Build Guide
Exploding Palm & Wave of Light hybrid
Power of AOE Exploding palm clearing the whole screen out of monsters and the single target potential of Wave of light. Does any of this interest you? Stick around.
In the second season of Diablo 3 monk is going to go through multiple changes. With these changes how are we going to progress in solo Greater Rifts? We have yet to see changes to the Raiment set but I bet they're also going to kick ass. Sunwuko has seen quite of an overhaul keeping the previous clone system however. Clones now are the source that makes us deal crazy amounts of damage. And what deals the damage? It's our skills. When clones hit mosnters and they take 1000% wDMG, it buffs us to deal 500% more damage with our spenders, which is multiplicitive! I spent some time finding the best synergy build for Wave of Light since it has a really powerful weapon going for it; Incence Torch of the Grand Temple. This weapon not only increases Wave of Light damage by maximium of 30% but also can reduce the spirit cost by 50%! And the way that Sunwuko works right now, this was an instant pick.You have seen the skills, how to use them?
Wave of Light is the skill that you will use to trigger massive Exploding Palm chain reactions. Since the redesigned Gungdo Gear makes EP (Exploding Palm) on-death explosion hit apply a new EP on every mob it hits, this often times leads into a complete screen wipe in dense rifts. Playstyle is rather simple. On lower GRs (Greater Rifts) you're first applying EPs on weak monsters and then killing them with WoL (Wave of Light). Aim for weak mobs that don't run around too much since the power of lightning WoL is the pillar that zaps mobs for that 785% over 3 seconds. This shoud be enough for the screen to get wiped. When you get higher however your EPs will not instantly kill enemies and you're not able to kill enemies within that 9 second EP that you planted. Instead now you have to start by using WoL and when some weak monster is low health, you plant EP on it and finish it off. Rest of the mobs should at this point be really low health with EPs on them so it's going to be easy to finish.Use spirit regenerators when needed, If youre failing to keep your spirit up, instead of unity on your passives go for exalted soul. Wait till you're almost out of spirit to use your Mystic Ally active and together with the Crudest boots you will gain 200 spirit in an instant. Don't waste any of that by using the skill when ever.
Item Synergy
Inna's has by far the biggest impact on this builds effectiveness. Fist off it gives you all the mantras without any of them on your skill bar. Mantra of salvation if a huge buff when having even Sixth Sense as a passive. Mantra of Healing will buff your life per second by 30% and this is huge if you're using 'Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard', a new upcoming gem on Season 2. This gem will give you up to 60,000+ life per second alone (at high rank). Have some more on your gear and paragons and your life per second goes over 100,000! Next it gives you 2 spirit regen, 250 dex and 200 life per spirit spent. Great stuff but even better you can perform a Sweeping Wind trick with it to have no worries about keeping the infamously annoying gem Taeguk alive with its stacks. See "Sweeping Wind trick?" to learn how to perform it.No item slot wasted. Everything has a real purpouse. Leoric's Crown serving your CDR needs, the Crudest boots keeping your spirit alive
Cooldown reduction will plays a huge role in this build as we have 3 skills that benefit from it: Epiphany, Mystic ally (active), Dashing Strike. Dashing strike is what keeps you alive with well placed dashes. Epiphany - Deserd Shroud is like another Unity ring and Mystic ally takes care of your imidiate resource problems.
The best single target damage skill to be combained with the best AOE skill working together. What can beat this ultimate combination? So far I haven't found an answer but I will keep looking.
Sweeping Wind trick?
If you have watched my YouTube video you understand exactly what I mean but I will go over it briefly. By using Inna's set your Sweeping Wind is going to cost 5 spirit. With 6,6% resource cost reduction on your paragon points only (no RCR on items) you can get the cost down to 1 spirit point per cast. This 1 spirit is enough to keep refreshing your Taeguk gems stacks. To make spamming Sweeping Wind as easy as possible, bind your Sweeping Wind skill key onto your numpad. For me its on my Numpad 2 key. When I hold that key, press NumLock and release, it will keep spamming that key without me holding my number 2 key. And because its only 1 spirit per cast it will never be an issue with all the sprit regenerating skills.Non-Season 2.1.2 strongest build:
changes:
Armor:Shoulder: Aughild's
Helm: SWK
Bracer: Aughild's
Gems:
Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard -> Bane of the Powerful
Skills:
EP rune - Shocking grasp
1 question. Do you think this build can also work in non-seasonal softcore?? if yes, what would you use for Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard and gundogear?
Quote from HaxD3
I recommend Leoric's Crown though.
So you feel the extra cooldown reduction is that much more benifical than the range and extra damage damage from the + wave of light skill damage?
You *need* to have sweeping winds cost at least 1 spirit. If you have RCR roll on items, you need to roll it off. If you have paragon points in RCR, unassign them.
Is it worth dropping gungdo bracers for aughilds?
I have bis gear with ancients being those gungdo bracers.
Rolls are a tad sub par though but nonetheless, so far ive gone upto 41 and could propably do 42
Is it worth dropping gungdo bracers for aughilds?
I have bis gear with ancients being those gungdo bracers.
Rolls are a tad sub par though but nonetheless, so far ive gone upto 41 and could propably do 42
I had a test, still stuck on 42 but propably because i need to learn how to play
Regardless of that it felt smoother but ill need to regem for more resist.
was able to clear 43 without ancient items...and i think more can be possible.
I am only lacking Gungdo. I am X1 so it could drop :P. Just wanted to say thanks for that build i am having a blast.
two days ago i finally cleared grift 42 and lost the race on 43. m using aughilds bracers and shoulders with ep-shocking grasp.
Tried with gungdo and impending doom but dmg feels smaller
Amazing guide, thanks you.
Ok, I have to say this, because I don't post often. I have been running these EP + WoL build for a while. I keep seeing everyone using SWK helm and Aughild's Shoulders...switch them...each the SWK shoulders and the Aughild's helm get a 90-100 all resist, where as the other way around you jsut get randomly rolled attributes. Doesn't change your build any way...other than giving yourself an additional 180-200 resist all.
On a side note, I will be running a slightly different setup in season 2...Take ALL that you have here, grab Inna's 4, SWK 4, Gundgo Gears, Madstone using 7SS instead of EP...much wider area of EP spread, 1 more ability to help you "gtfo" using the 7SS. I prefer Sudden Assault, or Pandemonium rune. However, I can get my RCR and CDR at decent enough rates to get this to synergize and opens the door for other runes to test. At that point it is a matter of preference and playstyle. Try it out. You may have to roll more RCR or CDR on your gear to get the balance.
Is this build still ok with Season 3 ?