Monk: The Beginning - What To Do

[graveierrk]

I am jus starting FFXIO and i wanna play a Hume-Monk. I hear people look down on monks sometimes becuase they are not doing the damage they are suppose to be doing and people think they suck. which is wrong. I want to be the best monk i can be. My plans first are to play a Warrior to 18, get a thief subjob to lvl 15, and go to 30 with a Warrior|Thief combo. From there i will switch to a monk. From here on i need a lil help.
1. Where and What should i farm up to 40
2. What quests should i do to gain money at lower lvls
3. What tradeskill(s) should i specialize in as a monk
4. What subjobs should i use with a monk and how will they be beneficial.
5. What foods, weapons, armor, and other items should i use as i level up to 40
6. To clarify; what are my most important stats i need to boost?
7. What are some macros i will need as a monk

Thank You for all your help. If you have any more advice or strategies that will help me be a better and wiser monk please let me know. I will need all the help i can get. Thank You Again

[Brennon]

Well, my FIRST piece of advice would be to *not* sub thf for warrior until 30. You'll be tanking almost the entire way until lvl 30, and Monk gives you an HQ boost, extra VIT, and the Boost job ability, which help you hold aggro better. Thf gives you a bit better dex/agi . . . and thats about it, until you get sneak attack at lvl 15 thf (so, 30 war)

Getting to 18 war first is a good idea, you'll likely find parties easier since you'll have provoke, plus since war will be the subjob you want for monk, you'll already have your sub leveled to 18 before you start on monk.

[Dano]

1.) cant really give any suggestions, coz i started farming at 50 go tigers! try to get yer RSE and sell em after yer done wf em.

2.) repeatable quests, one good example is the 3 hare skin = 120gil quest in sandy.. etc

3.) you can probably start woodworking(if you are aiming for the curse gear) or clothcraft (since most of our armors are cloth related) but then again any craft benefits at the end

4.) war for most cases, thf if you are asked to be a SC closer, sam for special situations(bcnm) and some various subs like whm for really special cases (like sneaking off dangerous places)

5.) meat mithkabob is enuf, little option for armors, the bones/beetles series armor is the cheapest but offers very lil stat boosts good for starter, then you got the eastern cloths (power gi) these offer some stat boosts but less defense. Go for knuckles as weapons.

6.) if you checked the boards, every monk will say str is the stat you want to boost, but do not neglact the accuracy.

7.) macros are totally personal preferance, but i think every monk will have their weapon skillz macroed.

[Fox the Sly]

Fellow Hume Monk here.

1) Early on it depends on what your starting nation is. I'm Windurstian and I farm crawlers (9-11k for a stack of silk thread), beehive chips from bees (about 3k/stack), and saruta cotton from the mandragoras in Tahrongi Canyon (about 4k/stack). Those mobs are in both Sarutabarutas and Tahrongi.

I'm going to try farming tigers in Jugner forest and see what that can yield me.

2) I'm not sure about San d'Oria or Bastok, but in Windy I did the ones where you turn in 3 crawler calculi or 3 silk thread for 600 gil (keep the silk thread, trust me), turn in 4 Yagudo Necklaces for 200, and one where you turn in Yuhtunga Sulfur, mandrogora buds and something else for varied prices.

3) The only craft I've done so far is fishing. I'm currently level 21.6. At this level the only think that you will make decent money off of is moat carp which goes for 4k per stack. Cooking is a good supplement for fishing, especially when you can make your own insect paste, which saves you money. Clothcraft could be good, since MNKs mainly wear cloth.

4) Every Monk worth their salt will tell you that /WAR is the best sub for partying. I plan on using Warrior all the way to 75. You should also have THF on hand for level 60+ in case your PT needs more hate control (or so I hear). Some other subjobs have utility like SAM (not sure of all the benefits for this sub), and mage subs for fighting HNMs and whatnot.

Since Monks are all about melee damage and damage over time, WAR is the best. WAR offers Provoke for limited back-up tanking, Berzerk for extra damage, Double Attack which is godly, Warcry which is an AoE attack buff and Attack Bonus.

5) Meat Mithkabobs are your friend. Not sure about any other foods right now. All the way up to level 8 I used the startin RSE gear and Cat Baghnahks (sp?) then switched to the level 8 gear. At 13 go for Power Gi, 14 two Sardonyx rings (courage rings if you can afford them). Off hand I don't remember what I wore between 15-24. At 25 I bought Windurst Gi and later bought Martial Slacks. You can check my allakhazam profile to get an idea of what to wear around 30, although my gear isn't the absolute best.

I want to get my hands on Ochiudo's Kote for when I hit 34, but it goes for 410k on Phoenix and that's WAAYYY out of my financial league right now. If anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears. :sweat:

6) Stats you need are STR, Attack and Accuracy. I don't think anything else is of much concern.

7) Macros... macros... Have a back-up Provoke in case the mob makes a B line for the mages, or the main tank gets too low on HP. A generic one would be...

/p I'm provoking <t>!
/ja "Provoke" <bt>

When you start skillchaining, make one for each weaponskill.

/ja "Boost" <me>
/wait 1
/ws "Combo" <bt>

Also, make one that tells the party your current TP.

/p Status: <hp> = <hpp>. <tp>

I'm only level 30, but this is some of what I've done and learned so far. Maybe a higher level Monk can elaborate or correct me on something.

Good luck, Brother Monk!

P.S. If any higher level Monks have tips for farming around level 30, or any money making tips period that haven't been mentioned, I'm all ears. ^^

[Zeth]

Originally posted by Fox the Sly
I want to get my hands on Ochiudo's Kote for when I hit 34, but it goes for 410k on Phoenix and that's WAAYYY out of my financial league right now. If anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears. :sweat:

You don't 'need' them at 34. Ok, of course they'd be nice by then, but RSE Hume gloves are fine. What I did was waited till level 41, for Raging Fists, then went off to Castle Oztroja and just camped Mee Deggi the Punisher till I got a pair. I agree that they are stupidly over priced, so I really don't recommend buying them. It took me 3 days of straight camping to get a pair, but the way I see it is, that 3 days straight, saved for almost 500k, so it was worth it.

Also, I've sold them now, since I prefer AF gloves, so I got them for free, and sold for alot of profit. Makes camping him even more worth it.

[Fox the Sly]

Thanks. I think I'll do the same. ^^

[Brennon]

on the macros. . . you don't need to macro each WS. Whenever you join an EXP party, at the start of the party, decide what the skill chain will be, and put whatever WS you'll be using into your macro. That saves you from accidentally hitting the wrong macro, and screwing up the chain.

Of course, you CAN macro each WS if you like, everyone has their own preferences of course, its just my opinion that only macroing one WS is sufficient.

[Fox the Sly]

Yeah, making a macro for each WS was just a personal preference of mine. :p

(|Combo|) for regular fights, (|Shoulder Thrust|) for Gobs when they feel like bomb tossing, and (|One Inch Punch|) for when those Clippers decide to use metallic skin.

[Naota1369]

I want to get my hands on Ochiudo's Kote for when I hit 34, but it goes for 410k on Phoenix and that's WAAYYY out of my financial league right now. If anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears.

yes you dont 'need' them at 34 like the above poster said, but when i got mine at 34 i noticed a big difference in my damage, as well when i had another monk in the party i was in at Garlaige Citadel, i was outdamaging him really badly. He had regular equip. so if you can, i think they are totally worth it at 34. if your wondering, i fished for my gloves, go rusty caps heh

[Mikeb]

430K is good for Kote... On some servers they go for 600-700K....

[Opie]

last time i checked they were about 600k on seraph