I have a little monk working her way through hardcore nightmare. Currently on Act 3. I think of her as a non-splat werewolf because her play style feels much like the old D2 werewolf and preventing splat is an overall goal with her and her skill selections.
Fists of Thunder: Thunderclap hits fast and does some AOE. It is great fun to teleport all over attacking things. This gives a lot of the werewolf feel with the fast attacks and the teleport makes it feel faster even though movement speed isn't actually increased by the build. I've been running with life on hit items too lately and those just work amazing with this skill.
Seven-Sided Strike: Sudden Assualt gives me sudden burst when I need it. It works great on small numbers, but tends to be a little diffuse on large numbers. The build handles large numbers very easily though so mostly this gets saved for when there is a small number I need to hit hard. I've actually considered various other options here, but nothing really seems to work better yet. Originally I chose it mainly because it had teleport which I was loving from Thunderclap and so figured the more the merrier! It does have a bit of a Werewolf's Fury feel to it though with the multiple attacks making for big burst.
Sweeping Wind: Blade Storm handles swarms easily and adds a ton to the feel of the character. Having this running often gives me the urge to try and keep it running for as long as possible. So I'll run/teleport from pack to pack to just try and keep this up for as long as possible. Which feels much like the Werewolf and trying to keep the life steal stacks up. It is also worth noting that Thunderclap works well with this due to being able to teleport to some vases/rocks to refresh the duration whereas if you didn't have that then the items would get broke by the wind before you reached them.
Breath of Heaven: Circle of Life is the big heal both for me and for my allies. Part of the philosophy with the build is to assume you are going to take some hits. Dodge always has fail points where some damage gets through. So the idea is that you will dodge some attacks, but when one gets through you heal back up to be ready for when the next one gets through.
Mantra of Evasion: Divine Protection serves multiple purposes. I tend to keep the 3 second activation up a large amount of the time which helps me dodge more attacks. Since I'm constantly hitting it I also get a small heal from it each time which helps heal me up when I do get hit. (this is due to the passive I'll talk about later) The rune on it buys me time if I get into a bad situation and seem unable to keep up with the damage. 80% damage reduction seems pretty decent at giving me breathing space to catch back up. I also like that it affects the whole group so it could save friends I end up playing with from dying which is quite appealing in hardcore.
Serenity: Tranquility is another catch up skill. If I know a big hit is coming I can pop it early to avoid it completely or if I happen to get low I can pop it to buy time to catch back up. Getting out of freeze/jailor is also nice. I debated going with Peaceful Repose so that if I popped this while low I'd automatically get healed up more. Currently running with Tranquility though just because I can see moments in hardcore where breaking a friend out of a freeze/jailor could be more important. I'm generally liking how the build feels very group friendly.
Transcendence is part of the core of the build. It makes everything I do (other than Thunderclap) heal me for some amount. So when I am popping my mantra every three seconds I am also topping myself off from the few hits that get through. Even popping a Seven-Sided Strike heals me. So I can have lots of options to maintain my life level.
Seize the Initiative seems like a core ability to any monk. No matter what you do; you will get hit. So having your primary stat also increase armor is very nice. The more armor the less the hits that do get through hurt and the easier it is to top yourself back off from them.
Near Death Experience is the last resort option. Hopefully you never reach a point where it goes off due to all the other non-splat abilities like the Mantra and Serenity. It is yet another redundancy which since I'm playing hardcore is worth it I think.
So the trick is going to be maintaining a vit level that is high enough to keep me from dying from a few attacks getting through while maintaining my damage/dodge through dex and also finding life on hit/life per spirit spent/life steal modifiers. Not to mention maintaining two strong weapons for dual wielding since the faster this build hits the better.
Edit: I forgot to link the build. Here it is.
Fists of Thunder: Thunderclap hits fast and does some AOE. It is great fun to teleport all over attacking things. This gives a lot of the werewolf feel with the fast attacks and the teleport makes it feel faster even though movement speed isn't actually increased by the build. I've been running with life on hit items too lately and those just work amazing with this skill.
Seven-Sided Strike: Sudden Assualt gives me sudden burst when I need it. It works great on small numbers, but tends to be a little diffuse on large numbers. The build handles large numbers very easily though so mostly this gets saved for when there is a small number I need to hit hard. I've actually considered various other options here, but nothing really seems to work better yet. Originally I chose it mainly because it had teleport which I was loving from Thunderclap and so figured the more the merrier! It does have a bit of a Werewolf's Fury feel to it though with the multiple attacks making for big burst.
Sweeping Wind: Blade Storm handles swarms easily and adds a ton to the feel of the character. Having this running often gives me the urge to try and keep it running for as long as possible. So I'll run/teleport from pack to pack to just try and keep this up for as long as possible. Which feels much like the Werewolf and trying to keep the life steal stacks up. It is also worth noting that Thunderclap works well with this due to being able to teleport to some vases/rocks to refresh the duration whereas if you didn't have that then the items would get broke by the wind before you reached them.
Breath of Heaven: Circle of Life is the big heal both for me and for my allies. Part of the philosophy with the build is to assume you are going to take some hits. Dodge always has fail points where some damage gets through. So the idea is that you will dodge some attacks, but when one gets through you heal back up to be ready for when the next one gets through.
Mantra of Evasion: Divine Protection serves multiple purposes. I tend to keep the 3 second activation up a large amount of the time which helps me dodge more attacks. Since I'm constantly hitting it I also get a small heal from it each time which helps heal me up when I do get hit. (this is due to the passive I'll talk about later) The rune on it buys me time if I get into a bad situation and seem unable to keep up with the damage. 80% damage reduction seems pretty decent at giving me breathing space to catch back up. I also like that it affects the whole group so it could save friends I end up playing with from dying which is quite appealing in hardcore.
Serenity: Tranquility is another catch up skill. If I know a big hit is coming I can pop it early to avoid it completely or if I happen to get low I can pop it to buy time to catch back up. Getting out of freeze/jailor is also nice. I debated going with Peaceful Repose so that if I popped this while low I'd automatically get healed up more. Currently running with Tranquility though just because I can see moments in hardcore where breaking a friend out of a freeze/jailor could be more important. I'm generally liking how the build feels very group friendly.
Transcendence is part of the core of the build. It makes everything I do (other than Thunderclap) heal me for some amount. So when I am popping my mantra every three seconds I am also topping myself off from the few hits that get through. Even popping a Seven-Sided Strike heals me. So I can have lots of options to maintain my life level.
Seize the Initiative seems like a core ability to any monk. No matter what you do; you will get hit. So having your primary stat also increase armor is very nice. The more armor the less the hits that do get through hurt and the easier it is to top yourself back off from them.
Near Death Experience is the last resort option. Hopefully you never reach a point where it goes off due to all the other non-splat abilities like the Mantra and Serenity. It is yet another redundancy which since I'm playing hardcore is worth it I think.
So the trick is going to be maintaining a vit level that is high enough to keep me from dying from a few attacks getting through while maintaining my damage/dodge through dex and also finding life on hit/life per spirit spent/life steal modifiers. Not to mention maintaining two strong weapons for dual wielding since the faster this build hits the better.
Edit: I forgot to link the build. Here it is.