D3 S28 Monk Fresh Level 70 Guide | 2.7.5

Well, let’s not beat around the bush. The fourth Kanai’s Cube slot is the ultimate buff here. Sure, the Pylons spawning a certain kind of “shadow clone” is cool and exciting in its own way… But when it comes to pure POWER, a fourth Kanai’s slot is probably the strongest ever buff we’ve had!

It doesn’t really help early on, but as you gather more and more legendary effects, it will help you out quite a bit. In the end-game, this is, at the very least, a 20/30% power spike to your character.

REROLLING YELLOW ITEMS IS SUPER LEGIT, CHEAP, AND UNDERRATED.
Nicely rerolled yellows will carry you for a LONG TIME.

Craft a Reaper’s Wraps if you can. While this build can definitely manage without it, if you have the materials on hand, why not? It will help you out until you get the 4pc bonus, at least.

WEAPON: Craft or find a 2H Mace. The stats you want are DEX VIT LpH or Socket (Purple gem for LpH, Red for DMG+, Green for CHD+). Avoid any other stat for now.

Monk is an DEX Class – meaning you get free ARMOR from all the DEX 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.

SELF HEALING: Life per Hit is super important for your early game survival. Life per Spirit spent is also “ok”, but quite difficult to roll on your gear (Only appearing on Fists, Daibo, and Spirit Stones – and not very high). Having either or a combination of these is pretty much required early on.

Elemental% can be found on Bracers and Amulets. You ideally want it on both. Cold% is what you’re after. While you may not necessarily use Cold skills earlier on, you will end up there. There’s no need to roll a “temporary” element since the journey isn’t so bad.

Skill% (Tempest Rush%) can be found on Boots and Helm. Typically, it’s safer and easier to roll this on boots. While there’s all sorts of damage going on with this build, avoid rolling damage% on these “subsidiary” skills – it’s not worth it.

Chest / Legs: DEX VIT ALLRES Sockets (3/2). Life% isn’t bad either. Since you typically get these pieces last, you’ll want decent fillers until you get your 6pc set.

Belt: Is a huge source of defense. DEX > VIT > RES > Life%. You’ll be surprised how a single item can give you a whole load of toughness.

Rings and Amulet: You NEED sockets on these to prep for legendary gems. Get any stat on these that you feel you’re missing. Feeling soft? Get defenses. Need DPS? Crit and mainstat. Feel free to roll “random helpful stats” on these for now, instead of the usual endgame CHC/CHD/MAINSTAT.

GEMS: For body pieces you’ll want Diamonds for ALLRES. Helm may vary (Amethyst for Life%, Topaz for resource cost reduction, Diamond for Cooldown Reduction) depending on your needs. On the topic of helmet gems – Topaz is a good idea until you get the 4pc, then switch to Amethyst or Diamond.

OTHER SLOTS will be taken over by your free set pieces. No matter how bad they are stat wise, the 4pc bonus will heavily outperform any temporary yellow you can make.

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

Remove useless stats

• Life Regeneration – garbage.
• Attack Speed – it usually is an endgame tune-up stat.
• Excessive Resource Cost Reduction – Is a crutch, and only niche builds need it.
• Excessive Cooldown Reduction – Only useful for an endgame “need”.
• Armor – Useless for us, take ALLRES instead.
• Unused skill% – literally has NO EFFECT.

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.

Don’t forget to bring out Templar with you. The free healing and resource gained from him is a big help! A pet, too, to pick up all those coins to upgrade all the NPCs in town.

For clarity, this box contains info and builds if you currently have 0 pcs of the Justice free set, going for 2 (you don’t have any Haedrig’s gift bag, going for the first).

A very basic build that’s easy to edit if you have game-breaking legendary effects. It’s a straight-forward Wave of Light spirit regeneration build. Should be more than enough for your immediate needs! ABUSE MYTHIC RHYTHM.

If you have a powerful legendary – edit the build to accommodate it if needed.

*Pressing Shift+J (PC) opens up your Seasonal Journey tracker!*

The entries in these early chapters are dead easy. The build above gives you a good balance of offense, defense, and speed built in to help you breeze through this as mindlessly as possible.

Hard Mode on for Chapters 1 & 2. Clear through all the entries on Hard. Just up the difficulty to complete one Neph on Expert.

Don’t forget to level up all the NPCs in town. Completing your weekly Challenge Rift will help you get resources to do this easily, if you haven’t already.

When you’re done here, get your first free set from your mail, and proceed onward.

For clarity, this box contains builds and info if you currently have 2 pcs of the Justice free set, going for 4 (you have the first Haedrig’s gift bag, going for the second).

The 2pc bonus is centered on sweeping wind, and gives us a bunch of free damage. It may be a little jarring to keep it up in a low-power, low-density, low-mobility environment but it is what it is. Nothing huge… just get a little faster, and get some passive DPS…

If you have a powerful legendary – edit the build to accomodate it if needed.

*Pressing Shift+J (PC) opens up your Seasonal Journey tracker!*

Difficulty: Although there are entries here that need to be finished on Master, you can still complete the bounty cache, if you haven’t already, on Hard. For the bounty, try to do the whole five acts as you’ll need to do this down the line anyway.

These entries are still on the easy side, so we can be a little lax with our build making as little sacrifices as possible to retain good DPS, Speed and some thought to defense. When you’re done with this chapter, collect your 2nd set of free set and let’s finish the next chapter for the remaining free gear!

SIGNIFICANT BUILD CHANGES. The 4pc bonus is pretty silly. It gives us much needed defense, and a very welcome amount of Spirit regen. This allows us to drop all Spirit crutches from our build in lieu of more DPS, toughness, and mobility. Since Tempest Rush is essentially “free”, it’s now our primary spender.

This build will be the baseline for all entries in this tier (Torment II, IV, and GR20). While this build may seem overkill for the Torment II entries, you may as well prep up for the harder parts of this tier.

Upgrade a Rare to Legendary w/ Kanai’s Cube: 1H fist weapon for Won Khim Lau.

Complete a Torment I Rift: This will be the minimum level you should be farming at should you need to do it. Increase if you can easily obliterate a rift. There’s also a “Kill a Torment II Boss” entry here which should be easy.

Complete any other odds and ends that you can before proceeding to Torment IV.

Build template in the Torment II tab.

While not exactly chewing through enemies, you do have quite a bit of firepower and defense. However, if you neglected fixing up your yellows you’re gonna feel it. Cold% and Tempest Rush% become really important so try and get them.

In Torment IV things get real. For many of the free sets, this place is the breakpoint wether your build needs help or not. And for S22 and Justice is not too bad.

• Kill Odeg – Keywarden in ACT I, Fields of Misery.
• Kill Sokahr – Keywarden in ACT II, Dahlgur Oasis.
• Kill Xah’Rith – Keywarden in ACT III, Stonefort.
• Kill Nekarat – Keywarden in ACT IV, Gardens of Hope 2nd Tier.
• Kill Specific Boss – Check your journal to see who it is this season.
• Keywardens maps have a key icon next to the waypoint. Purple arrows point you to their location after a short while once you’re in their respective map.

For the boss and all Keywardens – STRAIGHT UP RUSH TO THEM!
Ignore ALL TRASH and just beeline! Get it done ASAP!

You’ll really notice if you’ve neglected your temporary yellow gear and rerolls. Hopefully, you have powerful legendary to carry you (and even if you do), you will notice if you’ve neglected your gear. Refer to the very top setting up tab if you need help.

Either way, this is a good time to take a closer look at your items and get as many powerups and rerolls stated in the setting up tab above.

Build template in the Torment II tab.

Simple changes in skills, passives, and runes if you need more DPS or more toughness. The Torment IV entries up to this point should clue you in. The base build template doesn’t change.

This isn’t so bad. You just need a good mix of survival and DPS. The Torment IV entries leading up to this point should give you an idea of how you’ll fare.

You’re mainly going to be in the thick of things to deal damage. Sweeping Wind and Tempest Rush tend to do that… Flurry is a huge part of your DPS and use it to pop elites (something you’ll get used to down the line).

You’re gonna need quite a bit of LpH, which is great for the build anyway – so make sure you have it going forward.

Adjust your build if you think you need more DPS / Toughness. Usually a few Passive changes and/or Fire Ally / Mantra change does the trick.

You should have an idea of how strong you are given the drops (or lack thereof) you’ve gotten. Be practical and don’t be afraid to shore up your build a little. If you feel a little weak – Do 4 quick Nephs, then do 4 GR10+.

The “ultimate” challenge gating you to getting your full six piece free set! The difficulty varies wildly on your class and seasonal set. As someone who has cleared with EVERY SINGLE SET AND CLASS WITHOUT ANY OTHER LEGENDARY – let me tell you, they’re not all created equal.

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.

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.