Having trouble surviving in Act 2/3? This build is the answer! No more sacrificing DPS for survivability, this build has it all.
Equipment used in this build, please click like to reveal.
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The Build
The idea is to stack life on hit/lifesteal as high as you can by dual wielding, get the increased attack speed from dual wielding and way of the hundred fists, and then use crippling wave periodically to reduce enemy’s attack speed and damage output.
Link to the build here: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#UiWgXh!XdU!ZcZYba
Primary attacks – Crippling Wave – Mangle rune and Way of the Hundred Fists – Blazing Fists rune
Way of the hundred fists is great single target DPS and the increased attack speed increases not only your overall DPS but also your life on hit/life steal generated by your attacks. The move speed is also very nice for kiting and getting out of sticky situations. Crippling Wave is a GREAT AOE attack, and when you use it with the 15% increased attack speed buff from way of the hundred fists it actually generates really good DPS against large packs of mobs. The 20% debuff to enemy attack speed and damage is VITAL to helping you survive in Act 3.
I alternate between way of the hundred fists and crippling wave. If I’m fighting a single target I’ll use more way of the hundred fists and just make sure I’m hitting crippling wave at least once every three seconds to keep the debuff on the mob. If I’m fighting packs of mobs I’ll use WoTHF until I have three stacks of the buff and then use crippling wave, periodically hitting WoTHF to ensure the IAS buff stays on me.
Crippling wave is also a great skill to combine with sweeping wind – cyclone and life on hit, because each mob you hit with its AOE sweep “counts”. That means if you’re hitting 6 mobs at once you’re getting your life on hit x6, and if your hit lands as a crit, you’re getting six tornadoes to spawn.
The defensive skills
Pretty self-explanatory, I’ve gone over these skills in depth in quite a few posts already so if you’re interested just go look through the monk builds section. Mantra of evasion with hard target is really great, that increased armor will just help your overall surviveability against all mobs, but especially against molten/desecrators.
Passives
If you’re dual wielding the guardian’s path is a must. 15% dodge is MASSIVE mitigation. Seize the initiative is always good, especially combined with MoE hard target. One with everything is always great for monks stacking an additional resist ontop of all resist.
Tips
There is a belt, string of ears, legendary that can have an affix for up to 20% reduced damage from melee attacks. I think this belt should be worn by EVERY monk. You can find pretty cheap options in the auction house by searching for armor(just armor, don’t select belt), then select “reduced damage from melee attacks” and enter 15 in for the value. This should make the AH only display that belt. From there you can narrow down your selection and buy one in your price range.
Equipment
Pick up weapons with as much life on hit/lifesteal as you can get. Critical hit damage + sockets is great if you can afford it. It’s better to have a 700 dps weapon with critical hit damage and life on hit/lifesteal than an 800/900dps weapon without those stats.
Try to stack critical hit chance and critical hit damage on every piece of gear that you can. Dexterity is still great to stack. I’ve found that vitality really is not a big deal for me, I’m running Act 3 with only 29k hp now and 388 resist all. If you can find gear with good resists, vitality, and stats that you can afford, of course that is the better option. But my point is that played correctly a monk does not need to have 800-900 resist/60k hp to be effective in Act 3.
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.