Diablo III- Skills Article LXXX: The Monk, Focus Skills- Cyclone Strike

Cyclone Strike (50 Spirit): A wave of force pulls all enemies within 24 yards to you, and then deal 100% weapon damage as Holy damage to all enemies in melee range of you.

Cyclone Strike is an incredibly useful skill for the Monk, even if they have Dashing Strike or some other way to close with enemies already.  Because Cyclone Strike pulls all enemies within range (except those larger ones that are immmune to most forms of pull), you can use it to clump enemies up for any of your area-effect attacks- from Crippling Wave to Sweeping Wind.  This makes it an incredibly useful utility, particularly when you can also use it to pull attackers off of less durable party members and into your grasp.

Eye of the Storm (30 Spirit): A wave of force pulls all enemies within 24 yards to you, and then deal 100% weapon damage as Holy damage to all enemies in melee range of you.

By reducing the cost of Cyclone Strike to a mere 30 Spirit, Eye of the Storm makes it not only possible, but easy to quickly recharge and reuse Cyclone Strike, creating potentially a constant pulse of pulling force that keeps all enemies on you- and corralled into place for your area attacks and those of your allies.  Proper use of Crippling Wave can make this even easier, as the third strike of that Primary Skill inflicts a slowing effect, making it even harder for enemies to escape your whirling grasp.  Definitely a very useful rune.

Implosion (50 Spirit): A wave of force pulls all enemies within 34 yards to you, and then deal 100% weapon damage as Holy damage to all enemies in melee range of you.

If you don’t mind the Spirit cost, however, and find yourself dealing with a wider spread of enemies, Implosion grants you the reach to bring in things from virtually the entire screen, not only giving you more targets but granting you more ability to keep things off of your friends.  Also an excellent rune choice.

Sunburst (50 Spirit): A wave of fire bursts out from you to a distance of 24 yards, dealing 100% weapon damage as Fire damage to all enemies with a 35% chance of making each run in Fear for 1.5 seconds.

As a Fear effect, Sunburst comes up much less useful most of the time, and while dealing the damage out in an area that large can be fun, the net effect is generally worse- a fleeing enemy must be pursued to kill them, after all, unless you just wait for them to return- at which point you’d probably have been better off pulling them towards you to begin with.  There are probably a few builds that like the ability to send enemies fleeing in terror, but for the most part it’s not a nice effect to have as a melee combatant, particularly when you can’t carefully select what is scared into a rout.

Wall of Wind (50 Spirit): A wave of force pulls all enemies within 24 yards to you, and then deal 100% weapon damage as Holy damage to all enemies in melee range of you.  You gain a 20% chance to dodge attacks for the next 3 seconds.  This dodge chance does not stack with itself.

Wall of Wind lets you pull enemies towards you with impunity, saving you from the potential damage that can result from drawing half the screen and landing it at your feet.  While usually you’ll be too concerned with killing the targets you just lassoed, some Monks don’t have the defenses to stand up to a sudden assault like that very well, and for them Wall of Wind will be a very useful way to ensure that pulling things into melee never lands the Monk in hot water.

Soothing Breeze (50 Spirit): A wave of force pulls all enemies within 24 yards to you, and then deal 100% weapon damage as Holy damage to all enemies in melee range of you.  You and all allies within 24 yards heal an amount of Life based on your level (at level 60, about 1240 Life).

Soothing Breeze is a bit odd, and not a very strong supplemental heal- while it may be kind of neat and nice to have now and again, particularly with its reach being longer than Breath of Heaven, the amount of healing is relatively very small and not worth dropping a shot at a high dodge chance, greater reach, or using the skill at slightly more than half the base cost.  Not a rune to avoid like the plague, but not one worth focusing on most of the time.