Monk Post 2.2 Gear Progression Thread

[BMihawk]

Currently looking at 2.1 the allegedly BiS for monk is as follows:

Added Stats
| +131 Acc | +209 Crit | +92 Det | +15 SS | +194 Vit

Total
489 Str| 472 Acc | 550 Crit | 294 Det | 356 Skill Speed | 396 Vit

Weapon: Allagan Baghnakhs
Head: Melee Circlet
Body: Allagan Cuirass of Striking
Hands: Allagan Gauntlets of Striking
Belt: Allagan Tassets of Striking
Legs: Melee Gaskin
Feet: Allagan Sollerets of Striking
Neck: Hero's Necklace of Slaying
Earring: Tremor Earrings of Slaying
Wrist: Inferno Bangle of Slaying
Ring: Vortex Ring of Slaying
Ring Allagan Ring Maiming
Food: HQ Deviled Eggs

The reason i go with this setup was that i prefer to go CRIT built as opposed to DET/SS build. This may not be the BiS for some but its one of the BiS with the maximum CRIT a gear can give
There were no problems hitting 5 moves in PB even with a lowly 356 SS as the alleged 400 SS (Demo - Snap - Snap - DK - Snap)
Did not record any misses in T5 even attacking from Front although people were saying Asclepius ACC cap is supposingly 482. Can someone confirm this?

So here is my concern. I am currently sitting at 1k soldiery tomes with the above BiS. No problems hitting T6 and i believe there will be when my static starts going into T7.

Therefore the most dreaded question. Where do is start gearing first. In 2.1, Zenith was the go to upgrade first before anything else follow by Body and gears on the left and then the accessories. So moving forward with soldiery tomes how do i go about gearing up my monk. Keeping in mind that i should be hitting ACC caps on coils.

Note:
I have all monk/dragoon/primal accessories if there is a need to swap to get ACC caps.

Any pro monk willing to give some advise on this? Very much appreciated.

Recommended Gear Progression With Soldiery Only:
1) Weathered Gloam Brais (+4 Accuracy, +2 Determination, +6 Vitality) - 825 Soldiery
Total
Str 494 (+5)| Acc 476 (+4) | 550 Crit | 296 Det | 356 Skill Speed | 402 Vit

2) Weathered Gloam Earrings(+12 Accuracy, +6 Critical, -11 Determination)
Str 497 (+8)| Acc 476 (+16) | 550 Crit (+6) | 285 Det (-11) | 356 Skill Speed | 402 Vit

Recommended Gear Progression with Soldiery + Coil:
Will update once more info is gathered.

[Donjo]

2 major things here:

1. Your skill speed is too low. I know everyone and their mother says to avoid it, but it only becomes an issue with extremely high numbers among players who don't know how to use Invigorate properly. At the very minimum, you want to hover around 400. This gives you 5 actions during Perfect Balance instead of 4.

2. Accuracy is your biggest bottleneck. The Cap for Turn 6 is allegedly 490 for melee, and it only goes up from there. I'd recommend gearing up such that you reach any required accuracy caps without food. That way, you can eat something like Buttons in a Blanket for maximum damage.

With these particular things in mind, I'd say that your first "gearing" task should be to go get the Wave Patas from Leviathan Extreme. I know you worked hard for that Allagan weapon, but it is honestly a stupidly bad weapon almost entirely because it completely lacks Accuracy. The Wave Patas are a superior i95 weapon for going into the Second Coil, with extra bonuses if you can get a Mirror to bump it to 100. Once you get into Coil, hope for the items necessary to obtain and upgrade the Glanzfaust, because that is the Monk's best weapon for Turn 9. You'll need a very Accuracy optimized gearset if you want to handle the High Allagan Baghnakhs, but that particular set thankfully gives an okay stat distribution.

Regarding Soldiery, the Chest, Legs, and Belt are likely to be indisputable BiS, but the chest makes you lose too much Accuracy right now. Buy Belt, then Pants, and Chest last when you can safely ditch the Accuracy. Leave the boots alone for now; their stats might be bugged because the Weathered and non-Weathered versions are registering as having different stats. Hopefully there is a patch to normalize them, and very hopefully to make the non weathered give Det, as that would become BiS. The Ring is always safe because High Allagan is the only other option, so you'll need both anyway. Farming Thornmarch Extreme and getting the Ribbon of Slaying is an excellent thing to do while you wait for the High Allagan Choker to drop.

[Lucavern]

Wouldn't begin to classify myself as a pro monk yet, but I personally went for the body and ring as my first purchases. My static is having some issues with getting through t7 atm, and I decided getting a few upgrades now would help us get through t7 easier and then worry about weapons. Will probably get pants as well and then save for Glanzfaust.

[enil]

snip

You can get 5 actions in PB under 400SkS if you use the first 3 actions to build up GLx3, which you should be doing anyway.
Accuracy cap for T6 is only 490 attacking from the front, you don't attack from the front enough to make it worth capping. You only need 472~ to cap from side/flank. With smart positioning those stats are better off spent towards more DPS options.

Also - T8 is 12 minutes of pretty much nonstop DPS. If you skill towards SkS too much you are going to have major problems even with perfect invigorate usage. The BRD can sing TP song but ideally you want to minimise this.

[Donjo]

snip.

Well, yes, the entire point of Perfect Balance is to get to GL 3 in three actions. If you don't do that, something is wrong

Either way, a too low skill speed requires you to start Perfect Balance in GL 1 in order to get 5 actions, which kind of defeats the point of getting to 3 quickly and then getting a free two max power attacks.

On other notes, there is definitive proof that all monsters have different Acc caps based on attack location? I wonder when we'll get a number for Turn 9 flank/back...

[enil]

Well, yes, the entire point of Perfect Balance is to get to GL 3 in three actions. If you don't do that, something is wrong

Either way, a too low skill speed requires you to start Perfect Balance in GL 1 in order to get 5 actions, which kind of defeats the point of getting to 3 quickly and then getting a free two max power attacks.

On other notes, there is definitive proof that all monsters have different Acc caps based on attack location? I wonder when we'll get a number for Turn 9 flank/back...

You definately do not over 400 to get 5 PB skills, I'm currently running 377 and still can do it. You might have issues if you use macros and are unable to queue abilities and I believe you can still do it with even less SkS. There is defintive proof, I believe testing was done with characters under level 50 vs target dummies. They were able to get 100% hit rate from the back over 1000s of attacks while missing from front/flank.

[Misake]

I don't know where Donjo came from but everything he said is false.

Here's my advice: Get the crafted chest, gloves, belt and shoes, meld them to the max with accuracy, det, etc.. You should have MORE than enough accuracy and plenty of DPS till turn 8 with Allagan Baghnaks. Now, if your group allow you to get the items from coil in order to get your Glanzfaust weapon, then there is where you should spend your soldiery.

You definitely don't need wave patas, nor wasting your time getting the mirror in order to upgrade it to tidal wave patas since it is shit anyway.
Also the 400 SS required is another broscience circulating in this forum.

[enil]

How soon do you think you can get T7 and what are the chances you are getting the UAT? If either is high save 1300 for weapon.

Other than that.

-- Ring will always be BiS unless new ilvl110 rings come out.
-- Pants are very good if you need accuracy, also Monk legs most likely will drop from T9 so yeh.
-- Chest is BiS vs HA in all situations, but HA drops from T7 so you may want to hold off.

Do you run 2x melee or single? Having no competition for accessories might mean you should hold off upgrading those with Soldiery.
If you have money you can craft and penta meld ilvl90 gear, it will be as good as ilvl 100 weathered gear, so if you are trying to maximize your dps accessories might be better.

Otherwise not much Gloam is BIS.

[Donjo]

You definately do not over 400 to get 5 PB skills, I'm currently running 377 and still can do it. You might have issues if you use macros and are unable to queue abilities and I believe you can still do it with even less SkS. There is defintive proof, I believe testing was done with characters under level 50 vs target dummies. They were able to get 100% hit rate from the back over 1000s of attacks while missing from front/flank.

Well, that's pretty neat. I hope we can get extensive numbers soon for the Second Coil then. Also, I never said "over" 400. I said "around 400", of which 356(the OP's SkS in their current 2.1 BiS set) definitely is not. I'm currently at 372 and it's usually pretty close for me, particularly if I use a long animation move as my final hit. It's reasonable to assume that having between 390-400 makes a 5 hit PB all kinds of easy and isn't enough SkS to make TP a huge issue in long fights. Either way, it seems more difficult to avoid SkS this patch than in 2.1. We'll just have to see.

I don't know where Donjo came from but everything he said is false.

Here's my advice: Get the crafted chest, gloves, belt and shoes, meld them to the max with accuracy, det, etc.. You should have MORE than enough accuracy and plenty of DPS till turn 8 with Allagan Baghnaks. Now, if your group allow you to get the items from coil in order to get your Glanzfaust weapon, then there is where you should spend your soldiery.

You definitely don't need wave patas, nor wasting your time getting the mirror in order to upgrade it to tidal wave patas since it is shit anyway.
Also the 400 SS required is another broscience circulating in this forum.

Um, toxic forum environment much? We've already proven that I was wrong about the accuracy cap, but that is literally the only thing in my post that can be construed as factually false. Everything else is just a matter of differing opinions.

You want the OP to buy four crafted i90 pieces and completely meld them? He has zero crafting classes at all. It would literally cost millions of gil to do this. Additionally, research would have to be done on each piece regarding whether or not the secondary stats added by this outweigh the strength being lost by not actually having an i100 item. Vitality must also be considered if the Second Coil has significant unavoidable damage.

Also, the Wave Patas are not shit, and the Tidal Wave Patas are especially not shit. The Sphairai Animus, however, is shit. Trying to say that the Allagan Baghnakhs are better than the Tidal Wave Patas is false, as 2 WD > 19 Det. The Tidal Wave Patas are the best i100 weapon to invest in until the Glanzfaust is reasonably obtainable. If the Weathered Glanzfaust is reasonably obtainable right now, then there's no harm in saving the tomes for it. After all, upgrading a DPS weapon is the best way to increase damage. Here's the 2.2 weapon breakdown from worst to best:

Wave Patas =? Allagan Baghnakhs(Depends if Acc is an issue) < Sphairai Animus < Tidal Wave Patas < Weathered Glanzfaust < Glanzfaust < High Allagan Baghnakhs.

To reiterate, Weapon Damage is better than any number of secondary stats that can be gained by foregoing it.

To the OP: If you can hit Turn 7's Accuracy cap, whatever it is, without spending Soldiery, and then get that Unidentified Tomestone, the Weathered Glanzfaust is probably the best first thing to spend tomes on. Getting the Wave Patas is the easiest way for you to get additional Accuracy if you need it, and it will not make you lose a catastrophic amount of damage. Don't forget the Ribbon of Slaying either; it's the best 100 for Monks, I'd say.

[Ricdeau]

Well, that's pretty neat. I hope we can get extensive numbers soon for the Second Coil then. Also, I never said "over" 400. I said "around 400", of which 356(the OP's SkS in their current 2.1 BiS set) definitely is not. I'm currently at 372 and it's usually pretty close for me, particularly if I use a long animation move as my final hit. It's reasonable to assume that having between 390-400 makes a 5 hit PB all kinds of easy and isn't enough SkS to make TP a huge issue in long fights. Either way, it seems more difficult to avoid SkS this patch than in 2.1. We'll just have to see.

I just wanted to throw this in. I have 356 skill speed, and I can do 5 weapon skill from a fresh Perfect Balance while still weaving in my damage buffs and off GCDs. No real difficulty in doing it until it's a poor boss pull and it's moving around too much, but even with some movement getting off 5 moves, buffs, and off GCDs isn't a problem.

I dropped down to 356 just recently as well so previously my skill speed was 391 (I think) at the beginning of last week, and was at 441 until I bought the soldiery chest second week of 2.2. I haven't noticed any real difference in being able to do 5 skills under PB regardless of the skill speed involved. I'd get screwed by the same things regardless of my current speed.