Penance

[Koyangi]

Either I'm misunderstanding what Penance exactly does or some mobs differ from others.

Some mobs will truly not use any TP moves after I've Penance'd them(until it wears), other's are like, fuck you, TP move goez.

Does Penance slow down their TP accumulation by a lot, or does make it a 0 gain while it's on, and if so, why do some mobs still use TP moves afterwards?

[aurik]

Penance causes monsters to gain 25% less TP from dealing or taking damage. It does not affect their WS-usage AI.

[Neosutra]

For salvage, having our 2 mnks with max penance do a penance order makes the fights a lot easier. Add in a cor for mnk roll and your healers can go afk...

[Ryda]

In my opinion there are only 2 ways to go with MNK tier 2 merits. 3/3 Penance and 3/3 Invigorate is one option. This is what I use and I couldn't imagine using anything as someone who does salvage 6 days a week and nothing much else. Penance is obvious. 60 sec of -25% TP every 3 min is *nice* and as Neo says if you can get the other MNK to get 3/3 also you are really in business. Invigorate is just pretty damned nice too. 240 free HP every 5 min is rarely going to mean the difference between life or death or even change the speed you can move through salvage on higher floors. On the first floor however, when you have one person with severely gimped mp having 3/3 invigorate means 1000 extra HP with no MP cost. Add to that a generous supply stock of Hi-pots and your main MNK can single handedly save your group ALOT of time in the first floor of any given zone. I think if you add the benifit of Invig 3/3 and being prepared with hi-pots you can impact the first floor speed as much as a RDM going from 0/3 to 3/3 phallanx2, which is saying something.

I know some people find formless strikes is useful for certain NM outside salvage. To me nothing exists outside of salvage, but if you can find something worth using merits on to formless strikes at, go for it. Manta is pretty much always wrong.

[Humblejoe]

May sound kinda dumb, but ive heard Penance works two different ways. One way ive heard is that the TP accumulation is reduced and is active for everyone hitting it. The other way ive heard it works, is that it only works for the MNK that used Chi Blast. I'd just like clarification on that, Ty.

[Seditedi]

Pretty sure it's like a Status effect placed on the mob, so it'll work for everyone.
Also Ryda is correct, get 3/3 penance, you're a moron if you don't

[aurik]

Works for everyone that hits the monster / the monster hits.

Monk js2 merits should be at minimum: 3 penance, 1 formless.
Other 2 merits are kinda meh but I have 1 invig, 1 mantra.

[Humblejoe]

Ok, thank you for clearing that up so quickly.

[yrpaine]

I know some people find formless strikes is useful for certain NM outside salvage. To me nothing exists outside of salvage, but if you can find something worth using merits on to formless strikes at, go for it. Manta is pretty much always wrong.

For me formless strikes is one of those things you want at least once. It might not be useful in all situations, but where it is useful it can make the difference between being able to kill it and dying. The final toau mission Blu comes to mind, or einherjar elementals, or kicking some pld's ass in ballista faster.

[Spekkio]

I know some people find formless strikes is useful for certain NM outside salvage. To me nothing exists outside of salvage, but if you can find something worth using merits on to formless strikes at, go for it. Manta is pretty much always wrong.

For me formless strikes is one of those things you want at least once. It might not be useful in all situations, but where it is useful it can make the difference between being able to kill it and dying. The final toau mission Blu comes to mind, or einherjar elementals, or kicking some pld's ass in ballista faster.

formless is one of those things where it's handy to have access to it, but tuning it isn't nearly as necessary. kinda like nightingale. good for counteracting troubedor's double cast time when trying to extend that soul voice, but troub is much more valuable on a shorter recast for things like ES elegy. also, on a side note about mantra, it sounds good for salvage bosses, kinda, but iirc, it will overwrite a body boost given the chance. be cautious about using it around people w/ it up or you'll have some very irked friends!

[aurik]

You definitely want formless as a "career" monk. Amorphs, mobs that use invincible , elementals, etc. I use it a few times a week.

Mantra's main use is to put me on the hate list if I can't or don't want to attack a mob directly. But its also a nice extra 50hp when fighting something that uses Mijin or Astral Flow.

[tufrabza]

what noone mentioned mnk/drk getting a use out of mantra? the use of tier 2 merits will all depend on what each monk does, personally i have 3/3 invigorate and 3/3 mantra

[Belkin]

MNK/DRK is sooooooo unnecessary. Thus making Mantra unnecessary.

[Shojin]

what noone mentioned mnk/drk getting a use out of mantra? the use of tier 2 merits will all depend on what each monk does, personally i have 3/3 invigorate and 3/3 mantra

I never merited Mantra, there was just much better other tier 2's. But I was thinking, if your LS has quite a number of DRKs that are equipped properly and capable or 2hr zerging, capped Mantra would do them wonders for their damage.

Only thing I'm not sure of is if Drain 2 stacks with Mantra. If it doesn't, then what do you think would be better? Drain II or +12% HP? I'm no DRK, but a DRK in my LS says he usually Drain II's for around 300ish...I think. Although Mantra would still work on undead mobs which can't be Drain II'd.

[Seditedi]

what noone mentioned mnk/drk getting a use out of mantra? the use of tier 2 merits will all depend on what each monk does, personally i have 3/3 invigorate and 3/3 mantra

MNK/DRK is pretty worthless, needs too much curing and really inefficient >_>.
Not having Penance = fail

[Dammerung]

mantra does not stack with drain2

[Cream Soda]

I went
3/3 Invigorate (I'm a huge chakra nut so this is the obvious option)
2/3 Penance
1/3 formless