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The Book of Five Traditions: A 4e Monk Handbook
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<blockquote data-quote="MwaO" data-source="post: 6703365" data-attributes="member: 12749"><p><strong>Tactics</strong></p><p></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><strong><u><strong>Tactics</strong></u></strong></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><strong><u><strong></strong></u></strong></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><strong><u></u></strong><strong><u><strong>Increasing Your Damage Through Increasing Your Number of Targets</strong></u></strong></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">Monks are primarily close burst specialists. This means that a monk's damage depends on getting as many enemies around them as they can. </span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">There are three main tactics that monks can use to accomplish this:</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">1) Use conditions, such as prone, dazed, slowed, stunned, or the Iron Soul's FoB to discourage enemies from moving away. For example, Eternal Mountain can be used to knock a bunch of adjacent enemies prone, which makes it impossible (without teleporting) to move away without provoking an opportunity attack on their next turn.</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">2) Use forced movement to more enemies into groups (preferably adjacent to you). Many monk powers slide, such as Furious Bull and Centered Breath's FoB, or have other forced movement effects that can be used to cluster up enemies for you to attack next turn. </span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">3) Use positioning to encourage enemies to attack you and continue to attack you. The Play "Stupid" and Spring the Trap tactics detailed below is one such tactic. </span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><strong><u><strong>Tradition-Specific Optimization, Tactics, and Fighting Style</strong></u></strong></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><a href="http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3735276#" target="_blank">Hide</a>At heroic tier, a Centered Breath has not yet come into their power, but they are still consistently useful even at heroic tier because they can slide around single enemies into disadvantageous spots like into a flank. However, Centered Breath are at their best when there is damaging terrain (like cliffs or fires) and/or a damaging zone to slide enemies into, or make them prone if they resist your efforts. </span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">At paragon tier things really start changing in how a CB monk plays. With Starblade Flurry, CB monks can draw enemies into their burst range using their FoB slide, making CB monks one of the most effective multi-attacking styles. This also means that <strong>typical DPR calculations will under estimate Centered Breath DPR</strong>, as these calculations aren't taking into account the monk's ability to draw enemies into burst range. Deadly Draw also means up to 3 enemies (at paragon) you slide adjacent are granting combat advantage, which is superior to anything you can get from flanking. This easy access to CA makes CB monks the most accurate of the traditions. Rushing Cleats and Centered Breath Master can be used to make the FoB slide longer, which allows you to draw even more monsters into your kill zone. These slide enhancers also allow you slide enemies around and leave them in the same square (to allow an ally to continue to flank and trigger Deadly Draw). Because CB monks draw so many enemies adjacent to them, they must have great defenses and some resistances or they will drop from massive amounts of attacks and overlapping damage auras. This ability also makes them decent off-tanks as they can frequently keep enemies out of reach of the squisher party members</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><a href="http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3735276#" target="_blank">Hide</a>Stone Fist are probably the easiest tradition to play. However, they have the least control over the battlefield, which makes them less powerful than the other traditions if played by a tactically competent player. Damage is always useful in any situation, so a Stone Fist will always find themselves useful. Stone Fist get a lot of extra damage from Starblade Flurry, and also can have a good melee basic attack if they use a larger weapon. </span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">However, many inexperienced Stone Fist players will use single target melee powers to trigger their increased FoB damage against another adjacent target. This strategy is almost always a trap, as a close burst attack would likely have done more overall damage</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><a href="http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3735276#" target="_blank">Hide</a>Iron Souls lock enemies in place, allowing the party to swarm them without taking OAs in the process. If the enemy wants to move, they will typically take OAs from multiple party members as the enemy cannot shift. This makes Iron Soul very effective against artillery and other enemies that benefit from movement. Iron Soul are wonderful multiattackers because they lock enemies into place within their kill zone. This ability also makes them good off-tanks as they are sticky, but it also requires good defenses and some resistances or they will drop from massive amounts of attacks and overlapping damage auras. Starblade Flurry makes Iron Soul into useful controllers, as they lock enemies adjacent to other party members, such as the defender.</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">As per the RC FAQ, the Iron Soul FoB does not break a grab and prevent an enemy from flanking. </span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><strong><u><strong>Specific Tactics</strong></u></strong></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><a href="http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3735276#" target="_blank">Hide</a>The Play "Stupid" tactic is designed for a defensive monk, such as my Centered Breath Master of Defense build, to get as many monsters inside the monk's kill zone as possible. The tactic works by tricking the monsters into thinking the monk is vulnerable, when in fact the monk is probably the worst target in the party. This tactic could also be called "Defending Through Positioning," if your goals were to defend the rest of the party. </span></p><p> <span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">One of the most common ways to die for a striker is to wander too far from the herd, get singled out, and then die from massive focused fire. However, monks are not you everyday striker. In fact, many monks frequently have higher defenses than the defender. Therefore, many monks can take massive focused fire and not die. In fact, if monsters are focusing fire on the monk, the monsters are typically clustering themselves within the monk's kill zone. This allows the monk to attack a lot more monsters than the monk would otherwise be able to do. </span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">There are three common situations that call for this tactic:</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">1) At the start of combat, you want to be 2-5 squares in front of the party. Monsters will naturally come over and attack you as a result. </span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">2) Monsters are spread out, and the party hasn't engaged. At this point the monk probably wants to get behind some of the monster front line. This will tend to make the monsters all cluster up on you, and will allow your party to come up and flank and focus fire on the front line monster(s) you are behind. </span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">3) If one melee party member as engaged one melee target, and other melee monsters have yet to move up and engage, the monk (with good defenses) should move behind the monster the other party member is engaging. The other monsters will typically think "easy lunch" and move up to surround and flank the monk, who unleashes a barrage of burst attacks when the monsters are in range. </span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">So now you have the monsters clustered arround you, so you have lots and lots of targets to use your close bursts on. Centered Breath and Iron Soul will also be able to keep the monsters more or less in this formation. </span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><a href="http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3735276#" target="_blank">Hide</a>This is a variant of the Play "Stupid" tactic. To Spring the Trap, you need to </span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">1) Move into a position where the monster should move up to attack you, a la Play "Stupid". Preferably, you should start with at least 1-2 monsters who have already acted already inside your burst range.</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">2) Ready a burst attack for when 1-2 additional monsters have moved into range (preferably a close burst 2 or better to make sure the monster don't stop out of reach). If the attack dazes, like Furious Bull or Mithral Tornado, it is MUCH better, as dazing a monster after it has moved will cost the monster the rest of its turn. </span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">However, you need to be sure your readied burst attack is as big or bigger than the monsters' reach. Otherwise, your readied action will never go off. </span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">One other drawback, your FoB needs to be triggered on your own turn, so your probably won't let you use FoB on the attack. In short, you need to make sure that getting more targets in your burst is better than sacrificing your FoB. </span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><a href="http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3735276#" target="_blank">Hide</a>For defensive monks, allow enemies your defender has marked to make opportunity attacks against you. However, make sure your defender has a punishing mark (such as fighter or paladin) that doesn't require you getting hit (like the battlemind and assualt swordmage do). Your superior defenses will make it unlikely you will get hit, and the defender gets free damage on the enemy. This is especially good for halflings and githzerai with Githezerai Mobility.</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">Do NOT use the Flail Madly About tactic when multiple enemies will get OAs on you. </span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><strong><u><strong>Optimizing Your Flurry of Blows</strong></u></strong></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">Ways to increase numbers of targets hit by Flurry of Blows:</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">Pointed Step - use a spear to hit someone a square away.</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">Starblade Flurry - use a dagger to hit an additional target upto 5 squares away</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">Unseen Hand - use a hand crossbow to hit an additional target upto 10 squares away.</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">Ways to increase damage: </span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">Ki Weapon = +2 damage once per turn.</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">WereX Themes + Claw Gloves + CA = +1d10 damage</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">Crashing Style </span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #444444"></span></p><p><span style="color: #444444"></span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MwaO, post: 6703365, member: 12749"] [b]Tactics[/b] [COLOR=#000000] [B][U][B]Tactics [/B] [/U][/B][B][U][B]Increasing Your Damage Through Increasing Your Number of Targets[/B][/U][/B] Monks are primarily close burst specialists. This means that a monk's damage depends on getting as many enemies around them as they can. There are three main tactics that monks can use to accomplish this: 1) Use conditions, such as prone, dazed, slowed, stunned, or the Iron Soul's FoB to discourage enemies from moving away. For example, Eternal Mountain can be used to knock a bunch of adjacent enemies prone, which makes it impossible (without teleporting) to move away without provoking an opportunity attack on their next turn. 2) Use forced movement to more enemies into groups (preferably adjacent to you). Many monk powers slide, such as Furious Bull and Centered Breath's FoB, or have other forced movement effects that can be used to cluster up enemies for you to attack next turn. 3) Use positioning to encourage enemies to attack you and continue to attack you. The Play "Stupid" and Spring the Trap tactics detailed below is one such tactic. [B][U][B]Tradition-Specific Optimization, Tactics, and Fighting Style[/B][/U][/B] [URL="http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3735276#"]Hide[/URL]At heroic tier, a Centered Breath has not yet come into their power, but they are still consistently useful even at heroic tier because they can slide around single enemies into disadvantageous spots like into a flank. However, Centered Breath are at their best when there is damaging terrain (like cliffs or fires) and/or a damaging zone to slide enemies into, or make them prone if they resist your efforts. At paragon tier things really start changing in how a CB monk plays. With Starblade Flurry, CB monks can draw enemies into their burst range using their FoB slide, making CB monks one of the most effective multi-attacking styles. This also means that [B]typical DPR calculations will under estimate Centered Breath DPR[/B], as these calculations aren't taking into account the monk's ability to draw enemies into burst range. Deadly Draw also means up to 3 enemies (at paragon) you slide adjacent are granting combat advantage, which is superior to anything you can get from flanking. This easy access to CA makes CB monks the most accurate of the traditions. Rushing Cleats and Centered Breath Master can be used to make the FoB slide longer, which allows you to draw even more monsters into your kill zone. These slide enhancers also allow you slide enemies around and leave them in the same square (to allow an ally to continue to flank and trigger Deadly Draw). Because CB monks draw so many enemies adjacent to them, they must have great defenses and some resistances or they will drop from massive amounts of attacks and overlapping damage auras. This ability also makes them decent off-tanks as they can frequently keep enemies out of reach of the squisher party members [URL="http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3735276#"]Hide[/URL]Stone Fist are probably the easiest tradition to play. However, they have the least control over the battlefield, which makes them less powerful than the other traditions if played by a tactically competent player. Damage is always useful in any situation, so a Stone Fist will always find themselves useful. Stone Fist get a lot of extra damage from Starblade Flurry, and also can have a good melee basic attack if they use a larger weapon. However, many inexperienced Stone Fist players will use single target melee powers to trigger their increased FoB damage against another adjacent target. This strategy is almost always a trap, as a close burst attack would likely have done more overall damage [URL="http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3735276#"]Hide[/URL]Iron Souls lock enemies in place, allowing the party to swarm them without taking OAs in the process. If the enemy wants to move, they will typically take OAs from multiple party members as the enemy cannot shift. This makes Iron Soul very effective against artillery and other enemies that benefit from movement. Iron Soul are wonderful multiattackers because they lock enemies into place within their kill zone. This ability also makes them good off-tanks as they are sticky, but it also requires good defenses and some resistances or they will drop from massive amounts of attacks and overlapping damage auras. Starblade Flurry makes Iron Soul into useful controllers, as they lock enemies adjacent to other party members, such as the defender. As per the RC FAQ, the Iron Soul FoB does not break a grab and prevent an enemy from flanking. [B][U][B]Specific Tactics[/B][/U][/B] [URL="http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3735276#"]Hide[/URL]The Play "Stupid" tactic is designed for a defensive monk, such as my Centered Breath Master of Defense build, to get as many monsters inside the monk's kill zone as possible. The tactic works by tricking the monsters into thinking the monk is vulnerable, when in fact the monk is probably the worst target in the party. This tactic could also be called "Defending Through Positioning," if your goals were to defend the rest of the party. One of the most common ways to die for a striker is to wander too far from the herd, get singled out, and then die from massive focused fire. However, monks are not you everyday striker. In fact, many monks frequently have higher defenses than the defender. Therefore, many monks can take massive focused fire and not die. In fact, if monsters are focusing fire on the monk, the monsters are typically clustering themselves within the monk's kill zone. This allows the monk to attack a lot more monsters than the monk would otherwise be able to do. There are three common situations that call for this tactic: 1) At the start of combat, you want to be 2-5 squares in front of the party. Monsters will naturally come over and attack you as a result. 2) Monsters are spread out, and the party hasn't engaged. At this point the monk probably wants to get behind some of the monster front line. This will tend to make the monsters all cluster up on you, and will allow your party to come up and flank and focus fire on the front line monster(s) you are behind. 3) If one melee party member as engaged one melee target, and other melee monsters have yet to move up and engage, the monk (with good defenses) should move behind the monster the other party member is engaging. The other monsters will typically think "easy lunch" and move up to surround and flank the monk, who unleashes a barrage of burst attacks when the monsters are in range. So now you have the monsters clustered arround you, so you have lots and lots of targets to use your close bursts on. Centered Breath and Iron Soul will also be able to keep the monsters more or less in this formation. [URL="http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3735276#"]Hide[/URL]This is a variant of the Play "Stupid" tactic. To Spring the Trap, you need to 1) Move into a position where the monster should move up to attack you, a la Play "Stupid". Preferably, you should start with at least 1-2 monsters who have already acted already inside your burst range. 2) Ready a burst attack for when 1-2 additional monsters have moved into range (preferably a close burst 2 or better to make sure the monster don't stop out of reach). If the attack dazes, like Furious Bull or Mithral Tornado, it is MUCH better, as dazing a monster after it has moved will cost the monster the rest of its turn. However, you need to be sure your readied burst attack is as big or bigger than the monsters' reach. Otherwise, your readied action will never go off. One other drawback, your FoB needs to be triggered on your own turn, so your probably won't let you use FoB on the attack. In short, you need to make sure that getting more targets in your burst is better than sacrificing your FoB. [URL="http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3735276#"]Hide[/URL]For defensive monks, allow enemies your defender has marked to make opportunity attacks against you. However, make sure your defender has a punishing mark (such as fighter or paladin) that doesn't require you getting hit (like the battlemind and assualt swordmage do). Your superior defenses will make it unlikely you will get hit, and the defender gets free damage on the enemy. This is especially good for halflings and githzerai with Githezerai Mobility. Do NOT use the Flail Madly About tactic when multiple enemies will get OAs on you. [B][U][B]Optimizing Your Flurry of Blows[/B][/U][/B] Ways to increase numbers of targets hit by Flurry of Blows: Pointed Step - use a spear to hit someone a square away. Starblade Flurry - use a dagger to hit an additional target upto 5 squares away Unseen Hand - use a hand crossbow to hit an additional target upto 10 squares away. Ways to increase damage: Ki Weapon = +2 damage once per turn. WereX Themes + Claw Gloves + CA = +1d10 damage Crashing Style [/COLOR] [COLOR=#444444] [/COLOR] [/QUOTE]
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