Monk SOLO Leveling Build from 1 - 30

[VyRianS]

I’ve been formulating this build solely for Solo Fast Leveling from levels 1 – 30. As of current my knowledge of the mechanics is very limited, all advice is appreciated. My goal for this build is to kill as quickly as possible to hasten the leveling phase.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...dZfk!aYX!aaaaZ

I’ve made it a point to maximize both Damage and Mobility for the fastest mob clearing. My plan is to run a 2 Generator build, since a combination of both Fists of Thunder and Crippling Wave seems to give the best DPS while having decent spirit regeneration.

The main primary combo will be FoT+CW+CW for any group of more than 1 enemy. The first teleportation hit of FoT(Thunderclap) is taken for the extra mobility, which is followed by CW’s AOE when I’m near the main group. For singular targets a straight 3-hit FoT seems to be best. Mangle for CW is taken immediately at Level 17. (Is it me or the 143% Weapon Damage seems overly powerful?)

Dashing Strike is taken for screen-length mobility, to dash between enemies and destructibles. Due to the spammable nature of DS, I’m intending to take Quicksilver at Level 32.

As for the Spirit Dump, I’ve chosen Lashing Tail Kick as the main spender. I’m on the fence about the knockback though, seeing that it would split the group and reduce AOE effectiveness. Assuming this skill is used past 30, Scorpion Sting rune will be chosen to stun instead of KB. Another alternative would be to use Sweeping Wind instead, due to the constant AOE damage.

Next up, Cyclone Strike, which synergizes well with AOE techniques. FoT(teleport) to the enemy in the centre of the group, CS and finish the combo with 2xCW. Implosion rune is taken to pull a greater amount of enemies.

Finally Mantra of Conviction for the additional damage. Overawe rune to be taken at Level 35.

For pre-30 Passives, I’ve chosen Fleet of Foot, Transcendence, and Seize the Initiative. The first passive is for extra MS, the last two passives are for survivability, since I’ve hardly included any defensives traits in my main skills.

I understand that after 30 this build would have changed drastically as post-30 is when Monks get most of their direct damages buffs (Breath of Heaven – Blazing Wrath and MoC – Overawe). LTK would probably fall out of favor for the stronger Sweeping Wind - Blade Storm. Therefore post-30 my build will mostly likely follow this:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...iXk!gYU!aabZba

So there it is, hope you guys found my reasoning sound. Any advice would be awesome. Thanks!

[redrach]

Sounds good, but as I said in the other solo build thread, I'd swap out Crippling Wave for Way of the Hundred Fists as soon as it's available. It does more DPS than Mangle even unruned and hits faster for more spirit regen. The only thing you lose out on is the speed debuff, and Normal should be easy enough that you don't need it.

[VyRianS]

Thanks for the input.

The reason I haven't included WotHF is because I hardly know its strike style and AOE. For Crippling Wave we had a large AOE for the first two strikes ending with a full 360 sweep for the third strike. From the YT videos I've seen, all 3 strikes of WotHF seem to confine themselves to a narrow cone just ahead of the Monk. If it turns out larger I might switch though...

[VyRianS]

Its been a good 7 days since I posted and still no other replies... I guess I'll bump it up with this small questionaire.

As of current, I still believe my main rotation of CS->CWCWCW with Mangle to be the combo which is probably going to put out the highest DPS, although the main 360 AOE is not going to be procc'ed until the 3rd hit.

1. Has there been any datamined info on the style and AOE of WotHF? From the videos I've seen, the first hit seems to be a single target dash, the second a flurry of blows probably dealing damage in a cone and the third doing a small AOE in front of the Monk. Can anyone clarify this? Because if this is the case, shouldn't the CW(Mangle) rotation still win out after the enemies are drawn in using Cyclone Strike?

2. I'm also a little unsure about the difference of dual wielding and wielding a 2Hander. The 2Hander does greater Weapon Damage (WD) and would do better with Cooldown-fixed skills (eg. SSS). Thus, am I correct to say that dual wielding would do better with skills that improve overall damage dealt over a fixed duration due to the item APS? (e.g. MoC/Overawe, enemies take 24% damage for 3 mins) Does the innate dual bonus (15% AS) make dual wielding out-damage 2Handers in this category?

I'm currently in the midst of reformulating my DMG/Mobility build and also doing a Level-by-Level plot of skill and rune progression, ending with this at Level 30:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...dfTk!dYX!aaaZa

This should take me well into the middle of Nightmare (probably Act I/II) and should I need a GTFO skill, I will swap Cyclone Strike for a defensive BoH or Serenity.

My builds post-30 will be highly reliant on the difficulty/tanky-ness of the mobs post-Normal. I suspect Exploding Palm will be of increasing importance as one enters Hell and Inferno (that X% of mob's HP in AOE damage is too sweet to give up). I should have a general layout by the day's end.

All comments and criticisms are welcome.

[redrach]

Check this thread for an extensive discussion over dual-wielding vs 2h
http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/s...Handed-Weapons

I suspect Exploding Palm will be of increasing importance as one enters Hell and Inferno (that X% of mob's HP in AOE damage is too sweet to give up).

I think that'll largely depend on how much single-target vs. AoE damage your other skills have. After all, if you do enough damage to kill a monster that's tagged with Exploding Palm with AoE damage, you've probably done enough damage to kill others around him already. The only issue would be the range of the AoE skills, and even that isn't a problem with Cyclone Strike.
But if you focus on mostly single-target skills like Fists of Thunder and... (hmm... not much else. Maybe Way of the Hundred Fists?) then Exploding Palm would effectively convert that single-target damage into AoE damage.

[Sheytan]

How can you have two primary skills activated?

[redrach]

How can you have two primary skills activated?

Go through Options and activate "Elective mode"

[Monkson]

I'm only level 10 now and will give it a try as I level up and hopefully let you know how it goes.

[Expigator]

I just hit 33 in Nightmare but I flew through Normal and have been crushing Act 1 NM with this build:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#WiXTjS!Zdc!aZbZZa

I haven't been on these forums long but I haven't seen a lot of people talk about Crippling Wave as a main attack. It's defensive third strike and AOE basically has it paying for itself. Between that and the Sweeping Wind, I love running into as many mobs as possible. I haven't purchased any items in the AH and most of my gear is either found rares or socketed blues.