[3.5] The Tempest Monk - Doryani's Fist Ascendant

I love this kind of game and I love the kind of things that are possible in this one. Pick your skill, pick your tree, push it as far as you can. Have fun with it. My experience in “building” characters is in about the range of: “That looks fun! I bet there’s a forum post on that one! Let’s see!”

So when Saitara was like, “This is a really cool ability, let me show you my character punching the ground.” I agreed and carried on my way. But he planted the seed. I kept thinking about it. Days later, I caved. I had to try it for myself. He warned me, over and over, that it really might not work. Either way, it had to be done.

I feel like there are a several dozen of these Doryani's Fist attempts---good ones at that---hanging out in the depths of the internet. In various forms, in various leagues. Over a span of years since the creation of the item itself. Even I tried more than one build in this project. (RIP Elementalist.) For all I know, someone else might have made/tried this EXACT build. At this point we have all beaten a dead horse, Elders, Syndicate, even the Emperor himself into the ground. "Where is your Goddess now, Azmeri?"

With enough luck, and enough currency, I am sure someone out there could take it to the next level. A rich bystander in Standard, perhaps? I honestly feel that would beg the question:
"Why should I spend so much at being average, when I can spend a fraction of this cost and be exquisite?" (Hint: Because it is fun.)

That is indeed the question, Exiles. I do not know many who ever would.
Those that chose to would likely only do so to say that they did.

Lots of builds seem to follow the bullet point pros and cons style of format right here.
I cannot, in good faith, submit one without being tongue in cheek about it.

Pros:

• Style Points
• Looks Awesome (I used to anyway.)
• Buffed in 3.5
• “Dual Curse”
• Does surprisingly well in high-yellow and red maps.
• Snowflake
• It’s “melee”.

Cons:

• It's “melee”. (You know what I mean, right?)
• Attack. Speed. So. Slow.
• Large damage spikes and valleys.
• Multistrike attack lock.
• Survivability is on the lean side.
• Dependent on dodge/evasion.
• Can't do No Leech/Elemental Reflect.
• Resistant mobs are a noticeable problem.
• Faceroll flask bar.
• Blue white gray flashing messy blob.

Here’s my current and/or final at level 90.

Tempest Monk - Main Website

Path of Building (Full Sim) - https://pastebin.com/uCwg9wVJ

Leveling


Other Build/Spec Guidelines

Without Doryani's Fist, there is no build. Without the Impresence, there is no mana. You’ll need both, or to choose to run without Conductivity and/or Mind Over Matter.

Helpful but not Critical:


– Carcass Jack adds overall effectiveness to Doryani’s Touch.
Helps counter the reduced area from Concentrated Effect.

– A Stygian Vise as the more jewels you can get, the better.

Primary Attack:

Inside Doryani’s Fist (The sockets do not have to be linked.)
Elemental Damage with Attacks / Multistrike / Lightning Penetration / Concentrated Effect

Critical Gem Links:

Herald of Thunder / Curse on Hit / Poacher’s Mark
Here you will generate your frenzy charges for Onslaught. This was enough frenzy generation for me so long as I was fighting and could keep fighting.

Cast when Damage Taken / Storm Brand / Blind / Increased Critical Strikes
This procs your EO. I preferred Storm Brand to Orb of Storms, as I felt it stayed with me longer where I needed it and resulted in more consistent EO uptime.

Slot these where you can:

Blasphemy / Conductivity (You earned this curse. Trust me.)
Cast when Damage Taken / Immortal Call / Increased Duration
Shield Charge / Faster Attacks / Fortify
Summon Lightning Golem
Ancestral Protector OR Vaal Ancestral Warchief

With Saitara around for most of the play: His Haste buff is a welcome addition to the mix. With him, I will typically swap to Vaal Ancestral Warchief. Without Haste, I found Ancestral Protector to feel better and smoother.

About what you would expect in this case I think. “Not quite enough,” is the short answer.

Below is a screen from my level 88 Scion in a T10 rare map. We have seen how “accurate” tooltips can be. Enjoy with a grain of salt.

(Note: This was the highest I ever noticed my own tooltip damage get at the time. I've seen higher since. (212k in T10.) Mostly a glance after rolling a group of mobs is in the range of 150k-160k as buffs fall off promptly post-combat.)


No earth-shattering going on here. I was buffed with onslaught/my frenzy charges still, my totem, my golem, and was (likely) still leeching and/or Sulphur Flasked.

Standing in Hideout, no buffs, no Herald, one level later, for comparison.

Can do. Here you go:


Some gear notes and possible improvements.

Some gear improvements since the initial foray:

Oh boy. Where to begin.
Lots of players believe that melee is really not in the greatest state right now. It's manageable, in some cases. If you have huge currency to back your gear, you can do pretty well for yourself. It requires a lot of investment, and a lot of patience to get your items just so where someone with a cast range, projectiles, or minions will laugh from a distance, wondering why it took you so long to walk to the boss which is now already dead. – Yes. Doryani’s can have a huge radius. That can also really help thin weaker packs before they get to you. Bottom line, you will stand shoulder to shoulder with large groups that think you would make a delicious sacrifice at midnight snack.

But if you're walking into a build like this, I assume you know what you're getting into.

The slow attack speed, and I mean REALLY dismal (Doryani problem)---Is exacerbated by the fact that to even have a chance of swinging quickly enough to leech, kill, stick and move---Relies on multistrike (Melee problem). For me, Faster Attacks could not get the job done. With most skills, getting stuck in one spot for a quarter of a second is a lot. If you're rolling all of your buffs and you're STILL stuck for a full second? Prepare for a cozy dirt nap. Also shout out to exploding strongboxes, volatile flameblood, explode-on-death nemesis mobs, and Gravicius himself.

Less strikes = less leech, less mitigation, less damage output, all combined. It hurts.

Too often I found myself needing to move and I could not. Or I would need to recast my golem or my totem and the commands would get lost as I tried to resume attacking... Only to find out that my attack speed buff did not go through in the mess and I would have to try to fully stop swinging and cast them again. This happens regularly, repeatedly, and consistently. This happens whether I am on CA servers or TX servers.

Because damage lows are so low and spikes are so high, you're fighting the RNG by simply existing. Lightning damage has that beautiful spread where the high-end looks pretty on a sheet, and averages are “okay” by comparison. This can be critical if you have a few low end swings in a row and are taking a few high incoming unlucky dodges at the same time... Oof. It ends how you think it will.

Some people hate face-rolling the flask belt. (I don't mind.) But it will annoy some that I use both a health AND mana flask. I also find them absolutely necessary to help mitigate spikes while my leech or dodges can pick up the slack.

Before some more gear swapping and tweaking, mobs with elemental resistance were a flat out slap in the face hard stop. Tanky resistant mobs were almost embarrassing to see whittled away. As stated with the gear selection, I decided the Conductivity was too desirable to pass up at any cost.

Low attack speed, mediocre damage, and self-position-locking combined with necessary buff casts, leeching, modest survivability and flask timers mean you are never likely to feel powerful. You will always have something that needs to be done immediately for your continued killing and survival. Much more than charge into the next pack's vision range and press one button.

Some of these issues are inherently Doryani's Fist problems. Some of them are issues with the state of melee itself in the game. I wonder what was the inside joke in the back room to buff Doryani's damage and then have someone maniacally laugh. “And we'll make it EVEN SLOWER AHAHAHAhahaha!” You can't tell me that's not exactly what happened.

Doryani's simply cannot compete with the full screen obliteration that happens from so many other skills. I doubt I would fare overly well against Uber Elder. If I were to start punching the Shaper at the wrong moment, I would undoubtedly tank the beam. No way to survive it, save anticipation, and perhaps someone who knows the fight very well. (I've not done it.) Not only is it so slow, it suffers from some of the standard game mechanics which do not shine in the current PoE patch. Melee itself is a bit of an inside joke with the community, I know. Yet the multistrike self-stunlock is extremely painful with an attack so delayed by itself.

One-shots DO happen. A great deal of them could be avoided if I could move.

Doryani’s Fist is just an amazing item. I love that it exists. Props to whomever made the graphic for the strike itself. Detailed, killer, deadly. It looks as powerful as it should.

I really wish I did not feel so punished for trying to push it further. I’m sure this is one of those things where a few points of effectiveness one way or the other renders an item into a FotM every-other-player-will-use. The skill needs more attack speed. More than anything else. I can only wonder where Doryani’s Touch would have ended up if the previous attack speed had stayed. The damage buff undoubtedly helped. More damage is part of the dream, but a distant second compared to speed.

Breaches are one of the points of most entertainment for me. This Scion worked well for them. Really like her in the Delve. Bad luck in Atzoatl “races” though – Just not her bag.