Build Guide
Hello, DatModz here with the updated Season 3 ZDPS Leech Monk, that is able to achieve 50B+ XP/Hour and is virtually unkillable in Greater Rift 35-55!
Basics
- MAX your Experience Gain on your Gear!
- Maintain your Pools of Reflection Buff(25% more XP), disappears if you die
- MAX CDR so you can keep up your debuffs and have 100% Ephiphany, use this CDR Calculator
- Socket Gem of Ease into one of your Weapons
- Activate Pylons for the Free Elite Granted by your Nemesis Bracers
- Hellfire Rings are crafted item that drop obtained by completing Uber Bosses.
- Your Role: Group up monsters for your party and keep them alive! You do little damage yourself, but increase your groups damage a bunch! Make sure to keep auto-attacking to maintain your Crippling Wave Debuff(10% more damage done) and keep Inner Sanctuary:Forbidden Palace Active(30% more damage done) ,Activate your Mantra at least every 2.99s (20% more damage done) & group up mobs with Cyclone Strike:Imposion (Best way to apply 10% damage buff from your Toxin Gem procs from all attacks, even Hellfire Ring Lava Pools)
Stat Priority
- Helmet - Socket, Vitality, Life %, Dexterity Secondary Attributes - Stacking Resist, Make sure the roll on your Leoric's Crown is as close to 100% as possible for MAX Leech)
- Shoulders - Dexterity, Cool Down Reduction Vitality, All Resist Secondary Attributes - Monster Kill Grant +xxx Experience
- Chest - 3xSocket, Vitality, Dexterity, Life % or Reduction from Elites Secondary Attributes - Stacking Resist, Monster Kill Grant +xxx Experience
- Gloves - Cooldown Reduction, Vitality, Dexterity, Resource Cost Reduction Secondary Attributes - Stacking Resist, Monster Kill Grant +xxx Experience
- Bracers - Vitality, Dexterity, Life on Hit, Armor Secondary Attributes - Stacking Resist
- Belt - Cool Down Reduction, Dexterity, Vitality, Armor Secondary Attributes - Stacking Resist, Monster Kill Grant +xxx Experience
- Pants - Socket, Vitality, Dexterity, Armor Secondary Attributes - Stacking Resist, Monster Kill Grant +xxx Experience
- Boots - Vitality, Dexterity, Movement Speed, Armor Secondary Attributes - Stacking Resist, Monster Kill Grant +xxx Experience
- Amulet - Socket, Cooldown Reduction, Vitality, Dexterity Secondary Attributes - Stacking Resist
- Rings - Socket, Cooldown Reduction, Vitality, Dexterity Secondary Attributes - Stacking Resist & (Make sure the %XP Bonus on your Leroics(20-30%) is as close to MAX as possible.
- Weapons - Cooldown Reduction, Socket, Vitality & Dexterity Secondary Attributes - Monster Kill Grant +xxx Experience
Alternative Setups
- Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard - If you are having survivability problems and are constantly dropping your Pools of Reflection(25% bonus XP gain), drop Gem of Efficacious Toxin for this, then prioritize life per second on gear over armor.
- Strongarm Bracers - Can use as a alternative if you don't have Nemesis Bracers or something else in your group is wearing the, will increase the damage done to mobs by 20-30% for 5 seconds that are hit by a knockback ie. Cyclone Strike
- Near Death Experience - If you are playing hardcore or are constantly dying, swap out Chant of Resonance for NDE.
- Mantra of Salvation:Agility - If your group is survivability problems, drop Mantra of Conviction and run this instead -20% damage and movement speed for 40% All Resist + 35% Dodge. You do 0 Damage when you are Dead!
if you have any questions/suggestions feel free to leave a comment below or you can ask me Live @ twitch.tv/datmodz! Good Luck and Happy Farming in Season 3!
I'm really happy there is another viable build for Monk, I've been playing WD all season because I'm not a fan of the Dashing strike build.
Is this viable for someone who has no clan to play with? I mean, if I fire up public greater rift games, will I be happy with the results with this build ?
Been using a similar setup before your guide for leeching xp. In the absence of in-geom, ancient azurewrath with 21% freeze chance worked out really well. I'm also ready to go and blast some grifts with my newly obtained ancient sledge fist. The stun % is just so sweet on it. By the way it's quite tough to maintain epiphany with desert shroud at all times with lower cdr than 60-70%. But spirit guards easily carry me over 50+ Grifts.
Been playing this all day in public greater rift games. Pretty much exactly as the guide recommends, gearing wise... got up to a 45 down, but it was really rough. I'm thinking that for 42+, I'm swapping nemesis bracers out for spirit guards, the survivability is incomparable. I've got 255k dps and people love me in their group! Especially the 99 million barbarians playing this season, nice tight groups for whirlwind really helps.
A lot depends on how good your groupmates are. I got in a few groups with wet-noodle dps-ers and we struggled, I woulda been better off with my 1.3 mil dps dash set in those cases. But when I had an elite damage dealer with me, the build rolled in the xp. (5 levels in one grift). Obviously the build is better with a group of people you know and who know you're leeching and not contributing dps up front. Nobody had an issue playing today but I could see it come up.
I'm using a Hellfire Amulet with CDR, Vit, and a socket, and Fleet Footed passive, not sure if that's the one I want but it works so far...Near Death Experience might be a better passive. Not sure on this just yet.
I agree with DatModz, get that Goguk to 50 if you can, I had my stacks fall off a few times due to bad RNG (mine is level 33, about an 85% proc chance)
DatModz, , how do you think Gungdo Gear and Exploding Palm - The Flesh is Weak would perform? I would probably drop dashing strike to fit EP in.
Edit : What are your thoughts on forgoing Leoric's Signet (yes I know this cuts into the xp) for a RoRG, and freeing up your offhand weapon (for azurewrath or sledge fist) And one of your cain's pieces? Or alternatively, using sunwuko for some more dps (shoulders, gloves, amulet)
For groups with ranged dps that tends to go squish, I've been changing the rune on Mantra of Conviction from Annhiliate to Intimidation. It's a decent compromise that seems to help more than some extra move speed.
Thank you for this build, by the way. I'm a fan.
Pretty much me. With lower CDR spirit bracers are irreplaceable. Anyways you never want nemesis bracers on your zDps monk for an obvious reasons: 1. They speed up the rift, resulting in lower XP income for your leech build. 2. If you take pylon when there is already a pack or two of blues/yellows, you risk in wiping the group. 3. Taking pylon during rift guardian over complicates the situation. It's rather best to run additional survivability over speed if you are leeching. Let support crusaders run nemesis bracers or if you are in a group that really, really wants for you to use them.
To @DatModz
I don't really think Gogok of swiftness is that good for this build when you are already running an in-geom. Since you will have more than enough CDR for your epiphany and dashes between elite packs and high density of white mobs. I would rather take that sweet Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard to increase my survivability even further for Grifts runs. (Just my opinion.)
Also you could add String of Ears as adequate belt. 20-30% melee damage reduction works wonders.
Awesome build / gear advices, but as others have stated, Spirit Guards is a must for GR42+, pretty much hard to survive without its 30%+ dmg reduction.
So, I did get booted from a couple of public Greater Rift games for my "low dps". It's just something to be aware of if you're like me and you don't usually run with a set group. I mean really, they could at least just ask you to put on a dps set, which I have.
Otherwise, yeah, I'm definitely swapping my Nemesis Bracers out for Spirit Guards. Since you're pretty much just always spamming your generator, it makes a whole lot of sense.
What do you guys think about swapping Dashing Strike for Exploding Palm - The Flesh is Weak?
Edit : I also think Overwhelming Desire deserves a mention in the amulet spot. 35% more damage against enemies you happen to charm , plus it comes with guaranteed CDR, seems just like what this build is looking for.
Outstanding! Thanks a bunch, works as defined! I don't have the rings yet, so I am using my FnR which are already rolled for cdr for my dw ds monk. a bit less XP, but it's still tonnes per grift. Can pull whole rooms of mobs with elites, no issues staying alive, or keeping them grouped in sanctuary. Well done!
btw - i am using the spirit guards, forgot to mention. Have done up to 48 with it so far, just doing public, will do 50s when my friends are on tomorrow. I'd highly recommend announcing you are zdps for the dtards to process.
They are not a must, I run GR 46+ Speed Farm Runs and pretty much never die. You are missing other component to the build if you are forced to use spirit guards!
The only problem with this build is the complaints received by other players in your group that you are not contributing enough to the group to be of much use especially at end game with the rift guardian. These folks much prefer the crowd control skills of a sader or witch doctor. By the way, has anyone noticed that there are no monks listed in the 3 and 4 player leaderboards? Leads me to conclude that the monk still has some tweaking improvements due to it's skills and sets.
Does this still work?