Monk Advice Please ^^

Hello,
I have been working on monk for some time now, mostly solo'd from lac of party invites lol, I'm MNK57/WAR28 at the moment, I was wondering if there was any improvement I can make on my current amour set up, and also which gear to get as I advance in the job.

My current gear set is...


I have Chivalrous Chain and Amemet Mantle +1 ready, Unsure weather to keep Chain or go with Spectacles. Also for Ammo slot should I use Tiphia Sting or Bibiki Seashell?

I have Warrior as my only support job, but once I'm level 60 I'm going to start training Dancer and Ninja, is there any other jobs worth training as a Support job?

Sorry for the mass of questions ^^ thank you for reading =D

Use the Tiphia. For head I used a Zeal Cap when leveling WAR, it's not that expensive these days so you could work on that. Personally I'd use the Spectacles over Chiv for TPing but I'd WS in Chiv. Rest looks fine, maybe sell Horomusha and save up for Okotes or camp them?

My subs for monk included: WAR, NIN, DNC, DRK & BLU. Each has their uses and fun for utilization. Also your setup looks good, although it looks like you could use some more accuracy. Spectacles would be a great choice to TP in over chiv chain, save that STR for Howling Fist when you get it.

Also I would definitely recommend a Tiphia Sting, and save the seashell for Chakra/Tanking aquan mobs.

I don't even know anymore :/

Someone put up the Tiger sign!

But your gear does look good for your level, sans the spike necklace!

/thf for epic dragon kick light skillchai-, oh wait, people don't do those anymore :<

Dont think he will be on for a while.

Oh yeah, THF too for the sake of TH farmin and ^ this... Even if it is no longer popular :<

Did 1900 dmg on Byakko with an incomplete DK set using SATA to open up for light back in the day ^^

Beyond the spike necklace and horamusha, that's a pretty solid setup for your level.

Looks a lot like mine was, except I had a pcc at the time, and an okote. Also, ecophoria rings didnt exist yet. xD

I'm just really happy to see someone using a useful set of legs on their mnk, and not getting whiny because it's subligar. Seriously, saw a mnk in jeuno yesterday with AF pants and a scorp harness (not +1) and I was like level 60 was 15 levels ago, bro. CONTEMPORIZE MAAAAAAAN. Quit livin in the past, and get with the now! Also, please, realize MNK AF pants are both essentially useless and really ugly.

The harness I can forgive, the AF pants...I just can't. -_-;

It's still a must have for the sake of guard skill up.

@Tool I've only used /drk in campaign. Not worth leveling up to use as a sub.

Also, don't bother skilling up guard unless you are bored out of your mind and have done everything else there is to do in the game.

I used /DRK for Souleater Hundred Fists fun :x
Was actually a worthy sacrifice for Dynamis Lord back when I did dyna.

The dedication you'd need from other jobs to maintain SE dmg on mnk/drk is wasted when you can have some of those jobs go as DDs and do much more than the gain you get from SE dmg.

Thank You for all your reply's :D

LOL guard skillup.

Kudos if you got it capped, blue numbers are always fun, but yeah. Guard is pretty worthless.

Thanks to martial master, it isn't too much of a laugh to do.
Thanks to FoV I can still be productive as I level it up.

That works. Personally, I've been levelling it naturally via Abyssea and FoV. Not intentional, but it happens, and I get to wear good gear, and not useless pants. =P

Solid build as far as I can tell. As others have suggested, Specs for TPing, Chiv. for WS. Also, Tiphia Sting over Bibiki Seashell.... Macro seashell with Chakra and for tanking Aquan mobs. Also, if you want EVERY subjob for ANY situation... here is a list:
WAR,NIN,DNC (most common ones, /WAR being for DMG, /NIN for survival because of shadows and tanking in places like Salvage, /DNC for soloing)
THF (for stuff like Dragon Kick to Close light SCs or for solo farming where healing isn't an issue)
WHM (For when you need to take a Chi Blast build to an event)
DRK (Yes, even though I'm about to rant on it... /DRK is considered a viable sub... though I personally have never used it)
BLU (Solid for PvP and soloing, though I have never personally used it)

/DRK is not a great sub for the following reasons:
-You will lose HP too fast and drop like a fly without dedicated healers.
-2nd punch will NEVER have full DMG that the 1st punch will have.
-A good MNK/WAR build will outparse a MNK/DRK in a zerg and doesn't require the dedicated healers.
-Only things you get from /DRK toward zerg are Souleater(which is gimped) and Last Resort.
-A MNK/WAR gets access to Beserk and Warcry (yes, in a ZERG situation where you aren't WSing... Warcry is viable)

Oh and the reasons I gave are before the level cap went up to 80...

Edit: Fixed to make easier to read.

As has been said before you would probably be better off using Spactacles over a Chiv Chain. Use a Tiphia Sting and keep the Bibiki Seashell for your Chakra macro. Unless you are going for an Eva set up for solo (which probably isnt a realistic option at your lv) I would say your set is pretty solid for your lv (better than mine was :P), especially if you mostly solo. At your lv you could probably camp Mee Deggi the Punisher for some R/Ex OKotes but HKotes won't hurt too much. Between WAR, DNC and NIN the use of any other subs would be very few and far between so they will suffice.

While Republigar may be the best legs MNK can use until Byakko's/Shura, as a male character I refuse to wear subligars and as such gimped it up in my Temple Hose.

That aside, that build looks alright. I'd sell the Horumusha Kotes and save up for Ochiudo's Kote/camp Ochimusha Kotes. Use a Tiphia for TPing but macro in the Bibiki Seashell for Howling Fist/Dragon Kick/Ascetic's Fury. Spectacles > Chiv chain for TPing, I'd keep it on for Asuran Fists/Raging Fists, but swap in the Chiv chain for Howling Fist ect.

I got stuck using a Hairpin until 75 (no Optical Hat lulz), but the Zeal cap is pretty nice, so you might want to try and get one of those.

As far as subs go, nine times out of ten you'll be /NIN. /WAR has its uses, /DNC is nice for campaign and soloing easier mobs, /BLU can be handy for select things, but /DRK and /WHM are pretty pointless. If you really want a mage sub, you can level SCH, which is infinitely more useful to MNK than WHM, Chi Blasting is pretty well dead and the miniscule MND boost isn't worth the loss of utility for the rest of your run. /WAR will almost always be more worthwhile than /DRK, and no one will lambast you for not having it. /SAM can be amusing but it's not really practical for a lot of things.

Maybe it's because it's late but I don't get the hate for Scorpion Harness. There's no other accuracy body for MNK until Shura at 73, unless I'm losing my mind.

EDIT: Misread the post hatin' on harness. My bad. In fairness though if they lack the means to get a Shura body the next best body is Aurore at 78, otherwise you're still stuck in a Harness for TP. (Hikazu Haramaki doesn't exist)

Just to add in something, when you are at the upper levels /sam is a viable sub to get a 5 hit setup with footwork.

Edit: But yeah, for the most part /nin usually /war for some situations /dnc for soloing as other people have stated.

Only scanned peoples replies there was the typical where tiger when you need him when most of the competent 75/80 mnk population could answer this conundrum. Was all good advice given didnt see anyone mention Birdbanes though and cant stress accuracy enough when it comes to colibri tbh. Mnk is well suited to lesser colibri sync with birdbanes lava/kusha pcc virtuoso and pop nq kabobs and youre laughing really.

- birdbanes
- virtuoso if you need still for raging/asuran fists
- pcc or 7 acc rings or lava/kusha till when ur acc is good enough for rajas imo
- teal cap?
- sting


Sam really isnt a sub job you should be using unless you are lvl80 with the ursine claws and youre going for fulltime footwork thing. I should probably have that done by now im still using destroyers at 80, but ive seen a few more monks subbing sam now abyssea and whatnot with destroyers baffles me. A sub you may find yourself having to use more as ur mnk gets stronger also depending what you fight is sj nin sometimes asked for in merit parties too.

Can sell spike earrings maybe soon and get cheaper coral earrings. If you need 75/80 advice really hard to say whats worth putting effort into getting atm. This is coming from someone who owns quite alot for mnk tbh bar 35 hikazu hara ate, spharai and mars's ring. I just have what I call buyer apathy atm I cant be bothered to buy anything new for mnk till it reaches 99.... well kinda I will if its a must and I dont really wanna sell either, luckily nothing has been outdone i own as such, with exception possibly the +acc - subtle blow mantle beating cuch u know the one sam cant use >.>

Walhara turban fairly easy to get pretty safe bet as is putting effort into black belt imo w/e changes at 99 thats gonna be safe im sure, only other item I think too is 25ws acc anwig salade ( 15wsacc 10acc 4str 5attk).

"Hikazu Haramaki doesn't exist)"

Ur right this item really doesnt exist lol :D

Hikazu hara-ate, it turns into the usukane haramaki. ^^

Always forget that. Woops. Maybe I'd remember it better if one would drop...

EDIT: Wow I did completely overlook the weapon slot. I used Retaliators because Birdbanes weren't out while I was levelling, but Birdbanes are ideal if you can get them. That NM only takes about an hour and a half to pop, and was easily killed on MNK75/37BLM. No one will (or shouldn't...) call you gimp over sticking to TM Hooks+2. Other than Birdbanes/Retailiators there's nothing else worthwhile until Destroyers.

Use them both. Swapping out ammo peices doesn't reduce your tp to 0.

Thank you everyone so much for your help, I have been soloing all day nearly 59 so i will get more acc and haste ^^ /cheer


/bow FFXIAH Monk Team!

(sorry for my AH item thing being there, didn't want to go even when I spammed Esc, lol xD)

You might have the minimum lines displayed set to something other than 0. That option is somewhere in the Config menu (doesn't bother me, might bother you).