4 x Monk - Exploding Palm

[dancook]

I can't see any Monk builds and nothing in the sticky. Playing season two softcore currently at level 65.

I think my build is something like this
http://www.d3head.com/calculator/skill#zmcTPq8cjMR8VCMv8mzTZw8MzMme8MzOaW8zYXe8zZwR 8zJnu8zZip

Each monk has a different rune on crippling wave, runes 3-6
I came to realise the new seasonal bracer for monks is just like the essence burn rune
Each monk has a different mantra

I cycle cyclone strike and blinding flash.

Cyclone strike enemies in, blinding flash to keep them near and not attacking, exploding palm something weak and kill.


I've not much experience with Monks, so if anyone has any advice on how to make the most of the build and work towards T6 I would appreciate it.

Cheers

[Devile]

I went with something like this to get 70:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#WefVYk!bcf!bZZZaa

Each monk with a different Mantra. Blinding Flash in a 3 secs round robin for perma blind on whites (elites didnt do much anyway). Cyclone Strike + EP and everything died. If not, use WoL to finish them. Strong Spirit returns a lot of spirit on kill so u can kill pretty fast this way. Once I got Epiphany, I switched WoL as my main attack.

[dancook]

I've never used Epiphany before, so I don't know what kind of game changer that is.

I liked strong spirit, but had no other spender - so I might try WOL and see how I get on.

[dancook]

Ok this is really weird for me right now, but it should do the job - and might help others (Using Devile's leveling build)

http://pastebin.com/6FrbLB7A

W spams cyclone strike, blinding light and mantras
E exploding palm


edit. fixed bug, updated pastbin

[Devile]

Here's my setup:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Devile-1430/hero/57636972
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Brikinger-1856/hero/57636971
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/TRES-1497/hero/57636974
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/FOUR-1713/hero/57636973

No generator. Just EP and WoL when needed. My main only uses Cyclone Strike and I have a round robin for Inner Sanctuary. Epiphany for Elites to spam WoL. Doing Campaign on Master. I can do it on T1 but is a bit slow and not efficient. Really unlucky with drops, but can't ask much if I'm not doing Torment yet. As soon as I get better yellows, I'll bump it up to T1.

Looting takes so much time when u multibox :/

[Devile]

Changed to this build and I'm doing a LOT better:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB5p80LBL8g

Nightmarish and Knockback are very annoying but I have so much toughness it doesn't really matter. Still doing Campaign to finish the game in T1. After that I'll do regular rifts. Can't really play much cause of work.

[dancook]

Great I'll take a look, I was trying your 4 x monk build you posted before - completing T1 rifts.

[dancook]

Haven't spent much time considering the build, it's just working at the moment :) put unity in there instead because it's 20% always.

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/dancook-2734/hero/54857327
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Dancook-2605/hero/54857326
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/dancook-2348/hero/54857328

Shaefer's hammer! :) cool
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/dancook-2991/hero/54857330


GR17 is my current limit i'd say.. i'm 17 now with 3 wipes :D damn nightmarish

[Devile]

Yeah, I added Unity as well, but keep in mind Unity doesn't work with Mantra of Conviction, so the monk with MoC should use something else.

[dancook]

Yeah, I added Unity as well, but keep in mind Unity doesn't work with Mantra of Conviction, so the monk with MoC should use something else.

Cheers, determination I guess

[Kicksome]

Thanks for all the advice on Monks. So far I'm just doing normal rifts in T3 to try and get more gear. I got 4 of the bracers, but I forgot to hand one over to my main guy, so really only 3 so far. Set gear is taking a while.

I'm using a fairly similar build to the video. Seems pretty good so far.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Kicksome-1212/hero/57397771
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Sweetcakes-1662/hero/57397792
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Kicksome3-1399/hero/57397806
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Kicksome4-1510/hero/57397766

[Devile]

I'm kinda regretting going with monks. Sure it made more sense and all, but geez ... the multibox grinding is so damn BORING. Nothing like a ranged char or a melee with perma immunity or something. I'm getting so fed up of knockback, nightmarish, wormhole, frozen, vortex, jailer, etc. I'm sure once I get Sunwuko's I'll be happier but because of the amount of time I can play, this initial days are VERY boring and unrewarding. Not a single piece yet and I need to gear 4 monks :/

Ditched the build from the video and went with TR Cold build. Had to go down a few Torment levels since it's far less efficient but a LOT more fun. If I get bored of farming with monks, I might start DHs and once I gear them up, use them to get shards for the monks. Might be a lot faster after all and won't die of boredom in the process.

Another alternative is to forget about multibox for a few days and gear just my main with clan groups, loot share, etc. Once I get it fully geared, I can use it to carry my other accounts. Not sure what I will do for now.

[Multanis]

That pretty much sums up my whole experience with Monks, the amount of CC abilities on monsters drove me completely nuts and i didn't even play them that long. As i played mostly Pet WD and Crusader before where you can prevent most CC, that experience was as awful as it gets, especially as you are always very close to mobs as monk and don't have the pet meat shield to absorb stuff.

[Meeo]

i've been running into a similar boat myself. I seem to tend to drop my 4 box later in the evening and tend to solo with my main or run with friends. my main is semi decently geared just missing a few pieces to finish my build up.

I have also been pondering if DH's would be more efficient at farming more so. I like my monks but 1 can do just as much carnage as 4, especially with how EP is.

[dancook]

I'm doing T3 with my Monks now, up to 19 GR - really want to play Wizard :D but I really want to get level 25 gem of ease before I do that... sigh...

[Meeo]

I'm doing T3 with my Monks now, up to 19 GR - really want to play Wizard :D but I really want to get level 25 gem of ease before I do that... sigh...


to farm gems i just started the rift trial and left, and just kept doing that until i had all the gems on my guys and used the escalated keys i got to level them up.

[dancook]

to farm gems i just started the rift trial and left, and just kept doing that until i had all the gems on my guys and used the escalated keys i got to level them up.

edit. I mean what I do is exit the trial before it starts then do GR 1,5,9,13,17 or whatever from one keystone and get a bunch of gems.

I just need to be able to tackle high GR to get it to level 25.. about level 12/13 at the moment. Running GR 19, which won't be enough to them to 25 easily.

[dancook]

Just had what seemed like two hordes of goblins right near each other - but with T3 - even without the nightmarish elites, I can't kill many of them. EP no good for this unless I can lead a lot of trash to them.

[Kicksome]

I've just been farming entire t3 rifts for gear. I've got at least 2 piece of Sunwuko's on 3 guys, and 5 piece of the other crappy dashing set on 1 guy.

It's definitely getting better. I haven't done any GR's yet at all. Paragon 70 right now, with 3 of the guys having the gungo.

[Kicksome]

I'm having a pretty fun time with the monks. I changed my spec up again a bit.

I think having 1 of the monks with EP and this weapon is key: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Kicksome4-1510/hero/57397766
I just switched this a couple hours ago.

I'm also using different EP ruins on my guys, I'm not so sure the same ruins stack. When I made the switch to each using a different ruin, it seemed to make a big difference. But I really don't know for sure.

I did make it up to a GR 24 but I just died too much. Didn't make the timer.

[dancook]

I have one of those weapons, but i wasn't sure damage drop wise, got an ancient vengeful wind for 6 stacks of sweeping wind.. not really paid attention to how much that helps, but the damage is nice.

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/dancook-2991/hero/54857330

[joes]

This exploding palm monk build is amazing.

I just got 70 on my monk characters (boosted through levels) with crappy gear (avg. 200k sheet dps with all auras and 4m toughness) - was able to do T1 without any problems whatsoever.

[Yelgis]

EP is very good. My monk team is now able to do T6 decently and I have completed a GR32 so far.

I don't think you need the Fist of Az. EP is really only good for clearing trash fast and the lucky times when you get an elite pack surrounded by little guys. It greatly speeds up our clear times. Where monk's tend to fall off is in single target DPS. I am currently using Vulture Claw Kick (LTK) as I don't have good Incense Torches for my team. Two-handers are where it is at for dps now. Each member of my team has an ancient legendary over 4k and it just does so much more damage than a DW setup can ever hope to.

Once I get lucky enough to get a few more torches, I will probably swap over to Pillar of the Ancients because it is our best single target skill.

I feel the things holding me back right now are single target potential and survivability. My monks still feel pretty squishy in GR's above 30 and I still clear them in less than 10 minutes. Kill speed doesn't feel bad though.

[Kicksome]

Each member of my team has an ancient legendary over 4k and it just does so much more damage than a DW setup can ever hope to.


Hey Yelgis, thanks for sharing your experience. Wow - what a difference it made. I've found about 10 Ancient legendary 1H weapons, but no 2H. I started gemming my gear last night, and re-rolling stats. This morning I was able to do a T6 Rift finally, and a couple 2H Ancient legendary's dropped. Man, they make a huge DPS increase.

One huge change I made that seemed to help a ton on my survival is switching Blinding Flash round robin to Inner Sanctuary Round robin - Forbidden Palace.

The single target DPS is weak though with EP, but it's nice to have the whole screen blow up.

I also started going for the weakest mobs to apply dots. I'll see how it goes today. I've got 2 torches, but they are just normal ones.

[Yelgis]

Yea I have had 2 Torch drop as well, but they are both low rolls and non-ancient. Once I can get either 4 higher rolled ones or ancients I will swap over.

I may consider trying to fit in Forbidden Palace. I don't want to swap Blinding Flash right now though. I use Flash for two reasons. CC and spirit regen.

I am using Laws of Seph on all 4 characters with 54% or greater CDR. That allows me to use Flash every 6.8 seconds or so on all of them. I round robin it casting it every 1.8 seconds or less. If you can get to that point you can keep rift guardians and some elite packs perma blind. Currently RG's are basically statues I beat on till they are dead. The problem is Elite packs. They don't always get locked down under blind perfectly or quick enough causing some of their afixes to have a chance to come out. The ones that seem to hurt me the most are Fire Chains and unlucky arcane beams. If you want to stunlock Rift bosses make sure you are using the rune that increases the blind to 6 seconds, btw.

The only skills I could currently sub out are Epiphany, Sweeping Wind, and/or my Mantra slots. Not sure which would be worth giving up for Forbidden Palace. Sweeping Wind is kinda important for keeping Taeguk up which is a large armor and dps boost. I am also using Bane of the Trapped for DPS. I was thinking about throwing in one of the new gems for more toughness. Not sure which one to try first tho.

[Kicksome]

I'm actually not sure what an end build is supposed to look like. Any ideas? Right now, all my guys have 900k dps standing around together.

I'm still at the point where I'm trying to get set gear. I'm not actually sure what sets I need...

I have:
2x with at least 2 pieces of sun gear
2x with 4 pieces sun gear
4x with 2 piece Thousands storms - 500 dex.
4x gun bracers
1x cruddy boots for 2x mystic allies
4x ancient 2h weapons with around 3.9k dps

I haven't re-rolled for CDR yet at all.

I've only done 1 set of GRs to get my starting gems. So I only have 1/2 of the legendary gems - non are leveled up, and I only have 1 slotted on each guy.

[dancook]

I went a bit 'crazy' in a realm of trials and ended up in GR24... up to now i've been doing T3 rifts ..

I managed it, but look how far I went in the first level to complete it... I wiped a fair bit - but EP really bumped up the kills

got boon of the hoarder on all now :D

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-kCgaL3YFxew/VOjQw_nxroI/AAAAAAAABuQ/a-jrZH2BAIo/w872-h545-no/gr24.jpg

[Kicksome]

So T6 is pretty easy at this point - they get a lot easier when they get decent gear. I just did a GR 26 rift, no problems. I'm paragon level 132 now. Just need to level some gems.

I put EP on round robin, it seems like it works a lot better than just using 4 at a time. No spirit issues and it still blows everything up.

I also switched up my Salvation mantra to use dodge instead of the extra 20% resist. It almost doubled my sheet toughness.

The biggest issue is still the rift bosses. I'm not in danger of getting killed, it just takes a long time to kill it. The 26 rift I was at the boss in about 7 mins, but the boss took a good 3 mins.

I think if I can get inna's 3 piece bonus on the rest of my crew, it should solve a lot of issues.

I need about 3 more pieces of Inna's set and I'll be in good shape. I managed to get a Furnace that's 3.5k dps plus 47% damage to elites, along with 30% jordan, and then another 35% cold damage, so the cold exploding palm hits hard with that guy on elites.

[Devile]

I'm way behind all of u. Not much time to play. Doing T1 only since it's a lot more efficient for my current status. For the ones that just start, get Toxin and Pain Enhancer Gems. Even at rank 0 they will do a ton of damage with the DoT and let u do higher difficulties a lot faster.

Be careful with Inna's 4 piece set bonus. It causes several problems if u wanna use certain Mantra's on each char. The 4 piece bonus overwrites the effect of the mantras of each char. So for example if Char1 has Mantra of Evasion with X rune and Char4 uses 4 piece inna set, Char2 and Char3 will get the unruned Mantra of Evasion. This will also affects the Unity passive since it relies on BUFFING amount of allies. If your Mantra is being overwritten by Innas 4 piece set from another character, then it's not buffing the party and it won't count those as allies, ending up in not giving the 20% damage. That's also why Mantra of Conviction doesn't work with Unity, since it's a debuff and not a buff.

At least I managed to get some gems now. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be able to catch up.

[Shodokan]

So T6 is pretty easy at this point - they get a lot easier when they get decent gear. I just did a GR 26 rift, no problems. I'm paragon level 132 now. Just need to level some gems.

I put EP on round robin, it seems like it works a lot better than just using 4 at a time. No spirit issues and it still blows everything up.

I also switched up my Salvation mantra to use dodge instead of the extra 20% resist. It almost doubled my sheet toughness.

The biggest issue is still the rift bosses. I'm not in danger of getting killed, it just takes a long time to kill it. The 26 rift I was at the boss in about 7 mins, but the boss took a good 3 mins.

I think if I can get inna's 3 piece bonus on the rest of my crew, it should solve a lot of issues.

I need about 3 more pieces of Inna's set and I'll be in good shape. I managed to get a Furnace that's 3.5k dps plus 47% damage to elites, along with 30% jordan, and then another 35% cold damage, so the cold exploding palm hits hard with that guy on elites.

Try replacing your round robin EP with one character doing EP at all times and the other 3 using blind. Also the build that seems to do the best for single target damage is a fire version with either a torch + cindercoat setup or a cindercoat + furnace. Elite damage items like hellcat could work great as well to increase damage to elites.

[Yelgis]

I've cleared GR35 now. Here are my monks:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Yelgis-1579/hero/57378826
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Yelgfour-1320/hero/57378705
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Yelgtwo-1690/hero/57378817
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Yelgthree-1995/hero/57378699

As you can see I haven't been very lucky with weapons yet. I have good ancient ones that is for sure, but I have had 4 torches drop that have all rolled really poorly and I've had two furnaces drop below 3400 dps. From the tests I did the low roll furnaces didn't out dps my high ancients.

I really like the law of seph setup. I stack about 54% CDR on all the characters which allows me to round robin Blinding Flash Self Reflection every 1.78 seconds. This keeps the RG and other bosses permanently blind. Nothing like fighting statues. EP for the quick clears. Once I get half decent torches I will swap to a Wave of Light Build (either fire or lightning depending on the situation).

Currently I am using Hellfire Rings and Cain set for the massive 95% xp buff. Once I hit over paragon 400 I may change that. I can't really swap to leroics or rubies in the helm or I will lose spirit and the cdr I need to blindlock bosses.

I use 3 guys with dps skills and the fourth uses Cyclone Strike to bring things in range of LTK. I also use a Nemesis Bracer on the LTK character in order to summon more elite/rare packs in GR's.

So far so good, My guys are a little bit squishy still atm, but I am working on fixing that by leveling up the new gems.

[Shodokan]

I've cleared GR35 now. Here are my monks:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Yelgis-1579/hero/57378826
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Yelgfour-1320/hero/57378705
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Yelgtwo-1690/hero/57378817
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Yelgthree-1995/hero/57378699

As you can see I haven't been very lucky with weapons yet. I have good ancient ones that is for sure, but I have had 4 torches drop that have all rolled really poorly and I've had two furnaces drop below 3400 dps. From the tests I did the low roll furnaces didn't out dps my high ancients.

I really like the law of seph setup. I stack about 54% CDR on all the characters which allows me to round robin Blinding Flash Self Reflection every 1.78 seconds. This keeps the RG and other bosses permanently blind. Nothing like fighting statues. EP for the quick clears. Once I get half decent torches I will swap to a Wave of Light Build (either fire or lightning depending on the situation).

Currently I am using Hellfire Rings and Cain set for the massive 95% xp buff. Once I hit over paragon 400 I may change that. I can't really swap to leroics or rubies in the helm or I will lose spirit and the cdr I need to blindlock bosses.

I use 3 guys with dps skills and the fourth uses Cyclone Strike to bring things in range of LTK. I also use a Nemesis Bracer on the LTK character in order to summon more elite/rare packs in GR's.

So far so good, My guys are a little bit squishy still atm, but I am working on fixing that by leveling up the new gems.

Why 54% cdr when it lasts 6 seconds and with 3 being used that turns out being 18 seconds with 3 seconds of overlap?

[Devile]

Gratz on GR35. I see 2 monks using Mantra of Salvation with different runes. Last time I checked, those dont stack. Or did Blizzard change something? And why LTK and not Fire WoL? Spirit issues even with Cindercoat?

[joes]

I've cleared GR35 now. Here are my monks:
I see you use Epiphany. Any problems with character synchronization?

[Devile]

I used to have sync issues with Epiphany, but now I'm getting used to it. I changed my build for Fire WoL for T3 and Epiphany and I rarely have issues with it. I think is a matter of aiming carefully to avoid the teleports from single chars instead of the whole group. Can be tricky but is not that hard after u get used to it. Trying to keep the mouse centered helps avoiding those teleports.

[Kicksome]

Nice Yelgis!

I was able to do GR30 so far with time left. I can blow through the rifts but the boss takes too long at this point.

I am going for the inna's 2 piece + 1 rorg for the 3 piece bonus only. That way I can keep up Sweeping wind 100% of the time, and stack that gem that increases your damage by .5% - and keep that up all the time.

I just need 1 more inna's piece.

At this point, I'm just trying to make the best of the gear I have - I still need a lot of work on CDR etc...

[Yelgis]

Ok I will try to answer all these questions as I can. First why 54% CDR? Because skills don't actually last as long as they say. Mobs gain 10% CC resistance every second they are CC'd up to a maximum of 70% for bosses and elites like RG's, which means a 6 second Blind only lasts for a total of 1.8 seconds on a fully CC resist stacked mob. You have to get your CDR up to a point where every single character in your boxxing team can cast the skill you are CCing with faster than the duration of the effect on a fully resistant mob. For Blinding Flash Self Reflection that point is about 7.2 seconds for a full rotation (1.8 seconds per character). Also bosses have a minimum threshold of .85 seconds. If a CC duration after resist calculation would last shorter than that minimum it has no effect. That is why 1.5 second and even 2 second stuns fail to lock down bosses after a while (their CC resist makes them go below threshold). This also means the only way to stunlock bosses effectively is with CC skills 3 seconds duration or longer.


Why LTK instead of Wave? Because I can't keep wave spammed using gungdo gear even with cindercoat and laws of seph giving me spirit back every 6.8 seconds. I will switch to Wave of Light once I find decent torches but so far the game isn't treating me well in that department. LTK is spammable with Cindercoat and Vulture Claw Kick is the next best choice for single target damage next to Wave of Light.


Why 2 mantra's of salv? Because they do stack, just not the way people think. The base effect and the active effect do not stack at all, but the rune effect does. Which means I run Wind through the Reeds for 10% runspeed and the one that ups the base resist effect to 40% which means overall it is 60% all resist and 10% runspeed buff (as long as I keep spamming the activation). Also fyi the spirit/sec from circular breathing does affect all monks on the team. Some people will tell you it doesn't, but it does. Test out different mantra combinations and you can see this all in your game. Hover of the mantra buff icon while having two separate runes up on the same one and you will see all the rune effects listed there. Crusader Laws work the same way.


Epiphany doesn't really seem to desync me too often and in fact sometimes it syncs me up better. Blind while being a nice CC that still works on bosses allows the mobs to move a little bit and it is kinda random, so over long RG fights you will see the RG drift a little away from your characters. You either reposition or have Epiphany teleport you. I kinda like it. It really is for the 50% damage reduction though. Toughness is the biggest issue right now for me on my monks, which is why I also run Forbidden Palace in RR and am working on leveling the new defensive leg gems.


Kicksome, I was using Inna's as well. It is very nice and certainly a bonus that we can keep it up with SW. I swapped to using Cain's for xp to help me get my a paragon up faster (in combo with hellfire rings) and the meant I could no longer keep SW up. Which free'd up a spot on my bar for Forbidden Palace. So it is a bit of a trade off. Once I get good Torches, I plan to swap to Wave and maybe the lightning version which means I could drop my Cindercoats for Inna chest and maybe the belt (if I can get my CDR elsewhere for my blinding flash stunlock). Haven't decided yet. For now I am using Toxin gem, which actually gives me more dmg than the Taeguk gem. Once I get all my guys over 400 paragon I may swap cains back off (because I really like Illusory Boots, or may go back to Crudest for double fire Allies).


It really is a lot of trade offs with gearing options. I personally focus on the blind lock with Flash. That makes RG's a joke to fight. They are literally just big HP statues that get beat on till they die. Everything else is variable. I plan to test and tinker and try new things out as drops permit. Wave is probably going to be my end goal for a dps skill unless I get super lucky and get 4 ancient furnaces. Wave is just better for single target (Pillar) otherwise or easier to use (Explosive Light) because of its range. By swapping to Wave I can drop Cyclone strike which also makes EP spread better in my opinion. I really can't wait to get some good torches.

[Shodokan]

Ok I will try to answer all these questions as I can. First why 54% CDR? Because skills don't actually last as long as they say. Mobs gain 10% CC resistance every second they are CC'd up to a maximum of 70% for bosses and elites like RG's, which means a 6 second Blind only lasts for a total of 1.8 seconds on a fully CC resist stacked mob. You have to get your CDR up to a point where every single character in your boxxing team can cast the skill you are CCing with faster than the duration of the effect on a fully resistant mob. For Blinding Flash Self Reflection that point is about 7.2 seconds for a full rotation (1.8 seconds per character). Also bosses have a minimum threshold of .85 seconds. If a CC duration after resist calculation would last shorter than that minimum it has no effect. That is why 1.5 second and even 2 second stuns fail to lock down bosses after a while (their CC resist makes them go below threshold). This also means the only way to stunlock bosses effectively is with CC skills 3 seconds duration or longer.


Why LTK instead of Wave? Because I can't keep wave spammed using gungdo gear even with cindercoat and laws of seph giving me spirit back every 6.8 seconds. I will switch to Wave of Light once I find decent torches but so far the game isn't treating me well in that department. LTK is spammable with Cindercoat and Vulture Claw Kick is the next best choice for single target damage next to Wave of Light.


Why 2 mantra's of salv? Because they do stack, just not the way people think. The base effect and the active effect do not stack at all, but the rune effect does. Which means I run Wind through the Reeds for 10% runspeed and the one that ups the base resist effect to 40% which means overall it is 60% all resist and 10% runspeed buff (as long as I keep spamming the activation). Also fyi the spirit/sec from circular breathing does affect all monks on the team. Some people will tell you it doesn't, but it does. Test out different mantra combinations and you can see this all in your game. Hover of the mantra buff icon while having two separate runes up on the same one and you will see all the rune effects listed there. Crusader Laws work the same way.


Epiphany doesn't really seem to desync me too often and in fact sometimes it syncs me up better. Blind while being a nice CC that still works on bosses allows the mobs to move a little bit and it is kinda random, so over long RG fights you will see the RG drift a little away from your characters. You either reposition or have Epiphany teleport you. I kinda like it. It really is for the 50% damage reduction though. Toughness is the biggest issue right now for me on my monks, which is why I also run Forbidden Palace in RR and am working on leveling the new defensive leg gems.


Kicksome, I was using Inna's as well. It is very nice and certainly a bonus that we can keep it up with SW. I swapped to using Cain's for xp to help me get my a paragon up faster (in combo with hellfire rings) and the meant I could no longer keep SW up. Which free'd up a spot on my bar for Forbidden Palace. So it is a bit of a trade off. Once I get good Torches, I plan to swap to Wave and maybe the lightning version which means I could drop my Cindercoats for Inna chest and maybe the belt (if I can get my CDR elsewhere for my blinding flash stunlock). Haven't decided yet. For now I am using Toxin gem, which actually gives me more dmg than the Taeguk gem. Once I get all my guys over 400 paragon I may swap cains back off (because I really like Illusory Boots, or may go back to Crudest for double fire Allies).


It really is a lot of trade offs with gearing options. I personally focus on the blind lock with Flash. That makes RG's a joke to fight. They are literally just big HP statues that get beat on till they die. Everything else is variable. I plan to test and tinker and try new things out as drops permit. Wave is probably going to be my end goal for a dps skill unless I get super lucky and get 4 ancient furnaces. Wave is just better for single target (Pillar) otherwise or easier to use (Explosive Light) because of its range. By swapping to Wave I can drop Cyclone strike which also makes EP spread better in my opinion. I really can't wait to get some good torches.

Taguk is important for toughness, huge armor bonuses. So to me that makes sub 35 GRs and t6 gems Trapped/Taguk/Toxin to me.
Cindercoat + Daibo are great but i think ultimately the end goal is going to be to get that almighty ancient furnace and continue to use LTK.

Thanks for the explanation of the diamond in your helms.

[Devile]

@Yelgis, thx for the info. Yes, u were right. Different Mantra Runes stack. Got rid of Mantra of Retribution and went with Mantra of Salvation with a different rune. More toughness without loosing the 10% movement speed. I didn't test the effect on Unity but it should work since the buff is applied to the whole party. Also Circular Breathing gives spirit to the whole party ... had no idea about that one too.

Have you tried TR Flurry? U have pretty much all the gear needed. Sure, not for exp since u will have to get rid of Cain's, but at least to see how far can you go in GR.

Doing T4 until I can have Sunwuko's. Don't have a single full set yet. RNG is treating me pretty bad.

[Kicksome]

@Yelgis thanks for all the great info - you explained it in a way that even I could understand! Can't wait to try this out.

[Yelgis]

I am still missing Hexing Pants to be able to do a Tempest Rush build. I played TR for a little while before going to my current builds, but it wasn't very impressive and I found syncing issues even more so with TR than with other builds.

I don't like Unity. It is kinda weak the way Blizzard implemented it. Unity is only a 15% damage buff in a multibox setup if you don't use mystic ally (because you only have 3 other allies) and then it provides a 5% dmg buff to your other party members affected by your mantra. The problem is that the 5% to allies doesn't stack with multiple monks, which sucks. Test it and you will see only the first monk to activate unity buffs the other monks dps by 5%. Everyone after that doesn't have any effect.

That fact and since I don't run Mystic Ally right now I only use Unity on one monk that is using a party affecting mantra. The other three run the 20% dmg buff that requires the mob to be blind, stunned or frozen. Since I am always casting blind this works out for me.

[joes]

So, people figured out what will be in patch 2.2. Monk related changes:

1. Raiment of a Thousand Storms
* 2 pieces: [Your Spirit Generators have 25% increased attack speed and 500% increased damage.]
* 4 pieces: [Increases the weapon damage of Dashing Strike to 5000%.]
* 6 pieces: [Dashing Strike spends 50 Spirit, but refunds a Charge when it does.]

2.Inna's Mantra
* 2 pieces: [Increase the passive effect of your Mystic Ally and the base passive effect of your Mantra by 100%.]
* 6 pieces: [Mystic Ally casts Cyclone Strike, Exploding Palm, Lashing Tail Kick, Seven-Sided Strike, and Wave of Light when you do.]

3. Various strings related to new Monk effects
* Mystic Ally casts Cyclone Strike, Exploding Palm, Lashing Tail Kick, Seven-Sided Strike, and Wave of Light when you do.
* Increases the weapon damage of Dashing Strike to [VALUE]%.
* Seven-Sided Strike performs an additional seven strikes.
* Your Spirit Generators reduce your damage taken by [VALUE]% for 3 seconds.
* Increase the passive effect of your Mystic Ally and the base passive effect of your Mantra by [{VALUE1}*100]%.
* Your Spirit Generators have 25% increased attack speed and [VALUE]% increased damage.
* Your Spirit Generators generate [VALUE]% more Spirit.
* Dashing Strike spends [VALUE] Spirit, but refunds a Charge when it does.

Skills:
* Near Death Experience When receiving fatal damage, you instead restore 35% Life and 35% Spirit and are immune to damage and control impairing effects for 2 seconds. / This effect may occur once every 60 seconds.

First impressions:
1. So, seems like 2 set bonus of Inna's Mantra is must have. Plus Crudest Boots (2x Mystic Allies = 16 spirit per second). Unfortunately RRoG requires at least 2 pieces and 3 set bonus (-70 on sweeping wind cost) is useless in combination with Mystic Ally. But there's now 6 set bonus (and before it only had 4 set bonus), so quite possible they remove 3 set and moved it to 4 set bonus.

2. Inna's Mantra 6 piece is awesome with Crudest Boots. It is basically 3x more damage for spenders and right next to the enemy. Combined with 2 piece Inna's Mantra = excellent spirit regen. Not sure if it is as good as Sunwuko 6 piece damage wise, but surely more consistent.

3. Rainment of a Thousand Storms - seems interesting if you're undergeared or don't want to use Mystic Ally. 5000% damage bonus sounds nice + dashing strike does not cause desync. And seems like dashing strike stars spending spirit - I wonder if they'll change current charge mechanic.

4. If they're not changing Sunwuko, then following build is possible:
Inna 5pc: Head + Chest + Belt + Leg + Weapon
Sunwuko 3pc: Gloves + Shoulders + Amulet
+ RRoG
+ Crude Boots
= Triple spender * 500% + Inna's passives


More info here: http://www.diablofans.com/news/48343-ptr-patch-2-2-datamined

[Yelgis]

I was more excited to to 2 piece new Raiment with 2 piece+ of Inna's and use Depth Diggers and Simplicity's Strength gem with a flying dragon and go full out generator mode. Could use EP for assisting with AoE clear as well. It may not be as good as Inna+Wuko, but I always liked generator focused builds. 600% + 25% attack speed from the new Raiment, 100% from Depth Diggers, and 15% attack speed from Alacrity passive could mean you would be able to hit 4+ attacks per second with generators. Which is way faster than you can spam bells so if the dmg on the gens is high enough it should be able to keep up.

[Shodokan]

I was more excited to to 2 piece new Raiment with 2 piece+ of Inna's and use Depth Diggers and Simplicity's Strength gem with a flying dragon and go full out generator mode. Could use EP for assisting with AoE clear as well. It may not be as good as Inna+Wuko, but I always liked generator focused builds. 600% + 25% attack speed from the new Raiment, 100% from Depth Diggers, and 15% attack speed from Alacrity passive could mean you would be able to hit 4+ attacks per second with generators. Which is way faster than you can spam bells so if the dmg on the gens is high enough it should be able to keep up.

Generators with good gear look to be hitting for around 120m (watching modz stream)

3p innas is gone so no taguk stacking anymore.
SWK is now 6 piece and we don't know if 2/4 piece will be moved.

You could theoretically run 2 piece innas, 2 piece generator set, depth diggers and then spec for CDR for perma serenity as well as use the new 2 piece bonus for the restraint set which increases damage done by 150% while on full resources. Damage from EP explosions are still massive so you can run do great AOE with running something like a crippling wave build.

[joes]

So, there's quickfix for Rainment:



Raiment of a Thousand Storms

The damage from the 2-piece bonus should now be multiplicative instead of additive (2/27)


So yes, 2 piece Rainment is excellent choice.

[Devile]

Finally got some time to catch up and gear up my monks. Still running with garbage gear, but at least I have 4 set Sunwuko's now for all. Tried GR34 to get my toxin gem to 25 and did it at first try. Just a couple deaths. Using Fire WoL and not really having spirit issues so far. Haven't seen a single torch yet. EP on a single monk with gungdo gear is more than enough to kill trash. Still a long road ahead. Paragon 220+ now. I really need Cindercoats. Haven't figured out yet what my end build will be, but the current one is working pretty good so far. I'm not sure how I'm gonna fit Taeguk here since I have no slot for Sweeping Wind. Blinding Flash round robin is pretty much a must for higher level GR.

[joes]

I accidentally saw this stream - http://www.twitch.tv/streamerhouse

Guy runs 4x Monk with some kind of fire tempest build. Seems like build is very efficient and I don't see any synchronization problems at all.

[Shodokan]

I accidentally saw this stream - http://www.twitch.tv/streamerhouse

Guy runs 4x Monk with some kind of fire tempest build. Seems like build is very efficient and I don't see any synchronization problems at all.

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Inigo-2750/hero/54608389

The spec works for t6 and lower tier greater rifts (30 or lower)
He runs mantra of conviction with annihilation as well as the mantra for movespeed from salvation.
Bracers, passives and blind buff party damage for elite kills.

This does not work efficiently sub 1.1m sheet dps with HIGH dps weapons (4.1-4.3k minimum). My toons at 800k sheet dps were struggling with this build to the point where its more efficient to run them through shit with my demon hunter for 90 shards and 2-3 legendies every 4 mins instead.

Looks fun though and it translates well into next patch as well.