After countless changes to my Monk’s PvP build I believe I have finally settled on what I believe to be a very solid all-around build that contributes not only the possibility of burst damage, but also some survivability and defensive options. My main goal when building this was to design a monk that could have the potential to unload a high amount of damage (burst) when needed, but also be able to survive and keep up during those down times where you’ll be busy staying alive, whittling down your opponent’s hp, and helping your teammates with a little cc and damage buff. (Note: I believe this build will be best supported by a two hand weapon but the final decision won’t be made until stats are revealed.) Comment, flame, troll do it all! Anything you can tell me you think is wrong would be greatly appreciated would gladly discuss anything.
I've been thinking about this myself. Based on the limited video we've seen so far of the PvP Arenas, I'm thinking D3 PvP will be very similar to Guild Wars Arenas. At least, I hope so.
I have waaaaay too much fun playing a healer in PvP. Being a BIG target makes it more fun. And, keeping people alive while at the same time frustrating the enemy because the guy they're beating on just won't DIE is eminently satisfying.
I do like the build: fire and forget AoE, stun, an escape skill, more damage for all + enemy slow, burst dmg, a get-outta-jail-free card, and a little healing. I see two major weaknesses and one smaller one:
1. The biggest weakness looks to be the high cooldowns on two of your skills, including your main damage dealer. 30 seconds is a long time to wait in PvP...and 45 seconds is intolerable. We'll have to wait and see if that 3 seconds of immunity is worth it because that skill will likely be used ONCE the whole round. I'm basing my viewpoint on the pace of the rounds from the youtube Arena videos. I'm sure things will change at release (and after!) but I'm seeing D3 as VERY fast paced. That makes cooldowns painful.
2. It looks like you have LOTS of spirit spending but your spirit gain is a little thin. Sure, Guardian's Path will help w/ a Bo, but I'm betting it won't be enough.
I think in the end 7SS will need to go: high spirit cost and long cooldown will make it rough to take into the Arena.
3. The minor weakness to the build is the 3rd passive: Seize the Initiative. I think with the diminishing returns on armor, 25% of dex won't be enough to justify the spot. I like the other two passive choices, but I think there are more valuable PvP passives: Fleet Footed; Exalted Soul (for burst damage or healing or BOTH); Near Death is painfully obvious...almost too much so; One With Everything (although if we really can't customize gear, this one will be useless), and Sixth Sense: not taking damage > reducing damage.
All that said, it looks like you'll have fun trying it out.
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Now, feel free to comment and tear apart my own "healer monk" PvP build. It's fairly off the cuff so I'm sure I'll leave out something obvious. My goal for this build is "generate spirit fast, heal faster, and stay away/alive."
Deadly Reach - long range (and hopefully safer) spirit gain with a chance of hitting multiple targets. + spirit gain rune.
Crippling Wave - AoE damage with high slow effect to prevent them from running OR prevent them from chasing me.
Dashing Strike - low spirit cost escape with no cooldown.
Breath of Heaven (25 spirit cost in game) - spammable heal.
Inner Sanctuary - escape/blocking skill. I'm very tempted to use an alabaster rune in this for the slow after the skill ends. This slow + Crippling Wave = rooted. Also, ranged allies can attack from safety in here, I think?
Mantra of Healing + Indigo = bread and butter skill. The 10 second shield for 100% damage immunity (up to 25% of life) + the 3 seconds of MAJOR life regen makes this a sick buff to cast on nearby allies getting the snot beat outta them. I would expect this one to get a cooldown placed on it, at least in PvP. If I'm lucky, that won't happen. If I'm lucky.
Passives of Guardian's Path + Bo so I can spam those skills, Exalted Soul so I can have a deep pool to spam from, and...Guiding Light IF I end up spamming Breath of Heaven. If not, NDE is a no-brainer. NDE + Mantra for the 10 second shield = back in the fight.
My Monk build is essentially meant to be anti-range, using a ton of gap closing abilities to stay on top of the target and once on them to slow, stun, root, decrease their damage, increase damage done to them, and cause them to bleed. It doesn't have an extremely high damage output outright but should be able to dish it out by just taking a team's ranged character(s) out of team play, since I'm mostly worried about a Wizard or Witch Doctor destroying teams in PvP.
My thoughts on how it'd be used:
1) Use Fists of Thunder (to teleport onto enemy) twice then Exploding Palm for the third strike (bleed, +12%dmg taken)
2) Put Mantra Of Conviction up asap (+12% dmg taken [24% for 3 seconds after use], 30% slow) - helps keep yourself on top of enemies and causes them to take extra damage
3) Lashing Tail Kick (main source of straight damage) when the spirit is available - also stuns
4) Dashing Strike (if spirit is available) or Fists of Thunder whenever the enemy breaks melee range - if FoT use Exploding Palm on 3rd strike
5) If ever low on health (or for use after Near Death Experience procs) use Serenity (5 second immunity to damage)
The passive Resolve will reduce enemy damage done by 25% for 2.5s every time you damage them (hopefully constantly), and Transcendence will heal you for x life for every spirit point spent.
Thoughts on the build as a whole? Thinking of changing Dashing to Seven Sided Strike (runed with Sudden Assault), simply for the damage and teleport. Unfortunately this build won't be nearly as strong against other melee characters and doesn't build up allies either. But it should be able to take out ranged enemies out quick enough to allow your team to gank the others while yours is just trying to escape.
With transcendence I feel like I would use quickening on Fists of Thunder, the way transcendence reads to me I am going to want to be constantly gaining spirit and spending it, rotating between FoT and Spirit Users
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After countless changes to my Monk’s PvP build I believe I have finally settled on what I believe to be a very solid all-around build that contributes not only the possibility of burst damage, but also some survivability and defensive options. My main goal when building this was to design a monk that could have the potential to unload a high amount of damage (burst) when needed, but also be able to survive and keep up during those down times where you’ll be busy staying alive, whittling down your opponent’s hp, and helping your teammates with a little cc and damage buff. (Note: I believe this build will be best supported by a two hand weapon but the final decision won’t be made until stats are revealed.) Comment, flame, troll do it all! Anything you can tell me you think is wrong would be greatly appreciated would gladly discuss anything.
I have waaaaay too much fun playing a healer in PvP. Being a BIG target makes it more fun. And, keeping people alive while at the same time frustrating the enemy because the guy they're beating on just won't DIE is eminently satisfying.
I do like the build: fire and forget AoE, stun, an escape skill, more damage for all + enemy slow, burst dmg, a get-outta-jail-free card, and a little healing. I see two major weaknesses and one smaller one:
1. The biggest weakness looks to be the high cooldowns on two of your skills, including your main damage dealer. 30 seconds is a long time to wait in PvP...and 45 seconds is intolerable. We'll have to wait and see if that 3 seconds of immunity is worth it because that skill will likely be used ONCE the whole round. I'm basing my viewpoint on the pace of the rounds from the youtube Arena videos. I'm sure things will change at release (and after!) but I'm seeing D3 as VERY fast paced. That makes cooldowns painful.
2. It looks like you have LOTS of spirit spending but your spirit gain is a little thin. Sure, Guardian's Path will help w/ a Bo, but I'm betting it won't be enough.
I think in the end 7SS will need to go: high spirit cost and long cooldown will make it rough to take into the Arena.
3. The minor weakness to the build is the 3rd passive: Seize the Initiative. I think with the diminishing returns on armor, 25% of dex won't be enough to justify the spot. I like the other two passive choices, but I think there are more valuable PvP passives: Fleet Footed; Exalted Soul (for burst damage or healing or BOTH); Near Death is painfully obvious...almost too much so; One With Everything (although if we really can't customize gear, this one will be useless), and Sixth Sense: not taking damage > reducing damage.
All that said, it looks like you'll have fun trying it out.
-----
Now, feel free to comment and tear apart my own "healer monk" PvP build. It's fairly off the cuff so I'm sure I'll leave out something obvious. My goal for this build is "generate spirit fast, heal faster, and stay away/alive."
http://us.battle.net...dXfg!Zdf!bYYYbY
Deadly Reach - long range (and hopefully safer) spirit gain with a chance of hitting multiple targets. + spirit gain rune.
Crippling Wave - AoE damage with high slow effect to prevent them from running OR prevent them from chasing me.
Dashing Strike - low spirit cost escape with no cooldown.
Breath of Heaven (25 spirit cost in game) - spammable heal.
Inner Sanctuary - escape/blocking skill. I'm very tempted to use an alabaster rune in this for the slow after the skill ends. This slow + Crippling Wave = rooted. Also, ranged allies can attack from safety in here, I think?
Mantra of Healing + Indigo = bread and butter skill. The 10 second shield for 100% damage immunity (up to 25% of life) + the 3 seconds of MAJOR life regen makes this a sick buff to cast on nearby allies getting the snot beat outta them. I would expect this one to get a cooldown placed on it, at least in PvP. If I'm lucky, that won't happen. If I'm lucky.
Passives of Guardian's Path + Bo so I can spam those skills, Exalted Soul so I can have a deep pool to spam from, and...Guiding Light IF I end up spamming Breath of Heaven. If not, NDE is a no-brainer. NDE + Mantra for the 10 second shield = back in the fight.
TL;DR right?
My Monk build is essentially meant to be anti-range, using a ton of gap closing abilities to stay on top of the target and once on them to slow, stun, root, decrease their damage, increase damage done to them, and cause them to bleed. It doesn't have an extremely high damage output outright but should be able to dish it out by just taking a team's ranged character(s) out of team play, since I'm mostly worried about a Wizard or Witch Doctor destroying teams in PvP.
My thoughts on how it'd be used:
1) Use Fists of Thunder (to teleport onto enemy) twice then Exploding Palm for the third strike (bleed, +12%dmg taken)
2) Put Mantra Of Conviction up asap (+12% dmg taken [24% for 3 seconds after use], 30% slow) - helps keep yourself on top of enemies and causes them to take extra damage
3) Lashing Tail Kick (main source of straight damage) when the spirit is available - also stuns
4) Dashing Strike (if spirit is available) or Fists of Thunder whenever the enemy breaks melee range - if FoT use Exploding Palm on 3rd strike
5) If ever low on health (or for use after Near Death Experience procs) use Serenity (5 second immunity to damage)
The passive Resolve will reduce enemy damage done by 25% for 2.5s every time you damage them (hopefully constantly), and Transcendence will heal you for x life for every spirit point spent.
Thoughts on the build as a whole? Thinking of changing Dashing to Seven Sided Strike (runed with Sudden Assault), simply for the damage and teleport. Unfortunately this build won't be nearly as strong against other melee characters and doesn't build up allies either. But it should be able to take out ranged enemies out quick enough to allow your team to gank the others while yours is just trying to escape.