I'm laying out a somewhat tested, somewhat anecdotal, and some just plain hilarious monk.
It has three cornerstones for monster gibbing dps, works for any enhancement tree monk has available to it, with a variety of splashes, and I'm going to show the simpler pure 20 Henshin version.
The first cornerstone is adding proc damage to ki bolt (and other ki spells), so that proc damage gains 3x melee power scaling. This is like addign sneak damage to adrenaline.
Note that those procs may or may not have their own scaling as well. For example, draconic mantle also has its own spell power scaling, so the total ki bolt hits like a truck:
Draconic mantle is on a 5 second cooldown, so you can toss a ki bolt at mobs every 5 seconds or so and watch it melt. Until update 66, this mantle is commonly overwritten by various other casters with same mantles and weapon and caster procs (elemental attunement rings, dripping with magma, melftfang/acid dot on weapons, etc.), so you can pick uncommon (air/poison/negative) channels, or whatnot if you want. I picked acid for tanking synergy. Poison is max dps with NiS and alchemist splash to break immunity, electricity is least likely to be overwritten by others. They all have their pros and cons, and you can swap the gear up for whatever you pick.
Monk Ki spells are divine and will increment Arcane Warrior, except wave which is bugged and instead reduces your arcane warrior stacks to 0. They are also considered force or untyped spells despite also dealing fire damage.
The second cornerstone is the standard adrenaline + boulder's might. But that's covered everywhere else, so I'll just mention it. Every 8-9 ish seconds or so, depending on Update 66 nerfs. Due to causing helpless, will combine with first cornerstone for hilarious damage numbers. Other epic strikes also have their own various pros/cons.
The third cornerstone is PL:Wiz and Greater Ruin, preferably Ruin Intensified. I'm showing the T5 US version of the build, but if you want more dps, you can take T5 draconic instead. Missiles debuff, and the Greater (intensified?) Ruin cast right after will take things out. This has 10 charges per shrine, and will eat up 1.5k mana. Soloing a PUG raid takes ~350 mana, leaving 1.1k, but I don't have Wellspring/Ruin/GRuin base mana below and epic level spell cost reduction which will give you the rest you need, as will reaper mana globes:
So your monk is in Unyielding (renewal), Draconic (mantle), and FoTW (adrenaline+boulder's). Above I'm in T5 Unyielding for tanking, and don't have ruins or adrenaline, but this is just my test exploratory build. Although it isn't optimal, test build can solo PUG raids reasonably well. Race is whatever gives you what you want (run speed + staff attacks here), but can be Aasimar Fallen for more power/hamp/vulnerability.
Since your toolbars are now full of cornerstone dps combos and healing and defense, simplify it by dropping all the weaker monk abilities, like void strike, ELCAS, fists of iron, quivering palm, and all monk strikes and finishers, as well as all falconry attacks (basically we are culling all the heroic abilities for epic abilities). The #1 toolbar then drops GMOF Strike, Wave, Cauldron, and US T5 for Adrenaline + Boulder and MM + GRuin, moving Cauldron to 2nd rarely hit row next to acid debuffing.
Gearing: Hybrid, example below. Poison or negative Draconic will use raid gloves. Other elements swaps ToEE sets. Uncentered gear sets use GMoF Inner Focus and Orchid Blossom for Ki generation.
Spell powers (don't have ruins or force augment) are solid, and buff further in reaper, with potions, arcane warrior stacks, etc:
Enhancement sample, but really you just need ki bolt.
End with a well-rounded monk with 5, 8-9, and 15 second cornerstone attacks, strong healing, decent tanking, highly mobile, with some CC. So you will end up with an epic instead of heroic monk, which gets more and more important the further you level away from heroic levels and abilities.
R1 (50% more than EE) Bullywogs with Darling to unlock chests is very fast way to farm IOD materials. 5 chests per 10:00.
R1 Spiders and flies killing spider opt then winging to end boss and killing and recalling/resetting without completing is also super fast 2 chest + named farm. 2 chests per 3:00
R1 crab dino opt is also super fast 1 chest per 1:30
R1 dino opt at base of stone crypt is also super fast 1 chest per 1:30
IOD rares loop is west of town gate to lion, sw to crab and golem, nw to mummy north through trex to bear, east to ettercaps, south dip to triceratops, way north to lizard thingy, east giant, crest boss, then south to water weird. Explorer is optimal for Trex Teeth and black pearls, dungeons are optimal for everything else.
It has three cornerstones for monster gibbing dps, works for any enhancement tree monk has available to it, with a variety of splashes, and I'm going to show the simpler pure 20 Henshin version.
The first cornerstone is adding proc damage to ki bolt (and other ki spells), so that proc damage gains 3x melee power scaling. This is like addign sneak damage to adrenaline.
Note that those procs may or may not have their own scaling as well. For example, draconic mantle also has its own spell power scaling, so the total ki bolt hits like a truck:
Draconic mantle is on a 5 second cooldown, so you can toss a ki bolt at mobs every 5 seconds or so and watch it melt. Until update 66, this mantle is commonly overwritten by various other casters with same mantles and weapon and caster procs (elemental attunement rings, dripping with magma, melftfang/acid dot on weapons, etc.), so you can pick uncommon (air/poison/negative) channels, or whatnot if you want. I picked acid for tanking synergy. Poison is max dps with NiS and alchemist splash to break immunity, electricity is least likely to be overwritten by others. They all have their pros and cons, and you can swap the gear up for whatever you pick.
Monk Ki spells are divine and will increment Arcane Warrior, except wave which is bugged and instead reduces your arcane warrior stacks to 0. They are also considered force or untyped spells despite also dealing fire damage.
The second cornerstone is the standard adrenaline + boulder's might. But that's covered everywhere else, so I'll just mention it. Every 8-9 ish seconds or so, depending on Update 66 nerfs. Due to causing helpless, will combine with first cornerstone for hilarious damage numbers. Other epic strikes also have their own various pros/cons.
The third cornerstone is PL:Wiz and Greater Ruin, preferably Ruin Intensified. I'm showing the T5 US version of the build, but if you want more dps, you can take T5 draconic instead. Missiles debuff, and the Greater (intensified?) Ruin cast right after will take things out. This has 10 charges per shrine, and will eat up 1.5k mana. Soloing a PUG raid takes ~350 mana, leaving 1.1k, but I don't have Wellspring/Ruin/GRuin base mana below and epic level spell cost reduction which will give you the rest you need, as will reaper mana globes:
So your monk is in Unyielding (renewal), Draconic (mantle), and FoTW (adrenaline+boulder's). Above I'm in T5 Unyielding for tanking, and don't have ruins or adrenaline, but this is just my test exploratory build. Although it isn't optimal, test build can solo PUG raids reasonably well. Race is whatever gives you what you want (run speed + staff attacks here), but can be Aasimar Fallen for more power/hamp/vulnerability.
Since your toolbars are now full of cornerstone dps combos and healing and defense, simplify it by dropping all the weaker monk abilities, like void strike, ELCAS, fists of iron, quivering palm, and all monk strikes and finishers, as well as all falconry attacks (basically we are culling all the heroic abilities for epic abilities). The #1 toolbar then drops GMOF Strike, Wave, Cauldron, and US T5 for Adrenaline + Boulder and MM + GRuin, moving Cauldron to 2nd rarely hit row next to acid debuffing.
Gearing: Hybrid, example below. Poison or negative Draconic will use raid gloves. Other elements swaps ToEE sets. Uncentered gear sets use GMoF Inner Focus and Orchid Blossom for Ki generation.
| Link | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Set Name | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | |
| DPS Goggles | Acid Lore | Ins. Spellsight | Spell Saves | Wiz | Monolith(2) | Melee Power | Acid Power | PRR | Ins. Dex | |||
| Tank Goggles | Q Con | PRR | Incite | False Life | Monolith(2) | Melee Power | Acid Power | PRR | Concentration | |||
| Helm | Scale-Acid Crit Dmg | Fang-Acid Crit Dmg | Claw-Acid Crit Dmg | Horn-Ghostly | Deacon(3) | Crit - All | Crit Dmg Legendary | MRR Cap | Art USP | Demonheart | Crystal Tea | |
| Neck | Armor Piercing | Diversion | Qual Acc | Imp. Deception | Monolith(2) | Luck | ||||||
| Trinket | https://ddowiki.com/page/Item octor_Lifestone's_Hunting_Horn | Con | Sheltering | Deception | Speed | Dread Isles Curse (5) | Profane Stuffs | Dodge | Melee Power | |||
| Armor | Do not have to be centered, can wear heavier armor and use GMoF for Ki generation. | Scale-Fortification | Fang-Sneak | Claw-Positive Crit | Horn-Resistance | Deacon(3) | Pomuras | Greater Heroism | ||||
| Cloak | https://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Dinosaur_Bone_Cloak | Scale-Dex | Fang-Seeker | Claw-Stunning | Horn-Relentless | Deacon(3) | Deadly | Accuracy | ||||
| Wrist-Artifact | https://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Dinosaur_Bone_Bracers | Scale-Wisdom | Fang-Hamp | Claw-Trip | Horn-Armor Pen | Dread Isles Curse (5) | Undying | Ultimatum | ||||
| Waist | Ins. Sheltering | Strength | Dread Isles Curse (5) | Globe | Festive Con | |||||||
| Ring | https://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Bound_Elemental_Ring_of_Frost | Water Attunement | Wiz - Elemental | Cold Lore | Glaciation | Chained Elementals (2) | Crit - Elem | SP - Elem | Protection | Natural Armor | ||
| Ring 2 | Fire Attunement | Arcane Augmentation | Combustion | Fire Lore | Chained Elementals (2) | Spellcraft | Ins. Con | |||||
| Boots | https://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Legendary_Sunken_Slippers | Ins Potency | Qual Potency | Qual Wis | displacement | Festive Wis | ||||||
| Gloves | https://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Legendary_Birchlore_Gauntlets | Scale-Positive Crit | Devotion | Healing Lore | Vitality | Dread Isles Curse (5) | Ins. Wisdom | Master's Gift | ||||
| Weapon | Any: IOD Staff/Wraps/Kukri/Dwarven Axe + Tower Shield/Throwing Dagger + Runearm, etc. | Scale-Acid Dmg | Fang-5% Spell Crit | Claw-Corrosion | Horn-Ash | Dread Isles Curse (5) | Impulse/Eye of Lammania | Souleater |
| Filigree (Divine Crusaders swaps fort/HAMP for more melee power) | Qty | Filligree MP |
| Sucker/One | 2 | 18 |
| Citys MP | 2 | 10 |
| Longshadow MP | 2 | 15 |
| Treachery MP | 2 | 15 |
| Sucker MP | 1 | 5 |
| Mechanic Fort | 1 | 0 |
| Citys Fort | 1 | 0 |
| One MP | 1 | 5 |
| Purity/Touch Hamp | 1 | 0 |
| Purity Hamp | 1 | 0 |
| Feats* | THFx3 | (start str 13 take at monk2) |
| S2P | (monk 6) | |
| Combat Experitise (2 cornerstone) or precision/power attack (3) | (monk 1) | |
| Weapon FocusX2 (2 Cornerstone) or toughnessx2 (3 Cornerstone) | (non-strikethrough monks take WWA if lacking chains) | |
| IC:B | ||
| PL:Wiz (3 Cornerstone) or Weapon Focus (2 Cornerstone) | ||
| toughness (deflect if race doesn't have it) | (non-strikethrough monks take WWA if lacking chains) | |
| Epic | OC | |
| Bulwark (2 Cornerstone) or Wellspring (3 Cornerstone) | ||
| Epic Reflexes (2 Cornerstone) Ruin (3 Cornerstone) | Max + Levels Con for 3 cornerstone build | |
| Epic DR (2 Cornerstone) Greater Ruin (3 Cornerstone) | Otherwise Max + Levels Wisdom for 2 cornerstone build | |
| Destiny | THF#4 | *Note this is a centered melee feat setup, but this build |
| Arcane Warrior | also works for ranged, S&B, and any combat style. | |
| Acid Spell Power | Pick feats per whatever you are building. | |
| Positive Spell Power | ||
| Scion of Earth |
Spell powers (don't have ruins or force augment) are solid, and buff further in reaper, with potions, arcane warrior stacks, etc:
Enhancement sample, but really you just need ki bolt.
End with a well-rounded monk with 5, 8-9, and 15 second cornerstone attacks, strong healing, decent tanking, highly mobile, with some CC. So you will end up with an epic instead of heroic monk, which gets more and more important the further you level away from heroic levels and abilities.
R1 (50% more than EE) Bullywogs with Darling to unlock chests is very fast way to farm IOD materials. 5 chests per 10:00.
R1 Spiders and flies killing spider opt then winging to end boss and killing and recalling/resetting without completing is also super fast 2 chest + named farm. 2 chests per 3:00
R1 crab dino opt is also super fast 1 chest per 1:30
R1 dino opt at base of stone crypt is also super fast 1 chest per 1:30
IOD rares loop is west of town gate to lion, sw to crab and golem, nw to mummy north through trex to bear, east to ettercaps, south dip to triceratops, way north to lizard thingy, east giant, crest boss, then south to water weird. Explorer is optimal for Trex Teeth and black pearls, dungeons are optimal for everything else.
The fortification and HAMP native to Divine Crusader frees up more filigree for melee power, plus various benefits.
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