Beacon of Ytar

Beacon of Ytar

Beacon of Ytar is a universally useful passive that shortens all of your skill cooldowns. Since the Monk has numerous strong tools on cooldowns – including defensive buffs, mobility and damage cooldowns – this passive lets you use them all more often. So it improves both your survivability and your damage output, depending on which skills your build emphasizes.

The slot is most worthwhile in setups that rely on several key cooldown skills and benefit from rotating them at shorter intervals. In very resource-based builds that lean almost entirely on cheap, cooldown-free skills, the benefit is smaller. So you pick this passive when your flow is built around regularly triggering multiple cooldowns and shorter waits noticeably improve your rhythm.

Which cooldowns actually get shorter

The passive only applies to skills with a real cooldown. The key beneficiary among its common partners is Epiphany: it supplies a steady flow of Spirit and makes your melee attacks dash to the enemy, and with a 20% shorter wait it comes back a fifth sooner. Cyclone Strike and Sweeping Wind, by contrast, cost Spirit and have no cooldown, so Beacon of Ytar does nothing for them directly; at most they benefit from the more frequent Spirit supply through Epiphany.

The passive unlocks at level 35. While leveling it becomes worthwhile once you have at least two skills with a noticeably long cooldown on your bar.

The usual passive trio

Beacon of Ytar often shares its slots with Seize the Initiative and The Guardian's Path. The three work in different places: Beacon shortens waits, Seize the Initiative raises attack speed against enemies that are still mostly unhurt, and The Guardian's Path provides dodge chance or Spirit depending on your weapons. None of the effects overlap, which makes the combination a natural fit for monks who want to keep cooldowns, pace and resources under control at the same time.

by eRnstl