Well I really don't know If all agree with this but I am almost sure 90% of you hate monks so I will provide a tested hybrid monk for all those that can aford it that will change your perspective and maybe will even make you adore a monk. I know I simply love it.

This ideea was given to me after Nate gave me some crazy gear that he has for a hybrid and I must tell you this build rocks as you can average almost as all the other characters while beeing able to heal aswell. So yeah you know what I am talking about.

This is the monk's stats and you can see right from the begining this character is born to be a hybrid.


Monk
(strength: 40 dexterity: 65 intelligence: 20 vitality: 40)
Weapons he can use: daggers, staffs
Armour:only light

Building your character:

For this build we need to balance the stats of our character in such manner that we will do good average while we can heal consistently also.

I tested this and this is what should you do.

First you must lift a bit your vitality If you play hardcore so that you have over 45 ( somewhere between 45-50 is fine but it depends on gear ).
If you have from 1-20 max life gear with caster stats I suggest you to put only 45 vitality points. On softcore you can go with base vitality and everything will be ok.


After that we will put all the stats points we get into inteligence as this will be our major factor to heal effectively.

Untill level 30 we should multicast with any good charm and I'm not going to tell you what items to take from 1 to 30 as you all probabely know about that and we are limited to daggers/staffs.

From level 30 we can start melee using items with dual utility. Exemples:

dagger/staff level 30 req. 120 + ee 15+ inteligence 15 + heal mastery
armor light: robe/padded robe level 30 req. dexterity/strenght + inteligence + heal mastery
dex/str charm with inteligence / heal mastery aswell

nice heal charm:

critical strike works very nice in this build as you can crit a lot with your weapon and with your heal.


So basicly we put all points into inteligence and we use dex/str from our items based on their ratio:

staffs: 25% str / 75% dex
daggers: 10% str / 90% dex

I can do with Nate's hybrid gear like 500 average ( and thats with a bad staff ) and I can heal very nice and this works for solo aswell as you just kill then heal yourself and continue. It might even be the best solo climber.


This is the gear I used and I'm sure on softcore you can find better:

Mystical steelwood staff
Level Req: 45
Damage: 141 to 376

+135% Enhanced Effect
+14 Intelligence
+8 Critical Strike

Angelic spiderthread robe
Level Req: 55
Physical Defense: 0 to 31
Magical Defense: 54 to 163

+69% Enhanced Effect
+42 Dexterity
+26 Intelligence
+4% Power Shot


Godly wind IX
Level Req: 30
Spell Damage: 20 to 93
Mana Cost: 69

+26 Strength
+18 Dexterity
+92 Max Mana
+1% Experience Gained
+1 Life Regen
+1 Extra Equipment Slots
+1% Mind Numb
+3% Physical Damage Reduction


Mystical wild heal XII
Level Req: 45
Heals: 38 to 380
Mana Cost: 93

+176% Enhanced Effect
+4 Extra Equipment Slots
+2 Critical Strike


this is a small video to see it in action but the main ideea is to see I can crit with over 1k with this staff. Imagine with a better one or a nice dagger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppuyXMHkxdw


Need feedback about how can i transform this into a guide.
Maybe you have some things to add.


Enjoy.

i hate monk

Did not read all, but, I love monk also... it is the most versatile build if used correctly.

This is how I build my monk even on Softcore.
Vitality: 40-45 ... ensuring that you have decent health
Intelligence: Rest... no other stat points in Dex / Str

Weapon:
Must... Enhanced effect (preferably 90%+), then either these mods:
2nd = Int
3rd = Heal Mastery (this can also be secondary)

Robe:
Must be dual Mod: Dexterity + Intelligence... this is for casting / melee, other mod:
3rd = Heal Mastery (this can be in conjunction with either Dex or Int)

Main Charm:
This can be versatile based on either a Heal type or casting type, Mods:
1. Enhanced Effect (90%+)
2. Intelligence (if Heal type) or Heal Mastery (if casting type)

Acc Slot:
Again versatile based from your main charm slot.

This build is Tri-bid... Cast / Heal / Melee... it is for Solo'ing and Catacombs.

Yeah but I am thinking more of a melee/healer build that can shorten then climbing time. Sure you can cast aswell but that will involve mana burning and you barly can heal. With only melee/healer you should be fine becouse you would not shrine that often and the team average would be much higher.

This can turn the side and the build of a perfect climbing team as monk was considered a bad choise as caster or as melee in a perfect team.

My feedback?
It should have been posted in the correct forum: Character Builds and Discussion

No monk experience here...

It would be posted there as a guide after I see some opinions regarding this build.

When more brains are put together good things might happen.

like the guide, im building kinda same way, go to 55 vit thou for safety ( HC ofc ) and then rest into int

depending on the group i cast, melee, heal or hybrid, if hybriding im ue these items:

Mythical ultimanium dagger
Level Req: 55
Damage: 311 to 544

+117% Enhanced Effect
+3 Dexterity
+1 to 1 Life per Attack
+1 to 1 Mana per Kill
+12% Critical Flux

Mystical wyvernskin padded robe
Level Req: 40
Physical Defense: 0 to 33
Magical Defense: 35 to 88

+8 Dexterity
+1% Magical Damage Reduction
+45% Heal Mastery

and 1 of 2 charms as main:

#1:
Arcane ice XIV
Level Req: 55
Spell Damage: 75 to 90
Mana Cost: 109

+8 Dexterity
+1 to 8 Mana per Kill
+2% Damage Return
+4% Mind Numb
+4% Magical Damage Reduction
+45% Heal Mastery

#2:
Arcane focused heal VIII
Level Req: 25
Heals: 69 to 83
Mana Cost: 61

+27 Dexterity
+396 Max Life
+6% Experience Gained
+1 to 15 Mana per Attack
+4% Critical Flux
+3% Quick Draw

Angelic focused heal XIII
Level Req: 50
Heals: 239 to 287
Mana Cost: 101

+112% Enhanced Effect
+9 Life Regen
+1% Armor Pierce
+1 Jubilance

Since when do you crit with your heal charm?^^




im playing hybrid on all my melee classes and i wouldnt suggest to put all points into int.
you just lose too much damage and have a lot more mana then needed.

if i play solo im doing fine with 35 int which is enough to go no regen most of the time
if i play in a group i mostly stat base int until 45-50

that depends on your gear ofc.
with bad gear a little more int is better, but full int is still not needed unless you are the only healer in a bad group, but then you should switch to heal mastery equip anyway (or just leave the group^^)

This post was edited by [fB] on Feb 10 2011 03:57am

With full inteligence build I get like ~ 3.5 k mana so this must be done for proper healing as you might not find these super items and 3.5 k mana is not that much.

This build is made as if you were the only healer in the team in the first place.

My concept was that with this we can build that super team with 5 damage dealers. I can damage well and I can heal the group so this was my point. You just need fast switching of keys to bash and then to heal.


about crit with heal charm was a bad english part.

I will fix that.

This post was edited by rusclaudiualin on Feb 10 2011 04:08am

Full int only necessary if you plan on casting the high lvls.

I can pretty much be the only one healing to lvl 55 with 40 base int and no heal mastery (With the exception for EPs and quests obv) and my heals is rather average.

I do agree that hybrid melee or caster is the way to play monk tho.