Monk Twink Guide

[DevGrousis]

Hi guys, I searched the forums a bit and found a few guides on monk twinkage, BUT either one of two things happened, the money was too vast for me to spend, or it was pre Kunarks launch (lots of new monk stuff).

So my question is this: I have 5k, what should I twink my monk with???

Hat: Executioner's Hood
Mask:
Earrings:
Chest:
Arms:
Waist:
Wrist:
Legs:
Gloves:
Necklace:
Shoulders:
Cape:
Boots:
Rings: 5ac 55hp
Main Hand:
Off Hand:
Ranged:

[Tiggles]

fungi tunic or its not a twink

[greatdane]

If 5k is your budget cap, something like this:

Hat: Executioner's Hood (isn't froglok crown a few hundred nowadays? I'd get that)
Mask: Sarnak Hide Mask
Earrings: really anything with a bit of AC. Maybe just brass earrings. Twink earrings are hugely expensive in proportion to the stats they give, so don't waste money there with such a limited budget.
Chest: Fungus robe or Wu's
Arms: Azure Sleeves
Waist: Wu's
Wrist: Wu's
Legs: Wu's
Gloves: Wu's
Necklace: Glowing Bone Collar
Shoulders: Wu's
Cape: Wu's
Boots: Wu's
Rings: 5ac 55hp
Main Hand: Wu's Quivering Staff
Off Hand: -
Ranged: -

Then possibly buy an Evil-Eye bag and that other bag from ass/sup in lguk. If that leaves you with excess money, you're better off banking it and starting the long and arduous process of saving up for a haste item or better weapons. Don't spend too much money on armor as you can start getting Crescent stuff in Dalnir at level 25-30ish.

[baalzy]

You can also try farming some stuff with your enchanter. You should be able to handle the cloaked Dhamphyre for a HBC. Or the easier route is get a werewolf hide cloak from a werewolf and do the quest in Everfrost for the 3str cloak there.

Going full wu's (guy on EC boards sells sets for 500p), getting some 5ac55hp rings and then spending the leftover plat on strong weapons isn't a bad route either.

[Doors]

Get a fungi robe. Stats on it are still great and they're cheap now. Also kobold hide boots, cloak of leaves, wu's armor, serp bracer, hero bracers if you don't mind the weight.

[Seaweedpimp]

Fbss/ full wu/ 2 trance sticks and a fungi.

And a heiro cloak...

[DevGrousis]

Fbss/ full wu/ 2 trance sticks and a fungi.

And a heiro cloak...

i wish. cant afford any haste yet it seems with a budget of 5k

and to GreatDane, you think i should go with Quivering Staff 2hander instead of say 2 batons? or a baton and a CoT?

[baalzy]

A cheap way to get haste is to find out if anyone is doing the TT forager cycle. Log your monk at the entrance to TT (assuming you're going iksar this should be easy). Then just have them drag Hangman to the zoneline and kill it when it there when it spawns. Hooking whoever up with crack/haste will probably be enough to bribe them into doing this for ya.

[Seaweedpimp]

Sorry bro but if all you got to burn is 5k youre not twinking, youre just making an alt.

[Vohl]

Your rings are good. Your money should be spent on the best pair of 1Hers you can afford. Haste is very important, but you won't get it for less than 10k.

Trance Sticks are reasonable -- I occasionally see them for less than 1kpp each in EC. They're a lot of fun, but generate a lot of aggro in groups.

[baalzy]

Try cane of the tranquil for 350ish each.

[greatdane]

Wu's Quivering Staff is better and is plummeting in price. People can't get rid of them these days with 3-4 better tradeable monk staves on the market. I was trying to sell one for a week and couldn't until I practically gave it away for 500p, and others are doing the same even if they advertise it for 1k. Trance sticks aren't even good until they start proccing, and even then, I'm not sure they're consistently better than the staff. The sticks have two things going for them - the speed and the proc - neither of which a twink can take advantage of. Jade Mace and Knuckle Dusters are going down and can sometimes be had for 2-3k, and by the time he's in his 30s, they might be even cheaper. No sense buying a weapon that doesn't get good until level 35 when it's fairly likely that he'll be able to afford even better weapons by then.

[DevGrousis]

Your rings are good. Your money should be spent on the best pair of 1Hers you can afford. Haste is very important, but you won't get it for less than 10k.

Trance Sticks are reasonable -- I occasionally see them for less than 1kpp each in EC. They're a lot of fun, but generate a lot of aggro in groups.

Like Greatdane said, The trance sticks arent good until they start proccing. more or less the same as Batons right (8-20 i believe)

So my real weapons question should be Cane of the Tranquil's or Fighting Batons? or a combo perhaps? I would assume since i'm low level the low dmg low dly is better, but does that not matter so much as i'll be hitting 10 and 20 super fast without wanting to go shopping before then?

[DevGrousis]

@Greatdane would i really benefit pre lvl 25 from having a high delay 2 hander? I have a huge cap on my dmg at low levels dont i?

[Motec]

peacebrinbger or wu's quiv staff will shit on anything except jade mace and kd for a long time.

[greatdane]

@Greatdane would i really benefit pre lvl 25 from having a high delay 2 hander? I have a huge cap on my dmg at low levels dont i?

Wu's Quivering Staff is 23/28. It's only slightly above the damage cap; I believe you benefit for up to 20 raw weapon damage under level 20. Before and after 20, Wu's is better than anything in its price range. It's a bit heavy, but that's not a big concern.

[Rasah]

Wu's Quivering Staff is 23/28. It's only slightly above the damage cap; I believe you benefit for up to 20 raw weapon damage under level 20. Before and after 20, Wu's is better than anything in its price range. It's a bit heavy, but that's not a big concern.At level 9, my max damage with Wu's was 20. Once I hit level 10, my max jumped to 40. Things die way faster. I occasionally swap out to a sharkbone warhammer and fist to raise those skillpoints, but it kills nowhere near as fast as the wu's at this point.

[DevGrousis]

So you guys think Wu Staff is a better combo after 10 than Trance Stick and a CoT? I just made my char last night and hit 10 before bed

[greatdane]

Yes, and cheaper. It even has a few additional benefits such as reducing damage taken from mobs with damage shields and less riposte damage (though mobs won't start riposting until level 30 or so). Wu's Trance Stick is hugely overrated, and is even kinda crappy until it starts proccing; its raw ratio is on par with the baton from Dalnir and the club from Kurns, and they're pretty low-level dungeons.

Wu's Quivering Staff is really pretty good and easily serves you until you can get a truly high-end weapon. I would suggest keeping it all the way until you can get a Peacebringer, because affording an RFS/IFS or T-staff in any kind of timely manner is unrealistic with your budget. Jade Mace and Knuckle Dusters are probably about on par with Peacebringer, but I never saw the appeal of dual-wielding when you have the option of using a two-hander. Dual-wield has no inherent advantages while two-handers do.

The only reason WQS is so cheap is because it was hugely overfarmed in the beginning of Kunark and isn't very hard to get, and because there's a handful of better monk 2hb on the market. It would probably be fairly expensive if it was a rare drop off a named mob that had to be camped rather than a trash drop from a zone you can level in from level 40 or something, and if there weren't the following better weapons: Staff of Battle, Peacebringer, Runed Fighters Staff, Imbued Fighters Staff and Tranquil Staff, none of which are no-drop. Kunark is a monk's wet dream.

[nicemace]

ROTLC at level 1 if youre a boss like me.

[DevGrousis]

ROTLC at level 1 if youre a boss like me.

Whats ROTLC?

I ended up w CoT tranq staff before i got greatdanes advice, and then i got the quivering staff and never looked back. Once i hit lvl 20 and the dmg cap comes off, i assume my situation might change and some higher dmg 1 handers might be better? or am i wrong, and only a 2hander will beat quivering staff?

[Spacebar]

For the next step up, I'd imagine 2h would be Peacebringer and 1h Jade Mace/Knuckle Dusters.

I'm using JM/KD's right now at 43 and they are definitely better than Wu's Quivering at that level. But one thing you should consider is that at lower levels you will have a lower chance to hit with your offhand weapon. Also, I'm betting that JM and KD's will go down in price by the time you hit 35 or 40+.

At these higher levels the main thing you should consider regarding 2h vs 1h (especially if soloing) is weight. Remember that the shown ac is not a monks actual ac sometimes. The last patch lowered the min ac for all monks to 14. Which means any weight over 14 will result in an ac penalty. And this isn't exactly shown correctly in the ac figure shown in your character window.

Basically, Wu's is heavy. So, at higher levels you might want to switch to some 1h's unless you can get an IFS (4 weight) or a 2h with a high enough damage output to justify the weight.

But it's also situational. In groups, 2h is nice if you aren't tanking because they draw less aggro and you shouldn't be getting hit so ac isn't important. If you are tanking, 1h draw more aggro and you get better ac, so.....

[DevGrousis]

Brialliant reply, Spacebar.
/end post lol

Yeah, i'd been seeing the JM/KD combo in game and was actually wondering about that. At what level do you think that combo would start to over take quivy's dps?

How effective are monks as tanks. How do they compare to conventional tanks (pal sk war), and what techniques should you know as a monk tank in order to keep agro since we dont have taunt or magic?

[Spacebar]

I'm not entirely sure, but i think the JM/KD combo always beats Wu's Quivering, especially after you start getting damage bonuses. But, it's just not a big difference at lower levels (below 30).

It's more a matter of value for money. At low levels you aren't going to get all the benefit of JM/KD and other weps are better for the money. Right now, you can likely get JM between 3k-4k and KD for 2k-3k, so you can probably get both for about 5k. Where as a Wu's Quivering can run you less than 800p sometimes.

Anyways, I'm not sure at what level the JM/KD combo becomes significantly better, but I got them at level 35 and switched from my Wu's then. I noticed a good increase in my overall dps. Also, I tend to solo a lot due to offpeak times, so the lower weight is nice.

As far as tanking, monks can do ok except for the aggro thing. If you are duoing with a shaman (which is a great idea), you will do fine holding aggro by yourself. But in a group you might need to have a caster root the mob and just get close. My chanter grouped with a monk who tanked in Seb at the king camp and he did great. I also duoed with a monk while leveling in CoM and I'd just popped rune on him and slowed things. He had JM/Adamantite Club combo and i could tash and slow at 85% and not pull aggro most of the time, which i sometimes cringe at doing even with a warrior tanking.

[aresprophet]

Wu's Quivering is a great weapon with two drawbacks: until level 10 it's a 10/28 weapon, and at 10 pounds you're sacrificing AC if you have any sort of bags or non-0.1-weight gear. HBC, Azure Sleeves, Gem Inlaid Gaunts, Kobold-Hide Boots and several bracer options come to mind. Also shuriken. It's still a great weapon and the price can't be beat. The pre-10 drawback is temporary, but a humble Bamboo Bo Stick will outperform it until then. Good to have one of those if you let your 2HB skill fall behind. IBC, otherwise a great low-level weapon, has the same weight problem. But Wu's Quivering will outdamage your JM/KD combo until damage bonuses get substantial; the point of that combo is to abuse the low-delay primary damage bonus, and that's 0 until level 27. Also, higher dual wield skill = more offhand swings.

Large Soiled Bag is your friend. Food, shurikens, and bandages weigh nothing. Runs about 1k, you can sometimes score a free one in SolB since they're lore.

Wu's armor is better than cloth, but that's about all it has going for it. Strength gear, in my experience, goes further than AC on a soloing monk. Fire emerald golden bracelets are good alternatives to Wu's for Iksar. But for shoulders, legs, feet, and waist you're pretty much limited to either Wu's or hideously expensive items (Iksar Hide Boots, FBSS, Sarnak Hide Leggings).

[Baa]

The wu's is great (and a bargain) but I find the weight to be the main drawback. I mainly duo with my shaman friend so I usually get him to act as my backpack. However when I was soloing I found that I couldn't not get my weight below 20 and this was with either the quivering staff equipped or in my EE bag.

I have just swapped over to JM/KD combo from trance/trance and it has been a significant improvement and I would say dmg output in the mid 20's is above that of wu's quivering.

The downside of using 2h I found found especially when you are fighting mobs close to your own levels is the misses / low hits can really hurt. At least when dual wielding the number of hits usually offsets that I find.

For now I have banked the quivering staff until I can afford a 100% WR bag to fit it in while grinding, plus the JM/KD combo is amazing.