I've said it for 2 years...
Much of D2's appeal to many players was it's 'wild west' online presentation. The lack of rules and oversight. The lack of DRM integrity. If an online game launched these days with the same sort of chaotic online structure, it would likely fail. D2 launched back in an era before many homes even had internet, or PC's for that matter. Software companies didn't understand nor appreciate how much a popular online game could be ravaged by nonchalant players and 3rd party bottom-feeders.
Much of that chaos was fun, I admit. But nowadays, a major online game IS going to have some presence of a DRM strategy. I hope more people start appreciating D3 for what it is and cease sneering at it for what it isn't.
2
What if I told you I solved the damage problem by sacrificing sheet dps? What if I told you I solved the spirit problem by dropping spirit generating attacks? Finally, what if I told you I did both those things while buffing my groups damage, reducing the damage they take, and locking elites in place? Before I go into detailed information about the build, I'd like to share some links, stats, and concepts that are important to this setup.
The build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#ZPRdjg!XbVY!Yccbbb
Profile (stat totals are incorrect, but the gear is fine):http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Nicdanger-1955/hero/21224091
Soloing a Torment 3 Rift:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f3020lE2KM&feature=youtu.be
Concepts
Key Stats to aim for
The Build
Passives
Paragon
A few gear suggestions
Since the AH is no more, rather than give you specific gear requirements I'll just toss some random thoughts here. If I have time I might do a proper section on this later.
Reaper's Wraps and the Captian Crimson's set are extremely good for us and are both crafted, I suggest getting these asap.
Gyana Na Kashu is a spirit stone, the proc shoots a projectile that does ~325% weapon damage whenever you use Lashing Tail Kick. Since we're using LTK all the time, its extremely powerful.
Weapons can roll 10% CDR and 10% CR making them a great place to put those stats if you're lucky enough to be able to roll or reroll into them. Slower weapon are generally better, but if you've got a Thunderfury or Shard of Hate I'd fine a way to make those work.
Last but not least
This build take practice and patience to become comfortable with. You will need to watch 4 different cooldowns, your spirit, your health and try to position yourself to do maximum damage and stun everything all at the same time. You will probably have to sacrifice your damage stat in order to make it work (mine went from 750k to 450k at first), yet you will do more damage than before.I hold the point of view that monks are not just buff machines, we are not meant to spam primaries while piling up monsters for our buddy's to kill.This build is designed for high torment play, where everyone should be bringing some kind of buff or utility to the group while still doing massive damage, so far this is the best build I've found to do that.
There are a number of small details and idea's that I don't have time to put here right now, so any questions or comments you have regarding this build would be most welcome. I look forward to the discussion!