I'd like to see a "how-to" post for every dps class.
One of the most secretive things in game seems to be how to burn a mob. I think a lot of folks like to hold back on that as I find the most successful "burners" are often the least likely to give out useful information on how it is done. In trying to change that, I freely stole advice from everywhere I could, plus added my own experience, to write the following.
I originally wrote this article around October of 2016. I'd been watching raid parsing since Phoenix Ascending launched and felt I was doing well enough to post what I do as I was usually in the top ten and often the top five for melee DPS parsing, and that was just wearing and wielding group gear as I had no raid gear yet. (Edit: This is no longer entirely the case.)
Edit: A word about parsing. Parsing is done from the log file of the character of the player running the parse. Characters that are at a remove from the parsing player's character are less likely to have all their activities, including damage, in that log file. This is fine for melees because we all tend to cluster around the boss mob (recognizing that many boss fights make us move our attentions periodically, decreasing DPS). It is not so good for casters as they tend to stand off at a distance where their damage may not all be recorded by a melee character's log file. Also, anyone can choke on one fight or even several, especially if they have recently changed their interface or display options or something. A single parse says nothing about a character or its player unless it is very high and that just indicates potential unless it is consistently very high. It says little to nothing about lower scores if they have raid duties than just DPS. On the other hand, it is the only tool we DPS types have to use when we seek to evaluate and improve. The only way to get something approaching validity (and then, only for characters that are typically near the parsing character) is to look at them from many fights over many, many nights. What good does this do? Well, it helps the parsing player see where they can improve. That's number one. It also identifies players that are having problems because if, night after night, we see the same rogue doing half or a quarter of what the rogue or rogues that are consistently at the top are doing, then it indicates something. Let's try to avoid calling it a problem, at least initially, and think of it as an opportunity for improvement. It is then incumbent on the class leader to try to figure out where the disconnect is and help them to do better. Having someone just accept such a disparity because the higher averaging player has a good weapon, or a few more AA, or some such, does not help anyone, least of all the raiders.
So far as my own experience goes. I've been playing EQ since 1999 and was raiding Fear and Hate even before Kunark (as a shaman). At the time I switched to Snaz I was level 55 (those were HARD levels) and one of the 12 highest level characters on the server. Snaz was created the month Kunark came out and was the first iksar to attain level 60 on E Marr (that and a handful of money will get me some water to drink in Freeport). I have been playing on E Marr since the server opened (with a few years off, here and there) and have also been raiding since 1999. I don't know all the monks in our combined guild yet and there may very well be someone with better experience at this or who has some good suggestions to make the following advice better. I'd love it if there was and would appreciate it if they will contribute. I intend to update this post as I learn more.
Ideally it would be nice if every class was doing something like this as an ongoing thing but that's not up to me. We all pay to play and no one pays us to play.
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Monk Burning(Hmm, that sounds bad.)
Burning a boss sounds like something only a wizard or a mage might do but, when it comes to boss mobs, most of us DPS types need to know how to "burn."
Every class does it differently. Likewise, your available AA, their degree of development, your gear, and other factors, all play a part in how you do it. So does what level you are, what expansion you are playing in, and what skills and items have been added, changed, or nerfed. For this article 6we are going to assume you are a level 105 monk in the Empire of Kunark (EOK) expansion with all of your non-tradeskills AA maxed out. This is all even before considering that you may have to adapt it some to better suit peculiarities of the boss you are fighting.
Keep in mind the principle of monkliness in burning mode combat, Grasshopper.
We attack a lot.
We attack on a better attack table than anyone else.
We riposte like crazy so we are not limited to attacking from the rear.
We can dual wield or use a two-hander with equal facility.
We can add a lot of damage modifiers to our attacks, then add a lot of multipliers to those attacks.
We can add additional procs and attacks to our attacks.
We can increase our proc rate.
We can (sometimes) take a few hits which gives us time to pop-and-drop and completely reset aggro.
We can shed that aggro every few seconds if necessary.
We can regain endurance after death or long fights.
We can instantly heal nearly half our hit points every thirty seconds.
We can purify our bodies to shed all dots and debuffs
We make our group ten percent more like to parry, block, riposte, or dodge attacks.
We make our group do 25% more damage with weapons for fifty strikes--every thirty seconds.
If you have not done Mata Muram trials to raise the caps on your resists then you need to. Should be really easy for a 105 and the instructions are all at
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=5671I suggest you also go do the Dragons of Norrath lines to get the Keeper or the Dark Reign line of AAs. These can only help and they are easy as pie at our levels. Instructions are at:
http://almarsguides.com/eq/don================================================== ==============================
1) Gear
1-1) Miscellaneous
1-2) Weapons
1-3) Armor
1-4) Consumables
1-4-1) Food and Drink
1-4-2) Poison
1-4-3) Glyphs
1-5) Augmentations
1-5-1) Suggested Slot 4 augs include
1-5-2) Suggested Slot 7/8
1-5-3) Suggestions for Slot 3
1-5-4) Power Sources
1-6) Focus Item Effects
1-7)Item AA
2) Trophies
3) Tribute
4) Group Dynamics
5) UI Preparation
5-1) Hotbars
5-2) Raid Kick Spam Key™
5-3) Macros
5-4) Suggested Macros
6) Considerations
7) Getting This Burn Started
7-1) First Burn Phase
7-1-1) First Burn Phase Preparation
7-1-2) First Burn Phase Damage
7-2) Second Burn Phase
7-3) Third Burn Phase
7-4) Fourth Burn Phase
7-5) Fifth Burn Phase
7) More Notes
Special AA
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1) Gear
1-1) Miscellaneous
First is gear, go do the last Gribb's HA in Deadman's Hills until you get a reusable Blood Drinker potion off the boss at the end (when he shows up and when he drops it). This is a reusable potion that gives your melee attacks a 1% vampire effect, lasts for several minutes, and has like a twenty minute cooldown
.
1-2) Weapons
Get the best weapons you can manage. Initially this will probably be the ones you buy with Tranquility points in the Plane of Health. Aug them with the best damage increasing augs you can find. I recommend both a one-handed setup and two-handed setup, but if you can only do one, prioritize the two-handed.
1-3) Armor
Get the TBM monk raid BP as soon as you can. It has a fantastic clicky on it that gives you 5,000 additional damage on each of your next 40 kicks. Even the group BP will give you 3,000.
From here, killing named in EoK will give you amorphous armor, as well as non-visible pieces, depending on the mob. The are very good pieces that fall somewhere between TBM group gear and TBM raid gear. Keep in mind that the Focus effects won't be as high as you would like.
Monk armor comes with Flying Kick and Tiger Claw bonuses and you can further increase it with augs but both of these bonus sets have tight caps (100?).
1-4) Consumables
1-4-1) Food and Drink
Try to find food and drink that gives you stats such as strength that will further raise your DPS.
1-4-2) Poison
Also, get some poison that you can use. Spider Bite line may be the best thing going right now, but that could change. It's pricey but it lasts a long time. Another problem is that supplies are limited. I created my own Grandmaster Poison Maker alt just to try to get a handle on this but I am still tightly constrained by available materials.
1-4-3) Glyphs
Glyphs are nice if you can afford them. You can also buy them with Loyalty Points instead of AA. Don't waste resources on the defensive ones. You want Destruction II so you can do 60% more damage for two minutes.
1-5) Augmentations
As far as procs on augmentations go, anything vampiric is great. Monks do a lot of melee damage and anything that returns part of that damage to us as healing is doubly welcome.
1-5-1) Suggested Slot 4 augs include
Insigni Saevus, comes from TDS Progression #19: Deep Lies the Snow in Combine Dredge. - it has 11 damage and can go in any weapon.
Sigil of Thokk, comes from Gurrak Tyrant in the Plane of War, it has 10 damage and Vampiric VI and can only be used in 1 handed weapons.
1-5-2) Suggested Slot 7/8
For these slots you will want to emphasize heroic strength and /or heroic dexterity to the maximum degree possible.
1-5-3) Suggestions for Slot 3
With lvl 105 it is no longer possible to max your attack stat with just gear. There are slot 3 augs from LDoN that can add you a decent amount of attack and get you closer to the attack cap. You can go to raidloot.com to find a list of these. The Tear of Alaris is the best all around slot 3 aug. If you have this in ammo slot you will only benefit from the defense on it so it is beneficial to max it out and turn it into an aug.*
There are also slot 3 flying kick augs from Zebuxoruk in The Void. You will want these to get you to the 100 flying kick cap. In order to buy these augs you have to go through SoD progression. You have to have the Void G flag to buy the 14 dmg flying kick aug. This is done by doing all of the group progression and also beating the 7 events in Discord Tower. There are write ups on zam for the progression.
Fill any slots you have open with Faycite Shards to lower the timers on your discs. Crane Stance is the best out of these, I think.
1-5-4) Power Sources
Presumably the Thaell Ew Totem (a drop from dinos on Thuliasaur Island) is best for raiding, followed by the Pure Energeian Elemental Orb.
1-6) Focus Item Effects
Everquest pretty much assumes that, at a certain level and standard of play, we will have certain focus effects equipped. At a raid level in EoK, or just prior to it, these are what are expected for a monk.
Neck item: Improved Parry / Block VII
Range item: Improved Dodge VII
Range Item: Prismatic Ward XXI
Arms: Cleave IX - 49
Legs: Ferocity XIII
Belt, Varied: 45% Haste
If you can get above these, great. Otherwise you want to be as close as possible because the game will punish you with reduced performance if you do not meet these levels.
1-7) Item AA
In a similar vein to the focus concept, there are also various item AAs that players are expected to have. These are AA that are only awarded for clicking on a ultra-rare or raid item that confers that skill at that level. For EOK raid characters these are listed below, in order of importance for burning.
Ancient Flames (+17% Haste and Overhaste)
Might of Stone IX (+100 ATK)
Myrmidon's Skill XII (+21% Dodge)
Form of Defense XXV (+594 AC)
Form of Endurance XXIII (+2100 HP)
Knowledge of the Past XXIII (+113 HP per tick)
2) Trophies
Replica of the Qeynos Claymore, you get this for the Achievement: Greater Hero of the Call, a follow on quest in CoTF, it gives 500 health, mana, and endurance, 100 AC, 5 heroic stats, and 20 spell damage and heal improvement.
Trophy of the Breeding Grounds, comes from completely all quests, hero, merc, and partisan, in the Breeding Grounds, gives 20 heroic dexterity and 5 riposte
Trophy of the Seafarer, +400 hp/mana/end; +75 AC; +5 all heroics; +10 spell dmg/heal amount; +25 Swimming Skill
Trophy of the Tree, 20 heroic str and 20 attack cap, for doing all quests, hero, merc, and partisan in Evantil, the Vile Oak.
Trophy of the House (use as a filler for one of the other 4 or use as a 5th if you have collections for CotF / TDS done), reward for Savior of the House of Thule, at tier 5 it give 18 strength and similarly increases the cap. This was ridiculously easy and fast to get with a level 105 monk, alone and without even a merc up.
3) Tribute
Don't forget about tribute. I have the following advice, second hand:
Eyes of the Hunter
Fury of Combat*
Hero's Deftness
Arm of the Hero
Arm of Power II
The lower 3 can be switched out with whatever you would prefer. The top 2 you should always have in your tribute.
4) Group Dynamics
Hopefully you will have shaman and a bard in your group. Here is what you want from them:
1) Shaman Ancestral Aid increases caps on all basic stats by 130 and starts regeneration for 671 per tic. Duration is 5 tics (30 seconds).
2) Shaman Epic 2.0 weapons casts Prophet's Gift of the Ruchu which increases all critical damage done by 110%, increases chance to critical hit by 65%, and causes you to regenerate at 500 points per tic--all of this is for one minute at a shot, hopefully the shaman will keep it coming as it is instant click with no recast time. I suggest you make a GINA trigger for this: "You are blessed with the gift of the Ruchu.". Then put a 60 second timer on it and name it Shaman Epic 2.0.
3) Shaman Third Spire of the Ancestors raises your minimum damage modifier by 45%, increases your accuracy by 60%, and improves your weapon's chances to proc by 25%. This is a 10 minute recast timer so you only get 1.5 minutes. Don't waste it. I suggest you make a GINA trigger for this: "You focus on the third spire of ancestors." and put a 90 second timer on it, calling it "Shaman 3rd Spire" or, alternatively, you could omit the timer and have a second warning at: "You lose focus on the third spire of ancestors"
A bard might be doing Fierce Eye. You might want another GINA. Begins with: "You feel an aura of fierceness come over you." It lasts 60 seconds and ends with: "You are not quite as fierce as you were a moment ago."
A ranger might use Epic 2.0 click, Spire, QuickTime, or click their BP.
A ranger might be doing Auspice of the Hunter which gives +33% to spell crit direct damage, +230% to accuracy, +225% chance to crit with all skills, +380 to atk. "Your instincts are sharpened by the auspice of the hunter." Lasts for 48 seconds and ends with: "Your mind dulls." (Which is the same message my own brain was giving me every time I had to sit through a lecture in college.)
A Beastmaster might be doing Ruaabri which is +50% to flurry chance and gives Hundred Hands Effect (effectively double speed attack). "You are imbued with Ruaabri's fury." Only lasts 36 seconds and ends with "The fury fades." although I am not certain other things don't also end with the same message--perhaps I am thinking of rage, not fury.
A Beastmaster might also do Dichotomic Fury which is much like Ruaabri but with a few additional temporary boosts. "You are imbued with dichotomic fury." It lasts for 12 seconds (be quick!) and also (aha!) ends with "The fury fades."
Master's Ingenuity at 10/10 (100% activation) is magical, especially when you are grouped with a rogue, beastlord, and berserker that also have their equivalents maxed. Throw in a shaman and maybe a bard or a ranger and this is a group that sometimes gets positions 1 through 4 on the melee DPS parsing (and the bard or ranger do remarkably well, too).
Used properly, GINA is fantastic.
5) UI Preparation
5-1) Hotbars
Have four or five hotbars set up just for raiding. I put them on the second page of each hotbar so I just have to roll each hotbar once before the raid, and then, after the raid, roll them back one to the hotbars I use for groups and solo.
You also have those special AA abilities that can only be used every few days. Hotkey them but use them very judiciously. These sort of things are a problem as you never want to use them in case the next encounter is even tougher, but if you never use them then why have them?
5-2) Raid Kick Spam Key ™
Have all of the following in a line on a single hotbar and all keyed (multi-binded) to the same button shortcut (a button you can pound easily and repeatedly). I call this my Raid Kick Spam Key™ and pound the hell out of it the entire raid once I start, although it's important to make sure Synergy is good to go before starting Burn Cycle 1.
1) Zan Fi’s Whistle – big boost that can run almost all the time, don’t let it lie unused even if you choose not to put it in the Kick Spam, it also makes Drunken Monkey pretty much obsolete.
2) Doomwalker's Synergy - Hard flying kick that debuffs mob against future flying kicks
3) Torrent of Fist's - 3 hard Tiger Claw hits - triggers Master's Synergy, too.
4) Curse of the Thirteen fingers - Mob takes more hurt from damage shields
5) Zalikor's Fang – An obsolete nuke but the Partisan pet line on the same timer is broken.
6) Stunning Kick - consider it a free flying kick and if it stuns the mob, bonus! (But don't use against Grannus, he will reflect it as if it were a spell.)
7 Flying Kick - damage and more damage
Tiger Claw - even more damage
9) Doomwalker's Precision Strike - a shuriken attack that is also buffs your other shuriken attacks
10) Vigorous Shuriken - more damage, even though it is point blank range
11) Banestrike - 8k nuke (you probably have it for this boss's form, mash it regardless)
12) I put my monk epic 1.0 here so I lose my haste buff, I still have most of it.
NO) Pummeling Fists – New level 105 EoK disc that upgrades the Partisan pet line--unfortunately, since the riposte nerf in Fall 2016, mobs now will these almost instantly-we are still stuck with the outdated Zalikor's.
NOTE: Curse of the Thirteen Fingers is an unresistable curse you put on the mob. That mob then takes an extra 467 points of damage every time it hits someone with a damage shield (which is hopefully anyone it should be hitting). When this happens 112 times (shouldn't take long), the curse blows up for 224,000 points of damage or more, depending on rank in that discipline. And you can probably reapply it immediately. I don't think the parser will show it but see that damage? We did that!
5-3) Macros
Macros can be great or they can be crutches in that you might get too reliant on them or not remember why you have them or why they are the way they are.
Here are the ones you will need to roll your own:
/pause <#>
This command is used to put a short pause between actions. Can account for casting time and allowing disciplines enough time to fire. The number is in tenths of a second, so 10 is one second. Try to keep your pauses to a minimum. When the macro encounters a pause you will not be able to manually fire any AA abilities. When using pause in a macro the pause follows the next command. So, if you put /pause and then the next line is /doablity. The pause will come after the doability.
/disc
This command is what you use to fire a discipline. Remember if the discipline is Rk. II/III you must use it in the name. Disciplines can be a little temperamental sometimes they won't fire if they are back to back. To avoid this you can use /pause or put an AA ability or combat ability between them.
/doability <#>
Under actions (alt-m) the second tab is the abilities page there are 6 hotkeys available, these are doability 1-6. On the third tab the combat page there are also 6 hotkeys. You can use the top 4 they are doability 7-10. Whatever you have set as the hotkey will be what fires as that ability number.
/alt act <#>
This command allows you to fire AA abilities. If you target the ability in the AA window in the heading it tells you the number.
/useitem <#>
This command casts the effect from one of your equipped items. 1=Left Earring, 3=Face, 4=Right Earring, 5=Neck, 6=Shoulders, 8=Back, 11=Ranged, 15=Left Ring, 16=Right Ring, 17=Chest, and 20=Waist.
/timer <#>
Use this command to make a hotkey macro fade and cooldown like a normal hotkey. The number is in tenths of a second so 10 is one second. When using /timer you can subtract 5/10s from the actual cooldown, so if the cooldown is 5m or 300s you can set /timer 2995.
The 5/10s is how long a typical macro takes to run, also remember to subtract any of your pause time as well.
One other thing is you can put up to 2 commands on the same line separated by a comma, no space, as long as the first command is a pause.
5-4) Suggested Macros
Five Point Palm has a +500 hate on it so you may want to macro it like this:
FivePoint
/pause 3,/alt act 1012
/pause 10, /alt act 420
/disc Breather Rk. III
/pause 4,/stand
/pause 3,/attack on
This basically fires the attack and immediately drops all your aggro before popping you back into melee.
/pause 3,/alt act 1012 (Fires Five Point Palm with a slight pause)
/pause 10, /alt act 420 (Fires Imitate Death then pauses 1s)
/disc Breather Rk. III (if below 30% Endurance this gives us more)
/pause 4,/stand (Stands us back up after a brief pause)
/pause 3,/attack on (Turns attack back on)
I used to use a timer on this one but to save a line in the code I now instead put a copy of the Imitate Death key on the hotbar just below it so I can tell when it is refreshed (and sometimes I want that hate so I use this instead). This one macro key can now make a big attack, wipe aggro, and let you use breather to grab some quick endurance. Three uses in one!
Likewise, we don't have near so many clickies as we used to--it was really getting out of hand--but you should macro those as well.
6) Considerations
Going through your full burn sequence is going to take awhile. Endurance that you have left over at the end of the fight is wasted so pace yourself, you also have to keep in mind that you might die and lose all your endurance. Also wasted are AA and combat disciplines that you never got to use. You need to start your burn fairly early (bearing in mind some mobs require saving something for a final push at the end) but watch your aggro and drop and pop if you must when it starts getting to the high end of green.
Also, all this suffers a big setback if you die. You lose your buffs and, although some of these might be restored, you might have rez sickness if you were rezzed and not called and, worst of all, you have no endurance and endurance, for a monk, is almost as important as mana to a wizard. Getting enough of this back is doable but slows you down at the outset.
Watch the warnings; watch if you catch ramp. Don't be afraid to pop and drop to lose aggro. With mend maxed you can heal almost half your life and you can do that every 30 seconds so don't let yourself get low. You also do have Earthforce, Whirlwind, and Voidance if things are going really south for you.
Keep in mind that our main burn skills: Heel of Zagali, Terror Palm, Speed Focus, Eye of the Storm, Ironfist, and Earthforce DO NOT stack (each one grabs the upper left corner of the discipline window and will not let it go until it expires or is clicked off).
Also, Drunken Monkey Stance cannot be activated when these are up (although they can be activated when DMS is up) but there is little point in messing with DMS anymore as it is totally overridden by Zan Fi's Whistle--which should be up for 5:45 out of every 7 minutes. You can try, of course, to squeeze in that DMS in the minute and fifteen seconds while Zan Fi's is down and still recharging, but don't you really have enough to do?
7) Getting This Burn Started
When you are ready to start (no rush, let the tank get some aggro):
1) Make sure you have Master's Aura up. This is a group buff discipline that gives everyone a 10% better chance of blocking, parrying, or riposting.
2) Poison your weapons (yes, monks can do this if they buy the right poison, it stacks fine with Blooddrinker so no worries there.
You can start your auto-attack here
3) Click your Blood Drinker's Coating - lifetaps 1% of hits for 3 mins, recast is 20 mins
4) If you have Broken Mirror raid level BP, click it for Eight Leaves Heel Technique (adds 5k to next 40 kicks or 3k for the group version). The EoK group BP does 3750 dmg per click.
5) Use a Glyph if you are going to - Destructive II, 60% more damage for 2 mins
6) Two Finger Wasp* - Doubles all damage taken from monk special punches for 1 min
*If you are first in rotation--rotate with other monks as it does NOT stack. Save it a bit longer if you are the only monk.
Ought to be a way to make this a Gina trigger for monks.
7) Zan-Fi Whistle - big melee damage bonuses for 5:45 mins but takes 7 mins to recast
I moved this to the start of my Raid Spam Key and remade my GINA trigger to show me a timer for when it goes down since there should only be a 1:15 downtime.
7-1) First Burn Phase
7-1-1) First Burn Phase Preparation
NOTE: Have all of First Phase set in a line on a single hotbar and all keyed (multi-binded) to the same button shortcut.
NOTE: You always want 1st Spire in conjunction with Dragon's Balance because Dragon's Balance adds a large possible proc to your attacks and 1st Spire greatly increases the chances of you getting those procs.
NOTE: You always want to follow Infusion of Thunder with Crane and Five Point Palm because those are huge attacks and IoT increases them by 75% as well. This is why monks can sometimes hit for over a million with a flying kick (I think my best that I've noticed was like 660k but I seldom pay attention).
1) Nimble Reflexes - Purely defensive but helps if you catch agro and resets in five minutes so you can use Eye of the Storm then.
2) Ironfist - increases kicks, punches, and innate damage by 215% for one minute -- for a short fight you might want to click this off and after this burn phase so you can immediately start the next. Given enhancements in our Flying Kick damage in EoK, it might actually be better than Eye of the Storm.
3) always use these together the first time, one augments your procs and the other gives you extra procs.
3a) 1st Spire - increases chances for weapon procs for 1.5 minutes
3b) Dragon's Balance - adds extra attacks for 1 minute
4) Dichotomic Form - large damage bonuses for 1 minute
5) Infusion of Thunder - chance to increase melee damage 75% as well as nuke, 5 tics (Holistic Health that Ansati Sul casts will prevent this AA from activating--you will have to use it when you don't have Holistic Health on you)
KEEP GOING!!! The instant these are all activated, immediately launch the next phase as fast as you can hammer those keys!
7-1-2) First Burn Phase Damage
Hammer your way through your Raid Spam Key™, this should take only a second or two to put that entire hotbar on cooldown, don't be shy about it.
NOTE: Infusion of Thunder gives you 75% bonus melee damage so it is really important to get these off within 5 tics of when you set it off at step 5 of the First Burn Phase Prep.
1) Ironfist - increases kicks, punches, and innate damage by 215% for one minute -- for a long fight you might want to hold this for another burn phase, given enhancements in our Flying Kick damage in EoK, it might actually be better than Eye of the Storm.
NOTE: For a longer fight you may just want to save Ironfist for the end if you are apt to run low on endurance)
2) Crane Stance - 2 BIG kicks, watch aggro!
3) Five Point Palm - BIG dragon punch with a nuke, watch aggro again! (Use the macro I suggested.)
4) Click IronFist off (if you used it) before you allow a refreshed Synergy to get used (has to be clicked off in corner of discipline window) or let it ride out for a longer fight.
5) Click your chest for 8 Leaves Heel Technique, followed immediately by Heel of Zagali - harder, more accurate, and faster kicks for 5 tics
6) Pound the hell out of that Raid Kick Spam Key and just keep doing it even when you run out of endurance because it has your Flying Kick and Tiger Claw in it.
7-2) Second Burn Phase
NOTE: 1st Spire, Dragon's Balance, and the last little bit of Infusion of Thunder might still be up.
1) Speed Focus - nearly doubles attack speed for 5 tics (6 if you have the EoK enhancement AA)
2) Focused Destructive Force - doubles number of primary hand attack for 6 tics
7-3) Third Burn Phase
1) Two Finger Wasp Touch (if you are second in rotation for it or are the only monk casting it)
2) Terrorpalm - increases damage from melee attacks by 157%, increases minimum by 812%, for 5 tics
p7-4) Fourth Burn Phase
1) Ironfist if you saved it for a longer fight, otherwise, or when Ironfist is over, go to step 2.
2) Eye of the Storm - increases damage 45%, increases minimum by 160%, for 2 mins
u7-5) Fifth Burn Phase
1) Earthforce - A defensive disc helps on offense! Basically, it adds 1640 heroic strength (i.e., 164 damage is added to all attacks, post mods) in addition to all the protection by mitigation, and it's on a 3 minute timer you don't use for much else. Use this when the other burn discs are down.
Start using everything that is coming back (that it will let you use) and keep pounding that RAID KICK SPAM KEY.
When you start running low on Endurance, use your Breather discipline to get a bit more (only works when you are below 30% and that's if you have rank 3). Done right, this can keep you going (barely) for just about forever, although you will have to limit some of your discs that use endurance). If time permits and you really need it, use Eight Breaths discipline to get a bit more and then just concentrate on the Raid Kick Spam Key for a bit.
More Notes
Ranged attacks are not our thing but carry a big bag full of good shurikens or knives (summoned of course). Have a bandolier option that shifts you to where they are in your ranged and ammo slots. Use that, then use an Autofire macro you have set up. Then have a hot bar with Doomwalker's Precision, Vigorous Shuriken, Sting of the Wasp, and Banestrike and play whack-a-mole with the keys. It's nothing like what we do in melee but when you can't melee it beats sitting on your tail (or whatever you softskins have in place of one).
This one is pretty huge because it deals with what to do if you run out of endurance (either due to a death, a long fight, or a mob taking it from you).
Use imitate death. Now you are down and have no agro so you are out of combat. Hit Breather and get a good-sized chunk of endurance. Breather refreshes quickly, the limitation is Imitate Death. Further, you can do this up to as much as 30% Endurance if you have Rank III in Breather. This reprioritized getting a Rank III Minor Spell Rune for me. Certainly it is enough endurance to keep you going indefinitely. I strongly recommend building a macro for it.
If you are going to get hit a lot, you can use Nimble Reflexes at the beginning. Do not use it later or Eye of the Storm won't be ready in the Fourth Burn Phase.
Hold the Line will hurt your DPS but might help if the healers aren't able to keep up with your ouchies.
Keep Shaded Step and Whirlwind in mind if you need them.
9) Special AA
Don't forget your special AAs. If you use them too late you may not get the most bang for your buck.
Consider Staunch Recovery if you really need a full bar of endurance back, be sure that it will make the diff between winning and losing as you can only do it like twice a week, 68 hour recast, I think.
Intensity of the Resolute - increase all damage done by 55% for 1 min, with a 4 hour recast. You might get off two in one raid if you use the first early, but don't count on it.
Armor of Experience - blocks 100% damage for ten hits, then 75%, 50%, 25%, with a 20 hour recast.
Infusion of the Faithful - increase all your resists and run speed for 15 mins, with a 20 hour recast.
Cheers
Hope this helps guild dps overall, if you are a monk, please feel free to test and add suggestions. If you are not a monk, go make one of these for your own class!
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