Home Diablo 3 D3 S28 Monk Fresh Level 70 Guide | 2.7.5

D3 S28 Monk Fresh Level 70 Guide | 2.7.5

February 23, 2023

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Here we are again! If you’re a Fresh L70 Monk and wondering where to go – look no further. Seriously. Here, we teach you what to do step by step until you reach your free seasonal 6 piece set. Get your Haedrigs Gifts, complete your seasonal journey, and get your Monk to endgame with our Fresh Level 70 Monk Guide!

Updated 7/31/21: Fixed a bug where spending currency strategy click boxes were hidden.

(This is a preliminary update for S24, gonna proofread later)

In Season 24, the Monk free set is: Ulliana’s Strategem.

Now, here’s the caveat – since I feel that Ulliana is a poor choice to start off, we will be going for a Legacy of Dreams based “transitionary build”, that can more than hold its own. Why?

Ulliana is not the most updated of sets. While its speed farming pattern is “ok”, I feel like most players looking at this will want to rush to Mystic Ally / WoL craziness with Binding and Rabid Strike.

Season 24 and YOU. How does it affect?

S24’s (Ethereal Memory) unique mechanic is the Ethereal Item system. Let me provide you a quick TLDR right here.

Ethereal items QUICK FAQ AND INFO

Each class has THREE Ethereal weapons. They’re MONSTROUSLY POWERFUL.
Ethereals roll with a random LEGENDARY POWER from an item of that class.
Ethereals roll with a random CLASS PASSIVE from that class. (like Hellfire)
Ethereals have their own “special stat rolls” which are incredibly powerful. Example of such is +100% (up to 300% for some) to all skill damage. Not only are they strong, but there are LOTS OF ROLLS. Wall of text level. Some of them are pretty unique like the DH “increase damage per paragon level”.
Their drop rate is “rarer than ancients, less rare than primals”.
Ethereals will vanish after S24.
In case you missed it, Ethereals WILL vanish after Season 24. Ok?

For the purposes of this guide (a focus on Fresh 70), picking up an Ethereal will almost always be great for you. But, as your build gets more specific, obviously, the randomly rolled Legendary power will dictate its usefulness to your build.

Obviously, a well rolled Ethereal with a Legendary power you can use is a
giga-tier god-level world-shattering item.

Well, let’s jump right in.

Fresh Level 70 Monk – What to do from here!?

Okay don’t get overwhelmed. For “non-haedrigs gift” season starters, our goals are a little different. Your path can be summarized in three chunks, namely the Initial, Refinement, and Final / Transition stages.

Of course, even if you’re not getting Haedrigs Gift for this class this season, you should be doing it for the Pets, Stash Tabs, Portraits, etc (if you’re into that).

S24 Fresh 70 Monk Generic easy-to-edit build

S24 Fresh 70 Monk BASIC BUILD
Skill	Rune
Crippling Wave	Rising Tide
Wave of Light	Explosive Light / Pillar
Dashing Strike	Falling Star / Blinding
Mystic Ally	Air Ally
Mantra of Healing / Perseverance	Circular Breathing / Agility
OPEN	OPEN
Passives
Mythic Rhythm	Seize the Initiative
Sixth Sense	Exalted Soul

*ONE open slot – go ham. Use Cyclone Strike would go once you get Lefebvres. This build also has a pretty heavy slant towards Spirit regen. Remove some once you get ways to manage it.

The above build is meant to be easy to edit – meaning that finding random skill-specific legendaries should be easy to slot in. Of course the build cannot be perfect when trying to consider all possibilities, but the build is meant to at least be “okay” regardless of the little edits you might make.

Equip a pet! (Default F1 for “cosmetics menu”). They pick up gold for you!

With this build, it’s time to get your Monk to newer heights, even without the S24 Headrigs Gift free set (fullsetabbr). So, without further ado, lets get into the first “chunk”.

Initial Stage – All about Legacy of Dreams

So you got the el basic Monk build

Craft a Reaper’s Wraps ASAP. For this build, more than most, resource generation will be an issue. Plans drop from any Torment Malthael. Get some bounty mats to make it!

FOLLOWER BUILDS are GIGA IMPORTANT. Get the follower farming build up asap. Have this as a side-goal during your journey. Sage and/or Cains are really great while farming.

Obtaining Legacy of Dreams, other LGems

Do Nephalem Rifts and get Greater Rift Keys, completing GR’s you can complete in a realistic and safe timeframe, and repeat this process until you have the below gems, and hopefully get them to 25.

Legacy of Dreams – this increases your power and toughness for EACH PIECE OF LEGENDARY GEAR EQUIPPED (as long as you have NO SET BONUS ACTIVE). This is an incredibly powerful gem that allows us to have our “setless custom build”.

Bane of the Powerful – is likely the next best thing. For a small investment of 25 points you have a gem that is essentially “capped” in its efficiency. Easy to get and useful for a long time.

Boon of the Hoarder is something you WILL use if you plan to farm. (If you need Gizzard and Hoarder, swap out powerful)

Likely you’ll want at least one defensive gem (and sometimes two) – in this case Moratorium, Esoteric Alteration, and Molten Wildebeests Gizzard are your options. Gizzard is useful for when you eventually use Squirts, and it’s a great early game defensive option.

If you want more offensive gem options – Trapped and Stricken are the main options here.

Don’t go ham on gems. Invest as much points as you can into Legacy of Dreams.
Then, have a total of three total main gems
(with maybe 1 more flex gem for more DPS or toughness)

Getting Random Legendary Items

You MUST fill up all your item slots (making sure you activate no set item) with at least Legendary-tier items (of course, Ancients, primals, and S24 Ethereals count). Getting RANDOM LEGENDARIES to fill the slots is more important than finding the “right ones” for now.

Natural drops from playing the game should ideally fill up many of your slots. While doing your Neph -> GR cycle, hopefully you get more than your fair share of ’em.

Crafted Items can shore up blanks. Any L70 (or even non?) works. You’re gonna need bounty mats, which is also a great source of random items. So doing some bounties early on makes sense.

Amulet? If you’re unlucky with drops go for HELLFIRE AMULET. It’s crafted and part of the seasonal journey! Pure value.

Rings? Usually from drops – Hellfire Rings if you really can’t get any.

Blood Shards should be used on any blanks you have on any body piece, or offhand. (Do not gamble for Rings, Weapons, or Amulets unless you’re desperate – due to high cost per gamble). Ideally only gamble when you’re capped. Save them for the next phase.

Deaths Breaths are few and far between right now. I would NOT spend them on rare to legendary upgrades – unless it’s for an end-game weapon. Save them for the next phase.

Rerolls Strategy?

Honestly, it’s difficult to afford rerolling legendaries you’ll likely be throwing away. But, I suggest trying to do “ONE reroll to take off GARBAGE stats, and trying to get something decent”. It’s a low investment high-return strategy for the early game.

As a reminder about Monk and their primary defensive stats…

GET ALL RESISTS INSTEAD OF ARMOR!

Monk is an DEX/STR Class – meaning you get free ARMOR from all the DEX/STR on your gear. This results in a huge lack of ALL RESISTS. So, in your reroll strategy REMOVE ALL ARMOR ROLLS as they’re pretty much USELESS – and replace them with ALL RESISTS. ALLRES is your best defensive stat by a LARGE MARGIN. Socketing Diamonds also gives you ALLRES. VIT is your other main defensive stat.

GEMS: For body/leg pieces you’ll want Diamonds for ALLRES. Helm topaz for RCR.

Closing out the Initial Stage

So, that’s about it for the first phase.
Nephs -> Grifts -> LoD and your other basic gems. Get at least L25
Drops, Bounties, Crafted items (over DB’s, BS if possible) for Legendary items.

The mood you wanna be in before you proceed: You got L25+ gems, and have a legendary in every slot. Your follower farming build is still incomplete, but you’re makin’ progress there. Your actual item stats are pretty unrefined, though – but that’s OK for now.

Refinement Stage

In the refinement stage, you will be using the same build, but still of course editing it (at the very least swapping primary resource spender skill) to accomodate any strong skill-specific legendaries, while wearing any generic power increasing legendaries you find.

Legendary Gems during this time?

You’ll be using the same three legendary gems as above:
Legacy of Dreams, Bane of the Powerful, Molten Wildebeests Gizzard.

Again, level up LoD as much as you can. This is the only form of “pushing your limits” you should be trying. Invest into your other 2 main gems (and other flex gem if you have one), as long as you cannot invest into LoD.

A fair warning, some of these gems may not be best for “edited” builds if you find a game-changing drop (For example, Taeguk being better for channeling skills), so I stick with a more general trio of gems to accomodate this. This trio of gems, however, will be always useful in our “final build”, or getting to that.

Finding SPECIFIC Legendary Items

Of course, any build will need a couple (or more than a couple) items to round out. Here, I list down what items you’re looking for, and how best to get them using various currencies and means.

Core item preview

Core items preview - look out for these!

Very roughly ordered vertically by priority.

Name	Slot / Type	Notes
Pinto’s Pride	Bracer	DPS and a CC
Lefebvre’s Soliloquy	Shoulder	Defense from Cyclone Strike
Cindercoat	Chest	Fire WoL Spirit cost reduction
Tzo Krin’s Gaze	Helm / Spirit Stone	Ranged WoL + DPS.
Goldwrap	Belt	Defense while farming (Need Hoarder)
St. Archews Gage	Glove	Elite shielding – good with Squirts
Incense Torch of the Grand Temple	Daibo	Spirit cost reduction and huge WoL DPS
Kyoshiro’s Soul	Fist	WoL DPS.
Crudest Boots	Boots	Helps with spirit, buffs WoL w/ Rabid Strike.
Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac	Ring	Required for Epiphany spam
Unity	Ring	Defense
Rabid Strike	Fist	Later phase DPS boost.
Binding of the Lesser Gods	Bracer	Buffs WoL from Rabid Strike.
Blackthorns Jousting Mail	Legs	Meh. Only leg that’s worth it.
Squirt’s Necklace	Amulet	Only useful with St. Archews or Gizzard mainly.
CoE	Ring	Can be any other ring.

As implied, these are the items that are core, or important, to your build. I talk more about how to obtain these later on – remember to keep these in mind always.

At the very bottom of this guide, you can preview what a good base template build is for items / skills / passives to get an idea what you’re going for.

Spending currencies (Blood Shards & Deaths Breath):

Blood ShardsDeaths Breath

Here’s advice on how to spend your blood shards with Kadala, roughly in order of importance.

Bracer – Pinto’s Pride, Binding of the Lesser Gods, Nemesis.

Shoulder – Lefebvre’s Soliloquy

Belt – Goldwrap

Chest – Cindercoat

Boots – Crudest Boots

Gloves – St. Archews Gage

Legs – Blackthorns Jousting Mail.

If done, you can fish for fillers or try your luck with Rings.

Here’s advice on how to get your weapons from Deaths Breath rare item upgrades (Kanai’s Cube Recipe: 25x Deaths Breath convert a rare into random legendary of same type), roughly in order of importance.

Upgrade Daibo for Incense Torch of the Grand Temple – I like to go for this first even if Fist has more “hits” since daibo alleviates spirit problems.

Upgrade 1H Fist for Kyoshiro’s Soul > Rabid Strike > Fillers like Crystal Fist.

After these, you really don’t want anything else so you can potentially spend DB’s to find other missing pieces.

Reroll Strategy?

Getting the “correct” stats beats getting the “perfect” or “max” stats for now. REMOVE USELESS STATS and get any USEFUL STAT for massive gains in power.

Wave of Lightning% can be found on boots and helm. Tzo Kirn’s Gaze rolls with it automatically, but you’re going to lose another helm stat. (Mystic Ally% – is this even worth it???)

Elemental%? Fire for farming, Lightning for tryharding. Keep 2 bracers at least. Good amulets, well, welcome to D3.

Remove useless stats

~~Life Regeneration~~ – garbage.
~~Attack Speed~~ – it usually an endgame tune-up stat.
~~Excess Resource Cost Reduction~~ – Is a crutch, and only niche builds need it.
~~Excess Cooldown Reduction~~ – Only useful for an endgame “need”.
~~Armor~~– Useless for us, take ALLRES and VIT instead.

Take better stats

DEX VIT – can’t go wrong with these. Your core stats!
ALLRES Life% – Great defensive stats.
Life per Hit – Great early game sustainability.
CRIT Stats (CHC / CHD) – More for endgame, but I’d take this over garbage stats.

GEMS: For body/leg pieces you’ll want Diamonds for ALLRES. Helm topaz for RCR, or Diamond for CDR depending on your needs.

Closing out the Refinement Stage

The mood you wanna be in before you proceed: You have decently leveled gems, and you’re slowly pushing up your LoD gem. You’re at or NEAR full build (as seen below), with enough resources to look for better rerolls, or better / ancient gear. Your follower farming build is coming along well, if not full.

Final Stages and Transitioning

Full Build Preview

S24 Monk Fresh Level 70 – LoD WoL Mystic Ally (Midgame / Speedfarm) Build
Head	Tzo Krin’s Gaze	Skill	Rune
Shoulder	Lefebvre’s Soliloquy	Cyclone Strike	Implosion / Wall of Wind
Chest	Cindercoat	Wave of Light	Explosive Light / Pillar of the Ancients
Arms	St. Archew’s Gage	Dashing Strike	Way of the Falling Star / Blinding Speed
Legs	Blackthorns Jousting Mail	Mantra of Salvation	Agility
Boots	The Crudest Boots	Mystic Ally	Air Ally
Belt	Goldwrap	Epiphany	Desert Shroud
Bracer	Pinto’s Pride (Binding)	Passives
Amulet	Squirts Necklace	Beacon of Ytar
Ring	Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac	The Guardians Path
Ring	Unity	Unity
Weapon	Kyoshiro’s Blade	Sixth Sense (Harmony)
Offhand	Rabid Strike	—
Kanai’s Cube		Legendary Gems
Incense Torch of the Grand Temple		Legacy of Dreams (IRREPLACABLE)
Binding of the Lesser Gods (Pinto)		Bane of the Powerful (Flex)
Convention of Elements (Any)		Boon of the Hoarder (If Farming)

Something like this is what you’re shooting for. Essentially having a “full build” of items, regardless of their quality, is a natural prerequisite before you start hunting for upgrades here and there.

Spending Resources Blood Shards & Deaths Breath

Assuming you have the full build…

Both resources should be used to either A) Find ancient (or better) quality items of your existing full build – the power increase is much more obvious with LoD builds. The L25 bonus makes it double for ancients. B) Find other copies of gear that “unrollable” – some gear is just so bad you can’t reroll it, you have to find another copy to fix.

Alternatively, find other build items and round out your follower farming build.

Legendary Gems?

Legacy of Dreams should be making it way to max. It’s your best gem.

Molten Wildebeests Gizzard should be heavily considered especially for speed builds – it provides a shield for Squirts. It can be used for moderate pushing too.

Other gems are considered for tryharding, namely Stricken or Esoteric… I would hold off heavy investment on other unless you’re sure of your direction.

The other purpose of LGems? Augmenting.
If you’re planning to stick with or do some serious farming…
Augment GOOD ancients to power up.

Augmentation is definitely in the “mid to lategame” activities pile …

Where to go from here?

Beat your Seasonal Journey for stash tab and cosmetics. Try out another build! Refine this one since it’s pretty damn strong! Refine farming and tryhard versions! It’s up to you!

Closing out the Final Stage

The mood you wanna be in before you proceed: You’re AT full build, and you’re looking out and spending resources to find ancient or well rolled items. You can see capping your LoD gem in the near future. Your farming speed is great with a fully decked follower, and you can freely either continue along this vein or branch out into other builds.