Diablo III- Skills Article LXXVIII: The Monk, Techniques Skills- Exploding Palm

Exploding Palm (40 Spirit): Strike the target with a blow that causes it to bleed for 220% weapon damage over the next 3 seconds.  If the target dies while it is still bleeding, it explodes and deals damage equal to 30% of its maximum Life to all enemies in melee range.

Exploding Palm is certainly a showy sort of a skill, and while the Spirit cost is rather high, it can be well worth it on a crowded battlefield.  The damage is very good, even if it is applied over time, and being a Monk most of the things you face you can kill within the bleed duration without too much difficulty- or stick close enough to reapply the bleed.  Using Exploding Palm most effectively means being able to identify the most durable things you’re fighting and applying it to them- then focusing your attacks on them so you can detonate them and kill any weaker nearby enemies without having to divert your attention.  This can take some quick thinking, and if you’re not up to it, you can find you’re not getting much value out of this skill.  If so, you should probably replace it with another Techniques skill- there’s probably another option that fits your playstyle better.

The Flesh is Weak (40 Spirit): Strike the target with a blow that causes it to bleed for 220% weapon damage and 12% extra damage from all other sources during the next 3 seconds.  If the target dies while it is still bleeding, it explodes and deals damage equal to 30% of its maximum Life to all enemies in melee range.

The Flesh is Weak gives you a much stronger chance of killing the target in the time frame allotted by the bleed damage, so this is a natural improvement to Exploding Palm and a very nice way to ensure effectiveness.  If nothing else, The Flesh is Weak will allow you to get more benefit out of Exploding Palm when in a party that’s facing a boss than most of your other rune options for the skill.

Strong Spirit (40 Spirit): Strike the target with a blow that causes it to bleed for 220% weapon damage over the next 3 seconds.  If the target dies while it is still bleeding, it explodes and deals damage equal to 30% of its maximum Life to all enemies in melee range.  For each enemy hit by the explosion, you gain 5 Spirit.

Not the most efficient method of Spirit regeneration, this can nonetheless be very useful in a protracted fight with lots of enemies.  A crowded battlefield (and/or judicious use of Cyclone Strike or Wrenching Smash) can easily ensure you regain a good portion of the Spirit you spent for this skill, and thereby let you fire it off again and again, steadily clearing your way through large numbers of foes.  In short battles or situations with few opponents, this rune drops to near-uselessness or uselessness, so while you’ve got it prepared to Exploding Palm, try to avoid fighting single enemies.

Creeping Demise (40 Spirit): Strike the target with a blow that causes it to bleed for 220% weapon damage over the next 3 seconds and have its movement slowed by 80% for the same duration.  If the target dies while it is still bleeding, it explodes and deals damage equal to 30% of its maximum Life to all enemies in melee range.

An excellent way to slow and injure fleeing spellcasters, as well as ensure you take out other enemies with them, Creeping Demise requires a slightly different tactical application than the base Exploding Palm, being something you want to throw on enemies that are trying to get away, even if they’re not the ones around with the highest Life total.  This can get a bit expensive as crowd management, but a bit more thought can let you put it on the more powerful enemy ranged attackers and balance the two goals against one another.

Impending Doom (40 Spirit): Strike the target with a blow that causes it to bleed for 220% weapon damage over the next 6 seconds.  If the target dies while it is still bleeding, it explodes and deals damage equal to 30% of its maximum Life to all enemies in melee range.

While The Flesh is Weak attempts to ensure explosion by increasing damage incoming to the target, Impending Doom takes the opposed tactic, extending the duration of the bleed.  While this is detrimental to the damage (making it come in slower), the main point of Exploding Palm is the explosion itself, and adding an extra three seconds in which to kill the target can make all the difference, especially if you can lure or herd it into a place where the explosion will be more useful.

Essence Burn (40 Spirit): Strike the target with a blow that causes it to burn for 250% weapon damage as Fire damage over the next 3 seconds.  If the target dies while it is still burning, it explodes and deals 60% weapon damage as Fire damage over the next 3 seconds to all enemies in melee range.  These targets can then explode in the same manner for the same damage if they die while still burning.

While Essence Burn is a little harder to get kills via than the base Exploding Palm (60% weapon damage is probably much smaller than 30% of maximum life for larger enemies) it is much, much more useful at handling large numbers of weak enemies, whose explosion damage would have been tiny but now grievously injures their comrades.  The potential for ‘daisy-chain death’ is immense, and should never be overlooked- just remember that this skill is equally useless against single targets to its parent skill, and has a vasty reduced effect on small groups of high-power enemies as well.