Hey.

What do you guys think is required in terms of
a) DPS
b) HP
c) Resistances

to make is (safely) through inferno solo.

Want to get my hardcore monk through for the achievement, but I have limited funds.

What gear do you think is a must-have? Keep in mind that legendaries and sets are much more limited in availability on HC AH.

Well. I don´t know if HC inferno is different from SC, but i would suggest:
a)DPS=60K (I did with little less)
b)HP=32K (I did with less than 30K)
c)Resistances=800 + OWE
That´s for safely solo play. Now my Monk char is farming Act 3 MP1, for paragon(I used a Andariel´s visage for finishing inferno). Since I finish Inferno i upgraded him just a bit, my most expensive buy in the game was the 8kk shoulders Viile Ward, so i could balance him for farming Act 3 without loosing much of my resistances. IAS was important to me, had at least 27%.

Ok. So a follow-up question on the previous.

I am pretty much convinced by now that Echoing Fury is a must have for a monk for DPS.
But since I want to gear for HC survivability is key. So I'm thinking of using a shield. Probably try to get a stormshield with a very high block chance.

My question is... is Echoing Fury still the #1 weapon choice when paired with a shield.

Question 2. Is Stormshield the way to go, or do you think that I can do better with a Hollowed Defender.


Stormshield
Advantage: Higher block chance, reduce damage from elite AND melee.
Disadvantage, 1 random. So 1 option for CC, Sock, Dex, Vitality or my OWE ress type.

Hallowed Defender
Advantage: 4 Randoms. So can have Vit + Dex + my OWE res + cc
Disadvantage: Lower total armor + block chance

is Echoing Fury still the #1 weapon choice when paired with a shield

If you are only using EF without an off-hand, it's basically just a weapon with IAS. The APS just affects your total attack rate output, but since you won't swing with the shield, it won't benefit you any more than a regular rare.

Is Stormshield the way to go, or do you think that I can do better with a Hollowed Defender

I think the Hallowed Defender is better overall because of the CC and stats, but I think a good rare can also work equally well. As long as you can get block% near 20, I think it beasts on the Stormshield overall.

I haven't played on HC, but I did play Inferno back when it was stupid difficult. Made it to Belial before realizing that I couldn't out DPS him while still maintaining adequate survivability. If I had to guess on MP0, 40-45k HP and 700+ resist (along with the usual passives and actives) should feel safe for everything except possibly a few dangerous bosses (Ghom/Diablo).

Thx for the replies.

The main reason I'm actually still leaning towards a stormshield is the 5% melee reduction on top of 6% elite reduction.

At the moment I'm on
38K hp (370208 EHP)
20k DPS
330 Resistance (have some very obvious items I have to replace, since they have the wrong resistance on)

After losing my 60 DH i'm a lot more careful in HC inferno now.

But I have very recently spent my entire HC budget on getting my Fury, so i don't know if I'll just stick to dual-wielding or if I'll go shield route.

Ok. New plan is to stay with dual-wield to keep max benefit from Fury.

So the plan is:
Act 1: 20K DPS (Unbuffed) 500K EHP
Act 2: 25K DPS (Unbuffed) 750K EHP
Act 3: 30K DPS (Unbuffed) 850K EHP
Act 4: 35K DPS (Unbuffed) 1000K EHP

The last one is going to take a while, but I believe it can be done.
Some theory crafting says I need another 320 resistances, 513 vitality and 25% life to get there.