Uliana Seven-Sided Strike Monk Skills and Runes

Last updated on Oct 22, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 30 comments

On this page, we explain how to choose and use your skills when playing Uliana Seven-Sided Strike Monk in Diablo 3. Updated for Patch 2.7.8 and Season 33.

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Way of the Hundred Fists Icon Way of the Hundred Fists Assimilation Assimilation Right Mouse Button Exploding Palm Icon Exploding Palm Impending Doom Impending Doom 1 Epiphany Icon Epiphany Desert Shroud Desert Shroud 2 Dashing Strike Icon Dashing Strike Blinding Speed Blinding Speed 3 Seven-Sided Strike Icon Seven-Sided Strike Sustained Attack Sustained Attack 4 Cyclone Strike Icon Cyclone Strike Implosion Implosion
Passive Skills
1.

Rotation

The strategy of this build involves engaging large groups of enemies, attracting as many straggler packs as you can with a hit-and-run tactic enabled by the mobility of Dashing Strike Dashing Strike. When the monsters gather, apply an Exploding Palm Exploding Palm and your Assimilation Assimilation buff with a triple attack of Way of the Hundred Fists Way of the Hundred Fists. Then unleash a devastating Seven-Sided Strike Seven-Sided Strike, automatically spreading and detonating Impending Doom Impending Doom on the bunched up enemies with a little help from Gungdo Gear Gungdo Gear. While Seven-Sided Strike will be your primary source of damage and should be cast on cooldown, do not neglect to apply the EPs with a triple hit from Way of the Hundred Fists Way of the Hundred Fists first, and maximize the bonus from Annihilation Annihilation by getting yourself in as big of a fight as you can. Repeat this rotation until the trash or elite pack is dead, but always keep the AoE focus of the build in mind and round up monster packs as you go, never committing to small packs. Defense-wise, strive to maintain Epiphany Epiphany Desert Shroud Desert Shroud and the Blinding Speed Blinding Speed dodge buff as much as you can. While the above is a serviceable general rotation, to maximize the potential of the build you will need to internalize several obscure Diablo mechanics — please consult our Mythic Rhythm Mythic Rhythm section below.

2.

Skills and Runes

Seven-Sided Strike Seven-Sided Strike is the harbinger of devastation in the build: while not providing an essential part of your overall DPS, it will trigger the chain of Exploding Palm Exploding Palm detonations through the Uliana 6-piece bonus. Despite the lack of elemental synergy, picking the Physical rune Sustained Attack Sustained Attack is crucial, as it cuts down the base 30-second cooldown of the skill in half.

The true powerhouse of the build lies in the signature Monk ability Exploding Palm Exploding Palm. The rune of choice is the Cold damage Impending Doom Impending Doom, towering over its peers with 6305% weapon damage per detonation, activated through the Uliana 6-piece bonus and spreading like the plague with the Gungdo Gear Gungdo Gear unique property. While present on your skill bar, you will not need to manually use Exploding Palm (most of the time) and pay the Spirit cost, as it will be applied with the Gungdo Gear Gungdo Gear detonation chain, as well as through your generator via the Uliana 2-piece bonus.

Way of the Hundred Fists Way of the Hundred Fists is the generator of choice that serves multiple purposes in the build:

  • Keeping up a damage buff from the Assimilation Assimilation) rune;
  • Set synergy with the Uliana 2-piece bonus for the initial application of Exploding Palm Exploding Palm;
  • Last but not least, resource generation with a standard 12 Spirit per hit.

Epiphany Epiphany is the centerpiece defensive cooldown 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 you always have enough to use Seven-Sided Strike Seven-Sided Strike and Cyclone Strike Cyclone Strike. And perhaps most important of all, the Desert Shroud Desert Shroud rune strengthens your defenses with 50% damage reduction while active.

To clump up enemies for the convenience of your Seven-Sided Strike Seven-Sided Strike and to maximize Assimilation Assimilation stacks, you will be using Cyclone Strike Cyclone Strike with one of the longest range pulls in the game — the 34-yard Implosion Implosion rune.

Dashing Strike Dashing Strike is the smoothest movement tool in the game, and one of the best assets in the Monk arsenal; the Uliana build adopts it mostly for survival needs in GRs. A charge-based skill on a low cooldown, it will allow you to skip low populated areas and unfavorable fights. With two charges stored by default you can cover good distances, or simply maintain the 40% Dodge buff of the Blinding Speed Blinding Speed rune.

3.

Passives

Beacon of Ytar Beacon of Ytar is a solid foundation for high skill uptime, providing a 20% chunk to your Cooldown Reduction. Further reducing the Seven-Sided Strike Seven-Sided Strike downtime is only half the reason to take this passive, as it also cuts down the sizable 60-second cooldown of Epiphany Epiphany and directly improves your defenses.

A mainstay in the Monk arsenal of passives, Harmony Harmony fuels your All Resistance with 40% of the single elemental resistance per piece of gear (g.g. 100 Fire Resistance roll on the boots will add 100 to your sheet Fire Resistance and add 40 to your other resists). A well geared Monk will usually sport secondary resistances in all the gear slots that are able to roll them, adding significantly to his overall Toughness (see this build's gear page for more information).

To counteract some of the damage spikes the build is exposed to, we will be taking Near Death Experience Near Death Experience — the cheat death passive available to Monks. On the standard 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 a nice bonus on top. If you are confident about handling spike damage, the best alternative for this passive slot is The Guardian's Path The Guardian's Path — a top tier defensive passive when dual-wielding, offering a substantial 35% dodge chance increase. Working alongside the dodge bonuses from Blinding Speed Blinding Speed and Agility Agility, it will be the optimal passive choice for physical attacks protection in high density maps.

Mythic Rhythm Mythic Rhythm remains one of the strongest damage passives you can take as a Uliana Monk, as it offers a 40% multiplicative damage bonus for your next damaging Spirit spender after a triple attack from a generator, mirroring the mechanics of the set.

3.1.

On Mythic Rhythm and Snapshotting

High end GR clears with Uliana's set are using a snapshot of the passive Mythic Rhythm Mythic Rhythm. In Diablo terms, snapshotting is taking a certain buff dependent value and using it for an extended period of time, well beyond the intended buff duration. In this particular build, Uliana monks are snapshotting temporary buffed damage values from Mythic Rhythm Mythic Rhythm (Assimilation Assimilation and Power pylons have been changed into dynamic buffs and can no longer be snapshotted) into a damage increase for the entire rift. This is how it is done:

  • Find a big pack of enemies and attack 3 times with your generator, Way of the Hundred Fists Way of the Hundred Fists, getting as many Assimilation Assimilation stacks as you can. This will also apply the Mythic Rhythm Mythic Rhythm buff, as the Exploding Palm Exploding Palm created by the Uliana 2-piece bonus counts as a spender for the purposes of the passive. Unfortunately this will create numerous Exploding Palm Exploding Palms, and you will have no way of telling which particular target has Mythic Rhythm Mythic Rhythm on it.
  • Attack 3 times again on the same targets. This will once again create the Mythic Rhythm Mythic Rhythm buff, but since Exploding Palm Exploding Palm has already been spread from the first round and there are no new targets, the Mythic Rhythm Mythic Rhythm buff is retained on yourself.
  • Move away from the current pack of Exploding Palm Exploding Palmed monsters you used to create a buff for yourself. Their Exploding Palms cannot be overwritten. Find a new large pack of monsters and apply a supercharged Exploding Palm Exploding Palm on a new, single monster. Do not do this by a 3-generator attack, but manually using the Exploding Palm Exploding Palm skill on your bar.
  • Use Seven-Sided Strike Seven-Sided Strike to detonate and spread the supercharged Exploding Palm Exploding Palm. Destroy most of the monster pack, leaving a few living targets with the supercharged Exploding Palm Exploding Palms and drag them to the next big group of monsters, strictly using Seven-Sided Strike Seven-Sided Strike to detonate and generate Exploding Palm Exploding Palms, and not using the Uliana 2-piece method (3 successive generator attacks) until the end of the rift.
4.

Changelog

  • 22 Oct. 2024: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 33.
  • 10 Jul. 2024: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 32.
  • 10 Apr. 2024: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 31.
  • 08 Jan. 2024: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 30.
  • 13 Sep. 2023: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 29.
  • 22 Feb. 2023: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 28.
  • 26 Aug. 2022: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 27.
  • 14 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
  • 08 Dec. 2021: Reviewed for Season 25.
  • 21 Jul. 2021: No changes required for Season 24.
  • 01 Apr. 2021: No changes required for Season 23.
  • 16 Nov. 2020: No changes required for Season 22.
  • 01 Jul. 2020: No changes required for Season 21.
  • 12 Mar. 2020: No changes necessary for Season 20.
  • 21 Nov. 2019: Reviewed and approved for Season 19.
  • 23 Aug. 2019: Reviewed for Season 18.
  • 16 May 2019: Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 17.
  • 17 Jan. 2019: Information was reviewed and approved for Season 16 with no changes required.
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