Monk: Mantra of Evasions: Backlash ... somethings you may not know but probably should.

I just wanted to take a moment to discuss a skill that most Monks are familiar with to some extent – Mantra of Evasion’s: Backlash. This is one of those skills that some of us used when we were coming up in the ranks. I say some because it became available at lvl 50, 15 levels after its more popular cousin – MoC: Overawe. As you know, Overawe has been a gold standard among Monks for a long time. So much so that Backlash is rarely seen in builds anymore. I am going to try to change that.

So what do we know about Backlash? Well, the tool tip says it’s associated with dodge and that successfully dodging an incoming attack results in a chance to create a burst of flame dealing 35% weapons damage. Pretty strait forward – a nice little skill but not much utility, or is there?

The tool tip is correct in that you do get a flame equal to 35% of weapons damage. What it fails to mention is that 35% is based on an attack speed of “1”. If you increase AS that percentage also increases. For example, at an AS of 2.4 that percentage is 84. Ok, that’s gem #1. Gem #2 is the fact that when Backlash procs, it also procs LS. So how do you know when Backlash procs? You can see an orange ring radiate out from under your Monk. Gem #3 deals with the fact that Backlash can also crit. I know, it sounds bizarre but it’s the truth. Now, the difference between a “backlash crit” and a “normal crit” is the fact that Backlash uses your weapons damage as the base value. A normal crit will use your stat sheet as the base value. To make sure I wasn’t seeing things, I had previously set game play options as such:

Options: 

I made a short video in which I went into MP1 and sought out a RD pack. The goal was to capture those crits and to see if backlash could handle a MP1 RD pack on its own. I basically just sat there. Now my Templar was with me so it is logical to assume that he was doing a little bit of damage as well. FYI, my Templar does a whopping 388 points of damage so it’s safe to say that his contribution was negligible.

Templar: 

Backlash Video:

As you can clearly see, backlash procs LS and it can crit. It is for these reasons that I have started using it on my MP10 runs in Keeps 2 and CoTA. We can talk more about that if you’d like but the true purpose of this post is to bring Backlash out of the darkness and maybe back into some specialized builds. It may not seem like Backlash has a place in MP10 but when it comes to dense packs /areas it outperforms Overawe in my opinion.

Posted in: monk, Monk builds