Considering massive gear overhaul at level 61

[Ungerpurr]

My current gear:

Cross-counters
Happy Egg
Temple Crown
Spike Necklace (Justice Badge for Chi Blast)
Spike Earring x2
Master's Gi
Ochiudo's Kote (Temple Gloves for Boost)
Sun Ring x2
Lightning Mantle
Life Belt
Master's Sitabaki
Temple Gaiters

Gear I'm planning on switching to by or at level 61 (or back to, as the case may be) is marked with a *:

*Spartan Cesti (-1,200,000 gil)
Happy Egg
Temple Crown
Spike Necklace (Justice Badge for Chi Blast)
Spike Earring x2
*Temple Cyclas (-120,000 gil)
*Pallas's Bracelets (-150,000 gil)
*Sniper's Ring x2 (+510,000 gil)
*Amemit Mantle (+~120,000 gil, it varies quite a bit)
*Brown Belt (+210,000 gil)
*Temple Hose (-7,000 gil)
*Fuma Kyahan (+110,000 gil)

While I really don't want to get rid of Cross-counters, as I feel they'd be great for genkai 5 (need all the counter I can get), it'd be necessary to sell it to make most of the other switches, as I only have about 320,000 gil liquid atm.

Changes:

Increase my liquid gil by about 500,000-525,000

+61 Hit Points
-10 Attack
-3 Defense

+9 Strength
-8 Dexterity
+2 Vitality
-7 Agility

-48 Dark Resist
-2 Light Resist
-6 Thunder Resist

+15 Evasion
+10 Guard

-4 Counter
+11% Haste

At 61, with old gear, I gain +19 damage from knuckles, and am at 416 delay.
At 61, with suggested changes, I gain +20 damage from cesti, and am at 386 delay.

I should have plenty of time to make the changes, at 61 I'm planning on leveling both my warrior and thf subs to 37.

I would end up a little better overall defensively, losing 7 agility, 4 counter, and 3 defense, but gaining 15 evasion and 10 guard (although the 10 guard and 5 evasion are coming no matter what). Offensively, losing eight dex drops my accuracy by four points, but I would hit quite a bit harder with 9 more strength, and about 7.2% faster.

Regardless of the possible weapon/belt/rings/feet switch, the chest, legs, back, and gloves switch are going to happen; I just wanted to take a look at everything as a whole. If i do make the switch, there's a high possibility that, after selling everything from leveling my subs, I'll have enough for the amemit mantle +1, which drops the attack loss to 5, the defense loss to 2, and increases the strength gain to 10.

I'm thinking this is probably what I should do...any thoughts, ideas, or comments? I doubt I'm the only one who's ever bought cross-counters possibly a BIT earlier than I could really afford them, and although I'd really like to stay with them, I'm thinking a change in gear may bring me out doing a lot better damage-wise.

[Fourinkmaaya]

crosscounters are a bit too expensive, +counter is nice but not very useful in parties unless you are holding aggro from just auto-attacking skeletons.
crosscounters are what i've been meaning to get, but as a mnk/thf i decided i will spend my money on this combo instead:

spartan cesti + spectacles > crosscounters + spike necklace
dmg+1, acc+6 delay+17 > counter+5, dex/str+3, mnd-6

both of these combinations will cost about 1,900,000-2,000,000 gil on ragnarok.

+haste bonus will be worth more money with a higher delay weapon as well. (same percentage but more delay lost blabla.)

my advice, sell your crosscounters!

[2.0]

Monks don't need sniper rings. The problem is when you buy something like cross-counters you have to be sure that you can use them because something expensive like that can take time to sell. So if anything I would keep them. and sell the Kote for the Pallas Bracelet because it's awesome. And make some more cash to get the spectacles and the amemit mantle. Play to be the best.

[Shiia]

I currently managed to get my mnk till 63 with no sniper rings. Although I understand not hitting = bad, I haven't notice a big difference from classes who had sniper rings. Just need to form up with members who offers some ACC boost ability like summoner (fenrir) or bard.

Currently sitting with +17 Acc. (lifebelt, AF Body, spartan sesti), and I usually have 100-150 TP when ever the drk, thf, or who ever I am doing renkei with. Of course against torama's its a pain in the arse... let alone Ose.

[Fourinkmaaya]

accuracy is extremely vital for monks.
i've been lvling mnk/war as a taru in a set pt since lv19 with an elvaan mnk/war, we've had almost identical equipment since lvl40 with the only big difference being me having sniper's rings from lv40-54 and him having +str rings. i outdamaged him as a taru because of the extra accuracy. i also had more agility, i do not know if that affected my ws-dmg.. my strength was about 15-20 points behind elvaan when using sniper's throughout the levels. (we have permanent accuracy song from the bard as well.)

right now we neither of us have sniper's rings and he outdamages me again, but not very greatly. for example: if i take numbers out of the blue, the damage would spread somewhat like this: him = 40-60 / fist, me = 30-60 / fist. something like that. people exaggerate elvaan monk damage greatly compared to other races.

[Brennon]

people exaggerate elvaan monk damage greatly compared to other races.

I'm not so sure. I recently participated in several BCNM40's, party was
brd/whm
mnk/war elvaan (me)
mnk/war mithra
rng/war
thf/nin
whm/blm

Both of us had pretty much the ideal mnk equipment for level 40, with a few small changes.
my set up was
red cap (we switched caps since she was planning on tanking, the emp. hairpin was mine and the red cap hers
mythril knuckles +1
jujitsu gi
spike necklace
beetle earrings +1 x2
ochiduo's kote
elvaan rse pants
fuma kyhan
+3 dex ring (which belonged to her, and i let her use my +3 str ring)
sniper ring (i'd take this off when monster turn to me)
brown belt
wolf mantle +1

her set up was
emp hairpin (we switched our headgear for the fight)
impact knuckles
jujitsu gi
spike necklace
beetle earrings +1 x2
ochiduo's kote
not sure what pants she was wearing. . .
fuma kyhan
+3 str ring (which was mine, as i was using her +dex ring)
don't remember the other ring she had
brown belt
wolf mantle +1

The plan was for the monks to share tanking duties, since we had no pld. However, since she was rather experienced in BCNM40, and it was my first time, we decided to let her tank the whole thing. This would have been fine, except for the fact that the mithra mnk could *not* hold aggro against me, the monster kept turning to me, despite her voking, and my lack of voking. She would voke, the monster would turn to her, hit her once or twice, and then turn back to me until she voked again.

(by the way, interesting to note, the rng was similarly well equipped for his class, but the monster never went to him, despite all his barrages. he was taru.)

[BENWALLACE]

BIG BEN SAYS YES TO SNIPER RINGS
BIG BEN AFTER FIGHTING LEVELS 60+ MISSES A LOT ITS NOT GOOD

ESPECIALLY MEOWS EVEN DOUBLE BARD ACSONGS I STILL WANT MORE

MEOWS FLIES CATERPILLARS EVASION TOO HIGH USE SNIPERS, VERY GOOD

[DrSerpico]

Damage mitigation and hate.

Brennon, you are aware of how hate builds, right?

Since mnk is one of the most damaging classes in the game, this means that you need a pure tank (nin or pld) to keep aggro away. The reason she lost aggro, is because she's getting hit.

Getting hit lowers aggro. You however, is NOT getting hit while she is tanking, so your aggro piles up, which hers does not. Thus, when you've piled up enough dmg aggro, the mob will slap you a couple of times, then return to her.

Damage creates hate over time, while provoke is "spiked" aggro. And tanking with ONLY provoke is REALLY useless. Totally undoable past mandragoras/bats in yhoator/garlaige. (In an efficient party) You need other tools to keep hate.

If you had ran a damage parser and shown the results, I'd been convinced. Now I am not.

[Brennon]

Brennon, you are aware of how hate builds, right?

Since mnk is one of the most damaging classes in the game, this means that you need a pure tank (nin or pld) to keep aggro away. The reason she lost aggro, is because she's getting hit.

Getting hit lowers aggro. You however, is NOT getting hit while she is tanking, so your aggro piles up, which hers does not. Thus, when you've piled up enough dmg aggro, the mob will slap you a couple of times, then return to her.

Damage creates hate over time, while provoke is "spiked" aggro. And tanking with ONLY provoke is REALLY useless. Totally undoable past mandragoras/bats in yhoator/garlaige. (In an efficient party) You need other tools to keep hate.

If you had ran a damage parser and shown the results, I'd been convinced. Now I am not.

I *am* aware of how hate builds, yet . . . perhaps I wasn't totally clear. The mob was on me the whole time, except for a few seconds immediately after her voke.

I thought about parsing the BCNMs beforehand, but I didn't, so i can't provide you with raw numbers. I'm just explaining what happened, and I suppose there are many possible explanations. Perhaps also, I wasn't totally seeing the big picture, and I didn't notice accurately how much she got hit. I was simply giving my perception of how the battles took place, and my suppositions of the reasons for it. I may be wrong. Hence, the first statement of my initial post "i'm not so sure"

[Brennon]

After thinking about it a bit more, it comes to mind that perhaps the other monk did not have a brown belt. . .

Anyway, my point overall was not to say that she sucked. . . not at all. She was awesome. Monks are awesome. Yay monks

[Thark601]

Originally posted by 2.0
Monks don't need sniper rings.

ya know, as many times as i hear that i laugh very full heartidly when i see how greatly they improve my damage

but to your suggested changes i'm likeing all but the pallas bracelet, wear your af don't buy an item that decreases your dex

sniper rings help very much regardless of what the ppl that can't afford them say, especially in those no-brd pt's

[2.0]

You may have more of a use for sniper rings being an elvaan but monk is naturally a very accurate class. Other classes need sniper rings but monk does not.

[Fourinkmaaya]

2.0:
taru monk with sniper's rings > elvaan monk with str rings
i have 2 years of tennis experience! ..i mean 14 levels of the above.
sniper's rings = best rings for monks even when your pt has permanent accuracy song or fenrir accuracy boost!

[2.0]

We will just have to agree to disagree on that then my friend.

[Ungerpurr]

As a mithra monk, trading 5 dex for 5 str seems to me to be a pretty good option (although it may not be so for an elvaan). Compared to an elvaan that was wearing all of the same things except for me wearing pallas's, and the elvaan wearing AF, that still leaves me 5 str lower, but 9 dex higher (at level 59, and stats don't change much past that).

As far as not needing snipers...if you wear a life belt, you don't need them, as a monk. However, I don't think I could stomach my miss rate if I wore neither snipers nor life belt. Perhaps if I get spectacles, one sniper, and one str ring....

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with +17 accuracy right now, and I'd like to stay around there. If I went with spectacles and no snipers or life belt, I'd be at +14 (assuming spartan cesti). From the sound of things, for fighting toramas I'll probably want to have life belt, snipers, and spectacles (for a total of +34 accuracy).

Obviously, there's no clear-cut best choice, which is why I asked in the first place.