Raiment Shenlong Generator Monk Skills and Runes

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Quick Reference
    • 2.1. Skill Setup
  • 3. Builds
    • 3.1. Gear Setup
    • 3.2. Legendary Gems
    • 3.3. Kanai's Cube
  • 4. Role in the Current Meta
  • 5. Reading Further
  • 6. ChangeLog
• ×Skills and Runes
  • 1. Rotation
  • 2. Skills, Runes and Passives
• +Gear, Gems, and Paragon Points
  • 1. Best in Slot Gear and Alternatives
  • 2. Paragon Points
  • 3. Gems
  • 4. Kanai's Cube
  • 5. Follower
• +Inna Shenlong Variation Variation
  • 1. Inna Shenlong Progression Variant
  • 2. Adapting Skills
  • 3. Adapting Gear
  • 4. Adapting Kanai's Cube
• +Speed Farming Variation
  • 1. Speed Farming
  • 2. Adapting Skills
  • 3. Adapting Gear
  • 4. Adapting Gemming
  • 5. Adapting Kanai's Cube

General Information

Below, we explain how to choose and use your skills when playing Raiment Shenlong Generator Monk in Diablo 3. Updated for patch 2.6 and Season 11.

The other pages of our Raiment Shenlong Generator Monk guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

Active Skills
Way of the Hundred Fists Assimilation Crippling Wave Mangle 1 Breath of Heaven Infused with Light 2 Dashing Strike Radiance 3 Mantra of Salvation Agility 4 Serenity Ascension
Passive Skills
Harmony Alacrity Seize the Initiative Exalted Soul

1. Rotation

The build tackles the enemy head on, using the powers of the Shenlong set to turn the generator skill of choice — usually Crippling Wave — into a primary damage dealer. Note that you will alternate between two generators depending on monster density; Way of the Hundred Fists Assimilation to apply the Assimilation debuff on large packs (10+ monsters), and Crippling Wave for general damage. Breath of Heaven Infused with Light helps with stacking Spirit and gets the Shenlong's multiplier to a higher value faster. Dashing Strike should also be used offensively at least once every 6 seconds, as the skill grants you the generator damage buff from the Raiment set, and the Radiance rune grants you increased attack speed — speeding up Spirit generation.

2. Skills, Runes and Passives

Crippling Wave is the primary damage dealer of the build; a solid, AoE-oriented generator with the boilerplate 12 Spirit per hit. Preferred with the fire rune Mangle, this generator wins over the competition with its wide, sweeping motions and consistency in delivering the DPS. To increase its output, you will be juggling a second generator into the build — Way of the Hundred Fists Assimilation. When applied on a large stack of enemies (10+) it result in a sizable, 5 second buff for your Crippling Wave onslaught. Note that this will not require you to switch elemental damage on gear, which should remain focused on Fire bonuses.

Serenity is one of the most potent defensive skills in the Monk arsenal, allowing you a brief window of invulnerability on a reasonable 16 second base cooldown. Note that the downtime begins after the active effect expires, preventing permanent uptime exploitation. Thus, take the longer lasting Ascension rune and use this skill in key situations where you expect a lot of burst coming your way, i.e. Molten explosions, Grotesque deaths, etc. If you trust your awareness enough not to need a panic button, a very viable alternative for this slot can be found in the monster-grouping tool Cyclone Strike Implosion.

With a generously low cooldown allowing for very high uptime, Breath of Heaven adds great utility to the build. The base healing effect is eclipsed by the Spirit generation utility of the Infused with Light rune, which more than doubles the resource regeneration potential of your primary attack. In short, this will translate into a lightning-fast reserve fill, and quicker Shenlong amplification.

Uncommon among the protective skills because of its spender nature, Mantra of Salvation passively increases all resistances by 20%, and adds 35% dodge chance through the Agility rune. Its active component further increases resistances for a brief duration, and its Spirit cost can be quickly accounted for through Crippling Wave and Infused with Light regeneration — do not hesitate to pop it when needed.

Mobility is arguably one of the greatest assets when pushing the Leaderboards, and Monks are blessed with the most fluid movement tool of all — Dashing Strike. A charge-based skill on a low cooldown by default, its role is flipped into a spender via the Raiment set 4-piece bonus. Notice the Raiment 6-piece bonus, making Dashing Strike and Spirit generators trade buffs — increasing damage of one when the other is used. It is up to you to choose which skill will be augmented and which will simply act as the buff; and while a variation of a Raiment build can focus on Dashing Strike as the damage dealer, this spec focuses on generators instead. As such, you need to cast Dashing Strike at least once every 6 seconds to maintain the Raiment 6-piece bonus; ideally, once every 4 seconds in a good engagement to maintain the Attack Speed bonuses of the Radiance rune.

This concludes the overview of the Active Skills, now let us look through the Passives.

A mainstay in the Monk arsenal of passives, Harmony fuels your All Resistance with 40% of the single elemental resistance per piece of gear (e.g. 100 Fire Resistance roll on the boots will add 100 to your sheet Fire Resistance and add 40 to your other resists). A well geared Monk will usually sport secondary resistances in all the gear slots that are able to roll them, adding significantly to his overall Toughness.

Two attack speed oriented passives provide the bulk of your passives selection. Seize the Initiative provides you with a temporary attack speed increase when engaging enemies over 75% health, resulting in faster Spirit generation for more Crippling Wave damage. As you get more comfortable with the build, you will learn to draw the attention of additional enemies or freshly spawned boss adds to effectively extend the benefits from Seize the Initiative. Alacrity is another offensive fit for the build, adding a 15% separate attack speed multiplier to your Spirit Generators and directly translating into better damage through the faster buildup of resource for Shenlong.

You have some room for adjustment in your final passive slot. The offense option is Exalted Soul, directly increasing your damage by expanding your resource pool with 50 Spirit. Its Spirit regeneration aspect is just an added bonus. The defensive alternative for the slot is The Guardian's Path — a top tier defensive passive when dual-wielding, offering a substantial 35% dodge chance increase. Working alongside the dodge bonuses from Blinding Speed and Agility, it will be the optimal passive choice for physical attacks protection in high density maps.

About the Author

This build is presented to you by Deadset, one of the very few professional Diablo 3 players. Deadset regularly publishes video guides on Youtube and streams on Twitch, where you can see how this and other builds play out in practice.