Monk Dashing Strike Cold Build with the Raiment of a Thousand Storms Set (Patch 2.4)

This bursty, fluid playstyle is unlocked through the following pieces:

• Helm: Mask of the Searing Sky
• Chest: Heart of the Crashing Wave
• Gloves: Fists of Thunder
• Pants: Scales of the Dancing Serpent
• Shoulders: Mantle of the Upside-Down Sinners
• Boots: Eight-Demon Boots

Following the nerfs to the 4-piece and 6-piece bonuses in Patch 2.4, this build is no longer competitive. We have removed it from the menus, but we decided to leave it on the website for documentation purposes.

This build is presented to you by Deadset, one of the very few professional Diablo 3 players. Deadset regularly publishes video guides on Youtube and streams on Twitch, where you can see how this and other builds play out in practice.

The following video guide was created to accompany the present written guide and demonstrate how to play the build in-game.

Active Skills
Fists of Thunder Quickening Dashing Strike Blinding Speed 1 Inner Sanctuary Forbidden Palace 2 Breath of Heaven Infused with Light 3 Epiphany Desert Shroud 4 Mantra of Salvation Agility
Passive Skills
Beacon of Ytar Harmony Near Death Experience Seize the Initiative

The basic strategy of the build is to charge into the fray, and then stick to your targets through Fists of Thunder. The Raiment set allows you to Dashing Strike continuously on top of the enemies while holding down Fists of Thunder, destroying them with a powerful 12,500% damage modifier to the dashes. For your protection and additional utility, you will be using Breath of Heaven and Inner Sanctuary on cooldown, and strategic uses of your strongest defensive skill — Epiphany — will ensure your survival even in the highest of Greater Rifts.

Fists of Thunder is the generator of choice in the Dashing Strike Monk build; with the Quickening rune, it turns into the most efficient Spirit generating primary in the Monk arsenal, and gains additional value by sticking you to your target. While its meager damage will be amplified by the Raiment set, the attack speed increase from the 2-piece bonus is what makes the real difference in Spirit generation, and subsequently — damage potential.

On the topic of DPS, the real damage dealer of the build is Dashing Strike. This normally movement and utility oriented skill is turned into a tool of destruction for six seconds after using Fists of Thunder, upping its damage to the impressive 12,500% through the 6-piece Raiment set bonus. Even though it remains a charge-based skill, the four piece bonus of the Raiment set allows you to spend 75 Spirit to refund a charge. As long as you are careful not to lose those charges by overspending Spirit, you can keep dashing infinitely. To add to the survivability in high Greater Rifts, the rune of choice is the dodge-boosting Blinding Speed.

With damage dealing taken care of, four powerful mitigation skills with various utility bonuses will add to the Toughness of the build.

Inner Sanctuary creates a protective circle that more than halves the damage taken when inside its 11 yard radius. On a reasonable 20 second base cooldown, this skill will serve as a defensive bubble when dashing in place, further entrapping enemies with an 80% slow and increasing their damage taken by 30% through the Forbidden Palace rune.

Breath of Heaven is yet another skill on a relatively short cooldown, whose base healing effect is eclipsed by the Spirit generation utility of the Infused with Light rune. Vastly improving the resource regeneration potential of your primary attack, Breath of Heaven usage simply translates into more Dashing Strikes.

Epiphany is the third, and arguably strongest of the defensive cooldowns in the build. It bolsters your mobility by allowing you to stick to your target, securing the kill. It increases your Spirit regeneration by 20 per second, ensuring your Dashing Strike spam remains uninterrupted. Last but not least, the Desert Shroud rune strengthens your defenses with 50% damage reduction while active.

Rounding out the protective choices, Mantra of Salvation passively increases all resistances by 20%, and adds 35% dodge chance through the Agility rune. Its active component, which further increases resistances for a brief duration, will not be frequently used — as it consumes Spirit that could otherwise be spent on Dashing Strikes — but still has its own utility. When out of Dashing Strike charges (by mistake or necessity) but still in battle, Mantra of Salvation can be spammed to heal you through the Life per Spirit Spent stat on your gear.

This concludes the overview of the Active Skills, now let us look through the Passives.

Beacon of Ytar is a solid foundation for high skill uptime, providing a 20% chunk to your Cooldown Reduction. The sizable 60 and 20 second timers for Epiphany and Inner Sanctuary respectively, are important enough to demand a high CDR goal.

A mainstay in the Monk arsenal of passives, Harmony fuels your All Resistance with 40% of the single elemental resistance per piece of gear. (E.g. 100 Fire Resistance roll on the boots will add 100 to your sheet Fire Resistance and add 40 to your other resists.) While an even spread of the various resistances across gear will result in the highest sheet All Resistance, try to properly harmonize with one of the key legendary gems, Esoteric Alteration. Stacking Physical resistance whenever possible in an attempt to catch up with the elemental mitigation provided by Esoteric Alteration will yield the best protective setup.

Near Death Experience is the cheat death passive provided to Monks; on an acceptable 60 second cooldown, it will prevent a lethal situation and restore you to 35% Life and Spirit instead. The 2 second immunity to damage and crowd control impairing effects is just icing on the cake, giving you time to reposition and reassess the situation.

Seize the Initiative is the lonely offensive passive among a trio of defensive ones, but stands out on its own. Providing you with a temporary attack speed increase when engaging enemies over 75% health, it results in speedier Spirit generation and faster Dashing Strikes. As you get more comfortable with the build, you will learn to draw the attention of additional enemies or freshly spawned boss adds to effectively extend the benefits from Seize the Initiative.

The Dashing Strike Monk takes advantage of all six pieces of the Raiment of a Thousand Storms set, opening up the jewelry slots for the all-out offensive Bastions of Will set. Rolls-wise, this offense-heavy set makes good use of Toughness rolls. Sought after on the Mantle of the Upside-Down Sinners, Cooldown Reduction is taken as the fourth primary stat after Dexterity, the guaranteed All Resist and the Dashing Strike skill damage. Skill damage is also rolled on the Heart of the Crashing Wave, alongside the usual Dexterity, Vitality and triple Sockets. Straight mitigation rolls are preferred on the Mask of the Searing Sky, Scales of the Dancing Serpent and Eight-Demon Boots, and double Crit stats alongside Dexterity and Vitality take priority on the Fists of Thunder.

Not skipping on any of the set pieces allows you to wear a strong offensive combo on the rings: the Bastions of Will set, Focus and Restraint. These rings offer a whopping 2.25 independent damage multiplier as long as you alternate between a primary and spender attacks — which, incidentally, mirrors the exact tactic of this build. It is worth noting that at a high enough Paragon level (900+), Cooldown Reduction rolls become the preferred fourth stat over Dexterity, while the other three remain double Crit and an open Socket.

To complete the jewelry, a strong protective amulet such as the Eye of Etlich will make a tight fit. Offering around 30% reduction of ranged attack damage, this amulet will often be the difference between closing the gap to enemy archers, or facing the death screen. Other viable options are found in elemental immunity necklaces such as Mara's Kaleidoscope and Xephirian Amulet. Regardless of your choice, the ideal rolls are double Crit stats, Cold elemental damage, and an open Socket.

Introduced in Season 3, the Spirit Guards bracers offer up to 40% damage reduction for 3 seconds after using a Spirit Generator. Taking the place of the former favorite for damage mitigation, the Unity ring, these bracers open up the jewelry to additional offense. If you do not have access to those bracers, Ancient Parthan Defenders and a quick switch of the generator to Crippling Wave Tsunami are the next best way to allow the rings to be Focus and Restraint. The suggested roll is Dexterity, Vitality, Cold elemental damage and Crit chance.

The final armor slot is taken by yet another defensive piece, the String of Ears. Providing with up to 30% melee damage reduction, this belt will shine in high Greater Rifting environments for this strictly melee-range setup. An alternative for sub-GR 50 progression (or simple farming) is The Witching Hour, whose Increased Attack Speed and Critical Damage rolls will add nicely to your burst.

No build is complete without its weapon, and the suggested Best-in-Slot weapon for progression is the Flying Dragon. With the potent ability to double your attack speed in battle, this weapon will maximize both your Spirit generation and Dashing Strike frequency. While rolling for maximum damage output is possible, a highly suggested option is to roll into double healing stats (Life per Hit and Life per Spirit Spent) instead; this allows you to survive Dashing Strike mismanagement, healing through the Spirit cost of Mantra of Salvation.

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.

Your three jewelry sockets will be taken up by the legendary gems Bane of the Trapped, Esoteric Alteration, and Gogok of Swiftness.

• Bane of the Trapped is a potent source of additional damage, as it is its own multiplier in your total damage calculation. Easily procced by your chills, slows and its own level 25 property, Bane of the Trapped is inseparable from this melee build.
• Introduced in Season 2, Esoteric Alteration is the strong mitigation gem for incoming elemental damage. Improving your elemental resistances with every gem level, as well as providing you with a near-impenetrable last line of defense through the level 25 property, Esoteric Alteration becomes a good companion to an otherwise fragile build.
• Gogok of Swiftness is the synergistic third choice for your last jewelry slot, indirectly providing you with more resources and protection. It is an easy source of another 15% Attack Speed and Cooldown Reduction, with your relentless assault easily keeping the stacks capped.

• Weapon: The Furnace
• Armor: Cindercoat
• Jewelry: Unity

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.