Basic Monk Strategy

So, you're a monk, what does this mean in terms of combat situations? Well first and foremost you should realise that every class in Achaea has very different skills though ocassionally some classes share some skillsets. Because of the variety of skills involved, the tactics applied in combat situations varies considerably.

Monks are not an affliction based class, and in that I mean they don't rely on giving people afflictions in order to get them into a position where they will either die from being overwhelmed or from some form of insta-kill. Monks rely on primarily on damage and breaks.

I know that most of you may only have Tekura and are working on Kaido and Telepathy so this lesson will focus on Tekura primarily whereas future lessons will work in Kaido and Telepathy into fight tactics.

Tekura
Contrary to popular belief, you don't _need_ kaido and telepathy to win a fight if you use a lot of strategy and cunning. This being said, the stronger your opponent, the more skill you will need to use and telepathy and kaido is a must when fighting top rated combatants simply from the point of view that they can take considerably more damage and have better healing systems and skills.

Essentially the Tekura skillset consists of four main elements:
 * Punches/Kicks
 * Blocks
 * Throws
 * Stances

Stances
We will address stances to begin with as they are an important key in monk strategy. Stances are required when you initiate an attack on your opponent and are lost whenever you move or are forcibly moved. This is also true of situations whereby you may not _actually_ move because of loss of balance but have either attempted to move or someone has attempted to move you via their skills. It is important to always re-stance if you lose stance. The following stances are available in the Tekura skillset:
 * Horse (HRS) - The horse stance is the first skill in the Tekura skillset and is an all round stance that improves speed marginally and damage a medium amount. When I speak of speed, I mean the time required to recover balance after a combo.
 * Eagle (EGS) - This is probably the best stance for those that don't have Scorpion or Dragon stance as it delivers considerably more speed. Though the damage isn't as high as a lot of other stances, the extra speed is a definate bonus.
 * Cat (CTS) - The cat stance delivers far less damage and a decrease in speed, however you take considerably less damage. Unfortunately I don't suggest using this stance unless you really are trying just to defend yourself and don't have Dragon stance.
 * Bear (BRS) - The bear stance is rather slow but delivers improved punching power. It also reduces damage taken by a small amount.
 * Rat (RTS) - Rat stance is another general purpose stance providing both speed and reduced damage taken. On the downside, your opponent won't take as much damage as in other stances (except for CTS)
 * Scorpion (SCS) - The most widely used stance for monks, the Scorpion stance offers vastly increased speed and damage and a balanced amount of defence. This is the preferred choice of stance in combat situations.
 * Dragon (DRS) - The Transcendant skill in the Tekura skillset, the Dragon stance is not as fast as the Scorpion stance but vastly improves defence capability (resists damage) and offers slightly improved damage to your opponent over the Scorpion stance. The main advantage of DRS and indeed all defensive stances is the improved chance of your blocks working in regard to your opponent. In addition, DRS allows you to recover equilibrium marginally faster which is very useful when focusing on telepathy based attacks. You should also note that the defensive capability of Dragon stance is useful against classes that do a lot of damage such as knights. Slow doesn't necessarily mean bad as I will discuss later on in a future lesson.

Blocks
Blocks have a variety of uses from reducing damage to causing your opponent to trip onto the ground. Bear in mind however that blocks use a considerable amount of mana which is why it is always useful to have a strong supply of mana vials and a moon tattoo. The following Blocks are available in Tekura:
 * BobyBlock (BDB) - The bobyblock stance is under-rated, usually because monks can only afford one block and BDB isn't always the best choice. However it significantly reduces damage to your person from BLUNT based damage attacks such as monk combos.
 * Evade (EVB) - This is a frequently used block as it essentially works in conjunction with avoidance and dexterity to "avoid" attacks such as monk combos, knight double slashes, snake dstabs etc etc.
 * Trip (TRB) - Another frequently used block, but mainly for knights. The trip block will occasionally trip your opponent to the floor if they attempt to hit you with a DSL or a combo. It should be noted that it is usually bad etiquette to use TRB against a fellow monk especially in arena.
 * Pinch (PNB) - Very very rarely used as it drains a lot of mana and isn't very useful. The pinch block will stun your opponent if they hit you at around a 1/4 of their health left. Its not really worth using but you might want to experiment and find out something that the rest of us don't.

The above are all the blocks available in Tekura and I will repeat what I said earlier about Dragon stance(especially) being able to increase the effectiveness of blocks.

Punches/Kicks
I'll now move onto the most important part of the Tekura skillset-- Kicks/Punches (Combos). This is the veritable key to Monk combat. They are a mixture of kicks and punches available in the monk skillset that can be combined in a variety of ways to form combos so long as they take the format of Kick, Punch, Punch. You should note that a kick or a punch can target either the right or the left leg depending on the syntax you specify. One should note that the degree of damage for combos is as follows:

Limb < Torso < Head

You should create macros in your client for each of the most important combos as follows:

EXAMPLE SUBJECT: Toblin

Leg Combos
These combos use the leg targetted kick snapkick(snk) and the leg targetted punch hammerfist(hfp) twice in order to create a leg targetted combo. EG-

---Left Leg---

snk Toblin left hfp Toblin left hfp Toblin left

---Right Leg---

snk Toblin right hfp Toblin right hfp Toblin right

Arm Combos
These combos use the arm targetted kick moonkick(mnk) and the arm targetted punch sprearpunch(spp) twice in order to create an arm targetted combo. EG-

---Left Arm---

mnk Toblin left spp Toblin left spp Toblin left

---Right Arm---

msn Toblin right spp Toblin right spp Toblin right

Torso Combo
The torso combo is a very strong combo that when issued twice in a row will cause your opponent to bleed a lot more until they restore their torso using a restoration salve. The torso combo uses the torso targetted kick sidekick (sdk) and the torso targetted punch Hook (hpk) as follows:

sdk Toblin hkp Toblin hkk Toblin

Head Combo
The strongest combo of all, the head combo delivers the most damage. There are two different kicks associated with the head combo. The first is Whirlwind (WWK) which delivers more damage than a torso or limb kick and has roughly the same balance delay time. The second is Axekick (AXK) which delivers slightly more damage than WWK but gives your opponent instant stupidity but on the downside knocks you off balance for almost twice as long as a regular combo (this can be unwise if your opponent has tricks up his/her sleeve). The head combos go as follows:

---AXK Combo---

AXK Toblin ucp Toblin ucp Toblin

---WWK Combo---

WWK Toblin ucp Toblin ucp Toblin

Finally you should note that these are the standard combos and if you want to add some spice you can mix combos to get around parrying/shielding etc and set up multiple breaks (will be discussed very soon)

Throws
The problem with a lot of monk fighters is that when they Trans Tekura, they only ever use BBT when their opponent is prone (on the ground). This is because BBT does a lot of damage (far more than a combo, with the exception of AXK combo perhaps), and is usually used as a "finishing" move to kill your opponent, though not always. The following throws are available in the Tekura skillset:
 * Slam (SLT) - This can be used by those that don't have BBT yet as it does basically the same thing but doesn't cause your opponent as much damage.
 * Wrench (WRT) - This is the most underrated throw as most people opt for BBT. Wrench essentially has a duel purpose. Firstly it causes your opponent damage, but not as much as BBT. Secondly it will break one of your opponents limbs, though not entirely. It is useful in situations where you are trying to get a lot of breaks on your opponent or they can't heal breaks very well.
 * Backbreaker (BBT) - The most reknowned throw and one of the most critical skills to Monks. The backbreaker throw does ALOT of damage but like all throws can only be used when your opponent is on the ground. A more widely used substitute of BBT these days is the AXK combo which does almost the same amount of damage and gives your opponent instant stupidity aswell.

Breaks
Moving on to THE most fundamental strategy in monk combat..the ability to break your opponents limbs. Some classes are based on damage, some on afflictions, some on insta-kills, but monks rely on breaks to keep their opponents in a prone position (either broken arms so they can't hit you or broken legs so they can't stand and can be thrown)

Firstly, please read HELP BODYPARTDAMAGE for an overview of the different types of breaks that can be caused to an opponent.

To avoid confusion, State 0 is when a limb is crippled and requires just one mending appliction to cure.

State 1 is when you need to apply restoration before applying mending and State 2 is when you need to apply restoration twice before applying mending.

So what does this all have to do with monks? Well, if you successfully achieve two combos in a row on your opponent that particular limb will reach State 1 and will be out of action until they fully heal it. If you should get four straight combos in a limb without them healing it, it will reach State 2 but this is unlikely if they have a decent curing system.

Breaks affect people in a multidude of ways. For example, if your opponent relies on the use of their arms in order to make their attacks such as knights or monks, putting an arm temporarily out of action will limit their damage capacity. If two arms are broken they can't even shield our take herbs out of their rift. The same goes for legs aswell. Should you break their leg or even both their legs, and manage to get them onto the ground either via sweepkick or jumpkick, they will be in a position where you can use your throws. If they are on the ground they can't shield either and a lot of their skills are either temporarily unavailable or very limited.

All this being said, the same rules don't apply to every class. For example, if you were to break both legs on a priest, they can shield on the ground because of their angel, so targetting their legs all the time isn't the best of plans. The key is variety, never let your opponent get into a position where they can learn your patterns of movement and adapt to outsmart you. Vary your combat patterns and if one particular one isn't working, switch to another, don't waste time going over the same ground.

Let me now give you an example:


 * 1) I throw two leg combos in a row at Toblin.
 * 2) Toblin begins to cure his damaged leg (State 1)
 * 3) I sweepkick Toblin onto the ground where he is now prone.

If your opponent is unable to fight back or is in a position where they too busy curing to fight back, then you are in a superior position. Combat for monks is generally about keeping up an offensive at all times and spending only a minimal amount of time maintaining a strong defence. This isn't to say defence isn't important, and on some classes such as knights, you may need to focus more on defence just to stay alive.

There are four very important points you should note about breaks:

 


 * 1) You must always apply restoration to a specific limb type, e.g apply restoration to legs. It won't work otherwise.
 * 2) It takes 4 seconds to recover salve balance when using restoration and only 2 seconds when using mending.
 * 3) It takes 9 punches or 4 kicks to break a limb. (Combo wise: 2 kicks and 3 punches in a row to break)
 * 4) So long as you don't break a limb, you can get close to breaking a series of limbs before laying the final cracks on them. This is particularly useful because you could for example hammer left leg once, then right leg, then left arm, then right arm. This leaves only one combo on each limb required to achieve a break. If you really want to get crafty, you can mix combos to make limb breaks follow in an even faster succession.

Parry and Guarding
There is one final point you should note about Monk combos and that is in regard to Parrying and Guarding. Anyone with parrying in weaponry can use a weapon to 'parry' a particular limb so long as they are wielding a weapon. Parrying will prevent a monk combo from hitting, the kick and two follow up punches will not cause any damage and won't count towards a break. It is not always possible for all classes to use guarding as some cannot wield weapons and use their most important skills at the same time (like monks for example). Some people trigger parry and can occasionally (more randomly) switch parrying to a limb you are attacking and will therefore parry the two follow up punches after a kick. Essentially, most people with parry will begin by parrying head because the most damage is done there. If you target their arms in an attempt to disable them from using their double slash, they will parry their arms. Likewise if you target the legs alot they are likely to parry their legs.

People use parrying very differently, but most follow that sort of pattern. There are five types of parriers:


 * 1) Those that will parry a limb you just combo'd
 * 2) Those that will parry the opposite limb you just combo'd ie, you hit right leg, they parry left leg to prevent a double break.
 * 3) Those that ONLY parry one bodypart the entire time, usually the head
 * 4) Those that attempt to parry the limb you are attacking AS you attack it.
 * 5) Those that switch parry around randomly.

The key here is to work out what type of parrying they are using and outsmart them by dancing around it. Test them out, see how they react before going in for a major offensive. Eg. Typically, if they take parry away from the head to parry a limb, go straight for the head for maximum damage. Hit their head again to see if they auto parry their head if you hit it. If not, keep hitting it. If they do, remember only to hit their head once if they unparry it then go back to another limb and repeat the process.

Guarding is slightly different and rather more powerful. It follows the same principle however whereby you can guard a certain limb whether that be arms, legs, torso or head. If someone targets a limb that is guarded they will automatically be thrown to the floor. This gives you the oppurtunity to use throws or break more limbs whilst they are prone.