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 prior to cap 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.

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Creation (Did by Flimbo)

Race

All races make good monks, really, in that all races really can make a good anything. As always, I recommend choosing what you would most enjoy RPing. Mechanically though, 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

Before Level 20

Prior to level 20, you get up to 5 stat resets to change your stats (check in at your local inn to change them), so you'll want to utilize the next section of the guide just before level 20 to set your stats appropriately. Prior to that, pump up your strength, agility, and logic so you have a real easy time hitting things, defending, and learning fast. Other stats really don't matter at this point. The first 20 levels are all about powering your way through. Setting your stats for the post level 20 plan right at level 0 will cause you a headache, as that plan doesn't really start giving you a decent statline until level 25 or 30.

Level 20 and up

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 close to or at 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, its final value 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	70(98)	62	33	73	73	73	70 (98)	82	62 (82)
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	70(98)	82	55 (77)

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Numbers!!

Also, 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. You will look at them and you will like it.

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

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Training (Mathed by Flimbo)

Before Level 20

Prior to level 20, your skill migration happens instantly. Play around with things. Get a feel for what does what. It takes a minute or two at most to swap it all up until you hit 20. Training-wise, max out your brawling, combat maneuvers, get a few spells (things like 1204 are nice little boosts that are easy to get to). 3xing dodge if possible helps out your DS a little bit too. For the most part, the first 20 levels are pretty straightforward and pretty easy, so play around with your skills. Get yourself some outside spells and everything pre-20 becomes super easy mode. At level 20 and above:

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.

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 - If you really want it early on you can work it in, but if you have extra MTPs, you'd probably be much happier putting them into Harness power until later in levels.

Climb/Swim - Super Cheap. Get 'em as needed.

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.

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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.
  

NOTE: See the Individual Spell Notes Section (for spell 1202) just below for a slightly more in depth look at your lore choices and why/when you make them.

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. 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.
  

• Extra Physical Fitness - This goes hand in hand with the extra MoC just above. Meureii found that extra PF ranks affect the RT of your mstrikes, so you might consider bringing this from 2x to 3x once you get some focused mstrike under your belt.
  

• 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.

1202 (Iron Skin) - This spell is awesome. It would be difficult to be a Monk without its use. What it does is make your robes protect like sturdier armor. It increases your AsG (Armor Sub Group) by one at various level and Transformation Lore breakpoints.

When you first get the spell and use it, assuming you are lower than level 5, it will make your robes protect like full leathers. This includes armor padding bonuses only. It will not change the CvA (the TD modifier), but neither will it change your maneuver rolls (having lighter armor for purposes of maneuvers is better).

Here are the level breakpoints for increasing your AsG further:

Level	AsG Bonus
5	1
15	2
30	3
50	4
75	5

And the Mental Lore, Transformation Breakpoints:

Lore Ranks	AsG Bonus
5	1
15	2
30	3
50	4
75	5
105	6
140	7
180	8
225	9

In the spirit of not making you do math, here's what it boils down to - Without any lores at all, at levels 5, 15, 30, 50, and 75, your robes will be upgraded protect like reinforced leather, doubles, leather breastplate, cuirbouilli, and studded leather respectively. On top of that, you will likely be aiming for a total of either 30, 50, or 75 ranks of Mental Lore Transformation depending on your training (some of that post cap more than likely). The reason my own lore training starts at level 75, mentioned just above, is because that's when I hit studded leather with 1202 via level breakpoints. With just 15 ranks of transformation lore on top of that, my armor hit chain rather than rigid leather, which is a big upgrade. Upgrades prior to that are useful, but not as dramatic as leather to chain, especially since early on in levels, you just won't get hit a lot.

Assuming you're at least level 75 (you will be by the time you have this many lore ranks), those big stopping points of choice, 30, 50, and 75 Transformation ranks, will cause your robes to protect like Double Chain, Augmented Chain, or Hauberk respectively. It is worth noting that if you choose to go all the way to hauberk, it will not be possible to get 35% stamina reduction or higher from 1213 without enhancives. Monks can only train a total of 101 lore ranks, so you will theoretically be able to hit 25 ranks of Mental Lore Telepathy in addition to 75 Transformation, which is a breakpoint with 30% stamina reduction for 1213, and also allows you to remove sheer fear effects from allies with 1205.

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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 four 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 (and it's a martial stance, not a passive). 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. (Expanded on in the Frequently Asked Questions portion of this guide.)

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

Training: Path of Least Resistance

This is a good rule of thumb order to do things in to make leveling as painless as possible as a Monk. Obviously there's more than one way to do this, but having experimented in depth, this is probably the easiest route.

• Get 5 Multi Opponent Combat Ranks
• Get 20 Minor Mental Spells by around level 25
• Get 3 Minor Spirit Ranks by level 30
• Catch up your basic 2x dodge, Physical Fitness, Combat Maneuvers, Brawling, et cetera, from the basic skills above
• Get 30 Multi Opponent Combat Ranks
• This should take you to about level 35-40. This is the point you'll want to choose whether to aim for early spells/lores, more MoC, or more Dodge.

So: Choose between one of the three and go for it until level 50:

• Get more Dodge Ranks while maintaining basic training
• Go straight for lores and 20 ranks of Minor Spirit
• Go straight for 55 ranks of Multi Opponent Combat.

These are going to be your main three skill goals from now until cap. I've found the path of least resistance is to go for dodge, but all of them work.

Regardless of which you choose, make sure you get 20 ranks of Minor Spirit by level 60-65. That's when things really start casting at you on the regular, so make sure you get that TD up.

By level 70, you'll probably be finishing your primary CMANs, masteries, your main martial stance and all and be getting into personal preference territory. At this point, you shouldn't need me anymore, so play around, decide what you like, and figure out your own goals for the rest of your training. I have faith in you. Kind of. You're on thin ice. Don't mess up and make Monks look bad or I'll be angry and dunk your head in the fantasy toilet like the math nerd from before.

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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.

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How To Punch Stuff Good (Explained by Flimbo)

To preface, I'm not going to go into the math behind all these UAC things. It is useful to know, however, so I recommend reading the information on the Unarmed Combat page and its subsequent saved posts. I'll just be focusing on practical Monk applications here.

All demonstrations shown here are against like leveled critters while only self spelled:

- Minor Spirit:

  101:  Spirit Warding I        - 3:36:36 
  102:  Spirit Barrier          - 3:43:05 
  103:  Spirit Defense          - 3:39:11 
  107:  Spirit Warding II       - 3:35:59 
  115:  Fasthr's Reward         - 3:21:10 
  120:  Lesser Shroud           - 3:21:13 

- Minor Mental:

 1202:  Iron Skin               - 3:39:17 
 1204:  Foresight               - 3:36:29 
 1208:  Mindward                - 3:39:25 
 1209:  Dragonclaw              - 3:39:28 
 1214:  Brace                   - 3:39:32 
 1215:  Blink                   - 3:18:26 
 1216:  Focus Barrier           - 6:18:49 
 1220:  Premonition             - 3:39:40 

- Order of Voln:

 9805:  Symbol of Courage       - 0:00:38 
 9806:  Symbol of Protection    - 0:00:39 

NOTE: For purposes of demonstration, I cannot shut off my masteries. "Early level" concepts will likely have you getting fewer tier up opportunities than I show here because punch, kick, and grapple masteries increase your amount of tier ups.

Core Concepts

Tiering Up

When you first attack a thing, assuming Krynch Stance is not yet working its magic, you will start at decent positioning. At decent positioning, it's very difficult to crit kill anything, harder to hit things, and more difficult to deal high levels of damage. You don't have to hit things hard to tier up. You just have to hit them. Your masteries will occasionally (up to 15% of the time) tier you up. Jab also has an improved chance to tier you up. What you're looking for is an opening to increase your tier, which is shown below where the "strike leaves foe vulnerable to a followup X attack". When you get this message...do that attack next. It will tier you up to good, and then finally excellent positioning. Each tier makes it easier to do damage, and easier to crit kill a thing.

You attempt to punch a krag yeti!

You have decent positioning against a krag yeti.

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

... and hit for 28 points of damage!

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

The krag yeti starts to favor its wounded leg!

Strike leaves foe vulnerable to a followup punch attack!

Roundtime: 3 sec.

You attempt to punch a krag yeti!

You have good positioning against a krag yeti.

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

... and hit for 57 points of damage!

Rotating backhand cleanly snaps tibia!

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

The krag yeti is stunned!

** Your leather gauntlets flare with a burst of flame! **

... 25 points of damage!

Flames burn neck into a bubbling mass of flesh. Forget lunch.

Roundtime: 3 sec.

To 102 or To Not To 102

I'll elaborate on this one here since I get this question constantly. As a Monk, it's not hard to hit things, even if they're in stance defensive. 102 lowers your UAF and increases your DS. The first example shows with it turned on, the second with it turned off. Both have no trouble hitting like leveled critters, so why not go for the extra DS?

>jab

You attempt to jab a krag yeti!

You have decent positioning against a krag yeti.

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

... and hit for 5 points of damage!

Low jab glances off the right thigh.

Roundtime: 2 sec.

A krag yeti tries to ensnare you!

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

A clean miss.

>stop 102

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

The air calms down around you.

>jab

You attempt to jab a krag yeti!

You have decent positioning against a krag yeti.

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

... and hit for 9 points of damage!

Solid blow to upper left arm.

Roundtime: 2 sec.

A krag yeti tries to ensnare you!

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

A clean miss.

Rolling Krynch Stance - What does it do even?

How it works is slightly more complex than this, but not much. Basically, just think of it as a chance for a free tier up to good or excellent on subsequent critters. You'll notice it working via a message you get on a second or third critter you hit. In the below example, I'd just killed another critter.

You attempt to punch a krag dweller!

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

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

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

... and hit for 34 points of damage!

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

The krag dweller is knocked to the ground!

Roundtime: 3 sec.

Early Levels

Early on in levels, you'll mainly kill things via running them out of health. It's not impossible to kill things via crit early on. You just generally won't have to. Things die before you get there half the time. You won't have a lot of MSTRIKE, so you will mainly be trying to tier up hit by hit. Keep in mind my example is against a much higher level critter than you'll do this against, so it's going to be a more exhaustive process as higher level critters generally have oodles of health, which is why you'll be moving on to more efficient killing methods later.

>jab

You attempt to jab a krag dweller! <--------- open with a jab to help tier ups

You have decent positioning against a krag dweller.

UAF: 468 vs UDF: 385 = 1.215 * MM: 98 + d100: 28 = 147

... and hit for 2 points of damage!

Fast but ineffective blow to left hip.

Strike leaves foe vulnerable to a followup punch attack! <--------- pay attention to tier up opportunities

** Your leather gauntlets flare with a burst of flame! **

The heat wafts over the krag dweller with little effect.

Roundtime: 2 sec.

R>pun

You attempt to punch a krag dweller!

You have good positioning against a krag dweller.

UAF: 468 vs UDF: 385 = 1.215 * MM: 114 + d100: 39 = 177

... and hit for 23 points of damage!

Wild side punch smashes into left hand, pinning it against its body.

The krag dweller starts to favor its wounded arm!

Roundtime: 3 sec.

>pun

You attempt to punch a krag dweller! <--------- punch is an efficient damage/RT ratio when no tier up chance exists

You have good positioning against a krag dweller.

UAF: 468 vs UDF: 385 = 1.215 * MM: 116 + d100: 66 = 207

... and hit for 35 points of damage!

Wide swing connects with left shin, sweeping it hard to the side!

The krag dweller is knocked to the ground!

Strike leaves foe vulnerable to a followup grapple attack! <--------- watch for that other tier up

Roundtime: 3 sec.

R>

A krag dweller stands up with a grunt.

R>grap

...wait 1 seconds.

R>grap

The krag dweller no longer favors its left arm.

>

You attempt to grapple a krag dweller!

You have excellent positioning against a krag dweller.

UAF: 468 vs UDF: 352 = 1.329 * MM: 114 + d100: 71 = 222

... and hit for 45 points of damage!

Amazing throw sends the krag dweller in one direction, but left arm stays behind!

The krag dweller is knocked to the ground! <--------- UAC knocks stuff down all the time, among other neat effects

** Your leather gauntlets flare with a burst of flame! **

The heat wafts over the krag dweller with little effect.

Roundtime: 3 sec.

R>kick

You attempt to kick a krag dweller! <--------- kick is your highest Damage Factor. When at excellent tier killing stuff via health, kick does damage quick

You have excellent positioning against a krag dweller.

UAF: 463 vs UDF: 343 = 1.349 * MM: 125 + d100: 52 = 220

... and hit for 104 points of damage!

Shattering kick to spine sends the krag dweller flying through the air, already fully limp!

The krag dweller collapses into a pile of rubble.

Roundtime: 4 sec.

Later Levels

Later levels, you'll generally use MSTRIKE to tier up, and then punch a thing in the face.

NOTE: I had trouble demonstrating this because a lot of the time, the first MSTRIKE will flat out kill a thing without need for any extra stuff, shown in the first example.

Example 1: MSTRIKE, then loot

You skip merrily south.

[Upper Krag Slopes - 6136]

A gnarled modwir tree grows downward from high on the steep slope to the south -- half of its exposed roots grope in the air like grasping fingers. :A small ledge protrudes from the slope beside the tree and a jagged crevice can be seen among the darkness there. You also see a krag yeti.

Obvious paths: north

>

A krag yeti swings a monstrous hairy hand at you!

Using the bone plates surrounding your forearms, you parry the attack! < ---- Weaponless parry via 1214 (Brace). It also disarms weapons.

>mstrike kick yeti

You concentrate intently, focusing all your energies.

You explode into a fury of strikes and ripostes, moving with a singular purpose and will!

You attempt to jab a krag yeti!

You have decent positioning against a krag yeti.

UAF: 468 vs UDF: 323 = 1.448 * MM: 108 + d100: 56 = 212

... and hit for 10 points of damage!

Fast strike to inner thigh knocks the krag yeti off-balance!

The krag yeti is knocked into a sitting position!

The krag yeti is stunned!

Strike leaves foe vulnerable to a followup grapple attack!

You attempt to grapple a krag yeti!

You have good positioning against a krag yeti.

UAF: 468 vs UDF: 301 = 1.554 * MM: 139 + d100: 43 = 259

... and hit for 49 points of damage!

Right ankle snapped sideways resulting in a clean break!

The krag yeti is knocked to the ground!

The krag yeti starts to favor its wounded leg!

Strike leaves foe vulnerable to a followup grapple attack!

You attempt to grapple a krag yeti!

You have excellent positioning against a krag yeti.

UAF: 468 vs UDF: 287 = 1.630 * MM: 134 + d100: 92 = 310

... and hit for 70 points of damage!

Powerful grip twists head around until it faces backwards, giving the krag yeti a new perspective on life!

The krag yeti shudders once before it finally goes still.

Your series of strikes and ripostes leaves you winded and out of position.

Roundtime: 5 sec.

Example 2: MSTRIKE, then Ambush the face

>mstrike kick yeti

You concentrate intently, focusing all your energies.

You explode into a fury of strikes and ripostes, moving with a singular purpose and will!

You attempt to jab a krag yeti! < ---- You get a free jab if the thing wasn't already jabbed

You have decent positioning against a krag yeti.

UAF: 468 vs UDF: 517 = 0.905 * MM: 77 + d100: 21 = 90

A close miss!

You attempt to jab a krag yeti! < ---- You jab again because you suck and missed the first jab because the thing was in stance defensive

You have decent positioning against a krag yeti.

UAF: 468 vs UDF: 517 = 0.905 * MM: 83 + d100: 85 = 160

... and hit for 7 points of damage!

Solid shot to the back.

Strike leaves foe vulnerable to a followup punch attack!

You attempt to punch a krag yeti!

You have good positioning against a krag yeti.

UAF: 468 vs UDF: 517 = 0.905 * MM: 99 + d100: 74 = 163

... and hit for 33 points of damage!

Wide swing connects with right shin, sweeping it hard to the side!

The krag yeti is knocked to the ground!

The krag yeti is stunned!

You attempt to kick a krag yeti!

You have good positioning against a krag yeti.

UAF: 463 vs UDF: 474 = 0.976 * MM: 125 + d100: 15 = 137

... and hit for 43 points of damage!

Feint to left leaves opening for a solid front kick to the chest!

Strike leaves foe vulnerable to a followup jab attack!

** Your drakar-toed boots flare with a burst of flame! **

... 20 points of damage!

Nasty burns to right arm. Gonna need lots of butter.

You attempt to jab a krag yeti!

You have excellent positioning against a krag yeti.

UAF: 468 vs UDF: 456 = 1.026 * MM: 115 + d100: 28 = 146

... and hit for 11 points of damage!

Heavy chop shatters bones in right wrist!

The krag yeti starts to favor its wounded arm!

Your series of strikes and ripostes leaves you winded and out of position.

Roundtime: 6 sec.

R>

[ MStrike Cooldown: +0:01:00, 0:00:59 remaining. ] < ---- UAC MSTRIKE Cooldown is 20 seconds

>aim head < ---- Aim for the face (abdomen also death crits if you can't reach)

You're now aiming at the head of your target when using a ranged weapon, or while ambushing.

R>pun

...wait 1 seconds.

R>

A krag yeti tries to ensnare you!

AS: +373 vs DS: +420 with AvD: +38 + d100 roll: +20 = +11

A clean miss.

>pun

You make a precise attempt to punch a krag yeti!

You have excellent positioning against a krag yeti.

UAF: 468 vs UDF: 445 = 1.051 * MM: 131 + d100: 76 = 213

... and hit for 63 points of damage!

Awesome punch to forehead snaps head straight back with a sickening *CRUNCH!*

The krag yeti shudders once before it finally goes still. < ---- And it's dead

Roundtime: 4 sec.

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 1208

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 (They seem to range between +2 and +9 as critter drops).

+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 in line with the other professions. Better if you build heavily towards TD, as shown above. 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.

Back to the Top

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, jab again. Once it tiers up, it'll use your specified MSTRIKE selection, unless there's a tier up chance, and then it'll do that instead. If you specify JAB, it'll tier up to excellent however possible and then use a random grapple, punch, or kick at excellent tier.

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.

Q. Why 36 ranks of Minor Mental Spells and not 35?

A. While rank 35 is your last spell, rank 36 is a breakpoint for one extra Generic TD from Mindward. It's generally considered worthwhile to pick it up, but if you're very tight on points, you can make it a post cap goal.

Q. Where can I get basic 4x UAC gear?

A. Assuming you are near the Landing, you can either get back room access to the Landing Weapon Shop, or go to the Stout Hoarbeam Cart in Icemule. The latter travels around the Dwarven Circle on the Southeastern side of town. If you are in the Elven Nations, you have clearly made a mistake. Recreate your Monk in a town that doesn't smell like elf farts. Also, Playershops and there's probably a store there that sells them. I don't know. There are too many elfs.

Q. When open ambushing to kill, does it matter which skill I use?

A. If you are aiming for the head, both punch and kick have the same level of critical required to death crit (8), so you save yourself 1 RT by using punch. However, if you can't reach the head (you usually can. UAC knocks stuff down all the time), and you are aiming for the neck or abdomen, kick retains the rank 8 critical requirement for a death crit, while punch increases to rank 9 requirement. So rule of thumb - Head, punch, neck/abdomen, kick. Grapple is never the easiest choice for a death crit, and jab flat out can't do it.

Q. How many times is Flimbo's name mentioned in this guide? (Question submitted by Brutish)

A. All of them. All of the times.

Q. Why Krynch Stance over Flurry? (Question submitted by Zaj)

A. It's been shown that Flurry does work with MSTRIKE UAC. It is probably close to equivalent now with Krynch, but it creates a large amount of screen scroll and requires that you jab more often than kick or punch, which is generally counter productive once your masteries are getting close to maxed out. I haven't done any specific testing one versus the other, but between the screen scroll and the over-reliance on unnecessary jabs, it seems like Krynch likely edges it out a bit unless you build specifically to utilize something like specially flaring gloves.

Q. I'm not yet step 10 in Voln and it's hard to get blesses on my gear. What should I do? (Submitted by Korztyc)

A. What I did was use plain 0x gear (you start with this. If you haven't got it, you can get 0x from the stout hoarbeam cart in Icemule or Wehnimer's weapon shop back room). I got a bless from a cleric at step 0, which lasted me to step 2. At step 2, you can self bless 0x gear. Once you're at step 8, it's automatically blessed. When you hit step 10, you can self bless 4x gear. You can upgrade to basic 4x UAC gear from the aforementioned cart or weapon shop at this point.

Q. Should I get extra Physical fitness ranks above 2x while training? (Inspired by Meureii)

A. If you choose to focus on multi opponent combat heavily, once you have about 55 ranks, I would say this is worth considering. It will lower your RT for your mstrikes, and give you more stamina to mstrike with. It's perfectly acceptable to 2x this until cap though, as you won't have any lack of stamina, or RT issues regardless.

Q. Should I 0.5x Two Weapon Combat for +15 DS or 1 rank it for +5?

A. Early on, it's cheap enough to go 0.5x and you probably would benefit from a bit of extra DS. Once you hit level 50 or so, consider dropping it back down to 1 rank. At level 50, you're spending 50/50 for +10 DS, which is getting a little pricey. It's still pretty cheap and possible to keep in your plan, but there are cheaper ways to get +10 DS at that point.

Q. The Dragonclaw spell states that the caster will be able to hit magical creatures without special equipment. Does this mean undead? (Submitted by Tristes)

A. No, this means that creatures that are unhittable without some sort of magic metal weapon normally will be hittable by fists. You still need a bless or Step 8 in Voln to hit undead.

Q. Once I'm Step 8 in Voln, can I use flaring gloves and boots against undead?

A. Yes, but they won't flare, and they will function as 0x. Even though Step 8 lets you hit undead without a bless, you don't get the benefit of your item's enchantment or special properties without a bless. It's very useful though when you lose a bless mid mstrike.

Q. Where can I get UAC gear? (Submitted by just everybody)

A. You may have started wearing 0x UAC gear if you had brawling in your plan at creation. Otherwise, here are the easiest places - The Stout Hoarbeam Cart travels around the dwarven circle in icemule. It sells 0x and 4x plain gear. If you get backroom access to the landing weapon shop, it also does. You can get basic 4x fire flaring UAC gear from the sunfist outpost on FWI.

Back to the Top

Sample Training Sheet (For Flimbo Enthusiasts)

You can download a copy of Tsoran's Spreadsheet, filled out in its entirety for a Flimbo. This spreadsheet shows the exact training paths I took in order to maximize potential.

It gives a good idea of how and when to burst up portions of your training, and what to sacrifice in order to get that done when necessary.

If nothing else, it is a decent starting off point to tweak for your own purposes. And as mentioned earlier in the guide, this spreadsheet focuses on getting to 3x dodge after getting the basics covered, for extra DS and the ability to never really have to leave stance offensive.

Download the Spreadsheet already (Flimbo Actual - 3x Dodge)

Download the alternate Spreadsheet already (Flimbo - 2x Dodge, Earlier Lores)

Back to the Top

Sigh. No, really. Brawling weapons? (Mathed by *gasp* ROCKMONTAN! (and a little bit Flimbo))

So, despite this being answered in the guide without any math to back it up, I get asked this question a lot. So much even. "Should I use brawling weapons?". The answer is probably not. And here's the math why. You asked for it.

The Basics

The idea behind holding brawling weapons is to up the damage factor of your punch, jab, and grapple attacks. The kicker though is that you want to do so without lowering your endrolls on each attack. If you're lowering your end roll, you're lowering your damage factor just to raise it back up with the weapon/weapons. Those weapon/weapons can be disarmed and stop your weaponless parry from working with Brace (1214), so a wash is not going to be good enough.

No, if you get flaring gloves and a flaring brawling weapon, it will not flare twice as much. It'll give a 50/50 chance on a flare to do one or the other. That's the other question I get asked a lot.

The Advanced-ics

So, how do you keep your endrolls even? That depends on how good your UAF is versus the opponent's UDF. The below chart shows how many enchants you need to offset your MM penalty with endroll based on how good your UAF/UDF factor is. The "enchant" part of the chart is in X's, not in enchant total. So 5 means 5x, 10 means 10x, and yes, 25 means 25x.

Okay neat chart. But what does it mean in practice?

Let's break it down on an even playing field. UAF and UDF equal (excluding enchants), here's the difference in end roll -

No Brawling weapon - UAF: 100 vs UDF: 100 = 1.000 * MM: 100 + d100: 50 = 150

4x Cestus (-5MM) - UAF: 110 vs UDF: 100 = 1.100 * MM: 95 + d100: 50 = 154

2x Cestus (-5MM) - UAF: 105 vs UDF: 100 = 1.050 * MM: 95 + d100: 50 = 149

You can see that in this case, a low level, low brawling training scenario, it's easy to offset the endroll penalty. Using a weapon at low levels can be helpful, because you're getting a similar endroll with a higher damage factor, and you may be killing things by running them out of blood. However, it gets harder to offset the penalties the higher the UDF of the thing you're hitting is. Here's a higher level scenario:

Scenario 1 (One Cestus, -5 MM Penalty)
No weapon - UAF: 450 vs UDF: 650 = 0.692 * MM: 120 + d100: 50 = 133.07
6x weapon with -5 MM - UAF: 465 vs UDF: 650 = 0.715 * MM: 115 + d100: 50 = 132.26
10x weapon with -5 MM - UAF: 475 vs UDF: 650 = 0.730 * MM: 115 + d100: 50 = 134

Notice that a 6x weapon in this scenario doesn't quite offset the penalty to endroll, and a 10x weapon ends only very slightly better off than the 6x. Now assume the same scenario, except let's make it two tiger claws.

Scenario 2 (Two Tiger claws, -30 MM Penalty) No weapon - UAF: 450 vs UDF: 650 = 0.692 * MM: 120 + d100: 50 = 133.07
2 6x tiger claws (-30 MM) - UAF: 465 vs UDF: 650 = 0.715 * MM: 90 + d100: 50 = 114.35
2 10x tiger claws (-30 MM) - UAF: 475 vs UDF: 650 = 0.730 * MM: 90 + d100: 50 = 115.7

So what's this mean for actual damage? Well, in the above cases, we have three scenarios. No weapon, 1 cestus, and dual wielded tiger claws. Each brawling weapon held gives you additional damage factor to punch, jab, and grapple. Let's assume those above scenarios are all punches against scale armor. Note that these numbers do not include critical damage modifiers. They're just raw damage.

Punch has a base DF against scale of .200. With one cestus, that DF is .225. With two tiger claws, that DF is .350. Let's go to the math!

Scenario 1 -

No weapon - Endroll of 133.07 - 100 = TRUNC(33.07) = 33. 33 * 0.200 = 6.6 damage
6x Cestus - Endroll of 132.26 - 100 = TRUNC(32.26) = 32 * .225 = 7.2 damage
10x Cestus - Endroll of 134 - 100 = 34 * .225 = 7.65 damage

Scenario 2 -

No weapon - Endroll of 133.07 - 100 = TRUNC(33.07) = 33. 33 * 0.200 = 6.6 damage
6x Tiger Claws - Endroll of 114.35 - 100 = TRUNC(14.35) = 14 * .350 = 4.9 damage
10x Tiger Claws - Endroll of 115.7 - 100 = TRUNC(15.7) = 15 * .350 = 5.25 damage

In Scenario 1, you're doing 1 more overall damage with your cestus than you would be with no weapon at all. In scenario 2, you give up too much endroll, and do less damage overall with your two 10x tiger claws than you would with no weapon at all.

Now let's assume you're not hitting a thing in stance defensive and try again. What happens when your UAC is higher than its UDF? Let's skip the 10x stuff in this scenario, because who's got 10x tiger claws anyway? Nobody, that's who.

No weapon - UAF: 450 vs UDF: 400 = 1.125 * MM: 120 + d100: 50 = 185
1 6x Cestus (-5 MM) - UAF: 465 vs UDF: 400 = 1.162 * MM: 115 + d100: 50 = 183.63
2 6x tiger claws (-30 MM) - UAF: 465 vs UDF: 400 = 1.162 * MM: 90 + d100: 50 = 154.58

On to the damage!
No weapon - Endroll of 185 - 100 = 85 * .200 = 17 damage
6x Cestus - Endroll of 183.63 - 100 = TRUNC(83.63) = 83 * .225 = 18 damage
6x Tiger Claws - Endroll of 154.58 - 100 = TRUNC(54.58) = 54 * .350 = 18 damage

There's your most likely scenario. That's a like leveled high level critter in a reasonable stance for you to hit it. By dual wielding 6x tiger claws you are gaining yourself....1 damage, and that's only with a decent endroll. Without a decent endroll you actually lose damage.
And the moral of the story? Why are we even talking about damage anyway? You're a monk. You're not level 90 killing a thing by running it out of health. You're tiering up to excellent, and then tapping the thing ever so lightly in the face and it falls over dead.
So with all that needless math out of the way, I will repeat myself - Do not use brawling weapons. They aren't worth it.