02-07-2014, 02:14 PM
From the ashes of my dead wizard, my monk has now risen up and reached Paragon 62. So, it "only" took me 3 months to get back to where I was previously. Of course, there's been other progress as well. I still have my barb, who is a bit stronger than before. And I have my DH geared for about MP3; I do occasional runs with her as well. Looking at my current monk versus former wizard, the monk is a bit sturdier. Earlier this week I did 3 A2MP7 games, killing elites and looking for keys. Sure, it was in a good group, but I still felt pretty safe. The wiz met her demise taking heavy mortar fire in an A1MP6 game. Since my monk gets closer to the action, mortar fire is rarely a concern. Some kind of plauged/vortex/arcane combo is more likely to sound the death knell for my monk. For whom does the bell toll? It tolls for the monsters-courtesy of Wave of Light.
I actually have 2 different weapon combos. I recently found a high-damage spear, which is great for WoL since it calculates only from your primary weapon's damage. Generally if I run public games at MP3 or MP4, I'll be in "bell mode," dropping as many as I can:
http://d3up.com/b/1324635/cyradis-bells
However, if I'm grouping with a CM wizard or Thunderstrike barb, I will be in "pull mode:"
http://d3up.com/b/1247504/cyradis-ls-and-wkl
This build involves grouping all of the monsters around me, allowing others to easily freeze or hammer them into submission. The WKL is there to boost Sweeping Wind and FoT damage. During that A2MP7 run I mentioned, I ended up with a hybrid. There was another, higher-damage monk in the group, and he wanted me to spam overawe; so I did. (Mantras get an extra, 3-second long boost when you first cast them. The idea of spamming overawe is to re-cast it every 3 seconds so there is a constant 48% damage boost, as opposed to just 24% normally.) I was going to add Exploding Palm to the mix, so I put on the bell weapon set, dropped Cyclone Strike, and changed to EP/Essence Burn. That really helped deal with the trash mobs, and also finished off elites more quickly. It was a fun combo. It certainly made me appreciate the sustain from Sweeping Wind. The closest I came to dying occurred when SW was not running-I'll make sure to avoid that mistake in the future.
I typically tweak things a bit for uber runs as well. The last game I played was on MP6, and we had a low-DPS barb with us. I basically was in pull mode, but with Guiding Light instead of Pacifism and the healing rune (Soothing Breeze) on Cyclone Strike. With Overawe running, I was boosting group DPS by 68%. There was also a CM wizard locking stuff down, so it made for a pretty easy game.
OK, I think I've rambled enough. There was another patch for the RoS beta last night, and the more recent expansion news has been mixed (better than troubling!). Hopefully my monk will live to see Act 5.
I actually have 2 different weapon combos. I recently found a high-damage spear, which is great for WoL since it calculates only from your primary weapon's damage. Generally if I run public games at MP3 or MP4, I'll be in "bell mode," dropping as many as I can:
http://d3up.com/b/1324635/cyradis-bells
However, if I'm grouping with a CM wizard or Thunderstrike barb, I will be in "pull mode:"
http://d3up.com/b/1247504/cyradis-ls-and-wkl
This build involves grouping all of the monsters around me, allowing others to easily freeze or hammer them into submission. The WKL is there to boost Sweeping Wind and FoT damage. During that A2MP7 run I mentioned, I ended up with a hybrid. There was another, higher-damage monk in the group, and he wanted me to spam overawe; so I did. (Mantras get an extra, 3-second long boost when you first cast them. The idea of spamming overawe is to re-cast it every 3 seconds so there is a constant 48% damage boost, as opposed to just 24% normally.) I was going to add Exploding Palm to the mix, so I put on the bell weapon set, dropped Cyclone Strike, and changed to EP/Essence Burn. That really helped deal with the trash mobs, and also finished off elites more quickly. It was a fun combo. It certainly made me appreciate the sustain from Sweeping Wind. The closest I came to dying occurred when SW was not running-I'll make sure to avoid that mistake in the future.
I typically tweak things a bit for uber runs as well. The last game I played was on MP6, and we had a low-DPS barb with us. I basically was in pull mode, but with Guiding Light instead of Pacifism and the healing rune (Soothing Breeze) on Cyclone Strike. With Overawe running, I was boosting group DPS by 68%. There was also a CM wizard locking stuff down, so it made for a pretty easy game.
OK, I think I've rambled enough. There was another patch for the RoS beta last night, and the more recent expansion news has been mixed (better than troubling!). Hopefully my monk will live to see Act 5.