Monk Guide by Toxictaru

Various job traits and abilities are available to Monk, from reducing Hand-to-Hand delay to reducing the amount of TP gained by a mob. You can gain significant boosts to attack, evasion and accuracy. Monks also get access to another kind of attack not found anywhere else in the game: Kick Attacks.

Typically a Monk really only needs 2 subjobs, the rest are situational. A Monk should have at LEAST Warrior and Ninja leveled to 37, but may benefit from DRK, WHM or THF.

Warrior: Many Monks consider Warrior to be the best subjob available to them. With Attack Bonus and Defense Bonus, Berserk, Defender, and Warcry, Monks are unstoppable powerhouses while using /WAR. The biggest advantage, however, is Double Attack, which can proc on both hands. A level later, you'll gain your first Kick Attacks upgrade, meaning you can very likely land 5 hits in one attack round. The downside to Warrior sub is that Monks can and will be eaten alive by mobs, as they can easily steal hate from even the best tanks. You also have access to Provoke for emergency situations. Monks should use Warrior for as long as possible.

• Provoke: Gained at Monk level 10
• Defense Bonus: Gained at Monk level 20
• Berserk: Gained at Monk level 30
• Defender: Gained at Monk level 50
• Double Attack: Gained at Monk level 50
• Attack Bonus: Gained at Monk level 60
• Warcry: Gained at Monk level 70.

Ninja: Ninja is a typical end-game subjob. Monks will lose access to double attack, but will find themselves pulling hate in the TP burn era where tanks don't quite work the same as they did previously. The major advantage to this subjob is Utsusemi. Try to hold off using this sub for a while, but always have it handy, because EXP and merit parties will expect you to have it.

• Utsusemi: Ichi: Gained at Monk level 24
• Utsusemi: Ni: Gained at Monk level 74

Dark Knight: This is a very situational subjob, and not a necessary one, however, it is fun to use. A small MP pool with not grant you much in the way of accessible spells, but you will have access to Stun, which is probably the only useful thing you can cast that won't be resisted. The major advantage to this subjob is the combination of Hundred Fists with Souleater, which is very much suicide for a Monk without a dedicated healer... however, the damage output is incredible, and useful on fights that need to be finished fast (Perhaps only truly useful on Dynamis Lord). You will also gain Attack Bonus and Last Resort, which are both useful.

• Attack Bonus I/II: Gained at Monk level 20 and level 60
• Last Resort: Gained at Monk level 30
• Souleater: Gained at Monk level 60

White Mage: Another situational subjob. Mostly used in HNM when direct melee isn't viable, either because of unwanted TP gain, or defense that is far too high. The purpose of using WHM sub is because it provides a direct increase to the MND stat, which is used directly in the calculation of Chi Blast damage. While not always necessary, a Monk should have a good MND build and WHM for just in case. You also gain a small amount of MP and the ability to pop off some handy cures in a pinch. Not a viable EXP sub by any means.

Thief: Mostly used as a farming sub, but can be handy for hate control in the later levels. As Monk gains access to higher level weapon skills, Sneak Attack and Trick Attack can be used to close a Light skillchain with Dragon Kick. It can be devastating to the mob, and should solidify hate on the tank. Flee is always fun to have too. Not necessary, but can break up the monotony of the EXP grind.

• Gilfinder: Gained at Monk level 10
• Treasure Hunter: Gained at Monk level 30
• Sneak Attack: Gained at Monk level 30
• Flee: Gained at Monk level 50
• Trick Attack: Gained at Monk level 60

Dancer: SE brought us Dancer with Wings of the Goddess. Dancer is a very interesting sub that is proving to be handy in a lot of solo situations. Dancer was designed to be a front-line healer, and as a subjob, you still gain a lot of those abilities. The main advantage is the fact that it relies solely on TP for all healing abilities, and Monk gets a lot of TP pretty quickly. Dancer offers an En-drain effect in the form of Drain Samba, and also grants a TP-based Cure III (Curing Waltz II), as well as an Erase ability (Healing Waltz). You'll also save money on Silent Oil and Prism Power/Shinobi Tabi, as Spectral Jig can cover both for free. Dancer also gets Evasion Bonus and Accuracy Bonus. Coupled with its own abilities, Monk can greatly benefit from Dancer sub in a lot of situations, from solo to events.

• Drain Samba: Gained at Monk level 10
• Evasion Bonus: Gained at Monk level 30
• Curing Waltz: Gained at Monk level 30
• Animated Flourish: Gained at Monk level 40
• Quickstep: Gained at Monk level 40
• Divine Waltz: Gained at Monk level 50
• Spectral Jig: Gained at Monk level 50
• Accuracy Bonus: Gained at Monk level 60
• Box Step: Gained at Monk level 60
• Curing Waltz II: Gained at Monk level 60
• Desperate Flourish: Gained at Monk level 60
• Drain Samba II: Gained at Monk level 70
• Healing Waltz: Gained at Monk level 70

I once read someone describe Monk to me this way. It was originally told to me by my wife, who is also a Monk.

Solo Monk to 20, grind the next 55 levels, become a walking God.

From what I've experienced, its mostly true. Monk unfortunately falls under the "Just another DD" blanket. Unless there is a massive shortage of melees, you will be up against a lot of competitions for jobs. It isn't so horrible these days, but there were times where Monks just weren't invited. If you enjoy staticing with people, or have a reliable person that you can set with, consider doing it. I was lucky enough to pair my Monk with a Bard, and got it to 75 in less than 2 months. However, it doesn't particularly change the way you'll play the job.

A typical day for a Monk involves engaging and waiting for TP. True of most melee jobs, of course. Some people like to pop off job abilities like they're out to prove something, but don't get yourself more hate than you need. A bad way to start off a fight is to hit every one of your job abilities. Pace yourself. Don't pop Dodge just because you can, although it isn't typically a bad idea, you'll find that Dodge can save you from taking a hit or two when you don't need to.

As you progress, you'll find a good balance, but one great way of working things is to rotate your job abilities. You should be subbing WAR for most of your time, so conserve some of your more useful ones. A good rotation is the Focus/Berserk rotation. You'll notice that they both have 5 minute timers, one ability lasts for 3 minutes, the other for 2. Save them! If you have Berserk up, save your Focus, and vise versa. Alternate your weapon skills. In the early levels, especially for new Monks (or melees in general), don't use a weapon skill just because you got it. A rule of thumb is that just because you got it at a higher level doesn't mean its better. If you want a good example of this, look at Warrior, who gain Rampage in the mid-50s, and continue using it all the way through end-game.

You'll gain the following weapon skills in your journey to 75. The first few will be given a skill level and an approximate job level, as time spent soloing may give different results, as it is impossible to cap skills for your level on EP/DC mobs, which you'll likely be fighting.

• Combo: Gained upon reaching 5 H2H skill. Approximately level 1 - 2. Use this for a while.
• Shoulder Tackle: Gained upon reaching 40 H2H skill. Approximately level 13. Don't bother with this unless you need to stun.
• One Inch Punch: Gained upon reaching 75 H2H skill, at level 24. Hardly useful, don't waste your TP.
• Backhand Blow: Gained upon reaching 100 H2H skill, at level 33. Rotate this and Combo, until you get
• Raging Fists: Gained upon reaching 125 H2H skill, at level 41. This is the first of the WSes that define Monk as a powerhouse. Before this WS, your WS damage is GOOD, but not great. Raging Fists makes Monks look great. Now is when you stop using Combo, rotate Raging Fists and Backhand Blow.
• Spinning Attack: Gained upon reaching 150 H2H skill, at level 49. This WS is AoE, so be careful, it isn't particularly useful in EXP, but can be handy for farming low level mobs, by training and then hitting them all. Save your TP.
• Howling Fist: Gained upon reaching 200 H2H skill, at level 60. Yay, Monk can finally do Distortion. Swap this with Backhand Blow.
• Dragon Kick: Gained upon reaching 225 H2H skill, at level 65. This is the WS to have THF sub leveled. It is used to open or close (preferably close if subbing THF) Light skillchain. Unless you need to do Distortion, use this or Raging Fists.
• Asuran Fists: Gained upon reaching 250 H2H skill, which is at level 70, and upon completing the quest The Walls of Your Mind, which can only be granted and completed when you are level 71. This is THE Monk WS. At this point in time, unless you need a Light skillchain, you use Asuran Fists. This is what makes Monks good.

Now, to explain the rotation. Monks get a decent mix of multi-hit and single-hit WSes. Monk relies heavily on accuracy, which becomes more and more important as you get higher. To rotate, you use Berserk for 3 minutes, and when it wears off, use Focus. By the time Focus has worn off, Berserk should be back up. So what you do is this, when you have Berserk UP, you use single hit WSes, as they're less likely to miss. The useful single-hit WSes that Monk has are Backhand Blow, Howling Fist, and Dragon Kick. The multi-hit WSes are Combo (3 hits), Raging Fists (5 hits), and Asuran Fists (8 hits), and for these, you want to be as accurate as possible, so as to land as many (hopefully all) of the hits, for damage. Hopefully this makes sense, but I'll try to clear it up.

Until you gain Raging Fists, you'll want to Berserk for Backhand Blow and Focus for Combo. When you gain Raging Fists, you'll want to continue using Berserk on Backhand Blow but use Raging Fists under Focus. From there, its a simple matter of following the instruction, replacing as needed. Ultimately, you'll just keep using Asuran Fists and be done with it, it won't matter any more, because people rarely expect you to actually skillchain... but its still good to know. For reference, Dragon Kick is Light, Asuran Fists is Darkness.

Hope I didn't lose anyone back there. You may find yourself in a situation where you stop worrying about it so much. Backhand Blow is actually a pretty good WS, and you may feel that Combo just isn't worth it any more, and thats fine. I came to the same conclusion myself, and I was lazy about hitting different macros. Raging Fists was too good to not use, either under Focus OR Berserk, so when I gained that WS, I stopped rotating all together, as I found it was best. Upon gaining Howling Fist, I'd switch back and forth depending on how good my accuracy was overall; if I found it to be bad, I typically liked to use Howling Fist (and with the recent update, it is actually even better). I also used it for Distortion if called upon. Otherwise, if my accuracy was good, I liked to use Raging Fists a lot, as it really is a powerful WS. When I gained Dragon Kick, I stopped caring, and used it full-time, I found it to be really good. Of course, with Asuran Fists, its best to just use that, and get as much accuracy as you can. By the time you get it, you're probably going to be partying on NIN sub anyway, so worrying about Berserk is really a non-issue.

Ok!

Thats it. Otherwise you just engage and walk away until you have TP. WS when you can, try not to kill yourself.

A thing that bothers me about a lot of Monks is their constant use of Boost, using it every 15 seconds. Because of the nature of Monk, your typical hits are going to be good, but not absolutely amazing. There is typically a major damage curve that you're in, and you'll find your numbers can be all over the place, hitting from 30 to 70, and everywhere in between. Boost will very rarely make you actually hit over your current max, and its only a 12.5% increase. You might see an extra 2-3 points of damage. That is pointless. Many new Monks don't understand that our true power comes from attacking repeatedly and fast. If you use Boost every 15 seconds, you're more likely than not going to do it in between attack rounds, and using a Job Ability (on any job) in between attack rounds actually resets your delay timer. That means, if you had 1/4 of a second before your next attack and you boosted, you'd get reset back to 0. Over time, that adds up fast, and you'll find that extra 2-3 points of damage (which only procs on the first hit, the FIRST punch) is not worth it. Boost should be reserved for Chi Blast or immediately before a weapon skill. That's right, macro your weapon skills, and make sure you Boost before every single one. That extra attack increase really beefs up your WS. Another thing people don't consider is the amount of hate that Boost actually generates... it is typically accepted that Boost has about 1/3rd the hate of a Provoke, which means if you're Boosting every 15 seconds, you're basically Provoking a mob every 45 seconds or so, and thats bad.

Don't pop Dodge off every opportunity you get. This is once again a hate issue... it generates Enmity that you just don't need. Of course, if suddenly your tank dies and you're the next in line, THEN you hit Dodge, it'll help keep you alive. Save Dodge for the times where you REALLY need that extra evasion.

Chi Blast. Chi Blast is a lot of fun when you first get it. Most Monks are aware of the Boost/Chi correlation by the time they get it, so the first thing most of them do is Boost up on a pull, and blast a mob for 300-400 points of damage. Now, that might not seem like a big number in end-game, but consider that at level 45, most BLMs are pushing to hit that number. Suddenly, the mob is staring at you and the tank can't get it off of you. It typically doesn't ever stop them, but the game has a funny way of letting you know when its time to stop, most Monks will stop doing it when they die as a result. That isn't to say don't ever Chi Blast, it is a great extra bit of damage, which easily adds up over time, pop it off when it comes up, or boost 3-4 times while waiting for the puller to come back, and fire it off, its a decent bit of damage, and it helps. Just beware, at level 50, don't Boost 11-12 times because there is some downtime, and fire it off as soon as the mob gets to camp, otherwise you're facing at least another 5 minutes of downtime.

The big one. Counterstance. Counterstance is a defining ability that Monk has. It dramatically increases your counter rate at the expense of basically all of your defense, you become paper thin against mobs than hit like trucks. While it can save your ass in some situations, you'll find that without meriting your Counter Rate (which will be impossible for an up-and-coming Monk) and possessing Melee Gaiters, you're just going to get killed instead. Don't use it unless you think its ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. If you've ever seen a Monk counter-tank, you'll realize why we can get away with some of the stuff we do, but be aware, a level 75 Monk probably has merits and some good gear to go with it, you're not going to be able to do the same thing at level 45. You've been warned. Also, the ability has hate attached to it, so its just pulling unwanted attention to yourself. Save it for playing until you can really be badass.

You'll also gain Chakra on the way, which gives you the ability to heal some HP and be a little less of a burden on your healer from time to time. The ability will draw hate, but this time its not really worth worrying about, you want to stay alive, and Chakra can help. Use it when you need it, but don't pop it off just cause you can, 2 minutes later you might be dead.

As for subjob uses, typically, you'll want to keep on Warrior sub for as long as possible. Don't hurt yourself by showing up to a party with Utsusemi: Ichi at level 45... you're only hurting yourself. You should be able to handle Warrior sub all the way to 70, but then you really need to consider damage mitigation. I was back and forth on WAR and NIN subs until about level 73, when I went Ninja sub full-time. If you have it, you can spend some time on THF sub in the 60s, no sooner. There are positive benefits to SATA->Howling Fist, but THF sub really shines at around level 65, when you get Dragon Kick, as I've mentioned before. It is situational, but if your party is willing to let you, go for it, it'll be fun for a few levels. The other subs mentioned above are for end-game uses, so don't bother using them in EXP.

That about covers the level grind.

Now that you've made it here, you might as what to do next. If this is your first job to 75, welcome to the land of meriting, I hope your linkshell has told you how it works. I won't get too far in to it, but once you get used to the system (and it doesn't take very long), you can start making some moves to making yourself even better.

Prior to the Group 2 merits, Monk was pretty cut and dry, there weren't many questions on how to do things. Its still pretty simple, but you might want to consider how you're going to play the job at 75.

That said, a good Monk merit layout should look something like this. Merit H2H skill the maximum of 8 times, this is a direct and permanent increase to your H2H skill, and 1 skill = 1 accuracy. I cannot stress the importance of accuracy to a Monk. With 8/8 H2H merits, your skill will sit at 292 when capped at level 75. This is important as you can likely phase a piece of accuracy gear out for something better, if available. Alternately, you could do Critical Hit Rate increases, it will increase your rate of crits by 4%, which adds up huge over time. H2H and crits should be done first, but the order isn't important, but consider that H2H takes more merits to complete.

From there, the progression is however you want it to be, but the best idea is to stick to what works. Monk is a job that relies on Counter when they have hate, because as any Monk will tell you, we get lots of HP and VIT, but we get screwed for high defense gear. Merit Counter 5/5 times, you'll benefit greatly from it. In this TP burn world we live in, we want to gain TP as fast as humanly possible, and Monk has an extra attacking limb to benefit from this: Kick Attacks. If you merit kick attacks 5/5, you're going to see an increase of 5% to your kick attack rate. Thats a lot for TPing. That covers Group 1 merits. You can lower the recast time on Focus/Dodge/Chakra, but its not really worth it.

Group 2 merits are a little blah. Of the 4, the best are probably Invigorate and Penance. Invigorate adds a Regen effect to Chakra, which essentially just gives you even MORE HP back. I strongly recommend you merit this 4/5 or 5/5, as it will, on top of whatever you Chakra for, give you an extra 320-400 HP, for free. This adds to our survivability in soloing. Formless Strikes is worth having at 1 just to actually have it, in case you need it. Penance is a major player in end-game, especially low-man events to inhibit TP gain by the mob, do it to 4/5 or 5/5 depending on how your other group 2 merits are divided up.

Beyond that, you'll want to consider your next course of action. A melee-centric player should consider fully meriting STR. This is considered the long haul in meriting, the thing no one looks forward to. It takes a long time, but is worth it. Don't prioritize it on Monk, but definitely don't ignore it. Give it a lower priority, but definitely invest in the time, you'll see a WS and damage curve increase. After that, your race should dictate what you need to do. You'll want to invest in either HP or MP merits, depending on future job selection. If you're a Galka or Elvaan, don't bother with HP merits, you have enough already, and your MP sucks, if you ever decide to spend time on a mage job. For Taru, however, your already incredible MP pool means you should invest your time in HP merits. Everyone else, just sort of distribute as you see fit.

Finally, a bit of a touchy subject. Enmity merits. These can be a bit deadly if you also play mage jobs. However, if you are playing as a tank, more Enmity is a good thing. Meriting enmity is by no means necessary, but depending on your play-style, it may be worth taking a look at.

Try to spend some time doing other events, you'll find that relic gear from Dynamis can be helpful, especially the city pieces. Melee Gloves obtained from either Dynamis - Jeuno or Dynamis - Qufim are a wonderful addition to any Chakra macro, as it directly increases the VIT modifier, which means more HP back. Melee Hose are good TP pieces, especially with merited Kick Attacks. Melee Gaiters are great for solo, as they give a direct increase to your counter rate (believed to be 10%).

You have a lot of options from here. Spend some time doing sky, if you have time, as there are some great pieces of God gear for Monk. There is Genbu's Kabuto that gives +15 VIT, which is amazing for Chakra, it was a welcome addition to my inventory. Many people will recommend Byakko's Haidate, as they give Haste and +15 DEX, which just means faster attacks and more accuary. Suzaku's Sune-Ate give +15 MND, which is good for Chi Blast. Kirin's Osode is debatable, but I've personally been using it for a while, and haven't found myself really lacking in the DD department for it. You can also obtain abjurations in sky, used for uncursing crafted items. Monk can specifically equip the Shura set, most of which is really good for us, Shura Togi, who's abjuration drops from Kirin himself is often considered to be the best melee piece for Monk overall, but is very expensive to uncurse. Shura Zunari Kabuto gives some STR and Attack, and go well in a WS macro, as well as Shura Haidate.

The world is yours at 75, you'll probably find yourself welcome in any type of Salvage linkshell you can find, simply due to the nature of the event. You might have problems in some other types of shells (HNMs and Monks don't typically go so well together), but overall, you'll find yourself welcome to a lot of things.

Monk can rely heavily on macros for their job abilities, as AF and Relic can directly affect the effectiveness of those abilities. All but one of the Monk AF pieces has some place in a macro, somewhere. While typical of AF, none of the pieces stand out as truly amazing (except for the legs, for Guarding skill, should you have enough for it to be useful), but they have some interesting effects on them. There are enhancements, none of which require the full-time use of the AF itself. You are able to actually equip the relevant piece, trigger the job ability, and swap back to your normal piece of gear, while still gaining the enhanced effect.

Artifact Armor:

• On Temple Gaiters, you'll find that there is an enhancement to Dodge. It gives Dodge an extra 10 evasion, bringing the Dodge effect up to +30 evasion for the duration.
• On Temple Gloves, you'll find an enhancement to Boost. It makes Boost give an attack return of +18.5% while wearing them, as well as a hidden effect for Chi Blast, which greatly increases the damage calculations, as described earlier in this guide.
• On Temple Cyclas, there is an enhancement to Chakra. Chakra on its own gives an HP return of VIT*2. AF body will increase that to VIT*3.
• On Temple Crown, there is a Focus enhancement. It works like Dodge, but gives an extra +10 to your Accuracy instead, lasting for the duration.

Relic Armor:

• On Melee Gloves, there is another Chakra increase, increasing the modifier by 0.6. A good Chakra macro will include lots of VIT gear, and BOTH your AF body and Melee Gloves (should you have them). The maximum VIT modifier for Chakra is 3.6.
• On Melee Gaiters, as mentioned a couple of times around this guide, there is an enhancement to the Counterstance effect. While no one is entirely sure of the increase, the best of our community have settled on a 10% counter frequency increase.

Basically, carry your AF around with you all the time, and make sure you macro them accordingly. If you can get those two pieces of Relic Armor, even better.

A typical macro for a Job Ability will look like this:

/equip feet "Melee Gaiters"

/ja "Counterstance" <me>

/wait 1

/equip feet "Your usual foot piece"

The rest of your abilities can be macroed the same way. For Chakra, it'll work a little different, but the idea stays the same. Get as much VIT+ gear as you can (except for hands and body, if you have the respective AF/Relic) and swap in to it, Chakra, then swap back to usual.

Monk should also macro weapon skills. With Boost, you can actually directly increase the damage done on the first hit of your WS. If you don't macro it it, you'll find over time that your damage does decrease, for obvious reasons.

A typical macro for a Weapon Skill will look like this:

/ja "Boost" <me>

/wait 1

/ws "Weapon Skill" <t>

These are very basic macros, and as your gear gets better, or you get more situational gear, you'll find you need to macro accordingly. For example, I do not WS in STR gear at level 75 (as the STR modifier on Asuran Fists is only 10%, therefore not absolutely amazing), but instead I try to stack on more accuracy. Asuran Fists is the definitive WS for Monk, but also raises the problem of being 8 hits. Attempting to land all 8 hits is a chore, especially if you're stacked in STR gear... you're probably going to miss some hits. That STR isn't going to help you if you aren't landing them all, it only marginally increases the damage done on the hits you land. So get a nice accuracy build, and swap it in. The trick to Monk and WS, especially later in the game, with Asuran Fists, is to do everything YOU can to make sure you land all of those hits.

Beyond that, Monk isn't much in the way of macros. We lack any real ranged weapons before level 70, so pull macros aren't worth having. Unless you swap a lot of gear in for stuff, you'll find that while macros are vital to a Monk, there aren't a whole lot. I keep a few macros specifically for swapping in to various pieces of gear based on what I'm fighting and my party layout. I have my typical all-around TP gear layout, I have a Haste set, and of course, for those times when there just aren't enough Bards, an accuracy set. Be creative, but avoid stupid party chat stuff. I don't care if you're using Focus, it isn't affecting my life... but I also don't care about your Super Saiyan Asuran Fists either. KISS is a way of life.