Monk strange early levelphase 1-14

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himenoinu#2580 wrote:

the game really doesn't like to let you use travel skills in the direction your mouse pointer is, sometimes not even if there is no enemy nearby

Other stuff aside, pretty sure this is by design. It's a dash-attack skill. Why should the dash-attack let you dash when there's nothing to attack? I'm pretty sure any other time it 'fails' when there's an actual target it's either out of range or terrain blocking the dash.

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himenoinu#2580 wrote:

Monk's specializations are horrendous. Chayula is just interesting, but very bad, as monk gets no special chaos based attack skill for the staff. Invoker is like a dumbed down version of the Sorc's ascendancy..

Invoker looks like the D3 Monk. Been there, done that. I'm playing Chalupa atm and I agree. Chaosmonk is an interesting premise but the EA game simply lacks actual support for the class (for now).

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LeFlesh#9979 wrote:

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himenoinu#2580 wrote:

the game really doesn't like to let you use travel skills in the direction your mouse pointer is, sometimes not even if there is no enemy nearby

Other stuff aside, pretty sure this is by design. It's a dash-attack skill. Why should the dash-attack let you dash when there's nothing to attack? I'm pretty sure any other time it 'fails' when there's an actual target it's either out of range or terrain blocking the dash.

Let me expand on that:
Trying to target a monster away from you will sometimes (often, actually) fail, if there's one in your melee range. The game will just aim-assist you in attacking the nearest target instead of the one your mouse is over.

But if you cleared those monsters and you want to gap-close to a distant one with a palm attack, your monkey will sometimes just stand in place extending his arm into the air where the last now-vanquished target used to be. And that regardless of the position of the mouse pointer. Ultimately, if we have aim-assist forced down on us, it should at least work, no? What's the point otherwise? It auto-corrects your choices worse than the keyboard input method on the phone. Monster close? We'll attack that, even if we aim at the ranged grenades chugger in the back, in a straight line.

And yeah, quite often, the monsters' dash attacks will just roll to their end spot, not through you, but with you. If we dash attack... well, we just don't when there's another monster on the path. Inconsistent, I'd say. Push said monster and perform the action. Or, if not, then make it a blink, give the character a size of 1 and have the monk ignore the larger obstacles - like a monster or a jug...

AH I see what you're talking about. I use all of the unarmed strikes in my build and while I agree its sometimes clunky (there's a monster directly infront of you and you're trying to palm a more distant one), I chalked it up to the game thinking you were bodyblocked by the nearby mob. The +50% Unarmed Dash Distance notable was a nice QOL improvement. I just wish I could spare the points to keep it. Maybe that version grants more leeway?

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LeFlesh#9979 wrote:

AH I see what you're talking about. I use all of the unarmed strikes in my build and while I agree its sometimes clunky (there's a monster directly infront of you and you're trying to palm a more distant one), I chalked it up to the game thinking you were bodyblocked by the nearby mob. The +50% Unarmed Dash Distance notable was a nice QOL improvement. I just wish I could spare the points to keep it. Maybe that version grants more leeway?

The clunkiness stems from the aim-assist. Not once have I noticed my sorc using the Ice Strike on a mob nearby while I clearly had my mouse away from it and not in a line. And that issue is not quarterstaff-specific.

Back on topic, hand attacks would be amazing if they would be paired with a strong unarmed auto-attack or skill. Or at least fun, but as it is, I don't see myself punching the madness out of Geonor anytime soon.

I also agree that building power charges early on is a bad alternative to smacking monsters over the head with the stick. Mostly because of the removal of the passive effects of the charges. I tried that playstyle and it's not fun, nor efficient. Having 3 charges stacked, for the eventuality that a boss or a pack of magic monsters will get in your way and you'll get to unleash a nice zapping skill (provided there are no jugs on the floor to thwart that effort) is meh. More so considering that the old mechanic of how a cone attack spreads based on the position of your mouse is also gone. It was often that I used the Falling Thunder on a group of 3 or more monsters and 2 of them were just fine, hitting me from between the electricity zigzags on the floor. The skill would also need maybe a very small 180 degrees aoe in front of you when used with power charges, just so you don't get to hit only 1 monster out of the pack that had you cornered somewhere in the room.

Lastly, Vaulting Strike should be able to vault over furniture or when there are small differences in elevation, imo.

One thing that's confused me about Unarmed attacks is the "AoE" tag. No details are given about the base radius I'm having a hard time gauging whether +Area Effect is really working. I use Hand of Chayula and I've successfully cursed two mobs at once but its almost always done by accident when they are standing on top of each other as the hit connects. Verbage on the passives "Flurry" & "Unarmed Area" is nebulous too: "X% increased Area of Effect While Unarmed". Do the palm skills get that benefit at all if I'm using a quarterstaff? Even though the strikes say they are unarmed strikes, my character itself isn't Unarmed. I'm hoping that gets clarified soon.

Quarterstaff does feel a bit clunky early, same as the mace, though quarterstaff at least outgrows it, mostly.

Culling Palm is also garbage because it is so single target. My warrior lands a heavy stun with his mace and tons of stuff goes boom. But with a quarterstaff? I cull one mob, even if a bunch are primed. So why bother, when I can Vaulting Impact and take out a bunch of mobs?

I think the ability to generate charges for the Heralds also need to be looked at. As you said, Staggering Palm is bad, and therefore, the typical monk thing to do is to use that evil strike to apply a hunter's mark, and a node to convert that mark to something useful.

Vaulting Impact I disagree with being bad, though. I quite enjoy that one.

Quarterstaff also needs work on the latter half. Specifically, it needs some physical attacks later. Past a certain point, everything is cold, lightning, or chaos. Which sucks.

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LeFlesh#9979 wrote:

Staggering Palm gets more fun once its buff duration increases and you give it the support gem to Fully Armor-Break enemies it Heavy Stuns. It's projectiles inherit that property as well, so you can fully break a whole room with enough Physical Damage/Stun Buildup.

Sadly all enemies are already dead at this time.^^
Please don't get me wrong I enjoyed Staggering Palm during bossfights or vs stronger Rares while leveling but I'm unable to utilize it right now, because everything dies before I'm barely able to utilize it's effect.

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himenoinu#2580 wrote:

Monk's specializations are horrendous. Chayula is just interesting, but very bad, as monk gets no special chaos based attack skill for the staff. Invoker is like a dumbed down version of the Sorc's ascendancy... making her a better monk at every turn.

I think chayula could work well with daggers and maybe poison. Sadly we're unable to test it right now, but yeah it seems a bit lacking compared to Invoker which could use a small output buff while it's defense is pretty solid IMO.

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Axterix13#5693 wrote:

Culling Palm is also garbage because it is so single target.

I've culled multiple mobs at once with it. The Palms have an AOE but it must be very tiny and the details don't disclose anything. I'm also not sure that +AoE effects are properly implemented on them.

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LeFlesh#9979 wrote:

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Axterix13#5693 wrote:

Culling Palm is also garbage because it is so single target.

I've culled multiple mobs at once with it. The Palms have an AOE but it must be very tiny and the details don't disclose anything. I'm also not sure that +AoE effects are properly implemented on them.

That's part of what annoys me. If I recall correctly, the ability even says it is AoE. But it pretty much isn't.