Tree of Savior Forum

What's the point of going Monk really?

Warning : Wall of text ahead

As a new lvl 140 Rank 6 circle1 Monk, let me chime in with my observations and thoughts about the Class. For reference, I went C1 > P3 > M1. At this point I have 145 str, 30 con and 85 dex. Probably going up to 100dex before working on str or con again. I don’t crit very often but it happens about 15% of the time so it’s a nice bonus when it does (I also feel like DP has a higher crit chance. Just a feeling. I see more yellow numbers on DP than I do on white swings)

  • RIght off the bat, if you want to go Monk thinking of being a Diablo3 Monk, or an Asura one-shot RO Monk, sorry you’ll be as underwhelmed as I was when I first turned Monk.

  • I speak from the viewpoint of an average, casual, solo player. I have a job and a wife. I spend 99% of my time solo. All the parties I join are for matchmade dungeons.

  • When I first turned Monk, of course the first thing I did was to go smack something with a lvl 1 Double Punch. And felt sad. “That was it?” Ok, forummers say DP will replace my auto attack. So with my SEA ping (avg 300-500ms) I tried that. Missed a lot. Wasted Stam. 4-5 mobs later I’m out of Stam. “wtf?”

  • Here’s the deal : We will, and always will be (in the game’s mechanics) a Cleric based class. Only 1 instanced dungeon that I can remember where I wasn’t the only Cleric. (Most fun was the lvl 130 dungeon with 4 wiz and me and another 130 dungeon with 4 swordies and me. Good times)

  • ToS Monks (in my opinion) are a fantastic solo class. I have 0 downtime. I never carry firewood. Never needed to. (Had to buy some cos some quests require a bonfire. Wut?)

  • So whats my playstyle? I still auto-attack. I just now lightly pepper my swings with some DP. I think of it as a crit that I control. (Plus it looks cool when you time a DP to burst a mob into bits with that pose. feelsgoodman.jpg) Using sacra+bless and auto-attacking while adding 2-3 DP’s per mob allow my stam usage to be regulated. I clear mobs faster now yes, but not as fast as I thought I would be.

  • But I’m ok with that. I’m a solo self healing phys damage support class. I can solo-heal dungeons at my level. I can clear quests. I can kills mobs higher than my level. I never sit down. Sure I’m slower in my TTK (time to kill) but I make up for it by never using pots or bonfires.

  • I have a fully attribute’d Palm Strike (lvl 1) and Hand Knife that I use often. (The bleed from Palm Strike is pierce damage. Ticks for about 900+ on mobs that are weak to pierce at my lvl). It’s decent dps (provided no one is around to KS me)

  • For new players wanting to go Monk, just remember to go in with both eyes open. We’re not a pure DPS class. We’re not one shot wonders. We have the benefit of not dying ever if you play it right. It’s a very forgiving class with good buffs and good “oh-sht” cooldowns.

  • As for me, I’m definitely going C2 Monk for Energy Blast. Sweet Jesus have you seen that animation? I don’t care if it does even 1 dmg. That kamehameha is totally worth it! As for C3? Maybe. I know with my play time and play style it will be a long time. Maybe Chaplain since I still rely on auto attack a lot. Maybe by that time new ranks would be revealed. Who knows.

I’m starting to like my monk. Underwhelmed at the start? Yes. Regrets? No.
Also, for the record, I have done 2 stam quests and wear the Reina plate chest that gives 10 stam. Total of 45. Thats just me, the average joe that can’t be a**ed to seek out more stam. Perhaps when I’m higher level I could up my DP spam but for now I’m… ok.

We’re ok.

/2000 chars

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I agree. The Monk, however, isn’t the only one that can provide support and deal damage; magic attack cleric builds are well known to deal much more damage than them (and even other DPS focused classes with the perfect build!) which just entirely scraps the point of the Monk’s existence. As of now, the monk is basically the weaker DPS cleric, which is why I made the thread in the first place. The Monk is a class someone might only look forward to for the general appeal of his/her theme.

If we’re talking about the future, we might look forward to an upcoming class called “Dalai Lama”, which was confirmed after people found a bunch of class costumes in the client and one of the costumes were named that way. Thematically it does sound like a hidden class just for the Monk (similar to Chaplain for Priests) considering it’s part of the Monk culture IRL. Let’s just hope whatever its kit will be would finally give a pivotal role for Monks in the future.

I do agree, though that’s also because Cleric trees premonk have really good magic damage foundation while we have like what, auto attacks and carve for physical? I have always asked for Monk to either be a c4 class or have some more physical options. I mean i guess you can take pally at r4 but I did that in beta and I regretted it so.

Nope, peltasta will always be better in almost any aspect. Iron Skin has a larger cooldown and lower duration than high guard. It also can’t block long range attacks, only short range ones unlike high guard, and like high guard, it cannot block magic. No taunt makes it even more useless. AFAIK (unless it was changed) it knocks back enemies as well, which can be irritating for your DPS members.

Golden Bell Shield’s invulnerability might sound great on paper but in practical use there is no point in casting it except for emergencies or skill clocking. If it at least allowed you to move, it could be better. And in ToS’ balancing you could even have it allow you to move, attack, and use skills while it’s active, it’s not like that’s going to break the game, but it does give a Monk a better fighting chance and flexibility.

Overall, both Iron Skin and Golden Bell Shield just don’t fit thematically for the Monk class. If I were to make changes, I would instead make them both self buffs which give Monk a tanky role, fitting a bit more thematically to what a Monk should be.

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NvM

20characters…

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I cannot say for sure as I have not played any other type of monk other than C1 > P3 > M1. What I can tell you is what benefit I gain from going P3. Let others who used other paths to tell you their benefits and then you have to make the choice yourself with the information available.

I get Blessing (at lvl 50 attribute it adds another +100 dmg).
I get Sacrament (adds Holy damage and another attack line to your auto attacks)
I get Revive (which is an “oh-sh!t” cooldown. 10 secs God mode and for 90 secs if my hp drops below 0 I will cheat death once)
I get Mass Heal (instant cast heal, 30 secs cooldown. Currently heals me for about 2.4k)
I have Aspersion (20% physical defense)
I have Stone Skin (lvl 5 is 400+ block rating)

And all those buffs, apply to my party as well. (You have to aim Mass Heal though, its a large circle in front of your character’s face)

Like I mentioned in my giant post above, it’s very hard for me to die. Until I get chain-frozen ( FFFUUU ICE PIKE!)

Equips aside, I would recommend finding monsters that you excel against. Large enemies weak to strike damage are going to be your bread and butter. Being able to spam 4-6k is a luxury as a support class.

krivis/druid/pd provides a different kind of support, namely damage prevention and cc prevention. If you went priest3 monk, I would recommend specializing in damaging buffs like blessing and sacrament and that will enable you to fill a needed role in a group.

Krivis/Druid also does not do much damage to mobs, if you have a good ATR(aoe attack ratio) and you use your skills well, you will outdamage them since all of their #hits skills are split among the group. They will wreck you on bosses, sorry.

In iCBT2 I had little issue with upkeeping double punch in a group, sure I had to spam stam pills, but that goes with the territory. Hexing also sucks and I hate it.

You can build a Chaplain for offense just like a Monk, they are just pidgeonholed into weaker gear.

i think That monk is a class That Have very high survival,
I do a little less damage That swordman , but I do good damage ,
I Have less hp that swordman but i Have heal ,
so the monk can do decent damage but I never Have to stop .
Is a machine that never stop to hit, he dont need sit.
In conclusion it is good in all , but best in nothing´. or maybe it is regular in all but best in nothing xD

Surprisingly in Korean servers, Pvp monks prefer to go C2 P2 route, taking lv10 heal and lv10 Safety wall
They can go head to head with Hoplite/Catapracts

you never see monk kill that black bear in silaui mission alone with stone skin solo ?
other while the 4 ppl facing 2 other boss

I don’t see the point of trying to find monsters that a Monk could excel against. Everyone will have to deal with the same monsters in order to progress.

I think you have it the other way around. Priests actually give more defensive buffs than Krivis do. Krivis mainly give offensive buffs (Divine Stigma, Zalciai, Daino) and so do Dievs (Laima, Zelmyna), while giving effective defensive buffs as well. Blessing and Sacrament fall off really late game, with Sacrament only really being useful for auto attack type characters, and Blessing for high combo count classes. Priests will definitely fill the defensive role. Also let’s not forget that we’re talking about the Monk here, not his foundation. Priests are nice but it’s not the only path to a Monk, nor does a Priest only have to go Monk in the future. It would be more relevant to talk about the Monk in general and how his kit and damage plays a role in the game.

Yes, this is a good advantage of Monks against Druids/Krivis, but even we have barely any AoE compared to them (Owl Carving actually does a decent chunk of damage and provides reliable AoE as well). While they can safely provide DPS at a distance, we are left to go in at melee range just to provide our main DPS. There’s really no use to just waiting for Energy Blast all the time either, because you will be outdamaged eventually. Now on bosses, on the other hand, as you say, Monks will fall off. This game thrives on bosses for endgame content, from dungeons to quests to world bosses, and a class will beat us in every way on it. Even the slight disadvantage on mobbing will not hinder that Cleric build’s effectiveness in the late game.

Yeah, to be honest maybe my complaints with Double Punch was a bit exaggerated. After getting a decent amount of Stamina, it’s very reliable now. Although I might still have to use a couple of stamina pills, in a party there’s hardly any issue with it anyway because party members tend to just kill the boss faster than you at least…

Chaplain can deal damage fine without those lower level gears, there are a lot more gear that can give its bonus at an even higher amount. Chaplain’s role is different in a way that they focus more on support than damage, of which at least we expect that they can’t deal as much damage as other classes but still contribute DPS while providing excellent support. If we compare Monk and Chaplain, at least Chaplain has a more centralized role for a party. Monk is a jack of all trades that suffers from an identity crisis, and his/her skill kit simply isn’t helping at all to give him/her an identity.

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Other classes can do the same with the right set-up. Other DPS-oriented Cleric classes would be able to finish the boss off alone even, before the 4 other members are able defeat the Mole. I doubt the Monk could finish faster than the rest of his party members unless you’re really left with just support classes or really bad players for your other party members.

And what that Monk is doing is just wasting time by separating both bosses when they can be simply stacked onto each other to finish the mission faster… It looks impressive at first but it hinders the run altogether. You would be better off to tank both the bosses at once, which is also possible with the perfect set-up and skill rotation of Safety Zone, Stone Skin and other defensive abilities.

Monk needs two stance toogle buffs that increase dmg or defence and threat, also disable their healing ability, which can only be reactivated after a certain cd. This allows them to increase their value in parties yet does nothing for the solo monks.

Blessing and Sacrament will never ‘fall off’. Any group worth their weight is going to want as much damage as possible, and Sacrament still offers +40 holy property attack to all skills, not just auto-attack. It is like arde dagger in that way. The additional attack is only for autos.

Blessing is a potential +170 damage to all hits. It will never not be useful. Who would say no to it?

Of course, any additional damage is great. But Blessing and Sacrament will indeed fall off. I’m not saying they will be useless, it’s just that they will not be as much as a powerful factor in party DPS anymore once you approach endgame, mostly due to its scaling.

Raw increase is next to nothing when numbers start to pile up. 170 additional damage is like adding around 2% additional damage when you’re dealing 5000 ticks tops on any skill.

Imagine 180 hits of 5000 damage. Overall you would deal 900,000 damage, with blessing ticks you deal an additional 30,600 damage, which is just leagues off the total damage you have just dealt… it’s just worth 6 ticks of your regular damage.

Now how realistic can we be that 180 hits can be dealt in the span on 45 seconds? Maybe on a large amount of mobs we can, but that would mean the damage is spread even further, and the damage boost per mob is far lesser.

On a boss, it would be almost impossible unless you’re really one of those high hit characters like, perhaps, the cryo-psycho or archer classes. At most, let’s say, someone was able to at least deal 100 hits. That’s just 17,000 additional damage, which is just too small compared to what normal skill ticks of around 5,000 are capable of.

And about Sacrament, it does not grant +40 holy property attack to skills, only normal attacks. Sacrament loses use when Monks get Double Punch, and it will really only be useful for normal attack type characters, such as Corsairs or Chaplains.

Don’t get me wrong… Priests have valuable buffs early game, and some still provide amazing late game defense such as Aspersio, Revive, and Stone Skin, but their offensive buffs just simply won’t be as needed anymore when you reach higher levels.

Just want to point out that sacrament does add 40 holy to all damage IN ADDITION to a separate line of 40 holy damage to normal attacks only.

Im going to do a C3 Priest C3 Monk, for full GvG PvP purposes. Which stats would you all recommend? I heard 2con:1str

This post served me well for now :smiley:

This is untrue. A small amount of research on your own would confirm it. Any “Property Attack” increase does so for all skills. You are basically saying that arde dagger only works for auto-attacks.

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I did C3 Paladin 1 Monk 1 (going Monk 3) and I get by with 53 Stamina currently. Smite remains my primary attack and I throw in Double Punches in between cooldowns, I never run out of Stamina and my Smite, even with only one rank of Paladin, is hurling around anywhere from 4k to 10k damage each swing (and it’s Overheat, so that’s a lot of swings) since I have a crit rate of 200.

And my Divine Power adds on that extra 40 damage to every attack people usually use Priest for. I use AOE 3 or AOE 5 weapons to make sure my Smite and Double Punch hit everything I swing at.

Paladin and Monk skills critical hit since they’re technically not spells. And, because I use Plate and have high Cleric skills, I more or less never, ever take damage. My HP and SPR regen rates are 400 each so I never need to heal or stop for Spirit either.