Looking for a little advice in th AA Monk tree?

[Lightfoot]

<p>My monk has just dinged 40 and is just 10% of the 50th AA point.</p><p>In the Brawler tree I have gone 4/4/8/6/1(2) in the STR and INT lines, haven't decided where the last point is going yet.  I'm a <b>soloist</b> and only very rarely do I group.</p><p>When it comes to the Monk tree I'm completely lost.  I was thinking of keeping it on the aggresive side and going down the 3 combo lines with perhaps 5 points into sprint but am really not sure.</p><p>Any advice would be welcome and much appreciated.</p>

[x0rtrun]

I used 4/8/8/8/2 and INT 4/4/8/3 to great effect when soloing. Presure Point was very useful when maxed. It was a very high damage hit and the crush debuff was great. If I was going to do it again, I'd probably go Str 4/8/8/8 and Int 4/4/8/5. Forgoing the end ability for more parry and riposte skill. For the monk tree, the upgraded heal is a must. The reduced reuse timer on tsunami could be useful when soloing. The upgrades for will of the heavens would be useful. And maybe increase damage on your kicks and other CAs. Basically, for soloing, try and focus on damage upgrades and recasting time reductions to maximize your DPS as well as ones that increase your survivability. Since you don't tank, avoid the aggro management ones. Rather than focusing on what you put into each line, just find an ability that you like and find the best way to get down to it. Don't worry at all about the end abilities IMO. They are less than spectacular.

[mattmandude]

<p>I find the endline int ability to be extremely useful for soloing once you get the hang of it.</p><p> And then I'd say definately go for healing, and then combat abilities, maybe the rooted stance/tsunami/outward calm. </p><p> As a side note, ignore the endline abilities in the monk tree, they're practically useless.</p><p> And I'm assuming you're not on a pvp server? If you were I'd suggest something a little a different.</p>

[x0rtrun]

I have the endline int ability at the moment and I've had a chance to use it a few times.... Right before I died. 30% is really low health. I love the idea of the ability, it's just on such a razors edge between life and death. I think it would be cool if maybe it started a bit sooner, say 40%, but the bonuses start lower and increase as your health goes down.

[BChizzle]

I hate the endline int ability and find the loss of dps from being dead not worth the extra crits.

[x0rtrun]

I was soloing today doing some quests, and I found that I could get down to about 30% and stay there for a while to get the benefits of the crits and mitigation. Once the mit kicks in, it's easier to slow your HP loss. I don't think it would ever really come into play in a group setting though. It's a cool idea, but 30% is just too low IMO. I'd probably rather pull those 2 points and put them elsewhere though. I could have another 0.5% HP and a bigger crane sweep hit instead.

[mattmandude]

<p>You're right, it has practically no use in a group situation because it's hard for healers to keep you between dead-30%, heh.</p><p> But for soloing, I've found it extremely useful, here's how I go about using it though:</p><p> -Once at around 40%, hit the rooted mit stance. (be sure everburning flame is OFF)</p><p>-If you can take hits well, meaning you won't die in 5 seconds, switch to offensive stance.</p><p>-Once at around 28%, hit tsunami+outward calm, and use all of your CA's that ARE NOT stuns/knockbacks.</p><p>-After 10/12 seconds when Tsunami quits, chain stun mob using stun/kockback CA's.</p><p>-Use heal if mob is still up, and kill off the mob =)</p><p>Even con ^^^ mobs being the exception (and even a few levels lower given the mob), I can usually stay under 30% and clear trash at a pretty fast rate. If the mobs are green, heh, stay under 30% and let auto attack do all the work if you're lazy.</p><p> Remember that the endline int ability also gives a pretty good mit buff along with the crits, so your survivability increases below 30%</p><p> -Edit- Noted, I rarely ever group for instances and the like anymore being at 70 and on a pvp server... so it's very viable as a waste of points if you're always DPSing in a group or something similiar (raiding, for example).</p>

[Shotneedle]

<p>I can give you my so-so tank/dps (yet not that much dps, mind you) monk aa spec...</p><p>8-1-0-0-0 sta (will be updating mantis bolt with next 20 AA we get)</p><p>4-4-8-6-1 wis (ae proc is great and +3% max health helps some)</p><p>4-4-8-0-0 int (+18.1% melee crit ftw!)</p><p>Then for monk tree I have 5 in both taunts, 3 in the ae before that, 5 in martial discipline (which i believe is broken atm) 2 in Dragonbreath, 3 in each skill at the farthest left side, 5 in heal, 5 in tsunami, 1 in the thing that grants your cure the ability to cure physical too...and I can't remember the rest off the top of my head, I am not logged in right now. I only have 92 AA atm though, so there's still some more work to be done in the Monk line.</p><p>Hope that helps <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>