Monk Job Point Priorities

Hi all,

I've decided to keep going with MNK in the hopes SE will give MNK some much-needed love, that and i really enjoy playing it. I have my WHM to fall back on should the need arise for other content.

However, I've only been back a week or two and am still getting my head around most things. What should i prioritise JP allocation wise for Monk?

Checked the main guide but seems it's not been updated much. I mean I'm told howling fist now is the go to WS yet the date there says 2015? So not sure how up-to-date it really is

Thanks in advance!

Super Bump, but I recently had the same question recently and couldn't find anything on it. Honestly, MNK Job points are meh at best, but I started with Kick Attacks + Impetus. I have a more Kick-Oriented MNK now, which differs a bit from what that guide says is BIS, but if you like to experiment with it, Footwork with a decent kick set puts out some fairly impressive Tornado Kicks (I can hit 24k-30k ish just with Qultada/Sylvie buffs in Apex solo). The real problem with all of Monk's JP options is that they are all highly reliant on abilities that are either hindered heavily by timers, or traits that aren't high enough natively to matter.

My JP Prioritization is:

1.Impetus
2.Kick Attacks
3.Chakra/Footwork* (lol)
4.Focus
Rest don't matter - Perfect Counter, Focus, and Dodge don't last long enough to matter much, but 20ACC from Focus is fine I guess. Counterstance is a pretty pathetic boost imo (should have been something unique, like mitigates damage taken under effect).

*Footwork is only really something you'd prioritize if you have a kicking set and care enough for it, otherwise, it only lasts 1 minute with a 4min cooldown, so it's trash IMO. Inner Strength doesn't last long enough, so that sucks, and Hundred Fists is okay I guess, but you'll never get full use out of it due to JA animation lockout... So it's a cool set of accuracy for your WSs I guess.

Chakra is meh also, but I guess if you want faster status removal for certain fights or events, 2.5m/3min chakras with 200 extra HP is okay. Actually, in my TP/DT set, my Chakras do well into 2700+, so that extra curing from Chakra is, in most cases, completely unneeded and a real waste of a job point. It should have been something unique rather than more HP. "Shares excess HP healed with Party Members"

Impetus is the one that makes the most sense, but even that has obvious limitations. This is amazing if you pair it with Bhikku Cyclas +1, as it has potential to hit +150 attack, +100 accuracy, +50% critical hit rate (translation: you won't). Paired with the body, thats 173 attack and 123 accuracy. Not shabby if you happen to go 50 straight attacks (including ws) where you don't miss....oncee (eyeroll). Like I said, nothing Monk gets in the JP department stands out, and the Perfect Counter + Counterstance bonuses are incredibly head-scratching. I'd even argue that the bonuses to many of these make very little difference to monk in general, and are just something to tag along the way to master.

That would be very useful as it stands now I only use chakra when my healer dies which rarely happens

Chakra is generally a waste of an ability currently, due to it's lengthy timer. If it were AOE to begin with it would be useful for group status removal, or even a quick curaga. Vivacious Pulse, by comparison is 3x shorter of a recast timer, and can be switched at will to remove varying status ailments. Chakra needs an update because you have to really find reasons to use it at this current point in time, as it doesn't fit in with the meta or aid the party in any meaningful way. It also doesn't remove slow, which is kind of silly IMO.

I'd swap some of those. My prioritization:

1.Focus
2.Kick Attacks
---big gap---
3. Footwork
4. Hundred Fists
5-9. Everything else
10. Impetus

Comments
Focus: I think you're downplaying this a bit too much. Yes, it's a short duration JA, but it's still possible to maintain 25% of the time (30sec duration, 2min timer). Acc+20 a quarter of the time has some utility.

Kick Attacks: To me, KA are primarily a TP generation tool, so the more interesting part of the JP to me is the Acc as opposed to the Atk. Can't imagine a realistic MNK TP set that results in a split of kicks:punches that even gets close to 25%:75%, so Focus should have a greater overall impact on kick accuracy than KA JPs. Perhaps someone cares more about kick damage than I do, so the KA atk+2 per JP could mean more to them and they might prioritize this first. Either way, Focus/KA seem like the top two in some order.

Impetus: this JP is TERRIBLE.
(a) AFAIK, the JP does nothing until your 51st consecutive Impetus hit without a miss. Seems you have to hit the cap of Atk+100 (Atk+2 per Impetus hit) before you can exceed the cap via JP.

If anyone has evidence that I'm wrong, please share, but I've personally tested as follows:
0 Impetus JP, 1 hit: Atk goes up by 2.
1 Impetus JP, 1 hit: Atk goes up by 2.
(by the way, in doing that test with 1150ish acc, I MISSED an attack on a level 0 Bumblebee. Durrrr, Impetus.)

(b) EVEN if you hit 51+ consecutive times (despite the odds being overwhelmingly against you doing that), the JP might STILL do nothing if you are already attack capped.

I'll have to test the Impetus gift with a staff, because I didn't know that to be true, the way you explained it. if it is, lol.

As far as having to constantly reapply Focus for 20 whopping accuracy? If you're a serious monk, you're probably not horribly hurting in the acc department between kendatsuba+1 and adhemar +1 hands/body, so 20 acc is only 'neat?' for evasive stuff. And then wears off after 2-3 WS. It's a bonus, but I feel like Impetus lasts longer and, if you're like me on the outside of a buffs-party or just solo, you're devoid of any realistic buffs, so any attack you can get is helpful. If monk is used for "lowman" strats, how exactly is Monk supposed to be attack capped? It's not a likely scenario, given the nich role MNK fits in most groups anyways. Most of my monk play is solo or lowman from personally formed groups, so my optimization mostly reflects that play style. If you're in a group where you're receiving buffs, the acc from Focus is even less helpful, and you lose dps constantly trying to maintain it. It's a lose-lose in either case.

As for kick attacks JP, it's not specifically for a TP kick-set; That's just my personal TP set. The Kick attack bonus obviously stacks with other Kick+attack gear (neck, cape, +3 af feet), so it proves to be a good option to use when Footwork is up and you're using Torndao Kick/Dragon Kick for skillchains. That's a hefty bonus to kick damage that is oft-overlooked for that short duration that Footwork is up.

It says right in the description, increases MAXIMUM

I'm not saying Focus JP are great, just that they're one of the top 2 of a handful of pretty lousy options. Still, sometimes uncapped acc does happen, so it's better than nothing. I get why someone might prioritize KA, that comes down more to play style. Neither one is an unreasonable choice though.

Please prove me wrong on Impetus JP if I'm incorrect (seriously, PLEASE DO). But from my quick investigation, the JP don't appear to do a damn thing until you've already hit cap with 50 straight hits, which is overwhelmingly slim odds at 95% maximum hit rate. That squares with the English JP description too: "Increases the maximum damage of physical attacks while under the effects of Impetus". Doesn't say it increases atk for each (or all) hits under impetus, and it's hard enough as-is to hit the cap of Atk+100. Unless they change how Impetus works and remove the stupid reset for misses, this JP seems to provide almost zero benefit.

I don't know why you would need to test Impetus with a staff. You can easily see the change in attack when you 1-shot a mob outside the starter cities with a fist. Or just count hits and then check # of consecutive hits against the change in Atk on the equip screen/checkparam.


Yup. I was somewhat hopeful that couldn't possibly be true, and it was just a poor item description. Could have been pretty nice if you got the entire bonus from JP tacked on starting from Impetus hit #1. However, quick test seemed to confirm it's as bad as it appears to be the description.

Oh wow. Monk is like a bad joke, from top to bottom. The Gifts are also equally trash across the board. How did SE mess up this bad? Whole job needs an overhaul.

Pretty much. Yup. The entirety of the job points/gifts category is pure failure.

More counter/counter damage is cool though

I did the Counterstance ones kinda early on since I mostly soloed my Monk CP on Apex Eruca.