Monk and General Questions from a New Player

Secos

I'm new to Achaea and I've currently achieved lvl 50 on monk.  I have a few questions though.

1.  Best race currently?  I'm human right now but I hear horkval is the best race.  I choose human for the crit boost mostly which really hasn't kicked in yet.  I'm asking due to having a free reincarnation.

2.  Speaking of crit boost.  Would my human passive crit + lucky trait + a stygian pendant all stack together?  Wouldn't that end up giving me a pretty wicked crit chance at higher lvl?

3.  What is good resistance on leather if I stay human?  What should I look for in buying from stores?  I have 18/10 right now.

4.  Any solid hunting recommendations for a lvl 50?  As of the last day I've been messing around in manara, forest watch and genji.

5.  How well does fitness scale into higher tiers?  Regaining endurance does seem to take forever once I run low.

I think that's it for now.  I may add some other questions later.  Thanks in advance!

Rulf

I can try to answer a few of these, but I'm fairly certain others will do a better job.

1. Horkie monk is probably one of the easiest monk races to play.  It's a great race for a beginner monk. You might get a crit every now and then, but you won't be getting decent enough crits for the human factor to play in until the 70s/80s/90s.

2. Not sure on this one, but I'm pretty sure those effects do stack.

3. Go horkie, you win.

4. Stay in Manara until level 70 or 75, keep running manara and forest watch, but stay away from big stacks of buckawns if you're low on health because they bleed a lot.  Manara is by far the best xp/hr until 70/75.

5. Better just go ahead and get used to endurance regen sucking without an endurance ring, dreamcatcher, and trans fitness.  You're just gonna have to sleep a lot.

All that being said, I'm not the brightest crayon in the box Achaea-wise, so beyond what I've said here, others will have to help ya.

Sena

Secos said:

2.  Speaking of crit boost.  Would my human passive crit + lucky trait + a stygian pendant all stack together?  Wouldn't that end up giving me a pretty wicked crit chance at higher lvl?

They do stack, but human and lucky aren't huge bonuses like the pendant. Human adds 1%, lucky adds 0.5%, and a stygian pendant adds 6%.

Secos said:

4.  Any solid hunting recommendations for a lvl 50?  As of the last day I've been messing around in manara, forest watch and genji.

You might be able to handle Phereklos (if not now, then definitely by level 60-ish), as long as you avoid the hydras on the bottom level and be careful of the squids. It's not very heavily bashed (even during great hunts I rarely found it empty), gives very good experience for its difficulty, and has enough denizens that they'll likely be close to respawning by the time you clear it. I'd easily recommend it over Manara for level 60-80.

Secos said:

5.  How well does fitness scale into higher tiers?  Regaining endurance does seem to take forever once I run low.

Your natural endurance regen is 10 endurance every 4 seconds. Trans fitness will double that, so you'll regen 20 every 4 seconds. It's very useful for anyone who uses a lot of endurance.

Rispok

If you plan on doing PVE in greater quantity than PVP, I feel Human is the best choice. Critical hit chances max at level 99 at around 40%. I am a human at level 100, with the lucky trait and a stygian pendant. I get about 48% criticals, which doesn't seem like a lot, but trust me, it is. It means that most of the time I will get one critical per attack on doubleslash. As a monk this means you have three chances per round. The damage winds up being 'equal' to somebody who attacks for more damage in one hit with the same critical hit chance (Eld explained this to me), but I love seeing the screen flood with critical hits.

Last night hunting for 40 minutes, I got about 40 world-shattering critical hits, and those are the most rare.

Secos

If I do go horkval which racial specialization would you recommend.

Unspecialized  12,12,13,11

Vindicator 14,12,13,10

Prosecutor 12,14,12,11

Claviger 12,11,15,11

Commander 11,12,13,13

I'm kind of leaning claviger due to the low dex since that's the least useful stat or so I have heard.  I would go Vindicator but the int is a lil low and I'm sure I'll eventually use telepathy.

Sena

Rispok said:

The damage winds up being 'equal' to somebody who attacks for more damage in one hit with the same critical hit chance (Eld explained this to me), but I love seeing the screen flood with critical hits.

The total damage dealt is equal, but more/faster hits at lower damage means more reliable crits and less "wasted" damage, so it's still an advantage.

Another thing to keep in mind about critical bonuses is that they improve your chance of stronger criticals, in addition to increasing your overall critical chance. For example, a stygian pendant at level 99 will increase your chance of a world-shattering critical from about 1.1% to about 2.2%.

Huyen

I went Vindicator and, while using telepathy in raids sucks, PVE is ridiculously easy.

Rispok

Sena said:

The total damage dealt is equal, but more/faster hits at lower damage means more reliable crits and less "wasted" damage, so it's still an advantage.

Let's convince them to make dsl hit a second target after killing the first, then we'll be almost as good as monks.

Sidonia

Without arties I'd do con specialisation for bashing for pretty much every class/race.

Secos

Is aim to kill a better trait than lucky?  Does it give a bigger bonus?

Sena

Secos said:

Is aim to kill a better trait than lucky?  Does it give a bigger bonus?

It's pretty hard to test the effectiveness of aim to kill, since the only way to see exactly how much damage you're doing to denizens is with a falcon or baalzadeen, and they're immune to criticals. Because of that, I don't think anyone knows whether aim to kill is any good.

Iocun

Rispok said:

Sena said:

The total damage dealt is equal, but more/faster hits at lower damage means more reliable crits and less "wasted" damage, so it's still an advantage.

Let's convince them to make dsl hit a second target after killing the first, then we'll be almost as good as monks.

Even without this, dsl is still better than having a single twice-as-strong attack with the same crit chance.

Let's say you are 1000 damage away from killing a denizen and each slash of your dsl deals 400 damage. Then you have a crit chance on each of your two hits that will make you kill the creature instantly. If you only have a single attack dealing 800 damage though, you will only have a single crit chance to kill it in that blow. Sure, if you crit with that attack, it actually does more theoretical damage than critting with one of your two dsl slashes, but that theoretical damage is useless because it overshoots, so in average you will still need more attacks to kill the creature with that single-twice-as-strong attack.

Eld

Just to chime in on the race question, there was a recent rework of the race system that essentially eliminated the idea of a "best race" for any given class. With specialisations and traits, you can get a pretty decent build for just about any class (with a couple exceptions like hork for a class that uses good armour). Choose the race you find most appealing to roleplay as and go from there.

Iocun

Agreed. Yes, some of the racial traits are pretty cool and some give you slight combat/PvE advantages here and there, but contrary to how it used to be, it's not a big deal at all. Picking your racial specialisation and traits are the important things power-gaming wise. Pick your race based on what you'd enjoy.

Ryukishi

There's always a way to min/max.  Regardless, go whatever +Con race to start until at least 70 or 80.

If you want to bash, Pick something like Nimble, Lucky, and Robust for Majors.  Health/Mana Weaver, Triage, a Resist and something else for Minors.

In PVP, you -might- want to go +Str instead of +Con, but its easier to learn with more health to survive.  Swap Lucky for Receptive Body.

Common race combos I would choose include: Xoran Vanquisher, Troll Mercenary, Human Champion, Grook Scholar, Dwarf Miner, Mhun Bodyguard, Horkval Claviger, etc etc.

Trans Tekura, up to Numbness in Kaido.  Learn how to use/not use numb, transmute, and bash just about anywhere you want at that point. Get dragon, gg.

Ryukishi

Also, get a ring of endurance and level 1 pendant for cheap artifacts.

Further mid-end game artifacts include: All +Stats, Knuckles, Bracelet, Sip Ring, Collar for PVP and Gem of Transmutation (Monks are heavily stat vs equipment dependent, making the gem highly versatile and fun).

Rulf

I told you thers would be able to help you more than me.

Tvistor

I don't suppose @Tecton or @Cardan or someone could tell us  about the specifics of some of the traits mentioned here?

Iphis

Could, yes. Will? Probably not.

Secos

Revisiting this again.  Where is the best place to bash after your done with Manara? So after lvl 70-75.  

Nemutaur

Secos said:

Revisiting this again.  Where is the best place to bash after your done with Manara? So after lvl 70-75.  

Moghedu (maybe not so much anymore with GoM), Arcadia, Qurnok and as you get more confident Dun Fortress.

Sena

Secos said:

Revisiting this again.  Where is the best place to bash after your done with Manara? So after lvl 70-75.  

From 70-80 I mostly bashed Phereklos, and even beyond level 80 it's still good experience. Better than Manara, and you can probably handle it by level 60.

Kazu

@Secos You need to get better armour, now. 18/10 is HORRIBLE. You should be looking for 32 cutting minimum. You should be able to find something fairly cheap if you browse around.

Rajan

You should be able to tank lower Azdun and Creville, if you're careful with groups.

Secos

I went horkval and con load out.  So I have over 3500 health at the moment at lvl 60

Secos

I can't find anyone that knows where the entrance to phereklos is.  I know it's west of northreach forest.  I've swam around the lake in that area and can't find any spot to swim down.

Hhaos

Secos said:

I can't find anyone that knows where the entrance to phereklos is.  I know it's west of northreach forest.  I've swam around the lake in that area and can't find any spot to swim down.

Talk to me in game, Tyro, I will help you find a few spots and help with the armour.