Hey guys. Thought I'd start a Monk centric thread on here so we masters of the open palm ( or closed fist ) can chat about the builds we've been finding useful as well as anything else anybody wants to share about their Monk. There's a spot on the Diablo III site that allows you to share builds much like the talent calculator for WoW. You can find it HERE
Ideally I'd like this thread to promote insightful discussion and not just be a linkfest. If you post a link to your spec try and give us some info about why you made those choices and an idea about how you're utilizing it. Your "rotation" if you will. I'll start out with mine.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#aUghjZ!YXd!aaaaaZ
First I went with the Fist of Thunder with the teleport rune so I can close the distance on moving enemies. Then I have Way of a Hundred Fists with the additional hit rune which makes up the meat and potatoes of my strikes. Those two tend to give me more spirit than I know what to do with. As a secondary skill I use Lashing Tail Kick with the extra knockback rune for large groups and to get some breathing room if I need it. I also have this mapped to my middle mouse button for extra kicky fun.
When it comes to support skills I'm using Serenity which makes you invincible for 3 seconds. I put the healing rune on it as well so when I pop it I get a heal and some invincibility. Great for sticky situations. I'm using the Mantra of Evasion which gives me an extra 15% to dodge for 3 minutes which is doubled for the first 3 seconds of the spell. I put the Hard Target rune on there which gives me an additional 20% armor while the mantra is active. I have this active all the time and if I have extra spirit or I'm facing a tough enemy I pop it a few times for the extra dodge. Finally I have Mystic Ally with the water rune. I chose to do this just recently to see if it was useful. So far I like it a lot. The ally is fast and pretty tough. It's usually taking care of stragglers for me and it does a way better job than my follower.
For passive skills I started off with Transcendence which heals me every time I spend spirit. This is the single best choice I ever made. I'm constantly healing myself for a good 1/6 of my health every time I pop a spirit skill. This includes when I use my actual heal spell and even when I'm popping my mantra. Love it. Also rolling with Seize the Initiative which increases my armor 100% based on my Dexterity. Just a simple way to make my Monk a little tougher. To wrap up my passive skills I'm also using the Guardian's Path which gives me 15% to dodge when I'm dual wielding ( which I always am anyway ).
So with all of these skill choices combined with my mantra and the gear I'm using ( which is alright but not amazing ) I have a 50% damage reduction rating and a 40% dodge rating which I can bump up to 49% for 3 seconds when I first pop the mantra. I'm level 30 and I haven't died yet *crosses fingers* even though I came close a few times. I have used maybe 5 potions the entire time and with that heal I get every time I spend spirit I barely have to use Serenity either. Now I might have to tweak this a bit for multiplayer so I can be more effective at supporting the party but for solo I find this works really well.
So that's my spec. I'm really looking forward to seeing everybody's specs and seeing all the different ways this class can be played.
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