MNK merit tips

[Ino...]

Mantra is for making your DRK's do a little more damage with soul eater. Formless strikes is good for mobs that are either immune or resistant to physical damage, or dynamis mobs that use invincible.

Thx, I wont be getting mantra now ... I might lol. But yeah I knew about formless strikes , but when I've seen it used , it doesnt do much dmg at all, maybe with more merits it'll do decent damage. I'm still gonna get it though because it could help...

Oh and Ikari you came back a lil strong... but all I can really say is... you're right lol... Thumbs up for u! :O

 

[Skaw]

Thx, I wont be getting mantra now ... I might lol. But yeah I knew about formless strikes , but when I've seen it used , it doesnt do much dmg at all, maybe with more merits it'll do decent damage. I'm still gonna get it though because it could help...

More merits increase by 5% and 10% respectively, meaning 55%/60% of your normal weapon damage(or +5%/10% Formless Strikes damage,) which isn't much more.

Formless Strikes shines against things that actually take bonus damage from magic, such as Flans. I almost hit for normal damage while it's up when they're in angry mode(resistant to melee, weak to magic,) and I've only got 1 rank. Weapon Skills are still pitifully low though, since they aren't affected by Formless.

 

[neophytal]

personally, capping XP is a waste of time. why would you DIE 40k+ xp's worth? especially with the limited amount lost even on r1 these days. there are plenty of xp scrolls and different things you can do, to never have to set on xp mode, and maximize your character on merits.

don't play like a dumbass and enjoy your merits

 

[Bajaratt]

It's not that you're going to die that much within a short time frame, but that you won't ever have to worry about getting buffer ever again. By leaving yourself on EXP mode, you maintain a huge buffer while transferring over to merits without having to do anything. Although I think a lot of it's benefit is no longer there with the ability to change between merits and exp outside of your mog house. Before that change though, it was a lot simpler to stay on exp and keep your buffer capped.

Besides, it would only take 1-2 mobs per Raise 3 to rebuild that buffer, so unless you die constantly(like Sabia constantly) then it won't take that long to switch back to merits.

 

[Jojojo]

And on a somewhat unrelated note... Sea gorgets won't do anything for Asuran Fists, so don't bother getting one.

I thought flame gorget affected Asuran Fists. Are you saying it's just inferior to say, PCC, since it's an 8-hit WS?

And what's this about one skill shy of 300?

I is sea newb.

 

[Lavi]

personally, capping XP is a waste of time. why would you DIE 40k+ xp's worth? especially with the limited amount lost even on r1 these days. there are plenty of xp scrolls and different things you can do, to never have to set on xp mode, and maximize your character on merits.

don't play like a dumbass and enjoy your merits

I kind of agree with this. While you can argue, if you put it on exp mode and cap, it'll automatically go into merits once you do, it is also possible to do the opposite, put it on merits and should you delevel, it'll go back to exp. No exp "Wasted" on buffer, but I'd advise against doing exactly that. Save enough cap so that you don't delevel in whatever you will do in the near future. When it gets dangerously low, add more. I have around 10k buffer on most of my jobs and if that dips below 5-8k, I change to exp mode and go back above 11-12k. I save myself 30k limit points for 3-4 jobs meaning I used 9-12 merits that could be stuck on buffer.

My reasoning? I prefer leaving a smaller buffer so that I can get the most merits now and then cap buffer afterwords. To me, the sooner I get merits and use them, the faster future merits will be. That's also why i prefer dumping merits as soon as I get them into things that will maximize my merit potential instead of saving for the really merit expensive items like 2nd or 3rd tier II merits or STR merits. When I am done meritting I will get a full buffer so I don't need to get exp for a long time and then rest easy. Also, for the record, depending on the merits, they do effect you when you delevel to 74. I'm not sure if tier I job specific merits work when you delevel, someone else will have to comment on that, but you do lose magic spells and job abilities from Tier II merits. Stat merits will still be in effect as I saw the skill increases even after deleveling WHM which at the time was my only 75 job.

 

[Skaw]

I thought flame gorget affected Asuran Fists. Are you saying it's just inferior to say, PCC, since it's an 8-hit WS?

And what's this about one skill shy of 300?

I is sea newb.

Gorgets only do +0.1 fTP and +10 Accuracy to the first hit of any multihit weaponskill.

It's just vastly inferior to just about anything you can equip because of the lost effectiveness from 8 hits.

As for one shy of 300, I thought Ikari said torques. Hand to Hand skill adds 1 weapon damage for every 10 skill levels. MNK can (currently) only get to 299 max. Since the game rounds down to the nearest interger for everything, this prevents getting 33 base damage.

 

[Lavi]

I thought flame gorget affected Asuran Fists. Are you saying it's just inferior to say, PCC, since it's an 8-hit WS?

And what's this about one skill shy of 300?

I is sea newb.

I don't know about the Flame gorget, but the Hope Torque gives +7 Hand-to-hand skill. With 276 base skill, 16 skill in merits and the torque, a MNK can get to 299 skill. This is important because MNK damage is based upon the weapons +DMG (notice h2h weapons all read +# DMG while normal weapons all just say # DMG) and plus 1 base DMG per 10 levels of skill rounded down. With 299 skill, MNK can get 29 DMG + weapon DMG while with a single skill more, they can hit 300 skill for 30 DMG + weapon DMG. At least that is my understanding of it.

Edit: Skaw beat me to it, but why 33 damage and not 30? Typo?

 

[Skaw]

Edit: Skaw beat me to it, but why 33 damage and not 30? Typo?

Base damage is 3+(skill/10)

 

[Sneakypants]

personally, capping XP is a waste of time. why would you DIE 40k+ xp's worth? especially with the limited amount lost even on r1 these days. there are plenty of xp scrolls and different things you can do, to never have to set on xp mode, and maximize your character on merits.

don't play like a dumbass and enjoy your merits

Pretty quick to call it stupid. That's kewl.
As fast as people get XP, how stupid is it to have capped XP?
Doesn't seem stupid in the slightest. Set it and forget it.
lolbuffers.

I love that the word buffer isn't part of my vocabulary, as many times as I might die. When people delevel to 74, honestly, that's just fucked up. I'm not saying capped XP is necessarily "better" than having a solid buffer. I don't care, as long as you don't ever delevel. There's no excuse for that. But it's certainly not dumb or a waste of time to cap XP. Not in the slightest.

 

[Knightblade]

H2H 8
Crit 4
STR 2
Kick Attacks 5
STR 3 (adding to total of 5)
Invigorate 3
Penance 3

You can replace penance with formless strikes if you don't think you would use it. I myself find it useful in spots like end game where mobs spam TP moves, or something like, say, Imps. Blocking Abrasive Tantara is always nice.

As for the other 5 in tier 1 job merits, it's completely up to you, maybe counter if you think you need it? Soloing maybe? Focus if you think the acc's useful, maybe a balance of each?

 

[Bajaratt]

Attributes (STR) should be the last thing you merit. Anything else you can merit is going to be a much more significant improvement than 1 STR will. Also, for the cost of those attributes, you could easily cap off other merits for an even greater improvement on your performance.

5 STR also won't do that much for monk because of the fucking horrible modifiers on asuran fists. If I didn't have other melee jobs, I'd consider meriting VIT for more chakra so I can break a 400 initial return.

 

[Lavi]

Don't forget, you can merit some stats which will improve your performance on future jobs you plan to level; however, MNK doesn't have many of the same options as other jobs (similar skills really). If you plan on leveling another job sometime soon before you finish meritting, getting merits which will impact both might be a good idea. Critical hits, enm, stats, combat skills, etc. You can't level job specific merits unless that job is already 75, but you can add to skills that are common to both jobs. A good example of this is WAR can merit sword and shield even though the WAR doesn't get a ton of use out of it, the player can get a lot of use for it on PLD that's maybe at level 10. Merits only kick in at 1 per 10 levels, but that improvement really is noticeable especially when you get a good weapon skill a level or two early.

 

[Bajaratt]

Only Combat skills you can merit on monk are hand to hand, staff, club, evasion, parrying and guarding so you're not going to get anything out of combat skills really. You could do evasion/parrying for a tanking job, but that's not going to be all that important.

 

[Zoolander]

Attributes (STR) should be the last thing you merit. Anything else you can merit is going to be a much more significant improvement than 1 STR will. Also, for the cost of those attributes, you could easily cap off other merits for an even greater improvement on your performance.

5 STR also won't do that much for monk because of the fucking horrible modifiers on asuran fists. If I didn't have other melee jobs, I'd consider meriting VIT for more chakra so I can break a 400 initial return.

Eh, I would merit STR before ever touching those Teir 2 merits.

 

[Lavi]

Only Combat skills you can merit on monk are hand to hand, staff, club, evasion, parrying and guarding so you're not going to get anything out of combat skills really. You could do evasion/parrying for a tanking job, but that's not going to be all that important.

I figured as much, but if someone's leaning on meritting for another job, they can still prioritize critical hits, enm, HP/MP, spell interuption and anything which are common to all jobs. It's not a huge boost, but they are noticeable. For me, WAR is great in that regards because we have access to a majority of weapons, I believe the only weapons not available are katana and great katana. I mainly say this because most people I know get bored of meritting fast because it's long and repetitive to merit even just a single job. They often take breaks to do another lower level job and if you go this route, you can work in favor of both jobs.

 

[Bajaratt]

Eh, I would merit STR before ever touching those Teir 2 merits.

And you could do that, but you wouldn't see any benefits from it. Invigorate is a huge boost to the hp healed from chakra, penance cripples the mob's TP gain, and formless strikes is a very nice ability for invincible/melee resistant mobs.

Stacking on STR is pretty much useless for a monk, which is why monks(along with others, but monks more so) who melee in full STR builds are so laughable.

 

[Zoolander]

Useless? Its 5 more STR than you had before. You seem to have a great misunderstanding of how STR affects every single melee hit and WS. Sure, meleeing in acc/att is obviously better, but that doesnt mean that STR doesnt affect melee as well as weaponskills. Even if your WS doesnt have a direct STR mod, it will still benefit the WS dmg more than any secondary mod of equal value would. And the first 2 STR merits are only 9 merits, so getting those out of the way is easy.

 

[Bajaratt]

Useless? Its 5 more STR than you had before. You seem to have a great misunderstanding of how STR affects every single melee hit and WS. Sure, meleeing in acc/att is obviously better, but that doesnt mean that STR doesnt affect melee as well as weaponskills. Even if your WS doesnt have a direct STR mod, it will still benefit the WS dmg more than any secondary mod of equal value would. And the first 2 STR merits are only 9 merits, so getting those out of the way is easy.

And you seem to have a great misunderstanding of how monk works. It won't help for monk nearly as much as pretty much any other melee job. It still won't have anywhere near as noticeable effect as any of the tier 2 merits, aside from mantra.

Monk is one of, if not the most unique damage dealer in the game. Several aspects of monk are unique to that job alone and work completely differently than the other melee jobs. STR isn't nearly as useful for monk, it's not even worth stacking a ton of STR on for Asuran Fists, +attack still gives better numbers.

 

[Isomiau]

1st things 1st, grats on 75 playa! Not sure what else i can add to this, but here goes...

To reiterate, mantra is f'n bunk. I believe SE only put it in the game for male mithra jokes.

You need to unlock formless strikes, that way whenever you see ...uses invincible, you can /grin, light your fists up swirlyblue and keep on punching.

Capped penace is just sexy, and watching 3 monks in a perpetual penance rotation, is a thing of beauty.

Go 5/5 kickattacks/counter. Kick attacks are spiffy, plus they give ya tp. And you'll appreciate the counter attacks when you're trying to get ichi off.

I'll never be anything other than a monk, so this is what mine look like...

8/8 H2H
4/4 Guard
4/4 Eva
5/5 dex
4/4 Crit
4/4 Spell Interuption Rate
5/5 Counter
5/5 Kick
0 mantra
1 formless
2 Invigorate
3 Penance

They're your merits dude, there really is no ideal order, they'll be full eventually, so have fun with em, and put em where you want.

</bow>

(And yah, I meritted dex, being mithra i'll never catch an elvaans strength, so i played to my race. All the str in the world dont matter if you cant connect. Melee setup is 83+23 dex, with Pahluwan body, it looks like damn near every other punch is a crit. It also allows me to eat meat in more situations. /shrug)