[pathwriter]

Made some minor edits in wording and information. I'd like to know if there are any major questions I'm missing at the moment (excluding merits).

[Pook]

If your new avatar is an actual pic of you path...... you're kinda hot!

[Cream Soda]

hmm must be glitched for me. One post shows his old avatar and another it shows the new

[Disposition]

/Bump

[Alistaire]

MNK/BLU as an alternative to MNK/WHM. same mind (might have been a point higher actually, been a while since I checked) spells like Cocoon, and possibility to equip killer traits vs beast, lizards, undead. Healing Breeze is a potent curaga, though I don't have mnk75 so not sure if you could hit the 200hp soft cap mnk/blu. Quite possibly with all the mnd gear mnk can use. Also, blu physical spells would be fairly useful depending on target, especially with Focus.

[pathwriter]

Um... for solo purposes and Ballista, I can see the usefulness of /Blue Mage. For Chi Blasting... no, Blink, Stoneskin, Bar-spells, Paralyna, Erase, and Divine Seal blow /Blue Mage completely out of the water. If I wanted to list marginal combinations that are a poor replacement for something a Monk does rarely enough as is, I'd have a lot more to say about Red Mage and I'd include Paladin.

[evilpaul]

Excluding skillchaining reasons, would you want to switch from Raging Fists to anything else pre-Asuran Fists as /WAR or /NIN?

[pathwriter]

Finally got around to making some updates. Cleaned up some dross, removed unnecessary information, penciled in /Dancer. I'll hopefully have a little more to say on its viability in things like XP soon.

Edit:
Added Footwork.

[Sagii]

I know that this have been said in a lot of threads, but i can't find a good explanation: why str affects mnk damage in a different way than other weapon? I've seen ton of discussions about this but any really clear explanation.
Thanks.

[pathwriter]

STR doesn't affect a Monk's weapon in a fundamentally different way than any other. The trouble is that fSTR, which is a function of weapon rank, appears to be based exclusively on the +DMG stat of the weapon rather than the combined DMG rating of weapon and Hand-to-Hand skill. Thus, even with a heavy-hitting weapon, the weapon rank and, thus, effective cap in terms of STR usefulness is rather low compared to any other sort of weapon.

I know that's not very clear, but it basically means that stacking heavy STR would result in hitting a cap far sooner than with a higher rank weapon like a scythe or great axe. It's a bit moot, though, as no sane person stacks a great deal of STR for the TP phase of their fights (where Haste, Accuracy, and Store TP are important) and Attack tends to be both more readily available and provide equivalent or better results. The variation between your Attack and the mob's Defense has heavier weight in overall damage than that between your STR and the mob's VIT. If you can get STR, as from Black Belt and Rajas Ring, it will help, but most other slots where you can consider putting STR are going to have better options available (e.g., Byakko's Haidate vs. Shura Haidate). It's strictly unlikely that even a Monk will cap their fSTR but it's also strictly unnecessary except in situations where one's Attack is capped against one's target (either 999 or double the target's Defense, neither of which are common).

For weaponskills, though, STR stacking is acceptable as long as you're not sacrificing so much Accuracy that you miss.

[Sagii]

STR doesn't affect a Monk's weapon in a fundamentally different way than any other. The trouble is that fSTR, which is a function of weapon rank, appears to be based exclusively on the +DMG stat of the weapon rather than the combined DMG rating of weapon and Hand-to-Hand skill. Thus, even with a heavy-hitting weapon, the weapon rank and, thus, effective cap in terms of STR usefulness is rather low compared to any other sort of weapon.

Thank you.
So, basically, STR will work only on weapon damage value and not on hand-to-hand skill, so reaching a damage cap is more fast and less useful.
I'm missing some math about damage like fSTR or weapon rank, but i'll try to figure out.

[pathwriter]

This is a place to start, but remember that these are all player-made approximations: http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Base_Damage

[pathwriter]

Finally got around to adding some information, mostly for level 80, going to work on pruning a little bit later. Next step is to attack the gear guide.