I've shed a lot of IAS for to bring my crit up to 25 and crit damage to 100 and it honestly feels like my DPS has tripled. Was able to kill Ghom post-1.03 with this build and a lot of elite packs that I would just loldump in a corner. As for plague/molten/firechain and the like, you need to kite and use serenity and your heals as much as possible. Anything with vortex and these affixes I try and use a corner to bait the vortex and then I go in with burst damage.
This build is a lie. While it's all fine and fun to see better DPS. This build will absolutely rape you against: molten, fire chains, plagued, arcane enchanted, desecrators. Throw in Jailer or Waller and you will die, repeatedly.
1) The only reliable dmg comes from Fist of Thunder, which is the worst thing you can do against before mentioned affixes. You just teleport yourself INTO dmg.
2) Dodge mantra is absolute shit. Dodge does not work against floor AOE pools or arcane beams. Guess what rapes monks the most? Guess what you are now standing in due to Fist of Thunder? You either go Conviction/Overawe for full on DPS. Or Healing/Time of Need for resistance buff + some extra healing.
3) This build's only reliable healing comes from 1 15sec CD that heals for less than 20% of your health. In between those 15sec you will die. The build revolves around non stop DPS'ing with LoH to keep your health up. Ever tried to do that on a Molten caster that runs away from you? Yeah, you end up standing in molten, and dying. OVER AND OVER.
This build is fun ..... for when you completely outgear the game. For progressing, this build doesn't work. Especially not considering that it relies on crit gear, which you need spend a lot on, just to get you started
I'm having the most success in act 3 and I don't outgear it. Against molten casters, use serenity + blind with the dps rune and do as much damage as you can before you have to run out. The good thing about this build is you can do some really high DPS. Also, thunderclap won't teleport you if you actually get close enough to hit with the teleport. The dodge mantra with hard target also gives you some armor which helps against the puddles of death.
It is very dependent on crit gear though, but all the old builds were equally dependent on LOH gear and this build is not. If you can get good enough crit gear through farming or AH, you can quite easily get 40k or more DPS and just wreck packs of elites before they kill you. You still have to kite and be careful of the puddles/fires, but that is intended by Blizzard.
I've been farming act 2 and act 3 up until siegebreaker. Some packs are still bullshit, but what can you do? Only thing you can do is continue to grind and get better gear or dump that pack of horde/invulnerable minion demonic tremors in a corner.
"Faith in the Light is an additive modifier to our weapon damage, so that extra damage is also multiplied by crit and attack speed. It ends up being much more than 30% extra damage, especially with high IAS and/or crit. Check your DPS tooltip when you activate it, it's always going to be more than 30%, far more if you have good IAS and/or crit. This is always the best rune for Blinding Flash."
That doesn't make sense, DPS = weapdps*attackspeed*crit*passives - insert a 1,3 multiplier anywhere in there, the overall value is gonna be exactly 30% more. You were seeing a 60% increased value there, cause it probably had (still has?) the same display bug as magic weapon, resulting in 2x as much increased DPS displayed.
Trying to explain it with it being additive or whatever doesn't make any difference, (1+0,3)*multipliers is exactly the same as 1*1,3*multipliers...
Also if you play in a group than 30% damage for yourself for 3 secs contributes a relatively insignificant amount of DPS to the group's overall DPS, while self reflection's +1 sec benefits the whole group equally.
It's more complex than that, and it's definitely not a display bug. If you take off all crit/IAS gear the bonus from FinL will be much closer to its supposed 30%.
But I'll probably edit that part to avoid having to expain math. Also, all CC is reduced against elites and the benefit of Self Reflection goes down because of that (the same applies to blinded & confused on top of its rng). There's just no better rune than FinL.
Also can you give me an example of a ilvl61 (I will be shocked if even a higher tier belt comes close) belt with more damage reduction than string of ears? 20% plus all resist is pretty insane.
Use the ehp calculator. Anything with good dex/vit/resistances (i.e. allres and your chosen res for OWE) will get you higher total ehp even vs elites.
Decent guide, but as a hardcore player, I have to disagree with a couple of choices.
- Resolve passive. Sounds great on paper, but most of the dangerous damage I take comes from ground effects such as Arcane Enchanted and stacked Molten trails. Ranged attacks won't be lessened by this passive either. Personally I go for Transcendence, which gives me a nice heal every time I use my spender. I need these heals to live, as good LoH is very sought after and rare on hardcore.
- For spender, I run with Overawe 24/7. Mantra of Evasion provides dodge, which you can get unlucky with. Not something you want to rely on in Inferno. The 20% armor is tempting, but the 48% damage increase from overawe gets stuff killed so much faster, it's actually safer. With a 1.4 weapon you can keep the buff up all the time, and get heals from Transcendence while at it. In a party with ranged this also works much better.
Besides that the guide matches my own thoughts. I never use Cyclone though, but that's because finding good crit gear is impossible on hardcore.
I do mention Transcendence if you have no LoH gear, however its wrong to not pick it up because the most "dangerous" damage comes from ground AoE. On hardcore you never go for acts you're undergeared for so you just don't notice how damage even from normal swings can add up. This guide is mostly intended for softcore players stuck at act2 or 3/4.
The same thing applies to Mantra. Overawe is of course better for acts you outgear (which is the only thing you farm on hardcore), but you won't survive with it going into a3 undergeared like most softcore players will do.
This build is a lie. While it's all fine and fun to see better DPS. This build will absolutely rape you against: molten, fire chains, plagued, arcane enchanted, desecrators. Throw in Jailer or Waller and you will die, repeatedly.
1) The only reliable dmg comes from Fist of Thunder, which is the worst thing you can do against before mentioned affixes. You just teleport yourself INTO dmg.
2) Dodge mantra is absolute shit. Dodge does not work against floor AOE pools or arcane beams. Guess what rapes monks the most? Guess what you are now standing in due to Fist of Thunder? You either go Conviction/Overawe for full on DPS. Or Healing/Time of Need for resistance buff + some extra healing.
3) This build's only reliable healing comes from 1 15sec CD that heals for less than 20% of your health. In between those 15sec you will die. The build revolves around non stop DPS'ing with LoH to keep your health up. Ever tried to do that on a Molten caster that runs away from you? Yeah, you end up standing in molten, and dying. OVER AND OVER.
This build is fun ..... for when you completely outgear the game. For progressing, this build doesn't work. Especially not considering that it relies on crit gear, which you need spend a lot on, just to get you started
I can't say I'm dying too much to even the worst combinations in A3 with total gear worth around 20, maybe 25mil (regeared from scratch in 1.0.3).
I do mention Deadly Reach, exactly because of its ranged utility vs the affixes you mention. If you feel like you're having problems with them, I already recommend going that path. However FoT is still superior damage and you'll probably end up killing those elites faster with it during blind/serenity bursts than kiting them with DR unless you have really good IAS. Just don't suicide teleport.
Saying dodge is shit because it doesn't help vs ground AoE and then recommending MoH is laughable. What, are you going to outheal Desecrate with that 300 hps?
As for Transcendence or not, stop talking as if I don't mention it in the guide. If you don't have LoH, it's a good option. Otherwise you will just benefit more from Resolve.
Really good guide, but i still prefer Crippling Wave/Concussion (the only difference to your build). The AoE of the skill is the key, LoH triggers for every opponent you hit making you nearly unkillable in big groups and killing them a lot faster.The Damage mitigation is as strong as Deadly Reach/Keen Eye, but you don't need to wait for your third strike. I also don't use Transcendence, LoH gives me all the Life i need, so the slower Spiritgain doesn't seem a problem. It seems that the use of your Spiritgenerator is really dependent of the playstyle. Switching my Primary attack to Fist of Thunder or Deadly Reach never worked well in Inferno, for me.
Before this patch I actually had a paragraph about CW/Concussion. It's alright to play with it, but keep in mind that it doesn't stack additively with Resolve. Together they will give you 33% reduction, not 45%. That also means that dropping Resolve and going for Transcendence is probably more benefitial overall with that build.
I removed it from the guide because CW felt too slow if you don't stack IAS on all your slots, and having both that AND crit on all jewelry and gloves will be too expensive for the majority of players.
Stacking them additive would be unnatural from the start. It doesn't make Concussion worse if you have Resolve. It still reduces the 75% damage you get (with Resolve) by 20%. That it isn't 45% reduction is clear. Most mechanics in Diablo 3 try to prevent that a Stat gets better the more you stack it, thats why they use diminished returns. And don't forget the 20% attack speed reduction, it isn't nothing.
Yep, it's just a very common misconception (I post on official forums a lot) so thought I'd say it.
Keep in mind LoH still has a higher modifier for FoT and it does proc from all the offtargets hit by Thunderclap, on top of being faster for even more LoH procs.
What you linked is the same i have written except I didn't add (1+stat/100) every time it's a % multiplier... I made a spreadsheet for myself ages ago and the results match my ingame DPS, there's no need to explain math to me lol. Don't throw links at me or other vague explanations, show math backing it up, or ingame tests.
DPS=weapondps*(1+dex/100)*(1+attackspeed%/100)*(1+(crit%*(critdmg)/100)/100)*(1+passivedmgincrease%/100) this assumes you input 50% as 50 of course. so please show me under which conditions does Weapondps*1,3 or (weapondps+0,3weapondps) or [(averageweapondmg+0,3averageweapondmg)*attackspersec] or any other way translates to more than 30% damage dealt overall when put into the equation.
And just because you prefer that rune, that doesn't make it the ultimate one and only best rune as you say wtf, it's your personal opinion. Yes against elites cc duration is reduced, but when you're swarmed the longer duration definitely helps more when you're in a group. As a group you're doing around 1/4 of your groups DPS, so yay your group deals around 7,5% more dmg for 3 seconds every 15 seconds netting an average increase of 1,5%. ok some more than that, since between groups the cd resets sometimes. also using it to increase your damage makes you spam it carelessly, possibly making you not have it when it's needed.
To me it just looks like that since you recieved lots of positive feedback, you came to believe that your opinion became the ultimate unrefutable and undebateable truth.
I've been proven wrong and corrected the guide based on feedback from other people several times.
Here's an ingame test: 24334.3 damage, pop Blind, damage goes to 35287.6. That's a 45% increase not a 30% increase.
Now I take off all my IAS gear (which was 25% incl. Enchantress buff, which I dismissed too). Damage is at 15967.51, pop Blind, get 21713.99, which is a 37% increase.
Now I take off all my crit gearing leaving myself at the base 5% crit (but 132% crit damage due to weapon). Damage is at 10304.53, pop Blind, damage is at 14012.98, that's a 35% increase.
If we could have 0% crit and 0% crit damage, it would end up being exactly 30%.
And as I said I'll edit that part. What I had in mind when writing it is only the DPS tooltip.
As for Blind rune, it's up to you. Counting its average DPS contribution in a group is about as useless as trying to calculate the defensive benefits of the extra second of blind (less on elites) and we both know that. You're most likely not dpsing all the time, not the exact same equal amount of damage, etc.
If i searched right the modifier is for both 75%, only the last hit of Crippling Wave has 50%. But FoT can only hit offtargets for the last hit and Deadly Reach only when they stand in a row. Crippling Wave will always hit multiple targets in front of you, so if you play right you gain more from LoH in big groups. Combined with the mitigation and higher AoE damage it is a viable alternative in my eyes.
Thunderclap rune for FoT. The 35% hit procs LoH separately from the main strike.
I understand that looking at the tooltip lead you to this conclusion. I just can't think of any realistic way, where 30% extra damage for each of my hits would be amplified further by attacking faster. If you look at it rationally it doesn't matter if you attack for 10 per second, or you attack for 10 twice every second. adding 30% to it will be still the same 3 extra damage per attack giving giving you 13 dps instead of 10, or 26 instead of 20 - the same 30% increase. that's why i believe that the tooltip is bugged, and it calculates the bonus with your DPS (which already factored in crit and AS) and than it applies those to the extra damage again. so that's why i said id be interested in real game tests (not tooltip, but looking at real damage), or a mathematical approach which i might have not thought of.
You are right, and as I said, when I was writing that part I only had the DPS tooltip in mind, not actual damage output.
There might also be a possibility that it applies the same way in actual damage calculations by the way. Ergo it goes as bonus damage in the damage calculation, but it takes 30% of DPS, so it double dips IAS.
Sorry if I missed it, but how much crit do you recommend before switching to cyclone? I'm still hesitant to drop my Helm of Command, my rings are horrible, and my bracers have zero crit. I'm still at 20% though!
@Drez: alright, so I just did a small in-game test.
I went to Normal mode and got myself some random weapon with 15 DPS and 9-16 damage range, 1.2 APS. I also equipped a +9 minimum damage necklace, so effectively my min and max damage were equal (confirmed in tooltip for "attack": 18-18). My total APS was 1.46. Every time I hit mobs I did 268 damage, I must've hit like 30 times just to be sure.
I then striked 10 times with FinL up, and these were the numbers I got: 398, 373, 376, 395, 390, 387, 396, 401, 378, 384. That averages out to 387.5, which is 44% more than 268.
My tooltip for attack does change when I activate Blind, by the way, so we can actually figure the exact way it affects min and max damage. 24-27 was the range with FinL up.
It seems like it's simply multiplied with attacks per second. I have an attack speed of 1.46, so 30 * 1.46 = 43,8. I equipped a 1.5 APS dagger with 6 DPS and got an APS of 1.83, and the difference between damage with FinL and without went up to 55%. 30 * 1.83 = 54.9. It seems like it doesn't scale with crit, also, as I tried equipping/removing pure crit items and it had no effect on that relation.
I tried with this new attack speed of 1.83. My attack range was 11-11 and without FinL I would always hit for 164. Ten strikes with FinL: 262, 240, 241, 251, 244, 267, 245, 245, 243, 257, average: 249.5, that's 52% more than without FinL and is almost the expected the number. My damage range with FinL went up to 16-18.
I've now edited the guide to include this information.
As for resolve vs trascendence. Well resolve definitely helps when you're hitting stuff, but first it needs to be applied (so no benefit vs ranged usually), and then again it doesn't help againt the most dangerous ground effects.
When you're hitting something your LoH+spirit generation spent on trascendence should be almost as good as resolve, but when you can't hit stuff cause you need to kite/reposition that's when resolve falls off very badly, and transcendence shines cause you can still heal yourself, while resolve would be doing nothing.
Transcendence does not heal for that much. I really really doubt it'll outperform Resolve even comparing amount healed vs amount reduced on an infinite fight vs a single level 63 mob. (But let's stick to calculating one thing for now.)
I wouldn't say that Transcendence exactly "shines" when you're kiting, because to generate spirit you actually need to hit stuff as well (I find the spirit regen stat really lacklustre number wise, besides, that would imply you actually have to get that spirit/second on gear). They both rely on hitting stuff, but yeah Resolve has to be applied, that's the only advantage Transcendence has vs ranged mobs. I'm not saying it's a bad passive - I even recommend it in the guide if you have no other sustain (read: LoH) - but Resolve is superior if you don't lack self healing imo.
Also, if we're talking about very large packs - which I assume means you're talking about normal mobs here, not just elites - keep in mind that FoTs 3rd strike is a knockback. With a very high attack speed you can actually stunlock mobs (around 2.0 APS), which outweighs any defensive benefits of CW. Even if you don't stunlock, the amount of damage you prevent with the knockback spam is huge.
2) Dodge mantra is absolute shit. Dodge does not work against floor AOE pools or arcane beams. Guess what rapes monks the most? Guess what you are now standing in due to Fist of Thunder? You either go Conviction/Overawe for full on DPS. Or Healing/Time of Need for resistance buff + some extra healing.
As a monk who has cleared the game before the nerf I find this post preposterous. You can dodge literally everything in the game, and since I know how to use the word "literally" properly, that includes "AOE pools" and "arcane beams".
I used Fist of Thunder through the whole game. Yes, it could teleport you into trouble but it is a result of an action you take (click the mob), so you can easily avoid that by simply not clicking when it isn't safe. One thing I agree with is having a different attack is good, but for different reasons. When I just got good enough gear to start Act 3, I swapped Blinding Flash for Deadly Reach for the armor buff rune. I would use in between Fists attacks so I could get the armor buff up, having quite a sustainable uptime. This all seems irrelevant with the patch, but it is a route I took.
Commenting back on the guide, the only thing I strongly disagree is dropping Transcendence. Resolve is not effective enough because there is no 100% uptime, and those windows that it isn't up is what can kill you. Sometimes getting pulled in by a vortex and healing yourself for ~4k with a mantra usage as you get out of trouble can save a lot of deaths.
Great guide! I read your initial thread on the EU boards and the idea to combo FoT with DR to handle bad champion affixes completely changed how my monk played in a3/a4. However I disagree with your choice of Mantras: 10 armor = 1 resist and both Hard Target and Time of Need give 20% to armor/resist. Thus at 5,000 armor and 500 resists they give equal amounts of mitigation, but it's much easier to push your resists to 800-900 than it is to get your armor to 8-9,0000. The only way to get your armor up that high is to use Keen Eye, but given the damage nerf to mobs I think that's a poor choice unless you are very undergeared.
Mantra of Healing also gives 310 life per second, something that you scoffed at but I think you are vastly underestimating life per second. You are right that 310 lps isn't going to do much, but then again neither is 310 LoH. The idea is to stack it up a point where you do notice a difference. With a little bit of luck/patience/AH scouting I was able to find gear that contained dex/vit/my resist/resist all/lps and I currently have 1000 lps (1310 with mantra) and the difference is very noticable. LoH is great, but the catch is you actually have to be hitting things to regen which isn't always possible. Obviously I'm not asserting that LoH isn't as good as lps, I have both and LoH definately accounts for more of my healing. However LoH is extremely expensive and to get any higher (my weapon has 753 LoH) I would have to spend at least 30 million to increase my sustain. I was able to swap in life per second regen on most of my gear, for very little to no stat loss, for much much less gold and the difference was dramatic.
I've tried something completely different for 1.0.3.
I spent around 30 mil stacking full resistance tunneling along with something like 1.5k LoH, I ended up with exactly 85% negated damage with Mantra of Healing and Time of Need. Balancing stats, as you put it, at this point actually gave me lower effective health than if I put more and more into resists, which I can still do as my neck, bracers and rings lack resistances.
With this build, I'm comfortably eating arcane sentry damage and desecration in act 3, even for long periods (I tank for a 4 man group usually)
This guide is probably cheaper (I spent 30 mil so far and can still get quite a few upgrades), and I'm not arguing against it. But I believe you could add that stacking all resist will work if you put large amounts in it.
Personally I disagree with the rune choice for Serenity - 1 additional second on the immunity has never wowed me. I go with the heal rune from Peaceful Repose even with 1500+ LoH, because it makes me feel safer not having Transcendence. But then again, I see that most other Act 4-farming monks who use Serenity pick the additional second, so maybe I'm just missing something there. My own personal playstyle leads me to believe that almost every other rune in the list would be infinitely more valuable, though.
Also, it should be noted that Fists of Thunder isn't only good because of its ability to teleport and do AOE damage - against mobs that are susceptible to the knockback, it gives you far more survivability than the Keen Eye alternative. When I first started Act 3 weeks and weeks back, I was just getting WRECKED by the very first set of mobs that come down the stairs... and then in the next room, and in the area after that, and so on. Switching to Fists of Thunder changed all of that because mobs cannot attack while they're being knocked around, and it resets their "swing timer."
However, the teleport issue is an annoying one. I imagine it will be left as is and just noted as a drawback of the ability, but it really makes no sense - if you're in melee range of, say, a plagued mob, punches 1 and 2 can be triggered and will land from outside of the plague, but punch 3 will port you into it anyway. It doesn't seem necessary to port you if you're already capable of hitting a creature (and also leads to sometimes annoying behavior on Belial, when your dude decides he wants to take a trip around the boss and stutter-ports a circle around him).
FoT teleporting can be quite annoying vs some champion affixes and thats why running it with DR is a life saver, and as a bonus you get an 18% damage buff via Foresight that is pretty easy to keep up. Also the FoT teleport can save you in certain situations because it will still teleport you while "jailed"; the debuff remains on you and you'll stay rooted but you will move via the teleport (I've tested this repeatedly). This is clutch if you are stuck and a champion drops a descrate under you or an arcane beam next to you and Serenity is on cooldown.
@Applemask
The reason people take the 1 extra second on Serenity vs the heal is because as long as you have decent LoH you will be at full life by the time it ends regardless of the heal. Thus if you are going to be topped off either way you might as well take the extra second. If your LoH is low then the heal is definately a viable (and possibly a better) choice.
I just wanted to post this as i did some preliminary testing on the speed differences on fists of thunder versus the other spirit generators.
Method: Using a timer set for 20 seconds, count the number of full 3 hit combos that could be completed in the time frame allotted
I came up with a consistent 10 combo set for dealy reach, hundred fists and crippling wave. For fists of thunder I came up with 13 completed combos.
It should also be noted this test, which is rough and not at all conclusive, was done with 1.28 attack speed one hand, with shield in offhand. More tests in this vein over longer time periods and at varying attack speeds can give us a better idea of how much our attack speed is increased or decreased over the length of a generator combo.
I find it odd that according to my rough math, I was attacking at 1.5 attack speed even with the slower generators. This is just a hypothesis, but it seems normal generators add .25 aps and FoT adds .75 aps.
Mantra of Evasion is far superior to Mantra of Healing in terms of mitigation.
It's true that Time of Need usually comes on top of Hard target, but the dodge component of MoE is so much better than 300lps (which you can get from a single gear piece), that whatever small benefit you get by using ToN over hard target gets dwarfed. Not saying lps is a bad stat by itself, contrary to popular belief, and as above poster mentioned, it's quite good actually, and a budgetary alternative to (or supplemtary to) loh in some situations.
Dodge isn't a mitigation stat that you are supposed to "rely" upon. I've seen far too many posts saying that it's an RNG stat, which is pure BS unless you are built like a glass cannon, in which case I agree; dodge isn't going to do anything for you. The way dodge should be thought of is as supplementary mitigation that works best when it sits upon an already comfortable damage reduction (especially when paired with a good block% shield); further reducing incoming damage thus making heals more effective, which brings me to my next point.
Pre-patch when everything hit a lot harder I would agree with you about the extra dodge because it is superior, but since the patch the things that feel the most annoying (to me at least) are unable to be avoided. Arcane beams, plague pools, molten and descration cannot be dodged and ToN gives you more bang for the buck in that regard. Also people seem to completely forget that you get a ~900 hp absorb everytime you activate the mantra. I'm not saying that 310 lps and a ~900 hp shield beats out the dodge from MoE for over-all mitigation, obviously it does not. However when compared against things that cannot be dodged in the first place then ToN wins by default.
Edit:
I guess I should clarify what I mean when I say these skills are annoying. Arcane beams, plague pools, molten, and desecration all force you to reposition your character which means a loss in dps. Post patch nothing feels super threatening anymore so rather that stack more mitigation I'm looking for ways to kill things quicker. When solo I wouldn't bother to run Evasion or Healing because if you can survive with MoC-Overawe you will kill things A LOT faster. When I'm grouped with another monk I prefer the ToN + Overawe combo because with the extra resists you are able to stand in things longer dpsing, and do less kiting/repositioning, which means mobs die faster.
MoE-Hard Target is hands down better mitigation that MoH, but if you can live without them (very doable post patch with decent gear) then there really isn't a point to either.
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1) The only reliable dmg comes from Fist of Thunder, which is the worst thing you can do against before mentioned affixes. You just teleport yourself INTO dmg.
2) Dodge mantra is absolute shit. Dodge does not work against floor AOE pools or arcane beams. Guess what rapes monks the most? Guess what you are now standing in due to Fist of Thunder? You either go Conviction/Overawe for full on DPS. Or Healing/Time of Need for resistance buff + some extra healing.
3) This build's only reliable healing comes from 1 15sec CD that heals for less than 20% of your health. In between those 15sec you will die. The build revolves around non stop DPS'ing with LoH to keep your health up. Ever tried to do that on a Molten caster that runs away from you? Yeah, you end up standing in molten, and dying. OVER AND OVER.
This build is fun ..... for when you completely outgear the game. For progressing, this build doesn't work. Especially not considering that it relies on crit gear, which you need spend a lot on, just to get you started
It is very dependent on crit gear though, but all the old builds were equally dependent on LOH gear and this build is not. If you can get good enough crit gear through farming or AH, you can quite easily get 40k or more DPS and just wreck packs of elites before they kill you. You still have to kite and be careful of the puddles/fires, but that is intended by Blizzard.
I've been farming act 2 and act 3 up until siegebreaker. Some packs are still bullshit, but what can you do? Only thing you can do is continue to grind and get better gear or dump that pack of horde/invulnerable minion demonic tremors in a corner.
http://mmo-mechanics...-3-formula-list
http://mmo-mechanics...stats-affect-it
But I'll probably edit that part to avoid having to expain math. Also, all CC is reduced against elites and the benefit of Self Reflection goes down because of that (the same applies to blinded & confused on top of its rng). There's just no better rune than FinL.
Use the ehp calculator. Anything with good dex/vit/resistances (i.e. allres and your chosen res for OWE) will get you higher total ehp even vs elites.
I do mention Transcendence if you have no LoH gear, however its wrong to not pick it up because the most "dangerous" damage comes from ground AoE. On hardcore you never go for acts you're undergeared for so you just don't notice how damage even from normal swings can add up. This guide is mostly intended for softcore players stuck at act2 or 3/4.
The same thing applies to Mantra. Overawe is of course better for acts you outgear (which is the only thing you farm on hardcore), but you won't survive with it going into a3 undergeared like most softcore players will do.
I can't say I'm dying too much to even the worst combinations in A3 with total gear worth around 20, maybe 25mil (regeared from scratch in 1.0.3).
I do mention Deadly Reach, exactly because of its ranged utility vs the affixes you mention. If you feel like you're having problems with them, I already recommend going that path. However FoT is still superior damage and you'll probably end up killing those elites faster with it during blind/serenity bursts than kiting them with DR unless you have really good IAS. Just don't suicide teleport.
Saying dodge is shit because it doesn't help vs ground AoE and then recommending MoH is laughable. What, are you going to outheal Desecrate with that 300 hps?
As for Transcendence or not, stop talking as if I don't mention it in the guide. If you don't have LoH, it's a good option. Otherwise you will just benefit more from Resolve.
Before this patch I actually had a paragraph about CW/Concussion. It's alright to play with it, but keep in mind that it doesn't stack additively with Resolve. Together they will give you 33% reduction, not 45%. That also means that dropping Resolve and going for Transcendence is probably more benefitial overall with that build.
I removed it from the guide because CW felt too slow if you don't stack IAS on all your slots, and having both that AND crit on all jewelry and gloves will be too expensive for the majority of players.
Keep in mind LoH still has a higher modifier for FoT and it does proc from all the offtargets hit by Thunderclap, on top of being faster for even more LoH procs.
Here's an ingame test: 24334.3 damage, pop Blind, damage goes to 35287.6. That's a 45% increase not a 30% increase.
Now I take off all my IAS gear (which was 25% incl. Enchantress buff, which I dismissed too). Damage is at 15967.51, pop Blind, get 21713.99, which is a 37% increase.
Now I take off all my crit gearing leaving myself at the base 5% crit (but 132% crit damage due to weapon). Damage is at 10304.53, pop Blind, damage is at 14012.98, that's a 35% increase.
If we could have 0% crit and 0% crit damage, it would end up being exactly 30%.
And as I said I'll edit that part. What I had in mind when writing it is only the DPS tooltip.
As for Blind rune, it's up to you. Counting its average DPS contribution in a group is about as useless as trying to calculate the defensive benefits of the extra second of blind (less on elites) and we both know that. You're most likely not dpsing all the time, not the exact same equal amount of damage, etc.
You are right, and as I said, when I was writing that part I only had the DPS tooltip in mind, not actual damage output.
There might also be a possibility that it applies the same way in actual damage calculations by the way. Ergo it goes as bonus damage in the damage calculation, but it takes 30% of DPS, so it double dips IAS.
See test below.
I went to Normal mode and got myself some random weapon with 15 DPS and 9-16 damage range, 1.2 APS. I also equipped a +9 minimum damage necklace, so effectively my min and max damage were equal (confirmed in tooltip for "attack": 18-18). My total APS was 1.46. Every time I hit mobs I did 268 damage, I must've hit like 30 times just to be sure.
I then striked 10 times with FinL up, and these were the numbers I got: 398, 373, 376, 395, 390, 387, 396, 401, 378, 384. That averages out to 387.5, which is 44% more than 268.
My tooltip for attack does change when I activate Blind, by the way, so we can actually figure the exact way it affects min and max damage. 24-27 was the range with FinL up.
It seems like it's simply multiplied with attacks per second. I have an attack speed of 1.46, so 30 * 1.46 = 43,8. I equipped a 1.5 APS dagger with 6 DPS and got an APS of 1.83, and the difference between damage with FinL and without went up to 55%. 30 * 1.83 = 54.9. It seems like it doesn't scale with crit, also, as I tried equipping/removing pure crit items and it had no effect on that relation.
I tried with this new attack speed of 1.83. My attack range was 11-11 and without FinL I would always hit for 164. Ten strikes with FinL: 262, 240, 241, 251, 244, 267, 245, 245, 243, 257, average: 249.5, that's 52% more than without FinL and is almost the expected the number. My damage range with FinL went up to 16-18.
I've now edited the guide to include this information.
Also,
Transcendence does not heal for that much. I really really doubt it'll outperform Resolve even comparing amount healed vs amount reduced on an infinite fight vs a single level 63 mob. (But let's stick to calculating one thing for now.)
I wouldn't say that Transcendence exactly "shines" when you're kiting, because to generate spirit you actually need to hit stuff as well (I find the spirit regen stat really lacklustre number wise, besides, that would imply you actually have to get that spirit/second on gear). They both rely on hitting stuff, but yeah Resolve has to be applied, that's the only advantage Transcendence has vs ranged mobs. I'm not saying it's a bad passive - I even recommend it in the guide if you have no other sustain (read: LoH) - but Resolve is superior if you don't lack self healing imo.
I can't find a good source confirming how faster FoT is exactly except for the very outdated http://blackrabbit29...tor-attack.html
Also, if we're talking about very large packs - which I assume means you're talking about normal mobs here, not just elites - keep in mind that FoTs 3rd strike is a knockback. With a very high attack speed you can actually stunlock mobs (around 2.0 APS), which outweighs any defensive benefits of CW. Even if you don't stunlock, the amount of damage you prevent with the knockback spam is huge.
As a monk who has cleared the game before the nerf I find this post preposterous. You can dodge literally everything in the game, and since I know how to use the word "literally" properly, that includes "AOE pools" and "arcane beams".
I used Fist of Thunder through the whole game. Yes, it could teleport you into trouble but it is a result of an action you take (click the mob), so you can easily avoid that by simply not clicking when it isn't safe. One thing I agree with is having a different attack is good, but for different reasons. When I just got good enough gear to start Act 3, I swapped Blinding Flash for Deadly Reach for the armor buff rune. I would use in between Fists attacks so I could get the armor buff up, having quite a sustainable uptime. This all seems irrelevant with the patch, but it is a route I took.
Commenting back on the guide, the only thing I strongly disagree is dropping Transcendence. Resolve is not effective enough because there is no 100% uptime, and those windows that it isn't up is what can kill you. Sometimes getting pulled in by a vortex and healing yourself for ~4k with a mantra usage as you get out of trouble can save a lot of deaths.
Mantra of Healing also gives 310 life per second, something that you scoffed at but I think you are vastly underestimating life per second. You are right that 310 lps isn't going to do much, but then again neither is 310 LoH. The idea is to stack it up a point where you do notice a difference. With a little bit of luck/patience/AH scouting I was able to find gear that contained dex/vit/my resist/resist all/lps and I currently have 1000 lps (1310 with mantra) and the difference is very noticable. LoH is great, but the catch is you actually have to be hitting things to regen which isn't always possible. Obviously I'm not asserting that LoH isn't as good as lps, I have both and LoH definately accounts for more of my healing. However LoH is extremely expensive and to get any higher (my weapon has 753 LoH) I would have to spend at least 30 million to increase my sustain. I was able to swap in life per second regen on most of my gear, for very little to no stat loss, for much much less gold and the difference was dramatic.
I spent around 30 mil stacking full resistance tunneling along with something like 1.5k LoH, I ended up with exactly 85% negated damage with Mantra of Healing and Time of Need. Balancing stats, as you put it, at this point actually gave me lower effective health than if I put more and more into resists, which I can still do as my neck, bracers and rings lack resistances.
With this build, I'm comfortably eating arcane sentry damage and desecration in act 3, even for long periods (I tank for a 4 man group usually)
This guide is probably cheaper (I spent 30 mil so far and can still get quite a few upgrades), and I'm not arguing against it. But I believe you could add that stacking all resist will work if you put large amounts in it.
Also, it should be noted that Fists of Thunder isn't only good because of its ability to teleport and do AOE damage - against mobs that are susceptible to the knockback, it gives you far more survivability than the Keen Eye alternative. When I first started Act 3 weeks and weeks back, I was just getting WRECKED by the very first set of mobs that come down the stairs... and then in the next room, and in the area after that, and so on. Switching to Fists of Thunder changed all of that because mobs cannot attack while they're being knocked around, and it resets their "swing timer."
However, the teleport issue is an annoying one. I imagine it will be left as is and just noted as a drawback of the ability, but it really makes no sense - if you're in melee range of, say, a plagued mob, punches 1 and 2 can be triggered and will land from outside of the plague, but punch 3 will port you into it anyway. It doesn't seem necessary to port you if you're already capable of hitting a creature (and also leads to sometimes annoying behavior on Belial, when your dude decides he wants to take a trip around the boss and stutter-ports a circle around him).
@Applemask
The reason people take the 1 extra second on Serenity vs the heal is because as long as you have decent LoH you will be at full life by the time it ends regardless of the heal. Thus if you are going to be topped off either way you might as well take the extra second. If your LoH is low then the heal is definately a viable (and possibly a better) choice.
Method: Using a timer set for 20 seconds, count the number of full 3 hit combos that could be completed in the time frame allotted
I came up with a consistent 10 combo set for dealy reach, hundred fists and crippling wave. For fists of thunder I came up with 13 completed combos.
It should also be noted this test, which is rough and not at all conclusive, was done with 1.28 attack speed one hand, with shield in offhand. More tests in this vein over longer time periods and at varying attack speeds can give us a better idea of how much our attack speed is increased or decreased over the length of a generator combo.
I find it odd that according to my rough math, I was attacking at 1.5 attack speed even with the slower generators. This is just a hypothesis, but it seems normal generators add .25 aps and FoT adds .75 aps.
Pre-patch when everything hit a lot harder I would agree with you about the extra dodge because it is superior, but since the patch the things that feel the most annoying (to me at least) are unable to be avoided. Arcane beams, plague pools, molten and descration cannot be dodged and ToN gives you more bang for the buck in that regard. Also people seem to completely forget that you get a ~900 hp absorb everytime you activate the mantra. I'm not saying that 310 lps and a ~900 hp shield beats out the dodge from MoE for over-all mitigation, obviously it does not. However when compared against things that cannot be dodged in the first place then ToN wins by default.
Edit:
I guess I should clarify what I mean when I say these skills are annoying. Arcane beams, plague pools, molten, and desecration all force you to reposition your character which means a loss in dps. Post patch nothing feels super threatening anymore so rather that stack more mitigation I'm looking for ways to kill things quicker. When solo I wouldn't bother to run Evasion or Healing because if you can survive with MoC-Overawe you will kill things A LOT faster. When I'm grouped with another monk I prefer the ToN + Overawe combo because with the extra resists you are able to stand in things longer dpsing, and do less kiting/repositioning, which means mobs die faster.
MoE-Hard Target is hands down better mitigation that MoH, but if you can live without them (very doable post patch with decent gear) then there really isn't a point to either.