Kaho Kurosaki
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- Posted: Sat, 18 Feb 2006 05:22:32 +0000
I'm bored, and figured I may as well waste some time and post this here, since there aren't many guides up.
This guide will be for discussing Monk and Champion combat strategy in the arenas of WoE and PvP. In other words, how to fight your Monk properly.
THIS IS NOT A GUIDE ON HOW TO BUILD MONKS, IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T READ THE TITLE--
If you have no idea how to build a monk in the first place, I'd suggest looking at Akemi's awesome guide:
RagnaInfo Acolyte Class Forums
RI is down, maybe Ill write a guide for this someday? lol.
First off, this guide assumes you understand the basics of your class, and the general idea of War of Emperium and Player versus Player combat. However, I will be going over skills in depth and assessing their strengths and uses related to pvp situations.
Know the Sexy!
Because Monks are just that osm...
Monks are my favorite class--they are amazing because of the versatility that their skills and builds can create. A monk can be a long range attacker or fight it out at close range; they can attack high defense targets and low defense targets with equal ease. Their trademark Asura Strike (Guillotine Fist, Extremity Fist, whatever) is a move to be feared, able to destroy even the strongest characters in one blow.
What Kind of Monk Are You?
Let's talk builds first!
This section is not about how to build your monk; it is about what kind of monk you are.
A monk's build is mainly determined by what its major defensive stat is--VIT or AGI. Each build has its own strengths and weaknesses, and corresponding play style. Monks can be classified into five general classes--Dex, Agi, Pure Asura, WoE Asura, and Hybrid.
These following examples are for classification.
Also, each example stat is including gear and job bonuses but no buffs, except for the agi/luk stats, which are base.
Dex: These builds are heavy on STR and DEX stats, with some VIT for defense, and INT to give them SP to fuel their spirit attacks. Effective in both PvP and WoE, using the Spirit skills effectively. They usually don't take punishment well though. Not so good at PvM without good gear.
STR: 90-110
DEX: 90-120
AGI: 3-9
INT: leftovers
VIT: 20-60
LUK: 1-7
Agi: High AGI, good STR, and rounded off with VIT, INT, and DEX. Their strength is a rapid attack speed, which gives them quick combo attacks. Easy to play in PvM. Weak in PvP.
STR: 90-110
DEX: 40-50
AGI: 70-90
INT: 1-30
VIT: 40-60
LUK: 1
Pure Asura: STR and INT are these guys' trademarks. Extreme Asura damage is their forte; whatever they manage to hit with their Asura is pretty much dead. Their main weakness is a slow cast time. Weak in PvP and PvM.
STR: 110
DEX: 30-40
AGI: 3-9
INT: 80-99
VIT: 20-40
LUK: 1-7
WoE Asura Unlike Pure Asura, these builds trade off INT for DEX and better VIT, giving them decent casting speed and better endurance while still maintaining a high Asura damage output. However, even with the extra DEX their TSS is not a very effective option for these builds. Their HIT and casting speed are low in comparison to DEX builds.
STR: 100-110
DEX: 60-80
AGI: 3-9
INT: 50-70
VIT: 40-50
LUK: 1-7
Hybrid: Blending qualities of Dex and Agi builds, this is a versatile and all-purpose monk. However, their cast will not be as fast as a Dex monk's, nor will their attack speed or flee be as good as an Agi major's. Balanced in both PvM and PvP.
STR: 90-100
DEX: 50-70
AGI: 60-80
INT: 1-30
VIT: 20-50
LUK: 1
The build examples only give rough ranges; individual builds can be tweaked to different ranges, depending on preference and experience of the player.
These are rankings assuming similar gear and levels:
Area: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
PvM: Agi, Dex, Hybrid/WoE Asura, Pure Asura
PvP: Dex, Hybrid, WoE Asura, Agi, Pure Asura
WoE: Dex, Hybrid, WoE Asura, Pure Asura, Agi
Equipment
Equipment is extremely important to PvP and WoE--simply having a better weapon or better armor can make all the difference in the world. There are also useful accessory gears to be considered as well.
Here Comes the Pain
Choosing your weapon
Mace or Fist?
Mace is always the better choice. Why is this? Higher attack and no size penalties against medium, which just happens to be the size of player characters. The only advantage a Fist-type weapon gives is higher attack speed--they are also rarer and more difficult to obtain, and have a damage penalty versus medium sized targets.
The typical mace you will be using is either a four-slotted Mace, or a three-slotted Chain. Mace is the most effective for those with high STR and low DEX. Chain is the most effective for high DEX, though it is also a good choice for low STR.
Your main weapon will be carded with Hydra (Bloody) and Skeleton Worker (Boned).
For Maces and Chains, Double Bloody Double Boned and Double Bloody Boned are the most effective damage combinations, respectively. However if you are interested in higher resale value or more versatility in PvM, all Hydra cards (Quadruple Bloody or Triple Bloody) will be the way to go.
Muma said KNOCK YOU OUT
Damage isn't the only way to hurt your enemies. Status effects can be extremely useful as well.
Other useful weapon cards:
Metaller: +5% chance to Silence
Marina: +5% chance to Freeze
Savage Bebe: +5% chance to Stun
Plankton: +5% chance to Sleep
Magnolia: +5% chance to Sleep
Ice and Sleep are most effectively used by non-AGI monks, since they can be broken by hitting. Curse, Silence, and Stun are most effective for AGI monks, since they have a high attack speed, giving them more chances to overcome a target�s resistance in a shorter time frame. Generally the only status caster types will be using is freeze or sleep; Agi monks are better suited to the rapid attacks for using other status effects.
Gear Me Up!
The lowdown on armor and armor cards.
Taken from Akemi's Guide, with additions and edits.
Headgear
6 DEF Spikey Band
5 DEF Monk Hat (3 MDEF)
4 DEF Biretta (slot)
3 DEF Circlet (slot, 3 MDEF)
0 DEF Crown of Mistress (+2 INT, +100 SP)
0 DEF Poo Poo Hat (10% less damage from Demi-Human)
1 DEF Drooping Cat (+15 MDEF, +30% resist vs. Curse)
0 DEF Sunglasses (slot) Middle headgear of choice, carded with SP boosting card or some other valuable card. The reason why most Monk builds don't rely on mid-head gear for stat boosting.
1 DEF 1 MDEF Feather Beret (10% less damage from Demi-Human)
0 DEF Beret (10% less damage from Demi-Human)
0 DEF Alice Doll (10% more damage to Demi-Human, cannot be upgraded, slot)
Spikey Band is a Doppleganger drop.
Monk Hat is a Cruiser drop.
Slotted Biretta is an Evil Druid drop.
Slotted Circlet is an Isis drop.
Crown of Mistress is a quest item.
Poo Poo Hat is a Bigfoot drop.
Drooping Cat is a quest item.
Beret is a Vanberk drop.
Feather Beret is a quest item.
Alice Doll is a Kafra Shop item.
Headgear Cards
Willow (Wise Headgear) +80 SP. This means damage for Asura Strikers.
Carat (Headger of Maestro) +2 INT, adds 150 sp if the headgear is +9 or higher. This is the favored Headgear card for WoE and Asura monks.
Nightmare (Insomniac Headgear) +1 AGI, immune to Sleep. Useful in duels.
Marduk (Peerless Headgear) Immune to Silence. Useful in duels.
Dark Illusion (Spell Master's Headgear) Max HP, Max SP -10%. Reduce spell casting time by 10%. If the user is equipped with an item compounded to the Dark Lord card, it reduces spell casting time by 20%. Not very useful, 10% isn't much difference, and the hp/sp penalty hurts your WoE/PvP performance a lot.
Incubus (Fatasm Headgear) INT -3, Max SP +150 and SP natural recovery -20%. If the user is equipped with an item compounded to the Succubus card, it adds INT +4 and SP natural recovery +30%. Not bad as far as SP boosting goes. Better than Mistress Crown or Wise Headgear.
Maya Purple (Helm of True Sight) Enable its user to detect hidden monsters. Kind of useful for chasing down annoying cloakers.
Orc Hero (Neutral Headgear) Gain immunity to the Stun status. VIT +3. Useful in duels or stunfests.
Pharoah (Headgear of Kirin) Reduce SP Consumption of skills by 30%.
Stalactic Golem Card (Stun-Proof Headgear) Stalactic Golem Card. Add 20% more tolerance against Stun. DEF +1
Poo is the classic choice for damage reduction, equally good against magic and physical attacks. With 11.1 (Hugel) in, you can use Beret if you'd rather have something cuter for the same effect. Feather Beret which are actually lighter, boasting 1 DEF/MDEF and can be upgraded is the best choice for defensive headgear, but is much more expensive than either Beret or Poo.
Otherwise, either a Mistress Crown or another SP-boosting headgear for more SP. Circlet is the best choice for carding, giving you good DEF and a MDEF boost. Insomniac or Marduk are most useful in duels, protecting you from Sleep and Silence.
Alice Doll with Incubus is probably the best damage boosting headgear for pvp/woe--10% more damage to all your attack skills plus 100 sp for Asura. However no defense, and can't be upgraded.
The other cards are mostly difficult to obtain (MVP or rare spawns), and have rather limited use. The main thing most Monks in PvP/WoE are looking for when it comes to headgear is a significant SP boost for Asura damage or damage reduction in the form of percentage or DEF/MDEF.
Armor
6 DEF Saint's Robe (5 MDEF, slot) Primary choice.
3 DEF Silk Robe (10 MDEF, slot) Secondary choice for MDEF or to share with more characters.
0 DEF Wedding Dress (15 MDEF, female only (not implemented) )
Slotted Saint's Robe is dropped by Obeaunes.
Slotted Silk Robe is dropped by Creamies.
Wedding Dress is sold in Prontera's wedding store.
Armor Cards
Marc (Unfrozen Armor) Cannot be frozen, -5% from Water element. PvP-wear only.
Dokkaebi (Armor of Zephyrus) +1 DEF, Wind 1 element. Primary PvP magic resistance wear.
Pasana (Armor of Ifrit) +1 DEF, Fire 1 element. Mostly used for MvP and maybe dealing with Sages.
Sandman (Armor of Gnome) +1 DEF, Earth 1 element. Mostly useless.
Swordfish (Aqua Armor) +1 DEF, Water 1 element. Secondary PvP choice, but beware LoV/JT!
Argiope (Poisoning Armor) +1 DEF, Poison 1 element. Excellent choice versus Assassins and Thief classes, countering Enchant Poison and Envenom.
Evil Druid (Deadly Armor) +1 DEF, +1 INT, Undead 1 element. Protects against Stone Curse. Good counter against Poison and Shadow elements.
Bathory (Evil Armor) Shadow 1 element.
Angeling (Holy Armor) Holy 1 element. Reduced damage from nearly all the Elements.
Ghostring (Ghost Armor) Sense 1 element, -25% HP regen. Defense against Neutral attacks like Asura.
Armor wise, Saint's Robe is the best choice--good DEF, a bit of MDEF thrown in. However, Silk is better for MDEF, as well as versatility since many more classes can wear a Silk, if you like to share gear. Marc is the basic card choice, protecting you against being crippled by the Freeze status. Learn to quickly switch armors for the appropriate element to fit your situation. Angeling and Ghostring are rare armors, don't expect to have one any time soon.
Note: passive defense
These new cards were added with Einbroch, and are excellent for countering physical attackers. They come in two classes, ones with a 20% chance, or ones that have a rate affected by the wearer's stats (10% base, 30% boosted). Activated when the wearer receives physical damage.
Dark Frame: Stone Curse
Marjorous: Stun
Demon Fungus: Sleep
Brilight: Silence
Creamy Fear: Chaos
Killer Mantis: Bleeding
Kraben: Blind
Sasquatch: Freeze
Wraith Dead: Curse
Pest: Stone Curse, boosted if user has 77 or more base INT
Rybio: Stun, boosted if user has 77 or more base DEX
Chimera: Poison, boosted if user is Assassin or Assassin Cross
Disguise: Silence, boosted if user has 77 or more base VIT
Karakasa: Chaos, boosted if user has 77 or more base STR
Grizzly: Blind, boosted if user is equipped with Bigfoot card item.
Nightmare Terror: Curse, boosted if user is equipped with Nightmare card item.
Hatii: 50% chance to Freeze, MVP card.
Shield
4 DEF Buckler (slot)
4 DEF Valkyrja's Shield (5 mdef, 20% resist to Fire, Water, Undead, and Shadow, slot. Component of Fricca's set)
Slotted Buckler is dropped by Goblins and Kobolds and is a guild fort treasure.
Valkyrja's Shield is dropped by Valkyrie
Valkyrja's Shield is the pretty much the ultimate shield. Mdef, elemental resistance and high versatility all in one package. Only problem is that they are much, much more expensive than any other shield, and are dropped by Valkyrie at Odin's Temple.
Shield Cards
Thara Frog (Cranial Shield) -30% from Demihuman race. PvP and general levelling.
Medusa* (Plasterous Shield) -15% from Demon race, immune to Stone Curse.
Gold Thief Bug (Shield of Deaf) Double SP cost for all skills, no damage from Magic. MVP Card.
Thara is your standard gear, the other cards are for special situations only.
Robe
2 DEF Muffler (slot)
1 DEF Ragamuffin Manteau (10 MDEF)
Slotted Muffler is dropped by Sohee and is a guild fort treasure.
Ragamuffin Manteau is dropped by Evil Druids and is a Payon 1 fort treasure.
Robe Cards
Raydric (Immune Robe) -20% damage from Neutral element. For VIT Monks.
Dustiness (Robe of Warmth) -30% damage from Wind element, +5 flee.
Jakk (Flameguard Robe) -30% damage from Fire element, +5 flee.
Hode (Glorious Robe) -30% damage from Earth element, +5 flee.
Marse (Genie's Robe) -30% damage from Water element, +5 flee.
Complement your armor's strength (Dokkaebi/Dustiness) for near-immunity, or offset your armor's weakness (Angeling/Orc Zombie, Ghostring/Marionette).
There is no damage reduction available for Holy element.
Ragamuffin is an all-purpose defense for situations when you don't know what type of elemental attack to expect.
Immune is your garment of choice in most situations dealing with physical attacks.
Footgear
2 DEF Shoes (slot)
0 DEF Crystal Pumps (10 MDEF, +5 LUK, female only (not implemented) )
Slotted Shoes are dropped by Munak and are a guild fort treasure.
Crystal Pumps are dropped by Marionettes and are a Prontera 1 treasure.
Footgear Cards
Matyr (Green Footgear) +1 AGI, +10% HP.
Verit (Fledged Footgear) +8% HP, +8% SP. Good overall choice.
Sohee (Soul-Enchanted Footgear) +15% SP, +3% SP regen. SP + Asura = damage.
Firelock (Superior Footgear) +2 STR, +10% HP/SP if shoes are upgraded to +9 or more.
Sohee is the shoe of choice for Asura users, since it gives the highest sp boost. In other situations, the hp boost from either of the other three can be very useful. Pumps are useful for dealing with the Mage class.
Accessories
Your choice of accessories is mainly to boost an important stat, typically STR or DEX.
Clips are also very useful for boosting your SP, giving you a bit more Asura damage.
Slotted Gloves or Rings are a common choice, usually paired with Zerom and Mantis cards, respectively.
The Sign: A quest item allowing you access to Geffenia, this accessory also boosts your ATK value by 5% (unconfirmed). Useful if you have one accessory slot open.
One of the most useful accessory cards is the Smokie Card, enabling level 1 Hide.
Accessory Cards
Zerom (Nimble Accessory) +3 DEX
Mantis (Accessory of Muscle) +3 STR
The best, and the most common stat boosting accessory cards. Enough said.
Smokie (Hiding Accessory) Can use Level 1 Hide
Marine Sphere (Blast Accessory) Can use Level 3 Magnum Break
Poison Spore (Envenom Accessory) Can use Level 3 Envenom
The most common accessory skill cards; Magnum is useful when trying to inflict status effects on many people at once. Envenom is semi-useful for hitting AGI characters with status weapons, though you really only need to summon spheres for that.
Phen (Accessory Under Cast) Spells cannot be interrupted by attacks and increases Cast Time by 25%. This is only useful in PvP for using Asura, Absorb Spirit Sphere, and Zen while being constantly hit.
Other possibly useful accessory cards:
Alligator (Four Leaf Clover Accessory) Reduce damage from Long Range Physical attacks by 5%
Berzebub (Accessory of Bigmouth) Reduce cast time for skills by 30%
Greatest General (Mana Sphere Accessory) Chance of getting a Spirit Sphere when doing physical attacks. Chance is increased for Acolyte class characters. Useful for AGI monks, saving them a lot of time by not having to manually cast Summon Sphere and allowing them to constantly attack.
Owl Baron (Accessory of Double Power) Chance of casting Lex Aeterna on target while doing physical attacks.
Owl Duke (Accessory of Godly Wrath) Add the chance of auto casting level 3 Impositio Manus on the user when doing Physical Attack. If the user is equipped with an item compounded to the Owl Baron card, it adds the chance of auto casting level 5 Lightning Bolt on an enemy when doing Physical Attack.
Violy (Fiddlers Accessory) Chance of casting Unbarring Octave 1 (Frost Joke) while doing physical attacks; if user has mastered UO at level 5, chance of using level 5 instead.
Got Skill?
Now that you're geared up, time for the skill rundown.
The monk's array of skills is versatile and effective in pretty much any situation, giving them a way around every kind of defense.
Spirit
The spirit branch is extremely versatile in all kinds of situations; however, to make the best use out of them, STR and DEX are needed to increase damage and reduce casting time, respectively. Dex and Hybrid Monks get the best use out of this skill tree.
Occult Impact: This is the staple offensive skill of non-agi monks. Short cast time, ignores FLEE, damage is modified by the target's DEF both from armor and VIT. With a good weapon and str, the monk can do incredible amounts of damage in a quick single shot.
The con is that it does very poorly on low DEF/VIT, and is pretty expensive to use. Can evade with Hide, and is always Neutral property, though it can bypass Immune when the user is endowed.
Throw Spirit Sphere: Ranged, 350% damage per sphere at Level 5 is pretty good damage. This skill also takes on the current element of the user's weapon, making it useful for piercing anti-Neutral defenses. Most effectively employed by DEX Monks.
However, it is rather slow--the base cast time is (# spheres x 1) + 1 seconds, and can be evaded with Hide.
Guillotine Fist: This skill burns all the users SP to do huge damage in one strike, and kills your HP/SP regeneration for 5 minutes after casting. Its damage ignores FLEE and DEF.
It can be evaded by Hide, and is always Neutral Property. The Endow trick doesn't work with this, unlike OI.
Raging Palm Strike: A Champion-only skill; Excellent damage, 700% at level 5, with a low SP cost. Also pushes back the target. However, this requires the user to be in Fury mode, and it can be evaded by Hide, and the delay from activation to hit is quite lengthy.
Combo
The combo skills are all pretty much the same; flashy, uninterruptible, and SP hogs that do good damage on low to medium defense.
Dependent on Trifecta activation, and a combo string can be interrupted by Hide. The target can keep moving away while being hit; this is a common trick for escaping from a Combo Asura + Ruwach.
Other
These skills don't fit into either the Combo or Spirit branches.
Root: a semi-useful defense skill, this allows you to trap an enemy using non-skill attacks. Depending on the monk's level in this skill, they can counter attack with an offensive skill. If the rooted character is a Monk, they can use a skill as well, based on their level of Root.
Level 1: None
Level 2: TSS
Level 3: OI
Level 4: RQB
Level 5: Asura
Unfortunately, most attacks you'll be dealing with are skills.
Snap
Snap is in a class of its own--this skill is one of the most useful and powerful available to a monk, but it comes at an extreme cost, requiring a Monk or Champion to put at least 2 or 3 points into every single Monk skill, costing 47 skill points in total. It also consumes no spheres while the user is in Fury mode.
This skill allows you to instantly move to any cell in a direct line of sight from your current position; in other words, any cell not blocked by impassable obstacles.
Acolyte Skills:
Many of your acolyte skills are extremely useful in the PvP/WoE arena; make sure to get the most out of them.
Pneuma: Blocks all ranged attacks in a 3x3 area around the summoned spirit. This is your most valuable ranged defense.
Ruwach: Reveals hidden characters around the user and does holy damage to them. Very short ranged.
Decrease Agility: Reduces the target's move/attack speed and agility. Has a chance to fail. Used to chase down fast-moving targets, and de-buff skills such as Adrenaline Rush and 2-Hand Quicken.
Bless is useful to remove the Curse Status--be sure to only use level 1 for this, to save your SP.
Put 'Em Up!
Are you ready to fight?
Time to talk tactics! First, be aware of your strengths and weaknesses--most monks are weak to status effects, so be sure carry Green Pots to cure Poison and Silence.
In addition, skills such as Jupitel Thunder that inflict knockback can make it very hard for you to get into range to attack. In these cases, Hide or Pneuma can be very helpful when you are trying to get close.
Endows such as Aspersio and Enchant Poison are very useful for doing more damage by cutting through Immunes.
Against physical attackers, using the new Armor cards can be very useful too, to inflict harmful Status effects to your advantage, such as Stone Curse. Make your best judgement as to what armor might be most likely to succeed.
For a monk, how you fight mainly depends on what class you're facing. Build also plays a huge part--each build has its strengths and weaknesses.
General Strategies
Things to know.
Generally speaking, most people look down on using Asura in duels. Properly set up, it ends a one on one situation way too fast, considering a DEX Monk or Champ can cast an Asura in less than half a second, and the base cast is two seconds.
Silence and Poison are not your friends; make sure you bring plenty of Green Potions, because you're going to need them.
Unfrozen is almost a must when dealing with Wizards. After that comes a Zephyrus, as your main damage reduction. Pair them and other elemental with either a complementary garment card, or the opposite element to minimize weakness. Complementary cards are usually the better choice. Or you can just wear a Ragmamuffin if you are lazy.
Mocking is for nubs. Seriously. There are too many things you cannot dodge, and Hunters can actually punish the hell out of you should they ever choose to waste Immaterial Arrows on your sorry behind. That 20 flee is no help when you're Stunned or Sleeping. Nine times out of 10, an Immune is the better choice, as it'll save you from a lot of hurt.
Wear a Poo whenever you can. Yeah, it's definitely not SUGOI KAWAII, but it's probably the most useful headgear you'll ever wear. 10% less damage from everything and anything that people can throw at you is pretty damn sexy. If you want to be cute and efficient, get a Beret/Feather Beret.
Your worst enemies are DEX Monks and Wizards, both of which hit you extremely hard and fast with moves that can't be easily dodged (Magic, OI). Shield Saders and Paladins are also a supreme pain the a**, since hitting them with your best move usually means eating a portion of the damage back from Reflect. To a lesser extent, Smiths and Swordsman classes are bad news with their 'built in' stun abilities (Hammerfall, Stun Bash, Cart Ram). Hunters can be troublesome as well, especially if they play hit and run with you, or use status bows/arrows and traps well.
AGI monks
Your strength is your high attack speed and flee. However, flee is useless against magic, insane HIT, and skills that just simply cannot be dodged. All of which you'll find in plenty in PvP and WoE. Stun, Sleep, Freeze, and Stone Curse are all things to be feared, as they remove your FLEE from the equation completely while in effect.
The best strategy I've found with AGI monks is to use a status weapon. Stun or Silence are your best choices to shut down the enemy's skills. Learn to quickly switch between status weapons and your Bloody when appropriate. Pneuma is a must-have when dealing with DEX monks, Hunters, SD Sin X and Lord Knights, all of which pack a powerful long range punch. Hide clips are also useful, especially when you're trying to get in on a Wizard. Using TSS 1 with a status mace can be useful when dealing with a hit-and-run style character such as SD SinX.
Beware of people packing Dark Frame/Pest Armor, or similar 'passive defense' gear.
Be aware that a smart player can interrupt your damaging combo chains with a well timed Hide.
DEX monks
You got casting speed and STR in plenty. I hope. Now, what to do with them? Abuse them. Usually a good way to start is quickly debuffing your enemy with Agi Down. Another useful opening technique is to use a one sphere TSS to start the match off, using a status mace such as Silence, Sleep, or Stun. Curse can be a good choice as well, especially if you don't want your enemy to get close. It is also useful as a marker when dealing with Assassins and Rogues, allowing you to follow their movements even when they Cloak or Stalk.
After that, most of the time you can get away with spamming an offensive skill, but there's a little more to it than that. You need to quickly assess what skill is most effective does the target have high DEF and VIT that you can abuse with OI, or is TSS the better choice?
For Monks, typically 9 times out of 10 you will be better off with OI over TSS.
This is because you need to manually cast each sphere, so preparing another full five sphere shot, then actually shooting it off takes quite a bit of time, giving your enemy plenty of time to beat on you. Zen gives Champions a lot more flexibility for using TSS.
Secondly, learn to walk cancel your Occult Impact--this technique only speeds up your damage rate by a fraction of a second, but that can make all the difference in the world. Walk cancel will be explained at the end of the PvP section. With practice and a good eye, it is even possible to constantly be in motion, hitting a target with OI and following him even as he tries to run.
Third, know your casting time by heart. This is essential to properly timing your offensive. Learn your cast speed, and combined with a hide clip, you can attack an enemy without receiving a scratch. This is especially useful in dealing with Mage classes and other Monks.
Smart and experienced enemies will abuse Hide when dealing with Monks, since they can avoid all of your offensive moves with a well-timed Hide.
You can deal with this by making your casting time as short as possible, and being completely unpredictable with your attacks. Use one sphere TSS or OI exclusively. Another good way to deal with this is to use a status mace such as Stun (vs. low VIT) or Sleep (vs. high VIT with low INT). You can also counter by getting close and using Ruwach in combination with OI or 1-2 sphere TSS.
Hybrid Monks
As the balanced type, your strategy is a mix of the AGI and DEX styles. You can take advantage of your good attack speed for closing in and abusing stat maces + combo, use a DEX type offensive approach, or mix the two styles. Since your casting speed is significantly lower, walk cancel is an extremely useful technique.
Since your flee is lower, you cannot rely on it for defense as much as an AGI monk can versus physical attacks. Learning your casting speeds for your Spirit skills is even more important, since you will have less margin for error.
Pure Asura Monks
Out of the four general types, you've got it worst in PvP. Your defensive ability is minimal except for maybe a strong heal. You've got strength, but low attack speed and casting time. Paired with low endurance, this is a pretty bad handicap when it comes to fighting most things. On the plus side, should you ever manage to hit something with your full SP Asura, it's pretty much a guaranteed kill.
To make up for this, you need to utilize a lot of gear. Passive defensive armors are an excellent choice versus physical attackers. Armor switching and abusing hide will be your best moves against casters.
You have to give your enemies as little chance to cripple you with silence and stun, or overwhelm your heal and low hp, while setting them up with a crippling status effect so you can attack them at leisure.
Since the typical Asura build has high INT, Pest Armor is probably the best choice--with the boosted 30%, it is a very good rate of effect. In addition, Medusa Shields and Evil Druid Armor is not a common gear for most people, especially not among physical attackers.
WoE Asura Monks
A decent casting time allows you to be more effective with the spirit skills compared to a Pure Asura build, but you're still not that fast. Because of this, TSS is mostly not an effective option, since it leaves you wide open to being beat on during the cast; in addition, your lower hit means that it is easier to flee your attack. Use status maces such as Stun or Sleep to set up your targets for a TSS attack. Your playing style will be pretty much the same as Pure Asura Monks, with a little more room for error because of your higher DEX and VIT.
Walk Canceling
This describes a technique used cancel the animation delay for Occult Impact. It's fairly simple, but hard to time. The OI animation goes through two stages--first the casting, where your character does the usual casting animation. The second stage is at the end of the cast, where the monk does a fireball animation, and the blast of flame shoots out. If you move your character between the first and second stage, it skips the second stage completely, and your monk will be immediately able to cast again. This also works with TSS.
Offensive Pneuma
Wtf is an Offensive Pneuma? You may be asking yourself this right now, since normally Pneuma is a defensive skill used to block ranged attacks. Pneuma covers a 3 by 3 cell area from ranged attacks; an added effect of this is that Safety Wall cannot be successfully cast on any of those 9 cells while the Pneuma is in effect. This is extremely useful when setting up an Asura on a class with access to SW.
Decrease Agi 101
Yes, it slows them down. But did you know that it also cancels several attack-speed boosting skills? Two-Hand Quicken, Spear Quicken, and Adrenaline Rush are all canceled when you successfully DA a target.
This Means War!
Moving on to the biggest arena, WoE. Now your performance means more than just your pride--it means whether or not you and your guild or alliance can hold on to a castle and its material rewards.
PvP strategies can be applied here as well, minus the knockback. Also note that all skill damage is reduced by 40%, making everything much more survivable.
WoE is a team effort. That's the first rule. Move like fishies, my guild leader likes to say. It's a good saying; remember it.
The second rule is that you need to drink pots to get anything significant done. War isn't cheap.
The third rule is don't freaking Asura everything in sight! The mark of the nub Monk in WoE is the Monk who only knows how to use Asura. Asura on that hunter? Very no. Asura the wizard? You sir, most likely fail. Most of the time, there is a better (read: less expensive) way of killing that person. In addition, do not forget to Ruwach when you Asura. If they hide it, you've just wasted a ton of SP and Blue Pots, and opened yourself up to counterattack.
Asura is a skill to be used with extreme discretion; you have to decide in a split second, if it is worth spending all that SP and subsequently the blue pots you are about to chug, to kill that character.
Most of the time, it isn't worth it, unless you've got a spouse or a Scholar dedicated to giving you and only you SP. Which is...almost never.
Know your Asura damage; since you can't see damage in war, you have to know this by heart. You have to know what you can kill and what you can't kill without any help. Most of the time you'll hope you have a priest to Lex the target, but then again most of the time there's at least one or two of your allied melee all hot and heavy on that knight's a** and eating the Lex that you might need. If they don't die to one Asura, don't just fill back up and burn more sp to hit them again--get help. Freeze them, Lex A them, whatever. Don't just burn sp for another pointless shot.
The damage formula for Asura is:
[ATK x (8 + CURRENT SP/10)] + 250 + (Skill Level x 150] x Card Modifiers
ATK is:
WEAPON ATK + STR +[(STR/10]^2 + (DEX/5) + (LUK/5)]
It's easier to use a damage calc than to manually calc out the Asura damage every time.
Simn's Asura Calc hasn't been updated in a while.
Dealing with Reflect
Otherwise known as, how to not kill yourself on a Shield Sader. The easiest way to do this is to avoid wasting Asura on a Shield Sader. However, there are times where you can't avoid dealing with reflect, like when you have to kill a target being Sac'd by said sader.
Reflect returns 40% damage at max; it's usually best to assume that you're dealing with a max level Reflect.
This is one of the reason where knowing your Asura damage is a must You need to know just exactly how much reflected damage you can survive while still killing your target., and lower your SP reserve to the appropriate percentage.
For example, say your monk has 8k MHP, and deals 20k damage in WoE. 40% of 20k is 8k--instant KO for you. Your target is a Sader with 14k MHP, which is roughly 75% of your max damage. Therefore, you lower your SP to about 75% of max before you Asura. The quickest way to drain your SP for these kinds of situations is spamming Bless on yourself--no delay, and it quickly reduces your SP reserve at 64 sp a cast.
DEX, Hybrid, and Pure/WoE Asura Monks
Defense
All of these monks do pretty much the same thing in WoE. Wait at the back of the choke and conserve your SP and Asura key targets such as the Guild Leader that is about to recall, the Dancer/Gypsy that is owning your non-VITs with her Dazzler, or maybe that EDP SinX that just popped up on your emp. Again, Asura is not for that annoying Hunter, nor is it for the 7x Wizard that would die to one good sneeze. Monks with higher DEX do have a little more freedom in being able to use TSS and OI to good effect. Pure Asura monks are stuck with just Asura for the most part
Offense
You usually won't be on the front end of an attack, storming the choke with the full precast up--unless you happen to have Mental Strength and decent VIT. In that case, a status mace and passive defense armor can be useful. Otherwise, you'll be picking off soft targets with TSS, or going after key targets with Asura.
Agi Monks
Stuck with the other melees.
Defense
If you happen to have Asura and a decent SP count, you'll probably be using Combo Asura to kill priests. Other good targets for Combo Asura are Sin/SinX and Two-hand Knight/LK that are threatening your Emp. Try to save it for when it's really needed. Same thing applies here, as with your brethren.
Offense
Pretty much the same as defense. You'll be mainly following after the choke breakers, and helping finish off and disrupt the precast and defense. Look for key targets that might be worth a Combo Asura.
Other than that, you'll be mainly hunting soft targets with status weapon + bloody combo. If you're fortunate enough to be a Snapper, you might get to try to Snap through a choke with no CP, and chase down trappers or other targets of opportunity.
That's the gist of it. Feel free to comment and critique, make suggestions, or debate points.
Updates
[2/17/2006]: First Draft
[2/20/2006]: Added Headgear cards, reformatted headings.
[2/21/2006]: Cleaned up tags, added example stat builds
[2/21/2006]: Added more Headgear cards, comments.
[2/22/2006]: Added Notes, rewrote PvP/WoE strategy sections. Explained Walk Cancel technique.
[2/27/2006]: Added Dealing with Reflect section, WoE Asura classification, additional notes. Edited card listings, thanks to Kiwi.
[2/28/2006]: Minor edits to format. AHHH TWI.
[3/1/2006]: Added card prefixes/suffixes. Thanks to Hellson and Twi for looking them up. Grammar and stuffs.
[4/23/2006]: Offensive Pneuma, Decrease Agi sections added. The Sign added.
[6/25/2007]: Fixed broken link.
[6/26/2007]: Added Beret/Feather Beret, bit of cleaning up.
[11/25/2007]: Added Alice Doll, minor edits.
[12/07/2007]: Added Valkyrja's Shield
This guide will be for discussing Monk and Champion combat strategy in the arenas of WoE and PvP. In other words, how to fight your Monk properly.
THIS IS NOT A GUIDE ON HOW TO BUILD MONKS, IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T READ THE TITLE--
If you have no idea how to build a monk in the first place, I'd suggest looking at Akemi's awesome guide:
RagnaInfo Acolyte Class Forums
RI is down, maybe Ill write a guide for this someday? lol.
First off, this guide assumes you understand the basics of your class, and the general idea of War of Emperium and Player versus Player combat. However, I will be going over skills in depth and assessing their strengths and uses related to pvp situations.
Know the Sexy!
Because Monks are just that osm...
Monks are my favorite class--they are amazing because of the versatility that their skills and builds can create. A monk can be a long range attacker or fight it out at close range; they can attack high defense targets and low defense targets with equal ease. Their trademark Asura Strike (Guillotine Fist, Extremity Fist, whatever) is a move to be feared, able to destroy even the strongest characters in one blow.
What Kind of Monk Are You?
Let's talk builds first!
This section is not about how to build your monk; it is about what kind of monk you are.
A monk's build is mainly determined by what its major defensive stat is--VIT or AGI. Each build has its own strengths and weaknesses, and corresponding play style. Monks can be classified into five general classes--Dex, Agi, Pure Asura, WoE Asura, and Hybrid.
These following examples are for classification.
Also, each example stat is including gear and job bonuses but no buffs, except for the agi/luk stats, which are base.
Dex: These builds are heavy on STR and DEX stats, with some VIT for defense, and INT to give them SP to fuel their spirit attacks. Effective in both PvP and WoE, using the Spirit skills effectively. They usually don't take punishment well though. Not so good at PvM without good gear.
STR: 90-110
DEX: 90-120
AGI: 3-9
INT: leftovers
VIT: 20-60
LUK: 1-7
Agi: High AGI, good STR, and rounded off with VIT, INT, and DEX. Their strength is a rapid attack speed, which gives them quick combo attacks. Easy to play in PvM. Weak in PvP.
STR: 90-110
DEX: 40-50
AGI: 70-90
INT: 1-30
VIT: 40-60
LUK: 1
Pure Asura: STR and INT are these guys' trademarks. Extreme Asura damage is their forte; whatever they manage to hit with their Asura is pretty much dead. Their main weakness is a slow cast time. Weak in PvP and PvM.
STR: 110
DEX: 30-40
AGI: 3-9
INT: 80-99
VIT: 20-40
LUK: 1-7
WoE Asura Unlike Pure Asura, these builds trade off INT for DEX and better VIT, giving them decent casting speed and better endurance while still maintaining a high Asura damage output. However, even with the extra DEX their TSS is not a very effective option for these builds. Their HIT and casting speed are low in comparison to DEX builds.
STR: 100-110
DEX: 60-80
AGI: 3-9
INT: 50-70
VIT: 40-50
LUK: 1-7
Hybrid: Blending qualities of Dex and Agi builds, this is a versatile and all-purpose monk. However, their cast will not be as fast as a Dex monk's, nor will their attack speed or flee be as good as an Agi major's. Balanced in both PvM and PvP.
STR: 90-100
DEX: 50-70
AGI: 60-80
INT: 1-30
VIT: 20-50
LUK: 1
The build examples only give rough ranges; individual builds can be tweaked to different ranges, depending on preference and experience of the player.
These are rankings assuming similar gear and levels:
Area: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
PvM: Agi, Dex, Hybrid/WoE Asura, Pure Asura
PvP: Dex, Hybrid, WoE Asura, Agi, Pure Asura
WoE: Dex, Hybrid, WoE Asura, Pure Asura, Agi
Equipment
Equipment is extremely important to PvP and WoE--simply having a better weapon or better armor can make all the difference in the world. There are also useful accessory gears to be considered as well.
Here Comes the Pain
Choosing your weapon
Mace or Fist?
Mace is always the better choice. Why is this? Higher attack and no size penalties against medium, which just happens to be the size of player characters. The only advantage a Fist-type weapon gives is higher attack speed--they are also rarer and more difficult to obtain, and have a damage penalty versus medium sized targets.
The typical mace you will be using is either a four-slotted Mace, or a three-slotted Chain. Mace is the most effective for those with high STR and low DEX. Chain is the most effective for high DEX, though it is also a good choice for low STR.
Your main weapon will be carded with Hydra (Bloody) and Skeleton Worker (Boned).
For Maces and Chains, Double Bloody Double Boned and Double Bloody Boned are the most effective damage combinations, respectively. However if you are interested in higher resale value or more versatility in PvM, all Hydra cards (Quadruple Bloody or Triple Bloody) will be the way to go.
Muma said KNOCK YOU OUT
Damage isn't the only way to hurt your enemies. Status effects can be extremely useful as well.
Other useful weapon cards:
Metaller: +5% chance to Silence
Marina: +5% chance to Freeze
Savage Bebe: +5% chance to Stun
Plankton: +5% chance to Sleep
Magnolia: +5% chance to Sleep
Ice and Sleep are most effectively used by non-AGI monks, since they can be broken by hitting. Curse, Silence, and Stun are most effective for AGI monks, since they have a high attack speed, giving them more chances to overcome a target�s resistance in a shorter time frame. Generally the only status caster types will be using is freeze or sleep; Agi monks are better suited to the rapid attacks for using other status effects.
Gear Me Up!
The lowdown on armor and armor cards.
Taken from Akemi's Guide, with additions and edits.
Headgear
6 DEF Spikey Band
5 DEF Monk Hat (3 MDEF)
4 DEF Biretta (slot)
3 DEF Circlet (slot, 3 MDEF)
0 DEF Crown of Mistress (+2 INT, +100 SP)
0 DEF Poo Poo Hat (10% less damage from Demi-Human)
1 DEF Drooping Cat (+15 MDEF, +30% resist vs. Curse)
0 DEF Sunglasses (slot) Middle headgear of choice, carded with SP boosting card or some other valuable card. The reason why most Monk builds don't rely on mid-head gear for stat boosting.
1 DEF 1 MDEF Feather Beret (10% less damage from Demi-Human)
0 DEF Beret (10% less damage from Demi-Human)
0 DEF Alice Doll (10% more damage to Demi-Human, cannot be upgraded, slot)
Spikey Band is a Doppleganger drop.
Monk Hat is a Cruiser drop.
Slotted Biretta is an Evil Druid drop.
Slotted Circlet is an Isis drop.
Crown of Mistress is a quest item.
Poo Poo Hat is a Bigfoot drop.
Drooping Cat is a quest item.
Beret is a Vanberk drop.
Feather Beret is a quest item.
Alice Doll is a Kafra Shop item.
Headgear Cards
Willow (Wise Headgear) +80 SP. This means damage for Asura Strikers.
Carat (Headger of Maestro) +2 INT, adds 150 sp if the headgear is +9 or higher. This is the favored Headgear card for WoE and Asura monks.
Nightmare (Insomniac Headgear) +1 AGI, immune to Sleep. Useful in duels.
Marduk (Peerless Headgear) Immune to Silence. Useful in duels.
Dark Illusion (Spell Master's Headgear) Max HP, Max SP -10%. Reduce spell casting time by 10%. If the user is equipped with an item compounded to the Dark Lord card, it reduces spell casting time by 20%. Not very useful, 10% isn't much difference, and the hp/sp penalty hurts your WoE/PvP performance a lot.
Incubus (Fatasm Headgear) INT -3, Max SP +150 and SP natural recovery -20%. If the user is equipped with an item compounded to the Succubus card, it adds INT +4 and SP natural recovery +30%. Not bad as far as SP boosting goes. Better than Mistress Crown or Wise Headgear.
Maya Purple (Helm of True Sight) Enable its user to detect hidden monsters. Kind of useful for chasing down annoying cloakers.
Orc Hero (Neutral Headgear) Gain immunity to the Stun status. VIT +3. Useful in duels or stunfests.
Pharoah (Headgear of Kirin) Reduce SP Consumption of skills by 30%.
Stalactic Golem Card (Stun-Proof Headgear) Stalactic Golem Card. Add 20% more tolerance against Stun. DEF +1
Poo is the classic choice for damage reduction, equally good against magic and physical attacks. With 11.1 (Hugel) in, you can use Beret if you'd rather have something cuter for the same effect. Feather Beret which are actually lighter, boasting 1 DEF/MDEF and can be upgraded is the best choice for defensive headgear, but is much more expensive than either Beret or Poo.
Otherwise, either a Mistress Crown or another SP-boosting headgear for more SP. Circlet is the best choice for carding, giving you good DEF and a MDEF boost. Insomniac or Marduk are most useful in duels, protecting you from Sleep and Silence.
Alice Doll with Incubus is probably the best damage boosting headgear for pvp/woe--10% more damage to all your attack skills plus 100 sp for Asura. However no defense, and can't be upgraded.
The other cards are mostly difficult to obtain (MVP or rare spawns), and have rather limited use. The main thing most Monks in PvP/WoE are looking for when it comes to headgear is a significant SP boost for Asura damage or damage reduction in the form of percentage or DEF/MDEF.
Armor
6 DEF Saint's Robe (5 MDEF, slot) Primary choice.
3 DEF Silk Robe (10 MDEF, slot) Secondary choice for MDEF or to share with more characters.
0 DEF Wedding Dress (15 MDEF, female only (not implemented) )
Slotted Saint's Robe is dropped by Obeaunes.
Slotted Silk Robe is dropped by Creamies.
Wedding Dress is sold in Prontera's wedding store.
Armor Cards
Marc (Unfrozen Armor) Cannot be frozen, -5% from Water element. PvP-wear only.
Dokkaebi (Armor of Zephyrus) +1 DEF, Wind 1 element. Primary PvP magic resistance wear.
Pasana (Armor of Ifrit) +1 DEF, Fire 1 element. Mostly used for MvP and maybe dealing with Sages.
Sandman (Armor of Gnome) +1 DEF, Earth 1 element. Mostly useless.
Swordfish (Aqua Armor) +1 DEF, Water 1 element. Secondary PvP choice, but beware LoV/JT!
Argiope (Poisoning Armor) +1 DEF, Poison 1 element. Excellent choice versus Assassins and Thief classes, countering Enchant Poison and Envenom.
Evil Druid (Deadly Armor) +1 DEF, +1 INT, Undead 1 element. Protects against Stone Curse. Good counter against Poison and Shadow elements.
Bathory (Evil Armor) Shadow 1 element.
Angeling (Holy Armor) Holy 1 element. Reduced damage from nearly all the Elements.
Ghostring (Ghost Armor) Sense 1 element, -25% HP regen. Defense against Neutral attacks like Asura.
Armor wise, Saint's Robe is the best choice--good DEF, a bit of MDEF thrown in. However, Silk is better for MDEF, as well as versatility since many more classes can wear a Silk, if you like to share gear. Marc is the basic card choice, protecting you against being crippled by the Freeze status. Learn to quickly switch armors for the appropriate element to fit your situation. Angeling and Ghostring are rare armors, don't expect to have one any time soon.
Note: passive defense
These new cards were added with Einbroch, and are excellent for countering physical attackers. They come in two classes, ones with a 20% chance, or ones that have a rate affected by the wearer's stats (10% base, 30% boosted). Activated when the wearer receives physical damage.
Dark Frame: Stone Curse
Marjorous: Stun
Demon Fungus: Sleep
Brilight: Silence
Creamy Fear: Chaos
Killer Mantis: Bleeding
Kraben: Blind
Sasquatch: Freeze
Wraith Dead: Curse
Pest: Stone Curse, boosted if user has 77 or more base INT
Rybio: Stun, boosted if user has 77 or more base DEX
Chimera: Poison, boosted if user is Assassin or Assassin Cross
Disguise: Silence, boosted if user has 77 or more base VIT
Karakasa: Chaos, boosted if user has 77 or more base STR
Grizzly: Blind, boosted if user is equipped with Bigfoot card item.
Nightmare Terror: Curse, boosted if user is equipped with Nightmare card item.
Hatii: 50% chance to Freeze, MVP card.
Shield
4 DEF Buckler (slot)
4 DEF Valkyrja's Shield (5 mdef, 20% resist to Fire, Water, Undead, and Shadow, slot. Component of Fricca's set)
Slotted Buckler is dropped by Goblins and Kobolds and is a guild fort treasure.
Valkyrja's Shield is dropped by Valkyrie
Valkyrja's Shield is the pretty much the ultimate shield. Mdef, elemental resistance and high versatility all in one package. Only problem is that they are much, much more expensive than any other shield, and are dropped by Valkyrie at Odin's Temple.
Shield Cards
Thara Frog (Cranial Shield) -30% from Demihuman race. PvP and general levelling.
Medusa* (Plasterous Shield) -15% from Demon race, immune to Stone Curse.
Gold Thief Bug (Shield of Deaf) Double SP cost for all skills, no damage from Magic. MVP Card.
Thara is your standard gear, the other cards are for special situations only.
Robe
2 DEF Muffler (slot)
1 DEF Ragamuffin Manteau (10 MDEF)
Slotted Muffler is dropped by Sohee and is a guild fort treasure.
Ragamuffin Manteau is dropped by Evil Druids and is a Payon 1 fort treasure.
Robe Cards
Raydric (Immune Robe) -20% damage from Neutral element. For VIT Monks.
Dustiness (Robe of Warmth) -30% damage from Wind element, +5 flee.
Jakk (Flameguard Robe) -30% damage from Fire element, +5 flee.
Hode (Glorious Robe) -30% damage from Earth element, +5 flee.
Marse (Genie's Robe) -30% damage from Water element, +5 flee.
Complement your armor's strength (Dokkaebi/Dustiness) for near-immunity, or offset your armor's weakness (Angeling/Orc Zombie, Ghostring/Marionette).
There is no damage reduction available for Holy element.
Ragamuffin is an all-purpose defense for situations when you don't know what type of elemental attack to expect.
Immune is your garment of choice in most situations dealing with physical attacks.
Footgear
2 DEF Shoes (slot)
0 DEF Crystal Pumps (10 MDEF, +5 LUK, female only (not implemented) )
Slotted Shoes are dropped by Munak and are a guild fort treasure.
Crystal Pumps are dropped by Marionettes and are a Prontera 1 treasure.
Footgear Cards
Matyr (Green Footgear) +1 AGI, +10% HP.
Verit (Fledged Footgear) +8% HP, +8% SP. Good overall choice.
Sohee (Soul-Enchanted Footgear) +15% SP, +3% SP regen. SP + Asura = damage.
Firelock (Superior Footgear) +2 STR, +10% HP/SP if shoes are upgraded to +9 or more.
Sohee is the shoe of choice for Asura users, since it gives the highest sp boost. In other situations, the hp boost from either of the other three can be very useful. Pumps are useful for dealing with the Mage class.
Accessories
Your choice of accessories is mainly to boost an important stat, typically STR or DEX.
Clips are also very useful for boosting your SP, giving you a bit more Asura damage.
Slotted Gloves or Rings are a common choice, usually paired with Zerom and Mantis cards, respectively.
The Sign: A quest item allowing you access to Geffenia, this accessory also boosts your ATK value by 5% (unconfirmed). Useful if you have one accessory slot open.
One of the most useful accessory cards is the Smokie Card, enabling level 1 Hide.
Accessory Cards
Zerom (Nimble Accessory) +3 DEX
Mantis (Accessory of Muscle) +3 STR
The best, and the most common stat boosting accessory cards. Enough said.
Smokie (Hiding Accessory) Can use Level 1 Hide
Marine Sphere (Blast Accessory) Can use Level 3 Magnum Break
Poison Spore (Envenom Accessory) Can use Level 3 Envenom
The most common accessory skill cards; Magnum is useful when trying to inflict status effects on many people at once. Envenom is semi-useful for hitting AGI characters with status weapons, though you really only need to summon spheres for that.
Phen (Accessory Under Cast) Spells cannot be interrupted by attacks and increases Cast Time by 25%. This is only useful in PvP for using Asura, Absorb Spirit Sphere, and Zen while being constantly hit.
Other possibly useful accessory cards:
Alligator (Four Leaf Clover Accessory) Reduce damage from Long Range Physical attacks by 5%
Berzebub (Accessory of Bigmouth) Reduce cast time for skills by 30%
Greatest General (Mana Sphere Accessory) Chance of getting a Spirit Sphere when doing physical attacks. Chance is increased for Acolyte class characters. Useful for AGI monks, saving them a lot of time by not having to manually cast Summon Sphere and allowing them to constantly attack.
Owl Baron (Accessory of Double Power) Chance of casting Lex Aeterna on target while doing physical attacks.
Owl Duke (Accessory of Godly Wrath) Add the chance of auto casting level 3 Impositio Manus on the user when doing Physical Attack. If the user is equipped with an item compounded to the Owl Baron card, it adds the chance of auto casting level 5 Lightning Bolt on an enemy when doing Physical Attack.
Violy (Fiddlers Accessory) Chance of casting Unbarring Octave 1 (Frost Joke) while doing physical attacks; if user has mastered UO at level 5, chance of using level 5 instead.
Got Skill?
Now that you're geared up, time for the skill rundown.
The monk's array of skills is versatile and effective in pretty much any situation, giving them a way around every kind of defense.
Spirit
The spirit branch is extremely versatile in all kinds of situations; however, to make the best use out of them, STR and DEX are needed to increase damage and reduce casting time, respectively. Dex and Hybrid Monks get the best use out of this skill tree.
Occult Impact: This is the staple offensive skill of non-agi monks. Short cast time, ignores FLEE, damage is modified by the target's DEF both from armor and VIT. With a good weapon and str, the monk can do incredible amounts of damage in a quick single shot.
The con is that it does very poorly on low DEF/VIT, and is pretty expensive to use. Can evade with Hide, and is always Neutral property, though it can bypass Immune when the user is endowed.
Throw Spirit Sphere: Ranged, 350% damage per sphere at Level 5 is pretty good damage. This skill also takes on the current element of the user's weapon, making it useful for piercing anti-Neutral defenses. Most effectively employed by DEX Monks.
However, it is rather slow--the base cast time is (# spheres x 1) + 1 seconds, and can be evaded with Hide.
Guillotine Fist: This skill burns all the users SP to do huge damage in one strike, and kills your HP/SP regeneration for 5 minutes after casting. Its damage ignores FLEE and DEF.
It can be evaded by Hide, and is always Neutral Property. The Endow trick doesn't work with this, unlike OI.
Raging Palm Strike: A Champion-only skill; Excellent damage, 700% at level 5, with a low SP cost. Also pushes back the target. However, this requires the user to be in Fury mode, and it can be evaded by Hide, and the delay from activation to hit is quite lengthy.
Combo
The combo skills are all pretty much the same; flashy, uninterruptible, and SP hogs that do good damage on low to medium defense.
Dependent on Trifecta activation, and a combo string can be interrupted by Hide. The target can keep moving away while being hit; this is a common trick for escaping from a Combo Asura + Ruwach.
Other
These skills don't fit into either the Combo or Spirit branches.
Root: a semi-useful defense skill, this allows you to trap an enemy using non-skill attacks. Depending on the monk's level in this skill, they can counter attack with an offensive skill. If the rooted character is a Monk, they can use a skill as well, based on their level of Root.
Level 1: None
Level 2: TSS
Level 3: OI
Level 4: RQB
Level 5: Asura
Unfortunately, most attacks you'll be dealing with are skills.
Snap
Snap is in a class of its own--this skill is one of the most useful and powerful available to a monk, but it comes at an extreme cost, requiring a Monk or Champion to put at least 2 or 3 points into every single Monk skill, costing 47 skill points in total. It also consumes no spheres while the user is in Fury mode.
This skill allows you to instantly move to any cell in a direct line of sight from your current position; in other words, any cell not blocked by impassable obstacles.
Acolyte Skills:
Many of your acolyte skills are extremely useful in the PvP/WoE arena; make sure to get the most out of them.
Pneuma: Blocks all ranged attacks in a 3x3 area around the summoned spirit. This is your most valuable ranged defense.
Ruwach: Reveals hidden characters around the user and does holy damage to them. Very short ranged.
Decrease Agility: Reduces the target's move/attack speed and agility. Has a chance to fail. Used to chase down fast-moving targets, and de-buff skills such as Adrenaline Rush and 2-Hand Quicken.
Bless is useful to remove the Curse Status--be sure to only use level 1 for this, to save your SP.
Put 'Em Up!
Are you ready to fight?
Time to talk tactics! First, be aware of your strengths and weaknesses--most monks are weak to status effects, so be sure carry Green Pots to cure Poison and Silence.
In addition, skills such as Jupitel Thunder that inflict knockback can make it very hard for you to get into range to attack. In these cases, Hide or Pneuma can be very helpful when you are trying to get close.
Endows such as Aspersio and Enchant Poison are very useful for doing more damage by cutting through Immunes.
Against physical attackers, using the new Armor cards can be very useful too, to inflict harmful Status effects to your advantage, such as Stone Curse. Make your best judgement as to what armor might be most likely to succeed.
For a monk, how you fight mainly depends on what class you're facing. Build also plays a huge part--each build has its strengths and weaknesses.
General Strategies
Things to know.
Generally speaking, most people look down on using Asura in duels. Properly set up, it ends a one on one situation way too fast, considering a DEX Monk or Champ can cast an Asura in less than half a second, and the base cast is two seconds.
Silence and Poison are not your friends; make sure you bring plenty of Green Potions, because you're going to need them.
Unfrozen is almost a must when dealing with Wizards. After that comes a Zephyrus, as your main damage reduction. Pair them and other elemental with either a complementary garment card, or the opposite element to minimize weakness. Complementary cards are usually the better choice. Or you can just wear a Ragmamuffin if you are lazy.
Mocking is for nubs. Seriously. There are too many things you cannot dodge, and Hunters can actually punish the hell out of you should they ever choose to waste Immaterial Arrows on your sorry behind. That 20 flee is no help when you're Stunned or Sleeping. Nine times out of 10, an Immune is the better choice, as it'll save you from a lot of hurt.
Wear a Poo whenever you can. Yeah, it's definitely not SUGOI KAWAII, but it's probably the most useful headgear you'll ever wear. 10% less damage from everything and anything that people can throw at you is pretty damn sexy. If you want to be cute and efficient, get a Beret/Feather Beret.
Your worst enemies are DEX Monks and Wizards, both of which hit you extremely hard and fast with moves that can't be easily dodged (Magic, OI). Shield Saders and Paladins are also a supreme pain the a**, since hitting them with your best move usually means eating a portion of the damage back from Reflect. To a lesser extent, Smiths and Swordsman classes are bad news with their 'built in' stun abilities (Hammerfall, Stun Bash, Cart Ram). Hunters can be troublesome as well, especially if they play hit and run with you, or use status bows/arrows and traps well.
AGI monks
Your strength is your high attack speed and flee. However, flee is useless against magic, insane HIT, and skills that just simply cannot be dodged. All of which you'll find in plenty in PvP and WoE. Stun, Sleep, Freeze, and Stone Curse are all things to be feared, as they remove your FLEE from the equation completely while in effect.
The best strategy I've found with AGI monks is to use a status weapon. Stun or Silence are your best choices to shut down the enemy's skills. Learn to quickly switch between status weapons and your Bloody when appropriate. Pneuma is a must-have when dealing with DEX monks, Hunters, SD Sin X and Lord Knights, all of which pack a powerful long range punch. Hide clips are also useful, especially when you're trying to get in on a Wizard. Using TSS 1 with a status mace can be useful when dealing with a hit-and-run style character such as SD SinX.
Beware of people packing Dark Frame/Pest Armor, or similar 'passive defense' gear.
Be aware that a smart player can interrupt your damaging combo chains with a well timed Hide.
DEX monks
You got casting speed and STR in plenty. I hope. Now, what to do with them? Abuse them. Usually a good way to start is quickly debuffing your enemy with Agi Down. Another useful opening technique is to use a one sphere TSS to start the match off, using a status mace such as Silence, Sleep, or Stun. Curse can be a good choice as well, especially if you don't want your enemy to get close. It is also useful as a marker when dealing with Assassins and Rogues, allowing you to follow their movements even when they Cloak or Stalk.
After that, most of the time you can get away with spamming an offensive skill, but there's a little more to it than that. You need to quickly assess what skill is most effective does the target have high DEF and VIT that you can abuse with OI, or is TSS the better choice?
For Monks, typically 9 times out of 10 you will be better off with OI over TSS.
This is because you need to manually cast each sphere, so preparing another full five sphere shot, then actually shooting it off takes quite a bit of time, giving your enemy plenty of time to beat on you. Zen gives Champions a lot more flexibility for using TSS.
Secondly, learn to walk cancel your Occult Impact--this technique only speeds up your damage rate by a fraction of a second, but that can make all the difference in the world. Walk cancel will be explained at the end of the PvP section. With practice and a good eye, it is even possible to constantly be in motion, hitting a target with OI and following him even as he tries to run.
Third, know your casting time by heart. This is essential to properly timing your offensive. Learn your cast speed, and combined with a hide clip, you can attack an enemy without receiving a scratch. This is especially useful in dealing with Mage classes and other Monks.
Smart and experienced enemies will abuse Hide when dealing with Monks, since they can avoid all of your offensive moves with a well-timed Hide.
You can deal with this by making your casting time as short as possible, and being completely unpredictable with your attacks. Use one sphere TSS or OI exclusively. Another good way to deal with this is to use a status mace such as Stun (vs. low VIT) or Sleep (vs. high VIT with low INT). You can also counter by getting close and using Ruwach in combination with OI or 1-2 sphere TSS.
Hybrid Monks
As the balanced type, your strategy is a mix of the AGI and DEX styles. You can take advantage of your good attack speed for closing in and abusing stat maces + combo, use a DEX type offensive approach, or mix the two styles. Since your casting speed is significantly lower, walk cancel is an extremely useful technique.
Since your flee is lower, you cannot rely on it for defense as much as an AGI monk can versus physical attacks. Learning your casting speeds for your Spirit skills is even more important, since you will have less margin for error.
Pure Asura Monks
Out of the four general types, you've got it worst in PvP. Your defensive ability is minimal except for maybe a strong heal. You've got strength, but low attack speed and casting time. Paired with low endurance, this is a pretty bad handicap when it comes to fighting most things. On the plus side, should you ever manage to hit something with your full SP Asura, it's pretty much a guaranteed kill.
To make up for this, you need to utilize a lot of gear. Passive defensive armors are an excellent choice versus physical attackers. Armor switching and abusing hide will be your best moves against casters.
You have to give your enemies as little chance to cripple you with silence and stun, or overwhelm your heal and low hp, while setting them up with a crippling status effect so you can attack them at leisure.
Since the typical Asura build has high INT, Pest Armor is probably the best choice--with the boosted 30%, it is a very good rate of effect. In addition, Medusa Shields and Evil Druid Armor is not a common gear for most people, especially not among physical attackers.
WoE Asura Monks
A decent casting time allows you to be more effective with the spirit skills compared to a Pure Asura build, but you're still not that fast. Because of this, TSS is mostly not an effective option, since it leaves you wide open to being beat on during the cast; in addition, your lower hit means that it is easier to flee your attack. Use status maces such as Stun or Sleep to set up your targets for a TSS attack. Your playing style will be pretty much the same as Pure Asura Monks, with a little more room for error because of your higher DEX and VIT.
Walk Canceling
This describes a technique used cancel the animation delay for Occult Impact. It's fairly simple, but hard to time. The OI animation goes through two stages--first the casting, where your character does the usual casting animation. The second stage is at the end of the cast, where the monk does a fireball animation, and the blast of flame shoots out. If you move your character between the first and second stage, it skips the second stage completely, and your monk will be immediately able to cast again. This also works with TSS.
Offensive Pneuma
Wtf is an Offensive Pneuma? You may be asking yourself this right now, since normally Pneuma is a defensive skill used to block ranged attacks. Pneuma covers a 3 by 3 cell area from ranged attacks; an added effect of this is that Safety Wall cannot be successfully cast on any of those 9 cells while the Pneuma is in effect. This is extremely useful when setting up an Asura on a class with access to SW.
Decrease Agi 101
Yes, it slows them down. But did you know that it also cancels several attack-speed boosting skills? Two-Hand Quicken, Spear Quicken, and Adrenaline Rush are all canceled when you successfully DA a target.
This Means War!
Moving on to the biggest arena, WoE. Now your performance means more than just your pride--it means whether or not you and your guild or alliance can hold on to a castle and its material rewards.
PvP strategies can be applied here as well, minus the knockback. Also note that all skill damage is reduced by 40%, making everything much more survivable.
WoE is a team effort. That's the first rule. Move like fishies, my guild leader likes to say. It's a good saying; remember it.
The second rule is that you need to drink pots to get anything significant done. War isn't cheap.
The third rule is don't freaking Asura everything in sight! The mark of the nub Monk in WoE is the Monk who only knows how to use Asura. Asura on that hunter? Very no. Asura the wizard? You sir, most likely fail. Most of the time, there is a better (read: less expensive) way of killing that person. In addition, do not forget to Ruwach when you Asura. If they hide it, you've just wasted a ton of SP and Blue Pots, and opened yourself up to counterattack.
Asura is a skill to be used with extreme discretion; you have to decide in a split second, if it is worth spending all that SP and subsequently the blue pots you are about to chug, to kill that character.
Most of the time, it isn't worth it, unless you've got a spouse or a Scholar dedicated to giving you and only you SP. Which is...almost never.
Know your Asura damage; since you can't see damage in war, you have to know this by heart. You have to know what you can kill and what you can't kill without any help. Most of the time you'll hope you have a priest to Lex the target, but then again most of the time there's at least one or two of your allied melee all hot and heavy on that knight's a** and eating the Lex that you might need. If they don't die to one Asura, don't just fill back up and burn more sp to hit them again--get help. Freeze them, Lex A them, whatever. Don't just burn sp for another pointless shot.
The damage formula for Asura is:
[ATK x (8 + CURRENT SP/10)] + 250 + (Skill Level x 150] x Card Modifiers
ATK is:
WEAPON ATK + STR +[(STR/10]^2 + (DEX/5) + (LUK/5)]
It's easier to use a damage calc than to manually calc out the Asura damage every time.
Simn's Asura Calc hasn't been updated in a while.
Dealing with Reflect
Otherwise known as, how to not kill yourself on a Shield Sader. The easiest way to do this is to avoid wasting Asura on a Shield Sader. However, there are times where you can't avoid dealing with reflect, like when you have to kill a target being Sac'd by said sader.
Reflect returns 40% damage at max; it's usually best to assume that you're dealing with a max level Reflect.
This is one of the reason where knowing your Asura damage is a must You need to know just exactly how much reflected damage you can survive while still killing your target., and lower your SP reserve to the appropriate percentage.
For example, say your monk has 8k MHP, and deals 20k damage in WoE. 40% of 20k is 8k--instant KO for you. Your target is a Sader with 14k MHP, which is roughly 75% of your max damage. Therefore, you lower your SP to about 75% of max before you Asura. The quickest way to drain your SP for these kinds of situations is spamming Bless on yourself--no delay, and it quickly reduces your SP reserve at 64 sp a cast.
DEX, Hybrid, and Pure/WoE Asura Monks
Defense
All of these monks do pretty much the same thing in WoE. Wait at the back of the choke and conserve your SP and Asura key targets such as the Guild Leader that is about to recall, the Dancer/Gypsy that is owning your non-VITs with her Dazzler, or maybe that EDP SinX that just popped up on your emp. Again, Asura is not for that annoying Hunter, nor is it for the 7x Wizard that would die to one good sneeze. Monks with higher DEX do have a little more freedom in being able to use TSS and OI to good effect. Pure Asura monks are stuck with just Asura for the most part
Offense
You usually won't be on the front end of an attack, storming the choke with the full precast up--unless you happen to have Mental Strength and decent VIT. In that case, a status mace and passive defense armor can be useful. Otherwise, you'll be picking off soft targets with TSS, or going after key targets with Asura.
Agi Monks
Stuck with the other melees.
Defense
If you happen to have Asura and a decent SP count, you'll probably be using Combo Asura to kill priests. Other good targets for Combo Asura are Sin/SinX and Two-hand Knight/LK that are threatening your Emp. Try to save it for when it's really needed. Same thing applies here, as with your brethren.
Offense
Pretty much the same as defense. You'll be mainly following after the choke breakers, and helping finish off and disrupt the precast and defense. Look for key targets that might be worth a Combo Asura.
Other than that, you'll be mainly hunting soft targets with status weapon + bloody combo. If you're fortunate enough to be a Snapper, you might get to try to Snap through a choke with no CP, and chase down trappers or other targets of opportunity.
That's the gist of it. Feel free to comment and critique, make suggestions, or debate points.
Updates
[2/17/2006]: First Draft
[2/20/2006]: Added Headgear cards, reformatted headings.
[2/21/2006]: Cleaned up tags, added example stat builds
[2/21/2006]: Added more Headgear cards, comments.
[2/22/2006]: Added Notes, rewrote PvP/WoE strategy sections. Explained Walk Cancel technique.
[2/27/2006]: Added Dealing with Reflect section, WoE Asura classification, additional notes. Edited card listings, thanks to Kiwi.
[2/28/2006]: Minor edits to format. AHHH TWI.
[3/1/2006]: Added card prefixes/suffixes. Thanks to Hellson and Twi for looking them up. Grammar and stuffs.
[4/23/2006]: Offensive Pneuma, Decrease Agi sections added. The Sign added.
[6/25/2007]: Fixed broken link.
[6/26/2007]: Added Beret/Feather Beret, bit of cleaning up.
[11/25/2007]: Added Alice Doll, minor edits.
[12/07/2007]: Added Valkyrja's Shield
