i have 1.68 :S

Well I'm currently trying to find a good mix. I am at 58% dr atm, looking forward to push this.
Also trying to get my res up to atleast 700.

It's decent but could be better. Not sure you should invest a ton into IAS with the impending nerfs though, but it doesn't hurt to at least use gloves with IAS on them and a ring or two. It's actually not that expensive to buy rings with IAS/dex/resists on them (LoH, on the other hand...).



Yeah... once I got my armor up to around 6-7k (~70% DR), Act 2 became easy. It's definitely a stat that a lot of people overlook when gearing up for items, so you should really take notice of it. I only compromise on Armor if it's a really huge stat upgrade for other things, and I'm always looking for cheap "upgrades" on the AH where all the stats are the same as what I have but the armor is higher.

This post was edited by irimi on Jun 7 2012 12:06pm

I agree. However, im trying to mix BOTH because after all armor buffs go up, i still get 1-2 shot by elite packs in Act2. >_<"
So instead of stacking to 6k armor pre-buff, i dropped to 5k and add stacked dodge.

I have 15k DPS, 5000 armor, 36k life, 550 All Res, 36% dodge, 23% block, 600 LOH, 2.10 Attack Speed. <-- BEFORE buffed. AFTER all buffs are rotating (including enchantress armor/ias) --> goes to 16-18k DPS, 8000 armor, ~54% dodge, 2.16 Attack Speed.
The build i been using so far is: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#abYXgh!YXU!ZZcbaa

Even after all that im getting killed by elite packs FAST.
Am i simply lacking more armor? or more Resists? Everything in Act2 hits so hard, even the damn white mob cats... i can kill em but damn!

I posted my stats awhile back, but without proper damage reduction, Vit is an overvalued stat for A2 imo. It's definitely needed in later acts to deal with even harder hitting mobs, but that's assuming you already have proper DR as well.



That's where I sit right now, and Act2 is easy farm for me. I'm struggling to farm Tower+Cydaea+Azmodan in late A3 (and brickwalled by early A4), and compared to people who are farming A4, I'm seeing now that I'm mostly behind on Vit and LoH (which is what I kind of expected).

Also, even though it's already been mentioned before: Seize the Initiative and Resolve are pretty huge boosts to survivability as well.

edit: Question - what does "stacking dodge" even mean? How do you do it? DW+15%passive? I haven't really seen any items with dodge on them.

This post was edited by irimi on Jun 7 2012 12:16pm

hMM our stats are actually pretty similar except DPS and Res. So i spose ill just work on uping my all res for now... seems to be all the difference to get through Act2 easier.
My dps isnt horrible, but im sure it will help downing em faster and all. My current weapon is pretty good tho just need more dex... 720 dps fist, with 596 LOH, 1.5 attack speed. rare. got it for a steal

I like a high dodge chance to avoid getting 1hitted. I had several moments where high dr and stacked res + mass vita couldnt sav me from being nuked with one attack.
Still my worst enemies are desecrator, plagued and arcane enchanted. Dodge is useless here, thats why it's nescesary to find a good balanced mix.

My resists were much lower (as well as DPS) when I cleared A2. I think I came out of A2 with about 14k DPS unbuffed and maybe ~650 res.

The biggest change for me in A2 was spec change -- FoT with Thunderclap, Flash (duration buff), Serenity (4s), BoH (attack buff), Sweeping Wind (Bladestorm), Mantra of Evasion with Hard Target.

Prior to that I was trying to work it out with Deadly Reach or Crippling Wave and those simply wouldn't cut it. Even now when I go back to A2 for farming runs, I switch from Deadly Reach to FoT because of the nature of the A2 mobs.



No amount of mitigation can deal with those affixes though. You're supposed to just (literally) dodge them, and if you get CC'd into them, you have to pop a CD (pot, Serenity, BoH) or else you're dead. That's just the way it is - and it doesn't get easier in that regard no matter how much of anything you stack.

But again, I think you're underestimating the amount of survivability you get from DR+HP. As I said, even Belial's bombs can be tanked if you have enough mitigation (and hell, I can tank them now with just 30k hp).

This post was edited by irimi on Jun 7 2012 12:23pm

i actually have IAS on my gloves one ring and amulet :s but i only have 293 res so the elemental dmg fucks me, and my dps really suck ...

This 100% this. I had to adjust just so for Act2. Balanced out my build/gear setup more than i was doing for Act1 which was more DPS heavy.
There are SOOO many physical hitting melee mobs that dodge becomes insanely nice... but if you ignore armor/resists you can't stand up for 5 seconds vs anything else.
My resists aren't bad but it seems if i push another 100+ i should be in a sweet spot. Maybe a bit more armor, but its at a decent level so far.

Last night, i was a good example of needing balance. I ran into a elite pack of 4. Clubbers (1 shot kill wind-up types)... their modifiers? Plague, Molten, Desecrator, Arcane Enchanted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! all 4 of the worst ones you can get! >_<"
If i was a RANGED dps, i could kite all day and be fine. but im MELEE i ahve to be able to hit them and being in MELEE range for any of those affixes is bad news... better believe it took me the better part of 10min + to finally get em.
So i needed high dodge for their physical one shot hits, and good armor/resists for their modifiers... man that was tough.