[Krilldog]

Hey all. Especially to Pathwriter, hello sir. Glad to see you are still rocking that sig.
I'd be happy to make you a new one if you liked.



On to business.

Okay. I left the game over a year and a half ago. Some friends conviced me to finally come back.

When I left, I was a very good monk, almost to the top of my game, except for God gear, which I was slowly getting, but didn't have a LS to do so.

Anyways. I am back now, and returned with some of my gear that I gave to a cousin to use, but having to get a lot back.


So, the current state of things I am geared up as follows. Now please excuse my lack of gear. I, again, had no end game shell. Well I did for a short while, but they liked having gil buyers/account sellers in their shell, so I left. (But that's another argument for another day and another thread/forum) Not to mention I have been farming and crafting to slowly get my gear back.

Galka Monk.
I have War/Nin/Thf/Sam/Whm/ fully subbed.

I have Criticals, STR, and HTH maxed on merits.
A merit or two in Kick Attacks.

Gear:
Destroyers
Scorpion Harness
Ochu. Kote
Shura Haidate & Byakko's Haidate
Dune Boots, also have Melee Gaiters.
Brown Belt.
Amem. Mantle+1
Flame Rings X2
Merman's Earring & A Spike Earring (The AH is constantly out of Mermans Earrings to get another, but I will get one when I see one)
Chival. Chain for Neck.
I of course have my AF.

I have my old MND gear for gods, and a little bit of my evasion gear for soloing and some light tanking, but that's not what I am asking about.

Now, as much as I hate to ask for some direction here. I would like to because, it seems these days, people are far more critical of these things, since in my time, many people have leveled multiple 75 jobs, and everyone's a critic.
I also would just like to be able to perform better. I was far more confident before, then I am now, seeing other people just doing better, when their main is mages and they do Monk on the side ;_;

I have read through the gear guides and food guides. Again and again. I read through FFXI wiki.

What I am looking for, is some direction. What some of you who have been playing monk for a large portion of your FFXI time through all these updates and expansions.
What do you think I should shoot for next? What Job abilities to merit, what's more useful at this point given all these new support jobs. etc etc.

Also, please remember I have no End Game shell.
I am a goldmsither. Lvl 70. That's what I do for gil, plus a lot of farming. I garden, but that's only to grow things to gold smith with.


Any advice, or useful comments are appreciated, and sorry for being so long-winded.

Thanks for your time.

[pathwriter]

I still like the sig you made me, but as I'm working on leveling up White Mage, I'm debating if I should get a new one.

I'll start with merits. Finish up Kick Attacks and Counter merits. If, for some reason, you seriously believe the Counter merits won't do it for you, you might seriously consider Focus. No one ever says that around here, mostly because everyone around here buys into the idea that Monk is for Salvage only and, thus, is the predominate tank, but meh, I felt like mentioning it anyhow. Of course, I'm going standard Kicks/Counter, myself, but just something to think about.

As for Cat2 merits, this is more dependent on what you do. A Monk who tanks or solos nasty mobs can get a lot of mileage out of Penance, especially since full merits last just over half the cooldown of Chi Blast. It is effectively Store TP -25, which is a huge blow to a mob if only a Monk is hitting it because, owing to Subtle Blow, we don't feed all that much TP in the first place. Invigorate is very nice if you solo a lot but don't expect it to be very useful if you have any halfway competent mage around. Unfortunately, the effect can be overwritten by Regen I, in spite of being more potent. Formless Strikes is worth putting 1 point into. Since additional points only somewhat increase the damage rather than reduce the cooldown, it's just not that big a deal. Mantra... some people like Mantra, I can't convince myself to do so. It would occasionally be nice for, say, fighting Nyzul Isle bosses, but it's really not going to make a big difference. If you zerg a lot, it might be useful, but you're not in an HNM LS.

For gear, for heaven's sake, sell the Flame Rings. They might be nominally useful for Howling Fist/Dragon Kick/Ascetic's Fury, but meh. Get some Sniper's Rings or one of the many other Accuracy ring options. Barring Toreador's Ring and Sniper's Ring +1, they're all cheap and/or free (Rare/Ex). Work towards getting a Peacock Charm. Aim towards getting Black Belt and Shura Togi.

I'm assuming you haven't completed any of Treasures of Aht Urhgan, by the way. Get on that (try to form a static group, it only takes about a week to complete) and pick up Ulthalam's Ring. I assume you don't have a mage job that would benefit more from Balrahn's Ring, as is my case. If you don't have Chains of Promathia done, try to work on that. Rajas Ring is brilliant for the Subtle Blow and other stats, though I'd only use it in situations where that matters (Salvage, solo, etc.). Ethereal Earring or Hollow Earring are nice, people debate about which and I'm honestly wondering if I should have opted for the latter.

Oh, level Dancer. By god, level Dancer. It is the most broken support job imaginable in terms of solo. It trumps Ninja in a lot of situations.

Also, change your race to Elvaan. Damn Galka.

Only other advice I can give is to try to find a solid Salvage group. Yes, the drop rates suck, but it's so fun, it's a place where Monk really does shine, and the gear to be gained (after much effort) is insane.

[Krilldog]

I should have put in that I do have a Sniper's Ring and a Woodsman Ring.


But I appreciate the info Path. I'll read it over a few times to make sure I get it all down and start advancing on some of that stuff.


Good looking out man.

[Inform-me]

Another few minor things not related to gear so much as gameplay changes.

-Footwork was added while you were gone, and I came back to find out monks now get to melee in sky with footwork and Footwork Dragon Kick with dune boots, which now affect DK as long as Footwork is up.
-Ninja got a sneak spell below subjob level! (hell if i know or care about which level) Now you can get 99 uses of sneak in a single stack for about the same amount as a 12 stack of silent oil was back in the day. It is a true godsend for events like sky farming, where you spam sneak to get from point A to point B.

Also, correct me if I am wrong here path, but if he is a soloist, wouldn't chakra recast time be better than focus recast time?

EDIT: just realized that point is moot because +5% counter would probably outweigh both during solo.

[pathwriter]

EDIT: just realized that point is moot because +5% counter would probably outweigh both during solo.

Bingo.

[Konda]

Tsting or Smart grenade for ammo slot.

besides that, if you use your accuracy rings not lolstr, you're going about it in the right way.

load up on accuracy everywhere for asuran, life belt etc, and attack str where you cant get more acc.

you didnt mention a head slot, if you quit before treasures came out, look into getting a walhara turban. yes its not much better looking that Ohat, but it's one of the best head pieces in the game and its very cheap to boot.

[Krilldog]

Questions:

First off, on the Turban, I checked it out and I see it's stats. Maybe because my frame of thought is pre-ToA. But I don't see why I would want to give up +10 Accuracy (and evasion) for +5%Haste? Please explain to me so I can understand it better. I am not trying to argue your point(s). I simply would like more information to better see it from your point of view.
Again, I am not arguing your information or point. I just remember never stacking Haste gear, because I ended up becoming an MP sink in PTs because of the added hate from hitting to much.

Second. I see I am being directed towards more accuracy, but I don't have much problems with accuracy.
I have parsed very well with my STR rings and Asuran fists hits on average for me (I Pt'd at Mamjool Point to test my performance prior to coming here) between 800-1200. Of course there are outside factors on that with Buffs and food. I used one sole sushi, because it was rotting away in my MH for over a year and a half and I used one Courel Sub. (spelling)

Now, there were some instances where I hit for less then 800, but I was blinded. Also, there were, OBVIOUSLY, times where I Just didn't land as many, and I dropped to the 700's.
Are these numbers what one would call "decent" for these times? Or should I be putting up far larger numbers for my said gear/stats?

The Bard was giving us Attack and Haste songs. No accuracy. The Scholar was giving us Stone Skin and the Ice Damage added to attack buff, which I admit the name eludes me.

I do not claim to be the best monk of all times, never have claimed as such. Hence why I am asking for some direction.
So let me please again state, I am not rying to argue your points. Just need some clarification. I provided some of my stat information to better help you with your explanation.


Again, I appreciate the information and feedback and welcome it. It can only help me work hard on myself, so others don't have to.

[pathwriter]

Regarding Haste, if you want to see a bunch of math about the sort of effects it has, you can start here: http://killingifrit.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=171498

Anyhow, stacking Haste is usually the best way of increasing DPS. With 8 Hand-to-Hand merits and your other gear, you should be more than capable of maintaining an appropriate hit rate (defined as 85%+) in merit situations. 10 Accuracy does represent +5% hit rate, but the actual gains going from 85% to 90% are not as dramatic as they sound.

As a rule, avoid sushi if humanly possible. There are some situations that call for it, but they are almost nonexistent now with the introduction of Marinara Pizza. Although 85% hit rate is good, it never hurts to aim for higher (recall the cap is 95%).

The issue with STR rings is that they add practically nothing to Monk damage. Sad but true, Monk fSTR is pitiful because it's calculated not by the combined damage of our fists and knuckles (which are comparable to a one-handed axe), but rather by the +Damage of our knuckles alone. Moreover, our most consistently used weaponskill, Asuran Fists, has a piddling 10% STR mod that, when level-corrected, becomes a mere 8%. For the TP phase of fighting, you want to get TP as fast as possible, so you want to attack fast (Haste), land hits (Accuracy), and optionally gain a little extra TP along the way (Store TP as from Usukane Sune-Ate).

Moreover, though, Monk damage is heavily weighted in favor of our normal strikes rather than our weaponskills (I do Salvage with an Amano Samurai and it's disgusting how much damage his weaponskills do). For normal strikes, stacking STR has virtually no impact. Honestly, the only STR I have on my Monk when meriting is from my Black Belt and Amemit Mantle +1, sometimes Rajas Ring if I'm fighting Mamool Ja and can safely use Marinara Pizza (I could "get by" without it, but owing to Puk's Flashga and Warm-Up, I'm willing to give up some extra Attack for solid Accuracy).

Oh, and the thing the Scholar was doing was Accession + Enblizzard.

About becoming an MP sink, that should be a non-issue. I'd love to say, "Hey, sub Warrior wherever you want!" but party efficiency in a pick-up group pretty much demands /Ninja. If you are partied with mages who are able to keep you alive as /Warrior, more power to you, but don't get used to having Berserk and Double Attack. I literally cannot remember the last time I played Monk/Warrior, but it was certainly not in a pickup merit group. Some day I'll meet a mage I trust, although I fear that I'll be looking in a mirror.

[Inform-me]

Personally I find 2 support jobs (a mix of Brds and Cors) allows for the kill speed nessasary for the DDs to sub WAR (and wars sub sam obviously)

Also the pizza on mamool is exactly what I needed to know, my acc was hurting there with a hedgehog the other day in an LS party and it was really hurting me on the parser. 73-76% acc overall sucks.

[Vormov]

burtal earring (Do you need it?)
and grab yourself a D.Body if you can. shura togi is my lifeblood.

and as far as i know, goldsmithing is on the brink of extinction gil making wise...ty SE

[Aliadim]

burtal earring (Do you need it?)
and grab yourself a D.Body if you can. shura togi is my lifeblood.

and as far as i know, goldsmithing is on the brink of extinction gil making wise...ty SE

I can support this.

I've completely abandoned my goldsmithing for money making, when I use to use it religiously.