Nightmare
Nightmare is where things become interesting. The mobs are tougher and stronger. You won’t be able to just go in and attack all the time. On the upside they also drop better loot. Stacking vitality (VIT) along with DEX will help counter the higher incoming damage. Don’t feel too bad about losing a few points of DPS in exchange for extra health. Getting hit points (HP) up to 30,000 should be more than enough to get through this level.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#aigZXh!YXd!abaYba
The build is now even more defense-oriented than the last one. Monks have naturally high dodge so using Mantra of Evasion will take full advantage of that. Raising armor through Seize the Initiative will provide damage mitigation during the times dodge fails.
Hell
If raising HP and dodge were the keys to surviving Nightmare, the solution to progressing through Hell difficulty lies on resistances. One with Everything is a crucial passive. It allows all resistances to be equal to your highest resistance, so if Lightning Resistance is at 75, then the rest will be the same.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#aigZXQ!YUc!YbYYZZ
I moved away from dodge because damage at this level was simply too much. The build is now focused on healing (more spirit = more healing) and raising resistances. The Quickening and Circular Breathing runes will provide extra spirit generation so healing can be done more often. As for survival, One with Everything is a crucial passive–it allows all resistances to be equal to your highest resistance, so if Lightning Resistance is at 75, then the rest will be the same.
I experimented with builds more often in Hell than the rest of the difficulties so if this build doesn’t work for you then it’s obviously your fault. I’m kidding. Here are a few notes on it:
- Why Fire Storm? Wider range = more foes damaged.
- Need more spirit? Swap Fire Storm with Inner Storm.
- Circular Breathing can be replaced by Time of Need if resistances are too low.
- The Scorpion Sting rune allows Lashing Tail Kick to become an excellent spirit dump. It can be spammed to deal huge amounts of damage and heal you (via Transcendence) at the same time.
Inferno is still a work-in-progress so I don’t much to say about it yet. Feedback is always appreciated so let me know what you guys think via the comments section.