How-To Guide: Monk

A Non-Pacifist Monk
To this day, I still wonder why they call these brutal, fist-fighting jobs of absolute death and destruction “monk”. I mean, I thought Monks were peaceful and loving, not being one of the world’s best damage-dealers. Oh well. Anyway, Monk is possibly the most single-minded damage-dealers in the game. It can only effectively sub one support job (a second one in end-game scenarios), it doesn’t get any more than one main weapon (again, with exceptions of end-game scenarios), and it doesn’t get any magical spells. It does, however, get some of the most powerful weapon skills in the game. At Lv.3, Lv.41, and Lv.70, it gets debatably the best weapon skills in the entire game. The job also gets some cool job abilities that can really help their party out. They pull a lot of hate towards themselves, but have a lot of defensive means to their own, such as Counter, Dodge, Chakra, and the highest overall HP and vitality out of any job in the game. The only thing holding them back from tanking is their cloth armor. All-in-all, it’s an absolutely great job, and an asset to any heavily-damaging party. '''Please note: This is only a guide. Please add anything if it is needed, and take away anything that is either untrue or not needed.'''

Hume

 * As a Hume Monk, you can deal a nice, long stream of damage without pulling extravagant amounts of hate towards yourself. If you do, you have high enough HP, vitality, and agility to keep yourself alive. Average accuracy levels means more damage as well as more frequent Counters. Average mind means you can have a high level of Chi Blast damage as well. Like for all jobs, Hume does great in all aspects.

Elvaan

 * An Elvaan’s stats are basically made for Monk in almost every way. Of the four main stats a Monk needs (strength, dexterity, vitality, and mind), Elvaan excel in three of them. Playing as an Elvaan Monk, you’ll enjoy high damage per hit, highly damaging Chi Blast, high defence, high HP regenerated through Chakra, and a very high level of HP. Your biggest downside to Elvaan Monk is losing out on dexterity and agility, meaning low evasion and accuracy, and a low Counter activation rate. That and of course you’ll be wearing Republic Subligar from 25 until 75, and Elvaan don’t look very appealing in Subligar haha.

Tarutaru

 * Tarutaru Monks enjoy a healthy balance of damage over time and high-damage weapon skills, as well as defense through Counters, Guards, and evasion. As a Tarutaru Monk, you won’t have to worry as much about taking hate when you don’t want to. You can safely build up TP with your high accuracy, and then unleash a higher-damaging weapon skill to either open or close a very powerful skillchain. Though your Chakra and Chi Blast will suffer, Taru Monks do great on the battlefield.

Mithra

 * Looking good on the battlefield, Mithra Monks are a lot like Tarutaru, who build up TP easily and then unleash a fury of Raging Fists. Mithra have amazing dexterity, and decent strength, vitality, and mind. Like Humes, they have fairly balanced stats in the long run. There is a lot of attack gear in the game to make-up for their detriment in strength, as well as the other two stats. Race-specific equipment is also good for boosting low stats.

Galka

 * A Galka Monk has the absolute highest HP in the entire game. Though it’s not a significant stat for Monk, it’s amazing watching just how much they have. Galka also enjoy a very high vitality to not only protect that HP, but to also help bring it back with Chakra. Galka Monks have high strength and mind, and just below-average dexterity. In the long run, they too have amazing stats like Elvaan. They also look darn cool on the battlefield with arms bigger than most characters in general.

Weapon

 * Monks have one primary weapon that they use in nearly every single scenario you’ll ever see them in. As fist-fighters, it’s not hard to believe they use hand-to-hand knuckles, cesti, katars, and patas. Hand-to-hand composes the most-used blunt weapons in the game, even though a lot of them look sharp. Blunt weapons have a lot of monsters with resistances, but they also deal a ton more damage on monsters like skeletons, who have a very terrible resistance to all blunt weapons. This gets Monks into a lot of “bones parties”, which basically means they fight nothing but skeletons or other blunt-weak monsters. Hand-to-hand is different from other weapons because they don’t have a set damage or delay. They simply add to the damage and delay of your natural bare hands. This means that as you level up, you get a much more noticeable delay reduction to other weapons, since the job trait “Martial Arts” reduces delay every number of levels. It also makes calculating damage per second very, very difficult, so it’s hard to compare weapons. Hand-to-hand also gets some of the most amazing weapon skills in the game. Since multi-hit weapon skills generally tend to be the higher damaging ones, their first weapon skill is one of the best of its level. At a very early level, 41, Monks also get Raging Fists, another of the best weapon skills in the game until 70, when Asuran Fists is your trump card. However, Monks also have a decent skill level in staves/poles, which means they can deal fair damage with long sticks, but that’s not really very useful until the end-game Primate Staff and Kirin’s Pole for end-game use.

Armor

 * Monks don’t get anything very high-defense, so tanking is ruled-out. They seem to only get cloth gear like far-eastern wear, cloaks, robes, and harnesses. This isn’t all bad, however, since far-eastern wear can be very powerful at times, namely with Jujitsu Gi, and Federation Kyahan. At Lv.25, Monks get access to Bastokan or Republic Subligar. You will end-up using that until 75 guaranteed. No other piece of equipment (including AF) gives stats as useful as +5 Attack and a boost to vitality. Unfortunately, it means male characters have to show off their legs, which can be disturbing at times. In fact, your artifact armor isn’t useful for anything other than macroing in for the use of certain job abilities.

Soloing 1 to 10

 * Monk doesn’t even get a weapon when they start off in Final Fantasy XI. Instead, you get a white belt that gives strength +1. I strongly suggest picking-up either a cesti or knuckles right away. Then, go out and start soloing. Monk gets to Lv.10 very quickly because of its high damage and overall natural defense. By Lv.3, you are given the opportunity to finally use Combo, which is a very powerful weapon skill. Use it every time you get 100% TP and you’ll be good. Which reminds me, get signet before you go outside. It’ll allow you to rest without losing TP as well as give you a boost to the HP recovered while healing. At Lv.5, you get Boost, which can be used every fifteen seconds and can stack. Use it whenever you can, and especially just before you use Combo to boost your damage further. A Kenpogi plus 1 at Lv.8 is cheap and very useful until Lv.13. Pick one up if you can.

Valkurm 10-20

 * Before I say anything else, please keep this in mind when you level Monk throughout your game. Don’t use Boost every fifteen seconds in a party scenario unless your party is being power leveled! If you do, you’ll get a lot of hate and your mages will have to use more MP. Hopefully you won’t be asked to tank in any party, since you won’t ever have nearly as much defense as a Warrior or other main tank. However, using Boost while waiting for a pull and just before a weapon skill can be a nice touch, and I would highly suggest it. Combo still works amazingly in the Valkurm levels, and you should still use it every time you get 100% TP, unless your party has a skillchain set-up involving you. Picking up a Power Gi at Lv.13 will help out a lot. Other than that, any equipment can really be useful. If you have the money, Republic Knuckles are amazing and I would strongly suggest picking up a pair. At Lv.15, you get the job ability Dodge, which can help you evade some attacks if you take hate. Use it when it’s needed. It has a five-minute cool-down, so that means you would only get to use it once every two fights, give or take.

Mid-levels 20-40

 * Monk really does play the same role all throughout the game for the most part. You’ll continue getting more weapon skills all the time, as well as a bunch of new job abilities in these levels. 25 is Focus, which is a lot like Dodge, except it gives accuracy instead of evasion. 35 is Chakra, which will give you HP back depending on your vitality level. At 31, you get Martial Arts III, which really helps with delay and overall TP gain, and Subtle Blow, which means the target doesn’t get as much TP while you’re attacking. In the long run, these twenty levels are where you’re gradually getting more and more anxious for Lv.41, when you get Raging Fists.

Your AF Weapon

 * I’ve never met a Monk in the game who’s used their AF weapon for any reason at all. It really isn’t very good, but it’s still a prerequisite to get it done for your other AF, which is a lot more useful (at least in terms of macroing in for job abilities).
 * Talk to Oggbi in Port Bastok E-6 to start your quest. Then, get some help together, buy a pickaxe, and head to Gusgen Mines’ basement at G-7. Search around for a ??? around the back of the room (not the one on the back of the shed in the room), and use your pickaxe to spawn a notorious monster ghost. Kill the ghost, collect the spoils, and take them back to Oggbi. Congratulations! You have your artifact weapon.

Mid-High Levels 40-60

 * Yay! Now you have your Beat Cesti. And assuming you haven’t already thrown them out, you will eventually. Most Monks use Tourney Patas from Lv.40 until generally the Cross-Counters. However, that’s not all the forties brings. Lv.41 is going to be your favourite level. If Monk was boring for you before, Raging Fists really should bring that fire back in your eye. It’s a very, very powerful weapon skill that just looks and sounds like the coolest thing ever. I personally love multi-hit weapon skills. I get excited seeing them- counting each individual hit. One- two- three- four- five! At the exact same time you get Raging Fists (before if you haven‘t skilled-up hand-to-hand yet), you get a ranged job ability called Chi Blast which is enormously affected by your mind stat and how many times you’ve used boost prior to using the job ability. It isn’t going to win any ‘damage of the year’ awards, but it should satisfy if you have a nice MND setup. You even get another job ability not any more than four levels later called Counterstance, which is a very luck-based job ability. It will instantly kill all of the defense bonuses from equipment or Protect, but multiply your Counter rate by approximately three times. Basically meaning, you get hit a lot less and deal a lot more damage, but if you do get hit, you get hit hard. Lv.51 is when you get Kick Attacks, which activates occasionally to give you an extra attack about once every ten attacks. These levels are also when you start getting your AF armor. It’s a very good idea to have, even though you’ll never wear any of it for more than a couple of seconds every five minutes or so.

Your Artifact Armor

 * Your Artifact Armor is strange, because you never actually wear it, yet it’s still incredibly useful. How? You use it in macros for job abilities, since every piece affects one job ability one way or another. Your first piece is your AF feet armor acquired at Lv.52. They’re probably the only exception to the “only used for macro” rule. This exception only applies to people who don’t use Kung Fu Shoes. Otherwise, they’re only useful for when using Dodge, then taken off just after it’s used (the enhancement will still be in effect). The second piece is your AF gloves. These too can be useful if you don’t want to spend the time camping your Oshimusha Kote. Otherwise, just macro them in for using Boost. Your Lv.56 piece is your head piece, which is useful for both Chi Blast and Focus. Next, your body piece for 58, is very, very useful for Chakra. It gives a vitality boost and enhances the vitality modifier for Chakra, as well as allows it to remove certain harmful effects on you. Your Lv.60 and final piece is your leg piece. These are quite useless in any scenario from a damage-dealing standpoint, but should be macroed in for when you take hate, as they give a Guarding skill boost as well as a boost to Counter. Otherwise, stick with your Republic Subligar until your relic pants.

High Levels 60-75

 * These levels are where Monk has to become more careful on the damage it deals. The horror stories of Monks tearing hate away from even the best Paladins because they don’t know the hate threshold. Be very careful. At this point, your defense is far lower than any tank’s, but your damage is one of the highest in the game. You can take hate incredibly easily. These levels are where strength and attack become less wanted, and you want to build up TP secretly on the side until unleashing high-powered weapon skills to hopefully finish the target off. This may be the point in the game where having a Ninja support job may come in handy. Especially if your party’s main tank is a Ninja, it might be in your best interests to sub it, since pulling hate will happen very frequently. The unfortunate side being Ninja doesn’t really have a lot else to offer other than increased survivability. With that said, Thief is also a very viable support job if your party doesn’t already have one. In which case, you can deal ruthless damage while giving most of it to your party’s tank with Sneak Attack and Trick Attack.

End-Game

 * Monk’s primary role in the end-game scenario seems to be using Chi Blast with ludicrous amounts of mind-boosting gear and using Boost multiple times beforehand. With equipment such as Kirin’s Osode and Kirin’s Pole, you can unleash very powerful Chi. This becomes especially useful when the job trait Penance is merited, leaving the monster with a loss of 25% TP per hit. (Please add information about Dynamis, Limbus, Salvage, merit parties, etc.)

Warrior

 * You’ll end up using Warrior as a support job almost all the time, which goes without saying. Warrior has high strength and dexterity, which is reason enough to sub it. But on top of that, you also get defense and attack bonuses, as well as very useful job abilities like Berserk and Warcry. If you take too much hate, switching Berserk for Defender allows you to take extra hits without worrying as much, and if a weaker party member is being attacked but your tank can’t steal hate back, Provoke may save some lives too. At Lv.50, Double Attack allows you to get an extra punch in every ten or so attack rounds. Unfortunately, with all of this extra damage, it’s less used in later scenarios since it’s too easy to take hate and die. Just learn the hate threshold and try to turn around if anything bad happens.

Ninja

 * Ninja as a support job for Monk isn’t very useful. The single purpose for subbing Ninja is for damage control and survivability. Ninja gives no job abilities or useful spells as a support job, and no job traits that actually affect a Monk. Utsusemi allows the Monk to pull hate and survive an extra three attacks. It also gives Counterstance a larger use, since your shadow images will not be affected by the defense down, and when your shadows go down, you can recast them once more before having to worry. Ninja support job eases your tank’s and your mages’ jobs later on in the game, but I would avoid it otherwise.

Thief

 * An alternative to the Ninja support job. It offers dexterity and agility for critical hits, accuracy, and evasion. It also gives another boost to evasion with all of its bonus job traits. Other job traits include a treasure hunter and gilfinder passive ability for easier money-making. Its most prominent use, however, is at Lv.60, Sneak Attack and Trick Attack can be used in conjunction to both deal insane amounts of damage and simultaneously give all of that hate to the tank in front of you. This not only means you can deal more damage in spikes, but higher damage over time because the tank also has a larger amount of enmity.

White Mage

 * Subbing White Mage has one use: end-game Chi-Blast spamming, since it will affect your mind stat. It also gives access to Blink and Stoneskin spells for survivability in such end-game events, and can help Raise if problems arise. This support job has no party uses or prominent soloing uses. It is basically the exact same thing as subbing Dark Knight to Red Mage for Stun-gunning.

Your Two-Hour Ability

 * Hundred Fists is said to be the best damage-dealing two-hour in the entire game, and that is totally without question. A constant stream of attacks without any delay in them aside from the animation delay, means a sickening amount of damage (and a sickening amount of enmity). I personally use this job ability at the end of a soloing session every time to kill at least two difficult monsters and chain their experience points together before logging out for the night. In parties, it can easily save the entire party in more than one way. For one possible way, you can just overpower the target monster and finish it off before it has a chance to wipe your party; this is especially useful with a Paladin that just used Invincible or a Thief that just used Accomplice and Perfect Dodge. However, if that isn’t the case, it can also help by directing all attention at you, since you’ll just be kicking the monster’s face inside-out with your weapon skills every ten seconds. This leaves the party’s mages one single target. And with Dodge and Defender on, it can easily save your, and your party’s lives.

Job Abilities

 * Boost is granted at the early level of 5 and is very useful all throughout the game. What it does is boosts your next attack (be it normal melee, a weapon skill, or the most prominent boost is in Chi Blast) by 12.5%, and can be used every fifteen seconds and can stack as many times as you can within its three-minute duration.. This is useful for use both while the puller is pulling, or just before unleashing a Chi Blast. It can also really help by acquiring hate, since it has half the cool-down of Provoke, and gives about one-sixth of the enmity Provoke does. This of course means it’s not a good idea to use consistently during a fight, though just before a weapon skill is wise, since you’ll probably pull hate anyway. With the Temple Gloves, the attack boost per Boost is raised to 18.75%
 * Dodge is a Lv.15 job ability that gives you two minutes of enhanced evasion that can be used again three minutes after it wears off (5 minutes total). It increases evasion by 20, or by 30 if you have your Temple Gaiters equipped at the time it is used. Since Monk doesn’t have a ton of defense, having a little extra evasion can really come in handy if you steal hate. It’s especially useful to use shortly after you use your two-hour ability, Hundred Fists.
 * Focus is a Lv.25 job ability that gives two minutes of enhanced accuracy that can be used three minutes after it wears off (five minutes total, like Dodge). It gives +20 to accuracy, or +30 with your Temple Crown equipped at the time it’s used. This job ability has a multitude of uses. The biggest use, of course, being it gives accuracy for getting TP and for multi-hit weapon skills that don’t have high accuracy on their own. It’s also useful for the use in conjunction with your two-hour ability, Hundred Fists, because it will mean you miss a lot less. Another big use for it is if you take hate and/or use Counterstance, since Counter’s activation is based on your accuracy compared to your opponent’s evasion.
 * Chakra is acquired at Lv.35. Its primary use is just to alleviate your healers’ job curing you. Unfortunately, it doesn’t heal a lot, even if you’re a Galka with high vitality. All it gives is HP equal to twice your vitality. Your artifact body piece, Temple Cyclas, increases the modifier to three times your vitality. With it equipped, it will also cure paralysis, assuming you aren’t stunned by the paralysis when used.
 * Chi Blast is earned as you hit Lv.41. With a three-minute cool-down timer, it can be used approximately once per fight, generally as an attack as the monster is just getting in range. It’s still quite short-ranged, however, so pulling with it isn’t a great idea. Its damage is enormously affected by the user’s mind stat and how many times Boost is used prior to unleashing the Chi.
 * Counterstance is your final job ability which is earned at Lv.45. It strips off all defense bonuses from gear or Protect, leaving only your vitality’s natural defense and any effects from Bard’s Minne your only actual defense. On the other hand, though, Counterstance gives the user approximately three times the frequency to counter an opposing attack, making you not take any damage and attack back if successful. This shouldn’t be used in normal scenarios, only if Focus and Dodge are both active, and either Utsusemi or Defender are up. It can be used at all times with a five-minute duration as well as re-use timer, but don’t use it in normal party scenarios.
 * Mantra is one of two meritable job abilities. It gives everyone in the party an HP boost of 4%, but up to 12% with full merits. This has a very basic use, and isn’t very useful since it has only a three minute duration with a ten minute cool-down.
 * Formless Strikes is a very useful job ability which converts all of your attacks into partly-non-elemental damage. What this means is it makes your attacks more effective against high-defense monsters such as crabs. Each additional merit gives it an extra 5% boost. Up to 15% of your attack damage can be converted into formless strikes. It has a three minute duration and ten minute recast.

Job Traits

 * Martial Arts starts off all the way as early as Lv.1, and gets better and better as levels progress. What it does is lowers your attack delay for hand-to-hand weapon use. Without any Martial Arts trait, your base hand-to-hand delay is 480. With the first level, it reduces that delay by 80, and all subsequent traits (up to six) reduce it by an extra 20. This means that by 75, your base delay is merely 300.
 * Subtle Blow is what makes Monk a diverse job. It lowers the TP given to target monsters with each hit. Since that’s how most monsters get a lot of TP, this job trait is a lot better than people give it credit for. It reduces TP all the way up to 20% by Lv.75 with four upgrades starting at Lv.5. Though not really useful information for Monks, it also lowers TP given through damaging spells.
 * Counter is another of Monk’s prime abilities. It helps it survive and makes it a great support job for any Warrior early on in the game. Counter uses accuracy as a modifier to occasionally nullify attacks and strike back with one punch (or one attack of any weapon, depending on who is countering). As long as you’re facing the monster attacking you, it has a chance to prevent a number of attacks.
 * Max HP Boost further boosts Monk’s already ridiculously high HP by +30 at Lv.15 and 35, and +60 in both levels 55 and 70. In total, that’s 180 extra HP.
 * Kick Attacks adds an occasional third attack to some hand-to-hand attacks, approximately 10% of the time. They’re as powerful as your normal hands without any weapon on them, but can be upgraded with hidden effects in weapons such as Kung Fu Shoes.
 * Invigorate adds a Regen effect to Chakra, further increasing HP healed, and allowing you to last longer. The Regen granted is 10 HP per three seconds, lasting 24 seconds per upgrade (80 per upgrade). If fully merited, Invigorate can increase your Chakra by up to 240 HP over 72 seconds.
 * Penance adds an additional effect to Chi Blast that makes it useful in parties and even more useful in Dynamis. The additional effect is a TP inhibition effect which lowers the target’s TP gain by 25%. Each merit allows it to last an extra 20 seconds, up to one minute total.