1.0.3 Act 3 build, DEMOLISHING everything! Seriously, Act 3 is a cakewalk now.

[Thehealthygamer]

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...gih!YXU!YcbYcc

Here is another tweak for everyone's consideration. I personally like mantra of conviction overawe for the massive dmg boost (for party especially) rather than backlash but it definitely has synergy with dashing strike. Also blind, blazing wrath, and whichever serenity you prefer are interchangable as well depending on preference. I've used this build for a while, pre-ias nerf and only with a one hand wep and shield, but am liking the massive increase in crit dmg from two weapons idea.

If we are increasing crit chance by a massive amount for synergy with cyclone i thought what other crit based skills are there? Blazing fists is definitely a good skill (and now an even more important source of ias) but I looked at the uses of quickening. With say a 33 percent crit chance that means on average every 3 strikes of a combo you generate another 15 spirit, that works out to be about 11 spirit per strike (nice). This is a huge boost to spirit generation that you dont get anywhere else.

This means that you can spirit dump into skills such as your mantra and also because of massive spirit gen, dashing strike. This TOTALLY improves the value of life per spirit spent. Usually on a weapon you can get a max of lets say 1000 (not sure) life per hit or so and 100? life per spirit spent. Whats better for life regen? If both have equivalent values 1000-100, 700-70, life per spirit spent will only generate .6 of what life per hit does as each strike you only get 6 spirit generated. With quickening this all changes suddenly you are getting 11 spirit per strike.

This means with life per spirit spent weapons, which are generally a lot cheaper than loh weapons, become quite viable. This also means trancendence becomes equivalent to 600 or so loh.

Add in dashing strike as a movement skill. I think you need a movement skill and if you cant take Fot I would take dashing strike. I take the added dodge bonus as I think its the most useful.

These two skills while both movement skills are very different from each other (and i prefer dashing strike). FoT is shorter, on the first strike of a combo generator, and puts you in front of the target you are aiming at. Dashing strike can go across the map, can be used anytime, costs spirit, and puts you at the back of the target you aim for. It takes some adjusting when you first start using dashing strike compared to FoT, if there is a pack of enemies running toward you dont aim with dashing strike for the first one as that will put you behind the first guy and into the middle of a pack.

The situations I find myself dying in are usually when I am blocked by alot of enemies or have been walled up by a boss, its these situations that dashing strike is SO much better. While FoT states its a teleport it is still bound by pathfinding problems and doesnt work like one, when hemmed in there is no way to get out but to blow through your cooldowns and hope to kill enough that you can create a space to move out of. Dashing strike has no such problems with moving through enemies and it puts you at the back of the enemy you target with an easy exit path.

With so much spirit gen and mobility from dashing strike it is easy to combo a champion dashing strike to the other side of the champ pack, while the target is rooted then turning around combo and rinse repeat. They cant ever catch you as they are constantly turning this way and that like a tennis spectator.

With a move to two weapons I might think about swapping in dodge passive for defense but i havent done the math to work out which is better.

Bought some life on spirit spent items today and testing this out. Seems to have promise.

[Thehealthygamer]

Bought some life on spirit spent items today and testing this out. Seems to have promise.

Build definitely has promise, try picking up a 40+ life on spirit spent weapon, a 20+ life on spirit spent helm, stacking crit, and then using a shield and running a crit/transcendence build. Pretty baller. Will make a vid soon

[Such Violent Storms]

I bought a Tzo Krin's Gaze with 29life/spirit on it, 6% attack speed, some resist and vitality. I like it a lot. Now I just need a fist weapon with about 40life/spirit as you said. 130life/spirit is awesome, still debating what to use as the spammer. Thunderclap is of course the main spender, but Quickening is also very awesome. I've got 1.8aps and it's pretty quick.

[Ohlmann]

Thunderclap is of course the main spender, but Quickening is also very awesome. I've got 1.8aps and it's pretty quick.

Don't you mean generator ?

[MrNajsman]

Kestegs: Try it with a +crit shield, those come fairly cheap and can boost your crit by a lot, allowing you to get a quick feel for the build. The magic kicks in at 23% crit or somesuch.

Whats the secret behind this 23% breakpoint? Is that the lowest crit chance needed for the Cyclones to be really effective?

[iESCAPISM]

Whats the secret behind this 23% breakpoint? Is that the lowest crit chance needed for the Cyclones to be really effective?

It's not as much of a breakpoint as it is a "sweet spot", really. Below 20% crit you won't have as many cyclones, and you won't really see the charm of the build with less crit% than that, I'd say. It's a subjective notion, not a theorycrafted one. All I'm saying is that you need 20+ percent to start getting a real feel of the build, as opposed to 10 or 15%. If you can get to 30 without gimping the rest of your stats too badly then you're in for a lot of fun!

As a side-note: In order to progress I personally took some advices from the other posters in this thread and swapped WotHF for DS[Quicksilver] and changed my Mantra of Evasion into [Hard Target], since I lack the LoH to focus more on offensive stats. Something I'd like to try though is use Mantra of Retribution with either [Retaliation] or [Collateral Damage]. For these two runes to be attractive though they would need to
Procc Cyclone on Crits (ranged proccs in the case of Retaliations and AoE-crit ones in the case of Collateral Damage)
MoR needs to procc even when enemies fail to damage me with their attacks, of I Dodge or Block their strikes.
Anyone tried this and care to offer some enlightenment on the subject?


I also tried it with [Overawe] for Act1 farming and if you outgear the content then it definitely speeds up the killing, since most things plain die before they have a chance to hit-Dodge-Backlash you. Might want to try that, Healthy, since you seem to focus a lot on the offensive stats and bursting enemies down.

[Thehealthygamer]

It's not as much of a breakpoint as it is a "sweet spot", really. Below 20% crit you won't have as many cyclones, and you won't really see the charm of the build with less crit% than that, I'd say. It's a subjective notion, not a theorycrafted one. All I'm saying is that you need 20+ percent to start getting a real feel of the build, as opposed to 10 or 15%. If you can get to 30 without gimping the rest of your stats too badly then you're in for a lot of fun!

As a side-note: In order to progress I personally took some advices from the other posters in this thread and swapped WotHF for DS[Quicksilver] and changed my Mantra of Evasion into [Hard Target], since I lack the LoH to focus more on offensive stats. Something I'd like to try though is use Mantra of Retribution with either [Retaliation] or [Collateral Damage]. For these two runes to be attractive though they would need to
Procc Cyclone on Crits (ranged proccs in the case of Retaliations and AoE-crit ones in the case of Collateral Damage)
MoR needs to procc even when enemies fail to damage me with their attacks, of I Dodge or Block their strikes.
Anyone tried this and care to offer some enlightenment on the subject?


I also tried it with [Overawe] for Act1 farming and if you outgear the content then it definitely speeds up the killing, since most things plain die before they have a chance to hit-Dodge-Backlash you. Might want to try that, Healthy, since you seem to focus a lot on the offensive stats and bursting enemies down.

I think a high crit build with overawe and a bunch of gold find gear in Act 1 might make a really killer farming build, going to test this out later this week.

And just want to say that this forum is AMAZING.

The level of discussion and insight here just blows me away. Compared to some other forums I post on... that shall remain unnamed... it is night and day. It's like here people are interested in learning and helping, and this certain other forum, people are more interested in pointing out all the reasons why they're better than you. What a great community here.

[Mehmet]

I'm having a lot of problems in act 2 and beyond. I have tried using lower damage LoH weapons as well as LoSS with higher damage. Also tried using a shield. The problem is i get one-shotted by anything with desecration, plague, arcane sentry or molten. I mean I die instantly. This is with 480-650 all res, 6k armor and 45k hp. I'm getting bored with act 1 farming and have made a wizard in hope of having an easier time farming act 2-3 so I can get back on my monk. Bleh

Anyway, thanks for the guides. Really helpful to get some inspiration for builds

[Thehealthygamer]

Tried out the advice of using WoTHF. Here are the results

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQCNfZz8Mh4



Monk Dual wield attack speed/crit build, you get 30% natural IAS with this build.

[iESCAPISM]

The problem I find when using WotHF myself is that if it's my only generator/main attack it generates too few Cyclones and has a much weaker % LoH modifier than Thunderclap. But since you added a summon I suppose that takes some pressure off of you anyways - it obviously works ;J

Thanks for taking the advice on and demonstrating how it works and feels in your gear. It's useful to a lot of us.