Flimbo's Monk Guide

Foreword (By Flimbo)

Welcome to the Duh-finitive Monk Guide by Flimbo. In this guide you will learn lots of things. Here are some of those things:

• Monks. Why are they.
• Monks. How are they.
• Monks. What are they.
• How many professions Monk is better than.
• How much Flimbos does it take to write a guide.

This guide is for novice and experienced Monk enthusiasts alike. It is a work in progress, and will cover creation up through cap in as much detail as the Flimbo sees fit to and has caffeine to impart.

If you are not here for the full creation experience, and instead just have a Monk question, there's a chance it's answered in the Frequently Asked Questions portion of this guide.

Overview (Written by Flimbo)

Strengths

• Monks excel at dealing with swarms of things.
  • You will more than likely have a whole heap of Multi Opponent Combat, for reasons that will become more apparent in the training section of this guide.

• Monks have excellent maneuver, physical and bolt defenses.
  • Your ability to easily 2x or 3x dodge and physical fitness makes it very difficult to hit you with maneuvers.
  • Only having to wear robes is another huge boon to your maneuver defense, and UAC offenses.
  • Many of your spells offer excellent DS and maneuver bonuses for both you and your group.
  • Once you hit a certain breakpoint for spells, you will rarely, if ever, have to leave stance offensive.

• Monks are very self sufficient.
  • With proper spell and skill training, it is incredibly easy to be well defended without the need for outside spells.

• Unique Stances and Maneuvers
  • Perfect self is quite possibly the best maneuver in Gemstone. No other maneuver can come close to the benefit to every single thing that you do like a passive +100 stats can.
  • Your focus spells, Mind over Body and Focus Barrier, have infinite duration, affect you and your group, and only fall if you get stunned for a long period of time.
  • Monks have access to a solid list of unique martial stances and maneuvers which I will go into detail about in the appropriate section.

Weaknesses

• Target Defense
  • As you will primarily be wearing robes, which have a +15 CvA (Compared to -21 on full plate), your target defense will start out lower than normal. You can however offset this detriment in a number of ways, which will be detailed in another section.

• Armor
  • Again, with robes, your armor will generally be lighter than a warrior's. The 1202 spell allows your robes to protect as heavier armor without the detriments to maneuvers of wearing or training for said armor, but generally the best armor you will realistically hope to be protected by is augmented chain. You can go higher with enhancives and lore training, but by the time that becomes a factor in your training, you won't need my guide to figure it out.

Why play a Monk?

This is a question that's impossible to answer for everyone, so I'm just going to answer it for me, and hopefully that may give you some insight or idea as to why you may want to choose Monk.

I was happily playing a two handed warrior. I enjoyed mstriking with a maul. I enjoyed being able to take hits and dish out damage without watching my mana bar. I had a pocket wizard to keep him spelled up, and a pocket empath to heal all his many little wounds. And then something cast Earthen Fury at me. And it didn't matter that I had a billion hitpoints. It didn't matter that I was spelled up. It didn't matter that I had all manner of redux. I just died. That was strike one.

Strike two was that I just don't like active skills, maneuver or otherwise. I don't like upkeeping enhancives. I don't like typing cman whatever critter. I didn't like losing control of my character with berserk. Most of what warrior offered and what made it special, I wasn't using.

Strike three was taking a look at the wiki.

• +100 stats and I don't have to push a button? Sign me up.
• About 120 DS worth of self spelled defenses? Yes please.
• Still get all that juicy redux and don't even have to throw 140+ ranks into armor training? Buhbye Warrior.

In short, I like all the passive bonuses granted by Monk. I love that I was able to sell my pocket wizard and empath and still stand around in stance offensive and never get hit. I like how many ranks of multi opponent combat I can get without having to 3x armor training. If any of this sounds appealing to you, you might ought to want to give Monk a go.

Creation (Did by Flimbo)

Race

All races make good monks, really, in that all races really can make a good anything. Therefore, I'll just mention a few that stand out for one reason or another.

• Burghal Gnome - Voted "Best" by Flimbos. Enormous Logic bonus when you include Perfect Self in the mix, excellent maneuver defense. Plus you get to be a gnome.
• Half Elf - A solid mix of physically bonused stats and the ability to hit more things in the head without knocking them down than a gnome or halfling. Personally I find that UAC tends to knock things down an exceptionally large time anyway and the tallness isn't necessary, but many Monks like it.
• Halfling - Halflings get an obscenely large bonus to Elemental TD, which is the main TD source Monks lack without outside spells. They also have exceptionally good agility which makes up for their lack of strength. All around solid choice.
• Half Krolvin - That's right. Half Krolvin. If there's one profession for a Half Krolvin to be, it's Monk. Why? Because the biggest downside of Half Krolvin is that they have a negative Logic bonus. Well, Perfect Self boosts that back up to normal levels, evening you out there, and giving you solid physical stats with which to punch things quite well.

Again, all of the races perform admirably as Monks. Those are just the few that stand out for one reason or another.

Stats

For starters, here's some numbers! These are growth intervals for Monks by race. They're not so useful for the purposes of this guide anymore, but they took a long time to set up, so I'm leaving them here.

Base Monk Growth Intervals

	STR	CON	DEX	AGI	DIS	AUR	LOG	INT	WIS	INF
Monk	25	25	20	30	25	15	20	20	15	10

Monk Growth Intervals by Race

Race	STR	CON	DEX	AGI	DIS	AUR	LOG	INT	WIS	INF
Aelotoi	25	23	23	33	27	15	20	22	15	8
Burghal Gnome	20	25	23	33	22	13	25	25	15	10
Dark Elf	25	23	25	35	23	15	20	20	15	10
Dwarf	30	30	17	25	28	15	20	20	18	8
Elf	25	20	25	33	20	20	20	20	15	13
Erithian	23	25	20	30	28	15	22	20	15	13
Forest Gnome	22	27	22	33	27	15	20	20	15	10
Giantman	30	28	18	28	25	15	20	22	15	10
Half Elf	27	25	22	32	23	15	20	20	15	12
Half Krolvin	28	30	22	32	25	13	18	20	15	8
Halfling	20	30	25	35	23	15	18	20	15	10
Human	27	27	20	30	25	15	20	22	15	10
Sylvankind	22	23	25	35	20	18	20	20	15	13

One of the many awesome things about Monk is that setting your stats for maximization at cap and setting your stats for usefulness while training are nearly identical. If you set your stats for cap, and get Perfect Self as early as possible as I've mentioned, you will have a statline around level 30 where all of your stats except influence are 80 or above. Not so much Influence. You will be dumping Influence.

If you absolutely do not want to set your stats to maximize at cap for some reason, you can instead go the route of pumping up your Agility, Strength, and Logic, for extra UAC power and exp absorbtion, but keep in mind you will lose out on a lot of TPs as your training will be MTP intensive as soon as you decide to get spells or lores. Your TD will also suffer as you generally will be lowering TD stats to get more Agility and strength and such. Basically, just set your stats for maximization like I told you, you stubborn jerk.

The below table shows what your starting stats should be for each race to maximize stats by level 100. If a stat will not make 100 by the time you cap, it is shown after the stat in parenthesis.

Level 0 Monk Stats Set For Cap By Race

Race	STR	CON	DEX	AGI	DIS	AUR	LOG	INT	WIS	INF
Aelotoi	62	68	68	33	59	72	73	70	82	63 (76)
Burghal Gnome	73	62	68	33	70	85	62	62	82	63 (78)
Dark Elf	62	68	62	30	68	82	73	73	82	60 (76)
Dwarf	49	49	78	62	58	82	73	70 (98)	77	62 (75)
Elf	62	73	62	33	73	73	73	70 (98)	82	59 (80)
Erithian	68	62	73	49	58	82	70	73	82	43 (70)
Forest Gnome	70	59	70	33	59	82	73	73	82	59 (76)
Giantman	49	58	77	58	62	82	73	70	82	49 (68)
Half Elf	59	62	70	39	68	82	73	73	82	52 (73)
Half Krolvin	58	49	70	39	62	85	77	73	82	65 (77)
Halfling	73	49	62	30	68	82	77	70 (98)	82	67 (82)
Human	59	59	73	49	62	82	73	70	82	51 (69)
Sylvankind	70	68	62	30	73	77	73	73	82	52 (75)

Training (Mathed by Flimbo)

Base Skills

There are certain skills all monks will have almost without fail every level. With that said, Monk skills/spells work best when done in bursts rather than every level, so you may find it difficult to upkeep even these basics from level to level occasionally, but always try to catch them up to at least these basic levels shortly after bursting something.

2x Dodge - Your primary source of DS

2x Physical Fitness - Your primary source of stamina, maneuver defense, redux, and health.

2x Combat Maneuvers - CMAN points, extra UAF, redux, et cetera.

2x Brawling - More better punches, redux.

1x Perception - Maneuver defense, seeing stuff, finding stuff.

1 rank of or 0.5x Two Weapon Combat - One rank gives +5 DS, 0.5x gives +15 DS. Usually cheap enough to go 0.5x.

Other Skills

Harness Power - Get this as needed. I only had about 10 ranks of this until level 70. Now I have 31. 10 ranks gave me 50 mana, which meant my spellups were slllooow, but your training points are valuable. Go with as few as you can live with.

Spirit/Mental Mana Control - Who are you trying to impress? Dreaven? You are a Monk, and Dreaven needs to be reminded that he serves you, not the other way around. Don't go muddling the line by sending him mana. It gives him a big head.

Multi Opponent Combat

This is the first of the skills you'll want to do in bursts, and it is acceptable to fall behind in your other training to rush to breakpoints, so long as you catch up your other training later. Your breakpoints are as follows:

5 Ranks - Two unfocused attacks (plus a free jab if the critters have not been jabbed yet)

30 ranks - Two focused attacks on one critter (plus that free jab)

55 ranks - Three focused attacks on one critter

90 ranks - Four focused attacks on one critter

100 ranks - Six unfocused attacks

135 ranks - Five focused attacks on one critter

You will likely find it difficult, though not impossible, to get 135 ranks of MoC prior to cap. I have 90 built into my training plan personally.

Ambush - You will find it very useful eventually (Level 50+ usually) to get 30 ranks in this in order to open ambush things. When a critter is at excellent tier positioning, it is very easy to death crit with UAC so long as you hit the right spot. I tend to hunt via mstriking once to tier up, then ambushing something vital.

Lores

Lores too are best done in bursts. Go to your breakpoint and then stop until you're ready to head to the next. Lores do not start in my personal training plan until level 75, but depending on how you choose to train, you may get them earlier or later.

• Mental Lore, Telepathy - Your main breakpoints here are 6, 15, and 30 ranks, which give you 25, 30, and 35% stamina reduction from Mind Over Body
  

• Mental Lore, Transformation - Your breakpoints here are 5, 15, 30, and 50 ranks, which each increase your Armor Sub-Group by 1 via your 1202 Spell. You will also get extra UAF from Dragonsclaw (1209) along the way.
  

Important Skill Notes

You may find that you've got a ton of skill points and I haven't told you what to spend them on yet, if you've been just following the base and recommended skills above. And you will. There are a couple different routes to go -

• 3x Dodge instead of 2x - This route is training point intensive, and also the route that I have taken. As a Monk you will essentially get 0.75 times your dodge ranks in DS in stance offensive. So the difference between 200 dodge ranks at level 100 and 300 dodge ranks is 75 DS in stance offensive. It is expensive, but you'll rarely, if ever, have to leave stance offensive.
  

• Extra Multi Opponent Combat - Another route to go is maximizing your damage output, hitting Multi Opponent Combat breakpoints much faster than if you were training extra dodge. This route lets you get to 135 ranks of MoC before cap.
  

• Spells/Lores faster - All in all before cap, it's a good idea to have a total of 36 Minor Mental Ranks and 20 Minor Spirit. You can get them much earlier getting spells before pumping up your dodge, but keep in mind, you will get less DS from the extra spell ranks by a significant margin than training in dodge. Your armor will protect better with lores though, and your spells will last longer per cast, as well as getting an extra few TD from Mindward earlier.
  

Spells

When to get them

Like many other Monk things, spells are best done in bursts. The first burst you should aim for is right away.

Your path of least resistance is to aim for 20 Minor Mental spell ranks by level 25 or so. You will not be able to upkeep even the basic skills at the top fully to accomplish this, but that's fine, so long as you catch up your basics after you finish spell ranks.

1216 and 1220 all by themselves will give you +50 DS, which will mean you're done leaving stance offensive for about 40 levels. It is well worth the sacrifice.

In addition to 20 Minor Mental ranks, I also chose to get 3 ranks of Minor Spirit at this point, just for a boost of +10 DS from 103, +10 TD from 101, and +20 extra DS from 102. See notes below about 102.

Your second burst will likely happen around level 50-60. You'll want to get 20 ranks of Minor Spirit spells, for extra DS, and especially TD, from 107 and 120. This is the point you'll start feeling a pinch on your mana, as casting 1220 and 120 a bunch of times, as well as other high cost spells, can take forever on a tiny Monk mana pool.

Once you're done 20 ranks of each spell circle, you're basically done. At some point, you'll want to pick up 16 extra ranks of Minor Mental, for Provoke and a few extra DS from 1220/TD from Mindward, but the closer to cap you can do this, the better. Spells are expensive.

Individual Spell Notes

102 (Spirit Barrier) - In my experience as a Monk, since you're in robes and so awesome at punching things, you won't have any trouble hitting things based on your UAF. It is well worth 20-30 UAF for an extra 20-30 DS, especially early on in levels. I keep it on when solo hunting almost always.

1213/1216 (Mind Over Body and Focus Barrier) - These spells are unique in that they have infinite durations. You can only use one focus at a time, so it's one or the other. The only thing to note about them is that if you become stunned, there is a chance they will drop, so keep an eye on it if you get hit. This can be especially annoying running to places to hunt occasionally, such as jumping off the cliff on Teras to go to Soul Golems.

Combat Maneuvers

Must Haves

The first Combat Maneuver any Monk must have is Perfect Self.

This is made difficult by the fact that in order to get Perfect Self, one must first get two dirty active prerequisites that you have to actually push buttons to use. It's awful.

Namely, you must get 3 ranks each of Surge of Strength and Burst of Swiftness before starting Perfect Self. Many people enjoy Surge especially regardless, but if you're like me in disliking things that make you push extra buttons, these will only be marginally useful.

You can maximize Perfect Self at level 31, as it costs 30 CMAN points to complete. At this point, your CMAN training will looke like this:

• Surge of Strength (3 ranks)
• Burst of Swiftness (3 ranks)
• Perfect Self (5 ranks)

Perfect Self is always the first thing you should be maximizing as a Monk, without fail. There is no combat maneuver in the game that can compete with the sheer utility of a passive +10 to every stat. It helps everything you do.

After Perfect Self, the order of things is based on personal preference. I chose at this point to get one rank of Rolling Krynch Stance, and then work on Punch Mastery, Kick Mastery, and Grapple Mastery masteries. The mathemagicians among you will note that you can start these slightly before you finish Perfect Self based on the fact that you'll store up more points by level 30 than you can actually spend on the 30 point Perfect Self skill. To that I say: Goob job, poindexter. You are a MATH NERD and I will dunk your head in a fantasy toilet when I see you in game. That's right. You're the biggest nerd in a 25 year old text game. Congratulations. I hope being smart was worth it.

Anyways, one must have punch, kick, and grapple mastery. I personally recommend all three ranks of all of them as a Monk, as tiering up in position is very important, but by the time you're high enough level to master all three (Around level 65), you'll be informed enough to make your own decision.

Next, I recommend also getting all three ranks of your Rolling Krynch Stance, and I recommend doing so after you finish your masteries (I only finished it around level 70). But again, by that point, you'll know for yourself what you want.

And lastly, one rank of Combat Mobility at some point in your training is absolutely a good idea for anyone who can get it. This will pop you back to standing 50% of the time when swung at if you're unstunned but knocked down.

Personal Preference

Evade Mastery - This skill allows you to flat out dodge attacks more. As a square wearing robes, this skill is more beneficial to you than any other profession in the game as the lighter your armor, the bigger its bonus (27% increase to outright dodge an attack at rank 3). The only reason it's in the personal preference section rather than the must haves is because even without it, you will find you defend, and dodge absolutely spectacularly, so you may feel that you don't need it.

Combat Focus - This skill gives you +2 TD per rank, up to 5 ranks for a total of +10 Generic TD Bonus. It is very expensive to complete (30 points). If you feel you haven't offset your TD in enough other ways, it is a decent CMAN to pick up though. There are cheaper ways to get your TD into a healthy state, though, so consider just one to three ranks if you have extra points nearing cap.

Ki Focus - This is an active use skill that grants an increased chance of tiering up your position on the next strike. Personally I haven't found a need for it, but some Monks (Githros) use it. Personally I prefer to go the passive route, with maximized rolling krynch stance and three fully trained masteries, but if you like active skills and absolutely must tier up immediately, Ki Focus is a good one.

Inner Harmony - This stance will shake off a negative spell effect every 30 seconds. Personally I don't recommend getting this unless you can get the full three ranks. At rank 3 of this stance, you can shake off a negative effect immediately after assuming the stance. In my experience, if you need to get rid of a spell effect badly enough to spend CMAN points on it, you're dead before 30 seconds is up anyway. So all in or bust on this one.

Slippery Mind - Slippery Mind works like Evade Mastery, but for warding spells. Upon reaching rank 3, you get a 27% chance to outright dodge warding spells. Generally speaking I find the "Kill it before it kills you" method preferable, and boosting up my TD to outright pass warding checks, but in a pinch, this one's decent.

Feint - Lots of people like feint. You're a Monk. If you can't hit it while it's in stance defensive, you're doing it wrong. But I suppose it does make things a little easier.

Flurry of Blows - I'm only adding this because people will ask about it if I don't. Pound for pound, Rolling Krynch Stance is superior. Don't get this.

Shut up and tell me what to take

This is my CMAN training, in the order I took 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 - 1 Rank (5 points)

Evade Mastery - 3 Ranks (24 points)

Combat Focus - 4 Ranks (20 points)

Feint - 1 Rank (2 points)

Total Points - 201

Society (Flimbo wrote this part)

Voln

Voln as a society has been voted "Best", among Flimbos. You will never lose an mstrike to lost bless again because of Step 8. You gain the ability to self bless your gear. Symbol Recall is great for getting all your spells back after a death. Symbol Return saves you 10 ranks of Minor Spirit spells getting the ability to fog. And between favor not resetting step to step, and instances like Reim being easy to run, you'll be uncountable spins very easily for life. Plus you can stack up all your symbols such as protection, courage, and supremacy so you don't have to re-type them every few minutes.

CoL

CoL is your basic "easy" route. UAF/DS/TD bonuses, like the other two. Sign wracking. Meh. If you're lazy, go CoL.

Sunfist

I started out as a Flimbo by mastering Sunfist, and it was good. It offers some very useful skills for punching things, but the drawbacks are that everything you do costs stamina, which you generally are using for things like mstriking already, and all of the durations are super short, so there's a lot of upkeep involved. Giving yourself padding and weighting is always nice though, and warcamps are fun. The biggest drawback is that your TD sigil only lasts 90 seconds, so beware.

TD, and what to do about it (Talked about by Flimbo)

One of the main things people say about Monks is that "Their TD is awful!". It is not. You just did it wrong or are parroting someone who did it wrong. Your TD does start out lower than other squareses, and here is why:

Robes have a CvA of +15. Compare that to the best possible CvA of -21 on Full Plate, and your starting off point is 36 overall TD worse than a warrior wearing full plate. So your goal is to get 36 TD to bring yourself even with a level 40+ warrior. No problem! Let's go to the math!

Now, assuming you are a Monk (Hint: You are), you will have for the majority of your training, 20 ranks of Minor Mental and 20 ranks of Lesser Spirit spells. Let's add up those self spelled boosts.

101 - 10 Spirit TD

107 - 15 Spirit TD

120 - 20 Spirit TD

1208 - 26 Mental TD (At 20 ranks)

Now, your overall bonus will fluctuate a bit based on the type of spell being cast at you, so let's just deal with "Generic TD" for now. This is the minimum "always on" bonus granted by the above spells to your TD. It only goes up from here if you're having a Spirit or Mental spell cast at you. Generic TD added is half that of your specific TD spells.

10/2 = 5 TD from 101

15/2 = 7 TD from 107

20/2 = 10 TD from 120

26/2 = 13 TD from 208

Total of - 35 TD!

Congratulations! With only self spelled Generic TD, you've just offset your TD penalty from wearing robes compared to a warrior in full plate. Almost. There's 1 more point to go. So let's get into the other ways to boost your TD.

Assume you're a Flimbo, which you should be aspiring to be anyway. I have four ranks of Combat Focus, as detailed in the CMAN section above:

Combat Focus (4 ranks) - 8 Generic TD

Now, ensorcell your robes. Like Combat Focus, ensorcelling your armor adds +2 Generic TD per tier. Therefore, a Tier 5 ensorcell will give you:

Tier 5 Ensorcell - 10 Generic TD

Now let's not forget you can get yourself treasure gen robes that have TD on them. Mine are +5 TD, so let's go with that.

+5 TD Robes - 5 Generic TD

If you are lucky enough to be in Voln, or CoL I guess, you will have an easy, reliable symbol/sign to boost your TD. Sunfist also has a sign for it, but it only lasts 90 seconds, and I mean...come on. If you want to push lots of buttons, be a warrior.

CoL - +15 Generic TD

Voln - +13 Generic TD (Bonus because it's tied into symbol of protection which you've got up anyway for DS!)

But wait! There's More! You're a MONK! You have perfect self! And with +10 to every one of your stats comes +5 bonus to each of your TD stats. So let's add that too.

+5 TD stat bonus - 5 Generic TD

So let's add all that up, again, assuming you're a Flimbo, in Voln with a Tier 5 ensorcell and TD enhancive robes.

Combat Focus (4 ranks) - 8 Generic TD

Tier 5 Ensorcell - 10 Generic TD

+5 TD Robes - 5 Generic TD

Voln Master - 13 Generic TD

+5 TD stat bonus - 5 Generic TD

Self spelled Generic TD - 35 Generic TD

Total Bonus TD from spells, skills, and gearing - 76

Who's got TD problems NOW? Nobody, that's who. Well, maybe somebody, but not you. Keep in mind also that certain races, like Halfling, get obscene bonuses to types of TD (Elemental in the Halfling's case), so keep that in mind when choosing a race. Self spelled only, and geared properly using societal skills, you'll easily be better off than most other professions. Not worse. And keep in mind, all of these maths were just for generic TD. Your individual TDs for spirit, mental, and hybrid will be higher. Elemental will remain the same.

Frequently Asked Questions (Answered by Flimbo)

Q. Yeah, you got yourself +76 Generic TD without outside spells, but if something with 500 CS casts at you it can still hit you!!

A. First of all, this is not a question. You are dumb. Also, if something with 500 CS casts at anybody it's gonna hit them. This is not grounds for calling Monk TD "bad".

Q. Should I start by jabbing, punching, kicking or grappling?

A. It's semi situational, but it really doesn't matter all that much. Most people choose punch because it's a good roundtime to damage ratio. Most Monk tiering up will come through mstriking usually, so what you do before that isn't super crucial.

Q. What if I MSTRIKE and I miss a tier up opportunity?

A. UAC mstrike has been coded to take advantage of tier up opportunities. If you MSTRIKE PUNCH a critter, firstly, it will start with a free jab (if the critter hasn't been jabbed yet), then if there's no tier up opportunity, go to punch, and so on and so forth until it tiers up completely.

Q. You LIAR. I MSTRIKE PUNCH'd a thing and it just jabbed over and over!

A. Yes. I did just lie to you there. I'm sorry. In the event that the critter is above your ability to tier up against it (more than 10 levels over you), your MSTRIKEs will just jab and jab and jab forever trying to tier up. It is sadface. Also this too is not a question. But you're not dumb like that other not a question.

Q. How many professions is Monk better than?

A. All of them. Monk is the best. It is easily one of the top ten professions in Elanthia.

Q. What damage type should I meditate against?

A. It depends what you're fighting. Against the Empress in Reim, I meditate against Lightning. Against a soul golem, I meditate against crush. Against a Krolvin Warfarer, I meditate against slash. You meditate against whatever damage is being thrown at you most often. Keep in mind however that if you have a resistance on your equipment already, it does not stack with meditation resistance. Meditate a different type of resistance than your gear has in order to avoid wasting resistance.

Q. If I join Voln and get to step 8, I'll never have to bless my grabbers and kickers, right?

A. It is true that you don't have to bless after step 8 in Voln, but you will not get the benefit of enchant on your gear if you do that. Unblessed grabbers and kickers act as 0x. But what it does mean is that you'll never have to waste half an mstrike on an ending bless, which is great!

Q. Should I use Focus Barrier or Mind Over Body?

A. Yes. Yes you should. Both, in fact! Not at the same time obviously, because you can't. In general I tend to use Focus Barrier (+30 DS), in solo hunts, and Mind Over Body (20-35% stamina cost reduction) in groups, though even in groups I swap between the two occasionally, depending on the situation. They're both quite useful, and give Monks a lot of utility.

Q. Should I use brawling weapons?

A. In my opinion, no. The drawbacks outweigh the benefits. You lose your disarm ability from 1214 (Brace) by wielding a weapon, and generally it's more important for a Monk to tier up to do damage than it is to straight out damage things. Also, holding weapons opens up the possibility for you to be disarmed, and have to put something away to pick things up. All in all, extra Damage Factor is useful, but between the MM cost and the drawbacks of holding a weapon, I'd say stay away.

Q. Should I use 102 (Spirit Barrier)?

A. I already answered this in the Individual spell notes! You weren't paying attention! Here it is again: In my experience as a Monk, since you're in robes and so awesome at punching things, you won't have any trouble hitting things based on your UAF. It is well worth 20-30 UAF for an extra 20-30 DS, especially early on in levels. I keep it on when solo hunting almost always.

Q. Can I and should I use a shield?

A. You can, but you probably shouldn't. Monks lack access to shield maneuvers to make it easier to UAC with a shield, and you will lose the disarm benefit of your 1214 spell by holding something in your offhand. You also rely heavily on dodge for your DS, and you probably don't want to cut into that with shield training. If you build right, you'll have plenty of DS and TD without a shield.

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