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  Shiv's Complete Monk Guide
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  Written at 2010-07-27 07:16:25  
 
CONTENTS
___________________________________________________________________________
I. Introduction

II. Monk Basics
    - Basics
    - Why Monk?
    - Why Not A Monk?

III. Attributes
    - Hit Points
    - Energy
    - Strength
    - Vitality
    - Damage
    - Defence
    - Block
    - Critical Strike
    - Dodge
    - Elemental Defence
    - Damage Absorb

IV. Talismans
    - Diamond Sutra
    - Buddha Bone
    - Treasure Loop
    - Heart Lotus
    - Staff and Shovel

V.  Gears
    - Level 60-70 Full Blue
    - Level 60-70 Full Golden
    - Level 50-60 PVP Purple Set
    - LEVEL 50-60 Loo’s Purple Set

VI. Ending Comments
___________________________________________________________________________

I.    INTRODUCTION
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First of all, a very warm welcome to everyone reading this guide. Let me introduce myself. My name is Shiv and I belong to India. I started playing TO for the first time about 6 months back with a monk class. The server I play in is Flawless Jade in the Treasures Section. I am a monk level 70 with Loo’s Set +7/8 and a staff +6 / shovel +7. My HP and Defence are at 20K at the moment. I will try to write down all I have learnt in the short six months I have been playing. I hope this will be of some help to the new players in making the right choice about whether to play a monk or not.

*** I have tried to maintain proper English and avoided grammatical mistakes. Spell checks have been run but to err is human and if there have been some mistakes that have escaped my attention, kindly forgive me ***
___________________________________________________________________________

II. MONK BASICS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Basics*

A monk is the tank / defender class of TO. The monk specialises in getting pounded a lot and still surviving. This results from the fact that the monk gear has more defence than all other classes. This means the monk reduces the damage dealt on him more than other classes and hence can survive longer against incoming attacks compared to other classes with similar gear.
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Last Edit by : Shiv (2010-07-27 08:01:20)


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  *** If you start loving what you get, You'll start getting what you love *** *** Shiv, Monk Level 70, Treasures(Flawless Jade)*** *** Presbyter, Guild Elements *** *** Staff +6, Shovel +7, Loo's Set +7 / +10 ***  
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  Written at 2010-07-27 07:17:19  
 

Shiv's Complete Monk Guide II

***Why Monk?***

The next question is what qualities will you enjoy in your character so as to choose monk as your class? The advantages of playing monk are as follows:

a) High defence:
You can take more attacks than others. If you like standing like a wall in front of opponents and laugh while they hit you, this is the class for you.

b) Tanking Ability:
Scenarios - especially higher level ones need a good tank and monks are specialist tanks. So you will always be in demand for making teams for them. You will only have to find a fairy and some damagers (which are abundant/not necessary most of the time) to run the scenarios. This also means you play a very critical part of any scenario team (which makes you feel very good and wanted).

c) Adventure Loving:
Being a monk means you can tread into unchartered territories without worrying a lot about being one-hit killed since you have a good defence. On the other hand a wizard exploring an unknown territory may get seriously hurt if he/she runs into higher level mobs. A monk can always try to fight and escape if he is not strong enough and still survive.

d) Protecting Team mates:
You will feel good about protecting others in your team many times during fighting mobs as well as in any scenario. Monks have some attacks that force the monsters around to hit the monk thus saving the others from getting hurt. This gives a good feeling about your own power. You are the saviour of your team in any hard scenario

e) Soloing:
Though tamers are known as the best solo players in TO, monks don’t do pretty badly either, especially against tough bosses (elites) in world. The bosses have a high attack which means most of the other classes run out of HP before the boss dies. However, a monk can keep on taking blows after blows of the boss while attacking and still manage to defeat it single handed if he has good gears.

f) Smaller team:
When you are grinding for drops in scenarios, the smaller team you have, the better your probability of getting diced gear. When you are a monk, you can just take a fairy along with you and farm scenarios and have a 50% probability of getting diced gear. Similarly even in other bosses outside scenarios, you can easily defeat them with just another fairy or another damager. On the other hand, two damagers cannot defeat a boss since they cannot tank if they don’t have good gears.

g) Luring:
When you are playing a monk, you get to get on your mount and lure a large number of mobs together while Assassins and Wizards with AOE damage can take them apart. This makes taking out mobs quicker. Monks can lure easily since they have good defence.

h) Stunners:
Monks have excellent stunning ability. Shovel monks have more stuns compared to staff monks. But staff monks have an attack that can even stun scenario bosses with a 25% chance (with maximum points). Many times, this stunning ability can save the whole team by giving you precious seconds in which fairies can heal you to full health. This is also valuable when you are grinding for drops during events and you have a wizard with you. The combined group stuns of a monk and wizard can take out huge mobs very easily while also helping the wizard survive.

i) Small Pets:
Monk is a stamina class unlike wizards, fairies and tamers who are a mana class. The advantage is that pets are not as essential for a monk as a mana recovery pet is essential for wizards and fairies. Having pets however helps a monk recover HP quickly or have more defence and HP thus augmenting his tanking ability.
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Last Edit by : Shiv (2010-07-27 07:48:49)
 
   
  *** If you start loving what you get, You'll start getting what you love *** *** Shiv, Monk Level 70, Treasures(Flawless Jade)*** *** Presbyter, Guild Elements *** *** Staff +6, Shovel +7, Loo's Set +7 / +10 ***  
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  Written at 2010-07-27 07:18:31  
 

Shiv's Complete Monk Guide III

***Why Not A Monk?***

Now in which case will you not want to play a monk? The disadvantages of playing a monk are as follows:

a) Low Attack:
Monks have a lower damage than all other classes by design. This means though you can tank the big bosses easily, it will take a very long time in killing them yourself. This is especially bad in those scenario bosses those have AOE (area damage hitting multiple people) damage and you don’t have ranged damagers with you. A shovel can reduce this disadvantage greatly but in many scenarios, you will need to use the staff in order to get aggro (this means that the you need higher enemy value so that the boss hits you and not your team mates) especially when you have high damage dealing team mates. For this reason, it is recommended that a monk keeps both a staff and a shovel.

b) Duelling:
Monks are by design poor duellers. They have an advantage over assassins since both are close ranged combatants and monks have better defence at same gear level. But monks become weak in front of ranged damagers like wizards, fairies and Tamers who can run away and hit Monks from a distance. Fairies with their stuns are especially difficult to defeat since they can always maintain that range to defeat the monks. This is another reason why shovels are important since shovels can stun the running units at range allowing the monk to move closer and defeat them. However in close range, the monk’s stun skills and the monk’s shield attacks further increase the duelling ability and defence of monks making them good duellers at close range

c) Physical Defence V/s Magic Defence:
Though monks have high physical defence by default, they don’t have any such advantage in magic defence. This means that when you are duelling another class who uses more magic attacks, you are bound to get hit more. This also means that the scenario bosses that have high Fire, poison or other magic damage, you will get hit more. This means that you have to upgrade your gear well to make sure you have high magic defence as well. So it should be remembered that monks are not tankers against all the attacks (though this is not a disadvantage, this certainly reduces the unique defensive quality of a monk).

d) Boring:
Tanking can become boring at times. With a staff, you only have to press one button (Fatal Bash) to damage as well as keep aggro. This is a little boring in my opinion. And the low damage will make you yawn before you kill a boss (:P)
___________________________________________________________________________

III. ATTRIBUTES

Press A and open the attributes tab. Let us see what attributes are important for monks:
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a) HP (Hit Points):
This is one of the most critical attributes to max out for monks. How much damage the monk can take during tanking in a cave depends a lot on this attribute. You need to max this out and ideally should have an hp which should be more than all other classes at your level especially when you are in the higher levels. What should you do to increase HP?
    
    * Get +7 or higher upgraded gear. Since each +7 and above up gradation increases hp by a percentage, this is a very strong though expensive way to get more HP.

    * Get a fully identified 7-Stat Amulet. Seven stat amulets those have vitality and elemental defences as first 6 attributes and %hp increase as the last attribute. A level 69 7-stat Wind amulet increases hp by 7% as the last attribute. While a Golden level 69 amulet increases it by 8%.

    * Get a Max Hp Increasing pet and level it up to level 20 to get a good hp increase. Better is getting a HP recovery + Defence increase pet and teaching it Maximum HP. A Little Panda pet that increases Max HP is gifted by the game in the initial quests.

    * Increase your vitality (more on that later)
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Last Edit by : Shiv (2010-07-27 07:49:54)
 
   
  *** If you start loving what you get, You'll start getting what you love *** *** Shiv, Monk Level 70, Treasures(Flawless Jade)*** *** Presbyter, Guild Elements *** *** Staff +6, Shovel +7, Loo's Set +7 / +10 ***  
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  Written at 2010-07-27 07:19:12  
 

Shiv's Complete Monk Guide IV

b) Energy:
A monk is recommended to enhance three assistant talismans along with a staff and a shovel for ideal attacks combination. This means he needs tremendous amounts of energy to enhance them all to level 70. Hence collecting energy is also very important for a monk.
    
* Do daily quests like the convoy quests (Examinee Zhaou / Pink Bee), Tide Cave etc. to get your daily dose of experience and energy.

    * Do grinding especially during events to get a lot of energy from mobs
    * If it is possible, take the advanced energy skill for your pet and leave the pet on to get energy per minute (get lots of pet food though)

    * Get concentration pallets from Tide Cave daily and get to soul status to get energy and experience

    * If your in a guild with the jolly tree quest, make sure your leader activates the tree everyday for free experience and energy

    * Participate and win in races to get a lot of energy

    * If you are in a guild, then do guild quests daily to get prosperity for the guild as well as get experience and energy daily

    * Once you are level 60+ do Moon Dragon Village item finding quests daily to get about 128K experience and about 100K energy daily
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c) Strength:
This is the bonus damage deciding attribute for the monk (Dexterity is for Assassin and Intelligence is for the other three classes). Every 5 points of Strength increases your damage by 1. Hence if you have 100 points of strength, your damage will increase by 20 points. Thus this attribute is necessary to balance the low damage of monk. However, most of the time, it is not possible to increase strength without sacrificing vitality.

    * Wear gear that gives strength (depends on your make)
   
    * use weapon talismans that have strength as an attribute

    * Give attribute points to strength when the little pet levels up more than 11 (again depends on your make)

    * Purchase All Stars ring of Bear which increases Strength by 22
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d) Vitality:
We have already talked about the importance of HP. Each point of vitality increases the HP by 5. This means that if you have 100 points of vitality, your hp will increase by 500 points. Thus having high vitality is essential for a monk as this directly affects your tanking ability.

    * Wear gear that gives vitality

    * use weapon talismans that have vitality as a feature

    * Give attributes to vitality when little pet levels up more than level 11

    * Purchase All Stars Ring of Elephant which increases Vitality by 55
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e) Damage:
This is a disadvantage of monk since he hits less than most other classes at his level especially with a staff. A shovel can hit very high in a critical strike make with the right combos and right inherence points. That however means that the tanking ability is compromised. Generally this statistic is low by default.

    * Get an upgraded staff / shovel (With more + value)

    * Get more strength
 
 
Last Edit by : Shiv (2010-07-27 07:52:36)
 
   
  *** If you start loving what you get, You'll start getting what you love *** *** Shiv, Monk Level 70, Treasures(Flawless Jade)*** *** Presbyter, Guild Elements *** *** Staff +6, Shovel +7, Loo's Set +7 / +10 ***  
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  Written at 2010-07-27 07:20:51  
 

Shiv's Complete Monk Guide V

f) Defence:

The importance of this statistic for a monk cannot be overemphasized. This is the single most critical attribute that makes a monk useful. The effect of this statistic is to reduce the PHYSICAL damage received from anyone by a percentage. e.g. if it reduces the damage by 50% for the same level, this means that any monster of your level hitting 1000 points of physical damage will only be able to damage you by 500. This is the main reason why monks are such good tanks.

    * Get upgraded gear (More + value and preferably blue/purple/golden)

    * Get a pet which increases Defence
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g) Block:

This is an attribute that ONLY the monk can use and that too only with a staff. Each staff has a block value in its attributes. The effect of this is to reduce or completely negate any attack that you are inflicted with based on a percentage chance. This makes the tanking ability of staff monks more than those of shovel monks since they ward off many more attacks than the shovel monks and in general other classes. In tough scenario bosses like SSS/ SSC/ CWC, this may mean the difference of life and death since a killing aoe attack can be blocked thus giving you a fighting chance.

    * Get a staff

    * Get Amulets or Rings that increase Block Value (Vane Amulets increase this the most)
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h) Dodge:

This is similar to block (though literally, it means avoiding the blow completely instead of blocking it). This attribute can be used by other classes as well. Assassin gears have the highest value of this attribute by default. However, monk gears with dodge are in general more costly than other monk gears whereas in other classes, dodge gears are cheaper than Critical strike items.

    * Get gear that gives dodge

    * Get Amulets that give dodge value (Vane Amulets increase this the most)
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i) Critical Strike:

This attribute governs the percentage chance of you dealing a critical strike (an attack that damages significantly more than a normal attack). The monk class uses this attribute the least. However, a build of monk that is less focussed on tanking and more focussed on damage will use this attribute extensively with a shovel and strength attributes and is known to deal the single largest critical strike damage among all the classes.

    * get gear that give critical strike value

    * get amulets that give CS value (Meteor amulets for example)
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j) Elemental Defense:

A monk class is not a great tanker unless he has sufficiently increased his elemental defence also. This is especially essential in scenario bosses with huge fire, poison etc. damage as well as in duelling since other classes deal a lot of magic damage. This works exactly the same way as the defence statistic but for magical attacks.

    * Upgrade gear to have more + value. The higher the + value, the more elemental defence obtained

    * Get amulets that give elemental defence (A golden 7-stat level 69 amulet gives more than 500 each of elemental defence). You can also use specific elemental defence amulets for specific bosses according to their damage element. The same strategy can be followed against other classes while duelling.
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k) Damage Absorb:

This attribute never shows anywhere except in the gears. This is however a very important attribute as well, especially against mobs. While defence reduces the attacks by a %, this stat reduces them by points. Hence it is very essential against a lot of damage dealing mobs attacking together since it absorbs their damage enough to make defence remove them completely. The only way to increase this is to upgrade Armor, Boots and Armguard (+ them).
___________________________________________________________________________ 		 
 
Last Edit by : Shiv (2010-07-27 07:54:47)
 
   
  *** If you start loving what you get, You'll start getting what you love *** *** Shiv, Monk Level 70, Treasures(Flawless Jade)*** *** Presbyter, Guild Elements *** *** Staff +6, Shovel +7, Loo's Set +7 / +10 ***  
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  Written at 2010-07-27 07:21:52  
 

Shiv's Complete Monk Guide VI

IV. TALISMANS

The basic method of using monk assistant talismans is to enhance Diamond Sutra, Buddha Bone and treasure Loop. Robust spell should be used after equipping Treasure loop after which it should be unequipped. Then the other two should be kept equipped all the time in order to be able to use their useful skills.  
More on the talismans have been described below:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
a) Diamond Sutra:

Enhancing ---> Yes
Equip -------> Yes

The diamond sutra is one of the most useful assistant talisman of monks whether it be attack class or tank class. Buddha Quake can stun enemies for 5 seconds which is a long time and can really help you in stun-able mobs and in duelling. Buddha Shield can reduce damage taken by a large amount and further improve the tanking ability of a monk. This talisman should be enhanced to highest level and must be equipped all the time so that the skills can be used.
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b) Buddha Bone:

Enhancing ---> Yes
Equip -------> Yes

The skills of this talisman are very very useful. Mercy increases the enemy value (aggro) by some points each hit you deal to the enemy. This means that it helps the enemy hit you rather than your team members. This is essential since all the team members will generally have higher damage than you and the boss may skip you if you don’t have enough enemy value and hit the damagers or fairies instead. This is also very important when you are tanking with a shovel since the shovel does not have any attack that increases enemy value by itself. Sacrifice on the other hand is a team saver and can force entire mobs to hit you instead of your team mates. This is useful in cases where you don’t have enough enemy value or your team mates have run into mobs which you can’t attract. This talisman is thus very useful and thus must be enhanced completely and equipped at all times.
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c) Treasure Loop:

Enhancing ---> Yes
Equip -------> No

This talisman has one excellent skill and another not-so-useful skill. Robust Spell increases your hit points by a significant number (even more than the fairy buff). This along with the fairy buff can really increase your hp by a large margin. This buff lasts for 30 minutes. Free Spell on the other hand removes frozen status at once but has very limited uses and thus is not useful enough to use. This means that this talisman can be equipped and unequipped after using Robust skill.
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d) Heart Lotus:

Enhancing ---> No (Though Damage builds of monks can enhance these)
Equip -------> No

This talisman has arguably been talked about as the most useless of all monk talismans. Both of its skills are useless for a tank build while one of the skills is good for a damage build (which is very rare). Heart Lotus skill summons a heart lotus (Duh!) and slows down all enemies in the vicinity (something that is infinitely useless). Heart Fire on the other hand increases the buddha and fire damage and lasts for thirty minutes (which is useless if you’re a tank since it cannot co-exist with Robust spell). Using heart fire means losing Robust spell and thus sacrificing Hp for damage. For this reason, due to limited energy, this talisman should be left unenhanced unless you have bonus energy with nowhere to use it.
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Last Edit by : Shiv (2010-07-27 07:59:00)
 
   
  *** If you start loving what you get, You'll start getting what you love *** *** Shiv, Monk Level 70, Treasures(Flawless Jade)*** *** Presbyter, Guild Elements *** *** Staff +6, Shovel +7, Loo's Set +7 / +10 ***  
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  Written at 2010-07-27 07:22:51  
 

Shiv's Complete Monk Guide VII

e) Staff and Shovel:

I won’t write in detail about the weapon talismans since it will take a lot of writing and delving into all the controversies of which one is better. What my experience teaches me is that the Staff is the best weapon for Caves Whereas Shovel is the best for Duelling / PVP / individual boss killing.

Staff has less attack than a CS shovel but has regular attacks and has the ability of getting enemy value (aggro) very easily. This means that a staff monk will be the target of the tough scenario bosses and thus the monk can tank better. I have been able to keep up aggro with a staff +6 even when I had +10 weapon damage dealers in my group during scenarios. On the other hand, when I was wielding a shovel +7, other damagers with +7 weapons were able to steal aggro from me. Thus staff is a much safer option with constant damage over time. The staff also has an area attack that gives a nice feeling :). The staff has an attack that can even stun the scenario bosses which no other class in the game can stun. Another advantage is having blocking ability that reduces damage taken significantly.

Shovel on the other hand is the best weapon for duelling due to its high Attack and stuns. It also has a ranged stun that can stop running fairies and wizards thus allowing the monk to go near and cast the bigger stun on them and win duels. The shovel attacks however take longer to generate break points and subsequently deliver the huge damage break point dispensing attack that has the single highest Critical damage among all classes in this game.

Now I will quickly talk about my recommendations on how to distribute the inherence points in the monk class:
-------------------------------------------------------
*** Staff ***

Essential
 5 points in "Improve Fire Damage" "Improve Block Rate" "Improve Fatal Bash" "Improve Fatal Burning"
Optional
5 points in "Improve Fatal Sadness"(Chance to Stun even bosses 25%) "Improve Fatal Crack" (Reduce 1K def: helps others also damage more)

*** Shovel ***

Essential
5 points in "Improve Giant Attack" "Improve Giant burst" "Improve CS Damage" "Improve CS Rate" "Improve Buddha Damage"
Optional
(Nothing :P though it is my recommendation. Another build may use Giant Raid and Giant break instead of the CS Options)

-------------------------------------------------------
  
 
Last Edit by : Shiv (2010-07-27 07:59:33)
 
   
  *** If you start loving what you get, You'll start getting what you love *** *** Shiv, Monk Level 70, Treasures(Flawless Jade)*** *** Presbyter, Guild Elements *** *** Staff +6, Shovel +7, Loo's Set +7 / +10 ***  
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  Written at 2010-07-27 07:23:21  
 

Shiv's Complete Monk Guide VIII

Now let’s move on to how to attack with the staff and shovel

*** Staff ***

The staff is a constant damage dealer. Thus the benefit is you only have to press one button (especially while tanking bosses).

Duels
During Duels, you can start with Fatal Crack (Reduce their defence) -> Fatal Bash till they are dead (:P). Actually you need to use robust before duelling and get up your Experience to max and also wear appropriate amulets etc. so as to have maximum elemental defence against the class you are going to face. e.g. High Lightening def against a Scimitar Sin or wheel fairy is useful. After that you can start directly with fatal bash. When the appropriate time comes, stun them with Buddha quake. By the time they recover, land in as many bashes as possible. Then use Buddha shield to reduce the damage you incur. The rest is basically only using bashing. (Hence staffs are a little boring that way). If you are a little more risk taking and have given inherence points to Fatal sadness, you can use that and hope that it will stun the target.

Tanking
Your best friend in tanking is "FATAL BASH". It is the best damaging attack of a monk as well as the one that generates insane amounts of Enemy value. With this, you can keep aggro while your team mates can damage and heal without any fear. Fatal Crack can help you as well as your teammates deal additional damage to the boss by decreasing his defence. Fatal Sadness can be used in times of crisis with some hope of stunning the boss and saving your life. I have been saved by fatal sadness at many instances. e.g. Once I was down to 1000 HP and the boss was about to cast AOE. This will have killed me as AOE damage was much more than normal attacks. I used fatal sadness and luckily, it stunned the boss and the fairies got time to heal me enough to help me survive that AOE, after which i was completely healed in normal attacks.

*** Shovel ***

The shovel needs some hits of Giant Attack to get some burst points before Giant Burst can be used to deal an insane amount of damage. If the giant burst damage becomes Critical strike, the damage is truly mind-boggling. Right now, with a level 67 +7 shovel, I am able to land critical strikes of 9K in my server which is more than all other classes.

Duels
The runners can run no more. Use giant halt to halt them in their tracks; get up, close and personal and give them the Buddha quake and get in about 3 giant attacks. This will get you 3 break points. Then use shield and protect you from damage. Then again run after them and try to land in more giant attacks or again use giant halt (cooling time 15 seconds) and repeat till you have 5 break points. Time for some big damage :). Use the giant burst and hope for a critical strike. Rinse and repeat. If the Burst was a CS, then you must have already won (:P). Shovels kick hard :) There are many more strategies to fight, but then you can’t have everything in a single guide right?

Tanking
This is where the problem lies. If you are soloing a boss with a fairy or have damagers that are not as good as you, then it is fine as you can keep aggro on you. Use mercy in all cases before the tanking. If you have big damage dealers in your group, try to land in 5 giant attacks and one giant bursts to get enough enemy value before the real damagers land in their blows and hope for good enemy value. However, if you’re tanking solo, shovel can kill them much faster than staff.
___________________________________________________________________________ 		 
 
Last Edit by : Shiv (2010-07-27 07:59:44)
 
   
  *** If you start loving what you get, You'll start getting what you love *** *** Shiv, Monk Level 70, Treasures(Flawless Jade)*** *** Presbyter, Guild Elements *** *** Staff +6, Shovel +7, Loo's Set +7 / +10 ***  
Shiv   0    Member   
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  Written at 2010-07-27 07:25:20  
 

Shiv's Complete Monk Guide IX

V. Gears
------------------------------
I have already explained the importance of each attributes to you. Now you can decide for yourself which type of build you want and thus which gear will suit you. In general a damage oriented build will get more strength/CS gear with shovel. A tanking build (more seen) will use Vitality/Dodge gear with a staff. A Strength/Vitality gear is good for all and any build. The tanking builds are present more often in any server which means the vit/dodge gears are more expensive for a monk unlike other classes where it is the other way round. Monk gears also are cheap in comparison to other classes in general. Assassin gears are the most expensive ones.

I recommend not worrying a lot about the statistics of the gear till you are level 48. The previous levels can be done pretty quickly and is not worth the effort +ing. Once you are 50+, seriously concentrate on getting the best gears and upgrading them. Once you get the final piece of gear (level 60-70), go all out and + them to the max. ONLY wear blue or golden level 60-70 in order to be strong. Some of the major gear options are:

a) Level 60-70 Full Blue
This is the bare minimum gear you should have in order to be a very good tank once you are 60+. The gear should be vit/dodge preferably and must be all +6. These are easier to get than the other options, but you still have to rely on drops or buy them.

b) Level 60-70 Full Golden
All the best finding them! This is supposed to be the best gear set (if you don’t look at the purples..ohh yeahh). But getting vit/dodge golden gear is a rare occurrence especially in new servers. If you get them, be ready to buy golden ids to get them to their full potential. So they may be too expensive and too uncertain to wait for. If you are ready to wait be ready to see others get ahead of you before you manage to get them all. Also, by that time, others might just have gotten all their gears +7. Be ready to race!

c) PVP 50-60 Full Purple
This can be obtained from the competition merchant in stone city in exchange for competition points. The competition points can be obtained by winning PVPs. If you plan on getting them, be ready to put in continuous efforts for 5-7 months since there is a limit on the number of points you can achieve per day. The good thing is there is no order of purchasing in this case and any piece of armor can be bought first. This gives you the freedom to only go for Boots and Armor for example. This set is basically for the damage build of the monk. Thus it gives bonus to the shovels. Their attributes  are:
    
    -  Physical Defence
    -  Vitality
    -  CS
    -  178 each of all Elemental defences
    -  2 Suit Bonus : Increase vitality by 90 points
    -  4 Suit Bonus: Increase Buddha Damage 5%
    - Full Suit Bonus: Increase Giant Raid critical strike rate 30% (With 5 inherence points, it become 50% )


  
 
Last Edit by : Shiv (2010-07-27 08:00:08)
 
   
  *** If you start loving what you get, You'll start getting what you love *** *** Shiv, Monk Level 70, Treasures(Flawless Jade)*** *** Presbyter, Guild Elements *** *** Staff +6, Shovel +7, Loo's Set +7 / +10 ***  
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  Written at 2010-07-27 07:28:09  
 

Shiv's Complete Monk Guide X

d) Level 50-60 Purple Loo’s Set

This can be obtained from the Loo’s grave keeper in clear water dam. This works on the reputation point’s basis like the reputation merchant. Hence you have to reach level 10 in loo’s reputation to get all pieces. This is by far the best monk armor for a tanking build (yeah better than the level 60-70).

Firstly, it has triple stats. Second, its bonuses are very good. The problem however us that the reputation points can only be got from master points or killing mobs in SSC (Spider Catacombs). Each level takes 5000 points which means level 10 takes 45000 points. Each Master point can be exchanged for 10 points. Hence we need 4500 master points to reach level 10 and get all suits. On the other hand, each mob in spider catacomb only gives 1 reputation points which makes it awfully slow. Hence the fastest way is to make your own apprentices and get master points. If you try hard, this can be done within a month or within two months. This means this gear can be gotten before others get their final pieces of gears and thus upgraded all out as this will be the final gear. Thus there are a lot of benefits of being a loo’s monk.

The apprentice requirements for each piece of loo’s gear is as follows:

    -  Cuff :                Required Apps     = 21 = Master Points 1000
    -  Kneepad :        Required Apps     = 28 = Master Points 1500
    -  Belt :                Required Apps     = 38 = master points 2500
    -  Armguard :      Required Apps     = 43 = master points 3000
    -  Boots :             Required Apps     = 51 = master points 4000
    -  Armor :             Required Apps     = 55 = master points 4500
    (This assumes that all master points thus obtained are used at loo’s grave keeper)

Thus by making 55 apprentices and graduating them, Loo’s set can be obtained. Another advantage of apps is that each graduating app gives you energy stones which you can use to enhance your talismans. The attributes of the gears in Loo’s set is described as follows.

    -  Physical Defense
    -  178 Additional physical defence
    -  Strength
    -  Vitality
    -  Dodge
    -  2 suit bonus: Increase 90 points of strength
    -  4 suit bonus: Increase Defence 10% (This one rocks)
    - Full Suit bonus: Decrease Fatal bash stamina cost 10 points (which means more attacks and more enemy value)

___________________________________________________________________________

VII. ENDING COMMENTS

*** I started off as a staff monk and once I reached level 70, I did the quest for level 70 staff and shovel. I then Blue beaded both of them. Then I enhanced the shovel to level 67 (will do 70 soon). Now I am using both a staff and a shovel. It took me 6 months to reach this level. I have enjoyed playing with my monk all this time. Monk is a lovely class if you enjoy all the advantages of the monk.

*** I hope you have been benefitted from this guide. I’d have loved to write more, but I can’t due to lack of time. I have put in a lot of efforts into this guide but not everything can be covered. So forgive the lack of any information. I had tried to format it better but this website wont allow me to post a lot in a single post especially with html formatting codes on. Most of the things I have written are based on my thoughts and experience. Individual thoughts may differ. I encourage all to comment on this guide and share more thoughts that I may have missed. Also, please don’t copy this guide anywhere without giving due credit to my efforts. Hope you liked what I wrote. Happy playing!!!

___________________________________________________________________________
Finis...
___________________________________________________________________________ 		 
 
Last Edit by : Shiv (2010-07-27 07:44:55)
 
   
  *** If you start loving what you get, You'll start getting what you love *** *** Shiv, Monk Level 70, Treasures(Flawless Jade)*** *** Presbyter, Guild Elements *** *** Staff +6, Shovel +7, Loo's Set +7 / +10 ***  
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  Written at 2010-07-27 17:34:28
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Re:Shiv's Complete Monk Guide

Thank you for your detailed monk guide. Good job! 		 
 
 
   
 
 
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  Written at 2010-07-27 20:15:57
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Re: Shiv's Complete Monk Guide

Am Glad that you liked it. Hope it helps people 		  
 
 
   
  *** If you start loving what you get, You'll start getting what you love *** *** Shiv, Monk Level 70, Treasures(Flawless Jade)*** *** Presbyter, Guild Elements *** *** Staff +6, Shovel +7, Loo's Set +7 / +10 ***  
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  Written at 2010-07-28 08:51:15
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Re:Shiv's Complete Monk Guide

Useless...if u wanna learn abaut monks just play and learn		  
 
 
   
 
 
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  Written at 2010-07-28 23:21:24
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Re:Shiv's Complete Monk Guide

Thanks for your comments Andy. When I was a new monk, such a guide helped me a lot in making an informed decision on which weapon to choose. At that time I really wished I had a guide to tell me which armors to go for and which talismans to enhance. If you think playing and learning is enough, consider a situation in which a person enhances Heart Lotus for a long time and then realises that it is not worth it. It happened to me and i dont want it to happen to others. I hope this guide helps others :) Have fun !		  
 
 
   
  *** If you start loving what you get, You'll start getting what you love *** *** Shiv, Monk Level 70, Treasures(Flawless Jade)*** *** Presbyter, Guild Elements *** *** Staff +6, Shovel +7, Loo's Set +7 / +10 ***  
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  Written at 2010-07-29 13:27:40
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Re: Shiv's Complete Monk Guide

Quote:

Re:Shiv’s Complete Monk Guide

Thanks for your comments Andy. When I was a new monk, such a guide helped me a lot in making an informed decision on which weapon to choose. At that time I really wished I had a guide to tell me which armors to go for and which talismans to enhance. If you think playing and learning is enough, consider a situation in which a person enhances Heart Lotus for a long time and then realises that it is not worth it. It happened to me and i dont want it to happen to others. I hope this guide helps others :) Have fun !


It's  a good guide and helpful to new monks who don't want to experiment or just need a few guidelines,

Although Heart Lotus isn't completly useless, it is one of the cheapest assistant talismans out there, i would rather buy one of these than pay big bucks for a buddha bone, i agree diamond sutra is vital, but i never had to use Sacrifice Mercy is enough.

Also by the time you find out it isn't worth it you can sell it and buy a talisman with energy already enhanced
  
 
 
   
 
 
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  Written at 2010-07-29 21:02:44
Message Quote Reply   #15
 
 

Re:Shiv's Complete Monk Guide

Hey plunger. Thanks for your inputs and thanks a lot for appreciating the guide.

Personally i would not want to buy a talisman just because it is cheap. It should be useful otherwise there is not point having an assistant talisman in the first place. Heart Lotus is cheap because of its limited use. No one wants to buy it and hence it's price drops. We get the green talismans in quests anyway. We can always run caves and try to drop the blue ones or purchase them when we are high level and have more gold.

The problem in servers like mine is that enhanced talismans are not readily available. By the time we realize this fact, it is too late. We have wasted energy and have no other way of getting it other than wait and get more. Also, the enhanced talismans are more costly than the unenhanced ones. So the ones who can't afford anything other than a heart lotus wont be able to afford an enhanced talisman anyway.

But in servers that it is readily available, yes your point holds 		 
 
 
   
  *** If you start loving what you get, You'll start getting what you love *** *** Shiv, Monk Level 70, Treasures(Flawless Jade)*** *** Presbyter, Guild Elements *** *** Staff +6, Shovel +7, Loo's Set +7 / +10 ***  
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