Monk Creation Guide by Xebek

Archetype: Offensive Fighter Primary Attributes: STR, DEX, VIT Continents: Kojan, Qalia

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The monk is an offensive fighter and an expert in the martial arts. Monks will specialize in spotting, causing and taking advantage of enemy weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Monks will choose between three different martial arts styles that will provide them with specialized attacks and unique abilities. In addition, Monks will have general attacks and attack chains independent of their chosen martial arts style.

Strength and dexterity are the Monk's primary attributes. Strength helps the Monk do as much damage as possible. Dexterity gives him a greater chance of landing critical melee hits. Some Monks then choose vitality for greater regeneration in combat to use abilities more often. Others choose constitution to be better at off-tanking.

Building a good Monk takes some careful planning at the character creation screen and requires you to learn a handful of tactics in the lower levels.

Selecting the Right Race

Monks of all races start with the same attributes, but the choice of race can affect how many points the Monk automatically gets placed into its prime attributes.

Starting attributes:

STR	CON	DEX	VIT	INT	WIS
40	40	45	35	25	25

Each character gets 20 attribute points (AP) per level, starting at level 10. 6 of your AP are placed for you automatically--one per attribute (STR, CON, DEX, VIT, INT, WIS). 4 points are assigned to attributes based on your race if you are not a human (humans are kojani, mordebi, qaliathari, and thestran). You can place 10 (14 for humans) wherever you want to within soft caps of 5 per level.

Additionally, characters get racial bonuses to their soft caps. These are called preferred stats and allow characters of a race to flesh out in a way that reflects the traits of the race. Non-human races get 4 bonus points to soft caps (usually two or three attributes only) while human races get 6, 1 for each attribute. Thus, a human can be more balanced, while a non-human becomes more specialized.

The table below shows the attribute scores at level 50 before gear and buffs for the Monk based on the race selected. We've highlighted the best results for each of the primary attributes for you. It is possible to reach the soft cap for three attributes as a human, but those soft caps may be lower than those attainable by other races.

Racial Abilities

The other important factor to consider when picking the race for your Monk is racial abilities. With their short durations and long recasts, racial abilities are less important than attributes in the selection process, but they can be used to pick between races that are otherwise equal. The racial abilities are listed below.

Kojani: Spirit of Jin
This ability will immediately restore 45% of energy and hit points to the target. This ability has a diminishing effect on any target that has benefitted from this ability (used by another player) in the last 10 minutes. Recast is 30 minutes.

Human Ingenuity + 10 bonus to all weapon skills, and dodge.
Crafting: +10 Ingenuity
Harvesting: +5 Lumberjacking

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Goblin: Hex of Ghalnn
Whoever is afflicted by this hex will return 3% of the mana and hit points for every hit that is made on them. The effect lasts for 60 seconds. Recast is 15 minutes.

Small Race: 2% bonus to evasion
Crafting: +10 Reasoning
Harvesting: +5 Mining

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Half Elf: Symbol of Jin
This ability will apply a rune to every member of the group for 60 seconds, which will mitigate damage by 15%. Recast is 30 minutes.

Human Ingenuity: + 10 bonus to all weapon skills, and dodge.
Crafting: +10 Finesse
Harvesting: +5 Skinning

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Orc: Fury of Ghalnn
For the next 7 seconds after this ability is activated, you will receive a 10% increase to damage and 100% of all the damage you do will return to you in the form of hit points. Recast is 15 minutes.

Large Race: 2% bonus to mitigation
Crafting: +10 Problem Solving
Harvesting: +5 Quarrying

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Raki: Planar Shift
While this ability is active, you will gain a 50% mitigation to all spell damage. Recast is 30 minutes.

Animal Reflexes: 10% bonus to run speed.
Crafting: +10 Reasoning
Harvesting: +5 Reaping

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Qaliathari: Swiftness of the Sands
For this next 10 seconds, you will evade all melee attacks and spells. Recast is 30 minutes.

Human Ingenuity + 10 bonus to all weapon skills, and dodge.
Crafting: +10 Ingenuity
Harvesting: +5 Lumberjacking

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Dark Elf: Spawn of Haelufir
This ability allows you to summon forth a small drake for a short duration. The type of drake you summon will be based on class and level. Each type of drake will have a variety of effects at their disposal, ranging from group auras, to breath attacks. The higher level drakes will also learn spells that are sympathetic with their associated class. Recast is 30 minutes.

Elven Wisdom: 2% reduction in mana cost
Crafting: +10 Finesse
Harvesting: +5 Skinning

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Mordebi: Curse of the Ancients
This ability stuns the target for 8 seconds, and reduces the aggro range to 0. The target will not assist/aggro while stunned, and the effect does not generate any aggro. Recast is 30 minutes.

Human Ingenuity + 10 bonus to all weapon skills, and dodge.
Crafting: +10 Finesse
Harvesting: +5 Reaping

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Level 1-10 Tactics

As a Monk you will have not have much trouble soloing. Leveling 1-10 you should cut down your enemies one at a time, but be sure to check what level your foe is, as you may find the monsters around your level (white con) will easily slay you. Clearly, you will also find that monsters yellow con, and especially red con, are a lot harder and you will need to work harder to kill them. Also check the dot level of monster depending on the monster's abilities; a 3 dot Blue con will put up a fight equivalent to (or usually greater than) a 2 dot Yellow con. If you want to play it safe, stick with 2 dot white and yellow con monsters and the occasional 3 dot blue. If you do need to slay a monster you cannot defeat on your own, you can always ask another player for help.

Monks have there own special pool of points known as Jin, which you gain by successfully performing abilities. Some abilities gain you more Jin points than others (you can find the Jin gain or cost in the abilities’ details). You can use your Jin points to perform special spells and abilities, but don’t leave them unused for to long because your Jin points will decay overtime.

The Iron Fists of the Lowbie Monk
Monks can use many weapons, such as Martial Swords and Claws, but at level 1-10 you will find that your own fists out-damage most weapons for your level.

You will level 1-6 quickly. Be sure you check your Monk trainer for new spells every 1 or 2 levels. At level 6 you will gain your first Chain ability called Flying Kick. To use this attack, you must first gain a critical hit; then you will see the ability lights up and you have 10 seconds to use the attack. Flying Kick can hit for huge amounts of damage and it costs little endurance, so be sure to keep on eye on it and use when ready.

A basic combat tactic is to use the abilities Boundless Fist and Crescent Kick to gain Jin before using Ashen Hand, which has a high critical hit chance. If you get a critical hit with Ashen Hand, then use Flying Kick and remember to always wait until you have full endurance before attacking a new monster.

Watch your back!
As a Monk, you can’t afford to take to many hits, so getting attacked by two monsters at the same time can get you into a lot of trouble. Keep an eye out for aggressive monsters around you. When beginning a fight with a monster, it's normally best not to charge in. Pulling a monster to you is a lot more effective. Monks can use shuriken ranged weapons to hit a monster from long range, making it charge to them.

It's important to take out the aggressive monsters in an area first. Look around and find those that will attack you on site and those that will only attack if you attack them first (To check if a monster will attack you, just target it. Aggressive mobs will have a red name while non-aggressive ones will have a white name.). Obviously, the mobs that will aggro you if you run by must be eliminated before you start hunting the non-aggro mobs.

If you do happen to aggro 2 monsters and you still have a good amount of health left, then you can use your area of effect (AoE) attacks to hit both of them at the same time. You can learn your first AoE attack, Whirling Storm, at level 8. Whirling Storm does damage to all opponents within 10m, but watch out; if there are non-aggressive mobs around you, they will also take damage and begin attacking you.

Other Monk Resources at Ten Ton Hammer

• Monk Class Guide
• Monk Skills (coming soon!)
• Know Your Role - Offensive Fighter
• Guide to Vanguard Statistics
  

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