06-03-2012, 04:15 PM
So, everyone knows about the frustration that is melee in inferno. The most successful melee builds are those with some range built in. For example, barbs seem to be having a lot of success with seismic slam builds. But what about the monk?
Unfortunately, the monk doesn't have any spenders that are nearly as amazing as seismic slam. Fortunately the monk's generators are probably the best in the game. So I decided to create a build based around giving yourself good range (for a melee), strong movement control, and lots and lots of dps:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/mo...YUg!cYcbYa
Active Skills:
1. Deadly reach w/ foresight: Deadly reach's range is nothing like the screen spanning reach of true ranged characters, but it is significant, and a little extra reach goes a long way. I chose foresight because the damage buff on the third strike is significant and only needs to be refreshed every 30 seconds. It is annoying that there is no visible buff timer, so just throw it out there every once in a while.
2. Crippling wave w/ tsunami: This skill is amazing. Everyone chooses concussion, and I did too for longest while, but for this build tsunami is without equal. It gives you a 60% snare in a gigantic AoE, for free and with no cooldown. No other skill in the game does this. This is the skill that makes the build work. Strong movement control gives you the ability to choose your ground and fight on your own terms, that's what make melee viable without turning everything into a grueling fight of attrition.
3. Way of the Hundred Fists w/ windforce flurry: Pew pew LAZERS. This is why I call this the railgun build. For those who don't know, windforce flurry changes the third strike of WotHF into a fairly slow moving, piercing projectile that almost reaches the end of the screen. Not only is the range enormous, but the damage is enormous too. 250% weapon damage? Lol. As an added bonus, enemies tend to line up nicely when you snare and kite, so you get some very substantial AoE out of it as well.
4. Breath of Heaven w. Blazing Wrath: A decent on demand heal with a nice damage buff attached. Pretty standard.
5. Serenity w. Ascension: Your invulnerability bubble. Every class has something like this, but the monk has the best one. Pop it when you're in trouble and use that time to escape to dps and build some spirit. Choose ascension because the extra second of invulnerability can be a lifesaver.
6. Mantra of Conviction w. Overawe: BIG DOMAGE. 24% more damage taken (which stacks multiplicatively with your other buffs since it's a debuff on the enemies rather than a buff on yourself) which doubles to 48% for the first 3 seconds. With a fast weapon you can build enough spirit to continually maintain the 3 second buff too.
Passive skills:
1. Transcendence: This is your main source of low level healing. It won't save you from any sort of serious spike damage, but it is good enough to keep you up between serenity/breath of heaven cooldowns. Once you have the attack speed to build spirit fast enough, you want to be spamming conviction for the heals and the damage. If you can get a lot of +life on hit, you may be able to replace this with another damage mitigation passive like resolve or Seize the Initiative.
2. One with Everything: Seriously, every monk takes this. It's good. Stack up on gear with cheap single resist affixes and enjoy. Caveat, if you refuse to use AH gear, then this is much less valuable since you're at the mercy of the drop system. In that case you might want to pick something else.
3. Combination strike: Another big damage buff. +24% damage done at max strength. The way this works (and the way stacking buffs work in general) is that the first time you use a generator you get +8% damage boost. Every generator hit refreshes the buff, so you can get it up to 24% with three generator strikes and then use whatever you like to maintain it.
A note on damage:
Combination strike builds are amongst the most damaging monk builds available because of the damage boost and because monk generators do tons of dps by themselves with their fast base attack speeds.
With everything rolling, you get 57% bonus to your own damage and enemies take 48% more. That's a 2.32x damage multiplier all told, which is huge.
Combos:
Since this build is based around combos, I'm going to list the staples:
1. Deadly reachx2 + Crippling Wave: This is your most frequent opener. The first two strikes of deadly reach are quick and get you to the big AoE snare quicker.
2. Deadly reach + WotHF + Crippling wave: An alternative to 1. Has the benefit of maxing your combination strike bonus immediately.
3. Deadly reachx2 + WoTH: Your staple damage combo once you've gotten all your buffs rolling. Again, deadly reach is quick which helps you PEW PEW LAZERS as fast as possible.
Weaknesses:
This build has one giant weakness. Lack of escape skills. You have one panic button, serenity. Everything else relies on good positioning and execution with your heals, combos, and snare to make sure that panic button is available when you need it. So, if you're not comfortable playing without two or three "get out of jail" skills on your bar (and I don't blame you given some of the boss abilities in this game), this is not the build for you.
Inferno outlook:
I make no claims about viability in Inferno Act 2 and beyond. However, this build made a big difference to my survivability and kill speed in Act I. I have fairly mediocre gear (a mix of cheap AH stuff and crafts, mostly sub-level 60) so I maintain some hope that it has some legs. I would hate to have to respec into some dull tank build just to progress.
It turns out that having range is pretty good.
Unfortunately, the monk doesn't have any spenders that are nearly as amazing as seismic slam. Fortunately the monk's generators are probably the best in the game. So I decided to create a build based around giving yourself good range (for a melee), strong movement control, and lots and lots of dps:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/mo...YUg!cYcbYa
Active Skills:
1. Deadly reach w/ foresight: Deadly reach's range is nothing like the screen spanning reach of true ranged characters, but it is significant, and a little extra reach goes a long way. I chose foresight because the damage buff on the third strike is significant and only needs to be refreshed every 30 seconds. It is annoying that there is no visible buff timer, so just throw it out there every once in a while.
2. Crippling wave w/ tsunami: This skill is amazing. Everyone chooses concussion, and I did too for longest while, but for this build tsunami is without equal. It gives you a 60% snare in a gigantic AoE, for free and with no cooldown. No other skill in the game does this. This is the skill that makes the build work. Strong movement control gives you the ability to choose your ground and fight on your own terms, that's what make melee viable without turning everything into a grueling fight of attrition.
3. Way of the Hundred Fists w/ windforce flurry: Pew pew LAZERS. This is why I call this the railgun build. For those who don't know, windforce flurry changes the third strike of WotHF into a fairly slow moving, piercing projectile that almost reaches the end of the screen. Not only is the range enormous, but the damage is enormous too. 250% weapon damage? Lol. As an added bonus, enemies tend to line up nicely when you snare and kite, so you get some very substantial AoE out of it as well.
4. Breath of Heaven w. Blazing Wrath: A decent on demand heal with a nice damage buff attached. Pretty standard.
5. Serenity w. Ascension: Your invulnerability bubble. Every class has something like this, but the monk has the best one. Pop it when you're in trouble and use that time to escape to dps and build some spirit. Choose ascension because the extra second of invulnerability can be a lifesaver.
6. Mantra of Conviction w. Overawe: BIG DOMAGE. 24% more damage taken (which stacks multiplicatively with your other buffs since it's a debuff on the enemies rather than a buff on yourself) which doubles to 48% for the first 3 seconds. With a fast weapon you can build enough spirit to continually maintain the 3 second buff too.
Passive skills:
1. Transcendence: This is your main source of low level healing. It won't save you from any sort of serious spike damage, but it is good enough to keep you up between serenity/breath of heaven cooldowns. Once you have the attack speed to build spirit fast enough, you want to be spamming conviction for the heals and the damage. If you can get a lot of +life on hit, you may be able to replace this with another damage mitigation passive like resolve or Seize the Initiative.
2. One with Everything: Seriously, every monk takes this. It's good. Stack up on gear with cheap single resist affixes and enjoy. Caveat, if you refuse to use AH gear, then this is much less valuable since you're at the mercy of the drop system. In that case you might want to pick something else.
3. Combination strike: Another big damage buff. +24% damage done at max strength. The way this works (and the way stacking buffs work in general) is that the first time you use a generator you get +8% damage boost. Every generator hit refreshes the buff, so you can get it up to 24% with three generator strikes and then use whatever you like to maintain it.
A note on damage:
Combination strike builds are amongst the most damaging monk builds available because of the damage boost and because monk generators do tons of dps by themselves with their fast base attack speeds.
With everything rolling, you get 57% bonus to your own damage and enemies take 48% more. That's a 2.32x damage multiplier all told, which is huge.
Combos:
Since this build is based around combos, I'm going to list the staples:
1. Deadly reachx2 + Crippling Wave: This is your most frequent opener. The first two strikes of deadly reach are quick and get you to the big AoE snare quicker.
2. Deadly reach + WotHF + Crippling wave: An alternative to 1. Has the benefit of maxing your combination strike bonus immediately.
3. Deadly reachx2 + WoTH: Your staple damage combo once you've gotten all your buffs rolling. Again, deadly reach is quick which helps you PEW PEW LAZERS as fast as possible.
Weaknesses:
This build has one giant weakness. Lack of escape skills. You have one panic button, serenity. Everything else relies on good positioning and execution with your heals, combos, and snare to make sure that panic button is available when you need it. So, if you're not comfortable playing without two or three "get out of jail" skills on your bar (and I don't blame you given some of the boss abilities in this game), this is not the build for you.
Inferno outlook:
I make no claims about viability in Inferno Act 2 and beyond. However, this build made a big difference to my survivability and kill speed in Act I. I have fairly mediocre gear (a mix of cheap AH stuff and crafts, mostly sub-level 60) so I maintain some hope that it has some legs. I would hate to have to respec into some dull tank build just to progress.
It turns out that having range is pretty good.
