SWK Tempest Rush Monk BiS Gear, Gems, and Paragon Points

Last updated on Jan 08, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 33 comments

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 2.7.7 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 Waders 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 Ring of Royal Grandeur in the Cube.

Rolls-wise, this is a Tempest Rush Tempest Rush-centric build that makes good use of skill damage, Resource and Cooldown Reduction bonuses. Tempest Rush Tempest Rush bonuses are possible on both Sunwuko's Crown Sunwuko's Crown and Captain Crimson's Waders 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 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 Sunwuko's Soul and Sunwuko's Leggings Sunwuko's Leggings. Finally, the ideal roll of Sunwuko's Shines 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 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 Ring of Royal Grandeur, which reduces the number of required worn set items for set bonus completion by one; Convention of Elements Convention of Elements, for the tremendous boost to your damage during its Cold cycle; and finally, Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac 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 Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac and Convention of Elements Convention of Elements, and cubing the RoRG.

As previously mentioned in the guide, Cesar's Memento Cesar's Memento is the dedicated Tempest Rush 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 Blinding Flash necessary (see this build's skills page for more information).

Mantle of Channeling 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 Tempest Rush throughout the run.

Vengeful Wind 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 Won Khim Lau, which acts as both a damage multiplier for Tempest Rush, and an automated source of Cyclone Strike 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).

1.1.

Desired Stats, Breakpoints and Other Notes

Rolls-wise, this Tempest Rush 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 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 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 Soothing Breeze rune on the automated Cyclone Strike 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
  1. Dexterity
  2. Socket
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Tempest Rush Damage %
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders
  1. Dexterity
  2. Resource Cost Reduction
  3. Area Damage
  4. All Resistance (guaranteed)
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Torso
  1. Dexterity
  2. 3 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Reduced damage from Elites
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Wrists
  1. Dexterity
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Cold Damage %
  4. Life per Hit or Vitality
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Hands
  1. Dexterity (replaced by Area Damage at High Paragons)
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Resource Cost Reduction
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. 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. Tempest Rush 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. Cold Damage %
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Flat Damage Increase
  4. Cooldown Reduction or Area Damage
Ring #2
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Cooldown Reduction
  4. Resource Cost Reduction
Weapon #1
  1. High Weapon Damage
  2. Dexterity
  3. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  4. Damage %
  5. Area Damage
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Weapon #2
  1. High Weapon Damage
  2. Dexterity
  3. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  4. Damage %
  5. Area Damage
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)

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.

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. Life %
  3. Armor
  4. Life Regeneration
Utility
  1. Resource Cost Reduction
  2. Area Damage
  3. Life on Hit
  4. Globe Radius
2.1.

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.

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. The gem procs itself with its level 25 property when in melee range, where the Tempest Rush Monk naturally fights at.

Taeguk Taeguk is a rare hybrid of defense and offense among the legendary gem options, and continued Tempest Rush Tempest Rush channeling will ensure that your stacks remain capped for a constant, well-rounded benefit.

Introduced in Season 4, Bane of the Stricken 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 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 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. Due to the significant resource consumption in this build, you should slot a Flawless Royal Topaz Flawless Royal Topaz 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.
  • WeaponEssence of Anguish with "When you kill an enemy, you deal damage done by the death blow to all enemies within 25 yards" as its Rank 3 power. For optimization benefits, aim for Cold Skills % Increase or Weapon Damage Increase on its Rank 2 roll. Note that Essence of Anguish requires dealing Poison damage to trigger its Base Power; in this build, you accomplish this either by re-rolling the weapon damage range (the two numbers displayed just under the big total DPS number; the first Primary stat roll of any weapon) of your own weapon to Poison, or doing the same to your follower's weapon.
Slot Gems
Jewelry
Helm
Torso and Pants
Weapon

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

4.

Kanai's Cube

One of your biggest damage boosters will remain hidden in the Cube's weapon slot. Balance Balance is a daibo that boosts Tempest Rush 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 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 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 Lefebvre's Soliloquy, triggered by the automatic Cyclone Strike Cyclone Strikes from Won Khim Lau Won Khim Lau.

As previously mentioned, the jewelry Cube slot will be taken by your worst rolled item between Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur, Convention of Elements Convention of Elements and Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac 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.

5.

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.

6.

Legendary Potion

The best potion for Tempest Rush Monks is the Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid 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.

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: 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.
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