IiPunch - Monk Guide

Oh, really? I pay less attention than I thought lol

Is Spharai worth AGing if you're on MNK solely for tanking purposes?

You could make the argument, sure.

You could also argue that higher dps makes you hold enmity better, so. There's that too. (And kill faster.)

If the healer is bad (trust, bot, etc) the higher counter can definitely help. (without the risk of counterstance, again, bad whm scenario)

It helps free up a lot of slots so you can cap without needing much counter gear or stance but frankly killing faster with GH/vere would serve ya better imo if were doing rema comparisons

Ya, I have Godhands, but I'm kinda looking at a Kei scenario and SCing in general where you don't want Radiance. I mean, tossing 15m for the AG is nothing really.

sure, nothing wrong with putting money into it, specially when its that little. Just never saw the appeal apart from a for-fun thing since counters are fairly limited and the ws itself is pretty poor compared to others, specially after the h2h change. What's wrong with radiance on kei? Shields should be down when you get to that point, least iirc the sc window at a step 3~4 is less than the time the shields up, far as SCing, well varies by pt comp more than it does weapon

You won't?
It's exactly opposite >.>

To kill Kei you must VS>AF>RF>VS

Must have meant kin

Or Gin

On Gin it's random, but sometimes you want Radiance too. That being said, if you don't want skillchain, Godhands are probably the best anyway, because you would spam Howling Fist or Raging Fists, so I'm not sure how would Spharai help here.

Spharai should be better damage, though less counter than Jolt Counter +1(so infuriating).

Ngl Spharai was my first relic AG/R15 weapon and I made it purely out of love for the job, without any regard to anyone else's feedback. With that said, over the past 4+ years or so, I've almost completely forgotten the weapon exists and that I even have it in my bags, because I haven't bothered using it once in any scenario, except for trying it aw times during Alexander HTBF. Even when "tanking" on monk, I never once considered it an option over any of the other weapons, or just changing jobs. I actually forgot how bad Final Heaven was as well. Spharai is terrible.

If I'm just being real, Spharai is completely skippable and is not even relevant in any realistic scenario where another weapon wouldn't be either equal or better. Which is sad. Maybe dark relics will change that perception

As much as I really want to like spharai... it is niche beyond niche... at least for most things. I mean it is fine, I used it for like 6 months after i returned on mnk.. but counter isn't enough to matter over killing things faster. I can get a tonne of counter without stance anyway. It is def. a playtoy or lockstyle piece to hit with pillows. I haven't tried FH since getting more wsd gear... but not sure it would be enough to help much vs. other options. Still holds a place in my heart, and does sit in main inventory out of respect, but it rarely gets used. Prior to ML I would use it for fun on I think the gorger in a counter ws counter setup, but now i just power through with verth or godhands... tbh with one wilt on my geo, even am doesn't seem to make a difference before that is dead...

Would love to see them change counter to proc before evasion etc, but \i doubt that ever happens... might give some more reason to play with it.. either that or make spharai turn counter into omni=dirrectional or something...

Each counter adds 5% crit damage for 30 sec. Stacks up to 10 times. Each counter refreshes time for all stacks.

That would be cool and less broken than anyone can think at first glance.

Can counter physical TP moves at 1/2 the rate.

Hidden effect: makes guard not to suck

Really tho, something like inquartata for guard would be a good start

Would be nice if they adjusted Counter(stance) or guard in a meaningful way, but I don't think they're going to do either. When asked at the AMA if there were any plans to improve tanking abilities of other jobs, they said no because they were well-suited for DPS already. I feel like any big changes to Monk, either from a guard or counter standpoint might be in Prime Weapons or in Empyrean +2/3.


"Augments" (Tactical) Guard on the Empyrean +2/3 hands would be a pretty interesting place to implement something like your idea.

Not sure improving MNK's capabilities as a tank (or any DD's, really) is in SE's plans.
I would say that nope, it's not.

No need to say it, SE already said exactly that (I just stated it was from the AMA =p). But from time to time they still improve upon stats on gear that fit what a job does well. So if empyrean armor has a piece that has tanking stats, it's entirely possible they enhance the effect of it, unless they remove it altogether.

For instance, the original DNC Relic hands were a simple enmity swap and Fan Dance piece, but they ended up giving it Counter as well on the +2/3 variants, showing it would be a tanking piece when you have the monster's attention. They should follow the same theme on other pieces of gear that have tanking/defensive stats (Kasuga kabuto, Hattori hakama), even if the job is a DD. So while SE's plan might not be to "improve [any DDs] tanking capabilities" from an outright JA improvement standpoint, they can just as easily add gear that does the same.

can always do the gandring/war dyna weapon route and give TP+x when countering too, or make it a mnk only trait



Been wanting inquarta for block/shield for ages, kinda would like one for evasion on jobs like THF but thad probably make fighting THF mobs pretty wonky if it applied to mobs too

You guys happy about the +2 body? For who missed it these are the stats, credit to Funkworkz for the translation:

Bhikku Cyclas +2 (MNK)
DEF:145 HP+79 STR+35 DEX+34 VIT+34 AGI+55 INT+26 MND+33 CHR+28 Accuracy+54 Attack+54 Magic Accuracy+54 Evasion+95 Magic Evasion+99 "Magic Def. Bonus"+7 Haste+4% "Martial Arts"+7 Augments "Impetus" Weapon Skill Damage+8% Set: Augments "Kick Attacks"

The +3 stats will probably be something like this:
Bhikku Cyclas +3 (MNK)
DEF:150 HP+99 STR+40 DEX+39 VIT+39 AGI+60 INT+31 MND+38 CHR+33 Accuracy+64 Attack+64 Magic Accuracy+64 Evasion+105 Magic Evasion+109 "Magic Def. Bonus"+8 Haste+4% "Martial Arts"+8 Augments "Impetus" Weapon Skill Damage+10% Set: Augments "Kick Attacks"


Now what can we say? Bhikku was already pretty good in the +1 version so anything we're getting is only goin to make it better.
The boost in Acc/Att especially will help closing the gap.
The Martial arts+ is annoying but I was taking for granted it would've happened.
I personally would've been happier with a different new stat. Don't get me wrong WSD+ is cool and a nice icing on the cake, but I would've been happier with something like, I dunno, TA+6% (would've helped in both TP and WS given we have TPtransfer on our WSs) or even DT-10%

This is a body we use mainly for TP phase AND for Victory Smite, and WSD does very little for Vsmite, so... I dunno, it's cool and everything but sort of a waste as well.

Yeah, DA/TA+% or -DT would've made this more valuable during impetus mode, ah well. More accuracy = yay at least.

has anyone tested epona's ring instead of niqmaddu ring for HF RF TK? since TA and DA is so important for us, would it be better than niqmaddu's 10 str 10 vit and quad attack? I would assume the low quad attack % hardly procs and has no consistency?

WSD is definitely wasted there, but I can also see Prime WS being crit hit with huge fTP on first hit ;)

What makes you think they're going to stop at WSD+10%? Both AF+Relic 10% +3 pieces started at +5% at the +2 version. Now I'm not saying they are going to double it for the finished product, but since the starting WSD is already different on the base +2, there's no justifiable reason to speculate the WSD will be the same as it is on AF/Relic pieces.

edit: saw you made same comment in thf thread so i guess you're speculating worst case scenario

And with Nyame which is already at WSD+12 on the body at r25 we can assume its going to get more as well which pretty much makes these pieces null and void apart from any extra ja stuff they have.

Yeah, pretty much that.

Nyame is going to be a harder sell on MNK vs. THF imo due to two factors.

1. the stat difference between nyame mail vs. bhikku cyclas +3 (whenever it comes out) likely won't be as huge as the difference on the thf body. MNK cares about STR and VIT mostly, and the difference is +5 and +4 respectively on the bhikku +2

2. Nyame also has 5% double attack, so if you're using it for the WSD on the first hit, with the ftp prop, 5% double attack should solidly favor Nyame.

We also don't know if R30 augments on Odyssey gear will increase the prior stats or just add a 4th augment line. I thought I read it was the latter. So I'm not ready to say any increase to Nyame will make Empy+3 WSD pieces null and void. Actually, they might open up slots on jobs so you don't have to use 5 WSD Nyame piece, and can opt for another path and use the appropriate Empy+3 piece for that slot.