DiabloFans

To get more dodge grab the Guardians's Path passive (mentioned above).

Armor is huge, as mentioned above, shoot for 5000, but 4600+ is usually very helpful (ammouts are unbuffed other than Seize the Initiative).

First a couple points: With the patch coming out today, there will be a significant influx of players, so the AH will see a major boost of stuff coming on, AND people BUYING items. Prices will likely be all over the map for a couple days, so you'll have chances to get some awesome gear for cheap if you get lucky timing.

From what I've experienced on the PTR, imho here's some general goals for doing well on MP7+:

• Get to 100k + dps
• Get 45k+ HP
• Keep 600-650 resist (more is OK, but will come with a high price while gaining DPS)
• Decent armor (forget actual value here).
• Get 2.7+ Life Steal + 600-1200 Life On Hit. (can get double life steal and drop most of the LoH, but will be expensive on both weapons).

So, 100 million, when spent properly, can definitely get you to the above (I was able to get there with less than 100 million, but has taken alot of time and AH sniping).

Upgrades:

• Swap +XP gem to +Life % gem in helm. You will likely be able to run MP 2-3 at the same pace you could run Act 3 in 1.0.4, so you'll gain 20-30 XP% from the MP2-3, and can get more HP from the helm (and then be able to replace the gems in your pants).
• Get 2.7 Life Steal on one of your weapons while keeping close to the same DPS you show now.
• On rings, keep similar stats to what you show (crit + resist + vit/life %) but Add either AIS, or High Average damage
• On Amulet, try to maintain 500+ LoH and get high Average damange, high Crit %, AIS OR Crit Dmg, Single resist (this will take resist pressure off of bracers to allow you to go to single resist and get much higher dex + crit %)
• Swap bracers to 150+ Dex, 5.5+ crit, single resist, vit.
• Pick up a nice set of Vile Wards for shoulders: 170+ Dex, Vit/Life %, Double resist

The above is just my opinion of course, concerning specific upgrades.

The one thing I would REALLY recommend is laying out a specific plan on what to look for on what items (similar to above), then just keep a VERY close eye on the AH for the next few days for those items. You'll likely find some amazing deals as new items start to flood the AH before the market re-stabilizes.

Edited for clarity.

I'll start with how I had to progress through the frustration phase you are in: When I had similar DPS and HP pool as you show, I found myself needing to run the standard SW monk build, but using MoE Hard target, and dropping FoT for Deadly Reach+Keen eye (along with all of the mitigation passives, OwE, Resolve and STI.

Edit: So this build: http://us.battle.net...gXYh!aUX!Zcbbca

Now, how to progress OUT of the current state: Get more vitality, drop a bit of LoH or LS to boost DPS, and get ONE slot with pickup radius. If you can do those 3 things, getting to 36k+ HP, 55K + dps and maintain 650 resist and keeping a bit of LS or LoH, you'll find that the runs are alot less painful, and can start switching to a more aggressive skill build (going back to FoT and such).

Edit 2:
It make go without saying, but I also had to really become alot more active in my play style during this phase of my monk, making sure I was moving constantly to pick up health globes, and making sure I was maximizing my SW and Cyclone DPS with using Blinding flash before starting SW. Usually, after a death, you can Flash, hit something a couple times to gain enough spirit to hit SW while the Blinding Flash buff is still active.

Quote from againstme

What is the Alkaizer run?

See the following (remove the '_' after http to view, since I can't post links yet)

http_://www.diablofans.com/topic/68420-guide-to-effective-paragon-leveling-alkaizer-method/page__hl__ alkaizer

here's the heart of it:

A3 Farming Route
Log out with Q "Kill Azmodan" directly in front of him (Checkpoint). Each run will start directly before Azmodan.

1. Clear Core of Arreat to the WP
2. WP to Tower of the Damned lvl 1, do one circle
3. WP to Arreat Creater lvl 2
4. Teleport to town, WP to Bridge of Korsaikk, clear Fields of Slaughter
5. Teleport to town, WP to Keep Depths lvl 1. Immediately enter Keep Depths lvl 2 and clear it.
6. Teleport to town, Log out, Resume Game

Quote from againstme

I wanted to ask a question that's slightly off topic but it doesn't warrant it's own thread so I figure I'll ask it here.

Are you Monks swapping to MF gear while farming?

I personally never have, i find that it slows my runs down enough that it gets annoying. I'm more concerned with getting in a quick Seige-breaker to Azmodan run for drops, or doing the Alkaizer run for Paragon XP when I can squeeze the time in for one or two runs.

Quote from Schmii

Is it worth looking into better gear before the patch?

The one stat that will likely see a cost increase will be the regen stats, so LoH, LS and LpS. The only real question will be will the influx of good gear off-set the increased demand?

I'm personally waiting on major upgrades at this point. I will likely look at getting more vit and resist on a few peices, and see if I can get some more regen on weapons, but only buying for what I can sell my old gear for so I don't drop my gold down.

Also, the new, higher stat, jewelry will likely take quite a while to flood the market to the point where it'll be reasonable to buy, so once the patch hits, I'll be waiting for good deals on jewelry for a while.

It looks like you're right about the breaking point where you have enough DPS to pick up healthglobes and in between your LS on the off-hand should hold you over.

I would suggest swapping form Mantra of Conviction to Mantra of Evasion + Backlash to improve your survivability. If that works out, then I would look for a helm with a socket and drop all resist so your health pool is bigger (I found that 36k is fine, but 40k is better, combined with around 600 total resist and 55k+ dps).

Edit: Alternately, drop All resist from pants and pick up 150+ vit there (plus fire resist and dex + socket(s)). This way you don't loose your Pickup Radius on the helm.

I dropped LS/LOH at around 53+k sheet dps. I also made sure to grab at least one slot with +Pickupradius and have been pretty happy since then.

I would still die once in a while on a bad combo, but I never felt like I ran into unbeatable pack.

As your dps goes up past 60k and 70k, it becomes even less of an issue to the point of only dying when you mis-time CD usage, etc.

Just as a point of reference, getting up to 80k dps gets you to the point where you can drop some of the defensive passives and gives you alot more freedom to play with different spec combos.

Quote from Deadmau5

http://us.battle.net...4/hero/11131459

If anyone can take a look at my gear and see what I am missing. I know right now that I am missing a bit of crit chance/attack speed but those items are extremely expensive at the moment. As for loh I don't really care about it and will be swapping to lifesteal around 60k dps anyways.

General comments: I found that I can survive well without LoH or Life Steal at around 52k DPS, 600 Res and ~45k life. So, along those lines, your resistances are good, but life is low (and understanding you have the XP gem in your helm). Based on MY experience here's my thoughts:

• First piece I would do is try to get more dex and some vitality on your bracers and keep at least 4 Crit damage, and drop double resists here.
• Next I would get look at getting a set of shoulders with some vitailty or life % as well, and it would probably be ok to drop 10-20 total resist there as well.
• I've had really good luck swapping out my rings form Crit Dmg to Crit Chance + High Bonus damange + Dex. With 1.0.4 they increased the bonus damage range on rings and amulets so the higher range roles (for example 30-60 damage) actually compete decently with CC+CD or CC+IAS. So i would go for Crit Chance+High Bonus Damage + Dex+Resist (and if you get lucky you could also get Vitality or Life % here as well).
• Last general comment: Try to get a slot (maybe shoulders or belt) with + Pickup Radius, which is necessary as you go away from LoH and Life Steal.

I posted earlier, but my profile is in my sig.

Lurker coming out of the woodwork here...

I have to say it pretty encouraging to see the different ways folks are able to progress in their gear selection (Tanky setups vs all out DPS versions).

I'll throw myself out in the ring: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Fluffy-1470/hero/14198432 (Pick me a part :)).

I'm hoping that I'm getting high enough DPS (48k unbuffed) that I can finish droping Life Steal and just go with Health Globes, but I think I'll need to get another 5-10k DPS to get there. Right now My Crit % is low in DW, so I'm in the process of looking for a dex/crit %/Crit dmg/resist Amulet and at least one ring with Crit % as well. Also, while I'm at it I'm digging around for a sweet deal on a Dex/Socket (or crit dmg) slow MH to boost my Sweeping wind damage, but they are hard to find in the 900+ dps range (and reasonably priced).

Good stuff folks, I'll return to lurking now ;).