Life of a Savant

[sarcon]

I must say...

I have never in my life felt so useless fighting a class before like fighting monks with a battlemage.

-500 AC... Soulblight as Dancing blade... and I still get owned like it's a big waste of time. All a monk needs to do.. is Air thrash and trip. That's it.. nothing else. They out melee a battlemage hands down.

Throw in some nasty disarm weapons and some nasty stuns and it's game over. wow.. never in my life playing FL have i ever felt so gimped vs a class.

Sure, I understand Grylok dropping me 500 hp in 2 rounds because he is just decked out.. i can't even cast 1 spell againts him.. no point.. it's insta death.

If i cast 1 sharp metal.. i'm dead. However, monks... man you guys are nasty.

Well this Character was fun! Going back to melee! heh..

[Archbishop Monk]

awh.........

[Djriacen]

Awh man, I heard you were doing great, Shadaz (sp?) was it?

[sarcon]

Ya, Shadaz was the Character. I liked him he was fun.. but that fun has ended. Heh, wanted to try a battlemage in Savant but I don't think there is any point now. Maybe when there are no more monks.. hahahaha.

Just gona stick with melee's.

Had fun with him though.

[jibber]

Several things:

What rank were you in Savant?

What rank was the Monk?

We know what rank Grylok is.

What was your eq? Your -ac? Your hr/dr? What were you wielding? Were you wielding a staff, or a sword+shield? Mace+shield?

I'm pretty good with battlemages, so you can confide in me if you want, and I can help you out a bit.

[sarcon]

AC -492

Hit. 10

Dam 14

Bone cane most of the time. Once he disarmed it with that stance that disarms cursed weapons there was no point with that. Just bought a crap load of one handed staffs to just keep wielding.

No shield though because I don't have shield block.

[jibber]

Still don't have your rank or the monk's.

[Archbishop Monk]

Still don't have your rank or the monk's.

Edit maybe I'm wrong ignore me

[Mali]

Actually my monks have always had a hard time against battlemages. Azami(sp) was a killer.

[Djriacen]

He was M and the monk was T, Gladiator. Should stick with it, man!

[jibber]

Monk T Gladiator is a force to be reckoned with. Not so much as a Barbarian, I don't think, however, you should have stuck it out to at least V, or T. Your cabal's spells counter warmaster skills VERY nicely.

[f0xx]

If you can't manage to do well with a savant BMG, then BMG is simply not your class.

That being said, you were M and he is T. You SHOULD expect a beating. Still, it's not that bad as Monk vs Invoker.

[Kyzarius]

You should hold out till T. Temporum T is the day of reckoning for any enemy to your bmage.

Hell! Even V has that one spell you need to truly tip favor.

[Mmm Coffee]

It has ALWAYS been the case vs. monks that if they land air-thrash you DO NOT stay in battle. It doesn't matter what class you are unless you can out-damage them. As a BMG, however, you should generally eat monks for lunch. That air-thrash, even when mastered, doesn't land very often and the monk has to take 1.5-2 rounds of lag from missing.

Also, you should probably not be enlarged vs. a monk.

[tassinvegeta]

Was wondering this myself. How can invokers and communers combat the level 3 chii bolt, air thrash, trip tactic? Any tips would be great.

[sarcon]

Ya, I made sure I was never enlarged. He also landed that Air Thrash pretty frequently. I gave it a chance until I was V... once I was still getting eaten for breakfast I was like.. yup.. by by battlemage heh. I wouldn't even stick around in the fight once I was air thrashed.. yup.. i was outta there.

I don't find it to hard fighting as a battlemage because I never really had any problems with anyone else. However these monks man.. geez.

Ya, I could imagin as an invoker how much fun that would be heh. What makes it even worse is this Monk isn't even decked out.. so I could imagine if I faught one that was!

All in all I like to play characters that you can have fun with and have good battles. Usually I find that if you get yourself to the point where you have almost every piece of armor that you require and don't seek anything else.. typically those battles are great and it's all about attrition and not making mistakes. Usually you can hold your own and find yourself in somewhat of a stalemate if you are matched up againts a worthy opponent.

However, with monks I find that there is no middle ground heh. No matter how decked out I am, I'm still owned. However, that could just be me. I am sure most of you own monks as your Battlemages. I don't that's for sure.

Lots of fun though these battlemages. I was really pushing hard to get a Savant to help againts the Warmasters but geeez.

Good luck to the other Savants!

[Deykari]

Invokers can have a particularly rough time, but it isn't so bad for communers as you might think, especially if they're decked. The high AC and extra defence communers get helps them soak up some of the damage that bit better and Barbarians aside (even though I think that has been changed now) monks cannot get a perfect trip laglock going without their opponent being giant size, and it puts a greater reliance on chakeras to keep the lock going. By perfect lock, I mean the foe consistently unable to enter commands for the duration of successful trips. Trip lag is just not consistent enough to always lag a non-giant foe more than the monk.

Chii bolt 3 + air thrash is not totally reliable either. Whilst a level 3 chii-bolt will strip protectives, the lag is not consistent, and air thrash lags a monk longer than the victim. I would often use a chii bolt level 2 for the consistent 3 rounds of lag and sacrifice chakera ability for being able to get an air thrash or disarm in.

Lahnidas (Drow Shaman) was one of my worst opponents to fight as Scholin. I never killed him, and he got me twice - I could never reliably lag him and put out damage quick enough, and it wasn't until I tried a few other routes that I got somewhere.

Dey

[f0xx]

Well, I got you once as invoker too, so I don't think monks are that bad.

I've tried playing monks before and I've given up due to sucking completely and utterly.

[Kyzarius]

Monks, Like BLMs, require constant preperation

Once you hit T in temporum, you can start waching those empowerment timers. As a communer you can then wait for his stance to drop or be about to, then time your press. Invokers though, and BLMS, not much to be said..Monk is your "anti class"

[The-Nameless]

Dont wield a weapon at all vs gladiator blms and monks.

Your going to get beat hard anyway, don't give him more free lag via stunning disarms. Sounds insane I realize, but it works.

Also you may want to consider shrinking yourself to prevent trip from lagging you so heavily. Another suggestion? Don't start the battle flying. Once again I know it sounds insane, but it can really throw off their game plan if they hit bolt, thrash, and your not flying and they are not spamming bolt;thrash;trip giving you critical chances to flee and reset while they don't have bolt up. There is a nice shield from tainted valley. You should consider using it and fighting around the middle of the day is what I recommend.

There are also charmies YOU can use via the bracelet from the tainted valley on the overseer. I recommend getting a charmie that bashes so you can avoid those laglocks. Once charmie hits a bash I fully recommend o all rescue self then trying for a thunderclap, or flashfire (thunderclap is probably the better of the two since you still may need to escape).

These are not guaranteed strategies, but last temporum I played I played vs 3 monks, and 3 mag resist blms in WM. Only 1 monk, and 1 blm where able to consistantly tromp me (scholin and dagoneto), and I was playing an invoker, which has FAR less options to evade damage than a bmg does.

[f0xx]

Dont wield a weapon at all vs gladiator blms and monks.

Your going to get beat hard anyway, don't give him more free lag via stunning disarms. Sounds insane I realize, but it works.

Also you may want to consider shrinking yourself to prevent trip from lagging you so heavily. Another suggestion? Don't start the battle flying. Once again I know it sounds insane, but it can really throw off their game plan if they hit bolt, thrash, and your not flying and they are not spamming bolt;thrash;trip giving you critical chances to flee and reset while they don't have bolt up. There is a nice shield from tainted valley. You should consider using it and fighting around the middle of the day is what I recommend.

There are also charmies YOU can use via the bracelet from the tainted valley on the overseer. I recommend getting a charmie that bashes so you can avoid those laglocks. Once charmie hits a bash I fully recommend o all rescue self then trying for a thunderclap, or flashfire (thunderclap is probably the better of the two since you still may need to escape).

These are not guaranteed strategies, but last temporum I played I played vs 3 monks, and 3 mag resist blms in WM. Only 1 monk, and 1 blm where able to consistantly tromp me (scholin and dagoneto), and I was playing an invoker, which has FAR less options to evade damage than a bmg does.

+1 to Emp's advises.

Some very good tactics in there.

[sarcon]

Thanks a lot for the tips. Good to know for the future. I did the shrinking thing and non-flying and a few other tactics you mentioned except the charmy.

Overal though yes Monks are the Bane of Battlemages and Invokers. Thus, I think I will make something that doesn't get so gimped by monks.

What do you think would have a better chance? Cleric or Shaman?

[Deykari]

+1 to Emp's advises.

Some very good tactics in there.

Also +1.

Dey

[Tantangel]

Well you're human as well which if he maxed it out he should have anatomy at like 110 on Humans I believe. So that will have an affect on the overall combat as well.

As far as I've noticed playing about 300 hours on a Monk in recent history, chii bolt is a pain in the *** to get back up to chii bolt level 3. So if he bolts you, you flee and recast the essential spells, so for you it would be force shield I believe so he can't air thrash anymore. Then return with that and call it good. So don't lag yourself by casting right away. Once you get that back up, he can still disarm you, but he can't air thrash unless he puts up chii bolt 3 again and chii itself lags you a round or two and if he fails to store it you've got the upper hand. If he manages to chii bolt you and then hit a chakera which will lag you, then you're screwed unless you can flee out luckily, then just throw up the shield again.

As far as Invokers go, some Monks prefer going crane on you because once they chii bolt you and knock your protections down, they can pretty much win. As like before, flee and put up protections again and wear a cursed weapon. If they go dragon and disarm you you're in for some hurt. If they go bhudda or however and kick you I can't remember the affect but if I remember correctly what it does, don't recast anything, flee and heal to return. If he goes Dragon and disarms your cursed weapon, just make sure to wield another weapon. Don't forget to mana charge all your weapons you have too just in case. If he disarms while you're not blind you're fine. Another thing would be, even if you lose a weapon, you can charge wands/staves as well I believe. Staves I know for sure. Even if you lose parry from losing your weapon, you can still cast faster than the damage he deals sometimes. Since the Monk has access to his abilities now he is a LOT better, but still manageable.

That's just from my perspective though. Monks I've noticed I had a lot easier time with melee opponents, more specifically Warriors. I beat Rhompt a couple times as well as a few other Warriors. My hardest foe was a Storm Warrior though and he mopped the floor with me probably because of his skills as well as the players experience. Hope this helps a little though.

[tassinvegeta]

Shrink! Why didn't I think of that. Check!

Charmies. Check!

Flee immediately, recast and re-engate immediately after lvl 3 chii bolt. Check!

Great advice guys. Thanks a ton.