Hmmm. Care to give a detail response for Monks like you did for DH? I hear things about Flying Dragon but I haven't gotten it yet. Is the full set of Thousand Storms worth it? I think I'm torn right now between going towards a daibo build with the increased spirit regen, etc. and dual wielding and trying to go for a lightning build.
Raiment set sucks now in comparison to SWK 4 piece set. Raiment can still do T6 and early 30s but SWK Monk is what will get you those mid to high 30 ranks.
Since SWK set is the best that means Monks are forced into using Daibo. And there are really only 4 Daibos with an effect that is worth a damn:
Daibo that makes Tempest Rush gain Tailwind rune (not that useful unless you want to clear Bounties really fast)
Daibo that makes Wall of Light do more damage and cost less (resource cost is kryptonite to SWK set and WoL does half the damage of a single SWK proc)
Daibo that makes SSS do more damage and have less cooldown (SSS is a support skill and is only good with the Madstone Helm. It's a usable Daibo for this ability but SSS on skillbar takes away from an optimum SWK set up IMHO)
Daibo that makes you attack twice as fast (best in slot for Monks right now because it allows you to generate spirit really fast for SWK proc spam. Also allows you to proc stuff like the Smite gem and Gogok gem since you are attacking very fast)
Now on to the actual build. There are two main SWK builds that people run.
Eye of Peshkov build
Crudest Boots build
Before I talk about the differences I will talk about the similarities:
Both of these will be stacking Holy damage because the synergy that the element provides with this set and the skills even the Smite gem which scales with Holy damage.
Both builds maximize Spirit gain and attack speed. Life on hit is usually a must too.
Both use Epiphany Desert Shroud because without it, it's very hard to survive high level GRs.
Both use Way of Hundred Fist Holy rune that stacks 60% DoT damage each activation as the main Spirit Generator skill. With Flying Dragon you can get 4 attacks per second which means 240% addition DoT damage on top of what the skill is doing. It's also used because it has a high proc rate compared to the other spirit generators.
Both use Sweeping Wing Holy rune for the additional AOE damage, the Spirit regen but most importantly for the Spirit dump. SW costs 75 spirit per activation which is EXACTLY the cost required to proc SWK. As SW has no animation for its activation, you can spam this move very fast in conjunction with Mantra to get multiple SWK procs per second.
Both use Golgok of Swiftness and Smite gem. Smite gem does a ton of Holy damage on proc which will be proccing a lot in combat and synergizes with the fast attack speed plus holy stacking theme of the build. Golgok of Swiftness makes your fast attack speed build EVEN faster which means more spirit regen and the secondary effect allows for more uptime on Epiphany and Air Ally if you have it.
Both use Flying Dragon for the fast attack speed bonus, Depth Digger for the extra damage to Spirit Generator (as the build requires you to be attacking non stop with your Generator), Gloves + Shoulder SWK.
Passives: Both generally use Seize the Initiative and Alacrity to boost up speed.
Now the variations.
The Eye of Peshkov build REQUIRES the SWK Amulet which is difficult to get the proper rolls on and thus is the rarely used build of the two (I have a decent SWK Amulet and thus I use this build). The reason it requires the SWK amulet is because this build also requires the Eye of Peshkov helm which greatly lowers the CD of Breath of Heaven.
The reason you want BoH on your skill bar is because one of the runes gives your Spirit generators a ton of extra Spirit regen which is ideal for this build. This item allows you to have BoH's buff at a 100% uptime which means you will always be generating that additional Spirit.
This leaves the Boot slot open which you can fill with Blackthorne combo with Belt or Ice Climbers. Belt you can use Witching Hour/String oF Ears plus Ice Climbers or Blackthornes. Chest and Bracers I personally use Aughilds for the 3 piece bonus. All are solid options.
The Crudest Boots build uses that item and combines it with the Air Ally skill. This gives you a ton of passive spirit regen and gives you a ton of spirit on activation. This allows you to have any belt you want with Depth Diggers. The skill Breath of Heaven is replaced by Air Ally, the rest is mostly the same.
For both builds either Mantra of Salvation - Agility is used or Mantra of Healing - Time of Need. This build involves spamming of SW and Mantras thus you will have near full uptime on them. Spamming MoH gives you the shield however I have seen that the shield becomes less and less effective at higher levels. The Mantra of Salvation gives you a nice All Res increase and the dodge change is really nice for higher GRs where not having to get hit by one attack is a big deal (when one or two hits can generally kill you, if you dodge a couple of hits in between it allows enough time to sustain yourself with heals). The only caveat to Mantra of Salvation is that you need a ton of LoH where as the MoH one you can get by pretty easily without a ton of LoH.
Slight variations to both builds. The 6th skill that is used is Dashing strike - Radiance for even more attack speed. But really this skill is used to get out of tight spaces and to move through GRs quicker. This skill is the most flexible of this build:
People can replace DS with Cyclone Strike and pair with Strongarm Bracers to get more damage from the knockback effect.
DS replaced with Serenity for a ton of survivability. Preferred skill of Hardcore players.
Inner Sanctuary for more damage/toughness.
Blinding Faith for more damage and CC (This build actually lacks in CC against Elites so this is IMO not a bad choice at all)
The 4 passives that are generally used are Alacrity, STI, 6th Sense and Beacon of Ytar (these are the ones I use). You can have Harmony in there if you want, Trascendance or the cheat death passive for GRs. Guardian's Path also a decent choice.
As of this post the #1 Monk uses the Peshkov build, here is his profile:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/scrapz-1142/hero/49307028
It's very similar to my own and of course the Mantra he uses for high GRs is not Annhialation, it's either Salvation - Agility or MoH - Time of Need. Epiphany also is Desert Shroud for higher GRs.
Here's a profile of someone using the Crudest Boots build:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Denzalo-1385/hero/35758671
Playstyle:
You basically Dashing Strike into a group, turn on Epiphany, start auto attacking and start mashing Sweeping Wind and Mantra. If you have the Peshkov build you also use Breath of Heaven as soon as its off cooldown (as you will have 100% uptime on it) or use Air Ally when you are low on Spirit if using Crudest Boots build.
Stats to stack:
Pretty much every offensive stat you want except Resource Cost reduction. DO NOT PUT ANY POINTS INTO RCR in Paragon points... even prefer Gold find over it if you have like 600 paragon points. Try to find the nice balance but I prefer Crit and attack speed over CDR (the CDR to achieve is decent uptime on Epiphany).
3rd gem option:
The two I listed are required but if you happen to find a godly Amulet you can try to use other gems as well.
I think Pain Enhancer, Bane of Powerful and Taeguk are all fine choices.
Last thing I will say is that you of course want Ramalandi's Gift on your Flying Dragon and the 4 stats you want on it are:
Life on Hit
+% Damage
Socket
Dexterity
