Monk - Fists of Fury

Hello! I just noticed 'The Monk Temple' thread has reached over 80 pages! That's far too many pages to go through for valuable information. I thought we could shrink it down to this post here with some highlights. Please only post positive information about monks. There are plenty of threads for Monk Negativity, this is not one because I am a hardcore believer that Monks are awesome!

Please post any helpful Monk information you have and any questions and I'll edit the main post with new information and FAQ. I don't know all the advanced information so help is always appreciated!

Basics:
Monk requirements - 30 Pugilist / 15 Lancer
Additional Skills: Marauder / Lancer
Primary Stat: Strength

Useful Additional Skills:
Impulse Drive, Fracture, Blood for Blood, Invigorate, Bloodbath, Mercy Strike

Job Skills:
30 - Rockbreaker
35 - Shoulder Tackle
40 - Fist of Fire
45 - One Ilm punch
50 - Dragon Kick

Rotations - There are several rotations that are up in the air for what the best is. I'll list the ones I've found. Keep in mind many rotations are very situational based on the fight mechanics.

- Flank Attack -

Touch of Death -> Perfect Balance -> Demolish -> Snap Punch -> Snap Punch -> Twin Snake -> Dragon Kick -> Dragon Kick -> Internal Release -> Blood for Blood -> Twin Snake -> Snap Punch
Afterwards keep Fracture and Demolish up while using Dragon Kick -> Twin Snake -> Snap Punch.

Video of Build:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVDqzSBUhKY

- 16 Strikes of Divination -

Boot Shine -> True Strike -> Demolish -> Touch of Death -> Dragon Kick -> Twin Snake -> Snap Punch -> Boot Shine -> True Strike -> Snap Punch
Followed by the same rotation with Fracture instead of Touch of Death. This rotation involves a lot of jumping back and forth from Flank to Rear.

- Impulse Drive -

Dragon Kick -> Twin Snake -> Demolish -> Boot Shine -> Twin Snake -> Impulse Drive -> Impulse Drive -> Impulse Drive -> Snap Punch
This is a very heavy TP rotation only recommended with a Bard but it is very easy to pull off with mechanics even though you risk losing GL3.
I haven't personally used this one so if I messed up the rotation please let me know so I can edit it.

Gear -
Stat Prioritization - Weapon Damage -> Strength -> Accuracy (For Coils only) -> Determination -> Critical Hit -> Skill Speed
Will edit when I find all the information I'm looking for.

Strategies for Fights -
Will edit when people leave feedback and I find information.

Macros -
Flank Attack - Spammable Macro
/ac "Demolish" <t>
/ac "Twin Snake" <t>
/ac "Dragon Kick" <t>

Reserved for FAQ

Reserved for additional information.

If you edit your first post you can actually add all the content in your other posts. Its silly how it works but your original post is limited to 1000 characters. Once posted if you edit you can have as many characters as you want.

Onto my Question, I am a Legacy MNK, so i didnt have the luxury of learning all my abilities as i leveled seeing as i was tossed all abilities from the get go. My MRD is 15 and LNC about the same. I do have access to impulse drive. My question essentially is whats the best way to maintain GL3? What is the optimal rotation?

Optimal isn't really out there yet. With parsers unable to accurately determine how worth it DoT are and mechanics being different there isn't really an Optimal rotation. An effective rotation would be the simple Dragon Kick -> Twin Snake -> Snap Punch from the Flank. That way you can focus your efforts on dodging red. I recommend learning your lag. You can run out of a circle and sometimes theres a delay and you'll still get hit by an AoE even though you were out, the same is true for reverse. So if your lag is like .3 seconds behind, run back into the circle at the last second. It can save you your GL3 stacks. Fights like Titan are just plain hard to maintain GL3. Garuda and Ifrit aren't too bad for the exception of their vanishing acts.
I like to save my perfect balance for after a vanishing act in hard modes and use to to reclaim my GL3 very quickly and reapply DoT. The beginning of the fight isn't as important as the second half for primals.

in a party set up i go:

Dragon Kick > Twin Snake > Snap Punch x3 to Impulse drive x3 then rinse and repeat, but iirc GL3 wears on the 3rd ID so maybe limit ID to 2 and repeat cycle of DK > TS > SP?

Select blitz, then left, right, left, for super dps.

good thread but i find it funny how ppl talk about their endlos long rotation and how they start the fight with pb but in the end most if not all monk i have met yet suck in the end because you cannot just use one rotation straight since bosses like to disappear or move and stuff. So many monk fail to react to the situation. A rotation shall be a good things to know what to do first and stuff but in the end it wont always be possible to stack gl3 first for Demolish for example because the boss will just disappear before that and so on. However.

As the above poster said. You can't really have a rotation with monks, it's a priority system. My priorities are: buffs (gl ts dk etc) > DoT (highest potency skills > regular finisher (sp) > mix up (ID).

Seems I've been a total noob and not picked something up from about level 35 since I don't have Shoulder Tackle or Fists of Fire!

Can someone tell me where I get them please? Nothing in the Pugilists Guild :/

You get them when you become a monk. Every 5 levels you do your job quest for a skill.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ephier

You get them when you become a monk. Every 5 levels you do your job quest for a skill.

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I have the Monk sole item equipped but have seen absolutely nothing to suggest some kind of 'job quest' is available?

There's a new NPC called Erik waiting for you at the Goldsmith guild. He's your new job master.

After 30 you will not visit the pugilist guild again. You will instead go to the goldsmith guild and talk to the same man ( almost as soon as you walk through the door ) who gave you your monk soul stone. You will see the exclamation point.

OK thanks folks - can only imagine how gimped I've been making things :/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kopetzki

Select blitz, then left, right, left, for super dps.

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This is by far the best rotation in the monks list of skills, hands down. Lol viva la Sabin!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KaosPrimeZero

in a party set up i go:

Dragon Kick > Twin Snake > Snap Punch x3 to Impulse drive x3 then rinse and repeat, but iirc GL3 wears on the 3rd ID so maybe limit ID to 2 and repeat cycle of DK > TS > SP?

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Problem is rear is generally bad and unsafe. Flank is much more productive, but it's good when you can predict a battle.

ID spam is generally really good when you have your IR and bfb up though. Some amazing burst damage when you have enough crit gear.