Background:
Being disappointed with the lack of build diversity within the top tier monks, a fellow monk friend and I decided to do some brainstorming. While we came up with a lot of dumb ideas, one good one (we think it's good anyways) came out.
Idea:
The premise is using the 'Combination Strike' passive as a means to further customize your toon.
Since each of our primary skills have 3 hits, I propose that rather than have the Combination Strike act as a damage booster, allow it to let you pick 3 primary skill runes and combine it into 1 skill (1 button). It fits within the moniker as well as promotes build diversity based on preferred play styles. This also forces you to make decisions upon what passives to take.
Example:
Thunderclap + Spirited Salvo + Keen Eye
You'd teleport to the first target on the first hit, gain the spirit generating bonus on the second, and gain the defensive buff on the third. Of course, each hit will take the animation of the rune it was taken.
I'm not a game programmer and I put my hands up and say I have no idea how difficult this is to implement. There definitely would be balancing issues but that can be discussed. I'll be ecstatic if I could get your thoughts... (two people is hard to brainstorm)
Currently in the top tier anything outside of punching is a waste of time at current difficulties. One punch kills most trash and if they need a kick blind's duration kills all elites.
In low gear Tclap and reach foresight with combo strike a potent combination. For hundred fists blazing fists second attack would be a great third attack if the buff was 30s like foresight and the second attack proc'd for the number of attacks that occur.
Foresight is great buff but its generally needed.
When I had a lot more dps I cut my time by using light just because fists are faster and it was a wate of time keeping the buff up.
u gain 16% from using FoT and WothF, then 15% attack speed from WothF rune, so in this build, u constantly swich between Fot and wothf to maximze ur dps, breadth of heaven is no longer needed as u get more dps and loh + attack speed
i like attack speed, it just looks more fun, if u keep rotation between fot and wothf, then all dps buff wont ever fall off
i have 24% movement speed, plus 15% from wothf buff, to a total of 39% more movement speed most of the time
my attack sequence is, start with fot, then use wothf for 3 stacks, use fot again, then blinding flash + sweeping wind, to maximize SW dps
to maximize ur dps after SW is up, u'd stack up wothf to 3 stacks, then keep using fot until wothf buffs about to fall off, or it it does, refresh the stacks again, do fot, rinse and repeat
the catch here is that in a group game, my buddies are not able to catch up to me at all
u gain 16% from using FoT and WothF, then 15% attack speed from WothF rune, so in this build, u constantly swich between Fot and wothf to maximze ur dps, breadth of heaven is no longer needed as u get more dps and loh + attack speed
I've tried using combination strike before and it always feels extremely clunky and ends with more deaths than if I hadn't used it. The build you posted seems like you're getting the same damage output/healing(if you have good LoH, I suppose) but with much more unnecessary complexity, which will inevitably lead to a "brain fart" death from not being able to pay attention to other things. Not to mention losing Breath of Heaven in favor of LoH heals leaves you without an "oh crap" ability if you're low on HP and there isn't a viable attackable monster for you to leech from. In addition to that, you're forced to use a passive on combination strike to reach the same level of DPS that breath of heaven would give, when you could have used it to gain more survivability or utility.
As fun as combination strike looks on paper it's just so overwhelmingly underwhelming I don't see a point to using it over a more streamlined build. Not trying to be a dick or a downer just saying, heh.
well, i got bored of breadth of heaven build, i've mostly use it for the dps but not the heal, i saw a build way back in the beginning of 1.04 similar to this, so i thought of adding in combination strike to the plate to see how it goes
its not really that complex, u just have to get the rythm of this build, from wothf, u get 15% ias and 15% run speed buff, main attack as FoT, if you constantly rotate between the 2, u will always get 16% increase dmg from combination strike, 15% ias in my opinion is very good for sustain, i run around 850 loh and 2.7 ls, with 60k dps unbuff 80 k with full buffs, i can leech the healh back in the matter of seconds
if u need any extra heal, just increase ur dps by using blinding flash so u do more dmg and leech more life
granted that this build is requires u to press more than 1 button, but i just kinda got bored of pressing 1 button 99% of the time with the standard build
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Being disappointed with the lack of build diversity within the top tier monks, a fellow monk friend and I decided to do some brainstorming. While we came up with a lot of dumb ideas, one good one (we think it's good anyways) came out.
Idea:
The premise is using the 'Combination Strike' passive as a means to further customize your toon.
Since each of our primary skills have 3 hits, I propose that rather than have the Combination Strike act as a damage booster, allow it to let you pick 3 primary skill runes and combine it into 1 skill (1 button). It fits within the moniker as well as promotes build diversity based on preferred play styles. This also forces you to make decisions upon what passives to take.
Example:
Thunderclap + Spirited Salvo + Keen Eye
You'd teleport to the first target on the first hit, gain the spirit generating bonus on the second, and gain the defensive buff on the third. Of course, each hit will take the animation of the rune it was taken.
I'm not a game programmer and I put my hands up and say I have no idea how difficult this is to implement. There definitely would be balancing issues but that can be discussed. I'll be ecstatic if I could get your thoughts... (two people is hard to brainstorm)
In low gear Tclap and reach foresight with combo strike a potent combination. For hundred fists blazing fists second attack would be a great third attack if the buff was 30s like foresight and the second attack proc'd for the number of attacks that occur.
Foresight is great buff but its generally needed.
When I had a lot more dps I cut my time by using light just because fists are faster and it was a wate of time keeping the buff up.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#aUSYgk!UgX!aZccYa
u gain 16% from using FoT and WothF, then 15% attack speed from WothF rune, so in this build, u constantly swich between Fot and wothf to maximze ur dps, breadth of heaven is no longer needed as u get more dps and loh + attack speed
i have 24% movement speed, plus 15% from wothf buff, to a total of 39% more movement speed most of the time
my attack sequence is, start with fot, then use wothf for 3 stacks, use fot again, then blinding flash + sweeping wind, to maximize SW dps
to maximize ur dps after SW is up, u'd stack up wothf to 3 stacks, then keep using fot until wothf buffs about to fall off, or it it does, refresh the stacks again, do fot, rinse and repeat
the catch here is that in a group game, my buddies are not able to catch up to me at all
I've tried using combination strike before and it always feels extremely clunky and ends with more deaths than if I hadn't used it. The build you posted seems like you're getting the same damage output/healing(if you have good LoH, I suppose) but with much more unnecessary complexity, which will inevitably lead to a "brain fart" death from not being able to pay attention to other things. Not to mention losing Breath of Heaven in favor of LoH heals leaves you without an "oh crap" ability if you're low on HP and there isn't a viable attackable monster for you to leech from. In addition to that, you're forced to use a passive on combination strike to reach the same level of DPS that breath of heaven would give, when you could have used it to gain more survivability or utility.
As fun as combination strike looks on paper it's just so overwhelmingly underwhelming I don't see a point to using it over a more streamlined build. Not trying to be a dick or a downer just saying, heh.
its not really that complex, u just have to get the rythm of this build, from wothf, u get 15% ias and 15% run speed buff, main attack as FoT, if you constantly rotate between the 2, u will always get 16% increase dmg from combination strike, 15% ias in my opinion is very good for sustain, i run around 850 loh and 2.7 ls, with 60k dps unbuff 80 k with full buffs, i can leech the healh back in the matter of seconds
if u need any extra heal, just increase ur dps by using blinding flash so u do more dmg and leech more life
granted that this build is requires u to press more than 1 button, but i just kinda got bored of pressing 1 button 99% of the time with the standard build