Pushing with DS Monk

I don’t care that this is one of Monk’s weakest builds out there, it remains my favourite since it was introduced. Dashing Strike with the Raiment set is incredibly fun to play and very, very fast when it wants to be.

With the follower rework this is a prime opportunity to see just how far this build can go (not very, but we’ll try anyway!). On PTR I managed a GR85 @1300P though I felt a 90 was within reach with a bunch of tweaking and maybe some fishing.

This was with the Enchantress however, and I suspect the Scoundrel will come out on top as what is missing from this build is damage.

So, anyone else pushing with DS Monk? … No? Just me? Well I’ll definitely try to climb the Raiment LB as best I can regardless.

Took me a while to understand what you meant. I assume “DS” means “Dashing Strike.”

I gave it a shot the first time I played a monk. Teleporting around was fun but using charges just felt wrong and inadequate. I got to about 95 and found Tempest Rush.

If I do it again, I want to use that Rabid Strike weapon as it sounds fun (I didn’t have it before.)

Yes, Dashing Strike, specifically using DS to do damage. I’ll amend my first post to clear that up. If you did a 95 I’ll assume you went with Shenlong’s. DS-only would use Fleshrake.

It is a weak build, but I find it really fun so I’ve kept playing it even if doesn’t do much.

What weapons were you thinking? Fleshrake is obviously a must, but the 2nd and cube slot have some room. I think the best is likely Crystal Fist and cube Flying Dragon, but Echoing Fury and In-Geom can definitely be considered as a 2nd equipped weapon. Would you go Captain Crimson or straight Raiment? The extra damage and CDR from Crimson would be useful but straight Raiment gives you Cindercoat which works well with Fire DS.

The setup I’ve settled on is Fleshrake + Crystal Fist as main weapons, both ideally with CDR and RCR. I think Raiment is too squishy without Crystal Fist (though maybe EF is the better choice at high paragon? I wouldn’t know). I definitely use the Crimson set. The added CDR and RCR from Crimson just can’t be passed up, and I believe that since your CDR has to be high in this build that that’s the way to go.

The added CDR from Crimson made me drop Zodiac in favour of F&R rings. At my current CDR of 69% a 15 stack of Gogok is barely enough to keep Epiphany up. Most times there’s a small bit of downtime so it’s not perfect, but I think the added damage offsets things.

Cube is Flying Dragon, Cindercoat, RoRG. FD is a must since procing it is a nitro boost to spirit generation. Echoing Fury could be a choice here, but it procs on kill, which is a bit inconsistent and doesn’t help vs most Rift Guardians. Furnace is only other choice I can think of that would make sense in cube.

All this is just me doing trial and error though since no one plays this build lol. I doubt it’s at all optimized.

Since the build is mostly focused on DS, it just uses a generator every few to proc the six piece and to top off your spirit. If you optimize your RCR, you can get the cost of DS pretty low (plus the RCR helps your toughness a lot with Crimson) so a case could be made for Fleshrake, Echoing Fury and In-Geom as your best 3 weapons. Proccing In-Geom makes your Dash free (and super fast on cool down) and the extra attack speed from Echoing Fury might balance out the missing Flying Dragon. It is worth looking at, but I don’t see a DS Raiment build being able to keep up with a Raiment Generator build to compete for the Raiment leaderboard. There just are not enough multipliers to DS. You have Crimson 3, R6 and Fleshrake. Generator builds get R2, R6, Depth Diggers and Shenlong’s 2 bonuses plus the attack speed from R2 and Flying Dragon (and the generator build greatly benefits from attack speed).

For pushing? I don’t know, the slower killing speed means less EF procing and In-Geom won’t see as much uptime. Both will fall off at some point. At best, I would go with In-Geom so that it’s super quick to find the next elite pack. I’m not sure that offsets the toughness boost from Crystal Fist. Maybe at high paragon.

DS Raiment definitely can’t keep up with Shenlong lol. But we’re here because we love DS itself. I’m just interested in seeing how high the current build can go. :grinning:

I agree that I’m curious as to high how the DS build can go. I can GAURANTEE that it won’t be me actually playing it. I HATE that set in DS or Generator form, lol.

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Well I believe I’m the first NA clear with Raiment, and it’s with the DS build! Little moment of glory until Shenlong’s starts populating the board.

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