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UPDATE: Now that 1.0.4 has settled down, I've revised the OP. Nothing changes about skill selection but the price of rares have dropped significantly with all of those crazy legendaries running around. The last patch also made late inferno easier in general, making it even cheaper to make an act 3-4 viable monk.
This guide will show you how to build your act 2+ inferno monk around life steal. The goal is to create a powerful, well rounded character that can use the same skill set in for both solo farming and group play. By avoiding some frequently overpriced items you can spend your hard earned AH funds on cheaper weapons, better armor, and be a make a more efficient overall monk.
Why life steal over life on hit?
Life steal weapons are less popular and harder to build around than LOH weapons, making them less expensive on the AH.
Life steal’s healing scales up with all damage upgrades while LOH only scales with attack speed. The money saved from a weapon can go towards more crit chance, crit damage, and overall better stats from armor pieces. Any damage upgrade can be a survivability upgrade too!
Although LOH gives the best healing when fighting a single target, life steal becomes more effective when using AOE skills against multiple targets. Building around skills that deal AOE damage mean faster, safer farming in an easy act. A noticeable increase in healing against multiple targets can even help in more difficult acts, often allowing a monk to get completely surrounded and survive.
Life steal weapons are best paired with a shield for the tremendous increase in survivability while AOE tanking. LOH builds want a second LOH weapon for the dual wield attack speed bonus. Another weapon will always be more expensive than a shield.
When all of these combine, a monk avoids unnecessary deaths and becomes more consistent character overall. Who cares if that damage number on your character sheet is a little bit lower? Less deaths means you can grind out those paragon levels and maybe even MF up a valuable legendary faster than any alternative build.
Skills
Fist of Thunder - Thunderclap
Blinding Flash - Faith in the Light
Breath of Heaven - Blazing Wrath
Serenity - Ascension
Sweeping Wind - Cyclone
Mantra of Conviction - Overawe
Passives: One with Everything, Seize the Initiative, Fleet Footed
Thunderclap has the best single target damage of the monk’s auto attacks, comes with a decent AOE effect, generates spirit the fastest, gives an important mobility increase, and can occasionally escape a complete surround with a careful teleport. Crippling Wave and Way of the Hundred Fists can never really compare.
Blinding Flash, the monk’s best crowd control skill, gains even more utility when the Faith in the Light damage bonus combines with life steal. The percent increase in damage means a sudden spike in healing.
Breath of Heaven - Blazing Wrath is a damage buff first and a healing skill second. Once again, a percent increase in damage supports the life steal strategy.
Serenity - Ascension gives invulnerability for an additional second, giving additional time to attack and steal life while belligerently standing in arcane lasers and desecration. Peaceful Repose may be better with some other builds but does not do enough here.
Sweeping Wind provides the monk’s best source of AOE damage. Cyclone becomes the most damaging rune around 15-20% crit chance and will continue to deal more AOE damage as you continue to improve crit chance through gear, much like life steal. Always remember to save up spirit such that the Blazing Wrath and Faith in the Light damage buffs are on when activating Sweeping Wind. The damage for Sweeping Wind will keep your damage on activation even if the buffs fall off.
Mantra of Conviction - Overawe gives a huge damage increase to the monk and his whole party. A life steal monk is at his best after building up Sweeping Wind then activating Mantra of Conviction and Blinding Flash at the same time, supporting his ability to deal AOE burst damage with burst healing and holding back on Serenity as long as possible. For this build it's a better choice for surviving in late inferno undergeared than Mantra of Evasion - Backlash.
One with Everything is easily the monk’s best passive skill, so good you want to carefully choose every piece of gear around it. I prefer lightning resist for my OWE resist, because that was the most important one in Diablo 2. Fire and physical are considered the most appealing resists to a demon hunter, so they may have some additional cost associated with them. Arcane resist comes in third because of the extremely deadly arcane enchanted property on elite mobs. Beyond that no single resist stands out as the least expensive to collect for a monk.
Seize the Initiative gives armor for additional dexterity, giving additional damage reduction for stacking your primary damage stat. This is a mandatory passive for all monks and is second only to One with Everything.
Fleet Footed has recently emerged as the #3 passive for a monk in 1.0.4. Bonuses from gear can get you up to 25% max, but this passive has been buffed to ignore this cap. A 12% bonus from rare boots, a 12% bonus from a legendary in another slot, and this passive will take a monk to a 34% movement speed bonus. Not only will this leave most demon hunters and fast elite packs in the dust, movement speed subtly increases speed in farming for both items and paragon exp.
The honorable mention spec:
Deadly Reach - Keen Eye
Blinding Flash - Faith in the Light
Breath of Heaven - Blazing Wrath
Serenity - Ascension
Sweeping Wind - Cyclone
Mantra of Conviction - Intimidation
Passives: One with Everything, Seize the Initiative, Resolve
This spec helps an undergeared monk get through inferno act 3 or 4 for the first time. Deadly Reach gives the monk the beast AOE damage from an auto attack, which combines perfectly with the Resolve passive to spread the damage debuff over groups of enemies. The Intimidation runes throws another damage debuff into the mix while the Keen Eye rune gives additional armor to a monk who lacks extremely high resists. All together, these skills let a monk fight by throwing a few attacks before falling back to carefully avoid the complete surrounds that would normally be an unavoidable death.
Other mentions:
If you truly feel movement speed isn't important, use Transcendence over Fleet Footed for the third passive. I consider it the #4 passive overall.
You're playing in hardcore? Use near Death Experience as the third passive. Play however you like, but if you trigger this skill it means you've gone too far. Report to time immediately for a time out, reflect on your reckless behavior, and get back in there one the debuff falls off.
Gear Selection
Rather than throwing around arbitrary numbers and goals for gear selection (ie: 800 resist all minimum for act 3), gearing your monk should be done piece by piece. If you could take a level 62-63 base rare for every slot then assign it 5 modifiers of your choice with median rolls, you would have a pretty strong character of any class. Everyone could farm act 2, beat act 3 with some effort, and get through almost anything in act 4. This list will show what those items look like for a life steal monk within a reasonable budget.
Getting the most out of your character means buying items that are less popular, look less sexy to a demon hunter, and may be better than what they seem on the surface. Some high value stats that are invisible to a demon hunter include bonus armor, life regen, and your chosen OWE resistance. Some bonus properties like pickup radius, crowd control reduction, or a chance for an effect on hit can sneak in as a sixth modifier for some pieces.
Always remember to distinguish between a single stat modifier and a dexterity/vitality modifier. Single stat modifiers will give more of their single stat. The coveted dexterity, vitality, dexterity/vitality roll makes for some of the best items in the game, so we’re sticking to 2 primary stat modifiers max per armor piece for our budget.
All below example items were found within the listed budget while writing this guide in 1.0.3. You can get much better stuff now. The example weapon was actually used by my monk completing act 4 inferno for the first time.
Weapon
Budget: 3mil gold
Damage modifier
Damage modifier
Life steal
Critical hit damage (50% minimum) OR socket
Dexterity
Bonus: More damage, vitality, dexterity/vitality
The weapon, the most important and expensive part of any character, is the only slot that can have life steal. Watch out for the perfect 3.0%. Any level 63 base will do because we don’t care that much about attack speed. 2 modifiers on your weapon will go to directly increasing the DPS. The weapon is also the best source of critical hit damage, making it the second most desirable stat for a weapon. Base critical hit damage and a socket on the same weapon will make it extremely expensive, so it’s better value to get dexterity as a fifth stat. Monks on an extreme budget can ignore dexterity on the weapon for a 4 modifier life steal/crit damage weapon with solid DPS.
Shield
Budget: 2mil gold
Dexterity
Critical hit chance
OWE resist
Bonus: Vitality, dexterity/vitality, life regen, life %, all resist, socket, armor
There’s a lot going on with the shield, and the sheer number of valuable mods on this slot make it hard to stay within budget for a 5 modifier rare. It’s best to avoid a shield with a block increase modifier and look for a level 63 base shield with a solid base block rate. The level 63 block amount makes up for a lot. This leaves room on the shield for crit chance, OWE resist, and dexterity before looking for a fourth and fifth modifier.
Helm
Budget: 1.5mil gold
Dexterity/Vitality
Critical hit chance
OWE resist
Socket
Bonus: Vitality, dexterity, all resist, armor, spirit regeneration, skill bonuses
The most valuable stats for the helm slot are actually the crit chance and the socket. It's worth spending a bit more on a helm over other armor pieces both both. Use an amethyst or topaz depending on the situation. Helms can have some exotic modifiers like Fists of Thunder damage, Sweeping Wind damage, and passive spirit regen, but it’s probably best just to stick with primary stats and resists if you have the choice.
Chest
Budget: 1.5mil gold
Vitality
Dexterity/Vitality
Sockets (3)
OWE resist
Bonus: Dexterity, armor, all resist, life regen, % life, % damage reduction
Chest pieces can have more vitality than most armor pieces, making the double stack on vitality important for getting the most out of this slot. For some reason chest pieces tend to be more expensive than any other armor with particularity high price for 3 sockets. Don’t be afraid to avoid sockets completely and substitute in a more subtle bonus modifier to save gold.
Pants
Budget: 1mil gold
Vitality
Dexterity/Vitality
OWE resist
All resist
Bonus: Dexterity, armor, life regen, sockets (2)
Like chests, pants can have extra vitality. Unlike a chest pants can only have 2 sockets and less interesting bonus mods, making this an ideal piece for stacking all resist/OWE resist without spending too much.
Shoulders
Budget: 750k gold
Dexterity/Vitality
OWE resist
All resist
% Life
Bonus: Dexterity, vitality, armor, life regen
Shoulders don’t have any expensive offensive stats, making it the cheapest slot to get a % life modifier and another good choice for stacking all resist/OWE resist.
Belt
Budget: 500k gold
Dexterity/Vitality
OWE resist
All resist
% Life
Bonus: Dexterity, vitality, armor, life regen
Belts have almost the same ideal properties as shoulders and are even less expensive on average.
Bracers
Budget: 500k gold
Dexterity/Vitality
Critical hit chance
OWE resist
All resist
Bonus: Dexterity, vitality, armor, life regen, % damage reduction
Bracers are an extremely inexpensive source of critical hit chance, which is the most important stat for the slot. Even with the attractive offensive stat it’s easy to find decent bracers with all resist/OWE resist and primary stats.
Gloves
Budget: 750k gold
Dexterity
Attack speed
Critical hit chance OR critical hit damage
OWE resist
Bonus: Dexterity/vitality, vitality, all resist, armor, life regen
Gloves can have the trifecta of offensive stats: attack speed, critical hit chance, and critical hit damage. On top of that gloves can have the more dexterity the most armor pieces, making good ones a target for mega rich demon hunters. Fortunately, 6 property level 62 gloves are among the best craft recipes in the game so the AH should always be stocked with enough for you to score a cheap 5 property one with an OWE resist. This is the only slot on monk where you can justify going without vitality.
Boots
Budget: 750k gold
Dexterity
Dexterity/vitality
OWE resist
Movement speed
Bonus: All resist, life regen, armor
Movement speed is essential, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Like gloves, boots can have additional dexterity over other armor pieces. Stacking dexterity here is more important than stacking resists.
Amulet
Budget: 1mil gold
Dexterity/vitality
Attack speed
OWE resist
Critical hit damage OR critical hit chance
Bonus: Dexterity, vitality, armor, % life, all resist, socket, damage
Amulets can have a wide range of properties, but the ideal amulet will resemble your gloves. Don’t be afraid to search for amulets below a level 60 requirement on the AH.
Rings
Budget: 1.5mil gold
Attack speed OR critical hit chance
OWE resist
Dexterity OR vitality OR dexterity/vitality
Bonus: Critical hit damage, life on hit, armor, all resist, % life, socket, damage
A wide range of possible modifiers along with double the demand make rings more expensive than amulets. It’s totally acceptable to take a 4 property ring without either dex or vitality. Just make sure it has at least one from attack speed, critical hit chance, or critical hit damage. Although not a priority for the slot, picking up a bit of life on hit from a ring isn’t a bad idea if there are no other options within budget.
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Originally Posted by Such Violent Storms
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