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Ars Arcanum: Gungdo Gear

by - 9 years ago

Books have often been society’s only bastion of light for passing along knowledge that would otherwise be lost to time or convoluted by the oral tradition. In order to provide new and old adventurers with as much knowledge of what to expect on their journey in Sanctuary, we created this tome of knowledge – Ars Arcanum. We will regularly feature a Legendary weapon or armor piece, discussing its stand-alone powers and capabilities, as well as how it may synergize with new builds or other items.


This week, we continue to analyze items that were previewed at BlizzCon for Patch 2.1.2 and Season 2. While I have not played a Monk in quite some time, I have been keeping up a decent amount with their metagame and lowly position on the Leaderboards. Hopefully, this change to Gungdo Gear along with the changes to their sets will help to push the Monk in the right direction.

Gungdo Gear

Why is it good?

Similar to last week, bracers are another item slot that have quite a bit of variety. Whereas Monks were utilizing Aughild’s Search to combine with Aughild’s Rule for the set bonuses, the new and improved Gungdo Gear could easily make that a much tougher choice come Season Two. Monks previously required a specific  Sunwuko spec to output competitive damage compared to other classes, but with the inherent multiplicative power of Exploding Palm scaling damage to exorbitant amounts, the Legendary proc added to Gungdo Gear is likely to help add some variety in how Monks achieve that same level of power and surpass it. What they will have to trade in the mostly defensive nature of Aughild’s should reconcile as a more DPS-oriented meta shifts in, especially when one considers the coming changes to Greater Rifts and the new Sunwuko set bonuses;

2 set – Casting Cyclone Strike, Exploding Palm, Lashing Tail Kick, Tempest Rush, or Wave of Light causes a decoy to spawn that taunts nearby enemies and explodes for 1000% weapon damage.
4 set – Enemies hit by the decoy explosion take 500% more damage from your Cyclone Strike, Exploding Palm, Lashing Tail Kick, Tempest Rush, and Wave of Light abilities for 3 seconds.

As a result, Exploding Palm gains more utility both in AOE fights through Gungdo Gear and also against single target behemoths like Greater Rift Guardians when the Sunwuko bonuses are considered. All in all, a move in the right direction for Monks.

Who is it good for?

Naturally, this bracer only applies to Monk. It’s worth noting here that the rune of the Exploding Palms applied through Gungdo Gear will mirror the one on your skill bar.

Where can I find it?

This will be a Season Two-only item to start. Once the season ends, it will drop no matter what designation your character.

The Fluff

“Cover your wrists in righteousness that you may strike with the will of the gods.” -Tenets of the Veradani

In my (very) brief research, the Tenets of the Veradani represent the ways and means of the faith of the Monks. This faith is called Sahptev and within this faith there are 1001 gods and goddesses to be worshiped. The reason for there being so many is that these gods and goddesses are tied to nearly everything – physical objects, nature, etc. – and also have sides for both Order and Chaos.


JR Cook

JR has been writing for fan sites since 2000 and has been involved with Blizzard Exclusive fansites since 2003. JR was also a co-host for 6 years on the Hearthstone podcast Well Met! He helped co-found BlizzPro in 2013.


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