IiPunch - Monk Guide

So I got my Godhands now, and have read through the last few pages but saw a few posts saying different things about ws's and I wanted to clarify because I know some were referring to VERE and others to Aeonic. So is it correct to say tornado kick is best ws to use while ONLY under footwork, and HF when not for godhand users? Is shijin spiral not good with godhands overall? Seemed to me that the dmg was about the same but you can spam light with it? VS the same situation?

any pointers welcomed :D

Tornado is only good with Footwork up IF you have AF1+3 feet (maybe +2 too?). If you don't wear any +kick damage equipment during Footwork, you actually want to use any ws EXCEPT Tornado Kick.

On paper from the spreadsheet it seems Tornado Kick is the best WS to spam at 1000 PT when not attack capped, but when I parse damage while soloing CP I'm getting different results, odd =/

HW vs RF there's kinda a sweet spot in your buffs. Once you have very high buffs and frailty on the target etc, RF gets above HF, can test it yourself in the spreadsheet.
HF is easier to exploit when you want a WS that concentrates its damage in a lower amount of hits though.

My damage with Tornado Kick was lower than I expected too, but I also lack Godhands, AF+3 hands/feet, etc.

since Howling fist with Godhands seems to be the go to ws for strait dmg, and VS for when you can/should be scing... I got a few Questions.

HF is 20/50 str/dex mod, so I assume dex > str overall if at a 1:1 ratio for general use? Secondly, WSD is probably ideal in every slott?

With VS I have been looking at Mummu+1 stuff, is any of it worth using? I have looked at the guide but it doesnt mention any. I assume guide hasnt been updated much since Mummu+1 or is it just bad? The hands/feet/legs looked nice to me, but do lack STR.

VS with Godhands is actually the best damage still, with Raging Fists trailing behind and then Howling Fists.


HF was actually updated to be STR/VIT but all of the VIT gear is ***so you can basically go for STR/WSD augments on Herculean. Mummu is not mentioned because Augmented Herculean trashes it. Crit D is (almost?) always going to outperform Crit Rate

I am pulling about 2400~ so far on my small outting with mnk, difference between VS and HF, with HF winning... Guess my VS gear is crap haha! So herc augs ideally you want str + crit dmg? I was told today by another mnk that multi hit is kinda pointless to aim for for VS too, is this true?

Depends on your attack. You were probably uncapped attack which is why HF pulls ahead. For VS, STR with Crit or WS Damage work since it doesn't have fTP transfer (making the 1st hit the strongest hit.) There is nothing wrong with gearing for multi-hits (see: Epona's Ring, Niqmaddu Ring, etc.) as long as it doesn't hinder other stats.

So eponas still BiS on VS then say over ifrits+1, or begrudging? I have Niq ring which is obviously #1 VS ring , but I am a little lost on the other slotts, for example I am using atm Hizamaru+1 legs/feet, but I see that mummu would give 10 crit rate, but at a loss of a crapload of str and attack for example.

I would run it in a spreadsheet to be sure, but I'm fairly certain that Epona's will probably be better than Begrudging (which both are better than Ifrit +1.)

Hizamaru +1 legs are great because of the WSD, the feet are a tossup. I'd say it depends on whether you're attack capped or not. But again, spreadsheet will tell you everything you need to know. Byrth posted an updated one a couple pages back, iirc

I was using it, but I get a 3 dps change low buffs, not capped acc on a few things (one being dampening tam). This has caused me to assume its broken. I know Byrth is working on it though so I do plan to utilize it better soon, once the kinks are gone.

No it just means that they are literally similar in DPS

Spreadsheet-wise you don't need AF1+3 hands or feet to make Tornado Kick better than other options.

Yet when I'm parsing I'm getting it behind other options. I'm talking about a 3h+ parse, would be strange to be just a coincidence.
Is there something wrong in the Tornado formula we know? The mods? Or in the Spreadsheets formula?

I suspect it just doesn't have an attack bonus

Maybe things got confused on Wiki between WS innate attack bonus, and the att bonus granted by Footwork (since long time ago Tornado was being used mainly just when Footwork was up)

Would make sense and would explain why in reality I can never seem to get Tornado Kick get the numbers it should produce according to the Spreadsheet modeling.

I'll second this, TK was always doing far lower then it should have whenever I used it. Figured something wasn't right and stuck to HF/RF/VS.

I got Niq ring tonight and tested Subtle Blow II.

With 50 Subtle Blow, Moonbow +1, Sherida earring, and Niq ring (25 Subtle Blow II), a low level monster got 12 TP from me casting Dia on it (Burningcinder used Charm + /p <pettp>).

100 TP base * 0.5 (AGI modifier) * (100 - 50 Subtle Blow - 25 Subtle Blow II)/100 = 12.5

So if there is a cap on Subtle Blow II, it's at least 25.

So I have a str/acc/da and str/acc/wsd cape for mnk now, trying to decide which ws should use what. I know mnk is a bit quirky with normal gear choices occasionally becase they cap out 8 hits on alot of ws. For raging would you use the da or wsd base cape? What other ws could be tricky for this also?

WSD for Raging, Tornado Kick, Asuran Fists, and even VS IIRC.

Maybe DEX/Acc/DA for Shijin?

oh really? if thats the case there would really be no reason for a str/acc/da cape then?

I use one for TP

Would probably make sense though to re-roll it for dex/ac/da though since you could use it as a shijin mantle and probably best tp cape? I have mats for a 3rd mnk cape, but inv/time/other job issues dictates i use it elsewhere haha, so trying to get the best 2 capes really for most situations.

Yeah, that'd probably work too

I'm cheap and use a single cape for both WS and TP (STR+30, Acc/Att+20, DA+10).
If you have 2, I concur with your idea of STR/WSD one, and DEX/DA one for TP. (which you can also reuse as a Shijin Spiral cape)

not to cheap you did use dye on yours! thats like 7m~ gil worth of could have been mats :D I really wish SE would lower cost of the dye and double the buyable amount.... seems only fair.

I will use this needles ive had since month 1 of ambuscade (didnt know what they did when I bought it), to re-roll my str/acc/da cape to a dex/acc/da cape. Seems like a wise decision and a 15 acc difference which my mnk could greatly use as its as blind as a bat atm.

Also just a side remark, mnk isnt as bad as people make it out, while its not rocking my socks compared to my perfected drk, it is still outdoing nearly any PUG-X dd (Alamce included) I am with. While thats not saying anything about the job, but more about player - its still valid enough to assume a great player whos a geared mnk >= your avg joe alamce blu/rag war etc.

I have a question about Formless Strikes.
There's one bit of information which got erased from all wikis, maybe it was wrong, but I need to ask here.
For a while I thought I just imagined it, but I yesterday I found it in some old notes I had in an old backup folder on my PC, so I got confirmation that at least until to a certain point it was believed to be true.

We know that AF2 body increments Formless Strikes duration by 6 seconds for each merits, for a max of +30 seconds, and that to receive this bonus you only need to wear the body during activation of the JA.

Yet it was believed AF2 body had a second effect, to receive which you had to keep wearing the body.
An additional 2% damage reduction bonus for each merit, for a total of an additional 10% max, allowing you to reach 90% reduction during Formless Strikes instead of the 80% you can normally reach with 5/5 merits.


Now, as I mentioned above, there is no trace of this second part anywhere anymore, and I can't think of another Relic Augment that has TWO effects, so it sounds strange that Hesychast is the only exception.
Didn't SE release an *official* guide on all the possible AF2 augments effects in japan? Does anybody still have a link to that?

found it
Then I guess the 2% potency per merit was just a myth and it was rightfully removed from wikis.

Wonder who the hell started the myth and why though.

what merits are mnks going with these days? I dont rly play mnk but just looking to fill it out.

DD config:

Focus Recast
Kick Rate
Mantra
Formless


If you somehow use your MNK for soloing stuff:

Invigoriate
Counter Rate

Penance can be worthwhile for a MNK doing lots of solo or smaller group stuff involving mobs with dangerous TP moves, especially combined with Subtle Blow II being a thing now. 5/5 Penance with relic head gives 100 seconds (with 180sec Chi Blast recast, so you can keep it up over half of the time) of unresistable mob TP gain -35%, separate from and stackable with subtle blow. That can be pretty useful where you aren't doing something with a ton of DDs feeding TP to a mob. Note that it's useless on stuff that uses timed TP moves or where spells or auras or whatever are the threat.

You'd prob still want to at least keep Formless/Mantra unlocked, but Formless in particular doesn't get THAT much benefit from additional merits, considering it has pretty niche applications. Each merit dropped gives up (1) reduces FS innate damage penalty by 5%/merit, and (2) 6 sec/merit duration from macroing in Relic body. Tends to be that use of Formless really just relies on triggering the non-elemental damage for a short time, so probably not that big a deal for the vast majority of players. I suspect most MNKs who still have 5/5 Formless just left it there from the Delve era when it was used fairly frequently due to the usefulness on several gimmick NMs.

Mantra is worth keeping at 4-5 merits, since each one gives an extra 6% HP (4%/merit + 2%/merit relic feet bonus). And that's kind of the whole point of the ability, which is legitimately beneficial for your whole party.

So... something like 5/5 Penance, 4/5 Mantra, 1/5 Formless might do the trick for Group 2. (I personally still had 5/5 Formless Mantra since Delve until this post made me think about it, but now just changed to this Penance setup which seems a lot better for stuff like Omen and Geas Fete NMs)

As for Invigorate, even for solo the regen+10 is kinda weak now given the availability of trusts to keep you healed. Was a bigger deal back at like 75cap MNK/DNC, truly solo without trusts. I'd have a really hard time justifying it over the other Group 2s (especially Penance) even if you often use MNK for solo for some odd reason, especially considering that you need to 5/5 it to get a decent duration.

Small nitpick:


Relic Hands improve the effect by 2HP/sec per merit level.