Monk Guide

See also: Monk and Guides

Rotations

Effective Monk rotations employ Greased Lightning to maximize damage through faster refresh, and Twin Snakes to maintain its damage buff. To maintain Greased Lightning, the monk must rotate between attacks using Raptor, Couerl and Opo-Opo Form in order every 14 seconds. Since the global cool-down is 2.5 seconds, this means that you have no more than five ability uses in which to complete a three-ability cycle. As Greased Lightning decreases the global cool-down on your abilities, this becomes more flexible as you gain the traits to stack it, but as maintaining Greased Lightning is a deciding factor in your damage output, most rotation decisions center around keeping it up. As such, maintaining other GCD abilities such as Touch of Death have to be carefully worked into the rotation as to not break it and lose your precious stacks of Greased Lightning.

Levels 1-17 (Pugilist)

Bootshine -> True Strike -> Snap Punch is the basic rotation, adding Touch of Death and Haymaker, and using Internal Release and Featherfoot for tougher encounters. Note that none of these abilities change forms, so care should be taken to use these abilities without letting Greased Lightning expire. Also, both Bootshine and True Strike do extra damage from behind, and Snap Punch does extra damage from the flank, making positioning important for team fights.

Levels 18-25 (Pugilist)

Bootshine -> Twin Snakes/True Strike -> Snap Punch is the basic rotation. The damage buff from Twin Snakes lasts for roughly two rotations, so alternate between it and True Strike for best output. Fists of Earth should always be up at this stage. At lv20, traits allow Greased Lighting to stack twice, giving the monk greater momentum potential, at a mild risk of TP exhaustion.

• Make sure you have Fists of Earth up at all times. While it has unlimited duration, you'll have to reapply it after you change jobs.

Levels 26-30 (Pugilist/Monk)

Bootshine -> Twin Snakes/True Strike -> Snap Punch is still the basic rotation, but you begin to have some variety. However, the new abilities cost extra TP, making running out of TP a real possibility for the first time. Level 28 traits increases the damage buff from Twin Snakes to 10%, making it more important to maintain it.

• For longer-lived opponents, Demolish should be maintained as long as no duration is wasted, and replaces Snap Punch.
• For multiple opponents, you should be positioning to make the most out of Rockbreaker, as it has a good range and strong potency. It would replace Snap Punch in the rotation.
  • When facing multiple spellcasting enemies, Arm of the Destroyer works very well. Even with diminishing returns from status effects, its feature as an interrupt is invaluable in the right circumstances. That being said, using both Arm of the Destroyer and Rockbreaker will deplete your TP quickly, and Arm of the Destroyer has a rather low potency, so it's best used strategically instead of constantly.

Levels 31-40 (Monk)

Bootshine -> Twin Snakes/True Strike -> Snap Punch is still the basic rotation, with even greater variety available. Additionally, Fists of Fire is now available for higher DPS, at the expense of the defense from Fists of Earth. While usage is situational when soloing, a monk should always have Fists of Fire up while in teams.

• For bosses, Demolish should be maintained along with Touch of Death. Don't forget to use Internal Release when you can make the most of it, as it received a buff from traits at lv36. The rotation therefore is Demolish/Bootshine -> Twin Snakes/True Strike -> Snap Punch
• For multiple opponents, the rotation continues to be Arm of the Destroyer -> Twin Snakes/True Strike -> Rockbreaker, though TP management becomes necessary at this point. Arm of the Destroyer should be dropped to Bootshine if TP usage needs to be reduced. Also, the range on Rockbreaker seems to be greater than that of Arm of the Destroyer, which makes positioning easier.
• Internal Release receives a trait buff to a +30% critical rate at lv36, bringing it from handy to essential. Make sure to work it in when you're not maintaining DoTs and buffs.
• Steel Peak and Shoulder Tackle provide the monk with good stuns, and should be used as interrupts when needed. Shoulder Tackle has the added bonus of moving you very quickly, which is especially useful when returning to a boss after dodging AoEs. As bosses are frequently immune to stuns, however, these abilities often see their best use on trash, to lock out PBAoEs or strategically taxing abilities like Paralyze.
• At this point we have three forms to choose from, between Fists of Earth, Fists of Fire and Fists of Wind. Since they share an off-GCD 3-second cooldown, you can change them dynamically as circumstances warrant. For example, keeping Fists of Fire up for trash and damage phases of a boss fight, switching to Fists of Wind to dodge AOEs, and Fists of Earth for unavoidable damage. However, maintaining rotations is complicated enough, so unless you need that little extra from Fists of Wind you'll generally be using Fists of Fire in groups and Fists of Earth solo.

Levels 41-50 (Monk)

Bootshine -> Twin Snakes/True Strike -> Snap Punch continues to be the basic rotation, but is changed markedly based on circumstances

• For bosses, Dragon Kick (replacing Bootshine) should be maintained along with Demolish (replacing Snap Punch) and Touch of Death.
  • Including the buff from Twin Snakes, this makes for four buffs to maintain, along with employing Internal Release during stationary moments. This becomes quite difficult, and is where you have to develop real skill as a monk. Maintaining uptimes on your abilities while keeping enough situational awareness to dodge AOEs, deal with adds and maneuver with tanks is a big challenge. That being said, err on the side of caution. Eating an AOE to maintain your uptime will not be well received by your healer, and needing a Raise during a boss fight will not be well received by your party. If your choice is 'attack' or 'dodge', choose 'dodge', and keep enough situational awareness to do so. This will become easier as you learn specific bosses, but keep your priorities straight.
  • At this point it becomes important to save activations of Internal Release for when you're employing direct-damage abilities, instead maintaining buffs or DoTs. Since the shortest DoT at this point is 21 seconds, this should usually be activated at the start of your second rotation, after you've applied Dragon Kick, Demolish and Touch of Death.

• We've now received enough alternate abilities to have a good rotation whether flanking or attacking from behind. So far we've been presuming staying behind a target because the basic rotation is superior, potency-wise, but you can change your rotation to Dragon Kick -> Twin Snakes -> Snap Punch if you need to be on the flank. At top-tier play, monks can be constantly repositioning to have the flank while using Dragon Kick and Twin Snakes and be in the rear the rest of the time.
  • All this being said, Bootshine -> True Strike -> Snap Punch is, at every step, superior in potency to Dragon Kick -> Twin Snakes -> Snap Punch, so a flanking rotation is need-only.

• Mantra is an important skill for tough boss fights. The people next to you are going to be tanks and other melee damage classes, who can take a real beating during certain bosses and phases. Its 120-second cooldown makes it strictly a clutch skill, but you'd rather regret using it than regret not using it.
• One Ilm Punch is a circumstantially useful skill, but very useful in those circumstances. Since bosses tend not to buff themselves, when they do, you want to take it away. It also has a decent potency and fits into the rotation in place of Twin Snakes or True Strike. Generally best used against Haste or a damage buff.
• Steel Peak receives a trait buff at lv44, reducing the cooldown to 40 seconds. Between that and Shoulder Tackle at 30 seconds, you should be able to reliably lock down the worst abilities from your party.
• Perfect Balance will allow you to use any ability outside of its form requirements. It's frequently used to skip straight to Demolish or Snap Punch to get the first stack of Greased Lightning immediately. That being said, with its 240-second cooldown, it's often a once- or twice-per-fight use, and as such is a marginal benefit relative to maintaining your uptimes and positioning.

Sample Boss Rotation At Level 50

Cycle 1: Dragon Kick -> Twin Snakes -> Demolish -> Touch of Death + activate Internal Release

Cycle 2-3: Bootshine -> True Strike -> Snap Punch

Cycle 4: Bootshine -> Twin Snakes -> Demolish

Cycle 5: Dragon Kick -> True Strike -> Snap Punch -> Touch of Death

More to come!