I’m confused about guides that recommend certain setups:
Squirt’s Necklace- I can’t find anything in any variation of this build that puts a shield on the monk, where the extra damage would ever come into play. What am I missing?
Overall tankiness- Pretty much every guide touts this as a ‘tanky’ build, and it’s certainly not squishy, but scaling survivability seems tough. Outside of Lefebvre’s & Aughild’s in the speed variation and mantle of channeling in the pushing variation, I don’t really see a way to improve survivability on the build, and while I’m just putting it together today, I have all the pieces and am getting one tapped pretty easily in sub 100 GRs even.
Squirt’s is usually the default in most builds because there aren’t that many decent options. Things like a hellfire amulet are a pain to farm. Squirt’s comes into its own when you get a shield pylon. Essentially double damage for 1-2 minutes.
As for why it’s squishy, hard to know without looking at your build. Could be any one of a number of things. Could you drop a link to a D3 planner?
Travellers Pledge is still the best for an Inna’s Mystic Ally build, BUT,
Update:
Thanks to (S28) Altar of Rites’ huge passive bonuses for both offense and defense, and pet’s, …, traveller’s pledge is kinda redundant, depending on your build, items, …?, and Squirt’s can help you push a few GR’s higher, not to mention an extra ring slot, but ya, if you’re too squishy then Squirt’s can backfire on you.
I don’t play hardcore, but I still like to play extremely safe because death is a hassle and I don’t have time for that.
My Inna monk is as follows: Inna spirit stone, chest piece, gauntlet, boots and weapon (Inna’s Reach). Mantle of Channeling for both attack and defense. Unity ring for both me and my companion. The other ring is a Stone of Jordan, for a total of +50% damage to all elements, and a Hellfire Amulet with a useful passive. For me, that’s Harmony, which gives a ton of resistance to all elements. Bindings of the Lesser Gods as a bracer.
I pair all of that with Captain Crimson’s belt and pants. My chest piece, pants and spirit stone all have diamonds inserted, for more elemental defense and some extra attack as a result of the cooldown reduction. And for even more attack (+53% total), I also have Beacon of Ytar as a passive, as well as three offensive ones (Relentless Assault, Momentum, and Unity).
My cubed items are Won Khim Lau, The Crudest Boots and obviously a Ring of Royal Grandeur.
I’m pretty durable like this, I can take a ton of punishment in the form of explosions and floor effects. And if I get low on health, I’m constantly using Breath of Heaven, which has a 7-second cooldown.