Monk Class Guide (Classic - Prophecy of Ro)
This guide covers Monks in EQ during the Classic Era all the way until Prophecy of Ro (Level 70), which is the end of the original era of the game if you will. After Omens of War each class will start to change in minor and major ways and you'll end up with a lot more buttons to spam and a lot more cooldowns to press as time goes on.
Monks are one of the best melee damage classes in the game forever. They will be outdone by Berserkers in some expansions and in the much later expansions casters will reign supreme for awhile. However, this is your era - you're the king of the Classic EQ era. You're one of the best pullers in the game since you have Feign Death and you'll top the charts by doing almost nothing but auto attacks.
If I had to pick a drawback, the only one that comes to mind is that Monks will be a very boring class during this entire era. Since almost all of your damage comes from Auto Attack there is really nothing for you to do except press one or two buttons and watch your character attack. Once you get your Epic and some AAs you'll have more to hit, but not much.
Important Stats & Focus Effects
Your stats will give you the biggest benefit until you reach Luclin-PoP and you start maxing them out with raid gear and buffs. Once you max out your stats you can only raise them with AAs or with Heroic Stats which are a feature of the later expansions. Monks will want to prioritize Strength and Dexterity for damage along with the Attack stat which appears on gear less commonly in the early eras. Last but not least, you'll want items that give you Haste as well.
Strength: This increases your Attack and weight limits
Dexterity: Increases chance to proc during combat and accuracy
Stamina: Gives you HP
Agility: Increases AC
Once PoP is released you'll start to notice Heroic Stats appearing on different pieces of gear. It starts as raid gear but eventually all gear will come with these new stats. Heroic Stats will give you benefits kinda similar to the normal stats just worse. One nice thing about HStats though is you don't have to worry about the old stat cap, HStats are their own thing with their own soft cap.
Speaking of soft caps for HStats, each stat will have a limit where it starts to offer you diminishing returns. In this early era the limit will be 100 and I doubt you'll reach that with more than 1 stat. What I would recommend is you focus on Heroic Dexterity primarily to boost your damage. Heroic Strength will give you a very minor boost, you won't even notice it. Heroic Agility and Heroic Stamina will give you more survivability.
Heroic Dexterity (Accuracy/Proc Chance): Heroic Dex increases your accuracy and proc chance during combat; it has diminishing returns later in the game once you start getting a lot of it.
Heroic Agility (Avoidance/Strike Through): Increases AC, Dodge, Block and Many of the most important Mod2s. Use my Heroic Stats Guide for more information.
Heroic Strength (Strength): Increases Endurance. Improves the percentage of AC that gets tranfered from your shield to be used for damage mitigation. It also improves melee attack damage very minimally.
Heroic Stamina (HP/Mitigation): Increases HP, HP Regen, and HP Regen Cap. It also gives you some Mod2s which help with damage and stun mitigation.
Want more information about Heroic Stats and what they do/how they're beneficial? Curious what Mod2s are? Take a look at my Heroic Stats Guide for more information about what each stat does and why we're getting the ones that we're focusing on.
Important Focus Effects
Starting in Luclin and becoming more common as the game goes on certain pieces of gear will come with Focus Effects. For melee classes you don't start getting tons of Focus Effects until OoW and beyond. Below are the main Focus Effects that you want to get on your gear when they become available.
****Haste: Not really a focus, but this is the most important secondary thing you should get on your gear. Eventually it becomes a staple on your gear in the future and you don't have to seek it out anymore.
****Cleave: Increases your chance to crit with all combat skills by a significant amount. This is the most important focus you should seek out once it's available.
***Ferocity: Your chance to double attack is increased by a small amount. Your second biggest DPS increase will come from this.
**Improved Dodge: Chance to Dodge is increased by a moderate amount. Pretty much gives you a bit more survivability.
*Improved Parry/Block: Chance to Parry and Block is increased by a moderate amount. You should never be using a shield, so you only benefit from the Parry. Increases survivability marginally.
Important Skills, AAs & Disciplines
During this era of the game Monks press very few buttons. If you're playing on live servers then you can use /autoskill which will allow you to automatically cast your two most spammed skills, Eagle Strike and Flying Kick. You'll get other skills as you're leveling up like Dragon Punch and Round House Kick, use them as you go but once you get high enough to unlock both Eagle Strike and Flying Kick you stick to those.
Feign Death (Classic): Your bread and butter for pulling enemies, going AFK and acting silly while you're bored in Commonlands.
Mend (Classic): This lets you heal yourself. AAs can improve it and make it heal for more.
Dragon Punch, Tail Rake, Eagle Strike, Tiger Strike (Classic): Monks get a bunch of different skills, I have been told that Eagle Strike is the best to use for DPS as well as Dragon Punch. I personally am unsure so I would encourage you to ask the best Monk in your guild.
Round Kick & Flying Kick (Classic): You'll get both of these skills in Classic, from my understanding Flying Kick is the one you'll want to use.
This is an example macro for a monk
Above you will find an example macro for my Monks. The first line of this macro is using the Monk Epic which is in my first bag; the second line is using Zan Fi's Whistle which is an AA you will be getting later in the game. On private servers you may need to incorporate /doability into the macro to use Flying Kick and Eagle Strike (or your race's equivalent). On live you can just /autoskill both of them.
Later in the game, as it becomes more advanced, you'll want to avoid using macros like this because they activate slower and will result in a DPS loss. Check my "How to Play" section below for more information about this.
AAs
Just like with all of my other class guides, I am only going to cover the clicky AAs for Monks. Starting in Luclin you will get Purify Body and Dragon Force. Both of these are kind of meh, Purify Body is the better of the two since it gives you a way to cure DoTs on yourself. Dragon Force knocks back an enemy and deals minor damage, the band is much better than this skill.
All you get in PoP is Distant Strike which gives you another means of pulling enemies; you'll actually want to use this skill since it has max range and low cooldown. Once Gates of Discord hits you will get your first two burn AAs, Destructive Force and Focused Destructive Force. These two AAs share a cooldown so you'll want to use the one that is best for the current situation.
In Omens of War you will get Imitate Death which gives you a Feign Death/Fade skill. For those unfamiliar, fade basically is a guaranteed removal from combat. This skill is very useful when you're trying to survive a wipe or trying to get rid of a bunch of enemies following you.
That's pretty much all you get during this era on a Monk.
Offensive Disciplines
You get your first offensive discs during Kunark with different versions coming in PoP and OoW. The tomes that teach you these discs are sold By Entock Malso (Kunark) & Wilno Lilin (PoP) in Commonlands; also sold by Beorobin Amondson in PoK.
Thunderkick (52) - Kunark (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Increases damage and hit chance with Flying Kick.
Inner Flame (56) - Kunark (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Damage increased by 50%; minimum damage increase by 400%.
Ashenhand Discipline (60) - Kunark (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Increases damage of all our skills by 150%
Speed Focus (63) - PoP (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Gives Hundred Hands Effect.
Rapid Kick (70) - Omens (Allakhazam, Lucy; Comes from OoW Spell Runes Quest)
Reduces your kick skill timer.
Dragon Fang (69) - DoN (Allakhazam, Lucy; Comes from DoN Progression)
Gives you a proc on your next attack.
Heel of Kanji (70) - Ro (Allakhazam, Lucy (Comes from PoR Quests until later at which point it's sold in PoK by Beorobin Amondson)
Increases Flying Kick damage, chance to hit and reduces the cooldown timer for it.
Defensive Disciplines
Resistant Discipline (30) - Classic (Allakhazam, Lucy) My advice for finding Classic era discs is to check Warrior Tomes merchants; Teniyu Emua in West Freeport is my choice)
Increases your resistances by a lot temporarily.
Fearless (40) - Classic (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Fear immunity for 1min.
Stonestance (51) - Kunark (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Increases melee mitigation by 90%
Whirlwind (53) - Kunark (Allakhazam, Lucy)
You always riposte. 40min cooldown.
Voiddance (54) - Kunark (Allakhazam, Lucy)
You always avoid melee damage. Also 40min cooldown.
Earthwalk (65) - LDoN (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Melee mitigation increased by 90% and stun immunity granted.
Dreamwalk (66) - OoW (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Run speed increased by 125% and resist all spells.
Disciple's Aura (55) - Ro (Allakhazam, Lucy; You get this from the Chalice of Life Quest during Ro but later it's sold in PoK)
Increases your groups chance to dodge, parry and riposte.
Fists of Wu (68) - DoDh (Allakhazam, Lucy; This item comes from a DoDh quest called The Rage of Kelliad - later on it's sold in PoK)
Increases you and your groups chance of Double Attacking.
Master's Aura (70) - Ro (Allakhazam, Lucy; You get this from the Skylance: The Laboratory Quest during Ro but later it's sold in PoK)
Increases your groups chance to dodge, parry and riposte.
Other Disciplines
Throw Stone (1) - Classic (Allakhazam, Lucy)
You throw a stone that deals 1 damage to an enemy. Good for pulling when you lack ammo or when a mob summons.
During the Gates of Discord expansion the Phantom line of abilities is added into the game for monks. This allows you to pull with Pacify; tomes are added for players 35 - 70+ - this becomes a core line for Monks as the game goes on.
Phantom Zephyr (35) - Tome of Phantom Zephyr (Sold by Wilno Lilin in Commonlands or by Beorobin Amondson in PoK)
Phantom Wind (50) - Tome of Phantom Wind (Sold by Wilno Lilin in Commonlands or by Beorobin Amondson in PoK)
Phantom Echo (57) - Tome of Phantom Echo (Sold by Wilno Lilin in Commonlands or by Beorobin Amondson in PoK)
Phantom Call (64) - Tome of Phantom Call (Sold by Wilno Lilin in Commonlands or by Beorobin Amondson in PoK)
Phantom Shadow (65) - Tome of Phantom Shadow (Originally acquired by GoD Geomancy Stones Quest; eventually sold by Beorobin Amondson in PoK)
Ancient Phantom Chaos (65) - Tome of Ancient: Phantom Chaos (Acquired by completing Chaos Runes GoD Spells Quest)
Phantom Cry (69) - Tome of Phantom Cry (Originally acquired by completing OoW Spell Runes Quest; eventually sold by Beorobin Amondson in PoK)
How To Play: Monk Basics
In this part of the guide I will talk about the best ways to play a Monk in EQ during the Classic - PoR era. My experience with this class is moderate to high, I have played a Monk up to level 110 and I have also boxed them on the TLPs from Classic - OoW and beyond. During the early eras of EQ the class is very basic, you'll want to /autoskill your main damage skills and pop your discs/cooldowns during the right situations.
For those of you who are playing on Live servers you can type /autoskill Flying Kick and /autoskill Eagle Strike (or Dragon Punch) to use your two most important skills. Iksar Monks get Tail Swipe instead which you'll be using. Players on P99 or other emulators without autoskill will need to make a macro that spams these two skills or create a single hotbar that spams all the skills which tends to work better than using a macro.
Monk Classic - PoR Hotbar Example
Above is an example of what your hotbar could look like if you bind all of your spammable skills to the same button. The reason this is better than doing a macro is because macros tend to execute at a slower speed than doing it this way. Honestly, this doesn't become a serious issue until later in the game after PoR but it's a habit you should adopt now rather than later. I have a lot of experience playing from House of Thule - Ring of Scale and I have personally tested parsing myself with a Macro vrs Hotbar.
During my testing, macros always exectued at a slower speed and they often didn't even activate all the skills in the macro. As you can see in the hotbar I have Zan Fi Whistle and Two-Finger Wasp Touch which are both AAs that you get eventually. Flying Kick and Tiger Claw are only on the bar as examples, they should be /autoskilled if you're on live. The Epic button you see is your class Epic, I typically have a macro with /useitem to use it. If you're wearing it on your hands you can do /useitem 12.
Otherwise you can do /useitem Celestial Fists and that will use it anywhere in your inventory. Really that's all I have to say about this class. You use auto attack and stand behind enemies so that you get the most strike through as you DPS by pressing a single button. That's really all there is to it until much later in the game when you start getting 10 different Cooldowns, 7 different item clickies and 12 different abilities to hit.
Monk Rotation & Burns
Now that I have explained how to properly set everything up, let's go over what you will be using for your cooldowns and rotation during this era. For burns, Innerflame Discipline and Thunderkick Discipline are what you will be using until PoP. You can use both of these Discs back to back since they don't share a cooldown. Ashenhand Discipline does more dps than Thunderkick but it has a longer cooldown (and shares a cooldown with Thunderkick).
Once PoP is added you'll want to make Speed Focus your primary Disc. After Gates of Discord releases you'll want to pair Speed Focus and Focused Destructive Force together, use both of these during your burn rotation to maximize your DPS. Once PoR is added you will add Heel of Kanji into that burn rotation.
As for our normal rotation, you'll be using your Monk Epic along with Dragon Fang once you get it during DoN. You'll get Fists of Wu in DoDh which you will want to use before each fight too; you may have to refresh it during combat on longer fights. Aside from the Epic and these clickies you will only be using Auto Attack.
More Tips & Tricks
- When GoD comes out you can start using Tribute. You'll want to use Eyes of the Hunter, Fury of Combat, Hero's Deftness primarily. Arm of the Hero and Arm of Power II are also good for you to use.
- Once you get to Prophecy of Ro and beyond you'll want to create a single hotbar and keybind all your important skills to the same button. For example, make a Hotbar with all 12 slots using 1. Then you add all of your kicks, skills, AAs to this one hotbar so when you press 1 it will use all of them. This will be your raid spam hotkey.
- Learn to use macros! There are slash commands you can use like /disc, /doability, /alt act, /useitem, /timer and /pause which will make your life a lot easier.
- Check out other Monk Guides like EQ Progressions (Classic - OoW), EQ Freelance (HoT - EoK) and Monk TLP PoP/GoD Era Google Doc.
- Ask around for parses, you should check your damage in comparison to what other raiders of your era are doing. That will help you get a better understanding of where you should be at.
Monk BiS Lists
I have BiS gear lists for this class which include both Tower and Pre-Tower BiS items. For those of you who care less about a BiS list and just want a list of good gear options, I have included that at the bottom of each page too.
Kunark Monk BiS Gear List
Velious Monk BiS Gear List
Luclin Monk BiS Gear List
PoP Monk BiS Gear List