Inna Mystic Ally Monk Speed Farming Variation

Last updated on Oct 22, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 31 comments
Build Variations Updated for Season 33, Patch 2.7.8 Main Build Solo Greater Rift Progression Nephalem Rift Farming
1.

Inna Mystic Ally Speed Farming Variation

The Inna Mystic Ally Monk is a very capable speed Greater Rift farming and regular Rift farming build, handling all those tasks and more (e.g. bounties) with ease and minor alterations for each particular task.

Within the limited scope of difficulty of Greater Rift farming tiers and normal (Nephalem) rifts up to T16, the necessary damage and toughness to triumph over the enemy is significantly smaller. Thus, your best course of action is to improve utility and speed.

2.

Adapting Skills

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Way of the Hundred Fists Icon Way of the Hundred Fists Blazing Fists Blazing Fists Right Mouse Button Cyclone Strike Icon Cyclone Strike Implosion Implosion 1 Mystic Ally Icon Mystic Ally Water Ally Water Ally 2 Dashing Strike Icon Dashing Strike Quicksilver Quicksilver 3 Epiphany Icon Epiphany Desert Shroud Desert Shroud 4 Mantra of Conviction Icon Mantra of Conviction Annihilation Annihilation
Passive Skills
3.

Adapting Rotation

When you are speed farming normal rifts and low tier Greater Rifts, your playstyle should at least partially reflect the circumstances by focusing on massive pulls, generic bonuses against enemies and chaining pylon effects.

With the cooldown reducing bonuses of In-geom In-geom at your disposal, you will be able to spam Epiphany Epiphany for protection and Dashing Strike Dashing Strike for incredibly rapid teleportation across the rift, further empowered with the movement bonuses of Mantra of Conviction Mantra of Conviction Annihilation Annihilation. Your generator skill, Way of the Hundred Fists Way of the Hundred Fists, will largely be used to maintain the damage bonus of Focus Focus and Restraint Restraint and the Flying Dragon Flying Dragon buff. Your Mystic Ally Mystic Ally usage will vary according to content; when you are clearing standard rifts, you can be trigger happy and pop it at will to replenish Spirit, but in speed Greater Rifts (especially as you approach your upper limits), you should be a lot more judicious with its use and only activate it once the "waves" portion of the animation is over and the Allies are back to humanoid form.

4.

Adapting Skills and Passives

Parts of the skill and passive selection will overlap with the base Greater Rift progression build, but others will have to change according to the task at hand. Ability to cross over great distances faster and more efficiently take precedence.

  • Mystic Ally Mystic Ally is still your main damage dealer, but the timed burst of Earth Ally Earth Ally is ill-suited in the speedier content, where the consistent damage and reliable AoE of Water Ally Water Ally performs a lot better. Staying on Earth Ally Earth Ally should only be considered in groups, since the Physical rune has superior overall damage, and the Freezing effects of the Water Allies might be considered undesirable.
  • Way of the Hundred Fists Way of the Hundred Fists remains in the build, since the damage buffing angle of the rune Assimilation Assimilation retains usefulness in GR speeds, while the alteration to the rune Blazing Fists Blazing Fists will net you decent extra movement speed in standard rifts and bounties.
  • Cyclone Strike Cyclone Strike Implosion Implosion remains a vital skill in the build due to its unrivaled enemy grouping capabilities.
  • While it is a decent damage increase for GR progression purposes, Blinding Flash Blinding Flash Faith in the Light Faith in the Light is overkill for any type of speed content and should be replaced by the generic usefulness of Epiphany Epiphany, which delivers a utility Swiss knife of damage reduction, Spirit Regeneration and additional movement capabilities. Its massive cooldown will be reduced to a spammable state via the powers of In-geom In-geom. You can either use the defensive Desert Shroud Desert Shroud rune, or the extra Spirit generation from Insight Insight.
  • Serenity Serenity Ascension Ascension should stay during speed Greater Rift farming for an extra layer of spammable safety, but in any form of lower tier content — i.e. normal rifts or bounties — should be replaced by Mantra of Conviction Mantra of Conviction Annihilation Annihilation for the extra movement speed.
  • You will maintain the majority of your progression passive lineup — with Near Death Experience Near Death Experience still safeguarding you against accidental burst, Seize the Initiative Seize the Initiative and Beacon of Ytar Beacon of Ytar providing valuable attack speed and cooldown reduction bonuses respectively, and Relentless Assault Relentless Assault bringing a smattering of extra damage.
5.

Adapting Gear

Most of the gear from the Greater Rift progression build will still make sense for speed farming, but a few variations will be necessary in order to maximize your productivity and momentum during regular Rift clears.

The Inna's Mantra set is still worn almost in its entirety, and it is recommended that you use 2 pieces of the craftable Aughild's Authority set, in order to capitalize on your elite fighting prowess and snowball your performance throughout the rift; the loss of damage reduction items should be negligible during speed GR farming and standard rift clearing. Of course, this necessitates the use of Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur in your jewelry Cube slot to complete the 6-piece Inna bonus.

During Greater and standard rift speed farming, the timing and positioning-reliant bonuses of the Endless Walk set are greatly diminished in usefulness. You can still use this jewelry split, but will be slower and only suitable when you explore the upper GR limits of your speed farming. In their place, we suggest wearing a combination of Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace and the Bastions of Will set, Focus Focus and Restraint Restraint, instead. Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace is a glass cannon staple which doubles your damage with a separate multiplier, but has considerable drawbacks — requirement not to get hit and a penalty of increased damage taken if you do. You will offset these drawbacks with the shield of Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard lvl 25 bonus, and the combination of control you apply to the enemies plus your tremendous kill speed in GRs, or a combo of Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder in one of your ring sockets plus a cubed Goldwrap Goldwrap in standard rifts. The Bastions of Will set, Focus Focus and Restraint Restraint, bring the highest damage multiplier possible from jewelry at the mere cost of weaving generator and spender attacks — a trivial ask in an Inna Mystic Allies build, where you naturally interplay between Way of the Hundred Fists Way of the Hundred Fists and Cyclone Strike Cyclone Strike usage.

In order to ensure very high uptime of Serenity Serenity and Epiphany Epiphany during speed farming, you should drop the usual suspects for solo GR progression, the Shenlong set weapons, and use a combination of In-geom In-geom and Echoing Fury Echoing Fury.

Slot Pieces Stat Priority
Head
  1. Dexterity
  2. Socket
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Vitality
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders
  1. Dexterity
  2. Mystic Ally Damage %
  3. Cooldown Reduction
  4. All Resistance
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Torso
  1. Dexterity
  2. 3 Sockets
  3. Mystic Ally Damage %
  4. Vitality
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat))
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Wrists
  1. Dexterity
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Cold Damage %
  4. Life per Hit or Vitality
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Hands
  1. Dexterity (replaced by Attack Speed at high Paragons)
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Cooldown Reduction
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Waist
  1. Dexterity
  2. Vitality
  3. All Resistance (Guaranteed)
  4. Life %
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Legs
  1. Dexterity
  2. 2 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. All Resistance (Guaranteed Stat)
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Feet
  1. Dexterity
  2. Vitality
  3. Armor
  4. All Resistance
  5. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Amulet
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Cold Damage %
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Flat Damage Increase
  4. Critical Hit Damage
Ring #2
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Flat Damage Increase
  4. Critical Hit Damage
Weapon #1
  1. High Weapon Damage
  2. Dexterity (replaced by Attack Speed at high Paragons)
  3. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  4. Damage %
  5. Cooldown Reduction
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Weapon #2
  1. High Weapon Damage
  2. Dexterity (replaced by Attack Speed at high Paragons)
  3. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  4. Damage %
  5. Life per Hit

To help you with farming the gear you need for your builds, we have two very useful guides that you can access by clicking the links below: a Salvage Guide to help you quickly check whether or not you can safely salvage a piece of gear and a Legendary Farming Guide to help you efficiently farm legendaries and set items.

5.1.

Altar of Rites

The former Season 28 theme, the Altar of Rites, has been revised and re-added to Diablo 3 as a permanent character progression mechanic. — For virtually all builds and players of all skill levels — from casual to advanced — we recommend progressing through the Altar tree using the path outlined below. The suggested path is geared towards maximum quality of life first, then amplifying damage, and then mopping up the tree with defensive and edge case utility nodes.

Note that while they require reaching them with a Seal, Legendary Potion Powers are not part of the Seal cost system; Potions unlock with a separate resource called Primordial Ashes, obtained from salvaging Legendary or Set items of Primal (red bordered) quality. Upgrade them as soon as possible, and in the order shown below (courtesy of Caleko's Altar of Rites planner).

Altar of Rites Planner

You can read more on the Altar of Rites, Seals and Legendary Potion Powers in our dedicated Altar of Rites Mechanics guide.

6.

Adapting Gems

Both Enforcer Enforcer and Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Trapped remain universally desired damage amplification gems for the build.

When using Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace, you will have to introduce a shielding layer of protection in order to maximize its bonus. The most convenient way for most builds to do so, including this one, is to socket a Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard as a legendary gem. Its level 25 bonus provides a Life Regeneration-scaling absorption shield after not taking damage for 4 seconds, and is rather easy to keep up with the crowd control capabilities of this build. If you are playing normal rifts, you can achieve the same effect with even greater strength by using Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder (and pairing it with a cubed Goldwrap Goldwrap).

Slot Gems
Jewelry
Helm
Torso and Pants
Weapon

For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.

7.

Adapting Kanai's Cube

In speed Greater Rifts, you should still use Flying Dragon Flying Dragon from the progression build, as it still provides a potent damage boon to this attack speed-dependent build. When doing standard rift farming, you can drop this proc for an additional source of cooldown reduction from a cubed Messerschmidt's Reaver Messerschmidt's Reaver — the trash enemy counterpart to In-geom In-geom's elite kill CDR bonuses.

In speed Greater Rifts, you will be using Bindings of the Lesser Gods Bindings of the Lesser Gods in this slot for the valuable damage bonuses these bracers provide to your Mystic Allies. In T16, this damage will be overkill, so you could solidify your Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace uptime with a Goldwrap Goldwrap in this slot instead. Its powers will be skyrocketed via the gemmed Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder in one of your rings, and this combo will render you practically invulnerable during regular Rift farming.

In order to maintain the 6-piece bonus of the Inna set and the 3-piece Aughild's Authority set bonuses, you will need to slot a Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur in the jewelry Cube slot.

In your 4th Kanai's Cube slot in Season 33, you should add either Krelm's Buff Belt Krelm's Buff Belt for additional movement speed during farming (and especially bounties), or supplement your upfront burst by using the Act III-specific bounty cache legendary sword Envious Blade Envious Blade.

The Kanai's Cube can be used for much more than simply extracting Legendary powers from items. Please refer to our Kanai's Cube guide for more information.

8.

Follower

The recommended follower for this build during T16 and speed Greater Rift farming is the Enchantress due to her utility-laden arsenal of skills, and especially her cooldown reduction bonus, which assists your significant CDR needs during farming. Her balance of increasing survivability while also improving damage makes her an excellent choice during speed farming of any kind.

For more information regarding followers, we advise you to read our Follower Guide, which contains detailed advice for choosing the skills and the gear of your follower.

9.

Legendary Potion

Your recommended potion during speed farming is Bottomless Potion of the Leech Bottomless Potion of the Leech, which complements the high attack speed focus of the build.

10.

Changelog

  • 22 Oct. 2024: Added Season 33 advice for 4th Kanai slot.
  • 10 Jul. 2024: Added Season 32 advice for ethereal weapons.
  • 10 Apr. 2024: Guide reviewed for Season 31.
  • 08 Jan. 2024: Revised guide for the permanent addition of the Altar of Rites, and added Season-specific Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 13 Sep. 2023: Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
  • 22 Feb. 2023: Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
  • 26 Aug. 2022: Added Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
  • 14 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
  • 08 Dec. 2021: Guide revised and added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 21 Jul. 2021: Guide thoroughly reworked for the Inna set revamp; added S24 Ethereal weapon recommendation.
  • 01 Apr. 2021: Minor gear revision and added follower recommendation.
  • 16 Nov. 2020: Added S22 Cube recommendation.
  • 01 Jul. 2020: No changes required for Season 21.
  • 12 Mar. 2020: No changes necessary for Season 20.
  • 21 Nov. 2019: Reviewed for Season 19.
  • 23 Aug. 2019: Flavor of Time is now the recommended amulet.
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