Footwork Build?

[Elvyn]

While leveling I was continually asking other MNKs what was the point of Footwork? Although most of the answered varied one point every one made was "With a good Footwork Build you can get some decent numbers from Dragon/Tornado Kick".

My question is, after a fair amount of looking around all I can find are feet that increase Kick Attacks. Is this all there is to a footwork build ^^?

[Gokku]

first off know this is now obsolete gear. generally footwork builds worked off haste stp and kick attack shoes in combination with the oat2-4 hth this gave a very high double kick rate and allowed for what i believe to be 5 or 6 hit builds?

[Motenten]

It was also viable because, at the time (up to lvl 80), Tornado Kick could put out damage comparable to or better than Asuran Fists. However with the advent of the Razed Ruin atma, both of those got obsoleted by Victory Smite, Ascetic's Fury, and even Backhand Blow.

Since Footwork is more heavily invested in weaponskill damage than standard H2H, yet the only useful weaponskills were vastly inferior to what standard H2H could now achieve, Footwork itself became obsolete except for certain very narrow weaponskill proc setups (fast TP gain, low weaponskill damage so as to not kill the NM).

As for the hit-builds Gokku mentions, standard was 7-hit, and 6-hit was doable as /sam or with Sam Roll (and because of how mnk weaponskills work, that means 4-5 hits needed to reach 100 TP after a weaponskill). Since you generally had a ~75% double-kick rate, that translated to 2-3 rounds between weaponskills.

[Vortex]

It was also viable because, at the time (up to lvl 80), Tornado Kick could put out damage comparable to or better than Asuran Fists. However with the advent of the Razed Ruin atma, both of those got obsoleted by Victory Smite, Ascetic's Fury, and even Backhand Blow.

Asuran is and always has been the WORST WS choice mnks could use, it was never good for anything other then to stop enemy spells, even howling fist is better then asuran.

Why is it the worst weapon skill?
It cannot critical OR double attack, it has VERY low mods 10% STR and VIT it is just 8 weak hits that in all honesty you probably would have done more damage not weapon skilling and just normal punching.

Still not convinced? try it under a brew and watch those amazing numbers, it's a joke.

[Anza]

FWIW, an ideal footwork build shown below. You want to stack KA+ (when it procs under Footwork, acts a double attack for kicks) and kick damage gear, so Tantra neck/earring are useful here, as well as Tantra +1/+2 legs and fet. You also want as many Tantra +2 pieces as possible, for the set bonus (essentially more double kicks). Beyond that, focus on: cap haste > double/triple attack > attack and crit > STR

For your weapon, note that under footwork, your H2H weapon delay does nothing to affect your base kick attack delay. So focus on higher damage weapons.

Ammo: Thew Bomblet
Head: Tantra+2
Neck: Tantra
Ears: Tantra/Brutal (if no Tantra, Aesir is solid)
Body: Tantra+2 (Juogi, Loki's, and Tantra +1 are other solid choices)
Hands: Tantra +2
Rings: Epona/Rajas (Heed, Keen, Spiral are good alternatives if you don't have those)
Back: Atheling
Waist: Black Belt (if you don't Black Belt, Twilight may beat Brown for this scenario due to the DA. If you can cap haste without the 1 extra haste on BB over Twilight, Twilight would definitely win)
Legs: Tantra+2 (even +1 has KA+5 though)
Feet: Tantra+2 (even +1 has Kick DMG+40 though)

[Serj]

Asuran is and always has been the WORST WS choice mnks could use, it was never good for anything other then to stop enemy spells, even howling fist is better then asuran.

Why is it the worst weapon skill?
It cannot critical OR double attack, it has VERY low mods 10% STR and VIT it is just 8 weak hits that in all honesty you probably would have done more damage not weapon skilling and just normal punching.

Still not convinced? try it under a brew and watch those amazing numbers, it's a joke.

Asuran fists was the best ws at 75/80 cap on anything with low defense. Mobs with higher defense, Howling Fist would pull ahead because of its cratio boost.

Without smite, Asuran Fists is still a respectable weaponskill in the same situations outside abyssea. With impetus up, Ascetic's Fury would be better, however.

[Qkan]

Agreed. After getting Asuran Fists, I felt it was really weak. Especially considering my BST was doing 2-3k Rampages. Something didn't work out and then remembering about the 8 hit limit, no crit, etc, I found out why it was so bad inside. I switched between Backhand and Howling and have found Howling to have better consistent results in the 1.5-2.5k range. Backhand is probably better if you get Savante with BHB+ on it though. It's just that with Taurine Cesti, I don't think the DoT loss would make up for the bigger WS.

Outside though, I continue to be impressed. Hoping to finish up Nyzul in the near future so I can get Ascetic's Fury.

[Cream_Soda]

Asuran is and always has been the WORST WS choice mnks could use, it was never good for anything other then to stop enemy spells, even howling fist is better then asuran.

Why is it the worst weapon skill?
It cannot critical OR double attack, it has VERY low mods 10% STR and VIT it is just 8 weak hits that in all honesty you probably would have done more damage not weapon skilling and just normal punching.

Still not convinced? try it under a brew and watch those amazing numbers, it's a joke.
Someone (at least hopefully) has never played mnk before.

[Lynchilles]

Asuran is and always has been the WORST WS choice mnks could use, it was never good for anything other then to stop enemy spells, even howling fist is better then asuran.

Why is it the worst weapon skill?
It cannot critical OR double attack, it has VERY low mods 10% STR and VIT it is just 8 weak hits that in all honesty you probably would have done more damage not weapon skilling and just normal punching.

Still not convinced? try it under a brew and watch those amazing numbers, it's a joke.

Spoken like someone who didn't play monk at all pre-abyssea, jumped on the monk bandwagon, and burned their monk through Abyssea.

Dumbest post I have read on this forum yet.

[Monchat]

It is true that asuran fists was an average weaponskill, compared to some other jobs weapon skills ( like raging rush) but it was the best H2H ws ( well excepte final heaven and PUP's nuzul ws maybe). It was still better than GK or dagger WS for example (unstacked). Being an average ws by itself didn't prevent mnk from being the best/scond to best dd at the 75 cap, due to the massive DoT and WS frequency.

Pro Tip: you stack ATK for asuran fist, STR and VIT are only good if incremented by 10. STR+VIT=200, and remainder mix and match with acc and att, was a goot WS build.

[Lynchilles]

It is true that asuran fists was an average weaponskill, compared to some other jobs weapon skills ( like raging rush) but it was the best H2H ws ( well excepte final heaven and PUP's nuzul ws maybe). It was still better than GK or dagger WS for example (unstacked). Being an average ws by itself didn't prevent mnk from being the best/scond to best dd at the 75 cap, due to the massive DoT and WS frequency.

Pro Tip: you stack ATK for asuran fist, STR and VIT are only good if incremented by 10. STR+VIT=200, and remainder mix and match with acc and att, was a goot WS build.

Asuran Fists is still a better weaponskill than Final Heaven. Asuran Fists was the best weaponskill available to monk pre-Abyssea hands-down.

Pro Tip: You stack Accuracy on Asuran Fists until you are confidently connecting on all eight hits measured by consistent TP return. Of course this would vary greatly in accordance to what you were fighting.

Not like any of this matters anymore.