Monk's Anatomy

[Gaunticles]

Could someone please explain in-depth on how Anatomy works? 

Some of my questions about the ability are,

How does it help you with damage?

What is the maximum anatomy per race?

Are there any stats that affect anatomy like luck?

What is the difference between monks anatomy and blademasters?

 

ps can someone please edit the help file for anatomy so it's easier to read?

[Magick]

Anatomies are grouped into families rather than through specific races.  Mob, Human, Elf, Dwarf, DemiHuman, Giant, Beast, Flying and Unique.  Elves for example are both elves and drow.  Both half-breeds should fall under human.  Giants encompasses stormies, stone, fire and ogres.  Beasts are minotaurs, sliths and werebeasts.  Uniques are illithids and undead/demons.  And so on.
Not all mobs are mobs, they're mobs if they don't have a specific category.  So if you go through Tarandue, you can train your demihuman on the gnomes there, flying (avian, faerie) on crows, but the scarecrows are mob.  Additionally, learning anatomies off a mob will only give you to twice that mob's level in an anatomy.  Fighting a PC gives a bonus to how quickly you learn an anatomy.

For a monk, the max for any one anatomy (except the +10 in their base race) is 100 as they get no anatomy masteries while blademasters can have up to 3 that are over 100, +10 for their base race, +10 for a mastery and +20 for an expertise to a max of 130 to a particular race.

Anatomies are a bit like stats in and of themselves.  They, like luck, will influence and increase various class skills.  Stats that specifically influence anatomy are int/wis and luck for (I'm 90% certain) only in learning anatomies.

In the case of monks, it should give bonus damage equal to half your anatomy, though it's possible that it varies between stances.
Blademasters also get bonus damage for anatomies, though @f0xx might be able to expand on that a bit futher.
There is a place in the old code that says that the damage bonus is +100%, but it's too late for me to care about digging into that one further.  Grain of salt, that one.

Monk anatomies also affects various things such as chakera procs and strangulation from beads.  Someone like @Zoichan would be able to get into details far better than I, as I've played few monks.
Blademasters however rely on anatomies primarily through critical strikes, with the fun stuff (poison, plague, etc) coming in at 100+.  If you try to critical strike something that is above your current anatomy for that race (eg: brain [130] on a halfling when your demihuman anatomy is 120), it defaults to chest.

 

I think that's anatomies in a nutshell.  Hope I didn't forget anything.  Not exactly in depth in depth, but it should be more in depth than just information from the help files.

 

Edit: Foxx's excellent reminder that monks do in fact, get +10 to their base race.

[f0xx]

I've been asked this question before, regarding blademasters, and....

I've always answered the only thing anatomies did for a BLM is open critical strike areas

Since that's what my observations have lead me to.

I guess I would have noticed if it increased damage by 100%?

*shrug*

[Gaunticles]

See but how did this person get 110 in human anatomy as a monk? 

 

[f0xx]

1 minute ago, Gaunticles said:

See but how did this person get 110 in human anatomy as a monk? 

 

You get +10 on your own race.

[Wade]

I played that monk and ended up getting my hitroll much higher and my defenses to 110 and hand to hand as high as I could as evil. 

Still couldn't trade blows with any of the big boys. 

For me at least, they're in the non-viable category with battlemages.

[Gaunticles]

Damn. Is it because no matter how perfect you gear your Monk it will never compare to a huge weapon raw damage output?

[f0xx]

I've been asked this question before, regarding blademasters.

I've always answered the only thing anatomies did for a BLM is open critical strike areas

Since that's what my observations have lead me to.

I guess I would have noticed if it increased damage by 100?

*shrug*

[edit] this one worked.

[f0xx]

I've been asked this question before, regarding blademasters, and....

I've always answered the only thing anatomies did for a BLM is open critical strike areas

Since that's what my observations have lead me to.

I guess I would have noticed if it increased damage by 100%?

*shrug*

[edit] This one too, @Erelei

[Magick]

The anatomy help file says that it increases damage for both monk and blademaster.  It just never states how much, just that the increase is proportional.

[Erelei]

Seems that it was caused by Link hiding settings. Might be a broken feature for IPS4.2. Thanks @f0xx for helping me find that.

[Wade]

5 hours ago, Gaunticles said:

Damn. Is it because no matter how perfect you gear your Monk it will never compare to a huge weapon raw damage output?

The problem I had was that everyone knows hand to hand and has their +defense so high that I barely hit them.

I fought Ivesianna a fair few rounds in different stances and at one point I tried crane stance, even with 78 hitroll I wasnt landing much. 

Monks, like battlemages are from a different time. They're relics that have not scaled well with today's numbers. 

I should probably add a disclaimer that I never bothered with defensive stance, in my mind the best you can ever achieve using it is a stalemate. 

I'm also not claiming any of this as fact, it's merely my opinion. 

[Mmm Coffee]

Monks, IMO, require cabal synergy to be deadly.  Cabals with lagging charmies make them extremely deadly.  The two recent ones that stand out were a Tribunal and Knight. Albeit the Knight was an avatar which in itself is lethal.  But my trouble often came from a successful air thrash followed by a charmie trip/bash.  Pretty much game over if that happens.

[Lloth]

On 6/30/2017 at 11:22 PM, Wade said:

The problem I had was that everyone knows hand to hand and has their +defense so high that I barely hit them.

I fought Ivesianna a fair few rounds in different stances and at one point I tried crane stance, even with 78 hitroll I wasnt landing much. 

Monks, like battlemages are from a different time. They're relics that have not scaled well with today's numbers. 

I should probably add a disclaimer that I never bothered with defensive stance, in my mind the best you can ever achieve using it is a stalemate. 

I'm also not claiming any of this as fact, it's merely my opinion. 

Berserkers beg to differ against horse stance. 

[Unknown Criminal]

IGo offensive vs anyone who you are better dressed than, go defensive vs those dressed better. Always full blast vs a mage, be careful with necros

UC

[Tantangel]

So in my experience having played a few, anatomies is kind of like an unreliable enhanced damage. The higher the anatomy the more likely you are to strike for special attacks against that race. Even at 100 it doesn't guarantee that you'll hit any, but being offensive typically means you're going to be more likely to hit them and bring forth that pain. There's a few ways you can master races without ever having to spar an actual character, but you can do it if you're patient enough. You'll have the innate ability to go 110 in human since the only races allowed are human/half-elf. Though you can go Undead if you're evil and honestly that's one of the stronger combos in the game I think. A lot has changed over the years since I played that combo though, and a lot better armor has come out benefiting other classes far more than a Monk, but it doesn't mean they're useless either.

Your hit/dam I think may come into play on it, but I believe luck factors a lot more into it than that. The armor your enemy wears is going to play a huge factor as well and what preparations they have. Typically like all classes, you'll want to catch people unaware to win. It doesn't mean that going for a Cabal means you wont win, I've fought some who have steam rolled me a few times way back when, but your knowledge of what tactics will be your major winning point. So in short, Anatomy helps a great deal in damage, but more so in the aspect of special attacks. You'll want a high hitroll/damroll, but to be honest, if you're going to be Good, aim for Avatar if you're wanting to have a decent go at it, or Undead if you're Evil. I'm not saying anything in between sucks, but it does make it slightly more difficult.

[mya]

From my view and from what I heard Monks are a class that is RL luck dependent. Dependent of landing those chakeras at that time. A monk can go 5 engagements getting his but kicked, to suddenly obliterating his enemy. It appears mostly to be a numbers game. You try enough times until the stars align.

On 7/1/2017 at 5:22 AM, Wade said:

I fought Ivesianna a fair few rounds in different stances and at one point I tried crane stance, even with 78 hitroll I wasnt landing much. 

That is strange, because 78 hitroll is quite a bit. I think I never seen so much.  I imagine that blademasters are hard, because they can use Polearms (extremely defensive and still offensive), lower their weapon for increased defense, and double sheath protects them from your cursed disarm. That dragon disarm is key in many fights vs Meele. Just wait until you fight your first Crusader...

During halloween I had a FG Devastation zerk in Nexus with a Fire polearm. I was pulling 100+ damroll. I was destroying a Monk completely, until he started to time Dragon disarm. Then he started to win as much as I.

Something that I noticed, is that Kick damage from monks is essential in defeating me.
 

Personally I don't like monks. I love the RP and chakeras aspect of them, but they are nothing like Blademasters. Where blademasters are a thinking class, monks are a preparation class, with a set guide to victory. Bolt + Airtrash + Trip or Bolt + Dragon-Disarm. They are worse than warriors for me.

Anatomies. For monks just max them and ignore them. For blademasters, read the BLM guide for a detailed guide on them and critical strike.

Regarding monks chackeras, some information about it's mechanics:
Chakeras are mostly dependant on Hitroll, the race anatomie % (which should be maxed) , and RL luck.
You can only land chackeras while on Offensive because only the advanced attacks land chackeras. The ones that make "? claw" damage. I bet most of you never noticed this, even though is right in our eyes.
So you have a double roll. You actually need to hit them in combat (break regular parry/block/dodge) and then the anatomy roll to trigger the chakera on the strike. Thankfully both rolls are heavily dependent on hitroll. BLM's are diferent because they can strike at anatomies without hitting, with Critical strike, although their criticals are lower power when compared.
Also when you land a chakera you lag your target. Some chakeras, reduce the duration of Protective shield, and Tiger claw bypasses protective shield. This protective shield reduction can trigger (or could) a silent dispel of the protective shield.
Monks are a pain for mages.
Also, anatomie skils is like enhanced damage, in which it increases damage of regular hits.

 

There is a reason why Evil Monks go into tribunal. They can get like +15 hitroll from cabal stuff. That's a lot. IT's probably the best cabal for a monk or any other Meele heavily class favored by Hit/Dam not on weapon (AKA DK's).
Having a source of Haste is also a great way to empower your Monk, something like the rod of time.