Season 15 | 2.6.1 (Monkey King’s Garb) Sunwuko Set Build Guide

Weapons are a choice between:

Incense Torch of the Grand Temple (equipped) Kyoshiro’s Blade (cubed)
Or
Kyoshiro’s Blade + Crystal Fist (equipped) Incense Torch (cubed)

Incense Torch equipped PROS

• Stronger damage per WoL in 2 ways –
• Higher base damage from a 2-handed weapon.
• It comes with a +30% WoL damage on top of that, which isn’t part of the cubed power.
• In short, it’s simply the more powerful choice in terms of raw DPS or Damage per Spirit point.

2x 1-Hand (Kyoshiro’s Blade + Crystal First) equipped  PROS

• More stats (1465 Dex/Vit on a 2H vs 2000 Dex/Vit on 2x 1H)
• Slightly more flexible stat choices (not locked into WoL% and having 2 weapons…)
• Higher ASPD which somewhat offsets the DPS loss (at a steep cost of higher Spirit usage)
• 50% DMG reduction from Crystal Fist.
• 2x Green Gems on weapon means an extra 130% CHD (offsetting lower dps).
• In short, using 2H gives a large safety net of defense and some stat “freedom”.

Incense is for pure power and speedruns. Kyoshiro and Crystal Fist is for more stable climbing of GR’s. For the purposes of this guide I’ll touch on both – but the 2x 1-hander setup is by far the more stable route and I heavily recommend it for most people.

Long story short, you can equip 2 of the best orange rings you like. The most stable 2 being Convention of Elements plus Unity. I’ll list down the viable ones…

• Unity
• Convention of Elements
• Stone of Jordan
• Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac

Now let’s talk about ’em….

Unity gives a 50% Damage Reduction for no thought whatsoever and little cost. The ring itself rolls with +Elite % (replacing CHD hopefully!) – so you don’t feel too bad using a defensive ring. Elite% is pretty damn good.

Convention of Elements a great ring for us since the damage output on Sunwuko at higher levels is on the low side. To those not so used to how it works – quick advice is GET SETUP DURING COLD. Meaning save Spirit and be in a safe position because next up is FIRE.

Stone of Jordan fills a similar role of DAMAGE. It’s a unique ring because it rolls elemental % on it! As well as 30% elite damage! You do lose out on other stats, though. DEX OR CHC are the only other stats you want on the top half. It provides a stable damage bonus unlike CoE, and could honestly be better for some scenarios.

You can, of course, drop Unity for CoE–SoJ for a max DPS setup.

Zodiac is the worst of the list, but it’s still in the viable pile. You can summarize this ring to be “+Spirit Gained and +Safety”. Reducing CD’s mean better resource management thru lowering CD on Epiphany and Air Ally. It also increases Safety slightly by decreasing Dashing Strike and Epiphany CD.

OK there’s a lot of viable passives for Sunwuko, and you should mix and match them depending on your needs.

Harmony is for every serious Monk GR tryhard build. Only drop it for speedfarming or brainless content. This takes 1/4 of our “sure slots”.

Beacon of Ytar gives us many little boosts, notably reducing Epiphany, Air Ally and Dashing Strike CD’s to give us better resource and survivability. This just barely takes the 2/4 slot.

What about 3 and 4? Here’s where the choosing begins.

===== OFFENSE =====

Unity is the most stable DPS increase in our build, capping its bonus with “Ourselves, 2x Mystic Allies and Follower” – So it’s a free, always on DPS bonus.

Momentum is probably the next best DPS passive. It’s likely always to be on.

Seize the Initiative is slightly stronger that Unity or Momentum but comes with 2 major downsides. It falls of in rare occasions, and it increases our Spirit consumption by a ton. Not recommended for the 2x 1-hander setup.

===== DEFENSE =====

Near Death Experience is the usual free death and is not bad. Many Monks will run this to greatly reduce the RNG in their runs.

Guardian’s Path (for 2x 1-handers) gives a large bonus to dodge. It’s a good defensive.

Transcendence is actually not bad. If you have 1 roll of LpSS on your gear, this is not needed. However if you somehow got the perfect gear with “Harmony + Health Globe” on all slots you could be looking at a passive that’s better than anything else – GL with that.

===== SPIRIT =====

Chant of Resonance & Exalted Soul serve a simple purpose of “boosting Spirit gains”. It doesn’t get more basic than that. These are technically offense passives, reducing our pew pew downtime. Their effects are rather weak for a passive slot, however.

Chant of Resonance is likely the better one if you can only fit one in. Reducing Mantra costs is better for tryhard scenarios.

Zei’s and Trapped are set in stone: They give the highest stable DPS increase.

Stricken is used earlier than in most builds (when doing higher level GR’s). Sunwuko is great at AoE deeps but it’s very poor at killing RG’s and elites.

Powerful, as always, you should own one and substitute it with Stricken when taking on nephs or speedier GR clears for gem-ups.

Kanai’s Body is 99% Cindercoat. There are niche cases where you want Magefist.

If you have Spirit regen / RCR on more pieces than you bargained for – you can change Cindercoat to something like Magefist. Take a look at the table below

I’ll reference this table again down there for weapon rerolls… but the main lesson here is if somehow you got a bunch of resource management rolls you can recover the lost DPS with Magefist.

Any other options? Leoric’s Crown makes a case if you’re using DIAMOND ON HELMET. Has positive implications on defense and Spirit.

Anything aside from Cindercoat, Magefist and Leoric’s Crown are FAR WORSE.

First a few quick notes…

• LpSS on weapon should be avoided in this build, but welcome if you “have to”.
• LpH on weapon outclasses LpSS due to roll “size”.  
• CDR is decent but we can’t afford to CHASE for it in weapons.
• Area Damage scales poorly with WoL builds so avoid it.

1H (Kyoshiro’s Blade and/or Crystal Fist)

1. DEX > VIT > Life on Hit > LpSS: Always have one of these “lifegain” ones.
2. DEX > VIT > Spirit Regen > RCR: My recommendation for the 2nd one.
3. Can’t be sad with the above two! It’s my personal “best basic pair”.

You really can’t go wrong, as long as you’re aware of your strengths and weaknesses in your current build, and know the consequences and gains for each roll you choose.

“As long as one of ‘em have Life per Hit, I think that’s a great trade-off for lots of survivability and stable clearing of GR’s.”

It’s one of those builds that weapons are a little difficult to recommend for – but hopefully you’ll get some insights by reading this. At least you will get a better idea of what stats are generally OK or not. 

———————————-

Incense Torch is honestly greedy. While it technically really does have a higher GR potential in terms of DAMAGE, you will have some incredibly RNG reliant clears. If you’re going this route I presume you already know what the hell you’re doing… but if you want my advice?

Incense Torch of the Grand Temple

DEX > VIT > Spirit Regen: is a great torch to own. This “speedfarmy” variant will greatly help your clear speed in nephs and risk-less GR levels for gem ups.

Both are decent stats for Sunwuko, however, they each have their ups and downs and nuances on WHERE you can/should/want to roll them on.

LpSS is great for Rift Guardian and low density elite fights since you’ll gain the maximum amount on every cast. It’s a great safety net to have.

Life per Hit is great for group scenarios, and generally heals you for MORE, especially in weapon rolls (24k~ on 1H, 36k~ on 2H!!!).

Life per Spirit Spent appears on Weapons and Spirit Stones (Monk Helm).

Life per Hit comes in a lot of places, but you’ll want it on Weapon, Bracer (rarely Helmet).

A very safe setup would be to roll LpSS on your Helm (replacing VIT) and Having LpH on your Weapon (and maybe bracer). That’s some impressive self-healing!

This is a tough one. Tzo Kirin’s Gaze gives a bunch of possible stats…

• DEX
• VIT
• CHC
• Socket
• (Spirit Regen)
• (Life per Spirit Spent) (LpSs) or (Life per Hit)

DEX VIT CRIT SOCKET is your go-to rolls and you won’t be sad with these.

The only real stat you “can” remove is VIT, as socket (12.5 CDR) is quite important.

Luckily, the double 1-hander setup has a very defensive slant, and you’ll have a little more VIT than the 2H version, so you can be safe to roll your LpSs here.

VIT on ancient helm represents around of 150k max HP. LpSs is arguably comparable to this since it gives you a valuable source of self-heals. I know that removing VIT on helm is “crazy talk” most of the time, but SWK’s self-healing needs a lot of help. I would rather sacrifice VIT on helmet than put LpSs on Weapon…

I don’t recommend Life on Hit for helm, as it doesn’t roll for huge amounts.

Spirit Regen +3 is a little on the low side, but if you’re going all-out crazy for the max amount of DPS possible, this will take the place of VIT.

Hmmm… this ties in to the “Harmony” discussion below. Here’s my general recommendation for SWK shoulders, that’s gonna be good for almost everyone.

DEX > VIT > CDR > “RCR or AD” (my choice being RCR)

If you’re going for the above rolls, make sure you have resists in the secondaries! The next best thing would probably be…

DEX > VIT > RES > “CDR or RCR or AD”.

The above rolls though, I feel, is strictly worse than the first one up there, and I’d be loathe to augment and ancient with those stats – but it’s a decent stack in the meantime.

Of course try to get it active on as many pieces as possible. There are some notes though…
(Confused? See our: Harmony Monk Passive Guide)

100% SURE “get Harmony on the secondary stats, damnit!”

• Ring x 2  (Compass Rose only has 1x secondary!)
• Amulet
• Helm (TKG only has 1x secondary!)
• Gloves
• Bracer
• Boots
• Shoulder (see above tab)

Depends on rolls!

Shoulder – see the above tab. Losing AllRes on this slot ain’t so bad since you have other useful stats to try for. However, if you’re forced to keep ALLRES on it, it’s not the end of the world.

Chest ahh… “DEX VIT ALLRES” – you can never go wrong with this. But I feel that “DEX VIT Elite%” + Harmony in secondary beats it. Again, it depends on your luck with the base item!

100% “It should be ALLRES on top!”

• Legs since no good primary exists for us.
• Belt for the same reason (it all fits, amazingly).

100% “You’ll never get it no matter how hard you try!”

• Weapons