This is my favorite Monk build that I've come up with or seen from others so far. It focuses on increasing attack speed as much as possible. Here's the build: http://us.battle.net...YiXS!YZX!ZaccbZ
Way of the Hundred Fists: Blazing Fists
This is obviously the core of the build. Decent damage at 140% and crits increase your attack speed by up to 15%.
Lashing Tail Kick: Vulture Claw Kick
This is the only "spammable" Spirit spender that I really like, and the rune changes it to a 360-degree PBAoE and bumps the damage up a little bit. Not too bad.
Blinding Flash: Faith in the Light
A pretty decent defensive cooldown, but the rune effect is great for this build, as it really synergizes with the IAS we'll be stacking. With maximum possible IAS, this defensive cooldown turns into an ability that will cause well over 300% weapon damage.
Sweeping Wind: Cyclone
Sweeping Wind is a cool "set and forget" type of ability that will hopefully be fairly easy to keep going constantly with this build's high attack speed. I'm not really sure how useful Cyclone will be, but since this build will need a decent amount of crit chance as well, it seems like a cool option. Inner Storm is a good alternative if Cyclone turns out to not be great.
Breath of Heaven: Blazing Wrath
Like Blinding Flash, this is another good defensive cooldown with an offensive upside from the rune.
Mantra of Retribution: Transgression
The key to choosing this Mantra is the Transgression rune, which ties into the build theme with an additional 8% IAS (that also extends to any party members - I like to think it'll make us popular with our Frenzy Barb friends!). It's certainly possible that Conviction could be better for this build, but I'm sticking with the theme for now.
Passives Transcendence: A nice bit of healing when using Spirit spending abilities. Resolve: Should be no problem to keep all the monsters around me debuffed at all times thanks to Sweeping Wind. Seize the Initiative: More defensive utility from increasing offensive power. 'Nuff said.
This build will likely be highly gear dependent to be fully utilized, since we'll need to stack as much IAS as possible and keep a crit chance of at least ~20% to make sure the Blazing Fists buff doesn't fall off. According to the game files, the max haste bonus is 17% and can occur on 5 item types:
Amulet
Gloves
Rings (x2)
Offhand
I'm assuming this refers to non-weapon offhands, so I haven't included it in the following calculations. If it can occur on shields, the 17% would outweigh the 15% dual-wield bonus, along with the considerable defensive benefits, and would probably be the better option.
Armor
This means that the maximum IAS from gear is (17*5)=85%. So our IAS situation looks about like this:
Solo Play
15% - Dual wield bonus
15% - Blazing Fists
8% - Transgression
85% - Gear
3% - Focused Mind (Enchantress) 126% total
Group Play
20% - Big Bad Voodoo (WD)
10% - Stretch Time (Wizard) Up to 153% total
(If I'm forgetting any others, let me know!)
According to Blizzard's game guide, all high-end fist weapons have a 1.4 attack speed, so using that as our base, we can get up to (1.4*2.26)=3.164 attacks per second in solo play and as much as (1.4*2.53)=3.542 with the correct group.
I might come back and crunch some more skill-specific numbers tomorrow, but it's getting to be about bedtime...in the meantime, what do you all think? I'd love to hear any feedback!
I'm assuming this refers to non-weapon offhands, so I haven't included it in the following calculations. If it can occur on shields, the 17% would outweigh the 15% dual-wield bonus, along with the considerable defensive benefits, and would probably be the better option.
Armor
This means that the maximum IAS from gear is (17*5)=85%.
I've done a little more digging over at D3Inferno and it would appear that my numbers above aren't exactly correct. From what I can tell, there are actually two separate means for increasing your attack speed:
Attack Speed %
+17% - Occurs on Amulet, Gloves, Ring (x2)
+13% - Occurs on Offhand, Armor
"Armor" includes Boots, Bracer, Gloves, Pants, Shoulder, Belt, Chest, and Helm
"Offhand" includes WD Mojo, Wizard Source, DH Quiver, and Shields
+25% - Occurs on Weapons
Flat +APS
+0.25 APS - Occurs on Weapons
+0.15 APS - Occurs on Amulet, Ring (x2)
If this information is correct (which might be a bit of an assumption; we'll have to wait and see) we could get up to 184% IAS and +0.7 APS from gear alone.
There are a couple ways this could work, I think:
Bonuses on the weapon affect it before the bonuses on other gear
In this case, we'd be looking at ((1.4*1.25)+0.25)=2 APS
Then, adding in the rest of your gear, ((2*2.59)+0.45)=5.63 APS
Finally, the IAS from skills: (15[Dual Wield]+15[Blazing Fists]+8[Transgression]+3[Focused Mind])=41%
5.63*1.41=7.938 APS
All attack speed bonuses are applied at the same time
Gear: ((1.4*2.84)+0.7)=4.676
Skills: 4.676*1.41=6.593 APS
I dunno...that seems really high, especially in the first scenario. However, it does require 13 pieces of perfectly rolled gear, so it's not exactly easy to attain at any rate. Food for thought...
Just for fun, if 7.938 APS is accurate (I have my doubts), then Faith in the Light's 30% Holy Damage per attack for 3 seconds would equate to
7.938*3*30*1.15(assuming Blazing Wrath buff from BoH is active as well)=821.614 %WD. O.o
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Way of the Hundred Fists: Blazing Fists
This is obviously the core of the build. Decent damage at 140% and crits increase your attack speed by up to 15%.
Lashing Tail Kick: Vulture Claw Kick
This is the only "spammable" Spirit spender that I really like, and the rune changes it to a 360-degree PBAoE and bumps the damage up a little bit. Not too bad.
Blinding Flash: Faith in the Light
A pretty decent defensive cooldown, but the rune effect is great for this build, as it really synergizes with the IAS we'll be stacking. With maximum possible IAS, this defensive cooldown turns into an ability that will cause well over 300% weapon damage.
Sweeping Wind: Cyclone
Sweeping Wind is a cool "set and forget" type of ability that will hopefully be fairly easy to keep going constantly with this build's high attack speed. I'm not really sure how useful Cyclone will be, but since this build will need a decent amount of crit chance as well, it seems like a cool option. Inner Storm is a good alternative if Cyclone turns out to not be great.
Breath of Heaven: Blazing Wrath
Like Blinding Flash, this is another good defensive cooldown with an offensive upside from the rune.
Mantra of Retribution: Transgression
The key to choosing this Mantra is the Transgression rune, which ties into the build theme with an additional 8% IAS (that also extends to any party members - I like to think it'll make us popular with our Frenzy Barb friends!). It's certainly possible that Conviction could be better for this build, but I'm sticking with the theme for now.
Passives
Transcendence: A nice bit of healing when using Spirit spending abilities.
Resolve: Should be no problem to keep all the monsters around me debuffed at all times thanks to Sweeping Wind.
Seize the Initiative: More defensive utility from increasing offensive power. 'Nuff said.
This build will likely be highly gear dependent to be fully utilized, since we'll need to stack as much IAS as possible and keep a crit chance of at least ~20% to make sure the Blazing Fists buff doesn't fall off. According to the game files, the max haste bonus is 17% and can occur on 5 item types:
Solo Play
15% - Dual wield bonus
15% - Blazing Fists
8% - Transgression
85% - Gear
3% - Focused Mind (Enchantress)
126% total
Group Play
20% - Big Bad Voodoo (WD)
10% - Stretch Time (Wizard)
Up to 153% total
(If I'm forgetting any others, let me know!)
According to Blizzard's game guide, all high-end fist weapons have a 1.4 attack speed, so using that as our base, we can get up to (1.4*2.26)=3.164 attacks per second in solo play and as much as (1.4*2.53)=3.542 with the correct group.
I might come back and crunch some more skill-specific numbers tomorrow, but it's getting to be about bedtime...in the meantime, what do you all think? I'd love to hear any feedback!
I've done a little more digging over at D3Inferno and it would appear that my numbers above aren't exactly correct. From what I can tell, there are actually two separate means for increasing your attack speed:
Attack Speed %
+17% - Occurs on Amulet, Gloves, Ring (x2)
+13% - Occurs on Offhand, Armor
+25% - Occurs on Weapons
Flat +APS
+0.25 APS - Occurs on Weapons
+0.15 APS - Occurs on Amulet, Ring (x2)
If this information is correct (which might be a bit of an assumption; we'll have to wait and see) we could get up to 184% IAS and +0.7 APS from gear alone.
There are a couple ways this could work, I think:
Bonuses on the weapon affect it before the bonuses on other gear
In this case, we'd be looking at ((1.4*1.25)+0.25)=2 APS
Then, adding in the rest of your gear, ((2*2.59)+0.45)=5.63 APS
Finally, the IAS from skills: (15[Dual Wield]+15[Blazing Fists]+8[Transgression]+3[Focused Mind])=41%
All attack speed bonuses are applied at the same time
Gear: ((1.4*2.84)+0.7)=4.676
Skills: 4.676*1.41=6.593 APS
I dunno...that seems really high, especially in the first scenario. However, it does require 13 pieces of perfectly rolled gear, so it's not exactly easy to attain at any rate. Food for thought...
Just for fun, if 7.938 APS is accurate (I have my doubts), then Faith in the Light's 30% Holy Damage per attack for 3 seconds would equate to