One other thing - how would 2x flawless handwraps of devastation compare? Stick with the 2h cause of the top end damage right?

Thanks for the reply.

Is the damage difference between Powered Blade Staff of Devastation and 2x handwraps of striking going to be pretty noticeable? Is there any advantage to going with the handwraps if the staff does slightly more damage?

As i understand it, it's 2x WEAPON damage....meaning only an extra 200 or so.
It would be noticable if it was just 2x total dmg

Hrm...

I would expect power bladed staff of intensity to be the best choice for a monk.
http://vg.curse.com/database/items/details/1144881/

The problem with powerbladed staff of devestation is that the focusing of power competes with the resonating devestation effects and essentially nerfs the bejesus out of the focusing power raw damage % boost.

By using the intensity proc for resonating instead you get the full effect of the focusing crystals of power which gives a very high raw damage boost to both procs and melee (particularly good for those that persue reasonable amounts of int in their build).  The intensity proc is pretty strong as well.


If you are raiding APW of course there are some very nice 1h weapons that a jagged handwrap of striking will complement beutifully.  Though you might want to wait a bit until after GU4 for that since currently focusing crystals of pain (adds jagged/crit% boost) and resonating crystals of striking (boosts raw damage stats on weapon plus procs striking) are both DAMN expensive.

After GU4 most crystals in general "should" be a little easier to come by.



A weird combo that I've considered is using a high int build and using the appropriate specialized upgraded spell damage focus in my offhand...consider that you still essentially do "weaponless" offhand damage if you have a focus equipped, so its like having an offhand weapon equipped that does your basic barehand damage but boosts your secret of choice (fire/etc.)

I've been thinking with a high enough int build, its possible that a specified spell damage focus will provide more net damage boost than a standard offhand weapon.  This is TOTAL speculation, I haven't messed around with this or parsed a damn thing.  I figure your basic offhand (unless you have access to something VERY powerful is about 25% better than your "weaponless" offhand, but that is cut in half since its offhand.  So an upgraded specified sdfocus would boost secrets of that type by about 15% and that boost is not reduced by being held in offhand.  I can also be made to grant 150hps or 19int or a few other options.

Considering how dirt cheap the mats are to make a flawless spelldamage focus it might not be a silly way to start out until someone gets a hold of two very solid 1h weapons or an ideal 2hander.  Ignoring that...it just seems like a fun concept. 

The basic upgraded specified type is like this:
http://vg.curse.com/database/items/details/1269575/

So this example would only work with secret of fire, you would need other specified types for other secrets...but that's easy enough to build in a marco to just switch your sdfocus when you switch to a diff secret type.

Totally off the typical beaten path I know but something I was thinking about. 

After GU4 decon options will be heavily nerfed to reduce camping of nameds for decons.  However crystals will come from harvesting, from what I've talked with guildies on test right now they will be much more plentiful in general.

Yeah their insanely priced on my server as well.  But in just one hour of harvesting on test some guildies had gotten a couple of the more expensive crystals including pain so I suspect strongly the prices will drop on most of them by quite a good margin.  Still test server and live are not always the same thing...esp in terms of economy.