Rating
+4

ShatterFist Monk (2.6.1 Uliana's Stratagem Build)

by last updated Jul 16, 2018 ( Patch 2.6.1 )
Seasonal
Solo
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Skills

  • Way of the Hundred Fists Assimilation
  • Seven-Sided Strike Sustained Attack
  • Exploding Palm Impending Doom
  • Cyclone Strike Implosion
  • Dashing Strike Blinding Speed
  • Sweeping Wind Inner Storm
  • Beacon of Ytar
  • Harmony
  • Mythic Rhythm
  • Transcendence

Items

More Details

  • Legendary Gems

    • Gogok of Swiftness
    • Bane of the Trapped
    • Esoteric Alteration

Kanai's Cube

  • The Flow of Eternity
  • Spirit Guards
  • Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac

All 6 pieces of Uliana's Stratagem, which as of 2.6.1 boosts Seven-Sided Strike by 777% of total damage per hit with the 4 piece bonus and boosts Exploding Palm damage by 2100% with the 6 piece bonus. Diamond in the Helm, Emeralds in the Torso and Legs, or Legs with Diamonds for defense. While not as high a priority as the other listed affixes, any pieces that have bonuses to total Spirit, Spirit Regeneration or Life per Spirit spent are of great help to the build, as well as any cooldown reduction.


For Amulets, Ess of Johan works best with the build's damage range being focused on enemy grouping, though a Hellfire Amulet with an offensive or defensive supportive passive works as well. Traveler's Pledge is a last option, but a good choice for a balanced boost to offense and defense what with the build's reliance on Dashing Strike for most of its movement. For Rings, Convection of Elements works as the best all around boost to outgoing damage, whereas Unity works as reliable damage reduction. However either of them may be swapped with Pandemonium Loop to allow Fearing of enemies and detonation upon death to stack with the effects of Exploding Palm. The Compass Rose of course being used if using Traveler's Pledge.


Legendary Gems are Gogok of Swiftness for increased attack speed, dodge chance and cooldown reduction, all which benefit the build immensely. Bane of the Trapped adds a Slow aura around the Monk and increases damage to all those effected, and fits with the tight surrounding damage radius of the build. Esoteric Alteration works to dramatically boost elemental resistances, though it may be swapped with Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard for better healing, or even Mirinae, Teardrop of the Starweaver for a balanced boost to damage and healing due to the automatic proccing and the standard proccing being higher with the Monk's boosted attack speed. Another more offensive option would be Pain Enhancer, supplementing the loss of the Bleed effect from Explosive Palm having the Impending Doom rune, though the attack speed bonus for it would be more secondary compared to Gogok.


For Bracers, Gungdo Gear is the best fit to keep continuously spreading the effects of Exploding Palm to all enemies, while Nemesis Bracers are the obvious choice for speed running. Spirit Guards are able to be worn, but work best Cubed to take full advantage of their defensive effects with the other bracers. Reaper Wraps are a last option, depending on how the player manages to balance their Spirit expenditure.


Along with Spirit Bracers, the Cubed items for the build are Flow of Eternity to further reduce the cooldown of Seven-Sided Strike and boost its damage further, and Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac to shred the cooldown for it and other skills even more for near free use at all times.

Paragon Priorities

Core

Maximum Resource
Movement Speed
Primary Stat
Vitality

Offense

Cooldown Reduction
Attack Speed
Critical Hit Chance
Critical Hit Damage

Defense

Life Regeneration
Resist All
Armor
Life

Utility

Life on Hit
Resource Cost Reduction
Area Damage
Gold Find

Paragon of 1000 and above is required for pushing past T11/GR60 range, Maximum Spirit is first full capacity priority, then Movement Speed, afterwhich
emphasis is on Dexterity for outgoing damage and on Vitality for health capacity.

Attack Speed and Cooldown Reduction to stack with Gogok of Swiftness, followed by Critical Chance and Damage.

Life Regeneration to top off healing, then Resist All and Armor for defense and finally Life total.

Life on Hit, especially important with the increased attacks speed buffs, Resource Cost Reduction for Seven-Sided Strike and Area Damage for use with Exploding Palm. Gold Find isn't applicable for this build.

Build Guide

This build has been tested on 2.6.1 on the PS4 and PC in Season 12, and is in mid-testing for Season 13.


The focus of the build centers mainly on the strengths of the class set's associated skills and reinforcing them with other damage sources in an overlapping range, in this case maintaining a damage radius around the Monk and drawing in as many enemies as possible to hit with Exploding Palm and then Seven-Sided Strike. Cyclone Strike helps facilitate the enemy grouping, Dashing Strike grants mobility for moving from mob to mob, and Sweeping Wind and Way of the Hundred Fists work to reinforce the close range damage. The build is designed to shred through trash mobs, using them as living shrapnel for elites and boss enemies, though against solo bosses it does lose some momentum and has to rely on the other damage skills besides Exploding Palm to deal the bulk of its damage.


With the Uliana's 2 piece effect, Way of the Hundred Fists inflicts Exploding Palm upon the final part of the combo, and with the Assimilation rune, not only are all enemies hit inflicted with Exploding Palm, the Monk gains increased damage at 5% per enemy hit. Exploding Palm with the Impending Doom rune grants a massive amount of Cold damage upon detonation, at the expense of no longer Bleeding the enemies affected, thereby instead acting as triggered burst damage when detonated by the further empowered Seven-Sided Strike, thanks to the Uliana's 4 piece bonus with the 6 piece bonus boosting the triggered explosions to even greater damage. Seven-Sided Strike having the Sustained Attack rune means faster cooldowns and more frequent uses to keep damage outgoing as much as possible.

Cyclone Strike with Implosion works to group up as many enemies as possible for Exploding Palm as well as dealing a respectable amount of Holy damage, and Sweeping Wind with the Inner Storm rune grants even further Holy damage at all the enemies in close range, as well as working as a source of Spirit generation along with Way of the Hundred Fists. Dashing Strike with the Blinding Speed rune grants high mobility and damage dealing at the same time, as well as granting a 40% boost to Dodge chance for defensive purposes. These allow the skills to pull double duty with supportive offensive and defensive boosts as well as dealing damage on their own, a necessity for facing bosses and Rift Guardians who don't have trash mobs to pile around them with Exploding Palm.


The passive skills for the build work to reinforce and supplement the used skills, Beacon of Ytar for increased cooldown on Seven-Sided Strike and Dashing Strike, Harmony for better elemental resistances and Transcendence for increased healing off all the Spirit being spent. Mythic Rhythm is the secondary keystone skill for the build along with Way of the Hundred Fists with the Assimilation rune, as it grants a 40% damage increase to the next Spirit spender upon hitting an enemy with the third hit of a generator combo. However this damage bonus can be "carried" along through multiple enemies by continuing to use Way of the Hundred Fists repeatedly against differing enemies and keeping them grouped together before using Seven-Sided Strike to stack multiple instances of the 40% damage increase all at once, letting the build thus deal even more damage the more enemies are present.