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The Book of Syncletica: A DDO Monk Guide

Naraka: The Epic Elite Adventure

na•ra•ka

One of many otherworldly realms

where the greatest suffering

can be found.

Notes from the Old Master:Prayers for a Young Master

I have never seen my former student, Syncletica, in such terrible shape.

She had returned from the inner caverns of world of Faerun, the place known as the Underdark. A Rogue and Barbarian, members of her surviving party, brought her, unconscious, to my healing attention. Syncletica's rescuers looked very weary as well and I offered them some balms while they waited for me to treat their friend.

My student suffered terrible cranial and flesh injuries that took my monastery cleric several hours to rectify. Once, Syncletica woke briefly with moans and a small cry. Before the cleric offered to give her a sedative to sleep more while she healed, I asked her, "What happened?"

Syncletica's answer was simple. "I wasn't fast enough," she said before returning to unconsciousness.

I don't like to react emotionally, you see. It's rude. It shows that you are not thinking before acting. But I must've been visibly shaken since my cleric tacitly asked if I cared for some of her relaxing teas.

I had every right to be shocked. My former student, who I can say was the fastest of all my students, and certainly accomplished in her own right, was not fast enough in that battle. A highly experienced and prepared Grandmaster of Wind was not fast enough.

I looked over at her Rogue and Barbarian friends. They, too, were nursing nasty wounds and welcomed my cleric's healing spells and potions.

If speed, brawn or cunning was not sufficient to survive in the deadliest parts of the Underdark, what would be enough?

All of your training and equipment and knowledge, even your very life, can be cast down like so many wilted flower petals against the might you will encounter in the most difficult adventures.

With Update 14, the original "Epic" difficulty was expanded to four new levels: Epic Casual, Epic Normal, Epic Hard, and Epic Elite. Update 29 introduced the Legendary difficulty level and character level 30, designed to challenge even the strongest adventurer.

An Epic Elite adventure will pit you against enemies where even the lowliest in the hoardes may have a Character Level of 45 or more. Your Armor Class rating must be high.

Fortification 100 is not enough to withstand critical hits so potent it may kill you in one blow. Sneak attacks are equally deadly.

The enemies have thousands of hit points and strike at you with blows of 100 to 300 points per strike. Enemy mages wield ordinary spells such as Fear that can immobilize the Epic player.

Epic Elite and any Legendary-level battles are places of great suffering for those who do not unlearn what they have learned, for a time at least.

By design, most Epic Elite quests are NOT designed for solo play. You have been warned.

There are a handful of exceptions where it is possible to complete a quest without a substantial party. "The Claw of Vulkoor" does not require combat except at the very start. As such, a very sneaky Monk could complete this stealth-happy quest with substantial reward.

The Monk's Protections and Epic Elite

As a Monk, some of the traditional physical protections that you've enjoyed in lesser adventures will not aid you, but there are still many options you can try.

Armor Class: As with other classes, your AC rating must be very high for Epic Elite and Legendary. There is a strong likelihood that any AC less than 110 will not mitigate any damage in Epic Elite. Further, any Monk training and gear that reaches such a high AC likely has compromises in damage, saves, and other important aspects with one important variation: The Shintao Monk in Earth Stance with Combat Expertise can easily gain 110 AC, more with the right gear. Strive to make this number as high as you are able without compromising other numbers as noted below.

Physical Resistance Rating: This protection is primarily available through heavy armor, shields and Epic Destinies for Fighters, Paladins and other melee classes without evasive abilities. But recent updates and their gear provide very high "Sheltering" Enhancement bonuses to PRR. Earth Stancers gain natural PRR bonuses. Other Epic Destinies and items to add to your PRR may add a significant amount that may make a difference with AC, Dodge, Concealment and Incorporeal effects in combination. It is not impossible at all for miss-chance builds (Ninja Spy, Zen Archer) to gain a 65+ PRR, and for tanker builds to have 100+ PRR by level 30 with the right gear, feats, destinies and stances.

Dodge: A maximized Dodge can still help avoid an attack with good Reflex saves. Grandmaster of Flowers training gives Dodge bonuses, and in crunch times, A Scattering of Petals maximizes your Dodge for a brief time. Users of Ocean Stance and/or Dodge, Mobility, and Spring Attack feats will have the greatest innate Dodge bonus. A Shadowdancer student can activate Meld Into Darkness for a 100% Dodge bonus for up to 15 seconds--perfect to pick up party soulstones and escape when a quest has gone completely pear-shaped. Legendary Dreadnought's epic moment, Master's Blitz, gives you a 50% Dodge bonus while in that berzerker state. Dodge bonuses generally stack unless of the same percentage or type from items. Legendary Feats can add +4 Dodge and to Dodge cap. The Ninja Spy can gain the highest standing Dodge, at 34% (with Guild buff) of all Monks.

Evasion: Provided you have strong Reflex saves, as with Dodge, it may help avoid damage from spell casters and traps. You have Improved Evasion as a pure Monk, or Evasion if a multiclassed Monk with at least 2 levels of training. Strive for a Reflex of 60 or better. A Reflex of 70 or higher may save your life against the "Boom" electrical bomb in "The Fall of Truth" raid or the end-boss barrage area attack in "Defiler of the Just."

Concealment (Blur): Still effective to miss an attack swipe. Finding an item with 10% concealment isn't difficult. Using Dancing With Clouds as a Light Monk for 20% for 1 minute is easier. If you can craft or gain the ability for Displacement (50% concealment), great. Mind you, Epic Elite foes may have True Seeing effects that ignore concealment. Shadowdancer's Improved Invisibility lets you attack while invisible for up to 30 seconds and gives Displacement for up to 90 seconds after the invisibility wears off. Concealment effects cannot stack; only the highest percentage applies: A Dusk Heart will not stack with a Bard's Blur spell. The Greater Nimble Trinket from the Treasure of Crystal Cove event gives a persisting 20% concealment. Elven Dragonmarks give Displacement and can be amplified in duration using Harper Agent's Magic of Patience. Lesser Displacement (25%) items also exist.

Incorporeality: Also helpful. The "Ghostly" version is common and gives 10% on several Heroic items and Epic items. Monks trained in one of the highest Shadowdancer skills, Shadow Form, can gain permanent 25% incorporeality. All Monks can train Shadow Veil from the Ninja Spy tree for 1 minute of invisibility and 25% incorporeality. Items such as the Festival of Endless Night's Level 16 Cloak of Night and an Epic Ring of the Stalker may be able to grant you some of this ability. Only the highest percentage of two or more items is in effect. Shintao Monks can consider a Cloak of Night or the epic Treads of Falling Shadow for 10% incorporeality (30% Striding, Ghostly) without compromising commonly used gear.

Be Prepared

Hit Points: At least 600 points may give you a chance to survive two serious hits in such an adventure. More is obviously preferable. To survive in the front lines, you may need to look into more CON using other Epic Destinies other than Grandmaster of Flowers. Tankers should maximize their HP to 1000 or better.

Fortification: Fortification reduces the chance for critical hits or sneak attacks. (Underdark Drow often have sneak attack.) In Epic Elite, heavy fortification (100%) is not enough. Update 29 offers items that include substantial normal fortification of 120 or more and stacking Insightful fortification to get this number to 200 or higher with ease. Don't forget the Fabricators Cannith set items or the Unyielding Sentinel tier 1 ability Brace for Impact as well.

A rule of thumb is that you need to have as least as much extra fortification as the character rating (CR) level of the enemy. So you'll need 150% fortification to avoid critical hit/sneak attack damage from a CR 50 enemy.

Saves: Get your Reflex, Fortitude and Will to 50 or better--especially Reflex. It remains true in Epic Elite as it does in other difficulties: Saves are the true "armor" of a Monk.

Increasing DEX increases your Reflex. Use Grandmaster of Flowers skills that can add to these, wear your Vestments of the Sun Soul (not your Spider Spun Caparison unless they have high Resistance numbers) or find better gear.

Ocean Grandmasters may have a great advantage here since such item effects stack with this Monk stance's resistance bonuses.

Weaponry: Anything that stuns and debilitates an enemy is key here. If they're stunned, they're not killing you or others. As a Monk, you have Stunning Fist, one of the most effective ways to stop an enemy cold of all the classes. Combined with handwraps or weapons with Life Stealing-type effects and high Stunning bonuses, you can help your party keep quickly take down each enemy. However, you have to have strong Wisdom DCs for stunning to work reliably (see Wisdom, below).

The Grave Wrappings are ideal here if you have the proper damage bypassing ability with your Unarmed attacks, as well as a high WIS modifier. Further: Get items with Exceptional Combat Mastery that increase tactical DCs such as Stunning Fist from +4 to +6, such as the Cloak of the Bear, Spare Hand or the right Seal of Dun'Robar.

By level 29, an Epic Destiny feat, Dire Charge, is a mass-stunning charging attack that substitutes and complements well with Stunning Fist. It uses your highest ability stat for the DC and is augmented by Stunning bonus items.

Wisdom: Your choices for your character's abilities now culminate to this moment. Can you stun an enemy most of the time (75% or more) in EE? If you cannot, you will likely find yourself dying faster than you can kill your foe.

A high Wisdom adds to your Wisdom modifier, which is applied to your difficulty checks for Stunning Fist and other monastic skills. You will likely be most ineffective with a WIS less than 38 in Epic Elite. Your difficulty check (DC) should reach in the 50s or better using Stunning +10 handwraps, Exceptional Combat Mastery items as noted in Weaponry, above, and Epic Destiny abilities and feats to tactical feat DCs.

High WIS (from base numbers and tomes only) also offers you the opportunity to take Vorpal Strikes, a feat that adds head-chopping, insta-kill vorpal effects to any unarmed attack against enemies with 1,000 or less HP remaining, along with adding Slashing damage to your unarmed attacks, making taking down zombies and other Bludgeon-resistant foes much easier.

High WIS also directly affects your Ten Thousand Stars Ranged Power bonus; your WIS is your Ranged Power bonus.

Checking your Stunning Fist's DC number is simple.

Open your Character Sheet, switch to the Feats tab.

There, find Stunning Fist and hover your mouse button over it (or you can hover it over the same icon you have on your toolbar.) The "Save" number is your current DC, affected by weapons, gear and buffs.

To effectively stun in Epic Elite, you need at least a 50 DC--and that presumes you or the party is also debilitating the foe you want to stun by level drain or other means. A 60 DC is best.

Healing Amplification and Healing bonus items: A human Monk has the ideal opportunity for up to 30% racial and 30% Monk Improved Recovery on top of other amplifying effects from gear such as the Purple Dragon Gauntlets. You need your strongest amplification to make the most of healing immediately from massive blows, as well as saving your party healer from extra work that may jeopardize other party members in need of your help. The Heal skill adds 1% positive energy boosting per point (this is a cross-class skill). You can wear items such as the Shamanic Fetish to add greater Devotion spell power that also amplifies.

Full Vampirism handwraps that still leave you able to stun and damage may also tip the balance. Even Light Monks with Healing Ki cannot reliably regenerate health faster than the attacks you receive in EE, but any positive energy to slow the bleed-out while you kill your enemy is better than nothing. Wear a high level Devotion item to make it easier for healers to recharge you to full HP with a single Heal.

Monk Stances:

Grandmaster of Storms

Survival chances: Very Difficult

Teacher Syncletica's primary ability is to heal herself rapidly while fighting, as well as potent, swift off-hand attacks with doublestriking. Her overall attacks are in Ultimate Wind Stance, which increases DEX but lowers precious CON.

But EE enemies can kill you in a couple of hits when you have lower hit points. Syncletica's style presumes that she can kill faster than her foes, withstanding long enough against a foe in a toe-to-toe fight. Her saves are good, but not good enough for reliable Dodge and Evasion at this level. Her WIS was not as high as it could be, so she could not stun effectively. Her HP was lower in Wind, so a Wind Stancer has a greater vulnerability to damage than all other stances.

Grandmaster of Mountains

Survival chances: Challenging

Teacher Lynncletica gets bloodied far more than her counterparts as her Ultimate Mountain Stance also generates more Threat. But her higher WIS helps with stunning, and she's fortified to 140% or better when going into EE quests.

Ultimate Mountain Stance also gives bonuses to CON for more HP, to AC and PRR and increases the overall chances to make powerful critical hits at the expense of Strength. Take advantage of anything that adds more PRR for damage mitigation, including other Epic Destinies or augments.

If you can stun an enemy in this stance, the odds are that you will be very helpful in slowing the advance of foes as well as clearing the floor of them reliably--if you have high HP, have done everything to improve your healing amplification and are very careful.

Boost your STR for maximum punch per hit. This build needs to maximize Dodge, Concealment and Incorporeality as well as all saves, but especially Reflex.

Grandmaster of the Sun:

Survival chances: Unknown

Syncletica's dojo has a promising Fire student, but that Warforged will not see fighting of this caliber for some time. Perhaps other teachers in other schools will add more substantial information. For now, we can speculate.

A Fire Stancer adds STR at the expense of WIS. This may be a very bad formula for a Monk that must stun reliably in EE. A Fire Stancer may be able to dish out very high overall damage but must use more resources to offset the lower WIS than other stances. Their damage per hit should be superior than all other stances but will not necessarily make critical hits as often. Like the Wind Stancer, a Fire Stancer has to out-damage before they become too damaged.

Grandmaster of Oceans

Survival chances: Moderate

Of all the Monk stances, an Ocean Stancer has a better balance. Their damage is average with a lower STR, but they have a higher WIS and saves that aid miss-chance effects that can avoid hits more often.

For example, Student Ryncletica is a Ocean Stancer with Shadowdancer destinies that improve her incorporeality, Dodge and Concealment, making her harder to hit. Like some Rogues and as with all level 15 Monks, she has an assassinating ability: Quivering Palm. It's downside is that using it will pull her out of stealth, unlike a Rogue's Assassinate ability.

Ocean Stancers such as Ryncletica will have the highest chance to stun with impressive numbers to WIS and its modifier. In a party, the ability for Ryn to pick a target and, at the least, keep them immobilized means that one less enemy is attacking the party. Her stealth skills may allow her to flank and then sneak attack and stun while others have generated aggro.

Finishing Moves and Charm Effects

The special finishing move of Shining Star could help slow enemies if you haven't a caster with similar crowd control effects. To make this work, you need items to improve your CHA substantially (it's one of only two Monk finishers that do not use WIS as its modifier for DC).

A Henshin Mystic could try the Curse of the Void to charm enemies to help you fight--if the enemy fails their save. Unfortunately, high saves are probable for many enemies, or they may be warded from certain compulsive spell effects. A Shadowdancer-trained Monk may have better luck with Shadow Manipulation--a domination charm that can create a powerful ally that distract enemiess while your party whittles them down from behind.

Tactics to Consider

Some quests are designed to stymie melees or casters. It's important to read up on how best to tackle one EE quest as opposed to others. Attempting to melee against an EE mob is suicidal. This makes the melee-centered Monk like a fifth wheel, but there's no rule that says you should attack first. Let the casters and crowd control set up a perimeter, pick off as much of the mob at range to minimize trouble, then let yourself off the chain to clean up the remaining enemies. (This is especially true in quests such as "Reclaiming the Rift.")
Always attempt to stun if an unarmed Monk. You gain more damage on a stunned enemy and other effects that drain life or ability points have a greater chance of working. Your party can whittle stunned enemies very fast. Don't wait for the stun to wear off before applying another one. You need at least a 50 DC to have a reliable chance at stuns, so use any means to increase this number.
Don't forget your finishing moves. Many Dark finishers are designed to inhibit casting and attack, or paralyze. You can also force them to dance, or charm them with the proper training.
Use weaponry or feats that level drains and/or reduces fortification and armor. This can reduce hit points and protections from enemies that help a party to kill them faster. The Grave Wrappings does this (and stuns) all at once, but may not be the most suitable handwraps for every enemy. Improved Sunder is a favorite for some Monks. Update 20's loot-generated weapons with the Feeding/Draining suffix deliver negative levels. The Ninja Spy's Wave of Despair Ninjutsu ability can deliver mass negative levels.
Encourage the party to divide and conquer foes. An ordinary mob in EE can be a party-killing encounter. Rogues or others with strong Bluff skill may be able to thin out a mob by luring only one or two enemies at a time for a party, dispatching them in smaller numbers at a time.
Take advantage of Quivering Palm, and/or be bait to allow Assassins in your party to slay from behind while enemies have their attention on you. Let the "sword and board" player get the attention, then close in to help.
If you have Shadowdancer skills, make your enemies your friends with Shadow Manipulation or use Shining Star if your CHA is high enough. Then kill the confused mobs that are ganging up on your dominated/charmed foe from behind.
Kill the mages first. When they're not healing an enemy party, they're immobilizing and killing yours. Even a low-level spell such as Fear and Hold Monster against you at this level is deadly.
Coordinate your fights as close to shrines as you can. Death is nearly inevitable in Epic Elite, so this helps your ability to return to fighting without taking your party healer's attention away from others still in the fight.
Know your "panic buttons." Know immediately what to click on your toolbar for emergency healing or defense.
Get your Epic Moment ready. A timely Everything is Nothing blast, for instance, could spell the difference between your party's success or failure. A tanking Monk with the Legendary Dreadnought's Master's Blitz in action is a juggernaut of destruction.

Advanced Study

Epic Elite needs and tactics are discussed in forums such as

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