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Yeah, no idea either. I'm trying to find a shield as well for days now. Haven't actually thought about camping vendors yet. I guess rather than "camping" a vendor it might be better to start a new game and look for them everytime, but not sure which easily accessible vendor offers shields anyways. It seems that offhands are just items in neither armor/weapon category and therefore don't drop regularly from armor/weapon stands (HotA/BoE), so you just need to be insaaaaaaanely lucky.

Regarding my "perfect gear" I just discovered a small mistake in my planning today - Aughild's Spike always comes with allres, which means it can never have lightning res, which is a rather huge letdown. I'm wondering if I should give up Born's as well and craft Aughild's Bracers. It would allow me to switch to Blackthorne's chest, and get Julia's Cameo as well as the Helm of Rule. Might be worth it in return for the 20% life (negligible) and 10% CDR (quite a loss, but not a game changer).

Btw, I've used my monk today to tank for 3 ranged classes (2 DHs and 1 wizard) and figured that BoH is really wasted on those because of the 12 yard radius. I used Serenity - Tranquility instead... but to be really useful really requires as much CDR as possible.

Was a little bored, so I made a cheat sheet aiming for "perfect tank gear:

http://i.imgur.com/WJqO9Wd.png

(Download Excel file here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/eg1q10)

Pretty insane mitigation :-)

Let me know if you have any suggestions for improvements or if there are any mistakes. I got rid of Captain's in favor of Blackthorne's; it's just too good versus elites and completely negates three affixes.

It's on my list to test it out, actually. I'm a huge fan of elite damage reduction, but I don't have any materials left (in particular Forgotten Souls) so it'll take me a while to do more testing. In my opinion it should make a huge difference because what kills you aren't 20 skeletons but 4 champion mallet lords. But yeah, needs more testing. Just like that stuff with OwE - theory is one thing, going out an testing is the other. Good thing is, the more things are "fixed" the easier it is to test. When I started this I had just hit level 70, no gear, and not played a monk for quite a while so... the initial setup was quite flawed. (Though not 100% useless as your video showed ;-))

YAY! I report success. Finally made it.

After some in-game discussions with Shinna (thanks again!) I got motivated to give it another shot. Using some new rare gear that my DH friends helped collecting me (thanks to you lurking peeps :P) and Shinna's most recent build it was possible for me to tank on T5 somewhat comfortably. I think with rare gear only this is as far as it goes, unfortunately. However, since I recently found a dexterity Ring of Royal Grandeur on my wizard (oh the irony) I farmed and crafted lots of sets. Without further ado, here's the link to the monk's stats:

http://d3up.com/b/1386468

• 26.6m toughness
• 1880 allres
• 11.2k armor
• 15% elite, 7% melee, 7% ranged damage reduction
• => That's 97.9% reduction vs elite (97.6% vs trash)
• 15k LoH
• 612k life (trying to shift some of that to the aforementioned stats)
• 65% crowd control reduction (absolutely no need for Ice Climbers here anymore)
• 56.3% cooldown reduction
• 1.81 attacks per second
• 13.8k-16.7k block amount at 23% block chance (yeah, using a shield at the moment).

Other stats don't matter much in my opinion. Some thoughts along the way for those who are aiming for something similar:

• I collected lots of different rares for all potential secondary resists, but there's really only one you need: lightning resist. Since Thundergod's Vigor can provide up to 300% (!!!) all resist since it's the only item (to my knowledge) that can roll both all resist and single resist, this is the way to go. Don't try another single resist, don't try all resist. Go lightning. I learned that the hard way (went all resist first, then cold resist, and spend millions on those items).
• Shinna pointed out that actually dual-wield might be better than a shield because of the higher life per hit return. For me the Hallowed set was much much better, I actually just tested swapping the shield for a second weapon and could not sustain my life (with shield I can even tank multiple nasty packs indefinitely). But maybe in the future, once my gear is better.
• Invest the time (and resources) to farm sets. I have 3 piece bonus of Born's, Aughild's, and Captain's - plus the bonus from the Hallowed Set. It's a game changer.
• Neglect DPS in the beginning. This is a tank build that enables others to kill stuff on T6. I'm at 200k damage right now, but I absolutely didn't pay attention to damage at all. Once your build is absolutely stable and you never die on T6, you can think about offense.

I'm not interested in streaming or making videos (siar89 took care of that already), but here's a screenshot of me standing in what some would probably describe as "not the easiest combination of two Torment 6 elite packs": http://i.imgur.com/BaGiIDe.jpg - http://i.imgur.com/CNC94bf.jpg

Wow, thanks for the video siar89! Very impressive, especially given that you gear really wasn't OP at all and you even left the helm's socket empty. So despite all the iterations we've made to the build in this thread, the initial build idea wasn't completely useless. Thanks a lot for this nicely done video!

I'm now in the process of upgrading all classes at the same time, but mainly playing my wizard, so of all the "non-smart" loot only one fifth goes to my monk. I'm collecting allres items as well as items for every single resistance, such that I can go OwE if I want to, but also without OwE if needed. Since I found a dexterity Ring of Royal Grandeur with my wizard (lol), I should probably farm and craft some of the sets (Guardian's, Born's, Captain's, some of those). This tank monk is not high on my list since we're speed farming Torment 1 right now, but I want to prepare him for the occasion that my group ever needs a high Torment tank.

Therefore, every contribution to this thread will be very useful, and I'll keep track of it. Thanks for all the replies!

Edit: Updated the first post to make sure that readers know there's more to this thread.

Interesting, thanks for the link! So the maximum amount of CDR for a monk seems to be72,36% (including Beacon of Ytar and paragon).

Someone in that thread also said that the hard cap is 89,99% - haven't tested it yet though, but sounds reasonable. Anyways, once you go above 60% or 70% it might not be worth it anymore to stack more CDR.

Edit: No, you can even go higher - here's gear close to 75%:http://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/22mij3/gear_list_for_75_cooldown_reduction/

Thanks Zubacz for the elaborate reply! Very helpful, gonna include that in my plans.

@Shinna: Since when is it capped? I've had 70% (with a shrine) on my wizard pre-RoS. That is news to me; if there's a cap I need to change that ASAP in my FAQ, so please let me know where you got this from, it's the first time I've heard about a cap :-)

Yeah to be honest, my monk has 2nd priority. My wizard is pretty shitty (one semi-decent set item, no good weapon, and no game-changing leg besides Mirrorball) after ~130 hours, 1000 bounties, 280 rifts. Gotta improve her first, then I'll deal with the monk.

The gear is total crap (I mean, I'm using an INT weapon...) so I'll have to work on that a lot. I was trying to make an easy proof of concept for a basic build, but obviously the gear needs some more work to be more T6 viable. Honestly - it would be a shame if a stack of crafting material could get every noob monk to T6 immediately, don't you think... ;-)

Thanks for all the suggestions!

@Shinna: Awesome feedback, forgot to say thanks, but I actually switched to your build already and I'm building up the gear set that you recommend. Thing is, it takes a lot of time because I ran out of crafting material and I'm farming with my wizard, so have to hope for non-smart loot ;-)

I also went with OwE now and got him to 25m thoughness (buffed) but still can't tank T6, what is wrong? Lots of LPS/LoH and even Transcendence...

@ThePurplePig: Yeah I'm all in for ditching LTK, since I'm using Shinna's build now I don't have it anymore.

I looked into Guiding Light but it kinda seems that it doesn't really work if my group mates are at full health most of the time, which I hope they are (if I'm tanking well). Or did I misunderstand the passive? Besides, right now I'm more in favor of the Mantra of Conviction and also more in favor of LoH than LPS.

@Saphyron: Epiphany (I guess with Soothing Light rune) sounds indeed interesting. Which skill would you remove from my build to make room for that?

Okay, I've looked at all the skills and actually re-thought my build. What about this:

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#WYXVkf!ahVY!ZYZaZZ

Here are my thoughts:

• Soothing Light and Circle of Life increase my healing and my allies' healing. I completely ditch LpSS and LoH and go full health globe bonus and life regeneration to heal my entire group.
• Beacon of Ytar, cooldown reduction from gear and paragon to cast these heals as often as possible.
• Resolve, Intimidation, and Concussion to reduce enemy's damage.
• Unity, Mantra of Conviction, and The Flesh is Weak to buff allies' damage.
• Not sure about the third passive: currently Transcendence for healing. Another option would be Chant of Resonance to be able to cast the Mantra more often for more damage. The third, traditional option would be Seize the Initivate *if* I decide to not ditch dexterity from gear, which I'm leaning towards, as I'd much rather rely on mitigation than dodging and really don't care about damage. But this one might be a bit crazy, thoughts welcome.

Combined effects are:

• Enemies deal 20% (Concussion), 20% (Resolve), and 15% (Intimidation) less damage - not sure if this works additively (55% reduction) or multiplicatively (45% reduction) but both is kinda significant.
• Allies deal 5% (Unity), 20% (The Flesh is Weak), and 10% (Mantra) more damage; so either 35% or 38.6% increased damage (45%/51.2% with activated Mantra).
• If I get 50% cooldown reduction (passive+paragon+4 rare items with 7%) I can cast Blinding Flash and Breath of Heaven every 7.5 seconds; that should be about 20k LPS for all allies for 3 seconds and 120k (up to 200k) heal - essentially healing some 200k-250k life every 7.5 seconds for all allies including me.

And on top of that, insane Cyclone Strike + Exploding Palm action. Does that sound reasonable? If I buff the group's damage by at least 35% and significantly increase their mitigation and healing, I guess that justifies reducing my damage to almost zero, doesn't it? Any thoughts?

Oh and another question - since giving up damage really frees up a great deal of primary slots, do you think it's worthwhile to go for "resource cost reduction" to be able to spam Mantra of Healing, LTK, and other spells like crazy? Or would it be somewhat counterproductive to LpSS?

Quote from Zwergl

I wont go without OwE, because sacking a single resist for allres is going to free you a primary slot on every item, which is huge!

Quote from Durandil

EDIT 2: As a further... for Torment 6, One with Everything is going to be almost mandatory. It's an amazing passive, as it lets you move your resists from a primary stat slot on items (all resistance) into the secondary slot, freeing up a primary for something else. It also allows more resistance per piece of gear.

The thing is that I don't need primary slots on items that much as I really don't care about damage, and 3-4 defensive stats per items are already a lot. On the other hand, there are ~5-6 passives I can choose from, so I'd much rather go with allres and no OwE. If I ever decide to make a damage monk I'll probably craft the Demon's set and go full fireres + OwE ;-)

Quote from Durandil

I find Mantra of Evasion with the Hard Target rune tends to increase toughness significantly more than Healing with Time of Need, but I suppose you do lose the life regen, and you can't dodge everything...

That's interesting... I've actually never seen that being used in group, but I wonder if that's better than Time of Need. I'll give it a try. I don't think anyone particularly cares about the life regen, to be honest. Thanks for the hint!

Quote from Durandil

The active on Mantra of Healing is great (if you spam it), but I noticed you aren't using the Chant of Resonance passive, so I assume that's not why you're using it.

No it's not, but I actually completely overlooked the active effect. Wow, that's huge! Maybe I should also add stacking health globe bonus then? Haven't actually thought about that. Well, the issue is that I have already so many no-cooldown spirit spenders, will I be able to spam this spell? I wonder if there's a build with less spenders... it feels like I have to hit 6 buttons all the time. This can't be it...

Quote from Durandil

Would also highly recommend the Resolve passive.

Sounds like a plan, but in exchange for what? Transcendence (and move the LpSS to gear)?

Quote from Durandil

EDIT: Also, Crippling Wave with the Concussion rune should be your go-to spirit generator for a supportive build.

Thanks! I'll change that!

Note: Many work-in-progress builds and discussions along the way, if you just want the final result and "working tank build" skip to this post.

Finally got my monk to 70 yesterday and I'm now looking to build him into a T6 tank monster (if anyone ever needs one). I have a wizard for pewpewpew damage, so I absolutely don't care about damage - if someone wants a monk to do DPS, I won't be the right choice. Tried the monk as damage dealer after 2.0.1 but didn't really like it that much. So, I just want an insanely party-supportive, invincible tank monk.

There was a thread a while ago with few replies, and there's also a build in this thread but I'm actually looking for something different. For example, I see Fleet Footed in there but I always hate if the monk in a party rushes ahead, in particular after we gain Conduit Pylon, and all kills are off-screen. This is the build I currently have in mind:

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#UZdVQf!YhbX!aYYZcZ Changed based on Durandil's input: http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#WZdVQf!ahbX!ZYYZcZ

CS+EB should be obivous, DS+LTK for stun, and Time of Need as possibly the best high Torment mantra rune. Not sure which spirit generator is best, just picked WotHF at random because it looks kinda cool. Unity is definitely the to-go passive in groups, and the other three seem to fit defense best.

Now to gear.

1. Damage: I thought about completely ditching crit hit damage, crit chance, elemental bonus, and attack speed (not sure about the latter). I kept dexterity on my gear but I'm wondering if I should even sacrifice that as well.
2. Toughness: My goal is to have around 500k life and otherwise just max mitigation, especially going for allres to not having to rely on OwE. Also wearing a shield to make it super extra tanky. I guess this is pretty straightforward, I've done a great deal of research into mitigation so this is where I feel most comfortable making decisions on gear. Also currently 7 gems with allres help a lot ;-)
3. Healing: This is where I really need some help, in particular in combination with question to damage (dex). Is it worth stacking any healing and if yes what? My initial feeling is that life regeneration could be awesome because of Sustenance, but I probably want to run other mantras/rune so don't want to rely on that. I have also no idea if life on hit is worth it on higher Torment levels. Right now I have a lof of both, LPS and LoH, but I'm wondering if I should rather focus to get vit/life%/allres/armor on all items and stick to Transcendence and life per spirit spent on weapon/helmet for healing.

Updates:

- siar89 made a video showcasing this build, take a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zUN6jO8UdQ
- Shinna1989 proposed some nice improvements to the build:http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#UVRfdk!XUYV!baccYZ - scroll down for details!
-Zubacz also did a lot of research on tank builds and gear, his current build looks like that:http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#WVfPdk!XUYV!ZaZabZ but make sure to check all his gear recommendations as well!
-Success: See final build and gear set here:http://www.diablofans.com/forums/diablo-iii-class-forums/monk-the-inner-sanctuary/84322-pure-tank-monk-build-gear?comment=23