Introduction
Welcome to the fastest build in Diablo 3: Sunwuko Wave of Light Monk. Little known fact: the set used by the build is actually called Monkey King's Garb, but since every single piece is called "Sunwuko's this" and "Sunwuko's that" everyone in the community just calls it Sunwuko.
With nearly limitless mobility provided by Dashing Strike + In-Geom combo and huge AoE coverage of Wave of Light Explosive Light, this build can clear Nephalem Rifts like no other. Its true strength however comes from the flexibility of Monkey King's Garb set. Sunwuko's Shines allows us to keep the (6) Bonus while equipping Cain's Destiny for more Greater Rift Keystones.
Follower overhaul in Season 23 made it possible to include Cain's Destiny into every build, which brought many Nephalem Rift builds up to Sunwuko Wave of Light level. Followers however, are only available in solo play, so this build still retains its #1 spot when it comes to farming Greater Rift Keystones in groups!
Best Key Farmer ✔
Insane AOE Damage ✔
You Don't Have To Aim ✔
Fastest Build In Diablo 3 ✔
❌ Requires Decent Gear
❌ Struggles In Bad Maps
❌ Rotation Requires Practice
❌ Low Single Target Damage
Core Setup
Items
- Sunwuko (2) Bonus gives 50% damage reduction when Sweeping Wind is active.
- Sunwuko (6) Bonus gives 1500% increased damage for each Sweeping Wind stack for a total of 19,500% thanks to Vengeful Wind.
- Captain Crimson's Trimmings (2) Bonus gives 20% Cooldown Reduction and Resource Cost Reduction.
- Captain Crimson's Trimmings (3) Bonus increases our damage by our Cooldown Reduction percentage and decreases our damage taken by our Resource Cost Reduction percentage.
- Vengeful Wind is mandatory as it gives us 10 extra stacks of Sweeping Wind providing us a 15,000% multiplier due to the Sunwuko (6) Bonus.
- Incense Torch of the Grand Temple cuts the cost of Wave of Light in half and gives it 550% increased damage.
- Tzo Krin's Gaze gives up to 150% Wave of Light damage, and allows us to cast WoL where our mouse cursor is.
- Pinto's Pride makes Wave of Light slow enemies by 80% and increases its damage by 150%. The slow is significant because it's applied before the damage is calculated, letting us always get full benefit from Bane of the Trapped.
- Ring of Royal Grandeur completes our Sunwuko and Captain Crimson's Trimmings set bonuses.
Season 32 Ethereals
Ethereals are powerful rare weapons that can only be found during Season 32. They were initially the Season 24 Theme. They have incredible stats, a random Legendary power, and a free passive for your class. Read our Ethereal Mechanics Guide for full details on how they work and our Ethereal Farming Guide to learn how to acquire them. What you should prioritize on them is the following:
- The Legendary Power
This build requires Rabid Strike, Incense Torch of the Grand Temple and Vengeful Wind to be functional. We need our Ethereal to roll one of these three powers. We also want a good roll on our Legendary power if it has a range. For speed content it is always helpful to have Ethereals with Echoing Fury, In-geom or Messerschmidt's Reaver powers, so keep those if you find them. - The Ethereal Itself
There are 3 different weapons available to us, each with its own benefits:- Shadow Killer is the best Ethereal for this build becase it greatly struggles with both resources and survivability and this item gives us exactly that.
- Jade Talon deals slightly more damage, thanks to bonus Attack Speed it provides, but we lose both 25% damage debuff and 10% Resource Cost Reduction, which turns into damage reduction via Captain Crimson's Trimmings.
- Bartuc's Cut-Throat is the most damaging option with its Crit Chance roll and double damage to single targets, but with it we also lose Cooldown Reduction and Spirit on Crit affixes, so it's not really possible to use this unless your Paragon is extremely high.
- The Ethereal Stat Rolls
Each Ethereal comes with its own fixed set of powerful affixes. While some have a static value, many have a wide stat range. This means the difference between good and bad rolls is significant and something you should look for. - A Useful Passive
This is just icing on the cake because a fifth passive is not going to make or break your build. You're better off hunting for the things above. Check out the Passives section down below to see which ones you're looking for.
Global Stat Priorities
Our offensive priorities are: Cooldown > Fire Damage > Critical Hit Chance > Critical Hit Damage > Attack Speed, along with as much Wave of Light damage as possible for speed content. We need the Cooldown to keep Epiphany up at all times and to gain damage from our Captain Crimson's Trimmings (3) Bonus. We stack Attack Speed to cast Dashing Strike and Wave of Light as fast as possible.
When solo pushing drop the Attack Speed rolls for Area Damage as too much Attack Speed will drain our spirit. Our playstyle will involve gathering up large groups of enemies to burn down with Area Damage.
Assembling the Build
Item Stat Priorities
Skills
Passives
Paragon Points
Altar of Rites
Follower
Gameplay
Hardcore
Variants
Nephalem Rifts
GR Solo Push
Echoing Nightmare
Ethereals
If you don't have any Ethereal Item, use Vengeful Wind.
Concept
Since this is one of the best speed builds in Diablo 3, this is where we belong. Flying around detonating everything with Wave of Light is our specialty. Many players will make this Monk regardless of what class they main just to acquire Greater Rift Keystone as fast as possible.
Gameplay
The main thing to remember from the Gameplay section we already covered is you need a rhythm between Wave of Light and Dashing Strike. My favorite way to play is to put WoL on my left mouse button, hold it down constantly along with force stand still, and tap my dash. The basic idea of this in plain English is: "I'm always throwing Waves of Light, and I interrupt that with Dashes."
This is a bit counter-intuitive as we usually move, and then attack. Here we perpetually attack, and interrupt that with moving. With practice you'll be flying around faster than Neo from the Matrix.
Setups
At very high Paragon (5,000+) you can replace Tzo Krin's Gaze with Leoric's Crown to get Epiphany Teleports back.
If you're playing in groups, cube Nemesis Bracers and change Stone of Jordan into Avarice Band. Without Goldwrap we're not immortal so we use Serenity Ascension in place of Mystic Ally to pick up loot from Molten packs. On the Rift Guardian fight swap Captain Crimson's Waders and Tzo Krin's Gaze for Cain's Destiny. You can also change In-geom to Kyoshiro's Blade at the same time to make the fight shorter.
Ethereals
If you don't have any Ethereal Item, use Rabid Strike.
Concept
In solo push setup we use Rabid Strike and an assortment of pet multipliers to maximize our damage. We need to get as much CDR as possible to have almost permanent Epiphany.
Gameplay
Follow the DPS rotation described in the Gameplay section above. You can perform this rotation 3 times per Convention of Elements cycle. Make sure that one of the DPS phases overlaps with Lightning cycle! Since 95% of your damage comes from the Rabid Strike clone, it doesn't matter where you aim your own Wave of Light. It's best to hold down Force Stand Still and have your mouse cursor somewhere in the corner of the screen to prevent unwanted Epiphany teleports.
Setups
The main problem of this build is toughness, but it's very hard to get without sacrificing tons of damage. Your best option is switching Way of the Hundred Fists to Serenity Ascension. You will lose a powerful damage buff and will only have enough Spirit for one or two DPS rotations per CoE cycle, but surviving will be much easier.
If that is still not enough, your only option is to drop a damage multiplier. Drop Bindings of the Lesser Gods for Spirit Guards and use Serenity instead of Cyclone Strike. Also switch from Pillar of the Ancients to Explosive Light and go for really large pulls. You can make this setup a bit more competitive by using Focus and Restraint as well as Hand of the Prophet on enchantress, but then your toughness will be almost back where you started. Antother way to get back some of the lost damage is to use Bartuc's Cut-Throat, which is especially useful against the Rift Guardian, where Explosive Light tends to struggle.
Ethereals
If you don't have any Ethereal Item, use Rabid Strike.
Concept
For Echoing Nightmares we are using a build similar to solo push. We drop Bindings of the Lesser Gods, since all the monsters are CC-immune and use Tzo Krin's Gaze instead. For more information check out our full Echoing Nightmare Guide and take a look at our Echoing Nightmare Build Tier List and META post for the best builds and strategies!
Gameplay
Click Speed Pylon as soon as the challenge starts and all the other Pylons at around wave 90. At wave 122 you can stop attacking and run to the corner to let the timer run out.
Keep up Epiphany at all times but don't recast it until it's almost expired. Spam Wave of Light to kill everything. Use Mystic Ally when your spirit gets low and use Serenity or Dashing Strike when meteors come falling down.
Video Guide
Mechanics
Wave of Light
Pinto's Pride
Tzo Krin's Gaze
Bindings of the Lesser Gods
Rabid Strike
Summary
- Put together the core items and acquire the full Sunwuko set.
- Practice interrupting your Wave of Light with Dashing Strike to move as quickly as possible.
- Learn to swap to Cain's Destiny set on the Rift Guardian for 25% more keys!
- Enjoy the fastest build Diablo 3 has ever seen!
Town Is Lava!
Credits
Written by Raxxanterax & Northwar.
Updated by Northwar.
