Sunwuko Wave of Light Monk

[Guest SnoopyBrown]

I'm just not buying it. I FEEL like dual wielding Kyoshiros blade and Vengeful wind with the Torch being in the cube is the best of both worlds. I personally have an isue trying to manage and keep enough stacks on sweeping wind up in order to keep them from dropping. Also, you can't tell me the extra weapon with an extra 130% of Crit Damange wouldn' be helpful either.

 

Can someone explain in "you must be really stupid" terms so that I can understand it? Otherwise, I'm gonna be driven to think this is actually the better way to go.

[Guest Guest]

I'm using the two one handers and torch in the cube. Been using them for a while since I've got both ancient KB and VW and I still have yet to find an ancient torch. I have however used the torch to try it out, but imho i think it depends on your play style. 2 1h have lower dmg but faster cast speed, helps if you're on the move. 2h has slower cast but hits bigger numbers and crits. I play with another WOL monk but he uses ancient torch, and we compare all the time.

[Guest Guest]

I'm just not buying it. I FEEL like dual wielding Kyoshiros blade and Vengeful wind with the Torch being in the cube is the best of both worlds. I personally have an isue trying to manage and keep enough stacks on sweeping wind up in order to keep them from dropping. Also, you can't tell me the extra weapon with an extra 130% of Crit Damange wouldn' be helpful either.

 

Can someone explain in "you must be really stupid" terms so that I can understand it? Otherwise, I'm gonna be driven to think this is actually the better way to go.

 

Vengeful Wind is actually not needed at all, as the extra stacks don't really do anything. The build utilizes the Kyoshiro's Soul belt to maintain sweeping wind stacks and this belt is a must.  Using that, I have never run out of stacks if I keep my distance (yeah ranged monk is kinda awkward but still sweet). Using the diabo gives you higher damage at the cost of the attack speed you would get from dual wielding.

 

So wielding Diabo = higher base damage, slower attack speed, easier to keep stacks up (since you'll get maybe 2 attacks in before the belt refills your stacks, thus consistent 2 piece and 6 piece buff)

[Deadset 108]

Vengeful Wind is actually not needed at all, as the extra stacks don't really do anything. The build utilizes the Kyoshiro's Soul belt to maintain sweeping wind stacks and this belt is a must.  Using that, I have never run out of stacks if I keep my distance (yeah ranged monk is kinda awkward but still sweet). Using the diabo gives you higher damage at the cost of the attack speed you would get from dual wielding.

 

So wielding Diabo = higher base damage, slower attack speed, easier to keep stacks up (since you'll get maybe 2 attacks in before the belt refills your stacks, thus consistent 2 piece and 6 piece buff)

 

 

Exactly what this dude said, top to bottom. :) I've tried the dual wield setup, and it played much worse - stacks get dumped too quickly and become hard to maintain, individual WoLs hit weaker, Spirit management is all over the place, etc.

[mattar0 0]

any idea how using gyana na kashu. and lashing tail kick instead of wave of light and using the rivera dancers would work?

Edited March 2, 2016 by mattar0

[Deadset 108]

any idea how using gyana na kashu. and lashing tail kick instead of wave of light and using the rivera dancers would work?

 

It will, but it's worse. I have tried a LTK variation and it's significantly slower and inconsistent than a Wave of Light build, at least in GR60+. You'll have no issues in T10 I'm sure, but then it falls behind due to its own mechanics (LTK centered on the character vs. Wave of Light screen-wide range). I can only recommend it if you want to toy around.

[Guest Humbe]

Nice guide. I ended up in this build too.

 

Using the 2 one-handers to get vengeful wind bonus too is nice when just grinding easy content as you don't need to care that some get into melee range at times. But for doing high greater rifts, the torch seems superior by lowering mana consumption.

 

I had issues trying to play with a friend though. Too little survivability without unity. Have managed GR 67-68 with this build, but getting it to 70 seems rough.

[atteSmythe 0]

How critical is cindercoat? Would you consider cubing the belt instead, and looking for a witching hour?

As an alternative, I could consider instead cubing tzo krin. You'd lose the 150% WoL, but you could gain that back, plus some survivability by enabling endless walk (plus still having another ring slot open). Too bad Stone of Jordan doesn't have enough primaries to really allow an optimal role.

But the point of either of these options is that Cindercoat is the only thing in this build tying you to fire. Lightning WoL would pretty massively increase this build's single target damage.

[atteSmythe 0]

Well, I hate to reply to myself, but some testing tonight results in answers and more questions!

 

With only a fire bonus on my bracers, I replaced the cubed Cindercoat with Pride's Fall - that way, I could test each of the elements by only reenchanting my bracers. A fair test.

 

What I found is that the fire damage is doing way more damage than anticipated. Compared to either holy or lightning, the crit numbers displayed are 2.5x - 3x higher. I don't understand why, but it looks like that moots the question.

 

I still wouldn't mind not having to slot cindercoat... I'll try some more with something with no power reduction on the armor slot, and see how it goes, but explosive light is hands down most effective, though the numbers in the skill description would suggest otherwise. Lightning was more consistent, since the DoT compensates for any missed crits somewhat with guaranteed ongoing damage, but definitely more hectic to play, and noticeably slower.

[Guest jb]

I only made it to GR64 solo with this build. Did anyone go higher?

[Deadset 108]

In regards to the fire WoL - the existence of Cindercoat alone makes it much more efficient on your resource when it comes to damage output/spirit spent. Lightning comes close, but losing the convenience of the fire rune AoE is another bag of problems. :/

 

In regards to the soloing achievements of the build, I've seen it reach over 80 on the EU leaderboards.

[Guest mel]

  Cindercoat or Magefist for the armor slot  ..??? magefist for armoryslot? magefist has no power for cube right? im missing something

[Guest K Slay]

This says it was updated for 2.4.1, but I think you are missing a critical change in using crystal fist for the 50% damage reduce with every dashing strike.  The way this build plays that will add an extra 50% damage reduce that is always up, and that is on top of the 50% from sunwoku 2 piece set and the 50% from epiphany dust shroud rune.  Using this change today (the day of patch), I was able to quickly add 6 additional GR's to my best last from last patch.  The damage is already so high from Bliz bumping up the 6 piece set bonus to 3000% increased damage that duel wielding can be justified to get the extra 50% dr along with extra stats (ideally dex and 10% cooldown reduction).  I am able to hit 50% cooldown reduction with a duel wield, which allows epiphany to be up 50% of the time.  When it is active i have 520M toughness (assuming all other DR bonuses are up, which they always are).

 

You should also mention using oculus ring with all mercs now that it procs.  When standing in the circle I am able to hit 100 Billion critical hit damage in the orange hits. It essentially doubles my damage, and this build is very easy to stand in a specific place and do damage to the whole screen, 

 

This build has become the best in game imo.  Name one other char that can have 520M toughness and 100B crit hits with AOE damage to everything on the screen.

[Deadset 108]

  Cindercoat or Magefist for the armor slot  ..??? magefist for armoryslot? magefist has no power for cube right? im missing something

 

Magefist was included to have its 15-20% fire damage increase as a legendary power!

 

This says it was updated for 2.4.1, but I think you are missing a critical change in using crystal fist for the 50% damage reduce with every dashing strike.  (...)

 

Heya! That's a curious variation you mention, I always assumed Crystal Fist was created for a natural inclusion in a pure Raiment build, but I suppose it can be included in a WoL build as well. Do you use it in a dual wield setup, dropping Vengeful Wind? 

 

Oh, and Oculus is indeed mentioned, just in our dedicated Follower guide (linked at the end of the guide page).

[Guest ickis]

On 24. 2. 2016 at 9:32 AM, Deadset said:

 

Exactly what this dude said, top to bottom. :) I've tried the dual wield setup, and it played much worse - stacks get dumped too quickly and become hard to maintain, individual WoLs hit weaker, Spirit management is all over the place, etc.

Another possibility is dual wield Kyoshiro's Soul + Crystal Fist. I find it kind of hard to stay alive in GR70+ so the 50% dmg reduction for 6s after you dash (which you do anyway) is more than welcome.

[Guest The_M]

I'm a little bit confused about the skill setup. In the "Active Skills" section you picked Mystic Ally - Air Ally and Mantra of Conviction - Annihilation but in the Rotation section you are talking about Epiphany and Mantra of Salvation.

Are those two different setups?

[Deadset 108]

On 8/24/2016 at 0:47 PM, Guest The_M said:

I'm a little bit confused about the skill setup. In the "Active Skills" section you picked Mystic Ally - Air Ally and Mantra of Conviction - Annihilation but in the Rotation section you are talking about Epiphany and Mantra of Salvation.

Are those two different setups?

Hello, and yes! Thanks for catching that bug, I will update the guide to properly display the two specs, progression and speedfarm.

The speedrun spec is the one on display right now, and includes the following skills: Wave of Light - Explosive Light; Dashing Strike - Way of the Falling Star; Blinding Flash - Faith in the Light; Sweeping Wind - Inner Storm; Mystic Ally - Air Ally; Mantra of Conviction - Annihilation; Passives: Seize the Initiative, Beacon of Ytar, Harmony, Exalted Soul.

The progression spec uses the following skills: Wave of Light - Explosive Light; Dashing Strike - Blinding Speed; Epiphany - Desert Shroud; Sweeping Wind - Inner Storm; Mystic Ally - Air Ally; Mantra of Salvation - Agility; Passives: Seize the Initiative, Beacon of Ytar, Harmony, Near Death Experience.

Apologies for the confusion, will be fixed asap!

[Guest The_M]

thanks for clarification und the update :) and of course for your great work!

[Guest Dalekkkaan]

When dual-wield Kioshiro and Crystal fist my wind stacks constantly slipping. So constant re-aplaying of Wind or back to torch in hands and kioshiro cubed (without Crystal 50% damage reduction) (((

[Valks 2,375]

15 hours ago, Guest Dalekkkaan said:

When dual-wield Kioshiro and Crystal fist my wind stacks constantly slipping. So constant re-aplaying of Wind or back to torch in hands and kioshiro cubed (without Crystal 50% damage reduction) (((

Perhaps I am missing something, but why do you think this will help? You would have the same problems with Wind, no?

[24thWanderer 0]

Having Vengeful Wind as your second weapon isn't going to help with maintaining stacks. If you can't maintain stacks with just Kyoshiro's Fist than it's likely an awareness issue. As Deadset stated, there's almost no point in Vengeful Wind because the only times you really drop Sweeping Wind is if you're careless (which is a player problem, not the build) or if you end up sandwiched and end up within melee range of monsters. Your second fist weapon slot is really more for utility if anything. And a flat 40-50% damage reduction for using a move we're already supposed to use (thanks to Blinding Speed) is convenient and awesome. With proper awareness, I rarely drop Sweeping Wind. Most people tend to struggle with the build in the beginning because you have more active components to manage than say: Uliana's (my other favorite Monk build). Because if you follow Deadset's build you are:

1. Making sure Sweeping Wind is up at all times.
2. Maximizing the distance between you and the enemy lines to ensure that you maintain Sweeping Wind while also maximizing damage due to the Zei's legendary gem.
3. Watching your Spirit reserves closely to make sure you have it when you need it; specifically timing Spirit Ally and Epiphany.
4. Tying into #3, watching Convention of Elements to make sure you maximize damage on the Fire rotation.
5. Remembering to utilize Dashing Strike regularly because you will notice a big difference if you aren't taking advantage of Crystal Fist and the Blinding Speed Rune. 
6. Knowing when you need to pool Spirit for Mantra of Salvation for sticky situations/high elemental damage (trapped with arcane orbs, plague, etc).

It's a lot to manage if you're used to a facetanking build that the Monk is accustomed to. If people are really having issues maintaining stacks and don't know why, I would suggest linking to video content of you playing, so others might be able to spot bad habits of poor decision making. I've tried different variations of this build that I've seen on other sites but Deadset's is the most consistent one in my opinion. You can get away with not having Crystal Fist if you're speedfarming or not afraid of dying in whatever content you're focusing on. Again, I feel like Vengeful Wind is completely redundant in this build because if you're in melee range and surrounded by enemies, unable to escape at that time, then you're gonna lose all of your stacks anyway whether you had 3 or 7.  Vengeful Wind is only really useful as a training wheels method for maintaining stacks. If you grow more experienced with the build, you'll learn it's a wasted item slot. 

Props to Deadset for a really fun build. I was looking for something totally different from my Uliana's and this is really fun. Thanks!
 

Edited September 21, 2016 by 24thWanderer

[Valks 2,375]

5 minutes ago, 24thWanderer said:

Props to Deadset for a really fun build. I was looking for something totally different from my Uliana's and this is really fun. Thanks!

Thanks for that explanation Wanderer! Great to see people getting involved :)

[Deadset 108]

I second this, thanks for the detailed and kind comment! :)

[Arkathar 0]

Hi, great guide and great build! It was really good. I can play on T13 and T13 Rifts easily but I really deal no damage on GRifts from 60 onwards. I am Paragon 655 and have exactly the build showed here. Any tips? Thanks!

[Valks 2,375]

On 9/30/2016 at 10:42 AM, Arkathar said:

Hi, great guide and great build! It was really good. I can play on T13 and T13 Rifts easily but I really deal no damage on GRifts from 60 onwards. I am Paragon 655 and have exactly the build showed here. Any tips? Thanks!

What do the rolls on your gear look like? Can you show me your armoury?