Post-Abyssea meritsFollow

Augmented Melee Gloves +2 will double your HP return on Invigorate to 20/tick if you have 5/5 merits, meaning you'd get 800 HP back from the Regen effect alone.

Thing is, I usually have a good healer with me, whether someone else or a dual box, and if I didn't and I still had to be MNK I'd probably be /DNC anyway if there were any possibility of me dying. So for me, Invigorate is a waste of merits. I went 5/5 on Penance and Formless Strikes without any hesitation. Some people lol @ getting more than 1 point in Formless, but with augmented Melee Cyclas +2 I am doing 90% of my normal damage when Formless is up rather than the base 60% you have with 1 point and no MC+2. Might not use Formless THAT often, but when I do, that 30% difference in damage is highly welcomed.

I have to roll my eyes at anyone who might suggest Penance isn't worth having; it's great. Maybe it doesn't shine in alliance play, like if all you ever did was VW or something, but for any serious fight that uses fewer people, it's an extremely noticeable reduction in enemy TP gain.

Formless strike is still super situational, Id go 5/5 inv, 4/5 pen, 1/5 FS for the above reasons as well.

Monks keep breaking sh*t.

And you seem to be doing it right ;)

You are oh so right, and the people who told you otherwise are fools. FWIW, your choices are still the standard.

5/5 Penance is the one absolute in Tier II MNK merits. Cutting down TP moves is fantastic, period, and has practical benefit in tons of common situations. Every NM you fight, any Abyssea mob where you want to reduce TP moves to get procs, any mob with a nasty TP move that you'd like to reduce... it's just so, so useful. And a short timer too.

I personally was set up exactly like you in 2010, but after using Formless Strikes nearly never, I dropped it altogether to go 5/5 Invigorate for occasional solo play. I haven't missed it Formless a bit. YMMV with Invigorate, since if you're always with healers it's maybe less of a benefit. But if you ever solo things or have thin mage support, it's a pretty healthy chunk of Regen. But really the only reason to go 5/5 Formless is if you were completely convinced you'd always have mages cure-spamming or casting regen on you, thus making Invigorate useless.

I do not find gimpy non-physical damage on a 10min timer JA very practical. I guess you could pop it for the occasional use against physical resistant mobs, or Invincible. But it's not going to make or break anything, ever.

To be honest, if I know I'm going to be in a situation where I will be fighting something which is resistant to Physical damage, I'll probably go WAR. Seems to me that Tomahawk would be a lot more useful in that situation than Formless Strikes.

Im actually going to revise my setup back to 5 pen 4 invig. I used to solo a lot more. In fact i may drop FS altogether. Its really only good when maxxed. And its not worth maxing. So. As much as its fun to be the hero when your group gets lightning elemental aggro....yeah. its just novelty. Ive never felt like it was a make or break ability. But it is fun to use with ursine claws i guess. And lord knows i need every excuse i can find to rationalize making that weapon.

I really do miss that short window of time when footwork monk was king of the hill.

Edited, Jul 17th 2012 5:40pm by Llester

It is fun no dou t. I just feel that it needs to be maxxed to be usedul, and even then, situationally useful. Idk maybe if the cooldown was reasonable. Even then, still situational. Either way, until i max out shijin, everything else is on hold.

Inorite? Could be worse, some of the job forums havent seen action in days. (Edit: weeks actually)

Anyway countdown 4 hrs til i can leave work and start shijin spiraling things. For some reason i predict that it will initially awesome and then suddenly reality will set in and i will realize that only victory smite will satisfy me. God i feel so guilty making my ls slog thru the bs of popping chloris.

Edited, Jul 17th 2012 10:35pm by Llester

I kept 1 FS, 4 Penance, 5 Invig. At the time, I either didn't have a pocket WHM and the Regen was salient or enough DDs hit it that an extra 20 secs didn't matter. I haven't gotten around to changing it.

Edited, Jul 18th 2012 11:29am by jlejeune

Backhand Blow? Wat? Crit WS FTW? Doesn't Howling Fist crit too?

What about the Nyzul WS? I'm on floor 95 atm, will be getting 100 in a few days. Worth unlocking that?

Well I finally managed to get the Weapon to drop. I'll get cleaning after I get my BB.

How is it that in a short time after coming back you complete more than I tried to in years? XD I hate you!

Don't temp me, you devil! God damn expansion announcement pretty much all but sealed my return... Rune Fencer? F*** YEAH! I came back briefly since a friend decided to return. I paid my month fee, then an extra fee to move back to Cerberus... then my friend decided the game was dead and left -.- I assume, when I do return, I need to buy another pass to move back to Sylph? Whatever. I'll be back fairly soon regardless =P

I need to get my damned Beard to drop. Then I'll let myself level MNK to 99. Not before.