Sure, as I said before, it is more efficient to beef up DPS for more survivability in 1.0.5 rather than to upgrade the defense.
I didn't know that we'll loose the enchantress though, with that armor becomes even more precious, and to boost up armor seems to be even more difficult than to boost DPS.
that's not entirely accurate.
STI makes armor more precious because you have less total.
the enchantress bonus on the other hand, is a percent increase.
So it's only truly effective when you have a lot, and it gives you more armor for each armor you get on your gear.
so unlike the STI nerf which makes armor more precious.
the enchantress nerf makes armor less precious.
the STI nerf trumps the effects of the enchantress nerf, but you get the idea.
NO STI + 15% armor from enchantress:
100 armor gives me 1.89% effective health.
NO STI, no armor bonus from enchantress:
100 armor gives me 1.78 effective health
as we can see, the enchantress nerf makes armor less valuable, slightly, by like 7%
Well I'm personally not going to reinstate my armor.
I used to value 100 armor at about 10 resistance in 1.04
but since I have less total armor in 1.05, I'm going to value 100 armor at about 15 resistances.
It'll impact my decision making process when purchasing new gear.
I've already edited my gear calculator to reflect the stats I'll have in 1.05.
I don't like thinking of the nerf as a matter of "trying to get back up to pre patch".
Rather I think of the patch as changing the relative values of armor and all resistances.
the nerf to STI makes armor more valuable.
this is somewhat counteracted by the fact that the loss of 15% armor from enchantress makes armor slightly less valuable.
but overall yeah, armor will be a bit more valuable.
the only MAJOR change I can fore-see is the possibility of creating an armor-all resistance monk.
you can get almost as much mitigation as a typical OWE monk, but you could forego OWE.
of course that's kinda silly and I don't see many monks doing it because you can just make an armor-lightning-all resist monk as well.
so *shrug*
long story short I'm not gonna give that much thought.
I'm mostly excited about the massive buff to scoundrel DPS, I've already bought new gear for mine.
The buff to dashing strike is huge for a dashing strike fanatic like myself.
the beacon of ytar update
and uh, of course the monster power, infernal machine, and other loot based updates.
@ Shinna, thanks again for the info, I believe I've updated the information as you requested.
As usual I cite sources when I don't personally collect information, so a link to your post has been listed so long as that's fine by you.
@serrin & Gaeddan, thanks for the information. I wrote the legendary section on the day of release of 1.04.
So a lot of it is simply based on the game guide, and is likely wrong.
I will work on updating the information over the coming days, but I'm somewhat distracted by the private testing realm right now.
as for a BIS guide, sorry, but no.
Just personal bias, I think people need to at least put in some effort to
Which is why my guide is written in a vague fashion. It's meant to be a compendium of info moreso than a "Do XYZ and win the game" kinda thing.
The most powerful tips in the guide aren't used my most monks, but requires the reader be reasonably attentive to discern.
I do this for a few reasons.
First one is I don't want nerfs to my favorite tips and tricks anytime soon. SO yeah. <3
I don't want to list a BIS guide because I don't want gear I'm trying to upgrade to shoot up in price.
Also I don't feel it is my job to baby every last newby players.
I'm here to help knowledgeable players that don't have time to waste playtesting every last metagame mechanic.
I'm not here to help the common gamer.
There's more than enough guide writers that are willing to do the XYZ thing. It's just not my thing.
Working through 1.05 though.
It looks like enchantress will no longer be the best monk follower. I think scoundrel will be the best.
3% crit chance >>> 3% attack speed. And 5% armor is now trivial.
lack of maximus is acceptable due to the raw extra DPS and the fact that the scoundrel's base DPS rate is much higher than the enchantress's.
Beacon of ytar will probably be a must have passive in 1.05 with the buff.
and dashing strike, one of my favorite skills, got buffed. YAY
edited: 3% crit chance on scoundrel does NOT go away when scoundrel is knocked out.
Monster HP and damage will not scale at the same rate, look at how it scaled with additional players (before all the nerfs), it was 5% dmg/75% hp and scaled upwards from there depending on the difficulty. A 100% increase in monster damage would result in most players getting 1-2 shot, especially on ranged classes. I would be surprised if monster damage got anywhere near that high at ML 10. HP on the other hand, I can see getting quite high as I can solo 4 player mobs currently very easily. With zerk a 4 player elite pack goes down in about 15-25 seconds for me depending on the kind of mob, and that's at 225% extra hp.
i thought it used to scale 75%/75% to 75%/110% on inferno, roughly the same amount of damage increased as hp increased.
well im guessing 25%/25% per monster level for now.
monster level 10 has got to be at least as hard as 4 player right?
also monsters double in health every act, so I figure the difficulty change has to at least boost things by a few acts.
AS has the exactly same effect as dex, but you didn't say that AS is diminishing.
coulda sworn I did lol
edit: okay so I mention it on random occasions like blazing fists, but I forgot to mention it specifically under the attack speed section.
I'll fix that.
edit again: nvm, i did mention diminishing returns in the attack speed section, are you referring to the previous conversation on diminishing returns?
You missed out Andariel Visage helm in the legendary section. This is a true BiS in term of max DPS for poison monk, or monk that don't need the resist stats from that slow.
For non socket version, it can go up to 250+dex, 9 IAS, and 4.5 crit .. For socket version, i think the dex capped out at 169
Just need to shop for one that has 5-6% fire debuff..
I'll add that in later.
IIRC I didn't want to add it because I didn't completely understand how the poison nova worked.
but now that information is easily available.
@near death
That's true, but I think the current explanation is sufficient.
I think enough monks know of this runes importance, that I don't need to rep the obvious.
@block
Alright thanks for the info, i've been getting conflicting reports on that.
@ Amulet affixes
my problem with 300 dex rolls is those consume multiple affixes to do that.
My problem with MF is it's too easy to level.
You only need 80 ish paragon to max your MF, if you give your follower MF and socket an MF gem.
And 1.05 will only make leveling faster.
You can go 0 to 80 paragon in 150 hours? Maybe I'm just grind oriented but that's a very short time.
And who knows how much less that number will be in 1.05.
I'm willing to guess it'll halve, or maybe more than that.
Meant to list loh, I personally use a LOH amulet. It used to back in 1.03, but that section must have been lost in the shuffle when i updated for 1.05
@ stone of jordan
It's mentioned in the legendary section, but not elsewhere because IMO it's not BIS worthy.
it has poor DPS/EHP for a ring, even when well rolled, compared to similarly priced rings.
All it's good for is spirit regen, which is only really good for tailwind builds.
Which unfortunately are gonna end up obsoleted in 1.05, due to the monster power update.
Dont get me wrong. For sure you put alot of time and effort into this guide. Overall its very well done. You backed up nearly everything with correct math which i realy apprieciate. The part about health globes was a nice read. I used this affix back pre 1.03 when i coulndt afford loh on a wep.
I might be a bit picky when someone uses a term like "dimishing return" cuz those used in different ways in different games and therefor im with thundersteel...I would just avoid to use it. Oh and i realy miss one stat: bonus armor. Its underrated like health globes or some other stats but realy usefull to a certain degree.
yeah that's very true, I'll add it.
I've been looking into it more recently too, cuz of the STI nerf.
You said you saw errors in my guide btw?
It's not like I game test everything I wrote in my guide, so if you know anything I don't I'd really appreciate it.
Using the term of dimishing return in regards of dps is missleading thats what im talking about.
f.e.
Dex range 1 - 100 gives you 0.1 dodge% per point of dex. On the other hand dex range 101 - 500 only gives 0.025 dodge% per point of dex. So 1point of dex devalues the more i get in terms of how much %dodge i get per point of dex.
In terms of dps thats not the case. As long as things like skills/runes+passives+wep dmg+ias/aps+cc+ccd stay the same i get the same amount of dmg per point of dex no matter how high i stack it. So there is no dimishing return.
Dimishing return is base on how much i get for 1 point of a given stat and not how much do i need to raise my dps for like 10%.
I know how dodge mechanics works,I also know how DPS calculations work, and I also know about the asiangamer calculator, I've helped dyril collect DPS data ffs lol. Lets just drop the math explanations, because the issue at hand is, almost a philosophical one more than a calculation issue.
in regards to how dex affects dodge, yes, it creates stepwise diminishing returns at certain points, IE 100 dex, 500 dex, 1000 dex.
But since most monks are 1000+ dex, we can ignore this stepwise effect.
at 1000 dex you have 30% dodge
at 2000 dex you have 40% dodge
so at 1000 dex, 100 more dex gives you +1% dodge
so at 2000 dex, 100 more dex gives you +1% dodge
except the difference is:
+1% dodge to 30% dodge, boosts your effective health by 1.45%
+2% dodge to 40% dodge, boosts your effective health by 1.69%
Hence this is not diminishing returns, this is increasing returns in the metric of effective health.
Contrast this to backlash DPS.
+1% dodge at 30% dodge boosts your backlash DPS by 1.33%
+1% dodge at 40% dodge boosts your backlash DPS by 1.25%
which is what I would term linear diminishing returns in terms of backlash DPS.
Consequently, to answer your final assertion, I don't acknowledge that there is a single way to measure diminishing returns.
As we have seen above, it's subjective to what two metrics you are using to measure the resources consumed and utility conveyed. As long as both metrics are clearly stated, and in my case even an example is provided, there is little to no room for actual confusion. And this is ultimately an argument over semantics, not an actual error in the guide.
That being said I'm not going to acknowledge any further debate on what "diminishing returns" is.
You think my use of the term is misleading, okay. I can understand that. But I am both consistent in my usage of the term, thorough in my explanation of the metrics, and I provide examples.
So while I can understand how my usage of the term can be thought of as misleading if taken as a sentence out of context, I don't think that in the guide as a whole, it is used in a misleading fashion.
Furthermore, I think the fact that your usage of the term requires implication of certain metrics over others, is in itself vague and imprecise.
DR and game mechanics in general are often mis-understood, e.g. when people say that resists have diminished returns because going from 700-800 provides you much less damage reduction percent than going from 400-500. Honestly I would just avoid using this term except maybe in special cases.
While agree with this assertion, I use the term mostly out of force of habit.
Like I said, the people I talk to in games basically use the term diminishing returns in the same way and we understand each other.
As long as you're capable of understanding that the term diminishing returns can be used in different ways depending on what you're looking for, be it % increases or additive increases for example, everything is fine IMO.
Yeah, I'm also a bit confused by what is being sold as diminishing returns here. Its a matter of definition, but linear scaling in my opinion does not qualify as DR.
I also thought that resists was linear in ehp, but I'm less sure about this one.
*shrug*
I've been in many metagaming communities, and D3's the one with the most inconsistent definition of diminishing returns.
Like people will say dex has diminishing returns with dodge, and in the same sentence say dex has diminishing returns with DPS.
I've asked most of my friends, and all of us qualify linear scaling as diminishing returns.
and yes, resists scale linearly with in EHP
to clarify "what's being sold" as diminishing returns.
I genereally use the metrics of DPS and EHP.
and I define linear scaling and sublinear scaling as diminishing returns relative to these two metrics.
I should be consistent with my use of the term diminishing returns throughout the guide with this in mind.
Havent read the whole text but there are some things that are flat wrong.
F.e. the dmg increase from dex has no dimishing return at all. The value in terms of how much dps you gain from 1 dex just depends on things like ias/cc/ccd. You can test and varify it kinda simple by using the most accurate web based dps calc http://theasiangamer...age-calculator/
I´ll edit my post later on when im done with reading the whole guide...
The term diminishing returns is subjective based on the metric being used.
If you're in business
But that's not a useful metric since you want to think of DPS and effective health gains in terms of multiplicative gains.
so:
if you have 900 dex, you need 100 dex to increase your dps by 10%
if you have 1900 dex, you need 200 dex to increase your dps by 10%
Hence I use the term diminishing returns for dexterity, as well as for IAS.
It has what I would call linear diminishing returns.
your definition of diminishing returns would fall under superlinear diminishing returns.
Which I don't think is useful in the context of diablo 3.
Your definition would be useful in business, because you are putting in resources, so you only care about the break even point. The point at which you stop profiting.
But in an MMO, it's all about time saving, since that's all you're really putting into the game.
In that context, you only care about % increases because there's no bottom line you need to make.
Hey There! I'm Morionic but I prefer to go by the name Grimy Bunyip
I'd like to share what I've learned about monks so far
Monk or Barb?
There are two tanks in D3, that is the barbarian and the monk.
WW Barbs gain xp faster, because they clear white mobs more efficiently.
But monks can rush elites faster because they don't need to clear white mobs for fury and wrath of the berserker.
So I figure at 100 paragon, monks are more useful for farming elites than WW barbs.
First off, here is a table of LoH Values, I did not collect data for this or make this table. http://goo.gl/VJ04m
Hidden Haste
All spirit generators on monks are hasted, IE you will attack faster than your paper doll attack speed.
Here is each of the spirit generators and how much they are hasted:
1.500x - Fists of Thunder
1.333x - Deadly Reach
1.166x - Crippling Wave
1.125x - Way of the Hundred Fists
Proc Rate
Proc rate is how quickly a generator procs other effects.
Procs being things like cyclones, life on hit, or chance to freeze.
Keeping it short
Because the old guide was so massive, I'm going to cut the comments short.
I'm only going to list notable runes, see the following sheet for more details: https://docs.google....3U01IRUE#gid=21
Fist of Thunder Thunderclap - #1 for good reason
Best Single Target DPS, best Single Target Proc rate, solid AoE DPS and proc rate. Quickening
Potentially double your spirit gen or more. May be necessary for WoL/Tempest rush builds.
But it comes at the cost of a lot of DPS and proc, has horrible synergy with sweeping wind/cyclone. Bounding Light
Largest AoE on the 3rd punch, but you lose a bit of DPS and single target proc, and the teleport.
Generally not worthwhile, but I'll mention it.
Deadly Reach Keen Eye
50% armor is very potent, but outdated in 1.04 thanks to all the nerfs to enemy mobs. Foresight
The best rune on deadly reach because it doesn't actually require you to use deadly reach too frequently.
18% DPS is a fair bonus for a skill slot. Not great, but solid
Crippling Wave Mangle
it's one way to deal massive AoE damage, but sweeping wind should be taking care of this job. Concussion
This rune saw use in 1.03, but 1.04 nerfed enemy DPS and now this rune never sees action.
Way of the Hundred Fists
Bug: 2nd punch does NOT proc sweeping wind or cyclones. Blazing Fists
DPS is small because IAS receives diminishing returns from IAS on gear. Fists of Fury
The dash is like thunderclap's teleport, I think the dash is a bit shorter, but I'm not sure.
Bleed damage doesn't seem to stack, but it causes a second proc.
All 3 Punches are AoE, making it better AoE Proc Rate and DPS than thunderclap
If the 2nd punch in the combo were not bugged, this would be more used than thunderclap.
2 - Spirit Spenders
I'm going to break down spirit spenders into a few categories:
- Mantras
- Positioning Spenders
- Facetank Spenders
- Mantras
Mantra of Conviction
Overawe - The best aura for farming, nothing comes close to its DPS other than Backlash
Intimidation - You'd probably be better off with evasion + backlash if you want both DPS and defense
Disheaten - Slow isn't useful for monks in PVM, but maybe it'll have a use in PVP
Reclamation - essentially +93 LoH for you and teammates. Not worth it, 93 is too little.
Submission - Bonus scales with attack speed. DPS bonus is too low though.
Mantra of Evasion
Keep in mind that evasion doesn't work on everything, unlike armor.
It also might make you vulnerable to high burst damage.
Hard Target - Total mitigation of about 0.75x, and 0.64x for 3 seconds after casting.
Divine Target - Looks good on paper, but 90 seconds is a HUGE cooldown time. I wouldn't use it.
Wind tt Reeds - 5% speed isn't much for farming or progression, I wouldn't use it.
Perseverance - I'm not too afraid of crowd control spells, so I wouldn't use this.
Backlash - Scales with attack speed, so 35% of your paper doll DPS per explosion.
Backlash does not apply to teammates.
If you can get 5 explosions per second, you will outperform conviction. But this rarely happens.
That being said you get evasion too so it's not a big deal if you get fewer than 5/second
Mantra of Healing
Sustenance - Don't get this, act 2 monks should have heal over 5000 LPS from various sources, 620 is not much.
Circular Breathing - Good for tempest rush builds, but that's about the only niche this has.
Boon of inspiration - 186 LoH is not a big enough number to waste a mantra rune on.
Heavenly Body - For most monks this is about 100 vit, also not worth wasting a mantra rune on.
Time of Need - The only rune you might want to use with MoH, good if you have high resist.
Not a horrible mantra, but i consider MoE > MoH
Mantra of Retribution
Retaliation - Most monks can intake about 5-10k dps, 60% of that isn't nearly enough DPS
Transgression - A great rune to stack with conviction in multi monk teams.
Indignation - Remember this only affects melee. I personally don't like situational runes.
Against All Odds - No idea what the odds are, also it only affects melee.
Collateral Damage - Damage scales with attack speed just like backlash.
Collateral Damage does not apply to teammates
Nor does it affect ranged attacks, but backlash is too short ranged to hit ranged attackers anyways.
Ultimately not as good as backlash because most monks will have a high dodge rate.
- Positioning Spenders
Dashing Strike
Animation lasts 0.9 seconds + travel time, animation is reduced by attack speed.
Animation time scales with attack speed, travel time scales with movement speed
Breaks Jailer spells.
There is a bug where your character stops being able to move or loot, forcing the player to leave his game.
Can target any form of destructible terrain.
Way of the Falling star does not apply a buff after hitting destructible terrain.
Quicksilver is the best rune IMO.
Lashing Tail Kick
~8 base damage per spirit spent
Many hardcore monks swear Sweeping Armada as their "GTFO" button.
Poison sting may become viable in 1.05, with the stun buff.
With proper gear, it is possible to get the spirit cost of LTK very low.
The animation time of LTK makes it not good for a DPS rune, instead focus on the AoE or CC aspects of it.
Tempest Rush
Very fast and knocks back enemies on activation
The spirit consumption rate scales with weapon speed
The problem is tempest rush suffers severely from rubber banding.
I don't recommend it just for positioning, but tailwind is great for fast farming, if you have good spirit regen.
Cyclone Strike
It now has a 0.125 proc rate, which I feel is nice but not terribly substantial.
at 50 spirit this is by far the most expensive positioning skill
It can speed up farming, but I feel like 50 spirit is too much for what it does.
Inner Sanctuary
Creates an area where enemies "cannot pass"
I used quotes because certain enemies can bug into the area.
Things like charging beasts or teleporters.
The sanctuary is also very vulnerable to desecrators.
And kiting enemies will rarely allow a monk to put a sanctuary to good use.
However this skill can be very useful in situations.
You can block off a choke point for ranged teammates, allowing them free reign over foes.
Or you can wedge a kiting enemy into a corner and pound him to bits.
Or turn a wall into wedge to funnel foes into you one by one.
But for all the uses of sanctuary, it's simply too situational to use IMO.
- Facetank Spenders
Serenity
Every class needs a god mode button.
And the monk has the best one.
Some people might use peaceful repose, but a decently geared monk has better sources of healing.
Use ascension, the extra second of invulnerability is priceless.
This skill is absolutely essential to every monk build.
Sweeping Wind
This skill does 45% of your active hand's DPS.
This DPS scales with your attack speed.
45% of your paper doll is NOT 45% of your overall DPS.
For Example: Thunderclap deals 217.5% of your paper doll DPS.
Bladestorm gives you 60%, so this translates to a 1.275x increase to your overall DPS.
Which isn't bad, but don't think you're increasing your total DPS by 1.6x
IMO Cyclone > Innerstorm/Firestorm > Master of the Wind > Bladestorm, 15% paper doll isn't very much DPS.
Cyclone is by far the most potent rune on sweeping wind.
Cyclone has the best synergy with thunderclap out of all the generators.
Cyclones shock 20% of your weapon damage every 0.6 seconds over 3 seconds.
The first shock comes out the moment you spawn a cyclone.
Meaning each cyclone shocks for a total of 120% weapon damage over 3 seconds.
This is I tested this, get a 3 stack on your cyclone. and find 2 destructible targets spread fairly far apart.
Punch the first target, destroying it. On occasion, a cyclone will spawn immediately destroying the farther target.
Neither sweeping wind nor the cyclone rune favors high or low attack speed.
Sweeping wind snapshots your weapon damage, crit damage, lightning skills bonuses, etc when activated.
So try to cast faith in the light before casting sweeping wind. Attack speed and crit chance are not snapshotted.
Mystic Ally
No longer procs after patch 1.04. Personally I did not know that it did.
Honestly losing proc was a huge nerf, even if not many people knew to exploit this property.
Mystic ally's attack speed scales with your own.
It gives a combination of defense as well as offense.
For example, Air Ally has a single target DPS of 50%.
That's almost as much as bladestorm.
Air ally has less DPS and less AOE than bladestorm, but it distracts enemies and generates spirit.
This is an underestimated skill with plenty of potential
The ally gets the player's defensive stats, so it's slightly better with defensively built monks.
There used to be a bug where recasting mystic ally counted as "killing" your previous ally.
And this would give you healing from life on kill enchantments. This does not work anymore.
Blinding Flash
A great all around skill with very low cost.
Flashes reset enemy cooldowns, forcing them to wait before using the ability you just interrupted.
The stun duration is 0.5 seconds for elites, but remember that it lowers their accuracy as well.
I personally like Faith in the Light for the added DPS.
The boost adds 30% of your weapons dps to EACH of your weapons attacks.
So it is possible to see more than a 1.3x increase to your paper doll, more than 1.6x is possible with lots of IAS.
This number will increase further if your active hand has more DPS than your off hand.
Blinding flash creates a snapshot that factors in average damage on your average hand and jewelry.
Blinding flash does NOT snapshot crit damage or dexterity.
Breath of Heaven
6822 average healing every 15 seconds is 455 life per second
A pitiful amount of healing for any self respecting monk.
But 15% damage from blazing wrath is fairly sizeable.
Even so, it's not as much as you'd get from mystic ally or sweeping wind.
This is a great skill in teams and combined with guiding light.
BoH, while solid, is pretty extremely overrated.
The radius is also extremely tiny at 12 yards.
It'll be hard to heal anything other than melee teammates with it.
Wave of Light
Wave of light has 1 major flaw, it's animation. Which has a base length of 1 second.
The animation duration will decrease with the attack speed of your primary weapons
the animation duration is NOT affected by any form of IAS.
I would not say that WoL favors slow weapons or fast weapons.
Because faster weapons mean faster animation, and more spirit with which to spam more Wave of light.
The best way to utilize Wave of light is to get just barely enough DPS to one shot most white mobs.
If you can do this with empowered wave, then use it over wall of light obviously
You can animation cancel your punches by casting WoL right after a punch.
You can feasibly shave off half a second each casting IF you have 1.0 AS, but with faster IAS the benefit is marginal.
Exploding Palm
The animation is very short, about 0.125 seconds.
Personal data seems to indicate that exploding palm does not benefit from any form of critical hit.
Exploding palm also favors builds with slower attack speeds.
Depending on how much crit chance you stacked, the 745% weapon damage from exploding palm is worth about:
3-5 Fist of Thunder punches.
Which could be worth anywhere between 1 to 2 seconds of DPS, depending on attack speed and reliance on crit.
Of course the issue is that it takes 9 seconds for this to take effect.
So we're talking about a 11%-22% increase to your overall single target DPS from the bleed damage.
Long story short, the bleed damage is pretty bad for a single target skill.
The biggest change brought by patch 1.04 is the increased duration of exploding palm.
9 seconds is plenty of time to guarantee an explosion.
Seven Sided Strike
The animation lasts for 1 second, regardless of your attack speed or weapon choice.
7SS is almost a no brainer for players using slow 2H builds, but is still competitive for dual wielders, just not amazing.
The major flaw is 7SS's lack of synergy with other skills, particularly sweeping wind.
You can use faith in the light right before casting seven sided strike, but it wastes the blind duration.
Also you would be much better off spending faith in the light on sweeping wind.
Contrary to popular belief several sided strike does not increase the animation's duration.
3 - Passive Skills
One with Everything & Seize the Initiative
Poll on how many people use each resistance type: http://us.battle.net...372?page=24#465 Cold Resistance - Most Common Choice of Monks by a Sizeable Margin
This is the most popular resistance due to reverse psychology
Finding high end gear for cold monks will be very hard and expensive compared to other resistances
There are also few to no legendaries that benefit this resistance.
Poison Resistance - Average Choice for Monks
It's not uncommon for players to pick this just for Andariel's Visage
Andariel's Visage - http://us.battle.net...ndariels-visage
Transcendance
A decent aura but probably not worth a passive skill slot.
The extra healing is small, and easily overshadowed by even a tiny amount of LoH or lifesteal.
Read the Life per Spirit Spent section of itemization for more details.
Combination Strike
Even with a single spirit generator, this skill should not be underestimated.
Think about how much 8% DPS would cost you in terms of money.
It's worth about half of a a crit gem in a weapon socket.
Guiding Light
Playing in a team? If so this is a must have ability
+16% DPS to the entire team is godly for a single skill.
It works with mantra of healing and breath of heaven.
Guiding light DOES NOT work on mystic allies and followers.
And it does not buff yourself unless you cast it on an ally. Which is why MoH radius is so important.
Keep in mind that MoH has 40 radius over BoH's 12 radius
Chant of Resonance
This is a great rune for 2 handers and tempest rush farmers.
The extra spirit regen means you can dashing strike more often before taking a break for regen spirit.
And that is key to farming act's 1 and 2 efficiently.
Guardian's Path
35% spirit generated could be worth as much as 5 spirit per second with FoT.
This passive has much less synergy with other spirit generators, but is worth considering after patch 1.04
While this depends from build to build, many 2H users will find this passive to be a must have.
Otherwise 15% dodge is very solid.
It will not affect everything like desecrator pools, but it does have other benefits.
Namely dodge benefits you greatly against enemies with nightmare or frozen for example.
Keep in mind this is a multiplicative bonus to dodge rate, not 30%+15%=45%
This skill has synergy with backlash, but only marginally so.
Resolve
Another solid, but situational passive.
25% damage reduction is a lot.
It's also fairly useless against enemies who like to kite you.
Rumors say that resolve affects affixes that have not already been set down when you start dealing damage.
Beacon of Ytar
Yet another solid passive.
It can be exploited by running a build with lots of cooldowns.
IE Serenity, Blinding Flash, Breath of Heaven, Seven sided strike.
But even with only 2 cooldown abilities, this is still one of the best passives out there.
Pacifism
Not much to say here, I don't think this is an important rune. How often are you CC'd? not that often.
Exalted Soul
with a proactive overawe build, you will rarely have very much spirit
The only situation I can see t his being remotely useful is with air ally.
Since he has a chance to grant a massive +100 spirit regen bonus.
But any good monk will keep his spirit under 75% at all times.
But with patch 1.04, this skill may find itself a niche.
The extra 1 spirit per second is a nice touch, but not really game changing enough for most builds.
I think more notable is the fact that WoL is finally worthwhile as a spammable skill.
And exalted soul may allow players to spam WoL on elites and refarm their spirit from non elites.
Fleet Footed
A must have skill for farmers
Sixth Sense
you need 50% crit chance for this to be better than guardian's path
That's essentially never going to happen. This is a bad skill.
This skill is also multiplicative like guardian's path.
Near Death Experience
I know quite a few act 3 monks who swear by this rune.
What the in game tooltip doesn't tell you is that when the ability activates, is generates an AOE stun
Knocking back enemies and giving you time to get back on your feet.
Also if you have over 35% spirit on death, you will keep that amount of spirit.
The only reason I avoid near death experience is the ridiculous 90 second cooldown
4 - Itemization
Balance Is Everything
Itemization at low-mid tier gameplay is all about getting a little bit of everything.
IE make sure to balance your offense and defense and not to go all out on either.
The exception being if you're extremely rich and you can afford to heal off health globes.
Quick Inferno Gear Tips by item slot:
Amulets
Key Enchantments: Crit %, LoH, IAS, Crit Dmg, Avg Dmg, MF
Try to get at least 2 or 3 of the above.
You can think of an amulet as two rings. There are a few exceptions to this rule though.
Most notably avg dmg & IAS aren't quite as good on amulets as it is on rings. Crit damage would be better.
Rings and amulets go through phases, sometimes an affix is cheaper on rings, then sometimes cheap on amulets.
Pay attention to these phases and make purchases based on them.
Rings
A ring is basically half an amulet.
As mentioned earlier, avg dmg and IAS are a bit better to get on rings than they are on amulets.
Helmet
The helmet is host to a lot of interesting enchantments.
And as such, it is one of the items I am willing to forgo resists/dex/vit on.
Key enchantments are: Spirit Regen, Crit %, Socket, Sweeping Wind/FoT Damage.
Like with amulets, don't expect to get more than 2-3 key enchantments without paying a huge price.
also note that rare spirit stones cap at 4.5% crit chance, whereas helms cap at 6% but dont have spirit regen.
Shoulders & Belts
I lumped these 2 items together because they lack many special enchantments.
Sure there's chance to freeze and chance to chill (haha get it? COLD shoulders? haha)
They do have access to life % though.
Due to their lack of key enchantments, I use these two item slots for resists, vitality, and dexterity.
The fact that they can roll vit and life % makes them particularly good for keeping your life pool up.
Chest Armor & Pants
Sockets are a must have at high end of play, but you can consider getting one without them if you're poor.
Chest armor has the unique "reduce damage from elites" enchantment.
This enchantment is nice as it's potent and fairly underpriced.
And of course, things like magic find, health from globes, radius, and life regen are nice touches.
Chest armor and pants are able to roll up to 300 vitality ignoring sockets
Pants and chests cap at 300 vitality, so they're okay places to get vitality on.
But these two item slots tend to be very expensive, so don't expect too much utility out of them.
Boots
Movement speed is a must have enchantment for farming these days.
It's extremely expensive, but for good reason.
They are a good source of dexterity as rare boots roll up to 300 dex.
Movement speed is the only key enchantment, so focus on resists, dex, vit.
And if you can manage, so spare enchantments like life regen, health from globe, etc.
Gloves
Gloves, like helmets are host to a lot of great enchantments.
And like boots, they have access to upwards of 300 dexterity.
Key enchantments are: Crit %, IAS, Crit dmg.
Be willing to forgo resists, dex, and vit for these 3 key enchantments.
Crit % is a must have on gloves, you may consider dropping IAS or crit dmg for better resists/dex/vit.
But make sure you have at least 2 of the key enchantments, if not all 3.
Bracers
The key enchantment on this item slot is crit chance, you must have crit chance.
Don't be afraid to get a 6% crit chance bracer with only 30 dex, if the resists and vit are good.
Use a dps calculator and make sure you're getting good bang for your buck.
Main Itemization Guide:
2 handers in 1.04
2 Handers can easily be the best DPS in the game now *Cough skorn* Seven Sided Strike is a must have for a 2H user. Blinding flash has poor synergy with low attack speed weapons, so avoid it unless using flying dragon. Wave of light does not particularly favor fast or slow attack speed weapons, it is bad with IAS armor though.
And since IAS is extremely important on a 2H build for the extra DPS and spirit, I would avoid Wave of light. Mystic ally's attack speed scales with yours, so it also doesn't favor high attack speed either.
But air ally may be a nice way for you to boost your spirit regen rate.
Don't get LoH on jewelry, low attack speed means it's not as good as on a 1H or DW build.
Instead, try to get LoH on your weapon since you can get more than 1000+ LoH on your 2H's these days.
2H's are very cost effective at low tiers right now, and I highly recommend it for new players.
BIS 2 handers are pretty obnoxiously expensive though *cough skorn*
Dual Wielding
Back in 1.03 DW was the monk endgame.
I won't say more on DW because I feel like it's both straightforward and common knowledge.
Sword and Board
I thought sword and board was the weakest setup in patch 1.03, and I still think so in 1.04
If anything it's even less useful since mobs are not as deadly as they were in 1.03
the 1000 ish armor, block, and 100 ish resists decreases damage intake by about 0.75x
And you get an extra 10% crit chance for cyclones and such.
But 10% crit chance will not boost your DPS by as much as 15% attack speed from DW.
And if you feel defense is that important, you can just as easily get a LoH off hander.
I'm not going to say sword and board is bad because it isn't.
But I would never use it because I'd either rather be using 2H or rather be using DW.
If you must go sword and board, make sure you get a great shield for cheap.
At least 9% crit chance, maxed resists, dex, and vit in other words.
You need high base damage to make sword and board viable, so the go to weapon is the Fist of Az'turrasq
massive base damage and attack speed bonus make it the ultimate sword and board weapon.
The typical fist of az'turrasq is a poor DW weapon though, due to lack of enchantments that benefit both weapons.
It's possible to get a well rolled fist of az'turrasq that is good for DW, but those are extremely expensive
Vitality and life %
Vitality gets diminishing returns with itself, but makes each life % more effective.
Life % gets diminishing returns with itself, but makes each vitality more effective.
Kinda like how Crit % and crit dmg synergize with each other, so try to get a bit of both.
I used to recommend 30k-35k life in 1.03. But now I recommend 35k-40k in 1.04.
The white mobs are stronger in 1.04, and thus you need more life for those rare circumstances where
a bunch of white mobs attack you at the same time, dealing massive damage.
Don't be afraid to socket vit gems in order to meet this life pool quota.
Dexterity.
Dexterity gets linear diminishing returns with itself, in terms of DPS
Dexterity gets increasing returns with itself, in terms of the effective health boost of dodge.
at 1900 dex, you need 20 dexterity to get 1% DPS.
at 2400 dex, you need 25 dexterity to get 1% DPS.
IE the equation is dex/100 + 1 = dex per 1% dps
Crit Chance & Damage
The amount of crit % and crit dmg you need to get 1% more dps depends on
how much crit % and crit dmg you already have.
But most monks these days will have around 35% crit chance and 200-300 ish crit damage.
In which case 5-6% crit damage is worth about 1% DPS.
and 1% crit damage will display as 1.5% DPS on your inventory screen, but due to cyclones:
will boost your dps in reality by something closer to 2%.
Once you hit 35% crit % and 250% ish crit damage, these ratio's do not change drastically as you get more.
Resists and Armor
Resist and armor make you take less damage.
IE they boost your effective health.
Since monks heal set amounts of damage, they also boost your effective healing rate
This is unlike vitality and life%, which boost your effective health but don't really boost your effective healing.
(vit and life% do boost health globes tho, but lets ignore that)
at 700 resist, you need 10 resist to boost your effective health and healing by 1%
at 200 resist, you need 5 resist to boost your effective health and healing by 1%
IE the equation is (resist+300)/100 = resists per 1% boost to health and healing.
At 3000 armor, you need 60 armor to boost your effective health and healing by 1%
At 4000 armor, you need 70 armor to boost your effective health and healing by 1%
Due to the STI nerf in patch 1.04, bonus armor (or strength) will be particularly useful.
Most monks, especially those that drop STI and have lower armor, will find bonus armor particularly useful.
I personally have under 4000 armor and over 700 resists, so I can value 7 armor at about 1 resist.
Life per Second
LPS is straightforward, and will be my unit of measure for other enchantments
Life on Hit
You do not get 100% of life on hit every punch, it varies from spirit generator to spirit generator
LoH favors AoE as you proc LoH for each enemy you hit with a single attack
But I recommend measuring single target LoH, since that's what you will get vs most elites.
And elites are what you want to gear up for.
LoH also scales with attack speed
So for example:
Lets say you have 1.75 attack speed and are using FoT
FoT gives you an extra 1.5x attack speed and generates 375% LoH every 3 punches
So 1.75*1.5*3.75/3 = 328% LoH per second.
Which means 100 life on hit would be worth up to 328 life per second to you.
Life per Spirit Spent
This one is fairly easy to calculate if you know your spirit regen rate.
Lets say you have have 1.75 attack speed, are using FoT, and have no passive spirit regen.
then 6 *1.75*1.5 = 15.75 spirit per second.
This means 10 LPSS is worth up to 157.5 LPS for you
I like to value LPSS a bit lower than the max LPS I calculate.
Because it's harder to use. And unlike LoH, it does not scale up with AoE.
Lifesteal
Lifesteal is 5x less effective on inferno difficulty
But most players know that now, so lets proceed to the sample calculation:
Lets say we want to examine 3% lifesteal on a traditional thunderclap/cyclone/overawe build.
This build generates about 6x more DPS than listed on the paper doll
Lets say this player does 50k paper doll DPS, then he heals 50k*3%*0.2*6 = 1800 LPS
Extra Health from Globes
Health globes are a solid and fairly underestimated healing enchantment:
It's extremely potent at high DPS, and is IMO the best healing enchantment on armor during End Game.
There are 2 types of globes, small and large.
Small globes heal 15% and large globes heal 35% of your total health
Large globes drop off elites every time you deplete 25% of their health.
Small globes have a chance of dropping from non-elites.
The drop chance varies from mob to mob
According to the brady guide:
Fallen Grunt: 5%
Fallen Hellhound: 12%
Fallen Maniac: 20%
Fallen Master: 80%
Blue packs have a 60% chance to drop health globes at 50% life and at death
Act 1 Elites have about 400k Health
Act 1 Champs and Act 2 Elites have about 800k Health
Act 2 Champs and Act 3 Elites have about 1600k Health
Act 3 Champs have about 3200k Health
If you know your actual DPS, you can use these numbers with some algebra to figure out how much
Life Per Second you get from health globes
But make sure you don't too much health globe bonuses, you only have so much health afterall.
Extra Health From Globe enchantments are very underrated, and thus cheap source of healing.
For example, lets say a character has 20k unbuffed DPS.
And this character is using Thunderclap/Bladestorm/Overawe
This character does about 80k actual DPS
He needs to take out 500k health on an act 2 elite to get 60% of a globe.
This takes him 6 seconds
So a +5000 Extra Health from Globe enchantment would give this player an equivalent
life per second of up to 500 LPS
But of course health globes are harder to use than LoH or LPS or LPSS.
So I would value +5000 Extra Health from Globe at about 500 life per second on this specific character.
Naturally it follows that this enchantment becomes more useful with higher DPS.
And less useful on higher difficulties.
PS: Dashing Strike is a great way to loot health orbs. You pick up any you travel over.
Attack Speed
Attack Speed was nerfed in the early days of diablo 3
But it's still very good.
A boost to attack speed increases your DPS, your LoH healing, your stun rate, and your spirit generation.
It does suffer from diminishing returns, including the 15% IAS from dual wielding.
I recommend getting IAS on gloves and rings.
It's also available on amulets and a few legendaries.
I typically value 2% IAS at slightly less than 1% crit chance.
It's definitely worthwhile during early levels, but becomes completely worthless by lvl 80 paragon.
I personally never get magic find on any of my gear, as 80 paragon can be achieved in under 200 hours.
Even less than that with a barbarian. It's really up to you.
1% magic find and 1% exp gain are about the same in terms of farming efficiently.
Movement Speed
Movement Speed is capped at 25%, so don't get more than that
It is available on boots and certain legendaries.
It's a very good enchantment because of the time it saves you.
And IMO a must have, in spite of it's hefty cost.
Misc Enchantments
- Reduced Damage from Elites
This is a pretty good enchantment, and can sometimes be very cheap.
It's only available on chest armor, and it doesn't hurt to keep an eye out for it.
But the market is tiny, you will only find a decent chest with this on the AH every few days.
- Reduced Damage from Melee/Ranged
I'm not a fan of reduced damage from melee as anything in melee range tends to melt to monks.
Reduced damage from ranged is great as monks are much less mobile than WW barbarians.
And thus typically have to tank a lot of ranged attacks.
- Chance to X
Chill reduces enemy attack speed, freeze and stun stops enemies from moving altogether.
Blind stops them from attacking.
These debuffs last for at least 0.5 seconds, but never longer in 1.04.
You can calculate the proc rate and how much it will benefit you from there.
- Spirit Generation
The value of spirit generation is hard to quantify, but it's most significant purpose is travel.
You need spirit regen to spam dashing strike or tempest rush outside of combat.
It's only marginally useful in combat, except with 2H Builds which absolutely need the extra spirit regen.
IMO it's a pricelessly important stat in 1.04 late game since mobs die so fast you must be constantly moving.
- Bonus Damage to Skills
There are 3 key enchantments to note.
Bonus to lightning skills, bonus to sweeping wind, and bonus to fist of thunder.
Bonus to lightning skills affects both thunderclap and sweeping wind/cyclone.
I value 10% lightning skills at about 8.5% overall DPS.
Sweeping wind and fist of thunder both account for about 50% of your overall DPS in the mid game.
But at 1.04 end game, sweeping wind's AoE aspect makes it much more important, and is thus more valuable.
- Gold Find
one of the more useless enchantments.
Maybe it's worth dumping on your follower, but only maybe.
5 - Farming Strategies & Builds
The alkaizer farming is the dominant xp and rare farming strategy right now.
Start at core of arreat, clear all the elites
Go to tower of the damned level 1, run in a circle clearing elites.
Use the WP on tower of the damned level 1 to go to arreat crater level 1, clear until dead end, then teleport.
Clear Arreat crater level 2, this is a major XP source.
Teleport to the bridge of korsikk and clear the fields of slaugter, this is a major xp source.
Teleport to keep depths level 1 and immediately go to keep depths level 2, this is a major xp source.
You may choose to supplement a few additional areas, but don't expect to boost your xp rate much if at all.
Massive Damage Reduction on Goblins
A goblin that hasn't started running yet cannot be reduced below 90% health.
Only after a few seconds will it start taking damage beyond that 90%
So if you have burst DPS sources such as conviction or faith in the light, don't use them right away
Traditional Thunderclap Build
Thunderclap has the best proc rate, making it very good with sweeping wind/cyclone.
Sweeping wind cyclone is necessary as it generates about half the DPS of your monk.
Blinding flash, if cast right before sweeping wind massively boosts the DPS of sweeping wind.
Conviction/overawe is nice as yet another massive DPS boost.
Serenity/ascension is a basic skill all monks use.
Which basically leaves the passives and 1 extra active skill for you to choose. Enjoy.
Fists of Fury
If you aren't using sweeping wind cyclone, Way of the hundred fists/Fists of fury is a great option.
It's better AoE DPS and proc rate than thunderclap, but slightly less single target DPS and proc rate.
But AoE is much more important in 1.04 so i'd recommend it.
Only reason it's not used instead of thunderclap is because the second punch in the combo does not proc cyclones.
So if for whatever reason you aren't using sweeping wind/cyclone, I'd recommend this over thunderclap.
When should I ditch Overawe?
Overawe is really amazing, 1.24-1.48x DPS around you.
And the answer is simple, if your DPS is already so amazing, any extra isn't actually being very useful.
You may consider circular breathing for more spirit regen, and thus mobility with tailwind.
There's no other situation where I'd consider dropping overawe. Not for backlash, hard target, etc.
Hammer Wind Monk
There are 2 skills that perform snapshots, Blinding flash and Sweeping wind.
Mantra of Conviction/Submission does not snapshot.
Blinding Flash before Sweeping wind.
This is the most common exploit, sweeping wind snapshots your weapon and crit damage.
Remember, blinding flash boosts your weapon damage for a short time..
Hammer & Flash Exploit
Blinding flash snapshots the base DPS of your active hand weapon, including average damage bonuses.
So like you have a sword, it says 800 damage per second at the top, that's the DPS number being snapshot.
Once again, average damage from jewelry is also snapshot.
Hammer & Wind Exploit
Sweeping wind captures a lot more than just base weapon damage, it captures almost everything.
Read septemvri's post for more details on what is capture: http://us.battle.net...81225?page=3#58
I'm not going to explain this any further.
I feel like good builds should be earned.
So go figure the rest out and earn it for yourself.
Reference Video & Data:
here is a 40m xp/hr demonstration of the Hammer Wind Build on a variant of the Alkaizer Farming Run.
It wasn't completely optimal, so I recommend you try to do better.
6 - Followers
All followers can be given leoric's ring of a puzzle ring, although I'm not a fan of either.
- Eirena the Enchantress Overview:
20% weapon damage to basic attacks
+5% armor (~1.03x effective health for most monks)
+3% attack speed (goes away if enchantress dies)
2nd best magic find
Skills: - Charm
Decent debuff, not much to say here
Careful, charmed enemies might run far far off and punch a goblin if there are no more enemies nearby - Forceful Push
Followers have their damaged reduced by 5x.
But this does not apply to spells
so you can think of forceful push as a spell that does 5x of the enchantress's normal damage in AOE
this spell will buff eirena's single target DPS by a factor of ~1.5
If you want to make the best of this, give her a very high DPS 2H mace
- Reflect Missiles
Too situational and completely overshadowed by power armor - Powered Armor
This is a passive that is always active, even if eirena is KO'd
IDK why it says enemies are slowed by 3% for 3 seconds, not sure what that means
- Disorient
Think of this as an extra blinding flash
but 3x longer cooldown, 1.5x less duration, doesn't lower accuracy on elite packs, etc. - Erosion
3x shorter cooldown than disorient, and +15% damage to enemies is amazing
Remember how forceful push actually does 100% weapon damage not 20%?
Well erosion does 150% over 3 seconds, on 15 second cooldown instead of 10 second
so it's another +50% to enchantress DPS
- Focused Mind
+3% attack speed is amazing
too bad it stops working when the enchantress dies - Mass Chickens
Hilarious, and situationally awesome.
But 60 second cooldown is way too much, and 3% attack speed is way too good
Itemization:
Grand Vizier is the best MF for Eirena, and solid DPS.
Blade of prophecy is a cheap alternative to the Grand Vizier.
MF is worthless beyond 80 paragon, so I recommend Maximus if you don't care for magic find.
For jewelry, focus on magic find, vitality, intelligence, and life %.
Once you have a very large health pool on your enchantress, all resist may be worth considering.
- Lyndon the Scoundrel Overview:
40% weapon damage for basic attacks
Worst Magic find and no exceptional legendaries for him to use.
3% crit chance is A LOT of extra dps. Does not go away when scoundrel is KO'd
Can be itemized and skilled in a way such that he never attacks anything (ie goblins)
Seems to have faster movement speed than other followers, letting him kite effectively
Skills: - Crippling Shot
Slow is nearly completely useless for monks, except against kiting enemies
I wouldn't recommend this. - Poison Bolts
so +80% weapon damage every 6 seconds will increase Lyndon's DPS by about 25%
- Dirty Fighting - Vanish
I like vanish, it will keep your scoundrel alive for very long even if you don't give him a lot of vitality.
- Powered Shot
Compare this to blinding flash
1.33x longer cooldown, 1.5x shorter duration, doesn't lower the accuracy of elites, etc.
I wouldn't use this skill. - Multishot
The scoundrel now shoots a trident of arrows
Great for things that proc on hit, and it's a nice DPS increase.
I recommend this skill, just try to buy a weapon that compliments it.
Multishot has roughly halved proc rate
- Hysteria
Most monks have decent crit chance
So you will have hysteria active for 3 seconds out of every 7
This works out to about a 4-5% increase to DPS
there's a few nuances to this though
If you synchronize blinding flash and conviction and etc with hysteria, you get more mileage out of it.
Also, hysteria cannot activate if Lyndon is KO'd - Anatomy
3% crit chance is worth about 6% dps to the typical thunderclap cyclone monk, which is a lot.
Most importantly this passive is active even when Lyndon is KO'd, extremely potent
Itemization:
Windforce can be used to stunlock Enemies.
Pus spitter creates pools that do 10k DPS and last 3 seconds, another decent choice.
Finally because scoundrel has high basic weapon damage and multishot, a raw DPS 2 hander is acceptable as well.
If you remove Lyndon's weapon and don't give him dirty fighting, he cannot attack
The only use I know for this though, is for a follower that doesn't attack goblins
- Kormac the Templar
Up to 310 life every 30 seconds in castable healing spells
155 life per second ontop of that
+12% spirit generation
Best magic find
Skills: - Heal
4651 every 30 seconds is no more than 155 LPS though, it's not much but it isn't bad either - Intervene
I feel like this is useless for a monk.
You're a better tank than he is
- Loyalty
155 LPS isn't much, but it's not bad - Loyalty
What can you do with slowed enemies anyways?
- Charge
50% weapon damage is 2.5x the damage of his normal attacks
Compare the stun to blinding Flash
2x the cooldown, 1.5x less duration, doesn't reduce accuracy of elites, etc. - Onslaught
Skills aren't affected by follower weapon damage reduction.
Depending on Kormac's attack speed, this will boost his DPS by about 50%
- Inspire
Not sure if this is still active when Kormac goes down
But +12% spirit generation is pretty damn nice - Guardian
4651 healing every 30 seconds is very trivial
Do you really need kormac to come to your aid when you're low on health?
I think 12% spirit generation would go further than a stun when you're at low health
Itemization:
Kormac can get magic find on every item slot except the trinket.
He's the best magic find platform for this reason.
You can give him a lidless wall for extra attack speed and proc rate on his main weapon, + shield affix.
You can give him a skycutter to proc angelic allies, which hit for 10k DPS single target.
You can also give him lots of thorns and a band of hollow whispers for even more DPS.
7 - Legendaries
I don't list all legendaries in here, particularly if I think they suck or are only for classes other than monks
Fist of Az'turrasq http://us.battle.net...st-of-azturrasq
The best sword and board fist.
But since base DPS and attack speed aren't that useful on DW builds, this isn't cost effective for dual wielding.
Don't get me wrong, it'll still be solid, but not enough for the pricetag.
Stuns last 0.5 seconds on elites, although that's hardly the selling point of the Fist.
5% stun chance is worth about 5% single target damage mitigation with Thunderclap and decent IAS, just FYI.
As usual, be careful with such expensive fists.
It's possible that with all that money it'd cost to buy one, you could buy a rare that's just as effective for less.
Crystal Fist http://us.battle.net...em/crystal-fist
Durability loss is worthless now that repair costs were reduced by 0.25x once again in 1.04
There's nothing inherently interesting about this fist, compare it with other rares when shopping.
Won Khim Lau http://us.battle.net...em/won-khim-lau
This fist is used for 1 build only, and that's the Thunderclap/Cyclone build.
+5% added damage as lightning only affects minimum physical damage.
IE it benefits weapons with high minimum damage (IE maces/spears) and ones without elemental damage.
Added damage to lightning skills does as advertised.
A very solid fist weapon.
Shenlong's http://us.battle.net...entless-assault http://us.battle.net...-fist-of-legend
Don't ask me how good balls of pure energy are, I'm not that rich.
But the other enchantments on these two fists easily make these the best DW fists in the game.
They're lightning enchanted so they pair well with won khim lau as well. Particularly Won Khim & Fist of Legend.
As always, double check the price and make sure you can't get a rare that's comparable.
Echoing Fury http://us.battle.net...em/echoing-fury
Comparable to Fist of Az'turrasq in base DPS, making it a solid sword and board weapon.
The extra attacks per second apply to both weapons, before IAS is applied, Very potent.
The chance to fear on hit is potentially very annoying to deal with, even with thunderclap though.
Contrary to popular belief, the fear distance is very huge, and enemies can run very far after being feared.
This is extremely annoying, although many smaller enemies will die before they can run away, even after fear.
Aside from the fear, this weapon is an otherwise BIS dual wield weapon.
Sever http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/sever
This item deals massive critical hits on kill.
Combined with lifesteal, this sword will heal over 15k per kill.
Skorn http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/skorn
With such massive dex and crit damage, and a socket, it's easy to see why this is considered a BIS 2 hander.
Not too much to say about it, it's really solid all around
Schaefers's Hammer http://us.battle.net...haeferss-hammer
2 handed Won Khim Lau with an lightning enchantment
Decent and cheap for thunderclap/cyclone monks, but not great. The enchantment might be interesting for followers.
With slow attack speed and only 1 spare affix, you'll either lack healing from LoH or DPS from crit damage.
Lightning enchantment has awkward synergy with monks because of high dodge.
The shield shocks once per second for 10k-40k damage, this seems to be independent of your DPS
Followers can use the lightning shield, and it deals the full 10k-40k damage when on a follower.
The shield lasts 5 seconds and the duration can be refreshed even while it's active.
Maximus http://us.battle.net...en/item/maximus
Works on your follower at full effectiveness
Demon has an attack speed of 1.0 and hits 36k's. BIS enchantress weapon IMO.
Flying Dragon http://us.battle.net...m/flying-dragon
Definitely a great 2 hander, but the question is how great.
The 2x boost lasts for 3 seconds, and I've found the proc rate to be much less than 5%
Mempo of Twilight http://us.battle.net...mpo-of-twilight
Contrary to the game guide, this helmet does not provide 170-200 dex by default.
Without it, this helmet is not quite the beast you might believe it to be.
Still solid, but I'd rather have a well rolled rare helm for a fraction of the price.
Andariel's Visage http://us.battle.net...ndariels-visage
WIth crit chance and IAS, it's a very solid DPS helm, even if you aren't poison resist.
Poison novas deal ~11k damage in the initial blast and another 11k over 3 seconds.
You can think of it as equivalent to 4000-8000 thorns.
The extra damage from fire is definitely a source of concern, but does not break the helmet.
And try to keep in mind that you're sacrificing a slot that can be used for spirit regen.
Helm of Command http://us.battle.net...helm-of-command
The Sword and Boarder's Helm because of the block chance.
It was formerly popular in 1.03, but has much fewer followers due to less enemy DPS in 1.04
Inna's Set
Inna's Set Bonus
130 dex is a very solid bonus many monks will want.
0.33 spirit regen is nice although hard to notice.
The sweeping wind bonus is critical to several sweeping wind exploits.
Those who don't intend to use these exploits need not consider this set.
Inna's Radiance http://us.battle.net.../innas-radiance
The only spirit stone that can roll over 4.5% crit chance, it's a BIS helmet for monks.
The game guide is misleading and this spirit stone cannot roll over near 300 dex.
IMO this is one of the better choices for Inna's set bonuses.
Inna's Favor http://us.battle.net...tem/innas-favor
Holy damage is added to minimum physical damage bonuses.
DPS and defense wise this belt is extremely sub par.
Only consider it for the set bonus.
Inna's Temperance http://us.battle.net...nnas-temperance
Popular for being movement speed pants.
Amazing offensive pants, better near the endgame where you don't need defense as much.
Inna's Vast Expanse http://us.battle.net...as-vast-expanse
Dex can only roll up to 195 contrary to the game guide
It also comes with 3 sockets
This chest is fairly average-ish, and should only be considered for completing set bonuses.
Inna's Reach http://us.battle.net...tem/innas-reach
Good base damage, but affixes kinda suck.
Personally wouldn't be my choice for a 2 hander since I'd want high LoH.
And a LoH Inna's reach would probably cost a fortune.
Vile Ward http://us.battle.net.../item/vile-ward
The best source of dex on shoulders, BIS if you want dex. I prefer rare shoulders as vit/life sinks though.
I've yet to find a pair of vile wards that are remotely cost effective compared to rare shoulders.
Tyrael's Might http://us.battle.net...m/tyraels-might
Somewhat worth considering for the movement speed bonus.
But I think most monks will lean towards inna's temperance for more movement speed.
Cindercoat http://us.battle.net...item/cindercoat
This chest piece can roll a secondary elemental resist.
Most notably, you could get a cindercoat with 100 fire resistance and 50 all resistance, huge.
Very solid as a mid game chest armor that comes at a reasonable price.
Blackthorne's Set
Blackthorne Set Bonus
100 vit is a bit weak for an initial set bonus
The extra and reduced damage from elites is nice but also not great
GF and MF are outdated with paragon.
Don't get me wrong, the set bonus is nice, but it's ever so slightly sub par in 1.04
Blackthorne's Surcoat http://us.battle.net...thornes-surcoat
Contrary to the game guide, this item comes with 3 sockets
As it is, this surcoat isn't much better than rares. But it's not much worse either.
It's basically a very expensive way to stack more set bonus.
Blackthorne's Duncraig Cross http://us.battle.net...-duncraig-cross
LoH Amulets are great for DW builds, but the enchantments on here aren't anything you can't get on rares.
But due to the hefty pricetag, I'd rather go for a rare amulet or another legendary.
Once again, a very expensive way to stack more set bonus.
Blackthorne's Jousting Mail http://us.battle.net...s-jousting-mail
Notable for being LoH Pants.
With only 2 random enchanments left, you'll want some resist and sockets.
But YET again, price is a huge problem. Maybe the LoH will make up for it.
Once again, you can probably get more cost effective rares.
Blackthorne's Spurs http://us.battle.net...ckthornes-spurs
Aside from movement speed, the enchantments aren't very desirable for boots.
Not good boots unless well rolled.
Blackthorne's Notched Belt http://us.battle.net...es-notched-belt
Suffers from the same issues as the boot, other than the dex nothing else is very desirable.
Lacuni Prowlers http://us.battle.net...lacuni-prowlers
The DPS potential of these bracers give them to potential to be BIS.
the movement speed is nice too.
A set of bracers that are rolled well enough to be a boost to your DPS will inevitably cost a fortune.
Strongarm Bracers http://us.battle.net...rongarm-bracers
The enchantments are solid, but well rolled bracers probably cost too much to be justified.
Also I find knockback to be annoying on monks.
Tasker and Theo http://us.battle.net...tasker-and-theo
Normal gloves can roll up to 300 dex.
The socket may be unique but it isn't enough to make up for the lackluster stat affix and only 2 random enchants.
Sage's Set
The set bonus is mediocre, and probably not worth aiming for.
Sage's Gesture http://us.battle.net...ipe/sages-grasp
3 very solid enchantments and still 3 random enchantments to spare.
Since they're blacksmithed, they're a good glove to keep an eye out for when shopping.
Rare gloves still have potential to be better, but sage's are consistently good.
Sage's Journey http://us.battle.net...e/sages-seekers
2 good affixes and 2 random affixes comes out to only 5 affixes total.
Not quite as good as Sage's Gesture, but still worth keeping an eye out for.
Once again, rares very much have the potential of being better. Moreso in the case of the boots than the gloves.
Sage's Orbit http://us.battle.net...pe/sages-stones
armor is okay, magic find isn't as useful anymore, reduced control duration sucks.
The weakest piece in the set.
String of Ears http://us.battle.net.../string-of-ears
Some people swear by this, some people know better.
Keep in mind that for most monks, 100 resist means 10% less damage from all sources.
Most string of ear rolls aren't going to be very good.
And extremely well rolled rare belts will be better.
Depth Diggers http://us.battle.net...m/depth-diggers
With paragon out, MF and GF aren't that useful anymore.
So my problem with depth diggers is a 6 affix rare could be better.
Gehennas http://us.battle.net...recipe/gehennas
Gehennas have the same problem as depth diggers, but as a blacksmith item you'll find more on the AH.
So chances are you'll find a well rolled one on the AH.
Ice Climbers http://us.battle.net...em/ice-climbers
Solid enchantments and a whopping 3 random enchants to spare.
Very good boots, just make sure you find a good roll and a good price.
Fire Walkers http://us.battle.net...em/fire-walkers
I've heard reports saying the molten ticks for anywhere between 2k-4k damage.
Either way the damage is small, as is the dex on the firewalkers.
So when you combine the molten and the low dex, you'll get that offensively these boots are about as good
as a pair of rare boots that rolled ~250 dex.
Only consider these boots if you're fire resistance.
And even so, don't expect BIS.
Ouroboros http://us.battle.net.../item/ouroboros
dex? LoH? damage? crit chance? sign me up!
Just keep in mind that rares can roll better than Ouroboros.
Stone of Jordan http://us.battle.net...stone-of-jordan
Mostly interesting for the spirit regen, which is very nice when you need to travel a map quickly.
DPS wise I think this ring is sub par, 20%-30% isn't much better than many rings, and it's only for elites.
Oculus Ring http://us.battle.net...tem/oculus-ring
The stats are solid, but not stuff I look for on rings.
And with only one random affix slot, I'd mark this ring off as average-ish.
Skull Grasp http://us.battle.net...tem/skull-grasp
Legacy skull grasps are better, 1.04 skull grasps are a shadow of what they used to be.
They're solid, but i wouldn't search for them over rare rings.
Hierophant's Seal http://us.battle.net...ierophants-seal
Same issue as the Oculus ring. affixes are decent, but only 1 random enchant.
I'd probably would prefer a rare ring.
Legacy of Wicked Dreams
No info on the DPS of the skeleton summoned.
Followers cannot benefit from this set bonus.
The Wailing Host http://us.battle.net...he-wailing-host
4.5% crit chance is great for rings, other enchants are good too.
Just be careful with the price, there are probably better rare rings out there.
Littany of the Undaunted http://us.battle.net...f-the-undaunted
4.5% crit chance is high for rings, other enchants are great too.
Just be careful with the price, there are probably better rare rings out there.
Natalya's Reflection http://us.battle.net...lyas-reflection
I'm listing this in place of natalya's set.
The ring is extremely expensive, mostly because of demon hunters.
With 3 random affixes, attack speed, and good dex, this could very roll BIS for monks.
More importantly, there's a set bonus of a whopping 7% crit chance.
I recommend you pair this with natalya's boots
I don't think the helmet is worth the extra 130 dex though.
Don't get the boots on their own, they aren't good enough on their own.
I think the issue is moreso to do with the lack of mid tier loot sinks than it is to do with the items themselves.
No matter how you change the items, each player will still only consume so many items.
If players are generating hundreds of millions of items per day, there's still no way to substantially boost the consumption of items just by making loot
I personally go for more lifesteal later on.
I prefer a balanced build.
No matter how much DPS you have, you'll never be able to completely prevent garbage deaths, where a bunch of white mobs just decide to hit you at the same time, and create a huge amount of spike damage.
I mean what would you get instead of lifesteal? more dps?
I feel like that's not terribly useful in 1.04
you can kill elite packs in well under 15 seconds with 50k unbuffed.
doubling your DPS only shaves ~7 seconds off that, and it would be even less noticeable vs white mobs.
I'd rather have more mobility, spirit regen, or lifesteal past a certain DPS point.
0
STI makes armor more precious because you have less total.
the enchantress bonus on the other hand, is a percent increase.
So it's only truly effective when you have a lot, and it gives you more armor for each armor you get on your gear.
so unlike the STI nerf which makes armor more precious.
the enchantress nerf makes armor less precious.
the STI nerf trumps the effects of the enchantress nerf, but you get the idea.
NO STI + 15% armor from enchantress:
100 armor gives me 1.89% effective health.
NO STI, no armor bonus from enchantress:
100 armor gives me 1.78 effective health
as we can see, the enchantress nerf makes armor less valuable, slightly, by like 7%
0
Well I'm personally not going to reinstate my armor.
I used to value 100 armor at about 10 resistance in 1.04
but since I have less total armor in 1.05, I'm going to value 100 armor at about 15 resistances.
It'll impact my decision making process when purchasing new gear.
I've already edited my gear calculator to reflect the stats I'll have in 1.05.
I don't like thinking of the nerf as a matter of "trying to get back up to pre patch".
Rather I think of the patch as changing the relative values of armor and all resistances.
the nerf to STI makes armor more valuable.
this is somewhat counteracted by the fact that the loss of 15% armor from enchantress makes armor slightly less valuable.
but overall yeah, armor will be a bit more valuable.
the only MAJOR change I can fore-see is the possibility of creating an armor-all resistance monk.
you can get almost as much mitigation as a typical OWE monk, but you could forego OWE.
of course that's kinda silly and I don't see many monks doing it because you can just make an armor-lightning-all resist monk as well.
so *shrug*
long story short I'm not gonna give that much thought.
I'm mostly excited about the massive buff to scoundrel DPS, I've already bought new gear for mine.
The buff to dashing strike is huge for a dashing strike fanatic like myself.
the beacon of ytar update
and uh, of course the monster power, infernal machine, and other loot based updates.
0
@ Shinna, thanks again for the info, I believe I've updated the information as you requested.
As usual I cite sources when I don't personally collect information, so a link to your post has been listed so long as that's fine by you.
@serrin & Gaeddan, thanks for the information. I wrote the legendary section on the day of release of 1.04.
So a lot of it is simply based on the game guide, and is likely wrong.
I will work on updating the information over the coming days, but I'm somewhat distracted by the private testing realm right now.
as for a BIS guide, sorry, but no.
Just personal bias, I think people need to at least put in some effort to
Which is why my guide is written in a vague fashion. It's meant to be a compendium of info moreso than a "Do XYZ and win the game" kinda thing.
The most powerful tips in the guide aren't used my most monks, but requires the reader be reasonably attentive to discern.
I do this for a few reasons.
First one is I don't want nerfs to my favorite tips and tricks anytime soon. SO yeah. <3
I don't want to list a BIS guide because I don't want gear I'm trying to upgrade to shoot up in price.
Also I don't feel it is my job to baby every last newby players.
I'm here to help knowledgeable players that don't have time to waste playtesting every last metagame mechanic.
I'm not here to help the common gamer.
There's more than enough guide writers that are willing to do the XYZ thing. It's just not my thing.
Working through 1.05 though.
It looks like enchantress will no longer be the best monk follower. I think scoundrel will be the best.
3% crit chance >>> 3% attack speed. And 5% armor is now trivial.
lack of maximus is acceptable due to the raw extra DPS and the fact that the scoundrel's base DPS rate is much higher than the enchantress's.
Beacon of ytar will probably be a must have passive in 1.05 with the buff.
and dashing strike, one of my favorite skills, got buffed. YAY
edited: 3% crit chance on scoundrel does NOT go away when scoundrel is knocked out.
0
0
monster level 10 has got to be at least as hard as 4 player right?
also monsters double in health every act, so I figure the difficulty change has to at least boost things by a few acts.
0
but we dont know how much health and damage monsters will get for each level.
How much do you think you are ready to handle?
lets say Act III for now.
do you think you could handle +100% enemy health and damage?
maybe +200% health and damage?
0
edit: okay so I mention it on random occasions like blazing fists, but I forgot to mention it specifically under the attack speed section.
I'll fix that.
edit again: nvm, i did mention diminishing returns in the attack speed section, are you referring to the previous conversation on diminishing returns?
I'll add that in later.
IIRC I didn't want to add it because I didn't completely understand how the poison nova worked.
but now that information is easily available.
0
At higher attack speed but given the same unbuffed DPS
the cyclones will do proportionately less damage.
Unlike the 45% sweeping wind stack which scales up with attack speed.
20% weapon damage from cyclones does not increase with attack speed.
@ cold resist
whoops, I forgot to link the poll I used:
http://us.battle.net...372?page=24#465
it's a US server poll.
@near death
That's true, but I think the current explanation is sufficient.
I think enough monks know of this runes importance, that I don't need to rep the obvious.
@block
Alright thanks for the info, i've been getting conflicting reports on that.
@ Amulet affixes
my problem with 300 dex rolls is those consume multiple affixes to do that.
My problem with MF is it's too easy to level.
You only need 80 ish paragon to max your MF, if you give your follower MF and socket an MF gem.
And 1.05 will only make leveling faster.
You can go 0 to 80 paragon in 150 hours? Maybe I'm just grind oriented but that's a very short time.
And who knows how much less that number will be in 1.05.
I'm willing to guess it'll halve, or maybe more than that.
Meant to list loh, I personally use a LOH amulet. It used to back in 1.03, but that section must have been lost in the shuffle when i updated for 1.05
@ stone of jordan
It's mentioned in the legendary section, but not elsewhere because IMO it's not BIS worthy.
it has poor DPS/EHP for a ring, even when well rolled, compared to similarly priced rings.
All it's good for is spirit regen, which is only really good for tailwind builds.
Which unfortunately are gonna end up obsoleted in 1.05, due to the monster power update.
@ Crit chance & crit damage
lol 35% dex, thanks
0
I've been looking into it more recently too, cuz of the STI nerf.
You said you saw errors in my guide btw?
It's not like I game test everything I wrote in my guide, so if you know anything I don't I'd really appreciate it.
0
in regards to how dex affects dodge, yes, it creates stepwise diminishing returns at certain points, IE 100 dex, 500 dex, 1000 dex.
But since most monks are 1000+ dex, we can ignore this stepwise effect.
at 1000 dex you have 30% dodge
at 2000 dex you have 40% dodge
so at 1000 dex, 100 more dex gives you +1% dodge
so at 2000 dex, 100 more dex gives you +1% dodge
except the difference is:
+1% dodge to 30% dodge, boosts your effective health by 1.45%
+2% dodge to 40% dodge, boosts your effective health by 1.69%
Hence this is not diminishing returns, this is increasing returns in the metric of effective health.
Contrast this to backlash DPS.
+1% dodge at 30% dodge boosts your backlash DPS by 1.33%
+1% dodge at 40% dodge boosts your backlash DPS by 1.25%
which is what I would term linear diminishing returns in terms of backlash DPS.
Consequently, to answer your final assertion, I don't acknowledge that there is a single way to measure diminishing returns.
As we have seen above, it's subjective to what two metrics you are using to measure the resources consumed and utility conveyed. As long as both metrics are clearly stated, and in my case even an example is provided, there is little to no room for actual confusion. And this is ultimately an argument over semantics, not an actual error in the guide.
That being said I'm not going to acknowledge any further debate on what "diminishing returns" is.
You think my use of the term is misleading, okay. I can understand that. But I am both consistent in my usage of the term, thorough in my explanation of the metrics, and I provide examples.
So while I can understand how my usage of the term can be thought of as misleading if taken as a sentence out of context, I don't think that in the guide as a whole, it is used in a misleading fashion.
Furthermore, I think the fact that your usage of the term requires implication of certain metrics over others, is in itself vague and imprecise.
While agree with this assertion, I use the term mostly out of force of habit.
Like I said, the people I talk to in games basically use the term diminishing returns in the same way and we understand each other.
As long as you're capable of understanding that the term diminishing returns can be used in different ways depending on what you're looking for, be it % increases or additive increases for example, everything is fine IMO.
0
I've been in many metagaming communities, and D3's the one with the most inconsistent definition of diminishing returns.
Like people will say dex has diminishing returns with dodge, and in the same sentence say dex has diminishing returns with DPS.
I've asked most of my friends, and all of us qualify linear scaling as diminishing returns.
and yes, resists scale linearly with in EHP
to clarify "what's being sold" as diminishing returns.
I genereally use the metrics of DPS and EHP.
and I define linear scaling and sublinear scaling as diminishing returns relative to these two metrics.
I should be consistent with my use of the term diminishing returns throughout the guide with this in mind.
0
The term diminishing returns is subjective based on the metric being used.
If you're in business
But that's not a useful metric since you want to think of DPS and effective health gains in terms of multiplicative gains.
so:
if you have 900 dex, you need 100 dex to increase your dps by 10%
if you have 1900 dex, you need 200 dex to increase your dps by 10%
Hence I use the term diminishing returns for dexterity, as well as for IAS.
It has what I would call linear diminishing returns.
your definition of diminishing returns would fall under superlinear diminishing returns.
Which I don't think is useful in the context of diablo 3.
Your definition would be useful in business, because you are putting in resources, so you only care about the break even point. The point at which you stop profiting.
But in an MMO, it's all about time saving, since that's all you're really putting into the game.
In that context, you only care about % increases because there's no bottom line you need to make.
4
Table of Contents
0 - Introduction
1 - Spirit Generators
2 - Spirit Spenders
3 - Passive Skills
4 - Itemization
5 - Farming Strategies & Builds
6 - Followers
7 - Legendaries
If you like what you see, feel free to support me by checking out my shop on the trading forum
http://us.battle.net...600051?page=1#0
I edit my guide through a spreadsheet parser, located here:
https://docs.google....3U01IRUE#gid=14
0 - Introduction
Hey There! I'm Morionic but I prefer to go by the name Grimy Bunyip
I'd like to share what I've learned about monks so far
Monk or Barb?
There are two tanks in D3, that is the barbarian and the monk.
WW Barbs gain xp faster, because they clear white mobs more efficiently.
But monks can rush elites faster because they don't need to clear white mobs for fury and wrath of the berserker.
So I figure at 100 paragon, monks are more useful for farming elites than WW barbs.
What Is My Build?
My guide, biases aside, is mostly a quick rundown of how good each skill is at what it does.
But for those that are curious, here is the build I run and the equipment I use for it:
Build: http://us.battle.net...giYk!ZUX!abYcca
Equipment: http://i.imgur.com/7GRAX.jpg
Stats: http://i.imgur.com/sfTbS.jpg
Standard Monk Build:
http://us.battle.net....gYSk!UX!a.Ycca
If you don't care to know every detail of every skill, just start here.
1 - Spirit Generators
First off, here is a table of LoH Values, I did not collect data for this or make this table.
http://goo.gl/VJ04m
Hidden Haste
All spirit generators on monks are hasted, IE you will attack faster than your paper doll attack speed.
Here is each of the spirit generators and how much they are hasted:
1.500x - Fists of Thunder
1.333x - Deadly Reach
1.166x - Crippling Wave
1.125x - Way of the Hundred Fists
Proc Rate
Proc rate is how quickly a generator procs other effects.
Procs being things like cyclones, life on hit, or chance to freeze.
Keeping it short
Because the old guide was so massive, I'm going to cut the comments short.
I'm only going to list notable runes, see the following sheet for more details:
https://docs.google....3U01IRUE#gid=21
Fist of Thunder
Thunderclap - #1 for good reason
Best Single Target DPS, best Single Target Proc rate, solid AoE DPS and proc rate.
Quickening
Potentially double your spirit gen or more. May be necessary for WoL/Tempest rush builds.
But it comes at the cost of a lot of DPS and proc, has horrible synergy with sweeping wind/cyclone.
Bounding Light
Largest AoE on the 3rd punch, but you lose a bit of DPS and single target proc, and the teleport.
Generally not worthwhile, but I'll mention it.
Deadly Reach
Keen Eye
50% armor is very potent, but outdated in 1.04 thanks to all the nerfs to enemy mobs.
Foresight
The best rune on deadly reach because it doesn't actually require you to use deadly reach too frequently.
18% DPS is a fair bonus for a skill slot. Not great, but solid
Crippling Wave
Mangle
it's one way to deal massive AoE damage, but sweeping wind should be taking care of this job.
Concussion
This rune saw use in 1.03, but 1.04 nerfed enemy DPS and now this rune never sees action.
Way of the Hundred Fists
Bug: 2nd punch does NOT proc sweeping wind or cyclones.
Blazing Fists
DPS is small because IAS receives diminishing returns from IAS on gear.
Fists of Fury
The dash is like thunderclap's teleport, I think the dash is a bit shorter, but I'm not sure.
Bleed damage doesn't seem to stack, but it causes a second proc.
All 3 Punches are AoE, making it better AoE Proc Rate and DPS than thunderclap
If the 2nd punch in the combo were not bugged, this would be more used than thunderclap.
2 - Spirit Spenders
I'm going to break down spirit spenders into a few categories:
- Mantras
- Positioning Spenders
- Facetank Spenders
- Mantras
Mantra of Conviction
Overawe - The best aura for farming, nothing comes close to its DPS other than Backlash
Intimidation - You'd probably be better off with evasion + backlash if you want both DPS and defense
Disheaten - Slow isn't useful for monks in PVM, but maybe it'll have a use in PVP
Reclamation - essentially +93 LoH for you and teammates. Not worth it, 93 is too little.
Submission - Bonus scales with attack speed. DPS bonus is too low though.
Mantra of Evasion
Keep in mind that evasion doesn't work on everything, unlike armor.
It also might make you vulnerable to high burst damage.
Hard Target - Total mitigation of about 0.75x, and 0.64x for 3 seconds after casting.
Divine Target - Looks good on paper, but 90 seconds is a HUGE cooldown time. I wouldn't use it.
Wind tt Reeds - 5% speed isn't much for farming or progression, I wouldn't use it.
Perseverance - I'm not too afraid of crowd control spells, so I wouldn't use this.
Backlash - Scales with attack speed, so 35% of your paper doll DPS per explosion.
Backlash does not apply to teammates.
If you can get 5 explosions per second, you will outperform conviction. But this rarely happens.
That being said you get evasion too so it's not a big deal if you get fewer than 5/second
Mantra of Healing
Sustenance - Don't get this, act 2 monks should have heal over 5000 LPS from various sources, 620 is not much.
Circular Breathing - Good for tempest rush builds, but that's about the only niche this has.
Boon of inspiration - 186 LoH is not a big enough number to waste a mantra rune on.
Heavenly Body - For most monks this is about 100 vit, also not worth wasting a mantra rune on.
Time of Need - The only rune you might want to use with MoH, good if you have high resist.
Not a horrible mantra, but i consider MoE > MoH
Mantra of Retribution
Retaliation - Most monks can intake about 5-10k dps, 60% of that isn't nearly enough DPS
Transgression - A great rune to stack with conviction in multi monk teams.
Indignation - Remember this only affects melee. I personally don't like situational runes.
Against All Odds - No idea what the odds are, also it only affects melee.
Collateral Damage - Damage scales with attack speed just like backlash.
Collateral Damage does not apply to teammates
Nor does it affect ranged attacks, but backlash is too short ranged to hit ranged attackers anyways.
Ultimately not as good as backlash because most monks will have a high dodge rate.
- Positioning Spenders
Dashing Strike
Animation lasts 0.9 seconds + travel time, animation is reduced by attack speed.
Animation time scales with attack speed, travel time scales with movement speed
Breaks Jailer spells.
There is a bug where your character stops being able to move or loot, forcing the player to leave his game.
Can target any form of destructible terrain.
Way of the Falling star does not apply a buff after hitting destructible terrain.
Quicksilver is the best rune IMO.
Lashing Tail Kick
~8 base damage per spirit spent
Many hardcore monks swear Sweeping Armada as their "GTFO" button.
Poison sting may become viable in 1.05, with the stun buff.
With proper gear, it is possible to get the spirit cost of LTK very low.
The animation time of LTK makes it not good for a DPS rune, instead focus on the AoE or CC aspects of it.
Tempest Rush
Very fast and knocks back enemies on activation
The spirit consumption rate scales with weapon speed
The problem is tempest rush suffers severely from rubber banding.
I don't recommend it just for positioning, but tailwind is great for fast farming, if you have good spirit regen.
Cyclone Strike
It now has a 0.125 proc rate, which I feel is nice but not terribly substantial.
at 50 spirit this is by far the most expensive positioning skill
It can speed up farming, but I feel like 50 spirit is too much for what it does.
Inner Sanctuary
Creates an area where enemies "cannot pass"
I used quotes because certain enemies can bug into the area.
Things like charging beasts or teleporters.
The sanctuary is also very vulnerable to desecrators.
And kiting enemies will rarely allow a monk to put a sanctuary to good use.
However this skill can be very useful in situations.
You can block off a choke point for ranged teammates, allowing them free reign over foes.
Or you can wedge a kiting enemy into a corner and pound him to bits.
Or turn a wall into wedge to funnel foes into you one by one.
But for all the uses of sanctuary, it's simply too situational to use IMO.
- Facetank Spenders
Serenity
Every class needs a god mode button.
And the monk has the best one.
Some people might use peaceful repose, but a decently geared monk has better sources of healing.
Use ascension, the extra second of invulnerability is priceless.
This skill is absolutely essential to every monk build.
Sweeping Wind
This skill does 45% of your active hand's DPS.
This DPS scales with your attack speed.
45% of your paper doll is NOT 45% of your overall DPS.
For Example: Thunderclap deals 217.5% of your paper doll DPS.
Bladestorm gives you 60%, so this translates to a 1.275x increase to your overall DPS.
Which isn't bad, but don't think you're increasing your total DPS by 1.6x
IMO Cyclone > Innerstorm/Firestorm > Master of the Wind > Bladestorm, 15% paper doll isn't very much DPS.
Cyclone is by far the most potent rune on sweeping wind.
Cyclone has the best synergy with thunderclap out of all the generators.
Cyclones shock 20% of your weapon damage every 0.6 seconds over 3 seconds.
The first shock comes out the moment you spawn a cyclone.
Meaning each cyclone shocks for a total of 120% weapon damage over 3 seconds.
This is I tested this, get a 3 stack on your cyclone. and find 2 destructible targets spread fairly far apart.
Punch the first target, destroying it. On occasion, a cyclone will spawn immediately destroying the farther target.
Neither sweeping wind nor the cyclone rune favors high or low attack speed.
Sweeping wind snapshots your weapon damage, crit damage, lightning skills bonuses, etc when activated.
So try to cast faith in the light before casting sweeping wind. Attack speed and crit chance are not snapshotted.
Mystic Ally
No longer procs after patch 1.04. Personally I did not know that it did.
Honestly losing proc was a huge nerf, even if not many people knew to exploit this property.
Mystic ally's attack speed scales with your own.
It gives a combination of defense as well as offense.
For example, Air Ally has a single target DPS of 50%.
That's almost as much as bladestorm.
Air ally has less DPS and less AOE than bladestorm, but it distracts enemies and generates spirit.
This is an underestimated skill with plenty of potential
The ally gets the player's defensive stats, so it's slightly better with defensively built monks.
There used to be a bug where recasting mystic ally counted as "killing" your previous ally.
And this would give you healing from life on kill enchantments. This does not work anymore.
Blinding Flash
A great all around skill with very low cost.
Flashes reset enemy cooldowns, forcing them to wait before using the ability you just interrupted.
The stun duration is 0.5 seconds for elites, but remember that it lowers their accuracy as well.
I personally like Faith in the Light for the added DPS.
The boost adds 30% of your weapons dps to EACH of your weapons attacks.
So it is possible to see more than a 1.3x increase to your paper doll, more than 1.6x is possible with lots of IAS.
This number will increase further if your active hand has more DPS than your off hand.
Blinding flash creates a snapshot that factors in average damage on your average hand and jewelry.
Blinding flash does NOT snapshot crit damage or dexterity.
Breath of Heaven
6822 average healing every 15 seconds is 455 life per second
A pitiful amount of healing for any self respecting monk.
But 15% damage from blazing wrath is fairly sizeable.
Even so, it's not as much as you'd get from mystic ally or sweeping wind.
This is a great skill in teams and combined with guiding light.
BoH, while solid, is pretty extremely overrated.
The radius is also extremely tiny at 12 yards.
It'll be hard to heal anything other than melee teammates with it.
Wave of Light
Wave of light has 1 major flaw, it's animation. Which has a base length of 1 second.
The animation duration will decrease with the attack speed of your primary weapons
the animation duration is NOT affected by any form of IAS.
I would not say that WoL favors slow weapons or fast weapons.
Because faster weapons mean faster animation, and more spirit with which to spam more Wave of light.
The best way to utilize Wave of light is to get just barely enough DPS to one shot most white mobs.
If you can do this with empowered wave, then use it over wall of light obviously
You can animation cancel your punches by casting WoL right after a punch.
You can feasibly shave off half a second each casting IF you have 1.0 AS, but with faster IAS the benefit is marginal.
Exploding Palm
The animation is very short, about 0.125 seconds.
Personal data seems to indicate that exploding palm does not benefit from any form of critical hit.
Exploding palm also favors builds with slower attack speeds.
Depending on how much crit chance you stacked, the 745% weapon damage from exploding palm is worth about:
3-5 Fist of Thunder punches.
Which could be worth anywhere between 1 to 2 seconds of DPS, depending on attack speed and reliance on crit.
Of course the issue is that it takes 9 seconds for this to take effect.
So we're talking about a 11%-22% increase to your overall single target DPS from the bleed damage.
Long story short, the bleed damage is pretty bad for a single target skill.
The biggest change brought by patch 1.04 is the increased duration of exploding palm.
9 seconds is plenty of time to guarantee an explosion.
Seven Sided Strike
The animation lasts for 1 second, regardless of your attack speed or weapon choice.
7SS is almost a no brainer for players using slow 2H builds, but is still competitive for dual wielders, just not amazing.
The major flaw is 7SS's lack of synergy with other skills, particularly sweeping wind.
You can use faith in the light right before casting seven sided strike, but it wastes the blind duration.
Also you would be much better off spending faith in the light on sweeping wind.
Contrary to popular belief several sided strike does not increase the animation's duration.
3 - Passive Skills
One with Everything & Seize the Initiative
Poll on how many people use each resistance type:
http://us.battle.net...372?page=24#465
Cold Resistance - Most Common Choice of Monks by a Sizeable Margin
This is the most popular resistance due to reverse psychology
Finding high end gear for cold monks will be very hard and expensive compared to other resistances
There are also few to no legendaries that benefit this resistance.
Arcane Resistance - Average Choice for Monks
Vile Ward - http://us.battle.net...cipe/seven-sins
Poison Resistance - Average Choice for Monks
It's not uncommon for players to pick this just for Andariel's Visage
Andariel's Visage - http://us.battle.net...ndariels-visage
Fire Resistance - Average Choice for monks
People avoid fire resistance because it's popular with other classes.
It's only as common as arcane and poison, but probably more expensive for the above reason.
To compensate, there's a fairly large number of legendaries that boast fire resistances
The Burning Axe of Sankis - http://us.battle.net...g-axe-of-sankis
Fire Brand - http://us.battle.net...cipe/fire-brand
Cindercoat - http://us.battle.net...item/cindercoat
Gehennas - http://us.battle.net...recipe/gehennas
Fire Walkers - http://us.battle.net...em/fire-walkers
Demon's Set (Almost nobody crafts these) - http://us.battle.net...pe/demons-wings
Physical Resistance - Second Least Common Choice of Monks by a Sizeable Margin
No legendaries associated with it.
Lightning Resistance - Least Common Choice of Monks by a Very Sizeable Margin
Schaefer's Hammer - http://us.battle.net...haeferss-hammer
Transcendance
A decent aura but probably not worth a passive skill slot.
The extra healing is small, and easily overshadowed by even a tiny amount of LoH or lifesteal.
Read the Life per Spirit Spent section of itemization for more details.
Combination Strike
Even with a single spirit generator, this skill should not be underestimated.
Think about how much 8% DPS would cost you in terms of money.
It's worth about half of a a crit gem in a weapon socket.
Guiding Light
Playing in a team? If so this is a must have ability
+16% DPS to the entire team is godly for a single skill.
It works with mantra of healing and breath of heaven.
Guiding light DOES NOT work on mystic allies and followers.
And it does not buff yourself unless you cast it on an ally. Which is why MoH radius is so important.
Keep in mind that MoH has 40 radius over BoH's 12 radius
Chant of Resonance
This is a great rune for 2 handers and tempest rush farmers.
The extra spirit regen means you can dashing strike more often before taking a break for regen spirit.
And that is key to farming act's 1 and 2 efficiently.
Guardian's Path
35% spirit generated could be worth as much as 5 spirit per second with FoT.
This passive has much less synergy with other spirit generators, but is worth considering after patch 1.04
While this depends from build to build, many 2H users will find this passive to be a must have.
Otherwise 15% dodge is very solid.
It will not affect everything like desecrator pools, but it does have other benefits.
Namely dodge benefits you greatly against enemies with nightmare or frozen for example.
Keep in mind this is a multiplicative bonus to dodge rate, not 30%+15%=45%
This skill has synergy with backlash, but only marginally so.
Resolve
Another solid, but situational passive.
25% damage reduction is a lot.
It's also fairly useless against enemies who like to kite you.
Rumors say that resolve affects affixes that have not already been set down when you start dealing damage.
Beacon of Ytar
Yet another solid passive.
It can be exploited by running a build with lots of cooldowns.
IE Serenity, Blinding Flash, Breath of Heaven, Seven sided strike.
But even with only 2 cooldown abilities, this is still one of the best passives out there.
Pacifism
Not much to say here, I don't think this is an important rune. How often are you CC'd? not that often.
Exalted Soul
with a proactive overawe build, you will rarely have very much spirit
The only situation I can see t his being remotely useful is with air ally.
Since he has a chance to grant a massive +100 spirit regen bonus.
But any good monk will keep his spirit under 75% at all times.
But with patch 1.04, this skill may find itself a niche.
The extra 1 spirit per second is a nice touch, but not really game changing enough for most builds.
I think more notable is the fact that WoL is finally worthwhile as a spammable skill.
And exalted soul may allow players to spam WoL on elites and refarm their spirit from non elites.
Fleet Footed
A must have skill for farmers
Sixth Sense
you need 50% crit chance for this to be better than guardian's path
That's essentially never going to happen. This is a bad skill.
This skill is also multiplicative like guardian's path.
Near Death Experience
I know quite a few act 3 monks who swear by this rune.
What the in game tooltip doesn't tell you is that when the ability activates, is generates an AOE stun
Knocking back enemies and giving you time to get back on your feet.
Also if you have over 35% spirit on death, you will keep that amount of spirit.
The only reason I avoid near death experience is the ridiculous 90 second cooldown
4 - Itemization
Balance Is Everything
Itemization at low-mid tier gameplay is all about getting a little bit of everything.
IE make sure to balance your offense and defense and not to go all out on either.
The exception being if you're extremely rich and you can afford to heal off health globes.
Quick Inferno Gear Tips by item slot:
Amulets
Key Enchantments: Crit %, LoH, IAS, Crit Dmg, Avg Dmg, MF
Try to get at least 2 or 3 of the above.
You can think of an amulet as two rings. There are a few exceptions to this rule though.
Most notably avg dmg & IAS aren't quite as good on amulets as it is on rings. Crit damage would be better.
Rings and amulets go through phases, sometimes an affix is cheaper on rings, then sometimes cheap on amulets.
Pay attention to these phases and make purchases based on them.
Rings
A ring is basically half an amulet.
As mentioned earlier, avg dmg and IAS are a bit better to get on rings than they are on amulets.
Helmet
The helmet is host to a lot of interesting enchantments.
And as such, it is one of the items I am willing to forgo resists/dex/vit on.
Key enchantments are: Spirit Regen, Crit %, Socket, Sweeping Wind/FoT Damage.
Like with amulets, don't expect to get more than 2-3 key enchantments without paying a huge price.
also note that rare spirit stones cap at 4.5% crit chance, whereas helms cap at 6% but dont have spirit regen.
Shoulders & Belts
I lumped these 2 items together because they lack many special enchantments.
Sure there's chance to freeze and chance to chill (haha get it? COLD shoulders? haha)
They do have access to life % though.
Due to their lack of key enchantments, I use these two item slots for resists, vitality, and dexterity.
The fact that they can roll vit and life % makes them particularly good for keeping your life pool up.
Chest Armor & Pants
Sockets are a must have at high end of play, but you can consider getting one without them if you're poor.
Chest armor has the unique "reduce damage from elites" enchantment.
This enchantment is nice as it's potent and fairly underpriced.
And of course, things like magic find, health from globes, radius, and life regen are nice touches.
Chest armor and pants are able to roll up to 300 vitality ignoring sockets
Pants and chests cap at 300 vitality, so they're okay places to get vitality on.
But these two item slots tend to be very expensive, so don't expect too much utility out of them.
Boots
Movement speed is a must have enchantment for farming these days.
It's extremely expensive, but for good reason.
They are a good source of dexterity as rare boots roll up to 300 dex.
Movement speed is the only key enchantment, so focus on resists, dex, vit.
And if you can manage, so spare enchantments like life regen, health from globe, etc.
Gloves
Gloves, like helmets are host to a lot of great enchantments.
And like boots, they have access to upwards of 300 dexterity.
Key enchantments are: Crit %, IAS, Crit dmg.
Be willing to forgo resists, dex, and vit for these 3 key enchantments.
Crit % is a must have on gloves, you may consider dropping IAS or crit dmg for better resists/dex/vit.
But make sure you have at least 2 of the key enchantments, if not all 3.
Bracers
The key enchantment on this item slot is crit chance, you must have crit chance.
Don't be afraid to get a 6% crit chance bracer with only 30 dex, if the resists and vit are good.
Use a dps calculator and make sure you're getting good bang for your buck.
Main Itemization Guide:
2 handers in 1.04
2 Handers can easily be the best DPS in the game now *Cough skorn*
Seven Sided Strike is a must have for a 2H user.
Blinding flash has poor synergy with low attack speed weapons, so avoid it unless using flying dragon.
Wave of light does not particularly favor fast or slow attack speed weapons, it is bad with IAS armor though.
And since IAS is extremely important on a 2H build for the extra DPS and spirit, I would avoid Wave of light.
Mystic ally's attack speed scales with yours, so it also doesn't favor high attack speed either.
But air ally may be a nice way for you to boost your spirit regen rate.
Don't get LoH on jewelry, low attack speed means it's not as good as on a 1H or DW build.
Instead, try to get LoH on your weapon since you can get more than 1000+ LoH on your 2H's these days.
2H's are very cost effective at low tiers right now, and I highly recommend it for new players.
BIS 2 handers are pretty obnoxiously expensive though *cough skorn*
Dual Wielding
Back in 1.03 DW was the monk endgame.
I won't say more on DW because I feel like it's both straightforward and common knowledge.
Sword and Board
I thought sword and board was the weakest setup in patch 1.03, and I still think so in 1.04
If anything it's even less useful since mobs are not as deadly as they were in 1.03
the 1000 ish armor, block, and 100 ish resists decreases damage intake by about 0.75x
And you get an extra 10% crit chance for cyclones and such.
But 10% crit chance will not boost your DPS by as much as 15% attack speed from DW.
And if you feel defense is that important, you can just as easily get a LoH off hander.
I'm not going to say sword and board is bad because it isn't.
But I would never use it because I'd either rather be using 2H or rather be using DW.
If you must go sword and board, make sure you get a great shield for cheap.
At least 9% crit chance, maxed resists, dex, and vit in other words.
I am told block does not affect affixes such as desecrator and arcane
Citation: http://www.diablofan...ds/page__st__20
You need high base damage to make sword and board viable, so the go to weapon is the Fist of Az'turrasq
massive base damage and attack speed bonus make it the ultimate sword and board weapon.
The typical fist of az'turrasq is a poor DW weapon though, due to lack of enchantments that benefit both weapons.
It's possible to get a well rolled fist of az'turrasq that is good for DW, but those are extremely expensive
Vitality and life %
Vitality gets diminishing returns with itself, but makes each life % more effective.
Life % gets diminishing returns with itself, but makes each vitality more effective.
Kinda like how Crit % and crit dmg synergize with each other, so try to get a bit of both.
I used to recommend 30k-35k life in 1.03. But now I recommend 35k-40k in 1.04.
The white mobs are stronger in 1.04, and thus you need more life for those rare circumstances where
a bunch of white mobs attack you at the same time, dealing massive damage.
Don't be afraid to socket vit gems in order to meet this life pool quota.
Dexterity.
Dexterity gets linear diminishing returns with itself, in terms of DPS
Dexterity gets increasing returns with itself, in terms of the effective health boost of dodge.
at 1900 dex, you need 20 dexterity to get 1% DPS.
at 2400 dex, you need 25 dexterity to get 1% DPS.
IE the equation is dex/100 + 1 = dex per 1% dps
Crit Chance & Damage
The amount of crit % and crit dmg you need to get 1% more dps depends on
how much crit % and crit dmg you already have.
But most monks these days will have around 35% crit chance and 200-300 ish crit damage.
In which case 5-6% crit damage is worth about 1% DPS.
and 1% crit damage will display as 1.5% DPS on your inventory screen, but due to cyclones:
will boost your dps in reality by something closer to 2%.
Once you hit 35% crit % and 250% ish crit damage, these ratio's do not change drastically as you get more.
Resists and Armor
Resist and armor make you take less damage.
IE they boost your effective health.
Since monks heal set amounts of damage, they also boost your effective healing rate
This is unlike vitality and life%, which boost your effective health but don't really boost your effective healing.
(vit and life% do boost health globes tho, but lets ignore that)
at 700 resist, you need 10 resist to boost your effective health and healing by 1%
at 200 resist, you need 5 resist to boost your effective health and healing by 1%
IE the equation is (resist+300)/100 = resists per 1% boost to health and healing.
At 3000 armor, you need 60 armor to boost your effective health and healing by 1%
At 4000 armor, you need 70 armor to boost your effective health and healing by 1%
Due to the STI nerf in patch 1.04, bonus armor (or strength) will be particularly useful.
Most monks, especially those that drop STI and have lower armor, will find bonus armor particularly useful.
I personally have under 4000 armor and over 700 resists, so I can value 7 armor at about 1 resist.
Life per Second
LPS is straightforward, and will be my unit of measure for other enchantments
Life on Hit
You do not get 100% of life on hit every punch, it varies from spirit generator to spirit generator
LoH favors AoE as you proc LoH for each enemy you hit with a single attack
But I recommend measuring single target LoH, since that's what you will get vs most elites.
And elites are what you want to gear up for.
LoH also scales with attack speed
So for example:
Lets say you have 1.75 attack speed and are using FoT
FoT gives you an extra 1.5x attack speed and generates 375% LoH every 3 punches
So 1.75*1.5*3.75/3 = 328% LoH per second.
Which means 100 life on hit would be worth up to 328 life per second to you.
Life per Spirit Spent
This one is fairly easy to calculate if you know your spirit regen rate.
Lets say you have have 1.75 attack speed, are using FoT, and have no passive spirit regen.
then 6 *1.75*1.5 = 15.75 spirit per second.
This means 10 LPSS is worth up to 157.5 LPS for you
I like to value LPSS a bit lower than the max LPS I calculate.
Because it's harder to use. And unlike LoH, it does not scale up with AoE.
Lifesteal
Lifesteal is 5x less effective on inferno difficulty
But most players know that now, so lets proceed to the sample calculation:
Lets say we want to examine 3% lifesteal on a traditional thunderclap/cyclone/overawe build.
This build generates about 6x more DPS than listed on the paper doll
Lets say this player does 50k paper doll DPS, then he heals 50k*3%*0.2*6 = 1800 LPS
Extra Health from Globes
Health globes are a solid and fairly underestimated healing enchantment:
It's extremely potent at high DPS, and is IMO the best healing enchantment on armor during End Game.
There are 2 types of globes, small and large.
Small globes heal 15% and large globes heal 35% of your total health
Large globes drop off elites every time you deplete 25% of their health.
Small globes have a chance of dropping from non-elites.
The drop chance varies from mob to mob
According to the brady guide:
Fallen Grunt: 5%
Fallen Hellhound: 12%
Fallen Maniac: 20%
Fallen Master: 80%
Blue packs have a 60% chance to drop health globes at 50% life and at death
Act 1 Elites have about 400k Health
Act 1 Champs and Act 2 Elites have about 800k Health
Act 2 Champs and Act 3 Elites have about 1600k Health
Act 3 Champs have about 3200k Health
If you know your actual DPS, you can use these numbers with some algebra to figure out how much
Life Per Second you get from health globes
But make sure you don't too much health globe bonuses, you only have so much health afterall.
Extra Health From Globe enchantments are very underrated, and thus cheap source of healing.
For example, lets say a character has 20k unbuffed DPS.
And this character is using Thunderclap/Bladestorm/Overawe
This character does about 80k actual DPS
He needs to take out 500k health on an act 2 elite to get 60% of a globe.
This takes him 6 seconds
So a +5000 Extra Health from Globe enchantment would give this player an equivalent
life per second of up to 500 LPS
But of course health globes are harder to use than LoH or LPS or LPSS.
So I would value +5000 Extra Health from Globe at about 500 life per second on this specific character.
Naturally it follows that this enchantment becomes more useful with higher DPS.
And less useful on higher difficulties.
PS: Dashing Strike is a great way to loot health orbs. You pick up any you travel over.
Attack Speed
Attack Speed was nerfed in the early days of diablo 3
But it's still very good.
A boost to attack speed increases your DPS, your LoH healing, your stun rate, and your spirit generation.
It does suffer from diminishing returns, including the 15% IAS from dual wielding.
I recommend getting IAS on gloves and rings.
It's also available on amulets and a few legendaries.
I typically value 2% IAS at slightly less than 1% crit chance.
Magic Find
I recommend you read the game guide and the diablofans research page for this one:
http://us.battle.net...ment#magic-find
It's definitely worthwhile during early levels, but becomes completely worthless by lvl 80 paragon.
I personally never get magic find on any of my gear, as 80 paragon can be achieved in under 200 hours.
Even less than that with a barbarian. It's really up to you.
1% magic find and 1% exp gain are about the same in terms of farming efficiently.
Movement Speed
Movement Speed is capped at 25%, so don't get more than that
It is available on boots and certain legendaries.
It's a very good enchantment because of the time it saves you.
And IMO a must have, in spite of it's hefty cost.
Misc Enchantments
- Reduced Damage from Elites
This is a pretty good enchantment, and can sometimes be very cheap.
It's only available on chest armor, and it doesn't hurt to keep an eye out for it.
But the market is tiny, you will only find a decent chest with this on the AH every few days.
- Reduced Damage from Melee/Ranged
I'm not a fan of reduced damage from melee as anything in melee range tends to melt to monks.
Reduced damage from ranged is great as monks are much less mobile than WW barbarians.
And thus typically have to tank a lot of ranged attacks.
- Chance to X
Chill reduces enemy attack speed, freeze and stun stops enemies from moving altogether.
Blind stops them from attacking.
These debuffs last for at least 0.5 seconds, but never longer in 1.04.
You can calculate the proc rate and how much it will benefit you from there.
- Spirit Generation
The value of spirit generation is hard to quantify, but it's most significant purpose is travel.
You need spirit regen to spam dashing strike or tempest rush outside of combat.
It's only marginally useful in combat, except with 2H Builds which absolutely need the extra spirit regen.
IMO it's a pricelessly important stat in 1.04 late game since mobs die so fast you must be constantly moving.
- Bonus Damage to Skills
There are 3 key enchantments to note.
Bonus to lightning skills, bonus to sweeping wind, and bonus to fist of thunder.
Bonus to lightning skills affects both thunderclap and sweeping wind/cyclone.
I value 10% lightning skills at about 8.5% overall DPS.
Sweeping wind and fist of thunder both account for about 50% of your overall DPS in the mid game.
But at 1.04 end game, sweeping wind's AoE aspect makes it much more important, and is thus more valuable.
- Gold Find
one of the more useless enchantments.
Maybe it's worth dumping on your follower, but only maybe.
5 - Farming Strategies & Builds
The alkaizer farming is the dominant xp and rare farming strategy right now.
Start at core of arreat, clear all the elites
Go to tower of the damned level 1, run in a circle clearing elites.
Use the WP on tower of the damned level 1 to go to arreat crater level 1, clear until dead end, then teleport.
Clear Arreat crater level 2, this is a major XP source.
Teleport to the bridge of korsikk and clear the fields of slaugter, this is a major xp source.
Teleport to keep depths level 1 and immediately go to keep depths level 2, this is a major xp source.
You may choose to supplement a few additional areas, but don't expect to boost your xp rate much if at all.
Massive Damage Reduction on Goblins
A goblin that hasn't started running yet cannot be reduced below 90% health.
Only after a few seconds will it start taking damage beyond that 90%
So if you have burst DPS sources such as conviction or faith in the light, don't use them right away
Traditional Thunderclap Build
Thunderclap has the best proc rate, making it very good with sweeping wind/cyclone.
Sweeping wind cyclone is necessary as it generates about half the DPS of your monk.
Blinding flash, if cast right before sweeping wind massively boosts the DPS of sweeping wind.
Conviction/overawe is nice as yet another massive DPS boost.
Serenity/ascension is a basic skill all monks use.
Which basically leaves the passives and 1 extra active skill for you to choose. Enjoy.
Fists of Fury
If you aren't using sweeping wind cyclone, Way of the hundred fists/Fists of fury is a great option.
It's better AoE DPS and proc rate than thunderclap, but slightly less single target DPS and proc rate.
But AoE is much more important in 1.04 so i'd recommend it.
Only reason it's not used instead of thunderclap is because the second punch in the combo does not proc cyclones.
So if for whatever reason you aren't using sweeping wind/cyclone, I'd recommend this over thunderclap.
When should I ditch Overawe?
Overawe is really amazing, 1.24-1.48x DPS around you.
And the answer is simple, if your DPS is already so amazing, any extra isn't actually being very useful.
You may consider circular breathing for more spirit regen, and thus mobility with tailwind.
There's no other situation where I'd consider dropping overawe. Not for backlash, hard target, etc.
Hammer Wind Monk
There are 2 skills that perform snapshots, Blinding flash and Sweeping wind.
Mantra of Conviction/Submission does not snapshot.
Blinding Flash before Sweeping wind.
This is the most common exploit, sweeping wind snapshots your weapon and crit damage.
Remember, blinding flash boosts your weapon damage for a short time..
Hammer & Flash Exploit
Blinding flash snapshots the base DPS of your active hand weapon, including average damage bonuses.
So like you have a sword, it says 800 damage per second at the top, that's the DPS number being snapshot.
Once again, average damage from jewelry is also snapshot.
Hammer & Wind Exploit
Sweeping wind captures a lot more than just base weapon damage, it captures almost everything.
Read septemvri's post for more details on what is capture:
http://us.battle.net...81225?page=3#58
I'm not going to explain this any further.
I feel like good builds should be earned.
So go figure the rest out and earn it for yourself.
Reference Video & Data:
here is a 40m xp/hr demonstration of the Hammer Wind Build on a variant of the Alkaizer Farming Run.
It wasn't completely optimal, so I recommend you try to do better.
6 - Followers
All followers can be given leoric's ring of a puzzle ring, although I'm not a fan of either.
- Eirena the Enchantress
Overview:
20% weapon damage to basic attacks
+5% armor (~1.03x effective health for most monks)
+3% attack speed (goes away if enchantress dies)
2nd best magic find
Skills:
- Charm
Decent debuff, not much to say here
Careful, charmed enemies might run far far off and punch a goblin if there are no more enemies nearby
- Forceful Push
Followers have their damaged reduced by 5x.
But this does not apply to spells
so you can think of forceful push as a spell that does 5x of the enchantress's normal damage in AOE
this spell will buff eirena's single target DPS by a factor of ~1.5
If you want to make the best of this, give her a very high DPS 2H mace
- Reflect Missiles
Too situational and completely overshadowed by power armor
- Powered Armor
This is a passive that is always active, even if eirena is KO'd
IDK why it says enemies are slowed by 3% for 3 seconds, not sure what that means
- Disorient
Think of this as an extra blinding flash
but 3x longer cooldown, 1.5x less duration, doesn't lower accuracy on elite packs, etc.
- Erosion
3x shorter cooldown than disorient, and +15% damage to enemies is amazing
Remember how forceful push actually does 100% weapon damage not 20%?
Well erosion does 150% over 3 seconds, on 15 second cooldown instead of 10 second
so it's another +50% to enchantress DPS
- Focused Mind
+3% attack speed is amazing
too bad it stops working when the enchantress dies
- Mass Chickens
Hilarious, and situationally awesome.
But 60 second cooldown is way too much, and 3% attack speed is way too good
Itemization:
Grand Vizier is the best MF for Eirena, and solid DPS.
Blade of prophecy is a cheap alternative to the Grand Vizier.
MF is worthless beyond 80 paragon, so I recommend Maximus if you don't care for magic find.
For jewelry, focus on magic find, vitality, intelligence, and life %.
Once you have a very large health pool on your enchantress, all resist may be worth considering.
- Lyndon the Scoundrel
Overview:
40% weapon damage for basic attacks
Worst Magic find and no exceptional legendaries for him to use.
3% crit chance is A LOT of extra dps. Does not go away when scoundrel is KO'd
Can be itemized and skilled in a way such that he never attacks anything (ie goblins)
Seems to have faster movement speed than other followers, letting him kite effectively
Skills:
- Crippling Shot
Slow is nearly completely useless for monks, except against kiting enemies
I wouldn't recommend this.
- Poison Bolts
so +80% weapon damage every 6 seconds will increase Lyndon's DPS by about 25%
- Dirty Fighting
- Vanish
I like vanish, it will keep your scoundrel alive for very long even if you don't give him a lot of vitality.
- Powered Shot
Compare this to blinding flash
1.33x longer cooldown, 1.5x shorter duration, doesn't lower the accuracy of elites, etc.
I wouldn't use this skill.
- Multishot
The scoundrel now shoots a trident of arrows
Great for things that proc on hit, and it's a nice DPS increase.
I recommend this skill, just try to buy a weapon that compliments it.
Multishot has roughly halved proc rate
- Hysteria
Most monks have decent crit chance
So you will have hysteria active for 3 seconds out of every 7
This works out to about a 4-5% increase to DPS
there's a few nuances to this though
If you synchronize blinding flash and conviction and etc with hysteria, you get more mileage out of it.
Also, hysteria cannot activate if Lyndon is KO'd
- Anatomy
3% crit chance is worth about 6% dps to the typical thunderclap cyclone monk, which is a lot.
Most importantly this passive is active even when Lyndon is KO'd, extremely potent
Itemization:
Windforce can be used to stunlock Enemies.
Pus spitter creates pools that do 10k DPS and last 3 seconds, another decent choice.
Finally because scoundrel has high basic weapon damage and multishot, a raw DPS 2 hander is acceptable as well.
If you remove Lyndon's weapon and don't give him dirty fighting, he cannot attack
The only use I know for this though, is for a follower that doesn't attack goblins
- Kormac the Templar
Up to 310 life every 30 seconds in castable healing spells
155 life per second ontop of that
+12% spirit generation
Best magic find
Skills:
- Heal
4651 every 30 seconds is no more than 155 LPS though, it's not much but it isn't bad either
- Intervene
I feel like this is useless for a monk.
You're a better tank than he is
- Loyalty
155 LPS isn't much, but it's not bad
- Loyalty
What can you do with slowed enemies anyways?
- Charge
50% weapon damage is 2.5x the damage of his normal attacks
Compare the stun to blinding Flash
2x the cooldown, 1.5x less duration, doesn't reduce accuracy of elites, etc.
- Onslaught
Skills aren't affected by follower weapon damage reduction.
Depending on Kormac's attack speed, this will boost his DPS by about 50%
- Inspire
Not sure if this is still active when Kormac goes down
But +12% spirit generation is pretty damn nice
- Guardian
4651 healing every 30 seconds is very trivial
Do you really need kormac to come to your aid when you're low on health?
I think 12% spirit generation would go further than a stun when you're at low health
Itemization:
Kormac can get magic find on every item slot except the trinket.
He's the best magic find platform for this reason.
You can give him a lidless wall for extra attack speed and proc rate on his main weapon, + shield affix.
You can give him a skycutter to proc angelic allies, which hit for 10k DPS single target.
You can also give him lots of thorns and a band of hollow whispers for even more DPS.
7 - Legendaries
I don't list all legendaries in here, particularly if I think they suck or are only for classes other than monks
Fist of Az'turrasq
http://us.battle.net...st-of-azturrasq
The best sword and board fist.
But since base DPS and attack speed aren't that useful on DW builds, this isn't cost effective for dual wielding.
Don't get me wrong, it'll still be solid, but not enough for the pricetag.
Stuns last 0.5 seconds on elites, although that's hardly the selling point of the Fist.
5% stun chance is worth about 5% single target damage mitigation with Thunderclap and decent IAS, just FYI.
As usual, be careful with such expensive fists.
It's possible that with all that money it'd cost to buy one, you could buy a rare that's just as effective for less.
Crystal Fist
http://us.battle.net...em/crystal-fist
Durability loss is worthless now that repair costs were reduced by 0.25x once again in 1.04
There's nothing inherently interesting about this fist, compare it with other rares when shopping.
Won Khim Lau
http://us.battle.net...em/won-khim-lau
This fist is used for 1 build only, and that's the Thunderclap/Cyclone build.
+5% added damage as lightning only affects minimum physical damage.
IE it benefits weapons with high minimum damage (IE maces/spears) and ones without elemental damage.
Added damage to lightning skills does as advertised.
A very solid fist weapon.
Sledge Fist
http://us.battle.net...tem/sledge-fist
30%-50% Stun Chance. *cough PVP*
Shenlong's
http://us.battle.net...entless-assault
http://us.battle.net...-fist-of-legend
Don't ask me how good balls of pure energy are, I'm not that rich.
But the other enchantments on these two fists easily make these the best DW fists in the game.
They're lightning enchanted so they pair well with won khim lau as well. Particularly Won Khim & Fist of Legend.
As always, double check the price and make sure you can't get a rare that's comparable.
Echoing Fury
http://us.battle.net...em/echoing-fury
Comparable to Fist of Az'turrasq in base DPS, making it a solid sword and board weapon.
The extra attacks per second apply to both weapons, before IAS is applied, Very potent.
The chance to fear on hit is potentially very annoying to deal with, even with thunderclap though.
Contrary to popular belief, the fear distance is very huge, and enemies can run very far after being feared.
This is extremely annoying, although many smaller enemies will die before they can run away, even after fear.
Aside from the fear, this weapon is an otherwise BIS dual wield weapon.
Sever
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/sever
This item deals massive critical hits on kill.
Combined with lifesteal, this sword will heal over 15k per kill.
Skorn
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/skorn
With such massive dex and crit damage, and a socket, it's easy to see why this is considered a BIS 2 hander.
Not too much to say about it, it's really solid all around
Schaefers's Hammer
http://us.battle.net...haeferss-hammer
2 handed Won Khim Lau with an lightning enchantment
Decent and cheap for thunderclap/cyclone monks, but not great. The enchantment might be interesting for followers.
With slow attack speed and only 1 spare affix, you'll either lack healing from LoH or DPS from crit damage.
Lightning enchantment has awkward synergy with monks because of high dodge.
The shield shocks once per second for 10k-40k damage, this seems to be independent of your DPS
Followers can use the lightning shield, and it deals the full 10k-40k damage when on a follower.
The shield lasts 5 seconds and the duration can be refreshed even while it's active.
Maximus
http://us.battle.net...en/item/maximus
Works on your follower at full effectiveness
Demon has an attack speed of 1.0 and hits 36k's. BIS enchantress weapon IMO.
Flying Dragon
http://us.battle.net...m/flying-dragon
Definitely a great 2 hander, but the question is how great.
The 2x boost lasts for 3 seconds, and I've found the proc rate to be much less than 5%
Mempo of Twilight
http://us.battle.net...mpo-of-twilight
Contrary to the game guide, this helmet does not provide 170-200 dex by default.
Without it, this helmet is not quite the beast you might believe it to be.
Still solid, but I'd rather have a well rolled rare helm for a fraction of the price.
Andariel's Visage
http://us.battle.net...ndariels-visage
WIth crit chance and IAS, it's a very solid DPS helm, even if you aren't poison resist.
Poison novas deal ~11k damage in the initial blast and another 11k over 3 seconds.
You can think of it as equivalent to 4000-8000 thorns.
The extra damage from fire is definitely a source of concern, but does not break the helmet.
And try to keep in mind that you're sacrificing a slot that can be used for spirit regen.
Helm of Command
http://us.battle.net...helm-of-command
The Sword and Boarder's Helm because of the block chance.
It was formerly popular in 1.03, but has much fewer followers due to less enemy DPS in 1.04
Inna's Set
Inna's Set Bonus
130 dex is a very solid bonus many monks will want.
0.33 spirit regen is nice although hard to notice.
The sweeping wind bonus is critical to several sweeping wind exploits.
Those who don't intend to use these exploits need not consider this set.
Inna's Radiance
http://us.battle.net.../innas-radiance
The only spirit stone that can roll over 4.5% crit chance, it's a BIS helmet for monks.
The game guide is misleading and this spirit stone cannot roll over near 300 dex.
IMO this is one of the better choices for Inna's set bonuses.
Inna's Favor
http://us.battle.net...tem/innas-favor
Holy damage is added to minimum physical damage bonuses.
DPS and defense wise this belt is extremely sub par.
Only consider it for the set bonus.
Inna's Temperance
http://us.battle.net...nnas-temperance
Popular for being movement speed pants.
Amazing offensive pants, better near the endgame where you don't need defense as much.
Inna's Vast Expanse
http://us.battle.net...as-vast-expanse
Dex can only roll up to 195 contrary to the game guide
It also comes with 3 sockets
This chest is fairly average-ish, and should only be considered for completing set bonuses.
Inna's Reach
http://us.battle.net...tem/innas-reach
Good base damage, but affixes kinda suck.
Personally wouldn't be my choice for a 2 hander since I'd want high LoH.
And a LoH Inna's reach would probably cost a fortune.
Vile Ward
http://us.battle.net.../item/vile-ward
The best source of dex on shoulders, BIS if you want dex. I prefer rare shoulders as vit/life sinks though.
I've yet to find a pair of vile wards that are remotely cost effective compared to rare shoulders.
Seven Sins
http://us.battle.net...cipe/seven-sins
Not much better rare shoulders, and only useful for arcane monks.
Tyrael's Might
http://us.battle.net...m/tyraels-might
Somewhat worth considering for the movement speed bonus.
But I think most monks will lean towards inna's temperance for more movement speed.
Cindercoat
http://us.battle.net...item/cindercoat
This chest piece can roll a secondary elemental resist.
Most notably, you could get a cindercoat with 100 fire resistance and 50 all resistance, huge.
Very solid as a mid game chest armor that comes at a reasonable price.
Blackthorne's Set
Blackthorne Set Bonus
100 vit is a bit weak for an initial set bonus
The extra and reduced damage from elites is nice but also not great
GF and MF are outdated with paragon.
Don't get me wrong, the set bonus is nice, but it's ever so slightly sub par in 1.04
Blackthorne's Surcoat
http://us.battle.net...thornes-surcoat
Contrary to the game guide, this item comes with 3 sockets
As it is, this surcoat isn't much better than rares. But it's not much worse either.
It's basically a very expensive way to stack more set bonus.
Blackthorne's Duncraig Cross
http://us.battle.net...-duncraig-cross
LoH Amulets are great for DW builds, but the enchantments on here aren't anything you can't get on rares.
But due to the hefty pricetag, I'd rather go for a rare amulet or another legendary.
Once again, a very expensive way to stack more set bonus.
Blackthorne's Jousting Mail
http://us.battle.net...s-jousting-mail
Notable for being LoH Pants.
With only 2 random enchanments left, you'll want some resist and sockets.
But YET again, price is a huge problem. Maybe the LoH will make up for it.
Once again, you can probably get more cost effective rares.
Blackthorne's Spurs
http://us.battle.net...ckthornes-spurs
Aside from movement speed, the enchantments aren't very desirable for boots.
Not good boots unless well rolled.
Blackthorne's Notched Belt
http://us.battle.net...es-notched-belt
Suffers from the same issues as the boot, other than the dex nothing else is very desirable.
Lacuni Prowlers
http://us.battle.net...lacuni-prowlers
The DPS potential of these bracers give them to potential to be BIS.
the movement speed is nice too.
A set of bracers that are rolled well enough to be a boost to your DPS will inevitably cost a fortune.
Strongarm Bracers
http://us.battle.net...rongarm-bracers
The enchantments are solid, but well rolled bracers probably cost too much to be justified.
Also I find knockback to be annoying on monks.
Tasker and Theo
http://us.battle.net...tasker-and-theo
Normal gloves can roll up to 300 dex.
The socket may be unique but it isn't enough to make up for the lackluster stat affix and only 2 random enchants.
Gladiator Gloves
http://us.battle.net...iator-gauntlets
LoH is nice and unique, but attack speed gives LoH too, so I'd rather have rare gloves.
Sage's Set
The set bonus is mediocre, and probably not worth aiming for.
Sage's Gesture
http://us.battle.net...ipe/sages-grasp
3 very solid enchantments and still 3 random enchantments to spare.
Since they're blacksmithed, they're a good glove to keep an eye out for when shopping.
Rare gloves still have potential to be better, but sage's are consistently good.
Sage's Journey
http://us.battle.net...e/sages-seekers
2 good affixes and 2 random affixes comes out to only 5 affixes total.
Not quite as good as Sage's Gesture, but still worth keeping an eye out for.
Once again, rares very much have the potential of being better. Moreso in the case of the boots than the gloves.
Sage's Orbit
http://us.battle.net...pe/sages-stones
armor is okay, magic find isn't as useful anymore, reduced control duration sucks.
The weakest piece in the set.
String of Ears
http://us.battle.net.../string-of-ears
Some people swear by this, some people know better.
Keep in mind that for most monks, 100 resist means 10% less damage from all sources.
Most string of ear rolls aren't going to be very good.
And extremely well rolled rare belts will be better.
Depth Diggers
http://us.battle.net...m/depth-diggers
With paragon out, MF and GF aren't that useful anymore.
So my problem with depth diggers is a 6 affix rare could be better.
Gehennas
http://us.battle.net...recipe/gehennas
Gehennas have the same problem as depth diggers, but as a blacksmith item you'll find more on the AH.
So chances are you'll find a well rolled one on the AH.
Ice Climbers
http://us.battle.net...em/ice-climbers
Solid enchantments and a whopping 3 random enchants to spare.
Very good boots, just make sure you find a good roll and a good price.
Fire Walkers
http://us.battle.net...em/fire-walkers
I've heard reports saying the molten ticks for anywhere between 2k-4k damage.
Either way the damage is small, as is the dex on the firewalkers.
So when you combine the molten and the low dex, you'll get that offensively these boots are about as good
as a pair of rare boots that rolled ~250 dex.
Only consider these boots if you're fire resistance.
And even so, don't expect BIS.
Xephirian Amulet
http://us.battle.net...ephirian-amulet
Lots of really weird and mediocre enchantments, not a good amulet.
Mara's Kaleidoscope
http://us.battle.net...as-kaleidoscope
Too few enchantments, and no random affixes means chances are these amulets all suck.
The Star of Azkaranth
http://us.battle.net...ar-of-azkaranth
Why exactly are there so many junky amulets?
Ouroboros
http://us.battle.net.../item/ouroboros
dex? LoH? damage? crit chance? sign me up!
Just keep in mind that rares can roll better than Ouroboros.
Unity
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/unity
For some reason this item doesn't exist in game yet. So no comment until then
Stone of Jordan
http://us.battle.net...stone-of-jordan
Mostly interesting for the spirit regen, which is very nice when you need to travel a map quickly.
DPS wise I think this ring is sub par, 20%-30% isn't much better than many rings, and it's only for elites.
Oculus Ring
http://us.battle.net...tem/oculus-ring
The stats are solid, but not stuff I look for on rings.
And with only one random affix slot, I'd mark this ring off as average-ish.
Skull Grasp
http://us.battle.net...tem/skull-grasp
Legacy skull grasps are better, 1.04 skull grasps are a shadow of what they used to be.
They're solid, but i wouldn't search for them over rare rings.
Hierophant's Seal
http://us.battle.net...ierophants-seal
Same issue as the Oculus ring. affixes are decent, but only 1 random enchant.
I'd probably would prefer a rare ring.
Legacy of Wicked Dreams
No info on the DPS of the skeleton summoned.
Followers cannot benefit from this set bonus.
The Wailing Host
http://us.battle.net...he-wailing-host
4.5% crit chance is great for rings, other enchants are good too.
Just be careful with the price, there are probably better rare rings out there.
Littany of the Undaunted
http://us.battle.net...f-the-undaunted
4.5% crit chance is high for rings, other enchants are great too.
Just be careful with the price, there are probably better rare rings out there.
Natalya's Reflection
http://us.battle.net...lyas-reflection
I'm listing this in place of natalya's set.
The ring is extremely expensive, mostly because of demon hunters.
With 3 random affixes, attack speed, and good dex, this could very roll BIS for monks.
More importantly, there's a set bonus of a whopping 7% crit chance.
I recommend you pair this with natalya's boots
I don't think the helmet is worth the extra 130 dex though.
Don't get the boots on their own, they aren't good enough on their own.
Don't confuse this with the old natalya's set.
0
No matter how you change the items, each player will still only consume so many items.
If players are generating hundreds of millions of items per day, there's still no way to substantially boost the consumption of items just by making loot
1
I prefer a balanced build.
No matter how much DPS you have, you'll never be able to completely prevent garbage deaths, where a bunch of white mobs just decide to hit you at the same time, and create a huge amount of spike damage.
I mean what would you get instead of lifesteal? more dps?
I feel like that's not terribly useful in 1.04
you can kill elite packs in well under 15 seconds with 50k unbuffed.
doubling your DPS only shaves ~7 seconds off that, and it would be even less noticeable vs white mobs.
I'd rather have more mobility, spirit regen, or lifesteal past a certain DPS point.