SWK Tempest Rush Monk BiS Gear, Gems, and Paragon Points
Below, we detail the items and gems that you should use for your SWK Tempest Rush Monk in Diablo 3 and why. We also list your paragon points and Kanai's Cube items. Updated for Patch 2.7.3 and Season 26.
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 and
Captain Crimson's Waders. 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 in the Cube.
Rolls-wise, this is a Tempest Rush-centric build that makes good use of
skill damage, Resource and Cooldown Reduction bonuses.
Tempest Rush bonuses
are possible on both
Sunwuko's Crown and
Captain Crimson's Waders, and
should be sought alongside the usual crit chance on the helm and toughness stats
on the boots. Both Area Damage and Resource Cost Reduction are highly desirable
on the shoulders (see below) and
Sunwuko's Paws. Get both stats on the
shoulder piece ASAP, and pick either stat for the gloves for the majority of
character progression — but try to acquire a quadfecta (Crit Chance, Crit
Damage, RCR, and rolling off Dexterity for Area Damage) when you attain high
Paragons. Get pure toughness stats on your
Sunwuko's Soul and
Sunwuko's Leggings. Finally, the ideal roll of
Sunwuko's Shines
includes double Crit stats and Cold elemental damage, alongside the guaranteed
socket.
As far as jewelry is concerned, the popular sets — Endless Walk and
Bastions of Will — are denied to the build, due to the mandatory
Sunwuko's Shines and lack of a generator skill. In their stead, you will be
using a trio of legendary rings:
Ring of Royal Grandeur, which reduces the
number of required worn set items for set bonus completion by one;
Convention of Elements, for the tremendous boost to your damage during its
Cold cycle; and finally,
Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac for its Cooldown
resetting mechanics, which feed into the valuable CDs of the build. You will be
wearing your best two of these rings, and cubing the third — ideally wearing
the
Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac and
Convention of Elements, and cubing
the RoRG.
As previously mentioned in the guide, Cesar's Memento is the dedicated
Tempest Rush bracer and a mandatory addition to the build. Note that it
requires the application of a hard crowd control effect (Stun, Freeze or Blind),
making the inclusion of a low-cooldown CC skill like
Blinding Flash
necessary (see this build's skills page for
more information).
Mantle of Channeling is a build subtype staple, offering a substantial
25% damage increase, along with an equal amount of damage reduction while
channeling. This is virtually a permanent bonus, as you will be using
Tempest Rush throughout the run.
Vengeful Wind is a crucial piece of a Sunwuko set-based setup, as it
expands the damage potential of your spenders through the interaction of the
Sweeping Wind stacks and the Sunwuko 6-piece set bonus. Your other weapon will
be the reworked
Won Khim Lau, which acts as both a damage multiplier for
Tempest Rush, and an automated source of
Cyclone Strike, which adds
tremendous value in any form of content by creating extra monster density (do not
mind the lack of synergy with its lightning elemental damage bonus, it is an
extra guaranteed roll on top).
Desired Stats, Breakpoints and Other Notes
Rolls-wise, this Tempest Rush-centric playstyle is quite demanding
in terms of Skill and Area Damage juggling, as well as the balance of Resource
Cost and Cooldown Reductions. Try to reach a minimum of 47% CDR, achievable with
one CDR roll on gear (the Zodiac ring), as well as
Beacon of Ytar, the
Cpt. Crimson CDR set bonus, and the 10% CDR in your Paragon levels. This allows
you to spend the remaining utility roll slots on Resouce Cost Reduction
(shoulders, gloves,
Flawless Royal Topaz in helm), optimally reaching 45%+
RCR.
For Defense stats, aim for a life pool between 500-600k; 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), as
well as the Soothing Breeze rune on the automated
Cyclone Strike
casts; note its synergy with Health Globe healing bonus stats, and try to obtain
them in your gear's Secondary stats if you can.
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 |
|
|
Shoulders |
|
|
Torso |
|
|
Wrists |
|
|
Hands |
|
|
Waist |
|
|
Legs |
|
|
Feet |
|
|
Amulet |
|
|
Ring #1 |
|
|
Ring #2 |
|
|
Weapon #1 |
|
|
Weapon #2 |
|
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.
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 |
|
Offense |
|
Defense |
|
Utility |
|
Gems
Bane of the Trapped is a potent source of additional damage, as it is its
own multiplier in your total damage calculation. The gem procs itself with its
level 25 property when in melee range, where the Tempest Rush Monk naturally
fights at.
Taeguk is a rare hybrid of defense and offense among the legendary
gem options, and continued
Tempest Rush channeling will ensure that your
stacks remain capped for a constant, well-rounded benefit.
Introduced in Season 4, Bane of the Stricken occupies the third and
final jewelry socket. 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. When doing lower tier content
(standard rift farming or speed
GRs),
Bane of the Powerful
should be used in this socket for a well-rounded, speed clearing-oriented
bonus.
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 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. 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. Due to the significant resource consumption in
this build, you should slot a
Flawless Royal Topaz in your helm. In your
weapons, use a
Flawless Royal Emerald for the Crit Damage boost.
Slot | Gems |
---|---|
Jewelry |
|
Helm | |
Torso and Pants |
|
Weapon |
For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.
Kanai's Cube
One of your biggest damage boosters will remain hidden in the Cube's weapon
slot. Balance is a daibo that boosts
Tempest Rush damage and
guarantees its crits against 3 targets or less — an indispensable bonus
against Rift Guardians.
You have some flexibility in the armor Cube slot; for the absolute high end
of Greater Rift progression, Stone Gauntlets will provide you with the
strongest defensive buff (stacking armor bonus as you get hit, at the cost of a
movement speed penalty that you will negate through
Epiphany), but
requires the most of your CDR optimization to minimize the item's downsides.
There is a much less demanding option in the face of
Lefebvre's Soliloquy,
triggered by the automatic
Cyclone Strikes from
Won Khim Lau.
As previously mentioned, the jewelry Cube slot will be taken by your worst
rolled item between Ring of Royal Grandeur,
Convention of Elements
and
Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac. Ideally, you will fill the slot with the
RoRG to take advantage of the reduced requirements for worn set items, while
skipping its lackluster primary rolls.
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.
Follower
The recommended follower for this build during solo GR progression is the Scoundrel due to his powerful crit buff, allowing you brief windows of extra damage that are well suited to the strengths of this build.
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.
Legendary Potion
The best potion for Tempest Rush Monks is the
Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid, as it allows you to break through Waller
affixes — an elite affix common enough to be a major pain in a build that
is highly dependent on mobility.
Changelog
- 14 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 08 Dec. 2021: 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: Slight revision to item and Cube recommendations to reflect the high-end meta.
- 21 Nov. 2019: Added Cpt. Crimson set as part of the setup, significant changes to overall itemization. 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.
- 23 Mar. 2018: Added the guide.
More Monk Guides
Builds from Other Classes
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.
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