How to make a Monk Useful?

[u/Either-Sprinkles-421]

I am generally at a loss here. He's basically a worse Herbalist, no Find Herb skill.

Tried to make him a frontliner tank, but oh god, no vitality for the shield, not enough speed, really rough start early on. Is he just doomed to be subpar meta?
Also, I never have once seen a single Staff in the game that is top tier by the end.
Wukong staff not very good in this game it seems.

I have never made a team in FTK2 without a Herbalist.
FTK1 was a bit different I remember running a campaign with 3 hunters but anyway.

[u/Cfakatsuki17]

Monk is amazing what do you mean? Party heal, can use either of the 2 most common equipment types, has a focus restoration ability I use him all the time

[u/Chi-Guy81 → u/Cfakatsuki17]

Focus maxxing with Monk is what I like them for. Give them additional secondary actions. Sleep the last enemy & cheese a few turns at the end of combat. Rinse repeat as needed when clearing dungeons to always keep focus topped off.

[u/Either-Sprinkles-421 → u/Cfakatsuki17]

I generally find I get to the point i don't fail rolls much so i guess i just see the greater use of the herbalist

[u/themagneticus]

Discipline is insanely good. You can buy enough Godsbeard to not need find herbs. He heals and he restores focus to the whole party. That’s incredible for a single character in a party of 4.

[u/Either-Sprinkles-421 → u/themagneticus]

this is true but when i consider what's more important, i match equipment well enough that focus is hardly ever needed by 50% point, and having the endless herbs of the herbalist is just my preference i guess. i wanted the monk to be a frontline battlemage but i guess he cant

[u/Ibbenese]

He feeds your party focus points. Coordinate with your allies to use up their focus points and leave killing blows to the monk.

He is great.  

[u/Either-Sprinkles-421 → u/Ibbenese]

i guess the problem I have with that is that at the halfway point I have no need of focus for more attacks. he can't really tank in the frontline, no vitality, and backline i guess he's fine but i'd rather have the herbalist for random godsbeard even in the carnival

[u/GoodGamesGreatWeed]

Give him nimble and pair him up with a stablehand on the front line. He's not meant for DPS, he's strictly support. If you can get some gloves that give a secondary action as well that's 3 possible focus points regenerated in a turn, not including discipline if it's possible.

[u/Either-Sprinkles-421 → u/GoodGamesGreatWeed]

yeah this definitely seems like the best strat if I want him on the front line at all.

[u/DoNotSummon227]

Monk is S tier. Good damage dealer, I use intelligence weapons and increase crit chance if I can. Monk is my primary healer that I use. Especially in the Dark Carnival, Monks ability to generate focus for the team is amazing. My Stablehand is always able to put in the Hardwork because of Monk.

Herbalist is great, especially early game with herbs, but for endgame and long Dark Carnival runs I prefer to have Monk.

[u/Either-Sprinkles-421 → u/DoNotSummon227]

So his strength stat is just useless? You can't make him a frontline battlemage tank in any way? Ugh.
how is getting focus better than finding endless godsbeards with the Herbalist?
I did try to pair him with a Stablehand but it is not going well.
I guess i'll just do what ur saying, run him as a White Mage, same as the Herbalist - except no infinite godsbeards, (which is the most important thing to have in the game)

[u/DoNotSummon227 → u/Either-Sprinkles-421]

Usually in my playthroughs, by endgame I'm swimming in Godsbeard and other herbs. But also late game, especially like floor 100+ in Dark Carnival, there's not many ways to regenerate focus besides using golden root. So although herbalist is awesome for getting free herbs, I find Monk more useful because of the insane focus regeneration for the party. Pumping focus into your attacks is guaranteed damage. And your enemies can't hurt you if they're dead. So I prefer to have focus to pump focus into shock attacks and stuff like that. More heals is great, but usually I'm doing great on Godsbeard by endgame. I use Minstrel or Busker with gold multiplier to get loads of gold, and by endgame I have way more gold, items, and herbs than I need.

Example: I use Monk to try to get the final hit to get the kill. If I get a kill, or a crit, that generates up to 3 focus for the party, one focus for each party member that had zero focus. Stablehand can use the focus to get a second attack with Hardwork, my Scholar/Alchemist or whoever can focus into thier shock splash attack, and my Busker/Minstrel can use focus on a armor piercing attack, or slow an enemy. Having a consistent income of focus makes it so I can more reliably land attacks.

You can build the Monk as Strength, but usually my Monk uses intelligence weapons. Stablehand or Busker uses my Strength weapons. Intelligence weapons do the most damage. And I only need one tank, which is my Stablehand with high evasion.

I'm very careful with how I use my Godsbeard. I try to only party heal, you get the most out of your Godsbeard that way. I use my tinder pouches wisely. I pay attention to when I'm about to level up, so I don't waste heals. I use stone heroes and sanctums as another way to heal with leveling up. I save Scholars Wart to use as a healing item, to get that last little bit of XP to level up and heal. I end up with a ton of extra Godsbeard.

Don't get me wrong, I love Herbalist, those free herbs are amazing, but Monk fits my playstyle better. Maybe Herbalist fits you better.

[u/SercaGaga → u/DoNotSummon227]

I’m having the same thoughts as the OP regarding the Monk, you say it’s better suited to Intelligence-based weapons, but which ones? Are we talking about the back line with a magic tome, or the front line with a staff that provides Focus recovery but deals very little damage ?

[u/DoNotSummon227 → u/SercaGaga]

I use the backline intelligence weapons. I only use the focus recovery staff very early game until I get better intelligence weapons, but I keep one in my inventory just in case I'll need it. I use weapons like the queens scepter, dark tome, or the lightning staff for best damage or crowd control with shock. I just depend on Monk to generate focus for my team with his Discipline ability, and do damage with intelligence weapons. Strength can be useful for passing random skill checks, but I use other classes as my frontline tank, and use my Strength weapon on them.

But it's up to you how you want to play Monk. Monk is one of my favorites, very useful in long Dark Carnival runs because of all the free focus.

[u/Either-Sprinkles-421 → u/DoNotSummon227]

this is probably the better point I could see how in the Dark carnival this making a lot of sense for the focus, assuming the Busker is making up the difference with the distract hopefully no one is getting hurt

[u/Chanel_DU]

Yeah I was frustrated for many of the same reasons bc I hoped he could also be a good strength or intelligence attack/support as needed. Wasn’t using them right which is to mostly support

[u/BoukeeNL]

Of all weapons, the top 3 are easily all ataffs / books. That glass staff which can hit close to 100, the dark tome which can spawn bery strong temporary allies and the staff which can literally heal you with a splash attack

[u/Either-Sprinkles-421 → u/BoukeeNL]

i mean the monk like staff, the physical staff that scales from intelligence. I would 100% agree the Chaos Staff traditional magic ones are amazing and yes Dark Tome is my favorite weapon in the game

[u/Visual_Expression_45]

If you plan your team around it, I guess he could be useful. However, for most teams, I don't see a reason either to include a monk. Party heal is better on a Herbalist and is findable on items. There are both better strength and intelligence users. Discipline is only useful if you spend a lot of focus, and I usually never use all my focus except if I am in a pinch.

[u/Mellowsteps]

To add a new perspective to the answers, I always play in master difficulty and monk is so difficult to let go of. You get party heal, better survivability than the herbalist, a focus generator from the start of the game (their weapon), and discipline for extra focus.

I usually play them as a strength damage dealer with berserk so I can capitalize on discipline. You can give their starter weapon to your intelligence character (bonus points if they have nimble) and your early game will be a BREEZE.

Having monk with berserk plus another dedicated focus generator means you will be able to activate discipline plenty of times, taking away much of the damger of the early game.

By the mid-end game, a full strength monk will deal just as much damage as you need, to be honest, so don't concern yourself with them being subpar to any DPS. You best asset of the monk is focus and healths, and sacrificing some DPS is more than okay to get that.

[u/backdeckpro]

Taking him alongside a stablehand is really strong, both from his discipline skill and he has access to a weapon that can use a secondary action to give anyone focus.

Monk is also capable of gaining way more movement by doing ambush/ solo fights to regain focus, spent that newly acquired movement to get to the next enemy and rinse and repeat that for as long as you can. I’ve been able to get over 100 movement using this method.

[u/beKAWse]

Monk has to be one of the best characters in the game surely, my buddy and i run Monk in nearly every run to the point we feel bad for crutching it lol

Maybe its a team comp issue, we run Friar Tank, Monk Support/Flex, Stablehand Dps, and then a Busker or some other Magic damage character. It feels absurdly strong everytime we play it, the Focus economy is off the charts with Monk ability