Diablo III- Skills Article LXXXVII: The Monk, Passive Skills (1 of 5)

Monk Passives are a bit less focused than those of the Barbarian and Demon Hunter- while some of them lend themselves to particular skill choices, none of them really screams out for a specific build.  Because of this, and because virtually all of them will be of some use to every Monk, the best way to decide which passive skills to take is to look at what you need when you fight, and carefully choose and try skill options until you find yourself with a set you like.  For a Monk above all other things, experimentation is the key to getting the class to play how you want it to, and you need to be sure you give every skill (and many of the runes) a good long chance to prove its value to you.

Fleet Footed: Your movement speed is increased by 10%.

The Monk is a fairly tactical fighter- not as much as the Demon Hunter, who can become a character that operates through tactics and essentially nothing else, but the Monk’s skills often rely on being used in the right place as much as or more than at the right time.  To that end, Fleet Footed is going to be useful to any Monk.  It’s not useful enough to edge out skills that specifically boost what your chosen active skills do, since the boost is only 10%, but it’s large enough that you should always consider it a possibility.  You can also combine this with damage auras to greater effect, or any of the Monk’s speed-boosting Active Skill runes for some truly impressive darts and dashes.

Resolve: When you damage an enemy, that enemy’s damage is reduced by 25% for 2.5 seconds.  This effect does not stack.

Resolve is an excellent showcase of the Monk’s real difference from the Barbarian.  The Barbarian is out there to kill it, and to kill it now.  The Monk is out there to kill it, and stop it from killing you (and your friends) at the same time.  Resolve is a very tactical ability- while you can use Cyclone Strike to keep large amounts of the enemy on you rather than on your allies, it’s possible to rely on Resolve and your ability to move into position to strike enemies who are attacking your party members instead.  With Resolve you don’t necessarily need to get the attention off your allies to protect them, and pairing this up with a good use of a defensive Mantra can go a long way towards keeping your entire party alive through some very sticky situations.  Just remember that this only affects enemies you damage- so damage auras and area attacks are your preferred method of applying Resolve.  You should not be relying on individually clicking each and every enemy you want to weaken- that will leave you incredibly busy and sadly ineffective as the debuff wears off before you can reapply it.