Collecting FAQ information for: "How do I maximize my damage?"

[bonesbro]

<div></div><div></div><div></div><div>Here's my current answer for the question "How do I maximize my damage?"  Please respond with corrections, updates, and pictures of puppies.  Evil puppies.  The kind of puppies who want to maximize their damage.  The kind of puppies who really should have rolled up a pit bull, but are instead focused on being a damage puppy.  Ahem.  Where was I?  Oh yes, maximizing your damage as a Monk:</div> <div> </div> <div><strong>How do I maximize my damage as a Monk?</strong></div> <div>As a preface, Monks are in the Fighter archetype, so the intention is for Monks to be more about tanking mobs and less about doing DPS.  If you're looking for someone who, longterm, is going to do the best melee DPS, you're probably better off rolling up a Swashbuckler or Assassin.  Now, with that disclaimer out of the way, let's talk about how you can be all you can be. Please note that none of these tips apply exclusively to the Monk class.  I'll be talking about specific Monk weapons and combat arts that might not be available to other classes, but the general principles should apply to scout and other fights.  Even a weird melee priest, I guess. <b>The Basic Stuff:</b> <ul> <li>Upgrade your combat arts (CAs).  Try to at least get the adept1 for all your damage skills, though you can skimp on low-damage attacks like shoulder charge.  Adept3s are pricey but add about 10-20% damage to a skill.  Masters are even more expensive but will add another 10-20% or so.</li> <li>Attack the mob from behind.  If you're behind a mob (or off to the side) the mob can't block/parry/riposte you.  Just moving around behind them can double your DPS against high-defense mobs.</li> <li>Keep your weapon at least white-con or better.  With a weak weapon, you're supposed to lose damage on your CAs, though I haven't actually seen proof this actually works.</li> </ul> The next few sections will go into much more detail about weapon and armor choices. </div> <div> <b>Equipment Selection:</b> Get +strength gear, obviously.  Some slots, like sleeves, generally don't have strength on them, but with a bit of broker-searching you'll be able to find something.  Even if they're grey and have terrible mitigation, you're not tanking right now, right?  So who cares what your mitigation is?  Just remember, if the mob you're fighting starts to AE, your mitigation and resists will be awful.  Don't forget about hex dolls - a pair of +12 strengh hex dolls will help out quite a bit.  And with all this +strength you're adding you can easily carry a few teak strongboxes around to hold tanking and resist gear. Also, don't forget about food and potions.  A nice T5 jerky will add +10 str, and you can get +17 (common) or +24 (rare) strength potions. There's one slot where you should ignore the +str stat, and that's the weapon.  Stats like the damage rating and delay on a weapon mean MUCH more than a few piddly points of strength.  Speaking of which...  </div> <div><strong>Weapon Selection:</strong></div> <div>Use a two-handed weapon: the slowest one you can find.  Currently, the ultimate weapon for monkly damage is the Royal Great Flail, a 3.8 delay fabled T5 weapon with a 12% 250dd proc.  Slow weapons do more damage than fast weapons for several reasons:</div> <ul> <li>With a fast weapon, you're going to cap your delay at 0.8 seconds, so a fast weapon allows you to take advantage of much more haste.  In a good raid group you'll easily get 100% or more haste, which takes a 1.6 delay weapon down to the cap.  You would need 475% haste to get the RGF down to 0.8 delay, which might be doable but is really hard.  But if you're getting more than 100% haste you're wasting a lot of it with a fast weapon.</li> <li>You don't get autoattack swings while your combat art is "casting" (the progress bar is going up, right before your attack lands).  Especially when hasted, a fast weapon will be missing one or two autoattack swings during that cast time.  If you time your attacks correctly (discussed in more detail later) then a slow weapon won't miss any swings but a fast weapon will always be losing some swings.  If you're spamming combat arts, you might only get an autoattack swing in every two seconds.  Because slow weapons hit for more damage per hit than fast weapons, if you're forced into taking fewer swings you will increase your damage by using a weapon that does more damage per hit.</li> <li>Slow weapons have a greater chance to proc on each hit, because proc % is normalized to a 3.0 delay.  That means a 1.5 delay weapon will have half the chance to proc on each hit as a 3.0 delay weapon.  Now, if you just autoattack and leave, you'll get the same number of procs per minute.  But if you're only swinging every few seconds (because your attacks are being delayed by CA casting) then you'll proc more on the swings you do get if you're using a slower weapon.</li> <li>Not confirmed: a slow weapon increases your chance to proc on CA hits.</li></ul> <p>Because you probably don't have access to one of the top fabled items yet, here are some suggestions on items to watch out for in the meantime: </p> <ul> <li>Imbued 2h Bo Staff.  A bit quick at 1.7 delay, but it's two handed.</li> <li>Imbued Cestii.  The slowest DW weapons you can get at 2.0 delay.</li> <li>Imbued Great Hammer.  2.5 delay (oh so yummy!) but they require rare metals, so are a bit more expensive.  A non-rare one is a good value purchase.</li> </ul> <b>Timing your attacks between Combat Arts:</b> As I've already mentioned, your autoattack swings don't happen while you're casting a combat art.  Your delay timer is still ticking down, but once your weapon is ready to swing it will wait until you're done casting before actually doing damage.  (I am 99% sure it will also wait until the Recovery Time on the CA is finished too, which starts after your CA lands).  Only then will it swing. Short version: Use the slowest weapon you can find.  Fire off a CA.  Right after it finishes, watch your combat spam.  The moment you see your autoattack swing, start the next CA.  Repeat.  After practicing for a few minutes, that brief pause will become second nature.  You can occasionaly use skill queuing, but queuing more than two in a row will probably cause you to miss a combat round. Long version: So, what you want to do is minimize the amount of time that your weapon is waiting to swing, but cannot swing because you're still casting.  To do this, you want a weapon that is at least as slow as the average casting time of your CAs.  So, if you figure that you have a 1.0 average cast time, a 0.5 second recovery time, and an average 0.5 seconds between seeing your swing and starting the next CA, then you want a weapon with at least a 2.0 delay to avoid losing some swings.  However, you should figure that you're going to have your haste from Everburning Fire (36%) and from your FBSS (15%), so 51% haste takes a 3.0 delay weapon down to the 2.0.  If you are regularly hasted by a bard, enchanter, berserker, or inquisitor, then you can see how even a 3.8 delay weapon is going to be swinging faster than your CAs. Let's look at a quick example using some fake numbers.  We'll take Fistwraps of Fast with a 1.2 delay, and Hammer of Ponderous Crushing with a 2.4 delay.  At 51% haste, the fistwraps swing with a delay of 0.80 (delay / (1 + haste%)).  The hammer swings at a delay of 1.6.  Because they have the same damage rating, the hammer hits for twice as hard as the fistwraps.  We'll say the fistwraps hit for 10 damage and the hammer hits for 20 damage.  Over the course of a minute, with just autoattack on, the fistwraps will hit twice as often for half the damage, so everything is equal.  However, let's say that I'm spamming combat arts, so each swing happens two seconds apart.  Over the course of a minute, the fistwraps hit 30 times for 10 damage each (300 damage total) and the hammer hits 30 times for 20 damage each (600 damage total).  Even though the weapons do identical autoattack DPS, the hammer is much better if you're spamming CAs. <i> More coming...</i><p>Message Edited by bonesbro on <span class=date_text>06-22-2005</span> <span class=time_text>10:34 PM</span>

[Jenj]

<P>Looks good. 2-more points you might want to add:</P> <UL> <LI>Haste Items</LI> <LI>Attack Proc Items</LI></UL> <P>Both haste and attack proc items should be preferred over strength items. Biggest CA's contributors to DPS:</P> <UL> <LI>Quiety Purity: Adds 10% DPS to all physical damage. I believe this also applies to CAs that output phyiscal damage (e.g. Lunging Mongoose, etc)</LI> <LI>Everburning Flame: 40% improvement in haste (adept-3)</LI> <LI>Lunging Mongoose, Icy Talon, Flying Dragon, Silent Fist, Freezing Palm: These are your best DPS CAs.</LI></UL> <P>Other comments:</P> <UL> <LI>Tier-4 strength hex dolls are just 1-point less and are a bit cheaper</LI> <LI>Tier-4 meat food is ok too.</LI> <LI>Dragon Stance is your best DPS stance. Winding Dragon lowers attack skills. Spider stance has no improvement in attack skills and haste is obsolete.</LI> <LI>Lu Sun's adds another 5% DPS for 20-seconds. Should have marginal improved to your DPS since its a 1-second cast.</LI> <LI>Prefer weapons with higher proc percents with larger average base damage. E.g. RGF, Ironfist Knuckles, etc.</LI> <LI>Avoid casting CAs that have lower DPS then your auto-attack. Safe bets are Spitting Cobra, Charging Tiger, Waking Dragon and maybe Diving Phoenix.</LI> <LI>Carry around an imbued strength ring for the additional 12-points.</LI> <LI>In the end-game, each item slot should have at least +10 strength points. Fabled gear will have around 17+ strenth points.</LI> <LI>Ask your group mates nicely to give you strength, damage procs, and haste buffs.</LI> <LI>Target MA and keep autoattack on. This will ensure the quickest engagement in any group fights.</LI> <LI>Always start off with your 30-second damage arts first. They do the most damage and you want to cycle these as quick as possible. Make sure not to use Rapid Swings until your in the flanks.</LI> <LI>Pay attention to switches, if you your out-of-range, you can lose valuable seconds to you DPS.</LI> <LI>Get a DPS parser so you can identify your personal DPS, what works, what doesnt, etc.</LI></UL> <P>-Jenjer</P>

[Morrolan V]

<P><FONT face=Garamond size=3>Great stuff, per usual Bones.  Also agree with Jenjer's adds.</FONT></P> <P><FONT face=Garamond size=3>A couple of items:</FONT></P> <P><FONT face=Garamond size=3>Would include two more bullets in Basic Stuff:</FONT></P> <UL> <LI><FONT face=Garamond size=3>Maximize your strength (increases both damage on hits and power for CAs)</FONT></LI> <LI><FONT face=Garamond size=3>Maximize your haste (increases the number of autoattacks you will get)</FONT></LI></UL> <P><FONT face=Garamond size=3>Also, on the list of weapons, you might add the Sparkling Greathammer.  It's a fabled 2H with the same damage rating as the RGF, although it has a 2.0 delay.  It drops from Undertow, a 44^^ named Octopus in Everfrost, so it can be obtained without the aid of 23 of your closest friends.  :smileywink:</FONT></P> <P> </P>

[bonesbro]

Great feedback guys!  I'll be updating this with your suggestions.

[Cyngii]

<DIV>As far as stances go, there is no reason to use Dragon Stance atm (IMO) since the effects of Quiet Purity don't stack with DS.  So either no stance at all or Spider Stance (once you get it) + QP = same if not better boost without the defensive penalty of DS.  Using DS you are like a mage with more HP if you ever get hit <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV>

[Aegi]

How does a monk maximize their damage? Why, make your girlfriend play a scout of course! <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> <div></div>

[Jenj]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Cyngii wrote:<BR> <DIV>As far as stances go, there is no reason to use Dragon Stance atm (IMO) since the effects of Quiet Purity don't stack with DS.  So either no stance at all or Spider Stance (once you get it) + QP = same if not better boost without the defensive penalty of DS.  Using DS you are like a mage with more HP if you ever get hit <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>Ok, they dont stack but Adept-3 DS gives more attack bonus versus Adept-3 QP. Master-1 DS will give more. Technically, DS is better to have up. Albeit, if you get hit by physical damage, DS will cause you to receive more damage. Having DS up will not make or break you but it does add +3 or +4 to overall weapon skills over QP.</P> <P>-Jenjer</P>

[Hubo]

<P>/applaud</P> <P>Bless you kind sir !!! Great job as always ! </P>

[Cyngii]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Jenjer wrote:<BR><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE>Ok, they dont stack but Adept-3 DS gives more attack bonus versus Adept-3 QP. Master-1 DS will give more. Technically, DS is better to have up. Albeit, if you get hit by physical damage, DS will cause you to receive more damage. Having DS up will not make or break you but it does add +3 or +4 to overall weapon skills over QP.</BLOCKQUOTE> <P>-Jenjer</P> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>Oh yeah that's right... they actually fixed DS so it improves with skill quality.  Bagged it such a long time ago that i forgot they got around to fixing it <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><BR>

[bonesbro]

Good idea - I'll add a quick section on stances. Personally, on raids, I generally use no stance at all and keep Tranquil Blessing on myself. <div></div>

[Uanelven]

Very good thread.  Cheers guys. <span>:smileywink:</span> <div></div>

[Crunion]

<P>Nice post.</P> <P> </P> <P>Just curious, but what are considered the top 5 fabled weapons?</P> <P>I tend to stick with dual weapons, as I really only spam 3 CAs during combat and those have 30sec recasts.</P> <P>Plus i love the str boost I get from using dual weapons. depending on the weapons I get +30 to +41 str from my 2 weapons and try to work around always having my cudgel equip'd. </P> <P> </P> <P>To add a question in here :  </P> <P>I've had my eye on the knuckles at proc 50% haste and was wondering if that haste will stack with our buffs or overrides either everburning fire (+48%) or FBSS (+15%) haste?</P> <P> </P> <P> </P> <P> </P> <P> </P> <P> </P> <P>Choo</P> <p>Message Edited by Crunion on <span class=date_text>06-28-2005</span> <span class=time_text>09:20 AM</span>

[Edyil]

<P>Someting I noticed and then now use extensively:</P> <P> </P> <P>When tanking, use a stun attack BEFORE your highest DPS special.  If the stun hits, the CA will always hit.</P> <UL> <LI>Use Stun CA</LI> <LI>While Stun CA is casting, hit Talon CA (or whatever your best is)</LI></UL> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>A good way to check this out for yourself is by trying it with the a multi-attack CA.  Without stun and on a blue or higher mob, you almost never get all 4 hits.  With a successful stun, you will almost always get all 4 hits (or possibly only 3 if you are too slow since Stun is a fast caster and doesnt last long).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>When fighting non-KOS mobs, start your attack with Talon from behind.  This freezes the mob and gives your next CA a free back shot.  The next CA used will hit full.  Then use a stun and get another free CA hit.</DIV>

[Jenj]

<P>Just my personal preference:</P> <P>Top 4-DW weps</P> <UL> <LI>Royal Great Flail</LI> <LI>Ancient Combine Great Flail</LI> <LI>Volcanic Forged Warhammer (never seen this one)</LI> <LI>Maul of Noxious Vapors (never seen this one)</LI></UL> <P>Top 5-DW weps</P> <UL> <LI>Prismatic Baton of the the Scale</LI> <LI>Sixta's Knuckles of Mastery</LI> <LI>Blaqstar, the Mangled Mace</LI> <LI>Crunch, the Jailer's Mace</LI> <LI>Starcrossed Knuckles</LI></UL> <P>-Jenjer</P>

[Crunion]

<P>nice weapons.</P> <P>I have the prismatic baton and use cudgel of reflection, ironfist knuckles or 2 imbued cestii if mob is crush immune.  Depending on what type of mobs we fight I will switch the healing cudgel out for the 2 high proc'n weapons and hope someday sony will switch my Gi to proc when I hit instead of when i'm hit. But that is dreaming as the +25str would give more DPS to a class that should be a tank, so a better tanking proc would be +25agil when hit instead of +25str when hit.</P> <P>I know where the sixta's knuckles drop and we have had them drop 2 times when I wasn't around, but the other 3 I have never heard of nor seen drop.</P> <P>Would you be willing to post where they drop?</P> <P>I'm gonna have to seriously look into getting my hands on a 2h weapon. I always have passed on the flails when they dropped because I liked the stats of dual weapons better. But it looks like I should start spamming CAs and using a slower weapon instead of using 2 or 3 CAs and letting my weapons do the DPS for me.</P> <P> </P> <DIV>Choo</DIV>

[joliver]

What are everyone's thoughts on HO's?  Do you high level monks still use them? <div></div>

[bonesbro]

I don't use my HOs while soloing.  I still hit the button in groups, because just from random button-whacking we'll eventually pull off a few nice ones.  And, most importantly, it keeps things a bit more interesting. <div></div>

[Edyil]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> bonesbro wrote:<BR>I don't use my HOs while soloing.  I still hit the button in groups, because just from random button-whacking we'll eventually pull off a few nice ones.  And, most importantly, it keeps things a bit more interesting.<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>lol  :smileyvery-happy:</P> <P>And in groups its nice to get the damage-encounter HO to help you taunt when tanking.  But other than that.....</P>

[joliver]

Well, HOs are still an appreciable portion of my DPS at level 33.  Guess it becomes less important as you level up and your CAs become stronger. <div></div>

[deaddeadde]

yes, the haste on the sixta's knuckles stacks with everburning, fbss, slayer rings, spider stance.. and other unknown buffs from other classes (though as mentioned, spider and everburning do not stack).it's a 10% chance to proc a 15sec 50% haste.which.. purely statistically, ignoring the RNG, (which is never smart), it will proc once every 30 seclast for 15 secso.. statistically at least, it's as good as a perm 25% haste.the haste cap has been proven?  i must have missed that..<div></div>

[Bokar]

<DIV>After reading this post I am now thorougly confused after comparing it to readings for dps on scout/assassin etc. boards.  From what I read in the other forums when using a CA the normal clock for regular attacks is paused, the CA is executed, then the normal attack clock starts again once the CA is complete.  So "waiting" for that first hit after a CA with a 2Hander is time wise the same as having two hits with a DW setup as showin in bonesbro's example.  The below example is my example with DW having two 1.0 Delay weapons equipped and a 2Hander setup having a 2.0 delay weapon equipped.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>    DW                                                                2H</DIV> <DIV>1. Normal Attack - Clock Runs                        Normal Attack - Clock Runs</DIV> <DIV>2. CA - Clock stops, CA executed                   CA - Clock stops, CA executed</DIV> <DIV>3. Normal Attack - Clock Runs                        Normal Atacck - Clock Runs</DIV> <DIV>        Hit with weapon DW1                                    (2H weapon delay)</DIV> <DIV>        Hit with weapon DW2                                    Hit with 2Hander 1</DIV> <DIV>4. Normal Attack - Clock Runs                        Normal Atacck - Clock Runs</DIV> <DIV> <DIV>        Hit with weapon DW1                                    (2H weapon delay)</DIV> <DIV>        Hit with weapon DW2                                    Hit with 2Hander 1</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>and so on....</DIV> <DIV>So in the same time a 2Hander performs one attack after a CA the DW setup has done two attacks.  This means as in the example bonesbro provided that there would not be a 300damage discrepancy between DW and 2H.  Removing chances for misses and chances for weapon procs and such, the DW setup and 2H setup perform equally.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#00cccc>    Let's look at a quick example using some fake numbers.  We'll take Fistwraps of Fast with a 1.2 delay, and Hammer of Ponderous Crushing with a 2.4 delay.  At 51% haste, the fistwraps swing with a delay of 0.80 (delay / (1 + haste%)).  The hammer swings at a delay of 1.6.  Because they have the same damage rating, the hammer hits for twice as hard as the fistwraps.  We'll say the fistwraps hit for 10 damage and the hammer hits for 20 damage.  Over the course of a minute, with just autoattack on, the fistwraps will hit twice as often for half the damage, so everything is equal.  However, let's say that I'm spamming combat arts, so each swing happens two seconds apart.  Over the course of a minute, the fistwraps hit 30 times for 10 damage each (300 damage total) and the hammer hits 30 times for 20 damage each (600 damage total).  Even though the weapons do identical autoattack DPS, the hammer is much better if you're spamming CAs.<BR></FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So is there confirmation that damage works the way Bonesbro posted or the way i mentioned in this post?  Because on other forums they think it happens the way i just mentioned it.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>-Bokardi</DIV> <DIV>CB Monk </DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>    </DIV><p>Message Edited by Bokardi on <span class=date_text>07-03-2005</span> <span class=time_text>09:54 PM</span>

[bonesbro]

I'm certain it works the way I described.  I have an extremely slow weapon, 3.8 delay, so it's really easy to watch.  I'm swinging my autoattack at pretty much the same rate whether I'm just standing there or using one CA in between each swing. <div></div>

[Jezekie]

<div></div><span><blockquote><hr>Bokardi wrote:<div></div><div></div><div>After reading this post I am now thorougly confused after comparing it to readings for dps on scout/assassin etc. boards.  From what I read in the other forums when using a CA the normal clock for regular attacks is paused, the CA is executed, then the normal attack clock starts again once the CA is complete.  So "waiting" for that first hit after a CA with a 2Hander is time wise the same as having two hits with a DW setup as showin in bonesbro's example.  The below example is my example with DW having two 1.0 Delay weapons equipped and a 2Hander setup having a 2.0 delay weapon equipped.</div><div> <hr>It's as Bonesbro originally stated, once you use a CA the auto-attack timer starts counting down and in most cases this means you'll fire the next autoattack hit as soon as the CA finishes it's casting time.</div></blockquote></span><div></div>

[bonesbro]

Well, to clarify that - the autoattack timer starts ticking down the instant one autoattack finishes.  It doesn't matter what you do during that time - whether you stand there or spend that time using a combat art.  If your CA finishes before your autoattack timer is ready, your best strategy for optimal damage is to stand there until it goes off.  If you're swinging a fast weapon or casting a slow CA, your autoattack timer ticked down to zero while it was casting.  At that point it just waits at zero until you're capable of swinging again.  Once your CA finishes, your autoattack fires and the timer begins ticking down again. <div></div>

[Bokar]

<P>Ok.  Thanks for the clarification. :smileysurprised:</P> <P> </P> <P>-Bokardi</P>