For anyone interested in a slightly different build, this is the build I'm currently using. It's a straightforward DPS build, but utilizes Tempest Rush (Tailwind) mainly to close distances for efficient farming. I list both essential abilities as well as optional ones. I also list essential items, recommended DPS, and recommended MP. I've tinkered around a lot and I've found that Tailwind's power in efficient farming is in using it mainly for movement as opposed to actual damage.

Essential Abilities

[Thunderclap]
[Tailwind]
[Cyclone]
[Ascension]

These abilities pretty much go without saying. FoT is still the best for spirit generation because of its AoE and speed. Sweeping wind's damage is just too good to skip.

Optional Abilities

[Overawe]
[Faith in the Light]

I think the 30% damage boost from FITL as well as its stun is near mandatory, but the build could still be valid with something else. Overawe is flexible, but the 24% damage boost really helps getting to that critical point where you 1-2 shot everything.

Passives




The last passive can be anything. I use One With Everything because I still stack fire resist, but Chant of Resonance would be amazing if you don't need OWE.
Fleet Footed with 24% MS = 34% MS. When you run with Tailwind, you run with 59% MS. You outrun everything and reach the thick packs of mobs quicker. That's the key.
The 100 spirit and 1 spirit regen from Exalted Soul is really important. You're not trying to maintain permanent Tempest Rush (which is extremely difficult and would require nearly perfect spirit regen as well as other abilities). You just want to have enough to close 5-10 seconds of empty space while you let your fists generate spirit. The bigger spirit pool ensures that you will have extended time to run with Tailwind while being able to "stock up" on more when you find a pack of enemies.

Essential Items

-Inna's Set
-4+ spirit regen/sec

The Inna's set kind of goes without saying. You're going to be poor on spirit a lot of times and you simply can't afford 75 spirit for Sweeping Wind. There's really no substitute here: try to get the best Inna's stuff you can afford.
4 spirit regen is not hard at all. You get .33 from the Inna's set, 1 from Exalted Soul, and you can usually find a cheap Inna's Radiance for 2-3 more. If you can afford it, I'd recommend the Fist of Az'Turrasq, which is a decent weapon and will give you spirit regen. Or a good rare with spirit regen can also work. I think 5-6 spirit/sec would be great, but 4 is doable.
There are also abilities such as Circular Breathing and the Chant of Resonance passive that can work. These may hurt your DPS though.

Recommended DPS/MP

I recommend:
75-100k for MP0
100-125k for MP1
125-150k for MP2

It might be possible to run these with lower DPS, but the goal here really is to be able to 1-2 shot everything except elites. And elites should be soft enough that you can kill them in about 4 seconds. Survivability becomes a non-issue and you can focus your efforts on what actually matters: killing as many things as fast as possible.

I think the monk's only weakness compared to the other classes in farming is mobility and the speed of movement. Tailwind nullifies this and basically allows you to move with permanent fleeting shrine. Additionally, you can use it escape danger and sometimes kill spread out mobs a bit quicker. The main idea is the same though: kill stuff with your hands.

@Metta

Recently I have been trying the tailwind build, without knowing that you have written this guide.

My objective is to farm faster than my current build (+34% movement speed), and I have tried various builds to complement the tailwind build.

My observations:

1) Spirits requirement - yeap without changing one or some of my old skills I pretty much ran into troubles.........either not enough spirits for rushing when I need it, or not enough spirits to press my oh-shit serenity button. I did try not using MoC owerawe boost that often which helps a little bit ~ but then it sorts of underutilising the overawe rune. And I did try Exalted Soul as well which helps a bit.

2) Danger Escape - I was using SSS as a 2nd oh-shit button. I use SSS quite often in the Keep level 2 when I need to take down the groups of maniacs, or at the Fields of Slaughter when I see those walking prawns with green sprouts on the ground, or sometimes when I just want to save a couple of seconds in taking down a big pack of mobs with my SSS FO. With Tempest Rush, it works well in danger escape too, although the mechanism switch from "invulnerability" to "mobility/ positioning". For fallen maniacs I am able to Tempest Rush through them, and there is no cooldown requied as for SSS. The only downside is 1) - spirits requirement.

I have not timed myself in Tempest Rush, but I believe it is a nice replacement to SSS FO, and should enable me to farm faster with careful use of spirits & other complementing skills. I am still exploring on this. I might try switching out the BW for FiTL.

The main idea is the same though: kill stuff with your hands.

As a monk I like to kill stuff with my bald head.

Interesting idea. I tried Tailwind the other day and thought it not so great, but I didn't use Exalted soul, which is the key. Since I kept running out of spirit too soon.

Will have to try this again with the proper passives.

I decided to turn my Monk into infinite Tempest Rush for farming and leveling. It's the most fun thing to do ever... :D

As a monk I like to kill stuff with my bald head.

LOL!

Is it wrong that I expected too see @Baldy when I read that joke?

Posted by Shihiko at 11/19/2012 08:34 AM

I decided to turn my Monk into infinite Tempest Rush for farming and leveling. It's the most fun thing to do ever... :D

Especially after hitting a fleeting shrine....WHOOOOAAAAA NELLY!!! Hold on to yer britches, bitches!!!!!

Posted by sabin at 11/19/2012 05:45 PM

Is it wrong that I expected too see @Baldy when I read that joke?

I'm Baldy, and I approve this message...

;-)

@Metta

Inspired by @gnawol, and also thanks to him who kindly gave me tips and advices on how to improve my TR run, I have the following version which is suitable for Monk with DPS 150k and above, for MP0-MP1 (at which EHP is not a big issue and the focus is just to travel and kill at nearly 50% move speed non-stop).



This build focuses greatly on the spirit regen aspect, without using Exalted Soul to increase the spirit pool. In my test when I am at max efficiency, my pool is always at 100% when I am channeling TR, since the spirit regen per second alone (~12% excluding gear bonus) > 10% channeling cost from TR.

This build also relies greatly on high DPS relative to mobs' HP. Even with my 150k DPS, I am feeling inadequate since I still have to run back and forth to kill some of the larger mobs (but overall still OK since I am running at +49%). I am using FiTL to help boost my buffed DPS to over 190K. Cyclone rune is no longer needed since you either one shot them while you are using TR, or it is more effective for you to just back track at 49% move speed to ensure their demise (cyclones are not guaranteed to hit all of the mobs if you are travelling that fast).

I currently favors this TR build over my DW build, for farming purpose. In my DW build I need to constantly click while in this TR build I just click and hold my finger, then "brush" the cursor over the mobs!

(edit: darn I still requires OWE......I wish I could replace it with Fleet Footed for additional 10% move speed)

Posted by Baldy at 11/19/2012 05:50 PM

Posted by Shihiko at 11/19/2012 08:34 AM

I decided to turn my Monk into infinite Tempest Rush for farming and leveling. It's the most fun thing to do ever... :D

Especially after hitting a fleeting shrine....WHOOOOAAAAA NELLY!!!

Yeah 60%+25% :D

Alright I need tips on improving the DPS for mine, currently only doing around 80k which isn't enough to one shot the mobs. My build is though on the cheaper end of the spectrum with spirit regen coming from legendary items which is probably hindering the DPS, but at least I have the maximum movement speed with fleet footed passive. It's a nice start and still heaps fun to farm with even though I might have to double back for some whites.

Where are most people getting their DPS from? Character: Monika

@Shihiko

Do you use the DPS calculater from http://www.d3rawr.com/ (as suggested in one of the forum post here)?
I found it useful in determining which stats (whether crit/ CD/ primary/ AS/ weapon dmg) that I need most for DPS upgrade, or get the most bangs out of my bucks when doing AH shopping.
For e.g. is your crit chance at +38% and crit damage at +280%? If yes maybe an addition of +100% crit damage from rings/ amulet will help you most. You could also benefit more from Attack Speed from gloves, rings or amulet, but they come at a cost so check your budget c.f. the DPS calculater.

I was doing 50k on 7/10/2012, but I have since improved it to 120K for DW and 150k for 2H, thanks to various advices from helpful fellow monks from this site. I usually spent all my savings for upgrade though. Costed me more than 100m already I think.

Well in order to maintain 100% up time of tempest rush you sort of want to avoid attack speed. I guess also this is pretty budget build to get the infinite tempest rush working on Inferno.

I think in order to be able to switch around gears more freely I'd need more resists all gear to allow me to move off OWE. Then using Exalted Soul or Chant of Resonance to cover the Spirit regen the items are giving.

If you have high enough DPS, it looks like fire storm is pretty sweet with this build.

wow is that fire storn shit great!
what kind of dps does this guy have!? gonna try it tonight for sure

This is his profile: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Leroy-1362/hero/16118583

I've tried it out a little bit. It's pretty fun.

Looks like 142k.

@sabin

Holy shit it looks cool.
I have comparable DPS to him, I will try the fire storm and see if I can keep up with spirit regen.

@sabin

Tried the Fire Storm. I don't quite like it.
I still need the 3 (4.5 after skills) from Inner Storm to perma rush.

I use firestorm with all the usual skills and my regen is at 37% while my spirit regen per sec is up around 13.5. I rather like the firestorm as it has a wider swath and things go down pretty quickly.