Diablo – How to a monk tank effectively for a group

I've updated this for Inferno, where armor and resistances are a must-have. Some of the skills/passives listed here are not really necessary in earlier difficulty levels.

I like Monk tanking, and here's what I use

Skills:

Primary Skill

• Crippling Wave for its AOE slow effect, with the Concussion rune to reduce enemy damage by 20% for 3 seconds when hit

Active Skills

• Cyclone Strike: Since there isn't really aggro or threat in the game, this is my main skill to keep enemies off my allies. It has no cooldown, and I use the Eye of the Storm rune that reduces the Spirit cost to 30 so I can cast it pretty frequently.

  In addition to letting me control mobs by pulling them around, it also is the best way to groups up enemies, which makes ally AOE much more effective.

• Binding Flash: Blinds all enemies around, and is awesome when used shortly after Cyclone Strike. Cyclone everyone around to you, give them half a second to re-orient themselves, and then hit Blinding Flash to stun the majority of the pack.

  I used to use it with the rune that causes a second blind 6 seconds later, however since starting Inferno I switched to the Searing Light rune, which increases the chance elites will miss to 60%. Regular mobs are not really an issue for me right now, but the champions/elites are.

• Mantra of Healing: It heals me both me and my allies passively when on, and casting it provides a nice amount of regen for a short time for either me or my allies, so it is my main heal ability.

  I use it with the Time of Need rune which increases my resistance to all damage types by 20%

• Serenity: This makes you invulnerable to all damage and control-impairing abilities for 3 seconds. I use it with the Ascension rune which increases the invulnerability time to 4 seconds. It can also be used when you are under the effect of a control-impairing ability, such as being Frozen, to break the effect.

  This ability is used offensively as well as defensively, such as applying it and running in to attack and build spirit against a particularly brutal combination of shiny champions that my group is kiting (like Arcane Fire Chain Desecrators... there's no way I'm standing still around those guys!)

• Inner Sanctuary: I started using this skill because of V1rtua1An0ma1y's answer, and am liking it quite a bit. It's great for blocking off doorways or narrow pathways to keep mobs away from my dps, or for pushing everyone away from me when I'm surrounded and cannot move.

  I use it with the Circle of Protection rune, which makes anyone standing in it take 35% less damage, so I frequently drop it right before using Cyclone Strike to pull everyone to me. Just don't drop it after the Cyclone Strike, or you will fear/knockback everything and lose control of them.

I don't use Breath of Heaven anymore because I found it too hard to hit allies with, and typically am OK on HP providing I have Spirit.

Passive Skills

• Transcendence: Awesome passive that heals anytime you spend spirit, so basically whenever you use any skill

• Seize the Initiative: Increases armor by your Dexterity. This is great since it lets you still stack dexterity to improve your skill effectiveness, and maintain a high armor value.

• One With Everything: I used to use Chant of Resonance or The Guardians Path, but now that I've hit Inferno I realize my lack of Resistances is a serious problem. So now I just stack one resistance, and use One With Everything to make all my other resists equal to that one.

Gear/Stats:

For stats, I tend to focus on Armor/Resistances, Spirit Regen, Attack Speed, and Life-on-Hit, Dexterity, and Vitality

• Armor/Resistances are a must for any Inferno tank. You can get away with slacking on these stats at earlier difficulty levels, but once you start Inferno you'll want these as high as possible.

• Spirit Regen is not something you really want to stack, however I always make sure I have at least some spirit regen. That way, even if I encounter a nasty pack of champions and need to kite, I'll still get enough spirit to use Serenity whenever its up to hold mobs still a few seconds for dps to take them out, and gain a bit more spirit hitting them.

• Attack Speed because the faster I hit, the more spirit I have, and I need spirit to keep me and my party alive.

• Life-on-Hit because with all the AOE hits I do, it's a nice way to keep my own life up. This goes very well with attack speed too, since the faster you hit, the more life you gain

• Dexterity because its the Monk's main dps stat, and it has the added benefit of adding to my armor when used with Seize the Initiative

• Vitality because a tank needs health, however don't take vitality over Armor/Resistances unless its a major difference. Heals don't scale, so a bigger HP pool just means you'll need to heal more. It's far better to not get hit so hard in the first place than to have a massive hp pool that your heals can't keep full.

The only stat I go out of my way to avoid is Knockback. I want mobs grouped up and on me, not all over the place harassing my dps.

Note about Shields vs Duel-Wielding

I've always used duel-wielding because I find the faster spirit regen from the faster attack speed to be better for me than a little extra armor and block chance. I've tried using a Shield a few times, however I find I survive better with the extra attack speed, which effects my spirit gain and life-on-hit. I'd still consider trying a shield again if I find a really awesome shield, however I haven't found one yet and have so far have tanked most of the game duel-wielding (am in Act II Inferno now)

I've actually asked another question on here about the effectiveness of Shields vs duel-wielding at later difficulty levels, and am quite interested in getting answers :)

Playstyle:

My idea of tanking is to control the mobs, and not just be a damage soak. Since there doesn't seem to be any aggro or threat, being able to control the mobs is more important to me than just being able to take hits (although of course, I need to be alive to control the mobs :))

Typical mob pulls go like this:

• Run in and Cyclone Strike everything to me.

  Sometimes I use multiple Cyclone Strikes to be sure I have everyone. Since enemies pause for a second after a CS to re-orient themselves, they don't do much damage while I pull them around.

• Wait a few seconds until HP starts dropping, then Blinding Flash to stun everything. Typically I'll heal back to full hp while they're blind, and can build my spirit back up.

• Depending on my HP and what happens after blind ends, might need to use Mantra of Healing or Serenity to heal up, or drop Inner Sanctuary to knockback/fear mobs away and give me some space

• If mobs start to lose interest in me, or if I used Inner Sanctuary and knocked everyone away, then Cyclone Strike again to gather them up. Remember, Cyclone Strike resets their swing timers, so they'll have to pause, sometimes turn around, and restart their attack. Depending on your spirit and mob attack speed, you can sometimes even chain multiple Cyclone Strikes to avoid taking much damage at all.

• By now DPS has almost everything dead and it's cleanup, however if not, use heal skills or kite a few seconds until Blind is back up, then rinse and repeat :)

Serenity is usually kept for when my HP dips too low, or when I need to break some kind of crowd control. It's cheap and the cooldown isn't long, so I use it frequently anytime I feel like it.

Inner Sanctuary is used anytime the environment is suitable for blocking the path to my DPS, when I'm trapped between enemies and need a way out, or when I'm taking too much damage (since I use the Circle of Protection rune). I'll also sometimes use Inner Sanctuary right before I pull mobs to me with Cyclone Strike for the damage reduction, providing I'm not low on Spirit.

On occasion I'll also sometimes use Inner Sanctuary after a Cyclone Strike instead of before, which results in a mass fear/knockback and can buy some time, however typically I run with AOE dps and its more efficient to keep mobs grouped up if possible. If I do fear/knockback, I'm always quick to follow up with another Cyclone Strike to gather everyone up once they recover.

Champion pulls are different depending on what attributes they have.

Some combinations prevent me from holding still (Desecrater, Arcane Enchanted, Fire Chains, Plague, etc), so in those cases I'll try and just kite mobs.

• If I'm unable to kite them (happens pretty frequently because of the way aggro works), then I'll just run around with the DPS, healing, blinding, or Cyclone Striking mobs off them as needed while waiting for my Serenity cooldown to come up.

• Whenever Serenity is up, I'll Cyclone Strike the champions to me and pop Serenity when I get low HP, which give DPS a few seconds to do uninterrupted AOE damage before I have to run out again.

• Inner Sanctuary is also a nice way to block a path or make a mob take additional time to reach a DPS player.

Other combinations of champions I can tank fairly easily (Illusionists, Wallers, Vamperic, Reflects Damage, etc), so I just treat them like normal mobs by using Cyclone Strike/Blind to control them, and healing or kiting as needed.

The important part is that my role in Champion fights is not necessarily to tank, but to instead just keep the champs from hitting my DPS so they can kill them.