Gear Discussion ? For Mnks

If you're after defensive boots, i.e. tanking Adam or Behemoth, stick to AF+1 boots. I never got myself a pair personally.. yet, still missing Temenos item. I wore Fumas when I tanked those NMs on MNK when I was going after my Black Belt. I wouldn't worry so much about defense, eva/acc for avoiding hits and countering worked for me with a touch of haste for recasts.

I just got MNK to 75 is it worth it to merit formless strikes?

1 merit in it is very helpful. I wouldn't suggest putting more than 1 in it though.

Yeah. We had a topic about this awhile back. Most do 1 in FS.

My merits look/will look like this:
5 Focus
5 Kick Attacks

1 Formless Strikes
5 Mantra
4 Invigorate.

A lot of Monks do:
5 Counter
5 Kick Attacks

1 Formless Strikes
4 Invigorate
5 Penance

Wtf.

What...? It's better than counter if I'm not getting attacked.

I suppose, but if you are getting attacked (Which if you're a MNK, you will be on occasion) you'd be better off with the +5% counter rate. Both for Defensive purposes and you'll do more damage over time.

On occasion, yes. But, unless I'm getting attacked 'often'. I'd rather have +30 accuracy 48% of the time, instead of 40% of the time. Countering 1 more hit out of 20 just isn't worth it to me if I'm not getting hit on a regular basis.

Honestly I guess it depends on what you do on MNK. More often than not, I'm off soloing some LV80 NM or something stupid so I like my 80% Counterstance when Shadows go down.

Also helps on Salvage runs. MNK makes a formidable tank in alot of situations, and it works wonders when you're soloing doing whatever.

And then if it gets though with that 20% window and crits... You die because you have no def. >.>

If you counter while casting Utsusemi, it's not interrupted. With full Haste gear on any normal mob (Let's say Aura Statues, LV81-84, since I solo them a lot) My shadows are down roughly 10% of the time, and then I have an 80% chance to counter after that, equating a 2% chance of actually getting hit. And at 75, everyone knows DEF does nothing so with the low DEF even those hard-hitters only hit about 50-70 more per hit with Counterstance up.

To each their own, I went counter too but really what you do is up to you. Unless he's tanking in salvage all the time or soloing I don't think it really matters if he has focus instead of counter. Even then it only hurts him or his group and if they don't mind him getting more acc instead of an occasion counter then more power to him.

*Nods.* I so rarely solo or do Salvage. lol

I have RNG at 75, that's my DD job. I use MNK for solo, Salvage, or low-man situations, depending on what's needed.

I find focus merits to be pointless. For example when meriting on mamools, I save focus for lurkers. I won't use it every time its up. Lowering the recast time will do nothing because the it takes longer to get to the lurker again than my current recast. Also any situation where its not a straight up fight. Let's say your new timer comes up in the middle of a resting period and what not. Just so many ways not to get full benefit from the reduced recast timer.

Back to the dune boots discussion. Here's a post I made on them on the wiki forums

Capped h2h merits and destroyers puts you at 53 DMG. Kicks are at your base h2h w/o the + dmg from weapon. DMG 35. You have 15% chance to kick w/ kick attacks II and 5/5 merits

We'll assume 0% DA for this
53 + 53 + (.15 x 35 DMG) = average of 111.25 DMG/attack round

ok, now we'll add dune boots
2 punches at 53 DMG each w/ 15% chance of 65 DMG kick (35 + 30 is 65) per attack round
53 + 53 + (.15 x 65 DMG) = average of 115.75 DMG/attack round

115.75 DMG/111.25 DMG = 1.0404 or whats otherwise known as a 4.04% increase in damage.

Now, this only applies to DoT, does nothing for ws. Mnk WS is generally split 70% DoT and 30% WS dmg (and this is being more than generous to the TP portion)

4.04% increase x .7 (mnk's DoT portion of damage) = 2.828% increase in total dmg.

Fuma, 3% haste. We all know haste is cumulative, but let's look at 0% haste

Added haste/100-total haste = increase in damage

3/100-3 = 3/97 = .0309 which can aka 3.09% increase in not only DoT but also WS dmg because unlike dunes which only increase your dmg/hit this increases how often you hit. You will get more and ws more often.

w/ absolutely no other haste at all, fuma still win.

now let's look at turban BB byakkos.

Dunes will still have its 2.828% increase

but let's look at fuma

3/100-25 = 3/75 = 4% increase

Haste
3/100-40 = 3/60 = 5% increase

Haste + March
3/100-51 = 3/49 = 6.12% increase

Haste + march + march
3/100-60 = 3/40 = 7.5% increase

With absolutely no haste gear, 0% add fuma
3/100-3 = 3/97 = 3.09% increase

Fuma w/ 0 haste gear beats dune boots. If you get Spharai, dune boots will do even less in terms of added damage.

Footwork only

Hey Vegetto! <3 your MNK, lol.

good monk indeed.

Thanks for the input Vegetto.

Ok Fuma it is.

I have WAR and PLD at 75, BLM a work in progress also at 53

I just picked up a minuet earring and I'm currently using it for the first time in a party with a bard.

Where do you think it falls when compared to the att earrings and the brutal/hollow?
Pretty much fulltime brutal/hollow if you have them?

I don't have either of those yet, so I'm using coral/minuet.

Acc uncapped? Active minuet earring > attack earrings

Active minuet > Hollow when dex is odd (adding the 1 dex gives it another point of acc, bringing it to 4 acc total and +1 str). Hollow > Active minuet when dex is even.

Acc earrings > attack earrings unless you are absolutely positive your acc is capped.

I'd suggest getting Ethereal instead of Hollow, it's one of the most well rounded earrings there are. If you really need an ACC only earring, Diabolos earring isn't too bad when you don't have a BRD for Minuet to activate. Hollow really isn't worth it imo, Ethereal is good for many more situations than Hollow's 1 ACC difference.

Ethereal is just a free evasion earring for MNK; more of a PLD or NIN sub DRK/RDM piece. Hollow will contribute much more to overall DoT.

I don't see how you can justify 1 ACC to outwiegh Ethereal's uses. There are other options for ACC, there are none that are dual purpose in the way Ethereal is. If you only use MNK for high end mobs then sure, but if you're a career MNK suggesting Hollow over Ethereal is bad advice.

No ethereal is for the career other jobs. Hollow is career mnk as it is the best DoT earring. If you want evasion then go for an evasion build. Ethereal, I only use for solo. If you want damage, you go for damage. On any mob that matters, you aren't going to evade worth a ***unless you go w/ a full blown evasion build. Ethreal on a DD build is pointless.

Career entails soloing, Hollow does nothing for solo, Ethereal does. If you use MNK for everything Ethereal will serve more uses. If you can give evidence where 1 ACC outweighs that then I'll retract my stance, but all you guys are doing is talking as if Career = meriting mobs.

Well, I'm pretty sure Hollow will outperform Ethereal just about everywhere, DD-wise (Dynamis, Einherjar, Limbus, Nyzul, Salvage). Maybe you like to use Ethereal in Salvage, (like I do) but if I had both I would be using Hollow.

Besides, who always has two BRDs for Minuet earring to always be in effect? (If I have one BRD, he/she will be singing double March)

Now let's bring Diabolos's earring into play. It's not going to be of any use in Dynamis/Einherjar/Apollyon, which are some pretty big events.

Pure DOT hollow wins. You can't possibly argue that fact.

When did you solo in Dynamis/Einherjar/Limbus/Nyzul/Salvage? Those are the times that 1 ACC will be better yes but that has nothing to do with what I was saying. Of course Diabolos isn't any use in Dynamis, but if you have an ACC problem there then you need way more help than 1 ACC. I really don't see anyone having 1 ACC in any of those events actually being able to change the course of events.

I'm not talking about all this 'omg I did 50 damage more than you in the past 10 minutes' bs that only people full of themselves really care about. Getting bragging rights for a minuscule damage boost and being able to solo/low man things far easier isn't even debatable to me.

If you think 5 EVA wont do anything when 1 ACC will to save your *** when it counts then I'm wasting my time reading your replies. The item will even trump Hollow more in terms of usefulness if you level other jobs that it's better made for.