Diablo III- Skills Article LXXII: The Monk, Secondary Skills- Wave of Light

Wave of Light (75 Spirit): You summon a bell made of light which drops on enemies in front of you for 215% weapon damage as Holy damage, and then strike it to emit a wave of 45% weapon damage as Holy damage that strikes all enemies in a straight line.

Harkening back to any number of giant temple bells (and possibly also a scene in Kung Fu Hustle and/or other works), Wave of Light should probably have been named ‘Holy Bell’ or ‘Divine Ringer’ or something.  The visual effect is actually kind of funny to watch, though that wears off after a time, and as skills go, it’s just sort of generally interesting and useful.  The Spirit cost is very high, but the amount of raw damage it can pump out when used against a mass of enemies is really impressive.

Wall of Light (75 Spirit): You summon a bell made of light which drops on enemies in front of you for 312% weapon damage as Holy damage, and then strike it to emit a wave of 45% weapon damage as Holy damage that strikes all enemies in a straight line.

Increasing the initial damage to nearly half-again its original value, Wall of Light is where Wave of Light starts really giving you what you paid 75 Spirit to hit demons with.  With that kind of damage and a two-handed weapon, a Monk can outdo most other single hits for raw killing power.

Explosive Light (75 Spirit): You summon eight spectral copies of yourself that charge in the eight directions of a compass rose, dealing 285% weapon damage as Holy damage to all enemies they hit.

While it drops the original area of effect from Wave of Light, Explosive Light is undeniably both a fancy and an impressive way to clear large areas of a full screen.  285% weapon damage is cringe-inducing, and even if you miss with most of the phantoms, you’re virtually certain to hit something and ruin its day (or night).  Especially fun when you face things with Illusory or Horde.

Empowered Wave (40 Spirit): You summon a bell made of light which drops on enemies in front of you for 215% weapon damage as Holy damage, and then strike it to emit a wave of 45% weapon damage as Holy damage that strikes all enemies in a straight line.

Cutting the Spirit cost of Wave of Light nearly in half is an excellent deal for the Monk, making this rune extremely useful for those who aren’t just leaking Spirit out their ears all day and all night.  While the cost is still hard to swallow for repeated use, you shouldn’t be using Wave of Light constantly- just every once in a while when you need the burst of damage or see a good opportunity to wound or kill a lot of things that went to the trouble of lining up for you.

Blinding Light (75 Spirit): You summon a bell made of light which drops on enemies in front of you for 215% weapon damage as Holy damage, and then strike it to emit a wave of 45% weapon damage as Holy damage that strikes all enemies in a straight line.  When you score a critical hit with this skill, the enemy that the critical hit was against is stunned for 2 seconds.

Not the best addon to the base skill, Blinding Light relies on critical hits- and if you lean on critical hits, you’re probably not going to use your secondary skill slot for something like Blinding Light, which is too expensive to spam out to fish for criticals.  You may find this occasionally useful, but your critical chance isn’t likely to be that high if you’re using Wave of Light and not reducing its cost with Empowered Wave.

Pillar of Light (75 Spirit): You summon a column made of light which drops on enemies in front of you for 210% weapon damage as Holy damage.  Two seconds later, it shatters, dealing 210% weapon damage as Holy damage to all enemies in the same area.

Pillar of Light offers an interesting form of ‘damage over time’, by actually dealing delayed damage instead.  This is best against monsters that cluster up closely on you, but can also be used very nicely against bosses who don’t run from you while the pillar is waiting to crumble.  As with Wave of Light, it’s very Spirit-intensive, so it’s not something to try to throw around rapidfire- but it is nice and strong, and offers a very solid pair of hits.