Monk/Paladin

[logar]

I hope that its not JUST for the Dble attack skill .. but when, and if, you do get to the lvl where its available .. you will also have several other skills there to use.

What it comes down to I guess is how bad do you want to specialize. Having /DRK as your sub, you WILL have quite the potential for damage output .. but .. you will have 0 skills for defense support from the sub. With /WAR you at least get the Phys. Def. Up fairly early in the game .. and Defender later on; you will also have skills to enchance your attacks.. ie. Berserk, Double Attack, Physical Att. Up.

Basically .. if you plan on effectively gaining xp ONLY by PT'ing then MNK/DRK looks VERY attractive .. but if you do want to be able to hold your own solo .. then /WAR looks better for the mix of skills that is offered.

P.S.
Please no more blank statements...
ie:
"Warrior does make a good sub job, but just doesn't compliment the monk's power. They attack twice so they should take advantage of the dark knight's extra power and use that as a sub."

Please state WHAT the "extra power" is exactly .. and make a comparison showing the "advantage". Also, if you could, please state the reasons for the why's..
..ie:"doesn't compliment the monk's power"

Not saying that what you are saying is wrong, but, I would like to see some reason behind the statements...

[lun4tic]

Think about it. Man, your definition of a blank statement must be very loose.

If you hit twice, why go with the weaker sub?

And soloing will be hard no matter what sub you choose. Ultimately you won't be soloing, but PTing.

[logar]

Aye .. I like the MNK/DRK too .. at least on paper .. but .. what makes /DRK that much better then /WAR?

Is the the boost in stats that the MNK will get from one and not the other? Is the the skills that the MNK will be able to make use of? .. which skills and how do they compare between the choices for subs?

Give me some details dude, don't just say "weaker sub", "doesn't compliment the monk's power", or "dark knight's extra power". Tell my WHY its a "weaker sub" then DRK. Explain HOW it "does not compliment the monk's power" while /DRK does. Tell me WHAT the "dark knight's extra power" is .. that the WAR lacks and what a huge benifit it will be for MNK. You know .. ups and down .. case study if you will .. something to sink our teeth into.

When I say "blank statement" I don't mean that you are completely wrong on the general idea .. just mean that a person can't really take it seriously if you don't really support it with some info ...heck, can't even turn it into a constructive argument that will present a reader with usefull info....

P.S. ..side note on Boost(Attack Up) skill from MNK... ..also if others could comment on this please....

Using it increases the Attack rating by 10 for one hit(one punch). I have noticed that this does not actually contributes to the damage from that attack .. actually .. more often then not the first hit that has the Boost on it lands for less damage then the subsequent hits.... ..any input on this would be greatly appreciated.

[Cat]

Originally posted by logar
MNKs will never really be defensive, you just don't have the armor for it .. and can't use a shield or parry to stop attacks. Remember that an effective parry or shield block stops all damage from getting through while MNKs block just reduces the damage you recive.

Armor is not your only level of defense. In beta my mithra MNK/THF had such high evade that monsters rarely contacted with me, I actually pulled monsters most of the time while our wars stayed back and saved our whm MP. Counter also offers some defense to physical attacks, and guard and a high vitality (also the HP bonus) yes when monks get hit they take a bit more damage but trust me they aren't lacking in defense.

[Mithrael]

but trust me they aren't lacking in defense.

By level 40, mnks are so far behind war and pld in defense it's not even funny... I'm trying to remember the exact number, but i can't. I do remember this much thouhg...

In my last week, i was in a quest party to fei yin with a lv.40 warrior in Royal Squire's armor and other similar lv.40 gear for the pieces that weren't in the right level range. Without defender or protect, his defense was 20 points higher than mine. I had Beat cesti (vit+2) Combat Caster's Cloak, RSE pants (which is admittedly def-2 from the best pants i could've had), RSE gloves (again, def-1 jfrom the highest def gear available to me), merc. cpt. belt (def+3), a bomb ring (def+2), and socks. Even with all of that, i still was 20 points behind in defense >.< i could have added another vit+ ring or earrings, but i'd still be way behind. And that was even after i had an additional 5 levels on the war.

With all of my really good equipment, my defense was not even much higher than WHM (about 10 points )or RDM, and even on par with RDMs who had a really good shield. I imaging the warrior passive defense up would make up for some of that, but definitely not enough to make monk a viable tanks, as the gap in equipment only grows larger with lv. 50 gear.

About the questions about boost:
The effectiveness of boost increases as your attack increases. I think the ammount boosted is a percentage of your total (about 10%). perhaps the minimum is 10 (i don't remember how much boost increased my attacks in early levels)? anyway, my attack was 185 by the time i was 45/22, and boost added 18+ to my attack each time i did it. After squeezing in 11 boosts in my 3-minute period, my Chi Blast did about 270pts of damage. 11 is the maximum number of times you can boost before losing the effect, since boost wears off in 3 minutes, and the delay on boost is 15 seconds.

It seems like Chi Blast damage is the difference between your accumulated and your base attacks plus 30 base damage. (boosted attack - base attack + 30) So in my experience, if you boost once for 18, chi blast is about 48pts. damage, if you boost 11x, it's about 260 (each boost is slightly higher than the last as they stack and the next boost is a percentage of your attack). I imagine by lv. 60, that output would be much high, as your attack would be at least 45pts. higher. I have never seen chi blast wear off, and it's a great way to start a really tough fight While exploring Ro Meave (sp?) in our last days, i accumalted and chi blasted a killing weapon for 260-something, taking off a noticable chunk of it's hp. After that, were unable to damage it those few attacks we landed on it hit for 0. Someone cast aero2 on it and landed a stunning blow for 1pt of damage .

I really can't comment on boosted attacks being weaker than non-boosted attacks. That wasn't my experience at all. Maybe your boosted attacks were hitting it while it had some sort of guard skill on?

Regarding MNK/DRK: This topic is pretty stale, looks like 2-3 months for most of the posts, but i really liked playing MNK/DRK. I did a crazy amount of damage in parties. However, it certainly doesn't help defense any. I know a lot of people on this board disagree with me on this, and they may be right once you get to level 60 or so. I can't really comment on that, since i never reached level 60. But DRK definitely increased my strength and attack. My DRK spells were not completely wasted either. Bind saved me a few times when i was out and about and got aggroed. I also tried to drain once per battle if we were fighting something that was weak against darkness, just to save the whm that 24mp they'd spend casting cure2 on me. It gave me a lot more to do and think about while leveling up, which i can't honestly say about subbing war. If you are /war and can't taunt, you just kinda sit there and watch your tp guage >.< that's too boring for me.

Oh yeah, and there isn't a single wasted skill with MNK/DRK. I always carried around a 2-hd staff and had a macro to use weapon bash to get out of tight spots with gobbie bombs :D

Tell me WHAT the "dark knight's extra power" is ..

Dark's Attack Power Up passive is gained more than once (much like mnk's hp+ and MA passives) so they stack up to be more than war's. Also, last resort while shorter in length has a greater benefit than berserk or warcry. I usually did Last Resort+Boost+Weapon skill. I wish i had the chance to try soul eater as a mnk. The coolest active abilities seem to be somewhat nerfed as a sub (meditate & sneak attack for example) so i don't know if Soul Eater is too (often called darkness on this board) but if it isn't, it should be super powerful since monks have the highest hp. Of course, it'll probably draw too much hate to be really useful, but soul eater+last resort+boost+raging fists (5-hit weapon skill) should bring the beast to it's knees.

sorry, i tend to ramble in the morning, hope that all makes sense.