Monk Merits

A couple things;

1) What the ***? Really?
2) Togi >>>>>>>>> Osode. Show me these parses please.
3) If you read the MNK forums on KI or ever browsed through you should know Genome is, or was, a *** idiot when it comes to MNK.
4) Yes, yes. Grammar nazi inc. Opinions*. It was bugging me.

All I can say as a nuking/tanking BLU, 1+ Mantra or gtfo!

Cool story bro

Go away.

Genome is or was an idiot? Saying something stupid like that displays your intelligence quite clearly to me, that dude is an animal. Can you solo Operation Desert Swarm? Didn't think so. Shut the hell up.

LE SIGH.

Notice the commas. Unless something changed about him after my last encounter with him on KI then he still is an idiot. And how are you going to hold a solo-able BCNM in high regards to him? Like I said, if you knew him from KI you would know that he made some piss-poor gear choices and had a *** you, I'm right attitude on everything.

Compared to you, that dude may be an animal to you. And can I solo ODS? Yes. He wasn't the first and most certainly won't be the last to solo that KSNM. Did you know that? Didn't think so. Shut the *** up.

Edit; If comparing Genome to your gear on your profile, he can most certainly be considered a beast.

ODS was pretty easily soloable by MNK before they patched /DNC. That's when Genome made that video. He's not all that amazing.

Where did all these *** come from?

If that was in any way referring to me, I'm simply pointing out that a lot of "up-and-coming" monks latch onto whatever Genome has to say, and they shouldn't. How is that being a ***?

I didn't know him from KI so you got me there. And yes my gear sucks but I don't hide it.......

Tbh... Imo... I find Penance to be a waste. I 'also' find throwing 5 merits in Counter to be a waste too unless you're tanking every mob. But then again... I always have at least a rdm with me being dualboxed.

I've done/am doing:
5 Focus
5 Kick Attacks

5 Mantra
1 Formless Strikes
4 Invigorate

And then of course you want to max H2H and STR.

I chose the Focus over Counter because more acc is always good and with the AF head you get a nice 30 Accuracy from Focus. With the lower recast that means you have +30 Acc 48% of the time compared to 40% w/o it. Plus, most of the time if I'm not solo'ing weak mobs I'm /nin w/ at least Haste so I don't have a problem keeping shadows up and countering an extra 1 hit out of 20 won't really matter. Another point to that as well... If you're fighting a mob with high evasion, the focus is probably going to do more good than counter since counter will only activate if you would actually hit the mob.

Kick Attacks is a no-brainer. Of course you'll want the added damage and tp from them.

I chose Mantra for /drk and Drk main zergs. Say you start out with 1800 HP (low, I know) in your HP gear, each level of Mantra will increase your HP by 72. That means an added 7-8 dmg for Drk main and 3 for Drk sub on each hit. Total for Mantra with 1800 base is 360 extra HP, 36 per hit on Drk main and 18 for Drk sub. As an Elvaan Mnk/Drk you have a base of 1610. Then add in ~200-240 from gear and another 19% on top of that to end up at 2153-2201. Add on 20% Mantra to the 2200 and you hit 2640 (an increase of 420 hp, 21 more dmg per hit /drk). If you're /drk you're adding on 132 dmg to each swing at max hp. And fortunately both swings get the add-on for the amount of hp you had at the start of that round.

Formless strikes is very nice for anything that has physical shields (Paladins in Dyna) or any mob that you're fighting w/o a Tomahawk Warrior (the dmg resistance zone in Apollyon for example).

I went 4 in Invigorate simply because I 'do' solo now and then, and it's also nice to use in a party where you're tanking or on mobs that have lots of AoE's. The less your mage has to cure you, the better.

Sure, my choices aren't the 'cookie-cutter' choices... But, those are my reasons for choosing them, whether they make sense or not.

Tbest has some good ideas for the way that he plays Mnk. Merit are always based on how you use that job. I use Mnk for Salvage tanking, so Penance/Counter merits mean a lot to me. If I'm looking for zerging, I have other jobs that I merit to utilize in that position (Rng, Sam, Blu.)

Most I can say is look at the activities that you do/wish to do and merit your Mnk to best fit the role you wish to play.

Tier II merits are really more of a matter of preference and play style.

Formless Strikes: I would definitely recommend at least one merit into Formless Strikes. Though the situations where it is called for can be few and far in between, you'll be thankful you had it.

Invigorate: It helps both in solo situations and in large scale battles (Einherjar, Dynamis, etc). Monk, with its already high HP, decent evasion, guard, and counter (Shadows as well if /nin) combined with its natural ability to heal certain status ailments and a small amount of HP already make it a low maintenance damage dealer. Tack on another 320~400 HP and you can recover a half to a third of your HP every five minutes. In a messy situation like a bad pull in Dynamis or Einherjar, or if your healers are low on MP in Salvage, where other jobs may fall you'll trudge on thanks to Chakra + Invigorate.

Mantra: Mantra shines as a zerg job ability. Subbing Dark Knight or being thrown into the Dark Knight party can guarantee you a spot in the alliance and, as mentioned above, you can greatly increase your and other members combat effectiveness. (Also has its uses when fighting mobs that can Mijin Gakure or Astral Flow, granting you an extra buffer zone of HP)

Penance: What you're doing is essentially cutting down an enemy's use of TP moves by a quarter for anywhere from 20 to 100 seconds. Definitely a great asset especially when a mob has access to undesirable TP moves.

At the very end of the day, you should *** how you play monk and where you'll be playing it, determine then what best suits your needs.

well when a man and a woman love each other very much...

All I can say is lol Geld.

His page shows parses togi vs osode. I have come up with simular results. I in no way said he was the best monk evaaaaar. (yes i spelled that wrong on purpose) Don't put words in my mouth stating I think he is a god on monk. I simple said his parses showed good proof osode > togi... and it was only SLIGHTLY... so I say to you sir... Reading > you.

End yes... parses in merit pty's... drks only keep up using kclub... sorry if that breaks your drk's feelings.

Next... OMG I made a spelling error! OMG... it's the end of the world. Grow up.

Now I know you are going to have a come back and show off your true e-thug style and say this or that and attempt to make me look foolish. Lucky for you I have better things to do then show you anymore attention than that I have shown you here (which was too much already)! I'm not here to worry about your feelings or thoughts, I am here to enjoy a game.

Putting this back on topic...

I thought about the focus vs. doing counter, but I do enjoy to solo alot on monk, not to mention pulling hate on monk. Granted counter only makes pulling hate worse. Using food, I rarely have problems with accuracy. In merit pty's you usually have a brd or two there as well, so again accuracy wasn't as important to me personally. Counter was a better fit for me imo. I personally agree with Matu & Tbest above.. build it on your own playing style.

Are you implying a drk is using axe/kclub :(

I am in no way an e-thug. Just your neighborhood *** who is better than you and can 99% of the time prove it. Link me to his page so I can see them, not doubting you, just want to see them with my own eyes and see if he made any faults or had variables leaning towards Osode more then equaled out because in no way do I believe that Osode can outparse Togi. I never said you were on his *** about being a great MNK but like someone earlier stated most of the up and coming MNKs believe up and down that he is a godsend among MNKs.

And still I stand here wondering what kind of *** DRK uses xxx/kclub? In no way in hell does a good xxx/kclub drk outparse a good scythe drk. No. Way. In. Hell. Tell me this DRKs name because if its who I think it is then he is an idiot and I'll send him a msg on aim saying hes an idiot for using it.

By the way if you had better things to do you wouldn't have baited my first post containing what you said.

Awaiting your response with great anticipation.

Nevermind, found the post. Dating back into 2006 KRT Bones party. Cool.

$0.02

I have fairly pimp gear on my MNK, Osode but no Togi. My MNK friends with similar gear and Togis toss my MNK's salad.

+1 vote for Shura Togi.

Still haven't touched MNK group 2 merits, hadn't even thought to do more than 2 items until seeing this thread. My interest has been piqued.