Ragnarok Online 2 Lion's Comprehensive Guide on Monks

Disclaimer: This guide is copy pasted from forum.roguard...guide-to-monks/ which is the guide's original thread. Please refer to this the link if you seek for updates that I made to the guide in ROGuard's forum.

Lion's Comprehensive Guide to Monks

i. Version
1. The guide has been established in Playpark forums.
2. Added the Monk's Skill Rotations and Combos.



ii. Table of Contents
i. Version
ii. Table of Contents
iii. General Tips
-Acolyte-
I. Introduction to The Acolyte
II. Acolyte's Skills
III. Skill builds for Acolyte
IV. Acolyte's Stats Distribution
-Monk-
V. Introduction to The Monk
VI. Monk's Skills
VII. Skill builds for Monk
VIII. Monk's Stats Distribution
IX. Monk's Skill Rotations and Combos


iii. General Tips
Here is a few tips and thumb rule for you to play RO2 in an ease. This section consists of a few leveling tips, user-interface, and so on.

1. Use the transparent Map by clicking the "M" button two times and place it everywhere that won't disturb your eyes while playing.
2. Do not waste your time on killing monsters in the field blindly. Do the quests because it is the main source of our experience. The act of questing and killing monsters is called grinding.
3. Do not underestimate the power of Khara Quest. It also increases your experience. It will also give you rewards, "title" being the most common reward to get after completing Khara Quests. Title is used to enhance your stats. Every time you leveled up, there'll be new Khara Quest available. So be sure to activate it once you've increase your skill and stats!
4. Left click the quest to display the location of the monsters for your quest!



I. Introduction to The Acolyte

Quote

Do you believe in gods? If yes, you've chosen the correct class. It is a true-calling for every Acolytes to follow the path of the divine and witness the power of the light themselves. Not enough? They are actually the divine combatants whose main task is to extinguish the evil! They use the spells of the divine to conquer the battlefield and deliver justice to every enemies. They are the servants of God which carries an important task, to help each others.

Acolyte is one of the first five main classes in Ragnarok II: LOTS. Like many other MMORPG, Acolytes are experts in supporting and healing abilities which play a very important role in a party. Because of those abilities, they can grind just fine whether it is solo or party. There is no need for an Acolyte to buy any healing potions because they can spam heal. Their holy spells are not to be underestimated. They got great offensive spells, although aren't as great as Magician's spells. But they are capable on boosting skills up to the fullest (Asperio).

Although with those advantages, Acolytes are short on Health Points (HP) and lack of defense.



II. Acolyte's Skills
I have listed all Acolyte's skills, its description, my commentary and personal ratings for each skill.


 Heal (Supportive Skill)
Description: Recover one's HP equivalent to 30%/33%/36%/40%/43% of your magic power. Under the Asperio, the next three heals will become a critical hit.
Casting Time: 1s.
Cooldown: 0s.
Rate: ooooo
Commentary: This deserves a 5/5 rating from me. Yes, this skill is very great because you can spam it all day long. As an Acolyte, you'll use this instead of Potions to save your money. Max this skill ASAP.


 Holy Light (Offensive Skill)
Description: Conjure a divine cross to deal 27%/30%/33%/36%/39% of your magical damage to a single enemy. Next 3 Holy Light will become a critical hit under the buff of Asperio.
Casting Time: 1s.
Cooldown: 0s.
Rate: ooooo
Commentary: This is one great offensive spell you can have as an Acolyte because simply it has no cooldown with only 1s casting time and great damage. I suggest you to max this skill ASAP for the sole purpose of grinding.


 Blessing (Supportive Skill)
Description: Cast a gospel upon you and your partymates to increase Max HP by 3%/6%/9%/12%/15% for a duration of 30 minutes.
Casting Time: Instant
Cooldown: 3s.
Rate: ooooo
Commentary: A no-brainer skill to max. It adds 15% of your Max HP with 30 minutes duration, no reason to dump it.Tankers will thank you for this. A must max skill.


 Judex (Offensive Skill)
Description: Summons the Thunder of Judgement to inflict magical damage equivalent to 14%/17%/19% of your magic power on the top of the enemies within the Area of Effect.
Casting Time: Instant.
Cooldown: 3s.
Rate: o
Commentary: This skill would've been more useful if it has at least 1s cooldown. The skill's main purpose is just to stun your enemies. The damage and cast time are bad. You DO NOT want to use this skill at all. It is recommended for you not to learn this skill at all.


 Lex Divina (Offensive Skill)
Description: Summons a holy hammer to be thrown to the enemy and deal 22% of your magic power at level 1 / 26% of your magic power and will crit if the target's HP is below 20% at level 2 / 30% of your magic power and will crit if the target's HP is below 20% and gain 3 Holy Water if your enemy dies from this skill at level 3.
Casting Time: Instant
Cooldown: 10s
Rate: oooo
Commentary: There are a lot of arguments flying around inside this skill. Some say this skill has to be maxed for faster grinding but some agreed not to max this skill or even take it. But those argument is invalid as your skills will be resetted once you transcend intoMonk. You WILL need to learn this skill to grind faster. It maybe not recommended for fellow Priests, but not for us. You can either max this skill or leave it at level 2. Oh yeah, only use this skill when your target's HP is below 20%, otherwise you better off leave this skill entirely.


 Increase Agility (Supportive Skill)
Description: Increase movement speed of you and your party members by 40% for 10s/11s/12s/13s/14s.
Casting Time: Instant.
Cooldown: 260s/240s/220s/220s/180s.
Rate: oo
Commentary: Similar to RO1's Increase Agility this skill increases your Movement Speed but the differences are there's no increase in Agility in the RO2's version and they add cooldown to it, the long one in RO2. The skill increases you and your party member's movement speed by a nifty percentage of 40% but has a ridiculous cooldown. You either leave this skill or learn it but leave it at level 1. Do not attempt to max this skill at all.


 Highness Heal (Supportive Skill)
Description: Recover your and surrounding 2 allies' HP by 44%/49%/54%/59%/64% of your magic power. Under the Asperio spell, Highness Heal's recovery amount increased by 50%
Casting Time: Instant.
Cooldown: 10s
Rate: ooo
Commentary: Only learn this if you do party leveling all the time. Otherwise, do not learn this skill at all if you plan to solo most of the time. Even you can choose to use Renovatio on each party members rather than using this skill if you prefer party leveling.


 Renovatio (Supportive Skill)
Description: Recover target's HP by 16%/19%/22% of your magic power every 2 seconds for 12s duration.
Casting Time: Instant.
Cooldown: 0s
Rate: ooooo
Commentary: While Heal needs you to cast for 1s and is not effective in combat, this skill does the exact opposite. This skill has no casting time and no cooldown and is efffective while it is active. That means, you don't have to worry about your HP because it'll replenish by itself while this skill is active.


 Meditatio (Passive Skill)
Description: Increases effect of healing skills when applied as critical hit by 340%/380%/420%/460%/500% exceeding 95% Hit Rate.
Rate: N/A
Commentary: The description explains that Meditatio will increase the effect of healing skills but I am still in a hot water figuring this one out. So I can't comment about this really as I never really bothered to look into this skill.


 Aqua Benedicta (Supportive Skill)
Description: Recover SP by 15% and creates 3 Holy Waters.
Casting Time: Instant.
Cooldown: 60s
Rate: ooo
Commentary: You'll be getting this skill whether you like it or not. It is a prerequisite for Asperio and it is great having 3 Holy Waters which is useful for Asperio.


 Ressurection (Supportive Skill)
Description: Ressurects a dead player in your party. You can revive a fallen player to max HP and without cast time under Asperio buff.
Casting Time: Instant
Cooldown: 3000/2400/1800
Rate: oo
Commentary: Another skill that is full of debates. After the patch that increases this skill's cooldown drastically, people chose to leave this skill at level 1, but some players chose to max this skill because of the drastic cooldown decrease per level. But you do not need this skill because you'll transcend into Monk later on. Just put this at level 1 as the prerequisite for Aqua Benedicta.


 Asperio (Supportive Skill)
Description: Requires 1 Holy Water. Improve Acolyte's skill effects. The affected skills are: Holy Light, Heal, Ressurection, Judex, Highness Heal, Sanctuary (Priest), Magnus Exorcismus (Priest), and Ray of Genesis (Priest).
Casting Time: Instant
Cooldown: 60s/40s/20s
Rate: oooo
Commentary: You'll be needing this skill to increase the effects of your skills, especially Heal and Holy Light. You can choose to not learn this at all or max this if you have spare for faster killing with Holy Light and crit-heals with Heal for leveling.


 Oratio (Supportive Skill)
Description: Chants a spell which recite the prayers of gods to inflich 8%/9%/10%/11%/12% of your magic power on every 2s for the duration of 20s.
Casting Time: Instant
Cooldown: 0s
Rate: o
Commentary: Bad skill is bad, you better off spamming your Holy Light rather than using this skill. The damage is horrible even for a DoT. But Priests find this skill very useful because it can be stacked with other DoT skills.



III. Skill Build(s) for Acolyte
First of all, as you will transcend into Monk later, you do not have to worry about picking the correct skill or whatnot. Just pick and max any offensive skills that you have (except Oratio) to fasten your leveling process. Holy Light and Lex Divina are must max skills. Heal and Renovatio are also a must for healing purposes. Take Asperio if you want a slight faster killing using Holy Light (it crits under the Asperio buff).
Thus I recommend you this build for leveling:

Quote

- Level 5 Holy Light (Main offensive skill)
- Level 5 Blessing (For more survivability)
- Level 5 Heal (Main healing skill)
- Level 1 Renovatio (No SP left, and level 1 Renovatio is still great! Secondary healing skill)
- Level 3 Lex Divina (Finishing spell)
- Level 1 Increase Agi (you really do not need this skill that much due to its horrible cooldown)
- Level 1 Aqua Benedicta (Prerequisite to Asperio)
- Level 3 Asperio (faster killing means faster leveling)

Those are pretty much the core skills that you must have. You can add Highness Heal if you want to (Meditatio must be learned as prereq).
You can choose to drop Blessing and max Renovatio. It's your call.



IV. Acolyte's Stats Distribution
As an Acolyte striving on becoming a Monk, just focus on INT, all the way until you reach 25. Do not bother with other stats.


V. Introduction to The Monk

Quote

Monks are Acolytes who moved away from the study of the divine and walk the path of asceticism. The Monk relies on nothing, except on their fists, fists that are hard as rock. They are capable to improve their physical performances and controlling their inner strength and they will continue to improve their strength, stronger just for a sole reason, to crush every enemy they may encounter. They do not show their weakness to their enemies, rather, they have diminished all of their weaknesses with rigorous training. They stepped away from the path of divine for a reason, to proof that they feared nothing.[/b]

Upon reaching level 25, you can transcend to either a Priest or a Monk. If you want to change into a Priest, please, you will not find anything useful in this thread so get your arse outta here

Monks are close combatants who use fists to excel in battle. They also begin with a whole new set of skills, meaning, you will get a reset skill after transcending into a Monk but you cannot add any of the Acolyte's skill. Monk relies on his lightning fast attacks to stack up spirit spheres for an even greater offensive attacks which require spirit spheres. They have a very strong physical body which means high defense and can serve as Secondary Tanker or even Main Tanker if geared and built properly.

Yes, going for a Monk is a tough path to follow as you'll giving up all of your Acolyte skills, imagine that friendly Heal skill taken away from you. But as you leveled up , you'll feel the greatness of a Monk. I can guarantee you that.



VI. Monk's Skills
I have listed all of Monk's skills, description, commentary and personal ratings on each skill below.


 Quadruple Palm (Offensive)
Description: Struck a target with multiple punches. Inflict 17%/19%/21%/23%/25% of your attack power. Generates 1 Spirit Sphere.
Casting Time: Instant
Cooldown: 0s
Rate: ooooo
Commentary: Your main DPS skill. It has no cooldown and the animation is quite fast. I really recommend you to max this skill ASAP after transcending into a Monk.


 Iron Palm (Passive)
Description: Passively increase your defense by 10%/20%/30%/40%/50%.
Rate: ooooo
Commentary: 50% extra defense at level 5 and it is passive. MAX THIS BABY.


 Spiritual Cadence (Passive)
Description: Gain 2 attack power for each Intelligence and allows you to generate Spirit Sphere while using offensive skills.
Rate: ooooo
Commentary: This could be the best passive you'll ever had alongside with Iron Palm because simply it is a passive skill! Now, you do not have to worry about investing Intelligence (INT), rather, it enhances your attack power up to the fullest. Because of this skill, an equalized amount of STR and INT is better than a pure STR/INT stats. For example: 30 STR and 30 INT is better than having 40 STR or 40 INT alone.


 Iron Mountain Attack (Offensive)
Description: Gather your inner strength to crush 2 nearby enemies by 37%/39%/42%/44%/47% of your attack power. Requires 3 Spirit Spheres.
Casting Time: Instant
Cooldown: 0s
Rate: ooooo
Commentary: Your secondary DPS skill after Quadruple Palm. The skill got greater damage, twice the damage of Quadruple Palm and it hits 2 enemies. The only downside is that this skill requires 3 Spirit Spheres. You will need to build up your Spirit Spheres before using this skill.


 D. Grand Collapse (Offensive)
Description: Strike an enemy with a series of tackles to inflict the damage of your 14%/16%/18%/29%/21% attack power. Generates 2 Spirit Sphere.
Casting Time: Instant
Cooldown: 6s.
Rate: oo
Commentary: This skill has horribly low damage and it has a pretty long cooldown. Leave this skill at level 1 because you're only using this skill to obtain two Spirit Spheres instantly.


 Intimidation (Debuff)
Description: Taunt an enemy to make it attack you.
Casting Time: Instant
Cooldown: 20s/17s/14s/11s/8s
Rate: ooo
Commentary: Similar to Swordman's Provoke, you taunt an enemy to attack you instead to your party members. A great tanking tool indeed, also used to hold aggro.


 Summon Spirit Sphere (Buff)
Description: Instantly generates 3 Spirit Sphere and reset the cooldown of all your skills.
Casting Time: Instant
Cooldown: 240s/210s/180s/150s/120s
Rate: oooo
Commentary: Personally, I love this buff. With this you can do two consecutive Guillotine Fists in a row, every two minutes. How awesome is that? This buffs really helps in PvP, also the most important key to guarantee your victory. But, if you don't PVP that much and do not plan to PVP in the future, you can leave this skill at 1. But really, you'll regret not having this skill maxed.


 [size=3]Lightning Crush (Offensive)
Description: Creates a shockwave by pounding the ground to inflict 15%/17%/20% of your attack power to maximum 3 enemies and generates 50% threat.
Casting Time: Instant
Cooldown: 3s
Rate: ooo
Commentary: Your aggro keeping tool. Spam this every 3s while facing multiple mobs to ensure your party's safety. Use the combination of Intimidation Lightning Crush and Stone Skin permanently keep your aggro especially when tanking a boss.


 [size="3"]Flee (Buff)
Description: Increases your dodge rate by 4%/8%/12%/16%/20% for 10 seconds.
Casting Time: Instant
Cooldown: 60s
Rate: ooo
Commentary: This skill is actually increases by a goody 20% Flee which is "okay" in my opinion. It isn't both great and bad. We, Monks, do not possess a huge amount of AGI in the first place, so I'd still prefer Protection Ki over any day.
 Lightning Walk (Offensive)
Description: Instantly move in front the targeted enemy and strike it with 17%/19%/21%/23%/25% of your attack power. Generates 1 Spirit Sphere.
Casting Time: Instant
Cooldown: 60s/50s/40s/30s/20s
Rate: ooo
Commentary: Personally, this skill is great. I found love from this skill. While it is not that important in PVE, I gotta say this skill works wonder in PVP. Fact: There are a lot of runners in PVP and you should use this to chase your enemy. In PVE, this skill main usage is just to generate spirit sphere. 


 Throw Spirit Sphere (Offensive, Debuff)
Description: Fire a spirit bullet to your enemy from far away to inflict 17%/19%/21%/24%/26% of your attack power and increase 10% of damage inflicted by all of Monk's offensive skill for 15s. Generates 1 spirit sphere.
Casting Time: Instant
Cooldown: 10s
Rate: ooooo
Commentary: Monk's greatest debuffing skill. While the damage is not that great, the only and the sole reason of this skill is just to debuff your enemy so that you will deal more damage with other offensive skills for what, 15 seconds? That means you can perma-debuff your enemy! This skill also generates 1 spirit sphere. How great is that? Just leave this skill at level 1.



 Ki Explosion (Buff)
Description: Increases your attack power by 6%/12%/18%/24%/30% for 30 seconds. Requires 3 Spirit Spheres.
Casting Time: Instant
Cooldown: 60s
Rate: ooooo
Commentary: This is also one of the greatest buff you can have as a Monk. It increases your attack power by 30% at level 5. It has 60s cooldown with 30s duration. If you want to get a slight increase on your DPS, you should max this skill, but it's okay to just leave it at level 1 if you're a pure tanker. You'll need this buff in order to use Guillotine Fist.


 Guillotine Fist (Offensive)
Description: Gather your mind, spirit and physical power to deal a tremendous strike. Inflict 82%/91%/101%/110%/120% of your attack power and stuns your enemy for 3 seconds. Only available in Ki Explosion state.
Casting Time: Instant
Cooldown: 60s
Rate: ooooo
Commentary: Your ultimate offensive skill. Although it has the highest damage modifier in RO2 when coupled by Ki Explosion, its cooldown is still quite long. Still, I recommend you to max this skill because the increase per level is high, not to mention this skill stuns your target for 3s which is great!



 Protection Ki (Buff)
Description: Gather your spirit to emit a defensive aura that surrounds your body. Decreases any damage taken by 10%/20%/30%/40%/50% for 10 seconds.
Casting Time: Instant
Cooldown: 120s.
Rate: oooo
Commentary: Everything is just great except the duration and cooldown part. It only buff you for 10 seconds with a 120s cooldown. But, every seconds count, especially in raids. Believe me, you will not regret maxing this skill, if and only if you're planning to be a tanker. Otherwise, you can choose to leave this at level 1 for Steel Body.


 Stone Skin (Toggle Buff)
Description: Gather all of your spirit sphere to increase your HP by 7%/14%/21%/28%/35%, Defense by 40%/80%/120%/160%/200% and Threat Value by 60%/120%/180%/240%/300% but decreases attack power by 10% while this skill is active. Press this skill once again to deactivate the buff. Require all 5 spirit spheres. Does not require spirit sphere while Protection Ki is active.
Casting Time: 4s
Cooldown: 3s 
Rate: ooooo
Commentary: Monk's ultimate defensive skill, which means this skill is the ultimate tanking tool of the Monk's tree. This skill generates a tremendous amount of threat. Use this with Lightning Crush to always keep aggro. Your HP will be increased by 35% and defense by 200% at level 5. I really really recommend you to max this skill.


VII. Skill Builds for Monk
The Monk has several skill builds, namely: Pure Tank build, DPS-Tank (Hybrid) build, and the pure DPS build. To be noted that you cannot add Acolyte skills anymore once you transcend into Monk. Disclaimer: The purpose of this section is to recommend you the builds that I've created. You can choose to follow this build or customize it the way you like. If you want some suggestions you can post it in this thread.


Pure Tank build (13 SP left)
This build is very good in raid runs and you'll almost welcomed in any raid party because you have all tanking tools like Intimidation and Flee. But this build has low DPS capability, and you're pretty much useful limited for tanking.


Hybrid build, DPS-Tank (7 SP left)
You will solo just fine with this build, it has all the offensive skills and defensive skills needed. You are also acceptable in raid parties as they also need your DPS. And you can PVP just fine with this build. Leftovers can be spent on either Lightning Walk (for PVP) or Intimidation.


Pure DPS build (7 SP left)
The only advantage you have when using this build is you will feel a drastic increase on your DPS. But this build is still not recommended, because the build does not have the versatility which is Monk's main feature. You will have a hard time joining a party, you'll lack of defensive skills which is needed in PVP which means you will die faster. 


My build 
The advanced version of hybrid build. You can solo/party leveling just fine with this build. You are also acceptable in raid runs and most importantly, you got all the advantages in PVP when using this build. Lightning Walk is maxed for mobility, Summon Spirit Sphere is also maxed to do the infamous 2 consecutive Guillotine Fists. That's not all, you can also tank just fine with all maxed defensive skill. This build lacks Flee skill which in my opinion is useless.



VIII. Monk's Stats Distribution
I've listed all types of the stat distribution for a Monk.


DPS focus
- STR: 40
- INT: 40
- VIT/AGI: 8
or
- STR: 41
- INT: 41

Semi DPS & Semi Tank
- STR: 35-40
- INT: 35-40
- Leftovers to VIT

Pure Tanking
- STR: 30
- INT: 30
- VIT: 35
- Leftovers to STR/INT or increase VIT


IX. Monk's Skill Rotations and Combos
I've written all Monk's all the important rotations and combos, most common and effectiveness on each rotations and combos used below. But first thing first, I would like to explain the difference between a skill rotation and a skill combo.

While some people agreed that those two words are entirely similar, it is actually not. A combo is when you perform a series of skills that has an end, or at least has two or three seconds before repeating those series of skills, which probably mean (or in most cases) there would probably one or two skills that still in a cooldown state, while the rest has its cooldown reseted already.
On the other hand, a skill rotation is a series of skill which can be repeated and is effective to deal damage continously.

A combo is great to burst out your damage in a single time and a rotation is great for your overall DPS.

Okay, let's move on to the lists of combos and skill rotations shall we? Combos first:

[combo] Throw Spirit Sphere to Lightning Walk combo
This combo is so useful when facing a mob at long range. This requires you to have Throw Spirit Sphere and Lightning Walk. This combo is so simple, it basically debuffs your opponent at long range with Throw Spirit Sphere (+10% damage from any of Monk's offensive skills), then instantly close the gap within you and your enemy. This combo is perfect when used against ranged classes in PVP such as Magicians and Rangers. Not to mention you'll gain 2 spirit spheres from this combo!

The combo mechanism: Throw Spirit Sphere then Lightning Walk. As simple as that. 


[combo] The Double-deadly-Guillotine combo
This combo is simple, yet deadly. Basically, this combo enable you to perform two Guillotine Fists in a row which you can perform every 2 minutes after Summon Spirit Sphere has its cooldown reseted. 

The combo mechanism: Generate 3 spirit spheres (using any spirit generating skills. I recommend you to use the Throw Spirit Sphere > Lightning Walk combo to close your gap + gain 2 spirit spheres) to use Ki Explosion afterwards, then use your Asura Strike (Asura Strike requires you to be in Ki Explosion state / Fury state in RO1). Now, remember a skill called Summon Spirit Sphere (or Zen)? It basically generates 3 spirit spheres IN AN INSTANT and reset all of your skills' cooldown! So what does it mean? That means, after you use Summon Spirit Sphere, you can do another Ki Explosion to Guillotine Fist for the second time. Guillotine Fist stuns your opponent for 3 seconds, it means you can do the second Guillotine Fist without being interupted, or in most cases are. This combo is very effective in PVP as it guarantees you victory. 

TLDR version: Generate 3 spirit spheres > Ki Explosion > Guillotine Fist > Summon Spirit Sphere > Ki Explosion > another Guillotine Fist.

[rotation] The Aggro Holding rotation
This rotation is used to hold aggro while tanking. The required skills are Lightning Crush, Stone Skin and Intimidation.

The combo mechanism: Activate your Stone Skin (it increases max HP, defense, and threat) before initiating in battle, then just spam your Lightning Crush to drastically mobs' threat towards you. Use Intimidation when its not on cooldown or when needed.

Basically: Stone Skin (before battle) > Lightning Crush, Intimidation when needed > repeat.


[rotation] Offensive Rotation(s)
Contains all rotations used when attacking your opponent. P.S = SS is Spirit Sphere.

Rotation 1. Quadruple Palm > repeat.
Rotation 2. Quadruple Palm 3x (3 SS) > Iron Mountain Attack > repeat.
Rotation 3. D. Grand Collapse (2 SS) > Quadruple Palm 1x (3 SS) > Iron Mountain Attack > repeat

You can, of course, combine combos and rotations to perform some devastating combinational combos!
For example, add Throw Spirit Sphere > Lightning Walk as an opener before rotation 1, 2 or 3. That way you can debuff your enemy, close the gap between you and your enemy and launch your deadly DPS!