As I hinted yesterday, I want to share some of my thoughts on monks. Up until Samius leveled through his Bowonk live the deepest monk I had was Samius jr with 12 or 13 monk levels. And as I said yesterday he was very old school. He kept getting back burnered in favor of Samius and Java. Hell even some of my support builds got more lovens.

So what saved monks for me, beyond a 3 level splash for fist of light?

Dark Path, aka Touch of Death and Ninja Spy 1 for Shadow fade. Ninja Spy 2 and its Water Walking power is not bad but as it only works some of the time. And then only some places have water where water walking would be helpful. Having it work on the Lava in most quests is a boon and when it works in Abbot raid is wonderful. Just the kind of thing to make it worth having.

Monks also have some of the best laired synergies.

Let me look at my favorite leveling setup. Earth Stance + Jidz + Stonedust Handwraps(not at 20 monk) + ninja fade. I think I have talked about this before. So I am not going to go in to it again. But trust me -2 dex and -10% movement is nothing for this setup.

Also my monk has Imp Sunder. Tobril was loving on it so hard while leveling up I thought that I would give it a shot. A debuff that a melee can use often that helps ToD and Stuns land? And its effect is only slightly worse if the mob saves? Done! I have been seeing chaining Tods doing 1000+ from good timing and/or double strikes with all the failed saves. On Samius most of my ToDs get saved against for half, which is still good just not great; and I am going to say having Imp Sunder is all the difference.

There will be more monk talk in the coming days, but not right away. I want to talk with you all about a “final” gear layout. I have an epic Jidz and a pair of ToD boots ready for him. And he already has big + stunning 10 wraps as well as holy of stunning 10 wraps. And if I can find some silver wraps I might make some +5 of Vamp Not lesser Vamp but Vamp wraps. But that leaves epic slotting, and lots of other slots.

Okay peace and lets start the last year of good times off right. See you in 2012.

❤