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+28

GR40+ Monk - Ultimate Build - "The Desert Ninja"

by last updated Oct 9, 2014 ( Patch 2.1 )
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Types: Holy, Cooldown Reduction (CDR), Resource Cost Reduction (RCR)

Skills

  • Way of the Hundred Fists Fists of Fury
  • Dashing Strike Blinding Speed
  • Epiphany Desert Shroud
  • Sweeping Wind Inner Storm
  • Breath of Heaven Infused with Light
  • Mantra of Salvation Agility
  • Harmony
  • Alacrity
  • Beacon of Ytar
  • Seize the Initiative

Items

More Details

Build Guide

Hello everybody, Bran here.

As a random Starcraft player I came to Diablo with the idea to master all classes. Learn the mechanics of each of the classes and just have fun. But with all the problems that the Monk class has, I ended up playing it the most. Even if I love Crusader since RoS came out and enjoyed every minute playing it. The monk kept me thinking how can I play it as efficient as possible. And when every class was stacking Dmg I kept myself going back to my dear CDR Crusader. So when 2.1 came and the changes in the PTR made Holy Sunwuko the most powerful Monk build - I started thinking if CDR is the way to go with the Monk as well.

We all know Quin's build for 37+ on diablofans. The skills build is based on that. But when he tries to go for damage and stack AS and defensive items as Blackthorns or Iceclimbers or more def passives as 6th Sense. I strongly believe in one single skill can do all that for me without sacrificing other stats so much - Epiphany : Desert Shroud. Combined with CDR and we have the name - Desert Ninja (at least my nephew called it like that based on the perma black form of the Monk and all the Ninja movies I made him watch).



The idea is to maximize our Uptime of the 50% dmg reduction rune. With that we have the survivability to sustain the dmg of the Mobs in 40+ grifts. But let's separate all points one by one and understand the general idea.

1. Why do we want more Uptime from Desert Shround?

- Simple. More toughness and more Spirit Regen. With 20 spirit/sec from Epiphany we have the resource to spawn more and more decoys. Some would say "But isn't Peshkov better for that?" - generally - NO! The reason is that peshkov will give you perma BoH but your Resource regeneration from Epiphany will be limited to 15sec and then you would get 20+ sec of downtime. Time in which this skill is completely useless. Dead slot on your inventory on a Spamming build is a NO NO! Peshkov is really good for T6 and no CDR on items with no Beacon of Ytar in Passives. For Greater Rifts beyond 40 is just rubbish! So with maxed CDR on shoulders, gloves, Paragon points, Leorics and gem in head, Crimson's set - you get roughly under 7sec of downtime Epiphany. That's half the Uptime.

2. But I get smaller Crit Numbers with this build with less AS?

- Yes. You will get less Crit numbers because you are not using 10% Elite dmg from BTs. You are not using Depthdiggers. You are not using AS in Gloves or Paragon points. Your Flying Dragon needs to be double healing with LpH and LpSS and not 10% dmg or %IaS. So - Yes. You would stop seeing 200M crits from Sunwuko. But 80 to 140M. Is that bad? NO! Why? Cause you will have 15sec of Epiphany. Then 7 downtime. 15 seconds of Epiphany. Then 7. Then 15seconds of Epiphany. That's 3 cycles in 1 minute. While if you use the normal no CDR build you can get it 1 cycle. Or in best case scenario almost 2. That's between 300 and 600 lost spirit and between 15 and 30 seconds with lot less toughness. And if you have tried GR40+ you really know that everything can one shot you. Even small spiders. Monk Life for real! 300 and 600 more spirit means between 4 and 8 more decoys. That's a bonus of 400M or 800M+ dmg from spawns. You might think these numbers are small But when you fail RG with 1sec you would wish you had that bonus dmg. So in the end you are dealing more dmg per minute than the DMG AS Build. Plus the toughness and no deaths vs RG counts for lost seconds or even minutes in Grifts. One of the streamers doing this build is Hax. He was able to faceroll Ghom at GR42 with no big problems. And continuously attack Rime at GR40 and GR41 without dying.

3. But Crimson's set does RCR too? Doesn't this reduce my dmg?

- Easy Answer - NO! RCR does not reduce your damage. It makes you click more. So that your survivability benefits even more. Why? When you have LpSS Daibo - Sometimes you want to kite for a second away from the mobs. Click that Mantra and heal yourself. But you have a bit less than what the Mantra costs. That's when the RCR really helps. The sweet spot for that build is 25% but in the end 20% is also enough - 20% being 10% PPoints and 10% Crimson's Set. 25% is a sweet spot because it gives you the chance to spawn 3 decoys from 4 SW clicks or from 2 Mantra clicks. Exactly to the point. No extra spirit spent. No losses. RCR helps and for one of the gems you will be using - Taeguk. More clicks means more stacks. And more stacks mean More Toughness and Damage. So to the next question...

4. What are the mandatory Gems for this build?

- They are only 3. No excuses! First is Gogok of Swiftness for CDR and AS. Second is Mirinae - for that Holy smites with huge bonus dmg acting like second SWK set. And third is Taeguk - as Highest rank as possible. Same as Mirinae. No other gem can replaced them. First you need the extra CDR for more Uptime Epiphany. And taeguk gives you that extra 30-35%+ extra Toughness. When you have that plus Desert Shroud you are playing with 100M toughness and seeing that extra dmg in spawn. And as we talked earlier you get extra spawns on which you get extra bonus dmg. Imagine that for DMG Build hidden behind the simplicity of the CDR.

5. What stats does my FD need to survive GR40+?

- The Hardcore one :

--- High rolled avg dmg

--- High Dex

--- LpH

--- LpSS

--- Gifted Socket

- Why not 10% dmg or IaS one? Because every death in GR40+ means Next game. You are done. Even with 3-4 minutes for Rg - you will be close to the second to finish in time. Monks don't have huge dmg. Can't kill Rift Guardians easy. Especially as melee class. We die from every single air puff from the RG. Now with more Spirit to spend and More Toughness, we finally can survive. Spending that spirit, makes LpSS to keep us alive. Procs from FD does the trick as well.

6. The elephant in the room : "What if I don't have good SWK Ammy?"

- This means you would not be optima but still you can make the build work with few % off maxed CDR. How? Simple - Farm for Unity with 8CDR. While you can in reality use it with Leorics and maximize your uptime even more. It's Highly Required for NO Leoric's itemization. But then you can switch to BT amulet or any Elemental resistant one you have or even HFA and with that you would have that extra 5th passive. In the end you might be stronger or weaker vs. the Leoric's setup. But that always depends on your items. And while 4 of them are crafted - you simply need to farm mats and have luck with the Blacksmith. So SWK Amulet is not 100% mandatory - But highly advised because it will make your life way easier in the end. That means less time farming HFAs or trying to find that perfect Cameo or Xephirian.

7. How should I spend my PPonts in AS, CC, CHD and CDR?

- Obviously 1st is CDR to 10%. Then CHD and CC. Where CHD:CC equals 10:1 in your Inv Details. So if you have 45% CC 450% CHD is good target number for you. In the end you spend your rest points in Attack Speed which helps a bit with FD procs. But that's still in process of testing how much does it help.
The rest are the obvious ones.
1. Maxed MS and then Dex or Vit. Whatever you need. I go for Dex - more dmg
3. AR>Armor>Life>LpS
4. RCR>LpH>AoE>GF

8. When can I use Vigilante Belt?

- When you don't have SWK Amulet and use Leorics Crown. In the same time You don't have Witching Hour, but Have BT Combo for Belt plus Amulet. 10% bonus dmg and dmg reduction are always great! So if no Leoric's is there. take a moment to decide which one. Come on stream and ask if you can't make the final choice.

So let's see what stats we need in our Items:

1. Basic Leorics set-Up

- Head - Dex/Vit/6CC - High Leoric's Bonus. 100% perfect

Shoulders - Dex/Vit/AR/8CDR

Gloves - Dex/CC/CHD/8CDR

Chest - Dex/Vit/11%Elite - Sec - Res/Melee%Reduction

/// or Dex/Vit/AR - Sec - Melee/Ranged 7% Reduction

Bracers - Holy/Dex/Vit/CC - sec - 7Melee/Resistance.

Belt - WH - Dex/Vit/AS/CHD - Res/LaK

Pants - Dex/Vit/Armor - sec - Res/HGB or Yard bonus

Boots - Dex/Vit/Armor/%MS - sec - Res/HGB or Yard Bonus

Amulet - Holy/CC/CHD/Socket or Dex/CC/CHD/Socket

RoRG - Dex/AS/CHD/Socket

Unity - Dex/CC/Elite/Socket or CC/CHD/Elite/Socket or 8CDR/CC/Elite/Socket or even better Super rare Combination.

SoJ for group Plays - Holy/CDR/Elite/Socket - Best for Crusader too.

Rings and Amulets need Secondary Res + HGB or Yards or LpK

Gems - Taeguk, Gogok, Mirinae

Build as it is shown. Same passives. 1 Exception. If you manage to stack 1000+ AR without Harmony. Change to Determination in Passives.



If you take a look. Best rings for Holy Saders are here too. My addiction to Crusaders is talking. :)



2.Basic Non-Leoric's Set-up

Almost the same. But for Head we are going to use the Sunwuko Crown for the 4th pcs bonus. And different amulet. There's plenty of choices. But the best will be always the best you have. If you have elemental resistance one - Use that and keep all other items as they are. But if you have great BT amulet - comes the question. Witching Hour or BT Belt. I would say always WH. But if yours is really bad. The good combo of BT amulet and Belt might be better in the end. Plus you will get more toughness too. Follow the stream to know when I am going to be online to ask me if you can't decide.

Gems - Taeguk, Gogok, Mirinae

Build as it is shown. Same passives.



And now the SUPER END-GAME Ultimate Set-up. This is the toughest to gear for. I have almost every item needed but still farming for better ones or 1-2 that are still missing.

3. Ultimate End-Game for Monk - "Monk of Chances"

Head - Dex/Vit/CC - Res/Yards

Shoulders - Dex/Vit/AR/8CDR - Chance to Chill + Yards or HGB

Gloves - Dex/CC/CHD/8CDR - Chance to Stun + Res

Chest - Dex/Vit/AR - Melee/Range 7% Reduction

Bracers - Holy/Dex/Vit/CC - Res/Melee

Belt - Dex/Vit/AS/CHD - Res/Chance to Freeze

Pants - Dex/Vit/AR - Chance to slow + LpK or Yards

Boots - Dex/Vit/AR + %MS or Armor - Chance to Immobilize + Yards or HGB

Amulet and Rings same as Basic Build.

There's a few changes in the skills here. As we have stacked a bit more AR. And we are using almost constant Active Agility - We are skipping Harmony as passive and changing it to Relentless Assault. Why is that viable. Look at all that chances that proc like crazy because of the Flying Dragon. With active FD Proc - a 5% Chance becomes 20% per second. That means with all the chances. You have almost every second 20% more dmg done to mobs. Even with 2 Chances as Secondaries, you are already OK. But to be safe and Skip harmony. We want more and more as Sec Chances. If you get good Relentless Assault HFA and go without Leoric's - You become even stronger in some cases vs. teh SWK/Leoric's Set-up.

Famous streamers doing this Build:

HaxD3 and DANTA as his Monk. Hax did GR39 and was seconds away from finishing GR42 couple of times. Without Conduit and Exploits.



I will end the set up here for now. Be sure to check it soon as I update it regularly. In the next couple of days a few other interesting GR37+ builds that are still hidden and have nothing to do with this one will come Alive. Some are very fun to play in groups. Others are pure made for Grifts. Be sure to come to the stream and follow so you will know when I am live. The builds and Ideas will be shown there first and we will discuss them greatly befor posting my end results here.

If you liked the guide, then follow my stream www.twitch.tv/brandigeid. I am streaming Monk group playing and solo. But often DH and recently Wiz, Tank WD and Crusader in Seasons. My goal atm with all the Exploits in D3 is to achieve Legit GR40+ with all classes. My Random nature calls me. On Stream I will be talking with viewers and Other monks about this setup and few more starting Friday.

When I am live - i can answer all your question! Meanwhile you can post them here and I will try to read/write back asap.

Cheers and GL.