So how much can Monkey King Bar hurt? [theorycrafting]

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MonopolyLegend wrote:

Just want to point out that the build you linked to probably wouldn't have the greatest survival rate...here's my suggestion.

This way you get blood magic, lots of life/regen, both diamond skin nodes, tons more attack speed (at the cost of ~100 STR, still got 404 from the tree alone though - balancing stats rather than just stacking one is generally better anyway), Iron Reflexes, and a reasonable amount of evasion+armor.

Not too shabby, thanks for sharing! I guess we can call that build the Monkey Queen! I like it, although I think I'd miss the instant life leech from my version.

I did streamline and simplify my own a little, here's how it looks like now: Monkey King

I do get some Diamond Skin myself and most importantly 6 endurance charges, to help counteract the low Armour, and make insta-leech more worthwhile.

I thought that physical damage mods from other piece of gear than weapon are not affected by % nodes from passive tree. This was one of the reason why elemental damage would work so much better in most cases.

Do you imply that the different working, slight, on this new unique weapon is changing the way it physical damage mods work or how game treat them?

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Baron01 wrote:

I thought that physical damage mods from other piece of gear than weapon are not affected by % nodes from passive tree. This was one of the reason why elemental damage would work so much better in most cases.

Do you imply that the different working, slight, on this new unique weapon is changing the way it physical damage mods work or how game treat them?

I think you've got that one slightly wrong.

As far as I know (almost certain of this) bonus damage from things like, say, an Iron Ring, do get improved by % nodes from passive tree, and in fact any mods in your items.

Where you might have gotten that impression from is the fact that many weapons have local physical damage mods, which indeed do only affect the base damage of the weapon itself (which can be seen in the form of blue damage numbers on it).

Edited my post for some more info, btw :p

EDIT: You took Vaal Pact in your latest link - Golem's Blood/Endurance Charge Life Regen can be dropped without any additional routing of the tree, and Duelist 1% is unnecessary. In fact, I still suggest Marauder start instead of Duelist - that first 10% phys + 12 life node feels like a waste since. Marauder already gets more STR than Duelist to start, and that STR will translate into the same phys + slightly less flat life for absolutely 0 node cost.

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MonopolyLegend wrote:

This way you get blood magic, lots of life/regen, both diamond skin nodes, tons more attack speed (at the cost of ~100 STR, still got 404 from the tree alone though - balancing stats rather than just stacking one is generally better anyway), Iron Reflexes, and a reasonable amount of evasion+armor.

You are completely right about that. I put my first build together in a rush and I hadn't grasped the staff mechanics so well. I updated the OP with the second version of my build (the one I just linked in my last post). I would love your comments on that one, as you seem to understand the idea very well =)

EDIT: Nevermind this lol, we're stepping on each other's posts constantly! Reviewing what you just said hehehe

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Falcord wrote:

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MonopolyLegend wrote:

This way you get blood magic, lots of life/regen, both diamond skin nodes, tons more attack speed (at the cost of ~100 STR, still got 404 from the tree alone though - balancing stats rather than just stacking one is generally better anyway), Iron Reflexes, and a reasonable amount of evasion+armor.

You are completely right about that. I put my first build together in a rush and I hadn't grasped the staff mechanics so well. I updated the OP with the second version of my build (the one I just linked in my last post). I would love your comments on that one, as you seem to understand the idea very well =)

Edited the post just above ya with some more comments. ;) I've never done a melee or physical build until this weekend (Facebreaker Cyclone), but I play almost exclusively Marauders/Templars (occasionally the others, but it's rare for me) - lotta experience with that side of the tree in general.

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MonopolyLegend wrote:

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Falcord wrote:

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MonopolyLegend wrote:

This way you get blood magic, lots of life/regen, both diamond skin nodes, tons more attack speed (at the cost of ~100 STR, still got 404 from the tree alone though - balancing stats rather than just stacking one is generally better anyway), Iron Reflexes, and a reasonable amount of evasion+armor.

You are completely right about that. I put my first build together in a rush and I hadn't grasped the staff mechanics so well. I updated the OP with the second version of my build (the one I just linked in my last post). I would love your comments on that one, as you seem to understand the idea very well =)

Edited the post just above ya with some more comments. ;)

I completely forgot Regen becomes useless with Vaal Pact, silly me! Working around that right now.

Choosing a Duelist is a matter of aesthetics for me. I just like him better. Also, that 6% aspeed node is something I enjoy picking up. So yes, Marauder may be better, but I'll stick to Duelist for the looks and hope the difference isn't too noticeable =)

Fair enough. I do that with Templar (and sometimes Shadow) a lot, even if Witch would be slightly better. Can't stand the Witch...xD

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MonopolyLegend wrote:

Fair enough. I do that with Templar (and sometimes Shadow) a lot, even if Witch would be slightly better. Can't stand the Witch...xD

Same here =P I only like witches when they use weapons (not wands).

Thanks to your last comments, I made some amendments: Monkey King V3

This build appears more refined. No more HP regen, instead some extra IAS at the beginning and more life stacking from the center of the tree. Left it as a 100pt build as long term goal.

I think for a Vaal Pact build, rolling Duelist is actually better, because the starting path from Mara is strongly oriented towards HP regen.

Side note, came up with an evasion based version (acrobatics and all): ~400 STR + 300 DEX, though relatively low life (184%) for an acro build :S