So how much can Monkey King Bar hurt? [theorycrafting]

I really love this item. I really, really do.



Why? Well, it may have crap base damage, but it turns all STR nodes into "+12% physical damage" and that is good because it opens up many possibilities for builds, as trekking through small STR nodes is not bad anymore.

So let's have some theorycraft and see how hard can it hit, shall we?

So what does this item have that Marohi doesn't? Well, it drastically improves damage from sources of base PD you have laying around your gear. As far as I know this includes:

2x Annealed Iron Rings = 20-32
1x Flaring amulet = 15-26 (apparently this helps more than astramentis)
1x Meginord's Girdle = 10-20
1x Gleaming Gloves = 7-12

Not precisely optimal, but I guess we could count 5-12 from Foxshade? (I will not).

So if you add the 5 sources I listed before to a 20% quality Pillar, you get the following base damage:

76.8 - 130.4

Now let's say you have 5 perfect "of the titan" items for a total of 250 str. This is unlikely, but I'm also compensating for the fact you probably have more items with str than just 5. Add that to the 60 of your Meginord and it makes 310.

Now here is a build I put together, Monkey King Duelist V2. It's not ideal but gets 500 STR which is quite good enough. With the former, we get to 810 strength.

1 str equals 1.2% increased damage with this weapon, so we're sporting a 972% increase. Of course, there are also nodes with IPD that we took, which add up to 1075. Apply that to your base damage and we're getting into the high numbers:

Autoattack damage:

825 - 1397.2

Looks reasonable. However, we haven't got to IAS yet. We have 122 DEX with that build, and let's assume (again a bit of a stretch but hey, theory!) we also have 200 dex from gear. This stacks up to 322 dex (rounding to 300 means a 30% IAS). Together with another 30 from nodes... We would be looking at 2 APS or, in other words:

2222.2 autoattack DPS.

Now, I don't use Marohi or other big hitters so how much is that? It looks reasonable to me. We could try Astramentis (although I have the feeling that a high phys damage amulet would stack much better) but this appears to be rather competitive DPS.

So, is this buildable? What do you think?

Does the weapon attack damage bonus apply to physical damage from other items? If not, perhaps something like The Magnate might be better, as well as Deshret's Vise.

This item would have a very tough time matching Marohi in terms of straight up damage, especially when comparing it at it's best case scenario (leap slam).

Perhaps the high base critical chance can be used for a sort of physical crit staff build. There's certainly enough nodes around the templar area to make it work. Just need to get enough strength.

Since when does dex give you IAS?

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gilrad wrote:

Does the weapon attack damage bonus apply to physical damage from other items? If not, perhaps something like The Magnate might be better, as well as Deshret's Vise.

Unfortunately no, as far as I know it's additive with those. This is why max priority in this build would be BASE physical damage, with mods like those I listed, and strictly Meginord as a belt (similar to how Facebreaker builds work).

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Lunares wrote:

Since when does dex give you IAS?

Read the staff again, man =P

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Falcord wrote:

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gilrad wrote:

Does the weapon attack damage bonus apply to physical damage from other items? If not, perhaps something like The Magnate might be better, as well as Deshret's Vise.

Unfortunately no, as far as I know it's additive with those. This is why max priority in this build would be BASE physical damage, with mods like those I listed, and strictly Meginord as a belt (similar to how Facebreaker builds work).

That's what I meant to ask. e.g. the 10-20 damage from Meginords, does it add to your weapon's damage and then get multiplied by the weapon's str ability, then get multiplied by increased damage effects? Or does your weapon's base damage get multiplied, then Meginords gets added, then multiplied by increased effects?

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gilrad wrote:

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Falcord wrote:

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gilrad wrote:

Does the weapon attack damage bonus apply to physical damage from other items? If not, perhaps something like The Magnate might be better, as well as Deshret's Vise.

Unfortunately no, as far as I know it's additive with those. This is why max priority in this build would be BASE physical damage, with mods like those I listed, and strictly Meginord as a belt (similar to how Facebreaker builds work).

That's what I meant to ask. e.g. the 10-20 damage from Meginords, does it add to your weapon's damage and then get multiplied by the weapon's str ability, then get multiplied by increased damage effects? Or does your weapon's base damage get multiplied, then Meginords gets added, then multiplied by increased effects?

Your first option (the good one).

Meginord's gets added to the weapon base damage and then multiplied by the IPD. Otherwise the staff would suck beyond redemption. The staff bonus is global as far as I know. I get this from the fact it's worded "increased physical WEAPON damage", unlike all other uniques with local weapon damage bonuses with are worded "increased physical damage". I might be terribly wrong though.

It wouldn't hurt for somebody to test it!

I think the other key thing to note is that the HP from STR applies to your base HP. So not only do you get all that damage you also get HP, stacking DEX as well improves accuracy and evasion. I plan on making a build with this targeting all the fitness nodes.

Possibly even on witch using the mana side of her tree.

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Worldbreaker wrote:

I think the other key thing to note is that the HP from STR applies to your base HP. So not only do you get all that damage you also get HP, stacking DEX as well improves accuracy and evasion. I plan on making a build with this targeting all the fitness nodes.

Possibly even on witch using the mana side of her tree.

I wouldn't worry about getting a lot of mana. High level gems give you IPD, and since IPD is additive with the humongous bonuses from the staff, it pays off to use all your gems at level 1.

This staff certainly looks interesting. If i had it i would probably build a crit-based sweep + leapslam char with crit nodes (especially serpentine stance) to amplify the low base damage. Melee damage on full life is a definite must to multiply the damage. Meginord's, Astra, Carcass Jack, Fending nodes, blast radius, amplify, knockback support gem and full screen knockback sweep ftw!