Diablo® III

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#aeXdfQ!bTU!abbbZc

Using this build alongside 3 other friends on hardcore, so it's pretty heavy on survival. It goes hand-in-hand with my friend's debuff Witch Doctor. Really good for emergencies and micromanagement.

I had actually thought about using inner sanctuary in place of SSS for another defensive skill. Im not much a fan of breath of heaven for some reason. Thanks for the feedback though. I just can't wait to get in game and figure out what works best through experience. :) Anyone else excited?!?

yeah thats a good idea, what do you think about this:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#bcXRik!ZXc!cZbcZc

it may not be an optimal build, but i call it "Storm Monk" , probably not viable in inferno but be fun to use in normal run around killing everything before it touches you :D

not enough single target dps for hell/inferno tho i think :(

I just can't wait to get in game and figure out what works best through experience. :) Anyone else excited?!?

Hell yea. I'm freaking going nuts. o.O

I also can't wait to get into game and test out my thoughts. Will also be fun to group w/ other monks to see how their builds differ in damage, style. Lots of fun to be had, just hours to wait for it....

05/07/2012 06:25 PMPosted by Addison

Anyone else excited?!?

We have less than a week to go b4 D3, EVERYONE should be excited.

Also, I'm on my second to last day of college (in the middle of one of my 4 hour tuesday breaks right now...), and I think D3 will be a huge part of summer for me.

Also, here's a build using WoL for a primary damager:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#aeXdjS!ZbT!YcYbbZ

The idea here is to spam WoL, and laying down the beat down with FoT for spirit restoration. Exalted soul is there to make it possible to hold on to all the spirit that would be generated from FoT's Quickening rune, BoH's Infused with Light rune, and Mystic Air Ally’s occasional extreme boost in spirit, and mantra of retribution would increase attack speed for even more from FoT.

Intended equipment for this build includes a daibo like Inna's Justice (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/innas-justice) to balance huge damage with decent attack speed, the rest of the Inna set to get the set bonus, and whatever increases attack speed to further increase spirit recovery. Green gems would prob be used too to get the most out of FoT's rune in the weapon, and purple ones would definitely belong in the armor for more max HP (everything other gem effect for armor is for farming, so no yellow or red gems).

Here's the strat for fighting the tough fights (assuming this is for inferno):

1. You go in to battle with full health/spirit (using BoH and equipping your extra equip set maxed out on spirit regen if not at full on either, then switching back b4 battle).

2. You use dashing strike on the ranged enemy(s) if there is range involved (skip to 3 if there isn't).

3. You use Air Ally if he isn't already summoned to get the most out of resolve [spirit at 225 or 215 if DS was used].

3.5. Depending on the situation, use MoR to get back at enemies already hitting you.

4. You start spamming WoL (runed with pillar) on your victims, which is a massive 420% weapon damage per wave on whatever it hits. Thanks to no cool down, you can do a total of a whopping 1260% weapon damage, more than SSS, even with damage rune! [spirit as low as 5. 15 if DS was not used].

5. If they survive, turn MoR on if it is not on, and lay down the beat down with FoT. [spirit regain per combo ranges from 18(just FoT) to a whopping 81 if all hits are crit, and BoH's Infused with light rune is taking effect].

6. Upon refilling spirit, repeat from step 2 (step 1 if you need to back out for a second and recover) until the mob is dead.

Strat if near death experience triggers (in other words, your HP hits 0 and NDE goes to cooldown):

1. Start moving away from the mobs. [.35 * 250 = about 88 spirit availible for use].

2. Use air ally to distract mobs, and resummon when needed to further distract mobs after the first one dies [63 spirit after the first one].

3. Use breath of heaven as much as possible. [48 spirit after first use, assuming not on CD after NDE(near death experience) occurs].

4. If there is a destroyable object you can DS(dashing strike) to away from the mob, do so (why can't we DS to thin air? I don't like that idea :( ). [38 spirit with quicksilver rune].

5. If you outran the mobs, recover HP/spirit w/ BoH and switching to maxed out spirit regen set. If not, keep running away in the same fashion, fighting off any stray mobs that catch up to you.

6. Once NDE is off of cooldown, you can continue to kill things.

Thoughts?

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#WZfXik!cZY!ZaYbZc

Is where I'm tweaked too now.

The just of this build is 3 fold.

Enemies do deceased dmg and I dodge more
Enemies are taking approx 90% weapon dmg/sec just being near me without 10 yards of me
Enemies are pulled within that range, and when they are pulled they do even less dmg and I dodge even more, with the ability to knockback all around me or pull an "oh crap" shield with healing as needed.

Like everyone else these builds can go out the window with real world use.
However, my thought is even more so then D2, I cannot get hit much in higher difficulties because things HURT. This build allows me to do copious constant dmg without being in melee range or even stop except to tag something with CW as needed.

Transcendence is minimized in this build as a lot of spirit is spent setting up the battle not during it which means health from it is wasted. But that also means I can easily swap in another passive for resistances or armor or dodge as needed.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#bdXgTk!XeU!cbbaac

IMO this build is satisfied with single target, AOE, and defensive skills....
Well, what do u guys think?!

Bumping back to the top of the forums. Too many "rate my build" threads right now. I promise to do my best to help if builds are posted in this thread.

If mine gets deleted this is a monk build for your first time entering into NM (character level i kept below 35 so that's why some runes are out)

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#bZXRjQ!acd!ZZbaaa

Deadly reach to keep mobs out (they will be slowed majority of time) with armor increase in case they get close

Lashing tail kick runed for more knockback with 60% slow to keep them out while pelting with Deadly Reach

Breath of Heaven runed for 15% damage for 45 seconds (permanently be up)

Inner sanctuary runed for life regen (Breath of Heaven is on cooldown)

Mystic ally water ally for more slowing and an extra target for mobs to beat on

Mantra of healing runed for extra life healing

Passives:

Fleet footed for extra movement (synergizes with enemies slowed)

Chant of resonance (extra spirit for more LTK and mystic ally (don't know how long they live))

Guardians Path cause it's insane .. I will be using DW or 2 hand depending on what gear i am able to acquire.

So that's it.. keep in mind that this build was made for a character before 35 (end and beginning of nm) I think it's the best build for your first NM playthrough it's got decent damage and survivability while you are testing the waters. Anyone who has used deadly reach in the beta knows it reaches pretty far and with mobs being slowed by LTK and water ally you will get hit but you have Breath of Heaven and Inner sanctuary PLUS healing mantra.

Thoughts? changes? let it rip.. If one single person says mystic ally is crap i will not read it lol blizzard was sure to balance this game.. even if you have to recast ally every ten seconds that is not a lot of spirit at all.

This is a build for the first entrance into NM until you learn how all the enemies have changed and see some new champion and elite monster affixes .. not a farming build.

Please critique thx.

Well first off, mystic ally is total crap :). Obviously joking. I think it will be fine and synergizes well with the idea of the build. Also, if your ally scales with your attack speed (which no one really knows if it will or not) I think it can be a pretty strong little helper.

There is one problem that I see, but it is a big problem.
Only the third hit from deadly reach will hit them.

That means, unless you are in melee range (which defeats the whole purpose of the build), only 1 strike out of each combo will damage the enemies. That means 2/3 of your spirit generating is lost.

I don't think there is an effective way of kiting as a monk, but it's okay. Monks don't need to kite. They are built to be able to debuff enemies to reduce damage, they have a passive 30% damage reduction, and they have tons of healing. I do like the thought of attacking your enemies from afar. Seems like the best defense would be not get hit. I just don't think that it is practical for a monk.

i'm going to be in melee range the whole time the only time i'm going to kite is non trash if i HAVE too... also the first and 2nd strike of DR do hit before the mobs can even melee you especially when they are gonna be slowed 60% so if i have to every 3 combo strikes walk backward 5 yards it will make those mobs hit me let's say 4 times every 10 seconds instead of 8-10. (just a number)
But you can definitely kite if need be with monk especially with only a small amount of %movement speed gear with fleet footed.. and also even when you are full on melee with this build.. if you LTK 5 mobs for 60% slow you can position yourself to start your next set of DR's on the side of 1 of the mobs .. it will take a while before the ones in the back can even reach you considering your DR range and the 60% slow (might be 45% in NM but whatever you know what i mean.

It's pretty much a tip toe build for your first time seeing what NM has to offer
Thx for post

Wasn't completely sure of the range on deadly reach, but if you are able to hit them first then I guess it will work out. I don't think it will be completely necessarily in NM though, but in Inferno this might be a good approach.

I think Normal will be about a build with mostly damage and a little defense, but gearing for all damage. Nightmare is when you will start using a bit more defense and train you for later difficulties. Hell will start hitting you hard. You will need to start actively gearing for defense, have a good amount of defense in your build, and start playing more cautiously, but ultimately just be a fun challenge. Inferno will be where it will always be a struggle. Every group of enemies will be a long difficult fight for survival.

These are just my thoughts.
I hope you build works for you. It is awesome that people can play the same class so differently and both be effective.

05/10/2012 05:16 PMPosted by Raizenn

I don't think there is an effective way of kiting as a monk, but it's okay. Monks don't need to kite. They are built to be able to debuff enemies to reduce damage, they have a passive 30% damage reduction, and they have tons of healing. I do like the thought of attacking your enemies from afar. Seems like the best defense would be not get hit. I just don't think that it is practical for a monk.

Practical or not, I have to disagree. I've been anticipating the notion that stacking defense in the form of dodge, damage reduction, healing, or some combination of the three will not be enough for the Monk to survive Inferno. The Barbarian on the other hand may afford to be more stationary and simply soak damage without dying as much. But on top of his natural defensive characteristics, the Monk will have to subject himself to the least possible damage intake by making use of his incredible mobility to strategically maneuver around the battlefield, picking off isolated monsters by means of either kiting or dividing enemy forces. I could be wrong but I'm pretty convinced this will be the key to surviving Inferno as a Monk at least until better quality gear starts kicking in.

05/10/2012 04:09 PMPosted by Raizenn

Bumping back to the top of the forums. Too many "rate my build" threads right now. I promise to do my best to help if builds are posted in this thread.

woot :) +1.

I agree with having a single thread about builds so that:

1. The forum is not overpopulated with extra build threads.

2. There is an obvious location to talk about builds.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#WeYifk!ZbX!aZZaaa

My 2 cents,

AOE build. Pull them in blow them up, rinse repeat.

I mentioned surviving as a Monk come Inferno by means of either kiting or dividing enemy forces. So I'm going to post two builds that I think accurately represent the potential of both strategies. Keep in mind that while kiting or dividing may refer directly to melee threats, each holds even more precedence to the issue of ranged threats. As a rule of thumb ranged enemies (while they may do significant damage) should be much easier to isolate and pick off if one can trivialize the majority of melee enemies around him. And lets not forget ranged enemies typically have a much smaller health pool than melee.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#aUkWTZ!ZYX!aaYYZZ
The "divide" strategy is pretty simple and probably the more practical approach. Using LtK(Sweeping Armada) alone as a spirit dump makes this quite effortless. Use it after a CW(Tsunami) and any melee threat the Monk kicks will be out of commission for a good while. Does that mean just kick and wait for them to come back? No. LtK resets the combo strike sequence, so he can immediately teleport and dispatch any and all nearby ranged threats. If there are too many ranged enemies he could potentially use LtK to divide even them. Once there are no more ranged threats, the Monk can still aim LtK to divide the melee threats between themselves.

Because so few skills are actually required to pull off this strategy, you could very easily go one direction or another with the rest of the build. For this particular build I went in the direction of favoring "on-hit" affixes from gear (and MoC[Reclamation]) and having lots of spirit regeneration to ensure that I can LtK very frequently. This should make for a very straight-forward, safe but quick-paced style of play.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#WUkdie!ZXe!YcbYbb
The "kite" strategy is more complex and perhaps less practical. I had a pretty difficult time coming up with a viable build for this one. Certain skills like WotHF(Windforce Flurry) and WoL can be fired up close and at range into a pile or line of enemies. This really got me thinking of a way to combine the two skills into one build which focuses on taking limited hits from melee sources, grouping enemies up (to the point of bottlenecking them into a straight line), going to the outside and firing in. The Monk can simply Dash over melee enemies to dispatch isolated ranged threats. If melee and ranged are bound together in close quarters, the Monk can either draw the melee out or ignore the fact and treat them all as one conjoined threat.

(Spoiler)-Very intense theorycrafting...
As melee monsters collectively and slowly move in on the Monk, the back section would move quicker and begin walking around the front while the front section remains slower via CW debuff. This should at some point hypothetically bring the monsters' pathing into a perpendicular line relative to the Monk's facing direction, at which point he can Dash to either side and repeat the process. This could make for some very low-risk, efficient means to killing melee enemies.

As you can see more skills are mandatory to pull off this strategy. I had to focus a great deal on slowing debuffs; MoC(Dishearten), CW(Tsunami), and DS(Soaring Skull) all contribute as a means to this end. Monsters simultaneously hit by all three of these will move at a staggering 11% of their normal run/walk speed. For the remainder of the build I favored ranged area-of-effect damage, and damage sources from multiple elements. The spirit generators cover physical damage, WoL covers holy, and SW covers fire. For any given champion pack, at least one of these elements will do significant damage, hopefully. If not, that's a lot of kiting.

A lot of people on the forums are favoring immunity type builds as a means to tackle Inferno (SSS, Serenity, Inner Sanctuary, Blind). I'm not really a fan of these skills as they are cooldown-based and require precision timing and or a specific rotation, frequently leaving holes in the Monk's defense otherwise and usually sacrificing offense to a moderate extent.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#aWgdfh!ZXd!ZZacYa
Plenty of armor, dodge, and debuffing with decent damage. Possible inferno build?

@Setho thanks. I'd much rather check one place when I want to see new builds than try and wade through all the "rate my build" threads.

@Snoo I absolutely see why it would be nice to "kite" mobs around, and I agree we have excellent mobility, making it easier to fly from enemy to enemy. I just don't think always avoiding getting hit is going to be very practical of a strategy to try all the time. I also don't think most people will construct their build that way. If a barbarian can do it, I think we can do it.

As a side note, I typed this whole reply using a dvorak keyboard setup and it is painfully slow. My goal from today till launch is to get as efficient as I can with it. It is supposed to increase your typing speed a good amount once you get good.

Boss Fight Build:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#agWbUQ!ZYg!aaZZcb

FFC FFD FFW M FFC FFD FFW M .. repeated

Serenity = OS handle for health and quick breather.

Alright, my last post I didn't see your big post duo to extremely slow typing. Of those two builds I actually like the kiting one better. I think the randomness of where the mobs will land and the continuous spraying of mobs across the battle field will quickly start pulling more groups and become hectic.

The kiting build has the monsters much more controlled, though I still don't think you will avoid as many hits as you think.

Maybe I'm thinking too old fashion, but I believe with a good, solid build, and a smart player, monks should be able to stand his ground against most mobs.

I am sure people some people will get good at kiting and have it work for them, but I don't see it as being as efficient.

Okay, that's it. I am done with Dvorak keyboard for today! I am really bad at it so it is an unbearably slow process to type all that out...