It is said that the faith of the acolyte is not only for the mind, but the path one walks must also be for the body.
It takes more than just the mind, but it also takes confidence, and the time and effort, along with self discipline to be able to change jobs.
For the faith, one must be good until they achieve a disciplined body. Until then, it will take much time and effort. Others have come to fear and respect those who are called Monks.
With combo and separate attacks, the mysterious power of one must not only be physically strong, but also have great strength and tough blow/hits.
Now Rune Migard's King, Tristan the 3rd's proclamation to the large Catholic church's archbishop, in following the bidding of all meanings of faith, wants them to set forth on a war against evil.
Monks are a versatile class that can deal damage in several ways unique to themselves. They are most known for the powerful Guillotine Fist skill, which has uses in MVP, PVP and WoE scenarios. Most builds are damage-dealers, focusing on maximizing damage via skills such as Occult Impaction and their Combo abilities. Specialized Monk builds can be very efficient for both MVP and WoE purposes.
Mostly made for solo leveling fun, this build's aim is ASPD and massive combo skill damage.
AGI and STR is prioritized for higher damage per second, INT is for SP regen and count while DEX is for HIT. Mental Strength is a must for tanking for party situations.
Ifrit Mask Build
STR: 1-50 (only for the Acolyte / early Monk leveling stages)
This build is centered around the Ifrit Mask headgear, which autocasts Meteor Storm when being attacked. This is used in conjunction with Mental Strength, which allows the Monk to take low damage from many, many monsters at once. With all the different attacks from monsters, the Monk will be able to cast many Meteor Storms at once as a result. High INT is required for more MATK, as well as a high MATK weapon. Loli Ruri carded armor will auto-heal the Monk. Must mob a very high number of monsters at once (8+), preferably monsters with high ASPD as the proc chance is quite low.
Tactics
These are some tricks that can aid players in battle or make the player enjoy being a monk more. The first 3 tricks are seen / heard in-game.
While doing occult impaction, clicking on any unoccupied cell (preferably next to you or the enemy) right before casting ends. (With good dex, clicking right after the cast begins usually makes it work)
Purpose: Bypass the after-skill delay. so you can do other things quicker (ex/ another occult). May require some practice.
While MvPing as a tank, when Mental Strength times out, player can use Snap immediately without any spheres. Rinse and repeat and go back to the MvP. This trick negates the need for Fly wings or the Teleport skill anymore because this tactic is far more efficient than Teleporting and finding the MvP to tank it again.
Disable target's ability to cast Safety Wall on himself.
Using the skill Summon Spirit Sphere, a monk can summon a number of spirit spheres. At most one can have 5 spirits. Each of them can be used for various skils. They will also prevent it's owner's attacks from missing, as each adds 3 damage that won't miss.
The following skills utilize (consume) spirit spheres:
Remember to replenish spirit spheres when they expire. Spheres will remain even after death; however, reloging or disconnects will rob a character of their spheres, so it is needed to summon them again.
Using the quest-gained skill Spiritual Bestowment, a monk can transfer his spirit spheres to another character of the same party (with the exception for Gunslinger class, who can't receive Spheres since they have "Coins" as their Spheres). The spheres will have the same effect on any job apart from Gunslinger who can't receive them. Spheres can also be obtained through the Greatest General card.
Combo
Monks are known for their combo skills; a row of attacks that occur in a sequence.
After each combo skill, there is a delay period. During this period, the user can trigger the next skill in the sequence. Use the following calculations to find out the delay period: 1.3 - [(AGI*0.004) - (DEX*0.002)] seconds. Make sure the right hotkey is hit at the right time, and the next combo will trigger. For Raging Quadruple Blow and Raging Thrust, as they can't be triggered in any other method aside from a combo (or Root), the user can simply spam the hotkey once the previous skill triggers.
If a monk would like to use Guillotine Fist at the end of a combo, he must be in a Fury condition and have 5 spirit spheres, before starting the combo sequence. While Guillotine usually needs 5 spirits, through the combo it is possible to use even with the 4 left after Raging Thrust. In this style, Guillotine Fist is used without a cast period, removing that weakness of the skill. However, since a small amount of SP is used to trigger the combo skills as well, the damage will be lower than a direct cast.
Tip: when chaining Guillotine Fist in a combo, it is only necessary press the hotkey once. Since it is usually a single-target skill, if it is pressed multiple times, the Guillotine will cancel and nothing will happen. For this reason, it is needed to concentrate and it cannot be spammed like with Raging Quadruple Blow and Raging Thrust. Remember, the delay starts after the Raging Thrust animation is complete. Try pressing the hotkey immediately after seeing the damage from Raging Thrust appear.
Later, as a Champion, there will be many more possible combo sequences.
Eden Group Equipment is free and a great place to start for gear to use. The Mace is a good weapon and generally a good choice for a Monk and their future classes' use.
It is recommended to look at the Equipment recommendations for the Third Class job to see what equipment to strive for, rather than to spend a lot of money on a piece of equipment that will not be used in the future as a third class. However, some equipment may have a high level requirement, or are transcendent only.
Weapons
After considering what requirement skills have (some skills can only be used with certain weapon types), the Weapon Search tool within the iRO Wiki DB site is very helpful. Generally, for physical classes (both melee and ranged), something with high ATK is best. For magic classes, something with high MATK is best.
Deals a single attack consuming all of the caster's SP to deal massive damage. Requires at least 1 Spirit Spheres. You lose all SP and disables SP Regeneration for 3 seconds.