INVIS's Monk End Game [Speed Palm Build] for High MP

Below is a guide from INVIS:

Hi Everyone INVIS here,

I would like to introduce my proudest creation so far, the Speed Palm (SP) build. I have been playing with this build for a long time, this is also the build I uses for most of my legendary competition. I have done a few builds before and this is by far my most favorite one. There are a lot of advantages in this build and many tips you can improve and practice on. Allow me to go through the details here (Video Version at the end):

1. Introduction of the build
2. Skills Explanation
3. Gear Explanation
4. Using the Build Correctly
5. Tips and practice steps
6. Summary

---------------Introduction of the Build---------------

The core element of this build is the exploding palm, the exploding palm has been buffed to 50% in this patch, and it's what I consider to be the most powerful skills for high MP. (Even with 30% in 1.06, it was still a very powerful skill) The exploding damage scales with the monster HP and on high MP for example MP10, it's very powerful. 90% of the time, the explosion from 1 elite will take out the entire pack. So what we are trying to do here is to maximize our single DPS damage and kill 1 monster quickly for it to explode.

The beauty of this build is the consistence DPS you will be doing, you will want to let the mobs to surround you, and keep hitting them until one explode. Unlike the wave of light, which has knockback, this build is all very stable and controllable. Remember consistence DPS also means you will have safer life steal, as long as you are able to keep hitting them, you will always get life steal back.

---------------Skills Explanation---------------

These are the skills I use: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#aSVUkY!TgV!acaZac

Fist of Thunder- Thunderclap The most powerful generator and the dash is also very useful for locking your main target.

Sweeping Wind- Cyclone The most powerful Sweeping Wind and one of your main DPS output.

Exploding Palm- The Flesh is Weak The core element of this build, since we want to knock one single target down quickly, the flesh is weak will add additional 12% damage to the target. Also exploding damage will be the key.

Way of the Hundred Fists- Blazing Fists The more practical second generator, compare to deadly reach- foresight, the cool down of wave of hundred fists sync nicely with mantra and will only be around 2% dps decrease from deadly reach (yes I have tested it). There are also the increase attack speed benefit for your spirits and cyclone, and also movement speed bonus. It's more difficult to have 100% up time with deadly reach since you don't have the buff icon like the wave of hundred fists so you kind of need to remember to apply it yourself. My suggestion will be to go with way of the hundred fists to form the additional 8% combination strike bonus.

Mantra of Conviction- Overawe The most powerful mantra to maximize your DPS.

Blinding Flash- Faith in the Light The unity and DPS boost in this build, in order to successfully make all monster group together and explode, blind is a very useful tool. Not to mention it also boost your DPS by 30% for 3s, but 3s is usually what it takes to determine how successful your exploding palm is. I have also tested the Breath of Heaven- Blazing Wrath and it does about 3% more DPS compare to Blind, but with the use of Beacon of Ytar, the blind then become more powerful than the Blazing Wrath.

Near Death Experience I use NDE offensively. When you know you still have NDE ready, you tend to go more aggressive and that means faster farming. Also with the reflect pack, without NDE, you will die if you apply exploding palm on them. That is right, it just take 1 explosion to kill you. With NDE, it means that if there are only 2 reflect elite left, you can then apply exploding palm on them, even if they explode, the NDE will save trigger and save you. However you cannot do that when there are 3 elites left, basically if they all explode, the first explosion will trigger the NDE, the second one will kill you. So unless you have NDE, don't ever apply exploding palm on reflect pack. Here is a fun video i did when I level up to Para 100, You can see the effect of exploding palm with reflect.

Combination Strike This passive will boost your DPS a lot, you don't need 2 generator for this to kick in, one generator means 8%, 2 generator is 16%...so on. We are maximizing our DPS here so combination is a must. We will then have 16% from this passive, plus the wave of hundred fists attack speed bonus which is around 15% dps increase, that's already a 30% DPS increase here.

Beacon of Ytar This passive is useful when you have blind, some people may think having this passive only for blind is a waste, i thought so too before I actually tested it and it turns out to be a very useful passive. It not only gives you more DPS, it also gives you more chance to use blind as a tool for example in keep 2, you can use blind to stop the exploding mobs.

The above skills are my preference, some of you may not have enough EHP to take out all defensive passive, some variation you can consider here, you can use breath of heaven for a bit more survival, you can take out NDE and use STI for armor, you can take out beacon of Ytar for OWE if you need it. What I think you should keep is the combination strike because it's such a huge DPS boost and more DPS means more life steals.

---------------Gear Explanation---------------

Since the whole point of this build is allow the exploding palm to take out most of the mobs after the explosion, you do not want any monster running around with fear, so I would suggest you not to use an Echoing Fury, in fact Echoing Fury is just not a very good weapon to use with exploding palm. Instead I would suggest you to choose a rare weapon plus WKL, or just 2 rare weapon. You do need decent amount of EHP for this build to work, if you will die easily when all the mobs and elites surround you, then your gear may not be enough and this is not a budget build, this is intended to end game gear.

---------------Using the Build Correctly---------------

So the orders of you poping each skills is important, I am going to explain three cases:

Blue Elite Pack: * Go into the battle with your mantra ready * Punch a few times with your fist of thunder to gain 8% combination strike DPS buff * Punch a few times with your way of hundred fist for the additional 8% and also the attack speed bonus * Apply exploding palm on hopefully all of them (it's ok if you only manage to apply on 1~2, as long as you apply one and concentrate your DPS on him) * Keep hitting with your fist of thunder * Refresh your way of hundred fists and mantra * Choose your target (usually the one with the lowest HP left) and press blind to burst your DPS on him and make him explode, with my DPS, they are usually dead by now, if this guy still alive, repeat back to second step and keep hitting. Make sure you always have exploding palm on the guy that is about to die.

Champion Yellow Pack: * Go into the battle with your mantra ready * Punch a few times with your fist of thunder to gain 8% combination strike DPS buff * Punch a few times with your way of hundred fist for the additional 8% and also the attack speed bonus * Apply exploding palm on the main champion and also on as many minions you can, don't hit the champion at all, hit the minion instead * Keep hitting with your fist of thunder to the lowest HP minion * Refresh your way of hundred fists and mantra * Choose your target (usually the one with the lowest HP left) and press blind to burst your DPS on him and make him explode, sometimes killing just one minion will be enough to kill the champion, if not it's going to knock down a lot of HP to the champion and if there is more minions left, go back to step 2 and repeat, if not, just kill the champion with his remaining HP.

A Group of White Monster: * Go into the battle with your mantra ready * Punch a few times with your fist of thunder to gain 8% combination strike DPS buff * Punch a few times with your way of hundred fist for the additional 8% and also the attack speed bonus * Apply exploding palm on some of them, choose the one that is almost dead or the one that has more HP, usually the bigger the monster the more HP they have. * Keep hitting with your fist of thunder * Refresh your way of hundred fists and mantra * Choose your target (usually the one with the lowest HP left) and press blind to burst your DPS on him and make him explode. Around 50% of the DPS will come from your normal attack including cyclones, the rest will be done by your exploding palm explosion damage.

---------------Tips and Practice Steps---------------

This is one of the most advance build and it does take some practices to get it correct, please see below for some tips and practice steps you can take to unleash the power of SP build:

1. Choose your key binding carefully, do not put way of the hundred fists on your right mouse click, this is bad since having need to click your right click mouse every 3s will become very painful after a few hours play, it's much easier to have this on your keyboard.
2. Always have the way of hundred fists close the mantra, remember you need to press your mantra and combination strike together every 3s so you don't want to waste 500ms by putting them apart.
3. Practice pressing the way of hundred fists and mantra together every 3~4s without looking at the buff icon. You need to get used to this to have your max DPS output at all time.
4. Practice the the use of exploding palm, don't waste a lot of spirits since you can apply exploding palm on the same guys multiple times but it's no use. Find a place with frequent elites pack, go in the battle and apply 3 exploding palm on 3 different target, don't panic and be precise .
5. Get your timing right, remember exploding palm lasts for 9s, so if you are going to take longer to kill, make sure you reapply on the guy you are doing your main focus DPS on.
6. When you have your exploding palm all set and applied, press wave of hundred fists and mantra again to make sure you have max DPS, then apply blind to burst all your damage on the guy you are trying to kill, during this 3s blind duration, just hold left click so you don't waste any time doing other stuffs.
7. Understanding the mechanic of exploding palm, this is for advance user, but please read it also as it's a hidden power of exploding palm, the skill description says it does 50% of the target max HP as explosion, there is actually a way to buff this explosive to 100%. Have you ever wonder what the exploding palm SOJ does? Now Let me know you, that does NOTHING! it's the bleeding damage it crease, BUT the damage against elite actually apply to exploding palm explosive. So you get the additional 30% there if you are using SOJ, and also your mantra gives a bonus too, plus putting exploding palm- the flesh is weak also add bonus, at the end, if you can make sure you press your mantra at the very last second when one is about to explode, then you can buff you exploding damage to 100%. Don't believe me? Or want to see how I can one shot mp10 ubers? Here is a video :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maHqt65aLKA That's the reason why when you meet a champion yellow pack, you also want to apply the exploding palm on the main guy, so the explosion will do additional damage to him.
8. There is a movement speed bonus from the wave of hundred fists, when you are almost done with a pack or a group of white monsters, remember to apply the way of hundred fists to gain that additional movement speed bonus. It is hard and very advance but if you can remember to do that, it will make the speed palm build even more powerful. And yes, it does boost your movement speed over the cap.

---------------Summary---------------

I hope I have covered most of the points, this is a long guide and I will keep updating more info to it when needed. Below you can also find a video version of the guide:

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXlcsFpQqNo
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9WxWJE5W0I

If you have any more questions or you want to see more of the build in actions (if I am playing with this build), stop by my channel and ask. http://www.twitch.tv/invisuk Thank you for the reading this and see you guys around!

Posted in: monk