"The monk cannon" - a budget fast and effective monk build for Act 3 champion farming

[tesslerc]

Introduction​

Why is the WW Barbarian so common? the speed in which it clears acts is amazing and if built correctly, then it's survivability is godlike.
The problem? for the WW Barbarian to be effective you need to put an initial investment of ~40m give or take.

This is where this idea came to life, we needed a LOW cost though HIGHLY efficient character that can clear Act 3 MP0 (i'll get to this later) as fast as possible with little as possible deaths.

Concept

The concept of this build is based on 3 main things we saw from the effectiveness of the WW Barb, 1 movement speed, 2 kill speed, 3 survivability.

1. Movement speed - Using a monk we can achieve 34% MS and it costs us a whooping... 0 spirit!
2. Kill speed - Teleporting from one monster to the other and spamming AoE damage skills surpasses even a good geared WW Barb.
3. Survivability - this is where the main catch in this build - Life On... KILL! You can 1 hit every trash mob in Act 3 and kill every elite pack in 4-5 seconds tops, resulting in an effective 4k Life on Hit (or more).

Practicallity

Ok what you need for this build:

1. Skorn - 1200+ DPS, 200+ Dex, 150+ Crit damage, Socket (Insert Emerald), 2500+ (Prefered over 3k) Life on Kill
2. Laucuni Prowlers (added moverment speed)
3. Boots over 10% MS

Recommended:

1. Andariels Visage - works nicely especially for poison monks. try and get as low additional fire damage as possible ~6% is preferred (this is fire damage TAKEN - higher the number, the more damage you take!).

Stats (more or less):

80k Dps (with breath of haven) - Acheived via Skorn Crit Damage + Attack Speed + ~30% Critical chance
4000 Armor
750 AR
3K Life on kill
Minimum 25k HP (else you will die vs strong packs before you can regen hp)

Try reach ~1.4 Attacks per second
1.3Aps is a must! you will 1hit any trash mob and the faster the attack speed, the faster it will teleport between trash and finish them off, not to mention higher spirit regen for spamming Wave of light.

The build itself:

Monk - Game Guide - Diablo III

Explanation:

We run Master of wind - meaning it's a once in a run cast due to 20sec uptime, this gives us 4 more skills that use spirit:
1. Breath of heaven - 15% damage buff (lasts 45 seconds)
2. Mantra of what ever you prefer (you should prefer conviction) - lasts 3 minutes
3. Wave of light - 430% Damage AoE (main dps output).
4. Serenity - 10 spirit (thats a joke) but it gives you 4 seconds to deal a million dps to kill anything and regen your hp.
Proof of concept:

[video=youtube;086DLl78-fg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=086DLl78-fg[/video]

Why Act 3 MP0:

Anything above mp0 isn't effective, even running MP5 with the extra magic find and extra chance for another item - costs too much to build a char to effectively farm this and it takes too long.
So its cheaper to run 4x Skorn monks on act 3 mp0 than 1 on mp5.

This build won't run you 0 DpH but it won't cost you 100mil to build, it will die only to the most extreme champion packs or when the avoidance doesn't work properly, and the best thing about it... the one you see in the video above cost ~15mil to build (not snipping bids from the AH but bought all items within 5minutes).

---

The more expensive monk cannon
This is a new build based on the changes in 1.0.7

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#aeXdSk!Zcd!aZbaca

This build is intended for people willing to pay a little more to get better stats

What you need: ~10 spirit regen per second - this is gained using SoJ + Inna Helmet - each with over 1.7 spirit per second, Templar with spirit regen boost and using a 2 handed weapon for the bonus 35% from passive, and 2 spirit per sec passive.
The idea: Large amount of trash mobs - AoE wave of light, Elite pack - AoE Wave of light. 1/2 Trash mobs or 1 elite almost dead - Dashing Strike for 3 seconds 25% movement speed boost.

I used this with Inna Set and items with AR on (not using OwE), getting around 400-450 AR should be enough for mp0 with a little Life Steal or Life after Kill.

 

[tesslerc]

My items (example)​

Helmet - Andariels Visage - 150dex, 65vit, 45poison res, 5% more damage from fire (important to be as low as possible)
Chest - 80dex, 135vit, 35 poison res, 55 all res, 3 socket (all emeralds)
Pants - 80dex, 80vit, 40poison res, 75all res, 280 armor, 2 sockets (emeralds)
Shoulders - 115dex, 160vit, 50poison res, 55 all res, 7 pickup radius (good for globes and extra gold)
Arms - 125dex, 45poison res, 65 all res, 8% attack speed, 7% crit chance
Ring #1 - 85dex, 75vit, 6% attack speed, 5% crit chance
Ring #2 - 15max dmg, 40 dex, 40 poison, 6% attack speed, 4% crit chance
Amulet - 10 dmg, 125dex, 115 vit, 45poison res, 8% attack speed, 40% crit damage
Bracers - Lacuni Prowlers - 70dex, 60vit, 50 poison res
Belt - 150dex, 40 poison res, 50 all res, 5 pickup radius
Boots - 200dex, 100vit, 40poison res, 170armour, 12% movement speed
Weapon - Skorn - 1350dps, 300dex, 4000 life on kill, 150% crit dmg (socket also emerald)

Scoundrel with 3% crit chance skill

Buffed - 92k dps, 750 All resist, 4500 armor, 34k health, 34% movement speed
*This monk cost ~20-25m (as you can see he is a little over the bar)

 

[Marc_NL]

Awesome. My monks have some very good gear, dual-wielding. Lacuni's, surcoat, jousting etc I might sell it and go for this build!

Thanks for sharing mate

 

[tesslerc]

Awesome. My monks have some very good gear, dual-wielding. Lacuni's, surcoat, jousting etc I might sell it and go for this build!

Thanks for sharing mate

The main thing about this is the price a Skorn with 1250dps 300dex 3000 life on kill 150% crit and socket costs around 2-3 mil (atm), gets you to 80k dps
and when you kill soo fast with this high dps it really is a 3k life on hit.

GL with it its really fun to watch with a perm 34% ms and teleporting all around the place.

 

[Marc_NL]

The main thing about this is the price a Skorn with 1250dps 300dex 3000 life on kill 150% crit and socket costs around 2-3 mil (atm), gets you to 80k dps
and when you kill soo fast with this high dps it really is a 3k life on hit.

GL with it its really fun to watch with a perm 34% ms and teleporting all around the place.

Just equipped one monk with your build. It's hard getting to 1.3 IAS or higher though! I got IAS on both rings and ammy, but getting gloves with CHC and IAS and the stats I want is tricky. I do use a spirit stone with IAS and CHC, so Andariels could be an option, but won't matter much. I do have a few bids on Lacuni's, so if those come through I should be at 1,35IAS tomorrow

Right now running around with 95K dps, 5k armor, 900AR. Let's see how fast it is

Oh and having 20k extra health from potions helps a godly amount too, especially since your own potion now gives 30K HP..

And I'm running it on MP1 Act 3, which I think is better then MP0 Act 3. Anyways, just died, against a group of phasing hulkbeasts, I guess they don't die fast enough

And right now I think it's a lot faster, since my gph increased by some 30%, maybe even a bit more.

 

[gexstar]

You say its highly effective, but i cant see any stats here...

How much items per hour or how much exp per hour ?

 

[Marc_NL]

You say its highly effective, but i cant see any stats here...

How much items per hour or how much exp per hour ?

Xp one 1 char = 16.5M/h, 5nv stacks. Dropped a wee bit, to 16M in stonefort.

Items/h can't say, to short to tell. But GP/h def went up, and that's also a good measurement. It's at 400K+ at lvl 60 paragon, I expect it to be 600K+ on my other monk, which I just equipped with a skorn

 

[gexstar]

Hmm, i was running at 14-18 m/h on mp1 with my sword and board monk.

Just trying this build now with him... 770 Ar, 4,5k armor, 1.51 aps, 85k dps.

Dont see any improvement so far though.

Before he had high crit and a cyclone built so was doing massive aoe dmg anyway, spamming overawe like crazy with 1.9 aps and 55k dps.

 

[tesslerc]

Hmm, i was running at 14-18 m/h on mp1 with my sword and board monk.

Just trying this build now with him... 770 Ar, 4,5k armor, 1.51 aps, 85k dps.

Dont see any improvement so far though.

Before he had high crit and a cyclone built so was doing massive aoe dmg anyway, spamming overawe like crazy with 1.9 aps and 55k dps.

I'm running around 14mil xp/hour
MP0.
im paragon 20 so the drops are different between characters.

and the effectivness is related to the PRICE.
sure you can build a dual wield monk with LoH for 50-60mil (and those are probably the cheaper ones) that will clear Act 3 or do this build for 15mil and it will clear in the same time or faster.
You kill each trash mob in 1 hit so 1.4 aps is still more effective, and you do Wave Of Light in an elite pack and it takes them 50% down or more.

 

[tesslerc]

Just equipped one monk with your build. It's hard getting to 1.3 IAS or higher though! I got IAS on both rings and ammy, but getting gloves with CHC and IAS and the stats I want is tricky. I do use a spirit stone with IAS and CHC, so Andariels could be an option, but won't matter much. I do have a few bids on Lacuni's, so if those come through I should be at 1,35IAS tomorrow

Right now running around with 95K dps, 5k armor, 900AR. Let's see how fast it is

Oh and having 20k extra health from potions helps a godly amount too, especially since your own potion now gives 30K HP..

And I'm running it on MP1 Act 3, which I think is better then MP0 Act 3. Anyways, just died, against a group of phasing hulkbeasts, I guess they don't die fast enough

And right now I think it's a lot faster, since my gph increased by some 30%, maybe even a bit more.

You got life on kill?
btw nice stats i would try running instead of seize the initiative, run with 35% more spirit regen - should spam more wave of light = faster runs and kills

 

[Marc_NL]

I just saw it one shot a elite pack with wave of light haha.

I def think it's faster, and the skorn is cheaper then one of each of my dualwield weapons.

You got life on kill?
btw nice stats i would try running instead of seize the initiative, run with 35% more spirit regen - should spam more wave of light = faster runs and kills

Yes, LoK, like 4-5K I think. 4.7k on 1 monk, with 1300DPS skorn, 185% crit + 90% gem.

Other monk = 1375dps, 3k LoK, 180% crit + 90% gem. He also has 500LoH though and 1,4IAS I'll try with the other passive, not sure if I can manage 0dph with less armor...

 

[Exokid7699]

Ive been duel wielding. Only getting up to about 40k dmg. Im going to try this build when i get home. Looks like its much faster than what im doing.

 

[Barba]

Rep man. Great build. ~13mil exp/hour, 300k gold, loads of drops and not even close to dying.

Just a minor tweak that I implemented that worked for me... since spirit is the big issue here (75 spirit per cast), I switched passives Exalted Soul (250 spirit + 1 regen/second), Guardian's Path (35% faster spirit gain) and kept Fleet (running, of course). I dropped One With Everything because I have 40k HP, and the lowest resist is 250, the killing is going so fast with this build that resists aren't really a problem.

And Inna's Temperance has 12% movement speed too... so you can get up to 48% faster!

 

[tesslerc]

Rep man. Great build. ~13mil exp/hour, 300k gold, loads of drops and not even close to dying.

Just a minor tweak that I implemented that worked for me... since spirit is the big issue here (75 spirit per cast), I switched passives Exalted Soul (250 spirit + 1 regen/second), Guardian's Path (35% faster spirit gain) and kept Fleet (running, of course). I dropped One With Everything because I have 40k HP, and the lowest resist is 250, the killing is going so fast with this build that resists aren't really a problem.

And Inna's Temperance has 12% movement speed too... so you can get up to 48% faster!

Didn't know 48 is possible :0
And you are getting 0 dph?
Im on 760ar 30k hp 4100armor and 95k dps
0 dph but really thought of doing like you, need to check when I'm home and have time to monitor.

Problem is even with my edit, it still runs with a lot of spirit and doesnt cast the WoL.
If we can really get it to spam - amazing!

 

[Barba]

Didn't know 48 is possible :0
And you are getting 0 dph?
Im on 760ar 30k hp 4100armor and 95k dps
0 dph but really thought of doing like you, need to check when I'm home and have time to monitor.

Problem is even with my edit, it still runs with a lot of spirit and doesnt cast the WoL.
If we can really get it to spam - amazing!

My bad, speed from equip is capped at 25% (just checked)... so max speed is 35% with fleet. Bummer :/

Yeah, 0dph on MP0, and 2dph on MP2 (key farming, but had to drop fleet for OWE or deaths would rip me... 24% speed is not that bad teleporting anyway). Switching the passives made the monk able to cast WoL twice in a row on large, big HP hordes. Check if it works for you!

 

[tesslerc]

I'll give it a go, sounds good!
Though you know you can farm keys on MP0? i have been finding one every 5-7 hours on mp0 act 3

But maybe i'll try running or with 35% extra spirit gain or with extra 100 max spirit and set it to use with these rules:
Elite packs (at least 2 of them near you) - spam all you got
Normal packs if over 150 spirit and over 4 monsters in the close area - give one shot

that way you can take off normal packs and allways keep at least 1 charge for elite packs, with a good chance for a 2 in a row hit

Just depends if running with 3.4k armour will be doing fine

 

[Barba]

I'll give it a go, sounds good!
Though you know you can farm keys on MP0? i have been finding one every 5-7 hours on mp0 act 3

But maybe i'll try running or with 35% extra spirit gain or with extra 100 max spirit and set it to use with these rules:
Elite packs (at least 2 of them near you) - spam all you got
Normal packs if over 150 spirit and over 4 monsters in the close area - give one shot

that way you can take off normal packs and allways keep at least 1 charge for elite packs, with a good chance for a 2 in a row hit

Just depends if running with 3.4k armour will be doing fine

didn't know. Switching to MP0 all day long build, haha... thanks!

 

[theatristformallyknownasG]

price of skorns just skyrocketed 10mill for anything with close to those stats this morning.

G

 

[theatristformallyknownasG]

Got some goodies, off for a couple of hours run now, see what happens.

G

 

[pinkfish]

I think I can try this build~ Just sold a Natalya boot so yeah..I think I can fund one more monk =D