Being a monk you'll have three different skill types for your use. Spirit generator and also spender abilities and also mantras. It's your job to balance these three abilities to make yourself the most effective. The concept is that you would be throwing out a number of spirit generator moves in order to save up for one spender move that you unleash at a critical moment. Through the entire fight you need to be using mantras every time they become available to you because they are free of charge.
Spirit generator moves would be the bread and butter of your Monk Active Skills. You will throwing them out just like wildfire the whole time you play, to get that spirit gauge as soon as you can. These Monk Active Skills focus entirely on damage to one or various opponents. As you level up you'll want to have one single target generator capability, like Fists of Thunder, for those strong single targets as well as an AOE, for example Crippling Wave, for those times when you are being swarmed. Having a good mix of spirit generator abilities is the most important skill choice you should make, because they are what you would be utilizing the majority of the time.
Understanding how to utilize your spirit spender skills properly may help carry you by the tougher parts of Diablo 3. Basically of all the Monk Active Skills, the spirit spender abilities are meant to get you from trouble. If you are healing yourself, or perhaps blinding all your enemies and flipping to safety, your spirit spender abilities are good at fending off a group which is overwhelming you.
By keeping up spirit for your time if you need it the most, you will be able to tip an uneven fight back on your behalf. Spirit spender abilities are a mixture of damage and power spells. Some help you do high levels of damage to single or numerous targets, while some are much more situational, throwing out a decoy to distract a team, or allowing you to flip from a surrounding number of enemies for instance.
Mantras are similar to the particular paladins auras of Diablo 2. You could have a single mantra active at a time, but once active they only last a minute before having a 15 second cooldown, which makes them more situational. The mantras buff an aspect of you plus your team mates. You will find mantras that boost defense, evasion, a healing ability and offense. Remembering to turn on the mantra that your group needs could make battles go a lot more smoothly and it also won't cost you anything.