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Being that Moonlight Ward is already such a rare drop according to the leaks the other day, and given that the only way we could hope for it to drop is if smart loot didn't kick in, I will be updating this in the near future giving a wider variety of neck options. Thanks for all the feedback so far!

Quote from WhoAmISc

since when can WKL roll 30% lightning dmg skill buff ?

since when can bracers roll/reroll health globe bonus ?!!

since when can Moonlight ward DROP for non-wizards ? ( <- nobody in my guild plays wizard, NOBODY has yet to get a moonlight ward , thousands of legendary drops, no ward ... how to get one without boring myself to death by playing a wiz ? )

look, i get it, you made a real effort and made a nice thing for the monk community , i however, grit my teeth when something has the audacity to claim it is a "guide" ( ) and ... it ends up guiding us the wrong way

so, forgive me for pokeing some holes in it ,
actually tried this, gave up the 15% light from the set bonus to wear a magefist and a lousy cindercoat, and my GNK fireball ( 378% ) went from 5m crits to ....6m crits

LTK went DOWN from 42m ( max overawe refresh+ mythic rythm , ) to 34

imho, bad tradeoff

Good catches, I will go ahead and update those few things. Can moonlight ward only drop for wizards? I know it's a very rare item which could be the reason why no one in your clan has seen it, but I haven't seen anywhere that it's a wizard only drop. If that's true and someone can source it, I will update that as well.

I went back to a pure lightning build last night and honestly the damage seems much lower. Now, like I had stated above, a pure fire build will most likely out damage a pure lightning build, even with lightning weapon procs. However, being able to synergize the fire proc from GNK on items that won't benefit lightning solely I feel this brings the fusion fairly close to fire. I am actually working on a pure fire build to do some testing myself since I am only missing a few pieces of gear to make it possible for me to test all 3 specs.

Build Outline:

I have been stuck in a hard place between lightning and fire Monk builds. Fire seems to show higher numbers, but lightning adds more utility with stuns/knock-ups and IMO has irreplaceable lightning procs from weapons that scale with %lightning damage (Shard of Hate and Odyn's Son especially). I also felt that between both fire and lightning builds, there were quite a few pieces of gear without any very beneficial synergies to the build. For example, a fire monk has no belt to really benefit a fire build itself, whereas a lightning monk can use Thundergod’s Vigor to increase DPS fairly effectively.

With all this running through my mind, I started to think – how can I have the best of both worlds?

Without further ado, here is my idea behind the Fusion Monk:

The Fusion Monk Build:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#ZbdSkP!XUiY!Ybacac

The Fusion Monk Gear:

The following gear is the preferred gear to make this build synergize as much as possible:

Head: Gyana Na Kashu
Shoulders: Aughild’s Power (Crafted)
Gloves: Magefists
Chest: Cindercoat
Bracers: Aughild’s Search (Crafted)
Belt: Thundergod's Vigor
Legs: Pox Faulds
Feet: Fire Walkers / Ice Climbers
Ring 1: Stone of Jordan
Ring 2: Ring of Royal Grandeur
Amulet: Moonlight Ward
Weapon 1: Shard of Hate
Weapon 2: Odyn’s Son / Won Khim Lau / Thunderfury (from most desirable to least desirable)

Preferred Gear Rolls:

Getting the above items with not perfect rolls will put you in a great spot. Of course, pushing T6 content is going to require some "great" rolls on items. The following rolls would theoretically allow you to push T6 with ease:

** Primary and secondary rolls separated by “||” **

Head: Dex / CC / Socket || Single Res OR Health Globe Bonus
Shoulders: Dex / Vit / Armor / CDR || Single Res / Health Globe Bonus
Gloves: 20% Fire / Dex / CC / CHD / IAS || Single Res
Chest: 20% Fire / Dex / Vit / 3 Sockets || Single Res OR Health Globe Bonus
Bracers: 20% lightning / Dex / Vit / CC || Single Res
Belt: 15% lightning / Dex / Vit / All Res || (static rolls)
Legs: Dex / Vit / Armor || Single Res OR Health Globe Bonus
Feet: Dex / Vit / Armor / % LTK Damage || Single Res OR Health Globe Bonus
Ring 1: 20% lightning / Dex / CC or CHD / % elite damage || Single Res / Health Globe Bonus
Ring 2: Dex / CC / CHD / IAS || Single Res OR Health Globe Bonus
Amulet: Dex / CC / CHD / IAS || Single Res OR Health Globe Bonus (not 100% sure if arcane damage can be rerolled?)
Weapon 1: Dex / CDR OR Life on Hit / Socket || Life After Kill
Weapon 2: Dex / CDR OR Life on Hit (or Life per Spirit Spent) / Socket || Life after Kill

** Single Res is stacking a single resistance type, such as all Cold Resistance **

Why This Gear?

Gyana Na Kashu:
This helm has an amazing proc that, when used with +% fire damage gear, scales better than Andariel’s Visage.

Aughild’s Power, Aughild’s Search and Ring of Royal Grandeur:
The Aughild’s two set will provide you with 7% less damage taken from both melee and raged attacks. Paired with Ring of Royal Grandeur, you gain the 3 set which provides 15% damage reduction from elites and 15% damage increase to elites.

Magefists:
Because there is no +% lightning damage gloves, we will use Magefists to increase the damage of both the LTK proc from Gyana Na Kashu and the Inner Fire rune for Epiphany.

Cindercoat:
Because there is no +% lightning damage chest, we will use Cindercoat to increase the damage of both the LTK proc from Gyana Na Kashu and the Inner Fire rune for Epiphany.

Thundergod's Vigor:
This belt will give us +% lightning damage to scale with our lightning abilities as well as a proc that deals 100%-130% weapon damage as lightning when blocking, dodging or being hit – this proc does scale from +% lightning damage. Along with these two things, you can roll all resist + lightning resist on this belt – this would allow you to potentially make your single stacking resistance Lightning.

Pox Faulds:
These legs, when 3 or more enemies are within 12 yards, deal 240%-320% weapon damage as poison every second for 10 seconds to enemies within 15 yards. This is just a nice constant damage to enemies.

Fire Walkers / Ice Climbers:
Both of these boots have very nice utility. The Fire Walkersprovide you with a 100% weapon damage as fire per second on the ground you walk on, this provides a nice little damage boost to enemies (and it does scale with +% fire damage). Ice Climbers reduce damage from cold attacks by 7-10% as well as provide immunity to freeze and many immobility effects such as jailer, spider web slows, trap slows and the stunning portals in Act V.

Stone of Jordan:
A preferred ring by just about any class/build, the SoJ gives you up to 20% elemental damage as well as up to 30% elite damage. Pair those stats with some Dex and CC, this ring is pretty much irreplaceable.

Moonlight Ward:
This little beauty has the effect of Hitting an enemy within 15 yards has a chance to ward you with shards of Arcane energy that explode when enemies get close, dealing 240–320% weapon damage as Arcane to enemies within 15 yards. This can be very great sustained damage which I believe allows you to sacrifice +% elemental damage in this slot.

Shard of Hate:
SoH is an insane weapon. The lightning proc happens very often on Monk’s and deals a great amount of lightning damage because it scales with +% lightning damage. EDPS will increase very much with this weapon.

Odyn’s Son:
This weapon has a very nice Chain Lightning proc which unfortunately DOES NOT scale with +% lightning damage (fixed). The Chain Lightning will actually all hit 1 enemy if no others around making this my second favorite for this build. Aside from the proc, this weapon can also roll up to +20% lightning damage increasing damage of our abilities/procs.

Won Khim Lau:
WKL can have up to +25% lightning damage making this fall in to my 3rd favorite spot.

Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker:
Did someone say Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker? The proc from Thunderfury is very nice, but since it does not scale with +% lightning damage nor have +% lightning damage, I feel this falls behind the three above.

Preferred Gemming:

Head: Diamond (CDR for Epiphany)
Chest: 3x Diamond if < 1200 All Res, 3x Emerald if >1200 All Res
Legs: 2x Emerald
Rings/Amulets: Emerald
Weapons: Emerald

Preferred Paragon Points:

Core: 25% Run Speed > Dex
Offense: This will vary depending on gear. See below goals.
Defense: Resist All > Armor > Life % > Life Regen
Utility: Life on Hit > Area Damage > Resource Cost Reduction > Gold Find %

Buffed Goals:

All Resist: 1,200 +
Armor: 9,000 +
Health Pool: 400,000 +
Health Globe Bonus: 65,000 +
Attack Speed Increase: 40% +
Crit Chance: 40% +
Crit Damage: 400,000+ (or 10,000 per 1% crit)

The Synergy:

I am going to break synergy down by abilities and how items affect these abilities. I will do this for both active and passive abilities.

Deadly Reach – Scattered Blows:
DR is your spirit generator which scales from your +% lightning damage. Other than the lightning damage scaling, we gain a 50% chance to knock enemies up every third hit, and the Scattered Blows rune adds a random chance to deal 156% weapon damage to all enemies within 25 yards which scales with +% lightning damage. DR can also proc the Shard of Hate, Odyn’s Son and Thunderfury weapon procs.

Lashing Tail Kick – Scorpion Sting:
LTK is the big beneficiary with this build. First of all, it is going to benefit from ALL +% lightning damage while using the Scorpion Sting rune. Secondly, it is going to proc a fireball from Gyana Na Kashu that is going to deal 300%-400% base weapon damage as fire, and this proc scales from +% fire damage. Lastly, Scorpion Sting has an 85% chance to stun all enemies hit for 1.5 seconds. LTK can also proc the Shard of Hate, Odyn’s Son and Thunderfury weapon procs.

Dashing Strike – Way of the Falling Star:
Dashing strike is purely used for mobility in this build. It helps with your efficiency in farming as well as get out of sticky situations.

Sweeping Wind - Cyclone:
SW should be up 100% of the time dealing 90% weapon damage per second to all enemies within 15 yards. With the Cyclone rune you have a chance on critical hits to spawn lightning tornadoes that do 23% weapon damage periodically to enemies hit – this scales from +% lightning damage.

Mantra of Conviction - Overawe:
Mantra of Conviction with the Overawe run will provide you with a buff that increases all damage you do by 16% to enemies within 30 yards. Activating this mantra increases this damage by an extra 20% for 3 seconds.

Epiphany – Inner Fire:
Epiphany increases spirit regen by 20 per second and allows you to dash to targets for 15 seconds. Without any CDR, the downtime on this ability is only 45 seconds – pretty impressive. When paired with the Inner Fire rune, all attacks deal an additional 353% weapon damage as fire – this fire damage scales with +% fire damage.

Seize the Initiative:
This passive greatly increases toughness by increasing your armor by 30% of your Dex.

One With Everything:
This passive allows you to bypass all resist rolls on gear – these rolls would take up a more beneficial primary stat roll. By stacking a single resistance, you can potentially get more resistances than you would by stacking all resistance due to single resistance ranges being higher.

Mythic Rhythm:
Every third hit from Deadly Reach will increase your Lashing Tail Kick damage by 40%.

Transcendence:
This passive will be our main source of healing. Every point of Spirit spend heals you for x amount of life – this healing amount is increased by .4% of your Health Globe Healing Bonus. This is why we want to stack as much Health Globe bonus as possible as a secondary stat.

Fin:

Hopefully you guys find this guide useful. I myself have been chasing after the above items in hope of completing this set completely for myself. While I am mostly there, I will need to find the items again with better secondary rolls to push Torment 6

If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please feel free to express them here.

If interested in watching my monk’s progress on this build, here the is the link to my profile (please note my spec/gear may be different at times for testing/other reasons):
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Ignorance-1889/hero/40246513

Thanks !

-Sinorance

Any idea what you want for #1? PM me.

Yeah I got quite a few blues from clouds, but the rares/elites didn't seem to drop anything worthwhile with 5 stacks of Nephalem up. I'll probably do a few more runs and see if it turns out to be any better than Act III farming.

This is just fantastic!

Has anyone farmed this quite a bit? I did a full clear last night on my DH with 5 stacks before entering and did not have much luck, seemed to have better luck farming Siegebreaker in Act III (fields through bridge then kill Siegebreaker).

Just curious if its worth investing much time in.

Game is out 15 days, people already complaining that they don't have the best gear in the game.

If bosses had set loot tables so you had a much better chance of getting gear, everyone would probably have it by now. This game would be done in that case.

The one thing that makes Diablo the game it is, is you farm loot. Simple. Guess what, you found an awesome piece.. It could be better though! Keep grinding. Keep slaughtering minions. It's fun, if you don't like it, go wipe in normal Dragon Soul for another 16 hours this week.

Quote from lunarbun

Quote from Kyoob

The thing is that armor suffers from diminishing returns, so the more armor you stack the less effective each point is. That's why resistances are so important. If you would like to have the optimal ratio of armor versus resistances,aim for 1:10 (1 armor versus 10 resistance), so lets say you have 6k armor, then you should aim for 600 resistance. If you have them in this balance, you are the most cost effective in your attribute budget.

Why is it that? Well the 1:10 ratio comes from that Strength gives 1 armor per point where Intelligence gives 1 resist all per 10 points,hence the ratio. And why the sweet spot balance? Because they are both multiplicative (not additive, as that could possibly make you invulnerable).

The funny thing is, you cannot achieve 100% reduction, as you would need infinite amount of armor/resist.

But, barbarian naturally has very high armor, so don't be afraid to sacrifice it for resist all. If you have 300-400 resistence without warcry 50% buff, use that skill asap, it's a wonder,almost a must have for a beginner in Act II(if it is with buff already, aim for AT LEAST 500,probably will need more to be safe). Your armor is a bit too high, but thats ok. 50k Hp is fine for start, more never hurts thou. You suffer a lot from low DPS. 9.5k is barely enough to beat Butcher before enrage, aim for 14-15k, preferably more (screw sword and board,it sucks, unless you have really, like really, nice pair of sword and shield... I'm using 2hander and it rocks).

In short, Barbarian is one of the most gear dependant, if not the top one, so be patient while farming/searching AH, your biggest problems seems resistances and damage.

Oh, and I'm a fellow barbarian in Act II Inferno as well, slowly making progress, but still need more farming. Hope this wall of text helps.

About that 2h.. Shoud i let go of my axe and shield for +400dps? Becouse i lose alot of stats on my shield and weapon..
Just wondering if its worth it, cuz the 2h are all without stats, just pure dps

It really depends on what you are dropping from the sword/board combo. 400 DPS isn't much of an upgrade from a 1h to a 2h tbh, so if you're losing a lot of life/res for a 400 dps upgrade, probably not worth it.