What goes wrong?

[pulli]

Well since act 2 hell I started losing money - about every other elite pack I encounter I get killed 4-5 times; I'm really wondering what went wrong.

I'm currently using:

cripling wave (+concussion) as main dmg | maybe fist of thunder (thunderclap) for more mobility? got me often in troubles though.
sweeping wind (+blade storm) as right click | sometimes I swap this for wave of light (empowered) for cc
breadth of heaven (blazing ward)
serenity (ascension)
mystic ally (air ally)
Mantra of evasion (hard target)

As passives:
One with everything
transcendence
guardians path

Now what happens is I go very smooth, nothing really does anything to me. Untill I suddenly run into a bad champion group: like nightmare + frozen + arcane. Or desecration + jailer (and that together with a 'charge' type of monster that you have to evade or it 1 hits you). or -currently- waller + molten + shielding.

It always goes the same way: I get cc + damaged when stuck, so fast I need to use all my spells (heal + serenity). However before those spells are off cooldown I get cced once again.

Dieing wouldn't be so bad (as I often clear most of the group while I know I'll die); however I'm literary stuck after a death: how does one ever cope with the lack of spirit? Casting the mantra + summon will make me as weak as a minion: only doing auto attacks on melee distance - that's not going to work vs things like molten?

Now I could hope on a proc of my air pet - but that's just praying to the gods, only a 2% chance.

[Ohlmann]

It always goes the same way: I get cc + damaged when stuck, so fast I need to use all my spells (heal + serenity). However before those spells are off cooldown I get cced once again.

Dashing strike would help a lot, since it break jailer and help a lot to maneuvrate faster to avoid frozen, wall, and the diverses puddle of stuff you don't want to go in. Remove sweeping wind or air ally for that

Dieing wouldn't be so bad (as I often clear most of the group while I know I'll die); however I'm literary stuck after a death: how does one ever cope with the lack of spirit? Casting the mantra + summon will make me as weak as a minion: only doing auto attacks on melee distance - that's not going to work vs things like molten?

I don't believe it's so bad, but if you have spirit problem take an helm with ~0.5 spirit per second or something like that. It's more than enough to start combat with a lot of spirit, and once in the combat itself your spirit generator will give you the needed spirit.

(obviously, bigger value of spirit per second can be useful ; I just want to stress that even a very low value help a lot, and may be a lot cheaper and easier to find)

[kamap]

Some life on hit will also help, with around 350 and 2 aps, you can take on alot more then without any LoH.

[pulli]

Hmm what about the passive of 2 spirit per second when a karma is up? I'm now using that finding it very very handy; it enables me to kite healing a lot from spamming abilities? Haven't found any good helms though, or I would sacrifice around 2k health, 1% damage reduction, 250 damage (whatever that means) for 1.8 spirit/second in helm? (those are the factual stat differences between 2 options i have, both have a socket filled with ruby).


I'm also using dual wield atm - just to get more hits to quickly rack up the spirit storm, wonder if that's good? 1 weapon has life on hit - 94 (but that means both hits actually give me life right?)

As for dashing strike - might remove the ally; as from a guide I saw sweeping wind was amazing at lv 56?

[Ohlmann]

Hmm what about the passive of 2 spirit per second when a karma is up? I'm now using that finding it very very handy; it enables me to kite healing a lot from spamming abilities? Haven't found any good helms though, or I would sacrifice around 2k health, 1% damage reduction, 250 damage (whatever that means) for 1.8 spirit/second in helm? (those are the factual stat differences between 2 options i have, both have a socket filled with ruby).

Well, there is a lot of way better passive for the slot in my opinion. But since the spirit per second helm seem very weak in comparison, you can use it at least as experimentation. You are likely to die more often thought, because even 15% dodge is huge.

I'm also using dual wield atm - just to get more hits to quickly rack up the spirit storm, wonder if that's good? 1 weapon has life on hit - 94 (but that means both hits actually give me life right?)

As for dashing strike - might remove the ally; as from a guide I saw sweeping wind was amazing at lv 56?

Sweeping wind is a bit overblown. It's a good way to do a lot of additional damage, but you can kill thing efficiently without. Defensively, the ally will alway be a lot better than sweeping wind, so you have a choice between more damage and more defence.

[Mr Man]

What lvl are you? Your still in hell right? Just go to the AH put in lvl 60 weapon with reduced lvl requirment then purchase, hell should now be a cakewalk. Dont use the ally its useless. Dashing strike can definitely help with jailer. If you buy some crit chance items you can use quickening(FoT) to gain a lot of spirit, this will also help with cyclone when you get it.

[pulli]

I'm not going to trade with someone who can't verify where the items were dropped. So I won't use the auction house; besides I really hate it when I depend on others, so I'd like to not buy my items at all except once I know I CAN do it with my own items.

And how is ally useless? It is a very distraction for units with slow but powerful attacks - I can also spam it to heal up instaneous.

I finally beat hell act 2 - decided to level a bit from 53-56 which helped a lot it seems?

[Such Violent Storms]

Build combos:

Defensive:
DR - Keen Eye
Blinding Flash
Serenity
Breath of Heaven - Blazing Wrath
Sweeping Wind OR Earth Ally
Mantra of Healing - Time of Need OR Evasion - Hard Target (if using Keen Eye, buffing Resists with Time of Need provides a much larger reduction than buffing with Hard Target; it has to do with how the game calculates resists/armor)

*Only use Thunderclap if you have lots of life/hit
*Fists of Thunder is still an option if you use Quickening or Lightning Flash
*Crippling Wave is now ultimately inferior regardless of rune because you can't attack fast enough since IAS nerf to generate adequate spirit with it.

I personally use Thunderclap on left click and Deadly Reach with Foresight OR Keen Eye on right click. Thunderclap does the most damage, and I have over 1k life/hit. Deadly Reach is more than a buff, it allows you to kite mobs by holding shift (key which makes you stand still) and clicking. You don't need to alternate for each strike, just use one or the other depending on situation.

hope this helps,
~ guy with two level 60 inferno monks

[pulli]

Hmm I see you didn't point cripling wave? - Isn't that a very good skill, as it hits multiple targets (and thus multiplies the life on hit proc)? Also the slow/damage reduction is very versatile - though I have to say its short reach & no mobility is quite bad.


Found a decent fist with 1.22 mantra regen and that indeed is "enough" to swap out that passive for 15% dodge. BUt what about the passive that reduces the dmg by 75% if you're cced?

[Terenas]

Hmm I see you didn't point cripling wave? - Isn't that a very good skill, as it hits multiple targets (and thus multiplies the life on hit proc)? Also the slow/damage reduction is very versatile - though I have to say its short reach & no mobility is quite bad.

As SVS said, Crippling Wave is slow (well, it is normal, like everything else but FoT) and therefore it does not generate spirit fast enough. Also Crippling Wave has worse LoH coefficient than, say, FoT -> here

Found a decent fist with 1.22 mantra regen and that indeed is "enough" to swap out that passive for 15% dodge. BUt what about the passive that reduces the dmg by 75% if you're cced?

I never took it, but I think that your best option is trying to use your Blind, Serenity and heal to your advantage: go to mob, get a combo in, blind, get another combo in, heal or mantra spam if you get hit, hit a little more, pop serenity to get another combo in or to escape or break CC if needed. And all this while avoiding desecration, plague pool, lasers, molten lava...Serenity is your only CC breaker and you can use it while CC'd, use it wisely. Blind can actually stop the attack animation of the enemy, so you can use it to stop them while they're doing a dangerous attack. If you need more CC you can try the Fear rune of Breath of Heaven (Penitent Flame) to fear the mobs for 1,5 seconds.