As a monk almost maxed at 7200AA, I often get asked: which AA are important for monks? Well, as usual, the answer is: it depends.
Monk AA is split into three catagories: Offensive (DPS), Defensive (Survivability), and Pulling. As you progress, you're going to have to work on all three. Even if you're primarily a raiding monk, and you figure DPS is you main function, you still need to live through the fight's AEs, occasionally offtanked add, etc.
Here I have a three tables of monk AA: critical, very high, and high priority. All the AAs not listed may still be important, but not as important as the ones listed here. This will easily take you into 2000+ AA. Which order you get the critical ones is up to you, but I'd finish or get close to finishing everything critical before moving onto the next table.
Critical:| Monk AA Name | | Type | | Group/Raid | | Notes |
| Ambidexterity | | DPS | | G/R | | We dual wield, make no mistake |
| Combat Agility 18 | | DEF | | G | | Up to 18 is critical, drops off after this |
| Combat Stability 18 | | DEF | | G | | Up to 18 is critical, drops off after this |
| Critical Mend | | DEF | | G/R | | Healing 50% of HPs is nice |
| Extended Crystalpalm | | DPS | | R | | One of two main burns |
| Extended Speed Focus | | DPS | | R | | One of two main burns |
| Ferocity | | DPS | | G/R | | |
| Fists of Steel | | DPS | | G/R | | Usually not a big fan of procs, but it's often and so good it makes 1HB useless on a monk |
| Hastened Death | | PUL | | G/R | | Fade every 30s |
| Hastened Mend | | DEF | | G/R | | Mend every 30 seconds! |
| Heightened Awareness | | DEF | | G | | |
| Imitate Death | | PUL | | G/R | | Our fade |
| Innate Run Speed | | PUL | | G/R | | |
| Moving Mountains | | PUL | | G/R | | Incredibly nice pull/split tool |
| Natural Durability | | DEF | | G/R | | Must for any class |
| Planar Durability | | DEF | | G/R | | 3% of 60k is almost 2k! |
| Planar Power | | DPS/DEF | | G/R | | Just do this |
| Purify Body | | DEF | | R | | Cures anything, including "that pull" from the Avatar |
| Rapid Feign | | PUL | | G/R | | When FD fails, you'll wish you put points here |
| Rapid Strikes | | DPS | | G/R | | Pure quickness |
| Shielding Resistance | | DEF | | R | | This allows you to wield in secondary against nasty DS |
| Stonewall | | PUL | | G | | FD through spells |
| Unflinching Resolve | | PUL | | G | | Stun from behind when pulling = death |
| Weightless Steps | | PUL | | G/R | | Run 8 more or less |
Very High:| Monk AA Name | | Type | | Group/Raid | | Notes |
| Armor of Wisdom | | DEF | | G | | AC boosts never bad when tanking |
| Combat Agility 32 | | DEF | | G/R | | Continue to work this upward |
| Combat Fury | | DPS | | G/R | | Criticals |
| Combat Stability 32 | | DEF | | G/R | | Continue to work this upward |
| Discordant Defiance | | DEF/PUL | | G/R | | Resist stuff more often, live longer |
| Extended Ingenuity | | DPS | | G/R | | So self-buffs last longer... but more importantly, so does Zan Fi! Huge boost! |
| General Sturdiness 20 | | DEF | | G/R | | Add some HPs to the mix |
| Grappling Strike | | UTI | | G/R | | Very handy positioning tool (think: High Priest in Sarith) |
| Hastened Purification of the Body | | DEF | | R | | For those repeating status ailments |
| Hastened Stunning Kick | | DPS | | G/R | | This, plus Masters', lowers re-use from 60 to 9 seconds. |
| Infusion of Thunder | | DPS | | G/R | | Perfect for use with Speed Focus/td] |
| Kick Mastery | | DPS | | G/R | | So much of monkly DPS is tied to the kicks... |
| Masters' Hastened Combination | | DPS | | G/R | | This plus Hastened Stunning Kick lowers Stunning Kick to 9 seconds |
| Physical Enhancement | | DEF | | G/R | | Pretty simply, helps everything defensive |
| Return Kick | | DPS | | G | | Riposte fires often, extra Flying Kicks never hurt |
| Second Spire | | DPS | | G/R | | Perfect little 10min refresh boost |
| Sinister Strikes | | DPS | | G/R | | Sweet passive boost |
| Stunning Kick | | DPS/DEF | | G/R | | If the mob is stunnable, greatly lowers the mobs' DPS output, so it's both DPS and DEF! |
| Twinproc | | DPS | | G | | For those who like to see procs |
| Zan Fi's Whistle | | DPS | | G/R | | 30% DPS boost when active, see also Extended Ingenuity |
High:| Monk AA Name | | Type | | Group/Raid | | Notes |
| Burst of Power | | DPS | | G/R | | Take triple attack all the way to 500 skill! |
| Combat Agility 45 | | DEF | | G/R | | Finish it off |
| Combat Stability 45 | | DEF | | G/R | | Finish it off |
| Dreamlike Might | | DPS | | G/R | | Raw Strength |
| Earthern Brawn | | DPS | | G/R | | Raw Strength |
| Enhanced Aggression | | DPS | | G/R | | Parses show this is not as useful as you'd think; get the STR first |
| Extended Impenetrable Discipline | | DEF/PUL | | G/R | | You'll thank me one day, when Furro asks you to "tank those four until the tanks get in there" |
| Five Point Palm | | DPS | | G/R | | This provides a nice little kick every so often |
| General Sturdiness 25 | | DEF | | G/R | | Finish it off |
| Mystical Attuning 8 | | UTL | | R | | For hybrids, this is real important; but we usually have plenty of room for buffs |
| Punch Mastery | | DPS | | G/R | | Get this nearly last; sounds weird, but only affects some special attacks |
| Technique of Master Wu | | DPS | | G/R | | This fires often at the end, and helps enough! |
| Veiled Strength | | DPS | | G/R | | Raw Strength |
| Veteran's Wrath | | DPS | | G/R | | |
Ok, while this isn't perfect... it's not a bad start. Feel free to post your own thoughts here, tell me if I missed a big one, or send a /tell in game!
