Vensa the Monk Hunter
18 September 2017 at 7:24am
Name: Vensa the Monk Hunter*
Path: Warrior
Career: Monk
Stats: 15 sp 15 br 2 mag 11 arm 55 health
* Not monk hunter as in someone who hunts monks, which is awful.**
** Unless it's something like the Monks of the Scarlet Mantis from the Way of the Tiger series, then it's fine. But no, it's a monk who helps hunt an intelligent species like the Tigris for sport. Um, which is still pretty awful.
Head: Sentry Shoulders (2sp 2arm) Heavy Blow
Cloak: Puritan's Peak (2sp 2arm) Charm, Heal
Gloves: Leather Long Arms (1sp 2br) Sure Grip, Charm*, Silver Frost*, Fear*
Chest: Krakka's Casing (2sp 4arm) Thorn Armour
Feet: Frost Spike Boots (2sp 2arm) Barbs
Main hand: Burnished Knuckles (fist weapon) (2sp 2br) Fatal Blow
Left hand: Calcite Claw (fist weapon) (2sp 4br 1arm*) Piercing, Vanish*
Talisman: Blood Soul (1sp 1br) Weaver
Necklace: Soldering Iron (1sp 1br) Dominate
Ring: Ironbeard Band (2br) Counter
Ring: Harvest (3br* 2mag) Regrowth, Heal*, Iron Will*
*added by rune or glyph, assumed only one Glyph of the Titan was for sale
Career Abilities: Focused Strike, Meditation
Other Playable Abilities: Prophecy, Demon Claws, Demon Spines
Notes
This is the first hero I've posted. I thought about doing others where I researched the available equipment, saw where to get it, then min/maxed my way through the adventure. I could write an entire treatise on two different types of Book 1 berserkers, with or without armour. This time, I played through the whole adventure once, without starting over somewhere because I couldn't get a certain item. I even lugged a bronze urn from the Terral Jungle to Tartarus and fought a deadly Phoenix to get his damned feather, then picked a better fist weapon over the Energized Crystal because I thought I could buy that particular crafting reagent from Mister G.H. Claypole, only to find that he sold the Golem Core instead. So no awesomely-named Fade, Splinter of Shadow for me. I couldn't even craft a magnificent sword or dagger for myself, because what's a monk without Focused Strike? Valeron problems, amirite?
Like some other DQ players, I also thought Sure Grip was too powerful. But it did help me overcome a fear I've always had: having 1-2 points less speed than my opponent. I wasn't as afraid with Sure Grip. I even sported a Chest item with no speed for a while, enjoying the powerful +4 brawn/+3 armour/Barbs combo instead. Eventually, I ended up with my usual high speed of 15, making Sure Grip overpowered again, unless it was blocked by my Elysium Soaked body.
With high Speed and Armour, Brawn ended up with the short shrift. Near the end I faced an opponent with 16 armour, and ran the risk of doing no damage. But even if foes could counter my Piercing, they couldn't withstand my Focused Strike, the half-Piercing Fatal Blow, or the "roll one extra die for damage, guaranteed to be a 1 that you won't want to risk your Charm on, plus you've already used Dominate" ability of Heavy Blow. Plus Barbs got through a lot of defenses. And Demon Claws shredded opponents 1 out of every 6 rounds.
It was possible for me to heal 34 points of damage plus 1/round, with Heal x 2, Regrowth, Weaver + 10 Combat abilities, and Meditation. I could also essentially avoid three rounds of attacks with Prophecy, Vanish, and a combo of Thorn Armour/Iron Will/Fear giving me an effective Armour of 19. Even when hit, tag opponents with 1 die damage with Demon Spines, Counter, and Thorn Armour (that one's all opponents).
By the way, what's great about the monk is he has low-speed-but-still-nice weapons on him, that let him use his deadliest ability. I don't think I've met a DQ opponent with the ability to disarm you, but I would have been ready for it.
R.I.P. beloved abilities
First, Monkey Mob is just fun. Poison and Disease are nice, but you can get the same damage and the image of a bunch of monkeys coming out of nowhere to pelt your opponent with stones. It's also an amazing ability to have when you fight Issakhar, He of the Health of 450. Also, I used the monkey mob in an ancient dwarven city that had been sealed for two thousand years. How did I do this? Either 1) all the monkeys followed Avian, Virgil and I through the door, or 2), and more likely, they were the spirits of monkeys that Barahar had slain while stalking Lamuris in the jungle, because the monkeys annoyed him, and it was a mob of monkey spirits summoned by Hanuman's Hair.
I kept a Talisman with Disrupt around just for the team battle with Krakatoa, and was I glad I did. We'd both get 5 points of damage from his Magic each round. But I'd hit him with Disrupt, my ally hit him with Corruption and chose Magic, reducing him to 0 magic/damage. We could even take our time, toy with him a bit. We didn't even need our healing abilities, and my ally was a friggin' Medic! Contrast that with my previous experience fighting Krakatoa with rogues, and no Disrupt. We'd have to do about 20-25 points of damage per round to kill him before his magic killed us, then take the same health and used abilities to a battle against elementals that could reduce our speed and had the Lightning ability. Brutal. Give me the 450-health Drake who had Bleed and Poison and why not just add Disease while you're at it, instead.
