Diablo III- Skills Article LXXIX: The Monk, Techniques Skills- Sweeping Wind

Sweeping Wind (75 Spirit): For the next 6 seconds, you are surrounded with a swirling vortex that deals 15% weapon damage to all enemies within 10 yards every second, and refreshes its duration each time you hit an enemy with a melee attack.  Each time you critically hit while this skill is active, the weapon damage increases by 15% of weapon damage, to a maximum of 45% weapon damage.

For all the quirks of the description, the net result is this- If you have Sweeping Wind active and you keep hitting things, Sweeping Wind stays active.  If you hit critically with Sweeping Wind active, it gets stronger, until it does nearly half the damage you would do fighting without any skills.  Considering this damage is to all enemies within 10 yards and continuously happens, Sweeping Wind is an amazing skill for not only drawing attention, but killing large numbers of enemies just by fighting near them.  It’s hard to argue against this being a good thing, and while many Monks will swear by continuous use of Sweeping Wind, you can’t just discount the other Techniques skills- while their benefits are usually less numerically obvious, they are still quite worth using.

Master of Wind (75 Spirit): For the next 10 seconds, you are surrounded with a swirling vortex that deals 15% weapon damage to all enemies within 10 yards every second, and refreshes its duration each time you hit an enemy with a melee attack.  Each time you critically hit while this skill is active, the weapon damage increases by 15% of weapon damage, to a maximum of 45% weapon damage.

Since the duration doesn’t really mean much as long as you can keep hitting things, the main point of Master of Wind is to make it easier to keep Sweeping Wind active and dealing damage despite gaps in your fighting caused by empty areas of dungeon or land.  Six seconds is usually plenty, but ten seconds should be more than enough unless you’re entering or leaving a dungeon, and even then only certain dungeons will have long enough empty spaces before or after their entrances to overcome that time period.  Overall a very nice rune for not having to spend the Spirit to reactivate this skill.

Blade Storm (75 Spirit): For the next 6 seconds, you are surrounded with a swirling vortex that deals 20% weapon damage to all enemies within 10 yards every second, and refreshes its duration each time you hit an enemy with a melee attack.  Each time you critically hit while this skill is active, the weapon damage increases by 20% of weapon damage, to a maximum of 60% weapon damage.

For those who think the only fault with Sweeping Wind is that it’s not enough damage, Blade Storm comes through with an added 5% weapon damage- and a whole 15% if you can get a couple of critical hits!  This is some pretty hefty constant damage coming off of your Monk, and can easily turn them into a walking sausage grinder of fun (for you, not for the demons).  Overall, nice and impressive.

Fire Storm (75 Spirit): For the next 6 seconds, you are surrounded with a swirling vortex that deals 15% weapon damage as Fire damage to all enemies within 14 yards every second, and refreshes its duration each time you hit an enemy with a melee attack.  Each time you critically hit while this skill is active, the weapon damage increases by 15% of weapon damage, to a maximum of 45% weapon damage.

If you’re having trouble keeping things near enough to take the damage from Sweeping Wind and don’t mind the change to the frequently-resisted Fire damage, Fire Storm has the handy effect of a 40% increase in effect radius, letting you make virtually certain you’re catching multiple things in your damage aura.  Not as popular as Blade Storm, because few Monks have difficulty getting up close and personal with enemies, but for some players the increased area will be a major blessing.

Inner Storm (75 Spirit): For the next 6 seconds, you are surrounded with a swirling vortex that deals 15% weapon damage to all enemies within 10 yards every second, and refreshes its duration each time you hit an enemy with a melee attack.  Each time you critically hit while this skill is active, the weapon damage increases by 15% of weapon damage, to a maximum of 45% weapon damage.  If this damage is at the 45% maximum, you generate 3 Spirit every second.

Inner Storm is the best way available to recoup the Spirit cost of Sweeping Wind without using a different skill in conjunction- and the fact that this Spirit generation lasts as long as the aura does makes it very easy to turn the skill into a constant, if slightly slow, fountain of Spirit that will power your Monk’s efforts to mow down minions of evil at a constant rate.

Cyclone (75 Spirit): For the next 6 seconds, you are surrounded with a swirling vortex that deals 15% weapon damage to all enemies within 10 yards every second, and refreshes its duration each time you hit an enemy with a melee attack.  Each time you critically hit while this skill is active, the weapon damage increases by 15% of weapon damage, to a maximum of 45% weapon damage.  If this effect is maxed out, your critical hits have a chance to spawn an electrical tornado that shocks nearby enemies for 20% weapon damage as Lightning damage and lasts for 3 seconds.

If you’re focused on generating critical hits, Cyclone can be a good way to continue taking advantage of those after you’ve maximised the damage aura of Sweeping Wind.  While not as obviously useful as runes like Inner Storm or Blade Storm, on a properly tuned build this can amount to a lot of extra damage, so give it your consideration if you are heavy on critical hit chance and effects.