Let me begin by saying that much of this will be heavily edited. For now a lot of this will be place holder and I’ll continue to refine this guide as I go. I’m just going to begin it and see how the feedback comes along. This guide is inspired by the absolute lack of information in general for iToS players 
0. Preview/Word of Advice
It should be noted that in general the Monk is not a high dps type of build. Your true role falls into place as a damage dealer second and a support/buffer first. If you’re looking for a high dps role my suggestion would be Wizard or Archer, they are simply superior in most aspects and have better kits to deal with PvP situations and “MvPing” because of their ability to deliver their damage from a range with little to no drawback.
I. Introduction
So you decided to be a monk? Let’s begin by acknowledging there are several different builds in Tree of Savior for any beginning and end class. My desired goal is a well-rounded build that doesn’t necessarily excel at anything in particular (PvP, GvG, PvM, etc) but that can have a role in each. This guide assumes you know the basics of Tree of Savior’s class system. We’ll be focusing on the build I’ve decided to follow. Cleric 1 -> Priest 3 -> Monk 2 -> Plague Doctor 1. Its simplicity is its strength. The one out of line class rank choice is Plague Doctor 1. The reason behind this is when comparing Monk 3 vs Plague Doctor 1 we find that Monk 3 brings only linear damage gains (Except for One-Inch Punch/Energy Blast which gains duration + dmg) and a single utility in Golden Bell (Which has a huge cooldown). Plague Doctor instead brings huge utility and Incinerate which equates to much more damage than any 15 points in Monk 3 could provide. Further merit to this Monk variant will be detailed below (VI. Dr Monk)
II. Skills/Stats
The stat system in Tree of Savior is fairly linear and thus lacks interesting builds and although there most likely are certain break points for stats like dex, this is mostly up to players themselves to decide. Most players express their stats in ratios.
Personally mine is a little more rigid, and again a personal preference. For the foreseeable future of iToS and the level cap of 280(?) my end stats will appear roughly as so.
My Monks Naked Stats:
12 Str // 70 Con // 9 Int // 40 Spr // 235 Dex (Level 238, remainder of Stat Points to be allocated to Dex)
I’ve decided to forgo Str for the much elusive Dex heavy choice for these reasons:
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Evasion
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Critical Rate
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Accuracy
These end up providing significant increases to DPS and defense. The hidden gem to DPS increases is that a knocked up/back DPS does no DPS. Since we lack anything remotely like Pain Barrier that Swordsman have, a need for damage avoidance becomes obvious in order to maximize DPS. The active portion is situational awareness to avoid telegraphed attacks from monsters, bosses, and outsmarting an opponent in PvP, but eventually you will be “hit” and when you do, Blocking or Dodging the attack is your only means of defense (Magic Damage is unavoidable however). Avoidance is key when trying to stay alive, avoid being staggered or knocked back/up. High Dex also has synergy with Priest via Monstrance. But most importantly, high Dex builds are fun, if you enjoy seeing those constant yellow numbers, high avoidance, and actually being able to stay on target from said avoidance, then high Dex is the only choice.
Skills:
Cleric 1
Heal 5
Cure 2
Deprotected Zone 3
Safety Zone 5
Priest 3
Monstrance 3
Blessing 5
Resurrection 5
Sacrament 7
Revive 10
Mass Heal 10
Stone Skin 5
Monk 2
Double Punch 10
Palm Strike 9
Hand Knife 1
Energy Blast 5
One-Inch Punch 5
Plague Doctor 1
Incineration 5
Bloodletting 3
Fumigate 2
Pandemic 2
Break Mask 3
Note:
Currently I have no idea in the world how to trigger Pandemic and until then I will not comment on how it’ll come into play during the IV. Gameplay/Playstyle section. It’s included in the skill portion theoretically at the moment in hopes if and when it is either fixed or made usable (Or I simply learn how to make it function, and believe me I’ve tried).
The final Monk skill choices really break down to preference. Highly recommended to max One-Inch Punch since it also increases the duration of the debuff. But the Palm Strike allocation can be worked into anything else, even Iron Skin if you find it useful to have an “Oh ****” button against Physical Melee.
III. Gear & Leveling
A section like this should probably be pretty core to any guide, as ToS adds some new concepts to the playing field, at least to us here in the west. As a Priest that will be utilizing Sacrament and Blessing, and auto-attacking/normal attacking/z-smashing for much of leveling we have to understand its benefits and how it works. It’s fairly simple, lets begin.
First, Sacrament is described as follows:
Temporarily grants an additional Holy property attack to you and your party member’s attacks.
Level 10
Holy Property Attack: +40
Additional Damage: +40
Duration: 400 seconds
Consumes 1 Gyslotis
In practical terms, this skill you pick up in your Priest circle adds a separate attack that is attached to each swing of your normal attack. For instance let’s say you attack and your base damage hits for 100 damage without Sacrament. With it, you would hit for 140 (100+40) and a secondary damage would be produced that would hit for another 80(40+40).
Why is this so important?
This new added attack is highly important to your DPS and ease of grinding because that new damage on the end is affected by any additional elementary property damage you may have, and your very own Blessing. At rank 5 and fully paid for attributes, Blessing adds 131 damage to each instance of damage you produce. See how things are starting to add up 
It doesn’t stop there, very early on there is a set of leather pieces that will add a similar effect. The Cafrisun set. The details on acquiring the set are for you to figure out. But this in terms for us, means another attack that is produced that is Earth property based, and similar to what Sacrament does for us, that attack will also do for us. That is, another damage number that gains the same 40 Holy property damage, the same added elemental property damage you may otherwise be utilizing in other pieces of gear. How useful is Cafrisun to us? I used it up to Lvl 170, it’s a nice chunk of added damage and speeds things up nicely 
There are other tidbits about how these damage formulas work and details, but at the end what we care about is that they benefit from Blessing, elemental property damage, and make you hit a whole lot harder than you would otherwise. By the time you’re done with these basics, you should have enough experience in ToS to figure out how you’d like to further gear your monk. This was simply intended to give a head start clue on how to begin your journey.
IV. Gameplay/Playstyle
As stated before, this particular build is fairly cookie-cutter, well rounded, and yet it excels at what monks in most games do best, looks badass. The playstyle for us here is pretty straight forward and reflected in the skill choices I listed above. Do damage, a lot of it, and live to tell about it. A monk of this type brings to a group what most groups want and yet is able to dish out some nasty damage while looking absolutely badass at it. Our signature ability is Double Punch and is your bread and butter. At some point I strongly suggest finding at least certain hidden quests that improve your max stamina to increase your output. The other shining beacon of hope is our Energy Blast, aka Kamehameha. If you haven’t seen it in action I highly suggest looking it up so that your decision to be a monk is even more cemented.
Basic group combat, whether it’s PvP/GvG or in a dungeon comes down to this. Buffing your group with Sacrament, Blessing, Stone Skin, Revive. With all of these applied, you’ve already force multiplied your group several times over. As a Monk you will be diving into the fray, utilizing Safety Zone when appropriate. Application of your bleed from Palm Strike is good, but it’s also a knock back so understand its uses; the pros and cons of knocking target(s) down and away from one area to another. Somewhat of the same goes for application of Hand Knife, however it is a little bit more tamed than Palm Strike, it only knocks the victim up into the air to which they’ll bounce slightly ahead of you. The armor break from Hand Knife is minimal at best, because the damage formula in this game is linear, you most likely will only see an increase of ~200-300 damage on most targets. And that will be to only physical applications of damage (Elemental additions from Sacrament and Cafrisun do not see this gain). One-Inch Punch should be saved for its silence or a needed finisher otherwise dishing out damage with Double Punch is as simple as it gets. The rest of your kit is very situational, Mass Heal & Heal both have % based effects so it scales with the target’s health which is a great thing for us since we’re not going to be ideal for healing anyways. Golden Bell with it’s added attribute not only protects you from all attacks, but gives a Safety Zone effect to your surrounding area, which is a nice save in my book. Finally, how you utilize Energy Blast is going to very important. It provides knockdowns while also doing significant damage. A long cooldown emphasizes the need for surgical placement. With practice comes perfect, and when you begin to perfect this skill, you’ll be grinning ear to ear.
Aside from your offensive role, placing Heals down on CD if it makes sense (fighting will be in the general area to quickly utilize them), and trying to get some well placed Mass Heals should be a constant. As I mentioned before our heals are far from optimal but they’re still actually very useful because they both have % based portions to them, scaling with the recipient’s health. Deprotected Zone is pretty straightforward, apply it when mobs are grouped together or on a priority target like a boss. In PvP you’ll probably hardly utilize this because it’s a much more burst oriented deal. If you’ve got time to try to apply that skill, it’s much better utilize actually dealing damage or applying debuffs/ccs through your Monk strikes.
V. Gear [Advance]
This section will be about the note worthy gear for this build and progression. This is usually a fun topic for anyone, lets begin 
Cafrisun Set
Mentioning it here again because it belongs in this section, but the explanation to why this is noteworthy is found in III. Gear & Leveling.
Arde Dagger
The first off-hand high damage enhancing item you’ll encounter. This is an extremely popular choice for almost every build. This bad boy can essentially be used to the end of time, adding a whopping 153 Fire Elemental Damage to every instance of damage you produce (Cafrisun, Sacrament, Double Punch, etc etc etc). When you get one of these, you’ll probably want to hold onto it for your alts as well, with a low level requirement of 75 it’s a godsend for leveling an alt. Eventually can be replaced by Karacha Dagger
Velniup
One of the weaknesses of leveling in this build is the inability to really AoE. You’re very reliant on auto-attacking for a long time, and this is another gem in the rough. A good slashing weapon in general is nice to have, one that adds this much AoE attack ratio, even better. The gain is noticeable, you’ll be hitting at least 1 more monster that you would otherwise if not 2-3.
Toy Hammer
This is a fun, wait for it, Toy. But it essentially boils down to that, at the levels you’ll be utilizing this it really isn’t that useful, the explosion will tend to happen when monsters are otherwise just about to die anyways. It really only shows any real benefit against high-hp monsters, which for the levels once again, are just the Elites and Boss encounters. The debuff that triggers the explosion is applied by any attack you deal (Including spells like Cure) The one benefit of this for the intended level bracket will be it might allow you to not have to keep Blessing up while still killing certain monsters in the same number of attacks. This is a gimmicky weapon that is outshined by …
Note: Currently the Toy Hammer is bugged, if you somehow reach 11 stacks of the debuff on a target it will not properly reset to a new count to produce a new explosion. This is somewhat annoying to see and it does happen somewhat often. The bug seems to be occurring due to how one attack from this type of build produces 2-3 attacks (Sacrament/Cafrisun/Normal Attack). It seems to leap frog over the 10th stack (Perhaps still producing the explosion, difficult to observe if it does or does not) into the 11th stack where the debuff will remain unless you allow the 3 seconds to fall off before attacking again.
Valia
The straight +50 Holy damage is much more reliable damage gain (essentially 150 with Cafrisun/Sacrament on an Auto-attack). The demand for this weapon should be pretty limited to just other Clerics, since other classes don’t get the biggest bonus of this weapon, while Toy Hammer tends to be wanted by Corsairs and other high-attack / high AoE Ratio builds. Which of these you get your hands on, they’re both nice nonetheless, these are just personal observations.
Suncus Maul
Underrated hammer, this over upgraded will be a decent weapon till the end-game hammer you get. Not expensive at all, since only Monks seek this, and +2 Skill Bonus is a great DPS gain due to the fact you really stop utilizing auto-attack much at all, especially by the time you’re Rank 6.
Lolopanther Club
Enjoy drooling over this, the current end-game Strike weapon for anyone.
Gladiator Band
I really shouldn’t mention these, as I’m trying to acquire them, but for the sake of remaining true to a guide (Even though it’ll only increase demand to my detriment). These are some of the best wrist accessories in-game. High demand already, very pricey, and for good reason, the AoE attack ratio here, the strength gain, and the critical attack gain is nice (Of course best utilized only in a high Crit Rate Gemmed/Dex build). Again these are one of the few items worth over upgrading to keep the Magic Defense in line with your progression.
Virtov Plate Set
To be discovered if this set bonus acts like the Cafrisun’s set bonus, however equally notable is that this is going to be very hard to complete. Due to the fact it’s not tradeable in any form. All in all, a solid set focusing around defensive properties. I’m showcasing the plate set because that’s generally what I’m attracted to due to the fact that if I am dealing damage, I’m in close range and that’s where the pain is. The Plate Mastery attribute gives us some solid damage reduction (But requires the obvious, plate choices in armor).
Roxona Plate “Set”
Not an actual set with a bonus, but still a very nice set. This is the set that I’d suggest finally replacing your Cafrisun. Somewhat expensive due to the boss drop material required for each piece, the somewhat uncommon drops from level 181+ monsters as well. However this is a nice switch off to the Cafrisun, the AoE attack ratio gain from the gauntlets are nice, the rest of the stats are solid for defensive means (Which at this level is when you’ll finally start to be challenged by damage, and any added defense is appreciated).
Aias
There are other shields along the way that are useful, such as Beetleback, however due to the leveling progression (damage reduction not being that necessary until this point) this would be the first shield to set your eyes on. Very solid defense, the high critical resistance is welcomed (You’ll finally start to see some crits on you from monsters at this level as well, and they’re very painful when they do occur). The described proc is a life savor and 8% tends to occur more often than you’d think because of the nature of how many attacks are multiple attacks in reality.
Lolopanther Plate Set
Again, drool on, the current end-game plate set acquired from Earth Tower.
Note:
AoE Attack Ratio is a great stat to have, more the better, however in reality the benefits begin to taper off due to the fact that monsters can only pack so tightly into one area on their own. (Abilities that smash them together however overcome this, such as the Linker’s ability Hangman’s Knot) Of course as the target’s AoE Defense Ratio increases, the need for a higher AoE Attack Ratio to maximize DPS increases as well.
VI. Dr. Monk
Here I will detail why Plague Doctor is not only a natural choice, but one of the strongest choices for any Monk variant. On face value let’s begin by comparing the Pros and Cons of Monk 3 vs Plague Doctor 1.
Monk 3 vs Plague Doctor 1
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Double Punch 15 663 Attack vs Double Punch 10 503 Attack (160 Attack difference x 2 hits for a gain of 320 Attack per Double Punch)
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One-Inch Punch 10 2085 Attack (15 Seconds) vs One-Inch Punch 5 1325 Attack (10 Seconds) (760 Attack difference and 5 seconds of HP/SP bleed per One-Inch Punch)
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Energy Blast 10 1145 Attack (5 Seconds?) ( vs Energy Blast 5 720 Attack (2.5 Seconds?) (425 Attack and 2.5 Seconds? of per Energy Blast)
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Loss of access to Golden Bell
Off the bat, the Double Punch loss is extremely tolerable. It’s not very much raw damage to lose out on. Admittedly One-Inch Punch, and to a further extent, Energy Blast is a significant loss. The raw damage from Energy Blast is extremely noticeable, however let’s look at what Plague Doctor 1 brings.
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Incineration 5 1051 Attack (5+ Seconds) Damage is applied on half seconds much like Energy Blast
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Rank 2 Status Ailment Immunity 100% uptime and Rank 3 Status Ailment high resistance via Beak Mask and Bloodletting and Fumigate
These two points work very well with Monk for these reasons. Many of the game’s debilating effects are currently considered Rank 3 or lower Status Ailments, such as Sleep, Stun, Poisons, etc. Stun perhaps being one of the most noticeable on the list. Being immune to Stun and Sleep are huge advantages in PvP and PvE. And who needs it more than a Monk that lacks things like Pain Barrier (Swordsman) yet we’ll still be in the fray of things, we may as well be immune to Status Ailments. The other obvious reason is that the Plague Doctor 1 choice furthers your role in Support, where Monk 3 furthers our role to attempt to do more damage, something we simply will be outshined on by other DPS focused classes. Not that more isn’t welcomed, the choice becomes rather simple when you’ve experienced Monk 2 and know that all Monk 3 does is furthers the damage. In addition, Plague Doctor 1’s damage gain is not by any means insignificant.
The natural part of why Plague Doctor 1 works so well with Monk is because all our strikes except Double Punch applies some debuff. The natural follow up would be something like Pandemic (Yet to be seen to work correctly by me) and Incinerate for a very painful fire damaging DoT. Burn your enemies boys and girls, it’s absolutely fun and a riot.
To be continued.
