Warmonk

The Warmonk is one of the human starting classes in Urtuk: The Desolation.

## Abilities and Focus

The Warmonk has 2 abilities which are unique among recruitable units:

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## Tactics

When building a monk you should consider that his strengths lie in his utility: being able to jump around units, flipping them into death pits/ near allies for a backstab opportunity or hitting them to stun them so your other units can focus the stunned unit down. For this reason, you want to ensure you have enough stamina to at least be able to perform a jump + flip consistently (i.e. 100 stamina) so try to reach this breakpoint asap while also giving him some vitality so he can survive. If you are running him with a build that hits multiple times (round strike, sudden strike etc.) you may want to have enough stamina for 3-4 hits (the aegis will proc a counterhit and strong vs. will give you extra hits too) so 122 stamina is another good breakpoint in that case.

Another thing related to this, is that strength should not be a priority stat in a utility-based Monk. Although it's true Mauls have high base damage, their main strength relies on their utility + tanking capabilities, so a strength heavy build, while possible, is ill-advised. Instead, consider the monk will need vitality to survive enemy hits after flipping other units and focus generation to proc the god's blessing + revitalizer combo as much as possible. How many points you want to sink into each stat depends on playstyle, but consider that for the monk high focus is pseudo-HP (as aegis will soak up a lot of damage and revitalizer heal you for another bit). This said, it's still important that your monks have enough HP to at least tank 3 or 4 hits so level up stats depending on how much you feel they should be during your fights.

Be mindful that using flip does not give you focus at all. If you are displacing a lot, a vitality build might be better suited.

The most obvious use of a warmonk is to jump and flip enemies into deathpits to kill them instantly. But not every map has those pits and you might have to improvise. Flipping an enemy into your team with a high agility monk, giving your whole team time to finish him off after is a very good way to not break your battle line too much and rush forward into a dangerous position while still killing one unit. Do you have an assassin on your team? Try positioning your units around the tile the target will land on, manipulate speed so your assassin can throw an assassin's mark on that tile and your warmonk throws him into it right after - 6 free attacks.

The lesser known uses of a warmonk are tied to his jump alone. After all, you will face more and more stalwart units. Enemy units have very predictable behaviour and you can abuse it by jumping back and forth across unpassable terrain. If you time it correctly, it will attract their stragglers onto your monk, who will jump back into safety just in time before they reach him, tearing their whole team apart. Watch out for lockdown and especially charging units with engaging strike.

Given his potential to stun targets, pairing him with strong vs. stunned units is a good synergy if you have some of those in your team. Assassins are also highly synergistic with monks due to their backstab traits. Units that have ram or bash can also benefit from the monk flip, granting the monk a critical retaliation hit that will proc a stunning blow. Monks also benefit tremendously from the Concentrate! focus mutator due to their focus-centred kit.

### Viability vs factions

Depending on your build, your Warmonk will fare better or worse against different factions, here's a quick run-down on his strength against the most important ones:

* Scavengers: none have stalwart, so flipping is very powerful against them for death pit kills and/or backstabs. Beware that if you stand near a death pit, their warlord may ram your monk to his death, even with Stalwart! Stunning is quite good against them since none are immune to it although two of them being armoured makes stunning those a bit more problematic.
* Beasts: one of the worst factions for monks to fight against. Most of their units are immune both against displacement AND stun, especially their most threatening ones (greatsword beast, maul beast). That said, the monk can still sneak and stun a porcupine beast or flip them around. Not very favourable.
* Forsaken: monks are one of the best counters against forsaken for 2 reasons: the first one, they are all susceptible to being flipped and the second one, none are stun immune. Furthermore, stunning forsaken means they can't swap with each other, disabling thereby one of the forsaken squad's strongest tactics.
* Swampers: all are susceptible to stun, only the spearman is armoured so the Warmonk can easily stun most of them. Beware you don't get caught in the spearmen chain-taunt, as mauls are very poor against armour and that can quickly kill your warmonk! Also, flipping taunted allies is one of the few ways to interact with your taunted units, which can be a valuable asset on occasions. Flipping is also available against all their units and none of them have bash/ram so death pits are your friend against them.
* Necroreavers: none of them have armour and, except the abomination, all are susceptible to stuns. Furthermore, due to necroreavers natural high HP, stunning their units and focusing them down with a unit with lethal blow can be a viable tactic when fighting them. Beware both the abomination and the javelinier are stalwart!
* Valdor: probably the worst faction for monks to fight against. With the exception of the valdor assassin, all their units are armoured so unless you have sharp eyes your blows will deal pitiful damage to their armour. Moreover, only the crossbowman and assassin are stunnable, meaning even with sharp eyes the monk's utility is severely limited. And the last thing, besides the assassin and the valdor reaper all their units are stalwart so his flip loses a lot of effectiveness. Consider benching your monk against valdors!

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## Suggested Mutators

Many builds are viable in Urtuk and most builds came out of experimentation with unlikely combinations. Feel free to experiment with all of them! Here are some suggestions that others have found to be more or less successful:

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