Monk build -> advice needed

[azmodael]

I already have one playthrough of PoE on a cipher, but that was before WM 1 and 2. Now that I have both of the expansions i am coming back for another playthrough. I play exclusively on PoTD.

 

The cipher was fun, but I really liked Grieving Mother and I was not able to use her since main hero. So this time around I am doing monk.

 

I want to do something with the new ability added with WM2 - Long Pain. Basically the plan is to play like a tank - with heavy armor on the frontline, but use it to smack priority targets behind the lines. Help me make the most out of this concept.

 

Planned race & attributes:

 

Costal Aumaua (resist two most common CC debuffs for front liner, cool looking huge and awsome model)

 

Str 18

Con 14

Dex 12

Perception 6

Intelligence 16

Resolve 12

 

Most common disables seem to target Fort and Will. I remember the Druid stun spells target reflex, but Aumaua bonus should help there and I will keep a potion of Resist Elements at all times for fights against Druids. I don't care about interrupts that much, but accuracy might be a bit low? Maybe lower Resolve to 10 and put points in Per or Int? I was given to understand that Long Pain has in-build accuracy that might help.

 

Monk stuff taken in the order of writing:

 

Swift Strikes

Torment's Reach

Stunning Blow (for wizard smacking)

Long Pain

Iron Wheel

 

Talents:

WF (Peasant)

Lightning Strikes

Two Weapon Fighting

Superior Deflection

No idea after that...

 

Equipment:

 

Heavy armor

The boots that give regen aura on getting crit

No idea about the rest

 

Planned party composition:

 

Frontline:

Monk PC - plate&fists as first main tank

Pallegina - plate&paladin-only buckler as second main tank

Durance - plate&heavy shield as secondary tank and support

 

Middle:

Kana in medium armor using pistol and sword/shield as backup

 

Backside:

Aloth - robes as AoE DPS and CC machine

Grieving Mother - CC and support

 

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The idea is to use Kana for maximum AoE coverage to effectively buff 4 ranged heroes with the swift chant and the fire lash chant, which i believe stacks with everything and will help offset somewhat the speed penalty from Plate armor on the monk.

 

Grieving Mother has terrible attributes with horrible might, but okay-ish Dex so giving her a gun (why are there no Arquebuses whatsoever?) should be better than sticking to Warbow. Will use pain block

 

Aloth will be mostly using Kalkoth's Blights for AoE devastation, as well as general CC spells like Blind, Confusion etc. I like keeping him in his own armor for the AoE bonus.

 

Durance is there to take whatever mobs try to go around the 2 tanks and provide close range buffs and support. His attributes and skewered towards good Fort and Will and the large shield will fix both Deflection and Reflex. He doesn't need accuracy because he is supporing only.

 

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Also - how many of the Haste-like effects stack with each other?

 

Swift Strikes

Kana chant

Potion of the Wizard Haste Spell

Frenzy on Sanguine Plate

Two Weapon Fighting

 

I am pretty sure Swift Strikes will get supressed by the potion, but I don't know how the Frenzy from the plate is treated. I think that the chant and the 2 weapon talents stack with everything, right?

 

======

 

Please critique the idea and help me make it work. I already checked Boroer's monk build based on the long pain, but I want something more tanky that requires less micromanagement with movement.

Edited May 30, 2017 by azmodael

[Boeroer]

The Long Pain is awesome. It also works with many of the monk's abilites which would otherwise only work with melee weapons.

 

You can read the following class build for information about the Long Pain since it completely evolves around it. It's not a heavy armored or tanky build, but the info about the Long Pain is still viable. I think you can easily adapt that stuff for your build idea:

 

The Witch Doctor

 

Sanguine Plate's Frenzy does not stack with Swift Strikes if we talk about the attack speed bonus. But the +4 to MIG and CON will work. And you can spare your wound for Swift Strikes for the time when the frenzy weares off. So it's not a bad pick. Don't know which Kana chant you mean atm, I guess Shure Handed Ila. This does indeed stack with Frenzy's or Swift Strikes' speed bonus while you are using the Long Pain.

Edited May 30, 2017 by Boeroer

[azmodael]

The Long Pain is awesome. It also works with many of the monk's abilites which would otherwise only work with melee weapons.

 

You can read the following class build for information about the Long Pain since it completely evolves around it. It's not a heavy armored or tanky build, but the info about the Long Pain is still viable. I think you can easily adapt that stuff for your build idea:

 

The Witch Doctor

 

Sanguine Plate's Frenzy does not stack with Swift Strikes if we talk about the attack speed bonus. But the +4 to MIG and CON will work. And you can spare your wound for Swift Strikes for the time when the frenzy weares off. So it's not a bad pick. Don't know which Kana chant you mean atm, I guess Shure Handed Ila. This does indeed stack with Frenzy's or Swift Strikes' speed bonus while you are using the Long Pain.

 

I am already aware of your build, it is actually the inspiration for making my own. What do you think on the Stat distribution though. Resolve is hard to dump, perception gives accuracy and sex needed too... If sanguine plate haste doesn't work is getting 4 con worth losing 10 deflection?

[Blades of Vanatar]

You need wounds to power your monk abilities. Partially dump resolve. Maybe to 6-8 and add to Perception. Veteran's Recovery, Shod in Faith boots, Fulvano's Amulet, Belt of Bountiful healing, etc.... will sustain you. Monk has good Health/Endurance numbers so you should be fine. High DR from Sanguine Plate helps as well. I would drop Con to 10 as well. Those points are better used pummeling the enemy. Add them to Per/Dex.

[Boeroer]

The Long Pain has high base damage that profits a lot from high MIG. At the same time its ACC bonus doesn't work with special attacks (like Transcendent Suffering), so you need some PER, too. Good INT let's you keep the Long Pain for quite some time and its also beneficial for all the cc abilities as well as healing over time. DEX is nice to speed up the casting animation of the Long Pain (which is rather long) and also speeds up the attacks.

RES and CON are left - CON is quite useful for monks because they have high endurance and health pools. I would totally dump RES to 3 and use Vet. Recovery, Shod-in-Faith and healing bonuses from items and survival to counter the damage I receive.

 

My priorities would be MIG>INT>PER>DEX>CON>RES

Edited May 30, 2017 by Boeroer

[azmodael]

I can totally see the advantages of dumping Res, but how do you handle interrupt? With 2-4 mobs attacking the monk and hitting almost every time there is good chance he'll get perma interrupt-locked. As far as I am aware the haste bonuses are of no help there.

 

Also - using Sanguine Plate and low Res together means -15 Deflection. This will lead to many critical hits. Even if the healing is able to keep the Endurance the health pool will run out fast. Especially if i lower Con as well.

[Boeroer]

Items with bonus to RES help, also Potion of Spirit Shield, later maybe Celebrant's Gloves and the Lost Periapt of the Winding Path.

And if you don't surround yourself completely with enemies and use your CCs then interrupts are not a big problem.

 

You don't need to min/max everything though.

Edited May 30, 2017 by Boeroer

[azmodael]

I checked the gloves and the perhiapt. The gloves require a Cad Nua adventure, which i believe is totally luck based to get. The periapt is acquired in WM2, which is like the hardest content in the game from what I've read and should be played last. There is also the belt of chimes, but this is a Cad Nua adventure as well. Gulping a potion seems like a workable solution, but if i have to do it every fight I'd rather not.

 

OK, how about this setup?

 

Str 18

Con 12

Dex 12

Perception 8

Intelligence 18

Resolve 10

[Boeroer]

I would give more points to PER.

 

As I said: the accuracy bonus of the Long Pain isn't used when you are attacking with Force of Anguish, Torment's Reach, Stunning Blows and so on. It only works with auto attacks. And since the base damage of tLP is very high, you want do do lots of crits.

[MasterCipher]

I use a coastal aumaua hireling in a melee stacked party so can afford lower CON:

 

Mig 20

Dex 18

Con 8

Int 19

Per 10

Res 3

 

lesser wounds

lightning strikes

app sneak attack

outlander's frenzy (3 MIG 3 CON yes please)

savage attack

2 hand style

scion of flame

penetrating shot (works with blunderbuss opener, rooting pain, and spell scrolls to setup resonating touch)

 

swift strikes

turning wheel (5% fire lash per wound)

torment's reach (propagates weapon proc)

rooting pain (reactive AoE)

enervating blows (works with rooting pain! - very long duration weaken)

flagellant path (-10 all defenses AoE debuff ! )

dichotomy of the soul (ice afflicts stuck and fire affflicts 6 dps dot)

resonant touch (boom)

 

5% chance petrify staff ! & nature mark 1/enc (WM1 longwatch)

silverflash shock kith (wm1 g lab) weapon2 

Ryona bp 3 INT 20acc proc + triggered immunity (WM2)

-2 PER 10% flank immune blind (grand adventure) helm

3 MIG (act III Burial) neck

gaunlets of swift action (EP 12)

2 CON stuck (avg adventure) belt

3 DEX 5 ref 20 def stun-prone (EP11) ring

overseer ring (gilded vale)

beam boots when crit ! (more 10 damage hits for resonating) (WM1 Galvino workshop)

 

12 survival for 20% damage bonus vs flanked

8 lore for scrolls

 

heart of storm is a reasonable substitute for penetrating shot, especially if you carry the jolt touch dagger and electric ward shield in your second weapon set.

Edited May 30, 2017 by MasterCipher

[azmodael]

In the end i settled on

 

Mgt 16

Con 14

Dex 12

Perception 10

Intelligence 16

Resolve 10

 

Probably bad idea to drop Might, but w/e. I am sure he'll do just fine.

[azmodael]

So... several hours later and now level 11 the build worked... just not as well as I hoped it would.

 

Since i put heavy armor and use his as a tank he ramps up wounds pretty fast, but If i start to cast the long pain he is likely to lose aggro on some enemies. Further, with my setup Long Pain doesn't add up that more damage compared to using the 2 wounds to power Torment's Reach. Lastly, since i run Pallagina with Zealot's Charge the range is not that beneficial since my frontline moves pretty fast without any boosts. Getting Turning Wheel would have probably been better...

 

PS: Hiravias is completely overpowered. I have no idea why I didn't use him in my first run. Probably too lazy to read Druid spells.