Uliana Seven-Sided Strike Monk Skills and Runes (2024)

Last updated on Apr 10, 2024 at 09:00by Deadset30 comments

On this page, we explain how to choose and use your skills when playingUliana Seven-Sided Strike Monk in Diablo 3. Updated for Patch 2.7.7 andSeason 31.

Active Skills
Way of the Hundred Fists AssimilationExploding Palm Impending Doom1Epiphany Desert Shroud2Dashing Strike Blinding Speed3Seven-Sided Strike Sustained Attack4Cyclone Strike Implosion
Passive Skills
HarmonyBeacon of YtarMythic RhythmNear Death Experience

The strategy of this build involves engaging large groups of enemies,attracting as many straggler packs as you can with a hit-and-run tacticenabled by the mobility of Dashing Strike. When the monsters gather,apply an Exploding Palm and your Assimilation buff with atriple attack of Way of the Hundred Fists. Then unleash a devastating Seven-Sided Strike, automatically spreading and detonating Impending Doom on the bunched up enemies with a little help from Gungdo Gear. While Seven-Sided Strike will be your primary source ofdamage and should be cast on cooldown, do not neglect to apply the EPs with atriple hit from Way of the Hundred Fists first, and maximize the bonusfrom Annihilation by getting yourself in as big of a fight as you can.Repeat this rotation until the trash or elite pack is dead, but always keepthe AoE focus of the build in mind and round up monster packs as you go, nevercommitting to small packs. Defense-wise, strive to maintain Epiphany Desert Shroud and the Blinding Speed dodge buff as muchas you can. While the above is a serviceable general rotation, to maximize thepotential of the build you will need to internalize several obscure Diablomechanics — please consult our Mythic Rhythm section below.

Seven-Sided Strike is the harbinger of devastation in the build:while not providing an essential part of your overall DPS, it will trigger thechain of Exploding Palm detonations through the Uliana 6-piece bonus. Despite thelack of elemental synergy, picking the Physical rune Sustained Attackis crucial, as it cuts down the base 30-second cooldown of the skill inhalf.

The true powerhouse of the build lies in the signature Monk ability Exploding Palm. The rune of choice is the Cold damage Impending Doom, towering over its peers with 6305% weapon damage perdetonation, activated through the Uliana 6-piece bonus and spreading like theplague with the Gungdo Gear unique property. While present on yourskill bar, you will not need to manually use Exploding Palm (most of the time)and pay the Spirit cost, as it will be applied with the Gungdo Geardetonation chain, as well as through your generator via the Uliana 2-piecebonus.

Way of the Hundred Fists is the generator of choice that servesmultiple purposes in the build:

• Keeping up a damage buff from the Assimilation) rune;
• Set synergy with the Uliana 2-piece bonus for the initial application of Exploding Palm;
• Last but not least, resource generation with a standard 12 Spirit perhit.

Epiphany is the centerpiece defensive cooldown in the build. Itbolsters your mobility by allowing you to stick to your target, securing thekill. It increases your Spirit regeneration by 20 per second, ensuring youalways have enough to use Seven-Sided Strike and Cyclone Strike.And perhaps most important of all, the Desert Shroud rune strengthensyour defenses with 50% damage reduction while active.

To clump up enemies for the convenience of your Seven-Sided Strikeand to maximize Assimilation stacks, you will be using Cyclone Strike with one of the longest range pulls in the game —the 34-yard Implosion rune.

Dashing Strike is the smoothest movement tool in the game, and oneof the best assets in the Monk arsenal; the Uliana build adopts it mostly forsurvival needs in GRs. A charge-based skill on a low cooldown, it will allowyou to skip low populated areas and unfavorable fights. With two chargesstored by default you can cover good distances, or simply maintain the 40%Dodge buff of the Blinding Speed rune.

Beacon of Ytar is a solid foundation for high skill uptime, providinga 20% chunk to your Cooldown Reduction. Further reducing the Seven-Sided Strike downtime is only half the reason to take thispassive, as it also cuts down the sizable 60-second cooldown of Epiphany and directly improves your defenses.

A mainstay in the Monk arsenal of passives, Harmony fuels your AllResistance with 40% of the single elemental resistance per piece of gear (g.g.100 Fire Resistance roll on the boots will add 100 to your sheet FireResistance and add 40 to your other resists). A well geared Monk will usuallysport secondary resistances in all the gear slots that are able to roll them,adding significantly to his overall Toughness (see this build's gear page for more information).

To counteract some of the damage spikes the build is exposed to, we will betaking Near Death Experience — the cheat death passive availableto Monks. On the standard 60-second cooldown, it will prevent a lethalsituation and restore you to 35% Life and Spirit instead. The 2-secondimmunity to damage and crowd control impairing effects is a nice bonus on top.If you are confident about handling spike damage, the best alternative forthis passive slot is The Guardian's Path — a top tier defensivepassive when dual-wielding, offering a substantial 35% dodge chance increase.Working alongside the dodge bonuses from Blinding Speed and Agility, it will be the optimal passive choice for physical attacksprotection in high density maps.

Mythic Rhythm remains one of the strongest damage passives you cantake as a Uliana Monk, as it offers a 40% multiplicative damage bonus for yournext damaging Spirit spender after a triple attack from a generator, mirroringthe mechanics of the set.

High end GR clears with Uliana's set are using a snapshot of the passive Mythic Rhythm. In Diablo terms, snapshotting is taking a certain buffdependent value and using it for an extended period of time, well beyond theintended buff duration. In this particular build, Uliana monks aresnapshotting temporary buffed damage values from Mythic Rhythm( Assimilation and Power pylons have been changed into dynamic buffsand can no longer be snapshotted) into a damage increase for the entire rift.This is how it is done:

• Find a big pack of enemies and attack 3 times with your generator, Way of the Hundred Fists, getting as many Assimilation stacks asyou can. This will also apply the Mythic Rhythm buff, as the Exploding Palm created by the Uliana 2-piece bonus counts as a spenderfor the purposes of the passive. Unfortunately this will create numerous Exploding Palms, and you will have no way of telling which particulartarget has Mythic Rhythm on it.
• Attack 3 times again on the same targets. This will once again create the Mythic Rhythm buff, but since Exploding Palm has already beenspread from the first round and there are no new targets, the Mythic Rhythm buff is retained on yourself.
• Move away from the current pack of Exploding Palmed monsters youused to create a buff for yourself. Their Exploding Palms cannot beoverwritten. Find a new large pack of monsters and apply a supercharged Exploding Palm on a new, single monster. Do not do this by a3-generator attack, but manually using the Exploding Palm skill on yourbar.
• Use Seven-Sided Strike to detonate and spread the supercharged Exploding Palm. Destroy most of the monster pack, leaving a few livingtargets with the supercharged Exploding Palms and drag them to the nextbig group of monsters, strictly using Seven-Sided Strike to detonate andgenerate Exploding Palms, and not using the Uliana 2-piece method (3successive generator attacks) until the end of the rift.