So, last night I was wondering what to do with my Monk. He never made it over 100k DPS since he simply wasn't my main, so I wondered how I could use him and still have fun with my friends and in pub games. Here he is:
Build / Profile (Gear)
WD being my main and me loving Vacuum Monks (Vortex Monks / Cyclone Strike Monks) I wanted to give back to the community by speccing mine to be the most effective in supporting a party, especially with the new monster density.
Basically, I don't die on MP10. Not on ubers, elites or the entire Fields of Misery lumped into one place (unless I'm just really lagging severely or getting way too cocky or absent). I realize tank or dodge Monks have been made plenty of times over the last year, ranging from blocking and dodging Monks, to LoH Monks to 'perma-stun' Monks. I combined it all into one Monk who's sole purpose is to be a huge CC asset.
The part of the high survivability comes through the combination of AS, Dodge, Block, DR (on gear and skills), ER (Elite Reduction), MR (Melee Reduction), AR and LoH. The main point here is to serve as not only a tank for yourself, but supply DR and Dodge for your party as well.
Certain Skills can be swapped depending on the situation. Having no Tempest Rush makes me on the slow side and I get stuck in huge piles of mobs, with me in the centre. TR would enable me to creep in front of the party and break out when needed. I would have to swap out Exploding Palm though, I feel.
Certain Skills can be swapped depending on the situation. Having no Tempest Rush makes me on the slow side and I get stuck in huge piles of mobs, with me in the centre. TR would enable me to creep in front of the party and break out when needed. I would have to swap out Exploding Palm though, I feel.
Sixth Sense can be swapped for Guiding Light. Mantra of Evasion can be swapped for Overawe, though that would lower my Dodge Chance and of the party, but would severely up the damage. It all depends on the situation.
Most of us know about Sledge Fist and in this build it's the core of the CC. With sufficient AS, you'll be stunning everything around you. Nothing new, really, but severely effective and fun to see.
The rest of the build revolves around block chance and dodge chance, obviously. We're all familiar with the Helm of Command and Justice Lantern, both being used in PvP a lot. Shieldwise; nothing has as much block chance (34% max, which is the only ones I go for), ER, MR and absorption as a Stormshield. I opted with going for a good rare shield with CC, AR, Block Chance, Life %, Dex, Vit, but seriously, I don't think it can outweigh a SS in terms of dmg mitigation. I first went with a 15% Life one but due to the Sixth Sense passive, I went with 9 CC. I might swap it for a high Dex one. (extra dodge and extra armor from Seize the Initiative)
The other big part of the build is LoH. Even though Crippling Wave has less of a high LoH proc coefficient (75%) than Thunder Clap or Way of Hundred Fists, it is still extremely high and effective. The more you're surrounded, the more you leech. However, with as much dmg mitigation as we have, single targets are still giving us back enough health to keep tanking.
Most tank Monks I've seen opt a lot for a huge health pool, which is all wel and good, but it's still not EHP ('effective' being the keyword here). The more mitigation, the less need for a huge health pool.
In terms of changes I'm opting:
- I might swap my stat pants for a nice Blackthorne's for even more LoH
- I'm looking for a bit more AR
- I might drop Critical hit Chance for certain parties, since it'll enable me to drop Sixth Sense and go for Guiding Light, which parties love!
- Thinking about maybe dropping the Vit gems for Dex, since Dex is more dodge and armor in this case
- and lastly, I'm still thinking about stacking more AS. More AS = more Crowd Control and more LoH, so I'm trying to find a balance between mitigation and AS. I'm over 2 APS now, so I do feel it's sufficient.
While this Monk is completely dependent on a party (you can't kill fast enough on MP10 to solo) it's still really fun to play. Seeing the constant blockblockblockdodgedodgestunstunstun pop up never really gets old!
TL;DR: Tank / CC Monk for Partying and Pubbing. Dmg is cringeworthy and not the point (I'm at around 5k now, haha)
