For what it's worth I personally use a cyclone strike/dashing strike combo. No tempest rush.
The alternative you're proposing is 150 dex and 150 vit in place of 2.50 spirit regen.
Which is understandable, but I'm still going to go with no.
Personal experience tells me that spirit regen is far more important for farming.
a well placed cyclone strike means i can kill a pack of enemies in 3 punches total instead of 1-2 each.
Someday I'd like to see you farm
Do you have a gear setup to farm efficiently without SW swap?
not atm, sold it a month ago and I'm working on making money while I still can.
Planning to buy a pair of BIS dual wield weapons when 1.06 is announced.
Since when? You're just making assumptions based on a character you created in a simulator. For me 12% life is about 20% stronger than 100 vita and i'm not really vita heavy (1200-ish).
Lets assume a scenario with 1200 vit that favors 12% life as much as possible.
12% life & 1200 vit -> 1344 vit
that's only 44 more vit than +1300 vit, or 3.3%
Generally speaking a player will already have some life %, and most monks i know have 900-1000 vit, not 1200.
In which case linear scaling will favor 100 vitality
On that skill bonus: we can probably assume that dropping FoT is unlikely while dropping Sweeping Wind (for deadly reach with keen eye) is a rather common picture in the 'end game' due to enough dps and no more hastling around with having 75 spirit or not. That's why i'd prefer advising in picking up FoT.
I would never sacrifice the majority of my AoE dps just for 50% armor.
150 Dex/Vit, 11% IAS, and 200 Dex provide a marginal benefit to your DPS.
It's a huge benefit to your EHP (both vitality and dex) and while using an elemental weapon it's actually not much of a difference if you have to choose between 900 dps or 1050 (elemental weapons can't roll much higher due to not working together with %weapon damage affix while providing way higher base damage range than added physical damage). And the overall paperdoll dps difference between adding 50% weapon damage for said elemental damage heavy weapon and 200 dex is actually almost nonexistent for your average dw monk according to my simulations. "50% damage on one weapon is worth about 25% overall dps on a dual wield setup"is nowhere near my results. That's still only a roughly 5% total dps difference for me if i choose 200 dex instead - that's with 2200 dex, 50% crit chance, 500% crit damage, 36% attack speed. Maybe you're also taking echoing fury buff into account from the other hand or something? 100% extra critical hit damage barely adds 15% total damage and overall weapons aren't that important - well at least on paperdoll.
elemental damage bonus caps at 316-725
I'm not sure what the best for physical damage is, but for fist weapons, it's at least:
337 min damage
429 max damage
Which i'm fairly certain means 337-766, contrary to physical damage on rings works.
to make sure i wasnt making any errors, i took a look at the highest dps element and nonelement fist weapons on the AH.
i saw a 1180.4 poison DPS one, with 11% IAS, so 1063 DPS no IAS.
then there was a 1392.9 physical fist with 10% IAS, so 1266 DPS no IAS
a delta of about 20%, which makes sense since both fists rolled 50% damage bonus.
and the elemental one would only have that bonus applied to its physical component
this would imply that 337 min and 429 max damage translates to 337-766 physical damage bonus.
which is indeed more than the elemental damage bonus prior to even applying the 50%
5 spirit gen might not sound like much on paper, especially if all you intend to do with it is use it on mantras or what not.
But in practice, the spirit gen if fed properly into utility skills like dashing strike, cyclone strike, and or tempest rush, can mean the difference between paragon leveling at 50m xp/hr or 85m xp/hr.
So your 'end game' is the grinding act 3 on mp0-4 tempest rush build? I actually assumed that's something beyond that point. For any spirit heavy build spirit regen is obviously pretty strong and you might be better off using 4 piece Inna instead of using perfectly rolled rares/witching hour providing a noticeable dps loss but huge comfort improvement. Heck with enough dps you can easily afford running with sweeping wind/master of wind and ignore all that recasting fuzz even on larger maps. And you can easily afford just using two mediocre yet still spirit regen heavy weapons instead your 1+ billion gold ones.
edit: Vin beats me on the last part
For what it's worth I personally use a cyclone strike/dashing strike combo. No tempest rush.
The alternative you're proposing is 150 dex and 150 vit in place of 2.50 spirit regen.
Which is understandable, but I'm still going to go with no.
Personal experience tells me that spirit regen is far more important for farming.
a well placed cyclone strike means i can kill a pack of enemies in 3 punches total instead of 1-2 each.
I'm also of the opinion that spirit regen will be important in PVP where ranged players will have methods of denying your spirit production.
Imho it does not. If I want my spreadsheet to give the correct DPS, I still have to buff the "black damage" separately with the +% elemental.
I just checked and yeah, you're right.
That's odd, I recall testing elemental damage in PTR and it worked just fine even when i had elemental weapons equipped.
i guess the only fix was to make it affect both min and max physical damage now, instead of just min.
paragon is endgame? You're talking about gear in the 1bil/piece range. At least for me, by the time I can afford those I'll probably be done with plvls.
yes, because IMO paragon xp is a a decent way to measure farming rate now that legendaries ping.
One little suggestion:
Since you put the 135 crit damage comparison for the WKL buff, maybe you could add that a perfect EF provides 20.8% IAS for a slow off-hand. Essentially if you have a 1k dps spear in the off-hand, putting a EF in the main hand turns the off-hand into a 1.2k dps weapon.
On Mempo:
Interesting statement considering hat any Mempo will have high amount of all resist while most of Inna's helmet can barely offer mediocre single resist. Rolling with double resist it's quite an impressive helmet compared to the average Inna's helmet you can find and not much more expensive. Especially for someone who's after Inna's pants & Witching Hour, already trading lots of defense potential for some offense. But your guide clearly states "for the end game" so it's only fair to only look for 'best in slot' i guess Another big downside on that helmet is the style, instead of an tiara (d2 style) it's an ugly helmet.
inna's radiance can roll 80 resist all, just like a mempo.
Inna's Radiance if rolled perfectly can have the following stats:
200 Dexterity
100 Vitality
80 Resist All
14% FoT/Sweeping Wind
6% Crit Chance
Socket
if a mempo rolls perfectly, it can have the following stats:
200 Dexterity
12% Life
9% IAS
80 Resist
6% Crit Chance
Socket
Since 100 Vit > 12% Life and 14% skill bonus > 9% IAS in terms of DPS (although it's marginally less spirit generation)
that combined with the fact that the mempo does not offer a set bonus.
and you realize that a perfectly rolled inna's radiance is superior to a perfectly rolled mempo.
the only difference is perfectly rolled inna's radiance are much rarer to find on the AH.
150 Dex/Vit, 11% IAS, and 200 Dex provide a marginal benefit to your DPS.
Well having up to 700 dex and 300 extra vitality (on two weapons) actually is a huge deal compared to pure crit damage and 5-6 spirit regen (adding armor, dodge, etc. depending on specc). The real question is: should anyone rely on the paperdoll damage or aim for high weapon damage instead even while sacrificing 'some dps'? Sweeping wind only rely on weapon damage and as you already mentioned it's about 50% of our total damage (but actually including spawned cyclones) - but it's enhanced via dexterity.
And considering that you regulary only pay a fraction for the (way) lower dps version it's actually worth considering even for real end game choices.
5 spirit gen might not sound like much on paper, especially if all you intend to do with it is use it on mantras or what not.
But in practice, the spirit gen if fed properly into utility skills like dashing strike, cyclone strike, and or tempest rush, can mean the difference between paragon leveling at 50m xp/hr or 85m xp/hr.
700 dex and 300 vit affords you to go a higher MP without noticing too much of a loss.
which is marginally useful at best in terms of farming.
either way, 700 dex and 300 vit is very very little for a whopping 4 weapon affix slots.
the 200 dex affix is only worth overall 8% DPS
the 150 dex/vit affix isn't much better.
50% damage on one weapon is worth about 25% overall dps on a dual wield setup
100% crit damage is worth about 20% overall dps on a dual wield setup
lifesteal is priceless
socket is another 100% crit damage
And elemental/min/max damage accounts for at least half of your weapon's DPS.
compared to this, 150 dex/150 vit, or 200 dex for 1 affix is completely trivial.
I feel like everybody already knows what end game weapons are.
but maybe eventually I'll leave a more in depth version.
The issue with weapons is that people want sockets, crit damage, lifesteal, and high base DPS.
and getting all of that already consumes 5 out of your 6 affix slots:
so it's only the 6th slot that's up for debate.
And that's a trivial debate since the odds of finding a weapon with 6 amazing affixes is already slim to none.
IMO if I could have any affix I wanted for a 6th affix:
I'd pick 2.50 Spirit Regeneration or 959 Life on Hit.
if you want more DPS, the only real options are:
150 Dex & 150 Vit
200 Dex
or 11% IAS
But is Life per Spirit spent really that good? I mean, let's say I refresh my Mantra every 3 seconds. What does a mantra cost? 50 Spirit? With 60 Life per Spirit spent I get 3000 Health every 3 seconds, 1000 hp/s. I get alot more with my combined 2.6 % lifesteal and ~850 LoH on 105k DPS, don't I?
Life per Spirit Spent is really good compared to life regen and health from globe.
it's still pretty shoddy compared to lifesteal or loh.
1 question though - i know it's an end-game guide so i shouldn't worry about it yet, but I'm curious. In section 3 you describe BiS items per slot and you mention 3 different usable sets, but after reading the whole thing i didn't come to the conclusion what is the best -combination- of items.
Is it 2xNat (boots+ring) + 2x Inna's (pants+helm) or 2xBT(chest+?) or some other combination ? Any 4 set worth it?
Well it depends a little from monk to monk.
But most monks will find the following legendaries to be BIS:
Nat Ring + Boots
Innas Helm + Pants
Stone of Jordan/Hellfire Ring
Vile Ward
I wouldn't say blackthorne's is inherently BIS.
because a bad blackthorne's roll is REALLY REALLY bad.
and blackthornes basically needs to roll all of its random enchantments perfectly to be a viable end game item.
whereas if a nat ring rolls a single good stat, like high physical damage, or high crit chance, it's automatically end game material.
similar logic applies to a witching hour, you need a fairly specific roll with the 3 random enchantments for it to be godly.
But boy when a witching hour is godly, it's reaaally godly.
==========Affix Based Armor Itemization Guide==========
What I'm about to post is common knowledge to seasoned monks.
The idea is that when you reach the end game, it becomes less a matter of cost effectiveness and more a matter of which specific combination of affixes is ideal, and knowing when to use what legendary, or what rares.
Hopefully end gamers will find the following list a nice database of max affixes and mid tier gamers will find some useful information in here anyways.
Only doing armor for now.
==========Table of Contents==========
1) List of Affixes, and when they are good or better.
2) List of Maximum Affixes by slot.
3) Legendaries & Rares, When To Use What
1) List of Affixes, and when they are good or better.
Resist All, Resist Element, Bonus Armor
Up to 397 bonus armor is available on shields, chests, pants, and helmets.
Up to 265 bonus armor is available on every other remaining armor slot.
Up to 80 Resist All is available on all armor slots.
Up to 60 Resist Element is available on all armor slots.
Fire resistance is notable for giving players access to cindercoat and fire walkers.
Both are nice items for mid tier monks
End game monks may regret picking fire resist due to the cost.
Both physical and fire resistance are nice if you share gear with a Demon Hunter.
Poison resistance is nice for Andariel's Visage.
If you don't intend to ever use any of those legendaries listed above, I recommend getting lightning, arcane, or cold resistance.
Critical Hit Chance
Up to 10% Crit Chance is available on Amulets and Gloves
Up to 6% Crit Chance is available on Helmets, Rings, and Bracers
For thunderclap/cyclone builds, crit chance is slightly better than your paper doll indicates.
Because it both increases the damage per cyclone as well as the number of cyclones.
Maxed crit chance is generally essential to any end game monk build.
Crit Damage
Up to 100% Crit Damage is available on Weapons and Amulets
Up to 50% Crit Damage is available on Gloves and Rings
The value of crit damage varies greatly depending on your setup.
Sword and board monks tend to have exceptionally low crit damage so crit damage becomes essential on gloves and jewelry.
If you're a dual wield or skorn monk, you'll generally value 5-6% crit damage at 1% DPS.
I would only recommend getting crit damage on jewelry or gloves if it's cost effective.
Increased Attack Speed (Armor)
Up to 9% IAS is available on Gloves, Rings and Amulets
IAS has linear scaling.
IE if I have 36% IAS already, an additional 9% ias will only give me 6.6% DPS
Always remember that IAS also boosts spirit generation.
Weigh whether or not you think you have enough spirit generation when looking into more IAS.
Increased Attack Speed (Weapon)
Up to 11% IAS is available on weapons
Up to 20% IAS is available on balanced white weapons.
Weapon IAS works differently from Armor IAS.
It does not suffer from the linear scaling of Armor IAS.
But it only affects one weapon when dual wielding.
Additionally, weapon IAS is already factored into a weapon's DPS number.
But there are many more valuable enchantments on weapons than IAS.
So Weapon IAS is generally considered a waste of an affix slot.
Added Elemental Damage
Only Available on Legendaries
Only affects physical DPS, not elemental weapons.
This damage is factored into you inventory DPS number.
Added cold damage can slow/chill enemies you attack.
However, elemental skills such as Thunderclap and Sweeping Wind/Cyclone override the element of added elemental damage enchantments.
Added Cold Damage armor and jewelry will still boost your DPS, but will not apply cold debuff when using Thunderclap or Sweeping Wind/Cyclone.
But cold damage will apply cold debuff if you use a non-elemental skill such as deadly reach.
Elemental Skill Bonus
The most notable elemental skill bonus is added lightning damage on Won Khim Lau.
With the thunderclap/cyclone build, it can be thought of as a boost to your overall DPS.
Bonus to Skills
Up to 14% Fist of Thunder and Sweeping Wind available on helmets.
For the typical thunderclap/cyclone build, FoT and SW are both about half of your DPS.
Naturally FoT is slightly better for single targets, and sweeping wind for AoE.
I generally prefer sweeping wind because I feel thunderclap/cyclone lacks AoE DPS.
But you can value both 14% FoT and 14% SW bonus at about 7% bonus damage.
Added Physical Damage (Jewelry)
Up to 36-108 Physical Damage is available on Rings and Amulets
Up to 36 Minimum Physical Damage is available on Rings and Amulets
Up to 35 Maximum Physical Damage is available on Rings and Amulets
The 3 affixes listed above are independent, and each consume a random enchantment.
If a ring rolls both combined physical damage along with min/max physical damage, the min/max physical damage affixes will not be displayed.
36-108 physical damage is 72 average damage. Double Physical is what you want to look for.
36 min physical damage is 18 average damage. (AH is wrong on this one, so be careful)
35 max physical damage is 17.5 average damage
Dual wield monks will find that 1 average damage is about equal to 1% crit damage.
2H monks will not find average physical damage enchantments worthwhile
Sword & board monks will generally value crit damage over average damage, but it's still good.
Dexterity & Vitality
Up to 150 Dex & Vit roll in an enchantment on Amulets, Weapons, and Shields
Up to 100 Dex & Vit roll in an enchantment on all other items
Up to 200 Dex roll in an enchantment on Amulets, Weapons, Gloves, Boots, and Shields
Up to 100 Dex can roll in an enchantment on all other items
Up to 200 Vit can roll in an enchantment on Amulets, Weapons, Chests, Pants, and Shields
Up to 100 Vit can roll in an enchantment on all other items
Any time you can get 200 total dex/vit for only 1 enchantment slot, it's very good.
This is one of the best and must have enchantments on armor.
It's also very good on weapons and jewelry, but not a must have.
Rolling only 100 total dex/vit for a single enchantment slot is not a great deal, and should only be considered if there are no other significant enchantments available.
Resistances and Armor
Up to 80 Resist All rolls in an enchantment on any armor
Up to 60 Resist All rolls in an enchantment on any armor
Up to 397 Bonus Armor rolls in an enchantment on Helms, Chests, Pants, and Shields
Up to 265 Bonus Armor rolls in an enchantment on all other armor and jewelry
Resistances and armor scale linearly with EHP.
Resistance scales with an offset of 315, armor scales with an offset of 3150 on MP1+
So if you have 700 resistance, your EHP is proportional to 700+315 = 1015.
If you have 200 resistance, your EHP is proportional to 200+315 = 515.
So 700 resistance is about double the EHP of 200 resistance.
Same idea goes for 7000 armor and 2000 armor.
Life per Spirit Spent, Health from Globe, Life Regen
Up to 63.9 Life per Spirit Spent rolls in an enchantment on Weapons and Helmets
Up to 599 Life Regen rolls in an enchantment on Chests and Amulets
Up to 342 Life Regen rolls in an enchantment on any other armor slot
Up to 12794 Life from Globes/Potions rolls in an enchantment on any armor slot
Life per Spirit Spent is by far the most powerful passive healing enchantment.
It's typical for a dual wield monk to generate 15-20 spirit per second.
That's equivalent to 1000-1250 life per second.
Unfortunately, since it's only available on helmets and weapons, it's not commonly used.
12794 Life from Globes/Potions is worth over 425 life per second, just from potions alone.
You can generally assume a 10k+ life from globe enchantment is better than life regen.
There are 2 types of health globes, small ones heal 15% of your life, big ones heal 35%.
Life regen is not an enchantment I would recommend considering except on chest armor.
Lifesteal, Life on Hit, Life on Kill
Up to 3.00% Lifesteal rolls in an enchantment on Weapons
Up to 959 Life on Hit rolls in an enchantment on Weapons and Amulets
Up to 479 Life on Hit rolls in an enchantment on Rings
Up to 2878 Life on Kill rolls in an enchantment on Weapons and Amulets
Up to 1439 Life on Kill rolls in an enchantment on Rings
A lot of monks ask questions like "at what DPS is lifesteal better than LoH"
And the answer just isn't simple. It depends on your attack speed, crit chance, & other stuff.
I recommend you build your own calculator, or use this one: https://docs.google....FJS2Y0Z3c#gid=0
I will always prefer lifesteal because it scales better with the end game and because it continues to heals me when I'm CC'd by effects like knockback, fear, freeze, etc. thanks to stray cyclones.
Life on kill is very underrated, and is the best option for tempest rush farming builds.
Spirit Regeneration
Up to 2.50 rolls on Weapons and Spirit Stones.
I personally think this is a must have enchantment for farming.
It is the best way to feed utility skills such as cyclone strike and tempest rush.
The alternative to spirit regen would be to get more DPS, but that doesn't have great returns.
You can get a lot of DPS, and crank up the MP, but you don't really farm that much faster because enemies just gain so much health.
Spirit regen on the other hand, allows you to farm lower MP's much much more efficiently.
Even with ridiculous DPS, you will be hard pressed to farm over 50m paragon xp/hr.
But a good tempest rush setup on Act 3 MP0 will net you over 80m paragon xp/hr.
Reduction vs Elites, Ranged, and Melee
Up to 7% Reduction vs Elites rolls in an enchantment on Chests
Up to 6% Reduction vs Ranged rolls in an enchantment on Chests, Amulets, and Bracers.
Up to 6% Reduction vs Melee rolls in an enchantment on Chests, Amulets, and Bracers.
Keep in mind that for a typical monk with 700 total resistance, 60 resistance is worth about 6% reduction from all damage.
So you can value 6-7% reduction at 30-40 resistance.
Life %
Up to 16% Life rolls in an enchantment on Amulets and Shields
Up to 12% Life rolls in an enchantment on Shoulders, Belts, Helms and Chests
Life % has linear scaling, so its usefulness changes a lot depending on how much you have.
It's a nice enchantment to round out item slots without many other useful enchantments.
Namely if you're going after rare shoulders or belts
Magic Find & Gold Find
Up to 45% Magic Find rolls on Amulets
Up to 20% Magic Find rolls on any other armor slot
Up to 50% Gold Find rolls on Amulets
Up to 25% Gold Find rolls on any other armor slot
I personally don't consider these enchantments.
But you can generally assume that magic find boosts your income rate almost linearly.
So if you already have 450% MF, I would value an extra 45% MF at slightly less than a 10% boost to your farming income rate.
2) List of Maximum Affixes by slot.
Rare Helmets/Spirit Stones
- 6% Crit Chance
- 14% Sweeping Wind/Fist of Thunder
- 5 Cyclone Strike Cost Reduction
- 100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
- 100 Dexterity
- 100 Vitality
- 1 Helmet Socket
- 80 Resist All
- 60 Resist Element
- 397 Bonus Armor
- 12% Life
- 63.9 Life Per Spirit Spent
- 2.50 Spirit Regeneration
- 12794 Health from Globes and Potions
- 392 Life Regen
- 20% Magic Find
- 25% Gold Find
- 5.1% Chance to Fear on Hit
- 14% Crowd Control Reduction
The socket is mandatory for paragon leveling.
IMO it's optional once you reach 100 paragon.
6% Crit Chance is critical to your DPS.
IMO, 2.50 Spirit Regeneration is critical to farming efficiently.
the double attribute enchantment is solid, but the single attribute enchantments are not.
So I would not want a rare spirit stone with more than 100 dexterity or 100 vitality.
The following enchantments are must haves for an end game rare spirit stone:
6% Crit Chance
2.50 Spirit Regeneration for farming
1 Socket if not 100 Paragon
The following enchantments are very good for an end game rare spirit stone:
14% Sweeping Wind/Fist of Thunder
80 Resist All
100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
1 Socket even if 100 Paragon
The remaining slots should be filled with the following enchantments:
100 Dexterity
100 Vitality
60 Resist Element
397 Bonus Armor
63.9 Life per Spirit Spent
12% Life
Rare Shoulders/Belts
- 100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
- 100 Dexterity
- 100 Vitality
- 80 Resist All
- 60 Resist Element
- 265 Bonus Armor
- 12% Life
- 12794 Health from Globes and Potions
- 392 Life Regen
- 20% Magic Find
- 25% Gold Find
- 5.1% Chance to Chill/Freeze on Hit
Rare shoulders and belts lack any notable enchantments for Monks.
As such they are nice ways to boost your EHP.
The following enchantments are must haves for an end game rare shoulder:
80 Resist All
60 Resist Element
100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
100 Dexterity
The remaining slots should be filled with the following enchantments:
100 Vitality
265 Bonus Armor
12% Life
12794 Health from Globes and Potions
Rare Bracers
- 6% Crit Chance
- 100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
- 100 Dexterity
- 100 Vitality
- 80 Resist All
- 60 Resist Element
- 265 Bonus Armor
- 12794 Health from Globes and Potions
- 392 Life Regen
- 6% Ranged Reduction
- 6% Melee Reduction
- 20% Magic Find
- 25% Gold Find
- 5.1% Chance to Knockback on Hit
Aside from 6% crit chance, rare bracers lack notable enchantments.
So after you get 6% crit chance, they are a nice slot to boost your survivability.
The following enchantments are must haves for an end game rare Bracer:
6% Crit Chance
80 Resist All
60 Resist Element
100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
The remaining slots should be filled with the following enchantments:
100 Dexterity
100 Vitality
265 Bonus Armor
6% Ranged Reduction
6% Melee Reduction
12794 Health from Globes and Potions
Rare Gloves
- 10% Crit Chance
- 9% Increased Attack Speed
- 50% Crit Damage
- 100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
- 200 Dexterity
- 100 Vitality
- 80 Resist All
- 60 Resist Element
- 265 Bonus Armor
- 12794 Health from Globes and Potions
- 392 Life Regen
- 20% Magic Find
- 25% Gold Find
- 5.1% Chance to Stun on Hit
Since gloves have so many useful enchantments, it can be very expensive to get trifectas, let alone gloves with 5-6 good enchantments.
10% Crit Chance is by far the most useful enchantment for monks, and is a must have.
9% IAS and 50% Crit damage are next, but you'll often be forced to pick one or the other.
Unless you're a shield monk, IAS is generally the superior option, by a small margin.
200 Dexterity, 100 Dex & 100 vit, Resistances are what I recommend looking for next.
I'd say the perfect rare gloves would roll:
10% Crit Chance
9% IAS
50% Crit Damage
300 Dexterity
100 Vitality
80 Resist All
Rare Chest Armor
- 3 Armor Sockets
- 100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
- 100 Dexterity
- 200 Vitality
- 80 Resist All
- 60 Resist Element
- 397 Bonus Armor
- 12% Life
- 12794 Health from Globes and Potions
- 599 Life Regen
- 20% Magic Find
- 25% Gold Find
- 7% Reduction from Elites
- 6% Reduction from Ranged
- 6% Reduction from Melee
Chest armor is notable for its 3 armor sockets and 200 vitality enchantment.
You'll want to aim for the following affixes on an end game rare chest:
3 Armor Sockets
200 Vitality
100 Dexterity & Vitality
80 Resist All
60 Resist Element
The following enchantments are nice for rounding out a rare chest:
396 Bonus Armor
100 Dexterity
12% Life
12794 Health from Globes and Potions
599 Life Regen
7% Reduction from Elites
6% Reduction from Ranged
6% Reduction from Melee
Rare Pants
- 2 Armor Sockets
- 100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
- 100 Dexterity
- 200 Vitality
- 80 Resist All
- 60 Resist Element
- 397 Bonus Armor
- 12% Life
- 12794 Health from Globes and Potions
- 392 Life Regen
- 20% Magic Find
- 25% Gold Find
- 5.1% Chance to Slow Enemies
Pants are notable for their 2 armor sockets and 200 vitality enchantment.
I don't think sockets are essential on pants since you only get 2.
Sockets are only great if you want extra dex for DPS, but at that innas temperance is better.
You'll want to aim for the following affixes on an end game rare pants:
100 Dexterity & Vitality
200 Vitality
80 Resist All
60 Resist Element
The following enchantments are a nice way to round out a nice pair of rare pants:
2 Armor Sockets
100 Dexterity
12% Life
12794 Health from Globe and Potions
397 Bonus Armor
Rare Boots
- 12% Movement Speed
- 100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
- 200 Dexterity
- 100 Vitality
- 80 Resist All
- 60 Resist Element
- 265 Bonus Armor
- 12794 Health from Globes and Potions
- 392 Life Regen
- 20% Magic Find
- 25% Gold Find
- 5.1% Chance to Immobilize on Hit
Rare boots are notable, obviously for having 12% movement speed.
The following enchantments are must haves for an end game rare boots:
12% Movement Speed
200 Dexterity
100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
80 Resist All
60 Resist Element
The following enchantments are nice ways to round out a pair of rare boots:
265 Bonus Armor
12794 Health from Globes and Potions
100 Vitality
Rare Shields
- 1 Armor Socket
- 10% Crit Chance
- 150 Dexterity & 150 Vitality
- 200 Dexterity
- 200 Vitality
- 80 Resist All
- 60 Resist Element
- 397 Bonus Armor
- 16% Life
- 12794 Health from Globes and Potions
- 599 Life Regen
- 20% Magic Find
- 25% Gold Find
- 7% Reduction from Elites
- 6% Reduction from Ranged
- 6% Reduction from Melee
- 8% Lashing Tail Kick, Tempest Rush, Wave of Light Crit Chance
- 9% Chance to Block
Shields have some of the best enchantments in the game.
Unfortunately it's usually outweighed by LS and crit damage from an offhander.
Regardless, shields can roll some pretty beastly stats
The following enchantments are must haves for an end game rare shield:
10% Crit Chance
150 Dexterity & 150 Vitality
200 Dexterity
200 Vitality
80 Resist All
The last slot should ideally go to 60 resist element, 16% life, or a monk skill bonus.
But there are plenty of other solid enchantments available as well.
Rare Amulets
- 1 Armor Socket
- 10% Crit Chance
- 100% Crit Damage
- 9% Increased Attack Speed
- 2878 Life on Kill
- 959 Life on Hit
- 36-106 Physical Damage
- 36 Minimum Physical Damage
- 35 Maximum Physical Damage
- 150 Dexterity & 150 Vitality
- 200 Dexterity
- 200 Vitality
- 80 Resist All
- 60 Resist Element
- 397 Bonus Armor
- 16% Life
- 12794 Health from Globes and Potions
- 599 Life Regen
- 45% Magic Find
- 50% Gold Find
- 14% Crowd Control Reduction
- 5.1% Chance to Blind on Hit
With rare amulets, there's almost no way you'll get all the enchantments you want.
But I'll do my best to rank them from best to worst.
10% Crit Chance and 100% Crit Damage are the best by a large margin.
959 Life on Hit is amazing but skippable since you can get healing from other slots.
9% IAS following that.
36-106 Physical damage and 150 Dex & 150 Vit are amazing, but rarely roll near maxed.
200 Dex, 200 Vit, Resistances, and even bonus armor are worth considering after that.
IMO the perfect rare amulet would roll the following:
10% Crit Chance
100% Crit Damage
9% IAS
959 Life on Hit
36-106 Physical Damage
150 Dexterity
150 Vitality
Rare Rings
- 1 Armor Socket
- 6% Crit Chance
- 50% Crit Damage
- 9% Increased Attack Speed
- 1439 Life on Kill
- 479 Life on Hit
- 36-106 Physical Damage
- 36 Minimum Physical Damage
- 35 Maximum Physical Damage
- 100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
- 100 Dexterity
- 100 Vitality
- 80 Resist All
- 60 Resist Element
- 265 Bonus Armor
- 12% Life
- 12794 Health from Globes and Potions
- 392 Life Regen
- 25% Magic Find
- 20% Gold Find
- 14% Crowd Control Reduction
Many enchantments on rings are roughly half their counterpart on Amulets
A few aren't, and these are particularly potent.
36-106 Physical Damage, 6% Crit Chance, and 9% IAS are the best enchantments.
It will be fairly hard to get all 3 of them.
IMO the perfect rare ring would roll the following:
6% Crit Chance
9% IAS
36-106 Physical Damage
50% Crit Damage
479 Life on Hit
100 Dexterity
100 Vitality
Rare Weapons
- 316-725 Elemental Damage
- 201-457 Cold Damage
- 50% Damage
- ??? Min/Max Damage (Varies between weapon types)
- 100% Critical Hit Damage (200% 2H)
- 959 Life on Hit (1918 2H)
- 2878 Life on Kill (5756 2H)
- 3.00% Lifesteal (6.00% 2H)
- 1 Weapon Socket
- 63.9 Life per Spirit Spent
- 11% IAS
- 8% Wave of Light/Tempest Rush Crit Chance
- 5 Lashing Tail Kick Cost Reduction
- 8% Bonus vs Elites
- 2.50 Spirit Regeneration
Everybody wants lifesteal, crit damage, socket, and high base damage on weapons.
But that alone already costs 6 enchantment slots.
These are the 5 highly must have enchantments for an end game rare weapon:
Min/Max Damage (or Elemental Damage, but min/max can roll higher)
50% Damage
100% Critical Hit Damage
3.00% Lifesteal
1 Weapon Socket
Chances are, you're not going to find a weapon with 6 good affixes.
And if you do, it's going to be extremely expensive.
Personally, I would like a rare weapon with 2.50 Spirit regen in the 6th slot for farming.
959 Life on Hit is obviously the best option for tanking.
150 Dex/Vit, 11% IAS, and 200 Dex provide a marginal benefit to your DPS.
But personally I don't search for attributes on weapons.
3) Legendaries & Rares, When To Use What
===== Helmets ===== Mempo of Twilight
Only Mempo's of Twilight with Crit Chance are worth considering.
I would even go further to say that only 6% CC Mempos are worth considering.
Remember that 1% CC is a lot more valuable than 1% IAS afterall.
a 3% CC mempo probably isn't better than a 6% CC helmet with high dex.
Inna's Radiance
Inna's Radiance has 2 random enchantment slots that can roll very good affixes.
The best ones are:
80 Resist All
2.50 Spirit Regeneration
14% Sweeping Wind/Fist of Thunder Skill Bonus
The following enchantments are also worth considering:
60 Resist Element
397 Bonus Armor
63.9 Life Per Spirit Spent
An Inna's radiance with high rolls, all resist, and 14% skill bonus is effectively just as good as a 6% CC Mempo of Twilight in terms of both Defense and Offense.
The difference is 14% skill bonus does not provide you extra IAS.
On the other hand, Inna's Radiance helps contribute a set bonus, whereas Mempo does not.
That combined with the fact that Inna's Radiance is cheaper and has more flexibility with enchantments (IE Access to Spirit Regeneration), I would say that Inna's Radiance is the better option for monks.
Madstone
Only Madstones with Crit Chance are worth considering.
Like with mempos, I would only recommend madstones with 6% CC.
You can't roll a socket with the Crit Chance, so Madstone is not viable for paragon leveling.
So when would you want to use a Madstone over an Inna's Radiance?
Madstone is capable of rolling All Resist, Spirit Regen, and Skill Bonus at the same time.
Inna's Radiance cannot do this.
But it loses out on up to 100 dex & vit, a socket, and a set bonus in exchange for this.
So the only time you will want a bonus is when you need spirit regen, skill bonus, and wouldn't mind some extra defense over an inna's radiance.
Natalya's Sight
The only reason you'd want to use a Natalya's Sight is for the set bonus.
But keep in mind that natalya's sight will generally have much less dex than a mempo or Inna's Radiance.
This combined with the fact that a Natalya's Sight won't have skill Bonus or IAS means this is not a helmet monks will need to consider.
Andariel's Visage
Andariel's Visage is like a poor man's Mempo of Twilight.
Overall a weaker helmet than a well rolled Inna's Radiance.
But a solid option for mid game poison resist monks
Archon Crowns and Star Crowns
In theory, a star crown can roll the same stats as an Inna's Radiance, but with less armor.
But the number of good enchantments that need to roll simultaneously for this to happen is extremely high, and you'll essentially never see a rare helmet ever roll good enough to be end game material.
And even if it did, it's still missing out on the set bonus
But I suppose keeping an open mind doesn't hurt.
===== Shoulders ===== Vile Ward
As the only legendary shoulder to roll i63 affixes, it's the only one worth noting.
Since vile ward rolls 170-200 dex with its single stat enchantment instead of up to 100, it can get up to 300 dex whereas rare shoulders cap at 200 max total dex.
This combined with its all resistance affix makes this the best shoulders in the game.
Since good enchantments are much more expensive on legendaries, you may consider picking up pickup radius or health from globe on your shoulders instead of on your rares to save yourself some money.
Archon Spaulders
So when would you actually want to use Archon Shoulders over Vile Wards in the end game?
The only reason I can think of is for stacking lots and lots of defensive enchantments.
===== Chest Armor ===== Tyrael's Might
Think of Tyrael's Might as a Glass Cannon chest piece with movement speed bonus.
Rare chests can only roll up to 200 dex. Tyrael's might comes with 170-200 by default.
And it has bonus vs demons and elites ontop of that.
However, you lose out on a lot of vitality.
Remember that rare chests can roll up to 300 total vitality.
If you are bent on getting a tyrael's might, remember that chest armor rolls with numerous useful enchantments that are not limited to 3 sockets.
a 200 vit enchantment, or a 100 Dex and 100 Vit enchantment is potentially better than 3 sockets.
Cindercoat
Cindercoat is notable for being able to roll up to 229 dex and 120 fire resistance.
Remember that rare chests only roll up to 200 dex.
While 120 fire resistance is nice, it's not actually an ideal use of an enchantment.
The cindercoat rolls 51-60 fire resist by default. Rolling over 60 costs an enchantment slot.
Instead the perfect cindercoat for a fire monk would have these stats:
60 Fire Resist
50 Resist All
5% Life
2908 Thorns
229 Dexterity
300 Vitality
3 Sockets
However, keep in mind that the cindercoat will still have less base armor than archon armor.
My point is that for fire monks, the cindercoat can rarely roll on par with BIS chest pieces.
Inna's Vast Expanse
Do you remember the list of most desirable enchantments for chest armor?
Inna's Vast Expanse doesn't actually roll many of them.
It has the 100 dex & vit enchantment as well as the 3 sockets enchantment.
But it uses 3 more affixes on life %, reduced damage from melee, and 100 Dexterity.
While none of these are horrible enchantments, rare chests can in fact roll better.
On the other hand, this limitation is offset by the set bonus.
The Vast Expanse is worth considering if you want high dexterity or the set bonus.
If not, get a BIS rare chest or a surcoat.
Blackthorne's Surcoat
Unlike Inna's Vast Expanse which wastes 3 affixes on sub par enchantments, the surcoat only wastes 1 on reduction from ranged damage.
So you're much less likely to see a rare chest with a better roll than a BIS surcoat, than you are with a rare chest and a BIS Vast Expanse.
So unlike Vast Expanse, the Surcoat is a solid standalone end game chest piece.
In the worst case scenario, it's not worse than a perfect rare chest by more than 1 affix.
And in that case, you can argue the set bonus compensates for that discrepancy.
Tal Rasha's Relentless Pursuit
I've seen a few monks use this for the IAS.
So it's decent if you want to exchange lots of defense for a tiny bit of DPS.
Tyrael's is better for that purpose, but I suppose tal rasha's is cheaper.
Archon Armor
So when do you want to use Archon Armor over other Legendaries?
Well you want Tyrael's or Tal Rasha's for glass Cannon Builds.
You'll want Inna's Expanse for the inna's set bonus.
And BIS Surcoat will end up rolling very similarly to BIS Archon Armor.
Which makes Archon Armor viable in the end game as a well rounded chest piece.
===== Bracers ===== Lacuni Prowlers
Lacuni's are glass cannon bracers.
Their unique combination of enchantments and the fact they have 3 random enchantment rolls means that getting one that actually boosts your DPS substantially will cost you a fortune.
In theory, lacuni's could roll 6% crit chance, 80 Resist All, 100 Dex, and 100 Vit.
Compared to a perfectly rolled razorspike, you're essentially exchanging something along the lines of 60 resistance, 100 dexterity, and 100 vitality for 9% IAS, 12% MS, and thorns.
But I've never seen lacuni prowlers that perfect, so it's not a realistic situation.
The only time I'd recommend lacunis is if you intend to capitalize on the extra movement speed somehow by getting blackthorne's jousting pants instead of Inna's Temperance or Ice Climbers without movement speed.
Strongarm Bracers
Notable for being the only bracers in the game that can roll 269 Dex.
Otherwise these bracers are not end game material.
Razorspikes
Lacunis are glass cannon bracers, Strongarm Bracers suck, so Razorspikes fill all the other remaining niches.
There are many ways a Razorspike can roll BIS.
But everybody will agree that you will always want the 4 following enchantments:
6% Crit Chance
80 Resist All
60 Resist Element
100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
Most monks will want their remaining 2 enchantment slots to roll 100 Dex & 100 Vit.
I'm personally not a fan of wasting a slot on 100 vitality.
I'd personally prefer the last 2 slots roll 100 Dex and 12794 Bonus to Globes.
But to each their own.
===== Gloves ===== Tasker And Theo
It's worth noting that Tasker and Theo can roll up to 350 Dex + a Socket.
But you won't be able to get any crit damage or crit chance if you do roll that much dex.
These gloves really aren't worth noting.
Sage's Gesture
These gloves are craftable, so they only roll i62 affixes.
They can roll decently, but rare gloves have better potential.
Archon Gauntlets
Rare Gauntlets are basically the only way to go for gloves.
I don't think anybody needed me to tell them that.
===== Belts ===== Witching Hour
A popular choice for glass cannon monks.
But in reality, only 1 affix slot is wasted (90-100 Dexterity)
And it's easily argued that this is an extremely small price to pay for IAS and Crit Damage.
If rolled perfectly, a witching hour is by far the best belt in the game, no contest at all.
Even if it doesn't roll perfectly, sword and board monks will want it for the crit damage.
And 2H monks will want it for the IAS.
But since the witching hour has 3 random slots and is in high demand, getting a perfectly rolled witching hour is almost completely out of reach, even for the richest players.
Hellcat Waistguard
Worth noting that the hellcat is able to roll up to 249 Dex.
It's not a horrible belt, not great either.
It's designed for bonus vs elites and high dex, but blackthorne's notched belt fills that roll more adequately than the Hellcat Waistguard.
Inna's Favor
You can think of Inna's Favor as a Poor Man's Witching Hour.
It can compete with a poorly rolled witching hour, but not a BIS one.
Other than that it's useful for completing the Inna's Set Bonus.
Otherwise, it's just another glass cannon legendary that sacrifices tons of defense.
And not a particularly good one at that.
Blackthorne's Notched Belt
It's worth noting that Blackthorne's Notched Belt is able to roll up to 300 Dex.
The belt has 3 sub optimal affixes, but it gains access to the 170-200 dex affix which is usually reserved for gloves and boots.
The 100 vit and bonus vs elites from the set bonus are actually extremely good for ubers.
In the case of ubers, 3-4 set Blackthornes is BIS, even over witching hour IMO.
Overall Blackthorne's is straddling a Fence.
It's slightly better DPS than rare belts, but not much better.
It's also slightly worse defense than rare belts, but not much worse.
High Scabbard
Of the 4 legendaries listed above, all of them are offensively oriented.
Meaning that if you intend to use a rare belt in the end game, it's going to be because you want either a well rounded belt or a defensively oriented one.
===== Pants ===== Depth Diggers
2 affixes are wasted on magic and gold find.
In exchange however, you gain access to the 170-200 Dex affix that is usually reserved for gloves and boots.
Thus these pants are able to roll up to 300 Dexterity.
While they aren't horrible compared to rare pants, Inna's Temperance and Blackthorne's Jousting Pants are simply so much better than rare pants that Depth Diggers aren't worth considering as a result.
Inna's Temperance
Glass Cannon pants, and damn good ones at that.
I think the community understands the roll of Inna's Temperance, so i won't elaborate.
There are many ways good ways for Inna's Temperance to roll it's only random enchantment.
The best option for sustain is obviously 80 resistance.
397 Bonus armor is also good for sustain if you are running a no STI high resist build.
200 Vitality is another option for defense, but it won't improve your sustain.
Finally, 100 Dex & 100 Vit is best for offense, but is also well rounded.
Blackthorne's Jousting Pants
Since Blackthorne's comes with a quadruple attribute roll, it can actually roll up to 400 vitality and 200 dexterity at the same time OR 300 dexterity and 200 Vitality at the same time.
These pants are by far the best tank pants in the game, and there are many good ways for it to roll.
Here are the best enchantments to look out for:
80 Resist All
100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
200 Vitality
If there aren't available or are too expensive, you may consider the following:
60 Resist Element
2 Sockets
397 Bonus Armor
Notice how I put 2 sockets as an alternative option.
The best Blackthorne's Jousting Pants will never roll sockets.
Archon Faulds
Completely outclassed by Blackthorne's and Inna's Temperance
Only consider them for early to early mid game monks, and only if it's cost effective.
===== Boots ===== Ice Climbers
Ice Climbers roll 8 Affixes.
eight EIGHT
Did that sink in yet?
6 Affix rare boots have got nothing on that.
Ice Climbers are BIS if you want a well rounded boot or a tanky one.
The only reason they have any competition is the 7% CC bonus on Natalya's Set.
Firewalkers
These actually cap at 269 Dex instead of 300 like most boots
Even the best firewalkers will only be as good as mediocre rare boots.
Nevermind ice climbers or natalya's.
PS: The molten enchantment lets you break wooden doors by walking through them. Cool?
Zunimassa's Trail
Notable for the added elemental damage.
Legacy Zunimassa's come with IAS and slightly lower elemental damage.
They are notable for being glass cannon boots for monks.
But ultimately they are outclassed by the Natalya's Set when it comes to offense.
Natalya's Bloody Footprints
The base enchantments on Natalya's are fairly good, but not godly.
You would only use these boots for the 7% crit chance from the 2 piece set bonus.
The DPS from 7% crit chance is so huge, most people consider these boots to be BIS over ice climbers, with their whopping 8 affixes.
===== Amulets ===== Xephirian Amulet
This amulet comes with spirit regen, that alone makes it a must have amulet for tempest rush builds.
Ouroboros
This used to be a fairly good amulet, but now that rare amulets all roll i63 affixes, it's outdated.
Traveler's Pledge
Actually a pretty good amulet for followers because of the magic find and Life %
That's all there is to it though.
Blackthorne's Duncraig Cross
The amulet itself has decent rolls. Not great, but decent.
The LoH is less than optimal, life % is not a great affix, and an affix slot is wasted on bleed.
But since amulets with more than 3 good enchantments are hard to find and expensive anyways, and because of the set bonus, you can make the argument that the duncraig cross is BIS.
Rare Amulets
There aren't any truly amazing rare amulets in the game.
Duncraig cross is good, but in theory a perfect 6 affix amulet is much better.
So rare amulets are essentially the only end game amulets.
===== Rings ===== Hellfire Ring
The hellfire ball spawns behind your fist, so it usually passes through the target you punch.
And the bonus experience is useless at 100 paragon.
Ignoring those 2 enchantments, Hellfire ring only has 5 affixes.
One of them happens to be a 170-200 dex affix that usually isn't available on rare rings.
But at the end of the day, a rare ring can roll better in theory, than a hellfire ring.
The only reason you would want a hellfire ring is for the bonus xp.
Unity
The crit chance, LoH, and physical damage rolls are not as high as they could be.
Bonus vs elites is not optimal.
And the dex roll is slightly higher than what you'd see on a normal ring.
But the combination of these enchantments make unity popular.
Even though technically a rare ring could roll substantially higher, with the exception of the dexterity affix.
Stone of Jordan
IMO this is the best ring for farming.
Spirit regen is priceless for mobility and killing quickly.
Bonus vs elites is BIS for ubers.
added elemental damage and the ability to roll skill bonuses is good too.
You will want FoT or Sweeping wind for your general purpose ring.
Critical Hit Chance for Tempest Rush is must have for tempest rush farming builds.
Keep in mind that elemental skills such as thunderclap and sweeping wind/cyclone override the element of the added elemental damage.
Even if you get a cold damage SoJ, you will not cold debuff enemies with thunderclap.
But if you use deadly reach instead, you will since it's a non-elemental skill.
Oculus Ring
High dexterity roll, magic find, and resist all make this a great follower ring.
Skull Grasp
Legacy Skull Grasps are inferior versions of unity
Modern skull grasps aren't very good, but can be used to in weird builds like ones where you try to reduce the cost of lashing tail kick as much as possible.
Wailing Host
Basically a Unity Ring without average damage or LoH, and an extra random affix and set bonus.
All in all, worse than Unity.
Litany of the Undaunted
A more defensive version of Unity/Wailing Host, but still not as good as unity.
The set bonus isn't terribly useful either.
Natalya's Reflection
Solid base enchantments and more importantly the 7% crit chance set bonus makes this BIS.
But you will want one with crit chance on it already, otherwise a rare ring will be comparable.
Rare Ring
IMO the best setup for farming and elites is Natalya's Reflection and a SoJ.
Either way a reflection is generally essential to an end game build.
The SoJ is much more optional.
In which case, if you're not going for a SoJ, rare rings are end game
===== Weapons ===== Most Legendary Weapons have 7 affixes.
But since few legendary weapons have 7 perfect affixes, rare weapons still compete.
Won Khim Lau
Its base damage affixes are all i62, which is suboptimal, especially for shield monks
25% lightning skills damage is worth ~137% Crit Damage for a typical DW monk.
Due to the low base damage, this is a poor weapon for sword and board.
Since it can roll crit damage and a socket ontop of lightning skills, it lets you get higher DPS than any rare weapon could. But only if you're willing to sacrifice lifesteal.
A perfectly rolled rare weapon can compete with a WKL in the end game. But end game WKL's are easier to find on the auction house.
Low base damage means it synergizes particularly well with average damage jewelry.
Echoing Fury
Its base damage affixes are all i62, which is suboptimal
Fear is very suboptimal for farming on higher MP's
This is a BIS weapon for hunting ubers.
Since it can roll crit damage and a socket ontop of +APS, it lets you get higher DPS than any rare weapon could, but only if you're willing to sacrifice lifesteal.
A perfectly rolled rare weapon can compete with EF in the end game, but end game EF's are easier to find on the auction house.
Skorn
Technically a rare 2H axe can roll just like a skorn except for the bleed chance.
But since nobody loots 2h weapons, you'll pretty much never see a rare weapon that good.
This makes skorn the only viable option for 2H Builds.
Lifesteal is by far the best roll for the only random enchantment slot.
But IAS and more dexterity are also an option if you want marginally better DPS.
Butcher's Sickle
The ancient spear effect has a cooldown, so the chance of proc isn't an important roll.
The base enchantments and damage are i60, which is really bad.
Rare axes can roll better at a nontrivial rate.
But it's still an okay option for mid game monks.
Fist of Az'Turrasq
High base damage makes this an okay sword and board weapon.
But you're forced to pick between LS, socket, or crit damage.
Which is a fatal flaw, and prevents this weapon from being end game material IMO.
Crystal Fist
Ignore durability loss is a useless affix.
And 200 dex/vit is a suboptimal roll on a weapon.
Shenlong's Set
Unlike other legendary weapons, shenlongs only have 6 enchantments.
And the ones on the shenlongs while decent lack what I'm going to call the weapon trifecta:
which is crit damage, socket, and lifesteal.
The set bonus simply doesn't compensate for that loss.
So not end game.
Rare Weapons
Skorn dominates the 2H early, mid, AND end game, so I'm not going to talk about 2h's.
Echoing Fury and WKL can roll higher DPS than rare weapons.
But in theory, a perfectly rolled rare weapon can be on par with an LS/Socket EF/WKL.
The chance of seeing such a perfectly rolled rare weapon on the AH however, is small.
Abstract
The primary goal of this thread is to encourage more styles of gameplay.
The problem with sweeping wind/cyclone is that there is only one way to play with it.
You need high proc rate and critical hits, so the only way to play is to punch nonstop with thunderclap.
Wave of light looks like a useful spell on paper, it does 2-3x the DPS of thunderclap afterall.
But since it has a low proc rate, you pay an opportunity cost of cyclones each time you cast it.
So you don't actually boost your DPS when you cast this spell because of how cyclone works.
You can't kite either, because then you lose out on cyclone DPS as well.
It's a very static, boring way to play, that forces you to facetank every enemy attack.
To solve this issue, I will propose 2 sets of changes.
- Improved Sweeping Wind runes that encourage funner, more active gameplay
- And improved monk mobility on spirit generators
Sweeping Wind Rune Changes
Quick Comment on Cyclone Rune Balance
This really goes without saying, but cyclone doesn't really need a buff.
Blizzard last stated that monks are in a nice place in terms of DPS.
This is due in large part to sweeping wind cyclone bringing monks on par with barbarians.
But that was before the advent of the weapon throw barbarian.
Now, monks once again feel a bit behind barbarians in terms of DPS
So in that sense, a small buff to cyclone rune would not hurt balance at all IMO.
But there's plenty of other ways to bring monks up to par with barbarians.
So for the moment, let us assume no buff to cyclone rune.
Balance Objectives
- Make all runes comparable viable to Cyclone.
- Attempt to create runes that encourage active and tactical gameplay.
- Avoid making more runes crit chance based like cyclone. (For the sake of diversity)
How Powerful is Sweeping Wind Cyclone right now?
To know how powerful we need to make the new runes.
We need to know how powerful sweeping wind cyclone is on end game monks.
So we're going to do a quick Calculation:
Lets assume a single target scenario.
And lets assume a dual wield monk with 50% crit chance and 2.00 attack speed.
The wind stacks deal 45% of your inventory DPS
Cyclones deal 20% weapon damage per shock, a total of 6 shocks for 120% weapon damage.
With thunderclap, you have a proc rate of: 3.75
Meaning 1.875 cyclones per second in a single target scenario.
The cyclones are responsible for up to 120%*1.875 weapon damage per second. Or 225%
225% weapon damage at 2.00 AS is 112.5% Inventory DPS per second.
Sweeping Wind/Cyclone deals approximately 157.5% Inventory DPS unbuffed
Inner Storm
- For every 10 spirit spent, produce a storm.
I'm going to call it a storm to avoid confusion with the name of the cyclone rune.
Each storm shocks for 10% weapon damage every 0.6 seconds, a total of 6 times.
Technical Details:
If the amount of spirit spent by a given spell is not divisible by 10, use RNG. For Example:
You use 25 spirit with dashing strike. You produce 2 storms and have a 50% chance of a 3rd.
Cyclones/Storms were chosen as a mechanic over say, producing ground based DoT's or backlashes.
This was because spirit spenders generally involve knockback or motion.
You don't want to cast LTK or WoL only to realize the enemy is no longer in range if your SW.
Cyclones/Storms have large range, so they synergize best with spirit spending.
PS: Yes we're keeping the 45% wind stack and 3% spirit/second. No Nerfs!
How much DPS is this?
If you use Fists of Thunder/Quickening, 50 spirit per second is achieveable at 2.00 AS
You will create 5 storms per second.
Each cyclone will do 15%*6 = 90% weapon damage
This is a total of 495% weapon DPS including 45% stack, or 247.5% inventory DPS
about 1.57more than the single target DPS of cyclone.
The down side is that Inner Storm will not scale with AoE.
Once you start fighting 3 enemies with thunderclap, Inner storm is on par with Cyclone.
Quickening also does not do as much DPS as thunderclap, and lacks a teleport.
(Granted I think all FoT runes should have a teleport, but we'll talk about that in another section)
The up side is this rune synergizes with spirit spenders.
Wave of light and Lashing tail kick have very low proc rates, so they create very few cyclones.
They will not suffer this problem with the alternative Inner Storm rune.
Why is this good or interesting?
Well we've essentially created a rune based on an entire different mechanic than cyclone rune.
That is, this is spirit based instead of directly crit chance and proc chance based.
Cyclone rune also had the fundamental flaw that it inhibited DPS spirit spenders.
Every time you cast WoL, you have to pay an opportunity cost of cyclones you could have made.
And this mechanic made spells such as WoL and LTK non-viable.
Inner storm will not have this issue, and will create an entirely new and diverse branch of monk builds.
And we won't even need to buff other skills to achieve that goal.
Fire Storm
- Every time you strike an enemy, erupt the ground in a 7 yard radius of the target
Each eruption lasts for 3 seconds, and will not stack with itself.
Enemies standing inside the eruption radius take 100% weapon damage per second.
This weapon damage does NOT scale up with attack speed.
I wanted to create a rune that would make 2 handers viable.
This is it.
Even if you use a skorn with 1.0 attack speed and no IAS:
This rune does 145% Single Target DPS including stack, a bit less than Cyclone Rune.
However, it scales much better with AoE than Cyclone Rune.
Why is this good or interesting?
Unlike Cyclone or the previously proposed Inner Storm, Fire Storm does not require constant combat.
Cyclone requires you to keep punching for crits, inner storm requires punching for spirit.
The proposed Fire Storm changes only requires you to punch at least once every 3 seconds.
The result is mobility and survivability. Monks can now kite substantially while maintaining their DPS.
Likewise they can cast spells without incurring an opportunity cost of cyclones.
These numerous advantages offset the otherwise lackluster single target DPS, and need for low AS.
Blade Storm
- Each time you bump into an enemy, deal damage in AoE around you, similar to backlash.
There is a limit on the number of backlashes per second based on attack speed.
Technical Details:
Each backlash deals [45% weapon damage * AS] to all enemies in 10 yards.
IE a build with 100k DPS/2.00 AS deals the same damage per backlash as 100k DPS/1.00 AS
After each backlash, a CD of [0.5 sec / AS] must pass before another backlash can proc.
Why is this good or interesting?
Lets tally what we have suggested right now:
Inner storm deals single target DPS as DoT, and favors high spirit generation.
Fire storm deals AoE DPS as DoT, and favors slow attack speed
Cyclone is mostly single target DPS when using thunderclap, and it favors high crit chance.
So when I tackled Bladestorm, I tried to aim for greater variety.
As we can see above, every other rune so far is a DoT, so we want an instant damage rune.
We also see that an extra AoE DPS rune would not hurt either.
Finally, a tweaked the mechanics to favor high attack speed to balance out Firestorm.
Applying a backlash fit both these conditions, and IMO fits the style and idea of a bladestorm.
The backlash procs when you bump into an enemy, so it's perfect for many positioning skills.
IE tempest rush, cyclone strike, dashing strike.
It also would synergize well with spirit generators if they were given more mobility.
Master of the Wind
- I had a hard time thinking up a new rune for Master of the Wind.
Because I feel like with the previous suggestions, everything in regards to DPS is covered.
Firestorm favors slow attack speed.
Bladestorm is the only instant damage sweeping wind (IE no DoT) and favors high attack speed.
We have 2 runes that favor single target (Inner Storm and cyclone)
and 2 runes that favor AoE DPS (Fire Storm and Blade Storm
We have a wide variety of proc mechanics ontop of simple crit chance.
We already have 4 DPS focused sweeping winds, we need something different: A Defensive/Support Sweeping Wind.
This rune will also be a play on inverse ninja law, since monks are basically bearded ninjas. http://en.wikipedia....verse_Ninja_Law
- Extend the radius to 24 yards and change the element to cold damage.
- At max stacks, the player and friendlies within 24 yards gain 10% MS & AS
- Players and Allies in 24 yards gain an additional 1% MS & AS times the number of enemies in the stack. Capped at 15.
- Slows movement of projectiles within 24 yards.
When I play in teams, I have a hard time keeping the team inside my overawe radius.
I wanted something to make it obvious to my teammates that we should do together.
It's hard for teammates to notice that they're benefiting from overawe.
But everybody notices when they're moving and attacking faster, and most people love it.
Scaling the magnitude with the number of enemies inside the radius encourages CC.
And slowing enemy projectiles is to help make kiting slightly more viable.
[b]Spirit Generator Mobility Changes[/b]
Fist of Thunder
This is a fairly obvious suggestion, that you'll see in a million suggestion threads.
It's simple, obvious, and most importantly it works.
Deadly Reach
Allow players to move while casting Deadly Reach
Deadly Reach will auto attack the nearest enemy (Similar to Strafe in D2)
Vault 7 yards on double click, 3 second cooldown
The issue with Deadly Reach right now is you need to line up enemies to maximize DPS.
Imagine hellions lining up SCV's in starcraft 2.
But deadly reach is completely stationary, so your proverbial hellion gets swarmed by proverbial zerglings, and you can't actually use your AoE effectively.
By allowing players to kite with deadly reach, we make deadly reach funner, more mobile, and better DPS.
The mobility makes it easier to survive, so you don't need extra proc rate for sustain.
And since you don't need the proc rate for sweeping wind cyclone rune either, this change greatly balances Deadly Reach with thunderclap without even needing to tweak the DPS/Proc rate numbers.
That's not to say some further tweaking won't be necessary, but it solves most of the balancing problems in an elegant fashion.
Crippling Wave
The jist of the suggestion is to make Crippling Wave more like Whirlwind
Allow players to move while casting Crippling Wave
Allow players to pass through enemies while casting Crippling Wave (like Whirlwind)
Blink 7 yards on double click, 3 second cooldown
Similar to Deadly Reach, the issue with Crippling Wave is its mobility.
You want to be in the center of a pack of enemies, but you're simply too stationary.
Like with the deadly reach fix, extra mobility will inevitably boost your DPS output.
The mobility will also improve your survivability, lowering the need for proc rate.
Way of the Hundred Fists
Every now and then, you get a guy who says he likes stationary spirit generators.
So I think we should leave Way of the Hundred Fists as a stationary skill for those people.
But, hundred fists would be very under powered if we just left it as it is right now.
So I'm going to propose only 1 change to hundred fists.
When I think of hundred fists, I think of brute power.
Like you want to shower your enemy with blows until they shatter to bits.
So we'll add a quick change that reflects this mentality
Ram into your enemies for boosted AoE and Damage on double click. 3 second cooldown
Welcome to the first ever Monk Suggestion Journal.
Druin & I wanted a way to encourage and archive good suggestion threads.
Our solution for this was an academic styled suggestion journal.
All articles are written independently with review and feedback from myself and Druin.
Opinions in some threads may or may not contradict those found in others.
We will review your suggestion based on the following criteria:
- Must contain and abstract
- Must be well written. (Good formatting, spelling, grammar)
- Should make the game more fun.
- Game mechanics must be correct.
- Should be balanced relative to other monk skills.
- Should be balanced relative to other classes.
- Should be elegant or thorough. (Avoid giant lists of number tweaks without supporting math)
- Should encourage more active, mobile monk gameplay.
There seems to be a bit of confusion around this topic, has anyone done some extensive tests when it comes to SoJ and uber bosses? are they affected by the 20-30% damage boost?
well i never tested it on ubers specifically.
but it works on uniques and bosses like azmodan, so I'd assume it'd work just fine on ubers.
first is that cold SoJs do not chill or slow while using thunderclap or cyclone.
both are lightning skills, and as such override all elemental damage into lightning.
this is easy to test, get a cold soj or even a cheapo frostburn.
punch some mobs with cyclone thunderclap, there will be no chill or slow effect.
try again with a skill that has no element such as deadly reach and you will see the cold debuff
this data may the wind stack on cyclone is indeed lightning and thus does not apply effects from cold damage.
the other explanation is that cold damage is applied on proc, in which csse the wind stack may be physical.
either way, cold soj are not useful with elemental skills such as thunderclap and cyclone
Perhaps a lesson in statistics is necessary for those of you that don't think prices will drop drastically?
Before you give a lesson in statistics, check your understanding of the numbers. Pretty sure rings will go from current 4.5 max to 6.0 max on crit. It's amulets that are going from 8.5 to 10. It's not as big a jump as you are stating and thus not as big a decrease in price either.
but you also have to consider that all jewelry will be rolling i63 enchants now.
whereas previously maybe only 25% of all jewelry dropped was i62
and the rest was i61 or lower.
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Planning to buy a pair of BIS dual wield weapons when 1.06 is announced.
12% life & 1200 vit -> 1344 vit
that's only 44 more vit than +1300 vit, or 3.3%
Generally speaking a player will already have some life %, and most monks i know have 900-1000 vit, not 1200.
In which case linear scaling will favor 100 vitality
I would never sacrifice the majority of my AoE dps just for 50% armor.
elemental damage bonus caps at 316-725
I'm not sure what the best for physical damage is, but for fist weapons, it's at least:
337 min damage
429 max damage
Which i'm fairly certain means 337-766, contrary to physical damage on rings works.
to make sure i wasnt making any errors, i took a look at the highest dps element and nonelement fist weapons on the AH.
i saw a 1180.4 poison DPS one, with 11% IAS, so 1063 DPS no IAS.
then there was a 1392.9 physical fist with 10% IAS, so 1266 DPS no IAS
a delta of about 20%, which makes sense since both fists rolled 50% damage bonus.
and the elemental one would only have that bonus applied to its physical component
this would imply that 337 min and 429 max damage translates to 337-766 physical damage bonus.
which is indeed more than the elemental damage bonus prior to even applying the 50%
For what it's worth I personally use a cyclone strike/dashing strike combo. No tempest rush.
The alternative you're proposing is 150 dex and 150 vit in place of 2.50 spirit regen.
Which is understandable, but I'm still going to go with no.
Personal experience tells me that spirit regen is far more important for farming.
a well placed cyclone strike means i can kill a pack of enemies in 3 punches total instead of 1-2 each.
I'm also of the opinion that spirit regen will be important in PVP where ranged players will have methods of denying your spirit production.
That's odd, I recall testing elemental damage in PTR and it worked just fine even when i had elemental weapons equipped.
i guess the only fix was to make it affect both min and max physical damage now, instead of just min.
yes, because IMO paragon xp is a a decent way to measure farming rate now that legendaries ping.
laazy
inna's radiance can roll 80 resist all, just like a mempo.
Inna's Radiance if rolled perfectly can have the following stats:
200 Dexterity
100 Vitality
80 Resist All
14% FoT/Sweeping Wind
6% Crit Chance
Socket
if a mempo rolls perfectly, it can have the following stats:
200 Dexterity
12% Life
9% IAS
80 Resist
6% Crit Chance
Socket
Since 100 Vit > 12% Life and 14% skill bonus > 9% IAS in terms of DPS (although it's marginally less spirit generation)
that combined with the fact that the mempo does not offer a set bonus.
and you realize that a perfectly rolled inna's radiance is superior to a perfectly rolled mempo.
the only difference is perfectly rolled inna's radiance are much rarer to find on the AH.
elemental damage from things like SoJ, Inna's Belt, etc, was patched in 1.05 to affect all forms of damage, not just physical.
5 spirit gen might not sound like much on paper, especially if all you intend to do with it is use it on mantras or what not.
But in practice, the spirit gen if fed properly into utility skills like dashing strike, cyclone strike, and or tempest rush, can mean the difference between paragon leveling at 50m xp/hr or 85m xp/hr.
700 dex and 300 vit affords you to go a higher MP without noticing too much of a loss.
which is marginally useful at best in terms of farming.
either way, 700 dex and 300 vit is very very little for a whopping 4 weapon affix slots.
the 200 dex affix is only worth overall 8% DPS
the 150 dex/vit affix isn't much better.
50% damage on one weapon is worth about 25% overall dps on a dual wield setup
100% crit damage is worth about 20% overall dps on a dual wield setup
lifesteal is priceless
socket is another 100% crit damage
And elemental/min/max damage accounts for at least half of your weapon's DPS.
compared to this, 150 dex/150 vit, or 200 dex for 1 affix is completely trivial.
also fixed a concatenation error at the top of the legendary section.
accidentally copied some of my heroscore calculator into the guide.
whoops
edit: done
but maybe eventually I'll leave a more in depth version.
The issue with weapons is that people want sockets, crit damage, lifesteal, and high base DPS.
and getting all of that already consumes 5 out of your 6 affix slots:
+elemental Damage
+50% Damage
3.00% Lifesteal
100% Crit Damage
Socket
so it's only the 6th slot that's up for debate.
And that's a trivial debate since the odds of finding a weapon with 6 amazing affixes is already slim to none.
IMO if I could have any affix I wanted for a 6th affix:
I'd pick 2.50 Spirit Regeneration or 959 Life on Hit.
if you want more DPS, the only real options are:
150 Dex & 150 Vit
200 Dex
or 11% IAS
all of which are fairly trivial bonuses.
it's still pretty shoddy compared to lifesteal or loh.
it just doesnt apply debuff if it is cold damage
Well it depends a little from monk to monk.
But most monks will find the following legendaries to be BIS:
Nat Ring + Boots
Innas Helm + Pants
Stone of Jordan/Hellfire Ring
Vile Ward
I wouldn't say blackthorne's is inherently BIS.
because a bad blackthorne's roll is REALLY REALLY bad.
and blackthornes basically needs to roll all of its random enchantments perfectly to be a viable end game item.
whereas if a nat ring rolls a single good stat, like high physical damage, or high crit chance, it's automatically end game material.
similar logic applies to a witching hour, you need a fairly specific roll with the 3 random enchantments for it to be godly.
But boy when a witching hour is godly, it's reaaally godly.
What I'm about to post is common knowledge to seasoned monks.
The idea is that when you reach the end game, it becomes less a matter of cost effectiveness and more a matter of which specific combination of affixes is ideal, and knowing when to use what legendary, or what rares.
Hopefully end gamers will find the following list a nice database of max affixes and mid tier gamers will find some useful information in here anyways.
Only doing armor for now.
==========Table of Contents==========
1) List of Affixes, and when they are good or better.
2) List of Maximum Affixes by slot.
3) Legendaries & Rares, When To Use What
1) List of Affixes, and when they are good or better.
Up to 397 bonus armor is available on shields, chests, pants, and helmets.
Up to 265 bonus armor is available on every other remaining armor slot.
Up to 80 Resist All is available on all armor slots.
Up to 60 Resist Element is available on all armor slots.
Fire resistance is notable for giving players access to cindercoat and fire walkers.
Both are nice items for mid tier monks
End game monks may regret picking fire resist due to the cost.
Both physical and fire resistance are nice if you share gear with a Demon Hunter.
Poison resistance is nice for Andariel's Visage.
If you don't intend to ever use any of those legendaries listed above, I recommend getting lightning, arcane, or cold resistance.
Critical Hit Chance
Up to 10% Crit Chance is available on Amulets and Gloves
Up to 6% Crit Chance is available on Helmets, Rings, and Bracers
For thunderclap/cyclone builds, crit chance is slightly better than your paper doll indicates.
Because it both increases the damage per cyclone as well as the number of cyclones.
Maxed crit chance is generally essential to any end game monk build.
Crit Damage
Up to 100% Crit Damage is available on Weapons and Amulets
Up to 50% Crit Damage is available on Gloves and Rings
The value of crit damage varies greatly depending on your setup.
Sword and board monks tend to have exceptionally low crit damage so crit damage becomes essential on gloves and jewelry.
If you're a dual wield or skorn monk, you'll generally value 5-6% crit damage at 1% DPS.
I would only recommend getting crit damage on jewelry or gloves if it's cost effective.
Increased Attack Speed (Armor)
Up to 9% IAS is available on Gloves, Rings and Amulets
IAS has linear scaling.
IE if I have 36% IAS already, an additional 9% ias will only give me 6.6% DPS
Always remember that IAS also boosts spirit generation.
Weigh whether or not you think you have enough spirit generation when looking into more IAS.
Increased Attack Speed (Weapon)
Up to 11% IAS is available on weapons
Up to 20% IAS is available on balanced white weapons.
Weapon IAS works differently from Armor IAS.
It does not suffer from the linear scaling of Armor IAS.
But it only affects one weapon when dual wielding.
Additionally, weapon IAS is already factored into a weapon's DPS number.
But there are many more valuable enchantments on weapons than IAS.
So Weapon IAS is generally considered a waste of an affix slot.
Added Elemental Damage
Only Available on Legendaries
Only affects physical DPS, not elemental weapons.
This damage is factored into you inventory DPS number.
Added cold damage can slow/chill enemies you attack.
However, elemental skills such as Thunderclap and Sweeping Wind/Cyclone override the element of added elemental damage enchantments.
Added Cold Damage armor and jewelry will still boost your DPS, but will not apply cold debuff when using Thunderclap or Sweeping Wind/Cyclone.
But cold damage will apply cold debuff if you use a non-elemental skill such as deadly reach.
Elemental Skill Bonus
The most notable elemental skill bonus is added lightning damage on Won Khim Lau.
With the thunderclap/cyclone build, it can be thought of as a boost to your overall DPS.
Bonus to Skills
Up to 14% Fist of Thunder and Sweeping Wind available on helmets.
For the typical thunderclap/cyclone build, FoT and SW are both about half of your DPS.
Naturally FoT is slightly better for single targets, and sweeping wind for AoE.
I generally prefer sweeping wind because I feel thunderclap/cyclone lacks AoE DPS.
But you can value both 14% FoT and 14% SW bonus at about 7% bonus damage.
Added Physical Damage (Jewelry)
Up to 36-108 Physical Damage is available on Rings and Amulets
Up to 36 Minimum Physical Damage is available on Rings and Amulets
Up to 35 Maximum Physical Damage is available on Rings and Amulets
The 3 affixes listed above are independent, and each consume a random enchantment.
If a ring rolls both combined physical damage along with min/max physical damage, the min/max physical damage affixes will not be displayed.
36-108 physical damage is 72 average damage. Double Physical is what you want to look for.
36 min physical damage is 18 average damage. (AH is wrong on this one, so be careful)
35 max physical damage is 17.5 average damage
Dual wield monks will find that 1 average damage is about equal to 1% crit damage.
2H monks will not find average physical damage enchantments worthwhile
Sword & board monks will generally value crit damage over average damage, but it's still good.
Dexterity & Vitality
Up to 150 Dex & Vit roll in an enchantment on Amulets, Weapons, and Shields
Up to 100 Dex & Vit roll in an enchantment on all other items
Up to 200 Dex roll in an enchantment on Amulets, Weapons, Gloves, Boots, and Shields
Up to 100 Dex can roll in an enchantment on all other items
Up to 200 Vit can roll in an enchantment on Amulets, Weapons, Chests, Pants, and Shields
Up to 100 Vit can roll in an enchantment on all other items
Any time you can get 200 total dex/vit for only 1 enchantment slot, it's very good.
This is one of the best and must have enchantments on armor.
It's also very good on weapons and jewelry, but not a must have.
Rolling only 100 total dex/vit for a single enchantment slot is not a great deal, and should only be considered if there are no other significant enchantments available.
Resistances and Armor
Up to 80 Resist All rolls in an enchantment on any armor
Up to 60 Resist All rolls in an enchantment on any armor
Up to 397 Bonus Armor rolls in an enchantment on Helms, Chests, Pants, and Shields
Up to 265 Bonus Armor rolls in an enchantment on all other armor and jewelry
Resistances and armor scale linearly with EHP.
Resistance scales with an offset of 315, armor scales with an offset of 3150 on MP1+
So if you have 700 resistance, your EHP is proportional to 700+315 = 1015.
If you have 200 resistance, your EHP is proportional to 200+315 = 515.
So 700 resistance is about double the EHP of 200 resistance.
Same idea goes for 7000 armor and 2000 armor.
Life per Spirit Spent, Health from Globe, Life Regen
Up to 63.9 Life per Spirit Spent rolls in an enchantment on Weapons and Helmets
Up to 599 Life Regen rolls in an enchantment on Chests and Amulets
Up to 342 Life Regen rolls in an enchantment on any other armor slot
Up to 12794 Life from Globes/Potions rolls in an enchantment on any armor slot
Life per Spirit Spent is by far the most powerful passive healing enchantment.
It's typical for a dual wield monk to generate 15-20 spirit per second.
That's equivalent to 1000-1250 life per second.
Unfortunately, since it's only available on helmets and weapons, it's not commonly used.
12794 Life from Globes/Potions is worth over 425 life per second, just from potions alone.
You can generally assume a 10k+ life from globe enchantment is better than life regen.
There are 2 types of health globes, small ones heal 15% of your life, big ones heal 35%.
Life regen is not an enchantment I would recommend considering except on chest armor.
Lifesteal, Life on Hit, Life on Kill
Up to 3.00% Lifesteal rolls in an enchantment on Weapons
Up to 959 Life on Hit rolls in an enchantment on Weapons and Amulets
Up to 479 Life on Hit rolls in an enchantment on Rings
Up to 2878 Life on Kill rolls in an enchantment on Weapons and Amulets
Up to 1439 Life on Kill rolls in an enchantment on Rings
A lot of monks ask questions like "at what DPS is lifesteal better than LoH"
And the answer just isn't simple. It depends on your attack speed, crit chance, & other stuff.
I recommend you build your own calculator, or use this one:
https://docs.google....FJS2Y0Z3c#gid=0
I will always prefer lifesteal because it scales better with the end game and because it continues to heals me when I'm CC'd by effects like knockback, fear, freeze, etc. thanks to stray cyclones.
Life on kill is very underrated, and is the best option for tempest rush farming builds.
Spirit Regeneration
Up to 2.50 rolls on Weapons and Spirit Stones.
I personally think this is a must have enchantment for farming.
It is the best way to feed utility skills such as cyclone strike and tempest rush.
The alternative to spirit regen would be to get more DPS, but that doesn't have great returns.
You can get a lot of DPS, and crank up the MP, but you don't really farm that much faster because enemies just gain so much health.
Spirit regen on the other hand, allows you to farm lower MP's much much more efficiently.
Even with ridiculous DPS, you will be hard pressed to farm over 50m paragon xp/hr.
But a good tempest rush setup on Act 3 MP0 will net you over 80m paragon xp/hr.
Reduction vs Elites, Ranged, and Melee
Up to 7% Reduction vs Elites rolls in an enchantment on Chests
Up to 6% Reduction vs Ranged rolls in an enchantment on Chests, Amulets, and Bracers.
Up to 6% Reduction vs Melee rolls in an enchantment on Chests, Amulets, and Bracers.
Keep in mind that for a typical monk with 700 total resistance, 60 resistance is worth about 6% reduction from all damage.
So you can value 6-7% reduction at 30-40 resistance.
Life %
Up to 16% Life rolls in an enchantment on Amulets and Shields
Up to 12% Life rolls in an enchantment on Shoulders, Belts, Helms and Chests
Life % has linear scaling, so its usefulness changes a lot depending on how much you have.
It's a nice enchantment to round out item slots without many other useful enchantments.
Namely if you're going after rare shoulders or belts
Magic Find & Gold Find
Up to 45% Magic Find rolls on Amulets
Up to 20% Magic Find rolls on any other armor slot
Up to 50% Gold Find rolls on Amulets
Up to 25% Gold Find rolls on any other armor slot
I personally don't consider these enchantments.
But you can generally assume that magic find boosts your income rate almost linearly.
So if you already have 450% MF, I would value an extra 45% MF at slightly less than a 10% boost to your farming income rate.
2) List of Maximum Affixes by slot.
- 6% Crit Chance
- 14% Sweeping Wind/Fist of Thunder
- 5 Cyclone Strike Cost Reduction
- 100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
- 100 Dexterity
- 100 Vitality
- 1 Helmet Socket
- 80 Resist All
- 60 Resist Element
- 397 Bonus Armor
- 12% Life
- 63.9 Life Per Spirit Spent
- 2.50 Spirit Regeneration
- 12794 Health from Globes and Potions
- 392 Life Regen
- 20% Magic Find
- 25% Gold Find
- 5.1% Chance to Fear on Hit
- 14% Crowd Control Reduction
The socket is mandatory for paragon leveling.
IMO it's optional once you reach 100 paragon.
6% Crit Chance is critical to your DPS.
IMO, 2.50 Spirit Regeneration is critical to farming efficiently.
the double attribute enchantment is solid, but the single attribute enchantments are not.
So I would not want a rare spirit stone with more than 100 dexterity or 100 vitality.
The following enchantments are must haves for an end game rare spirit stone:
6% Crit Chance
2.50 Spirit Regeneration for farming
1 Socket if not 100 Paragon
The following enchantments are very good for an end game rare spirit stone:
14% Sweeping Wind/Fist of Thunder
80 Resist All
100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
1 Socket even if 100 Paragon
The remaining slots should be filled with the following enchantments:
100 Dexterity
100 Vitality
60 Resist Element
397 Bonus Armor
63.9 Life per Spirit Spent
12% Life
Rare Shoulders/Belts
- 100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
- 100 Dexterity
- 100 Vitality
- 80 Resist All
- 60 Resist Element
- 265 Bonus Armor
- 12% Life
- 12794 Health from Globes and Potions
- 392 Life Regen
- 20% Magic Find
- 25% Gold Find
- 5.1% Chance to Chill/Freeze on Hit
Rare shoulders and belts lack any notable enchantments for Monks.
As such they are nice ways to boost your EHP.
The following enchantments are must haves for an end game rare shoulder:
80 Resist All
60 Resist Element
100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
100 Dexterity
The remaining slots should be filled with the following enchantments:
100 Vitality
265 Bonus Armor
12% Life
12794 Health from Globes and Potions
Rare Bracers
- 6% Crit Chance
- 100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
- 100 Dexterity
- 100 Vitality
- 80 Resist All
- 60 Resist Element
- 265 Bonus Armor
- 12794 Health from Globes and Potions
- 392 Life Regen
- 6% Ranged Reduction
- 6% Melee Reduction
- 20% Magic Find
- 25% Gold Find
- 5.1% Chance to Knockback on Hit
Aside from 6% crit chance, rare bracers lack notable enchantments.
So after you get 6% crit chance, they are a nice slot to boost your survivability.
The following enchantments are must haves for an end game rare Bracer:
6% Crit Chance
80 Resist All
60 Resist Element
100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
The remaining slots should be filled with the following enchantments:
100 Dexterity
100 Vitality
265 Bonus Armor
6% Ranged Reduction
6% Melee Reduction
12794 Health from Globes and Potions
Rare Gloves
- 10% Crit Chance
- 9% Increased Attack Speed
- 50% Crit Damage
- 100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
- 200 Dexterity
- 100 Vitality
- 80 Resist All
- 60 Resist Element
- 265 Bonus Armor
- 12794 Health from Globes and Potions
- 392 Life Regen
- 20% Magic Find
- 25% Gold Find
- 5.1% Chance to Stun on Hit
Since gloves have so many useful enchantments, it can be very expensive to get trifectas, let alone gloves with 5-6 good enchantments.
10% Crit Chance is by far the most useful enchantment for monks, and is a must have.
9% IAS and 50% Crit damage are next, but you'll often be forced to pick one or the other.
Unless you're a shield monk, IAS is generally the superior option, by a small margin.
200 Dexterity, 100 Dex & 100 vit, Resistances are what I recommend looking for next.
I'd say the perfect rare gloves would roll:
10% Crit Chance
9% IAS
50% Crit Damage
300 Dexterity
100 Vitality
80 Resist All
Rare Chest Armor
- 3 Armor Sockets
- 100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
- 100 Dexterity
- 200 Vitality
- 80 Resist All
- 60 Resist Element
- 397 Bonus Armor
- 12% Life
- 12794 Health from Globes and Potions
- 599 Life Regen
- 20% Magic Find
- 25% Gold Find
- 7% Reduction from Elites
- 6% Reduction from Ranged
- 6% Reduction from Melee
Chest armor is notable for its 3 armor sockets and 200 vitality enchantment.
You'll want to aim for the following affixes on an end game rare chest:
3 Armor Sockets
200 Vitality
100 Dexterity & Vitality
80 Resist All
60 Resist Element
The following enchantments are nice for rounding out a rare chest:
396 Bonus Armor
100 Dexterity
12% Life
12794 Health from Globes and Potions
599 Life Regen
7% Reduction from Elites
6% Reduction from Ranged
6% Reduction from Melee
Rare Pants
- 2 Armor Sockets
- 100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
- 100 Dexterity
- 200 Vitality
- 80 Resist All
- 60 Resist Element
- 397 Bonus Armor
- 12% Life
- 12794 Health from Globes and Potions
- 392 Life Regen
- 20% Magic Find
- 25% Gold Find
- 5.1% Chance to Slow Enemies
Pants are notable for their 2 armor sockets and 200 vitality enchantment.
I don't think sockets are essential on pants since you only get 2.
Sockets are only great if you want extra dex for DPS, but at that innas temperance is better.
You'll want to aim for the following affixes on an end game rare pants:
100 Dexterity & Vitality
200 Vitality
80 Resist All
60 Resist Element
The following enchantments are a nice way to round out a nice pair of rare pants:
2 Armor Sockets
100 Dexterity
12% Life
12794 Health from Globe and Potions
397 Bonus Armor
Rare Boots
- 12% Movement Speed
- 100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
- 200 Dexterity
- 100 Vitality
- 80 Resist All
- 60 Resist Element
- 265 Bonus Armor
- 12794 Health from Globes and Potions
- 392 Life Regen
- 20% Magic Find
- 25% Gold Find
- 5.1% Chance to Immobilize on Hit
Rare boots are notable, obviously for having 12% movement speed.
The following enchantments are must haves for an end game rare boots:
12% Movement Speed
200 Dexterity
100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
80 Resist All
60 Resist Element
The following enchantments are nice ways to round out a pair of rare boots:
265 Bonus Armor
12794 Health from Globes and Potions
100 Vitality
Rare Shields
- 1 Armor Socket
- 10% Crit Chance
- 150 Dexterity & 150 Vitality
- 200 Dexterity
- 200 Vitality
- 80 Resist All
- 60 Resist Element
- 397 Bonus Armor
- 16% Life
- 12794 Health from Globes and Potions
- 599 Life Regen
- 20% Magic Find
- 25% Gold Find
- 7% Reduction from Elites
- 6% Reduction from Ranged
- 6% Reduction from Melee
- 8% Lashing Tail Kick, Tempest Rush, Wave of Light Crit Chance
- 9% Chance to Block
Shields have some of the best enchantments in the game.
Unfortunately it's usually outweighed by LS and crit damage from an offhander.
Regardless, shields can roll some pretty beastly stats
The following enchantments are must haves for an end game rare shield:
10% Crit Chance
150 Dexterity & 150 Vitality
200 Dexterity
200 Vitality
80 Resist All
The last slot should ideally go to 60 resist element, 16% life, or a monk skill bonus.
But there are plenty of other solid enchantments available as well.
Rare Amulets
- 1 Armor Socket
- 10% Crit Chance
- 100% Crit Damage
- 9% Increased Attack Speed
- 2878 Life on Kill
- 959 Life on Hit
- 36-106 Physical Damage
- 36 Minimum Physical Damage
- 35 Maximum Physical Damage
- 150 Dexterity & 150 Vitality
- 200 Dexterity
- 200 Vitality
- 80 Resist All
- 60 Resist Element
- 397 Bonus Armor
- 16% Life
- 12794 Health from Globes and Potions
- 599 Life Regen
- 45% Magic Find
- 50% Gold Find
- 14% Crowd Control Reduction
- 5.1% Chance to Blind on Hit
With rare amulets, there's almost no way you'll get all the enchantments you want.
But I'll do my best to rank them from best to worst.
10% Crit Chance and 100% Crit Damage are the best by a large margin.
959 Life on Hit is amazing but skippable since you can get healing from other slots.
9% IAS following that.
36-106 Physical damage and 150 Dex & 150 Vit are amazing, but rarely roll near maxed.
200 Dex, 200 Vit, Resistances, and even bonus armor are worth considering after that.
IMO the perfect rare amulet would roll the following:
10% Crit Chance
100% Crit Damage
9% IAS
959 Life on Hit
36-106 Physical Damage
150 Dexterity
150 Vitality
Rare Rings
- 1 Armor Socket
- 6% Crit Chance
- 50% Crit Damage
- 9% Increased Attack Speed
- 1439 Life on Kill
- 479 Life on Hit
- 36-106 Physical Damage
- 36 Minimum Physical Damage
- 35 Maximum Physical Damage
- 100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
- 100 Dexterity
- 100 Vitality
- 80 Resist All
- 60 Resist Element
- 265 Bonus Armor
- 12% Life
- 12794 Health from Globes and Potions
- 392 Life Regen
- 25% Magic Find
- 20% Gold Find
- 14% Crowd Control Reduction
Many enchantments on rings are roughly half their counterpart on Amulets
A few aren't, and these are particularly potent.
36-106 Physical Damage, 6% Crit Chance, and 9% IAS are the best enchantments.
It will be fairly hard to get all 3 of them.
IMO the perfect rare ring would roll the following:
6% Crit Chance
9% IAS
36-106 Physical Damage
50% Crit Damage
479 Life on Hit
100 Dexterity
100 Vitality
Rare Weapons
- 316-725 Elemental Damage
- 201-457 Cold Damage
- 50% Damage
- ??? Min/Max Damage (Varies between weapon types)
- 100% Critical Hit Damage (200% 2H)
- 959 Life on Hit (1918 2H)
- 2878 Life on Kill (5756 2H)
- 3.00% Lifesteal (6.00% 2H)
- 1 Weapon Socket
- 63.9 Life per Spirit Spent
- 11% IAS
- 8% Wave of Light/Tempest Rush Crit Chance
- 5 Lashing Tail Kick Cost Reduction
- 8% Bonus vs Elites
- 2.50 Spirit Regeneration
Everybody wants lifesteal, crit damage, socket, and high base damage on weapons.
But that alone already costs 6 enchantment slots.
These are the 5 highly must have enchantments for an end game rare weapon:
Min/Max Damage (or Elemental Damage, but min/max can roll higher)
50% Damage
100% Critical Hit Damage
3.00% Lifesteal
1 Weapon Socket
Chances are, you're not going to find a weapon with 6 good affixes.
And if you do, it's going to be extremely expensive.
Personally, I would like a rare weapon with 2.50 Spirit regen in the 6th slot for farming.
959 Life on Hit is obviously the best option for tanking.
150 Dex/Vit, 11% IAS, and 200 Dex provide a marginal benefit to your DPS.
But personally I don't search for attributes on weapons.
3) Legendaries & Rares, When To Use What
Mempo of Twilight
Only Mempo's of Twilight with Crit Chance are worth considering.
I would even go further to say that only 6% CC Mempos are worth considering.
Remember that 1% CC is a lot more valuable than 1% IAS afterall.
a 3% CC mempo probably isn't better than a 6% CC helmet with high dex.
Inna's Radiance
Inna's Radiance has 2 random enchantment slots that can roll very good affixes.
The best ones are:
80 Resist All
2.50 Spirit Regeneration
14% Sweeping Wind/Fist of Thunder Skill Bonus
The following enchantments are also worth considering:
60 Resist Element
397 Bonus Armor
63.9 Life Per Spirit Spent
An Inna's radiance with high rolls, all resist, and 14% skill bonus is effectively just as good as a 6% CC Mempo of Twilight in terms of both Defense and Offense.
The difference is 14% skill bonus does not provide you extra IAS.
On the other hand, Inna's Radiance helps contribute a set bonus, whereas Mempo does not.
That combined with the fact that Inna's Radiance is cheaper and has more flexibility with enchantments (IE Access to Spirit Regeneration), I would say that Inna's Radiance is the better option for monks.
Madstone
Only Madstones with Crit Chance are worth considering.
Like with mempos, I would only recommend madstones with 6% CC.
You can't roll a socket with the Crit Chance, so Madstone is not viable for paragon leveling.
So when would you want to use a Madstone over an Inna's Radiance?
Madstone is capable of rolling All Resist, Spirit Regen, and Skill Bonus at the same time.
Inna's Radiance cannot do this.
But it loses out on up to 100 dex & vit, a socket, and a set bonus in exchange for this.
So the only time you will want a bonus is when you need spirit regen, skill bonus, and wouldn't mind some extra defense over an inna's radiance.
Natalya's Sight
The only reason you'd want to use a Natalya's Sight is for the set bonus.
But keep in mind that natalya's sight will generally have much less dex than a mempo or Inna's Radiance.
This combined with the fact that a Natalya's Sight won't have skill Bonus or IAS means this is not a helmet monks will need to consider.
Andariel's Visage
Andariel's Visage is like a poor man's Mempo of Twilight.
Overall a weaker helmet than a well rolled Inna's Radiance.
But a solid option for mid game poison resist monks
Archon Crowns and Star Crowns
In theory, a star crown can roll the same stats as an Inna's Radiance, but with less armor.
But the number of good enchantments that need to roll simultaneously for this to happen is extremely high, and you'll essentially never see a rare helmet ever roll good enough to be end game material.
And even if it did, it's still missing out on the set bonus
But I suppose keeping an open mind doesn't hurt.
===== Shoulders =====
Vile Ward
As the only legendary shoulder to roll i63 affixes, it's the only one worth noting.
Since vile ward rolls 170-200 dex with its single stat enchantment instead of up to 100, it can get up to 300 dex whereas rare shoulders cap at 200 max total dex.
This combined with its all resistance affix makes this the best shoulders in the game.
Since good enchantments are much more expensive on legendaries, you may consider picking up pickup radius or health from globe on your shoulders instead of on your rares to save yourself some money.
Archon Spaulders
So when would you actually want to use Archon Shoulders over Vile Wards in the end game?
The only reason I can think of is for stacking lots and lots of defensive enchantments.
===== Chest Armor =====
Tyrael's Might
Think of Tyrael's Might as a Glass Cannon chest piece with movement speed bonus.
Rare chests can only roll up to 200 dex. Tyrael's might comes with 170-200 by default.
And it has bonus vs demons and elites ontop of that.
However, you lose out on a lot of vitality.
Remember that rare chests can roll up to 300 total vitality.
If you are bent on getting a tyrael's might, remember that chest armor rolls with numerous useful enchantments that are not limited to 3 sockets.
a 200 vit enchantment, or a 100 Dex and 100 Vit enchantment is potentially better than 3 sockets.
Cindercoat
Cindercoat is notable for being able to roll up to 229 dex and 120 fire resistance.
Remember that rare chests only roll up to 200 dex.
While 120 fire resistance is nice, it's not actually an ideal use of an enchantment.
The cindercoat rolls 51-60 fire resist by default. Rolling over 60 costs an enchantment slot.
Instead the perfect cindercoat for a fire monk would have these stats:
60 Fire Resist
50 Resist All
5% Life
2908 Thorns
229 Dexterity
300 Vitality
3 Sockets
However, keep in mind that the cindercoat will still have less base armor than archon armor.
My point is that for fire monks, the cindercoat can rarely roll on par with BIS chest pieces.
Inna's Vast Expanse
Do you remember the list of most desirable enchantments for chest armor?
Inna's Vast Expanse doesn't actually roll many of them.
It has the 100 dex & vit enchantment as well as the 3 sockets enchantment.
But it uses 3 more affixes on life %, reduced damage from melee, and 100 Dexterity.
While none of these are horrible enchantments, rare chests can in fact roll better.
On the other hand, this limitation is offset by the set bonus.
The Vast Expanse is worth considering if you want high dexterity or the set bonus.
If not, get a BIS rare chest or a surcoat.
Blackthorne's Surcoat
Unlike Inna's Vast Expanse which wastes 3 affixes on sub par enchantments, the surcoat only wastes 1 on reduction from ranged damage.
So you're much less likely to see a rare chest with a better roll than a BIS surcoat, than you are with a rare chest and a BIS Vast Expanse.
So unlike Vast Expanse, the Surcoat is a solid standalone end game chest piece.
In the worst case scenario, it's not worse than a perfect rare chest by more than 1 affix.
And in that case, you can argue the set bonus compensates for that discrepancy.
Tal Rasha's Relentless Pursuit
I've seen a few monks use this for the IAS.
So it's decent if you want to exchange lots of defense for a tiny bit of DPS.
Tyrael's is better for that purpose, but I suppose tal rasha's is cheaper.
Archon Armor
So when do you want to use Archon Armor over other Legendaries?
Well you want Tyrael's or Tal Rasha's for glass Cannon Builds.
You'll want Inna's Expanse for the inna's set bonus.
And BIS Surcoat will end up rolling very similarly to BIS Archon Armor.
Which makes Archon Armor viable in the end game as a well rounded chest piece.
===== Bracers =====
Lacuni Prowlers
Lacuni's are glass cannon bracers.
Their unique combination of enchantments and the fact they have 3 random enchantment rolls means that getting one that actually boosts your DPS substantially will cost you a fortune.
In theory, lacuni's could roll 6% crit chance, 80 Resist All, 100 Dex, and 100 Vit.
Compared to a perfectly rolled razorspike, you're essentially exchanging something along the lines of 60 resistance, 100 dexterity, and 100 vitality for 9% IAS, 12% MS, and thorns.
But I've never seen lacuni prowlers that perfect, so it's not a realistic situation.
The only time I'd recommend lacunis is if you intend to capitalize on the extra movement speed somehow by getting blackthorne's jousting pants instead of Inna's Temperance or Ice Climbers without movement speed.
Strongarm Bracers
Notable for being the only bracers in the game that can roll 269 Dex.
Otherwise these bracers are not end game material.
Razorspikes
Lacunis are glass cannon bracers, Strongarm Bracers suck, so Razorspikes fill all the other remaining niches.
There are many ways a Razorspike can roll BIS.
But everybody will agree that you will always want the 4 following enchantments:
6% Crit Chance
80 Resist All
60 Resist Element
100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
Most monks will want their remaining 2 enchantment slots to roll 100 Dex & 100 Vit.
I'm personally not a fan of wasting a slot on 100 vitality.
I'd personally prefer the last 2 slots roll 100 Dex and 12794 Bonus to Globes.
But to each their own.
===== Gloves =====
Tasker And Theo
It's worth noting that Tasker and Theo can roll up to 350 Dex + a Socket.
But you won't be able to get any crit damage or crit chance if you do roll that much dex.
These gloves really aren't worth noting.
Sage's Gesture
These gloves are craftable, so they only roll i62 affixes.
They can roll decently, but rare gloves have better potential.
Archon Gauntlets
Rare Gauntlets are basically the only way to go for gloves.
I don't think anybody needed me to tell them that.
===== Belts =====
Witching Hour
A popular choice for glass cannon monks.
But in reality, only 1 affix slot is wasted (90-100 Dexterity)
And it's easily argued that this is an extremely small price to pay for IAS and Crit Damage.
If rolled perfectly, a witching hour is by far the best belt in the game, no contest at all.
Even if it doesn't roll perfectly, sword and board monks will want it for the crit damage.
And 2H monks will want it for the IAS.
But since the witching hour has 3 random slots and is in high demand, getting a perfectly rolled witching hour is almost completely out of reach, even for the richest players.
Hellcat Waistguard
Worth noting that the hellcat is able to roll up to 249 Dex.
It's not a horrible belt, not great either.
It's designed for bonus vs elites and high dex, but blackthorne's notched belt fills that roll more adequately than the Hellcat Waistguard.
Inna's Favor
You can think of Inna's Favor as a Poor Man's Witching Hour.
It can compete with a poorly rolled witching hour, but not a BIS one.
Other than that it's useful for completing the Inna's Set Bonus.
Otherwise, it's just another glass cannon legendary that sacrifices tons of defense.
And not a particularly good one at that.
Blackthorne's Notched Belt
It's worth noting that Blackthorne's Notched Belt is able to roll up to 300 Dex.
The belt has 3 sub optimal affixes, but it gains access to the 170-200 dex affix which is usually reserved for gloves and boots.
The 100 vit and bonus vs elites from the set bonus are actually extremely good for ubers.
In the case of ubers, 3-4 set Blackthornes is BIS, even over witching hour IMO.
Overall Blackthorne's is straddling a Fence.
It's slightly better DPS than rare belts, but not much better.
It's also slightly worse defense than rare belts, but not much worse.
High Scabbard
Of the 4 legendaries listed above, all of them are offensively oriented.
Meaning that if you intend to use a rare belt in the end game, it's going to be because you want either a well rounded belt or a defensively oriented one.
===== Pants =====
Depth Diggers
2 affixes are wasted on magic and gold find.
In exchange however, you gain access to the 170-200 Dex affix that is usually reserved for gloves and boots.
Thus these pants are able to roll up to 300 Dexterity.
While they aren't horrible compared to rare pants, Inna's Temperance and Blackthorne's Jousting Pants are simply so much better than rare pants that Depth Diggers aren't worth considering as a result.
Inna's Temperance
Glass Cannon pants, and damn good ones at that.
I think the community understands the roll of Inna's Temperance, so i won't elaborate.
There are many ways good ways for Inna's Temperance to roll it's only random enchantment.
The best option for sustain is obviously 80 resistance.
397 Bonus armor is also good for sustain if you are running a no STI high resist build.
200 Vitality is another option for defense, but it won't improve your sustain.
Finally, 100 Dex & 100 Vit is best for offense, but is also well rounded.
Blackthorne's Jousting Pants
Since Blackthorne's comes with a quadruple attribute roll, it can actually roll up to 400 vitality and 200 dexterity at the same time OR 300 dexterity and 200 Vitality at the same time.
These pants are by far the best tank pants in the game, and there are many good ways for it to roll.
Here are the best enchantments to look out for:
80 Resist All
100 Dexterity & 100 Vitality
200 Vitality
If there aren't available or are too expensive, you may consider the following:
60 Resist Element
2 Sockets
397 Bonus Armor
Notice how I put 2 sockets as an alternative option.
The best Blackthorne's Jousting Pants will never roll sockets.
Archon Faulds
Completely outclassed by Blackthorne's and Inna's Temperance
Only consider them for early to early mid game monks, and only if it's cost effective.
===== Boots =====
Ice Climbers
Ice Climbers roll 8 Affixes.
eight
EIGHT
Did that sink in yet?
6 Affix rare boots have got nothing on that.
Ice Climbers are BIS if you want a well rounded boot or a tanky one.
The only reason they have any competition is the 7% CC bonus on Natalya's Set.
Firewalkers
These actually cap at 269 Dex instead of 300 like most boots
Even the best firewalkers will only be as good as mediocre rare boots.
Nevermind ice climbers or natalya's.
PS: The molten enchantment lets you break wooden doors by walking through them. Cool?
Zunimassa's Trail
Notable for the added elemental damage.
Legacy Zunimassa's come with IAS and slightly lower elemental damage.
They are notable for being glass cannon boots for monks.
But ultimately they are outclassed by the Natalya's Set when it comes to offense.
Natalya's Bloody Footprints
The base enchantments on Natalya's are fairly good, but not godly.
You would only use these boots for the 7% crit chance from the 2 piece set bonus.
The DPS from 7% crit chance is so huge, most people consider these boots to be BIS over ice climbers, with their whopping 8 affixes.
===== Amulets =====
Xephirian Amulet
This amulet comes with spirit regen, that alone makes it a must have amulet for tempest rush builds.
Ouroboros
This used to be a fairly good amulet, but now that rare amulets all roll i63 affixes, it's outdated.
Traveler's Pledge
Actually a pretty good amulet for followers because of the magic find and Life %
That's all there is to it though.
Blackthorne's Duncraig Cross
The amulet itself has decent rolls. Not great, but decent.
The LoH is less than optimal, life % is not a great affix, and an affix slot is wasted on bleed.
But since amulets with more than 3 good enchantments are hard to find and expensive anyways, and because of the set bonus, you can make the argument that the duncraig cross is BIS.
Rare Amulets
There aren't any truly amazing rare amulets in the game.
Duncraig cross is good, but in theory a perfect 6 affix amulet is much better.
So rare amulets are essentially the only end game amulets.
===== Rings =====
Hellfire Ring
The hellfire ball spawns behind your fist, so it usually passes through the target you punch.
And the bonus experience is useless at 100 paragon.
Ignoring those 2 enchantments, Hellfire ring only has 5 affixes.
One of them happens to be a 170-200 dex affix that usually isn't available on rare rings.
But at the end of the day, a rare ring can roll better in theory, than a hellfire ring.
The only reason you would want a hellfire ring is for the bonus xp.
Unity
The crit chance, LoH, and physical damage rolls are not as high as they could be.
Bonus vs elites is not optimal.
And the dex roll is slightly higher than what you'd see on a normal ring.
But the combination of these enchantments make unity popular.
Even though technically a rare ring could roll substantially higher, with the exception of the dexterity affix.
Stone of Jordan
IMO this is the best ring for farming.
Spirit regen is priceless for mobility and killing quickly.
Bonus vs elites is BIS for ubers.
added elemental damage and the ability to roll skill bonuses is good too.
You will want FoT or Sweeping wind for your general purpose ring.
Critical Hit Chance for Tempest Rush is must have for tempest rush farming builds.
Keep in mind that elemental skills such as thunderclap and sweeping wind/cyclone override the element of the added elemental damage.
Even if you get a cold damage SoJ, you will not cold debuff enemies with thunderclap.
But if you use deadly reach instead, you will since it's a non-elemental skill.
Oculus Ring
High dexterity roll, magic find, and resist all make this a great follower ring.
Skull Grasp
Legacy Skull Grasps are inferior versions of unity
Modern skull grasps aren't very good, but can be used to in weird builds like ones where you try to reduce the cost of lashing tail kick as much as possible.
Wailing Host
Basically a Unity Ring without average damage or LoH, and an extra random affix and set bonus.
All in all, worse than Unity.
Litany of the Undaunted
A more defensive version of Unity/Wailing Host, but still not as good as unity.
The set bonus isn't terribly useful either.
Natalya's Reflection
Solid base enchantments and more importantly the 7% crit chance set bonus makes this BIS.
But you will want one with crit chance on it already, otherwise a rare ring will be comparable.
Rare Ring
IMO the best setup for farming and elites is Natalya's Reflection and a SoJ.
Either way a reflection is generally essential to an end game build.
The SoJ is much more optional.
In which case, if you're not going for a SoJ, rare rings are end game
===== Weapons =====
Most Legendary Weapons have 7 affixes.
But since few legendary weapons have 7 perfect affixes, rare weapons still compete.
Won Khim Lau
Its base damage affixes are all i62, which is suboptimal, especially for shield monks
25% lightning skills damage is worth ~137% Crit Damage for a typical DW monk.
Due to the low base damage, this is a poor weapon for sword and board.
Since it can roll crit damage and a socket ontop of lightning skills, it lets you get higher DPS than any rare weapon could. But only if you're willing to sacrifice lifesteal.
A perfectly rolled rare weapon can compete with a WKL in the end game. But end game WKL's are easier to find on the auction house.
Low base damage means it synergizes particularly well with average damage jewelry.
Echoing Fury
Its base damage affixes are all i62, which is suboptimal
Fear is very suboptimal for farming on higher MP's
This is a BIS weapon for hunting ubers.
Since it can roll crit damage and a socket ontop of +APS, it lets you get higher DPS than any rare weapon could, but only if you're willing to sacrifice lifesteal.
A perfectly rolled rare weapon can compete with EF in the end game, but end game EF's are easier to find on the auction house.
Skorn
Technically a rare 2H axe can roll just like a skorn except for the bleed chance.
But since nobody loots 2h weapons, you'll pretty much never see a rare weapon that good.
This makes skorn the only viable option for 2H Builds.
Lifesteal is by far the best roll for the only random enchantment slot.
But IAS and more dexterity are also an option if you want marginally better DPS.
Butcher's Sickle
The ancient spear effect has a cooldown, so the chance of proc isn't an important roll.
The base enchantments and damage are i60, which is really bad.
Rare axes can roll better at a nontrivial rate.
But it's still an okay option for mid game monks.
Fist of Az'Turrasq
High base damage makes this an okay sword and board weapon.
But you're forced to pick between LS, socket, or crit damage.
Which is a fatal flaw, and prevents this weapon from being end game material IMO.
Crystal Fist
Ignore durability loss is a useless affix.
And 200 dex/vit is a suboptimal roll on a weapon.
Shenlong's Set
Unlike other legendary weapons, shenlongs only have 6 enchantments.
And the ones on the shenlongs while decent lack what I'm going to call the weapon trifecta:
which is crit damage, socket, and lifesteal.
The set bonus simply doesn't compensate for that loss.
So not end game.
Rare Weapons
Skorn dominates the 2H early, mid, AND end game, so I'm not going to talk about 2h's.
Echoing Fury and WKL can roll higher DPS than rare weapons.
But in theory, a perfectly rolled rare weapon can be on par with an LS/Socket EF/WKL.
The chance of seeing such a perfectly rolled rare weapon on the AH however, is small.
The primary goal of this thread is to encourage more styles of gameplay.
The problem with sweeping wind/cyclone is that there is only one way to play with it.
You need high proc rate and critical hits, so the only way to play is to punch nonstop with thunderclap.
Wave of light looks like a useful spell on paper, it does 2-3x the DPS of thunderclap afterall.
But since it has a low proc rate, you pay an opportunity cost of cyclones each time you cast it.
So you don't actually boost your DPS when you cast this spell because of how cyclone works.
You can't kite either, because then you lose out on cyclone DPS as well.
It's a very static, boring way to play, that forces you to facetank every enemy attack.
To solve this issue, I will propose 2 sets of changes.
- Improved Sweeping Wind runes that encourage funner, more active gameplay
- And improved monk mobility on spirit generators
Sweeping Wind Rune Changes
Quick Comment on Cyclone Rune Balance
Blizzard last stated that monks are in a nice place in terms of DPS.
This is due in large part to sweeping wind cyclone bringing monks on par with barbarians.
But that was before the advent of the weapon throw barbarian.
Now, monks once again feel a bit behind barbarians in terms of DPS
So in that sense, a small buff to cyclone rune would not hurt balance at all IMO.
But there's plenty of other ways to bring monks up to par with barbarians.
So for the moment, let us assume no buff to cyclone rune.
Balance Objectives
- Make all runes comparable viable to Cyclone.
- Attempt to create runes that encourage active and tactical gameplay.
- Avoid making more runes crit chance based like cyclone. (For the sake of diversity)
How Powerful is Sweeping Wind Cyclone right now?
We need to know how powerful sweeping wind cyclone is on end game monks.
So we're going to do a quick Calculation:
And lets assume a dual wield monk with 50% crit chance and 2.00 attack speed.
The wind stacks deal 45% of your inventory DPS
Cyclones deal 20% weapon damage per shock, a total of 6 shocks for 120% weapon damage.
With thunderclap, you have a proc rate of: 3.75
Meaning 1.875 cyclones per second in a single target scenario.
The cyclones are responsible for up to 120%*1.875 weapon damage per second. Or 225%
225% weapon damage at 2.00 AS is 112.5% Inventory DPS per second.
Sweeping Wind/Cyclone deals approximately 157.5% Inventory DPS unbuffed
Inner Storm
I'm going to call it a storm to avoid confusion with the name of the cyclone rune.
Each storm shocks for 10% weapon damage every 0.6 seconds, a total of 6 times.
Technical Details:
You use 25 spirit with dashing strike. You produce 2 storms and have a 50% chance of a 3rd.
Cyclones/Storms were chosen as a mechanic over say, producing ground based DoT's or backlashes.
This was because spirit spenders generally involve knockback or motion.
You don't want to cast LTK or WoL only to realize the enemy is no longer in range if your SW.
Cyclones/Storms have large range, so they synergize best with spirit spending.
PS: Yes we're keeping the 45% wind stack and 3% spirit/second. No Nerfs!
How much DPS is this?
You will create 5 storms per second.
Each cyclone will do 15%*6 = 90% weapon damage
This is a total of 495% weapon DPS including 45% stack, or 247.5% inventory DPS
about 1.57more than the single target DPS of cyclone.
The down side is that Inner Storm will not scale with AoE.
Once you start fighting 3 enemies with thunderclap, Inner storm is on par with Cyclone.
Quickening also does not do as much DPS as thunderclap, and lacks a teleport.
(Granted I think all FoT runes should have a teleport, but we'll talk about that in another section)
The up side is this rune synergizes with spirit spenders.
Wave of light and Lashing tail kick have very low proc rates, so they create very few cyclones.
They will not suffer this problem with the alternative Inner Storm rune.
Why is this good or interesting?
Well we've essentially created a rune based on an entire different mechanic than cyclone rune.
That is, this is spirit based instead of directly crit chance and proc chance based.
Cyclone rune also had the fundamental flaw that it inhibited DPS spirit spenders.
Every time you cast WoL, you have to pay an opportunity cost of cyclones you could have made.
And this mechanic made spells such as WoL and LTK non-viable.
Inner storm will not have this issue, and will create an entirely new and diverse branch of monk builds.
And we won't even need to buff other skills to achieve that goal.
Fire Storm
Each eruption lasts for 3 seconds, and will not stack with itself.
Enemies standing inside the eruption radius take 100% weapon damage per second.
This weapon damage does NOT scale up with attack speed.
I wanted to create a rune that would make 2 handers viable.
This is it.
Even if you use a skorn with 1.0 attack speed and no IAS:
This rune does 145% Single Target DPS including stack, a bit less than Cyclone Rune.
However, it scales much better with AoE than Cyclone Rune.
Why is this good or interesting?
Unlike Cyclone or the previously proposed Inner Storm, Fire Storm does not require constant combat.
Cyclone requires you to keep punching for crits, inner storm requires punching for spirit.
The proposed Fire Storm changes only requires you to punch at least once every 3 seconds.
The result is mobility and survivability. Monks can now kite substantially while maintaining their DPS.
Likewise they can cast spells without incurring an opportunity cost of cyclones.
These numerous advantages offset the otherwise lackluster single target DPS, and need for low AS.
Blade Storm
There is a limit on the number of backlashes per second based on attack speed.
Technical Details:
IE a build with 100k DPS/2.00 AS deals the same damage per backlash as 100k DPS/1.00 AS
After each backlash, a CD of [0.5 sec / AS] must pass before another backlash can proc.
Why is this good or interesting?
Lets tally what we have suggested right now:
Inner storm deals single target DPS as DoT, and favors high spirit generation.
Fire storm deals AoE DPS as DoT, and favors slow attack speed
Cyclone is mostly single target DPS when using thunderclap, and it favors high crit chance.
So when I tackled Bladestorm, I tried to aim for greater variety.
As we can see above, every other rune so far is a DoT, so we want an instant damage rune.
We also see that an extra AoE DPS rune would not hurt either.
Finally, a tweaked the mechanics to favor high attack speed to balance out Firestorm.
Applying a backlash fit both these conditions, and IMO fits the style and idea of a bladestorm.
The backlash procs when you bump into an enemy, so it's perfect for many positioning skills.
IE tempest rush, cyclone strike, dashing strike.
It also would synergize well with spirit generators if they were given more mobility.
Master of the Wind
Because I feel like with the previous suggestions, everything in regards to DPS is covered.
Firestorm favors slow attack speed.
Bladestorm is the only instant damage sweeping wind (IE no DoT) and favors high attack speed.
We have 2 runes that favor single target (Inner Storm and cyclone)
and 2 runes that favor AoE DPS (Fire Storm and Blade Storm
We have a wide variety of proc mechanics ontop of simple crit chance.
We already have 4 DPS focused sweeping winds, we need something different:
A Defensive/Support Sweeping Wind.
This rune will also be a play on inverse ninja law, since monks are basically bearded ninjas.
http://en.wikipedia....verse_Ninja_Law
- Extend the radius to 24 yards and change the element to cold damage.
- At max stacks, the player and friendlies within 24 yards gain 10% MS & AS
- Players and Allies in 24 yards gain an additional 1% MS & AS times the number of enemies in the stack. Capped at 15.
- Slows movement of projectiles within 24 yards.
When I play in teams, I have a hard time keeping the team inside my overawe radius.
I wanted something to make it obvious to my teammates that we should do together.
It's hard for teammates to notice that they're benefiting from overawe.
But everybody notices when they're moving and attacking faster, and most people love it.
Scaling the magnitude with the number of enemies inside the radius encourages CC.
And slowing enemy projectiles is to help make kiting slightly more viable.
Fist of Thunder
This is a fairly obvious suggestion, that you'll see in a million suggestion threads.
It's simple, obvious, and most importantly it works.
Deadly Reach
Allow players to move while casting Deadly Reach
Deadly Reach will auto attack the nearest enemy (Similar to Strafe in D2)
Vault 7 yards on double click, 3 second cooldown
The issue with Deadly Reach right now is you need to line up enemies to maximize DPS.
Imagine hellions lining up SCV's in starcraft 2.
But deadly reach is completely stationary, so your proverbial hellion gets swarmed by proverbial zerglings, and you can't actually use your AoE effectively.
By allowing players to kite with deadly reach, we make deadly reach funner, more mobile, and better DPS.
The mobility makes it easier to survive, so you don't need extra proc rate for sustain.
And since you don't need the proc rate for sweeping wind cyclone rune either, this change greatly balances Deadly Reach with thunderclap without even needing to tweak the DPS/Proc rate numbers.
That's not to say some further tweaking won't be necessary, but it solves most of the balancing problems in an elegant fashion.
Crippling Wave
The jist of the suggestion is to make Crippling Wave more like Whirlwind
Allow players to move while casting Crippling Wave
Allow players to pass through enemies while casting Crippling Wave (like Whirlwind)
Blink 7 yards on double click, 3 second cooldown
Similar to Deadly Reach, the issue with Crippling Wave is its mobility.
You want to be in the center of a pack of enemies, but you're simply too stationary.
Like with the deadly reach fix, extra mobility will inevitably boost your DPS output.
The mobility will also improve your survivability, lowering the need for proc rate.
Way of the Hundred Fists
Every now and then, you get a guy who says he likes stationary spirit generators.
So I think we should leave Way of the Hundred Fists as a stationary skill for those people.
But, hundred fists would be very under powered if we just left it as it is right now.
So I'm going to propose only 1 change to hundred fists.
When I think of hundred fists, I think of brute power.
Like you want to shower your enemy with blows until they shatter to bits.
So we'll add a quick change that reflects this mentality
Ram into your enemies for boosted AoE and Damage on double click. 3 second cooldown
Druin & I wanted a way to encourage and archive good suggestion threads.
Our solution for this was an academic styled suggestion journal.
All articles are written independently with review and feedback from myself and Druin.
Opinions in some threads may or may not contradict those found in others.
Table of Contents
November 2012
[Spirit Generators] A Comprehensive Review - By Druin
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/6607333164
[Sweeping Wind] Rune Changes & Spirit Generator Mobility
http://www.diablofans.com/topic/76808-journal-monk-suggestions/#entry1075625
Do you have a suggestion you want to get linked?
If so, please fill out the form below:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDJVRUM3ZVRQNDMxbElfZk1MbTlNdVE6MQ
We will review your suggestion based on the following criteria:
- Must contain and abstract
- Must be well written. (Good formatting, spelling, grammar)
- Should make the game more fun.
- Game mechanics must be correct.
- Should be balanced relative to other monk skills.
- Should be balanced relative to other classes.
- Should be elegant or thorough. (Avoid giant lists of number tweaks without supporting math)
- Should encourage more active, mobile monk gameplay.
well i never tested it on ubers specifically.
but it works on uniques and bosses like azmodan, so I'd assume it'd work just fine on ubers.
first is that cold SoJs do not chill or slow while using thunderclap or cyclone.
both are lightning skills, and as such override all elemental damage into lightning.
this is easy to test, get a cold soj or even a cheapo frostburn.
punch some mobs with cyclone thunderclap, there will be no chill or slow effect.
try again with a skill that has no element such as deadly reach and you will see the cold debuff
this data may the wind stack on cyclone is indeed lightning and thus does not apply effects from cold damage.
the other explanation is that cold damage is applied on proc, in which csse the wind stack may be physical.
either way, cold soj are not useful with elemental skills such as thunderclap and cyclone
whereas previously maybe only 25% of all jewelry dropped was i62
and the rest was i61 or lower.