Showing posts with label Monk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Monk. Show all posts

Monday, September 26, 2011

Monk - Kickpuncher



Time to dish out some hurt with our favorite holy warriors. We're going to be building around the Monk's level 30 passive whilst specializing in Lashing Tail Kick, effectively turning us into a beefy single target DPS machine. Lets have a look:

Active Skills

-The Flesh is Weak
This is the first part of a nice little preliminary 2 piece combo that will help us set up some major damage onto a solitary foe of our choosing. The bleed and explosive death damage are only secondary to the buff provided by the Runestone. The first two hits of the combo are going to set up a very nice stacking damage buff, up to 80%. The third hit is actually less important, and can effectively be substituted out with...

-Breaking Wave
Back for round 2 from last week, this variant of Crippling Wave is very similar to the Palm, only all at once. For maximum effect, your going to want to use the wave as the 3rd strike of your spirit generating combos and set up, so you'll be applying both damage buffs at the same time, adding up to 160% extra damage. Don't forget that Crippling Wave has an AoE component that can be used in a tight squeeze.

-Spinning Flame Kick
This is going to be your mainstay for putting out some pain. Ideally you should be able to get a few kicks off with a topped-off Spirit reserve and no cooldown on the skill. This version of Lashing Tail Kick also has the potential for some AoE as well. If you do end up knocking your target back too far, you've got a trick to help close the distance fast.

-Pillar of the Ancients
The coefficients on this skill are pretty absurd. Assuming the entire skill connects, you'll be dealing a total of 900% weapon damage over the course of 3 seconds. It's impossible to say how difficult this skill will be to land until we can see some actual footage of it, but with no cooldown attached to it, the skill already has potential. At the very least, it'll empty your spirit like crazy.

-Quicksilver
Dashing Strike is pretty amazing when it comes to mobility, but socket a Golden Runestone into it and it can be straight up abused! Close the gap on your foes, dodge attacks, or just get to your destination faster.

-Overawe
Free extra damage is always nice. Take note now that all Mantras now have a doubled effect in the first 3 seconds that you use them, so if you can manage to use this before you unload your Spirit spenders, you can a really nice bonus for the small burst window.

Passive Skills

-Beacon of Ytar
The build-around-me passive of this particular spec, the Beacon changes your play style up a bit, favoring a bit more strategy of when to unleash some burst damage. The good thing is that you prep both of the Kick and the Pillar with your spirit generators putting the passive damage on, and unleash it all in the narrow window that they are applied. Expect heavy burst and reload phases.

-Transcendence
A pretty cool survivability passive that actually has a really cool interaction with the Beacon. You'll see larger amounts of healing in a smaller period of time due to the increased spending of spirit. Feel free to drop a Pillar if you need an emergency heal post-haste, or increase your passive regen between fights by spamming on your Dashing Strike

-Chant of Resonance
Double time on your Mantras can let you spend more attention on the fight and the extra spirit will help you top off a little faster.

The biggest change that can probably be done with this build is swapping out Chant of Resonance with something like The Guardians Path. If your using a two-handed weapon and managing to hit Overawe with regular frequency to get the new bonus damage, the increased Spirit generation would pretty much outstrip Resonance in every way. Another good substitute would be Exalted Soul, allowing two extra kicks or one extra pillar, both providing more health through Transcendence. Whatever way you go, you should get some solid burst damage out of this build.

The only thing beyond the reach of the Monk's fists, is humanity...


Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Monk - Group Combat




If you feel like being a real team player with a Monk, this build will be right up your alley. Your goal here is going to be buffing up your groups damage output, while putting out some solid numbers yourself. This rundown is sort of a jack of all trades focus with some minor healing in here to boot, so it should work pretty well if your the only Monk in the group. If you find grouped with some other spiritual compatriots, you might want to think of switching out some skills so you can specialize a bit more.

Active Skills

-Hands of Lightning
Your single target nuke for dishing out the pain, hundred fists gets an extremely large increase in damage by upping the number of hits, and then multiplying each of those hits by whatever damage buffs you manage to stack on top of those. Great for bosses.

-Breaking Wave
A seconds spirit generator that fills in all the gaps from your first skill. Crippling Wave on it's own is a great Cleave variant, throwing in the Alabaster Rune throws in a great damage buffer. 80% for 9 seconds gives you plenty of time to use the ability every now and then by weaving it into your attack sequence as opposed to having mash it constantly. Extra damage and an aoe, very versatile.

-Several Sided Strike
This "spirit spender" holds the same principles as your Hands of Lightning skill: Lots of damage by lots of strikes. This ones also great for putting some hurt on groups, just make sure you throw out your damage buffs to the enemies before you let those fists fly.

-Blazing Wrath
Tons of utility with this skill. The group heal on it's own is about as unique an ability as the Monk gets, and everybody will love you for it. Even better yet, an extra 20% damage for 33 seconds after the cast. There's no cooldown on this skill, so you probably want to keep a reserve of 25 to 50 spirit as often as you can so you can either refresh the damage buff or save somebody if need be.

-Many Monks
More utility here, Decoys can help your or your buddies get out of a bind. Extra decoys from the Indigo Rune will help attract more foes and gives you a greater potential to save some people. Another nice bonus is that Decoys will also gather up the foes to let you hit more foes with Breaking Wave.

-Overawe
Every Monk needs a mantra, and this one is going to let you dish out the most damage, 'nuff said.

Passive Skills

-The Guardian's Path
A nice buff for spirit generation as long your walking around with a big stick, speaking softly optional.

-Chant of Resonance
Lets you spend less time worrying about your mantra and more time hitting things. All of your spenders are relatively expensive as well, so the passive spirit generation is welcome.

-Guiding Light
Adds even more damage on top of your Breath skill. It's a small amount for 10 seconds, but stacking it with everything else can really add some nice damage on top.


This build gets more valuable the more people you add, and summoner doctors will probably want to have your babies. You've got some room for variance here, largely in your passives and support skills. Guiding Light can probably be supported with more ally healing skills, like Gold Runes into Sanctuary or Lethal Decoy. Switching out Guiding Light for Exalted Soul so you have a larger Spirit reserver is also a very attractive option.