Sunwuko Wave of Light Monk Speed Farming Variation

The Sunwuko Wave of Light Monk deals with regular Rift farming decently all the way through the highest Torments, making it a viable build for the task. We have solo speed GR rankings and solo speed T16 rankings if you want to know more about which builds are best for speed farming.

Within the limited scope of regular difficulties, the necessary damage and toughness to triumph over the enemy is significantly smaller. Thus, your best course of action is to improve utility and speed.

Active Skills
Wave of Light Explosive Light Dashing Strike Quicksilver 1 Epiphany Insight 2 Sweeping Wind Inner Storm 3 Mystic Ally Air Ally 4 Mantra of Healing Circular Breathing
Passive Skills
Seize the Initiative Beacon of Ytar Near Death Experience Momentum

When you are speed farming regular rifts, parts of your playstyle will adapt to the lowered challenge and focus more on speed and utility.

The WoL build in farming will play like a sped up version of its progression counterpart; still using Wave of Light Explosive Light to blow enemies up, but using the much quicker elite fights in standard difficulties to his advantage with the use of In-geom. The cooldown resets coming from the sword will allow you to reapply Epiphany well before any downtime, as well as carefree spam of the resource restoration of Air Ally — which should be more than enough to make up for the Cindercoat loss in the Cube. To further assist your resource management, you will have Mantra of Healing Circular Breathing passively restoring Spirit as well. Sweeping Wind should always be up, naturally (note the Sunwuko set bonuses), and Dashing Strike will keep you sped up throughout the rift.

Parts of the skill and passive selection will overlap with the base Greater Rift progression build, but others will have to change according to the task at hand. Ability to cross over great distances faster and more efficiently take precedence.

• Wave of Light is still your main damage dealer, and you should be using the speedfarm-appropriate Explosive Light rune for T16s.
• Sweeping Wind is a necessary part of Sunwuko builds, along with the resource utility of Inner Storm. You will complement its passive resource gain with the instant restoration from Air Ally.
• Epiphany is an omnipresent self-buff in all versions of the build. You can consider Insight over Desert Shroud if you trust your upkeep of Goldwrap mitigation.
• You can shift away from survivability into more utility on Dashing Strike depending on your confidence in handling the build. This is usually done by replacing Blinding Speed with either Quicksilver for the additional charge during T16 rifts (where elites are more abundant for In-geom procs), or Way of the Falling Star (for the greater distance covered during bounties).
• Replace the survivability of Mantra of Salvation Agility for the passive Spirit regeneration from Mantra of Healing Circular Breathing.
• In your passive selection, keep Beacon of Ytar for the Cooldown Reduction, and add some upfront damage with Momentum and Seize the Initiative. If you trust your survivability, you can consider dropping Near Death Experience for some extra movespeed via Fleet Footed.

You will still be taking advantage of the full 6-piece set bonuses of Sunwuko set while wearing 5 of the available pieces, and using a Ring of Royal Grandeur to complete the full bonus Since reliance on the Rabid Strike clone and Cpt. Crimson damage scaling is absolute overkill for T16 rift farming however, you will be shifting several pieces around:

• Get Tzo Krin's Gaze for the head slot, which will allow you to cast Wave of Light from a distance, and brings a massive skill damage bonus to boot;
• Wear Goldwrap or Kyoshiro's Soul as your belt, and cube your weaker roll between the two items. Goldwrap brings near-invulnerability with its interaction with Boon of the Hoarder and Avarice Band. Kyoshiro's Soul stacks up your Sweeping Wind without the need to hit enemies, which is a great quality-of-life improvement to Sunwuko farming;
• Take In-geom over Rabid Strike for its unparalleled Cooldown Reduction utility.

Lastly, it is advisable to wear Ring of Royal Grandeur as an equipped item, since this allows you to have the damage multiplier of Squirt's Necklace in the Cube despite the neck slot occupation of Sunwuko's Shines. Pair this ring either with Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac to ensure your cooldown availability (in Rifts or Bounties where In-geom procs prove unreliable), or a Fire damage Stone of Jordan for a constant Elemental and Elite damage boost.

Note that both Zodiac and SoJ are recommended for solo farming, since your Follower can wear Avarice Band and "Emanate" its valuable pickup radius effect to you as if you wore it yourself. When group farming, equip the Avarice yourself in their place.

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.

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).

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

Bane of the Trapped and Zei's Stone of Vengeance bring excellent damage multiplication value to the build in speed farming.

In normal rifts, the third gem slot should be taken by Boon of the Hoarder. This high utility gem feeds you practically infinite gold and gives you a massive short-term speed boost while picking it up, automated by Avarice Band. It will also render you practically invulnerable through Goldwrap.

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

Incense Torch of the Grand Temple is still a necessary part of a WoL setup, taking up the weapon slot in the Cube.

As previously mentioned, your armor Cube slot should be taken by your weaker rolled item between Goldwrap and Kyoshiro's Soul. The former brings near-invulnerability to the build while picking up gold, while the latter is a convenience item for farming which guarantees your Sweeping Wind stacks will not fall off.

Tucked away in the jewelry slot of the Cube, Squirt's Necklace will add another huge damage multiplier to the build. You will counteract its "increased damage taken" downside with the Goldwrap toughness boost.

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.

The recommended follower for this build during standard rift farming for keys is the Enchantress due to her cooldown reduction buff from Prophetic Harmony, as well as the 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.

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

This Season revives the Pandemonium Kill Streak buff from Season 19. Each stack grants a bonus to movement speed and damage, capping at +50% movement speed and +100% damage at 1000 kills. Hitting specific kill thresholds unleashes powerful effects. Read more in our dedicated Season of the Eternal Conflict Mechanics Guide!

While speedfarming sees limited use from this theme, Greater Rift pushing benefits significantly. Effects like Geysers (150), Meteors (400), and Angels (500) can clear elites and Rift Guardians instantly. Players may reset streaks after 150 kills to repeatedly trigger Geysers or push for 500+ kills near boss fights, often using Nemesis Bracers to spawn extra enemies.

Because the most potent effects (Geysers, Meteors, Angels) can obliterate Rift Guardians instantly up to GR150, players can retool builds for efficiency and comfort. Here’s how:

Since you can rely on killstreak procs to clear the Rift Guardian, Bane of the Stricken can be safely omitted in favor of:

• Another generic damage-scaling legendary gem ( Bane of the Trapped for builds with any form of crowd control and/or melee range, Zei's Stone of Vengeance for far ranged builds, Taeguk for channeling builds, Simplicity's Strength for primary attack-focused builds, Enforcer for pet-oriented builds, etc.)
• A survivability-oriented legendary gem ( Esoteric Alteration, Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard), or additional utility ( Gogok of Swiftness for CDR-reliant builds, Pain Enhancer for attack speed-heavy builds, or Wreath of Lightning for extra movement speed).

Adjust your equipment to items that favor durability, health sustain, and ease of movement. Consider adjusting non-essential skills for the build to ones that pull, reposition, or otherwise displace enemies to facilitate large pulls of enemy packs. In more concrete terms, this means:

• For class-specific items, Monks should consider Lefebvre's Soliloquy; this is a powerful damage reduction item that incentivizes you to use the enemy-pulling skill Cyclone Strike. Alternatively, Spirit Guards offer a similar defensive bonus for using resource-generating primary skills. Both options synergize well with the killstreak theme by improving survivability while grouping enemies.
• For additional options that balance between defense and offense, other helpful cross-class jewelry includes Unity (combined with the same ring on the follower plus a follower immortality token), and the Endless Walk set ( The Traveler's Pledge and The Compass Rose).
• Situational items that can bolster your defenses include Stone Gauntlets, the drawbacks of which are negated via CC-immunity effects like Epiphany, Ice Climbers, or the Altar of Rites CC-immunity node. Aquila Cuirass is also a strong choice for low Spirit-spending builds. A final niche consideration is Crystal Fist, which provides considerable Damage Reduction after using Dashing Strike.
• Utility items like Nemesis Bracers are essential as more elites mean more killstreak maintenance and faster progression. When soloing, they should be equipped by your follower; in groups, at least one party member should commit to wearing them. Edge cases will see the inclusion of Warzechian Armguards or Krelm's Buff Belt (more speed for easier scouting and pulls), Strongarm Bracers (extra damage vs. displaced enemies), and Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac to lower the downtime of Epiphany. To facilitate large pulls, consider using a Follower equipped with The Ess of Johan, a proc-based analogue to an enemy-pulling skill (albeit outside your control).
• Skill-wise, make sure to include at least one movement ability like Dashing Strike and an enemy-pulling tool like Cyclone Strike Implosion. Take a look if you can include passives like Beacon of Ytar for cooldown reduction or Near Death Experience as a cheat-death mechanic to play more aggressively. Epiphany Desert Shroud is vital for toughness during massive pulls.