Guide Compendium for the New Season - patch 2.6.6

So this one is a little late, isn't it? I truly apologize, but a pesky goblin named Gamescom whisked me away and stole my attention for much of the week! :) Now that we're here though - welcome to Season 18, with the theme of the Triune! Throughout Season 18, circles of power will spawn during combat, which empower characters in various ways; they affect combat from the humblest character beginnings, all the way to the highest of Greater Rifts. These newfound effects will cause you to reposition, shift and weave through combat more than you might be used to - and personally, I find it a great incentive to try out some of the more mobile builds.

-Deadset
>>LIST OF DETAILED GUIDES EVERY CLASS AND EVERY ACTIVITY<<

(No, really!)

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM PATCH 2.6.6?

Patch 2.6.6 brings some unexpected and exciting changes, introducing jewelry that rivals some of the most popular staples, reworks crafted sets into very powerful and enticing options for builds, and brings the usual round of reworks and additions of legendary powers to items - some of which are incredibly potent! Amulets like the Flavor of Time and Squirt's Necklace will shake the position of Hellfires in many builds, while legendary powers like Echoing Fury and Messerschmidt's Reaver will surely bring out new builds, as well as enhance older ones. And by the way, Mortick's Brace came back. Hell, it was about time.

BASICS GUIDES AND CONQUEST GUIDES

Before moving on to class impressions and recommendations, I just want to give a quick pointer to the new basics and conquest guides that I compiled recently. If you are new to the game, returning after a long break, or simply have friends that you want to get into Diablo, give those a read:

Beginner Seasonal Guide

Bounty Farming Guide

Regular "Nephalem" Rift Farming Guide

Greater Rift Farming Guide

Conquest Guides for Season 18

As a guide hub, Icy Veins receives a ton of messages on a regular basis for topics like these - I hope they are of use to the community and answer a lot of questions for Seasons to come!

BARBARIANS

Haedrig's Gift Beginner Build: Legacy of Raekor

A guide that will take you through the leveling process efficiently and optimize your seasonal Barbarian. Some of my personal endgame build highlights for this Season include:

Might of the Earth - Earthquake

The Earthquake is one of the steadiest performers in the Barbarian roster; an AoE-heavy, visually satisfying playstyle with a rock-solid rotation. In Season 18, the build is improved with the addition of Mortick's Brace - much like other Barbarian builds, of course, since you can't argue with the addition of all Wrath of the Berserker runes - which helps with the troublesome survivability of the build. The addition of Messerschmidt's Reaver is another curious option for the build, vying for the Kanai slot to bring you steady WotB uptime.

Legacy of Dreams - Hammer of the Ancients

Hammer of the Ancients is a signature Barbarian playstyle that revels in melee destruction, slamming down the mighty Gavel of Judgment onto the demonic hordes with unrelenting precision. Turning the Legacy from a Nightmare into a Dream (see what I did there?) does wonders for the legendary-based HotA build, as it is now free to keep the triumvirate of Convention of Elements, Band of Might and Zodiac Ring at the mere cost of a legendary gem slot. WotB performance is assisted not only by Mortick's, but also the addition of the revised Echoing Fury and its insane attack speed bonuses - directly feeding into your Zodiac CD resets.

Wrath of the Wastes - Whirlwind

You can't get a more clear description than "Whirlwinding" for what this build does; a spin-to-win, medieval lawnmower of a playstyle, this is by far the smoothest and most satisfying farming build. A long-standing lament of Barbarians is its lackluster performance in GR pushing, and while it's not quite solved yet, the Whirlwind barb is greatly boosted by Mortick's Brace (solving some of the survivability issues) and Echoing Fury (which is now a fixture to IAS-dependent builds). Add The Flavor of Time on top of it all for the delicious doubled duration of Pylons, and Whirlwind gets a much needed spike of power.

CRUSADERS

Haedrig's Gift Beginner Build: Armor of Akkhan

A guide that will take you through the leveling process efficiently and optimize your seasonal Crusader. Some of my personal endgame build highlights for this Season include:

Legacy of Dreams - Blessed Shield

Empowered by their resource-free playstyle, Blessed Shield Crusaders cover the battlefield in Captain America-like barrage of fiery steel. Exchanging the Legacy of Nightmares for a Legacy of Dreams, this mighty Crusader build gets to keep a potent jewelry combo of Convention of Elements, Justice Lantern and Unity, and even adds The Flavor of Time on top. I'm sure you can imagine what doubled pylon duration does to a build that is already rock-solid in most fighting situations.

Invoker - Thorns

Where this build lacks in flashiness, it more than makes up with approachable and easy-to-grasp, yet top tier performing playstyle. Despite its somewhat subdued visuals, the devastating efficiency of the Invoker Thorns Sader is undeniable. Staying true to its 'understated powerhouse' reputation, Invokers simply adds an Echoing Fury to its lineup - and will proceed to decimate high tier GRs once again.

Rolands - Sweep Attack

Affectionately called the 'Janitor Crusader', Sweep Attack-based Rolands quite literally clean up battlefields in precise, blindingly fast arcs (on top of the most satisfying ASMR 'whoosh' of the sweeps, you can't deny). The newest addition to the build is the craftable Captain Crimson, which plays wonderfully into the needs for cooldown and resource management of the build, and even empowers you for it. And then there's the prospect of running Messerschmidt or Echoing fury into the Cube (or just play it straight with Furnace), enhancing different aspects of the build... quite promising for an underdog.

DEMON HUNTERS

Haedrig's Gift Beginner Build: Embodiment of the Marauder

A guide that will take you through the leveling process efficiently and optimize your seasonal Demon Hunter. Some of my personal endgame build highlights for this Season include:

Legacy of Dreams - Rapid Fire

The emergence of the Rapid Fire build finally brought the close range, Tommy gun-like fantasy of the Demon Hunter class to life - all in a destructive, methodical playstyle that isn't afraid to get into the thick of fights and chaingun-and-grenade its way out. In Season 18, the swap from Legacy of Nightmares into Dreams allows the Rapid Fire DHs to keep their protective powerhouses - Elusive Ring and Unity, while bringing extra devastation with Convention of Elements and The Flavor of Time on top.

Unhallowed Essence - Multishot

The Multishot build embraces the long-range powers of the Unhallowed Essence set, bringing the "lone archer eclipsing the sun with arrows" archetype to life. The screen-wide decimation of Multishot has never been sweeter, now that it adopts Squirt's Necklace and Captain Crimson's set into the setup - extra incentives to stay alert, on the move and always shooting your (now stronger) volleys of death.

Shadow - Impale

The ninja-like, assassin playstyle of Shadow Impale ramps up in power so fast, that it often sits at the top of the leaderboard for a week, waiting for slower builds to catch up. Impale DHs vault in, plant a dagger in an elite's back (usually ending its life outright), and then disappear in the shadows, onto their next target. I'll be honest, this build hasn't budged much - but it's so damn satisfying that I can't help but point it out.

MONK

Haedrig's Gift Beginner Build: Inna's Mantra

A guide that will take you through the leveling process efficiently and optimize your seasonal Monk. Some of my personal endgame build highlights for this Season include:

Inna - Wave of Light

Although not particularly exciting, this is a purposeful highlight; Inna is the free set of the Season, and the (relative) ease of starting an Inna Wave of Light build can take you very far into the Season with relatively minor time investment. Inna WoL is a tried and tested build that combines the inherent screen-clearing AoE of Explosive Blasts with the forgiving, easy-to-play Inna set. If you're looking for something to breeze the Season with, this is a strong contender.

Legacy of Dreams - Wave of Light

Roll your eyes as you might at another WoL season, you simply can't argue with the skill - from the relative safety that Tzo Krin's Gaze provides, you can obliterate the screen with Wave of Light spam, dropping blazing clusters of holy power on demon upon unsuspecting demon. The transition of Legacies - from Nightmares to Dreams - allows you to keep all S17 toys, and the trio of Convention of Elements, Unity and Zodiac (DPS, protection and utility staples respectively) is now strengthened even further by The Flavor of Time. Double duration of Pylons on a build that benefits from pretty much all of them? Yes, please!

Legacy of Dreams - Lashing Tail Kick

Lashing Tail Kick builds are the counterpart of their WoL bretheren; getting into the fray where WoL keeps to the side, and melting the enemy in a flurry of Chuck Norris spin-kicks. You might argue this is a weaker build - and it is - but similarly to its WoL brother, it gets to keep all synergistic legendary jewelry from S17 and add The Flavor of Time on top, plus the option to deviate into Echoing Fury if the cubed Flying D isn't consistent enough for your tastes.

NECROMANCER

Haedrig's Gift Beginner Build: Pestilence Master's Shroud

A guide that will take you through the leveling process efficiently and optimize your seasonal Necromancer. Some of my personal endgame build highlights for this Season include:

Legacy of Dreams - Singularity

Love them or hate them, you can't deny Singularity Necromancer is one of the most ruthlessly effective summoner builds in the game; cold, calculating and intensive to play (both in terms of resource management and, befitting of Necromancers, frailty of the character). Replacing The Legacy of Nightmares for that of Dreams, Singularity Necros stay at the peak of their offensive power through Convention of Elements, Krysbin and the Circle of Nailuj rings.

Legacy of Dreams - Skeleton Thorns

Let's get one thing out of the way: this is a quirky and slow-to-construct build. But there is an undeniable appeal to an army of undead minions that cripples - and eventually destroys - the enemies through their own attacks. In Season 18, Thorns Necros get to add Squirt's Necklace, adding another massive source of damage to a build that already benefits so much from its deliberate, calculated pace.

Legacy of Dreams - Blood Nova

Nova Necromancers are an evocative playstyle, spilling fountains of (literal) bloody destruction from their bodies, which grow in efficiency the more enemies you throw at them. In reality, the build has its issues (the mechanics and numbers on items like Bloodtide Blade are a culprit), but the build is damn fun, and I wanted to give it a little spotlight just for that.

WITCH DOCTOR

Haedrig's Gift Beginner Build: Zunimassa's Haunt

A guide that will take you through the leveling process efficiently and optimize your seasonal Witch Doctor. Some of my personal endgame build highlights for this Season include:

Zunimassa - Carnevil DoD

The Carnevil Witch Doctor summons an army of swarming minions at his side, whose adorable mimicking of his blowdart attack - and positively horrifying attack speed - are a sight to behold. This has been a long time coming; Zunimassa has been building up in power over the course of a few patches, with set and item changes that slowly inched it up in viability. Season 18 will be the triumph of this oldschool build, with the Zuni Fetishes empowered by the craftable Aughild set (fitting just right into the vacant slots of the setup) and the Attack Speed madness of Echoing Fury in the Cube.

Jade Harvester WD

With power to match his imposing name, the Jade Harvester is a force to be reckoned with - crippling the enemies with damage over time effects, and then recklessly diving in to 'consume' and apply their entire duration instantly with a well placed Soul Harvest. This build now benefits from the Captain Crimson craftable set, as well as The Flavor of Time amulet, keeping it high in the WD pantheon of builds.

Helltooth - Gargantuan

Keeping a trio of overprotective, lumbering, undead giants at your side is the signature of this build - another take on the summoner fantasy, this time relying on stitched-corpse voodoo dolls to pummel your enemies to the ground. This setup, while still in need of buffs, got a nice addition in the form of the craftable Spite ceremonial knife; granting you the Humongoid rune for free, its legendary effect opens you to experimentation both in GRs and speedfarm with this build.

WIZARD

Haedrig's Gift Beginner Build: Delsere's Magnum Opus

A guide that will take you through the leveling process efficiently and optimize your seasonal Wizard. Some of my personal endgame build highlights for this Season include:

Vyr - Archon

Transforming the Wizard into an unstoppable being of Arcane destruction, the Achon build simply has it all - power, mobility, versatility. For the modest investment of two relatively easy-to-obtain sets - Vyr and Chantodo - this build will take you into the highest of Greater Rifts, and with a relatively simple to grasp playstyle to boot. One of the strongest builds in S18. Definitely the one with the best power-to-time-invested ratio.

Legacy of Dreams - Star 'Bazooka' Pact

The Star Pact Wizard has a rather complex rotation and playstyle, but rewards it with a monstrously powerful punch - arguably, the strongest one in the game right now. In a densely packed fight, no other build will deliver comparable punishment as the arcane juggernauts dropped by the (fittingly nicknamed) Bazooka Wiz. Oh, and now it gets to play with extra Pylon duration from The Flavor of Time, as if what it had wasn't enough. Geez.
Thank you so much for reading this and my guides! Good luck and have a great Season 18!

P.S. There is a ton of work I am doing in the background at the moment, but in the coming weeks you can expect a massive revision to the way our builds are presented, as well as another clean sweep of old artifacts - I think you will be very pleased! :) Stay tuned!

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Healing Monk Life Per Second

So i recently just discovered a Bug while on my monk just comparing my shields.

I noticed that i was getting 966k Life per second when using my Blinding Flash Ability with the Smoothing Light Rune, which is normal but as soon as i got to my maximum life per second.

I would then switch the shield and my life per second would drop to 600k then instantly rise to 1 million life per second passively.

My Blinding Flash did not reset my life per second it actually increased it further.

I will link a few screen shots to make things more clearer.

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Monks: Season 4 Leveling Guide

Monk Leveling Guide for Season 4

Please feel free to critique or suggest ways to improve! I've run three L1-70 characters using this method and a couple using older approaches (HoA/Bounties). I think this is the best approach for minimizing the time involved in getting a fresh season character going.

Introduction

Patch 2.3 introduces a few mechanics that influence how to efficiently make a new character for Season 4. The first major change is that regular Nephalem Rifts are available for “free” (i.e. no fragment requirements) and immediately at Level 1. Nephalem Rifts can have nice mob density and have an inherent boost to legendary drops, on all difficulty levels and at all levels. This opens up a potentially new L1-70 pathway, one that has been explored by myself and others repeatedly on the PTR. The second major change is the introduction of Kanai’s Cube, which has broad implications for gameplay, builds, and strategy in Diablo 3. What is relevant to a freshly started Season 4 character is the mechanic allowing Legendary drops to be absorbed by the cube and their passive effects used by the character. Specifically, there is now value to legendaries that are below L70 in that they can be consumed by the cube.

Strategy

We will utilize the following L1-70 zone flow in order to be efficient with leveling and gearing our Monk:

L1-11 Adventure Mode: Startup and Halls of Agony runs

L11-20 Adventure Mode: Nephalim Rifts

L20-22ish Story Mode Act 1: Run Story Up to Skeleton King and Leoric’s Crown

L22-70 Adventure Mode: Nephalim Rifts

In contrast to other Seasons and other guides, I recommend sticking with Nephalim Rifts over a Halls of Agony or Cursed Bounties strategy. Methods using these have been measured faster, but not appreciably so. The upsides to the Rift-centric approach, which does not have the same density (reliably) as a HoA-only strategy, are that the legendary drops that you will get in Rifts can dramatically increase your power and these drops will be available to your Kanai’s cube when you are beginning the post-70 phase of character development. Additionally, several testers have noticed that the average gear level of a “fresh 70” from Rifts is appreciably more powerful than that of a HoA-levelled character.

Finally, this method involves exiting the game only a couple of times. This makes it suitable for use by groups with less headache and certainly more viable should servers be crowded and cause a game creation queue.
It is important to not Salvage any legendaries you may want to absorb into your cube. If you are following my approach, I recommend paying close attention to what you may want to cube and putting those items in your stash as you outgrow them. Alternatively, just throwing old legendaries in the stash and sorting them out at a later date may be safest.

Difficulty Level

We will start the game in Master mode, and generally remain there unless a string of poor drops forces us to drop down to Hard mode. Expert mode should generally be avoided, as the math around HP and XP for mobs is goofy and it is not as efficient. Generally speaking, if you die, you probably need to drop down to Hard from Master mode. In my 3 runs from 1-70 using the Rift approach, I’ve found that I can do Rifts in Master mode up until the 45-60 range, and then occasionally a lack of good gear drops will force me back into Hard. The Story Mode segment in Act 1 to get Leoric’s Crown is recommended to be run on Hard, for the sake of speed. You can drop the Skeleton King down as low as you want for a fast kill, which is guaranteed to drop a socketed Leoric’s crown at L18+.

Crafting/Gems

I don’t recommend bothering with any crafting other than upgrading weapons (if needed). I have included key levels for yellow 2H axes/swords in the guide in case you have had a lull in legendary weapons and want to consider crafting an upgrade. You should salvage any gear you do not wear, with the exceptions of legendaries (see above).

For Gems, you should have a red gem early in your weapon if it has a socket, and a red gem in your Leoric’s crown at all times. I did not bother combining red gems as I have recommended in the past, because the new gem levels generally provided me with a fresh supply of high level gems as I was speeding through rifts. Use your Gem station to un-gem old versions of red gems from your Leoric’s crown and simply Salvage outdated weapons to recover the gems you place in them. Red gems in weapons taper in the effectiveness the closer you get to L70, so feel free to switch to Greens in your last hour or two. They are fantastic below L50, however.

Equipment

For weapons, you will generally use only slow 2H weapons. In three trials, I had a useful supply of Legendary drops that kept me well equipped and able to pump out the damage. You’ll rely on Exploding Palm and other skills that care about damage range and not attack speed, so the slower the better. For armor, +XP gain per kill is king, and you should prioritize that in your gearing choices. Next, you should look at damage increasing stats to decide whether to replace an item. Movement speed on boots is helpful and competitive with +XP.

Consider the value of the legendaries you’re using. Leoric’s is guaranteed with this plan, and you’ll keep your low level version equipped (with a red gem) until L70 regardless of the XP or damage you find on a helm. You may come across a Gungdo Gears that is worth keeping equipped for the flavor text even if it is sub-par in stats. There are legendaries that aren’t so great at end-game that may appeal to you as a speedy leveler. E.g. the Pox Faulds pants are incredibly useful for dashing into a group, EPing one, and then letting the Pox Faulds damage kill the group. Finally, survivability should be boosted should you start having trouble post L40. I’d give up 1-2% sheet damage for 15-20% toughness, but be mindful not to trade off more than that.

Long story short: prioritize XP gains, don’t let your damage suffer, and monitor your legendary affixes for things that are helping your kill efficiently.

The Build

You are going to end up with a build that will look like a very traditional “Starter Monk” build as recommended by a great number of folks, including Quin C and other Twitch/YouTube contributors. There are a few tweaks as you level, however. If you are an experienced Monk, you are going to have a feel for what you like and what will work for you.

Core skills that I absolutely recommend are:

Any Generator/Primary (I like Fists of Thunder, because it gives more Spirit)

Dashing Strike

Exploding Palm

Sweeping Wind

Mantra of Salvation

My build progression uses a few abilities and runes that you may not normally use end-game, but can be incredibly useful leveling. For instance, I utilize Breath of Heaven – Circle of Scorn for a long time in the process, because both the heal and the 500% weapon damage pop can be useful. One EP on a pack and then a BoH activation can be quite effective, for example. I also like Exploding Palm – Strong Spirit, almost never recommended in a L70 build, for leveling due to the spirit recovery.

You should feel free to swap out what works best for you based on your preference, ability to regain Spirit (which is critical pre 70 using questionable gear), and what’s working for you in game. However, be incredibly mindful that you can waste large amounts of time fooling around with rearranging your abilities. I have arranged the level guide in such a way that you can ignore many decisions and focus on killing efficiently.

If you want to make tweaks based on personal preference, take note of when certain skills/runes become available and modify the plan to avoid wasting time. The difference between stopping every level, tweaking your build with runes that may have opened up and sticking to a predefined plan can be an hour or more.

Execution – L1-11 Adventure Mode: Startup and Halls of Agony runs

Start Adventure Mode in Master Difficulty

Hire the SCOUNDREL (You’ll ditch him later)

Take the Templar’s Spear and equip it in your main hand

Take the Enchantress’ Dagger and equip it in your off hand

Run Halls of Agony 3 until Level 7. Certain new abilities (Lashing Tail Kick, Blinding Flash) will auto-equip on your bar.

Return to town at L7 and buy +Damage Rings from vendors, reset game until finding one.

7 Lashing Tail Kick: Vulture Claw Kick

8 Breath of Heaven (replace Blinding Flash)

9 Dashing Strike

10 Passive: Fleet Footed

11 Return to town and buy +Damage Amulet

12 Wave of Light (available to replace Breath of Heaven, if you want)

13 Exploding Palm

13 Passive: Exalted Soul

14 Cyclone Strike (automatic equip)

14 Breath of Heaven: Circle of Scorn

14 Fists of Thunder: Wind Blast

15 Dashing Strike: Way of the Falling Star

15 Craft Available: 2H Sword

18 Exploding Palm: The Flesh is Weak

19 Mantra of Salvation (automatic equip)

19 Craft Available: 2H Sword

20 Passive: Chant of Resonance

20 Return to Town, Hire Templar, Equip him with any 1H+Shield weapons you may have found so far

20 Train Templar with Inspire + Other skills (All Left-most skills works well)

Exit game and switch to Act 1 Story Mode, Hard mode difficulty.

Execution: L20-22ish Story Mode Act 1: Run Story Up to Skeleton King and Leoric’s Crown

Run the story as fast as possible, kill the Skeleton King. There is a L21 Craft available for a 2H Axe should you desperately need it. Equip the socketed Leoric’s crown and gem it with your best red gem now and throughout the rest of the journey to L70. Switch back to Adventure mode, Master difficulty after the kill.

Execution: L22-70 Adventure Mode: Nephalim Rifts

24 Mantra of Salvation: Hard Target

25 Exploding Palm: Strong Spirit

27 Sweeping Wind: Master of Wind

27 Craft Available: 2H Sword

29 Craft Available: 2H Axe

30 Passive: Guardian’s Path

32 Dashing Strike: Quicksilver

33 Sweeping Wind: Blade Storm

38 Sweeping Wind: Fire Storm

39 Mystic Ally: Air Ally (replace Breath of Heaven with this for more spirit regen)

45 Passive: Harmony (available, but I do not take it unless I am having survivability issues)

50 Mantra of Salvation: Perserverence

50 Craft Available: 2H Axe/Sword, Might want to check on armor pieces that could be 20+ level upgrades

57 Wave of Light: Pillar of the Ancients (depending on your spirit regen, you may be able to go Generator-less here, Rift Guardians might become tedious depending on gear, however)

58 Mantra of Salvation: Agility

61 Epiphany (available, or you can stick with Air Ally)

61 Craft Available: 2H Axe

67 Epiphany: Insight (available, and you can probably convert to a “L70 Starter Monk Build” at this point)

Final crafting note: Once you can get Death's Breath material drops, it can be very worthwhile to craft a L70 weapon and hope/enchant for a "Reduced Level Requirement". L70 weapons are a massive increase in damage and this can significantly speed up the final few levels.

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Diablo 3 - Monk Starter Guide (2.1.2)

There will be many people gathering information for the upcoming season.


 

To accompany the notes before here is a 2.1.1 list of shards required to gamble items. Note the extremely rare items are no longer as rare and there are new items to shift expected chance of gambing.

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Lessons to be learned from the designs of effective item sets and why the monk sets should be viewed as outliers

Prior to 2.0.6, I think it was fair to say that every class other than monks had at least one class-specific set that served as the basis for effective T6-capable builds. Barbarians had the Might of the Earth set, crusaders had the Armor of Akkhan set, demon hunters had the Embodiment of the Marauder set, witch doctor's had the Raiment of the Jade Harvester set, and wizards had the Vyr's Amazing Arcana set.

If look at all of these sets together, it is not readily apparent that there exists any kind of pattern among them, or any overarching design philosophy that led to them providing the set bonuses that they provide -- bonuses which I would consider to be successful. But if you look to the two unsuccessful monk sets (Monkey King's Garb and Raiment of a Thousand Storms) and then look back at these other successful class sets, you realize that there is something that the successful sets do not have, and that is a set bonus that directly provides a damaging effect. I did not truly appreciate this at first, but the Monkey King and Thousand Storm sets are the only class sets that actually add damaging effects of their own rather than alter the behavior of other skills to achieve increased damage output.

Why does this matter?

Because the damage effects on the Monkey King and Thousand Storm sets do not scale with +% elemental damage!

The fundamental principle that currently underlies every single effective build in the game right now is elemental synergy. None of the successful class sets disrupt or otherwise impede this synergy because they all alter the behavior of skills in such a way that those skills still benefit from the appropriate +% elemental damage modifiers in the same manner that they did before the set bonuses were in effect. This is not the case for the monk sets.

Even now, in their enhanced 2.0.6 forms, the Monkey King and Thousand Storm sets do not interact with their respective elemental synergies in any way, and it is this lack of interaction that will continue to cripple their effectiveness.

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Patch 2.06 【Monk Raimend Set 】DS only T6 Solo Demonstration

Just a quick video showing a pure Dashing Strike Build to proc the 6 set Raimend (Lightening Set), certainly a very different playstyle, 5m30s Rift Clear.

 

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Fire Monk Build

Hey guys! A while ago i posted a lightning monk build that utilizes best your items with +lighting dmg. Today i want to show you a similar build but for fire damage.

As always if you want to a watch a 4 minute video showcasing this build you can find it on this link:

 

And if you dont want to watch it i will list here all the skills, passives and paragon levels:

Active Skills:

Spirit Generator:

Deadly Reach - Strike From Beyond

Main Spirit Spender:

Lashing Tail Kick - Vulture Claw Kick

Vulture Claw Kick turns the damage into fire, causing it to scale with your +Fire Damage items, and hit all enemies in 360 degrees around you

Movement Skill

Dashing Strike - Barrage

Sustained Damage

Mystic Ally - Fire Ally

Damage/Survivability

Epiphany - Inner Fire

Mantra

Mantra of Retribution - Transgression

Passive Skills:

One With Everything

Exalted Soul

Seize the Initiative

Transcendance/Unity

For my Paragon levels:
Core: I go for Movement speed until capped at 25% then Dexterity/Vitality
Offense: CHC/CHD >Attack Speed
Defense: All Resistances > Armor/Life %
Utility: Area Damage/Life on Hit (Dependent on your current survivability)

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In the Diablo III, the two essential factors to farm is the qualified viability and stable output capacity. The Monk never lack of ability to survive, we have the best defense skills in all classes. While, due to the limitation of its output capacity, we can only depend on defense to survive. So, we are glad to share this build to make sure we not only have the stable defense ability, but also have excellent DPS. The core idea of this build is reducing the CD.


Seven-Sided Strike - Fulminating Onslaught

According to my personal test, the runes of Seven-Sided Strike increased 27% after patch 2.04. To reducing the CD of Severn strike can directly increase the attack efficiency. As the main output skill, this skill can play important role in dodging and attacking.


Exploding Palm - The Flesh is Weak

It can provide 20% damage buff. You can release it unlimited when the fists can recovery spirit. Meanwhile, Exploding Palm can get physical damage buff and elites damage buff form Mantra of Conviction. Besides, the 50% monster life damage buff decides it would be the crazy reaper in D3!



Breath of Heaven - Circle of Scorn

Breath of Heaven is the amazing defense skill for Monk, while less people fall in love with it. The crazy output ability and self-recovery ability are amplified under the help of Eye of Peshkov which is the necessary skill to farm in Diablo 3. From the video you can notice, i didn’t use blood bottle over 4 times, all depend on Breath of Heaven.


Epiphany - Desert Shroud

Infuse yourself with sand, reducing damage taken by 50% can support you farm in T5 and increase the death rate.


Mythic Rhythm and Beacon of Ytar

There is no doubt that Beacon of Ytar can reduce 25% CD is very important for this build and the Mythic Rhythm has damage buff for Exploding Palm, Seven-Sided Strike, Breath of Heaven and Way of the Hundred Fists.

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Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls - Monk Epiphany Skill

  Here's the latest description I can find for it:

Epiphany
Cooldown: 120 seconds

You have an Epiphany, restoring all of your Spirit, reducing the Spirit cost of your skills by 50% and enabling your melee attacks to instantly dash to your target for 20 seconds.

Desert Shroud: Infuse yourself with sand, reducing damage taken by 50% and increasing your damage by 3% for each enemy within 15 yards.

Soothing Mist: Imbue yourself with water, instantly resetting your Defensive cooldowns and reducing their cooldown durations by 50%. Using a Defensive ability also cleanses negative effects off of allies within 30 yards.

Windwalker: Each enemy killed during your Epiphany increases your Attack Speed by 3% for the remaining duration of Epiphany.

Inner Fire: Engulf yourself in flames, burning enemies within 10 yards for 250% weapon damage as Fire and causing your attacks to assault enemies in front of you for 330% weapon damage as Fire.

Ascension: Charge yourself with Lightning, increasing your movement speed by 10% and causing your next attack after moving 10 yards to Stun enemies for 1.5 seconds.

So this is the monk's equivalent of WotB - same cooldown, lasts 20 seconds instead of 15 so the uptime percentage is a bit better. I wonder if it also gives immunity to crowd control effects.

I'm looking forward to seeing Windwalker in action. I hope that works similar to Archon where you get the effect for group kills as well or we'll see a lot of solo monks.

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[Monk][Video]If any of you high end guys are bored of the same old grind, give this a try. Run MP7/MP8 using a LpSS build.

If you are tired of the same old grind and looking for something to keep you on your toes, try running a LpSS build. Ive never used LpSS so I figured, "eh -why not". Turns out, its actually pretty fun.

It is by no means efficient but I was able to farm pretty successfully on MP7 and took out Ghom on MP8 (see video). Sadly, my EHP for this build is in the toilet at 397K - LpSS Monk so that limits its usefulness but I kind of like the play style and the need to think about what Im doing - especially against RD packs!

I am always looking for ways to improve my current game-play so if you guys have any suggestions on what could improve this build, Id love to hear them :)

Video: 

In case you are wondering, the LpSS gear cost a combined total of 20M

Just swapped to a new Inna's and equipped one of the rings from my standard build. That bumped my AR up by ~80 and my DPS by about 30K. Just facetanked MP9 Ghom!! d3up link has been updated!

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Itemizing a monk from the ground up

I've been away from the game for such a long time (almost pre 1.04)

and I've recently decided to get back to the game again, I feel that I've gotten myself stuck into a corner when itemizing my monk previously (basically whenever I found a better dps upgrade, it ruined my EHP horribly, or vice versa)

I also need to re-think my itemization choices regarding resists (is there any particular resist that comes cheaper than others overall?

is it better to get both ALL RESIST + single resist on each slot, or is it possible to achieve better results using only single resists combined with OWE and aiming for high values, in order to free some of the item budget for better stats ?

I don't want to gradually go through phases of itemization and gear progressions or "tiers", I would prefer to know what's the preferred ideal combination of stats / and the values I should be looking for per each slot, and aim to target these high/maximum values for each slot on a per slot basis instead of upgrading each slot just a little bit.

sorry for rambling on, but what I'm trying to say is a little bit unformulated in my mind.

Here is a profile, to get an idea about what I was building before.

I have no clue what the maximum values for each roll on each slot is, and what is the most optimal combination of special stats that would be beneficial if you are min/maxing (I saw that there's a SOJ legendary now that adds % dmg to elites?)

TL/DR what is the best in slot item build for monks (not in item name wise, but stat value wise per slot, within the maximum rolls and combination of rolls allowed by the game)

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[Monks]Introducing, the Monk "Toolbox"...

Hello Monks,

What we have here is a basically a merging of Meto’s Monk Spreadsheet and my TR spirit calculator and my Damage Mitigation Tools. Meto has been gracious enough to let me make some updates to his sheet and incorporate my additions.

So what is new in this edition:

• A 3rd generator has been added to the Combination Strike buffs
• Fixed Transgressions AS bonus value
• Added a Damage Mitigation Calculator
• Added a TR Passive Spirit Calculator.

Maybe I should give a basic rundown of what the spreadsheet actually does, in case you are unfamiliar with it. Metos sheet is built around the “cookie cutter” monk build…FoT/SW. It will show you the breakdown of the damage you get from FoT, from SW and from the Cyclones. The summary sheet within the spreadsheet will take all your inputs and output:

• DPS
• EHP
• ETDPS
• Combat Spirit Regeneration
• Life regeneration stat
• Etc…

...it is basically d3up on steroids :)

The file has a “How to use” tab but I just want to say that the first thing I would do, after entering your DPS, EHP and Life Regen stats is to zero out all buffs (with the possible exception of STI) and make sure that what is displayed matches d3up. Ex:

Keep in mind that there may be some slight differences between the spreadsheet and whats displayed on d3up but it should be VERY close.

Some may wonder why I am calling this the “Monk Toolbox”. I just figured that since it has several “tools” in it now, that “toolbox” was an appropriate name. At its heart it remains Metos spreadsheet, I just added some tools to help all Monks. My initial thought process is discussed more here

Ok then, here is the "toolbox"

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Oh, btw, you will have to d/l it for it to work

EDIT: This is the link to the variant that accounts for the hidden average damage affix on some jewelry items

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Monk: Mantra of Evasions: Backlash ... somethings you may not know but probably should.

I just wanted to take a moment to discuss a skill that most Monks are familiar with to some extent – Mantra of Evasion’s: Backlash. This is one of those skills that some of us used when we were coming up in the ranks. I say some because it became available at lvl 50, 15 levels after its more popular cousin – MoC: Overawe. As you know, Overawe has been a gold standard among Monks for a long time. So much so that Backlash is rarely seen in builds anymore. I am going to try to change that.

So what do we know about Backlash? Well, the tool tip says it’s associated with dodge and that successfully dodging an incoming attack results in a chance to create a burst of flame dealing 35% weapons damage. Pretty strait forward – a nice little skill but not much utility, or is there?

The tool tip is correct in that you do get a flame equal to 35% of weapons damage. What it fails to mention is that 35% is based on an attack speed of “1”. If you increase AS that percentage also increases. For example, at an AS of 2.4 that percentage is 84. Ok, that’s gem #1. Gem #2 is the fact that when Backlash procs, it also procs LS. So how do you know when Backlash procs? You can see an orange ring radiate out from under your Monk. Gem #3 deals with the fact that Backlash can also crit. I know, it sounds bizarre but it’s the truth. Now, the difference between a “backlash crit” and a “normal crit” is the fact that Backlash uses your weapons damage as the base value. A normal crit will use your stat sheet as the base value. To make sure I wasn’t seeing things, I had previously set game play options as such:

Options: 

I made a short video in which I went into MP1 and sought out a RD pack. The goal was to capture those crits and to see if backlash could handle a MP1 RD pack on its own. I basically just sat there. Now my Templar was with me so it is logical to assume that he was doing a little bit of damage as well. FYI, my Templar does a whopping 388 points of damage so it’s safe to say that his contribution was negligible.

Templar: 

Backlash Video:

As you can clearly see, backlash procs LS and it can crit. It is for these reasons that I have started using it on my MP10 runs in Keeps 2 and CoTA. We can talk more about that if you’d like but the true purpose of this post is to bring Backlash out of the darkness and maybe back into some specialized builds. It may not seem like Backlash has a place in MP10 but when it comes to dense packs /areas it outperforms Overawe in my opinion.

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INVIS's Monk End Game [Speed Palm Build] for High MP

Below is a guide from INVIS:

Hi Everyone INVIS here,

I would like to introduce my proudest creation so far, the Speed Palm (SP) build. I have been playing with this build for a long time, this is also the build I uses for most of my legendary competition. I have done a few builds before and this is by far my most favorite one. There are a lot of advantages in this build and many tips you can improve and practice on. Allow me to go through the details here (Video Version at the end):

1. Introduction of the build
2. Skills Explanation
3. Gear Explanation
4. Using the Build Correctly
5. Tips and practice steps
6. Summary

---------------Introduction of the Build---------------

The core element of this build is the exploding palm, the exploding palm has been buffed to 50% in this patch, and it's what I consider to be the most powerful skills for high MP. (Even with 30% in 1.06, it was still a very powerful skill) The exploding damage scales with the monster HP and on high MP for example MP10, it's very powerful. 90% of the time, the explosion from 1 elite will take out the entire pack. So what we are trying to do here is to maximize our single DPS damage and kill 1 monster quickly for it to explode.

The beauty of this build is the consistence DPS you will be doing, you will want to let the mobs to surround you, and keep hitting them until one explode. Unlike the wave of light, which has knockback, this build is all very stable and controllable. Remember consistence DPS also means you will have safer life steal, as long as you are able to keep hitting them, you will always get life steal back.

---------------Skills Explanation---------------

These are the skills I use: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#aSVUkY!TgV!acaZac

Fist of Thunder- Thunderclap The most powerful generator and the dash is also very useful for locking your main target.

Sweeping Wind- Cyclone The most powerful Sweeping Wind and one of your main DPS output.

Exploding Palm- The Flesh is Weak The core element of this build, since we want to knock one single target down quickly, the flesh is weak will add additional 12% damage to the target. Also exploding damage will be the key.

Way of the Hundred Fists- Blazing Fists The more practical second generator, compare to deadly reach- foresight, the cool down of wave of hundred fists sync nicely with mantra and will only be around 2% dps decrease from deadly reach (yes I have tested it). There are also the increase attack speed benefit for your spirits and cyclone, and also movement speed bonus. It's more difficult to have 100% up time with deadly reach since you don't have the buff icon like the wave of hundred fists so you kind of need to remember to apply it yourself. My suggestion will be to go with way of the hundred fists to form the additional 8% combination strike bonus.

Mantra of Conviction- Overawe The most powerful mantra to maximize your DPS.

Blinding Flash- Faith in the Light The unity and DPS boost in this build, in order to successfully make all monster group together and explode, blind is a very useful tool. Not to mention it also boost your DPS by 30% for 3s, but 3s is usually what it takes to determine how successful your exploding palm is. I have also tested the Breath of Heaven- Blazing Wrath and it does about 3% more DPS compare to Blind, but with the use of Beacon of Ytar, the blind then become more powerful than the Blazing Wrath.

Near Death Experience I use NDE offensively. When you know you still have NDE ready, you tend to go more aggressive and that means faster farming. Also with the reflect pack, without NDE, you will die if you apply exploding palm on them. That is right, it just take 1 explosion to kill you. With NDE, it means that if there are only 2 reflect elite left, you can then apply exploding palm on them, even if they explode, the NDE will save trigger and save you. However you cannot do that when there are 3 elites left, basically if they all explode, the first explosion will trigger the NDE, the second one will kill you. So unless you have NDE, don't ever apply exploding palm on reflect pack. Here is a fun video i did when I level up to Para 100, You can see the effect of exploding palm with reflect.

Combination Strike This passive will boost your DPS a lot, you don't need 2 generator for this to kick in, one generator means 8%, 2 generator is 16%...so on. We are maximizing our DPS here so combination is a must. We will then have 16% from this passive, plus the wave of hundred fists attack speed bonus which is around 15% dps increase, that's already a 30% DPS increase here.

Beacon of Ytar This passive is useful when you have blind, some people may think having this passive only for blind is a waste, i thought so too before I actually tested it and it turns out to be a very useful passive. It not only gives you more DPS, it also gives you more chance to use blind as a tool for example in keep 2, you can use blind to stop the exploding mobs.

The above skills are my preference, some of you may not have enough EHP to take out all defensive passive, some variation you can consider here, you can use breath of heaven for a bit more survival, you can take out NDE and use STI for armor, you can take out beacon of Ytar for OWE if you need it. What I think you should keep is the combination strike because it's such a huge DPS boost and more DPS means more life steals.

---------------Gear Explanation---------------

Since the whole point of this build is allow the exploding palm to take out most of the mobs after the explosion, you do not want any monster running around with fear, so I would suggest you not to use an Echoing Fury, in fact Echoing Fury is just not a very good weapon to use with exploding palm. Instead I would suggest you to choose a rare weapon plus WKL, or just 2 rare weapon. You do need decent amount of EHP for this build to work, if you will die easily when all the mobs and elites surround you, then your gear may not be enough and this is not a budget build, this is intended to end game gear.

---------------Using the Build Correctly---------------

So the orders of you poping each skills is important, I am going to explain three cases:

Blue Elite Pack: * Go into the battle with your mantra ready * Punch a few times with your fist of thunder to gain 8% combination strike DPS buff * Punch a few times with your way of hundred fist for the additional 8% and also the attack speed bonus * Apply exploding palm on hopefully all of them (it's ok if you only manage to apply on 1~2, as long as you apply one and concentrate your DPS on him) * Keep hitting with your fist of thunder * Refresh your way of hundred fists and mantra * Choose your target (usually the one with the lowest HP left) and press blind to burst your DPS on him and make him explode, with my DPS, they are usually dead by now, if this guy still alive, repeat back to second step and keep hitting. Make sure you always have exploding palm on the guy that is about to die.

Champion Yellow Pack: * Go into the battle with your mantra ready * Punch a few times with your fist of thunder to gain 8% combination strike DPS buff * Punch a few times with your way of hundred fist for the additional 8% and also the attack speed bonus * Apply exploding palm on the main champion and also on as many minions you can, don't hit the champion at all, hit the minion instead * Keep hitting with your fist of thunder to the lowest HP minion * Refresh your way of hundred fists and mantra * Choose your target (usually the one with the lowest HP left) and press blind to burst your DPS on him and make him explode, sometimes killing just one minion will be enough to kill the champion, if not it's going to knock down a lot of HP to the champion and if there is more minions left, go back to step 2 and repeat, if not, just kill the champion with his remaining HP.

A Group of White Monster: * Go into the battle with your mantra ready * Punch a few times with your fist of thunder to gain 8% combination strike DPS buff * Punch a few times with your way of hundred fist for the additional 8% and also the attack speed bonus * Apply exploding palm on some of them, choose the one that is almost dead or the one that has more HP, usually the bigger the monster the more HP they have. * Keep hitting with your fist of thunder * Refresh your way of hundred fists and mantra * Choose your target (usually the one with the lowest HP left) and press blind to burst your DPS on him and make him explode. Around 50% of the DPS will come from your normal attack including cyclones, the rest will be done by your exploding palm explosion damage.

---------------Tips and Practice Steps---------------

This is one of the most advance build and it does take some practices to get it correct, please see below for some tips and practice steps you can take to unleash the power of SP build:

1. Choose your key binding carefully, do not put way of the hundred fists on your right mouse click, this is bad since having need to click your right click mouse every 3s will become very painful after a few hours play, it's much easier to have this on your keyboard.
2. Always have the way of hundred fists close the mantra, remember you need to press your mantra and combination strike together every 3s so you don't want to waste 500ms by putting them apart.
3. Practice pressing the way of hundred fists and mantra together every 3~4s without looking at the buff icon. You need to get used to this to have your max DPS output at all time.
4. Practice the the use of exploding palm, don't waste a lot of spirits since you can apply exploding palm on the same guys multiple times but it's no use. Find a place with frequent elites pack, go in the battle and apply 3 exploding palm on 3 different target, don't panic and be precise .
5. Get your timing right, remember exploding palm lasts for 9s, so if you are going to take longer to kill, make sure you reapply on the guy you are doing your main focus DPS on.
6. When you have your exploding palm all set and applied, press wave of hundred fists and mantra again to make sure you have max DPS, then apply blind to burst all your damage on the guy you are trying to kill, during this 3s blind duration, just hold left click so you don't waste any time doing other stuffs.
7. Understanding the mechanic of exploding palm, this is for advance user, but please read it also as it's a hidden power of exploding palm, the skill description says it does 50% of the target max HP as explosion, there is actually a way to buff this explosive to 100%. Have you ever wonder what the exploding palm SOJ does? Now Let me know you, that does NOTHING! it's the bleeding damage it crease, BUT the damage against elite actually apply to exploding palm explosive. So you get the additional 30% there if you are using SOJ, and also your mantra gives a bonus too, plus putting exploding palm- the flesh is weak also add bonus, at the end, if you can make sure you press your mantra at the very last second when one is about to explode, then you can buff you exploding damage to 100%. Don't believe me? Or want to see how I can one shot mp10 ubers? Here is a video :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maHqt65aLKA That's the reason why when you meet a champion yellow pack, you also want to apply the exploding palm on the main guy, so the explosion will do additional damage to him.
8. There is a movement speed bonus from the wave of hundred fists, when you are almost done with a pack or a group of white monsters, remember to apply the way of hundred fists to gain that additional movement speed bonus. It is hard and very advance but if you can remember to do that, it will make the speed palm build even more powerful. And yes, it does boost your movement speed over the cap.

---------------Summary---------------

I hope I have covered most of the points, this is a long guide and I will keep updating more info to it when needed. Below you can also find a video version of the guide:

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXlcsFpQqNo
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9WxWJE5W0I

If you have any more questions or you want to see more of the build in actions (if I am playing with this build), stop by my channel and ask. http://www.twitch.tv/invisuk Thank you for the reading this and see you guys around!

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Monk buffs (or how to quadruple (or more!) your sheet DPS]

I've read a ton of different threads, here and elsewhere, about monks and their different skills, and it seems that the vast majority of monks stick to the tried and trusted FoT/SW build with Breath of Heaven Blazing Wrath & Blinding Flash, along with Resolve, StI & OWE passives.

I wanted to share a variation on that build that I've been running for a while that allows you to put out absolutely disgusting DPS.

Everyone is familiar with Overawe. How can you turn down 48% extra dps? What a lot of monks don't realize is that you can get nearly that much again with the use of the Combination Strike passive.

For those not familiar with it, combination adds 8% dps for each spirit generator you use, and it keeps that buff provided you keep attacking. You don't even need to cycle the different attacks so you can continue to spam FoT like normal, while enjoying the extra damage combo strike provides.

My "cookie cutter" FoT build has always used combination strike & deadly reach in place of either resolve or fleet footed and Breath of Heaven. Let's face it, that heal from BoH is a joke, and while 15% extra dps is nice, with those two skills you get +34% With the buff to plague damage, deadly reach is also great for being able to dish out damage without having to step in that green goo.

Yesterday I turned it up a notch and added Way of the Hundred Fists with Blazing Fists rune into the rotation. This gives +5% move speed and +5% attack speed per crit and can stack 3 times, so +15% MS +15% IAS with 3 stacks.

So what does all that mean in terms of DPS output? For 99% of monks, Fists of Thunder is going to be your main attack & damage dealer, so I'm going to focus on FoT damage in particular.

It should be noted that I have a Won Khim Lau that adds 22% to my FoT damage, and also an Inna's helm that adds another 10% so my base sheet dps of 150k is already buffed to around 200k just from those two items, even though it doesn't show up on sheet dps. (worth every piece of gold spent!)

Let's run through the damage calculations step by step, as shown on d3up (use it, love it!):

My base FoT:TC dmg: 427k (includes +32% from gear)

• Add 48% from Overawe: 582k
• Add 18% from Deadly Reach: 640k
• Add 15% IAS from 3 stack WotHF: 700k
• Add 24% (8% x 3) from Combo strike: 786k
• Add 3% crit chance from Scoundrel: 820k

Here's a screenshot I grabbed from d3up as proof that this is legit: 

So I've gone from base sheet DPS of 150k up to 820k. This is just FoT damage too...you've still got sweeping wind hitting for 200-300k dps on top of that, so easily over a million dps all up.

Here's my strategy going into fights:

Start with Deadly Reach to get that +18% bonus going. I'll usually cast SW around this time since it doesn't matter too much when you cast it now with the removal of snapshotting (though if anyone has evidence to the contrary I'm all ears)

I'll follow that up with WotHF and Overawe then start with the FoT spam. The handy thing about WotHF skill is that it's buff appears on your bar so you can tell how many stacks you have and how long until they expire. Coincidentally, that expiry time is 3 seconds, so right about the time you need to refresh overawe to keep the +48% bonus anyway.

So, refresh overawe & WotHF at the same time, then continue to hold down FoT as per normal. Use Deadly Reach every 20-30 seconds to keep that buff up, and you're golden.

Sorry this ended up getting a little long-winded, but hopefully this gets the information out there about how powerful our buffs can be, and encourages some of you to mix it up a bit.

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[Monk] Using a shield to boot the power of your Tempest Rush!

Ok, so by now most of us monks are familiar with how Tempest Rush works and that you need a good amount of spirit generation to keep it up. Some of us chose to gear swap to take advantage of the sweeping wind bonus by having one set of gear to maximize the SW snapshot and another set to maximize the other component: Crit Chance. It is that component that I want to discuss.

Before I get to deep into this I must credit reddit user, Calc. He was the one who first introduced me to using a shield with a TR build via using a sword and board setup. In fact I will credit most of this build to his insight. My addition is in the area of what a shield or more accurately, a specific affix found on a shield, can do for you.

Now conventional wisdom says you’d be crazy to use anything other than a 2H weapon due to spirit usage being tied to attack speed. However, it is possible and because of the shield portion of that equation, you can get some CRAZY damage. This won’t be seen on your stat sheet but you will definitely notice it when playing.

Shields offer the obvious ability of damage mitigation but they also are one of the best sources for crit chance, in that they roll up to 10% for that affix. Now for the good part – one of the recent patches, 1.05 I believe, introduced the ability for shields to roll affix’s specific to monks. In this case I am referring to + % crit chance for Tempest Rush. This affix can roll up to 8% so theoretically, a shield can give a TR monk (must be in a rush for it to work) a crit chance percentage of 18. That’s huge and results in even more options in the area of gear customization.

Shield examples: 

Now we all know that the most sought after of the spirit regen amulets is the Xeph. The problem is, these amulets with any type of crit chance included are wicked expensive. However, if you had a shield with the aforementioned affix’s then theoretically, you could get a Xeph ammy without crit and not suffer to much in the area of DPS while reaping the benefit of the spirit regen.

Speaking of spirit regen – as you can imagine running a sword and board setup results in a higher AS value. Through the use of various pieces of gear I have managed to get just shy of what I need for a continuous rush. If I gave up my Leorics it could be done but I rather like the increase exp I get so for now I am fine with it.

Spirit Breakdown: 

So in the end, I end up with 50.5% Crit chance. Add to that the +8% that I get from my shield while TR ing. Granted, I have an Xeph ammy with 6.5 % crit chance but even if I didn’t, I would still have 52% crit chance.

Stat sheet:

Anyway, that’s about it. Have fun and happy holidays! Oh and here is my current post snapshot profile for reference:

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[Video] Tempest Rush Monk - 100M exp/hr

Found this video today, thought I would share.
His profile: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Seaboots-2209/hero/9689563
Songs are themes of Ken and Guile from street fighter 2 for the snes.

He got lucky with crater 2 spawn. I was using exp logger through 80 levels of my 2h speedrunner barb, doing alk runs. Results are quite interesting, exp vary a lot depending on density in area. Crater 2 is not just about elites or stacks, it is about scorpion density. I could get up to 140mil/h out of crater 2 alone if I got lucky and map was filled with scorpion (and going there with 5 stacks previously charged).

Also, rakkis crossing, for build that can't autotarget with aoe, so tempest rush monk or ww barb is one of worse areas in terms of exp/hour. You get more from fields of slaughter (not much but few % more). Best exp is crater 2, and after that keeps 2.

I like the idea of skipping alkaizer run start, so you don't waste exp/h ratio on running low density areas such as core arreat and tower level 1.

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[Monk] Infinite Tempest Rush Video

It's not a great example talking, drinking, forgetting to clear inventory, letting SW fall and such but this should give an expectation to a tempest rush run: Here's a run ignoring fleet footed for 24% movement speed. I took the 2 spirit talent and dropped SoJ. After this run I used the templar and equipped another attack speed item. It feels like it could be better, more things die and more gold is picked up. What's interesting here is my only gear swap is ONE spirit regen helm. I assume most have 4pc inna's. If I used a life on kill skorn the cost would be minimal, and if I gained more damage than my skorn, I could drop the breath of heaven for either SSS or serenity to combat reflect damage. Thus the cost of this run vs regular gear is very minimal.

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New Monk Build October 28 -2012

This is a team only build so it will not work if you want to play alone. Ubers require teamplay anyway

This build means you alone have around 10k dps, but it actually does more damage by riding on your teammate's damage.

Sledge fists have great CC (30-50% stun) but at the price of a severe DPS drop. But what if we could compensate that dps drop and still wear stunner shades? The main goal here is perma-stunning Uber boses (and elites) while still maintaining good dps.

This is a pure tank concept in terms of gear so you are able facetank and slug your fists all day. Unless you have lots of gold, you need very defensive gear (which can be purchased for cheap right now since crit chance/crit damage is all the rage). The idea here is to use gear for defense, and skills as offense, well most of em anyway (One With Everything is still king, and I like the extra armor from Seize the Initiative). This will drop you to said 10k dps.

I have 50,000 Health, 2.04-2.33 Attack Speed, 930 total resist, 5,000 armor, and 1,800 Life on Hit to give you an idea of what gear I sought after.

• Exploding palm: 12% dmg boost
• Breath of Heaven/Guiding Light: 16% dmg boost
• Crippling Wave: 10% dmg boost
• Mantra of Conviction: 24%/48% dmg boost

Total: 62%-86% extra damage for your party.

Let's compare two scenarios: (1) ??? dps Overawe monk with a party of 3 doing 100k dps each (2) A 10k dps monk using this build with a party of 3 doing 100k dps each.

From the equation [1.24-1.48(???+300,000)=(310,000)1.62-1.86]

It will take monk (1): 105,000 damage AND 24% Overawe buff to match this build

If he spams the skill every 3 seconds so the party gets 48%, it will only take 89,594 damage.

So there you have it, a sledge fist build that outputs the equivalent as if you had 89,594-105,000 unbuffed DPS.

If the math checks out, this build means that you will now survive your ass off on mp 9/10 and pull your weight damage-wise.

So what do you guys think? Note, there may be a sweet spot between defense and offense so you do not have to go full tank like I did here.

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[Monk] Sweeping Wind Madness

We know that sweeping wind uses your overall DPS to calculate how much damage it does. I have been playing with items and found out a new way to make SW even better. Two words, Flying Dragon.

First you need to use the "Standard Monk Build." Then go buy yourself a good Flying Dragon Daibo with CD/Socket. They are actually pretty cheap since most monks go DW.

Flying dragon may not be the best 2-Hander but it has one of the best effects for monks. It essentially doubles your DPS for a short amount of time.

Some of you may see where this is going and I guarantee you that it is good. What you want to do is wait for your Flying dragon to proc the effect. Make sure that you have BoH on as well. Once it procs, you want to hit BF, then SW.

Here is a pic of how it buffed my DPS below. You will see a huge jump in your killing speed with this. With the coming MP you also want to maximize your damage and this is probably the best I can think of at this moment. SW:Cyclone already does insane amount of damage and with this you pretty much double its effectiveness.

Edit: You can hold shift and keep hitting for Flying dragon to proc then BF to SW. That way you don't have to keep your inv open or watch for attack speed up during a fight.

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