Diablo 3 has been around for a while thanks to the constant updates the developer, Blizzard Entertainment, pushes. The most exciting patches come in the form of builds with one of the most interesting so far being the Monk Wage of Light, Sunwuko build.
Any monk build is an excellent choice if you thrive in fast-paced attacks. All monks are sacred warriors, beings trained to leverage their willpower to unleash powerful attacks. As sacred warriors, they can unleash protective mantras, healing waves and powerful attacks with a holy backing.
As the monk’s skill levels go up, the severity of the attacks also goes up. This is why a Diablo 3 Monk Build is a must have to any ardent player. After this guide, you will know how to use the Sunwuko wave of Light monk builds to:
- Unleash devastating attacks regardless of whether you are armed or unarmed
- Get fantastic maneuverability that lets you dash in for the kill and get out of melee combat before sustaining an injury
The Sunwuko Build – Understanding the Basics
This monk build is drawing heavily from the Monkey King’s Gard set and gets its name from the Monkey King, Sunwuko. Once you have the build online, you will have access to perks like:
- The damage received is reduced by half when Sweeping Wind is active
- The Sweeping Wind will spawn a decoy on the last enemy the Monk hits. This decoy will entice surrounding enemies before exploding with a 1000% damage for each Sweeping Wind that is active within a 10-yard radius
- You get damage increased by 1500 percent for each Sweeping Wind stack the Monk has
You can use the Sunwuko build together with the Vengeful Wind legendary Fist Weapon to take the damages meted out by Wave of Light to incredible levels.
These modifications will quickly work with the suggestions given below to give you one of the best offensive D3 Monk builds. If you want to pack a greater punch, you can use the Bastions of Will rings to amplify your Monk’s capabilities even further.
With this monk build, you will need to deploy your primary attacks to generate additional Spirit since the Epiphany will be offline. You will still get damage boosts with the help of the Spirit Guards legendary Bracers.
How to Play the Sunwuko Monk Build Diablo 3
The good thing is this Diablo III monk build is relatively easy to play. Getting it working isn’t as hard as gathering the different skill points and building your monk to perfectly suit the game.
Once you have the prerequisites right, you have to keep your Sweeping Wind levels up and constantly spam Wave of Light. A good measure is to cast just once whenever you start a Greater Rift.
Other than this, you have to keep any buffs that comprise of the Spirit Guards, Dashing Strike Dodge Chance and Bastions of Will up to increase the Monk’s viability.
The WOL Sunwok build starts by activating the Sweeping Wind. The Sweeping Wind’s mechanics then determine how much damage the Sunwok can dish out and the different protection bonuses it will get.
After this, you can use the Dashing Strike to either identify enemies or draw the attention of a huge group of enemy combatants. Once they surround the monk, you can start using the Wave of Light and the Crippling Wave attacks to take them out.
Remember to steer the Wave of Light placements as far away as possible to increase the amount of Zei’s Stone of Vengence bonuses you get.
If you come across damage spikes, consider launching your Mantra of Salvation and Agility to up your resilience. Since this is a very spirit exhausting configuration, you will need a way to keep refilling your spirit level.
You can use the Inner Storm and also Crippling Wave attacks. These should keep you juiced up for a while. If you see your spirit levels dropping too fast for your liking, you can deploy the Air Ally for an instant replenishment.
This monk build is perfect for people who love jumping into melee combat with special tricks that leave the enemy dazed. If you prepare well and keep your spirit levels high, you will have no trouble taking down the opposition and using your monk capabilities to the fullest.
Essential Weapons in the Sunwuko Build
The best armament you can use with this Monk build is the Kyoshiro’s Blade and Vengeful Wind. However, you might want to keep on the Vengeful Wind. Even though its power is limited by the number of Sweeping stacks on you, you can modify it by gathering as many Sweeping stacks as possible.
Here is a quick breakdown.
Assume that you have one WOL that can cast 200 damage and you also have 10 stacks of Sweeping Wind. If you are leveraging Sunwuko’s the 200 WOL damage is multiplied by 15,000%. The result is a rather impressive 3 million damage.
The Required Skillset
The WOL build needs the following active skills to work
Crippling Wave (Tsunami)
This is a primary skill set unlocked at level 11. It generates 12 Spirit per attack. You can use it to release sweeping attacks that leash out 155% physical weapon damage to any enemy inform of you. The third hit dazes opponents with an 11-yard radius. It will reduce their maneuvering speed by 30% and attack speed by 20% for only 3 seconds.
Wave of Light (Explosive Light)
You can unlock this secondary skill once you hit level 12. It costs you 75 Spirit and works by focusing a light wave that crushes your enemies with a 835 percent Holy weapon damage.
Dashing Strike (Blinding Speed)
This is a technique you can unlock once you hit level 9. At the cost of 1 Charge, you can dash for 50 yards while dishing out 370% weapon damage as physical to enemies you encounter along the dash. You should use the dash more often since you gain a single charge after eight seconds and can only store 2 charges at a go.
Sweeping Wind (Inner Storm)
This is an advanced skill you will wait until you hit level 21 to use. This technique is devastating but it will cost you 75 Spirit every time you deploy it.
Inner Storm surrounds you in a vortex that constantly metes out 105% weapon damage to anyone within a 10-yard radius. The vortex will be around for six seconds. You can refresh it every time you hit an enemy in melee combat. Like with the best monk builds, if you land a critical hit, the vortex will stack up thrice giving you 315 percent weapon damage.
Mystic Alley (Air Alley)
This is a focus skillset that you can unlock at level 22. You can either use it in active or passive mode. In active it has an increased damage to 50 percent within 10 seconds. A passive Mystic Ally stays by your side and dishes out 130 percent damage of your weapon with each swing. If the ally dies, they can respawn after 5 seconds.
Mantra of Salvation (Agility)
Unlocked at level 19, this Mantra will cost you 50 Spirit and you can use it passively or actively. In active mode, nearby allies get an extra 20 percent resistance to all the elements for just 3 seconds. In passive mode, allies in a 60-yard radius get the heightened 20 percent resistance boost.
Passive Skills Needed in the Monk Build
- Seize the Initiative
- Sixth Sense
- Harmony
- The Guardian’s Path
Other than just getting your skills right, you will also need the right gear to use the Diablo 3 Monk builds. They are crucial to leveraging the WOL Monk build to the fullest. You will need:
Helm: Tzo Krin’s Gaze
Its special power increases Wave of Light damage by between 125 to 150 percent. The stats priorities of this equipment include:
- Socket
- Critical hit chances
- Improved dexterity
- Vitality
- A secondary res socket
Offhand: Vengeful Wind
The vengeful wind is mandatory if you want the WOL build. The special powers on this are increasing the max stack count of the Sweeping Wind by a 6 to 7 factor. The other prioritized perks on this include:
- Stack counts increase by 7
- A very high average damage
- Better dexterity
- Reduced resource cost
Weapon: Kyoshiro’s Blade
This is an optional item that you should get nonetheless since it has cool special powers. It will increase damages of WOL by 150 percent. If the first hit of the WOL hits less than 3 enemies, you will get damage increased to 200 or 250 percent. Other stats include:
- Heightened average damage
- Better damage percentage
- Better dexterity
- Lowered resource cost
Gloves: Sunwuko’s Paws
Additional perks you get from wielding these gloves include:
- Dexterity
- Improved critical hit chance
- Better critical hit damage
- Reduced resource cost
Chest: Sunwuko’s Soul
This chest wear does more than just protect you from damage. It’s statistics priorities include:
- Vitality
- Dexterity
- Reduced damage suffering from Elites
- Three secondary res sockets
Belt: Kyoshiro’s Soul
You will get special powers like gaining 2 stacks to your Sweeping Wind every second you are not using it on your enemies. Other stats this equipment improves on include:
- 1) Dexterity
- 2) Vitality
- 3) Life%
- 4) Armor
Pants: Sunwuko’s Leggings
- Improved dexterity
- Improved vitality
- Armor capabilities
- 2 secondary res sockets
Boots: The Crudest Boots
These boots have a mystically summoning capability that doubles the number of mystic allies that flank you every time you go to battle. The other perks of the boots include:
- Improved dexterity
- Improved vitality
- Better armor
- Increased quantity of Wave of Light damage
Bracers: Pinto’s Pride
The Pinto’s Pride will slow down enemies by an impressive 80% for about 3 seconds. On top of this, it also gives you increased damage to the tune of 125 to 150 percent.
The good thing is you can still replace the Pinto’s Pride with Nemesis Bracers. Putting the Pinto’s Pride in the cube should increase WOL damage by about 150 percent.
Amulet: Sunwuko’s Shines
Here are the stats on this
- Critical hit damages
- Critical hit chances improved
- More dexterity
- Changes in fire damage
Ring 1: Focus
The Focus ring has a set of bonuses. You can cast a resource based attack or use the primary skill to get 50 percent better damage for just 5 seconds. In addition to this, the first hit of each resource-spending attack gives 50 percent better damage for just 5 seconds. The statistics priorities for the Focus Ring include:
- Critical hit chances
- Critical hit damages
- Resource costs reduced
- Better area damage
- Improved dexterity
Ring 2: Restraint
The restraint ring has the following statistics
- Socket
- Critical Hit Chance
- Critical Hit Damage
- Resource Cost Reduction
- Area damage
- Dexterity
Required Legendary Gems
Each legendary gem has up to two unique powers. You will have to drop the gem to unlock the first power. The second power comes as a fixed bonus that you can only enjoy once you have upgraded it to rank 25.
The legendary gems you need in this build include:
- Legendary Gem 1: Bane of the Trapped
- Legendary Gem 2: Zei’s Stone of Vengeance
- Legendary Gem 3: Bane of the Stricken
Kanai’s Cube Requirements
The last thing you need in your arsenal is the Kanai’s Cube, an artifact that has immense transmutation powers. You can use the cube to enhance potential, do personal customization or turn treasure you have discovered into useful tools as long as you have the right slots in the Kanai’s Cube.
Added in patch 2.3.0 of Diablo III and can be found the tomb of the ancient King Kanai. You will need:
- Weapons slot: Incense Torch of the Grand Temple
- Armor Slot: Spirit Guards
- Jewelry Slot: Ring of Royal Grandeur
Once you have the above skills and items, you have all it needs to build your Sunwuko monk and take to battle with spiritual conviction. Knowing how to leverage the different perks from the items will help you become a better monk over time.
Bottom Line
Diablo 3 has retained relevance for so long because players are always willing to play around with different builds. All you need to remember is the different consumptions, power upgrades and requirements of the equipment and skills on this list. With these, you can come up with a perfect Sunwuko build that perfectly suits your playing style.
