Godhands/Victory Smite Skillchain Weirdness

I was killing Colibri and I noticed some weirdness with Godhands and Victory Smite. Specifically, the skillchain window after doing a 2 step light skillchain was either abnormally short or non-existent and I would almost never hit my 2nd SC.

For example:
Shijin Spiral (SS) -> Victory Smite (VS) -> Light -> VS -> Miss
VS -> SS -> Light -> VS -> Miss

SS -> Dragon Kick (DK) -> Light -> VS -> Light
DK -> SS -> Light -> VS -> Light
DK -> Ascetic's Fury -> Light -> VS -> Light

Using Spharai did not product this behavior. SS/VS/VS and VS/SS/VS worked as expected. But with Godhands it was basically impossible to 3 step double light if the first step was any combination of SS/VS or VS/SS.

This *isn't* about Radiance (only had AM1 up) and doing some *light* testing with AM off and doing VS/SS/VS seemed to cause the same behavior.

I even had a friend come on COR for SAM roll to see if getting TP quicker would help and I would still miss the 2nd light.

So, is there some known SS/VS interaction with godhands that prevents that double light from occurring or am I just crazier than usual?

Edit: ok, someone explained it to me. SS has Light property with godhands equipped which meant I was making level 4 light. My little skillchain tracker wasn’t properly accounting for this so I was under the impression that it was only level 3 and could be continued.

This is my first aeonic, can you tell? :)

Shijin Spiral gets Light property from godhands Aftermath so SS -> VS becomes light > light instead of fragmentation > fusion and you can't continue the SC from there.

Oh good someone already explained it to you.

Don't worry this is one of the only Aeonics that actually ends up being worse for the main 3 step SC you would otherwise use. Still great for a lot of other things though.

I think you can techically start with 2000 shijin for AM2 instead of AM1, then go with VS and VS and this will end up with Radiance, which drops your AM2 and you can do another 2000shijin >vs>VS, because light SC property on Shijin doesn't apply to shijin that was done without AM.

correct, just annoying because you usually don't really want to spend 2k tp on Shijin

If you're considering that, may as well just flip your weapon off/on after you close the SC so you don't start with the light property. Throwing out 140~ tp* beats throwing out 1000.

Real answer is probably to use a different weapon or different SC, though.

*I didn't actually check what MNKs WS return

The 1000TP aeonic aftermath mechanics are truly detrimental to most aeonics.

All they had to do was insert the Lv3 light property with lower priority than the existing Lv2 properties, like how Prime weapons prefer the Lv1 mechanic over the Lv2 mechanic. You'd lose nothing in nearly all cases.

..Might be that their model didn't allow that, but I'm guessing they just figured a Lv3 sc is always preferable to a Lv2 with no consideration for the need to tailor SC length to target.

What's some favorite skill chains for mnk?

Shijin > VS > VS (Godhands, use Shijin at 2K TP). Bread and butter high damage and plague versus whatever you are fighting.

You can "fix" your Shijin > VS > VS skillchains (if you end up with the wrong amount of aftermath) using Ascetic's Fury. Just Fury > VS > VS instead and you will get double light (no radiance, but it will remove your current aftermath so you can begin again).

Raging / Howling > Asuran Fists > Raging / Howling > Dragon Kick for solo 4 step. Good damage, easy to do even with Trust buffs as doing a 5 step without real songs / rolls is difficult if you don't get lucky with DA / TA procs.

Am I a noob if I use AF RF VS VS still when I need 4 step?

Would likely tell you to use howling instead of raging.

But howling can miss and raging essentially can't, so I prefer it sometimes too

Raging does great damage with high attack and MA though, it's Asuran that sucks

During Footwork (and obviously Godhands), I use a couple of long SCs, since the damage is so absurd and the buff only lasts less than a minute, so I try to maximize damage.

(Impetus) Tornado Kick > Tornado Kick > Asuran Fists > Tornado Kick > Victory Smite > Victory Smite is double light

Tornado Kick > Tornado Kick > Tornado Kick > One Inch Punch > Dragon Kick > Shijin Spiral

Admittedly, I struggle to find anything in the game currently that you can use this on if you're the sole DD: You're absolutely going to cap hate with this, or it's going to use an enfeeble or absorb SC damage or just flat out die, so it's limited. My last time using these was during Corse Ambuscade as /DRG where I subsequently popped Super Jump after the first SC the High Jump in between the second SC. Took him from 100-->50% off two SCs. Maybe Vinipata or single MNK Sortie boss?

For Impetus using Verethragna (FW down), I usually stick to Shijin > VS > VS or just VS > VS

For Impetus using Godhands(FW down):

Howling Fist > Asuran Fists > Howling Fist > Victory Smite > Victory Smite

Very strong SCs, and you will require a super jump if you are not tanking, and if you are tanking, then whatever you're fighting doesn't really matter and you can just blast away.

I honestly need to learn how to better make use of footwork

Also getting Vere in the Abby era was a diservice to me and my progression of monk playstyle mastery

Far too often do I now come across monks and my old self included that are 'one trick poneys'

You can't just do VS

Howling missing would be quite an achievement. 99% hit rate on both hits and pretty good chance for multi attack proc (at least 40%) with another 99% hit rate. Than chance for full miss is like 0.00604%

under impetus that's pretty accurate, same for TK and footwork. If you can make a SC either being the 1 DD on the mob or able to work with another then thatll be better almost all the time, but spamming is pretty effective on its own. Raging/Howling when both are down depending on atk needs(though even at high atk i feel howling just does better anyway)

It's like this with all DD jobs, this is the main function behind having multiple weapons/sets. A lot of people just use their strongest WS on repeat the moment they have 1k TP regardless of job, but there are more effective ways to optimize your weapons and buffs.

For Verethragna, I find that it can be generally weaker than Godhands, but you can get out to a decent lead with it if you prebuff fights with Ask Sash + Boost and start with AM3 for Impetus, but it depends on the length of the fight. The AM isn't remarkable damage though, compared to other Empyreans. If the fight last long enough, I will start with Vere then switch to Godhands when Impetus wears off, then pop Footwork and go to town with Kick WS. When FW falls, I will use Howling Fist for about a minute. Then repeat the process, but I might not always switch back to Verethragna to build AM; sometimes I stick with Godhands and go straight into Impetus DD mode.

For Godhands, if the fight is short with max buffs, this is the best dps in the fight, because I expect the mob to be dead by the time Impetus is active, which means I can throw Footwork into the mix and just go HAM for the duration. I won't even bother with changing out to Verethragna because all of my damage will be loaded and Vere wouldn't keep up in that short timeframe.

Like for example, if for some reason I went MNK to Sortie, I would use Godhands the entire time for bosses and only switch to Verethragna maybe when killing trash. The fights are so short, I would likely have max buffs and I'm benefitting more from my WS/SC damage and not necessarily white damage from Vere

I actually do this in my Sortie group as MNK is by far my most geared / highest ML job and you are correct, Godhands all the way. Even after getting my Stage 3 Varga Purnikawa and doing some testing I am basically on par / slightly behind Godhands for Sortie bosses. I expect that to change if I ever get to Stage 4, but in fights that are lasting less than 2 minutes you are hard pressed to beat the high base damage and 500 TP bonus of Godhands.

I feel like with the current meta
Gearing for white damage is hard especially when the fights are expected to be as short as possible
Hell they kill you in sortie if you take more than 3mins

I am curious about varga especially since it seems like the most responsive option for wsd for h2h
The mnk I played with was absolutely disgusted with it

It's very hard to beat tp bonus with how much mnk gets now that you can just fire off at 1k like it's 2k almost instantly and with the to gain rate on mnk this makes such a huge difference especially with the spike in h2h dmg at 2k

This sounds good for Kei.

Also works with tornado kick in place of howling fist when footwork is up. I do that all the time on monk in ambuscade when it's corse month. Takes the boss out really fast.

I listed that one first

For Sortie bosses (WS wall) and in general with both footwork and impetus it would be asuran>tornado>dragon>vsmite.

I honestly have no idea why people have this assumption that white damage only works in long fights. Round is made of two parts, TPing and WS. It repeats. No matter if its gonna repeat for minute or 20h, white damage effectiveness will be the same. The only argument for white damage build being less effective in short fights would be if you need to sacrifice some damage to unlock full white damage potential like for example build to 3000tp ukkos fury or if you have zerg job abilities favoring WS damage, like warcry or Yaegasumi.

Mnk has abilities that favors white damage build and sacrifice nothing. Impetus, focus, footwork. That being said if you can self SC, then WS frequency build is probably always the best.

It does depend on the length of the fight though, in some cases.

Take, for example, an Apex mob, a Dynamis [D] mob, or a Nostos mob.

If they die in a single WS, then white damage means absolutely nothing.

If they die in 2 WS, then white damage means absolutely nothing.

If they die in 3 WS, then white damage means absolutely nothing.

The white damage build only increases your kill speed if you can reduce the number of WS it takes to kill that mob. If you're still required to do X number of WS to kill it, then increasing the white damage you do inbetween those X number of WS is completely and utterly pointless.

If it's a 15 minute long fight then the white damage will add some value, so...the length of the fight absolutely has an impact on the value of a white damage build.

Said another way: it's much easier to make a fight go from 72 WS long to 71 WS long than it is to go from a fight that's 2 WS long to 1 WS long. This is why, IMO, the length of the fight is absolutely relevant to the value of a white damage build.

This is very strange logic. I could insert the same scenario favoring white damage build. What if they die with 1WS and a half and increasing white damage can help you kill first mob after WS and has TP for another one. What if its 2.5 WS, whet if its 3.5WS etc. In extreme white damage examples like Ukonvasara WAR, you can kill one mob with only white damage then WS the next one. It's really not as simple as you suggest.

It really is exactly that simple, and you can pretty easily figure it out for any job, WS, and weapon combination.

Say you're using Ukon on WAR...is it better to have crit damage legs on, are they, on average, going to move you from doing 3 -> 2 WS to kill this enemy? Then good, use it. If not, then using STP legs (or DA, or TA, or QA, or whatever) will be better.

Rinse and repeat for every weapon, job, and WS scenario...it applies to literally everything.

It just so happens that a lot of the time, the answer to "should I wear more white damage gear?" is an emphatic "No." for the scenarios above. The chances of reducing your X-step SC on an Apex mob by increasing your white damage is near-0. The chances of reducing your X WS on a Nostros mob by increasing your white damage is near-0 (for most weapons, most jobs). The chances of doing on a Dynamis mob is also near-0. Sometimes it will reduce the number of WS you need to kill the mob (Ukon WAR, Masa SAM, etc.) in which case...congratulations, my logic just showed you the right answer...

The chances of increasing your kill speed on a Dynamis Wave 3 boss by having more white damage? Much higher...I wonder what the difference is...What do you think?

I already said, that if you solo SC, then it can even be 20h fights, WS frequency will always win.


The proper Ukon white damage build will do like 16k damage per round. It's not a matter of going from 3WS to 2WS, but not WSing some enemies at all.

This is still my point, paraphrased.

If you can reduce the WS to kill from 1 to 0, then it's a better build.