Though now under Garlean rule, the fortified city-state of Ala Mhigo once claimed dominion over the lands of Gyr Abania and boasted the greatest military might of all Eorzea. Among its standing armies were the monks. Ascetic warriors dreaded by foes on the field of battle as much as the Ala Mhigan pikemen. The monks comprised an order known as the Fist of Rhalgr, and it was to this god?the Destroyer and guardian deity of Ala Mhigo to whom they devoted their lives of fervent worship.
In their remote mountain temples, the monkhood underwent rigorous training of both mind and body, ever seeking to draw closer to the godhead of Rhalgr himself. Over the long course of its esoteric tradition, the Fist has developed a deadly and destructive martial art.
Patch 1.21 saw the introduction of jobs to FFXIV, which allows you to become one of the traditional jobs from the FF series after completing a quest. A Pugilist can become a Monk by equipping the Soul of the Monk item after completing the first quest. The details for this quest are below.
| Quest | NPC | Location | Conditions |
| Brother from Another Mother | Gagaruna | Ul’dah Merchant Strip, Pugilists’ Guild | PGL 30 |
For each quest you complete, you will be rewarded with a new ability, while the latter quests will also reward you with artifact (AF) armour that is shown in the screenshot above.
Introduction to Monk
Monk is a melee damage dealing job which branches from the Pugilist class. It is quite complex compared to the other damage dealing jobs and requires a lot of thought and movement to play right. Most abilities can only be used when in the right form.
Monk Attributes
As a Monk your main attribute is going to be Strength (STR) as this increases physical attack damage. You should be focusing on equipment with this stat. For secondary stats you should be focusing on the likes of Direct Hit Rate, Determination, Critical Hit Rate and Skill Speed in addition to simply boosting STR. However you’ll find Skill Speed is generally not worth it.
Skill Speed and Critical Hit Rate are self explanatory in what they do. For the other two, Determination is used to boost the damage dealt by all attacks and the amount of HP recovered when healed while Direct Hit Rate is Stormblood’s replacement for Accuracy. Instead of a simple hit or miss effect that Accuracy could give, having low Direct Hit Rate for a fight will reduce damage dealt so it is important to improve this stat.
Monk Forms
The Monk has access to three forms, which dictate the skills they are able to use and when. Before we can get into skill rotations it is important to understand what these are and what can be used when. The three forms are called Opo-opo, Raptor and Coeurl. Each of them have three abilities and one will lead to the next form, starting with Opo-opo, on to Raptor, then Coeurl and then back to Opo-opo.
In order to use a skill from one form you must already be under the previous form, with the exception of Opo-opo as this is where you begin.