Hi. The Witch Doctor is a lot more powerful in terms of DPS and also more versatile because he can also do good damage in melee, not only ranged.

 

The Prondroni build was an attempt to create a monk who can be played effectively by the AI as well - since normally monks require a lot of micromanaging. And of course the high attack speed very early in the game makes him a good DPS tool, too.

 

But the Long Pain is so powerful that in the end the Witch Doctor will terribly outperform Prondroni.

 

However, since the Prondroni build uses weapons which can be obtained early and concentrates on Force of Anguish he's also a lot of fun that early in the game - at a point where you can't even pick The Long Pain.

Edited July 15, 20178 yr by Boeroer

Would a monk, similar to this one make a good candidate for shod-in-faith and/or sanguine plate?  I just got to white march and I'm going to be dropping Eder because he is simply not needed as a tank anymore. Im using your Counselour Ploi paladin + a dragon thrashed chanter and the two of them are more than enough tanking for me even on potd.

 

About the only "hole" in my team is when the enemy has multiple druids (insect swarm spam) or Adragons (dominate spam) on their backline.  I had to redo the fight at the end of od nua floor 7 ( 3 Adragons) and the ogres outside the cave for the bounty for the ogre (4 billion ogre druids) multiple times. I have a cipher that i love (ranged), but her cc is frankly too short range for the times I really need this immediate/fast/constant cc.

 

I'm pretty sold on trying out a monk like this, but i also have sanguine plate and shod in faith that just dont get used well on my team.  My paladin and chanter barely ever get crit to proc them. I suppose i could just not use sanguine and keep shod in faith on my chanter, but just wondering your thoughts on how often a monk like this will be getting crit? 

 

Thanks in advance for your advice!

Sanguine Plate and Shod-in-Faith kind of always go to a barb.

 

If you lower RES I guess they can also work fine on a monk. If you plan to receive crits often I would raise CON.

I'm happy with my current party of paladin, chanter, cleric, wizard, cipher +1. So the option is basically a monk OR a barb.  really whichever would be better at flogging into the backline and stunning/interrupting/knocking down an ogre druid or 6 is what i want.

 

If that is obviously a job for a monk, and not so much for a barbarian. i don't "have" to wear sanguine plate at all. I can just stash it?

Sure

Wouldn't The Unlabored Blade be better than March Steel Dagger?

Not if it's about attack speed. And single target dps. You can enchant the March Steel Dagger with a lash (25% multiplicative dmg), it has speed and you can enchant it with Durgan Steel which allows you to use Vulnerable Attack without Gauntlets of Swift Action and with decent armor and still stay at 0 recovery.

Besides that it's a real chore to level the Unlabored Blade up. 

The best alternative (in terms of dps) would be Drawn in Spring. It would be slower but the wounding enchantment is so potentially strong that it can deal the better dps. 

However, this build was about speed and very fast CC with Force of Anguish. And there's no faster weapon setup (on average throughout a playthrough) than Sword of Daenysis + March Steel Dagger.

It's no problem to use Unlabored Blade or Drawn in Spring though. Totally viable and equally nice options (once Up. Blade is upgraded completely).