Seven Hundred Exploding Palms Style (Monk)

[420]

Zarathustra - Multi-strike Monk (Updated)


Concept
The first Diablo III character I wanted to make was a dual fist weapon fast hitting monk. So I did.

Build: Skills

Profile: Zarathustra


Weapons

Primary: Dual Fist Weapons

Secondary: Fist Weapon/Shield


Strategy
Items focus on high primary and secondary attributes (Dexterity and Vitality respectively) and Arcane resist, which utilizes the passive skill One With Everything to boost all resists.

Defensive skills focus on healing, regenerating life, Dodge, resists, and armor. Offensive skills focus on lots of quick attacks dealing average damage (rather than big critical hits or stacking Area of Effect damage).

Passive Skills: Focus on boosting armor, resists, max spirit, and spirit regeneration and Dodge.

Before Combat: Keep Mantra of Healing Mantra of Evasion active at all times in preparation for battle.

Entering Combat: First use Breath of Heaven (Blazing Wrath rune) to increase your damage by 15% for 45 seconds which also starts the skill's cooldown timer as soon as possible (for when healing is required). Next pick a relatively weak target (non-elite or minion) and plant an Exploding Palm (Impending Doom Essence Burn rune) on it. This should result in an explosion fairly early in the battle which will then spread to other targets.
 
Combat: Attack a few times using Way of the Hundred Fists (Fists of Fury rune) to spread the damage-over-time effect around and build up Spirit.

For large groups of relatively weak monsters, or when surrounded, spam Wave of Light (Empowered Wave rune) while continuing to attack with Way of the Hundred Fists. For smaller groups, elite packs, and bosses, use Seven-Sided Strike (Pandemonium rune) to dish out damage and stun targets. (Note: Monk is invincible when attacking with Seven-Sided Strike.)

Occasionally plant an Exploding Palm on a target that's near death or heal yourself and your allies with Breath of Heaven or provide a short life regeneration boost by recasting Mantra of Healing Dodge boost with Mantra of Evasion when needed.


Preferred Follower
The Templar follower, focusing on high Vitality, block rate/amount, and healing skills, compliments this healing monk build nicely. Since both are melee combatants the Templar also provides a second target for the enemy in close combat.



Changes to the Build
This build has gone through the most changes skill-wise while I've been playing it.

Breath of Heaven -  Originally I used the Circle of Life rune for the extra healing but decided that the damage boost from the Blazing Wrath rune outweighed the extra ~2k life.

Mantra of Healing - I've tried all the runes with this skill and eventually decided that the monk (though not necessarily other party members) benefits the most from the Time of Need rune's resistance.

One with Everything- Originally I was using The Guardian's Path passive skill to get the dodge boost from dual wielding fist weapons. However, at higher levels, I found that I sometimes need to switch out my off-hand weapon for a shield, which renders The Guardian's Path useless. Also, I needed a major defensive boost that dodge just wasn't providing so I went with resists and picked Arcane Resistance since I already had a bunch of Arcane Resistance items with high Dexterity.

Exalted Soul - Before the 1.0.4 patch I used the Chant of Resonance passive skill just for the Spirit regeneration. (Extending the mantra from 7 minutes to 14 minutes isn't useful if you are recasting the mantra in combat for its temporary boost.) So, when the 1.0.4 patch added Spirit regeneration to the Exalted Soul passive skill (which also boosts max Spirit by 100) it was an obvious switch. (Passive skills that provide Spirit regeneration become obsolete when you equip an item with a Spirit regeneration mod.)

The Guardian's Path and Mantra of Evasion (Backlash rune) - With the damage dealt by Inferno monsters reduced in the 1.0.5 patch I decided to switch to a Dodge based build. Went with the Backlash rune to get a little offense out of my defense.

-420

EDIT: (10/26/12) Updated for patches 1.0.4 and 1.0.5

[420]

Update!

Zarathustra's build has been updated for patches 1.0.4 and 1.05.

-420