Rating
+14

The Madflow Monk 2.1.2 Fastest T6 Clears

by last updated Jan 24, 2015 ( Patch 2.1.2 )
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Skills

  • Cyclone Strike Implosion
  • Exploding Palm Strong Spirit
  • Dashing Strike Way of the Falling Star
  • Seven-Sided Strike Sustained Attack
  • Mystic Ally Air Ally
  • Mantra of Conviction Intimidation
  • Beacon of Ytar
  • Unity
  • Harmony
  • Momentum

Items

More Details

  • Legendary Gems

    • Bane of the Powerful
    • Bane of the Trapped
    • Mirinae, Teardrop of the Starweaver

Gearing Considerations



1. To get started with Madflow, you NEED: Sunwuko gloves/amulet/shoulders, Flow of Eternity, Madstone, Crudest Boots, and Ring of Royal Grandeur. All other pieces are not completely necessary but will greatly enhance your effectiveness once acquired!

2. I recommend having at least 42% CDR from gear, passives, and Paragon.

3. I recommend having at least 50% CDR on Seven-Sided Strike for your Flow of Eternity. Spirit regeneration, LpSS, CDR, and even area damage are all decent selections for that fourth primary slot.

4. As far as I can tell, Exploding Palm % only affects the initial bleed effect, NOT the explosion, which means you can effectively ignore it on gear.

Paragon Priorities

Core

Movement Speed
Maximum Resource
Primary Stat
Vitality

Offense

Cooldown Reduction
Critical Hit Damage
Critical Hit Chance
Attack Speed

Defense

Resist All
Armor
Life
Life Regeneration

Utility

Area Damage
Resource Cost Reduction
Life on Hit
Gold Find

Build Guide

Overview


“Madflow” is the name given to a Holy-focused Monk build that exploits the special interaction between the legendary Madstone helm, and the legendary Flow of Eternity daibo. In very simple terms, the main playstyle involves pulling together large armies of monsters with Cyclone Strike, debuffing them with Seven-Sided Strike, and blowing them all up with Exploding Palm, quickly restoring enough spirit to do it again and again.

Pros:

1. Combines the utility and durability of the Pull Monk with the formidable damage output of Sunwuko.
2. Becomes stronger the more enemies you fight, ideal for speed clearing.
3. Unique among Monk builds in gear and feel and just looks totally badass overall.

Cons:

1. Single-target damage is pretty abysmal. Rift Guardians can take ages to kill solo.
2. Relies entirely upon your ability to kill things quickly to generate enough spirit.
3. Requires multiple pieces of specialty gear, some of which are hard to find.

While the Madflow Monk is at its core another iteration of SWK, it has some unique characteristics that I think set it apart. Unlike most SWK variants, the Monk’s main source of damage output will come not just from a single spender, but from a fairly even distribution of abilities. Another unique aspect is the build’s eschewing of SWK mainstays such as Epiphany and Sweeping Wind. Cyclone Strike, Seven-Sided Strike, and Exploding Palm all combine beautifully to provide the spirit generation and tankiness you need.

Active Abilities


1. Cyclone Strike: Implosion – Your main source of crowd control and damage amplification. Ensures the bad guys are all clumped together for maximum explodage. Also the thing you spam to generate decoys in between judicious applications of Exploding Palm.

2. Seven-Sided Strike: Sudden Assault – Use to rapidly apply the Strong Spirit debuff. Also offers about 1 sec of invincibility on a <2.5 cooldown, assuming favorable rolls on gear. While it might be tempting to rune Fulminating Onslaught instead, this is not recommended without extremely high levels of Cooldown Reduction. Sudden Assault ensures that Exploding Palm will always be available, which is where most of our damage will originate.

3. Exploding Palm: Strong Spirit – Your primary damage dealer that CS and SSS work in tandem to amplify. Restores a full globe of spirit or more when chained together on large groups. Note that this rune only occupies a spot on your skill bar for Madstone purposes; you will never actually press the EP button yourself.

4. Dashing Strike: Way of the Falling Star – Positioning and mobility. Use Serenity - Ascendance for group GR play and weave in between SSS for more invulnerability frames.

5. Mystic Ally: Air Ally – Necessary to avoid becoming resource starved in this no-generator build.

6. Mantra of Conviction - Intimidation. Rune Annihilation for faster T6 clears, Intimidation for durability. For group GR, use Mantra of Salvation - Agility.

General Tips



1. Don’t be afraid to bypass isolated elites or enemies with large health pools that can’t be knocked back, such as Primordial Scavengers. Only engage when there are 5+ enemies onscreen that you can quickly pull in and destroy. Kite elites until they either leave you alone or can be sucked into a bigger pack of weaker monsters.

2. When timed properly, Seven-Sided Strike can be used to great effect as an invincibility button against ground affixes such as Frozen, Molten, and Orbiter. You get about 1 second of immunity on a very low cooldown.

3. Fire Chains are instant death on higher GR levels. Don’t engage unless you’re up against a champion pack with a fairly large hitbox, are surrounded by other white mobs that can block the elites, or both. If you must engage, quickly mash SSS directly after the pull, dash away, and repeat.

4. You will need about four minutes remaining on the rift timer to down the guardian in time. Most of it will be spent in a low-power state as you attack and kite with SSS whenever it’s off cooldown, CS once or twice, restore spirit, and repeat. Solo guardians such as Pandemonium or Raiziel can be especially painful at higher difficulties.

Good luck and have fun!