Tips for new Monks

Hey all, I thought I'd share my experiences from previous RO2 betas for the new players among us. This will not cover anything endgame related, just some advice on becoming a monk and what to do about stats and skill points.

Note: Monks are actually tanks in RO2!
Unlike RO1, Monks are actually (the best?) tanks in RO2. While they can be used to deal DPS, people will usually expect them to be the tank.

General note on the primary stat of a class
In RO2 one can separate "INT based" and "STR based" classes: depending on which one you are, either INT or STR will give you Parry and (Magical) Attack Damage. Mages and Acolytes are INT based: getting no benefit from STR at all. Monks are STR based, receiving no benefit from INT at all. Or do they?

As an Acolyte, you will have to level INT to get anything done, but the Monk is a STR based class. To enable you to raise INT as an Acolyte anyway, the Monk has the Spiritual Cadence skill (you will have this skill automatically) which will basically convert your INT into STR.

Stats
While levelling your Acolyte, put all your points in INT. As soon as you change to Monk, put all your points in STR. I'm not an end game Monk expert, but I reckon something among the lines of 40 STR, 40 INT and 8 VIT would work.

When I played Monk on the betas, Spiritual Cadence would give you the Attack Damage and Parry bonus for every point of INT. It is however not listed in the skill sim on ro2base.com. If it turns out it doesn't, then a build like 46 STR, 33 INT and 8 VIT would be better.

Job Change
When you reach level 25, you can become an Monk in Prontera. The job change quest will be given to you wherever you are as soon as you hit the level requirement, so you will not need any guides or whatsoever for this.

When you change from Acolyte to Monk, you will lose all skill points in the Acolyte tree and you will NOT be able to level these skill again.

Monk skills
As a Monk you get access to the skill Steel Body, which will raise your HP by 35%, Defense by 200% and Threat generation by 300% but in return lowers your damage by 10%. Unless you are explicitly NOT tanking a dungeon, you should always have this running in my opinion.

As for the rest of your skills: I recommend investing in your bread-and-butter offensive skills and Iron Skin, a passive that increases your Defense by 50%, which you will need now that you are no longer able to heal yourself.

Recommended lvl 25 Monk skills: http://ro2base.com/b...1.1.1/0.0.0.0.0

Asura Strike
A little different from RO1, but still a nice amount of damage. In RO2 the Monk's main combo is the double Asura: Fury > Throw Sphere (increases damage taken from the Monk) > Asura > Summon Spheres (resets all cooldowns!) > Asura.

Cards
Like RO1, don't worry too much about cards at the beginning: just stick whatever good INT / STR cards you can find in your slots.

Profession
If you're playing with friends, split professions between you. If you're solo, I recommend alchemist.

Edited by NLJarin, 13 April 2013 - 04:37 PM.

As for cards....you'll pretty much be using 5x SCT cards when you hit level 50. I think there's no doubt about that card combinations.

I would like to add on that save zenies for potions when u hit level 25...level 25-30 is a pain to level up due to lack of dmg + defence, and you'll be burning a lot red potions as a result. Steel body and Iron skin should be maxed out asap to guarantee your surivival...

Monks make pretty good MT due to the lack of crowd control skill (lightning crush with CD, cannot spam unlike warrior/knights), but we have protection ki and flee to guard ourselves from AOE and to give some time to priests to stabilize the group.


Int point will function the same as Str point where it gives bonus to atk power and parry.

This is my current build for my monk.

http://www.ro2base.c...310238.22310238

2nd best tanks I'd say, also they have pretty low agility overall, so IDEFK why they get dodge gears. =/

Edited by Yamedo, 19 April 2013 - 04:40 PM.

Does anyone know what skills I should get as an Aco going to Monk? Or does it really not matter?

Doesn't matter, but you should focus on healing skills if you still want to join parties for dungeons before class change..

Okay cool, thanks!
Also, I love your avatar and sig. SNSD hwaiting!

Does anyone know what skills I should get as an Aco going to Monk? Or does it really not matter?

We have to keep in mind that once 25 all your skill point going to be refunded, reseted.

I leveled about 5~6 acos/monk and I can say that, for me, doesnt really matter others skills but those 4 at max:

Holy Light: becouse u are not leveling on groups everytime, and have pretty decent damage. (max first, u dont need heals early)

Oratio: Oratio? Yes, Oratio. it does have a pretty good dot with a very good timing, i mean, the dot its over at exacly point where the mobs usually are about to die and have a VERY GOOD damage/sp cost, at max level it does 120% MATK dmg, wich translates in to 3 holy lights. Once aplied it wont miss.

Renovatio this skill make your life soo easy that even lvl 1 with average equips can hold a party on normal dungeons and those elite mobs. instant cast with a heal over time. Seriously, if u die, ur doing it wrong. I ALWAYS max this before the Heal itself. For the good healer this skill makes up to 90% of the instance heals.

Arspersio: This skill... everytime I pop it a tear of joy rolls down my face. For the crit Heal or for the crit Holy Light, despite of your role, it saves life.

*of course Heal its important, but i woudnt max it early due to my soloing playstyle. And more, with arspersio+heal(any level)+renovatio(max) those 'about to die' moments on instances are very less often to happen

The order i prefer its to:
Holy Light (max) > Renovatio (1 pt) > Arspersio (max) > Oratio (max) > Renovatio (max)

But you can:
Holy Light (max) > Renovatio (1 pt) > Oratio (max) > Arspersio (max) > Renovatio (max)

One very last note:Aqua benedicta on every cd makes potions and food close to useless once you have about 300 sp, use it.

Prior to this also, I would like to say that most mistake that people always do right after changed job to Monk is putting on offensive skill right away. Imagine facing those mushrooms. Over hyped with new class and new skills, charged up, and blowing Asura, missed it.. It such a pain and many, actually gave up.. Unless they have proper party, they should have just stick to defensive skills first then gradually taking other skills..

Edited by flysteps, 23 April 2013 - 01:45 PM.

Yes, my advice is to max out Steel Body asap as its key your survival. Next is to place 1 point in all the skills you intend to take, then max out in the following order

Raging Blow -> Heavy Tackle -> Fury

Whether to max out TSS,SSS, Asura, Flee, Lightning Walk, that's your choice.

Thanks everyone for all the excellent suggestions! Can't wait to try this baby out next week!

The steel body tip its THE tip.

Really, there's no need to get any Vit in your base build. Agi is a much better option. Each Vit only gives +6 hp, so that 8 vit is only +48 Hp, that's really nothing. It doesn't even give enough to boost pot effectiveness by 1%. Especially considering you can easily get 15-20 vit per card end game. It's better to put the points into Agi, as it gives you +40 crit and +16 dodge.
Also, I'm not sure why everyone keeps forgetting about Iron Skin. That needs to get maxed when you first turn as well.

Edited by 594164388, 26 April 2013 - 05:46 AM.

Really, there's no need to get any Vit in your base build. Agi is a much better option. Each Vit only gives +6 hp, so that 8 vit is only +48 Hp, that's really nothing. It doesn't even give enough to boost pot effectiveness by 1%. Especially considering you can easily get 15-20 vit per card end game. It's better to put the points into Agi, as it gives you +40 crit and +16 dodge.
Also, I'm not sure why everyone keeps forgetting about Iron Skin. That needs to get maxed when you first turn as well.

Yeah, but the problem is that AGI is almost as useless as VIT, since the Monks have the lowest critical and evade ratio in the game because of the lack of AGI in the equipment. And that "+40 crit and +16 dodge" sounds like a lot, but for a lvl 50 character, a single point of AGI is barely 0.1% of critical, meaning that those 8 points of AGI wouldn't rise your crit rate even to 1 single friggin percent. Now, since those 8 VIT are almost as useless since it would only mean +60 HP or so (with steel body effect), I think for now I'd rather max out both STR & INT until I figure out a way to make a critical monk a viable and reasonable build.

And btw guys, DO NOT TRUST RO2BASE.COM it is the most outdated and unreliable site out there (you'll find pretty stupid builds there too), in the only thing that it's still useful is to plan the distribution of your skill and maybe status points.

Regarding the Monk, I think you should update the main post and add that both STR and INT give attack power and parry.

Edited by JustGabe, 26 April 2013 - 02:57 PM.

Yeah, but the problem is that AGI is almost as useless as VIT, since the Monks have the lowest critical and evade ratio in the game because of the lack of AGI in the equipment. And that "+40 crit and +16 dodge" sounds like a lot, but for a lvl 50 character, a single point of AGI is barely 0.1% of critical, meaning that those 8 points of AGI wouldn't rise your crit rate even to 1 single friggin percent. Now, since those 8 VIT are almost as useless since it would only mean +60 HP or so (with steel body effect), I think for now I'd rather max out both STR & INT until I figure out a way to make a critical monk a viable and reasonable build.

And btw guys, DO NOT TRUST RO2BASE.COM it is the most outdated and unreliable site out there (you'll find pretty stupid builds there too), in the only thing that it's still useful is to plan the distribution of your skill and maybe status points.

Regarding the Monk, I think you should update the main post and add that both STR and INT give attack power and parry.

Which is why in end-game, vit is a better option to add over agi, as for me I take stats as an extra "card bonus" where i can pump which stats i need the most.

even a 20 point vit will result in a 120 hp boost. Compound that with all the buff pots/food/blessing, it actually adds up a lot.

even a 20 point vit will result in a 120 hp boost. Compound that with all the buff pots/food/blessing, it actually adds up a lot.

Yeah, in that regard VIT is a bit more useful than AGI, but a boost of 120 HP is still almost nothing when a lvl 50 monk who has average equip has an average HP of what? 6k-8k? or so I've been told...I still have to level my monk up to 50 and see if the distribution in VIT is worth it.

SO a Monk in RO2 can still be viable as a DPS..r-right? I dont need to hide behind other DPS classes?

SO a Monk in RO2 can still be viable as a DPS..r-right? I dont need to hide behind other DPS classes?

It's my understanding that while they CAN DPS it isn't nearly as good as a pure DPS class. I may be wrong though.

It's my understanding that while they CAN DPS it isn't nearly as good as a pure DPS class. I may be wrong though.

meh...well ill be still playin female moe monk no matter what.

meh...well ill be still playin female moe monk no matter what.

Monks are a very viable DPS Class and even if you do it pure DPS, they can still work as Tankers, since skills like "Iron Skin" (+50% def) and "Steel Body" (+35% HP +200% def, boy I really DO LOVE this buff!), and even "Protection Ki" make it a natural Tanker (and if you add "Intimidate" you have a reliable Boss Tank).

This is what I would to for a pure-DPS that can also be an off-tank, main difference? instead of spending points on Protection Ki, use them on Throw Spirit Sphere, and others:
http://www.ro2base.c...1.1.1/0.0.0.0.0

Thats some nice insight you gave me there, kudos to you, my friend. Well after some researching myself, i really feel myself more into the tank role kinda. Like always, im coming back to the tank role...maybe its fate lol (*≧▽≦)ﾉｼ))

^Sono Hanabira... Anyways thanks for this guide, my friend completely messed up!

I have a monk in SEA with aod/coa gear...let me know if anyone is interested to see monk's stats in end-game...From what i can say is, dps wise, its not very impressive, but very good for tanking.

I have a monk in SEA with aod/coa gear...let me know if anyone is interested to see monk's stats in end-game...From what i can say is, dps wise, its not very impressive, but very good for tanking.

I would like to know how easy/hard is it to get that gear? and what is the name of that gear? I also would like to know too the status boost they give. Thanks in advance!

And btw, I've been checking at http://www.gaming-base.net the best Monk set, and apparently there are 2 sets of AoD, one which grants more Parry and Dodge, and the other granting Vigor and Haste, do you happen to have any experience you could share with us about how you feel the difference between them? from what I see one is ideal for Tanking and solo'ing while the other is ideal for DPS, but I dunno which one could be more suited for PvP.

Edited by JustGabe, 04 May 2013 - 02:58 PM.

I would like to know how easy/hard is it to get that gear? and what is the name of that gear? I also would like to know too the status boost they give. Thanks in advance!

And btw, I've been checking at http://www.gaming-base.net the best Monk set, and apparently there are 2 sets of AoD, one which grants more Parry and Dodge, and the other granting Vigor and Haste, do you happen to have any experience you could share with us about how you feel the difference between them? from what I see one is ideal for Tanking and solo'ing while the other is ideal for DPS, but I dunno which one could be more suited for PvP.

There you go













AOD gear currently is extremely hard to obtain. Maya purple hits me for about 8k-12k. AFAIK Only monks and vit-based knights are able to tank this. Maya purple will just tear bear and warriors to shreds, unless the warrior has max parry.

You will also need a FS priest that will just continuously spam heals you.

AOD gear currently is extremely hard to obtain. Maya purple hits me for about 8k-12k. AFAIK Only monks and vit-based knights are able to tank this. Maya purple will just tear bear and warriors to shreds, unless the warrior has max parry.

You will also need a FS priest that will just continuously spam heals you.

Absolutely agreed =_=,. So hard to take down Maya Purple, we really do need FS of priest and sorc if possible.

Here this is my aod/colo gears, stats and skill build w/o buff :3 (I wish it can help for those who wanna be a Tanker build )



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Edited by Pzulp, 05 May 2013 - 07:08 PM.