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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.

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.

===== 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.

Hey There! I'm Morionic but I prefer to go by the name Grimy Bunyip
I'd like to share what I've learned about monks so far

Monk or Barb?
There are two tanks in D3, that is the barbarian and the monk.
WW Barbs gain xp faster, because they clear white mobs more efficiently.
But monks can rush elites faster because they don't need to clear white mobs for fury and wrath of the berserker.
So I figure at 100 paragon, monks are more useful for farming elites than WW barbs.

What Is My Build?
My guide, biases aside, is mostly a quick rundown of how good each skill is at what it does.
But for those that are curious, here is the build I run and the equipment I use for it:
Build: http://us.battle.net...giYk!ZUX!abYcca
Equipment: http://i.imgur.com/7GRAX.jpg
Stats: http://i.imgur.com/sfTbS.jpg

Standard Monk Build:
http://us.battle.net....gYSk!UX!a.Ycca
If you don't care to know every detail of every skill, just start here.

First off, here is a table of LoH Values, I did not collect data for this or make this table.
http://goo.gl/VJ04m

Hidden Haste
All spirit generators on monks are hasted, IE you will attack faster than your paper doll attack speed.
Here is each of the spirit generators and how much they are hasted:
1.500x - Fists of Thunder
1.333x - Deadly Reach
1.166x - Crippling Wave
1.125x - Way of the Hundred Fists

Proc Rate
Proc rate is how quickly a generator procs other effects.
Procs being things like cyclones, life on hit, or chance to freeze.

Keeping it short
Because the old guide was so massive, I'm going to cut the comments short.
I'm only going to list notable runes, see the following sheet for more details:
https://docs.google....3U01IRUE#gid=21

Fist of Thunder
Thunderclap - #1 for good reason
Best Single Target DPS, best Single Target Proc rate, solid AoE DPS and proc rate.
Quickening
Potentially double your spirit gen or more. May be necessary for WoL/Tempest rush builds.
But it comes at the cost of a lot of DPS and proc, has horrible synergy with sweeping wind/cyclone.
Bounding Light
Largest AoE on the 3rd punch, but you lose a bit of DPS and single target proc, and the teleport.
Generally not worthwhile, but I'll mention it.

Deadly Reach
Keen Eye
50% armor is very potent, but outdated in 1.04 thanks to all the nerfs to enemy mobs.
Foresight
The best rune on deadly reach because it doesn't actually require you to use deadly reach too frequently.
18% DPS is a fair bonus for a skill slot. Not great, but solid

Crippling Wave
Mangle
it's one way to deal massive AoE damage, but sweeping wind should be taking care of this job.
Concussion
This rune saw use in 1.03, but 1.04 nerfed enemy DPS and now this rune never sees action.

Way of the Hundred Fists
Bug: 2nd punch does NOT proc sweeping wind or cyclones.
Blazing Fists
DPS is small because IAS receives diminishing returns from IAS on gear.
Fists of Fury
The dash is like thunderclap's teleport, I think the dash is a bit shorter, but I'm not sure.
Bleed damage doesn't seem to stack, but it causes a second proc.
All 3 Punches are AoE, making it better AoE Proc Rate and DPS than thunderclap
If the 2nd punch in the combo were not bugged, this would be more used than thunderclap.

I'm going to break down spirit spenders into a few categories:
- Mantras
- Positioning Spenders
- Facetank Spenders

- Mantras

- Positioning Spenders

- Facetank Spenders

One with Everything & Seize the Initiative
Poll on how many people use each resistance type:
http://us.battle.net...372?page=24#465
Cold Resistance - Most Common Choice of Monks by a Sizeable Margin
This is the most popular resistance due to reverse psychology
Finding high end gear for cold monks will be very hard and expensive compared to other resistances
There are also few to no legendaries that benefit this resistance.

Arcane Resistance - Average Choice for Monks
Vile Ward - http://us.battle.net...cipe/seven-sins

Poison Resistance - Average Choice for Monks
It's not uncommon for players to pick this just for Andariel's Visage
Andariel's Visage - http://us.battle.net...ndariels-visage

Fire Resistance - Average Choice for monks
People avoid fire resistance because it's popular with other classes.
It's only as common as arcane and poison, but probably more expensive for the above reason.
To compensate, there's a fairly large number of legendaries that boast fire resistances
The Burning Axe of Sankis - http://us.battle.net...g-axe-of-sankis
Fire Brand - http://us.battle.net...cipe/fire-brand
Cindercoat - http://us.battle.net...item/cindercoat
Gehennas - http://us.battle.net...recipe/gehennas
Fire Walkers - http://us.battle.net...em/fire-walkers
Demon's Set (Almost nobody crafts these) - http://us.battle.net...pe/demons-wings

Physical Resistance - Second Least Common Choice of Monks by a Sizeable Margin
No legendaries associated with it.

Lightning Resistance - Least Common Choice of Monks by a Very Sizeable Margin
Schaefer's Hammer - http://us.battle.net...haeferss-hammer

Transcendance
A decent aura but probably not worth a passive skill slot.
The extra healing is small, and easily overshadowed by even a tiny amount of LoH or lifesteal.
Read the Life per Spirit Spent section of itemization for more details.

Combination Strike
Even with a single spirit generator, this skill should not be underestimated.
Think about how much 8% DPS would cost you in terms of money.
It's worth about half of a a crit gem in a weapon socket.

Guiding Light
Playing in a team? If so this is a must have ability
+16% DPS to the entire team is godly for a single skill.
It works with mantra of healing and breath of heaven.
Guiding light DOES NOT work on mystic allies and followers.
And it does not buff yourself unless you cast it on an ally. Which is why MoH radius is so important.
Keep in mind that MoH has 40 radius over BoH's 12 radius

Chant of Resonance
This is a great rune for 2 handers and tempest rush farmers.
The extra spirit regen means you can dashing strike more often before taking a break for regen spirit.
And that is key to farming act's 1 and 2 efficiently.

Guardian's Path
35% spirit generated could be worth as much as 5 spirit per second with FoT.
This passive has much less synergy with other spirit generators, but is worth considering after patch 1.04
While this depends from build to build, many 2H users will find this passive to be a must have.
Otherwise 15% dodge is very solid.
It will not affect everything like desecrator pools, but it does have other benefits.
Namely dodge benefits you greatly against enemies with nightmare or frozen for example.
Keep in mind this is a multiplicative bonus to dodge rate, not 30%+15%=45%
This skill has synergy with backlash, but only marginally so.

Resolve
Another solid, but situational passive.
25% damage reduction is a lot.
It's also fairly useless against enemies who like to kite you.
Rumors say that resolve affects affixes that have not already been set down when you start dealing damage.

Beacon of Ytar
Yet another solid passive.
It can be exploited by running a build with lots of cooldowns.
IE Serenity, Blinding Flash, Breath of Heaven, Seven sided strike.
But even with only 2 cooldown abilities, this is still one of the best passives out there.

Pacifism
Not much to say here, I don't think this is an important rune. How often are you CC'd? not that often.

Exalted Soul
with a proactive overawe build, you will rarely have very much spirit
The only situation I can see t his being remotely useful is with air ally.
Since he has a chance to grant a massive +100 spirit regen bonus.
But any good monk will keep his spirit under 75% at all times.
But with patch 1.04, this skill may find itself a niche.
The extra 1 spirit per second is a nice touch, but not really game changing enough for most builds.
I think more notable is the fact that WoL is finally worthwhile as a spammable skill.
And exalted soul may allow players to spam WoL on elites and refarm their spirit from non elites.

Fleet Footed
A must have skill for farmers

Sixth Sense
you need 50% crit chance for this to be better than guardian's path
That's essentially never going to happen. This is a bad skill.
This skill is also multiplicative like guardian's path.

Near Death Experience
I know quite a few act 3 monks who swear by this rune.
What the in game tooltip doesn't tell you is that when the ability activates, is generates an AOE stun
Knocking back enemies and giving you time to get back on your feet.
Also if you have over 35% spirit on death, you will keep that amount of spirit.
The only reason I avoid near death experience is the ridiculous 90 second cooldown

Balance Is Everything
Itemization at low-mid tier gameplay is all about getting a little bit of everything.
IE make sure to balance your offense and defense and not to go all out on either.
The exception being if you're extremely rich and you can afford to heal off health globes.

Quick Inferno Gear Tips by item slot:

Main Itemization Guide:

The alkaizer farming is the dominant xp and rare farming strategy right now.
Start at core of arreat, clear all the elites
Go to tower of the damned level 1, run in a circle clearing elites.
Use the WP on tower of the damned level 1 to go to arreat crater level 1, clear until dead end, then teleport.
Clear Arreat crater level 2, this is a major XP source.
Teleport to the bridge of korsikk and clear the fields of slaugter, this is a major xp source.
Teleport to keep depths level 1 and immediately go to keep depths level 2, this is a major xp source.
You may choose to supplement a few additional areas, but don't expect to boost your xp rate much if at all.

Massive Damage Reduction on Goblins
A goblin that hasn't started running yet cannot be reduced below 90% health.
Only after a few seconds will it start taking damage beyond that 90%
So if you have burst DPS sources such as conviction or faith in the light, don't use them right away

Traditional Thunderclap Build
Thunderclap has the best proc rate, making it very good with sweeping wind/cyclone.
Sweeping wind cyclone is necessary as it generates about half the DPS of your monk.
Blinding flash, if cast right before sweeping wind massively boosts the DPS of sweeping wind.
Conviction/overawe is nice as yet another massive DPS boost.
Serenity/ascension is a basic skill all monks use.
Which basically leaves the passives and 1 extra active skill for you to choose. Enjoy.

Fists of Fury
If you aren't using sweeping wind cyclone, Way of the hundred fists/Fists of fury is a great option.
It's better AoE DPS and proc rate than thunderclap, but slightly less single target DPS and proc rate.
But AoE is much more important in 1.04 so i'd recommend it.
Only reason it's not used instead of thunderclap is because the second punch in the combo does not proc cyclones.
So if for whatever reason you aren't using sweeping wind/cyclone, I'd recommend this over thunderclap.

When should I ditch Overawe?
Overawe is really amazing, 1.24-1.48x DPS around you.
And the answer is simple, if your DPS is already so amazing, any extra isn't actually being very useful.
You may consider circular breathing for more spirit regen, and thus mobility with tailwind.
There's no other situation where I'd consider dropping overawe. Not for backlash, hard target, etc.

Hammer Wind Monk
There are 2 skills that perform snapshots, Blinding flash and Sweeping wind.
Mantra of Conviction/Submission does not snapshot.

Blinding Flash before Sweeping wind.
This is the most common exploit, sweeping wind snapshots your weapon and crit damage.
Remember, blinding flash boosts your weapon damage for a short time..

Hammer & Flash Exploit
Blinding flash snapshots the base DPS of your active hand weapon, including average damage bonuses.
So like you have a sword, it says 800 damage per second at the top, that's the DPS number being snapshot.
Once again, average damage from jewelry is also snapshot.

Hammer & Wind Exploit
Sweeping wind captures a lot more than just base weapon damage, it captures almost everything.
Read septemvri's post for more details on what is capture:
http://us.battle.net...81225?page=3#58

I'm not going to explain this any further.
I feel like good builds should be earned.
So go figure the rest out and earn it for yourself.

Reference Video & Data:
here is a 40m xp/hr demonstration of the Hammer Wind Build on a variant of the Alkaizer Farming Run.
It wasn't completely optimal, so I recommend you try to do better.

All followers can be given leoric's ring of a puzzle ring, although I'm not a fan of either.

- Eirena the Enchantress
Overview:
20% weapon damage to basic attacks
+5% armor (~1.03x effective health for most monks)
+3% attack speed (goes away if enchantress dies)
2nd best magic find

Skills:
- Charm
Decent debuff, not much to say here
Careful, charmed enemies might run far far off and punch a goblin if there are no more enemies nearby
- Forceful Push
Followers have their damaged reduced by 5x.
But this does not apply to spells
so you can think of forceful push as a spell that does 5x of the enchantress's normal damage in AOE
this spell will buff eirena's single target DPS by a factor of ~1.5
If you want to make the best of this, give her a very high DPS 2H mace

- Reflect Missiles
Too situational and completely overshadowed by power armor
- Powered Armor
This is a passive that is always active, even if eirena is KO'd
IDK why it says enemies are slowed by 3% for 3 seconds, not sure what that means

- Disorient
Think of this as an extra blinding flash
but 3x longer cooldown, 1.5x less duration, doesn't lower accuracy on elite packs, etc.
- Erosion
3x shorter cooldown than disorient, and +15% damage to enemies is amazing
Remember how forceful push actually does 100% weapon damage not 20%?
Well erosion does 150% over 3 seconds, on 15 second cooldown instead of 10 second
so it's another +50% to enchantress DPS

- Focused Mind
+3% attack speed is amazing
too bad it stops working when the enchantress dies
- Mass Chickens
Hilarious, and situationally awesome.
But 60 second cooldown is way too much, and 3% attack speed is way too good

Itemization:
Grand Vizier is the best MF for Eirena, and solid DPS.
Blade of prophecy is a cheap alternative to the Grand Vizier.
MF is worthless beyond 80 paragon, so I recommend Maximus if you don't care for magic find.
For jewelry, focus on magic find, vitality, intelligence, and life %.
Once you have a very large health pool on your enchantress, all resist may be worth considering.

- Lyndon the Scoundrel
Overview:
40% weapon damage for basic attacks
Worst Magic find and no exceptional legendaries for him to use.
3% crit chance is A LOT of extra dps. Does not go away when scoundrel is KO'd
Can be itemized and skilled in a way such that he never attacks anything (ie goblins)
Seems to have faster movement speed than other followers, letting him kite effectively

Skills:
- Crippling Shot
Slow is nearly completely useless for monks, except against kiting enemies
I wouldn't recommend this.
- Poison Bolts
so +80% weapon damage every 6 seconds will increase Lyndon's DPS by about 25%

- Dirty Fighting
- Vanish
I like vanish, it will keep your scoundrel alive for very long even if you don't give him a lot of vitality.

- Powered Shot
Compare this to blinding flash
1.33x longer cooldown, 1.5x shorter duration, doesn't lower the accuracy of elites, etc.
I wouldn't use this skill.
- Multishot
The scoundrel now shoots a trident of arrows
Great for things that proc on hit, and it's a nice DPS increase.
I recommend this skill, just try to buy a weapon that compliments it.
Multishot has roughly halved proc rate

- Hysteria
Most monks have decent crit chance
So you will have hysteria active for 3 seconds out of every 7
This works out to about a 4-5% increase to DPS
there's a few nuances to this though
If you synchronize blinding flash and conviction and etc with hysteria, you get more mileage out of it.
Also, hysteria cannot activate if Lyndon is KO'd
- Anatomy
3% crit chance is worth about 6% dps to the typical thunderclap cyclone monk, which is a lot.
Most importantly this passive is active even when Lyndon is KO'd, extremely potent

Itemization:
Windforce can be used to stunlock Enemies.
Pus spitter creates pools that do 10k DPS and last 3 seconds, another decent choice.
Finally because scoundrel has high basic weapon damage and multishot, a raw DPS 2 hander is acceptable as well.

If you remove Lyndon's weapon and don't give him dirty fighting, he cannot attack
The only use I know for this though, is for a follower that doesn't attack goblins

- Kormac the Templar
Up to 310 life every 30 seconds in castable healing spells
155 life per second ontop of that
+12% spirit generation
Best magic find

Skills:
- Heal
4651 every 30 seconds is no more than 155 LPS though, it's not much but it isn't bad either
- Intervene
I feel like this is useless for a monk.
You're a better tank than he is

- Loyalty
155 LPS isn't much, but it's not bad
- Loyalty
What can you do with slowed enemies anyways?

- Charge
50% weapon damage is 2.5x the damage of his normal attacks
Compare the stun to blinding Flash
2x the cooldown, 1.5x less duration, doesn't reduce accuracy of elites, etc.
- Onslaught
Skills aren't affected by follower weapon damage reduction.
Depending on Kormac's attack speed, this will boost his DPS by about 50%

- Inspire
Not sure if this is still active when Kormac goes down
But +12% spirit generation is pretty damn nice
- Guardian
4651 healing every 30 seconds is very trivial
Do you really need kormac to come to your aid when you're low on health?
I think 12% spirit generation would go further than a stun when you're at low health

Itemization:
Kormac can get magic find on every item slot except the trinket.
He's the best magic find platform for this reason.
You can give him a lidless wall for extra attack speed and proc rate on his main weapon, + shield affix.
You can give him a skycutter to proc angelic allies, which hit for 10k DPS single target.
You can also give him lots of thorns and a band of hollow whispers for even more DPS.

I don't list all legendaries in here, particularly if I think they suck or are only for classes other than monks

Fist of Az'turrasq
http://us.battle.net...st-of-azturrasq
The best sword and board fist.
But since base DPS and attack speed aren't that useful on DW builds, this isn't cost effective for dual wielding.
Don't get me wrong, it'll still be solid, but not enough for the pricetag.
Stuns last 0.5 seconds on elites, although that's hardly the selling point of the Fist.
5% stun chance is worth about 5% single target damage mitigation with Thunderclap and decent IAS, just FYI.
As usual, be careful with such expensive fists.
It's possible that with all that money it'd cost to buy one, you could buy a rare that's just as effective for less.

Crystal Fist
http://us.battle.net...em/crystal-fist
Durability loss is worthless now that repair costs were reduced by 0.25x once again in 1.04
There's nothing inherently interesting about this fist, compare it with other rares when shopping.

Won Khim Lau
http://us.battle.net...em/won-khim-lau
This fist is used for 1 build only, and that's the Thunderclap/Cyclone build.
+5% added damage as lightning only affects minimum physical damage.
IE it benefits weapons with high minimum damage (IE maces/spears) and ones without elemental damage.
Added damage to lightning skills does as advertised.
A very solid fist weapon.

Sledge Fist
http://us.battle.net...tem/sledge-fist
30%-50% Stun Chance. *cough PVP*


Shenlong's
http://us.battle.net...entless-assault
http://us.battle.net...-fist-of-legend
Don't ask me how good balls of pure energy are, I'm not that rich.
But the other enchantments on these two fists easily make these the best DW fists in the game.
They're lightning enchanted so they pair well with won khim lau as well. Particularly Won Khim & Fist of Legend.
As always, double check the price and make sure you can't get a rare that's comparable.

Echoing Fury
http://us.battle.net...em/echoing-fury
Comparable to Fist of Az'turrasq in base DPS, making it a solid sword and board weapon.
The extra attacks per second apply to both weapons, before IAS is applied, Very potent.
The chance to fear on hit is potentially very annoying to deal with, even with thunderclap though.
Contrary to popular belief, the fear distance is very huge, and enemies can run very far after being feared.
This is extremely annoying, although many smaller enemies will die before they can run away, even after fear.
Aside from the fear, this weapon is an otherwise BIS dual wield weapon.

Sever
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/sever
This item deals massive critical hits on kill.
Combined with lifesteal, this sword will heal over 15k per kill.

Skorn
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/skorn
With such massive dex and crit damage, and a socket, it's easy to see why this is considered a BIS 2 hander.
Not too much to say about it, it's really solid all around

Schaefers's Hammer
http://us.battle.net...haeferss-hammer
2 handed Won Khim Lau with an lightning enchantment
Decent and cheap for thunderclap/cyclone monks, but not great. The enchantment might be interesting for followers.
With slow attack speed and only 1 spare affix, you'll either lack healing from LoH or DPS from crit damage.
Lightning enchantment has awkward synergy with monks because of high dodge.
The shield shocks once per second for 10k-40k damage, this seems to be independent of your DPS
Followers can use the lightning shield, and it deals the full 10k-40k damage when on a follower.
The shield lasts 5 seconds and the duration can be refreshed even while it's active.

Maximus
http://us.battle.net...en/item/maximus
Works on your follower at full effectiveness
Demon has an attack speed of 1.0 and hits 36k's. BIS enchantress weapon IMO.

Flying Dragon
http://us.battle.net...m/flying-dragon
Definitely a great 2 hander, but the question is how great.
The 2x boost lasts for 3 seconds, and I've found the proc rate to be much less than 5%

Mempo of Twilight
http://us.battle.net...mpo-of-twilight
Contrary to the game guide, this helmet does not provide 170-200 dex by default.
Without it, this helmet is not quite the beast you might believe it to be.
Still solid, but I'd rather have a well rolled rare helm for a fraction of the price.

Andariel's Visage
http://us.battle.net...ndariels-visage
WIth crit chance and IAS, it's a very solid DPS helm, even if you aren't poison resist.
Poison novas deal ~11k damage in the initial blast and another 11k over 3 seconds.
You can think of it as equivalent to 4000-8000 thorns.
The extra damage from fire is definitely a source of concern, but does not break the helmet.
And try to keep in mind that you're sacrificing a slot that can be used for spirit regen.

Helm of Command
http://us.battle.net...helm-of-command
The Sword and Boarder's Helm because of the block chance.
It was formerly popular in 1.03, but has much fewer followers due to less enemy DPS in 1.04

Inna's Set
Inna's Set Bonus
130 dex is a very solid bonus many monks will want.
0.33 spirit regen is nice although hard to notice.
The sweeping wind bonus is critical to several sweeping wind exploits.
Those who don't intend to use these exploits need not consider this set.

Inna's Radiance
http://us.battle.net.../innas-radiance
The only spirit stone that can roll over 4.5% crit chance, it's a BIS helmet for monks.
The game guide is misleading and this spirit stone cannot roll over near 300 dex.
IMO this is one of the better choices for Inna's set bonuses.

Inna's Favor
http://us.battle.net...tem/innas-favor
Holy damage is added to minimum physical damage bonuses.
DPS and defense wise this belt is extremely sub par.
Only consider it for the set bonus.

Inna's Temperance
http://us.battle.net...nnas-temperance
Popular for being movement speed pants.
Amazing offensive pants, better near the endgame where you don't need defense as much.

Inna's Vast Expanse
http://us.battle.net...as-vast-expanse
Dex can only roll up to 195 contrary to the game guide
It also comes with 3 sockets
This chest is fairly average-ish, and should only be considered for completing set bonuses.

Inna's Reach
http://us.battle.net...tem/innas-reach
Good base damage, but affixes kinda suck.
Personally wouldn't be my choice for a 2 hander since I'd want high LoH.
And a LoH Inna's reach would probably cost a fortune.

Vile Ward
http://us.battle.net.../item/vile-ward
The best source of dex on shoulders, BIS if you want dex. I prefer rare shoulders as vit/life sinks though.
I've yet to find a pair of vile wards that are remotely cost effective compared to rare shoulders.

Seven Sins
http://us.battle.net...cipe/seven-sins
Not much better rare shoulders, and only useful for arcane monks.

Tyrael's Might
http://us.battle.net...m/tyraels-might
Somewhat worth considering for the movement speed bonus.
But I think most monks will lean towards inna's temperance for more movement speed.

Cindercoat
http://us.battle.net...item/cindercoat
This chest piece can roll a secondary elemental resist.
Most notably, you could get a cindercoat with 100 fire resistance and 50 all resistance, huge.
Very solid as a mid game chest armor that comes at a reasonable price.

Blackthorne's Set
Blackthorne Set Bonus
100 vit is a bit weak for an initial set bonus
The extra and reduced damage from elites is nice but also not great
GF and MF are outdated with paragon.
Don't get me wrong, the set bonus is nice, but it's ever so slightly sub par in 1.04

Blackthorne's Surcoat
http://us.battle.net...thornes-surcoat
Contrary to the game guide, this item comes with 3 sockets
As it is, this surcoat isn't much better than rares. But it's not much worse either.
It's basically a very expensive way to stack more set bonus.

Blackthorne's Duncraig Cross
http://us.battle.net...-duncraig-cross
LoH Amulets are great for DW builds, but the enchantments on here aren't anything you can't get on rares.
But due to the hefty pricetag, I'd rather go for a rare amulet or another legendary.
Once again, a very expensive way to stack more set bonus.

Blackthorne's Jousting Mail
http://us.battle.net...s-jousting-mail
Notable for being LoH Pants.
With only 2 random enchanments left, you'll want some resist and sockets.
But YET again, price is a huge problem. Maybe the LoH will make up for it.
Once again, you can probably get more cost effective rares.

Blackthorne's Spurs
http://us.battle.net...ckthornes-spurs
Aside from movement speed, the enchantments aren't very desirable for boots.
Not good boots unless well rolled.

Blackthorne's Notched Belt
http://us.battle.net...es-notched-belt
Suffers from the same issues as the boot, other than the dex nothing else is very desirable.

Lacuni Prowlers
http://us.battle.net...lacuni-prowlers
The DPS potential of these bracers give them to potential to be BIS.
the movement speed is nice too.
A set of bracers that are rolled well enough to be a boost to your DPS will inevitably cost a fortune.

Strongarm Bracers
http://us.battle.net...rongarm-bracers
The enchantments are solid, but well rolled bracers probably cost too much to be justified.
Also I find knockback to be annoying on monks.

Tasker and Theo
http://us.battle.net...tasker-and-theo
Normal gloves can roll up to 300 dex.
The socket may be unique but it isn't enough to make up for the lackluster stat affix and only 2 random enchants.

Gladiator Gloves
http://us.battle.net...iator-gauntlets
LoH is nice and unique, but attack speed gives LoH too, so I'd rather have rare gloves.

Sage's Set
The set bonus is mediocre, and probably not worth aiming for.

Sage's Gesture
http://us.battle.net...ipe/sages-grasp
3 very solid enchantments and still 3 random enchantments to spare.
Since they're blacksmithed, they're a good glove to keep an eye out for when shopping.
Rare gloves still have potential to be better, but sage's are consistently good.

Sage's Journey
http://us.battle.net...e/sages-seekers
2 good affixes and 2 random affixes comes out to only 5 affixes total.
Not quite as good as Sage's Gesture, but still worth keeping an eye out for.
Once again, rares very much have the potential of being better. Moreso in the case of the boots than the gloves.

Sage's Orbit
http://us.battle.net...pe/sages-stones
armor is okay, magic find isn't as useful anymore, reduced control duration sucks.
The weakest piece in the set.

String of Ears
http://us.battle.net.../string-of-ears
Some people swear by this, some people know better.
Keep in mind that for most monks, 100 resist means 10% less damage from all sources.
Most string of ear rolls aren't going to be very good.
And extremely well rolled rare belts will be better.

Depth Diggers
http://us.battle.net...m/depth-diggers
With paragon out, MF and GF aren't that useful anymore.
So my problem with depth diggers is a 6 affix rare could be better.

Gehennas
http://us.battle.net...recipe/gehennas
Gehennas have the same problem as depth diggers, but as a blacksmith item you'll find more on the AH.
So chances are you'll find a well rolled one on the AH.

Ice Climbers
http://us.battle.net...em/ice-climbers
Solid enchantments and a whopping 3 random enchants to spare.
Very good boots, just make sure you find a good roll and a good price.

Fire Walkers
http://us.battle.net...em/fire-walkers
I've heard reports saying the molten ticks for anywhere between 2k-4k damage.
Either way the damage is small, as is the dex on the firewalkers.
So when you combine the molten and the low dex, you'll get that offensively these boots are about as good
as a pair of rare boots that rolled ~250 dex.
Only consider these boots if you're fire resistance.
And even so, don't expect BIS.

Xephirian Amulet
http://us.battle.net...ephirian-amulet
Lots of really weird and mediocre enchantments, not a good amulet.

Mara's Kaleidoscope
http://us.battle.net...as-kaleidoscope
Too few enchantments, and no random affixes means chances are these amulets all suck.

The Star of Azkaranth
http://us.battle.net...ar-of-azkaranth
Why exactly are there so many junky amulets?

Ouroboros
http://us.battle.net.../item/ouroboros
dex? LoH? damage? crit chance? sign me up!
Just keep in mind that rares can roll better than Ouroboros.

Unity
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/unity
For some reason this item doesn't exist in game yet. So no comment until then

Stone of Jordan
http://us.battle.net...stone-of-jordan
Mostly interesting for the spirit regen, which is very nice when you need to travel a map quickly.
DPS wise I think this ring is sub par, 20%-30% isn't much better than many rings, and it's only for elites.

Oculus Ring
http://us.battle.net...tem/oculus-ring
The stats are solid, but not stuff I look for on rings.
And with only one random affix slot, I'd mark this ring off as average-ish.

Skull Grasp
http://us.battle.net...tem/skull-grasp
Legacy skull grasps are better, 1.04 skull grasps are a shadow of what they used to be.
They're solid, but i wouldn't search for them over rare rings.

Hierophant's Seal
http://us.battle.net...ierophants-seal
Same issue as the Oculus ring. affixes are decent, but only 1 random enchant.
I'd probably would prefer a rare ring.

Legacy of Wicked Dreams
No info on the DPS of the skeleton summoned.
Followers cannot benefit from this set bonus.

The Wailing Host
http://us.battle.net...he-wailing-host
4.5% crit chance is great for rings, other enchants are good too.
Just be careful with the price, there are probably better rare rings out there.

Littany of the Undaunted
http://us.battle.net...f-the-undaunted
4.5% crit chance is high for rings, other enchants are great too.
Just be careful with the price, there are probably better rare rings out there.

Natalya's Reflection
http://us.battle.net...lyas-reflection
I'm listing this in place of natalya's set.
The ring is extremely expensive, mostly because of demon hunters.
With 3 random affixes, attack speed, and good dex, this could very roll BIS for monks.
More importantly, there's a set bonus of a whopping 7% crit chance.
I recommend you pair this with natalya's boots
I don't think the helmet is worth the extra 130 dex though.
Don't get the boots on their own, they aren't good enough on their own.

Don't confuse this with the old natalya's set.