[crAzerk]

Originally Posted by System

I am using the most OP class of the game atm and I find it too easy. Blizzard nerf us soon!

10 char . . . .

Quick Comments

iMSystem:

you so cute ~

[Cyanide]

Monk is OP only up till Nightmare. Once you reach Hell, you won't survive pulling everything you see together. A lot of kiting involved and smart playing.

[iMSystem]

Originally Posted by Cyanide

Monk is OP only up till Nightmare. Once you reach Hell, you won't survive pulling everything you see together. A lot of kiting involved and smart playing.

Ok, yay!

Now I gotta rush to hell!

[iM SundeR]

Yo, good guide, I just want to clear up that by Inferno dual wielding will far surpass sword and shield, but up until then the flat DPS and armor increase achieved from sword and shield is pretty necessary.

The amount armor decreases damage in Inferno won't be enough to keep the Monk alive long enough to kill shit, you're going to have to max dodge as much as possible to completely mitigate attacks rather than just soak up ~1k damage. I don't think the whole DPS/attack speed mechanic has been properly fleshed out - dual wielding end game inferno will be much, much better for the Monk archetype. The +15% dodge is much better than any armor you get from a shield as armor/shields have really bad diminishing returns, considering that you are geared to all hell by Inferno.

'Super base damage' is not the same as 'attack speed + damage', which I think is getting confused with all this sword and shield discussion. 2handers will probably be even less useful later on, not sure.

[Churlz]

In response to Sunder unless you get really lucky with drops you will have to use sword in board. I am in Act 3 inferno and sword and board actually increases my damage rather than trying to dual wield with a shitty 2nd weapon.

Dodge is not as important as you think it is sure it is nice but don't stack for it. Maxing out resistance is probably the most important for surviving then dex for the armor + dodge.

[iM SundeR]

Ya it seems dual wield is very very item dependent, its something like you need less than 13% difference in weapon damage or the attack speed doesnt make up for the base damage drop etc etc. lots of viable styles depending on equipment!

[Cyanide]

Agreed, after clearing hell, and looking at the drops, dual wielding or 2H is actually very viable. Just need to get the dodge up. Sword and board is an easy way to stack your HP. Still farming for drops actually, hoping to get lucky. Also, with regards to skills.

Mantra of Healing scales with your dmg. So if you can manage to get your dodge up without mantra of evasion, I think that is a pretty damn huge plus! I don't mind forgoing that 20% armor for a decent constant heal in mantra of healing.

For breath of heaven, i'm actually using the rune that fears. That's another 1.5s of mobs not hitting you. A huge plus over an extra 1-2k heal imo.

[x5_Bard]

Dual wielding is definitely better if you have 2 equal DPS 1h weps. However what your forgetting Sunder is that you dont actually get +15% dodge from mantras/spec etc. Dodge suffers from DR too so even though it says 15% its actually around 10% if not lower depending on your gear. Considering you should be getting gear with as much dexterity on it as possible this will already be pretty high. Overall it really depends on your own spec/preference along with your drops. For instance I'm dual wielding quite comfortable atm with 2 500 DPS+ fists with +% damage on them!

I'm going to rewrite this soon for Inferno+ as everything is pretty different at 60. For instance I don't even use "One with Everything" anymore as my gear is Resist all and I'm sitting at roughly 380 resist. I would go so far as to say just about anything is legitimate if you have the right gear for it. I had great fun this morning redoing act 1 with that 2h staff thingy, seven sided strike was eating shit alive

[Cyanide]

You resist is that high across the board? You seem to be sacrificing a lot of dps if that's the case. At that level, you should be looking at close to 6k DPS if you are DW.

[yongming]

is there an ideal build in terms of stats? im not too sure what stats to focus on.

[x5_Bard]

Actually Ive sacrificed my magic find, my DPS is at 7k.

With the level 60 buff plus gold basically equaling gear I find it much easier to just grind gold and then buy the item I want from the AH. sometimes I'll get lucky and actually get something useful too ^^

[Insom]

I think he's talking about the passive that gives you +15% dodge when dual wielding? Not just from gear/stats

[x5_Bard]

It doesn't give 15% dodge... Which is what I was talking about. it gives a flat 15% dodge before DR, which after DR becomes around 10% due to your dexterity increasing dodge as well. So at inferno when you have bucketloads of dexterity (which you should) this becomes less worthwhile, which is the point I was trying to make.

Also yong what you want to focus on while leveling and before level 60 is Dexterity, Resist (either resist all or pick 1 and go One with Everything) and vitality. You will get armor naturally from gear anyway so its not something you should focus on. I would recommend sword and board because its simply easier. Once you hit 60 and your resist and armour are over 50% on each you want to start focusing on stats such as "decreases melee/ranged attacks by %" as this is the next form of damage reduction. Since armor/dodge/resist are all pretty high at this point the DR makes the stats not as worthwhile as earlier. Pick the weapon with the Highest DPS as you want it for damage, not damage reduction. I'll go into stats more when I redo the OP!

[Jaywalk]

chant of resonance + exulted soul seem like a pretty good combo, going into every fight with a huge and full spirit pool is nice. if you get tempest rush + tailwind as well, u can pretty much move around the map at max speed with unlimited spirit.

just something nice for low difficulties so you can rush around faster.

[Jman2012]

In normal I used chant of resonance, exalted soul and finally transcendence once I hit lvl30. Played most of NM with that spec too. I'm almost at diablo in NM now lvl 51 and I've switched to a spec simular to Bards, with great results. I was thinking about how well intellience affects resistances, and it seems while you can get resist all to elemental stats on gear. Intelligence also gives physical resistance. I was planning on testing out resist all + det/int/vit gear. But now I'm more interested in playing with bards idea of using One with Everything. Stack One type of resist and let the passive skill do the rest.

[neKo]

Monk is the baby class!