Here's my monk story. I haven't really used a Monk. I have one that is paragon level 14, but he just wasn't fun. He could stand almost anywhere and not die, but nothing exciting.

Now I'm tempted to play. With inspiration from this thread https://www.diablohub.com/forums/thread/1385/, I want to build a thorns monk. The idea is as much dodge as possible, gear him with max dex and life steal, and he should be able to round up massive amounts of enemies (think weeping hollow) and just stand in the middle of them and they would disappear.

MoE Backlash deals 35% weapon damage in an area around you when you dodge an attack and the damage scales with attack speed (35% dmg x attack speed). On a monk with around 2 attacks/sec, that 35% is increased to 70% weapon damage that hits everything within approximately the same range as Sweeping Wind.

Here's my build, let me know your thoughts and what you might change. I'm starting fairly defensively, to mitigate incoming damage and maximize dodge chance. As gear allows, I'll move to offensive stats.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#WaRSfh!WdU!ZZYZYc

Blizzard did a lot to cap dodge chance without explicitly capping it. Above 2,000 Dex, the dodge chance bonus from Dex is miniscule. Dodge bonus skills are based on "chance to hit reduction" which effectively means diminishing returns, as well. They don't want characters becoming invincible.

Have you considered a 30% Block Chance Storm Shield or are you thinking 2H? I'm almost positive block chance comes after a failed dodge.

Don't discount Life After Kill affixes, particularly for mobs. If your skill actively lands the killing blow on an enemy you get credit for the kill and the corresponding Life bonus. You can get up to around 2500 Life after kill on an amulet.