A few days ago I managed to solo all of Inferno and since then I have been getting spammed with with questions from fellow monk friends. Thus, I have decided to make a brief guide to help other monks through inferno.
Part 1 - ResistsResists are the key to any monk build as most of you know. Melee in general have an extreme disadvantage right now because skilled ranged classes can kite all day and don't need near the amount of resist we do.
To put things into perspective, I had almost 1200 resist to all when soloing Diablo. Which leads to my next topic-how monks should gear and spec to maximize their resistance.
The key to resistances as a monk is using the passive One of Everything. This passive will allow you to get your resistances fairly high. The passive allows all your resistances to be equal to your highest one. Thus when gearing to abuse this passive, try to pick one element you want to stack (probably easiest if you pick the element you are already highest with) and look for gear that has resistance to that element on it and resist to all elements.
So for instance, if fire resistance is your highest, if you get gear with 50 resistance to fire and 50 resistance to all elements, you are actually adding 100 resistance to all elements. As you can see for yourself, abusing this can really add up.
The next step to maximizing your resistance is using Mantra of Healing with the rune Time of Need. This will boost your resistance by 20%, which can be a very large number as your resistances get higher.
Part 2 - Builds
The two builds I used for soloing are:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#WYjXgQ!ZYU!ZacYYc
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#bZjXgQ!aYU!aZcYYc
Guide continued after the page break..
The first one is only for if you have your resists at a decent mark. It allows you to be in melee range and take hits. It is meant to reduce the amount of damage you take to a minimum. Please note though, even though we are a melee class, there is no amount of resist I have found that will let you continuously sit in melee range. You going to have to kite sometimes until your cooldowns come back up.
My usual rotation against high level inferno mobs is to open with a blind-> serenity ->breath of heaven (to get your spirit back and heal) ->spam mantra of healing ->repeat. Also make sure to always have your ally up. For bosses this rotation is similar however I tend to save my blind and serenity to stop or avoid boss mechanics. Blind is also great if you need to get your ally back up.
The second spec is meant for people who are struggling with resist. This is a kite build. The idea is to have your ally up and use deadly reach to get hits in while running. If mobs get too close, use your lashing tail kick to peel and slow them down. This is also a great spec for most of the bosses in inferno.
As you can see I use ally in both builds. I think the ally is crucial because it takes aggro away from you, thus minimizing damage on you. Also the 10% HP boost is pretty nice.
Part 3 - Gear
The order of stats you should focus on is:
1) Resists
2) Vitality
3) Dexterity
4) Attack Speed
I can not stress enough to focus on resists before anything else. When I soloed I only had 12k dps. DPS is not going to keep you alive. Once you have decent stats, my biggest suggestion to you is maximizing attack speed without sacrificing resists.
When weapon shopping look for fists or daggers only which have a attack speed bonus on them. This is because the faster you attack, the faster you generate spirit. With an excess of spirit you will always have enough spirit to use your crucial skills when needed and be able to spam mantra of healing.
That is pretty much all the tips I have. The only other tip I have is that in regards to groups, I find that grouping with a barb is very beneficial. Ask him to use his resistance shout. When stacked with your mantra your resistances will get to absurd amount (2k to all resistances is doable).
Since both of you will have low dps, ask him to go earthquake (and beserker too if has decent gear). With this combo you can pull whole zones and he can earthquake them down. If you have any questions or would like to add to this guide please feel free to post.
