Diablo III- Skills Article XCII: The Monk, Theorycrafting? No, Experimentation.

Because of the nature of the Monk, it’s very hard to theorycraft for it.  While the character class does have a focus, it’s a focus that the skills all work towards- team-friendly tactical combat.  It’s easy enough to analyze each of the available skills in a vacuum, and make some basic conclusions as to what they will do with other skills, but because of the way they function- all the lines and areas and timing matters- which skills a Monk uses are more heavily dependent on how the player operates than anything else.

If you’re good at positioning yourself on the battlefield, you’ll want to grab the mobility focused skills.  If you’re good at monitoring your health and that of your allies, you’ll want to reach for the healing and protective effects.  If you excel at switching which skill you’re using on the fly, rearrange your bar and perhaps pick up Combination Strike.  If you function best when everything’s concentrated into a small area, Cyclone Strike and Crippling Wave go well together.  But if you’re not good at one of these things, then the skills associated with it are not for you and you should avoid them.

Monks don’t have a raw-number fixation in any way like the other classes- there aren’t a huge number of runes for different types of Monk skill that establish, say, a benefit whenever you score a critical hit, or work distinctly better for a dual-weapon wielder than a two-hander.  So rather than being able to make sets of skills that will work well together, I can only say this:

Try it.  Try doing everything the Monk can do, and settle down with the skills that you feel comfortable and happy using.  Don’t let other people tell you what you can and can’t use- the Monk has very few options that are directly outclassed by other skills they have, and they stand out as a class for that reason.  It’s very unlikely that any two Monks will play the exact same way or have the exact same skill/rune selections, because of the subtleties of tactical play and how they interact with the way the player functions.  That’s not to say that the Monk is a complicated class by necessity- it’s quite possible to set up a simple Monk that still works very well.

Just don’t expect it to work anywhere near as well for anyone not you.