9 replies to this topic

[inkcheese]

Hi doods and other prinnies! I am currently building up a PureDodge Backlash Monk. It is not a highpowered DPS build but it is well known. However, I am a sucker for unorthodox, nonmainstream, out of this world builds, and since I main a monk I'd like to know if you doods have concocted suboptimal builds that break away from the typical TR build, Thunderclap Overawe builds.

I'm not really sure if other people have thought of this before.

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TSUNAMI SLEDGEFIST

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As the name suggest, this build revolves around having a Sledgefist in your offhand and utilizing its ridiculously high stun proc rate, covering a wide area and stunlocking all enemies. The build works somewhat like a CMWW Wizard build so in essence you'd need stupid amounts of IAS but you don't really need critchance. Be reminded that Sledgefist has crappy DPS, and will most likely cut your DPS by more than half for the price of efficient (lol) crowd control. You can think of it as putting on a shield on your offhand except you get no armor.

NOTE!!!! With the impending change for lower legendary items to drop at higher levels, this build may very well be viable in the damage department! Imagine a 900-1k DPS Sledgefist!

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Skillset

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Primary: Crippling Wave Tsunami

Crippling Wave with the Tsunami rune covers the most area among all other Spirit Generators you have, a whole 17 yards. This will cover about a third of your (my) screen allowing you to lockdown a big chunk of enemies. The IAS slow helps delay attackers in the case they don't get stunned and eventually stun them while their in the middle of their attack sequence before they even land the hit. The movement slow also helps keep elites at bay and helps keep ranged enemies within your range.

Alternatives:

Deadly Reach Scattered Blows - First two strike shave less AoE but more proc rate. The third strike has slightly less area than Tsunami's but does more damage and equal proc rate. If you want more damage out of the build, this is the best alternartive.

Deadly Reach Piercing Trident - Has wider range in front of you but lacks Crippling Wave's slow.

Other Crippling Wave Runes - Use Mangle if you want more DPS, Breaking Tide when in a party, but be reminded that these have less range than Tsunami.

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Secondary: Way of the Hundred Fists Blazing Fists

If your gear-based IAS isn't enough or you just want more IAS, WotHF Blazing Fists is the way to go. The additional 15% IAS will help you keep your Tsunami proc'ing. It also becomes the better DPS when your down to 1 enemy but be aware of its knockback; it may knock enemies out of range.

Alternatives:

Fist of Thunder Quickening - This is an option for those who want to heavily spam their stunning Spirit spenders like Wave of Light Blinding Light. It has a solid proc rate, making it great for dealing with small mob sizes, bosses and elites.

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Mantra: Mantra of Conviction Submission

MoC works well for this build as with almost any other build. Submission provides an independent source of DPS and ticks as fast as you can attack. You can still abuse the 3sec activation bonus and it should make killing mobs faster.

Alternatives:

Mantra of Healing Runes - Sustenance or Boon Inspiration are good if you want more Life sustainability, Circular Breathing if you expect to use Spirit heavy skills and not opt to use Fist of Thunder Quickening; Time of Need if you have trouble with the lasers and green pools.

Mantra of Conviction Runes - MoC works with any build (I think its broken). Overawe if you still have dreams in killing quick, Reclamation if you need more survival.

Mantra of Retribution Transgression - If you opt for more IAS. Base Mantra does zilch though.

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Stun Skill Options:

Skill stun procs and item stun procs are mutually exclusive so don't expect 100% stun with each use of any of these skills other than Pandemonium.

Lashing Tail Kick Scorpion Sting
Has a built in 50% chance to stun all enemies directly in front of you, no cooldown for burst damage, no knockback.

Wave of Light Blinding Light
Insane amount of burst damage and stuns for a considerably long time (3 seconds). The problem is it costs a lot of Spirit and to make good use of its chance to stun you have to up your Crit Chance. The proc rate of Wave of Light is around 0.2 but a 30% critical hit chance should be good enough.

Dashing Strike Flying Side Kick
Provides more mobility so you can get closer to those running chicken range attackers and escape from dire situations. Has 60% chance to stun.

Seven Sided Strike Pandemonium
Incredible amount of burst damage and lengthy duration of stun (7 seconds). Probably the best for a 1 on 1 but you have to wait for the cooldown.

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Other Skills:

For other skills go for independent source of DPS. Sweeping Wind is always good. Mystic Ally can help with further crowd control in addition to its DPS. Buffs from Breath of Life Blazing Wrath, Blinding Flash Faith in the Light or debuff from Explosive Palm Flesh is Weak also make up for your stupidly low DPS.

For more AoE for your stun, you can use Cyclone Strike to bring enemies within range of your Tsunami but have a measly 0.125 proc rate. SSS Fulminating Onslaught is another good option. Bells are also good especially the Blinding Light rune if you've got tons of critchance and favorable Spirit generation.

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Passives:

There isn't really much to say about passives. Until the day low Spirit spending Monks get better offensive passives, go with the standard One With Everything and Seize the Initiative. If you're going with Blazing Fists as a secondary, pick Combination Strike to further upsize your tiny DPS, otherwise pickup some of the Spirit generating skills to allow you to spam your Spirit Spenders efficiently.

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Gear

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Know that in order to stun lock you need %stun. Critchance is unecessary unless your going for Blinding Bells. Get IAS in everything you can (If you're really crazy and want to optimize this build). Just remember to get Dex, Vit, LoH and Life% and/or Resists where possible.

Head: Prioritize IAS. Tzo Krin is economical, Mempo is better.
Gloves: Get IAS and %stun to further increase your chances in locking your enemies.
Chest: If you're crazy, get a Tal Rasha with dex. More IAS!
Bracers: Lacuni's for more IAS.
Belt: Witching Hour for IAS if you can afford it.
Rings/Ammy: As usual go for IAS. In addition get more Mix Max damage to make up for having Sledgefist in your offhand. Get LoH for sustainability.
Main Hand: Get ridiculously high DPS as this will be your main source of damage, Ruby socket if you can afford it. Get IAS, LoH and if possible additional %stun. Use a dagger if possible for high base IAS.
Offhand: Sledgefist. Aim for 45 or higher %stun. You really don't need anything else for this. Maybe IAS or a Ruby socket but it's really up to you.

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Followers

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Choosing your follower really depends on what other skills you use outside of your core skill Tsunami. Gear them up with IAS and %stun too if you want.

Templar: If you're going for heavy Spirit spending, pick up the Templar for increased Spirit generation. He also has some crowd control skills, Taunt and Charge.

Scoundrel: Use when going for Blinding Light for more critchance. He also has Dirty Fighting and Power Shot to add to your crowd control. You can use Strafe with conjunction with Cold weapons to slow enemies if you want more area control.

Enchantress: If you want more IAS or make up for your lack thereof. Pickup Charm and Mass Control for crowd control. Use Disorient for more crowd control or Erosion for more DPS. Avoid Forceful Push because it can knock enemies out of your control range.

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Here are a few versions of the build I am moving back and forth from, do note that this builds are for lower MPs. You may not want to lose your Sweeping Wind for higher MPs but I'm not sure because I haven't tried yet. I don't have the proper gear to take on higher MPs as of the moment.


Tsunami Sledgefist Original
http://us.battle.net...gZSk!XUg!YZaYcc

You can swap out Tsunami for Scatter Blows. Replace Combination Strike for Chant of Resonance or Blazing Fists for Quickening if you want to abuse LTK.


Tsunami Sledgefist ver Blinding Light
http://us.battle.net...gXek!XUg!YYabYc

You can swap out Tsunami for Scatter Blows. Replace Combination Strike for Exalted Soul or Blazing Fists for Quickening if you want to abuse Blinding Light. Transcendence is also a good option if your lacking life sustaining gear.

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That's about it for this build. I'd like to start a thread where you can share your suboptimal/wack job monk builds that don't use mainstream core skills or don't really need expensive gear. I hope you guys also share your wacky builds!

Thanks to metalsvinet for reminding me about Followers.
Thanks to rathgood for MP10 test.

Edited by inkcheese, 12 March 2013 - 12:26 AM.

[metalsvinet]

Looks like good fun, might give it a try. Have a socketed sledgefist lying around, but never really got to use it. Guess a ruby would be best if you skip the cc.

Edit: You could use the scoundrel with a buriza to help keeping the monsters cool.

Edited by metalsvinet, 26 February 2013 - 08:58 AM.

[inkcheese]

I bought my Sledgefist on a stupid whim off the AH for 100k. I picked up a legacy one though (salvaged it).

I updated the 1st post with your suggestion. I totally forgot the followers.Thanks!

[Küken]

Just tried it, and it doesn't seem to work at all. The stun animation appears, and the first few times the mobs are stunned normally. But then the mobs just run around doing their business again with the stun animation on their heads, probably the cc-stacking mechanics kicking in.

Does this get fixed once I get more ias? Because, well, the stun seems to proc quite often already. I go in -> almost everyone is stunned immediately. Stuns keep proccing -> noone is stunned anymore. Can you actually keep a group of enemies in stunlock for a long time?

[inkcheese]

That is right the cc stack mechanics kick in reducing your stun duration to 0 after a certain number of hits after which it resets back to normal duration. Slow stacks differently so I believe it doesn't reduce your stun duration. Also, you can easily mistake CW's "cripple" for a stun because they share the same animation. You need a good amount of IAS to make this work I got about 2.50 attack speed when buffed with just Blazing Fists at full stack.

Tsunami's proc is 0.75,0.75,0.35, so with 50%stun from Sledgefist that's 37.5% for the first two strikes and 17.5% with the third. Of course since your %stun is high your stun durations will go down really fast.

I've run this build through lower MPs in Act 3 and it worked fine. Although I compare this build to CMWW it doesn't play exactly like it because your attacks may fail to stun unlike Frost Nova which will always proc 100%freeze. I'm still testing out the build so I can't say exactly what it will be the most optimal setup in terms of skills.

Edited by inkcheese, 26 February 2013 - 04:57 PM.

[rathgood]

Tried a version of the build out on MP10 and a few notes.

- From a DPS POV Rubies are the way to go with a socketed Sledge Fist.  Tossed a +60/60 ruby into one I had and it gained over 100 DPS.  The +130/+130 would push an average Sledge fist into the 400 DPS range.  This tested better than a similar crit damage % gem.
- 1k+ Life on Hit is mandatory  Damage comes in chunks and you need to regain whats lost, Life Steal will not work as your damage is low.
- Go with Scorpion Sting as your spirit spender.
- stick with Mantra of Healing or Conviction, the AS% from transgression is not worth the damage/survivability of the others.

Edited by rathgood, 27 February 2013 - 12:10 AM.

[inkcheese]

rathgood, on 27 February 2013 - 12:09 AM, said:

Tried a version of the build out on MP10 and a few notes.

- From a DPS POV Rubies are the way to go with a socketed Sledge Fist.  Tossed a +60/60 ruby into one I had and it gained over 100 DPS.  The +130/+130 would push an average Sledge fist into the 400 DPS range.  This tested better than a similar crit damage % gem.
- 1k+ Life on Hit is mandatory  Damage comes in chunks and you need to regain whats lost, Life Steal will not work as your damage is low.
- Go with Scorpion Sting as your spirit spender.
- stick with Mantra of Healing or Conviction, the AS% from transgression is not worth the damage/survivability of the others.

I was able to test some stuff before maintenance and I agree that Rubies are far better due to the low DPS of Sledgefist. I also agree that Transgression just doesn't cut it. The base effect is a total waste so going for MoH or MoC variants are far better.

I haven't tried MPs passed MP5 so I can't really confirm the 1k LoH.


Thanks for the input rathgood.

[inkcheese]

Hi guys! With the impending changes to lower level Legendary items, do you think this build will be even more viable in the damage department?

[Ayeri]

Considering there's no real information about the implementation of that "feature", neither when we'll have to expect it, nor how exactly they're going to do it, there's just no way to tell really.

There's a good chance this specific weapon would work out really well when combined with high-ilvl stats, but then there's a good chance it'll get adjusted to stay on par with other weapons.

Just a little too soon to get into some serious thinking-mood, I'd say.

[inkcheese]

Ayeri, on 10 March 2013 - 11:52 AM, said:

Considering there's no real information about the implementation of that "feature", neither when we'll have to expect it, nor how exactly they're going to do it, there's just no way to tell really.

There's a good chance this specific weapon would work out really well when combined with high-ilvl stats, but then there's a good chance it'll get adjusted to stay on par with other weapons.

Just a little too soon to get into some serious thinking-mood, I'd say.

You have a point. Though, as long as it retains its high Stun chance, then the core of the build will remain unhampered. If ever there would be a trade off for damage vs stun, calculating a sweet spot would be a welcome challenge for me.