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Leafiara (prime)/Mechanical Musings/The Autumnwinds' Magical Monk Guide

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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 Autumnwings' Magical Monk Guide

Author: Leafiara

Date Published: 2024-06-19

Updated: 2024-12-20


By Leafiara Autumnwind, in loving memory of Saraphenia Autumnwind.

Last updated December 20, 2024.

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 44,000,000! (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!


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!


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!


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.