"Faith in the Light is an additive modifier to our weapon damage, so that extra damage is also multiplied by crit and attack speed. It ends up being much more than 30% extra damage, especially with high IAS and/or crit. Check your DPS tooltip when you activate it, it's always going to be more than 30%, far more if you have good IAS and/or crit. This is always the best rune for Blinding Flash."
That doesn't make sense, DPS = weapdps*attackspeed*crit*passives - insert a 1,3 multiplier anywhere in there, the overall value is gonna be exactly 30% more. You were seeing a 60% increased value there, cause it probably had (still has?) the same display bug as magic weapon, resulting in 2x as much increased DPS displayed.
Trying to explain it with it being additive or whatever doesn't make any difference, (1+0,3)*multipliers is exactly the same as 1*1,3*multipliers...
Also if you play in a group than 30% damage for yourself for 3 secs contributes a relatively insignificant amount of DPS to the group's overall DPS, while self reflection's +1 sec benefits the whole group equally.
It's more complex than that, and it's definitely not a display bug. If you take off all crit/IAS gear the bonus from FinL will be much closer to its supposed 30%.
But I'll probably edit that part to avoid having to expain math. Also, all CC is reduced against elites and the benefit of Self Reflection goes down because of that (the same applies to blinded & confused on top of its rng). There's just no better rune than FinL.
Also can you give me an example of a ilvl61 (I will be shocked if even a higher tier belt comes close) belt with more damage reduction than string of ears? 20% plus all resist is pretty insane.
Use the ehp calculator. Anything with good dex/vit/resistances (i.e. allres and your chosen res for OWE) will get you higher total ehp even vs elites.
Decent guide, but as a hardcore player, I have to disagree with a couple of choices.
- Resolve passive. Sounds great on paper, but most of the dangerous damage I take comes from ground effects such as Arcane Enchanted and stacked Molten trails. Ranged attacks won't be lessened by this passive either. Personally I go for Transcendence, which gives me a nice heal every time I use my spender. I need these heals to live, as good LoH is very sought after and rare on hardcore.
- For spender, I run with Overawe 24/7. Mantra of Evasion provides dodge, which you can get unlucky with. Not something you want to rely on in Inferno. The 20% armor is tempting, but the 48% damage increase from overawe gets stuff killed so much faster, it's actually safer. With a 1.4 weapon you can keep the buff up all the time, and get heals from Transcendence while at it. In a party with ranged this also works much better.
Besides that the guide matches my own thoughts. I never use Cyclone though, but that's because finding good crit gear is impossible on hardcore.
I do mention Transcendence if you have no LoH gear, however its wrong to not pick it up because the most "dangerous" damage comes from ground AoE. On hardcore you never go for acts you're undergeared for so you just don't notice how damage even from normal swings can add up. This guide is mostly intended for softcore players stuck at act2 or 3/4.
The same thing applies to Mantra. Overawe is of course better for acts you outgear (which is the only thing you farm on hardcore), but you won't survive with it going into a3 undergeared like most softcore players will do.
This build is a lie. While it's all fine and fun to see better DPS. This build will absolutely rape you against: molten, fire chains, plagued, arcane enchanted, desecrators. Throw in Jailer or Waller and you will die, repeatedly.
1) The only reliable dmg comes from Fist of Thunder, which is the worst thing you can do against before mentioned affixes. You just teleport yourself INTO dmg.
2) Dodge mantra is absolute shit. Dodge does not work against floor AOE pools or arcane beams. Guess what rapes monks the most? Guess what you are now standing in due to Fist of Thunder? You either go Conviction/Overawe for full on DPS. Or Healing/Time of Need for resistance buff + some extra healing.
3) This build's only reliable healing comes from 1 15sec CD that heals for less than 20% of your health. In between those 15sec you will die. The build revolves around non stop DPS'ing with LoH to keep your health up. Ever tried to do that on a Molten caster that runs away from you? Yeah, you end up standing in molten, and dying. OVER AND OVER.
This build is fun ..... for when you completely outgear the game. For progressing, this build doesn't work. Especially not considering that it relies on crit gear, which you need spend a lot on, just to get you started
I can't say I'm dying too much to even the worst combinations in A3 with total gear worth around 20, maybe 25mil (regeared from scratch in 1.0.3).
I do mention Deadly Reach, exactly because of its ranged utility vs the affixes you mention. If you feel like you're having problems with them, I already recommend going that path. However FoT is still superior damage and you'll probably end up killing those elites faster with it during blind/serenity bursts than kiting them with DR unless you have really good IAS. Just don't suicide teleport.
Saying dodge is shit because it doesn't help vs ground AoE and then recommending MoH is laughable. What, are you going to outheal Desecrate with that 300 hps?
As for Transcendence or not, stop talking as if I don't mention it in the guide. If you don't have LoH, it's a good option. Otherwise you will just benefit more from Resolve.
Really good guide, but i still prefer Crippling Wave/Concussion (the only difference to your build). The AoE of the skill is the key, LoH triggers for every opponent you hit making you nearly unkillable in big groups and killing them a lot faster.The Damage mitigation is as strong as Deadly Reach/Keen Eye, but you don't need to wait for your third strike. I also don't use Transcendence, LoH gives me all the Life i need, so the slower Spiritgain doesn't seem a problem. It seems that the use of your Spiritgenerator is really dependent of the playstyle. Switching my Primary attack to Fist of Thunder or Deadly Reach never worked well in Inferno, for me.
Before this patch I actually had a paragraph about CW/Concussion. It's alright to play with it, but keep in mind that it doesn't stack additively with Resolve. Together they will give you 33% reduction, not 45%. That also means that dropping Resolve and going for Transcendence is probably more benefitial overall with that build.
I removed it from the guide because CW felt too slow if you don't stack IAS on all your slots, and having both that AND crit on all jewelry and gloves will be too expensive for the majority of players.
Just build her for CC. Charm, Powered Armor (15% armor is huge), Disorient and Mass Control. Also followers can be quite tanky since their vitality is multiplied by 2.5.
This guide is now updated for 1.0.3. I wish I could link runes.
How much resistance/armor/hp/dmg etc would you suggest for act 3/4? I'm currently at (unbuffed, no mantra etc) 825 res, 5873 armor, 12.3k dmg and 33k hp and im getting pounded like hell
This is a mirror of my guide on the European official forums but adapted and improved for this forum engine. I got very good feedback on it there, however I feel like I can reach a much bigger audience by posting it here. For now, I'll just synchronize it on both sources.
I'm trying to keep the guide itself short and to the point. This is mostly opinion based on my experiences rather than a collection of knowledge; however, if you doubt any claims regarding numbers, formulas or mechanics, check the appendix - I link all sources.
1.0.4 note
Anyhow, Paragon levels sparkled my interest to Diablo 3 again, which means I'll be playing which means I'll be expanding this guide rather than just updating it. My thoughts so far:
I'm most likely going to be rewriting the guide from scratch because the whole point of the game is changing with this patch. What's going to matter now is speed of clearing. Having read the entire patch note, I'm pretty sure that progressing through Inferno is no longer going to be an issue pretty much regardless of which exact build you're using, as long as it makes sense and you have the appropriate gear. Hence there's no point in "forcing" a certain build anymore like in this guide.
Instead I'm going to write about which abilities are the most efficient and where, certain obvious or not very obvious combinations that just work well, add a bit more theory and numbers (f.ex. Sweeping Wind mechanics).
Gear section will probably become the main focus of the guide as well, seeing as legendaries actually have a weight now and will be sought after. It'll still be just a listing of stuff with a few comments, but I'll put more effort here as there's actually a reason to min/max now.
However, I'm not going to play the game (at least not a lot) until 28th August, so this will be slightly delayed.
1.0.3 changes
IAS nerf is huge, but it's still a good stat to have. They halved it, not nerfed it to the ground;
Sweeping Wind/Cyclone and stacking crit is the way to go. Cyclone is ridiculously good;
Ironically, 1h/Shield remains the best way to play. This is because shields can have up to 10% crit;
Every primary other than Fists of Thunder feels incredibly slow, Deadly Reach feels good only with >2.0 APS;
Removed Crippling Wave suggestion completely, can't generate enough spirit to make use of Transcendence;
Defense stat wise everything is the same as before. You just don't need them as much now and should get damage.
Skill build and gameplay
These are the set in stone skills. Empty slots will vary depending on your gear, act, how well you are geared for that act, and personal preference. I will talk about all viable and/or common options as well as link full builds in the end of this section.
Primary
Fists of Thunder/Thunderclap: the go-to choice. This is what you want to run as long as you don't need extra defensive benefits of the other options. Highest spirit regeneration, highest LoH modifiers (due to Thunderclap proccing LoH separately from main attack), teleport to boost your damage uptime immensely, and the best DPS strike due to being innately hasted. This is especially important post IAS nerf, and the only attack that won't bore you to death with its slow animation.
Deadly Reach/Keen Eye: this is the skill that defines our defensive playstyle. You don't become a ranged class with it, but it allows you to not let yourself get hit by multiple mobs at the same time, not get yourself surrounded, have a much easier time avoiding ground AoE and trivialize fire chain packs. You simply move back all the time while attacking, getting mobs stuck in terrain where you can, or attacking through walls where possible. The downside is that it's very slow, you end up losing a lot of damage and potentially a lot of sustainability too if you rely on LoH, spirit regen will feel slow if you're used to FoT. If you can't get above 2.0 attack speed post patch, I wouldn't recommend going this path anymore.
Secondary
Sweeping Wind/Cyclone: with high enough crit (read: 20% or above) this ability becomes ridiculously good. You get so many cyclones with the right stats, and they usually strike several times before they disappear, more if they get stuck in walls or obstacles. The cyclones are so good I would recommend this even if you use Deadly Reach and rarely have mobs in range of Sweeping Wind itself.
Sweeping Wind/Blade Storm: scales incredibly well, best damage ability for this slot if you don't have high enough crit.
Sweeping Wind/Fire Storm: if you play with DR/Keen Eye and don't have enough crit for Cyclone, this is your choice. You need the extra range because DR itself is ranged.
Dashing Strike/Blinding Speed or Quicksilver: this gives the one thing that you lack with DR as primary and that's a dash, a controllable one too. 25 spirit is really nothing, this gives quite a lot of control. Obviously the most defensive choice of all.
Deadly Reach/Foresight: the buff from Foresight lasts 30 seconds, so this is a "passive" 18% damage. Although Blade Storm outdamages this, it is very handy to have a ranged strike for packs that are hard to deal with in melee - having both FoT and DR binded lets you switch between the two playstyles depending on affixes. There's no UI buff for it, just a green glow around your character and it affects the DPS tooltip, so you'll have to look at one of these things to keep it up.
Mantra
Mantra of Evasion/Hard Target: always run this on acts you are progressing through. Dodge stacks multiplicatively, so don't worry, it is working correctly and there's no diminishing returns.
Mantra of Conviction/Overawe: if you can survive without MoE, switch to this. This is the first thing you want to switch when you feel like your gear is good enough for the act you are farming. The damage gain is just monstrous.
Mantra of Evasion/Backlash: if you feel confident in the act you're farming but still get gibbed when you try Overawe, give this a try. The damage from Backlash is very noticeable, it's a nice balance of damage and survivability.
Mantra of Conviction/Submission: only reason I'm mentioning it is because for some odd reason, this skill scales very bad with attack speed (different to how Wind works), not that it was anything impressive in the first place. After the IAS nerf there's even less reason to try it. See appendix for more info.
Other variations/notes
Peaceful Repose rune for Serenity might be a better choice than Ascension if you're just starting inferno and have no sustain stats. I can't see this being true past Act 1 however.
If you don't stack resistances correctly and they're all roughly equal without OWE, don't use OWE. Use Transcendence until you get proper resistance gear. Again, you want to get at least a bit resistance gear before you go Act 2.
Faith in the Light increases damage by more than 30%, for some reason it scales with attacks per second. So, if you have 2 attacks per second, it's actually a 60% damage bonus. This is not just a tooltip bug, but confirmed in ingame tests. See appendix.
Complete builds
These are just to give you examples of how it all comes together.
The most common mistake is not investing enough into damage. Damage is everything. Always.
Crit can be found on:
Shields, up to 10%;
Gloves, up to 10%;
Amulets, up to 8.5%;
Bracers, up to 6%;
Helms, up to 6%;
Rings, up to 4.5%.
Crit damage can be found on:
Weapons, up to 100%, Emeralds socketed into weapons can give up to another 100%;
Amulets, up to 65%;
Gloves, up to 50%;
Rings, up to 34%.
IAS can be found on:
Weapons, up to 11%;
Amulets, up to 9%;
Gloves, up to 9%;
Rings, up to 9%.
Since this question will arise for sure, I'll just say right away that crit > critdmg. Obviously the value of critdmg completely relies on the amount of crit you have, but there's another factor here and that's Cyclone procs. Crit chance will improve proc rate, crit damage will not, and Cyclone is a huge contributor to our damage now. Regardless of what spreadsheets will tell you, keep this in mind.
Rings are the last slots you should upgrade from IAS to crit/critdmg items, or not even upgrade them at all depending on your current rings and budget. They can carry much less crit than other slots, but the same standard amount of IAS. Also, items can potentially have all three of these stats. Just something to look forward to.
Defensive
The best approach to defensive stats in this and nearly all similar games is balancing them out. Never tunnel one stat. It's not good to have very low hp but very high mitigation, just as it is not useful to have very high hp but very low mitigation. It's useless to have lots of LoH, but health pool so low that you're going to die every time you stop hitting. Also, you stop all damage when you kill things - don't focus too much on defense. You need just enough, not too much.
To answer two of the most common questions:
OWE works like this: if arcane resistance is your highest stat, and you get an item with +50 all resistances and +50 arcane resistances, the total gain from that item will be 100 resistances;
LoH procs from all direct damage. Damage auras and DoTs don't proc it, but all our AoE cleaves do, per target. If you hit a target with Fists of Thunder, and Thunderclap will hit your main target and another 5 offtargets, it will be: 1 hit from FoT, 1 hit on main target from TC, and another 5 offtarget hits from TC, total 7 LoH procs. However LoH is scaled per ability, check the table linked in appendix for exact values.
Weapon:DPS, Life on Hit, Socket, Crit Damage, Weapon Type, Attack Speed, Dexterity, Life per Spirit Spent, Vitality
Weapon is the only slot that can carry high amounts of LoH. There's really no such thing as "LoH build", there's just "LoH weapon".
Attack speed on weapon is multiplied with total IAS on gear, so there's nothing bad about weapons with IAS contrary to popular belief. There's a difference in base attack speed depending on weapon type: Daggers (1.5) > Swords/Fists (1.4) > Axes (1.3) > Maces and Spears (1.2).
Only Fists and Daibos can have Life per Spirit Spent.
Shield:Block Chance, Block Amount, Crit Chance, +% Block, Dexterity, Resistances, Vitality, Life %, Reduced Damage from Elites/Melee/Ranged
Pay attention to shield stats - block chance and amount - they make a big difference although it might not seem so on paper. Damage is blocked after it is reduced by armor and resistance, think about that. Picking a shield is like picking a weapon - block chance and value are main stats on it, like damage is on weapons.
Amulet:Crit Chance, Crit Damage, Attack Speed, Life on Hit, Dexterity, Resistances, Vitality, Life %, Reduced Damage from Melee/Ranged
Amulets can actually have very considerable amounts of LoH, high end ones are around 600.
Rings:Attack Speed, Crit Chance, Crit Damage, Life on Hit, Dexterity, Resistances, Vitality, Life %
I keep attack speed as highest priority here simply because you can find more of it than crit. Amount of LoH on rings is abysmal.
Helm:Crit Chance, Socket, Dexterity, Resistances, Life per Spirit Spent, Vitality, Life %, Monk Skill Bonus
You want a socket to put an Amethyst there for 15% Life. I think this is pretty important, but completely viable to ignore it if you won't go below 30-35k HP or so.
There are some interesting choices here when it comes to class stats - you can get a 11% damage modifier to any primary skill. Don't overestimate this stat, it won't be better than 100 Dexterity. These and Life per Spirit Spent are available only on Spirit Stones.
Belt: Dexterity, Resistances, Vitality
This would be just a standard armor slot if not for one item - slightly overhyped String of Ears. One of its predefined stats is melee damage reduction, up to 20%. However, it is a level 53 item so its stat rolls will be fairly low, and it has +11-20 resist to all as a set stat meaning it can't even roll for all resist. A good rolled item level 61+ belt will most likely be overall more EHP than String, even against melee (you can check yourself on the EHP calculator).
Bracers:Crit Chance, Dexterity, Resistances, Vitality, Reduced Damage from Melee/Ranged
Boots:Movement Speed, Dexterity, Resistances, Vitality, Life %
Chest: Dexterity, Resistances, Vitality, Life %, Sockets (up to 3), Reduced Damage from Melee/Ranged/Elite
Pants: Dexterity, Resistances, Vitality, Sockets (up to 2)
Shoulders: Dexterity, Resistances, Vitality, Life %
Some notes about this list: order the stats are listed in can be treated as priority lists, but don't follow them to the letter. This game is about balancing stats and choosing what to prioritize depending on your own playstyle and which act you're at. There's no single pattern that will work just as good for every situation, think for yourself.
I skipped sockets on jewelry because if anything, that's a waste of a potentially better stat roll in my opinion.
Adding 'best in slot' legendaries for post-patch is on my to-do list.
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http://mmo-mechanics...-3-formula-list
http://mmo-mechanics...stats-affect-it
But I'll probably edit that part to avoid having to expain math. Also, all CC is reduced against elites and the benefit of Self Reflection goes down because of that (the same applies to blinded & confused on top of its rng). There's just no better rune than FinL.
Use the ehp calculator. Anything with good dex/vit/resistances (i.e. allres and your chosen res for OWE) will get you higher total ehp even vs elites.
I do mention Transcendence if you have no LoH gear, however its wrong to not pick it up because the most "dangerous" damage comes from ground AoE. On hardcore you never go for acts you're undergeared for so you just don't notice how damage even from normal swings can add up. This guide is mostly intended for softcore players stuck at act2 or 3/4.
The same thing applies to Mantra. Overawe is of course better for acts you outgear (which is the only thing you farm on hardcore), but you won't survive with it going into a3 undergeared like most softcore players will do.
I can't say I'm dying too much to even the worst combinations in A3 with total gear worth around 20, maybe 25mil (regeared from scratch in 1.0.3).
I do mention Deadly Reach, exactly because of its ranged utility vs the affixes you mention. If you feel like you're having problems with them, I already recommend going that path. However FoT is still superior damage and you'll probably end up killing those elites faster with it during blind/serenity bursts than kiting them with DR unless you have really good IAS. Just don't suicide teleport.
Saying dodge is shit because it doesn't help vs ground AoE and then recommending MoH is laughable. What, are you going to outheal Desecrate with that 300 hps?
As for Transcendence or not, stop talking as if I don't mention it in the guide. If you don't have LoH, it's a good option. Otherwise you will just benefit more from Resolve.
Before this patch I actually had a paragraph about CW/Concussion. It's alright to play with it, but keep in mind that it doesn't stack additively with Resolve. Together they will give you 33% reduction, not 45%. That also means that dropping Resolve and going for Transcendence is probably more benefitial overall with that build.
I removed it from the guide because CW felt too slow if you don't stack IAS on all your slots, and having both that AND crit on all jewelry and gloves will be too expensive for the majority of players.
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0
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This guide is now updated for 1.0.3. I wish I could link runes.
0
I've now updated this guide to 1.0.3 on the official forums, right now I'm copypasting the changes into my BB-code layout and gonna post it here soon.
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LoH shouldn't have ever been a priority. Damage > mitigation = sustain > raw health (no less than 30-35k).
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0
0
Have to wait and see how it all works out.
14
I'm trying to keep the guide itself short and to the point. This is mostly opinion based on my experiences rather than a collection of knowledge; however, if you doubt any claims regarding numbers, formulas or mechanics, check the appendix - I link all sources.
These are the set in stone skills. Empty slots will vary depending on your gear, act, how well you are geared for that act, and personal preference. I will talk about all viable and/or common options as well as link full builds in the end of this section.
Primary
Fists of Thunder/Thunderclap: the go-to choice. This is what you want to run as long as you don't need extra defensive benefits of the other options. Highest spirit regeneration, highest LoH modifiers (due to Thunderclap proccing LoH separately from main attack), teleport to boost your damage uptime immensely, and the best DPS strike due to being innately hasted. This is especially important post IAS nerf, and the only attack that won't bore you to death with its slow animation.
Deadly Reach/Keen Eye: this is the skill that defines our defensive playstyle. You don't become a ranged class with it, but it allows you to not let yourself get hit by multiple mobs at the same time, not get yourself surrounded, have a much easier time avoiding ground AoE and trivialize fire chain packs. You simply move back all the time while attacking, getting mobs stuck in terrain where you can, or attacking through walls where possible. The downside is that it's very slow, you end up losing a lot of damage and potentially a lot of sustainability too if you rely on LoH, spirit regen will feel slow if you're used to FoT. If you can't get above 2.0 attack speed post patch, I wouldn't recommend going this path anymore.
Secondary
Sweeping Wind/Cyclone: with high enough crit (read: 20% or above) this ability becomes ridiculously good. You get so many cyclones with the right stats, and they usually strike several times before they disappear, more if they get stuck in walls or obstacles. The cyclones are so good I would recommend this even if you use Deadly Reach and rarely have mobs in range of Sweeping Wind itself.
Sweeping Wind/Blade Storm: scales incredibly well, best damage ability for this slot if you don't have high enough crit.
Sweeping Wind/Fire Storm: if you play with DR/Keen Eye and don't have enough crit for Cyclone, this is your choice. You need the extra range because DR itself is ranged.
Dashing Strike/Blinding Speed or Quicksilver: this gives the one thing that you lack with DR as primary and that's a dash, a controllable one too. 25 spirit is really nothing, this gives quite a lot of control. Obviously the most defensive choice of all.
Deadly Reach/Foresight: the buff from Foresight lasts 30 seconds, so this is a "passive" 18% damage. Although Blade Storm outdamages this, it is very handy to have a ranged strike for packs that are hard to deal with in melee - having both FoT and DR binded lets you switch between the two playstyles depending on affixes. There's no UI buff for it, just a green glow around your character and it affects the DPS tooltip, so you'll have to look at one of these things to keep it up.
Mantra
Mantra of Evasion/Hard Target: always run this on acts you are progressing through. Dodge stacks multiplicatively, so don't worry, it is working correctly and there's no diminishing returns.
Mantra of Conviction/Overawe: if you can survive without MoE, switch to this. This is the first thing you want to switch when you feel like your gear is good enough for the act you are farming. The damage gain is just monstrous.
Mantra of Evasion/Backlash: if you feel confident in the act you're farming but still get gibbed when you try Overawe, give this a try. The damage from Backlash is very noticeable, it's a nice balance of damage and survivability.
Mantra of Conviction/Submission: only reason I'm mentioning it is because for some odd reason, this skill scales very bad with attack speed (different to how Wind works), not that it was anything impressive in the first place. After the IAS nerf there's even less reason to try it. See appendix for more info.
Other variations/notes
Peaceful Repose rune for Serenity might be a better choice than Ascension if you're just starting inferno and have no sustain stats. I can't see this being true past Act 1 however.
If you don't stack resistances correctly and they're all roughly equal without OWE, don't use OWE. Use Transcendence until you get proper resistance gear. Again, you want to get at least a bit resistance gear before you go Act 2.
Faith in the Light increases damage by more than 30%, for some reason it scales with attacks per second. So, if you have 2 attacks per second, it's actually a 60% damage bonus. This is not just a tooltip bug, but confirmed in ingame tests. See appendix.
Complete builds
These are just to give you examples of how it all comes together.
Standard FoT & Cyclone build
Deadly Reach build (with no crit gear)
No OWE build (entry level gear)
Offensive
The most common mistake is not investing enough into damage. Damage is everything. Always.
Crit can be found on:
- Shields, up to 10%;
- Gloves, up to 10%;
- Amulets, up to 8.5%;
- Bracers, up to 6%;
- Helms, up to 6%;
- Rings, up to 4.5%.
Crit damage can be found on:- Weapons, up to 100%, Emeralds socketed into weapons can give up to another 100%;
- Amulets, up to 65%;
- Gloves, up to 50%;
- Rings, up to 34%.
IAS can be found on:- Weapons, up to 11%;
- Amulets, up to 9%;
- Gloves, up to 9%;
- Rings, up to 9%.
Since this question will arise for sure, I'll just say right away that crit > critdmg. Obviously the value of critdmg completely relies on the amount of crit you have, but there's another factor here and that's Cyclone procs. Crit chance will improve proc rate, crit damage will not, and Cyclone is a huge contributor to our damage now. Regardless of what spreadsheets will tell you, keep this in mind.Rings are the last slots you should upgrade from IAS to crit/critdmg items, or not even upgrade them at all depending on your current rings and budget. They can carry much less crit than other slots, but the same standard amount of IAS. Also, items can potentially have all three of these stats. Just something to look forward to.
Defensive
The best approach to defensive stats in this and nearly all similar games is balancing them out. Never tunnel one stat. It's not good to have very low hp but very high mitigation, just as it is not useful to have very high hp but very low mitigation. It's useless to have lots of LoH, but health pool so low that you're going to die every time you stop hitting. Also, you stop all damage when you kill things - don't focus too much on defense. You need just enough, not too much.
To answer two of the most common questions:
Here's something you should add to bookmarks if you know what effective health is: http://rubensayshi.g...ehp-calculator/
Slots
Weapon is the only slot that can carry high amounts of LoH. There's really no such thing as "LoH build", there's just "LoH weapon".
Attack speed on weapon is multiplied with total IAS on gear, so there's nothing bad about weapons with IAS contrary to popular belief. There's a difference in base attack speed depending on weapon type: Daggers (1.5) > Swords/Fists (1.4) > Axes (1.3) > Maces and Spears (1.2).
Emeralds socketed into weapon give crit damage, Amethysts give LoH. Even the last non-recipe tier is good:
http://eu.battle.net...e/star-amethyst
http://eu.battle.net...pe/star-emerald
Only Fists and Daibos can have Life per Spirit Spent.
Pay attention to shield stats - block chance and amount - they make a big difference although it might not seem so on paper. Damage is blocked after it is reduced by armor and resistance, think about that. Picking a shield is like picking a weapon - block chance and value are main stats on it, like damage is on weapons.
Amulets can actually have very considerable amounts of LoH, high end ones are around 600.
I keep attack speed as highest priority here simply because you can find more of it than crit. Amount of LoH on rings is abysmal.
You want a socket to put an Amethyst there for 15% Life. I think this is pretty important, but completely viable to ignore it if you won't go below 30-35k HP or so.
There are some interesting choices here when it comes to class stats - you can get a 11% damage modifier to any primary skill. Don't overestimate this stat, it won't be better than 100 Dexterity. These and Life per Spirit Spent are available only on Spirit Stones.
This would be just a standard armor slot if not for one item - slightly overhyped String of Ears. One of its predefined stats is melee damage reduction, up to 20%. However, it is a level 53 item so its stat rolls will be fairly low, and it has +11-20 resist to all as a set stat meaning it can't even roll for all resist. A good rolled item level 61+ belt will most likely be overall more EHP than String, even against melee (you can check yourself on the EHP calculator).
Some notes about this list: order the stats are listed in can be treated as priority lists, but don't follow them to the letter. This game is about balancing stats and choosing what to prioritize depending on your own playstyle and which act you're at. There's no single pattern that will work just as good for every situation, think for yourself.
I skipped sockets on jewelry because if anything, that's a waste of a potentially better stat roll in my opinion.
Adding 'best in slot' legendaries for post-patch is on my to-do list.
- http://rubensayshi.g...ehp-calculator/ - EHP calculator, this tool is amazing
- http://us.battle.net...opic/5151274359 - a discussion about dodge mechanics and diminishing returns on US forums
- http://armadagaming....ffective-Health - a very known thread about DRs and EHP
- https://docs.google....cHhkTjB5b0hZTkE - Monk LoH values table
- http://www.clicktolo...m/p/combat.html - combat mechanics compendium
- http://eu.battle.net...opic/4211013502 - damage reduction debuff stacking test (Resolve + Concussion)
- http://eu.battle.net...opic/4551990465 - Sweeping Wind and Submission tests (Submission info at posts 16 and 17)
- http://www.diablofan..._40#entry959036 - post #58 (and the discussion leading to it) for Faith in the Light test and details
21/06/2012: