High River Monk Anyone?

[DeleteAccount]

Basically, was looking stuff over to fill the pullmyfinger wiki and reread them and well, was wondering if anybody had actually used them.

 

Reading over them, they do seem to have a nice skit with their "chargin flurry" thing and they should have an easy time using it thanks to theur 0 action, but they are made out of tissue and don't really seem to have the crazy omph to justify the 6SS tag.

 

Anybody with hands on experience that wants to share how the perform?

[vonevilstein]

Yeah I haven't actually fielded them yet either. I've considered them for Mei for extra burning and Wander the Earth is priceless, but I have to agree, whilst Def 6 is respectable they don't have anything else backing that up. Maybe walk + wander + defensive stance?

 

I personally feel that they make excellent objective tar pits thanks to Searing Voice and Wander the Earth, to me that's where the 6ss is, but that's if you can find a way to keep them alive.

 

I will try them at some point.

[EnternalVoid]

I tried them out a bit in the Beta with McCabe as he can toss them his saber so when they charge they have that swinging 3 times.  I did give it reactivation one game after I had out activated my opponent so that he could push, charge, do his thing, reactivate, push out of combat, and charge again.  Generating 6 attacks was kind of mean.

[AverageBoss]

I have used them successfully as flankers several times with Shenlong and once with Lynch. I tend to run a pair and send them to opposite sides of my opponents forces. Whenever a lone or otherwise vulnerable target presents itself, I have them move in. Thanks to Wander, thier threat range is as big as an Iluminated, but they can strike from odd angles. If you have saved up some tombs in your hand, each can dish out 3 damage and 6 burning on minimum flips.

[DeleteAccount]

OK, the art for them is bloody amazing, so I reaaaally want to use them, anybody else has experience with the jolly bastards?

[thebarbalag]

I think you'll probably need to protect them with either, caution and Def Stance, as suggested below, or threat saturation, which is luckily something 10T is kind of good at. Tengu to provide spot regen might not be bad either. In fact, if I was running a lot of monks, I'd probably bring a Tengu or two to back them up...and just score all the points on whatever marker-dropping schemes are in the pool.

[DeleteAccount]

My beef is not so much delivery as much as their damage potential not being that amazing even with the 3AP charge. Hell, Id's say it's outright low for a 6 SS model whose whole skit is offense.

[The Godlyness]

1/2/4 is low but adding burning to each attack is fine. 2/3/5 or it could be 3/4/6 from one just attack if you hit a tome on the attack. and with 3 attacks it could add more.  so sure they might strikeyou back but they will be on fire. and fire does things

[DeleteAccount]

1/2/4 is low but adding burning to each attack is fine. 2/3/5 or it could be 3/4/6 from one just attack if you hit a tome on the attack. and with 3 attacks it could add more.  so sure they might strikeyou back but they will be on fire. and fire does things

Yeah, but fire is damage that happens later, meaning the model gets a whole activation to react and since it's a condition, any form of condition removal can pretty much destroy their whole offense. Their damage spread is a standard spread of a 5SS beater even being nice and applying the burning and the extra burning makes it be a 3/4/6 which is impressive until you see something like a Witchling stalker which has a lot more utility, is cheaper and does similar damage with more constant and less burning based and without needing tomes.

 

Hell, a Torakage that charges alone in the crowd who gets 2 moderates does as much damage and instantly than a monk charging for 3 attacks, hitting with all with no tomes, you could get a tome in there for "extra damage", but the tora can also get a severe.

 

I don't know, maybe their deal is to burst down low defense models with hard to wound where you can pile in a lot of burning and hopefully nothing can strip it, but one really would have prefered more real damage and less burning. I mean, it's not like they do anything with the burning like getting + flips or extra effects against models with burning and the only master we have who cares about fire is Mei Feng and it's a pretty tangential part of her offense, which is appreciated, but not a must.

 

I will start using them actively for a while but I'm having a hard time seeing what their true benefit outside of indirect threat range is.

[Patzer]

I agree with Razhem that their basic damage is a wee bit meh for their asking price. 2/2/4 would have been better. Anyway, if the cards goes these guys way, they sure can be utter destruction. The question is whether they will be around long enough in order to cause havoc.

[EnternalVoid]

To be fair the only master I have used them with so far has been McCabe and that gives me the option of throwing the Glowing Saber to them or of making them a nice objective running piece as with the Badge they can push out of combat, walk twice, and still drop a scheme marker.

[DeleteAccount]

I used 2 today with Mei Feng and 1 with McCabe. They were OK, at it, but that's about all I can say about them, I still feel a 10 T brother brings a lot more to the table for cheaper, though their 2" push is pretty awesome, no denying it. Did the flurry charge a couple of times, but outside of forcing my opponent to blow some cards, nothing to be too amazed about.

[DeleteAccount]

I am thinking that they are more of an "indirect way" to take down armored and incorporeal targets with low Df, if you can pile on enough burning you can make a decent hole in the maintenance phase, hell, charge a Hanged and you have very good odds of outright killing it with the flurry thing if you manage to get a single tome in there and he doesn't remove the burning. They are horrible for Reckoning in a sense because they never count as getting the kill, but can be a good way to go for those targets with special defenses. Their basic damage is too low to consider them Hard to Kill removers though.

[chris_havoc]

I can actually see them becoming very effective with the Rail Workers and the Emberling. Then the burning can be taken advantage of multiple times. Especially because after Flurry Charging the High Monks can push out of combat to open up the Rail Worker's (0). Realistically they will put out Burning +2 with the Flurry Charge so having two in conjunction with Rail Workers and Emberling could very well have high damage output. Against tough models with low defense it would be very effective. Hard to Wound would be a non-issue so Ressers and the like would have a lot to think about.

[Rathnard]

Looking over the card, They really seem to be minions best suited to Shlong and Mei.

 

Shlong gives them a (0) Focus to take maximum advantage of Reading the Wind. With it, his first hit has a good chance of dealing severe plus burning for 5-6 damage, which makes him alot more threatening.

 

Mei, on the other hand, can take advantage of the burning condition the Monk hands out. It gives that  to damage for Mei's Tiger Claw attacks straight out, plus the Emberling and Rail Worker can help add to the damage with their own respective attacks. As a  attack Shovel Faster might be a bit harder to pull off if the Monk is still engaged, but the Monk's (0) Push could help with that.

[DeleteAccount]

Used them again, they proved to be surprisingly painful for Molly who can't use her trigger on the burning, the trigger is useless against the low base damage of the monk and she either eats stones to block 1 Wd damage or starts accumulating burning. Not saying it's a game changer, but seeing more and more the perks of the indirect damage, also really interested in trying them with Rail Workers to see how that pans out, though they are better at punching people than shoveling, so might be too conditional.

[Mason]

High River Monks are really good at taking apart Riders for that same reason. 

[Nephalumps]

I used them a fair bit during the beta, exclusively with Shenlong. For me, their value came from the ability to layer on Burning and their 2" push.

As noted elsewhere, Burning isn't the same as direct damage, but it is roughly a boost to their damage output in a lot of cases and sometimes Condition based damage can be particularly useful.

Their 2" push was something I really appreciated having. It made them much easier to keep out of LOS, then pop out and charge something. Or disengage then charge something else. My favorite aspect of that move is that it gives them just a bit more mobility when getting into position to take Interact actions. That 2" move can come in very handy in that regard.

Also as noted elsewhere, they were very fun to use with Shenlong. Focusing for (0) works great with them, and Shenlong/Sensei Wu can support them with extra movement (though they can do that with anything.)

I'm looking forward to using them more, especially after seeing the art. They look way cooler than I expected!