Sunwuko Wave of Light Monk BiS Gear, Gems, and Paragon Points

Last updated on Jan 08, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 45 comments

Below, we detail the items and gems that you should use for your Sunwuko Wave of Light Monk in Diablo 3 and why. We also list your paragon points and Kanai's Cube items. Updated for Patch 2.7.7 and Season 30.

1.

Best in Slot Gear and Alternatives

The build incorporates the complete Monkey King's Garb (a.k.a. Sunwuko) set bonuses, taking five of the six available SWK set pieces, and then adding two pieces of the craftable Captain Crimson's Trimmings set — Captain Crimson's Silk Girdle Captain Crimson's Silk Girdle and Captain Crimson's Thrust Captain Crimson's Thrust. The auxiliary set provides CDR as well as RCR bonuses, and then scales your damage dealt and damage reduced according to both stats, respectively — bringing a massive boon to the build. You will attain the complete set bonuses of this two-set amalgamation via Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur in the Cube.

Rolls-wise, this Wave of Light Wave of Light-centric setup makes good use of Cooldown Reduction, skill and area damage bonuses. CDR is desired on Sunwuko's Balance Sunwuko's Balance alongside RCR and Area Damage; double Crit stats plus Area Damage are optimal on Sunwuko's Paws Sunwuko's Paws. Sunwuko's Soul Sunwuko's Soul, Captain Crimson's Silk Girdle Captain Crimson's Silk Girdle and Captain Crimson's Thrust Captain Crimson's Thrust are pure Toughness slots. The ideal roll of Sunwuko's Shines Sunwuko's Shines includes double Crit stats and Lightning or Fire elemental damage (depending on your chosen WoL rune), alongside the guaranteed socket.

You have four legendary rings that bring tremendous value to the build. Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur reduces the number of required worn set items for set bonus completion by one, allowing you to wear utility legendaries in competing slots. Convention of Elements Convention of Elements brings a tremendous boost to your damage during the cycle of your chosen element. Unity Unity halves incoming damage when paired another on the follower, plus an immortality relic for them (i.e., Enchanting Favor Enchanting Favor). Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac reduces cooldowns whenever you hit enemies with a Spirit spender, allowing perfect overlap of Epiphany Epiphany. We suggest you wear Unity Unity and Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac and slot Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur in the Cube as a start. When you grow more comfortable with the build, you can rotate either Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac or Unity Unity for the cyclical damage increase of Convention of Elements Convention of Elements.

The Crudest Boots The Crudest Boots are a crucial piece for the setup, albeit for a less than obvious reason. You will not be taking advantage of the doubled Mystic Ally Mystic Ally summons, but the damage increase to Allies applies to the Rabid Strike Rabid Strike clone — turning this build into an impromptu summoner, as the clone will deliver the bulk of your damage.

Added in Patch 2.4, Pinto's Pride Pinto's Pride is a Wave of Light Wave of Light-specific bracer that doubles as a damage amplifier and a tool for crowd control, slowing enemies by the impressive 80% when struck with a pillar. Helping you keep foes at bay, Pinto's Pride Pinto's Pride also gives you a vital, effortless proc for Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Trapped.

Rabid Strike Rabid Strike mimics your Wave of Light Wave of Light casts by spawning an Ally-like summon that mimics your Spirit spender; curiously, this Ally is affected by several Ally-related buffs like Bindings of the Lesser Gods Bindings of the Lesser Gods and The Crudest Boots The Crudest Boots, resulting in a tremendously hard-hitting "pet" build. Your other weapon will vary according to content: in Greater Rift progression, you will do well to include Vengeful Wind Vengeful Wind in order to expand the burst potential coming from the Sunwuko set.

1.1.

Bastions of Will set alteration

There is a notable alteration possible in the jewelry, the Bastions of Will set — Focus Focus and Restraint Restraint. This will bring even more damage to the build at the cost of toughness, and will alter the rotation slightly as it requires the inclusion of a generator skill. This is generally done by replacing Cyclone Strike Cyclone Strike for Way of the Hundred Fists Way of the Hundred Fists Assimilation Assimilation, and using Spirit Guards Spirit Guards instead of Bindings of the Lesser Gods Bindings of the Lesser Gods in the Cube.

1.2.

Desired Stats, Breakpoints and Other Notes

The build requires the standard investments in skill damage across the gear pieces that can roll the stat, helm and boots (max 30%). Aside from that, it requires as much Area Damage as you can fit (ideally 100%+) while still maintaining a high investment in Cooldown Reduction, which is by far the hardest and most demanding utility roll; for a setup using the Zodiac ring, try to obtain at least 50%+, achievable with a single roll on gear (i.e. shoulder) plus the Cpt. Crimson set, Diamond in helm, Paragons, Beacon of Ytar Beacon of Ytar and using an Enchantress for Prophetic Harmony Prophetic Harmony. In a non-Zodiac setup, you can push hard into CDR and still get 90%+ uptime of Epiphany Epiphany by rolling CDR on pretty much any gear piece that can get it (except the amulet, where it will cost too valuable rolls) — shoulders, gloves, both rings, weapon and off-hand, plus the auxiliary bonuses described above. The problem is that you also have to balance it with Resource Cost Reduction, which should be present at least on shoulders, weapon and off-hand (45%+ with Cpt. Crimson factored in).

For Defense stats, aim for a life pool between 600-700k; dropping as much as you can for offense as you grow accustomed to the build. You will mostly sustain through Life per Hit on gear, with one high roll in your setup (i.e. bracer or weapon).

All augmentations on gear should be done with your main stat, Dexterity.

Note that the stat suggestions below portray an ideally rolled item with stats listed in relative order of importance. The first four of them are main stats, and the latter two — secondary stats. If your item lacks and is unable to be rerolled into the primary stats outlined below, especially for a stat higher on the list, strongly consider its replacement. Perfecting Secondary stats is mostly a case of hyper-optimization and is not a case for discarding an item, except where noted.

Slot Pieces Stat Priority
Head
  1. Dexterity
  2. Socket
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Wave of Light Damage %
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders
  1. Dexterity
  2. Cooldown Reduction
  3. Area Damage
  4. Resource Cost Reduction
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Torso
  1. Dexterity
  2. 3 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Life %
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat))
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Wrists
  1. Dexterity
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Lightning or Fire Damage %
  4. Life per Hit or Vitality
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Hands
  1. Dexterity
  2. Dexterity (replaced by Area Damage at High Paragons)
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Critical Hit Damage
  5. Resource Cost Reduction (or CDR)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  7. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Waist
  1. Dexterity
  2. Vitality
  3. Armor
  4. Life %
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Legs
  1. Dexterity
  2. 2 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Armor
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Feet
  1. Dexterity
  2. Wave of Light Damage %
  3. Vitality
  4. Armor
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Amulet
  1. Socket (guaranteed)
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Lightning or Fire Damage %
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Average Damage or Resource Cost Reduction
Ring #2
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Average Damage or Resource Cost Reduction
Weapon #1
  1. High Weapon Damage
  2. Dexterity
  3. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  4. Resource Cost Reduction
  5. Area Damage or Cooldown Reduction
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat if LpH not present)
Weapon #2
  1. High Weapon Damage
  2. Dexterity
  3. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  4. Resource Cost Reduction
  5. Area Damage or Cooldown Reduction
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat if LpH not present)

To help you with farming the gear you need for your builds, we have two very useful guides that you can access by clicking the links below: a Salvage Guide to help you quickly check whether or not you can safely salvage a piece of gear and a Legendary Farming Guide to help you efficiently farm legendaries and set items.

1.3.

Altar of Rites

The former Season 28 theme, the Altar of Rites, has been revised and re-added to Diablo 3 as a permanent character progression mechanic. — For virtually all builds and players of all skill levels — from casual to advanced — we recommend progressing through the Altar tree using the path outlined below. The suggested path is geared towards maximum quality of life first, then amplifying damage, and then mopping up the tree with defensive and edge case utility nodes.

Note that while they require reaching them with a Seal, Legendary Potion Powers are not part of the Seal cost system; Potions unlock with a separate resource called Primordial Ashes, obtained from salvaging Legendary or Set items of Primal (red bordered) quality. Upgrade them as soon as possible, and in the order shown below (courtesy of Caleko's Altar of Rites planner).

Altar of Rites Planner

You can read more on the Altar of Rites, Seals and Legendary Potion Powers in our dedicated Altar of Rites Mechanics guide.

2.

Paragon Points

In the Core section, max out Movement Speed to the 25% cap. Normally this is done by dumping the first 50 Core Paragon points into Movement Speed, but if your boots have an imperfect roll with Movement Speed as a stat that you cannot replace, adjust the necessary point investment accordingly by simply subtracting your roll from the 25% max. After that dump as much as you comfortably can into Dexterity, but feel free to invest into Vitality if you feel yourself lacking in toughness, or Maximum Spirit if you want to play around with a bigger resource pool.

In the Offense section, max out Cooldown Reduction, Crit Chance, Crit Damage, and Attack Speed, in that order. In Defense, prioritize All Resistance, then Life %, then Armor, and finish off with Life Regeneration. In Utility, build up Resource Cost Reduction and Area Damage first, then finish off with Life on Hit and Globe Radius.

Slot Paragon Points
Core
  1. Movement Speed up to 25% cap
  2. Dexterity
  3. Maximum Spirit (up to personal preference)
  4. Vitality
Offense
  1. Cooldown Reduction
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Attack Speed
Defense
  1. All Resistance
  2. Armor
  3. Life %
  4. Life Regeneration
Utility
  1. Resource Cost Reduction
  2. Area Damage
  3. Life on Hit
  4. Globe Radius
3.

Gems

Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Trapped is a potent source of additional damage, as it is its own multiplier in your total damage calculation. This gem will be easily procced by the slowing property of Pinto's Pride Pinto's Pride bracers.

Enforcer Enforcer brings a multiplicative damage increase to pets, which curiously interacts with the Rabid Strike Rabid Strike Ally-like clone and makes this gem highly desirable for the setup.

Introduced in Season 4, Bane of the Stricken Bane of the Stricken occupies the third and final jewelry socket in GRs. Building up your damage multiplicatively in prolonged fights and with a level 25 bonus specifically targeting Rift Guardians, this gem is designed to assist AoE heavy builds in their struggle against single target, high HP enemies. The Wave of Light Monk does better than most builds in single target situations but still benefits decently from the gem — a testament to its quality.

When it comes to gear gems, you will start out progression by slotting the highest available level of Emeralds in the chest and pants sockets. Ideally, these will all be Flawless Royal Emerald Flawless Royal Emeralds as soon as possible. As you grow in Paragon (bulking up Dexterity in the Core section) and aim for higher tier and more dangerous GRs, you will transition those gems into the defensive Flawless Royal Diamond Flawless Royal Diamond. There is no specific breakpoint where you do that; the rule of thumb is to make the change as soon as you feel the lack of toughness impede your progress. Since this is a fairly cooldown-dependent build, slot a Flawless Royal Diamond Flawless Royal Diamond in your helm. In your weapons, use a Flawless Royal Emerald Flawless Royal Emerald for the Crit Damage boost.

3.1.

Season 30 Soul Shards

In Season 30, your helm and weapon sockets will be taken over by the supremely powerful Soul Shards. For this variant, we recommend the following:

  • HelmSliver of Terror with "Your Attack Speed and Critical Hit Chance are increased by 5% for each skill on cooldown" as its Rank 3 power. For optimization benefits, aim for Dexterity or Melee/Ranged Damage Reduction on its Rank 2 roll.
  • WeaponDregs of Lies with "Each time your pet hits an enemy, your damage is increased by 0.5% for 5 seconds" as its Rank 3 power. For optimization benefits, aim for Lightning (or Fire) Skill % Increase or Weapon Damage Increase on its Rank 2 roll.
Slot Gems
Jewelry
Helm
Torso and Pants
Weapon

For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.

4.

Kanai's Cube

For Greater Rift progression, the weapon slot will be taken by the Incense Torch of the Grand Temple Incense Torch of the Grand Temple, as its resource cost reduction bonuses soften the restrictive price of Wave of Light Wave of Light.

Bindings of the Lesser Gods Bindings of the Lesser Gods increase the damage of Mystic Ally Mystic Ally (including the Ally-like clone from the Rabid Strike Rabid Strike proc), against enemies affected by Cyclone Strike Cyclone Strike. As a result, you will have to Cyclone Strike Cyclone Strike at least once every 5 seconds.

In the jewelry slot you will use the Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur, a cache legendary ring from Act I bounties. Running the full 6-piece Sunwuko set bonus, the Cpt. Crimson 3-piece bonus, and The Crudest Boots The Crudest Boots while dodging the undesirable guaranteed stats on the Grandeur by cubing its power is a tremendous boost to the build.

The Kanai's Cube can be used for much more than simply extracting Legendary powers from items. Please refer to our Kanai's Cube guide for more information.

5.

Follower

The recommended follower for this build during solo GR progression is the Enchantress due to her cooldown reduction buff from Prophetic Harmony Prophetic Harmony, as well as the Focused Mind Focused Mind attack speed buff.

For more information regarding followers, we advise you to read our Follower Guide, which contains detailed advice for choosing the skills and the gear of your follower.

6.

Legendary Potion

The preferred potions for this build are Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid (allowing you to break down Waller affixes that impede your Wave of Light Wave of Light damage) and Bottomless Potion of the Tower Bottomless Potion of the Tower, whose Armor-increasing properties complement the naturally high All Resistances stat of Monks (due to Harmony Harmony) for optimal survivability.

7.

Changelog

  • 08 Jan. 2024: Revised guide for the permanent addition of the Altar of Rites, and added Season-specific Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 13 Sep. 2023: Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
  • 22 Feb. 2023: Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
  • 26 Aug. 2022: Added Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
  • 14 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
  • 08 Dec. 2021: Guide revised and added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 21 Jul. 2021: Added Ethereal weapon recommendation for Season 24.
  • 01 Apr. 2021: Added follower recommendation.
  • 16 Nov. 2020: Added S22 Cube recommendation.
  • 01 Jul. 2020: No changes required for Season 21.
  • 12 Mar. 2020: No changes necessary for Season 20.
  • 21 Nov. 2019: Added Cpt. Crimson set as part of the itemization, significant changes to jewelry. Updated for Season 19.
  • 23 Aug. 2019: Reviewed for Season 18.
  • 16 May 2019: Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 17.
  • 17 Jan. 2019: Added suggestions for the baseline Ring of Royal Grandeur for Seasonal characters.
  • 12 Nov. 2017: Revised gem recommendations to reflect the proper playstyle of the build.
  • 28 Oct. 2017: Changed rings, weapon #2, and waist for Patch 2.6.1.
Show more
Show less