Monk Cyclone Storm Build Guide for Raids

This build specializes in heavy single-target damage and boss takedowns for content like the Helliquary, Kion's Ordeal and Path of Blood, shifting its focus away from the usual utility enhancements of farming builds. Instead, it amasses all the single-target potential a Monk can muster, transforming even traditional utility cooldowns like Cyclone Strike into raw damage, and relies on quick reflexes with Mystic Strike to evade incoming hits.

If you are interested in approaching a different type of content, please see our other Monk builds below.

When doing Boss-type content, your first and foremost priority is taking care of your survivability — usually done with a combination of smart positioning, evasion of telegraphed attacks, and emergency dodging with Mystic Strike. Mystic Strike is arguably the most important part of your rotation, as its deliberate use will get you out of chunky Boss hits, incoming crowd control, or even group up its adds for the convenience of your AoE — all in one package. Make sure you always have one charge available as a "panic button" source of escape. Note that your traditional source of enemy grouping, Cyclone Strike, will be used as an AoE DPS ability instead. Ensure it is used when the Boss is done with immunity phases or heavy movement. Once it is active and the Boss adds are (ideally) down, pop Mystic Allies and use Seven-Sided Strike whenever it is available, filling the downtime with Fists of Thunder spam.

Primary Skill: Fists of Thunder is the Primary Attack dedicated to dishing out single-target damage, as it comboes down a chosen enemy and, more importantly, has built-in dashing mechanics that allow you to stick to that particular target. When facing down singular, highly mobile targets (the vast majority of PvE situations, and especially in PvP), this should be your Primary Attack of choice.

Main Damage Dealer: Mystic Allies excel at pummeling down a priority target, making them ideal for content featuring protracted single-target fights — particularly Challenge Rifts and Raids, where time spent fighting the Boss can no longer be ignored as a factor. Note that you have to contend with pet AI when you plan the fight with your summons, and try to eliminate as many distractions (elite minions, boss adds, etc.) before popping the Allies' cooldown — this will help them beeline towards the correct enemy.

Secondary Damage Dealer: Seven-Sided Strike is equally formidable as a multi-target skill as it is on single targets, providing a rare combination of heavy damage and versatility that makes it all but a mandatory inclusion in damage-oriented Monk builds. On top of its all-around strength, it has the added benefit of making you untargetable — and thus immune to damage — during its animation, enabling a third use case: as a "panic" button against an incoming heavy attack. Seven-Sided Strike is best used in conjunction with Exploding Palm, in order to ensure the demise of the Bleeding target and trigger the detonation.

Tertiary Damage Dealer: Since enemy displacement is not required for Boss-oriented content, Cyclone Strike is flipped from its traditional role of a long-range pull into an additional AoE damage dealer with the legendary Storm Spirit.

• Alternative: If Storm Spirit is not available to you yet, you should include another nuke in the build. Wave Of Light is another all-purpose, hard-hitting tool in the Monk arsenal that can be easily incorporated in this slot. Alternatively, if you know the Boss will spawn a lot of trash, you can fall back on the trash-clearing powerhouse Exploding Palm.

Mobility: Mystic Strike is one of the strongest mobility tools in the game, and certainly the best at the Monk's disposal. Its excellent range, reasonable cooldown and triple charges available by default allow you to maneuver around a fight at will to the best possible position. It can serve as an opener in combat, closing the gap to your enemy and pulling them together; it can be used as an emergency dodge from incoming attacks, blinking you well away from danger; and it can be popped to avoid or skip combat altogether, leaving your foes hopelessly behind. Needless to say, it should be included in all builds where mobility is a consideration (so pretty much any build, really).

Equipment is split into Primary (right side of character screen) and Secondary (left side).

Primary equipment includes the Main-hand, Off-hand, Head, Shoulders, Chest, and Legs slots of your character sheet. These slots can — and should — be filled by Legendary items, since their legendary powers and ability to be socketed with Legendary gems vastly overpowers lower tier gear. Of course, these slots will be temporarily filled with Common (Grey), then Magic (Blue), and then Rare (Yellow) gear, before graduating into Legendaries (Golden).

The suggested Legendaries for boss-killing Cyclone Storm Monks are:

• Main-hand: Rod of Echoes — This legendary main-hand weapon decreases the cooldown of Mystic Allies by 15%, and can be further Awakened to bolster their Health by 10%. Shortening the considerable Mystic Allies cooldown and making their single-target prowess more readily available is a welcome addition to the build.
• Off-hand: Eye of the Storm — This legendary off-hand can be easily acquired from the Battle Pass. It enhances the radius of effect of Cyclone Strike, and can be further Awakened to reduce its cooldown as well.
• Head: The Open Mind — This legendary helm has a simple, straightforward and very valuable power — percentage-based increase to the damage of Mystic Allies, and can be further Awakened to increase the summons' Life.
• Shoulders: Discipline's Weight — These legendary shoulders provide a simple, yet undeniably strong percentage-based increase to Seven-Sided Strike, and can be further Awakened to reduce the skill's cooldown.
• Chest: Storm Spirit — This legendary chest piece is a cornerstone piece of the playstyle, as it flips the traditionally crowd control-oriented Cyclone Strike into a pure DPS skill that helps you whittle the Boss down.
• Legs: Companion's Melody — These legendary pants increase the duration of the Mystic Allies summons by 25%, and when further Awakened will reduce the skill's cooldown by 10%. You need all the single-target damage you can get, so making the Allies more readily available is a tremendous boon to the build.

Secondary equipment includes the Amulet, Rings, Hands, Waist, and Feet slots of your character sheet. These slots can — and should — be filled with Set items, since the bonuses they form once completed vastly overpowers lower tier gear. Of course, these slots will be temporarily filled with Common (Grey), then Magic (Blue), and then Rare (Yellow) gear, before graduating into Sets (Green). Secondary equipment can only be socketed with Normal gems.

The recommended set for boss-killing Cyclone Storm Monks is Grace of the Flagellant, which increases channeled, continual and persistent ground damage effects, as well as rewarding continuous attacks against a chosen target. The set consists of:

• Open Gut (Waist) — Farmed at Pit of Anguish in difficulty Hell I and above.
• Torn Sole (Feet) — Farmed at Mad King's Breach in difficulty Hell I and above.
• Bloody Hand (Hands) — Farmed at Cavern of Echoes in difficulty Hell II and above.
• Slit Throat (Neck) — Farmed at Temple of Namari in difficulty Hell II and above.
• Severed Thumb (Ring 1) — Farmed at Destruction's End in difficulty Hell IV and above.
• Broken Palm (Ring 2) — Farmed at Kikuras Rapids in difficulty Hell IV and above.

The set bonuses of Grace of the Flagellant are as follows:

• 2-piece Set Bonus: All continual damage, Channeled damage, and persistent ground damage increased by 15%.
• 4-piece Set Bonus: Each time you damage an individual enemy 5 times, you will do additional damage to that enemy.
• 6-piece Set Bonus: Each time you deal damage, you have a 4% chance to unleash a lightning strike, dealing damage to all nearby enemies and Stunning them for 2 seconds. Cannot occur more than once every 40 seconds.

Improving your attributes in Diablo Immortal generally revolves around increasing the total amount of Combat Rating, or CR. Every primary attribute point (Strength, Fortitude, Vitality, Willpower, and Intelligence) grants you 1 point of CR.

The priority attribute for Monks is Strength, which gives +0.3 Damage per point; given otherwise identical options, use the one with higher Strength to increase your DPS. Second in the priority order is Fortitude, which adds to your Armor Penetration — indirectly increasing damage dealt by also improving your crit chance. This attribute suffers from diminishing returns due to crit caps, but is still quite valuable. Third in the priority order is Vitality, which simply increases your Life total; the longer you can stave off death, the better.

Stat priority order and stat benefits for Monks are as follows:

• 1. Strength — Grants +0.3 Damage to Monks, and +1 to your total CR.
• 2. Fortitude — Grants +0.1 Armor Penetration, which affects your crit chance. It also grants +0.1 Armor; Armor increases your Block chance, and blocking attacks mitigates 20% of the damage dealt. More mitigation is never amiss, and even more so when dealing with riskier content like the Helliquary. It also adds +1 to your total CR.
• 3. Vitality — Grants +3 Life; the more you can add to your total health pool, the better. This is especially true for melee classes like the Monk, as they are frequently in the thick of the fight and endure hits head on. This attribute also adds +1 to your total CR.
• 4. Willpower — Grants +0.1 Potency and 0.1 Resistance. Potency increases the duration of harmful effects that you inflict on your foes. Resistance lowers the duration of harmful effects inflicted by your enemies on you. This attribute also adds +1 to your total CR.
• 5. Intelligence — Grants +1 CR. This attribute does nothing else for Monks, and should be avoided as much as possible.

You should not put an emphasis on Special Attributes when considering between gear pieces. This is due to the overpowering importance of Primary Attributes and your CR total. That being said, the better Special Attributes are the two Crit Stats (Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Damage), Cooldown Reduction, Beneficiary Effect Duration, and Movement Speed. You can also consider Increased Damage to Players for PvP gear.

Pieces of Primary Gear that you upgrade at the Blacksmith attain up to three additional Bonus Attributes for Reforging at Ranks 6, 11, and 16. These Bonus Attributes belong to "families" (outlined and ranked below); a Family Bonus can be unlocked if all three Bonus Attributes are from the same family. Multiple Primary Gear pieces can have the same Family Bonus to improve your proc chance. The process of Reforging is done with the Reforge Stone consumable. Note that only Primary Gear pieces can be reforged; Secondary Gear pieces cannot. For Monks, priority Bonus Attributes are:

• 1. Tremor Stone is the most valuable bonus for general content, as its Family Bonus adds a crowd control proc and extra damage to your Primary Attacks.
• 2. Vengeance Stone brings a single target-oriented Family Bonus that becomes increasingly important as you push the difficulty of the content you are doing, i.e. Challenge Rifts. Pair it with high Attack Speed choices like Fists of Thunder to have a chance at finishing off Boss fights within the timer.
• 3. Wildfire Stone is mostly valuable due to its innate attributes, as it brings valuable Critical Hit Chance to the table. The Hydra summon from the Family Bonus is mostly an extra minion to soak up damage.
• 4. Barrier Stone has a Family Bonus that brings some much needed mitigation to Monks, a class that face-tanks all of its damage. The absorption shield is paired with some excellent innate attributes like Damage Taken Decreased and Block Chance, which further reduce incoming hurt.
• 5. Jolt Stone offers situationally valuable bonuses; it has Beneficial Effect Duration Increased as an innate attribute, which is decent for groups, and a Cheat Death proc which is never amiss when soloing content. Its Family Bonus brings soft CC to attackers, which is decent mostly for PvP.
• 6. Ravager Stone offers summoner-oriented innate attributes that are all but useless to Monks (unless you hyper-specialize in the Mystic Allies summons). Its Family Bonus requires enemies to be slain to proc, significantly diminishing its usefulness when doing progression content like Challenge Rift bosses and Helliquary.

As per tradition for Diablo games, socketed gear allows you to insert beneficial gems according to your needs. In Diablo Immortal, gems are divided between Normal Gems (socketable in Secondary Gear) and Legendary Gems (socketable in Primary Gear).

Normal Gems can only be socketed in Secondary Gear. Normal gems are divided into Red, Blue and Yellow sockets, and their priority is listed below. Priority-wise, gems are decent power increases to your character, but should never come at the cost of Primary Attributes and your CR score. Go for Red and Blue gems over Yellow if possible, as they provide a stronger bonus overall.

• Red Sockets: Prioritize Tourmaline as it provides a straight Damage increase. Ruby is also decent for the Life increase, but only if you lack Tourmalines.
• Blue Sockets: Prioritize Sapphire, which increases your Armor Penetration, and your Critical Hit Chance stat as a result. Note that Crit Chance provided from Sapphires has diminishing returns, capping out at 33%; when benefits from ArPen get too insignificant, swap to Aquamarine. Aquamarine provides Armor, which is a decent source of damage mitigation.
• Yellow Sockets: Prioritize Citrine for the Potency gains, increasing the duration of harmful effects you inflict on enemies; however small its benefits, they trump the Resistance effects provided from Topaz.

Legendary Gems can only be socketed in Primary Gear. They provide unique and very powerful bonuses on top of a robust stack of stat increases. Legendary Gems are found in Elder Rifts enhanced by the Crest consumables, as well as through crafting at the Jeweler in Westmarch.

Early on in Monk character progression, you should use common, 1- and 2-Star Legendary Gems like:

• Fervent Fang — Can be obtained from the Battle Pass, saving you some Crests. Provides a stacking damage increase against a target with successive attacks; great for single target damage.
• Everlasting Torment — For the mere cost of a critical hit, this gem inflicts a considerable DoT and an Attack Speed increase to boot. Even at a low quality, this gem starts off with incredible stats and fits nicely from the get-go.
• Chained Death — This is a great early game gem, especially during farming where you usually pull hordes of enemies to maximize your AoE skills. It amplifies your damage the more enemies you fight, encouraging chaining fights together.
• Lightning Core — Despite its low proc chance, this damage-dealing gem can wipe out entire packs when activated, or focus down a larger foe, making it a decent addition to you legendary gem lineup.
• Power & Command— Since you will frequently interweave Primary Attacks in between popping Ability cooldowns, you will always have some part of the alternating bonuses of this gem going.
• Berserker's Eye — This gem increases damage dealt at the cost of an increase in damage taken. For most of the farming PvE content, this is a reasonable trade-off that you can feasibly mitigate with the Monk's strong sources of shielding.

When perfecting your character for endgame content, the 5-Star Best-in-Slot Legendary Gems for Monks include:

• Blood-Soaked Jade — With its Damage and Movement Speed increases, it is largely considered to be the best legendary gem in the game for pretty much all forms of content.
• Seeping Bile — The value of this gem scales with the number of attacks you inflict, fitting nicely with the screen-wide pulling capabilities of Monks. With a considerable damage proc and a spreading effect, it is one of the best additions to your legendary gem lineup.
• Frozen Hearth — With percentage-based mitigation against ranged damage, this is one of the strongest defensive legendary gems you can support your character with.
• Howler's Call — Triggered off Primary Attacks, this legendary gem supplements the lacking ranged attack arsenal of Monks with a hard-hitting ranged proc.
• Blessing of the Worthy — Monks thrive at melee ranges and sustain a lot of attacks, making the retaliation proc of this gem quite valuable. Note its scaling off maximum Life, which turns the Monk's considerable health pool into a makeshift nuke.
• Chip of Stone Flesh — This is a PvP powerhouse of a gem, inflicting hard CC and increasing damage dealt on affected targets. It also provides decent value for progression content.

Paragon Points are character-specific progression system that allows you to advance in power after you reach maximum level. Each level gives you a Paragon point to spend into currently available nodes on the five Paragon Trees. While Paragon Trees are specialized for certain tasks, you should always keep in mind the tenets of character building — increasing damage and mitigation as much as you can. With that in mind, focus down the Vanquisher tree first, pick up the experience bonus from the Treasure Hunter tree, pick up whatever is useful from the Gladiator tree, and finish off with the group powerhouse of the Soldier tree. Always keep in mind that the (circular) Persistent Attributes are always active once leveled, but the (square) Specialization Skills are only applied when their respective Paragon Tree is active.

• Vanquisher Tree: The offense focus of this tree makes it the best starting point for all characters. It is recommended that you start with the middle row, maxing out Damage and picking up Zeal. Go down the bottom row, maxing out Damage and picking up Wrath. Finally, go along the top row, maxing out Potency, putting the point in Exorcism, and finishing off with Deeper Pockets and Heart of Wrath. This puts you at Paragon level 49.
• Treasure Hunter Tree: This tree unlocks at Paragon 50 and focuses on rewarding you more for your grinding efforts, making it an attractive mid-progression pickup. Go through the middle row, maxing Armor to attain Swift Learner. Then go on straight by maxing out the Damage node. This puts you at Paragon 70.
• Go back to the Vanquisher Tree. Max out the Life nodes in the mid row that follow Zeal, and put one point in Judgment to finish off that row. Then, go to the bottom row and put 3 points into Armor Penetration, which puts you exactly at Paragon 99.
• Right around this point, you have a decision to make. If you focus on PvE content, you should divert your attention back to the Survivor Tree — the other tree unlocked by default. Start out by maxing Life, picking up a point in Unyielding and progressing downwards. Max out Armor, then through the middle row — taking Escape Artist, additional Life, and Precognition along the way. Finish off with the coveted Damage increase. If you focus on PvP content, you should focus on the Gladiator Tree instead; this tree unlocks at Paragon 100, and offers brawling-oriented bonuses. Start off with maxing Armor Penetration, picking Uncontrollable right after it and continuing upwards. Max out Life, attain Quick Witted, and go into maxing Resistance and the second Life node. Get the Cheat Death right above the Life node. Finish with the consistently desirable Damage.
• At this point, you are hovering around the Paragon 180-185 point. One thing to consider is going back to the Vanquisher Tree to finish off the bottom right Armor Penetration node. You can also divert to the Treasure Hunter Tree to grab Gold Find and its subsequent Armor Penetration node. Alternatively, if you group up a lot, you can tab over to the Soldier Tree. This tree unlocks at Paragon 150 and is focused on grouping bonuses and provides tremendous utility for most modes of play. Take Hold Formation and head down to Resistance, then even further down into Damage. Attain the full bottom row — Battle Morale into Armor Penetration into Sacrifice. Then, finish off the middle row with Combat Veteran and Potency. Finally, go through the top row of Life and First Aid.

It is important to reiterate that your utmost priority is picking up all the damage nodes you can, deviating into one tree or another only to further that goal. Secondary valuable pickups are found in Armor Penetration and Life nodes. Once you are done with leveling all the Damage nodes, you are free to fill out Paragon trees as you see fit, as well as to activate specific Trees for the needs of the content you are doing.

When you turn in Bestiary pages, you will receive a class-specific consumable. For Monks, this item is the Incense Candle, which increases Magic Find for you and your allies by 5% for 20 minutes. There's no reason to be stingy with its use, especially when you engage in party activities and/or content with potentially valuable rewards, such as dungeons with highly-sought set pieces.