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LoD Wave of Light “WoL” Monk Guide

Last Updated: January 10th 2024

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Introduction

LoD WoL Fire Solo Push
View all variants

Welcome to the LoD Wave of Light (WoL) guide! This setup is a stronger but harder to gear version of the Sunwuko WoL build. With nearly limitless mobility provided by Dashing Strike in conjunction with In-Geom and the huge AoE coverage of Wave of Light Explosive Light, this build can clear Nephalem Rifts like noone else.

LoD WoL has similar damage compared to its Sunwuko variant but does not rely on Vengeful Wind and Sweeping Wind stacks, making it a lot more pleasant to play. Legacy of Dreams also allows for more gearing flexibility, enabling the build to take advantage of the incredible interactions between Rabid Strike and Bindings of the Lesser Gods in Greater Rift push.

In Season 23, the Follower update allowed LoD WoL to include Cain's Destiny and Sage's Journey in its setup, very beneficial considering the strength of this build for Keyfarming. Indeed you don't need to choose between convenience and maximum Greater Rift Keystones per hour anymore: LoD Wave of Light can do it all!

Season 24 and its Inna's Mantra rework incidentally buffed this build by granting The Crudest Boots a damage multiplier that applies to the clones cast by Rabid Strike. On top of it Rabid Strike itself got a 450% damage multiplier making LoD WoL one of the strongest builds in the game. In Season 27, Sanctified Powers with Sanctified Wave of Light completely skyrocketed the build to the stratosphere, being one of the strongest build ever made.

This build is an Area Damage (AD) build, since Wave of Light, and most importantly Rabid Strike Clones, can proc it. This build develops a very active playstyle with intriguing interactions between Rabid Strike and Bindings of the Lesser Gods (see Mechanics). If you're ready to throw some bells and push the No Set leaderboard, let's dive into this guide together!

Fire Bells ✔
Friendly Playstyle ✔
Insane AOE Damage ✔
Strong In Speeds & Pushing ✔

❌ LoD Dependent
❌ Difficult to Fully Gear
❌ Struggles In Bad Maps
❌ Low Single Target Damage

Core Setup

Core Item Build

Items

  • Incense Torch of the Grand Temple cuts the cost of Wave of Light in half and gives it 550% increased damage.
  • Kyoshiro's Blade increases Wave of Light damage by 250% when hitting five or less enemies.
  • Rabid Strike mimics every Wave of Light cast with 450% increased damage.
  • Tzo Krin's Gaze gives up to 150% Wave of Light damage, and allows us to cast Wave of Light where our mouse cursor is.
  • Pinto's Pride makes Wave of Light slows enemies by 80% and increases its damage by 150%.
  • The Crudest Boots double the effect of our Mystic Ally Air Ally.
  • Cindercoat a really fantastic item for this build, it fits right in with its Resource Cost Reduction and 20% Fire damage boost.
  • Blackthorne's Jousting Mail are the only useful pants providing 20% Fire Damage.

Season 30 Soul Shards

Soul Shards are powerful socketable items that initially dropped during Season 25 but they are returning for Season 30! There are 4 available for Weapons based on the Lesser Evils, with another 3 for Helmets based on the Prime Evils. They drop at Rank 0 and be upgraded three times with the brand new Hellforge Embers to unlock additional powers, or be used in the Kanai's Cube as Augments. Here's how they progress:

  • Rank 0: Soul Shards begin with a unique static Legendary Power. Creates a Rank 50 Augment.
  • Rank 1: Gives all powers from the normal gems. Creates a Rank 75 Augment.
  • Rank 2: Grants one additional powerful stat. Creates a Rank 100 Augment.
  • Rank 3: Unlocks 1 of 3 bonus Legendary Powers unique to that Soul Shard. Creates a Rank 125 Augment.

Warning: Leoric's Crown and Broken Crown do not work with Soul Shards!

Read our Soul Shards Guide written by Chewingnom for full details on how they work. What you should prioritize on them for Solo Pushing is the following:

  1. The Correct Soul Shard & Rank 3 Power
    The best shards for Solo Pushing are:
    • Helmets: We want to use Sliver of Terror for the massive damage buff from our abilities on cooldown. For the Rank 3 power take the Ring of Fire to unleash a devastating AoE blast for big leaderboard pushes!
    • Weapons: We want to use Dregs of Lies for the massive bonus damage to Pets. For the Rank 3 power, go for the stacking Pet Damage effect for another major power boost!
  2. The Rank 2 Stat
    The stats that come from the second upgrade are not equal. Here's what we're looking for on them:
    • Helmets: We want either Main Stat for damage or Melee/Ranged Damage Reduction to survive. Avoid Armor and All Resistance as their stat ranges are far too low compared to the others options.
    • Weapons: We want Fire Damage to boost our character's power the furthest. Avoid Attack Speed and Critical Hit Chance as their stat ranges are too low compared to the others.
  3. The Stat Ranges on the Rank 1 and 2 Powers
    This is just icing on the cake because the ranges will not make or break your build. Still, look for the Soul Shards with the best stat ranges, especially on the offensive stats.

For the other game modes, other Soul Shards can be used. Check the Variants below to see what's used there.

What about extra Soul Shards? Either salvage them for gems, or upgrade and use them in Kanai's Cube for Augments.

Global Stat Priorities

Our offensive priorities are: Fire Damage > Critical Hit Chance > Critical Hit Damage > Area Damage, along with as much Wave of Light damage as possible. We need at least 55% Cooldown Reduction to keep Epiphany up at all times otherwise our quality of life and survivability will suffer.

Assembling the Build

Item Stat Priorities

Gems

Skills

Passives

Paragon Points

Altar of Rites

Follower

Gameplay

Hardcore

Variants

Nephalem Rifts
Bounties
GR Speeds
GR Solo Push
Echoing Nightmare
T16 Keys

Concept
In Nephalem Rifts variant we use the Legacy of Nightmares Set instead of Legacy of Dreams, because there is just no useful rings to equip whereas an extra legendary gem is quite helpful. In-Geom will let us zoom through the rifts at breakneck speed, and the shield from Mantra of Healing will keep our Squirt's Necklace buff safe. We also utilize our standard trio of Goldwrap, Boon of the Hoarder and Avarice Band for a massive toughness boost.

Gameplay
Remember that you need a rhythm between Wave of Light and Dashing Strike. My favorite way to play is to put WoL on my left mouse button, hold it down constantly along with force stand still, and tap my dash. The basic idea of this in plain English is: "I'm always throwing Waves of Light, and I interrupt that with Dashes." This is a bit counter-intuitive as we usually move, and then attack. Here we perpetually attack, and interrupt that with moving. With practice you'll be flying around faster than Neo from the Matrix.

Setups
At high Paragon you can use Kyoshiro's Blade instead of Rabid Strike. Rabid Strike deals more damage and covers larger area, but it's less consistent because the clone can get stuck on terrain sometimes and you also can lose Epiphany if you don't find enough elites.

If you are above 3,000 Paragon you can swap Tzo Krin's Gaze for Leoric's Crown to get back teleports from Epiphany. When playing in groups equip Goldwrap and cube Nemesis Bracers, replace Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac with Avarice Band. Also move Squirt's Necklace to the cube and equip The Flavor of Time.

Bounties

Concept
For bounties we will use a similar build to the T16 setup, except we'll remove the gold items Avarice Band, Goldwrap and Boon of the Hoarder. We will carry around items with us that will give us infinite dashes to reach the bounty goals, before swapping over to our damage build to get everything down!

Gameplay
This build is a swap build: you need to carry a few items in your inventory and switch them depending on the situation. You have two main forms. First is the damage form (shown on the planner) with which you can kill monsters like a normal Wave of Light monk. With just two clicks (equipping Fists of Thunder with Cooldown Reduction and Resource Cost Reduction along with Scales of the Dancing Serpent) you can switch to travel form, which lets you cast Dashing Strike as much as you want thanks to the Raiment of a Thousand Storms (4) Bonus. Pride's Fall and The Laws of Seph will help us keep our Spirit up as we cast Blinding Flash. Since you rely on Legacy of Dreams gem, you deal zero damage while in travel form!

Usually you swap to travel form while channeling your teleport and then quickly dash to the quest location. While dashing, make sure to maximize your Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac. Only recast Epiphany when it expires and try to completely avoid using Air Ally. It has much lower Spirit/Cooldown ratio than Blinding Flash and it serves only as your panic button for when you make a mistake and run out of Spirit.

When you arrive, switch to damage form and from there on you need to rely on Epiphany teleports and In-Geom from mobility, because switching back and forth takes too much time. On Kill Bounties it's a good idea to stay in travel mode until you find the first Elite and then chain In-Geom procs from there.

Your single target damage is not amazing, so you can swap some extra items to help with Boss Bounties, since you will be waiting for you teammates to decline the event anyway. The first and the easiest option is switching your helmet to Tzo Krin's Gaze and your In-Geom to Kyoshiro's Blade. It will more than quadruple your damage and also will let you stay far away from the boss so you can keep you Squirt's Necklace buff.

If you need even more damage (for example to kill Queen Araneae in one phase), switch Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac with Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard to Convention of Elements with Bane of the Stricken. The cycle starts on Cold so you will get the damage bonus 4 seconds after equipping the ring. Swap it at the right time and you can absolutely blast the boss into the next dimension!

To make the above two swaps easier, equip your In-Geom in your Main Hand, and your Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac in the left ring slot. Then a simple right click on Kyoshiro's Blade/Convention of Elements in your inventory will swap it with the correct item.

Finally, you have another swap option: any of your weapons to Crystal Fist. This is very useful for Exploration Bounties. Since you lose your damage reduction from Legacy of Dreams, you become quite squishy in your travel form. This weapon fixes that issue and lets you complete Exploration Bounties without ever switching to damage form. Just dash to the objective, channel it ignoring all the mobs guarding it and dash to the next one. Make sure to use your Epiphany strategically so that you are not interrupted. Doing this will easily save you 20+ seconds on each Exploration Bounty, although keep in mind that you need about 350m toughness to pull it off.

Setups
At high Paragon you can use Kyoshiro's Blade instead of Rabid Strike. Rabid Strike deals more damage and covers larger area, but it's less consistent because the clone can get stuck on terrain sometimes.

If you want to play this at a lower Paragon you should also swap your helmet to Tzo Krin's Gaze every time you switch to your damage form. This will make your swaps more annoying and also remove Epiphany teleports, but the build can still be very fast if you play it well.

Select Build Version

Full Damage version
Solo Speeds

Concept
In GR Speeds we use all available multipliers: Convention of Elements, Rabid Strike and Bindings of the Lesser Gods plus The Crudest Boots (which buffs the clone's damage). We use Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac to reset cooldowns of Epiphany and Air Ally. Squirt's Necklace is protected by Serenity and St. Archew's Gage.

Gameplay
Here you need to spam Serenity to maintain the shield and use Cyclone Strike into Wave of Light to kill everything. Try to Epiphany teleport with Cyclone Strike instead of using Dashing Strike to get more Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac procs into Epiphany and Air Ally. Pay attention to the position of your Rabid Strike clone (shown by a purple dot on the minimap). It likes to get stuck on terrain several screens behind, especially if you teleport a lot. If that happens, you need to stop attacking for couple of seconds to let it reset.

Setups
You can use Lightning damage with Pillar of the Ancients rune. In that case you switch Cindercoat to Tyrael's Might. This setup deals about 50% more damage but has much smaller AoE and struggles a lot with Spirit. For that reason it's recommended to have some extra Resource Cost Reduction, ideally on trifecta weapons and shoulders.

For group play, replace Unity with Stone of Jordan and The Guardian's Path with Relentless Assault. You can also keep Cindercoat and Fire Damage rolls even when playing Pillar of the Ancients.

Solo Push

Concept
Solo push version adds a bunch of damage multipliers: Convention of Elements, Rabid Strike and Bindings of the Lesser Gods (which buffs the clone's damage). We also get an awful lot of toughness from Unity, Lefebvre's Soliloquy and Stone Gauntlets. Finally we solve our Spirit problems with Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac which resets cooldowns of Epiphany and Air Ally. Squirt's Necklace is only useful during the Shield Pylon and vs some easy to dodge Rift Guardians.

Gameplay
To add to what was covered above in the Gameplay section, we need to set things up properly around our Fire Convention of Elements cycle. Make sure to refresh all your buffs right before Fire (cast Cyclone Strike, Dashing Strike and Way of the Hundred Fists x3), so that you can spend all 4 seconds of Fire doing nothing but spamming Wave of Light.

Setups
If you're looking for even more toughness drop Way of the Hundred Fists for Mantra of Salvation Agility.

At higher Paragon when toughness is not an issue, change Unity to Stone of Jordan and give Slipka's Letter Opener to your Scoundrel.

You can also play this build with Lightning damage using Pillar of the Ancients rune. In that case you switch Cindercoat to Tyrael's Might. This setup deals about 50% more damage but has much smaller AoE and struggles a lot with Spirit. For that reason it's recommended to have some extra Resource Cost Reduction, ideally on trifecta weapons and shoulders.

Echoing Nightmare Setup

Concept
For Echoing Nightmares we are using almost exact copy of Speed GR build. The only real difference is that we invest slightly more into survivability via Stone Gauntlets, Near Death Experience and Serenity Ascension. For more information check out our full Echoing Nightmare Guide and take a look at our Echoing Nightmare Build Tier List and META post for the best builds and strategies!

Gameplay
Click Speed Pylon as soon as the challenge starts and all the other Pylons at around wave 90. At wave 122 you can stop attacking and run to the corner to let the timer run out.

Keep up Epiphany at all times but don't recast it until it's almost expired. Spam Wave of Light to kill everything and at later waves also add Cyclone Strike every 5 seconds to apply Bindings of the Lesser Gods debuff. Use Mystic Ally when your spirit gets low and use Serenity or Dashing Strike when meteors come falling down.

Video Guide

Mechanics

Wave of Light

Pinto's Pride

Tzo Krin's Gaze

Rabid Strike

Summary

  • Put together the core items and level up the Legacy of Dreams gem.
  • Practice interrupting your Wave of Light with Dashing Strike to move as quickly as possible in speed content as well as working on timing your attacks with your Fire cycle during Solo and Group runs.
  • Fly through the rifts destroying everything in your path!

Town Is Lava!

Credits

Written by Northwar & Raxxanterax.

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