View source for Elzhi's Guide to Karate

= Introduction: =
This is a work in progress, I currently work 40+ hour weeks, it will be a while before this entire guide is finished so please bare with me.

I never have claimed to be a really good monk (only in jest), but there are a lot of monks on this server who could use a good detailed guide on the class.  I have a lot of information that I don't mind sharing and I think people would get some use out of it.  I played a monk on Tallon Zek on for a while (roughly original EQ through Planes of Power) and fell in love with the class.  It's partially the reason I don't have any other high level alts, I just don't enjoy playing anything that isn't my monk.  Hopefully this guide will help those newer to the class get an idea on how to optimally play their monk. 
= Character Creation: =
===Why a play monk?===

They are the second best DPS in the game, can tank moderately well and it's rare that there is ever a situation where they are not the most optimal puller.  To top off all of these other skills they have the second most powerful disciplines in the game.  One of the greatest parts about being a monk is the freedom to go nearly anywhere in the game.  With some invisibility, careful sneaking and liberal use of feign death a monk can get to almost any place in any zone with relative ease.  Just today I started at the entrance of Old Sebilis and got all the way to Trakanon's lair in a span of five minutes with only a bit of invisibility, sneak and liberal use of feign death; how many other classes can do that?  Most important though and above all else; they get a sweet flying kick.  You should not be asking 'why a play monk?' but 'why not play a monk?'.

{| class="eoTable3"
|-
! Race !! Strength !! Stamina !! Dexterity !! Agility !! Bonuses & Experience Modifiers !! Suggested Stats
|-
| [[Human]] || 80 || 80 || 85 || 85 || Eyepatches & Mustaches, +5 FR -20% Experience|| 25 STA
|-
| [[Iksar]] || 75 || 75 || 95 || 100 || Forage, Infravision, Increased Regeneration, Increased AC, -10 CR, +5 FR -44% Experience || 25 STA
|}
Basically iksar is better than human in every single way but the trade off is you have to look at that awful character model forever.

As for stat point allocation, I would recommend just dumping everything into stamina.  The optimal end game build would be to dump all your points into stamina so you can swap stamina gear out for +HP later and have a higher max hp (more hp = more healed with mend). Strength is really easy to come by as you approach late game so I wouldn't drop any points there.  Dexterity is good if you plan on using a {{:Tranquil Staff}} and might actually be the better choice if you are a monk on red (the stun is 80 damage on players, is unresistable  and lasts roughly 6 seconds). 


At level 60 the difference between an iksar and a human isn't really that big of a deal on blue (it is on red, never roll a human monk on red, I can't stress this enough).  I was able to do most of the duo artist challenge without a problem on my monk when I was able to convince a shaman to run around with me and complete it. 
 
If you are playing on red though you should absolutely be playing an iksar.  Extra ac, regeneration and the fact that you can put a {{:Stone of Morid}} in your range slot is a massive advantage.

For religion, iksar can only choose Cazic Thule and they will be hated by nearly every npc in the game but this isn't a huge deal thanks to feign death and sneak.  For humans there are two choices for religion, Quellious and agnostic.  I would recommend making an agnostic monk because it will make faction levels even among most races allowing you to faction up easier and go places without having to take time to feign flop through them.  Quellious monks will start in Freeport, agnostic will start in Qeynos and iksar will start in Cabilis.

= Check the Technique: =
=== Nunchuck Skills ===


{| class="eoTable2"
! Skill Name
! Level Obtained
! Max
|-
| [[Skill_1H_Blunt|1H Blunt]]
| 1
| 252
|-
| [[Skill_2H_Blunt|2H Blunt]]
| 1
| 252
|-
| [[Skill_Defense|Defense]]
| 1
| 252
|-
| [[Skill_Hand_to_Hand|Hand to Hand]]
| 1
| 252
|-
| [[Skill_Offense|Offense]]
| 1
| 252
|-
| [[Skill_Dodge|Dodge]]
| 1
| 230
|-
| [[Skill_Dual_Wield|Dual Wield]]
| 1
| 252
|-
| [[Skill_Kick|Kick]]
| 1
| 250
|-
| [[Skill_Mend|Mend]]
| 1
| 200
|-
| [[Skill_Throwing|Throwing]]
| 1
| 113
|-
| [[Skill_Round_Kick|Round Kick]]
| 5
| 225
|-
| [[Skill_Tiger_Claw|Tiger Claw]]
| 10
| 225
|-
| [[Skill_Block|Block]] 
| 12
| 225
|-
| [[Skill_Double_Attack|Double Attack]]
| 15
| 250
|-
| [[Skill_Feign_Death|Feign Death]]
| 17
| 200
|-
| [[Skill_Intimidation|Intimidation]]
| 18
| 200
|-
| [[Skill_Eagle_Strike|Eagle Strike]]
| 20
| 225
|-
| [[Skill_Dragon_Punch|Dragon Punch]] / [[Skill_Tail_Rake|Tail Rake]]
| 25
| 225
|-
| [[Skill_Disarm|Disarm]]
| 27
| 200
|-
| [[Skill_Flying_Kick|Flying Kick]]
| 30
| 225
|-
| [[Skill_Riposte|Riposte]]
| 35
| 225
|-
| [[Skill_Sneak|Sneak]]
| 8
| 113
|}


Every few levels monks get a new special attack, the newer attack will have a higher max damage so you should use them when you are able to skill them up.  Once you pick up flying kick you won't ever want to use any other special attack though, the attack rating and max damage of flying kick trumps all of the other special attacks.  Intimidation was pretty handy to have when I was leveling up my monk on blue, unfortunately they nerfed it (made it classic) so that the fear check applies at the end of the animation instead of the beginning.  This skill is now so much worse, the fear will only proc on dark blue mobs on the lower end of the level scale, the animation takes forever to finish and the fear itself can be resisted (and is resisted quite often).  The mob you feared will also take off full speed in a random direction if/when a fear lands and thanks to the wonky hitboxes on feared mobs you can end up in range of attacking but your combat log being filled with, •You can't see your target".  It is incredibly unreliable so don't think you can use it to solo effectively.  I honestly wouldn't even recommend bothering to level it up. 

When you first start your toon, dump all of your points in mend.  It will fail the majority of the time until you get to about 100 and it is on a 6 minute cooldown.  Mend will heal 25% of your hp, so stacking hp and using mend will give you more net hp. 
 
Basically all of these skills you get take a backseat to the two best skills you get on your bar, sneak and feign death.  These skills are so good that they deserve their own section, which they will receive because playing a monk well basically entails using these 2 skills to achieve greatness.

===Feign Death===
This is probably the best skill in the entire game, it might be one of the most creative things to ever exist in a game at all.  This ability radically changes the way you are able to play your class so much that it will upset you to not have it on your bar when you go to play another character.  Necromancers and shadow knights get a gimped version of this with a cast time, longer cooldown and it costs mana.  You my friend get an '''instant''' way to drop aggro that is available to you to use every 10 seconds.  

===Sneak===

===Pulling===
Because our class gets a reliable way to drop aggro on a short cooldown you will almost always end up being the puller in a group. If you are not comfortable with doing so or like to AFK dps then I recommend rerolling to a wizard or rogue. No one likes a shitty monk and don't be that guy in the group who sucks at his class; you make other monks look bad.  A good monk will be able to split rooms efficiently, breaking them so that a group can maintain a consistent flow of mobs to camp.  This means keeping track of mob timers and spawn locations.   It also includes knowing not to overpull, you can easily ruin a good xp group by bringing too many mobs to camp at once, this will result in (at worst) a wipe and/or a med break. Med breaks are the thing you want to absolutely avoid and although it can be partially out of your control at times (bad players taking avoidable damage), generally the puller is responsible for helping the support classes maintain a healthy mana bar. 

=== Disciplines ===
There are only 4 disciplines ever worth using:

{| class="eoTable2"
! Discipline Name
! Level Obtained
! Description
! Duration
! Reuse Time
! Reuse Time @ Level 60
|-
| Stonestance Discipline
| 51
| 66% Damage reduction on melee attacks
| 12 Sec
| 12 Min
| 4 Min
|-
| Whirlwind Discipline
| 53
| Riposte every attack (must be facing mob)
| 9 Sec
| 60 Min
| 53 Min
|-
| Voiddance Discipline
| 54
| Avoid all melee attacks (mob can be hitting you from any direction)
| 8 Sec
| 60 Min
| 54 Min
|-
| Inner Flame Discipline
| 56
| Massive dps boost, mash this when your raid leader tells you to burn a mob down
| 12 Sec
| 30 Min
| 27 Min
|-
|}

Thanks to a bug the special attack disciplines do not function properly and just put your discipline timer on cooldown for no return.  Hundred Fists is useless when you have a haste item and spell haste.  Inner flame makes you hit for a truckload, it's not uncommon for me to double for 350+ and kick for well over 200 during the duration of this discipline.  Add in swapping your staff out for an extra attack from your main hand and inner flame can rival rogue DPS until the timer runs out.  

= Proper Karate Attire (Gear and Inventory): =

Assuming you end up becoming a Class R hero like I am, your monk will eventually look something like
[[Magelo_Blue:Elzhi| this]].