Alternative Monk Tactics

When playing as my monk, normally I would just spam x the entire time and heal when needed. But I opted for more skills like the lightning dash and meteor skill.
I feel mixing in these knockdown skills keeps me safer when battling mobs since I do have problems when 5 or more monsters are stacked together and they are not dying fast enough.
I do use cat head and diffusion cannon. I would normally shift back and forth laterally with these mobs to avoid damage but I find that these knockdown attacks keep me safer and actually allow me to clear mobs faster.
Also, I don't understand how I can use meteor in combination with air combo. The meteor does not launch monsters high enough to be hit. I have meteor at level 3 right now. Do I need to go to 5 to air combo. And what about that meteor upgrade, is that viable?
And what is the better path, upgrading air combo to lv 3 and get the splitter, or to lv 5 and get the splitter?
I understand these strategies are a matter of opinion, but I would like to know your opinion based on the alternative tactics I'm trying to incorporate.

Meteor should launch most mobs high enough to Air Combo at level 3 -- that's really all you need. Certain mobs are "heavier" than others (razor crabs, etc.) and don't launch as high, so it doesn't work so well for those.

The Meteor upgrade is pointless, b/c it eliminates the launching feature.

Don't bother getting the Air Combo "splitter" skill, it's also a pointless upgrade. Hardly ever useful at all. If it hit all mobs 3 times with each attack instead of once, as usual, it might be useful, but for now, don't bother w/ it.

And you're right, at lower levels (20-30) it can actually be faster to Meteor->Air Combo mobs when there are a lot of them close together, b/c you're hitting multiple enemies at once very quickly. Once you hit 40 and get Double Shot (+ attack speed bonuses), though, just use X-spam.

Edited by Rimmy, 12 November 2010 - 09:46 AM.

kind of necro-ing, but i feel that it's worth mentioning.

From what I could tell after putting the point into it, the splitter upgrade for air combo actually adds "depth" to your air combo, meaning that you can hit mobs that are to the side of you as well with it. If you go into town and turn to face the camera, you'll see that before the upgrade, air combo looks like |, while after the upgrade, it looks like /|\ (if that made any sense at all lol).

Let me explain below.

Normally with air combo, it'll just go in a straight line in front of you. For example, if you launch with your starter skill (point buster) or meteor, due to their aoe range, it'll get mobs that aren't necessarily straight in front of you as well. if you were to air combo right after, the rest'll fall down and you end up getting only a couple with air combo while the majority escapes unscathed. on the other hand, after the upgrade, you'll be able to hit all those other mobs you launched as well, drastically improving the ability of air combo to deal damage.

also, while i'm posting here, i might as well ask - if you have a lower end comp (read: "netbook" @.@) that doesn't really let you get high fps, is x-spamming still a viable strategy? Or am I better off just going to play a warrior--> pala, as the general joke response trend seems to be going nowadays?

Sorry but when I saw the title I thought it was going to be PVP-related. Because to be honest, in PVE, x spam is probably the most efficient and all you'll need (while throwing in spark rock and fire rain here and there). But I suppose you could spice things up:
- meteor + air combo
- lightning dash + air combo (for best height lightning dash should be level 1) <-good tactic in PVP too!
- blink can probably get you out of those sticky situations sometimes

And, like others have said, don't waste SP for the air combo passive.

Edited by invazn, 12 December 2010 - 05:30 AM.

kind of necro-ing, but i feel that it's worth mentioning.

From what I could tell after putting the point into it, the splitter upgrade for air combo actually adds "depth" to your air combo, meaning that you can hit mobs that are to the side of you as well with it. If you go into town and turn to face the camera, you'll see that before the upgrade, air combo looks like |, while after the upgrade, it looks like /|\ (if that made any sense at all lol).

Let me explain below.

Normally with air combo, it'll just go in a straight line in front of you. For example, if you launch with your starter skill (point buster) or meteor, due to their aoe range, it'll get mobs that aren't necessarily straight in front of you as well. if you were to air combo right after, the rest'll fall down and you end up getting only a couple with air combo while the majority escapes unscathed. on the other hand, after the upgrade, you'll be able to hit all those other mobs you launched as well, drastically improving the ability of air combo to deal damage.

also, while i'm posting here, i might as well ask - if you have a lower end comp (read: "netbook" @.@) that doesn't really let you get high fps, is x-spamming still a viable strategy? Or am I better off just going to play a warrior--> pala, as the general joke response trend seems to be going nowadays?

Yeah, the passive increases the AoE of Air Combo, but it's not as efficient as X-spam + Rain of Fire + Spark Rock at later levels, as invazn pointed out. Rain of Fire deals much more damage than Air combo, and it can hit as many (or more) enemies as AC.

As for your question, X-spam does rely on computer/connection speed somewhat, and to be honest, I'm surprised you can play this game at all on a netbook (my netbook can't handle even letting me move a character around, I've tried).

Really though (as I mentioned in another recent post), it seems that with an upcoming nerf for X-spam, Barunson plans to force monks/priests/invokers to start using a wider variety of offensive skills and relying less on a constant stream of X-spam. Whether or not X-spam is going to be all that important post-nerf remains to be seen. I imagine it will still be useful at least as a source of "added damage."

Even now, though, X-spam is actually slower at killing large mobs than RoF. And in the future, RoF and Spark Rock are going to get even better, it seems (both have a "Level 6," though I don't recall any versions listing monster cards for these skills). I wouldn't be surprised if Barunson throws another offensive skill our way sometime in the future, too.

::edit::
sorry, wall of text >.>;

::edit 2::
forgot to write some stuff
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i have no hard and solid numbers on the fps that i get, but i've got an asus 1201n, toted as being the most powerful netbook on the market when it first came out lol. i've also upgraded the ram in it a bit, so i guess that helps somewhat? regardless, the only places/times that i really lag up are when there are bunches of mobs that toss projectiles (instant double objects on screen @.@), when i'm in a party and everyone's spamming skills (but i think almost everyone experiences that at some point), and...in port of winds lol. no idea why, but port of winds is the only city i actually lag up in. must be those crazy jumps to that center island .

anyways, back on topic.

the reason why i say that perhaps a class change might be better for me, and perhaps other players in a similar position as i am, is mainly the money factor that is involved with getting the attack speed all the way up. as others have mentioned on the forums, hookah hat, paris gloves, boyscout/legend of combo title, guild buff, and lover buff will get you to somewhere around 50-60 percent attack speed. problem is that hookah hat and paris gloves are way out of the question for someone without funds. as the market stands, if i remember correctly, heirloom hookah hat costs 1-2k, paris gloves cost around 1.5-2k. combined together, these aren't truly "viable" options to an entering player. This leaves them with about half the efficacy of an already well-established player could be at, and could also possibly take them months to even amass the kind of gold needed to acquire those things (judging at the rate at which i'm earning gold...total of 89g at lvl 35 >.<), if they decide not to spend RL cash on the game. factor in repair fees, and the ability for the new player to earn money is slimmed even further.

By the time that they actually secure the funds to get those items, they would probably have leveled to the point where, as someone had pointed out in another thread, other gear are more preferable in terms of the survivability that it would offer, and probably even more expensive as well. Not only that, but as you get higher leveled, not only do other gears become more important (such as the rings, necklaces, etc), but refining your equipment starts to become more or less mandatory, and so the new player's spending needs increase again. With higher dungeons being released, the price of these goods might fall a little, but i do not forsee them falling to the point where they would beceome instantly affordable to the new entering players either.

on the other hand, all of this could really just go up in a cloud of smoke if that nerf on auto attacks comes through from barunson. if that happens i really hope they do release more attack skills for the priest too; god forbid us having to rely on lightning dash or chain lightning to kill enemies

Edited by DaiGen, 12 December 2010 - 03:48 PM.

god forbid us having to rely on lightning dash or chain lightning to kill enemies

Uh, well, we at least have Spark Rock and Rain of Fire now.

the reason why i say that perhaps a class change might be better for me, and perhaps other players in a similar position as i am, is mainly the money factor that is involved with getting the attack speed all the way up. as others have mentioned on the forums, hookah hat, paris gloves, boyscout/legend of combo title, guild buff, and lover buff will get you to somewhere around 50-60 percent attack speed. problem is that hookah hat and paris gloves are way out of the question for someone without funds. as the market stands, if i remember correctly, heirloom hookah hat costs 1-2k, paris gloves cost around 1.5-2k. combined together, these aren't truly "viable" options to an entering player. This leaves them with about half the efficacy of an already well-established player could be at, and could also possibly take them months to even amass the kind of gold needed to acquire those things (judging at the rate at which i'm earning gold...total of 89g at lvl 35 >.<), if they decide not to spend RL cash on the game. factor in repair fees, and the ability for the new player to earn money is slimmed even further.

Even if you stack A LOT of attack speed, if your computer is not that good, your attack will still not be any faster. Just use the PVP medal, get yourself a MP3 or laptop balloon, and have the couple buff ready (there will be a better one once marriage comes out), that will be enough. My x-spam is not fast AT ALL (I have been told many times ><) and I still managed to stick with it to level 60 and PVP regularly with not much of a problem. So, I don't think your situation is THAT drastic to have to change class.

Edited by invazn, 12 December 2010 - 11:33 PM.

I don't understand how I can use meteor in combination with air combo. The meteor does not launch monsters high enough to be hit. I have meteor at level 3 right now. Do I need to go to 5 to air combo. And what about that meteor upgrade, is that viable?

Meteor should launch high enough at level 3. If you have the meteor "upgrade," Meteors will not launch at level 3 (I don't think they launch at level 5 either).

Meteor/Lightning is pretty decent at lower levels, but at 40+ it really shows its age. By then you'll have Spark Rock and Rain of Fire for groups, and then X spam for cleanup.