Quistris – Shintao Monk (AoM/SA Sets)

[Myror]

You’ve left out Overwhelming Critical and Improved Critical Bludgeoning to get Cleave and Great Cleave? That doesn’t seem worth it to me. Whirlwind is an adequate AOE all by itself.

[Furiyen]

The Theme: I’ve been playing too much Street Fighter recently, and wanted to echo my favourite character in the series, Chun-Li. I was going for as many ‘Kick’ attacks as possible. Cleaves contribute to that, as they use the Roundhouse Kick animation, and well the ‘Spinning Bird kick’ Whirlwind Attack fits right into that.

The Mechanics: I realised that Cleaving after Drifting Lotus, or better still Dire Charge, meant that I could deliver more Aoe attacks than with just Whirlwind Attack alone. By Going Dire Charge – Cleave – Great Cleave – Whirlwind Attack – Drifting Lotus – Repeat the Cleave Chain.

The Rationalisation: I can keep mobs in pack controlled for upto 12 seconds, and deliver a total minimum of 8 attacks to each and everyone controlled. To fit it all in, I had to make some feat concessions on my build, as I was trying to also squeeze in as much Fist damage as I could. Precision got dropped for Power Attack, IC and OC dropped for the two Cleaves. I do pick up IC for free with Enlightened Scraps or Duality, as they both have Keen anyway. And Monk Critical Damage is already piss poor compared to a character with Dual Khopeshes and Critical enhancements, so losing OC doesn’t seem that big of a deal right now.

The Reality: At some point I’ll stop gimping myself with the Cleaves, and maybe try the following changes:

Change PA/Cleave/Grt Cleave to Precision/IC/OC
Change Goggles to Van Richtens
Change Helm to Executioners
Change Scion of Air, to one of Scion of the Astral Plane, Ethereal or Arborea
Change Disciple of the Fist to Sneak of Shadows
Slot Devotion on my Handwraps

I lose some defense doing all this though – no MRR, lose some needed PRR, lose some Saves that are needed on a character with low Spell Resistance. It does gain significant DPS on top of what I’m already doing though.

Meh, who knows.

[Palna]

I love the theme, go with that. 😀

Your thrash rotation is similar to mine, although I don’t roundhousekick anyone… (DC, Cleave, gCleave, Lay Waste, Momentum+cycle cleaves to reset LW)

[Legend]

Yep, stay with the cleave theme as the rotation looks good, like you said IC crit is irrelevant due to wraps, once geared then look at your damage output, if comparable then keep, obviously the cleaves are contributing more damage though as multiple mobs.
PA, CE or Precision is player preference, all have advantages.

[catgov]

/satire

Found the inherent issue with your build. Street Fighter instead of BlazBlue or Guilty Gear, meh, even MBACC is better! Also Chun Li instead of Arcueid, Dizzy, Baiken (Elphelt a close second) or even that whiny annoyance called Noel Vermillion… Please give up on that subpar character and reroll (if you are a “leg-man” even Vertigo from Primal Rage beats Chun Li)!

/satireoff

[Legend]

Finally geared up my monk, decided to buy the RL raid items for it, areas that could not fit in gear relate to Spell Resistance, Dedicated resist item, Heal AMP and lost a few HP, but managed to keep DC’s the same with less investment in Wis, Armor Piercing went to 63%, and DS around 70%, MP did not change much.
Decided not to go with KTA, the stun dc is high enough and prefer the benefits from the other monk lines.

Goggles: CC – Concentration, Accuracy, Ins Wis +7
Helm: Leg Execut w/Reaper+2 Stats, Seeker +17, Ins Decep +7, Qual Combat +4
Neck: Fleetfoot, +20 Wis, NA +20 (Mists), Sup Reinforced Fists.
Trinket: CC – DS +17, Dodge +15%, Ins Stun +8
Cloak: Cloak of Strahd – +52MRR, +17 Deception (Silent Avenger)
Belt: Braided Cutcord – +4% Ins Dodge,+19 Dex, Blurry, Qty Dex +4 (Silent Avenger)
Gloves: Leg Crumbling – +9 Ins Dex, Ins PRR +24 (Mists)
Boots: Flightfoot – FOM, +16 Reflex, Speed +30% (Mists)
Ring1: Pinnacle – Deadly +16, Soul of Elements, Stun +22 (Mists)
Ring2: Slavers w/reaper MP – +17 Con, Armor Pierc +28, +7UMD, +11 Qty PRR
Bracers: Packbanner – +9 Ins Con, +10% Ins DS
Armor: Leg Mist Laden – 202% Fort, +50PRR, +9 Parrying, Profane +2 stats

Managed to limit duplicate abils on this setup, will post the important exact stats later so other monks can compare/advise.

Stats of note:
Dex:60, Con:54, Wis:80
Dire Charge dc: 117, Stun dc: 112
Saves: 72,93,83, Fort: 218%
HP: 1117, AC: 177/207 in stone
DS: 64.87%
AP: +63
Stances tend to run in:
In water: Dodge 50%, PRR: 180
In Stone: Dodge 37%, PRR: 220
Pos SP: 379 (for cacoon)
Not sure how the helpless opponents stack but have: 30% + 30% + 10% from sources
Base MP: 132

I tend to run in GOF, but do change depending on quest, so for Shroud will go LD.

I actually reduced my Wis investment in enhancements and Destiny to be in line with old dc’s but with the saved points went for more useful abils.

[Furiyen]

I’ll have a plug of this into my spreadsheet later, see how it compares to my own gear. It looks very interesting though, I like the Cloak and Helm combination slotting together very nicely.

I’m guessing this is on a Monk in LD?

Edit: Those Glover are VERY interesting on a monk, particularly with the Insightful PRR which is usually hard to slot. With Deadly +16 and Silver from Shintao, not much need for the Molten Silver Gauntlets as base Doublestrike and Armour Piercing can be had elsewhere, if just not quite as much. *Enters deep pondering mode*

[Furiyen]

Took a good, long look at this, and .. its quite close in terms of overall gear-contribution to stats and performance.

You definitely edge me out in a few places, but I think the main wins are the Seeker and the Ins Deception on the Executioners Helm, not to mention the Reaper Stats bonus on it! You have a few percent more AP and a little more Stun DC. I also am down on PRR by 17, which is also important.

Where I win is on having a straight up +8% Melee Power from Prowess Ring. Considering I could have the same +3 Reaper Power bonus on my Prowess (NEVER going to happen, even if I had one it would go to Furiyen, not my third string character), then it out performs the 5% damage bonus you get from Executioners Helm.

I think the REAL advantage is in build options – I’m relying on my KTA to make up some of the base damage and DC differences, which allows your build other options such as No Mercy, as even if I changed to Sense Weakness on my Build I’d only be at +30% +10% on Helpless damage.

I think if Quistris was actually my main, and I had a decent amount of PRR Past Lives on her, I would actually go to the trouble of copying your gear setup and making quite a few alterations to my build 🙂

Edit: No, I didn’t spend 7 hours pondering this, I’ve been at work all afternoon 😀

[Author]

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