Dual SB Monk build Fast! Duo UW Fast!

Why not just 55/SS, I'm sorry, but I isn't 55/SS Faster?

No. The dual SB can clear much faster. The 600 monk tank can handle a much bigger aggro and is much less fragile. The smiting does very fast damage, but not if the tank runs a 55 build.

The dual SB has limitations though. There are some areas in UW where the 55 build is much better. So that's what we're doing here - coming up with a hybrid build that offers the best of both and can let the tank switch back and forth. That way more missions and further clearance of UW can be accomplished.

A good N/Mo can now run solo anyways.

The tank could be a Mo/N or a N/Mo. I'm not sure which would be better.

I think the smiter should go mesmer secondary.
Sympathetic Visage can help the tank get the most out of SS.

For the chamber the smiter chould leave Holy Wrath off to start. Take the mission and immediately run to cast Spell Breaker on the tank.Once the tank runs around to grab big aggro and settles in - then the smiter can run in to cast SV and HW.

The tank should wait about 5 seconds to let SV do it's work, then cast SS and Reckless Haste. SV will kill adrenaline immediately, and so prevent any Skull Cracks from the Grasping. The Aatxes use Savage Slash, so they need their energy dropped below 10.

The double damage from SS and smiting should be breathtaking.

Note: The tank should wear full 60 armor for his part. The Grasping won't trigger Spirit Bond, so might as well minimize their damage.

Oh, and the tank should not use a melee weapon on the Aatxes until after SS is cast. The Aatxes will use Riposte and Deadly Riposte as soon as a melee weapon is used - triggering double damage from SS. So start with a prot staff with +20 enchants before switching to the Totem Axe and +15E icon.

The smiter could take advantage of those +15 enery focus items. The smiter will constantly be at zero energy and can use a -25E set (-5 weapon and Frozen Fan - not Forgotten Fan) then flip to a +5E Totem Axe and +15E icon. The energy swing will be 40 points - plenty enough to squeeze in SV or Spell Breaker if the tank wants to keep on rolling. Just flip back and cast Blessed Signet a few times to refill the now-hidden energy pool.

I pushed 3 Enchants back onto the tank to make room for Sympatheic Visage on the smiter. Without a Blessed Sig for recharging, the tank's energy may get low - especially when facing only a few opponents.

Mending not needed all the time - more for a 55 setup.

Hi guys this build looks real good and i want to try it................ but i just cant see it being quicker and hoping someone can either correct me or take me on a demo run. The way i see it - perfect world scene - you have enough health to trigger both retribution and holy at max dam at lvl 16, hence retrib doing 21 dam and holy doing 53 dam (u would need 800 health for retrib to do this 53/66*100 = 80.3 as dam is 10% ur max health must be 803 to do this) so your total damage is 74 per hit. An SS will always have minimum 2 ss on at lvl 16 doing 37 damage per hit thats 74 dam to all chars (if placed correctly) worst case, with reckhaste this damage goes up by 25% because of speed thats now 92.5 dam in the same amount of 1 hit time and thats the worst case often i would have 3 or more on hence 138 to 184 dam, with the smites u dont have a chance to cast a thrid spell ie they drop in about 9-11 seconds what ever size the grp, coldfires a little slower normally about 20-25 secs.

Please point out where im going worng, or even better pull me thru a run and show me and shut me up! trust me i want to be prooved worng cause it means a faster run and more ecto (well if the damm stuff would drop it would anyway)

You are correct, the only thing u forget is that this build dont need draining of energy by SV,AV, wich takes alot of time to do with smites, if u know how to run this build correctly and what u can do or not, you can easily do a Smiterun under 10 minutes.

also remember, u dont need to have SV, or AV in this build, all skills have 0.25 casting time, so the change is much less then a 55 to get interupted, what normally happens with an Healing Breeze.

This build is easyer to run then a 55 imo, what you think you may think, thats ok, if you think that ss with 55 is faster, then you choose that, i prefer this anyway, because it has more safety then a 55 imo.

Another good thing about this build is that u can aggro any number you want, even 100 will still hold your defence, you only need 2 be sure that 75% of them are doing above 60 damage, so u will get overhealed by Life Attunement wich works with Spirit Bond

i can do a demo run for you sometime, im on almost every day now, and on european servers.

With SBond, bigger aggro can be done and the timing is much less crucial.
Easier to clear first chamber in one sweep. Easier to clear smites. Easier to push on into other areas.

The conventional 55/SS still works fine. If something can be made smoother and easier, why not? If you want challenging, check out Godlike Satan's Solo Guides to FoW and UW.

Exile, thanks for starting this thread!
The SS isn't really needed for the Smites - they'll go down fast anyways.
But if the tank wants to use SS, he'll need SV first. It will probably help with Mindblades in Chaos Plane if people want to go that far.

Your build is terrific. I'm just trying to come up with a hybrid that can get benefits of 55 build too. Like making Wrathful Spirits and Obsidians easy. Your build is terrific defensively. Working SS into the build gives more offensive versatility.

My only concern is losing the Elemental Resistance (or Frenzy) that would make the Graspings damage +60. Will that mean changes for the chamber run? Taking the mission and a straight sweep is so much faster.

Your comments would be appreciated.

By the way, did you ever try Legless the Elf's recommendation on Physical Resistance? It would drop the Graspings damage way down. The Aatxes would still be +60. The ele damage would be elevated. It might balance out rather nicely. Damn, I can't wait to get home.

well i love spiritbonders, they are so fcking quicker then 55 monks. to make it a bit faster, when you reach the Terrorwebs around the statue of Grenth, first agro the aatxes and Grasping Darknesses, kill the poping nightmares. Dont let the ss necro kill the graspings and aatxes. when the nightmares are dead ask the necro to cast SV and cast Spellbreaker and move to the terrorwebs. this way is much faster and easier cause energy of terrorwebs will be 0 all the time cause of sv and av, you can also skip them, but terrorwebs also drop ecto.
i do the same thing with colds. i first agro a small group of smites and then let the ss kill them. SV and AV will keep the energy of colds 0 so no problem.

Cheers Exhile nice answer and yeah would really appreciate seeing the run, i do agree witht the spirit bond thing in fact i run a 55 spirit bonder whilst farming trolls (yes its 55 as it allows me then to solo upto 3 or 4 other chars somewhere else without having to cast sb) and yes its the lazy mans monk lol, i loose concentration so i need an idiot proof one. Does look nice and can def see advantages with the SB monk over the 55 the big and obvious one being unlimted amounts of oposition and the cast time of HB compaired to SB!
When i ss with a 55 i drop an av or sv on the attaxe it stops em inturupting the monks and honestly with the smites i drop em all every time a bit before the visage runs out so as said 11 secs or so i guess.
10 mins run though mate that def desreves a gratz, still at 15-20 mins, we pull the first area in 2 parts then squids then stairs to right, then next chamber and onto first grp of smites, i know pulling the two group of squids after the fist half of screen slows things down, but me and my guild are lazy buggers and like an easy life and pulling all at once often pops 3 nightmares which can be a little awkawrd to get all.
Again thnx for this thread its damm nice to see, all we need now is a new place like UW as too many people can easily farm now and the drop rate is or should i say has become awful, 1 ecto per run sometimes 0. Few months back would often get 5-6 around 9pm uk time run.
Still its fun anyways!, keep the new thoughts coming

It has been a very long time since I have posted anything in this thread but figure I can do so now.

One thing a friend and I have done is switch up the enchantments and a few skills to speed thing up a little. One example is why have the smiter have any points into Protection Prayers? His job is to smite things so take those enchantments away from him. So the tank would look more like this:

Max Prot
Max Divine

1. Protective Spirit
2. Spirit Bond
3. Spell Breaker
4. Blessed Signet
5. Life Attunement
6. Vital Blessing
7. Blessed Aura
8. Essence Bond

We do not take Frenzy or any of the other stances as it is not always going to get the damage you take to 60 or more. If the grasping use Flurry and the damage does not go above 60 you are making your job that much harder using Frenzy.

The smiter is a pretty standard build except that they place Balthazar's Spirit on the tank so that the tank is still getting 2E a hit. Sometimes just for kicks since he is no longer required to carry Life Attunement and Vital Blessing we have the tank use Mantra of Inscriptions with Signet of Judgement and Signet of Rage. Those do some nice damage.

For the tank we have no problems taking out Dryders, Coldfire, Mindblades, Grasping, or the like. For the spell casters just remember Maelstorm and Meteor Shower are your friends. They hit for so low melee damage wise (except Mindblades) there is no real need to constantly have Spell Breaker running. Just let the smite monk do the job with the signets or if you have Shield then only try to keep SB up as long as it is needed for Shield.

You might ask "What about the Grasping?" and they are not a problem to take out with out Frenzy or the likes. All that is really needed is to get them with other mobs down there that will do more than 60dmg. For example in the first chamber before the tank aggros have the smiter take the quest. Then the tank will run up a set of stairs and aggro as much as he can. The Aatxes will keep the tank alive and Retrib/Holy will make very short work of the Grasping. If you are going back to clear the dryders near the monument the grasping back there are no problems either. As here I like to do my Suicide Monk manuever or at least that is what my guildies call it. That is I will aggro everything in that part of the map. So I will have Aatxes, Grasping, Nightmares, and Dryders all attacking me at the same time. No need to worry about multiple Nightmares back there as with Spell Breaker on they will kill themselves attacking you before Spell Breaker is gone.

In the areas where there is nothing but Grasping it does get a little tricky but is still easy to do. Just make sure to cast PS and Bond as often as possible. Also the Smite monk can bring Signet of Devotion for an added heal for the tank if it is needed. It usually does not turn out to be needed though. As with how high your divine favor is and the extra health from Life Attunement just casting PB and Bond are usually good enough.

Most of the times when we go down to UW we hardly ever go as a duo. We usually like to have other guild members with us so I will have at least 1 SS necro. We have come very close to 100% clearance of UW including quests using the duo and added support. We had the dual SB tank, smite monk, SS Necro without Reckless haste as we did not want them missing the attacks, FoC Necro, and a Fire Ele.

Most of the times the smiter never used SoJ as the added firepower shreaded everything so quickly. The Ele used Firestorm and Searing Heat for when we were going through the Twin Serpeant Mountains as the Burrowers can not move and those do some really nice damage.

We did find that the setup was not able to do the Four Horseman quest in the Chaos planes. Everything else we complete except one of the guildies took the quest in the Bone Pits before we told them to. So when we went back to get the reward for Restore the Monuments the Spirit in the Bone Pits was killed before we got back.