Welcome to the Uliana's StratagemExploding Palm Monk! Released in Season 4, Uliana's Stratagem has been buffed in Season 22 and can still be effective nowadays, boasting a unique and exciting playstyle. If bringing monsters to a catastrophic demise with teleporting Exploding Palm sounds fun to you, you're in the right place.
While Exploding Palm will be your main source of damage, the skill you'll be using the most is Seven-Sided Strike. Unfortunately, it's not a very strong skill but it's certainly way up there when it comes to the cool factor. With all the Cooldown Reduction this build is stacking you will be able to veritably spam Seven-Sided Strike, filling your heart with joy.
The strongest pushing variant of the build uses Shenlong's Spirit set, because there's not enough Exploding Palm multipliers. While you have other weapon options that buff your Seven-Sided Strike, they do nothing for natural explosions you get by killing monsters.
In terms of power however, this build somewhat lacking. Thanks to the power of Dashing Strike + In-Geom you can farm Nephalem Rifts decently well with it, but it won't carry you very far when it comes to pushing or GR farming. Although, of course, this build will be on the top of Uliana's Stratagem leaderboards (by the virtue of being the only Uliana build).
Highly Mobile ✔ Massive Explosions ✔ Great for Speed Content ✔ The Coolest Build in the Game ✔
❌ Struggles in High GR's ❌ Very Cooldown Dependent ❌ Poor Single Target Damage ❌ Requires Strategic Play for Pushing
Core Setup
Core Item Build
Items
Uliana's Stratagem grants our Exploding Palm 12,500% damage as well as making our Way of the Hundred Fists apply Exploding Palm and our Seven-Sided Strike will detonate it on hit. The new (4) Bonus added during Season 22 gives us 77% damage reduction for 7 seconds after applying Exploding Palm.
Captain Crimson's Trimmings gives us Cooldown Reduction as well as a massive damage increase.
The Fist of Az'Turrasq increases our Exploding Palm damage by 500%.
Lion's Claw allows Seven-Sided Strike to attack seven more times, effectively doubling our damage output.
Gungdo Gear causes Exploding Palm to spread it's effect to surrounding enemies during it's explosion and increases its damage by 100%.
The Flow of Eternity increases our Seven-Sided Strike damage by 100% and its cooldown is reduced by 60%.
Ring of Royal Grandeur allows us to utilize both Uliana's Stratagem and Captain Crimson's Trimmings.
Season 33 Shades of the Nephalem
For the duration of Season 33, you gain one extra slot in Kanai’s Cube that allows to choose any Legendary Powers for a total of 4 slots. While normally a player can equip one power each from the Weapon, Armor, and Jewelry categories, now you can add a second of one of these categories! Some builds enjoy major damage buffs while others are able to run completely different setups, for example through otherwise impossible combinations of weapon effects.
In addition, whenever you press a shrine or pylon, you spawn a Shadow Nephalem of your class to assist you for 1 minute. These use various abilities and provide helpful extra damage in the early game and for lower tier Greater Rifts. Learn more in our Season 22 overview.
In this build, we can use Lion's Claw together with Shenlong's Spirit set which almost doubles the power of the build.
Global Stat Priorities
Our offensive priorities are: Cooldown Reduction > Cold Damage > Critical Hit Chance > Critical Hit Damage ~ Damage Range > Area Damage > Exploding Palm damage. Cooldown Reduction is extremely important here because it basically serves as our Attack Speed letting us use more Seven-Sided Strikes and also gives more damage via Captain Crimson's Trimmings(3) Bonus and also gives you higher uptime on Epiphany.
Assembling the Build
1. Do the Challenge Rift for the materials to cubeLegendary Powers. You can complete this once a week for additional resources and we always update the guide for you!
2.Gather the full Uliana's Stratagem set. Each piece can be gambled from Kadala for Bloodshards. Do not salvage any duplicate pieces you find! Instead convert them to another part of the set with Recipe 4 in Kanai's Cube. If you have extra materials you can use Recipe 3 to craft the remaining pieces, but this is expensive and not recommended for new players.
Fist Weapons to get The Fist of Az'Turrasq and Lion's Claw
Daibos to get The Flow of Eternity
Create a level 1 Demon Hunter and upgrade Swords to get In-Geom
Anything from the Gamble list in Step 3 that you haven't already acquired.
5. Do Bounties to acquire several important items for this build:
Act 1: Ring of Royal Grandeur
Act 2: Gloves of Worship (for your follower)
Act 3: Avarice Band
Act 4: Can drop any bounty item from any act
Bounty Turn In: Recipes for Captain Crimson's Trimmings, Sage's Journey and Cain's Destiny
6. At this point you can somewhat comfortably farm Nephalem or Speed Greater Rifts where you can find all the remaining items you need for different variants of the build. It's better to spend your materials improving your set pieces, getting ancient weapon etc.
7. Use Primordial Ashes in Kanai's Cube with the new Curiosity of Lorath Nahr recipe to obtain a free Crafted Primal Ancient. Since you can only equip one of them, choosing the right item to focus matters! Great candidates are Weapons, Offhands, Jewelry or any item with an important multiplier. With that in mind, we recommend getting one of the following items:
Shenlong's Relentless Assault or Shenlong's Fist of Legend
Gungdo Gear
Convention of Elements
Item Stat Priorities
SLOT
ITEM
STAT PRIORITY
Main-Hand
The Fist of Az'Turrasq Shenlong's Fist of Legend The Flow of Eternity (Cubed)
1. Damage Range 2. Socket Ramaladni's Gift 3. Cooldown Reduction 4. Area Damage 5. Damage %
Off-Hand
Lion's Claw Shenlong's Relentless Assault In-geom
1. Damage Range 2. Socket Ramaladni's Gift 3. Cooldown Reduction 4. Area Damage 5. Damage %
Helm
Uliana's Spirit Madstone Leoric's Crown
1. Exploding Palm Damage 2. Critical Hit Chance 3. Socket Flawless Royal Diamond 4. Dexterity 5. All Resistance
Gloves
Uliana's Fury
1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Area Damage 3. Critical Hit Chance 4. Critical Hit Damage
Shoulders
Uliana's Strength
1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Area Damage 3. Dexterity 4. All Resistance
Chest
Uliana's Heart
1. Dexterity 2. Sockets Flawless Royal Diamond 3. All Resistance 4. Elite Damage Reduction
The Compass Rose Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac Ring of Royal Grandeur (A1 Bounties, Cubed)
1. Socket 2. Cooldown Reduction 3. Area Damage 4. Critical Hit Chance 5. Critical Hit Damage
Ring 2
Convention of Elements Stone of Jordan Avarice Band (A3 Bounties)
1. Socket 2. Cooldown Reduction 3. Area Damage 4. Critical Hit Chance 5. Critical Hit Damage
Bracers
Gungdo Gear Nemesis Bracers Spirit Guards
1. Cold Damage 2. Critical Hit Chance 3. Dexterity 4. All Resistance
Amulet
The Traveler's Pledge The Flavor of Time Squirt's Necklace
1. Socket 2. Cold Damage 3. Critical Hit Damage 4. Critical Hit Chance 5. Area Damage
Belt
Goldwrap Captain Crimson's Silk girdle (Crafted) Binding of the Lost (Cubed)
1. Dexterity 2. All Resistance 3. Vitality 4. Life %
Potion
Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid
For breaking walls to pull enemies and increase DPS
Gems
Gogok of Swiftness gives tremendous cooldown, attack speed and dodge.
Bane of the Trapped gives 60% increased damage and is in essentially every DPS build.
Bane of the Stricken will be taken for solo pushing to kill the Rift Guardian.
Boon of the Hoarder is used for the T16/Speed build as it grants us a 30% movement speed bonus and sprays gold everywhere to activate our Goldwrap.
Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard provides us with a big shield to protect our Squirt's Necklace buff.
Skills
Exploding Palm Impending Doom is our main source of damage and explodes for 6305% damage to all surrounding targets.
Seven-Sided Strike Sustained Attack detonates our Exploding Palm thanks to the Uliana (6) Bonus.
Way of the Hundred Fists Assimilation applies palms on the mobs thanks to the Uliana (2) Bonus.
Dashing Strike Blinding Speed is used for mobility as well as it's defensive buff.
Cyclone Strike Implosion helps us to group all the enemies tightly to maximize our area damage.
Epiphany Desert Shroud allows us to teleport to monsters with Way of the Hundred Fists and provides us with crowd control immunity and 50% damage reduction.
Mantra of Conviction Annihilation can be taken for mobility in T16 and speed group farming in place of Way of the Hundred Fists.
Passives
Beacon of Ytar reduces all cooldowns by 20%, helping us spam Seven-Sided Strike.
Harmony gives us a bonus to our all resistance based of 40% of our single resistance's.
The Guardian's Path gives us a 35% increased chance to dodge.
Near Death Experience allows us to cheat death.
Mythic Rhythm gives us 40% multiplicative damage.
Momentum gives us 20% increased damage for every 25 yards we travel.
Paragon Points
Core
Offensive
Defensive
Utility
1. Movement Speed
1. Cooldown Reduction
1. All Resistance
1. Area Damage
2. Dexterity
2. Critical Hit Chance
2. Life %
2. Life per Hit
3. Vitality1
3. Critical Hit Damage
3. Armor
3. Resource Cost Reduction
4. Maximum Spirit
4. Attack Speed
4. Life Regeneration
4. Pickup Radius
1 Add a bit of Vitality if you feel too squishy (a total of 650,000 Life is recommended).
Altar of Rites
The Altar of Rites is a tree that grants tremendous powers to your entire account in exchange for sacrifices. It requires you to farm Bounties, kill the Ubers, craft the Staff of Herding, and more. Completing all 26 of these tasks, along with sacrificing 6 Primal Ancients grants you extra Damage, Defense, Quality of Life, Increased Drops and 3 Potion Super Powers. Read the full guides on Unlocking the Altar and the Altar Mechanics by Raxxanterax and Chewingnom to learn everything about this fantastic mechanic!
Note: The suggested path assumes you are playing Solo and used the Challenge Rift Cache to help you level up.
Optimal Path
Node 2: Choose Anointed to gain a full set of 70 yellows from level 18-70!
Node 6: Rush to gain double Bounties to help unlock other Nodes in the Altar.
Node 7: Take Vigor to help your build sustain its resources.
Nodes 8-14: These are the last Nodes you can gain until the Challenge Rift resets. Take at least 1 Node at the bottom of each path to unlock all 3 Potion Super Powers. Pick up the Mirror Node at the top for a colossal 41% extra XP all season. Remember to unlock Father once you clear GR70 solo and have your first Primal!
Nodes 15-26: Pick up the final Quality of Life, Damage, and Defense Nodes (in that order) to finish the Altar.
Potion Super Powers: Take Father first, then Mother, and finally Mortal.
Disclaimer: The Mortal and Mother Potions require you to salvage 2 and 3 Primals respectively. Unlock them as soon as you have those materials as they don't cost a point!
Recommended Altar Path Use the Scroll Bar to see Altar Progression
Follower
Patch 2.7.0 revamped the follower system giving all 3 hirelings new powers and the emanate system. The first thing you should do is read our complete follower guide and remember the key takeaways:
The emanation system allows followers to share certain legendary and set powers with you. The most important ones are: The Flavor of Time, Nemesis Bracers, Avarice Band, Sage’s Journey and Cain’s Destiny. Click the guide above for the full list.
Follower’s powers are based on their main stat (maxed at 25.000, but they have a 2.5x multiplier so you only need 10.000). This means we stack Intelligence on the Enchantress, Dexterity on the Scoundrel and Strength on the Templar.
Guardian's Jeopardy(3) Bonus works for followers by improving their inherent stat multiplier from x2.5 to x3.5, making it slightly easier to hit the 25,000 main stat threshold if needed.
Followers share 20% of their Experience, Magic and Gold Find stats with you.
Legendary gems do not work on followers, except Esoteric Alteration and Mutilation Guard.
Cooldown Reduction does not work for any follower skill except the Templar’s Heal.
Followers never deal significant damage; you’re on your own to clear the content.
Select Follower
T16 Enchantress
T16 Enchantress
For T16 we recommend this Enchantress setup because she is the only follower that gives Cooldown Reduction, allowing you to spam your abilities more. Since this is T16 content, she’ll stay alive with Esoteric Alteration and Mutilation Guard and use Hand of the Prophet to gain all skills. This will give us Cooldown Reduction, Elemental Damage, Reduced Damage from Ranged Attacks, Armor, Attack Speed, and a Cheat Death.
Stat Priorities:Since we do not have the immortality focus, we need to stack survivability on our Enchantress.
Intelligence > Vitality > Life % > Armor > All Resistance > Life Per Hit > Attack Speed.
Key Items:
The Flavor of Time: For double duration on Pylons.
Nemesis Bracers: For extra Elites, Death’s Breaths and In-geom procs.
Avarice Band: For the insane pickup radius.
Ring of Royal Grandeur: To complete our sets.
Gloves of Worship: For 10 Minute Shrine Buffs.
Sage’s Journey: For double Death’s Breaths.
Cain’s Destiny: For 25% more Greater Rift Keystones.
GR Pushing Scoundrel
For Greater Rift Pushing we recommend this Scoundrel setup for the Critical Hit Chance from Anatomy, 10% increased damage from Piercing Shot, and the insane Critical Hit Chance cloud from Night’s Veil. Don't choose either of the first skill options as they apply crowd controls that we want to avoid. If you accidentally select one, you'll either have to live with it or make a new character to fix it as there is no way to de-select a follower skill :(.
Stat Priorities:Since we have the immortality token, we do not need to stack survivability on our Scoundrel.
Dexterity > Attack Speed. Key Items:
The Flavor of Time: For double duration on Pylons.
Nemesis Bracers: For more progression from Elites.
Oculus Ring: For 85% increased damage.
Unity: For 50% damage reduction if you're also wearing one.
Ice Climbers: To make your follower immune to Freeze and Immobilize effects.
Leoric's Crown and Cain's Destiny: For more Experience and Attack Speed.
Gameplay
The vast majority of our damage comes from our Exploding Palm and not Seven-Sided Strike. We want to apply Exploding Palm to as many enemies as possible and create very tight packs of enemies to create explosions that wipe out everything in sight. First things first, you need to make use of your Mythic Rhythm passive.
Get to a lone enemy or two and use Way of the Hundred Fists x3 against them. This will activate your Mythic Rhythm passive meaning next Spirit spender you cast will deal 40% more damage. At the same time Uliana's Stratagem(2) Bonus will apply Exploding Palms to the enemies you hit. These palms don't have the 40% bonus!
Get away from those mobs with unbuffed palms on them (or wait 9 seconds for the palms to expire).
Cast Exploding Palm on an enemy and use Seven Sided Strike to spread it to all nearby enemies with Gungdo Gear. Now all these palms are buffed by Mythic Rhythm. Make sure to use Seven Sided Strike before Way of the Hundred Fists when new mobs are added to the pull so that you don't create any unbuffed Exploding Palms.
Now that you have a bunch of mobs with Exploding Palms on them you follow a simple rotation tied to your Convention of Elements:
At the end of Lightning stop moving, use Way of the Hundred Fists x3 and start spamming Seven-Sided Strike.
If the Oculus Ring zone spawns, jump into it with Dashing Strike and use Cyclone Strike to bring the mobs with you.
At the end of Physical refresh your Assimilation buff and use Seven-Sided Strike x2 during the Cold.
The next 12 seconds you can spend to move forward dragging the mobs with Cyclone Strike. Use Seven-Sided Strike a few times during this process to keep the Exploding Palms active and to refresh your defensive buffs.
Hardcore
This build is incredibly tanky, mobile and has permanent crowd control immunity. Just replace Harmony or Mythic Rhythm with Near Death Experience and you're good to go. Check out our dedicated Hardcore Survival Guide to learn more about how to succeed in this game mode!
Variants
Nephalem Rifts
GR Solo Push
Nephalem Rifts
Concept In Nephalem Rifts we use Madstone which applies Exploding Palms for us, letting us just spam Seven Sided Strike to kill everything. We replace Lion's Claw with In-Geom because 7 hits is more than enough in Torment 16. Finally we use Squirt's Necklace + Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard combo for damage and the usual T16 Gold items: Avarice Band, Boon of the Hoarder and Goldwrap.
Gameplay In Nephalem Rifts the gameplay is very simple: dash forward and cast Seven-Sided Strike to oneshot everything. If mobs are too spread out, use Cyclone Strike first. Hunt for elite packs to keep your In-Geom buff active.
Setups If you play in groups, cube Nemesis Bracers instead of Leoric's Crown and replace Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac with Avarice Band.
If you're willing to press one button every 3 seconds during the entire rift, you can use Mantra of Healing Circular Breathing and get a different gem instead of Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard - Bane of the Powerful or Gogok of Swiftness.
Concept This is the strongest but difficult to play version of the build. We can only use one Seven Sided Strike during out Cold cycle, but each individual explosion hits 4.5x as hard. And that includes 10-20 bonus explosions that come from killing monsters rather than from Uliana's Stratagem (6) Bonus.
Gameplay Here we have two big changes: first we have to manage the Shenlong's Spirit buff and second we have a lot longer cooldown on Seven Sided Strike.
You are able to use Seven Sided Strike 3 times during your Convention of Elements rotation. One of them must happen during Cold and is your main nuke. The second one should come 7-8 seconds later just to refresh your current Exploding Palms, and, finally, the third one comes 3 seconds into lightning to try and proc an Oculus Ring for your Cold.
It's impossible to get Shenlong's Spirit buff on all 3 Seven Sided Strike casts. Just focus on having it active during your main nuke on Cold. During the Rift Guardian fight you should have the buff on two Seven Sided Strikes out of three.
Setups You can give up Cyclone Strike to get Crippling Wave Rising Tide or Breath of Heaven Infused with Light. This will make it much easier to manage your Spirit letting you have the buff on every Seven Sided Strike.
If feel like you have too much toughness, replace one of your defensive passives with Determination. At higher Paragon (5,000+) you can outright drop your defensive item in the cube and use Frostburn instead.
Video Guide
Mechanics
Madstone
Applies Exploding Palm before Uliana's Stratagem(6) Bonus proc, meaning it will detonate enemies that didn't have palm applied to them.
Mythic Rhythm + Uliana's Stratagem + Gungdo Gear
The buff increases both the DoT and explosion damage of the next Exploding Palm.
Exploding Palms produced by the Uliana's Stratagem(2) Bonus are not affected by Mythic Rhythm.
Manually casting Exploding Palm on a target that already has a palm on it, overwrites that palm with a new one. This way you can turn an unbuffed palm into a buffed one and vice-versa.
Hitting a palmed enemy with the 3rd Generator strike refreshes the duration of the palm on it without changing its Mythic Rhythm status.
The same applies for Gungdo Gear: enemies that already have palms will just have its duration refreshed.
When hitting an enemy withoutExploding Palm, Gungdo Gear will apply a copy of the original palm to that enemy. This lets you spread buffed palms to many enemies, but you need to make sure that there's no unbuffed palms around!
Summary
Set up your Mythic Rhythm passive.
Use Way of the Hundred Fists to refresh Exploding Palm on enemies, then use Seven-Sided Strike to detonate the explosions and spread them around with Gungdo Gear.
Cast Cyclone Strike to group up the enemies onto elites to hit them with maximum area damage right before the Cold Convention of Elements cycle.
Stay mobile, drag elite packs to more density, and detonate them back to hell!
Town Is Lava!
Credits
Written by Northwar & Raxxanterax. Updated by Northwar & wudijo.
