IiPunch - Monk Guide

In 2021 your default TP set should be a hybrid set.

:)

So what does that set look like. I noticed a lot of back in forth over gear sets. It’s not an overly complicated question. For fodder tp this work with mpaca, for hybrid this is your best set with mpaca, for bis ws sets with mpaca these are how to adjust sets.

Probably something like this. I've been using this build for the past month and it's performed admirably. The difference between kenda +1 and the mpaca pieces is pretty minimal, and the body, hands, and legs get even better with rank progression. It caps at -50 PDT with ambu cape too. If you need magic evasion or more accuracy you could use malignance instead of mpaca. Mpaca is just so good both defensively and offensively it just feels right to keep on most of the time.

ItemSet 378915

No lie, never posted an item set before but maybe something like this:

ItemSet 378916

Caps PDT and MDT with shell, nearly caps SB at 73/75. Should also provide some decent white damage with the PDL increase on Mpaca Pants. Ideally you put counter on the cape to bring you up to a 47% Counter chance.

I don't have a decent calculator that gives me white damage values and I haven't really compared every possible combination for TP efficiency, so this is just pure feelycraft.


Potential swaps would be Telos for accuracy, Malignance Hat / Tights for more Meva if needed (at the cost of some PDT, probably need to use Malignance boots too or sub out telos for Odnowa+1)

Edit: Also from what I was able to read, Bhikku Cyclas +1 is retroactive, so there is no reason to really TP in it unless you are wearing a fodder set.

Edit: Seems I misunderstood the context of what was being said. Never mind what I originally posted.

By retroactive, I meant that it applies the bonus based on the number of stacks you have and not the stacks that you generate when you put it on. Meaning you could TP in Mpaca and still get the full benefit from the Cyclas when you swap to it during VS.

You can. I think a lot of people like the white damage numbers with the Cyclas when you pair it with something like Verethragna AM3. I actually do it just like you mentioned, never use Bhikku+1 body for TPing. There's a lot of other great options to choose from instead that don't put you in a defensive deficit.

edit: also you have 2 h2h in that equipset. That blew my mind for a hot second xD

Oh, my apologies. I misunderstood your wording. Yeah, that makes sense. And that's a very good point. I've been using mainly raging/howling fists and tornado kick since I don't have vert. But for a victory smite build that's something to consider.

You mean you don't offhand Vere?!?

The day they allow that glitch I am going to be a wrecking ball xD

FFXIAH item templates just aren't configured to recognize H2H weapons as main hand only. I wouldn't really call it a glitch.

I just included both, because I believe that you need both to do as much damage as possible. I don't have any concrete numbers but I'd wager that swapping to GH post Impetus is a DPS gain.

That being said, there is a defensive aspect to Spharai that I just don't know how to quantify.

Switching from Bhikku to Mpaca for TP during Impetus is 6%+ DPS loss (dps not only white damage. Almost 30% loss in white damage).

Probably worth then since dying is a 100% DPS loss.

If one piece of gear is the difference between life and death you're probably going down anyway. The only reason I won't wear Bhikku during impetus TP phase is if I can't keep stacks up.

Having both GH and Vere is the way to go. Outside of just being the most optimal way to maximize your DPS on fights longer than 3 minutes, it gives you more flexibility and untethers your damage from revolving almost exclusively around keeping high impetus stacks (which is not always possible)

10% PDT and 10 Mdef is a pretty large gap... your logic doesn't work here.

Then again I digress, because you can easily make a set that works with Cyclas +1 and still maintain most of your defensive stats.

ItemSet 378925

With this set you drop about 20 Counter from cape and the chest but you maintain capped MDT/PDT and near capped SB while still keeping roughly the same Meva.

The simpler explanation behind eliroo's comment was that it's okay to sacrifice even chunks of dps for survival, if the dps doesn't matter. It doesn't have to be one singular piece of gear, as his comments at the top of the page indicate the hybrid set is the standard nowadays anyways.

The reverse is also true: if you dont need the defense, then go all out offense and the sacrifice you make defensively is irrelevant.

Also, there are fights where I chose to specifically mix and match better defensive options vs pure offensive ones. Gogmagog V15 solo with trusts was one example. I don't have Ygnas, and in a full throttle dps set, I took a massive beating on a few fights. Still cleared it, but when I went with a safer defensive option, I didnt really lose that much time and the wins were much more comfortable.

So it all depends really. 6% dps only matters if it does, just like 10% dt/counter/eva only matters if it does.


True, you can also just build around the cyclas so point taken.

Yeah, you probably need your GS setup with multiple different TPing and WS sets. Can't wait to add all the toggles and try to wrap my head around making efficient WS skill sets while keeping up with, at the very least, PDT and MDT caps.

I imagine I will have a few toggles like:

Hybrid
Meva/MDT
PDT/Counter
Glass Cannon

capping SB on MNK is pretty easy but other DPS you probably need a SB mode to help cap on that while maintaining whatever the goal of the gearset is.

I dont use gs, so I have to rely on equipsets beforehand, or make the adjustment on-the-fly. So it was always easier building sets for situations (defense, offense, meva, acc etc) vs building sets that were conditional (impetus up, song dispelled, low haste).

Monk has quite a bit of flexibility for maintaining their defenses, and Bhikku Cyclas are significant enough to warrant building around them.

You'll never make up the difference in MEVA if Malignance was your alternative body. Could be the difference between stun, dispels, or dps-hampering debuffs landing and not. This of course is harder to quantify and easier for players to dismiss compared to seeing higher VS spikes with Bhikku and such. Obviously not all content will require you to make this choice.

I'm very much on the side of turtling through content being "better" because once your group has a baseline level of top-end gear the clear speed improvement from minor min-maxes are likely unnoticeable. That being said I do almost always use Bhikku, but I'm not under the delusion it's some group-carrying decision either way.

This is about TP phase, not Victory Smite damage. Bhikku Cyclas will retroactively apply their bonus when you throw them on for VS. I assume you know this already, but just in case...

Gearing in this game is full of trade-offs, and sometimes the situation will not justify the use of a much earlier 119 item. I am simply underlining the significant effect it has on damage output, and 6% from a single slot swap is very significant. For me that is irreplaceable. Maybe it isn't for others, and there's nothing wrong with that.

This game is extremely situational in all aspects. The buffs you have, the fights you're doing, the setups you're doing them in, even the game day/weather.

You kinda just have to gear for overall "best" and take the losses where you need to, minimizing them as much as possible.

I agree that Bhikku Cyclas are solid for Impetus up MNK TPing, but there's plenty of times (on other jobs) that I trade off extra DPS for survivability.

A lower DPS DD still deals more damage than a dead/weakened DD. Also have to take M.Eva into effect.

If you're fighting a mob that constantly spams debuffs like para/slow/blind etc, then sometimes (most times) it's worth it to just swap to your M.Eva/Hybrid set to resist them. Also depends on if you have a cure bot erasing you instantly or some joe-shmoe who can barely cast cures.

My DRK for example has been using 4/5 Sakpata's on TP set. It's a DPS loss compared to current multi-attack setups on the spreadsheet, but in reality I'm resisting every Para/Slow/Sleep/Blind and more importantly I'm staying alive every single fight and my DPS is way higher than it would be using the spreadsheets "BiS" sets.

Ya know the Bhikku body is probably the single item that kept emp+3 from coming out, it's just so unbelievably better than all the other pieces for every job combined.

Besides free cures. Nice but not in the same way that 50% crit damage is when 100% crit rate is possible.

(The whole MNK set was probably really hard to balance knowing the new gear they had to balance it around)

Yup am aware, I just assume most players notice the VS spikes more than they do the increase in white damage, even if white damage is the much larger contributing factor.

The point being that using Bhikku is actually quiet noticeable as far as damage rolls are concerned, while the situations where it might have actually been better to TP in MEVA over it kind of have an upward battle to prove themselves. A normal player probably just attributes being stunned/amnesia'd to "bad luck" regardless of how often it happens/how often it could have been avoided, and other debuffs probably get filed under "WHM sucks" if they aren't removed in a timely manner.

On the whole I agree with you and I'm pretty hard pressed to think of a time in recent history when I elected to not use Bhikku, mostly because I find it works fine for me and my group even if any of the above negatives I mentioned are happening. In general I do think people value damage too highly and while it should probably be one of the last things you sacrifice, I would never call anything irreplaceable.

With what weapon? With Caladbolg for example, most Sakpata pieces in TP set are a DPS gain lol and even if in 1 or 2 slots its a loss, its like less than 1%.

Not really. WS damage is still around 73% of total damage in Veret Vsmite Impetus build.

Meant marginally for each, as in it may increase white damage more than it increases WS damage as a percent of themselves. I also obviously don't know what that increase truly is in any given situation, which is why I said if (and may in the above sentence). I wasn't attempting to claim either way and it isn't even the point of anything I posted.

Personally for me default TP set would still be this:

ItemSet 368631

Bhikku body during Impetus up
Malignance body with Impetus down

Really high meva, good DT/pdt, capped Subtle blow and good mix of PDL, store TP and multi attack.

From that I would make hybrid set that adds Malignance body regardless of Impetus, adds Defending ring and Staunch Tathlum +1.

Mpaca has low meva and I would only use it if I know I dont need meva, but I might need PDT. Could add counter than too.

If counter is really important you can just go /blu and use counterstance for capped 80% counter rate with 0 counter equip and use cocoon to even out defense.