Grit your teeth and do not practice dodge or first parry at all.
	Power rank to horse stance by that time you will have second parry as well.
	Practice horse stance and second parry once or till 75% depending on how much time you want to spend.
	Create the highest beads you can, use any +mana items you can find to get 400 mana into them if you can.
	Reduce your strength to minimum, increase your dexterity and armor to maximum, keep hit/dam rolls to minimums.
	(empower defense) Fight lots of little mobs, with second parry practiced and nothing else. Horse stance will go up rapidly, as will second parry. If you are getting hit lots, find good non-hit/dam armor and fight lower level mobs. They will tend to miss almost always if you do this right.
	When second parry is very high or mastered, practice first parry, and do not empower defense at all that will prevent second parry. Remember to have highest beads possible at all times.
	When first parry is done, wield any weapon you have not practiced and practice dodge. Monks with weapons/no-beads parry very poorly. For maximum effect rank up to drunken stance, get drunk and practice dodge, you will dodge everything.
	Remember to never be hungry, or thirsty, remember to have high int/wisdom/dexterity, and if you can get rid of light to practice blind fighting as well.

Trick is to suffer through those first 20 ranks without defense. Since monks can't really do much in those ranks anyway, its not big bother.

All chakera and the little strikes from Crane Stance go through protective shield.

The chii bolt is what you use when you want to take down the protective shield so your charmie/friend can bash the guy to death, OR to deal with other spells like armor, shield, force field etc. (Hmm force field, why would any monk without magical beads want to take down force field hmm..)

As to stances, I have not played a monk at high rank so I don't know (Ask Sirant), but theoretically:

• Horse: 
  • Mastered its perfect against half-warriors. (dk, paladin etc.) Also excellent against vampires, psi's and necros for reasons you will find out if you use it. Its mainly a defensive stance so long fights.
• Drunk: 
  • Perfect stance against those whom you have ****ty parry against. Get very very drunk and watch yourself dodge everything. Also, this is I believe the ONLY defensive stance in which you can trip (not with "trip" command, but with some other skill that has new power in this stance, Ill let you find which one).
• Mantis: 
  • The super safety stance. You are impervious to single instances of most nasty things like bash, trip, bj etc.
• Buddha: 
  • Stance of choice against heavy magic hitters like Invoker and Psi. If you find yourself wimping out before you even touch the guy, this stance will reduce their damage to nil. Also great anti-maledictive stance but makes for long battles.
• Crane: 
  • The "little adds up to lot" stance. Good to wither down mages and clerics in fact anyone who depends on mana over long run. The little strikes from this stance will not only slightly lag, but also cripple mana/moves of target, not to mention higher freq. of regular chakera and hit bonus. Perfect for classes that don't hit hard, but are pain in the ass to take out. (clerics and paladins?)
• Tiger: 
  • Known as ranking stance. Great substitute for crane stance as well if you can chase well. ****ty defense in trade for great offense. (I think it has best damage of all stance with regular attacks).. I call this the no-brainer stance, if you use it against warriors or half warriors you will most likely get diced.
• Drunk: 
  • The "training" stance. Lots of attack that are weak, perfect to train, or to kill someone off if you have high anatomies. Combined with tactical use of Time Rod this stance is super dangerous.
• Dragon: 
  • The "holy ****" stance. You don't hit many chakera but if you do.. Heh.. This is meant to be the monks "one hit kill" stance or as close as you can get to it. Dragon is perfect against fighting pure and half warriors on offense. Your kick is awesome, your disarm is great, your shield disarm rules, and you have size and hp bonus so you don't have to worry about bash so much or trip if you fly. And if you manage to hit off phantom dragon, all you have to do is trip usually...
    

That is all I have from theoretical view. I've never played a monk past 35, too damn boring without spells and detect invis Even though they would make great justice. 

(written by Virigoth, edited for appearance and spelling)

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Tips from the knowledgeable monk

It appears that the class of the monk has become a large topic of recent. Many questions, lots of different answers. To this previous question, equipment for monks is much harder to acquire, then others, because of the encumbrance issue. Although, at the same time, there are very nice items, that are very powerful, and useable by monks. While gathering such information has taken me much time, I am willing to share some of my tips and suggestions. Dependant on the monk, one of the 30+ range, should acquire chasm dragon equipment. It increases your chance to hit, while granting you valuable protection. After that, tight fitting green dragon scale shirt is nice, as well as the white samite gown. If you are lucky, the best I believe the monk can wear, without encumbrance, is the ice armor. Which, is disputably the best armor for your torso you can acquire. Another fact to which I see lots of monks worrying about, is damage roll. I have spoken much with Virigoth on the subject of monks, and from what he has told me, and my own experience, damage roll is not so much as important as hit roll. If one thinks about it, the higher the hit roll, the more likely you are to hit. I have also been informed that monks damage rate increases with rank. Which is quite true, because if you have seen a level 25 monk fight a mob, then a level 50, the level 25 will most likely at most pull mauls, while the level 50 can easily pull UNSPEAKABLE things. One other issue, to which I cannot express of importance, I see people always complain about monks being unbalanced, that they need better skills. What very many fail to realize, is that the monk class, to be the best, requires more time than almost all other mortal classes. Mastering each anatomy, will cause you to be able to just about stomp any average player into the ground. The idea behind anatomies, in case anyone has forgotten, is the character knows when and where to hit that race, it's weakness. When you have that mastered, I have seen ===OBLITERATES=== through sanctuary. But it takes time. Hopefully, with the knowledge that I have given, and many others have shared, we will see an increase in very skilled monks. Not to say there haven't been any, just not nearly as much as the other classes.

(edited for spelling)

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