Hey there! I'm a UndeadProtoss. A big problem i've personally been facing as a monk in torment is balancing good survivability with constant hard-hitting damage. This build focues on 3 skills that proc additional affects whenever you hit a critical strike. Don't worry though, a critical strike of 20-25% is all you need to chain freeze completely but it can be done with as low as 9-15%. You will however want the ideal 50% crit chance (as with most damage dealing builds).
Here's a breakdown.
Mouse skills:
Deadly Reach: Strike From Beyond
Wave of Light: Numbing Light
Action-Bar Skills:
Serenity: Peaceful Repose
Sweeping Wind: Cyclone
Dashing Strike: Barrage
Seven Sided Strike:Fulminating Onslaught
Passive Traits: Fleet Footed; Seize TheInitiative; Mythic Rythm; Near Death Experience or Momentum
With a moderate crit chance of say 20-25% your fast hitting deadly reach will often proc it's additional spirit generator. This allows you to hit enemies with Wave of Light often enough to keep them chain-frozen with the Numbing Light rune which freezes enemies on critical hits for several seconds. Any critical hit also procs the Cyclone rune for Sweeping Wind, sending a small tornado that shocks all enemies in it's path. The Seven Sided Strike rune Fulminating Onslaught creates an AoE explosion whenever it hits. Making it a devastating tool against small packs of enemies, single targets andswarms alike. Serenity is your "Oh shi-" skill healing you and shielding you from heavy fire.
The one weakness of this build (and why it gets it's name "Janitor Monk") Is the fact that you can't handle much damage when serenity is off cooldown. So in order to mantain the fight against enemies you have to kite them slowly. By running in front of enemies, preforming a full Deadly Reach or two and then freezing them with Wave of Light (this makes you look like you're sweeping monsters with a broom, hence the name) From then on you rinse and repeat, monsters will take heavy damage from the critical strikes due to their large damage bonus that pulls out good times even with 50% bonus damage.
Certain monsters like the Fallen Magus and other casters can hurt you if you forget about them, So whenever you feel like your on the loosing side use dashing strike on them and while they're stunned and taking damage from the Barrage rune, kill them fast and return to your normal duties.
Beware of the Thunderstorm and poison enchanted affixes, they are not friendly the Janitor.
Thanks for reading through this, see you in Sanctuary!
EDIT: Ideally you want the Imperial Emerald gem on your Weapon(s) the build's damage can be greatly amplified by that, since critical hits happen fairly often. Also remember that Mythic Rhythm affects Seven Sided Strike as well, so try to do a full deadly reach if you can before using it as well as Wave of Light.
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EDIT #2: A fellow named Rathgood replied to this thread with his own cold-oriented build with numbing light involved:
Primary
Fist of Thunder - Wind Blast: Freezes enemies in front of you for 1 second every 3rd hit. This is a strong CC mechanic and with enough attack speed can lead to a stun-lock like effect. This plays well with the gear selection (later).
Secondary
Wave of Light - Numbing Light: Main damage source. Needs costs reduction.
Skill 1
Sweeping Wind - Inner Storm: Damage and a source of spirit regeneration.
Skill 2
Exploding Palm - Flesh is Weak/Strong Spirit: Kills elites dead with the gear setup.
Gear setup is mainly 3 pieces. Rimeheart, Fist of Az'turrasq, Tzo Krin's Gaze. Forstburn Gauntlets are optional due to FoT's rune. Rimeheart + EP = Boom. Tzo Krin's allows the WoL to be cast anywhere on screen, allowing you to freeze a champion pack or other group in place before you get to them or allow you to keep Sweeping winds up. It makes a difference.
A popular build for lightning Monks right now is based on Lashing Tail Kick - Scorpion Sting, which has a 85% chance to stun for 30 spirit. Now the duration is much shorter than the freeze from WoL - Numbing Light, but with the lower spirit cost you can cast one every 1-2 seconds. WoL instead costs 75 spirit, so you can only hit twice before you have to regenerate spirit. On top of that LTK does more damage per spirit.
So with that being said, I don't see this build being more effective than one based on LTK - Scorpion Sting. How well does this work on higher torment levels? And do Elites stay frozen for 4.5 seconds as well, or is it reduced?
Wave of Light hits a longer area and with the additional procs from Sweeping Wind you are able to sustain damage in a wider area. The build allows you to stay alive and do damage longer because your enemies are frozen for a longer period of time. It's mostly for progressing through T1-2-3 until you get some gear that enables you to do builds that you personally like if you aren't a fan of this one.
In higher torment levels the biggest problem I personally have is getting the freeze off fast. From there on it's pretty easy. The freeze is slightly reduced against bosses and some elites from what I can tell but it still stuns for longer than lashing tail kick. The main difference is that lashing tail kick better suits you against smaller, more tightly packed groups of enemies. Whereas wave of light can sustain damage to waves of enemies. Keeping them frozen and allowing you to get plnetly of damage off at the same time.
Been working with a few cold based builds and I'd suggest one more likehttp://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#aeSVPk!bVYU!ZYYabaNote that the online guide isn't up-to-date with the skill swaps from 2.0.5.
Primary
Fist of Thunder - Wind Blast: Freezes enemies in front of you for 1 second every 3rd hit. This is a strong CC mechanic and with enough attack speed can lead to a stun-lock like effect. This plays well with the gear selection (later).
Secondary
Wave of Light - Numbing Light: Main damage source. Needs costs reduction.
Skill 1
Sweeping Wind - Inner Storm: Damage and a source of spirit regeneration.
Skill 2
Exploding Palm - Flesh is Weak/Strong Spirit: Kills elites dead with the gear setup.
Gear setup is mainly 3 pieces. Rimeheart, Fist of Az'turrasq, Tzo Krin's Gaze. Forstburn Gauntlets are optional due to FoT's rune. Rimeheart + EP = Boom. Tzo Krin's allows the WoL to be cast anywhere on screen, allowing you to freeze a champion pack or other group in place before you get to them or allow you to keep Sweeping winds up. It makes a difference.
Been working with a few cold based builds and I'd suggest one more likehttp://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#aeSVPk!bVYU!ZYYabaNote that the online guide isn't up-to-date with the skill swaps from 2.0.5.
Primary
Fist of Thunder - Wind Blast: Freezes enemies in front of you for 1 second every 3rd hit. This is a strong CC mechanic and with enough attack speed can lead to a stun-lock like effect. This plays well with the gear selection (later).
Secondary
Wave of Light - Numbing Light: Main damage source. Needs costs reduction.
Skill 1
Sweeping Wind - Inner Storm: Damage and a source of spirit regeneration.
Skill 2
Exploding Palm - Flesh is Weak/Strong Spirit: Kills elites dead with the gear setup.
Gear setup is mainly 3 pieces. Rimeheart, Fist of Az'turrasq, Tzo Krin's Gaze. Forstburn Gauntlets are optional due to FoT's rune. Rimeheart + EP = Boom. Tzo Krin's allows the WoL to be cast anywhere on screen, allowing you to freeze a champion pack or other group in place before you get to them or allow you to keep Sweeping winds up. It makes a difference.
That sounds like fun! I'll edit to put it in the main thread description so people can try it out :),
Quote fromthundersteele
Thanks for your reply UndeadProtoss. I just found a nice Azurewrath yesterday, now I have a bit more motivation to try a Cold based build.
@rathgood
Does this work at all without Rimeheart? How much resource cost reduction do you recommend?
I'd suggest running at least 30% cost reduction, it'll chop almost 25 spirit off the costs of both sweeping winds and WoL. As for without Rimeheart, it doesn't work as well since its the key to dropping elite packs fast (as shown by another build on these forums). Gather up a bunch of white mobs, palm them, rimeheart shatter them and Boom.
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Here's a breakdown.
Mouse skills:
Deadly Reach: Strike From Beyond
Wave of Light: Numbing Light
Action-Bar Skills:
Serenity: Peaceful Repose
Sweeping Wind: Cyclone
Dashing Strike: Barrage
Seven Sided Strike:Fulminating Onslaught
Passive Traits: Fleet Footed; Seize TheInitiative; Mythic Rythm; Near Death Experience or Momentum
With a moderate crit chance of say 20-25% your fast hitting deadly reach will often proc it's additional spirit generator. This allows you to hit enemies with Wave of Light often enough to keep them chain-frozen with the Numbing Light rune which freezes enemies on critical hits for several seconds. Any critical hit also procs the Cyclone rune for Sweeping Wind, sending a small tornado that shocks all enemies in it's path. The Seven Sided Strike rune Fulminating Onslaught creates an AoE explosion whenever it hits. Making it a devastating tool against small packs of enemies, single targets andswarms alike. Serenity is your "Oh shi-" skill healing you and shielding you from heavy fire.
The one weakness of this build (and why it gets it's name "Janitor Monk") Is the fact that you can't handle much damage when serenity is off cooldown. So in order to mantain the fight against enemies you have to kite them slowly. By running in front of enemies, preforming a full Deadly Reach or two and then freezing them with Wave of Light (this makes you look like you're sweeping monsters with a broom, hence the name) From then on you rinse and repeat, monsters will take heavy damage from the critical strikes due to their large damage bonus that pulls out good times even with 50% bonus damage.
Certain monsters like the Fallen Magus and other casters can hurt you if you forget about them, So whenever you feel like your on the loosing side use dashing strike on them and while they're stunned and taking damage from the Barrage rune, kill them fast and return to your normal duties.
Beware of the Thunderstorm and poison enchanted affixes, they are not friendly the Janitor.
Thanks for reading through this, see you in Sanctuary!
EDIT: Ideally you want the Imperial Emerald gem on your Weapon(s) the build's damage can be greatly amplified by that, since critical hits happen fairly often. Also remember that Mythic Rhythm affects Seven Sided Strike as well, so try to do a full deadly reach if you can before using it as well as Wave of Light.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDIT #2: A fellow named Rathgood replied to this thread with his own cold-oriented build with numbing light involved:
Fist of Thunder - Wind Blast: Freezes enemies in front of you for 1 second every 3rd hit. This is a strong CC mechanic and with enough attack speed can lead to a stun-lock like effect. This plays well with the gear selection (later).
Wave of Light - Numbing Light: Main damage source. Needs costs reduction.
Sweeping Wind - Inner Storm: Damage and a source of spirit regeneration.
Exploding Palm - Flesh is Weak/Strong Spirit: Kills elites dead with the gear setup.
Epiphany - Soothing Most: Regen, Teleport, Healing.
Mantra of Conviction - Overawe: Damage
Gear setup is mainly 3 pieces. Rimeheart, Fist of Az'turrasq, Tzo Krin's Gaze. Forstburn Gauntlets are optional due to FoT's rune. Rimeheart + EP = Boom. Tzo Krin's allows the WoL to be cast anywhere on screen, allowing you to freeze a champion pack or other group in place before you get to them or allow you to keep Sweeping winds up. It makes a difference.
EDIT: I just reedited the guide to reflect that, Ty for pointing it out.
In higher torment levels the biggest problem I personally have is getting the freeze off fast. From there on it's pretty easy. The freeze is slightly reduced against bosses and some elites from what I can tell but it still stuns for longer than lashing tail kick. The main difference is that lashing tail kick better suits you against smaller, more tightly packed groups of enemies. Whereas wave of light can sustain damage to waves of enemies. Keeping them frozen and allowing you to get plnetly of damage off at the same time.
Fist of Thunder - Wind Blast: Freezes enemies in front of you for 1 second every 3rd hit. This is a strong CC mechanic and with enough attack speed can lead to a stun-lock like effect. This plays well with the gear selection (later).
Wave of Light - Numbing Light: Main damage source. Needs costs reduction.
Sweeping Wind - Inner Storm: Damage and a source of spirit regeneration.
Exploding Palm - Flesh is Weak/Strong Spirit: Kills elites dead with the gear setup.
Epiphany - Soothing Most: Regen, Teleport, Healing.
Mantra of Conviction - Overawe: Damage