First of, wanna say thanks for the nicely written guide. So far my monk has progressed well in act 1 and act 2 which I have both on farm now. Tried act 3 and it has been rather nasty to my monk. Stuck at grom now which I would assume is the next hard gear check esp for monks but also still have lots of problems with blue and yellow mobs esp crazy combos like arcane wall molten and plague.
Not talking about Ghom, just in general progression
Your damage is fine for completing the game, but more HP and resists won't hurt, 40k and 800s seems enough for act3+.
One thing I found useful for progression is armor, there is quite noticeable difference between 6k and 12k armor
To archive 12k armor (or anywhere close to 10k):
1. Swap Blinding Flash with DR keen eye, its a double edge sword as it gives more armor plus a mid ranged attack. Most of the pack I fought involved a lot of moving around, hit-and-run, kiting, and DR is almost necessary when you are fresh into Act 3 and have not overgeared the content.
2. Swap MoH with MoE with Hard target, with your LoH and 12k armor, you don't need MoH
3. Use enchantress, her armor buff gives a big boost to armor
Hi guys, since I've been following this guide to progress in inferno for my monk I thought I'd throw the question here. Firstly, thank you OP for taking your time to make this guide, I've been doing the crit build thingy with some borrowed gear from my DH and I was having a blast.
Unfortunately, all good thing must come to an end and my own was Act 3 Inferno. Going into it, I made sure my gear was considered 'good enough' in almost all aspect and I'm using the Standard FoT & Cyclone build with only 1 change of transcendence in place of resolve.
I am finding however that some elite pack in Act 3 just end with me dying over and over and over again before I can get them down and I'm hoping someone can point out what I am doing wrong.
I'm basically refering to pack with the arcane / plague / immolate combo, Arcane with any of the other 2 causes me no end of grief and even by itself if affixed on the right elite (Winged Molok and those fat cows) would result in me dying multiple time before I can kill them.
Whenever I try to engage they would always throw down arcane / immolate / plague and combine with their damage output I simply cannot tank through it whilst standing still. If I run away to a clear spot they simply do it all over again within seconds or even worst, starting fireballing me to death. I just don't know how I can economically take these down, what skill should I be using or how I am suppose to engage them. Any help would be greatly appreciate it.
below are my stats for reference, and yes, this is a l2p moment for me, my main is a DH and unlike that character, I rushed my monk to 60 with my borrowed gear, breezing through act 1 and 2 with ease.
Thanks in advance for any advise!
Attack Speed: 1.79
Critical Hit Chance: 35%
Critical Hit Damage: 212%
Block Chance: 21%
Dodge Chance: 46.2% (after mantra buff)
Damage Reduction via Armor 71.39% (after mantra buff)
All Resis: 834
Health Pool: 48,020
Regen: 210
Life on Hit: 834
DPS: 20k+
Your gear is enough to devastate the whole game including pony level. You can drop a lot of vitality and get resistance or dps stats instead.
Your stats are all higher than of mine, except I have 27% block. What build are you using?
The same build as recommended by the OP with FoT Thunderclap - I have one variation, which is using trascendence over resolve.
The reason my hp is so high is because the gear isn't tuned for a monk, most of the gear comes from my DH which was stacking All / Phy resis, I was aiming for max dex with those 2 stats on top and the vit was just a bonus.
DPS has now been increased to 25k and HP now down to 45k after some tuning. Finding stuff easier to kill now than before (yay!) Got smashed last night though, by a nightmarish mob of those fat slow monsters (can't remember the name of mob with 2 maces?).
So yea, I know monks with inferior gear farming act 3 and telling me they rarely die to anything, but every session there is at least 1-2 monster that I just wipe to again and again.
Not talking about Ghom, just in general progression
Your damage is fine for completing the game, but more HP and resists won't hurt, 40k and 800s seems enough for act3+.
One thing I found useful for progression is armor, there is quite noticeable difference between 6k and 12k armor
To archive 12k armor (or anywhere close to 10k):
1. Swap Blinding Flash with DR keen eye, its a double edge sword as it gives more armor plus a mid ranged attack. Most of the pack I fought involved a lot of moving around, hit-and-run, kiting, and DR is almost necessary when you are fresh into Act 3 and have not overgeared the content.
2. Swap MoH with MoE with Hard target, with your LoH and 12k armor, you don't need MoH
3. Use enchantress, her armor buff gives a big boost to armor
Hope this helps
thanks for the tips... will give it a go while trying to farm for gold/items to get the upgrades
my monk is doing the same build, except use bladestorm as the rune for sweeping wind, since i have low crit, like 10%, but around 20k dps unbuffed dual wielding, I would like to say this guide is really great
hi there,
noob here. been farming act1 over and over for the past week or so. most of my gear was bought for 250-500K on the AH. i'm struggling to get any decent upgrades without spending a fortune and struggling with act2 inferno
wondering if anyone can tell me if i'm on the right track with this build:
everything seems fine to me, except your armor is little low with a shield. You should be able to progress in Act 2, just a little slow with that amount of damage, but its doable. Whats your build? and which part of act 2 are your struggling with?
Welcome to my personal life as a monk, Sarius. I have the same issues as you, and my stats are much worse off.
My LOH is insanely high, thankfully, at around 2k. Weapons are only 600-ish fists, 1600 dex and only 22k HP. I have a stupidly hard time finding any gear with proper stats. Even ignoring Crit chance/Damage finding any gear with Dex, All Res, resist of choice, and having any Vit whatsoever has been impossible.
Most of what I'm wearing I have found but honestly I haven't had any drops drop for me worth more than 200k. First set piece yesterday, Nats Bow.. Strength. Awesome.
This class is the reason I am still playing and I feel like I'll be in act 1 forever, I stepped foot into a3 and got destroyed on my way up the first set of stairs. 12 times in a row.
sarius: When I first cleared inferno A4 killing the elites along the way I had bit over 700 dps dagger with 110 dex, some IAS and Star Amethyst (300 LoH) in socket. So the weapon doesn't necessarily have to have godly dps, but of course it would help. That was before 1.03, so IAS was the way to go back then even more than it is now, but still I'd be nervous to go under 2 attacks per second even with the gear I've got now.
I'd suggest going for tanky route before you get your gear sorted for better dps. Aim for 6k armor, 900+ all resist and decent attack speed with 800-1,2k LoH. Use Sacred or Dread Shield with decent amount of block in OH. And switch from Thunderclap to Deadly Reach with Keen Eye rune. I used tank build for progressing: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#bjgXiQ!ZXU!ZcYbbc
One thing to notice about resistances is that they reduce all damage you receive as does armor as well, and the diminishing returns are there only to keep the actual reduction in damage linear, so you do get the same amount of damage prevention in actual damage taken for each point of resistance. That means that percentage based resistance buffs actually give you more damage reduction if you already have high resistance.
dajackal: Higher attack speed and enchantress as follower could make your life a lot easier. Going for max crit dps build is something to aim for, but crit and crit damage should be the last ones to push up after the resists/armor, attack speed and LoH are sorted out.
mibuokami: Switch that Trancendence back to Resolve. If you have decent amount of LoH and your attack speed is decent enough, reducing damage is way more efficient direction to go than the meager healing from Trancendence. This is coming from a monk that used to think that we have only 2 passive slots because I just couldn't bring myself to change the Trancendence off. After changing it during act III progress I've never looked back.
Is there anyone who is running Life Steal with no or very little LoH? Or does anyone know if it is worth having it around? I'm stuck dualwielding 900 dps fist weapons, because one has a socket for Amethyst and the other 2.6% Life Steal. Using Blind (with Faith in the Light rune) or activating aura (Overawe) seems to get my hp rising faster, but it would be nice to hear some experiences from running only Life Steal.
1. I can't farm Act III yet:
How far have you been able to get into Act II? It may seem odd but I found the Soulstone Area (Act 2 - Chapter 8 - Soulstone Chamber) a better spot to work items than the prior Act 2 Chapters, specifically the desert / oasis areas. Less trash to wade through and I found the bosses easier to fight using the environment. The reason I mention this is the increased ilvl 63 percentage rates as well as just the idea of something challenging beyond act 1.
2. Tips for Weapons:
Your "ideal" weapon target is right on but you're absolutely correct where those cost a fortune and you may need to "bridge" the gap until you get lucky with a drop or can get a steady flow of decentilvl 62 / ilvl 63's / odd rarity worth a lot to start generating gold.
Try searching for Weapons with: Dex Attack Speed Has Socket
With that socket you can gem:
Amethyst - Life on Hit
Emerald - Crit Dmg
(You can't Gem Attack Speed ergo why you'd look for that affix in your search)
I peeked at the AH with the above filters and I found a couple in the high 800's DPS / low 900's DPS range that were in the 6-8mil buyout / 3-5mil starting bids.
I pretty much only farm Act 3 with little difficulty (Certain packs will always be a pain). I say this not to be a braggart but to give some perspective as my weapons aren't anything INSANE.
Fist Weapon #1:
DPS 816 / Dex 161 / Vit 109 / LoH 788 / Min Dmg 13 / Lightning Dmg 228-579 / Int 100
Fist Weapon #2
DPS 933 / Dex 99 / Vit 65 / Life on Kill 567 / 49% Dmg / 219 +min / 249 +max
Anyways, I hope I helped a little and wish you luck!
Taking your advice, and some advice from others, I swapped some gear around while selling the old pieces at a minimal loss. I nearly doubled my health, bumped up my resistances 150 to 650, while only taking a 112 LOH loss. At 1800's now with less crit damage but more crit. I was not able to, however, swap out weapons as they each have 900/700 LOH respectively. I would get completely melted if I even thought of dropping that much.
When I entered act 3 as I feared I was completely disheartened to find that a champion pack was seconds away from the stairs. I died almost instantly. Afterwards I realized they were fast/molten/fire chains/illusionist. Relogged. From there with under 10 deaths or so I was able to just now clear to and kill Ghom. The things that gave me the most problems were desecrators, moltens, and fire chains.
I feel I am still lacking defenses even though now my health pool is at a reasonable level. I have one garbage ring with crit damage on it I may sacrifice for a Dex/Allres/P.Res to bump up my resistances another 100 or so though that is my last resistance-less spot. Everything else is either a great item with just P.Res, or a pretty good item with both res. I'm not sure what else to do to make the damage less spikey, nor if that 100 resistances is going to be a make or break thing. I could possibly find a chest with 50 total resistances on it more than what I am using now.
I'd love to hear thoughts on attack speed as well. I really enjoy the monk class as a bombardment of attacks but I've honestly got nowhere to fit in the stat. Possibly weapons, as you said, but I'd have to get the defenses up so I could safely drop the LOH.
Again, thanks foremost for the guide, I'd have quit long ago if I didn't come across this, and thank you to the helpful monk community for helping each of us improve.
LOH is really overrated. Take it if you can get it, but never gear for it. You're better off hitting a decent resist threshold like 700-800 and then going for crit/crit damage/dexterity and any vit you can get. Killing things faster means less damage incoming. Seriously, being able to burst down an elite with nasty affixes quick can be the difference maker.
LOH might save you on some trash, but no amount will save you from molten, fire chains, arcane, plague , desecratations and shielding/vortex.
everything seems fine to me, except your armor is little low with a shield. You should be able to progress in Act 2, just a little slow with that amount of damage, but its doable. Whats your build? and which part of act 2 are your struggling with?
My build is the recommended build on the guide. FoT/Thunderclap and Sweeping Wind/Cyclone.
I can get through most mobs in act2 now but I got hammered in act3. This is my latest itemisation, hoping you can comment on where anything might be lacking.
Cheers!
Must be becaue I suck, or I don't have 400 gahzillion gold or whatever.
I just dropped 30 million in upgrades for my newly minted 60 monk. I'm using the cookie cutter build suggested in this post and trying to switch between a few different "oh these builds with the right items are just so super-duper easy, you'll just roll through everything!"
I have 900 LOH
1600 Dex
35k health
750ish to resistances
20k dps
41.5 crit
200% crit dmg
4.5k armor
And the moment I walk up to any elite with any type of elemental damage - especially my favorite of fire, I get destroyed. Now my main is a Wizard and I moved on to the monk because I got bored rolling Act 1. I know how to kite - and kite well - so I just don't stand there as a monk relying upon CD's to be able to fight an elite.
So tell me - with the above stats - the cookie cutter build (defensive build, not the glass cannon build) what the hell am I doing wrong. Oh, I'm in Act 2 and trying to get ZK's blood. This is pretty much where I did a big "F**K YOU BLIZZARD" with my Wiz and went back to boring Act 1 for farming enjoyment.
I'm in Act 2 - getting the blood of Zultun Kule. Act 1 was a breeze - not one death and no trouble farming there. However I have a 300mf Wiz that can do Act 1 with my eyes closed. I want to go on to Act 3, but the only thing that I can see that I'm missing, compared to some Duel-Wielders out there is more dex. I was watching a live cast from a DW'er using no LoH and he has like 90k dps. His dex is 1k larger than mine, I have more crit but about 100 less crit dmg than he does. So I might have to go that path...
In honesty, dual-wield only really works effectively at really high gear levels. If you're still trying to progress through Acts 2 & 3, sword & board + enchantress is the way to go. Pick up a shield with 8-10% crit chance, high block % and high block value and it's very comparable damage to DW at moderate gear levels (in that you loose very little dps, if any, for significant survivability gains). Your gear should more than easily be able to clear Acts 2 & 3. Some packs in Act 3/4 can be horror (demonic tremors *shudder*), even with great gear, but most are doable. My gear when I cleared Act 4 was very comparable.
Unless your dps is suitably high and you're at the point where you can farm Act 3, then Mantra of Evasion + Hard Target is the way to go, rather than Mantra of Conviction + Overawe. Conviction is great when you're at the point when you can farm, but it's not great for progression and if you're still dieing a lot (I'm not sure what mantra you're using, just thought it worth making the point as your armour is low).
I'm personally a fan of double spirit generator builds, swapping Blind (in the 'standard' [blind, serenity, breath, fot, sweeping wind, mantra] build) for Deadly Reach - Foresight, and using that coupled with FoT - Thunderclap. Foresight is a modest dps increase, and while DR is generally less dps and less loh than FoT, it's very useful for keeping sweeping winds up when kiting, dps'ing while moving out of ground effects, at range, through waller walls and so on. That + FoT for your main damage & the teleport, the combination feels very versitile.
I love this guide. With just a little tweaking, I've cruised my way to Ghom on Inferno. Now I just have to be careful when kiting clockwise. I find it funnier that I have more trouble on Ghom than I did with Belial, haha.
Yeah this build and gearing for it can be found for well under a million gold and can get you through act 2 rather easily. Cyclone is just so good and mantra of evasion is probably one of the best defensive abilities in the game (with hard target and nice dex, which is ofc a primary attribute).
I need some clarification. I'm just now getting to the point of investing extensive time and gold in my Monk and this is the second guide I've seen where we're told to use Sweeping Wind as our secondary skill. Is it just me or is this not an option? Did something change recently and this is now outdated? Thanks in advance for any help.
Also, in case it matters, I'm currently level 58 and in Act 3 of Hell difficulty.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Not talking about Ghom, just in general progression
Your damage is fine for completing the game, but more HP and resists won't hurt, 40k and 800s seems enough for act3+.
One thing I found useful for progression is armor, there is quite noticeable difference between 6k and 12k armor
To archive 12k armor (or anywhere close to 10k):
1. Swap Blinding Flash with DR keen eye, its a double edge sword as it gives more armor plus a mid ranged attack. Most of the pack I fought involved a lot of moving around, hit-and-run, kiting, and DR is almost necessary when you are fresh into Act 3 and have not overgeared the content.
2. Swap MoH with MoE with Hard target, with your LoH and 12k armor, you don't need MoH
3. Use enchantress, her armor buff gives a big boost to armor
Hope this helps
The same build as recommended by the OP with FoT Thunderclap - I have one variation, which is using trascendence over resolve.
The reason my hp is so high is because the gear isn't tuned for a monk, most of the gear comes from my DH which was stacking All / Phy resis, I was aiming for max dex with those 2 stats on top and the vit was just a bonus.
DPS has now been increased to 25k and HP now down to 45k after some tuning. Finding stuff easier to kill now than before (yay!) Got smashed last night though, by a nightmarish mob of those fat slow monsters (can't remember the name of mob with 2 maces?).
So yea, I know monks with inferior gear farming act 3 and telling me they rarely die to anything, but every session there is at least 1-2 monster that I just wipe to again and again.
Help appreciated.
thanks for the tips... will give it a go while trying to farm for gold/items to get the upgrades
noob here. been farming act1 over and over for the past week or so. most of my gear was bought for 250-500K on the AH. i'm struggling to get any decent upgrades without spending a fortune and struggling with act2 inferno
wondering if anyone can tell me if i'm on the right track with this build:
My LOH is insanely high, thankfully, at around 2k. Weapons are only 600-ish fists, 1600 dex and only 22k HP. I have a stupidly hard time finding any gear with proper stats. Even ignoring Crit chance/Damage finding any gear with Dex, All Res, resist of choice, and having any Vit whatsoever has been impossible.
Most of what I'm wearing I have found but honestly I haven't had any drops drop for me worth more than 200k. First set piece yesterday, Nats Bow.. Strength. Awesome.
This class is the reason I am still playing and I feel like I'll be in act 1 forever, I stepped foot into a3 and got destroyed on my way up the first set of stairs. 12 times in a row.
I'd suggest going for tanky route before you get your gear sorted for better dps. Aim for 6k armor, 900+ all resist and decent attack speed with 800-1,2k LoH. Use Sacred or Dread Shield with decent amount of block in OH. And switch from Thunderclap to Deadly Reach with Keen Eye rune. I used tank build for progressing: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#bjgXiQ!ZXU!ZcYbbc
One thing to notice about resistances is that they reduce all damage you receive as does armor as well, and the diminishing returns are there only to keep the actual reduction in damage linear, so you do get the same amount of damage prevention in actual damage taken for each point of resistance. That means that percentage based resistance buffs actually give you more damage reduction if you already have high resistance.
dajackal: Higher attack speed and enchantress as follower could make your life a lot easier. Going for max crit dps build is something to aim for, but crit and crit damage should be the last ones to push up after the resists/armor, attack speed and LoH are sorted out.
mibuokami: Switch that Trancendence back to Resolve. If you have decent amount of LoH and your attack speed is decent enough, reducing damage is way more efficient direction to go than the meager healing from Trancendence. This is coming from a monk that used to think that we have only 2 passive slots because I just couldn't bring myself to change the Trancendence off. After changing it during act III progress I've never looked back.
Is there anyone who is running Life Steal with no or very little LoH? Or does anyone know if it is worth having it around? I'm stuck dualwielding 900 dps fist weapons, because one has a socket for Amethyst and the other 2.6% Life Steal. Using Blind (with Faith in the Light rune) or activating aura (Overawe) seems to get my hp rising faster, but it would be nice to hear some experiences from running only Life Steal.
Here are a couple of things that may help
1. I can't farm Act III yet:
How far have you been able to get into Act II? It may seem odd but I found the Soulstone Area (Act 2 - Chapter 8 - Soulstone Chamber) a better spot to work items than the prior Act 2 Chapters, specifically the desert / oasis areas. Less trash to wade through and I found the bosses easier to fight using the environment. The reason I mention this is the increased ilvl 63 percentage rates as well as just the idea of something challenging beyond act 1.
2. Tips for Weapons:
Your "ideal" weapon target is right on but you're absolutely correct where those cost a fortune and you may need to "bridge" the gap until you get lucky with a drop or can get a steady flow of decent ilvl 62 / ilvl 63's / odd rarity worth a lot to start generating gold.
Try searching for Weapons with:
Dex
Attack Speed
Has Socket
With that socket you can gem:
Amethyst - Life on Hit
Emerald - Crit Dmg
(You can't Gem Attack Speed ergo why you'd look for that affix in your search)
I peeked at the AH with the above filters and I found a couple in the high 800's DPS / low 900's DPS range that were in the 6-8mil buyout / 3-5mil starting bids.
I pretty much only farm Act 3 with little difficulty (Certain packs will always be a pain). I say this not to be a braggart but to give some perspective as my weapons aren't anything INSANE.
Fist Weapon #1:
DPS 816 / Dex 161 / Vit 109 / LoH 788 / Min Dmg 13 / Lightning Dmg 228-579 / Int 100
Fist Weapon #2
DPS 933 / Dex 99 / Vit 65 / Life on Kill 567 / 49% Dmg / 219 +min / 249 +max
Anyways, I hope I helped a little and wish you luck!
Taking your advice, and some advice from others, I swapped some gear around while selling the old pieces at a minimal loss. I nearly doubled my health, bumped up my resistances 150 to 650, while only taking a 112 LOH loss. At 1800's now with less crit damage but more crit. I was not able to, however, swap out weapons as they each have 900/700 LOH respectively. I would get completely melted if I even thought of dropping that much.
When I entered act 3 as I feared I was completely disheartened to find that a champion pack was seconds away from the stairs. I died almost instantly. Afterwards I realized they were fast/molten/fire chains/illusionist. Relogged. From there with under 10 deaths or so I was able to just now clear to and kill Ghom. The things that gave me the most problems were desecrators, moltens, and fire chains.
I feel I am still lacking defenses even though now my health pool is at a reasonable level. I have one garbage ring with crit damage on it I may sacrifice for a Dex/Allres/P.Res to bump up my resistances another 100 or so though that is my last resistance-less spot. Everything else is either a great item with just P.Res, or a pretty good item with both res. I'm not sure what else to do to make the damage less spikey, nor if that 100 resistances is going to be a make or break thing. I could possibly find a chest with 50 total resistances on it more than what I am using now.
I'd love to hear thoughts on attack speed as well. I really enjoy the monk class as a bombardment of attacks but I've honestly got nowhere to fit in the stat. Possibly weapons, as you said, but I'd have to get the defenses up so I could safely drop the LOH.
Again, thanks foremost for the guide, I'd have quit long ago if I didn't come across this, and thank you to the helpful monk community for helping each of us improve.
LOH might save you on some trash, but no amount will save you from molten, fire chains, arcane, plague , desecratations and shielding/vortex.
My build is the recommended build on the guide. FoT/Thunderclap and Sweeping Wind/Cyclone.
I can get through most mobs in act2 now but I got hammered in act3. This is my latest itemisation, hoping you can comment on where anything might be lacking.
Cheers!
Must be becaue I suck, or I don't have 400 gahzillion gold or whatever.
I just dropped 30 million in upgrades for my newly minted 60 monk. I'm using the cookie cutter build suggested in this post and trying to switch between a few different "oh these builds with the right items are just so super-duper easy, you'll just roll through everything!"
I have 900 LOH
1600 Dex
35k health
750ish to resistances
20k dps
41.5 crit
200% crit dmg
4.5k armor
And the moment I walk up to any elite with any type of elemental damage - especially my favorite of fire, I get destroyed. Now my main is a Wizard and I moved on to the monk because I got bored rolling Act 1. I know how to kite - and kite well - so I just don't stand there as a monk relying upon CD's to be able to fight an elite.
So tell me - with the above stats - the cookie cutter build (defensive build, not the glass cannon build) what the hell am I doing wrong. Oh, I'm in Act 2 and trying to get ZK's blood. This is pretty much where I did a big "F**K YOU BLIZZARD" with my Wiz and went back to boring Act 1 for farming enjoyment.
Monkalicious: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/OptimusPrime-12194/hero/79139477
Monkalicious: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/OptimusPrime-12194/hero/79139477
Unless your dps is suitably high and you're at the point where you can farm Act 3, then Mantra of Evasion + Hard Target is the way to go, rather than Mantra of Conviction + Overawe. Conviction is great when you're at the point when you can farm, but it's not great for progression and if you're still dieing a lot (I'm not sure what mantra you're using, just thought it worth making the point as your armour is low).
I'm personally a fan of double spirit generator builds, swapping Blind (in the 'standard' [blind, serenity, breath, fot, sweeping wind, mantra] build) for Deadly Reach - Foresight, and using that coupled with FoT - Thunderclap. Foresight is a modest dps increase, and while DR is generally less dps and less loh than FoT, it's very useful for keeping sweeping winds up when kiting, dps'ing while moving out of ground effects, at range, through waller walls and so on. That + FoT for your main damage & the teleport, the combination feels very versitile.
Great post.
Also, in case it matters, I'm currently level 58 and in Act 3 of Hell difficulty.