I was able get my hands on the beta for a little bit over the weekend and I played through with the Monk, which is going to be my first character when the game comes out. After playing and using his skills, I wanted to see what popular consensus was for which skill between Deadly Reach and Exploding Palm was going to be better in the actual game. I can see why Exploding Palm might be better with it's DOT and all, but the DPS of Deadly Reach and the AOE (with the first rune) makes me tend to think that Deadly Reach is going to end up on top.
For lower difficulties, exploding palm is fairly useless. The explosion often does 5 damage or so. Plus the AoE on reach is awesome. It might reverse at high difficulties though.
I think I agree with MandyMemory, start with deadly reach and then possibly switch to exploding palm later. I wasn't a fan of deadly reach until seeing that runed video- now it really makes sense for an AoE attack. But really it seems like any generator will be viable if you want to work it into your build.
Exploding palm sounds like it's more of a late game feature, much like corpse explosion in Diablo II wasn't useful until higher difficulties. Or cow levels.
Personally, I plan on using crippling wave through all the difficulties for the debuffs on mobs -- especially once you can rune it so enemies not only attack slower, but also attack for less damage. Good synergy with a few of the monk's other debuffs (Resolve and Mantra of Conviction with the Intimidation rune).
Unless of course I can survive without crippling wave while enemies are pounding on me in Inferno after a cyclone strike. Then it's exploding palm all the way.
It was really hard to calculate and measure Exploding Palm in Beta, you get it at level 11, so from the get go you're using it on such lower level monster's it's hard to efficiently use it to it's full potential ( KEEP in mind that the explosion is 30% of the target's Full HP --- AKA crap for beta)
The full potential / 'skill cap' of Exploding Palm exceeds Deadly Reach imo ( they could be paired nicely though) Although I'm thinking Way of a Hundred fists with Exploding Palm myself
To maximise Exploding Palm's efficiency and effectiveness (although just speculating and theorising) would be to skillfully spread the bleed's out to particular distanced monster's on your screen to get maximum explosion radius, and there is the decision making with how to get to the Third Punch ( I believe last I heard it is possible to use Way of a Hundred fists as your first 2 strike's and then on your 3rd strike apply the bleed where necessary) I don't know if it still is like that, but imo that would maybe be a benefitial strategy
We will just have to wait and see and test it out in game
I actually plan to use both, one for spirit gain and one for reduced damage to the monk. Is having two spirit builders weird, even though they're for different purposes? Kinda wanted to take advantage of the combo system that lets you start the combo with one ability and end it with the finisher of another. That's still in, right?
I actually plan to use both, one for spirit gain and one for reduced damage to the monk. Is having two spirit builders weird, even though they're for different purposes? Kinda wanted to take advantage of the combo system that lets you start the combo with one ability and end it with the finisher of another. That's still in, right?
You must be referring to the 'Combination Strike' passive, which gives you 8% bonus damage each time you use a different generator. Yup, it is still in.
Anyway, back to topic, for me, I will be picking Deadly Reach with Foresight rune (increase dmg by 18%)... The extra range and the nice damage buff is too good to pass.
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What about everyone else?
Personally, I plan on using crippling wave through all the difficulties for the debuffs on mobs -- especially once you can rune it so enemies not only attack slower, but also attack for less damage. Good synergy with a few of the monk's other debuffs (Resolve and Mantra of Conviction with the Intimidation rune).
Unless of course I can survive without crippling wave while enemies are pounding on me in Inferno after a cyclone strike. Then it's exploding palm all the way.
The full potential / 'skill cap' of Exploding Palm exceeds Deadly Reach imo ( they could be paired nicely though) Although I'm thinking Way of a Hundred fists with Exploding Palm myself
To maximise Exploding Palm's efficiency and effectiveness (although just speculating and theorising) would be to skillfully spread the bleed's out to particular distanced monster's on your screen to get maximum explosion radius, and there is the decision making with how to get to the Third Punch ( I believe last I heard it is possible to use Way of a Hundred fists as your first 2 strike's and then on your 3rd strike apply the bleed where necessary) I don't know if it still is like that, but imo that would maybe be a benefitial strategy
We will just have to wait and see and test it out in game
You must be referring to the 'Combination Strike' passive, which gives you 8% bonus damage each time you use a different generator. Yup, it is still in.
Anyway, back to topic, for me, I will be picking Deadly Reach with Foresight rune (increase dmg by 18%)... The extra range and the nice damage buff is too good to pass.