Build Guide
Hey boyz! Season One & Two - Rank 1 monk (world) here!
In my opinion/experience this build is currently one of the strongest possible monk setups for competitive group greater rift laddering & XP farming.
Please note: I always keep my diablo fans guides up to date and will be making adjustments to the guide whenever there is a shift in endgame meta! so be sure to check back, and vote on the guide!
Raz9r's Math:
Monk generator attacks only lower their FPA (Frames per Attack) at certain attack speed breakpoints. You can look these up using d3planner.com. The fewer frames you need to cast any sequence of either FoT or WothF, the more Flying Dragon uptime you get.
With the recommended attack speed you have slightly more than 90% Flying Dragon uptime, which is about as good as it gets. If you have any more than 24% IAS on your gear (3% Enchantress, 3x 7% IAS rolls), you get above the 5.0 APS cap when Flying Dragon is active, thus diminishing the value of all other IAS as long as Flying Dragon is active (which is more than 90% of the time)
Basic game-play strategy:- Use Breath of heaven on CD
- Use Dash on a monster every 4 seconds
- Apply/Maintain static Discharge debuff on monsters with FoT
- Attack with WoTF during static discharge debuff (only in AoE, otherwise just attack with FoT for single target)
- Use desert shroud or serenity when required
- Use mantra active when required
Skill variations:- Serenity - Ascension (alternative to Desert shroud)
- Dashing Strike - Blinding speed (for HC or PE setups)
Legendary Gem variations:- Pain Enhancer - Swap out Bane of the trapped and drop all IAS off gear etc. (can also replace stricken if you are non-seasonal)
Hellfire Passive/Passive variations in order of power:- Exalted Soul (Max DPS)
- Near Death Experience (not recommended, good for HC)
- Beacon of Ytar (if you do not have enough IAS to maintain spirit)
Stat Priority:- Helm: 30% Lightning>Crit>Dex>Vit
- Shoulders: Dex>Vit>15% life
- Torso: x3 Sockets>15% Life
- Legs: x2 Sockets
- Gloves: Crit>CHD>Attack Speed
- Rings: Socket>Attack Speed>Crit>CHD
- Waist: 15% Life>15% FoT Dmg
- Wrist: 20% Lightning damage>Crit
- Boots: 12% Movement speed
- Amulet: Socket>20% Lightning damage>Crit>ChD
- Weapon: Vit=Life on Hit
you want dex/secondary resist on all your pieces(where possible)
People WITHOUT shenlongs fists:Do not attempt the build without shenlongs set (you will do virtually no damage)
FAQ:
Q: Does Focus+Restraint snapshot?
A: No, they are both dynamic buffs.
Q: Why am i getting instantly killed gr60+?
A: Make sure your stats look something like this: 1200+ All resistance | 16,000+ Armour | 500,000+ Health.
Q: What gem should i put in my helmet socket?
A: Red gem for XP, Purple for Pushing!
Q: What normal gems should i put in my chest/pants?
A: Emeralds (Diamonds if you're HC).
If you liked the guide, then come follow my stream @ >>> www.twitch.tv/quin69 <<< for more monk action! When i go live, Any questions that you guys have - i can answer for you live on stream! I will also be posting YouTube guides on my twitch channel soon!
Be sure to check back on the guide every now and then! as i am always making minor changes.
Note: I will try answer as many questions as i can! and will read all of your posts, but obviously doing a gear-check for each one of you bros or re-answering the same question over and over will take all day 
If you want a direct answer come follow the stream <3
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Posted Oct 5, 2015THANK YOU!!!
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Posted Oct 5, 2015wtf poison on gloves
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Posted Oct 5, 2015Where are the promised spreadsheets? :<
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Posted Oct 5, 2015I'm wondering how the f*ck people are managing to keep this build alive without proper CDR. I've reached 66 solo with U6 and I never had a problem with survivability, only with grifts densities, but with this build I'm getting crushed when Epiphany is off (which is a long time due to no CDR). It is worth to mention that I don't have a String of Ears, but the belt I'm currently using is ancient with Dex, Vit, Ar and Life% so I believe that the 25-30% melee reduction from String won't make THAT huge difference by itself.
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Posted Oct 5, 2015@Deitri Do you have lph on both weapons and 90% fdragon uptime ?
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Posted Oct 5, 2015Now I do have a question on some of these guides for this build some of them say only use Way of the Hundred fist because of the stacking 60% buff you get for dmg never stops stacking and others say just use Fist of Thunder. Can anyone validate this for me?
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Posted Oct 5, 2015@kurtinator Not LPH but Vit, and the guide says LPH = Vit, so I believe I shouldn't mind much about this...?
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Posted Oct 6, 2015What about using Inner Sanctuary FP instead of serenity or desert shroud. Will come back relatively quick, offers 55% damage reduction and moe damage as well. I know you have to stand in it, but we are looking for density packs anyway and have dash.
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Posted Oct 6, 2015-
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Posted Oct 6, 2015There is a chinese guy who finished g 75 without cdr using serenity instead of epiphany.i ve finished gr 60 with gears that dont have the exact stats.need 2.0 as and + 75m toughness and +5m healing with enough res.gonna send u the link the guy created in d3planner.and believe me this build is more enjoyable than uliana build.
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Posted Oct 6, 2015So how much AS do we need? I have 7% on Fist and 7% on ring... is this enough?
As quoted above by Raz9r:
"With the recommended attack speed you have slightly more than 90% Flying Dragon uptime."
WTF is the recommended AS? 14%?
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Posted Oct 7, 2015You don't actually need that much APS. See my d3planner here (incomplete items, just the ones that affect attack speed).
Currently I have 0 IAS from items. This gives me a 24 frame FoF and a 22 frame FoT.
5 more IAS gives me a 22 frame FoF. If I get up to 7 IAS, that'll also improve me to a 21 frame FoT. Since I max out at 21 total item IAS (24 with enchantress), no further breakpoints are reachable.
If I wanted to give up a mod on my amulet to get EVEN MOAR IAS, I could get up to a total of 28 IAS from items (31 including enchantress). Using just the 4 IAS items will get me to a 20 frame FoF. Throwing the Enchantress on top will give me a 19 Frame FoT as well. However, none of these bonuses provide more damage than the 20% lightning on the amulet would, so this is all moot point.
tl;dr
Assuming you have
then 0 IAS on items is fine, further breakpoints would be 5 or 7 IAS. No need to go beyond that.
This is without transgression/gogok. I guess if you use those it changes some of the math, but I don't think the bonuses are worth what you give up.
EDIT: uh I guess I was optimizing for APS with FD proc up? But I *should* have been optimizing for APS without FD proc (so that we can maximize FD procs)? Anyway, hopefully the above work is useful for some people, but my tl;dr is probably wrong.
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Posted Oct 7, 2015The answer about IAS is indeed when FD procs => you need at least 7% IAS on your gear to reach the last break point (w/o enchantress, tested on d3planner). That represents 1.85 sheet APS. Now with 7% IAS, your FD uptime is about 90% ( see more here http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/15006760733 ). 21% IAS on gear is getting you near 10 APS with WotF (full buffed), then close to 93% FD uptime which is the max we can get.
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Posted Oct 8, 2015sorry, im a little confused. with enchantress do you still need 7% ias on gear? or would 5% or 6% roll work
or do you mean at least 10% ( 7% max roll on gear + 3% from enchantress?) to reach the 90% uptime?
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Posted Oct 8, 2015so its 7% total or 7% + 3% from enchantress? (i.e. if i only have one IAS gear with 5% IAS + 3% IAS from enchantress = 8% IAS total. Is that enough?) or do i need a perfect roll 7% IAS on gear+ 3% IAS enchant = 10% IAS to reach 90% FD uptime
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Posted Oct 9, 2015Can you roll the +damage from the offhand to get more stats? Like more ias? I knew that on DH you can do it in your offhand when dual xbow but not sure on monks....
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Posted Oct 9, 2015- If you DON'T run with enchantress' buff, then you want at least 7% IAS on your gear
- If you DO, then 5% IAS is enough to reach breakpoint (just tried on d3 planner)
Now don't get me wrong, running %24 IAS on gear is optimal for DPS. I personally don't have the toughness to do that right now, that's why I only take 7% IAS.
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Posted Oct 9, 2015Question on a roll.
Got an ancient Fist of legend... but does not have max spirit.
It has DEX, VIT, 8% Damage,
The secondary is a normal one with LOH.
Question is.... Should i put Max Spirit on secondary or roll the 8% dmg to LOH on main stats?
Thanks for the guide Quin!!!
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Posted Oct 9, 2015Quin any thoughts on how the build would work with Sage's set for Death's Breaths farming. If you cube RoRG and wear Sage helm and either Sage Boots or gloves you still have R4 bonus and Sage 3. You lose a good bit of damage without Eye of the Storm but at T8 to T10 it shouldn't lower your DPS too much that you wouldn't be able to wreck havoc.
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Posted Oct 9, 2015@Deitri
You need string of ears and a melee rift, and you need life per hit. LPH = Vit means you want both on weapon with dex and gift...ie. weapons with Dmg, Dex, Vit, LPH, not CDR, not IAS, not RCR, not +%Damage. Hope this helps.
Monk survivability is all about mitigation and sustainability, ie. reduce a lot of damage, and heal for a lot.
U6 is, however, more focused around avoiding things and popping in and out of combat, whereas this build aims to outheal the damage being done to you (as you need to stay in a single spot for a duration of time to do damage, and hitting things = staying alive with LPH).
Epiphany should not be necessary if you have enough HP (+- 1million) and should only be used when shit gets heavy (orbiters, arcanes, reflect).
Like all builds, to be able to do high level grift you must be able to stay alive and prioritise that over damage if needed.
ie. If you have gloves with no secondary resistance, IAS, CHC, Vit, Dex, rolling a secondary res (keeping vitality) would be more valuable than scrapping vitality for CHD.
Peace from South Africa
PietVanPlaas out.