that in the Martial Stances section), but the followup grapple was still far more powerful. Tiering up is crucial!

Bonus Tip!
Setting highlights can help! Since the text prompt is...
Strike leaves foe vulnerable to a followup [jab/grapple/kick/punch] attack!
...you can either create four highlights for each individual message or create a highlight for Strike leaves foe vulnerable to a followup, then four more highlights for jab attack! and the others.

So, in unarmed combat's most basic form at the lowest levels, the use cases for each attack type are:

Jabs: Dig for tier up opportunities to get away from decent positioning or even good positioning as quickly as possible.
Punches: A half-and-half option during good positioning, in which punches have minor potential to kill, but are also reasonably fast at digging for tier up opportunities toward excellent positioning.
Grapples: Only when needed to tier up.
Kicks: Deliver a finishing blow during excellent positioning.

In later levels, things like mstrikes, techniques, and flares will throw generalizations out the window and create far stronger cases for jabs and grapples, which we'll get into later, but let's keep exploring the basics to lay the foundation.

UAF, UDF, and MM

If you're used to GemStone's AS-based attacks, you probably noticed how different the combat messaging looks for unarmed combat. You might also have noticed that my monk Sariara hit a creature with higher UDF than her UAF:

You attempt to grapple a mezic!
You have good positioning against a mezic.
 UAF: 244 vs UDF: 269 = 0.907 * MM: 100 + d100: 60 = 150
 ... and hit for 41 points of damage!
 Repeated blows to both sides of the head dizzies foe!
 The mezic is stunned!
The mezic's movements slow to a crawl!
A mezic appears dazed and unsure.

Let's look at an even more extreme example that doesn't go as well:

You attempt to grapple a spectral shade!
You have good positioning against a spectral shade.
 UAF: 244 vs UDF: 357 = 0.683 * MM: 85 + d100: 44 = 102
 ... and hit for 1 point of damage!
 The spectral shade shakes off a weak arm grab.

This is why I say you have to ignore what you know about AS-based combat.

UAF isn't irrelevant, but the more important numbers are UDF and the multiplier modifier (MM). While melee weapons, ranged weapons, and bolts calculate endrolls by subtraction and addition, unarmed combat calculates outcomes by division, multiplication, and addition.

What does that mean in practice? Higher lows and lower highs. It's rare that a monk outright couldn't possibly hit an enemy creature. Even in my spectral shade example, improving my MM or getting a higher d100 roll could have easily turned that into a powerful hit. On the flip side, since your UAF gets divided by enemy UDF, increasing your UAF additively (e.g. training more ranks of Brawling) means much less than decreasing enemy UDF by the same amount.

The primary means to decrease enemy UDF and increase your MM are generally the same: reducing your foes' stances and decreasing their EBP ability by reducing stats or inflicting conditions like stunning, immobilizing, or blinding them.

Bonus Tip!
Unlike AS-based melee attacks, UC attacks have the same UAF in offensive or defensive stance. Instead, MM is what drops so low in defensive that it can even become a negative number! This used to occasionally trip up Phenia's player, who was used to looking at the first number in a typical AS or CS combat equation. Even when you do know what to look for, MM is deep enough into the visible formula that it's often easier to figure out that you're in the wrong stance because everything's failing to hit; that was how I'd take notice and Leafi would tell her to fix up her stance.
Also unlike AS-based melee attacks, lying down not only doesn't reduce your UAF, but also doesn't even reduce your MM! Jabs, grapples, and punches can all be thrown at full power from the ground, so if you're not paying attention, you could be fighting from your back and not even know it! You'd find out once you tried to throw a kick or use an ability such as Twin Hammerfists or Fury, though.

Fun Sidebar!
Monks and unarmed combat have existed for almost twelve years, but only a single hunting ground--the Atoll, for capped characters--has dared to release enemy creatures who use UC attacks. Why? Probably because no attainable UDF number can save you if they get to a high MM against you. UC is a dangerous tool in the hands--and feet--of enemy creatures and players alike!

Mstrikes

As you train Multi-Opponent Combat and Brawling (more on that in the Skills section), you'll eventually be able to use mstrikes or weapon techniques. (I'll refer to these as "techniques" from here on; despite the name, the brawling "weapon techniques" don't require weapons--unless you're thinking of your monk's hands and feet as weapons!) Mstrikes, assault techniques, and Area of Effect (AoE) techniques are your means to fit more attacks into less time.

Covering mstrikes first!

Mstrikes with no target specified, AKA unfocused mstrikes, can attack two opponents in one command at 5 Multi-Opponent combat ranks, then add more opponents at 15, 35, 60, 100, and 155 MOC ranks. Mstrikes with a target specified, AKA focused mstrikes, can attack a single opponent twice in one command at 30 MOC ranks, then add more attacks at 55, 90, 135, and 190.

For unarmed combat only, mstrikes also throw a bonus jab at enemies when you're at decent positioning against them. Once you're into good positioning, mstrikes either use an attack type that you specify (e.g. MSTRIKE KICK) or, if you have an opportunity to tier up, your mstrike will switch to the appropriate type as needed. At decent positioning, mstrike will always jab (bonus or otherwise) until it finds a tier up.

Mstrikes sort of have a cooldown after use, which is 15-20 seconds or so (depending on training). When on "cooldown," you can still mstrike, but they'll consume a good chunk of stamina. (I can't give an exact number because it depends on how many hits are in your mstrike and which attack types are used.) When not on cooldown, mstrikes cost no stamina! Focused and unfocused mstrikes share the same cooldown timer.

Mstrike RT is frontloaded into a single burst and all attacks fire off at once. How much RT depends on the number of attacks and which attack types, but it'll be more attacks per RT than throwing single strikes would have been. However, be aware that it can reach times of 8 seconds or more early in a monk's life, especially if you're a low Agidex race or have made a hard push for high MOC ranks to have more attacks early! As an odd quirk, encumbrance doesn't increase mstrike RT.

Fury and Clash

The unarmed combat assault technique is Fury, which you learn with 25 ranks of Brawling (level 11). It attacks a single foe twice at 10 ranks of MOC, then adds one more attack at 24, 50, 100, 150, and 200. There's no bonus jab, however. Like with mstrikes, you can specify an attack type (e.g. WEAPON FURY GRAPPLE) and, at good positioning or better, Fury will do what you said or switch as needed for a tier up. At decent positioning, Fury will only jab until it finds the tier up. Using Fury also grants the monk and their party members a +10 Constitution effect for two minutes after being used, though it's not a major selling point.

The AoE unarmed combat technique is Clash, which you learn with 50 ranks of Brawling (level 23). It begins with three foes, then adds one more at the same thresholds as Fury: 10, 24, 50, 100, 150, and 200. Like Fury, Clash doesn't include a bonus jab. At good positioning or better, it uses your specified UC attack type or switches to the appropriate tier up type; however, since Clash only throws one attack per creature, a tier up opportunity would have needed to exist before Clash was used. (Fury and mstrikes, on the other hand, can find tier up opportunities and seize on them within their own self-contained string of attacks.) At decent positioning, Clash can only throw jabs.

Techniques cost a small, flat amount of stamina (15 for Fury and 20 for Clash), then enter a cooldown period of 15-20 seconds or so )(depending on training). Unlike mstrikes, Fury and Clash can't be used while they're on cooldown. They do have separate cooldown timers, so you can alternate between them.

What you can't alternate is mstrikes with Fury and Clash. Using an mstrike locks you out of Fury and Clash for 60 seconds. On the flip side, you can use an mstrike right after Fury or Clash if needed, but those techniques activate the mstrike cooldown, so it'll cost stamina. All of this is because former GM Naijin, the creator of techniques, didn't intend for players to insert mstrikes into their rotation as a means to dodge around technique cooldowns. For this reason, many players pick whichever they prefer out of mstrikes or assault and AoE weapon techniques and ignore the other. (I use both, though, as I explain in the Training Plan section!)

RT-wise, much like mstrikes, Fury and Clash are difficult to nail down exact numbers on. However, they both seem to have lower max RT (unless encumbered; encumbrance affects techniques) and Fury definitely has lower minimum RT. Fury divides its RT over individual strikes instead of all at once. For example, if Fury has 5 RT worth of attacks, enough MOC to strike three times, and a certain amount of Agidex (again, difficult to pin down an exact amount), it'll execute them as 2 RT, 2 RT, and 1 RT.

Fury's structure has upsides and downsides. You'll have less RT overall if the early rounds kill the creature. If an emergency comes up mid-Fury, you can interrupt your own attack to leave the room, cast a spell, disable a different foe, etc. On the other hand, enemy creatures can also interrupt your Fury by leaving the room, stunning you mid-Fury, etc. It's also less likely that your target will be dead the moment your command gets sent to the server since attacks don't happen all at once.

Twin Hammerfists and Spin Kick

The other two UC techniques are Twin Hammerfists and Spin Kick, respectively learned at 10 and 75 ranks of Brawling (level 3 and 36 (or level 35 if you use your first Ascension Milestone point on Brawling)). Unlike Fury and Clash, using mstrikes won't lock you out of them.

Twin Hammerfists is an Standard Maneuver Roll (SMR) style attack and an incredible setup that tries to knock down the foe, put it in RT, stun it, and add the Vulnerable status condition--all in one technique! At only 2 RT and 7 stamina, it's a staple that can serve monks well from level 4 onward and potentially even for the rest of their lives.

Spin Kick is a reaction technique--a retaliation maneuver--that can kick a foe after your monk evades an attack. It has 2 RT, costs no stamina, and can even be used while in RT, so it can save you in a tough situation. Like Twin Hammerfists, it's an SMR-based attack. Unlike Twin Hammerfists, Spin Kick isn't a setup; it has real killing power if it rolls high. Spin Kick performs best against enemies with poor maneuver defense, like lumbering tanky creatures or magic users, and performs worst against enemies with excellent maneuver defense, like speedy four-legged animals or creatures patterned after warriors.

Bonus Tip!
If highlighting tier up opportunities goes well for you, then You could use this opportunity to Spin Kick! is another message to consider highlighting from level 35-36 on!

Beyond Basics: Synchronizing Everything

So far, I've written this unarmed combat primer as if players have no gear and hunting is universally optimized by killing creatures as quickly as possible. In these contexts, obviously punches and kicks seem great, jabs and grapples might seem like something we do only out of necessity for tiering up, and Twin Hammerfists and Spin Kick might seem like more style than substance.

However, players do have gear and sometimes going on the all-out offensive is more likely to get players killed than their enemies, so let's put everything together into a cohesive whole.

Flaring gear gets better the faster the attack--and there are a wide variety of flares available these days! Most people will never reach a double digit number of possible flares per attack (though it is possible), but two to six possible flares per attack are shockingly easy to get hold of these days via the traditional ability slot ("flare slot"), script slot, and some help from clerics, paladins, rogues, or sorcerers in giving holy water/fire, Battle Standards, Poisoncraft, or Ensorcell respectively.

Here's an example of a Twin Hammerfists firing off three flares:

Sariara raises her hands high, laces them together and brings them crashing down towards the crimson angargeist
[SMR result: 316 (Open d100: 89, Bonus: 107)]
Perfectly executed strike to the crimson angargeist's back!  It staggers!
The attack exposes a vulnerability in a roiling crimson angargeist's defenses!

** Sariara's owl-painted handwraps emit a searing bolt of lightning! **
  ... 20 points of damage!
  Hard shot to the crimson angargeist's back sends it drifting forward!

** Sariara's owl-painted handwraps spray forth a shower of pure water! **
  ... 60 points of damage!
  Incredible strike to the crimson angargeist's back smashes through the chest!
  Too bad it melts back together.
Riotous ivory-haloed scarlet energy races along the surface of the handwraps, slender tendrils rising up to coalesce into the ethereal form of a keen-eyed owl.

** Talons extended and wings flared, a keen-eyed ethereal owl dives down with an ear-piercing hoot as a flock of wispy ivory-haloed scarlet owls roil forth in an angry torrent! **

  ... 30 points of damage!
  Strong strike splits the belly open, revealing ghostly organs.
  Haggis anyone?

The odds of all three flares coming together is only 0.8%, so this is an outlier that I might only see every one or two hunts, but it's a great illustration because of the particulars. First of all, this is a level 110 creature, so I did mean it when I said Twin Hammerfists can be good through a monk's entire life. That's the least interesting thing to say here, though.

The flares did 110 damage and would have done 160-210 if I were finished upgrading to holy fire instead of holy water. Angargeists are non-corporeal undead. Normally Kai's Smite would be extremely helpful since the holy water flare here was strong enough to kill corporeal undead, but with this specific creature, even turning it corporeal doesn't allow for one-shotting it; you have to take out its entire health pool.

2 RT attacks like jabs, Twin Hammerfists, and Spin Kick shine when a high number of possible flares makes both your average attacks and outlier attacks significantly stronger. That much is true whether the creature you're fighting can be crit killed or not. However, since the natural strength of UC is crit killing, the extra damage from flares becomes even more important against those uncrittable creatures.

Speaking of uncrittable creatures or creatures you're otherwise unlikely to get through in just a few commands, another thing not yet covered is that grapples are significantly better at inflicting RT or Slowed status effects on foes than punches. This can be really helpful as a means to buy time while tiering up to excellent positioning, sacrificing minor amounts of health damage (compared to punches) in exchange for delaying creature actions.

Here's a more nuanced look at the unarmed combat core attack types than before:

Jabs:

The fastest repeatable means of firing off flares with single strikes. (Twin Hammerfists is just as fast, but can't hit a foe who's already downed, so it's not repeatable.)
The fastest means of tiering up with single strikes.
Poor at excellent positioning since they have no killing power unless you have a high number of flares to fish for.
Poor as the specified command of a Fury or mstrike since they has little or no speed advantage over the other commands in that case.

Punches:

A mix of killing power and speed that makes for the best general purpose good positioning single strike in a vacuum. A high number of flares can bring jabs above them, however.
The best aimed attack at excellent positioning. I'm not particularly a fan of aimed UC attacks for reasons we'll delve into later, but it is there.
Poor against uncrittable creatures, where specializing in either speed, power, or disabling is better than being a generalist.
Poor as the specified command of an unfocused mstrike or Clash since it's unlikely to kill, is much less likely to slow foes down than grapples, and has little to no speed advantage over kicks in that case.

Grapples:

A mix of disabling power and speed that makes for the best means of stalling out hordes or individual uncrittable creatures that need to be whittled down while still allowing for tier up opportunities. (Twin Hammerfists and some combat maneuvers are more reliable at disabling, but don't involve themselves with tier ups.)
Good against individual threatening creatures that need to be slowed down.
Poor at excellent positioning, where disabling has less merit and killing power is more easily achieved with more strength.
Poor at good positioning against unthreatening creatures since disabling has no merit in that case.

Kicks:

The best finishing blow at excellent positioning per hit.
The highest damage output per hit.
Poor as a means of firing off flares with single strikes. (Used during a Fury or mstrike, however, it can be either almost as fast or literally as fast as the other commands.)
Poor at tiering up with single strikes. (Same as above.)

In short, pick the right tool for the right job. They can all be the right tool at times!

Macros and Aliases

If you're playing even somewhat manually, I recommend creating aliases (if using Lich) or macros (if not) for the various unarmed combat attacks. Most specifically:

Jab
Grapple
Punch
Kick
Weapon Twinhammer
Weapon Fury [Grapple/Punch/Kick (depending on your level, training, specialization, and preference)]
Weapon Spinkick
Mstrike Grapple
Mstrike Punch
Mstrike Kick
Mstrike Grapple Target
Mstrike Punch Target
Mstrike Kick Target

For macros, this just means tying each one you care about to a single key press. You can configure them in Options -> Macros if using Wrayth.

For Lich aliases, I've set mine as jj for jab, gg for grapple, pp for punch, kk for kick, twin for Twin Hammerfists, utf for Fury Grapple (stands for "unarmed technique Fury"), uts for Spin Kick, mg for mstrike grapple, mp for mstrike punch, and mk for mstrike kick. I could create things like an mkt alias for mstrike kick target, but in that case I just type out "mk target" or "mk [target noun]."

Training Plan: Skills

Wondering how to train your monk's skills? Click here!

Training Plan: Exclusive Choices

Looking for information about combat maneuver decisions and their opportunity costs, plus meditation resistance? Click here!

Further Character Progression

Curious about feats, meditating, or upgrading your monk's gear later? Click here!

Super Post-Cap Advancement

Far post-cap and still looking for suggestions? Click here!

Congratulations, you've got a cap and a half worth of exp--or more! ...now what?

Ascending Even Further Beyond

Since it's not relevant to the large majority of players, I've only vaguely talked about monks' advantages with far post-cap experience until now. Most professions need 30 million to 40 million exp, if not more, before they're "done enough" with normal skills that continuing to gain normal experience instead of devoting it all toward Ascension would stop providing any useful improvements.

Monks, however, can get there at more like 10 to 25 million because their physical skill costs are on par with other squares, but their magical skills are much less expensive.

I did say this guide was for magical monks from 0 to 46,000,000 experience, so what should you do with Ascension Training Points (ATPs)?

The big long-term goal is the Elite Ascension skill Transcend Destiny, which I'll explain shortly, but it's only for players putting in serious hours; even unlocking the ability to learn it requires that you've spent 150 ATPs on Ascension skills in the Common tier first and then Transcend Destiny ranks themselves cost 10, 20, 30, 40, and up to six more ranks of 50 ATPs each.

So whether Transcend Destiny is in your future or not, first we need to evaluate where your initial Common tier ATPs should be spent. Here are the options I like:

Common Ascension staples:

Agility: Increased maneuver defense every two ranks, increased evade chance, +1 UAF per four ranks, and +0.75 DS per two ranks. If you go the weapon route or play a slow race, it also reduces RT.
Brawling: +2 UAF per rank. I'm not going to knock UAF this time because, once we're talking Ascension, we're talking marginal gains almost no matter what you do. Get it if you like numbers going up!
Combat Maneuvers: +1 UAF per two ranks and increased maneuver defense every rank (but half as much increase as Agility, so basically the same rate per two ranks).
Dexterity: Increased maneuver defense every two ranks, but half as much increase as Agility. If you go the weapon route or play a slow race, it also reduces RT. For the weapon route, specifically, Dexterity also adds crit weighting.
Logic: +1 TD against CS-based mental spells per two ranks. Because Logic breakpoints increase exp gain at 5 bonus on a node or 7 bonus off a node, reaching 35 Logic bonus is an especially attractive target. Neutral Logic races can reach it with 15 ATPs into Logic because Perfect Self will already have pushed them to 30 Logic bonus.
Porter (requires training Strength and/or Physical Fitness first): Encumbrance reduction. Now I'll knock UAF again! If we're already in the realm of diminishing returns from exp, then there's a serious argument that the best path is staying out hunting longer for loot and turning the proceeds into profession services or pay event items (via event boxes and trading silver for pay event currencies on the secondary market). Enter Porter, the Ascension skill for reducing your encumbrance by 2 pounds per rank to extend your loot hunts.
Stamina Regeneration: If you're firing off mstrikes on cooldown, rotating techniques with katars or Volley, using Surge of Strength on your small race, using Burst of Swiftness on your slow race, or otherwise guzzling stamina, there can come a point where Mind Over Body is no longer enough. If that's you, you'll know when to train this--or just buy stamina regen enhancives.
Strength: Reduced encumbrance, +1 UAF per four ranks, and the first ten ranks combined of this or Physical Fitness are a prerequisite for Porter. If you go the weapon route, it's also +1 AS per two ranks.

During earlier versions of this guide, I was also open to Aura, Dodging, Wisdom, and damage resistances, all of which I had trained to varying degrees at some point. However, the release of Transcend Destiny offers superior defensive gains for the cost while also aiding offense! Let's finally delve into the Elite skill!

Transcend Destiny is Monks' Everything:

There's a serious argument that monks are the biggest winners from the release of Transcend Destiny. Each rank acts as though your character is a level higher for the following purposes, where I've highlighted the ones potentially relevant to (magical) monks in green:

Ambush Damage - Offense and Defense - Up to 5 Ranks
Automatic Success of Certain Spells
Casting Strength
Evade, Block, and Parry - Offense and Defense
Force on Force
Hiding - Rogues Only
Sheer Fear Resistance
SMR - Offense and Defense
SSR - Offense and Defense
Target Defense
Two-Weapon Combat
UC - Tier Up Probability

As you can see, almost everything on this list is potentially applicable to monks. Not only that, but I'd argue that usually it's at or near the top end of value in that application:

Improving UC tier ups is, naturally, at its best for the profession most built around UC.
Improving evasion, blocking, and parrying is at its best for either monks or warriors (despite monks not even benefiting from the blocking part). Monks fight in offensive stance and Spin Kick is the best single-target reaction technique in the game by an incredible margin. (Its only competition overall is Radial Sweep, which is an AoE reaction but has a 15-second cooldown.) Furthermore, decreasing the enemy's EBP means improving MM, which is a UC monk's most important offensive combat number.
Improving SMR offense is at its best on builds who use it for attacking, which monks certainly will. Combat maneuvers like Bearhug or Coup de Grace--or Hamstring if using Edged Weapons--are very good at taking advantage of higher margins with their scaling, but even if you don't use those, even more bread and butter attacks like Twin Hammerfists, Feint, and Spin Kick win huge here.
Improving TD has extraordinary value to magical monks, giving them potential to ward off spells from semi-style Ascension creatures by stacking Transcend Destiny with the Dragonscale Skin feat, sufficient Transformation lore, and the correct outside spells. I wouldn't go so far to say it's at its best here, which I think goes to pures who become capable of warding off spells from (some) pure-style Ascension creatures, but it's a pretty narrow win.
Improving SSR is at its best for characters in Voln due to Symbol of Sleep. For reasons explained earlier, monks are mechanically best suited by Voln.
Sheer fear resistance is at its best for any profession other than clerics, empaths, and paladins (who all get a degree of sheer fear protection from their native spells), which includes monks.
Improving ambush defense is a benefit I place almost no value on for any profession and build except magical monks. Others either have plate armor, significantly higher DS, significantly more redux, far superior means to pull creatures out of hiding, or any combination of the above, but monks might actually take hard hits from ambushers (not bandits, but real ambushers like halfling cannibals and kiramon stalkers) if they don't have 105 or more Transformation lore, so defense is valuable.

(The Two Weapon Combat and CS benefits have more niche value to magical monks, but they do have the occasional spots of value. The auto-success spell benefits don't do terribly much in current Ascension grounds, but that could easily change in the future if enemy buffs like Wall of Force or especially Cloak of Shadows became more prominent and dispelling gained value as a result.)

Can it get any better than monks reaping the rewards of almost every Transcend Destiny benefit? Actually, yes. Yes, it can!

Much like how monks need to spend less normal exp on normal skills before moving on to Common Ascension than other professions and builds, I'd also argue that there's less incentive for them to continue sinking ATPs into Common Ascension (beyond the required 150) before moving on to Elite Ascension than other professions and builds.

As I write this, my ranger and my monk Tarine have very similar amounts of Ascension experience at 18m and 18.9m, respectively, but even though they're both working on maxing Transcend Destiny over the next couple years, Tarine is 2.9 million exp further into that journey because she doesn't have any need to heavily boost her UAF with Common skills while my ranger certainly does value heavily boosting archery AS. Similarly, my bard has about 5.6m more total Ascension experience than Tarine, but on the specific journey of maxing Transcend Destiny, she's only 2.3m exp ahead; most of the other 3.3m went into Agidex to reach RT thresholds that Tarine didn't need to work for at all because monks have Perfect Self and Burst of Swiftness.

Ultimately, whether you see yourself playing GemStone IV long enough to eventually have a character who you can say reached level 110 or just level 101, monks are your fastest route to that goal. They're simply the most exp-efficient profession in the game.

Gemstones: Diamonds in the Rough

Gemstones, powerful artifacts that might take a while to find, are another key component to post-cap progression. They're not released in the live game at the time of this writing, but they've been on the test server for months and I have a good feel for them.

Gemstones generate with randomly selected properties, most of which have tiered upgrades. You can find the list on their wiki page. If you don't like the properties on your Gemstone, you can also reroll it to get new properties within the same category of rarity. Upgrading or rerolling Gemstones has costs in silver and dust, so there are likely to be:

Gemstones you'll wish to keep and upgrade just the way you found them
Gemstones you'll wish to keep and reroll until you get a good property combination, then upgrade after you've done that
Gemstones you'll wish to shatter into dust
Gemstones you'll wish to sell to or trade with other players willing to pay big for properties that are good for their characters and not so good for yours

I don't want to make predictions about the Gemstone secondary market until the system goes live, so for now I'll simply mention Gemstone properties I think you should consider using for your own monk:

Good Common Gemstone Properties for Monks

Arcane Intensity - You gain 1/2/3/4/5 Bolt AS and 1/1/1/2/3 CS.

The bolt AS is worthless, but the CS is reasonable if and only if you have a high CS build--like an 81 Minor Mental and 20 Minor Spiritual split with Logic boosts from enhancives or Ascension--that can make use of powerful spells like Thought Lash, Vertigo, and Mindwipe and want them to hit more reliably.

Bold Brawler - Your unarmed combat attacks have an additional 1/2/3/4/5% chance to tier up.

A self-explanatory staple Gemstone property that's better for UC monks than almost all rares and legendaries. More tier ups, faster monster slaying. Easy!

Ephemera's Extension - The following spells have 20/40/60/80/100% higher duration: 117, 140, 240, 506, 515, 605, 919, 1608, 1619.

Decent if you have 40 Minor Spiritual ranks. Monks make better use of Wall of Force than any other profession besides paladins due to inexpensive Harness Power costs, not much to spend that mana on, no full plate like warriors, and lower DS at the highest end of exp than light armored rogues (or light armored warriors, but I don't know any of those other than my own).

Flare Resonance - Your attacks have a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to gain flare affinity.

Assuming you have flares on your handwear and your footwear (and if you don't, then you should!), this is another staple Gemstone property that's better for UC monks than almost all rares and legendaries.

Flare Affinity basically supercharges your flares to hit substantially harder. Flare Affinity is normally only obtainable by adding a Combat Flourish to your weapon at Duskruin for 400k bloodscrip--and many people do pay that gladly, which gives you an idea of its power. The Flare Resonance property only adds Flare Affinity 20% of the time, but it does go on your character instead of your gear, so getting the 100% equivalent on a monk's handwear and footwear would cost 800k bloodscrip.

In short, make your flares spend less time poking and more time killing.

Force of Will - You shake off all of the following debilitating effects: calmed, confused, demoralized, horrified, immobile, rooted, slowed, stunned, sympathetic, terrified, webbed. Cooldown: 24/18/12/6/1 hour(s).

This can save you from almost any situation once per hour when fully upgraded. If you really hate dying, this is the property for you! I expect that solo hunters of every profession other than bards (who can already get rid of almost all of these conditions with their own Troubadour's Rally) and maybe clerics (who can just Miracle resurrect themselves one to three times per day if they die) will like this one for general purposes, if nothing else.

Journeyman Tactician - You gain 1/2/3/4/5 AS and 1/1/1/2/3 SMR Offense with Combat Maneuvers.

The UAF boost is all but immaterial, but the maneuver boost makes for an acceptable placeholder for most monks. For monks who heavily use very endroll-dependent attacks like Spin Kick or Bearhug, it might even be a solid long-term Gemstone property worth keeping and upgrading.

Metamorphic Shield - When attacked by a creature, you have a 15% chance to increase your AsG by 1/2/3/4/5 (up to max of 20) for that attack.

Assuming this stacks with Iron Skin the way I hope it does, it can get high Transformation lore monks all the way up to (effectively) full plate sometimes. Even then, I wouldn't prioritize getting hold of one of these since it's only a 15% chance. If you happen to find one, it seems like a fair property to use temporarily while hunting for better ones.

Stamina Prism - Your passive stamina regeneration is increased by 5/10/15/20/25%.

This might be the highest ceiling Gemstone property of all for monks. It's easy to underrate the value for monks because most of them never out of stamina anyway because they already have Mind Over Body for at least 20% stamina cost reduction. However, the reason they don't run out of stamina is because they do manage it to an extent. For example, a monk might use mstrikes when they're off cooldown and Ki Focus when the mstrikes are on cooldown, thus basically only using stamina for the latter. However, if you were recovering 50-90% of your stamina every minute instead of the ~25% that 3x Physical Fitness gets you to on its own, you could add Ki Focus when mstriking, add qstrikes when not mstriking, and still not run out of stamina.

In other words, you can think of Stamina Prism as opening up entirely new combat options by indirectly reducing RT. This does require getting additional stamina regen benefits from enhancives and/or Ascension, but you can be even more of a whirlwind in battle if you build for it!

Storm of Rage - You gain 1/2/3/4/5% damage factor for each kill. Stacks up to 3 times. This effect falls off after 30 seconds without making a kill. This applies to all DFs, including bolts.

If you'll battle just about any creature in your preferred hunting ground and it's a fairly swarmy place, this is an excellent property since you'll have the boost going constantly. Weapon wielders like Storm of Rage more than UC builds due to the latter's positioning-based crit caps, but it's still strong regardless. If you're pickier about which creatures you battle or if you hunt a slower area, this is a solid placeholder property while looking for more consistently active ones.

Tactical Canny - When you are successfully attacked by an enemy using Attack Strength, your chance to Evade is increased by 10% for the next minute. This effect cannot occur more often than every 5 minutes.

This one's at the weaker end of placeholder properties--and I only give it even that much credit because it doesn't require any upgrades. Even if you're a Kick Specialization monk with great footwear for your Spin Kicks, 10% higher evade rate isn't a significant boost when it's only active 20% of the time at most. It is a boost, though, and better than nothing. Fine temporary filler.

Taste of Brutality - Your attacks gain 3/4/4/4/5% Damage Factor and attacks against you gain 3/4/4/4/5% Damage Factor.

Mini Storm of Rage, except it's good even in slower areas or if you're only hunting one creature type for your bounty. The small defensive penalty has very little impact on a monk with high redux monk or high Transformation lore--and you'll almost definitely have at least one of those.

Twist the Knife - You gain 2/4/6/8/10% damage factor against targets afflicted with major bleed. When your warding spells are successful, the endroll is increased by 2/4/6/8/10 if the target is afflicted with major bleed.

If you're using Hamstring or have the Slashing Strikes buff from Flurry active (or are hunting with partners who do those things), this is excellent. If not, it isn't.

Good Rare Gemstone Properties for Monks

Anointed Defender - You gain 6/7/8/9/10 Defensive Strength and 3/4/4/5/6 Target Defense.

Helps shore up a primary monk weakness of TD and the extra DS is reasonably helpful too.

Defensive Duelist - When an enemy directs a melee attack at you, you have a 1/2/3/4/5% chance to intercept the attack and take no damage. The enemy must make an SMR test. On a failure, the enemy is disarmed, if applicable, and suffers roundtime.

Despite having some anti-synergy with Spin Kick, a universal 5% chance to avoid and (to an extent) counter AS attacks is value that's very hard to ignore. All else being equal, it is better to not get hit as often as possible than to Spin Kick as often as possible. (Maybe not more fun, though!)

Greater Arcane Intensity - You gain 6/7/8/9/10 Bolt AS and 3/4/4/5/6 CS.

Like its common counterpart, except twice as good, this is a strong boost to make Thought Lash, Vertigo, and Mindwipe if you're one of the rare monks who uses CS spells in combat.

Infusion of [Damage Type] - You gain a standard chance to flare with [damage type] after attacking an enemy.

Top notch rare Gemstone property that every monk should want. As always, the higher volume of attacks per second, the better flares get! Simple, clean power. (Before you get any ideas, if we could have five Infusion properties active, then that's exactly what I'd recommend, but they're mutually exclusive.)

Master Tactician - You gain 6/7/8/9/10 AS and 3/4/4/5/6 SMR Offense with Combat Maneuvers.

Journeyman Tactician, but twice as good. Like its common counterpart, if you make heavy use of SMR attacks, I think it can be a strong long-term property for you. If not, I'd reroll until you get a better rare property.

Serendipitous Hex - Your offensive spells have a standard flare rate chance to cast an additional disabler spell, including Bind, Blind, Cold Snap, Confusion, Limb Disruption, Mystic Impedance, Power Sink, Sleep, Sounds, or Vertigo. This chance is reduced for each tier below 3.

If you cast a lot of single-target spells in combat, this might be the strongest rare Gemstone property you could find. That's an enormous if for a monk, though! Monks with incredible handwear are probably still better off sticking to Twin Hammerfists as their opening disabler or even just starting with Fury or an mstrike in the first place. However, if you're looking to be an even more magical monk than mine by regularly slinging around Web, Force Projection, Thought Lash, and other spells, this is the definitive property for you. And if you find a certain legendary property I'll cover shortly, you might consider working your entire build around it...

Strong Back - Your encumbrance thresholds are increased by 15/20/25/30/35 pounds.

It's definitely not flashy, but monks are more heavily punished by encumbrance than most professions due to its effect on their primary source of DS, Evade DS.

Thirst for Brutality - Your attacks gain 6/7/8/9/10% Damage Factor and attacks against you gain 6/7/8/9/10% Damage Factor.

Twice as strong as its common counterpart, Taste of Brutality... or is it? While the common version's 5% penalty when taking hits is negligible, a 10% penalty isn't as easily dismissed. Like I said, increased damage factor is good for UC, but it's better for weapons. I'd definitely try to get this property on a weapon-wielding monk, but for a UC monk I actually believe it's a skip unless you have high redux and high Transformation lore, not only one of them.

Good Legendary Gemstone Properties for Monks

Mystic Impulse - After hitting an enemy with a weapon attack or an unarmed strike, you have a 2/4/6/8/10% chance to gain Mystic Momentum for 60 seconds. Your next spell cast under the effects of Mystic Momentum incurs no mana cost and gains +50 Attack Strength and +30 Casting Strength.

Hear me out. This is a very, very specific niche, but it's incredible within that niche, which is that you're a high CS build, you prefer going into rooms with multiple creatures, you cast AoE spells like Vertigo or Mindwipe once per group of creatures, and you rarely casts spells otherwise.

If all of that's true, then this is basically a gigantic +30 CS buff. The 10% activation rate with your high volume of attacks means that, after defeating one room of creatures, you'll basically always have the Mystic Impulse buff active to disable or debuff the next room of creatures before you unleash havoc on them.

Stolen Power - Your offensive spells have a standard flare chance to trigger an SMR roll against the target. On a failure, the target is inflicted with a random attack spell that cannot be warded off. Spells include Blood Burst, Bone Shatter, Dark Catalyst, Disintegrate, Divine Fury, Immolation, Pain, Repentance, Thought Lash, and Wither. This chance is reduced for each tier below 3.

If you're running the Serendipitous Hex build, run this too and your spells will be insane. If you find this legendary property and you aren't running the Serendipitous Hex build, then I'd honestly consider changing your mind and trying to get both of those to line up. The strength of your spells skyrockets when they can be up to three spells in one.

Thorns of [Damage Type] - You gain a standard chance to flare with [damage type] when an enemy targets you with an attack, whether or not the attack hits.

Extraordinary general purpose power for any solo hunter (of any profession, not just monks). Basically randomly kills things for you just by standing in the same general vicinity when they attack you!

Leafi's Wild Dream Scenario Gemstone Endgame for a Traditional Monk

By design, getting the exact perfect setup is mathematically almost impossible since Gemstones are meant to keep people going for years to come. Still, it's fun to dream, so here's my ideal layout for a traditional unarmed combat monk in descending order of priority.

Note that you can have at most one legendary property and five rare properties. Common properties are a bit different; you can have up to ten, but each common beyond five would be competing with a rare instead and going up to ten common properties would exclude you from having a legendary.

Infusion of Lightning (or other damage type; rare 1)
Stamina Prism (common 1)
Thorns of Lightning (or other damage type; legendary 1)
Flare Resonance (common 2)
Bold Brawler (common 3)
Storm of Rage (common 4)
Taste of Brutality common 5)
Defensive Duelist (rare 2)
Anointed Defender (rare 3)
Master Tactician (rare 4)
Force of Will (common 6; I consider it better than what could have been rare 5, Strong Back)

Leafi's Wild Dream Scenario Gemstone Endgame for a Magic-Heavy Monk

Stolen Power (legendary 1)
Serendipitous Hex (rare 1)
Infusion of Lightning (or other damage type; rare 2)
Stamina Prism (common 1)
Greater Arcane Intensity (rare 3)
Flare Resonance (common 2)
Bold Brawler (common 3)
Storm of Rage (common 4)
Arcane Intensity (common 5)
Defensive Duelist (rare 4)
Anointed Defender (rare 5)

Odds and Ends

Can I interest you in the weirdest inner workings of my mind re: monks, plus other miscellaneous topics not yet covered? If so, click here!

As we draw close to the end, I'll cover miscellaneous topics like off-the-beaten-path things monks can do and obscure advantages they have that you might not have thought about.

Monk Magic After Dark

...wait, I can't write about that on the wiki! Moving on.

Trade Secrets of the Sneaky Monk Merchants

I'm one of the bigger advocates of training Trading in the GS community, but even more so for monks than others!

Monks have easier and more universal means to make more silvers per item sold than any other profession--and they can do it almost anywhere in Elanthia.

Except for Mist Harbor and Kraken's Fall, every town's NPC shops will pay +5% extra silver to at least one race when players sell. (See the chart of favored races here!)

Monks have a secret weapon in the profit war: Shroud of Deception!

Even monks who live in a geographic region where their race can't get a bonus can configure their Shroud profile to appear as another race and get the bonus anyway! It's that easy!

But wait, it gets better! Monks also have Glamour', which gives an enhancive boost of 20 Trading ranks or 50 Trading skill, whichever is lower. (50 Trading skill will be lower unless you have at least 20 Trading ranks on your own.)

What does Trading do, though?

You get an extra 1% silver for every combined 12 bonus between Influence and Trading bonus. That's bonus, not ranks! So, for example, if you had 44 Trading ranks, which is 144 Trading bonus, you'd make 12% more silver for selling items than if you had 0 Trading ranks. Shroud of Deception takes that 12% to 17%, then Glamour takes that 17% to 18%--and, actually, 8/12ths of the way to 19%. If you took my advice and set Influence high from the start, Influence will also get you to 19% if not 20%!

This is a big part of how Sariara made 2,509,473 million silver within a week of existing. By now she's existed for four weeks and a day and is up to 23,108,060 silver, only 1,500,000 of which came from selling a Mystic Tattoo.

Some general tips on early silvers:

Don't hunt overcrowded Landing areas, but find the rich lower level creatures. There are plenty of them because characters don't stay low level for long, so hunting pressure is low. (For more on hunting pressure, see the treasure system page and saved posts subpage.)
Take advantage of Glamour and Shroud of Deception to get a percentage boost to these rich creatures' already valuable loot. Reap the reward of being a monk!
Between level 0 and 19, when skills migrate near instantly, max out Trading every time you're about to sell things.
Between level 0 and 19, push First Aid and Survival up when you're out hunting so you can get value from skinning. Unlearn them afterward so you can...
Between level 5 and 19, learn Glamour and cast it before selling. (Afterward, unlearn it so you can get skinning skills back!)
Between level 12 and 19, learn Shroud of Deception and cast it before selling. (Afterward, unlearn it so you can get skinning skills back!)
For your final level 19.9 build, as you're forced to commit to your skills, have at least 20 ranks of Trading and know at least your first 12 Minor Mental spells.

Yes, this is what I did. I got to see delightful lines in my SKILL command like:

You started this migration period on Saturday, 5/25/2024 at 01:55:18 EDT.  You have 4 days, 20 hours, 8 minutes remaining in your current 30 day migration period.

You're currently migrating at a rate of .001 skill points per pulse, and have converted 25580.00 training points this migration period.

Even if you don't go to this extreme, though, monks are the game's best at selling to NPC merchants. At the low end, monks skyrocket toward high sales value. At the high end in the post-cap world, monks reach the maximum sale bonus in almost every town.

Bonus Tip!
"Maximum sale bonus" is 28% from Trading and Influence plus another 5% from race bonus. To be clear, the max bonus is 33%, but only sort of; the two bonuses are treated separately. For example, if you're an elf monk selling in Solhaven (no bonus), you can't just pump your Trading and Influence so high that you'd make 33% from that alone; it's capped at 28% and the other 5% has to come from Shroud of Deception.
My monk Tarine was the key to my figuring this out. Noticing that Glamour no longer made a difference post-cap with max Trading led me down the rabbit trail of investigating why! I found the Trading and Influence hard cap, then the total hard cap counting race bonus, then isolated that they were separate things.

When Robes Aren't Robes: Alterations

For simplicity, I've been talking about "robes" throughout this guide because that's the conventional name for that armor type.

However, robes don't have to remain robes at all; they have the same leeway for alterations as other chest-worn clothing! Here are examples of post-alteration "robes" that my various characters (monks or otherwise) have worn or that I plan to create:

An airy white starsilk sundress sporting an asymmetrical knee-length skirt
A sleeveless lily white tunic with a jet black silk sash
A knee-length midnight blue silk dress aglisten with a constellation of stars
A sleeveless white tunic splashed with an autumn-hued music motif
A sleeveless white starsilk tunic spangled with sunset orange musical notes
A midnight black silk tunic marked with a silver eight-pointed star
A sleeveless sunlight gold tunic accented by bright white edges
A royal purple starsilk tunic featuring an embroidered silver rose
A sleeveless emerald green dress showcasing a heart-framed pink sapphire fairy centerpiece (this one cheats; it has the Joola fluff script, so it can break character limits)
A snowy off-shoulder dress sporting white pearl accents along a wavy aqua skirt (also a Joola)
A thigh-slit scarlet starsilk dress accented by ivory edges
A sleeveless white kimono featuring golden star embroidery
A ribbon-sashed cherry red elesine blouse with vanilla-hued ruffled sleeves
A sleeveless gold feather-patterned tunic tied at the waist

Mine are mostly feminine designs, but even for a masculine character, you can turn your robes into shirts, vests, jackets, and more. Get your creativity on!

Bonus Tip!
Likewise, unarmed combat footwear isn't limited to boots or footwraps. Have a merchant make you shoes, sandals, slippers, flats, moccasins, or anything else you like and wear them into battle!

Hunting Partner Tactics and Synergy

Who do monks team up well with for group hunts and why? Let's explore!

Warriors have Carn's Cry, an AoE immobilizer that's enormously helpful for the two things UC monks like most: increasing their MM and reducing enemies' UDF. In turn, warriors love monks' Mind Over Body stamina cost reduction, the best group buff they can get other than bards' Song of Tonis (which will probably be nerfed one day).
Rogues have Subdue as a single-target immobilizer and love stamina cost reduction. Stealth can make grouping somewhat awkward for most professions, but monks don't necessarily mind being targeted more often since it offers more Spin Kick opportunities.
A monk duo can keep up both Mind Over Body and Focus Barrier, but otherwise doesn't have any particular synergy.
Paladins can give their monk partners extra flares via their Fervor aura and reduce enemy UDF via Aura of the Arkati or even simply connecting with Judgment, both being AoE spells. Paladins can make good use of Mind Over Body or Focus Barrier alike; they use stamina, but don't have as much redux as warriors and rogues nor as much DS as them, so a boost can really help.
Rangers have Moonbeam as a single-target immobilizer, among various other disablers. Two Weapon Combat rangers should like Focus Barrier and Sunfist rangers should like Mind Over Body, but monks don't offer much to rangers otherwise.
Bards can make a monk's attacks even faster, at least for now, since Song of Tonis is the game's best group buff. 1 second kicks are a wild thing! Monks offer Focus Barrier in return, shoring up the typical bard weakness of defense.
Wizards possess myriad AoE abilities, whether disablers or attacks, that monks can follow up on with increased MM and decreased enemy UDF. Focus Barrier helps wizards at least somewhat, but they're already pretty durable as casters go. Monks simply being present as an additional target to split up enemies' attacks is helpful to wizards and all casters.
Empaths are near-universally welcome hunting partners for all professions with their healing. Adrenal Surge also gives monks more leeway to go ham with mstrikes on cooldown without risking being too punished. Bind can immobilize at lower levels, but becomes less reliable later. Web is a more consistently reliable disabler. Monks' Focus Barrier can be good for situations when an empath gets stanced down. Monks being an extra body helps. An empath's Mass Interference setting up a monk's Vertigo isn't the worst idea I've ever had, but it's not an amazing one either.
Clerics have Censure as an AoE immobilizer and Warding Sphere as a group TD buff (and DS), so they help monks on offensive and defensive fronts alike. If enemy TD is too high for Censure, Web works as an alternative. Focus Barrier is somewhat less helpful to clerics than empaths since getting stanced down is less likely due to Soul Ward, but it's still there when needed. Having a hunting partner's extra body is even more helpful to clerics than most professions because creatures usually need to focus fire on a cleric at least twice to get through Soul Ward, but the odds of that happening fall from 100% to 25% even in only a duo.
Sorcerers have Grasp of the Grave as an AoE disabler, though it doesn't help monks as most other professions' disablers. On the other side, Focus Barrier is arguably more helpful to them than to other pures since wizards have more DS, empaths have more Physical Fitness (and so are less likely to be stanced down) and can heal when they do get, and clerics have Soul Ward.

Nearly regardless of team composition, your monk training Coup de Grace and Side by Side (which also requires two ranks of Combat Movement) can be helpful to groups.

The Weapon-Wielding Melee Monk

Let's talk more about Martial Mastery, the level 0 feat. Although monks have access, it was primarily invented for warriors and rogues as an alternative to learning Elemental Targeting, a Minor Elemental spell that increases AS.

Far enough post-cap, magical warriors or magical rogues have the same AS ceiling as their non-magical counterparts. (Their non-magical counterparts do get there millions of experience points sooner while the magical ones have more DS and TD, but that's outside the scope of this guide...) Monks, on the other hand, don't have Elemental Targeting, so a monk maximizing Martial Mastery can have up to 50 more AS and UAF than a monk not maximizing it! Of course, UAF doesn't matter nearly as much as AS and the entire monk profession is built around unarmed combat. So I ask:

Is there merit to a weapon-wielding, AS-based monk?

Before I explore it, I'll repeat that I think people should make whatever kind of character they find fun and that I personally like wacky builds. However, I'm not convinced that a melee monk even is a wacky build. When people consider making a melee-only character who isn't stealth-based, a warrior is probably their first thought, but let's seriously compare these options.

The Training Cost Factor:

I'll use my (first) monk and warrior for the sake of illustration since they're both elves. At level 50, my warrior had a total pool of 2568 PTPs and 2242 MTPs while my monk had a total pool of 2319 PTPs and 2259 MTPs. You might think the warrior is hugely ahead, but no, not at all. I could show you paragraphs upon paragraphs of math I wrote, but let's just cut to the chase.

Let's say my monk and warrior had both done dual katar builds that shared nearly identical core training. 2x Brawling, 2x Edged Weapons, 1x Thrown Weapons (to buff up Martial Mastery), 2x Two Weapon Combat, 2x Combat Maneuvers, 2x Physical Fitness, 50 Multi-Opponent Combat, and 1x Perception were all in common.

From there, my warrior took 70 Armor Use to get metal breastplate, then trained as many Dodging ranks as possible with her remaining points. My monk learned Iron Skin, took 30 Transformation to buff up Iron Skin, and took 10 Harness Power, then trained as many Dodging ranks as possible with her remaining points. Their skills would be identical in most ways, but here's where they'd differ:

Monk in robes that act like chain mail: 153 ranks of Dodging and 102 MTPs spare
Warrior in metal breastplate: 109 ranks of Dodging and 21 MTPs spare

I'm not going to claim that my monk would basically just be better; there are too many factors to say that. Warriors have their guild skills. Monks have Perfect Self. Warriors have a higher parry chance because of their level 40 feat. Monks have a higher evade chance because of their level 40 feat. Warriors have Whirling Dervish. Monks have more DS, at least at this stage of the game. Warriors have Weapon Specialization. Monks have Burst of Swiftness. Warriors have Weapon Bonding.

My point is that a melee monk is even comparable--better in some ways and worse in others--to a warrior with the exact same build despite ignoring so much of what the monk skillset is tailored toward.

The Mental Acuity Possibility:

What if you learned Mental Acuity even without Kroderine Soul? My above training cost example illustrated my monk stopping at two Minor Mental spells for Iron Skin, but another alternative (though this would be during later levels) would be taking Mental Acuity to retain access to the first 20 Minor Mental spells and still even allowing room for Spirit Warding I and Spirit Defense. (If you were okay with Martial Mastery capping out at +45 AS instead of 50, you could even learn Spirit Warding II!)

The hypothetical Martial Mastery and Mental Acuity monk has almost the same AS as a Martial Mastery warrior, but her spells would pull her far ahead in DS while keeping all the silver selling benefits of Glamour and Shroud of Deception, plus saving tons of stamina via Mind Over Body. The tradeoff is making spelling up more of a hassle, but that might be worth the payoff of having a light armored warrior-like character whose combat maneuvers and weapon techniques have 35% stamina cost reduction!

Doubly Perfect Self:

As great as Perfect Self is for unarmed combat, it's arguably even better for a melee monk. For UC purposes, it's mainly RT reduction for your mstrikes or your singular assault technique, Fury. For a katar monk, on the other hand, you're getting AS--more useful than UAF--and RT reduction for two types of assault techniques: Brawling's Fury and Edged Weapons' Flurry. Rotating weapon techniques to work around cooldowns is a very powerful thing available for hybrid weapons like katars! This can eat a lot of stamina on a warrior or rogue, but monks don't sweat it as much due to Mind Over Body.

Specializations and Katars:

The Grapple, Kick, and Punch Specialization bonuses for their respective techniques do still apply even if you're using a brawling weapon instead of unarmed combat!

Grapple Specialization-powered Fury knocking foes down and dealing grapple damage is probably still the most powerful of these effects, letting you skip knockdown setups for your staple assault technique. Kick Specialization-powered Spin Kick is probably still the most fun of these effects, letting you fire off powerful maneuvers every so often or occasionally rip through rooms while RT locked.

Ironically, if there's anywhere that I even sort of like Punch Specialization-powered Clash, it's on a weapon-wielding monk. For unarmed combat, Clash is noticeably weaker than unfocused mstrikes. For weapon combat, however, Clash without Punch Specialization has the same power as an unfocused mstrike and Clash with Punch Specialization has a 25% chance of minor impact damage against each target. That said, the Grapple and Kick benefits for Fury and Spin Kick are 100% instead of 25%, so I still think they win out. Punch at least becomes a more serious contender, though, especially if you're regularly hunting things like bandits, pirates, warcamps, or areas that swarm.

Before I close out this section, katars are the only great brawling weapon and are a hybrid weapon that requires Edged Weapons ranks. Monks do train both skills cheaply, but maxing both does have an opportunity cost, especially early on. If you can only train one weapon type, I'd make it Edged Weapons instead of Brawling. The Edged assault technique, Flurry, gives you a Slashing Strikes buff that adds slash flares to your edged weapon attacks for the next two minutes. It's also much easier to find great edged weapons for sale from other players--and often even pay event shops--than great brawling weapons.

If you're really set on a brawling-only weapon at first, then the ones I think are at least reasonable relative to their minimum RT are cestuses (good against cloth, leather, and scale), tiger-claws (good against cloth, leather, and scale), yierka-spurs (good against cloth and chain and at least dagger-powered against plate for the same RT), and fist-scythes (good against cloth, scale, and chain, and at least short sword-powered against plate for the same RT).

Bonus Tip!
If or when you train for katars, take full advantage of them being hybrid weapons. Flurry and Fury have separate cooldowns. Whirling Blade (the Edged AoE technique) and Clash have separate cooldowns. Since at least one of these four techniques will be off cooldown much more often than not, you can go into a wild frenzy with a monk's stamina cost reduction from Mind Over Body.

Conclusion:

Ironically, I wrote the above Mental Acuity subsection mostly to acknowledge that it's a possibility even while thinking nobody would do it without Kroderine Soul. I just like to encourage weird builds in most professions, so I figured I'd bring it up.

Instead, after considering all the math and angles I did while writing this, it's made such a strong case for a bizarrely appealing build that I've talked myself into trying it with Sariara at some point, even if I end up fixskilling out of it later, just to see how it goes. My mind's swirling and it seems clear that the melee monk is a very, very real idea that's gone unexplored because it's not an intuitive or obvious idea from a glance over the monk skillset.

Infrequently Asked (or Imagined) Questions

Wondering about some weird corner case I somehow never touched on? Ask me on Discord or in the game. To see what weird corner cases other people have asked about, click here!

The TL;DR Recap: Making Cookie Cutter Monks

Low on time or thought processing power and just want a cookie cutter build you don't need to put much thought into? Click here!

Denouement: An Unexpected Journey

First, thank you for reading The Autumnwinds' Magical Monk Guide.

Whether you read only the parts of it you were interested in, read every single word, or anything in between, I'm thankful for every reader.

Sometimes I write a "guide" partially or even almost entirely for myself. For example, with Ascension Considerations, I was going to do the math on efficient progression anyway, so I figured I'd take the extra time to turn what could have been private spreadsheets into wiki tables. Pre-Ascension Stopping Points (which I just noticed is really outdated) originally was a private document, but I turned it into a wiki page because sometimes people ask me if they can see my characters' skills when they want a template of where to take their post-cap training.

This one was for you guys, though. I hope it's been helpful, I hope it's gotten you thinking, and, maybe most of all, I hope you find monks more exciting or intriguing than you used to.

That said, if you were here only for mechanical informational purposes, I'm pretty much done with those. There's one more at the very end for people with multiple character slots (not multiple accounts, but character slots), but otherwise, you can head out! I wish you a good day or good night and hopefully I'll see you around the lands.

Thank you again.

Curious on the backstory of why this guide exists and why now? Click here and we'll close out.

@@ Line 169: / Line 169: @@
 '''The Level 20 Stat Placement Table!'''
-<font color="red">Please note: If you're adjusting stats at the inn, set Strength and Agility to 10 lower than the numbers shown here.</font> The game automatically adds +10 more to prime stats, which for monks are Strength and Agility.
+'''<font color="red">Please note: If you're adjusting stats at the inn, set Strength and Agility to 10 lower than the numbers shown here.</font>''' The game automatically adds +10 more to prime stats, which for monks are Strength and Agility. (The website doesn't add those, though, so if you're someone who just wants to set stats once at level 0 and be done with it, the numbers below are exactly what you'd enter.)
 :{| {{prettytable}} align="center"

Iron Skin Breakpoints	Level 2	Level 5	Level 15	Level 30	Level 50	Level 75 to 100
0 Transformation	Full leather	Reinforced leather	Double leather	Leather breastplate	Cuirbouilli leather	Studded leather
5 Transformation		Double leather	Leather breastplate	Cuirbouilli leather	Studded leather	Brigandine
15 Transformation			Cuirbouilli leather	Studded leather	Brigandine	Chain mail
30 Transformation				Brigandine	Chain mail	Double chain
50 Transformation					Double chain	Augmented chain
75 Transformation						Chain hauberk
105 Transformation						Metal breastplate
140 Transformation						Augmented breastplate
180 Transformation						Half plate

Transformation Ranks	0	1	3	6	10	15	21	28	36	45	55	66	78	91
Damage Resistance	10%	12%	14%	16%	18%	20%	22%	24%	26%	28%	30%	32%	34%	36%

Transformation Ranks	105	120	136	153	171	190
Damage Resistance	38%	40%	42%	44%	46%	48%

Dragonscale Skin Breakpoints	Level 30	Level 50	Level 75 to 100
0 Transformation	Leather breastplate (10 benefit)	Cuirbouilli leather (11 benefit)	Studded leather (12 benefit)
5 Transformation	Cuirbouilli leather	Studded leather	Brigandine (13 benefit)
15 Transformation	Studded leather	Brigandine	Chain mail (21 benefit)
30 Transformation	Brigandine	Chain mail	Double chain (22 benefit)
50 Transformation		Double chain	Augmented chain (23 benefit)
75 Transformation			Chain hauberk (24 benefit)
105 Transformation			Metal breastplate (33 benefit)
140 Transformation			Augmented breastplate (34 benefit)
180 Transformation			Half plate (35 benefit)

Race	Strength	Constitution	Dexterity	Agility	Discipline	Aura	Logic	Intuition	Wisdom	Influence
Aelotoi	62	68	68	33	59	82	73	41	82	92
Burghal gnome	73	62	68	33	70	85	62	37	82	88
Dark elf	62	68	62	30	68	82	73	44	82	89
Dwarf	49	49	78	62	58	82	73	39	79	91
Elf	62	73	62	33	70	70	73	50	82	85
Erithian	68	62	73	49	58	82	71	29	83	85
Forest gnome	70	59	70	33	59	82	73	44	82	88
Giantman	49	58	77	58	62	82	73	31	82	88
Half-elf	59	62	70	39	68	82	73	39	82	86
Half-krolvin	58	49	70	39	62	85	77	46	83	91
Halfling	73	49	62	30	68	82	70	56	82	88
Human	59	59	73	49	62	82	73	31	83	89
Sylvankind	70	68	62	30	70	77	73	43	82	85

Transformation Ranks	Dragonclaw UAF Bonus	Brace Disarm Rate
0	10	25%
1	11
3	12	27%
6	13
7		29%
10	14
12		31%
15	15
18		33%
21	16
25		35%
28	17
33		37%
36	18
42		39%
45	19
52		41%
55	20
63		43%
66	21
75		45%
78	22
88		47%
91	23

	Level 20	Level 30	Level 40	Level 50	Level 60	Level 70	Level 80	Level 90	Level 100
Two Weapon Combat	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	1
Combat Maneuvers	24	48	74	100	114	134	134	144	144
Brawling	44	65	85	105	125	149	165	187	207
Multi-Opponent Combat	24	35	55	55	55	55	55	60	100
Physical Fitness	44	64	84	156	186	216	246	276	303
Dodging	44	64	125	156	186	216	246	276	303
Harness Power	10	10	10	10	20	20	38	92	101
Spiritual Mana Control	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
Mental Lore - Telepathy	0	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	15
Perception	20	30	40	50	60	72	82	92	101
Climbing	10	10	10	20	20	40	40	60	60
Swimming	10	10	10	10	10	10	40	0	0
First Aid	20	30	20	25	30	35	40	42	42
Trading	40	43	42	48	60	72	83	95	167
Minor Spiritual	0	0	0	0	3	3	20	20	20
Minor Mental	12	13	14	16	20	20	20	20	20
(spare TPs)	3/0	86/0	11/0	2/0	34/0	306/128	2/0	192/0	114/0

Leafiara (prime)/Mechanical Musings/The Autumnwinds' Magical Monk Guide: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:45, 2 March 2025

Introduction: How to Use This Guide

Why Play a Monk or Why Not Play a Monk?

Unarmed Combat

Gear Indifference

Simplicity

Fun Factor

Might and Magic

Downsides or Lack Thereof

Character Creation

Choosing a Race

Placing Your Stats

Selecting a Society

Unarmed Combat Primer

Beginner Basics

UAF, UDF, and MM

Mstrikes

Fury and Clash

Twin Hammerfists and Spin Kick

Beyond Basics: Synchronizing Everything

Macros and Aliases

Training Plan: Skills

Core Skills

Breakpoint Skills

Niche Skills

Midgame and Later Skills

Post-Cap Skills

Secret Sauce of Lores

Illustrative Training Snapshots

Training Plan: Exclusive Choices

Meditation Resistance

Offensive Specialization

Defensive Specialization

Martial Stances

Combat Maneuvers

Further Character Progression

Feats

Gear Upgrades: Armor

Gear Upgrades: Weapons

Profession Service Priorities