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Build Guide

Disclaimer: This build is a work in progress. It is significantly different to many of the other common heal monks out there:

It does not focus on cooldown reduction, nor any resource cost reduction. We have only two spells that would benefit from CDR: Enduring Ally (whose active effect is useless) and Inner Sanctuary (which we're casting passively by cubing Vigilance). We have a generator, so there's no real need for RCR either. From there, we have more possibilities that enable an entirely different gameplay and gearing.

Skills:

• Fists of Thunder: The Freeze is quite powerful at the beginning of a fight, before CC immunity kicks in. The dashing ability of FoT allows us to skip Dashing Strike or Epiphany on skill slot. And the spirit regeneration allows us to skip Laws of Seph+Blinding Flash or similar things. You can also use another generator (i.e., Crippling Wave - Breaking Wave for maximizing damage is a good candidate) but this one is the one I've had the best experiences with.
• Cyclone Strike: You want to cast this at least every 5 seconds to activate Strongarms, but also more often to get some Obsidian Ring procs for more Inner Sanctuary uptime.
• Mantra of Healing: Sustenance is the key to each healing monk, this is a default spell and non-negotiable.
• Inner Sanctuary: Forbidden Palace is the best boost for both toughness and damage that a monk can offer the group, so this is a no-brainer.
• Mystic Ally: Enduring Ally buffs our life per second even further. Alternative: For speed runs, take Dashing Strike - Quicksilver instead.
• Exploding Palm: The reason for this is the 20% damage bonus. Alternative: On HC, you never want to play without Dashing Strike - Blinding Speed, so as soon as your toughness isn't ridiculous outgearing content anymore remove this.

The fifth passive for the Hellfire has 5 options:

• Unity (5% more damage for the group)
• Beacon of Ytar (significantly more uptime on Inner Sanctuary)
• Fleet Footed (for more movement speed in speed runs)
• Chant of Resonance (for more Mantra spam when your group is taking damage)
• Guardian's Path (if you want to go for dual wield, though there aren't any compelling one handed weapons so shield is usually the better way to go).

Gems:

As you can see, I didn't put in any gems besides Molten Wlidebeest. That's because it's the only mandatory gem. There are so many options besides that one:

• Esoteric Alteration for toughness
• Mutilation Guard for even more toughness
• Toxin for group damage buff
• Iceblink and Stricken - there are rumors they provide a group damage buff; but there are also rumors that it's one source of the lag, so use with caution. I haven't tested them.
• Wreath of Lightning for more movement speed
• Gogok for more CDR (though it's not really need in this build, so not recommended)

Cube:

This is where this build is almost fixed. You need Vigilance in the Cube to have Inner Sanctuary up more often, as our we run with no CDR. And since the RoRG is required in this build, I'd just put it in the cube, which makes it easier to swap the other ring options (of which there are many, see below). As for the armor slot, there are not too many option either:

• Gungdo if you run EP in your build
• Spirit Guards for higher GR levels
• The Mind's Eye if you don't run EP, but also don't need the Spirit Guard's toughness. It allows for much more CS spam as you're almost always standing in the IS circle.

Items:

As you might have noted, I didn't use a lot of "required" marks up there, but there are some things that are required:

• Strongarms: Buff your group's damage by 30%, 'nuff said. Since it's difficult to get them with perfect rolls, so if you're running the EP version of this build you can also cube Strongarms and equip Gungdo.
• Vigilance (Cube): Since we have low CDR, we can't ensure 100% uptime of Inner Sanctuary. It won't be 100% with Vigilance either, but whenever it is it's a huge toughness and damage boost for you and the group.
• Grandeur Ring (Cube): We want a couple of sets combined, so using the Grandeur Ring is a no-brainer. Since it always rolls shit just cube it.
• Inna's 4 piece set bonus. This set has soooooo many benefits for this build: the four piece bonus gives you all Mantras, which means more damage for the group (Conviction) and toughness (Salvation), and it's even doubled due to the two piece bonus. Furthermore, the two piece bonus also doubles our Mystic Ally which means more life per second. Take the belt, and then two other pieces that are well-rolled and fit your desired gear.

The rest is purely optional and from here you have a lot of choices:

• Uliana's 2 piece set bonus: You need that to apply Exploding Palm by hitting 3 times with your generator. Of course only use this if you want to use the EP build variant.
• Crudest Boots: Nice to buff your life per second, but not required. Rather an option for high GRs.
• Leoric's Crown: Doubles the XP gem. 41% extra XP, your party will be happy. For high GRs, 23% x 2 = 46% more life with an amethyst!
• Cain's Set: This is nice because of 50% more XP, but also 8% more IAS (we're running a generator, remember). Note however that it requires 2 pieces to get 50% XP whereas a perfect Leoric's crown only needs 1 piece for 41% XP, so if in doubt... go Leoric's.
• Skeleton King Pauldrons: If you decide not to use Born's or Uliana's it's basically the only shoulder piece.
• Amulet: Hellfire is definitely the first choice, followed by a Flavor of Time with lots of toughness stats. Immunity amulets are something that some people like - I think it's not a good choice as you either have enough toughness or you don't. The best one here is the Star of Azkaranth, since Molten explosions will be the only thing able to kill you, but you don't need to stand in it anyways. On HC, you can use Ancestor's Grace here.
• Belt: This pretty much needs to be Inna's.
• Rings: Rogar's Huge Stone for more LPS, Oculus for more group damage, Hellfire and Leoric's for more XP - lots of options. Unless you want to run double XP rings, Obsidian Ring should be your first choice though.
• Weapon: There's not really any good mind-blowing option. If you're not using EP/Uliana's you might as well craft Born's shoulders+weapon for more CDR, RCR, and XP (we're not focusing on CDR, but it doesn't hurt either). For progress my favorite option is Thunderfury as it gives a nice toughness debuff. Azurewrath is nice for some additional freeze, but our generator can also do that. Whatever you pick, make sure it has some good toughness stats.

Summary:

This is a rather different monk support spec that tries to offer lots of choices. The primary objective is to buff the group as follows:

• Strongarm (30%)
• Inner Sanctuary (30%)
• Mantra of Conviction (20%)

Other, optional buffs are EP: The Flesh is Weak (20%), Unity passive (5%), Toxin gem (10%), and Oculus Ring (up to 40%). So there's a maximum of 155% group damage buffs - probably more than what any other class/build can offer at this point.

Here's a snapshot of my monk as I ran it on HC progress rifts (cleared a GR66 in 2 player together with a WD): http://www.d3planner.com/221624197

For speed, I switch out the Amethyst to Ruby, Cain't gloves and boots, Born's weapon and shoulders, and Hellfire + Leoric's ring for 82%+50%+20%+45%+30% = 227% bonus XP.