that is all well and good, but that doesn't discount my point... it is expensive as hell to get good DPS on monks. as they are already very gear dependent.

I agree, monks with high dps is a great way to go, not overly tanky... but the GEAR to achieve high DPS is NOT cheap at all.
Crit gear is over the top inflated price-wise right now as every class and their mom wants it.
I have spent around 30m on my monk, and just now reaching 30k dps... thats with all my defensive stats pretty high as well (lets face it, monks cant survive as "glass cannons", balanced or go home!)

To maintain my defensive stats while still upgrading my DPS will cost me like 50m-100m more.
The average monk player hasn't even seen as much money as i have spent so far... and that is not saying much since 30m really not much money. (to me it is a massive amount, since i dont make millions a day... took me a long time to make that much, and have 20m or so left over)

again, i agree, DPS heavy monks (with a degree of defensive stat balance) is the way to go, but my point remains... its stupid expensive.

Completely unbuffed.





Have a question for you pro monks.

I'm a fist/shield monk.

I picked up this new fist yesterday off AH for 1.5mil (Badger's Serpent).

When I use that, I lose like 5,000 dmg, but gain some cool stats and survive much better.

What do you guys think? Which one would you guys prefer to use?

This post was edited by jinshin85 on Jul 27 2012 04:05pm

Could even dual wield both spirit healers. I did that with another fist (sold on ah for 10 mil) and it worked out well with Transcendence. At the end of the day I was around 155 life per spirit. 155 * 50 (mantra) = 7750 hp per pop. If you can get more spirit gen, some mitigation, and some life per second, the burst regen is something I deeply miss with my life leech build.

Well neither gives you a huge LoH boost.

the life per spirit spent is a nice bonus but definitly not crucial to survive.
Are you currently in act3? If you still have really big survival problems, it is a temporary solution.

otherwise, id just stick with the higher overall dmg. ur crit rate nicely supports the amount of crit dmg u have.

I finished the game couple weeks ago and have been farming Act 3. Killing stuff isn't too much of problem, but sometimes against those skull cleaver/phasebeast elites give me problems. And I hate the fact that I have to work very hard against some of the elites.

Which stats should I try to bump up to survive better against these nasty elites in Act 3?

Dmg? LOH? Attack Speed? Armor? Resistence? Block Rate? My brain maybe? haha

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.



Oops. Didn't see your post til now. I actually tried to dual wield with my current fists, but it just isn't cutting it in my play style. Don't DW-ers have to kite a lot when the skills on cooldown? I became noticeably more squishy without the shield.

This post was edited by jinshin85 on Jul 27 2012 04:33pm

in a word, yes to it all.

for specifics. you probably could use a blanket offensive buff... gear wise.
Your defensive stats are fine... but to improve your offensive uptime, not just DPS increase, but also heal sources, stack LoH, or/and LPSS, attack speed, CritC/CritD.

Heck if you want to try a more DPS focused build, definitly go DW, boost as much heal source stacking (Life regen, LoH, leech, LPSS) as possible.
The higher your DPS & attack speed, the better returns you will get for all those stats, which in turn give you more uptime... defensive stats to be offensive.

If you have the extra cash you can try to make up for the loss of shield defense by adjusting gear with more armor, res, dex (dodge), HP.
hope that helped a bit

So what are the stats im looking for to be a good monk
Good resistances?:
Good dex?:
Good life?:
Armour?:
Loh?:
Crit chance?:
Crit dmg?:
Thanks for whoever answers

Great. Thanks for the advice man. Good stuff.

What would you recommend me to do, if I want to keep my 1 fist/shield set up? Would getting a decent Helm of Command help me a lot in terms of surviving in fight? Or is it better to bring up LOH and attack speed through my ring upgrade.

I really kinda hit a wall in terms of upgrading my gears now. I do believe I need to upgrade something to help me stay in fight a little longer than I do now.

Maybe I need a new boots? My boots has zero movement speed and I do feel like I would benefit a lot from having some movement speed.

im on a monk advice binge. so i'll reply, lol.

Yes. haha.

Resistances. Monks are the easiest class to stack all resists to a high level (passive skill ftw). Inferno recommended levels:: Act1 - 400ish, Act2 - 600ish, Act3 - 800ish, Act4 - 800 to 900 ish (Acts 3/4 can be done with 600-700 dependant on other stats)

Dex. Yes, like all classes their main stat gives them substantial DPS gains. Our class works best with a good overal DEF/Offensive balance, aiming for 1600-2000 dex by end game is a good goal.

Life. Surprisingly, we are not as reliant on high HP as most classes. We can get by with ~30k HP in all inferno acts based on how well our other defensive stats are balanced out.

Armor. VERY necessary. Many do not realize the importance of armor. I cannot count how many players have asked me in game to look at the monk only to find their most OBVIOUS problem is way too little armor. You want to aim for 5k+ unbuffed at act2 and beyond. (effective HP is a powerful thing)

LoH. VERY nice, but NOT required. 600+ as DW with 1.4 attack speed or higher is enough with other decent stats... or around 1k+ with 1hand slower attacking is enough. MORE is always nice.
Convenient stat that meshes well with our attack skills. While stacking pure LoH very powerful, i always recommend players mixing multiple healing stats for the most effective mix vs all situations (LoH + Life Regen + Life Steal + LPSS).

Crit Chance/DMG. Both are very powerful for your DPS, not to mention is greatly improves the returns of heal stats, killing fast reduces the length of a fight = less of a risk of death, and proccs Sweeping Wind bonus stacks. Not required, but also very helpful... personally i have very low amounts simply due to outrageous costs (every class and their mom wants crit gear these days).

TL: DR? All stats you list are important... but ultimately having a healthy balance even if you are slightly more tanky or more DPS'y is what the Monk is all about.

I am in A3. I dropped life per spirit not because it wasnt doing the job (in tandem with life per second) but my problem was that I couldn't find additional fists with that kind of crit, that kind of life per spirit, dex/vit and a socket. The item selection just isn't there yet for those types of weapons. After keeping the same amount of LPS and adding 5% life leech, I won't go back anytime soon. My LOH is like 100 lol. Yet I'm doing far better with this amount and a dodge build than I was with 1000 LPS, 1000 LOH, and a damage build with conviction. I tested that on A2 ZK chambers before I went to A3 keep depths.

The LOH build had some problems in the large groups. The LL build didn't break a sweat. Perhaps a blend of say 500 LOH, 5% LL and 500-1000 LPS would be useful. The rule of 5 lol.

I smell another test. I wish I had donations like some of those guys heh.