New MNK

Hey Folks, I just got MNK to a proper level and Im looking for some general advice here. I've read through the forums and got the gist of it, but Im looking for any good tips of the trade...or insight on how to play the job to the best of its ability..Im still working on gear, but any suggestions would appreciated

- What kinda atmas should i slot for DD? Im thinking standard AA / RR / SS, but does RR still deserve the spot if im using something other than Ascetic's Fury?

- For tanking in aby, would I use AA / RR / GH? Or would I go with the other big counter atma Roaring Laughter? Also regards to tanking, would I want to being using a PDT / MDT set? Im fine using xml, so that isnt a problem

- Any other gear set suggestions? I have a lot of inventory space, so specific set ideas aren't an issue in that regard

- So Counterstance, it looks like you pretty much full time it unless the mob does only TP moves for attacks (Shin, IG) or can destroy you in one hit..ie, EES..is that right? Any other times i dont wanna full time it?

- Does Footwork have any use?

- I have all subs leveled, but im thinking im gonna pretty much use /WAR 90% of the time...any other subs to use? Besides maybe /DNC for farming or soloing stuff / trash mobs

- How bout merits?

I know these are kind of broad strokes for questions, but figure I need to learn the basics before I can get into more nuanced aspects of the job...but any advise is welcomed, including when to use / not to use the other JAs and gear selection.

Thanks again!

- What kinda atmas should i slot for DD? Im thinking standard AA / RR / SS, but does RR still deserve the spot if im using something other than Ascetic's Fury? These atma's should work fine for a DD mnk if anything if you are going for straight DD you could drop SS for GH and it would work either way IMO



- For tanking in aby, would I use AA / RR / GH? Or would I go with the other big counter atma Roaring Laughter? Also regards to tanking, would I want to being using a PDT / MDT set? Im fine using xml, so that isnt a problem Personally i would use AA/RR/SS just for the extra hp and what not but then again its abyssea i can solo caturae mnk/dnc in abyssea as for pdt and mdt set it depends on the mob if your doing dragons like isgebind or dragua or something along them lines then yes a mdt set could be in order but with bar/ whatever spell ect. and shell 5 you should be pretty good on that

- Any other gear set suggestions? I have a lot of inventory space, so specific set ideas aren't an issue in that regard Mnk has a lot of different gear sets on could go for such as a chakra build if you wanted but i would just thrive for the typical tp and ws sets and work on verethragna if you dont have it


- So Counterstance, it looks like you pretty much full time it unless the mob does only TP moves for attacks (Shin, IG) or can destroy you in one hit..ie, EES..is that right? Any other times i dont wanna full time it? yes counterstance is a pretty much full time ability but it has its times as you said where mobs might hit too hard or might just spam tp moves, if anything i would use it on lesser NMs and NM that dont spam tp moves



- Does Footwork have any use? LOLFOOTWORK


- I have all subs leveled, but im thinking im gonna pretty much use /WAR 90% of the time...any other subs to use? Besides maybe /DNC for farming or soloing stuff / trash mobs /war will be your most used subjob but /dnc has its helps like on glavoids i sub dnc instead of war to stun disgorge while dual boxing other then that war and dnc are gonna be your main subs


- How bout merits? formless strikes 5/5, 5/5 counter rate, 5/5 penace < this one varies on what you feel would be better>, and i did 5/5 kick attack rate

Inside Abyssea, you shouldn't be using anything other than Ascetic's Fury/Victory Smite, so Apocalypse/RR/GH is the standard. You can swap GH for SS if you won't be tanking, but I just stick to AoA/RR/GH.

Just stick to AoA/RR/GH. Counter rate caps at 80% and GH + Counterstance (with Melee Gaiters) will put you at or close to the cap, making Roaring Laughter completely pointless. The extra HP from SS is also really a non-factor.

Always have PDT/MDT sets on hand. For outside Abyssea I have evasion sets, low accuracy sets, Impetus up/down sets, etcetera. My Victory Smite/Ascetic's sets also change a bit depending on whether Impetus is up or down. My Chakra set is just whatever VIT gear I already carry around for other uses on top of Temple Cyclas and Melee Gloves +2, because I don't have room to dedicate to VIT gear.

Counterstance is usually always up unless you're fighting trash that can't hit you or things that spam TP moves/ranged attacks.

My XML turns on Footwork for Tornado/Dragon kick, but other than that, it's useless.

/WAR 95% of the time. Rare occasions where you might want /DNC or /NIN outside Abyssea (/DNC for dynamis farming), but inside, always /WAR.

5/5 Formless Strikes, 5/5 Penance, 5/5 Counter rate, 5/5 Kick Attacks.

I would add/modify that I would consider 1/5 formless strikes and 4/5 invigorate. If you never ever use formless strikes, 5/5 is stupid, or if you find yourself soloing and in need of some more hp help, invigorate is great. But that's all dependent on what you think's best.

Also, don't ignore chakra. It's fun and very very handy - either it keeps you going when you're alone, or keeps you alive in a pinch. Plus, right or wrong, someone sees you do a 200 chakra, they will laugh at you.

Thank being said, get working on your black belt, too.

Good luck!

Tanking or not I still use SS over GH. You really don't need the extra counter even solo.

Pretty sure that crit damage+ caps relatively low, so assuming Impetus is up and capped accuracy, you're capped more often than not without SS. GH improves your crit rate always and provides extra AGI to reduce TP feed.

Critical Hit Damage bonus caps at +100%.

Atmas: For monk, the best is AA, RR, SS. The parses were re-worked after the patch that increased the +crit hit damage cap (don't recall the patch number or date off the top of my head). SS will give you more damage and more hp. The extra counter rate from GH was factored in to the dps parse. From a tanking perspective, monks are blood tanks in abyssea. The extra hp makes you a better blood tank. Countering more auto attacks makes you a better avoidance tank. If you're looking for absolute min/max, SS actually comes out as the better tanking atma too because faster kill time = less tanking time. But really, it's not worth debating because it doesn't make much of a difference. If I already had AA, RR, GH loaded from being on THF or NIN or something, and I come back to abyssea as a monk, I just load the same atmas. Taking the time to pick out the exact possible best is time that could be spent just completing your objective and moving on. Just a last tidbit on SS verse GH... it really is more of a preference thing than anything else. GH gives you more consistency with almost constant critical hits. Using SS instead can give you more spikey numbers up and down. Averaged out, SS wins, but sometimes the consistency is nicer to look at.

Weaponskills: If you don't have Victory Smite or Ascetic's Fury, then you're only other option in Abyssea is Backhand Blow. It has a lot more variance than Asuran Fists and other non-crit weaponskills but it will average better for you overall. Honestly monk dps without Ascetic's or VS is not that great in aby. You'd be better off using ninja with Blade: Jin for dps/tanking until you get Ascetic's or Verethragna. Ascetic's also has a huge variance. I'm sure someone here will try to pick this apart claiming monk is still great dps without these weaponskills. Sure, your auto-hits are still gonna be awesome, but other jobs with critical hit weaponskills are going to outperform an incomplete monk in abyssea.

Counterstance: In abyssea, full time it unless it's obviously a bad idea (IE - enemy doesn't auto attack often, or auto attacks can't be countered). Outside abyssea, you'll just have to learn based on the situation you're in. Treat Counterstance as more of an offensive tool than a defensive one. This job ability allows for the possibility of your hp to spike down very quickly. This isn't an issue if you have a healer in abyssea. But outside, it can make you an mp sponge or even get you killed. I ate a 2.3k Jet Stream from a decent challenge Gaylas in Dynamis Qufim before. One-shot from full hp. Lesson learned.

Merits: You either go 5/5 Invigorate or 5/5 Formless Strikes. Depends on what you are using monk for. Invigorate is worthless if you're playing with a Scholar or any mage who likes to cast Regen on you. Formless Strikes is worthless 99% of the time. However, each is very useful in certain situations. Invigorate is very handy when soloing or farming dynamis. Formless Strikes is very handy in Nyzul Isle. Bottom line, if you're running NI on monk, go 5/5 FS. If you're not, go 5/5 Invigorate. 4/5 Invigorate if you want, but in my experience, even in situations (like invincible) where I could have used my 1/5 FS... I didn't bother. Not once has it mattered.

Subjobs: warrior is the subjob. /nin is useful for abyssea procs. /dnc is useful for stuns or dynamis procs. If you need some healing in abyssea, just go with AA, RR, and Mounted Champion. The 20hp per tick will keep you up for trash killing and if you get wacked on too much, the 50 vit makes your chakra pretty impressive. Please do not sub dancer for healing in abyssea. The only time I've used any other subjob was when I first started Voidwatch, I went /sam until I could use dusty wings. I think I've also gone /thf before but I can't remember why.

Gear: TP and WS sets are already talked about in abundance on these forums. PDT/MDT sets are standard for any serious monk. A good chakra set is a nice bonus if inventory isn't an issue. Also, most monks carry around the various Artifact and Relic pieces that enhance our useful job abilities. AF3+2 is all good, although the gloves I have stored now. Relic Boots, Relic Gloves and Temple Cyclas +1 should be a pretty high priority on your wish list. Temple Crown and Temple Gaiters are worth questing for. Melee Cyclas +2 are 2hp regen per tick. Very nice for your non-combat set. Melee Crown +2 and Melee Hose +2 are items of low priority. Temple Hose and Temple Gloves aren't worth the inventory space. If you get them, store them and maybe they'll be useful in the future.
Another very useful item to pick up is a Tarutaru Sash with the Treasure Hunter +1 augment. This sash coupled with Atma of Dread and you can go as MNK/WAR with all blunt blue procs (minus Hexa Strike) and also have TH2. Tarutaru Sash is also a must if you're going to farm Dynamis on Monk.

I'm also new to monk so I have a couple questions/requests for verification.

Backhand blow beats out Shijin in Aby? I assume Shijin has it's place and I didn't waste my Saturday meriting it, right?

Once you have Vereth, is there any reason to use Ascetics over Victory? Just wondering if it's worth putting the effort in to questing Ascetics as I've got over 4 years worth of content I'm still trying to catch up on and I'd have to do a 1-100 climb in order to work on mythic weaponskills.

I'm doing both war and monk and planning on farming both empys at the same time since the NMs are all in the same zone at each stage, since i'll be cleaving the KIs either way. With that in mind, I'd assume Monk would work better when killing the actual NMs then Warrior, what would be a better job to dual box Glavoid/Chloris with. Sch or Whm? I have access to both and I figure I'll be on Sch so I can Phalanx while cleaving.

Any advice on what atmas to use when doing Chloris/Glavoid/Itza ect...? I'd like to be able to do this by myself in a dual box situation since I have such random play times.

My mistake. I'm one of those monks that got Verethragna before Shijin Spiral came out so I never put merit points in to it and I tend to forget about it. Yes, Shijin is definitely superior to all other non-crit WS in Abyssea and yes it's also superior to Backhand Blow. It's also more consistent than Ascetic's Fury but I don't know whether it actually beats Ascetic's overall in abyssea.

As for Ascetic's verse Victory Smite... no. You will never use Ascetic's again if you have Verethragna equipped. There may be a situation in which you could use Ascetic's because you don't have Verethragna equipped (like all your equipment gets removed and you build to 100 tp before you can re-equip)... but no. Not even worth doing the quest for.

For Glavoid and Chloris... I'd personally go with whm/blm. The stun from /blm is HUGE if you aren't going mnk/dnc and still helpful even if you are. I assume you're cleaving as warrior, so since you're warping out to swap from war to mnk, you may as well warp your alt out and swap from sch to whm.

Atmas Monk - Apoc, RR always. 3rd atma, you have some choices. A lot of people will just say stick with either GH or SS. Earth Wyrm can be really nice for Glavoid. I always box Glavoid as nin + whm because it's way easier so I hesitate to tell you "full dd atmas." It will really depend based on your gear, alt gear, your skill with 2-boxing, your skill in general, and the maybe-not-so-legitimate programs you may or may not use.
For Itzpap, full DD atmas imo.

Atmas alt - Glavoid/Chloris... probably biggest issue is dealing with getting doom off your main during Chloris. Dunno if there are any atmas to help with spamming cursna and holy waters... so Apoc, MM, and whatever. Honestly, I almost always just full time apoc, MM, and earth wyrm on my mage alt b/c -10% damage taken is a nice bonus if he gets hit by an AoE or something. Could go with Allure. That's a pretty standard 3rd atma for whm mules.
Apoc, Minikin, Earth Wyrm for Tunga. Since Earth Wyrm is on for Tunga, it usually stays on for Itzpap. I guess you could swap to Mounted Champion or Allure if you are zoning out/in between Tunga and Itzpap... but it's not really gonna matter. MC would keep you from having to heal your box if he somehow gets hit by something from bad positioning, or gets an add on him when you use his pop... but that's like saying "oh cool, I took the time to swap atmas to save myself one Cure5."

The usefulness of Allure really just depends on gear. If you're taking forever to kill these NM's because your gear is bad, or your box just has pretty bad gear, then your box may need that extra mp pool.

What do you think about AA/RR/VV? If there is a tank and you're going for str8 damage. Also recommend doing the halloween event for polearm comes in handle when we go nin/WHM/MNK (the times you dont feel like going war)

GH is better for damage than VV.
SS is better for damage than GH. Difference is small but becomes a lil bigger depending on gear.
*edit* this can obviously change if you're not on the target full time.

To make an addendum to my previous post, here's some more specifics on survivability of GH verse SS.

This is a post made by Kinematics.

Awesome Peldin, thanks. I don't have Earth Wyrm but I'll look in to getting that. I also have 99 bst and my mule has 99smn and 99 blm.

My war & mnk are both geared fairly well for Abyssea. Need to +2 some pieces still but I'm running with Brawny/Laceratrice, Rancors, Brutal, Rajas ect... Still working on my BB for monk, 0/3 on turtle KS99 and then 0/3 on red pondweeds following that.

My mules Whm is way better off than its Sch (which I just finished leveling this weekend). Mixture of +2 and +1 aby gear, Chat staff ect.. For Chloris I can look and see what fastcast atmas are available since I assume that would be the most useful for cursna spamming. I use windower/spell cast (altho just the base, haven't got around to configuring good XMLs yet) and I consider myself fairly good at dual boxing.

I used to sub dnc and use GH when i would pull every frog in Misarux Coast.

The only time you should use it is when you will be counter tanking 12~20 mobs and you are solo.

Don't rely on cursna spam for Chloris. Make a holy water macro and just mash it after fatal scream. It's more reliable. Don't worry about gear too much for Chloris either, she's laughably easy using the standard DD atmas.

Just buy a doom screen before you fight it.

He'd have to kill the NM within the 2min duration (which, given his gear level, may not be feasible) plus trek over to the dominion tactician between kills. Stacks of holy water are super cheap and effective enough for Chloris.

Actually, bottle of hallowed water is even better.

Definitely, but I never saw them on the AH while I was bud farming so I'm just speaking from personal experience. Never had a problem with holy waters. They always worked within at least 6 tries.

Holy Waters are also incredibly cheap and easy to make in bulk if your skill is high enough. Can farm light crystals from a variety of sources, which would make keeping a healthy stock even easier for fights like Chloris.

The fastest way I found for Chloris is to just go war and keep retaliation up. Once it hundred fists, you can just spam ws.

Most likely I'll be cleaving as Mnk/Dnc using cataclysm while supporting myself on Sch/Rdm. This way all I have to do is send my mule out to change to Whm whenever I complete popset x2 on either one of the NMs (to lower KI waste rates) and don't have to build lights again each time.

Since Mnk/Dnc sounds like the safest route for Glaviod and should still be able to handle Chloris. I can always restock holy waters while changing jobs on my mule.

Then theres also the classic "bribe your LS mates with free cleaves as long as they are conscious enough to pick up KIs and pop for me" tactic.

Or you could level thf to 99.... And use that to gear mnk. Going w.o TH to empy item monsters just slows the process alot.

Speaking of Cataclysm. Is it as effective as a tool as fell cleave? Im interested in being able to farm up items like this. Whats the procedure and what set do people use? (I've been in FC parties, but I haven't level WAR in forever so Im still in the dark on how it actualy works...especially on MNK.) Or is this just a novelty kinda thing?

Also, I've found a lot of different xmls, but does anyone have one they especially like?

This. It's a *** to spend the time farming Tahrongi popsets only to have the NMs drop 1 item each time.

Even on WAR I usually use cata over fell cleave. The range on cleave is pathetic compared to cata. For cata I use cosmos, griffons claw and uh, I forget the last one. Ultimate I think? Fastest way (at least until the nerf happens) is to take a sch, stick up embrava and phalanx. With all the ISL embrava will be up all the time easily. Gearwise it doesnt matter too much like this, I just stick on hermes feet and w/e -pdt and mab gear I happen to be carrying on.

I haven't parsed them, but probably not. As far as Ascetic's Fury, it spikes a lot higher than Shijin Spiral, and may be useful on a brew against something like Rani that resists darkness from Cataclysm? My old lady is the one that plays monk, but I was using hers the other day and saw Ascetic's vary between 1.2-5.2k (without SS). Shijin Spiral was far more consistent; between 2-4k. It also has a plague added effect, which you can never go wrong with, and is clearly better outside Abyssea.

Overall I have to say that I was disappointed with AF. We did a 1-100 old Nyzul run for that and Stringing Pummel. SP is amazing. AF is really inconsistent and I'm not sure it's worth the time in Nyzul if you don't already have it.

Im certainly interested in working towards the Empy weapon, but is there any other ToM weapon to consider? I think STR is the obvious choice, but what about DEX or the WS ones (TP bonus, store TP+, WS dmg+)?

Is it worth getting the WoE version of the h2h weapon? It looks like it would be really easy to get that lvl 90 one...minus getting the coins from WoE.

I havent heard many people talk about them, so im assuming none of them compete with the Brawny Adargas...


Also, thanks so much for all of the advice! This is some solid solid information

Just take the time to get the verethregna for mnk. It's basically the only way to go if you want to be atleast a decent mnk, even if you have to buy the popsets. And as far as warrior cleaving goes.....dude intense soothing light resets mighty strikes. I just used to pop mighty strikes and 1 shot everything with fell cleave. Try it out....