Damage

I'm a noob. Currently I have a level 7 monk with no second profession and have yet to place a point in any attribute. I'm waiting until I understand all the skills/spells/hexes/ect... before I commit to a build. I was wondering what skill causes the most total damage (without dependance on a weapon) before factors such as enemy armor, combining with other skills, and things of this nature are considered. Basically I'm looking for the cast with the highest damage number that I can throw a bunch of points into. (Doesn't have to be a monk skill.)

Well, being you a monk, your job is to keep others doing the damage. Not you. Monks heal and protect, rarely smite(dmg dealing catagory for monks).

I appreciate the reply Nilator. And I do realize monks are intended to be healers. But the question remains unanswered. What is the biggest damage dealing skill a monk can wield (from any profession).

It looks like the elementalist fire line has the strongest spells, is that right? Does anyone know how many points need to be put into that line to deal maximum damage?

The fact of the matter is that with runes, you can get the attributes of your primary profession higher than your secondary. Usually, this means that these are the skills you will want to be using. While most people will be looking for you to heal as a monk, you most certainly have the option to be a smiter. As far as elementalist skills go: you could get away with a few, but you will not have the energy to support a mostly elementalist skill line. So while the numbers may not seem to be extremely high, if you want to do damage, I would recommend smiting. Look for combos of skills like Bane signet to do damage and knockdown, then add holy strike (or aftershock if you want to do the elementalist thing) to maximize the extra damage from hitting a knocked down foe. Also, Shield of Judgement is pretty great for solo fariming. It doubles as damage and protection ( the hits come slower becuase of the foes being knocked down).

And don't worry about assigning attribute points. You can take them back, move them around, etc. at any time, as much as you want. There's no penalty at all. You're only making the game harder by not using them to boost your skills.

Awesome, thanks for the info tuperwho!

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The buff skills are pretty nice, like Judge's Insight and Strength of Honor, but you won't be doing the damage directly unless you want to make a Mo/W.

Probaly the strongest direct damage skills you can have would be Balthazar's Aura or Zealot's Fire. Offensive spells don't benefit from the Monk's Primary Attribute so if you want to do damage you should either go Smite, or pick a different Primary.

if you have lvl 15 smiting prayers(12+ sup rune), your shield of judgement is doing 50dmg+knockdown
combine that with holy strike (55dmg+55dmg on knockdowned foe)
a very nice 160dmg combo, can kill W in notime(only when they keep attack)