Introduction
When I first heard about Diablo III and the free beta weekend, I decided to give dungeon crawlers a try. The only prior experience I have to this is playing a game called Dungeon Keeper. I was thoroughly impressed with the Beta, and before starting I knew I wanted to play a Monk. All of the other classes are fun in their own regards, but Monk was "my thing".
This Guide is for my build at level 30. I have already beaten the game, and I won't spoil anything for you outside of game play for the first boss fight (in the video). Monk is a versatile melee class that shares an innate 30% damage reduction along with barbarians. To use world of warcraft terms, a monk is like a blending of a warrior and a paladin. Monks combine protection and healing with awesome combo attacks.
Your Monk build may vary as you play the game. Sometimes you will need AOE strikes to down packs of enemies, and sometimes, like in the provided video, you need single target, high damage attacks against foes like bosses. The primary fuel for the Monk is spirit. As you attack an enemy, you will build up this fuel for use with special attacks. Be warned that it is easy to drain this pool quickly, but there are modifiers to increase your regeneration and/or overall spirit.
Build Main Attacks
For main attacks with the left mouse button, combos build additional spiritual energy, but possibly at the cost of single target acquisition. For pack attacks, I prefer to use crippling wave or deadly reach with the trident rune on.
Build Secondary Attacks
For secondary attacks, I prefer to use the ability Wave of Light. This is an ability that calls down a massive bell that deals holy damage to enemies in a line. With rune modifications, you can have the bell spawn on top of your character and emit energy in all directions. I use this rune modification to damage massive packs, and get rid of the weaker guys. This helps in the damage mitigation department. Before Wave of Light, I used Lashing Tail Kick.
Focus Attack
A combination of moves I like to do are to use Cyclone Strike in combination with Wave of Light. This requires a total of 125 spirit, so use it sparingly on huge packs. Cyclone strike will pull all nearby enemies towards you to a point. With the implosion rune, you increase the pull distance to 34 yards. Once this is done, you can use Wave of Light (with the multi-directional rune) to effectively erradicate weak enemies and damage stronger ones. It's one of my favorite combinations, and it is intensely satisfying. Before Cyclone Strike, and sometimes instead of, I will use 7-sided-strike, which is good for a small AOE attack and for faster moving Monk builds.
Defensive
Before Breath of Heaven I used the blinding technique to blind my enemies. I prefer the ability to heal, and it has become indispensable in tough fights. In multiplayer games, I have saved peoples asses on tough fights with this ability, and there is a passive ability that, when you heal an ally, you and your ally get a damage bonus.
Techniques
Sweeping Wind, AKA "the blender". Sweeping Wind creates a vortex around your Monk and deals damage to any enemies that get within the vortex. If you crit, the vortex grows stronger. You can use Cyclone Strike and then Sweeping Wind, costing a total of 125 spirit. it's the same as my other favorite attack, but Sweeping Wind will continually renew itself every single time it hits something. This is good for pack to pack killing, huge pack killings, and damaging small fries while hitting a boss.
Mantras
Mantras are minor buffs applied for roughly 3-5 minutes. You can use a passive skill, which I use, to extend the Mantra length seven minutes. When it is up, you will need to apply it again. I use Mantra of Conviction, which deals damage to anyone who gets close to me. It's "sort of" like an additional sweeping wind. There are also mantras to increase health regeneration; take your pick here.
Passive Skills
Chant of Resonance increases my mantra time to 10 minutes. It's a convenience. Seize the initiative increases my armor by 100% of my dexterity- this is nice because Monks stack dexterity, and I am not moving at lightning speeds with this build to avoid attacks. Finally, I use transcendence- which provides me additional health every single time I spend spirit.
It's a fun build, I recommend it- and I also recommend any comments/suggestions/improvements.
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