Monk critical: Elemental invocation Vs Cast on shock Vs Cast on Critical

[Taitsuo]

Hi,
I play monk Ice/charged staff (ice/thunder) with critical hit build (54% crit chance going up to 60% in fight).

On bosses I have 3 options that I tested and I would like to have your opinion/solution for that (cause testing is hard, map boss die too quickly, and I don't have the budget to try on pinnacle boss)
On my burst I use 1 or 2 bell and a Ball of lightning + eye of winter sloted in :

1) Elemental Invocation :
+this cast a LOT of balls/eyes and have the advantage of being trigerred by hand
+this let me use a unique in set II making +370% spell damage (bonus based on my spirit)
+this let me manage my mana correctly
-this is small burst phases
-I need to shock/freeze the boss to launch it (elemental invoc charge a lot on freez)

2) Cast on Shock:
+/-automatic
+good small bursts when I put down the bell
-mana is a bit hard to manage

3) Cast on crit :
+/-automatic
+this trigger instantly at the first hit (or second but with the attack speed it can be considerate instant) casting non stop for amazing damage IF my bell is down
----It is very hard to put my bell , becaus eas soon as I start hitting (and I need to hit 4 time to use my bell) it cast and drain ALL my mana in less than a seconde.
Right now I have to spam my mana potion and stop hitting to be able to put the bell down

> SO... I would love to be able to use cast on crit AND manage enough my mana to have this burst, any idea ? (maybe unique flask can help ? but there are not in my budget)
maybe using the second set of weapon to put the bell down and only then activate cast on crit ?
> I don't see a lot of people using elemental invocation, but it have its advantage in term of management of mana and controle over your burst (when to burst)
> any though on this issue to help me have a better burst on boss would be good

thx in advance !

(I hope I'm clear enough, english is not my native language)

[Havok]

Hard to tell. You would need a good amount of leech mana and mana regen to sustain Cast on continuously if you are shocking/critting that much. Bell does eat a good chuck of mana to spawn and if you’re constantly dropping it you might burn your mana.

You could do what I do on my ranger which is run Thief’s Torment Ring for bosses, which gives mana on hit, and that would sustain your cast ons pretty safely.

For reference I run 2 cast on shocks with low level activations and mana isn’t an issue when I run thief’s torment. Not sure the current pricing but 60-90 ex is pretty fair for it. Just make sure your resistances and stats for skills are good without rings since you’re limited to just that ring when you use it. It’s not an end all be all solution to things, but it will solve your mana problems, especially if you’re firing off a ton of ball lightnings and eye of winters.

Cast on crit is probably your best boss solution, so you either buy a 15 Div legendary mana pot, or run thief’s torment for under 100 ex to sustain CoC.

I personally ran Ele Invoc on my monk, but this was before they gutted the repeated freezing, so I constantly had it at full stack because I froze like 1-2 seconds after the boss was unfrozen.

[Taitsuo]

I though about thief torment, but I can't get rid of my 2 rings (2 unset ring, cold/lightning damage focused, my build need a lot of skills slot xD)

I'm trying right now with 2 weapon set (need 2 good weapon that's the problem, can't match my quarterstaff under 40 div right now =c) so Cast on crit only activate when I switch to my second set (so I put the bell down then I switch set, and if I need mroe than 1 bell burst I switch back).
I still need to switch weapon manually (with the shortcut) =/ (I was thinking I could automaticly switch with the bell on set II, but can't put the bell down if it's not active ^^')

seems to be the only viable option unless I find a tone of mana leech/mana on hit =/

thx for the intel !