IiPunch - Monk Guide

Ok, godhands close enough and much less of a pita to acquire.
sounds good to me.

I was just thinking of doing Vere also but already have Godhands.

Still might make Vere but debating it.

Hell I made Karambit mostly cause of flaming knuckles!

I personally have both Vere and Godhands.
If you have resources to do both, then by all chance just do both without question, period.

If you have limited time, resources and/or have other jobs you want to focus on in addition to MNK, then my suggestion is to do Godhands.
If you have the means to do Aeonic, Godhands is really "cheap", you basically only have to spend the time to gather the Detritus to R15 it, but everything else is free and can be done in a few days.

Verethragna is a huge timesink if you have to start from scratch, plus the 1500 HMPs, the 60 Cinders, the 10500 Riftborn Boulders, THEN the Astral Detritus.
All of that for a weapon that's situationally better than Godhands, but in the end pretty close (Godhands pulls ahead in several situations).

Anyone mind posting some updated sets? Might return to game and want to see how sets have changed with the new Malignance gear, accessories, etc.

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Community_Monk_Guide

Should cover most of what you need, at least on a re-introductory level

I mean I stopped playing roughly 6 months ago. So the sets there are not really useful as I already know about them. I'm looking for current present day sets.

Nothing changed. Can't get any of the new stuff, All you need to know is start slaving on domain invasion every day.

edit beaten:

For an earring and a meditate belt.

Well that sounds terrible

Basically, and the belt is just a gimmick swap. Can argue there's two earrings worth getting but 1 is definite. Don't know why people would think sets would change from a few items. The only time that will happen is when Empyrean +3 drops, and literally every set will change.

Well yeah but it’s a shame that one earring (STR/VIT 10 WSD 3) isn’t all jobs.

For me it changed a lot, but I havent been using regular max TP set for a long time. I always use high meva TP set on all my melee jobs now.

Simon you are not the average player who has 1-3 sets, so I was speaking in general. Most people asking about Monk sets aren't looking for very detailed builds that are scenario specific. Malignance gear changed a lot for me as well (the link has a bunch of sets using it, also), but your run-of-the-mill player will be just as happy using standard base sets. The set doesn't change much for people who play generic style and don't concern about hybrid/meva/stat resist.

Heavy armor job spike earring model xD

But it does open avenues of survivability on content/mobs that would be unforgiving without it. Especially for the average player.

Average player doesn't give a ***about survivability

“I just want wins!”

It actually opens DPS improvement in many events with debuffs, it's not only survivability, but I definitely won't start another discussion how important is meva in this game lol Forget it :)

I see what you're saying. I'd say I do care about utility sets, I mentioned the Malignance gear specifically in my original question for said sets. I'm much less concerned with generic tp/ws sets.

The guide I posted does list utility sets like Hybrid/PDT MDT/Counter/Shell Crusher etc and it is up to date so feel free to use those are they are good.

The only sets I take exception to are the Counter and Counterstance sets. I feel if you're not using Counterstance, you don't need to prioritize DT over getting the highest counter rate possible, since you won't take such a large defense hit. You can afford to make it a Counter/TP set, so I would swap the Defending Ring + both Malignance pieces out for Gere + Herc Hands/Feet with counter augment for better melee stats. That extra 9% TA helps hold the mob's attention and you'll get a little PDT (4%) for the swap.

And the Counterstance set overcaps Counter since the ability raises base rate to 45%. With gifts and merits, you only need 8 from gear to cap and you reach that with the legs/body Spharai alone (you would still use the body so you overcap it in this case), meaning your cape augment should actually be PDT for -51% in a low defense counterstance set. With Sagitta you can make even further improvements to the set due to the base -10% DT on it.

Tbh, Monk can cap counter rate without Counterstance at all (don't even need Spharai either) so IMO you should never, ever use it. I have 2 counter sets I use, an offensive one that maintains high DPS with moderate counter rate, and a defensive one that adds more DT and a very high counter rate. When I'm getting smacked I'll use either my DT set or one of those 2 counter sets depending on the mob and situation.

Using what set? Curious to see it, you even make sacrifices hitting the 80% WITH Spharai, not seeing how you can hit it otherwise. Please share.

ItemSet 370281

Segomo's: DEX/ACC/ATK/DA/Counter

With a non counter+ weapon, this is 61 counter and 33DT. With Spharai, 75, with Jolt Counters/+1 76/79, then swapping head for Hiza +2 or Rao +1 will cap you. I personally felt the meva, stp, acc, and dt of malig head far outweighed the few extra points to cap, but you can cap if you want to.

EDIT: I suppose I should have mentioned that I was referring to Jolt Counters as an alternative to Spharai, I can see how that would be misleading. Still, I stand by my statement that Counterstance is never worth using.

Ok, so Jolt Counters/+1 is an inferior weapon to even Spharai, I wouldn't consider it an option in a realistic modern Counter set, since DDing is the primary focus and even Karambit is better than it. Spharai also has counter dmg +30%, so you cannot say you don't need spharai to cap counter and then use a weaker counter weapon that just happens to have higher rate xD.

Also, you don't need to waste 3 slots getting 8% counter from Hiza set when you can use 2x Herc feet/hands for +5 Fern Counter augment for 10 total. But that still will put you short and you can't hit the cap reasonably without a weapon (spharai) slot. It is a challenge hitting the 80% cap without Counterstance, or a weapon. But a counterstance build is just fine if you sub BLU to offset the defense loss. It's not a bad option using it anymore, especially with the extra HP MNK gets now.

Well, Jolt Counters are not a bad weapon, they are in the ballpark of Karambit, and they're cheaper than R15 Spharai. They're basically the best knuckles before you get Karambit or a REMA. Obviously they're not top end DPS, but I would argue they are most certainly an option in a realistic modern counter set. A capped counter set already assumes a weapon swap and therefore you're probably not as concerned about maximizing DPS if you're using it. I'm not trying to cap counter in a boss zerg. There are plenty of situations where Jolt Counters are perfectly viable weapons. I've used them on endgame trash and they're perfectly adequate.

Yes you can use Herc, or you can take 30 seconds in Mhaura. Either one, I'm not suggesting one over the other, it just wasn't worth it to me.

We can agree to disagree about the usefulness of Counterstance, but my only assertion was that you can cap counter rate without Counterstance or Spharai, which is true (and you don't need some obscure non-ilvl weapon or something to do it). Personally I'd rather swap to Jolt Counters than swap to /BLU or to -50% defense, YMMV.

That's a fair stance to take and I respect it. I'd just "counter" (you like that pun) by saying if you're able to somehow offset the defense loss of Counterstance via gear or blu sub or something and it allows you to use superior gear and weapons than the sets above (i.e. Verethragna/Godhands/Sagitta, Su3 Gere/Niqmaddu etc) and stay at a higher DPS, then counterstance is very much worth using vs hitting that cap and taking a huge dps loss and not using counterstance. I just wouldn't say it's "never worth using" anymore; that's not completely true, anymore at least.

For instance, imagine using a BLU sub with Verethragna and Counterstance. You'll still destroy a Jolt Counters +1 MNK in overall damage and you'll lose nothing in counter ability. Sounds weird I know, but I have tried it after Simon suggested it a while ago and it works very well.

I do like the pun :p.

I don't know of any gear that offsets -50% defense, but /BLU is a pretty massive dps loss, and you can't turn it off or unequip it mid fight. And for the content I used JC's on, which was the trash portions of modern endgame content, the difference in DPS was literally irrelevant because you are already so far beyond what you need. When your WS's do less damage because the mob died before you even finished WSing, and you're still doing more white damage than everyone else, I don't think DPS is a valid concern any more. On a mega boss or volte mob, I wouldn't use Counterstance and I wouldn't be /BLU. I guess I just don't see a situation where using it would be a better alternative in actual practice than just using gear swaps and a DPS sub, which I've used in endgame LS events (with and without the JC swap) and was very effective in practice, not to mention more flexible because I can instantly go back to my normal DD configurations as if nothing changed at all, which can't be said for /BLU.

Not as massive as you might think. WAR sub amounts to 10% DA, 25% attack Berserk, 10 attack and 22 defense from traits. In a group setting where you're getting buffs, you also gain less from WAR sub at attack cap. And it comes with -25% defense anyways, so you still take a defensive hit you know. Lastly, Berserk wears off, so that DPS increase from using it isn't sustainable. Cocoon BLU sub can be kept up permanently if you dont lose MP.


It's not a concern but i do enjoy the minmax theorizing discussion. Better dps is better dps regardless. If you do more damage with an inferior sub + superior weapon/gear than you would with an inferior weapon/gear + superior sub, it's still ahead. No matter of whether its "trash" content or the sacrifices you made to accomplish it. You get to a point where you're BIS in most sets, you get creative and find new things to build around. Call it bored or whatever, this game is built on options.


Well of course not, bad scenario where this would apply :p. Counter set is very very very low priority and use but it's fun to have. So while you might not use it on a Volte Warrior, you could use it on those trash mobs you mentionedand rip through them just as faster than using a weaker weapon, and the use of Counterstance does not hurt you at all because you accounted for the defense loss and upped your dps in other areas.

Try it out in a low tier content event where you're getting buffs. That warrior sub is not as significant of a dps increase as you think at times.

and by the way I am not trying to debate this into perpetuity, it's such a small part of Monk that in the grand scheme it doesn't matter. So nobody take this as me debating for the sake of argument.

I just wanted to point out that the whole "Counterstance is never worth using" notion is not as true as it used to be back when we didn't have so many DT and insanely strong gear options, higher HP, and the interesting /blu sub. The game has changed a lot, so if you haven't tried it out and compared damage, you are clinging to a belief that isn't as accurate anymore. But again, low priority so you're forgiven for not caring about counter optimization.