Monks, Post 30

[Sorn]

I started this game as a monk, but got discouraged because I couldn't offer a group much without provoke. I've just hit 30 as a black mage and am now considering going back to play monk.

My question is : If a monk is a damage dealer (not a tank), and Dark Knight, Thief, and Dragoon all do better damage- then why be a monk??

I don't see very many high level monks on my server (Fairy), so could a higher level monk please tell me the pro's and con's of being a post 30 monk??

Thanks in advance!!!!

[Kossori]

From what I have gathered, Monks do equal to or greater damage than Dark Knights at high levels (sans weapon skills) and of course better damage than Dragoon. Theives are just burst damage, overall its not all that incredible of an output.

[baddwin]

Hi, i am 29 monk/14war so i can't really say for later on. Actully i having no difficulty getting group, for sure having warrior as sub help alot. Getting the lev 10 innate defense of warrior is a great improvement as i tank as much as any warrior in my group.

Having a much better dmg than warrior help alot to keep aggro on mob and when you voke the monster don't ignore you are you almost allway 2 on the aggro list when healer stole the first place. With Dodge i can tank harder mob and it is 5 min reusable so you have it very fast. As we almost get a lower mob to build TP to kill a IT, dodge is available when u need it. WIth Focus i can increase my TP faster again High defense monster.

This setup let me do a very aggresive style with my monk, as at lower level you don't always have warrior with good gear or that know how to play there class well. Even when you have a good tank with good gear, mob will ignore there voke because they don't generate enouth aggro. In other case they get very low HP and need help, that the moment you will voke and tank the mob and give a chance to the healer to heal back you main tank.

Actully i enjoy my monk alot even if i want to be a Dragoon/Samurai later on. With good gear a Monk is a great value to a group at any level. Add warrior as sub job and you become even better. Try to keep your sub class at half your level, don't be cheap and stop leveling at 10, every level you add will give you some edge. This game give more benifice if you keep the same line of job, wana be melee than be a pure one don't mix it with magic job, it only reduce your strenght.

What ever you choose, you need to enjoy your class so you will excel in it. The better you are, the easyer peoples will want to group with you. If because you can voke and do it at critical time and save the healer, they will remember you and will ask you to team with them. This is a team players game, you need to think of group situation, if you don't you will have a hard time getting group and no fun at the end. I hope it can help you for you.

[Neo Nanaki]

It seems to me, that monks are kings of constant dmg later on.

With duel grapplers, hundred fists, counter, kick, chi blast, counter stance (more countering), monks don't rely on bursts of massive dmg (weapons skills) so much than the other dmg dealing classes. They also don't seem to rely on other classes for their weapon skills to works as much and are pretty flexible. Monks also can hold their own soloing wise better than most melee.

So who knows, maybe with the next expansion, they will introduce enemies that disable character's TP. Then who will people look for when it comes to dmg...

[Anom]

well you already got leeches that can take some TP ^^ or at least acrophies...

[leehynes]

Monks 30

When you look at DRK, DRG and THF at higher levels, a lot of the time their heavy damage comes from WS or special skills that allow them to get in single high damage attacks during battle. Monks don't end up doing as much damage per hit than these classes, but generally monks dish out more damage over the duration of the battle. If you use focus and boost before fighting tougher opponents, you end up laying consistent hits on it while other classes miss or do less damage due to monster buffs. If you have a few +ATK and +ACC items, alongside boost and focus, your damage output is more reliable than some of the more damaging classes. And I find that my TP gains are always great with monk and I'm able to participae in Renkei's consistently; a big factor in good xp chaining. Mind you, I'm only 25 monk right now but since hitting Qufim I've learned a lot in terms of what my character can bring to the table, and I like it a lot. Of course I plan to try out many of the advanced classes later on as well, but for now I'm pretty happy with my monk's damage output. Plus the HTH WS are really what bring it all together, in my opinion.

[twylyght]

dont forget raging fists and asuran(sp?) fists and even combo
having 3 multi-hit WS is kind of a subliminal message that monks do their damage through multiple hits, not bursts

[JexIntrepid]

Lvl 32mnk/thf here

I must say i have never had a problem wit this job unless i was heading into a cave where all mobs aggroed cuz they were lvl 40's.

Party-wise, i bring alot to the group. I'm fighting in Kazham now and i usually sub thf (cuz my war is only lvl 5:sweat: ), and i often use SA+boost+Combo for about 290-390 dmg on IT high def mandras. always eating foods, and using focus so all 3 hits connect, and ppl always go

wow, didn't know monks could do that much dmg.

I hear after awhile our dmg goes down a bit, but once we hit lvl 49 (already having Raging Fists) and you have Berserk on, and go Focus + Boost + Raging Fists, you'll see sometimes a great deal of dmg, considering that you eat mithkabobs and sometimes that dmg will pull aggro to you cuz it's just that strong. Also at lvl 50, you'll have double attack, which could add onto the hits, and give back even more TP (except if they nerf TP gain in this new update). At lvl 51 you can even kick in during your weaponskills. So you'll still be dealing alot of dmg around that time. Most monks aren't looked at though plainly cuz crabs are the best mobs to gain exp against, and therefore mean monks dmg = 0 alot.
And at lvl 49, pentathrust (though overrated) shines alot.

So don't give up on monks, in the endgame, at higher lvls, we're one of the most sought out class due to our dmg to bones, AND we're the best DoT class. Plus we gain TP second only to Samurai.

Hope that's enough to convince you.

[Darez]

Heya, I'm a lv60+ Monk at Fairy too, and yes there aren't too many high lvl EN monks in Fairy. Many probably gave up the job altogether and/or switch. :sweat:

And as others have said so far, we deal damage not in large bursts, but in smaller but consistent damage. I've pt'ed with Drg/sam at 60+ who spam Penta or other multi-hit WS, but never get hate. At the same time, I do Focus + Berserk until tp is charged, and when I used Howling Fist the mob faces me. Others just commented "What the heck did you do? O_o"

Monsters don't lie. That, and tankers usually can tell you from first-hand experience that well-equipped monks who consistently connect their fists are monsters, and hard to hold aggro off.

[ffguy]

Im a level 42 hume Mnk/War and I agree with most of what has been said. We do damage over time, not all at once. First off, most people look at drk and thf WS's and say "Wow, thats a ton of damage, we have to get them." But what most people dont do, (annoyingly enough) is think of all of the normal attacks we get in. Test it out, put a drk against a mnk, proved myself just yesterday judging damage between myself and a 43 Elvaan Drk/War with equipment that cost twice as much as mine and using Cheifkabobs (I used no food, ran out just then), also JP. Sure Nightmare Scythe hit for 200+ while raging fists hit 120-180 (or around 220 if all hits landed), but I counted the hits made by each of us, and in just one battle, I had hit 17 times (didnt count misses), and the drk had hit 4, thats right, 4. Drk did 55-65 damage per hit, I did 25-35. Do the math, then add in the 100-180 damage from Chi Blast at the start of every fight....This was all against goblins in Gustav tunnel, dont think H2H or Scythe's have any penalties or bonus' there. You go and test that out, mnk vs drk, mnk vs thf, mnk vs whatever, I think you'll have the same results.

[Brocino]

hey, 41 monk here, just gonna throw wood into the fire here and agree with most of whats been said. Monks deal consistent damage rather than boosts. I've found myself pealing the aggro off of a constantly voking pld/war at times (isnt a good thing but is good for your esteem, lol). One word of advice: a fed monk = a happy pt. Make sure to pack some mithkabobs and you'll deal some massive damage, especially if ur not tanking.

[xShagratx]

That happens to me alot. I find myself taking the hits over a Paladin all the time simply because I do so much dmg

[Mikeb]

Re: Monks, Post 30

Originally posted by Sorn
I started this game as a monk, but got discouraged because I couldn't offer a group much without provoke. I've just hit 30 as a black mage and am now considering going back to play monk.

My question is : If a monk is a damage dealer (not a tank), and Dark Knight, Thief, and Dragoon all do better damage- then why be a monk??

I don't see very many high level monks on my server (Fairy), so could a higher level monk please tell me the pro's and con's of being a post 30 monk??

Thanks in advance!!!!

At higher levels a Monk does more damage than all those classes in the course of a battle... From 30-50 damage is a little slow, but after 50 Monks start attacking 3-5 times a round (assuming warrior subjob), and will pull ahead of the other classes. Most people don't realize just how much damage a Monk does because they only look at those single hit, big numbers. Monk hits for smaller numbers, just many more times...

Example - in Kazham, Drk's would hit for 50 each time. Me (as a Monk) would hit twice in a round for 30 each time. With Focus activated, I would hit alot more than the Drk as well (becomes even more apparent when I'm at 100 TP and he's at 60 TP).

[Sohjai]

ffguy :

raging fists hit 120-180 (or around 220 if all hits landed),

Hmmm.. might be b/c you had no food, but I was hitting 250-400+ dmg (depending if I had berserk and focus on) with raging fists when I first learned it on IT goblins at gustav and was doing 4-5 hits on average. I'm also Hume Mnk/War.

Darez: You can't compare dmg using hate w/ Drg b/c they jump and lose hate. Doing my G2 a lvl 60 drg did 1600+ dmg penta and i did 800+ raging fist, drg super jumps the NM looks at me hit me down to 12 hp before someone got it off me. >.<

I think hate is a hard way to compare who is dealing dmg unless everyone doesn't use JAs, b/c drg can jump and lose hate, drk use souleater/last resort and get hate w/o landing a hit. Drk getting hate w/ those 2 ja's gives false impression a lot that they are doing a lot of dmg. I have 30 Drk and this one time I got beat down to red and only landed 2 high hits (100+) on a Gob during LR + SE and ppl are like "wow drks do a lot of dmg!". I smiled >,< I of course didn't say anything since it was so embarrassing (i had +16 dex too). Nothing against drk, just speaking from my experience, I plan on taking them up later on. Back to the point, parser is much more accurate than judging from hate.



PROS:

I'm still under lvl 60 but have yet to see a drg or drk out dmg me from a parser. But then there's a lot of other factors, like equipment and mobs. I'm usually the more well equiped one, so my observations maybe skewed. Drg have disadvantage, penta thrust is overrated and is crappy vs crabs and beetles, hard for them to shine w/ the popular exp mobs >,< . Drk don't have Guilltone yet. So all I can conclude under 60 is, I am still kicking ass.

At even higher lvls, why choose mnks? Well for lvl 3 light WS and their uber dmg on bones. There's no debate on bones, Mnks > *.

Everyone wants to be DRK and DRG, too many, be one of the fewer distinct ones.



CONS:

Down side of mnks, ppl like to choose advance jobs, b/c ppl thnk advance jobs are always better, maybe b/c of the word "advance" is misleading. Getting in parties, you really got to make the effort to form pts. People tend to choose thief over mnk, and everyone knows how hard a thief finds a EN pt. >,< JPN are nicer though the realise more of Thief's importance and almost always has a thief in the pt. I only got inviteds from JPN using THF, WHM and BLM. Anyhow, you can make your way up w/ MNK you won't regret!

Mnk equipment are expensive at mid lvls. Like brown belt, ochiudo kote, sniper rings, etc.. I recommend you saving for them when you hit those lvls, makes it more fun to exp w/ uber gear. ^^

[Izual]

Monks are very strong end-game, if you like it don't hesitate to take it all the way because you think you'll be weak or something. Dragon kick is one of the strongest weaponskills in the game IMO (cross reaper is comparable of course )