Help me get out of the box

[neighbortaru]

Having said that..... I can live with all the shortcomings and problems with the exception of the Abs spells? is there no way to land these on an exp mob? what about solo and farming?

no, not with the current EQ selection you have available to you. btw, you might be able to live with the shortcomings, but the other 5 people definitely won't (thus why Mog suggested a static)

abs vit>>>>>>>chakra would be hot

recast too long to be of any practical worth in an XP party

abs mnd >>>>> chi blast yes its on a three minute timer but every three minutes you could have ws-like dam

too slow

abs agi >>>>>dodge

dodge is situational. most of the time it's of no importance in an XP party

and can they stack on themselves (like boost)?

don't believe so

what I want is to pound schtuff into the ground with my fists and drop an ocassional spell or two. I really like the idea of hundred fists >>>souleater. drk is the sub i chose because it offers some magic w/o a big sacrifice of dd'ing dam which is why I like monk. I dislike the warrior sub because double attack, and beserk while arguably the best jt and ja respectively do not offer enough "toys" for me to play with. thought about drk/mnk w/ h2h but i'm sure most would say that's even worse than this combo.
I did play to lvl 42 drk 35mnk 30 rng 20war 25nin

play BLU instead. if you want damage dealing with a decent slice of magic, and "toys" to play with, this will fit your bill. MNK/drk is just crap and you'll go through a whole lot of effort to just make it mediocre.

[Icemage]

The only use I've ever seen for MNK/DRK was suicidal players who wanted to use Raging Fists / Asuran Fists with Souleater. And no, it's not nearly as cool as it sounds.


Icemage

[IfritnoItazura]

>_>; Did the OP understand that EVERY SINGLE SPELL from /DRK would be useless, since MNK/DRK's dark and elemental magic skill would be half leveled?

I static'ed with a DRK with capped Dark Magic through Lv'50's, and still party with him from time to time. He always had trouble with resist on absorb spells. MNK/DRK would only be wasting time casting those.

As a RDM, don't expect me to cast Refresh on any MNK/DRK--keeping a MNK/DRK from casting spells is the kindest thing I can do for him.

About the only thing useful from /DRK for MNK I can see is Attack Bonus I and II. If one must be different, try MNK/DRG instead, which gives Attack Bonus I, Accuracy Bonus I, Jump, and High Jump. The attack+ and haste+ latent equipment are nice as well.

[Celeal]

MNK/DRK is not new. This topic has been brought up before and the horse was beaten to death over and over.

MNK/DRK is not practical in exp. parties, mission/quest or solo. It is not because we say it does not work, it is because the MNK/DRK combo does not fit well in the game mechanics in FFXI.

Why /WAR works very well for most melee is because most Job Abilities and Job Traits from WAR are not restricted by job level, and the useful tools from WAR comes at early level. For example, WAR/MNK's Beserk is just as good as MNK/WAR's Beserk regardless of the job level. Same for Double Attack, Provoke, Defender, etc. They are as good when /WAR, and you get those stuff in early levels.

On the other hand, when DRK is use as subjob, it's Magic skill is cut in half, attractive skill or magic comes at very late level (or end game), effectiveness cuts in half, or just useless in most job combination.

[tdh]

The only use I've ever seen for MNK/DRK was suicidal players who wanted to use Raging Fists / Asuran Fists with Souleater. And no, it's not nearly as cool as it sounds.
Icemage

I knew somebody would have had to have mentioned this.

I've toyed with the idea of getting a Galka MNK in my Ls to sub DRK, use a Giant Drink in Besieged (2500HP) and then Souleater Asurian Fists something. Just to see:

a) How much damage it could crank out
b) Just how much HP he would lose by doing so.

He's not quite up to the task yet. haha

Going MNK/DRK may get you out of your own box, but I believe you're just giving up far too many things just because you don't want to level WAR to Lv.37. Which, mind you, you will have to level WAR at some point anyway. You'll need it for DRK sub, and you'll need it to unlock the DRK job as well. Last Resort just stinks, and Weapon Bash is so unreliable that you lose two "pros" right off the bat. You'll gain access to an Attack Bonus from /WAR, Berserk, and the all might Double Attack. Those last two are things every melee job wants, and misses when they have to sub THF at some point in their career.

Now that's not to say that you can't do this for some set ups, but as a career sub job this decision is just going to limit you. People will leave your parties when they see MNK/DRK in the list, not all, but some will.

Ultimately it's your decision, but it's one I would advise against.