Hello healthy gamers! This post is all about equipment in the post IAS nerfed 1.0.3 era. Come inside to find out what you should spend your hard-earned gold on.
Here’s how this is going to work. I’ll go over slots, and give you the best in slot option(20mil +), a medium range option(1-5mil), and a cheap option(less than 500k)
Stats:
Crit chance and crit hit damage is the new IAS. This is the stat you’re looking for the most. Crit hit chance can be found on rings, amulets, gloves, helm, bracers, and shields. Critical hit damage can be found on weapons, rings, amulets, and gloves. 25% crit hit chance is a good number to shoot for.
Dexterity of course is still vital to increasing your overall DPS and giving you a higher dodge rating. Do not neglect dexterity. 1400 is a good number to shoot for.
Vitaliy in my opinion is overrated. As long as you’re not getting one shot by anything you have enough vitality. Because think of it this way. If you have 80k hp, after that first hit you’re going to be constantly fluctuating between 0 and 80k, and most of the time you’ll never reach full HP again during the fight. So therefore what you really need is enough HP to take 1 or 2 big hits, and then focus your other stats on resists/armor so you take less damage per hit, dps stats so you kill them faster, and life on hit/lifesteal stats which constantly give you a benefit rather than a one-off benefit like vitality. I run Act 3 Inferno with 32k hps and am able to farm Siegebreaker with 5 stacks of NV.
Resists vital to your survival, but again I think most people sacrifice too much DPS in favor of resists. The beauty of a monk is that you have so many skills to avoid damage. Between serenity and blind you can have six seconds of attacking where you’re not taking damage, and a lot of skills interrupt mobs so again you’re not taking damage. Therefore it behooves you to be able to do as much DPS as possible in that window where you’re not taking damage as opposed to trying to stack things up to the point where you can tank all these ridiculously huge hits. I don’t think that’s the design intent Blizzard has for monks. IMO Monks are really designed to have a good balance between offensive and defensive capabilities, and I’ve had a ton of success with relatively low resists(400) but high DPS(38k buffed before conviction buffs).
IAS still a great skill. Especially when coupled with lifesteal and life on hit. If you can I would still pick up weapons and armor with IAS in addition to critical hit damage, or sacrifice a few pieces of crit for some pieces of IAS. A 1.8 or faster attack speed would be best.
Life on hit – Wonderful stat, and almost required for you to progress beyond Act 2 Inferno. Which is also why it’s one of the most expensive stats out there. Life on hit can be found on weapons, amulets, rings, and a few pieces of set gear.
Lifesteal – The general consensus is that lifesteal is useless. I don’t believe so. A monk with high crit gear and high crit damage can start seeing 100k+ crits and getting some just crazy DPS. With 2.5% lifesteal, hitting for 100k, equals out to 480 life stolen(100k * .024 * .2). A weapon with crit dmg, a socket, and 480 life on hit would cost WAY more than a weapon with those same stats but lifesteal instead of life on hit. And the great thing about lifesteal is that it SCALES. That same weapon, hitting for 200k equals 960 life stolen. A 960 life on hit weapon with 120+ crit dmg is going to cost you 20-50 mil. The smart money is that end-game, lifesteal will be better than life on hit.
Here’s a screenshot of my item build I’m using currently, click like to reveal.
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If you don’t have social media there’s a link to the picture at the end of the post.
Weapons:
Post 1.0.3 I prefer dual wielding. One, because it naturally increases your IAS(increased attack speed) by 15%. Two, because you can stack crit hit damage on both weapons, and get life on hit or lifesteal on both weapons. And three the dual wield passive for 15% extra dodge is really nice to have for survival.
- Cheap option – Buy 600-700 dps 1handers with lifesteal/life on hit and crit dmg, find a socketed weapon if you can.
- Medium option – Buy a 700-850 dps 1hander with lifesteal or life on hit and at least 120+ crit hit dmg between the socket and what’s on the weapon naturally
- Best in slot – 1000+ dps with 3% lifesteal or 900+ life on hit, 10%+ IAS, +90% crit hit dmg, and a socket
Shield
Shields can be fun to really jack up your crit hit chance with and offer a little more survivability. You’re looking for crit chance first of all, then dexterity, vitality, and all resist + whatever other resist you’re stacking.
- Cheap option – 5-7% crit hit chance, low rolls of either dex and resists or vitality and resists
- Medium option – 8-10% crit hit chance, dex, vitality, and all resist
- Best in slot – 10% crit hit chance, high dex, vitality, all resist and the resist you’re stacking
Helm
Helms you want critical hit damage and a socket, then look for dex, vit, and all resist.
- Cheap – 2-4% crit with dexterity
- Medium – 4% crit, dexterity, vitality, and all resist
- Best in slot – Just really high crit, dex, vit, and all resist
Shoulders
Shoulders are just your straight stats, dex, vitality, resists
- Cheap, medium, and BIS are all about the same, just find the highest stats you can at the price range that you can afford.
Chest
Chest is again straight stats, also chest can have up to 3 sockets so getting a 3 socket chest if you can.
- Cheap – Dex, vitality, all resists
- Medium – Dex, vitality, all resists, 1-2 sockets
- BIS – 200+ dex, vitality, 60+ all resist, 30+ other resist, and 3 sockets
Bracers
Bracers can have crit hit chance, and then same dex, vitality, resists.
- Cheap – 2-4% crit, dex or vitality, and all resists
- Medium – 4% crit, dex & vit, and all reists
- BIS – 4%+ crit, dex, vitality, all resist, and reduce melee damage taken
Gloves
Gloves can have crit hit dmg, crit hit chance, and IAS.
- Cheap – 4-6% crit, 10-20% crit hit dmg, dex
- Medium – 6-8% crit, 20-30% crit hit dmg, dex, vit, all resist
- BIS – 8%+ crit, 8%+ IAS, 30%+ crit hit dmg, dex, vit, all resist
Belt
Belt are straightforward dex, vitality, all resist, just buy the best stats at the price you can afford.
Pants
Pants can have up to two sockets(I believe, maybe 3?) otherwise stats are dex, vitality, all resists.
Boots
Boots you should definitely get move speed
- Cheap – dex, vitality, 10%+ move speed
- Medium – Dex, vitality, all resist, 12%+ move speed
- BIS – Dex, vit, all resist, 12% move speed, 8% IAS
Rings
Rings you should look for crit hit chance, crit hit dmg, IAS, LoH, dex, vitality, all resists. Good rings can get REALLY expensive.
- Cheap – 3-4% crit hit chance with dex
- Medium – 3-4% crit hit chance, 10-20% crit hit dmg, dex or vitality
- BIS – 4% crit, 30% crit hit dmg, +8% IAS, +100 LoH, dex, vitality, all resist
Amulets
Like rings amulets can get really expensive, look for crit hit chance, life on hit, crit hit dmg, IAS, dex, vitality, all resists
- Cheap – 6-8% crit hit chance with dex
- Medium – 8% crit with 10-30% crit hit dmg and +100 life on hit
- BIS – 8%+ crit, 8%+ IAS, 30% crit hit dmg, +400 life on hit, dex
For more d3 monk builds visit the Monk builds page here. Check out this post for my favorite 1.0.3 farming spot. Click here for more articles related to health and fitness. Get good karma and great free items by visiting the “good karma” forums here.