I am just a “little” bit tired of WoL being the only build used unless you have crazy high paragon and gem ranks that make R6 Gen a viable build. Tempest Rush is near and dear to me as is hybrid I6-Uli4. I’ve been a proponent of the I6 Uli4 build since they changed I6 to the current version of each Mystic Ally from the old version where the 2 possible allies mimicked your spenders. That was when Uli 4 only doubled SSS and I6 was 50% per ally. As my response to the OP hopefully pointed out, I am a fan of the Uliana build and it has a very “monk” feel to the mechanics (snapshotting aside). I just wish there was some variation. There will always be an “optimal” build with the maximum damage but every non cold rune of EP is just miles behind in damage.
Of course, but at least WoL can do pretty much everything for a solo player (which is also the problem I guess). But yes, we have been stuck with WoL dominance (and ease) for way too long now.
Gen monk can be fun, but I’ve only played around with it. Never made a serious build on it. Probably because, as you said, you need huge paragon for it to shine. Still, another very monk feeling build. Monks should be punching faces 5x p/sec.
I can’t say I ever tried the I6/U4 build you speak of. But sounds like a clever way to make SSS your main damage dealer back then.
TR… so much potential. One of my favorite farming and leveling skills. Admittedly I have only played this briefly at end game, so my opinion on it isn’t worth much. It just fees like it falls of as I approach higher difficulties, where only the nuke from the cold rune is worth a damn, and takes way too long to stack to a decent level.
I think we all get it, and probably feel the same way. 
Unfortunate truth, but this is the way its always been in RPG’s, which I’m ok with for the most part, just wish the differences weren’t so far apart, within our class, and across the game.
Maybe have the Uli 6 piece have a if attacking less then 5 monsters at a time then the damage of EP is multiplied by 5, that would really give it a boost on single target mobs and the Rift Guardian, or something to this effect
In groups uli monk CAN be better trash killer than wol monk but solo its just underpowered compared to the other sets. But still there are people playin it 120+ on the ladder.
Who’s has cleared a gr 120+ with SSS? As far as I know I’m the only SSS in the top 100 on the Monk Non Season Leaderboard.
Incorporate Madstone into the 6 piece set bonus, increase damage by 5000% might be good then
@leostud on eu server, there are some people playin 120+ uli in the ladder (but with many paragon)
Ah, I just play the America Servers, that’s awesome that they’re playing with the SSS build there 
Has anyone tried Captain Crimson’s with Uliana on the ptr? Uliana is a CDR heavy build already so Crimson belt and either boots or pants with RoRG in the cube gives you more CDR (good for the build), some damage reduction (takes place of Binding of the Lost and it’s already quirky mechanics), and a chunk of damage from the high CDR that the build has. I know Bluddshed has a YouTube video about some non-meta builds using Captain Crimson’s (Uliana is one of them) but it doesn’t look like a GR push build since it had Madstone and In-Geom in the cube instead of Spirit Guards and Flow of Eternity.
I was playing around with the ptr d3 planner and with max cooldown on every location you have 77.23% CDR and about 46% RCR which works pretty nicely with the Captain Crimson 3 piece bonus. With Flow of Eternity in the Cube, SSS has a 1.3 second cool down between activations, which is enough to reposition, build up Assimilation stacks and repeat. You sacrifice some potential Area Damage on your weapons getting RCR and CDR on them but you are invulnerable for large amounts of time from having SSS so available. Plus you are getting a 1.77x damage multiplier and almost 46% damage reduction from Captain Crimson’s.
I might actually try out that build, the extra CDR would be pretty nice
I guess my trust level is not high enough to link the build I made on diablofans website. It is called Crimson Uliana and my username there is KhordLizardMage. Some of the rolls would be ridiculous to get but it was just a map for perfect gear. I thought of Leoric’s in the Cube but it would drop SSS to 1.1 seconds cooldown from 1.3 seconds and change overall CDR from 77.23% to 80.4%. Madstone is another possibilty since you have so much SSS uptime, you may not need to apply EP via Assimilation (at least for speed runs). You could also cube Lefevbre’s and swap Mantra for Cyclone Strike to help group up while adding a bit of damage reduction but I think the 60% from Spirit Guards and the Mantra bonuses are better than the Lefevbre’s 50% and grouping from CS.
You can create non-clickable links people can copy/paste by enclosing it in backticks (`) or highlighting it and clicking the “</>” preformatted text icon in the edit window.
https://www.diablofans.com/builds/104641-crimson-uliana
This looks like it could be fun, and so it’s definitely going on my “things to try” list.
Thanks for the info.
After a little more playing around with Crimson Uliana build I thought of adding Madstone instead of Spirit Guards in and dropping the generator or the Mantra. If you equip a Zodiac ring then your SSS ends up with a 1.3 second cooldown and with the 100% Epiphany uptime (75% CDR needed for that), SSS should be the only skill on cooldown after you SSS. That would make you have near 100% SSS invulnerability.
Thank you for this interesting thread
What is missing for an effective LON EP ?
For high GR, the problem with EP builds is detonating the first EP to get the chain reaction started. That is evident in Inna EP builds as well as LoN EP. At high level GR’s even the trash mobs can have too much health to reliably detonate the EP and against a single target RG without adds you may as well quit the rift. Uliana builds get around that since the six piece bonus detonates the EP when the target is hit by SSS.
Amen to that Khord, if the set had some more damage bonus it could do so much better at the higher gr levels
a LON EP like Bazooka would have a lot of style 
That would be pretty interesting
There was a group meta for a bit with a EP monk to clear trash and a HotA Barb to detonate and spread the EP’s. At that time, HotA Barb was one of the best single target and RGK builds. The difference now is Bazooka Wiz can clear the trash all by itself without help from a RGK build.