Monk - Builds/Discussion - Page 18

On May 25 2012 07:23 hellsan631 wrote:
So I started inferno with a mainly offensive focused build. Meaning, I had sweeping wind + 3 defensive abilities & mantra. This did not work, as I died too fast, wasn't geared enough, etc. I've messed around with a lot of builds, and both abilities and gear (I have 3 gear sets now, worth some pretty good money). So, here Is a little outline of what you should run if your having problems. This build/mentality has been tested into act 4 of inferno.

The Gear: - General rules to gearing with every monk.

- Offensive Rules:

Sword and Board. Meaning, you want a 1-H and a shield. This is pretty standard, as the armor is nice, and the DPS increase from duel wield isn't too big, that you can just add in some dex on your shield and call it good.
1-H's are king. 2H are just bad on monks. Not only would they give you less DPS and stats then a comparable dual wield combo, you also attack way slower, meaning your spirit generation sucks.
Attack Speed #1. The DPS increase from attack-speed is crazy. Not only is 1% attack speed better then +10 dex (at +400 dex), it scales the more dex you get. at about 1000 dex, your dps gains are around are around 10% of your weapon DPS per 1% attack speed.
Main hand be fast. Your Main hand should be as fast as possible. This is so you generate spirit fast enough to always keep your mantra's 2nd ability up. This also helps with healing, as the synergy with transcendence means you will heal for 3k each 3-4 seconds. your attack speed should be around 2.3-2.4 attacks per second to sustain this.
Gotta go fast.. - Sonic

- Defensive Rules:

40k HP is good enough. Having more hp then 40k is a good idea, but once you hit around 40k, you want to focus on gearing for resistances, and making sure that actual HP is larger then your seen HP.
Dex is a good defensive stat. While the scaling for dodge is at an all-time low when you hit around 1k Dex, you do want to focus on a more offensive gear build while adding in +dex, +resistance, +life, and +attack speed.
Stack in 1 resistance. "One With Everything" is the best passive for inferno. Hands down. Every item you should get should have some kind of +all resistance, or +X resistance (X being the one resistance you choose to stack for).
+Life %1 gives around +3 Vitality for every 10k HP you have. Don't sacrifice 10-20 +vit just for a % in life. Getting both, together, is good. But just getting +life isn't.
Its probably not a good idea to stand in that puddle of acid while tanking a boss.

The Build:
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#bgYXTh!UYX!ZYbZba

While there are most certainly more viable builds out there, the build I run (this one) allows almost anyone to clear most elite/champ groups fairly easily.

When tanking a group, make sure you have the 2nd effect of the mantra up, boosting your +dodge to around 60%, and healing you as often as you can use it. When you get to half health, or when they try and freeze you, use Serenity and heal with BoH. Every so often, when they are hitting you more then they should be, use your blinding flash. (I consider the blinding echo rune to be the best, as with most champs, it often blinds them right before they attack, or mid swing, meaning its more effective usually, then any other rune)

If you are about to die, use your 7 Kicks to disengage, or just to save you from dmg and use a quick health pot.


This build should help you at least get to a point where you can farm gear (butcher). This build also works well into act 2&3 of inferno.

On May 25 2012 09:32 Pwere wrote:
Yeah I did; all the generators proc once per "stage", doesn't matter if it's 10 hits. It can proc multiple times on multiple targets, but it was really inconsistent. I'll give it another try.That's what I thought at first, but it didn't always work. I'll try this a bit more...

On May 25 2012 10:49 Xanbatou wrote:
How does dodge work? Is it additive or multiplicative? I was just wondering because I was theorycrafting monk builds and I found one that in theory should give you practically 100% dodge rate:

On May 25 2012 10:59 Masq wrote:
RIP
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/41022690/D3/Screenshot000.jpg

On May 25 2012 10:54 Jisall wrote:

Sword and board is really the way to go. I tried it instead of duel wielding the armor bonus's of your build give me about 60% damage reduction. I run with the healing mantra instead of evade. Might try it out later. I enjoy the heal to much.

On May 25 2012 12:52 hellsan631 wrote:
The shield rune was also OP until it was patched. (The shield is now worth 15% of what it heals, so only around 6-7k) But with that being patched, the healing (even with the 3 second buff) just isn't enough to sustain mobs.

Mantra of Healing: Mantra of Healing will now correctly provide only two times the base healing effect for the first 3 seconds after activation, down from four times the base healing effect (tooltip will still show the old value)/Skill Rune - Boon of Protection: A maximum absorption amount has been set to 1000 Life. This skill will be redesigned in an upcoming patch.

On May 25 2012 12:52 hellsan631 wrote:


I ran with mantra of healing for a while, all the way up until inferno. Its really useful for aoe's, and surviving plague. The shield rune was also OP until it was patched. (The shield is now worth 15% of what it heals, so only around 6-7k) But with that being patched, the healing (even with the 3 second buff) just isn't enough to sustain mobs. The 30% dodge and 20% armor buff from that mantra, plus the 3k heal you get from your passive, is really nice.

On May 25 2012 16:42 Jisall wrote:


I've been running a sword and board monk now with this build:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#bdXifQ!YcX!ZbZYZZ

Just tanked NM diablo in a game with 3 other people no prob. Never dropped below 80% HP

P.S. Mantra of Healing spam still works wonders, just not rigged like before.

On May 25 2012 13:26 archon256 wrote:

It's even worse than that

The rune may as well not exist anymore.

On May 25 2012 13:26 archon256 wrote:

It's even worse than that

The rune may as well not exist anymore.

On May 25 2012 16:51 hellsan631 wrote:


Wait until you get to Inferno. Mantra of Healing doesn't scale with gear and/or level well, meaning that its pretty worthless as the passive damage enemies do is around 10k per second. The only way to tank that damage is through resist, dodge, and armor.

I've solo'ed everything through act 3 of inferno, and its only been since act 3 of hell that i've switched over to a more defensive build, and only since inferno, that i've used a something other then mantra of healing (with the +health rune on it, because I haven't needed anything else.)



Damn, I thought it was the healing done over the 3 seconds, not just the healing done in 1 tick. I could understand a nerf to a partial shield, or even that the shield has a 35% chance to pop. but a 1k hp shield is useless at any level.