[aLtMrFool]

Before I go into builds for monk, I feel that there is a need to go into some basics about the monk and what roles a monk can fill! I will update this thread some days before I sleep and before you know it, this will be full of knowledge about the monk that I have.

First of all, a monk can either go DPS/Support , DPS/Tank or Tank.

Bashiok did mention in their D3 philosophy that monks and barbs are more tanky based desgined and they're just like this lore-wise, you'll be more tanky than not no matter what against the ranged and less DPS heavy, if you wanted to be a full DPS class, you've rolled the wrong class! I mean, how would you feel if your barb/monk charged into battle and died.. Like all the QQers in the various forums - UTTERLY DISMAYED-

*I assume that if you're reading this thread , you have some form of knowledge about the skills and runes for a monk and some basic knowledge about the monk!

Abbreviations that may be used from time to time :

AR% - Armor Reduction
DR% Damage Reduction
FoT - Fist of Thunder
DR - Deadly Reach
CW - Crippling Wave
MoH - Mantra of Healing
MoC - Mantra of Conviction
MoE- Mantra of Evasion
Heal - Breath of Life
Bubble - Serenity
Blind - Blinding Light

-More will be added as time passes-

Ok, so now we're ready to talk about the different roles that you'll be able to take up whether solo or in a group! As a monk, you won't see BIG numbers but you'll see very consistent low-mid damage that appears really fast!

DPS/Support - A dps/support monk is viable because of Mantra and various awesome defensive skills that can help allies in tough situations and still be able do deal some damage at the same time!

Signature spells of a Dps/support monk includes :

Bubble - Tranquility
Heal - Fear
Blind - Blinding Echo
Any mantra!
FoT - Thunderclap
CW - Mangle
Mystic Ally - Earth
Beacon of Ytar


Good use of the above skills will allow you to support your teammates and still dish out meagre dps as long as you run good stats and weapon!

A Dps/tank monk is also viable because of the amount of defensive skills available in a monk's skills/passives arsenal!

Signature skills of a dps/tank monk includes:

Resolve
One With Everything
Sieze the Initiative
Mantra of Evasion / Healing
Crippling wave - concussion
FoT - Quickening
Sword and Board ( not a skill but yeah... )
Transcendence

A full Tank monk is viable but I don't really see a point in having a full tank because when you're able to full tank something.. You've overgeared the level of progression you're at! But in any case, anyone who still want to run a full tank build, you'll dish out really low dps and be able to take the brunt of some damage while supporting your allies!

Siganture skills of a tank monk includes :

Sieze the Iniative
Transcendence
One with Everything
Resolve
FoT - Quickening
MoE - Hard Target
DR - Keen Eye
Serenity - + 1 second
Blind - + 1 second
CW - Concussion

At the end of the day, many monks skill overlap and Diablo is a game where builds needs to change from fights to fights, from gear level to gear level and those above are just a quick overview and by no means are they skills that a certain type of mon can and will definitely use! A monk can generally do dps/support/tank and can choose to do any of them.

Attributes and how they scale for monk:

- all scaling are with refrence to 1 pt of the stat -

Str - 1 armor
Dex - +1 % dmg and dodge
Int - +0.1 to all resistance
Vitality - +HP , how much depends on your +%life

* 0-100 dex - each dex = 0.1% dodge
100-500 dex - each dex = 0.025% dodge
500-1000 dex - each dex = 0.02% dodge
1000+ - each dex = 0.01% dodge

Gearing to survive in Inferno

Stat Priority

1: All Resist
1: + specific resist ( consistent throughout all gear pieces)
1: Armor
1: Vitality

Why all four? A good mix is needed to survive and double tapping on specific and +all resist through monks' passive ' one with everything' is gonna make you survive blows in inferno really quickly.

Once you're geared enough to survive hits, you'll want to gear to increase DPS and potentially add any extra survivability possible


2: Dexterity
3: Life on Hit
4: +IAS
5: Crit chance
6: Crit damage modifier

7In the case where a piece of gear like boots can give you + movement speed, its good to always prioritise it as it's an insanely good stat!

Popular topics and Common misconceptions

1: FoT vs Way of the Hundred Fists

Conclusion : The general consensus is that FoT has higher DPS and highher spirit generation because of its attack animation not being gimped like the third strike after the 2nd strike of the hundred fists.

2: Dodge has diminishing returns!

Conclusion: If we're talking about stability of dodge as a defensive stat and/or dodge not being able to reduce damage from poo strikes such as plagued or desecrators, the answer is no - just like resistance and armor, dodge works in a multiplicative way and does not have diminishing returns!

3: Sieze the Initiative vs 'One with Everything'

Conclusion: Based on the conclusion that people have arrived on that 10 armor = +1 all resist, STI > OWE if 10% of dex > All resist gained by OWE and vice versa. Use depending on your gear!

4: Does Life on Hit work on Sweeping wind?

Conclusion: Simply, No.

5: Does Life on Hit work on Thunderclap rune?

Conclusion: Yes.




Builds start from here ( very incomplete database of builds - will be adding more inferno viable builds because a lot of builds actually work pre-inferno and the no. Of builds that work in inferno is harder to formulate and rare and I reckon that's what monks in SC2SEA are looking for! Look foward to them! )

A good dual wield pre-hell build aka when you don't really need to run thousands of defensive skill

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...gTk!ZXd!aZbbZa

Crippling Wave - Mangle
Sweeping Storm - Blade Storm
Heal - Blazing Wrath
Serenity - Tranquility
SSS - Several Sided Strike
Mantra of Conviction - Overawe

Passives:
Seize The Initiative
Resolve
The Guardian's Path

Explanation : Just mangle your way through , heal when you need to, bubble when you need to and SSS is actually another bubble when you're in need of another! The passives are very defensive and that's what's gonna make you able to run such offensive skills and not die

Hell and Above till hell act 4 / possibly very very start of Inferno Act 1 when your gear is sub-par and you keep dying like flies - this build works with sword and board

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...gYQ!ZXe!ZZbbba

Crippling Wave - Concussion
Sweeping Storm - Blade Storm
Heal - Blazing Wrath
Serenity - Tranquility
Blinding Light - Echoing Light
Mantra of Healing - Sustenance

Passives:
Seize The Initiative
Resolve
Pacifism

Explanation : Concussion + Resolve gives you a lot of dmg reduction, along with a stun from blinding light , bubble , heal, and sustenance from MoH, you're set for being defensive enough in hell and below to do some really good damage with crippling wave and sweeping wind! You can dual wield as well, until you keep dying due to insufficient gear :/

Side Note : Note that once you have enough resistance ( like one set of resistance at least 100 above all other resistance ), you should switch resolve/pacifism for 'one for everything' depending on whether you're accustomed to dodging frozen /stun / fear and what not. But if you're gearing '+all resistance' gear, do not use 'one for everything'.

Inferno Build 1 - Sword and Board Build ( Was OP pre-patch, has been nerfed and won't work as well anymore)

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...gYQ!YXU!YYYbbb

Fist of Thundering - Quickening
Sweeping Storm - Inner Storm
Heal - Infused with Light
Serenity - Tranquility
Blinding Light - Echoing Light
Mantra of Healing - Boon of Protection

Passives:
Seize The Initiative
One With Everything
Transcendence

Explanation : Used to be OP because a bug in 'quickening' allowed crits from all dmg sources to give 15 spirit - generating unlimited spirit for a monk to spam MoH - Boon which gives 15% shield.. With transcendence giving you 3.1k hp per cast, you were up to die from nothing! But after patch and fixing of 'quickening' this build ain't half of what it was anymore.. Use at your own risk!

Side-note : One with Everything Is interchangeable with resolve / pacifism depending on how your gear is. If '+resistance to all' and resistance differ by a small margin - say 50 or so - , use resolve / pacifism depending on how accustomed to dodging frozen orbs and the like.

Inferno build 2 - Dual-Wield ( Have been using this for awhile now, works well up till Butcher inferno esp with a babarian buddy - can't say act 2 and beyond for sure because I'm not geared enough for act 2 and I haven't been there long enough to see what works and what doesn't )

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...gYh!dXU!ZYYbba

Fist of Thunder - Lightning Flash
Sweeping Storm - Inner Storm
Heal - Infused With Light
Serenity - Tranquility
Blinding Light - Echo of Light
Mantra of Evasion - Hard Target

Passives :

Sieze the Initiative
The Guardian's Path
One For Everything

Explanation : With this build - dual wield - you'll be able to generate enough spirit to keep MoE ip almost all the time and thus mantain at 60+% dodge at all time! Cycle defensive cooldowns and just dodge your way out of everything! But this build is really weak against elites with poo attack ( desecrator/plagued/molten ), gotta learn how to move out of them! If you still can't take the heat of inferno - sword and board with this build and change the guardian's path for resolve! This build will only work till end of act 1

Side note : This build is probably better done with a group set up (solo is also fine, I've tried it for Act 1 Inferno so far) with a babarian and a monk, get the babarian to use war-cry and you can go up to 62% reduction (without shield mind you) , 60% dodge, 40% resistance to all and you can get those stats without awesome all lvl 60 rare gear. By then, it'll be even better! Also, if you find that your resistance gear is '+all resistance' then feel free to change 'One for Everything" to 'Transcendence' to heal 3k over hp everytime you spam Mantra Of Evasion which is the whole point of this build!

Inferno build that works with both Sword and Board OR Dual Wield

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...Ygh!ZYU!aZYaYc

Skills:

Fist of Thunder - Thunderclap
Sweeping Wind - Blade Storm
Heal - Infused with Light
Blind - +1 second
Bubble - Ascension
MoE - Backlash

Passives-
Resolve
One For Everything
Transcendence

Explanation : The three defensive skill is kind of self-explanatory. FoT produces insane spirit along with 'infused with light' allowingou to spam MoE, keeping dodge at 50% or above, making the dmg from backlash really competitive esp in large packs of mobs. In addition, sweeping wind will help to allow really fast clearing of packs. Note that when you hunderclap and teleport to a mob, you refresh sweeping wind and thus can kite by - sweeping wind to max stacks, stay to punch using blind / serenity / heal and run , thunderclapping to recharge sweeping wind whenever you need and stay and fight again once your defensive cooldowns are up! Again, resolve and one for everything helps to allow for extreme survivability - and note that you should use STI instead of one for everything if 10% of dex > difference between highest resist and lowest resist. Transcendence gives 3100 hp per cast of mantra - while infused with light + DW + FoT allows you to have insane spirit generation and thus allow you to spam MoE to 1- maintain dodge at 50% and 2- Heal up at the same time. This is an especially good solo build that works even up till act 2 and initial act 3, possibly all the way till act 4 inferno but some tweakings are definitely on the line as progression furthens and gears get better!


**This page is thoroughly incomplete and will be slowly updated day by day with new builds added in and explanations updated , I'm doing this abit at a time before I fall asleep in camp with my blackberry phone so it may not be perfect / updated as fast, thank you for your patience