Disclaimer : This guide is for those who would like to to level a monk and not feel like ‘grinding’ endlessly on a single map. The idea of this build is that you can progress to 99(and trans) at a decent rate, yet still enjoy yourself. Also, this build has no combo skills, so if u wish to make a combo monk, there are other guides that will fit your needs more than this one would. This guide is written with low rate servers in mind. Many of the prices and suggested gears maybe much different on mid/high rate servers.

Not that it matters, but this is the first guide I have written. Any advice on how I can improve this guide is appreciated.

- NOVICE -

Beginning stats:

str – 9
agi – 9
dex – 9
vit – 1
int – 1
luk – 1

Leveling:

Spend the few minutes inside the novice area and get to job 10 before u leave. While here, get 10 dex and 20str. After this point, go change to an acolyte. If u take the test and get acolyte u will be just south of the priest who starts the quest. To get acolyte as your suggested job, answer the questions as a do-gooder nice guy who thinks of the past and is a public servant. If u get a different suggested job, just tell him u want to be an acolyte, and he will put u where u need to be anyways.

Job change:

From this point, after you talk to the priest, he will give u 3 possible NPCs to go talk to.

The first map is 1 map north of morroc, in the top left corner of the map.

The 2nd possibility would be 1 map north, 2 maps west of Prontera (actually 2 maps north with the WoE castle map above pront) around the center of the map near the pool of water.

The third possibility is 1 map east, 1 map north, then 1 more map east of pront, right at the exit to the next map east (which would be where you will go later to change to monk)

Note: Once you visit this NPC, THAT becomes your new save point, so once u get back to town, set up a new save point or you could find yourself back there when u die or use a b-wing.

After talking to the NPC, go back to the first priest u talked to in the church, who will change you to an acolyte.

- ACOLYTE -

1x/1 Stats:

str – 20
agi – 9
dex – 10
vit – 1
int – 1
luk – 1

Leveling:

Now once you are an acolyte, equip your mace that they gave you at the novice zone, and go level on muka, 2 south of Morroc (or metalings, although they can kill you with a single hit if they use mammo on you) Spam those novice pots u got at the novice area for your first few kills, since with your very low hp 1 hit will hurt.

2x/1x Stats:

str – 30
agi – 9
dex – 20
vit – 1
int – 1
luk – 1

Skills:

- Divine Protection lv5
– Heal lv5 (lv10 if you have a shield with an enchanted peach tree card)

Leveling:

A few kills later u will be 20ish or so(on a 5x rate anyways) During this time, increase your str and dex stats to 50ish str(around 60 total with gears, job bonus, and bless) and dex to around 30(40 total with gears, job bonuses, and bless. As for skills, you get bless maxed first, then focus on a few points of heal(Level 4-5 will do for now, lv 10 if you have yourself a enchanted peach tree shield since its effect can save u a lot of sp with its autocast)

Once you reach level 27 or so, you can use a swordmace (or stunner) and if you do not have a fire swordmace/stunner, the npc version (sold in Morroc, south west area, slightly north of the corner of town) does the job. Continue with muka until you are able to easily kill them (2-3 shots each, around 85 hit with bless). If you are using a fire swordmace, you should (with bless) be damaging them for 350-400 dmg per hit. At around base level 40 you could move onto mosc and Lesavka (les on some servers, mavka on others, the weak ones in the first area, NOT the ones with the waterball spamming nasties in lv 3)

Base lv 40 suggested stats:

str – 50
agi – 9
dex – 30
vit – 1
int – 1
luk – 1

Skills:

- Divine Protection lv5
– Heal lv5 (lv10 if you have a shield with an enchanted peach tree card)
– Blessing lv10
– Increase Agi lv10

Leveling:

Once you make easy work of the muka, you can move on to Moscovia, and can start hunting les (which will also get you rich depending on your server) Muka cast envenom, which really isn’t much of a threat, but the poison effect stops all regeneration, and lowers your def. They also drop green herbs, so hot key one of them, and you should never have to worry about being poisoned. They also drop aloe leaflets which are VERY good healing items, so you shouldn’t have to use your sp to heal (save it for Bless and Agi up once u have that also)

You can quite easily, and quickly job 50 here. Do not Attack the Leshij at this point, since they have high defense, and hit REALLY hard and are only worth slightly more than the les themselves. They also like to spam heal everything around them, so if need be, lure les away from them before you kill them.

While here in mosc, save all your stems which you can later sell them to a biochemist/brewer for 2.5-5k per, which will more than be enough (after u job 50 yourself) to fund any future gear you may need.

Final Skills (in the order they should be obtained):

- Divine protection lv 5
– Heal lv5
– Blessing lv10
– Increase Agi lv10
– Heal lv10
– Demon Bane lv10
– Divine Protection lv9

At this point the order of which you max first (demon bane or divine protection) matters little, but u might choose to max Demon first if u want to go hunting undead before you’re a monk. Divine pro won’t help you much, if at all, since this build is going to be relying on agility and flee rather than vit and defense. You pick up the last point of this as your first job lv as monk.

65/50 suggested Stats:

str – 50
agi – 60
dex – 36
vit – 14
int – 12
luk – 1

Now once your job 50(I strongly suggest you go the long road and do NOT change pre job 50, you will need the extra skills later on) Go and become a monk.

Job change:

A simple trick (If u never did it as an aco) is to run back to the pront church, and talk to the fat guy near the girl that gives holy light plat skill, tell him to tell you more about being an acolyte, and he will offer to warp you to the monk job change area. Accept his offer for an easy trip.

RMS has a good guide on the main site under quests for the monk job change. Check this if you need help at this point.

- MONK -

Now your a new monk. You would have also gained a 3 slot knuckle duster as reward for being job 50 when u changed, which u can make use of, or continue to use the maces. Maces are nice because they do decent damage to large sized targets, while fists do 50% of normal. The downside is the abysmal atspd of maces.

Leveling:

As a new monk, you can head back to mosc and can stay there for as long as you wish, but I suggest u only stay here as long as u can manage it (at this point you would have been at mosc for some time, and this guide is about having fun, not grinding for hours at the same spot).

A few places I can suggest are Payon caves lv 3-4(munaks, sohees), mosc lv 1(les), ice caves lv 1(Siroma, if u have wind) Bibilan lv 4(swordfish, marc, beware swordfish’s waterball skill), Geffen dungeon lv 2-3(Try to get 180 flee or so first), mummies at pyramids, isis later on.

Skills you get as a monk are simple, since you avoid the combo skills. Basically get any skill you would use first before the others, and round out the rest as u go on. Job 50 is not too far off, so any order u choose to get the following skills will not harm your leveling options too much.

Lv 5 Iron fist

lv 5 call spirits

lv 1 absorb spirits

lv 5 dodge

lv 5 finger offensive/throw spirit spheres

lv 5 investigate/occult

Lv 3 critical explosion/fury

lv 5 asura strike

lv 5 bladestop

lv 1 Ruwach

lv 2 teleport

lv 4 warp portal

lv 1 pnenuma

With remaining points u can make use of cure and/or agi down. The skills listed before these are ones you would most likely abuse the most, and agi down and cure both have uses. (Although I don’t often find myself using either)

As far as stats are concerned, you continue beefing up agi until it sits at base 83. (With the pantie/undershirt set, and job 50 monk bonus, this will be a total of 107 agi) then continue with dex until it is at base 66(which with the monk bonus at job 50 would be a total of 80 dex) Together this agi and dex would give you 180 total atspd with awake pots and fists.(175 with maces) After this point u just pump str until level 99. (Will put you somewhere around 80-84 base str)

Gear is simple. A suggested list would be : (cheap and easy / ideal set)

Head, Top: Marionette / slot pirates with cramp or vanberk(Strongly suggest vanberk, since with 180 atspd, the random 100% crit is nice)

Head, Mid: Anything, or if rich, evil/angel wing ears(+1 str, +1 def) A blinker is also a good choice since blind can slaughter an agi build quite fast.

Head, Lower: Anything you fancy. I suggest gangster mask for the slight silence resistance. But really anything will do.

Armor: Pantie. Slot panties with marc, swordfish, sky deleter, etc also can be a nice bonus.

Garment : Undershirt. Slot undershirt with whisper, Kavach Icarus. Bapho Jr is also a nice alternate choice.

Shoes with zombie slaughterer, maytr, or sohee if u plan to use asura often. High quality sandals with similar cards can also do well if u can manage to get a pair or two.

Shield: Buckler with enchanted peach tree (When your attack with basic attack) or any of the -race damage modifiers if u plan to hunt a specific species.

Accessories: 1 ring and 1 blast clip will last you up and beyond 90 if you wish, and later on 2 mantis rings will do you until you trans.(And can be used later on when u 90+ champ)

As for weapons, a set of VVS fists(all 5, including a vvvs neutral for when u have a priest or sage along for the ride) a garm claw for its very high atk (Use with asps and/or endows for best effect) IF you are fighting medium or large sized mobs and/or u wish to abuse your skills more often, maces are most likely a better choice. A +9/10 chain with 3x race modifier cards is great for specific mobs, but I find a set of sword maces, While expensive to make/buy, are much more practical than carded chains, simply because the 4/5 sword maces you have can be used effectively against 95% of the mobs in the game, while a carded chain is only useful against a small selection. It is also of worth to note that if you are focused on small sized mobs, fists do 100% damage against them, so if you know what u are fighting, use the appropiate weapon. If you plan to use your main (basic) attack for much of your fighting, use fists(for the higher atspd, and more chances to trigger the enchanted peach tree card) and if you are planning to abuse your skills more, use maces(Unless your targets are all small sized)

Leveling area’s/suggestions.

After monk, (and the muka->Les grind session) you will want to find new area’s to hunt, places to find new and interesting gear, and if you are ‘new’ to a server this might be your best choice.

Personally after i become monk, and have gained a few quick job levels, I like to head toward munaks for a few levels. Its slow leveling, but gathering a collection of shoes that you can break at the upgrader (get yourself a pair of +7/8′s), ninja suits and munak/bongun hats you can sell or slot(then sell), apple of archers u can also sell, and all done pretty easily with little risk.

Once you got bored of the bouncy red girls and their boyfriends, another suggested place would be pyramids. The mummies drop rough ori quite often(use this to upgrade your fists/maces), the verits nearby them drop immortal hearts(sell to alchemists), and their card is usually quite pricey (save for self or make a quick 10mil). Just another option for some relaxed leveling while getting your bank filled for later.

Another option, later on when your flee >180, would be geffen lv 2 and 3. You can collect yourself slot tights, jakk cards, infiltrators, obbs, marionette hats. Again another good place to get rich and level at a decent rate.

Once your owning these area’s without much trouble, other suggested area’s might be:

Isis (at pyramids lv 4, watch out for osiris). - When you see an ancient mummy, toss a blessing on it and u should dodge anything it tries on you, be ready with a heal because isis crit quite often(IE they don’t miss) and Ancient mummies can hit for up to 5k dmg. While here it is possible to collect yourself slot circlets, isis cards, obb’s and mimic cards, slot gloves, and lots of cracked diamonds(Sell these to any forgers u might know)

Pasana and Anubis in spynx lv 5. – (same level as pharoh) Use ice on the pasana, save the stilletos and undershirts(to either npc at around 10k each, or sell/attempt to slot) and anubis (for extreme xp, u can quite quickly level 99 here if u wish) – When u see an Anubis, don’t waste time, throw a bless onto it ASAPso that it will not 1 shot you. Once done, u should be able to slap it to death using a fire weapon(mace is suggested because of the large size)

Mermen and strouf in lv 5 bibilan. - Bring wind, and watch out for the waterballing. A marc card is a good choice here(Not swordfish, since the strouf like to spam lighting bolt as well as frostdriver)

Magma dungeon – lv 1, slap everything in here around at will, and use investigate/occult on the magma golems for a nice xp boost.

Ice caves – lv 1, 2. Siroma are easy and worth half-assed decent xp for how easy they are, plus their card can be sold for a fair bit. lv 2 is much tougher, but with a good team u can make short work of the golems. Abuse occult and penuma here.

Raydrics – (Bring a priest) are another good choice. A card from one will help you later on when you transcend, as would all the elu you can possibly find here. Beware of the abysmal knights, who can single shot you quite easily. Ridewords can also be a pain, but if your flee/hit are sufficient, they should pose little threat.

Niflheim – Bring holy, and if u do not have that, bring fire(for the undead) and neutral(for the shadow types). If you have a priest with you, use TSS on the loli (with lex and asp u should do decent damage) Occult the bloody murderers. The rest u should be able to put down with basic attack.

Nameless Island – Don’t go without a party, but if u do get one, abuse asura (if a prof is nearby) or tss(If your gear is decent enough). A phen clip would help against the banshee’s if you plan to asura them. (Their aura can interrupt your cast)

Skill use/how to

The following little bit is just a quick rundown on how to use (or when to use) some of the skills this monk build gets.

Bless. Ya its a buff. Ignore that. Use level 1-4 on an undead or demon mob to cut its hit, matk, and (I Think but not 100% sure) flee by 50%. This is how a monk can slap Anubis around and not get hit back.(And its magic is then very weak so no worries there)

Bladestop. This ‘catches’ the mobs next attack (and some skills) and freezes both you and the mob in place. It also allows you to use some skills while the two of you are frozen in place(but can also be used to ‘hold’ a mob while your party beats the snot out of it) To use it, time the use of the skill so that the mob attacks before the skill ‘expires’ (Basically, JUST before the mob attacks, activate the skill)

Investigate/occult : Fun skill. This one can’t miss(Ignores flee) and is always neutral(Does NOT take the element of your weapon) Best used on mobs with 50+ def. The more def the target has, the more it hurts. Use it on horungs, magma golems, etc for best effect. Has no real ‘cast’ time, and a 1/3 second delay between the next cast.

Throw Spirit Spheres/Finger offensive: A spirit monks most used skill, but has a horrible cast time when you have low dex. It DOES take the element of your weapon, so elemental weaknesses can be abused. use this on mobs with high hp (10k or so) that have a weakness to an element(use elemental maces or get an asp from a priest) This skill CAN miss, so only use it on mobs which you are sure u can hit. It cannot be interrupted, and dex does lower its cast time.

Asura strike. Don’t really think this one needs to be explained, since when someone says ‘monk’ this is the first skill they think of. A quick rundown is this: It takes ALL your sp, stops sp regen for 5 min(seems less on some servers) takes 5 spirit spheres, and u must be in fury status to use. It is also ALWAYS neutral damage, it CAN be interrupted, and with 0 dex has a 2 second cast time at lv 5. This skill can do insane amounts of damage(50k easily with 750 sp, over 100k with high sp/lex, etc) Dex does lower cast time.

With these suggestions in mind, you can see that monk is a very adaptable job, and in time you will find that you can hunt almost anywhere in-game, and will rarely find yourself in a situation where you are unable to do something. A little thought, and planning and you can do so much more than many other jobs out there. You may not be the scalpel needed to precisely do a said job, but given a variety of jobs to do, you will find that you are the swiss army knife of RO.

Hope you have enjoyed reading this, and please feel free to suggest anything I have missed. Many thanks to Hyashi who has helped me edit and format this guide for easier reading.

Filed under: Build (Stats/Skills), Character Guides, Leveling