Hi all, I've seen a lot of complaining about monks in Inferno and people complaining that melee in general is not viable. I just wanted to inspire the community to believe that you don't need to be a full time player or real money spender to get through inferno. All you need is the ability to itemize, budget your income well, and pick the skills that fit your play style best.
I wanted to write a guide describing how I got through Inferno (Diablo and all). The build I used, the game changing items I bought, and general gear selection strategies. I also wanted to toss in some general auction house strategies that you may find helpful.
Key Concepts
Getting the most out of your primary
Sweeping wind = Free Dps
More spirit than you can shake a stick at
Mitigating damage through mobility and well timed invulnerability as well as resistance
Maximizing dps time and countering burst through use of cc, mobility, and invulnerability.
Skill Selection and explanation
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#aYgiTh!ZXU!acYZYa
This is the build I used from Act I on. I'm convinced that it truly is the best build out there.
My League of Legends partner and I came up with it and named it:
"The build of answers" because it effectively counters every gimmicky fight in this game along with nearly every combination of affixes that elites can throw at you.
The best part of it is that the build can be used to kite or to stick on to ranged targets.
This makes it great if you are hunting down a treasure goblin or ranged elite or if you are kiting a pack of fire chainers.
I'll now go through each skill and explain it's uses:
Fists of Lightening: Thunderclap
Who would of thought that the very first primary with the very first rune would be what I'd stick with all the way through? Well...I did. The primary is literally the most broken thing monks have going for them. The skill does more damage per second than any other primary, while providing great mobility, while damaging in AoE, while CCing everything in AoE, while generating more spirit than any other primary. And...it proc's life on hit twice in AoE per attack. You can also jump over projectiles and damaging magic affects with the teleport and not take damage.
Blinding Flash: Faith in the Light
This skill is exceptional at providing burst damage, while also opening up an opportunity to freely deal damage. The Faith in the Light rune will proc twice for each Fists of Lightning strike and works off the AoE component to clear a crowd in no time or provide exception burst damage against a single target.
Blinding Flash also is great for interruption, especially against bosses. "Oh you wanted to do your signature move Diablo? NOT TODAY!" It makes Hammer Lords and other monsters with big swings very manageable.
Serenity: Ascension
I've always run ascension over PR. It's just plain better. The extra second of invulnerability will provide you the ability to make more attacks to gain more life and will out weigh the heal once you have a decent amount of life on hit while effectively dealing more damage. The cd also begins refreshing upon activation. Longer duration means a shorter CD.
Sweeping Wind: Blade Storm
This skill makes it possible for a monk with 20k dps to out damage a DH or Wizard with 4 times the damage on their paper doll. It's steady, reliable, free dps in AoE. While kiting mobs I constantly burn them with this skill. It's a necessary part of an inferno monk's kit IMO. It also will constantly apply and refresh resolve even while CC'd.
Seven Sided Strike: Sustained Attack
This skill is the most under-rated skill in the monk's kit. I've used it since I unlocked it and it's allowed me to win. It's a cleanse, heal, aggro shed, burst dps, ranged dps, invulnerability skill all wrapped into one.
The most obvious benefit is the invulnerability. You can avoid an arcane sentry, molten explosion/frozen explosion, a big swing, or a projectile by timing the skill well. With some life on hit (or spirit spent) it also will give you a decent heal. The damage it deals is phenomenal against a single target or a target that is hovering over an area that can't be accessed (or on the other side of a wall). Monsters also forget you exist and go chasing after your Merc (or mystic ally if you run one) which is very handy if you get yourself surrounded.
The ability is also great for keeping your 3 stack of sweeping wind and giving the enemy elites a poke at range.
I enjoy sustained attack because it provides me with the tool more often. With a 7 second shorter cd I can alternate between this and serenity to enjoy cc immunity/burst damage immunity every 5 seconds over the course of an extended fight. That strategy counters almost every boss in this game and many elites!
Mantra of Evasion: Hard Target
This mantra is excellent to keep your armor on par with your resistance. Right now, self buffed, I'm enjoying 72.80% mitigation from armor and 72.84% from resistance. It closes that gap between your resistances and armor nicely and makes grabbing dex with seize the initiative more rewarding.
The mantra itself is also really amazing. It gives me about 10% more dodge passively and an additional 9% or so when I activate it to give me a 54% chance to dodge in a pinch. That's huge against melee elites as you can use the active on this mantra to avoid damage spikes between cds. This is way way more useful than the pathetic life regen of MoH with time of need, especially since it has a broken active atm (Blizz plz fix).
One with Everything: Mandatory! Stacking a single resistance is a cheap and effective way to get a lot of stats for not a lot of gold. Getting 40+ of the same resist on each piece is not expensive but is very very effective and even more cost effective.
Seize the initiative: This skill scales with you. Upon entering inferno, chances are that its not going to be as good for you as Transcendence. Upon achieving 1000 dex you should consider switching Transcendence out for Seize as it will effectively decrease incoming damage by 25% at that point.
Resolve: This ability is the tried and true passive that I've used since normal mode. At no point should it ever be replaced unless you are rolling a Dw/ 2-hander glass cannon spec. At low levels, it vastly out performs Seize and at high levels it vastly out performs transcendence. So it always has a spot in your build.
Itemizing your Monk
First off, every so often, go to the AH and don't buy anything. Instead go to the sell tab and look at each piece of gear. Honestly question each piece's strength and try and replace the weakest link.
IT IS OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE:
1) Keep your weapon up to date (dps / attack speed is all that matters)
2) Keep your Amulet up to date (600 life on hit amulets out perform EVERYTHING! and they are vastly less expensive than IAS amulets. (It doesn't even need other stats tbh.))
3) Keep your Shield up to date (It is huge to keep your armor value up to par, AND to have a shield with a good block percentage AND amount)
4) If those 3 pieces are sitting nicely, then upgrade your weakest slot.
What to look for in a weapon:
First off, base attack speed. Monks should really only be using daggers and fist weapons unless they find something with 25% IAS on it. You don't want to use anything with an attack rate under 1.4. Ideally, you want something with an attack rate over 1.6.
DON'T WASTE YOUR GOLD ON LoH WEAPONS! The reason these are so over priced is because the people buying them are guys that have Diablo on farm and have tons of gold for upgrades. It's a huge distraction for anyone progressing and a huge waste of gold.
You can get plenty enough LoH using your ring and amulet slots. Again,
DO NOT SACRIFICE DPS FOR LoH!
Jewelry:
Get a 600 LoH amulet. The is the most affordable slot to get lots of LoH. If you can find one with good other stats and your stacked resist, all the better. Don't waste 12 million on a poorly rolled Blackthorne's Medal!!!
You can find very reasonably priced rings with other stats and 250+ LoH on AH. I'd recommend finding rings with your stacked resist + LoH (dex is expensive in this slot and IAS is way way expensive [but really good if you can find it]).
Armor:
Try to get stuff with 40+ resist of your stacked resist. It's cheap and effective!
Also look for all resist, dex, and if possible vit or %life
However! The amount of each is more important than having all of them. People will try to charge you 10 million for a piece with 100 dex and 100 vit on it. But will only charge you 3 million for a piece with the same stats but 200 vit or 200 dex on it. Keep an eye on these things!
I have 4 dedicated "HP" slots with minimal dex and the rest of my gear has no HP on it at all but tons of dex.
AND I SAVED TONS OF MONEY DOING IT THAT WAY!
Some things to look for when building gear:
A socket and % damage for your primary on your helm. The rest of the stats don't have to be anything special but these two are really powerful! I have 9% bonus damage to FoL and 15% extra hp on my helm, some resist and minimal dex and vit +armor for my helm. I spent 900k on it and I couldn't find an upgrade for 10 mill...
Movement speed on boots: I run 12% MS on some sage's seekers that I picked up for under a million. Move speed is so so effective for kiting, dodging things manually, and keeping your dps in time high.
Attack speed on gloves: This is a very easy way to get lots of dps for not a huge cost.
Block and crit on shield: block is a given. Crit on gloves will cost you millions with a high amount of dex and IAS. But it goes for a fraction of the cost on shields since DH don't run shields. It's a great way to improve your dps!
Here is the compendium done by Unleashed. Use it!
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5573705891
When itemizing the following things are most important (in corresponding order):
1) Life on Hit: Since your weapon won't have this, you have 3 slots to work with. Use all three of them to get your LoH above 1k.
2) IAS: An expensive little stat, best picked up on your weapon and gloves. Rings with both LoH and IAS are over costed, avoid them unless you find a reasonably priced gem. Keep your attack's per second around or above 2.
3) The resist you are stacking: Cheap and effective. It's the central focus across your armor slots!
4) Dex: Armor, dodge chance, and Damage. What's not to love?
5) Resist all: (int/9 counts) valuable in large doses in combination with 40+ of the resist you are stacking to get that resist all stat up there.
6) Armor: (strength counts) Dex is the best source of armor but +armor and high base armor is beneficial.
6) Vitality/%life: Use both in combination for max effect. Look for a few items with massive amounts of HP plus your stacked resist. Get your health pool over 28k and focus on your resistances. Anything that can 1 shot you with high resists and armor at this hp pool is slow enough or predictable enough to avoid. High resists and low hp means inflated value of LoH, healing (potions), and block values, which is exactly what we are going for.
Another fun and useful stat to consider:
Chance on hit to CC. These items make bosses a joke. The best one is freeze (on belt) as it works literally on every mob in the game (including treasure goblins). Stun, and blind are also good. "Hey Diablo, chill out!" Each auto attack with FoL has 2 chances to proc one of these if using a thunderclap rune and it works with the AoE. Don't sacrifice large amounts of other stats to get theses, but when given the option, get them (totally worth it!).
So here's all my little secrets that I've been hoarding until I placed Diablo on his back.
For reference here were the stats I had the first time I knocked out Diablo.
1200 LoH
2.04 Attack per second
18,300 damage (on paper doll)
29,000 hp
730 resist all
7,100 armor (buffed 20% hard target)
43% chance to dodge (buffed)
23% chance to block
4.7% chance to stun
2.1% chance to blind
2.3% chance to freeze
Feel free to ask any questions and comment. I'll keep an eye on this thread.
GENERAL
