Preparation for patch 2.2

Many info has been passed during PTR 2.2. Assuming what we see in PTR is final, here are a brief summary of some of the most interesting things and hopefully you can prepare for the new content patch. Based on experience, 90% of the changes are final, there is still 10% surprise.

Inna

Now has additional set pieces: Gloves, and Boots
Has been redesigned
(2) Set Bonus
Increase the passive effect of your Mystic Ally and the base passive effect of your Mantra by 100%
(4) Same - all 4 mantras
(6) Set Bonus
New Set Bonus
Mystic Ally casts Cyclone Strike, Exploding Palm, Lashing Tail Kick, Seven-Sided Strike, and Wave of Light when you do

Inna Reach also will roll additional damage for Mystic Ally. So, a 6 piece Inna + 4 piece Sunwuko is definitely quite strong.

However, because the Mystic Ally's Bell / EP , etc will not benefit from Sunwuko proc, the damage from 6 piece is not very strong.

I suspect a best combination will be 4 piece Sunwuko + 2/4 piece Inna + Crudest Boot + Incense Torch to be the best setup. I made a video about this setup.



Raiment of Thousand Storms

(2) Set Bonus
Your Spirit Generators have 25% increased attack speed and 300% increased damage
(4) Set Bonus
Dashing Strike now spends 75 Spirit, but refunds a Charge when it does
(6) Set Bonus
Your Spirit Generators increase the weapon damage of Dashing Strike to 12500% for 6 seconds
Dashing Stike now lights up on your action bar when the increased weapon damage is active

In term of damage, the new Raiment should out-perform the Inna-wuko. The single target damage is excellent. Pair with Gungdo gear for AOE, this is the new meta for monk. Gameplay is a little too much dashing than I like but again, damage wise, it is better.

Video



Focus and Restrain

This set ring is now GG. It works really well with Raiment set. The difference is huge compare to RORG + SOJ / Unity. Can do around 2bil damage per dash.

Video



Flying Dragon goes well with this set, but so is Furnace. Based on some new info, even DW should do pretty good with the new Raiment. More testing will be conducted once everything is finalised.

Hellfire amulet

With the new Raiment set, you no longer need your Sunwuko Shrine amulet. So, if you don't have a GG Hellfire amulet yet, now is the time to start crafting.

This post has been edited by cowithgun: Apr 1 2015, 07:34 PM

Nice video on breaking GR50 and gain rank #3 in Solo monk in Live server!

Using Law of Seph to regain spirit every time you cast Blind Flash. Augchild set, Captain Crimson set and Lightning bell. Cycle between Epiphany, Serenity and Forbidden Palace for strong defense.

His profile: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/YDFWM-6389/hero/59224120

Found 8 Gungdo gear bracers today... well i did gamble for it as well

The resurrection of FastCow! GR46 is broken!





This post has been edited by cowithgun: Apr 9 2015, 07:26 AM

nice video

any monks wanna split farm act 3 caches?

This post has been edited by cowithgun: Apr 10 2015, 04:10 PM

Envious Blade... 100% cc dealing mobs with 100% HP.. used in the video

2 monks, GR44, 7 minutes

I tried party with other class in pub game, seem like they are a bit slow to catch up with monks... 4 monks party should be awesome! GR44 is now the sweet farming spot!

both are equally effective. the hitbox at the end of the DS has increased since the first PTR. so, dashing into mobs is just as good. it's easy to just simply DS x 3 at RG to quickly deal huge amount of damage in a very short period of time.

Please join old friend!

Found an ancient Ashbringer! Pretty fun on low GR! Look awesome too!

Found 2, but only 8 seconds and non-ancient... still searching...

Agree. EP is less effective without Sunwuko. I am using Reaper's Wrap to replenish spirit. This will definitely change once the Season 3's Spirit Guard available to non-season. R6 is really powerful with Focus and Restrain ring but we are quite vulnerable. The bracer goes really well with the set. Look like I need to wait 4 months.

Monk should be able to get a few more GR with the bracer!

both set are viable now - viable in a sense that you can do GR 40 and above.

Raiment has advantage in term of single target DPS, to get pass GR 50, most likely you need Raiment

Flying Dragon / Furnace is generally the best for R6 build.

In-geom and Envious Blade / Sunkeeper are mostly for T6 and low GR build. In these modes, your cool down is so fast you can spam DS all the time and 1-shot most elite, super fast T6 build known as God Monk.

More info:

https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...post&p=73866730

Fail GR50 by less than 1 second...

Yes, Spirit Guard will definitely help!

No, that is the Ancient Parthan Defenders. It's like a poor man Spirit Guard. Each mobs you stun / freeze will increase you defence by 9%-12%. It's not as reliable as Spirit Guard, you also need to pair with Generator that freeze mobs such as Crippling Wave - Tsunami.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/ancient-parthan-defenders

After countless trials, finally able to break GR50. Using build that mostly used by top leaderboard player:

Gears
1. Raiment 6 set
2. Focus and Restrain set ring
3. String of Ears belt that reduced melee damage up to 30%
4. Ancient Parthan Defenders - reduced damage
5. Flying Dragon with LoH - need sustainability
6. Preferably Hellfire amulet or Eye of Etlich (damage reduction from range)

Skill
1. Crippling Wave - Tsunami - 3rd hit freeze mobs for 1 sec - good AOE
2. Dashing Strike - Blinding Speed - increase dodge chance
3. Epiphany - Desert Shroud - 50% damage reduction
4. Inner Santuary - Forbidden Palace - Increased damage and damage reduction
5. Breath of Heaven - Infused with light - more spirit
6. Mantra of Salvation - Agility - dodge chance

Passive
1. Seize the Initiative - still good before RG, i find it better than Momentum since I mostly dash within Forbidden Palace to maximise damage
2. Near Death Experience - 2.2 make this passive real good
3. Harmony
4. Beacon of Ytar

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk...Xgfh!YZYacc

Legendary gem
1. Bane of Trapped
2. Esoteric Alteration - reduce non-physical damage
3. Gogok - IAS and CDR

Follower
1. Make sure your follower has this GG dagger Eun-Jang-Do that freeze even RG

Gameplay
To harness the power of Focus and Restrain and R6, we have to let go of our Unity ring. To replace the 50% damage reduction, we use String of Ears (melee damage reduction) and Esoteric Alteration legendary gem (reduce non-physical damage) as well as Ancient Parthan Defenders.

Ancient Parthan Defenders damage reduction hugely dependent on number of mobs you managed to freeze with Crippling Wave - Tsunami. You need to move into big group. If you see Elite, try to get them into group of whites for protection.

Since I am not using Eye of Etlich, projectile such as bees or archer, I need to quickly skip level like this.

After many times of failures, I've learn to be more careful to proc Ancient Parthan Defenders. Less death = faster. In this video I only die 1 time.



Gameplay and gear requirements for GR50 is vastly different from what I use in low / mid GR farming. I like the feeling of over power in low / mid GR. So, most likely, GR50 is as high as I can be. Don't really like a stressful gameplay.

Another GR50 (2 players) record for me. It's a lot easier because I have a zDPS WD. Using exact same build in mid GR farming.

DW season Monk broke GR55! Very interesting CDR build! Max CDR on every slot to keep perma Epiphany. You need both weapons with 10% CDR and a belt that does 8% CDR as well. Rings, shoulder and gloves, all CDR. The only exception is Amulet because 10% cc / 100% cdmg are too good.

GR55 required Spirit Guard in Season. In non-season, Ancient Parthan Defenders may help.

The idea of DW get everyone excited! Preferably, get those ancient 5 stat weapons such as Pig Sticker and Gift of Silaria. Best roll is with 10% CDR and resource reduction. You also need 1 of them with LoH.

Well done!

http://www.diablofans.com/builds/54832-gr-...l-wield-raiment



ps: He skips almost all Elites, just go for large group of whites for progression.

This post has been edited by cowithgun: Apr 24 2015, 01:05 PM

That is my limit! I know my limit.

With your timing, you can get higher than GR50! You are our only hope!

Hope to see your DW build soon!

I see more pull / EP monk lately than zDPS lately. For fast GR in low 40s, pull / EP is really more effective.

There is now an interesting zDPS build that focus on high GR! (Still not comparable to tiki WD but not everyday you get tiki WD in your party )

It's using Flow of the Eternity + Inna set. You can basically CS and perma-freeze mobs most of the time and in between, 7SS Pardemonium to stun them.

Check it out:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/17085899125

Some clever monk found a brilliant way to be God in D3!

He completed GR55 in season HC with just 4 minutes, then do another GR56 and purposely "slow-down" to make it believable.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/rankings/season...t-hardcore-monk

His exploit (brilliant!) is to combine Rogars Huge Stone (Increase your Life per Second by up to 75–100% based on your missing Life.) and Death's Bargain (Gain an aura of death that deals 750–1000% of your Life per Second as Physical damage to enemies within 16 yards. You no longer regenerate Life.)

The idea is, make you life close to 1%. You will have huge regen from Rogar's Huge Stone. Death's Bargain will stop your life regen but your Life per Second is still huge! Combine with Molten Wildebeest’s Gizzard which give additional huge life regen and generate shield based on your Life regen, you get God-like shield! At the same time, you deal tremendous aura damage from Death's Bargain. For monk, you can use additional Mantra of Healing for additional healing.

How is a god-like shield look like? How about shield that can absorb this amount of damage?

225,769,497,803,496,000,000,000,000



Bliz temporary disable Death's Bargain atm

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/17084690283#1