The Foundation of the Fist

Hello fellow Eorzeans! K’leytai Khen here with a brief Monk guide that will give you a solid foundation of playing the job. Just a little background on myself, I’ve played Monk since 2.0 and took the try, fail, and adjust approach, correcting mistakes as I went. I’m confident in my ability to educate and explain the various fundamentals of Monk.

This isn’t by any means a perfect Monk guide, as it serves as a reference point towards building a solid foundation. With that being said, this guide was created with the beginner Pugilist to the veteran Monk in mind. Without further ado…Enjoy!

General notes:
• Numbers in () indicates the level, the skill is available.
• MNK - Monk / LNC - Lancer
• DPS/DOTS - Damage Per Second / Damage Over Time Skills
• OGCD/GCD - Off Global Cooldown / Global Cooldown
• B4B/IR - Blood for Blood (34 LNC) / Internal Release (12)
• DK/TwS/DM/ToD - Dragon Kick (50) / Twin Snakes (18) / Demolish (30)/ Touch of Death (15)
• GL! - Greased Lightning!
• AOE - Area of Effect
• DPS Check: A phase during a boss fight, where you must kill all enemies, before the boss casts an AOE that’ll otherwise wipe the entire party.

Realm Reborn (2.0)/Universal

1) Maintain attack rotations/positioning

• Ensures you get optimal damage, from each attack
• PUG/MNK's weaponskills will specify the "rear(back)" or "flank" for positioning (See image below)
• Your auto-attack contributes to your overall DPS, so avoid frivolous movement during rotations.
  
  http://i.imgur.com/LBDL8U1.png?1

2) Maintain Greased Lightning Stacks

• Maintaining Greased Lightning’s attack/speed buff is key to Monk’s overall DPS.
• Greased Lightning levels: I (default), II (20), and III (40)
• Once an enemy is defeated, continue your rotation on another enemy.

3) Maintain and apply DOTS consistently - Touch of Death and Demolish

• Only apply TOD, once your GL! stacks are max (Optimal DPS)
• Apply DM as early as your first rotation (Extra damage during rotations)
• Reapply DOTS whenever the skill’s timer runs out/near zero. (DM - 5 secs/TOD - 3 secs)
• Dragon Kick isn't a DOT, but it's very beneficial to reapply it's debuff effect.
• Best-case scenario; GL, ToD, DM, and DK are always active.

4) Obtain your cross-class skills, Invigorate (22 LNC) and Blood for Blood (34 LNC)

• Invigorate is vital during long fights, where TP runs low.
• It’s a life saver if you accidentally sprint and lose all your TP.
• Blood for Blood is a great DPS enhancer, for 20 seconds.

5) Alternate between OGCDs and GCDs

• OGCDs are your instant skills (ex. Internal Release, Blood for Blood, etc.).
• GCDs are any attack(s) with the game’s universal cooldown, of 2.5 seconds.
• Never use two OGCDs in a row; risks loss of DPS and GL!
• Bad Example: DK > B4B > IR > TwS > DM
• Good Example: DK > B4B > TwS > IR > DM

6) Always use OGCDs, when available (After GL! stacks are max)

• Using skills often is an overall increase to DPS, while sitting on them is a decrease.
• Incorporate the rules of #5 while doing so.

7) Utilize Perfect Balance (50), mastering when to use it

• Quickly gain three GL! stacks
• Setup advanced rotations/advantageous situations, much faster
• Don't be afraid to utilize outside of boss fights; really helps with huge mobs.

8) Utilize Fists of Earth, Wind, and Fire

• Fire (40): This is your BnB, as its key to your overall DPS (Especially, during DPS checks).
• Wind (34): Great for boss mechanics, dodging AOEs, and saving GL! stacks, from far enemies.
• Earth (22): Great for full screen, boss AOEs, reducing damage, and helping healers

9) Food (Optional but beneficial)

• Foods containing Critical Hit Rate, Accuracy, and/or Determination are great choices.

Heavensward (3.0)

10) Utilize Form Change (52) to obtain Coeurl form, outside of combat

• This is most helpful, before engaging a boss.
• You gain a free level of Greased Lightning; who doesn’t love freebies!
• Following-up with Perfect Balance will only require two Coeurl form attacks, for Greased Lightning III

11) Maintain five stocks of Meditation (54) /replenish during periods of inactivity

• Forbidden Chakra (54) is a powerful OGCD/addition to your overall DPS.
• Purification (58), like Invigorate, helps in moments of low TP.
• Always build Meditation, if given the opportunity; both skills are extremely useful.

12) Utilize Tornado Kick (60), when GL3 will be lost, due to boss mechanics

• Instead of losing out completely, you get a 330 potency, guilt free; attack.
• Important when fighting bosses that tend to disappear, jump, or turn invulnerable, during different phases of their fight(s) (Ex. Ravana, Bismarck, Nunyenunc)

And last but not least…..Have fun!!!

A Special Thanks to everyone who contributed to my Monkhood (You know who you are) :)

Also, in Stormblood.....Who rule the world!?.......MONKS!

There is no need to make multiple posts. If you edit a post you can bypass the character limit and post everything in one post.

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Originally Posted by Phileas

There is no need to make multiple posts. If you edit a post you can bypass the character limit and post everything in one post.

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This is awesome news, and thanks! I'd prefer it in one post myself :)

Yay monks! And hehe Monkhood.

Nice info here. I'm still leveling Monk so this will help.

One minor correction though, I believe "OGCD" stands for "off global cooldown".

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Originally Posted by Kupacmac

Nice info here. I'm still leveling Monk so this will help.

One minor correction though, I believe "OGCD" stands for "off global cooldown".

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Thanks! I'm glad you like it, and thanks for the "OGCD" correction :)

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Originally Posted by Morzy

Yay monks! And hehe Monkhood.

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Haha yes, Monkhood indeed!

Nice basic guide, I like it :)

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Originally Posted by KrazyBean94

Nice basic guide, I like it :)

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Thanks! :D

Update: I elaborated and made changes to sections: General notes, 2 (Greased Lightning), 3 (Dots), 9 (Food), and 10 (Form Change).

So what's your opinion on Fracture especially since Monks in 240 gear can be pushing well over +700 Skill Speed just meet accuracy caps while having as much Crit as possible?

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Originally Posted by Transfinite

So what's your opinion on Fracture especially since Monks in 240 gear can be pushing well over +700 Skill Speed just meet accuracy caps while having as much Crit as possible?

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Hey Transfinite,
I honestly haven't dabbled with Fracture to much, but from past experiences, it usually lowered your overall DPS and wasn't worth it.
I'd follow up with somone more experienced in using it.

From patch to patch fracture seems to jump between bad and tiny increase if used perfectly with a dps loss if used wrong.... so personally I just don't use it.

As RocheKat mentioned Fracture upkeep changes per patch and SS build. Generally fights that give you nearly no downtime like A2S you will want to not use fracture. Other cases I go off of SS build. Builds that would have low to mid 5XX SS from last patch I could fracture regularly every few DK rotations with healthy TP. I haven't reached the high 6XX to 700+ SS yet but as I start leaving 5XX I would only time it when B4B (or use it over ToD if the timer is a better fit for how long an add is up). At this point though if a long fight doesn't give a fair amount of downtime at that high SS best not to use fracture.

Without a nin in any fight that has more than 2 min uptime and with nin any fight with more than 3 min, I won't use fracture except during the opener. Fracture is a DPS increase if you don't drop anything, it can be used every other demo rotation so that you won't clip the demo dot too early, especially with the high amount of SkS we are forced to have it will help though TP is a big issue.

UPDATE (10/26/16): Added some new details and reworded a few sections.