Tactics (L18)

By Level 18, all Monks should have proficiency in taking on wilderness areas without much assistance. This is advantageous for several reasons.

• Hirelings at Heroic level are less reliable or durable against high-end mobs (thankfully, Update 16 gave them better equipment).
• Hirelings generate attention, likely attracting too many enemies.
• Hirelings, typically Clerics, interfere with your training. If you're reliably and repeatedly healed by outside assistance, you are mentally conditioning yourself to fight recklessly.
• When in a live party, others may be busy as well in fighting. Your job as a Monk is to be able to switch targets for additional damage. You're the best Cleric-defender in your party, and one that won't be missed as the tank would, should they be forced to disengage from something that, if left rampaging indiscriminately, could wipe the whole party.

Let's take two examples where Light Monks show their resilience.

Lynncletica, a STR based Level 16 Light Monk at Shintao Monk II, is exploring the Vale of Twilight. Lynncletica encounters a horde of spiders--the ones you can’t squish with a foot. Running will only spawn more in her path, so she takes a stand.

She pulls out a pair of paralyzing handwraps, assumes Mountain Stance III for maximum damage and defense, and readies a new secret technique.

Once the eight spiders had surrounded, she makes a few strikes and then uses Cleave. Half of the spiders are paralyzed long enough for her to dispatch one of the spiders.

She turns about and Cleaves again, stopping most of the other arc of animals in their tracks. A Void Strike III attack ends another and several critical hits fell more.

One Cleave and a few moments later, the spiders are destroyed and Lynncletica nurses minor wounds.

Teacher Syncletica, at Level 19 in this example, is alone on the Devil Battlefield in the plane of Shavarath...one of the most deadly wilderness areas in Heroic difficulty.

Syncletica decides to reduce the devil army numbers. She cannot banish here; she's the outsider. Mobs are prevalent--primarily tieflings and troglodytes, with many bearded devils and orthons about as well.

Shintao Monk III skills and the right wraps should slow them down enough for dispatching.

A bearded devil materializes. Syn has Shocking Burst of Stunning +10 handwraps readied. Combined with a Holy Burst ring and innate Silver damage-reduction bypassing, the devil is stunned and destroyed in moments.

Syncletica watches her ki drain. She moves to Greater Sun Stance to boost her resources up a bit before returning to Greater Earth Stance or, for speed with light mobs, Ultimate Wind Stance, she being a Grandmaster of Wind.

Moving along, she clears some tieflings using Vampiric Stonedust Wraps or her Thaarak Wraps (tieflings are resistant to electricity).

Approaching a cave entrance where some Silver Flame armies are said to be holed up, she finds herself surrounded by large hellhounds. Anything with frost works well against them. After a few hits with her Icy Burst of Pure Good handwraps, the hounds are gone.

Syn decides to check on a rare encounter and finds it waiting, overlooking a nearby a devil outpost. It's Armisos, a horned devil.

After removing his minions, it's one-on-one slug-fest as Syncletica pumps one Fist of Light into the devil after another, damaging her foe, healing herself with the Healing Ki as needed, while wearing Shocking Burst handwraps. Syn can naturally damage with Silver bypass as a Shintao III, and she wears the Shintao Cord and Kyosho's Ring to ensure maximum damage.

It's a long, protracted fight. Armisos is not an easy kill and constantly pummels Syncletica, which was why continuous use of Fists of Light is essential. When HP levels are good, Syn adds Void Strikes, Earth strikes, Wind strikes to add damage (she ignores Fire strikes--most demons are immune).

An orthon suddenly appears, striking Syncletica and interrupting her attack. Thankfully, orthons are weak-willed.

A Tomb of Jade strike crystallizes the orthon, freezing it, while Syn resumes her fight. She moves to Ultimate Wind Stance to peel off hit points from both orthon and pit fiend by doublestriking, at the risk of more damage to herself. Once the orthon is down, it's back to Greater Mountain Stance for more defense and better critical hits.

Death finally meets Armisos. Syncletica meditates a little before moving on to dispatch more of the devil horde.