Changes

The '''Monk''' is a [[melee]] fighter, with an emphasis on speed, [[combos]], [[aura]] bonuses, and tactics, rather than the brute force of the [[Barbarian]]. The Many of the Monk's skills have an Eastern martial arts influence, though while his appearance is a mixture of European medieval monks with saffron robes and fashions drawing from the Eastern, Shao Lin style influence.

The Monk was the fourth playable class revealed for Diablo III and was announced in October 2009 at Blizzcon.

| [[Monk skills]], [[Combos]], [[Auras]]

::<blue>(The Monk) comes from a place called Ivgorod, you know when we started looking at a story about a monk we didn't want to just have what would be considered the standard monk. At Blizzard we love to put a little twist on things and do things a little bit differently. So we thought it would be interesting to take some kind of 13th century... well not factual, but some kind of Eastern European 13th century monk and combine it with the more Eastern style; not only in terms of the look but also in terms of the philosophical. So he has the Eastern philosophy integrated into him, the movement has a lot to do with life and the gods mixed in with a very theocratic, organised religious belief system.

::<br>But he's very devout, he's fighting the good fight; he's a holy warrior. He's very straight-ahead in what he does, there's no gray area for him and it's not that he's inflexible -- he does what he thinks is right. If he has to meditate on that for two days he'll do it because he's got to do the right thing - his fighting is his way of worshiping. That's how we approached him, which gives him a very different feel. The [[Barbarian]] has a good mythology; we gave the [[Witch Doctor]] a very rich mythology. In the game they have a very different experience as different characters, but also, possibly come into conflict with each other because of their different belief systems.</blue>

The Monk skills can be divided into three categories: [[Combos]], [[Auras]], and [[Spirit]] Skills.* Combos are three-stage melee attacks with a wide variety of types and effects, dealing damage plus buffs, debuffs, and more. Combo skills generate [[Spirit]], the Monk's [[resource]], which must be expended to cast his Auras and other skills.* Auras are skills that provide a lasting bonus to the Monk and often to his allies, or that debuff enemies. They are cast to activate them, then persist for some duration.* Spirit skills are all the rest. They cost spirit to cast, and provide a variety of direct attacks, defensive bonuses, or other varied properties. Skill listings now house only active skills, with all the passive skills moved to [[traits]]. The following is a very brief listing; see the [[Monk skills]] page for a more detailed list, or any of the individual skill pages for full details.

Spirit is generated by using the Monk's powerful [[combo]] skills, and expended by using his various other attacks. Spirit is also generated by the base attack[http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=27607504970&postId=276049612594&sid=3000#9], but since combos yield much higher damage as well as various bonus effects, there's no logical reason to keep using plain attack once a combo is available. The lowest level combo is [[Hands of Lightning]], available in Tier One. 

[[Jay Wilson]] mentioned that [[D3 Team]] wanted to make a character that isn't necessarily one of the easiest characters to start with, but the Monk will even out with the other classes later on in both power and difficulty.[http://g4tv.com/games/pc/28197/diablo-iii/articles/68225/BlizzCon-2009-Diablo-III-Game-Director-Interview/]

::<blue>With the Monk, we really wanted another melee class, but we wanted him to be the polar opposite of the Barbarian. Somebody who focused on speed over toughness, who could use magic where the Barbarian really doesn’t, and who had a combat style that required a little bit more finesse. He’s kind of the opposite of the, “I’m going to run in and try to overwhelm all my enemies with my sheer ferocity.”

::<br>For the Monk, we really were inspired by fighting game characters and games like God of War, where we wanted a character that could do really cool moves in rapid succession. So, we decided to do a combo system for him where many of his combat skills have different stages to them so as you use them, you move from stage 1 to stage 2 to stage 3. You can mix and match abilities as well and put them together.

::So with the other classes [in multiplayer], the Monk moves forward because he’s faster than everyone else, and gets in front of the fight. He tends to disable enemies a lot. He can blind them. He can [[debuff]] them. If he stays, however, he could be in trouble because he’s a lot more fragile than the [[Barbarian]]. So, then he’ll step back and then all of his friends can come in. He can certainly do a lot of damage. If used right, he’s ridiculously powerful. We have a lot of skills that focus on placing something on a monster. For example, we have the [[Exploding Palm]] skill where the third stage will place a bleed damage-over-time (DoT) effect on the monster. If the monster dies while this DoT is on him, and there’s a high chance that he will, the monster explodes and does damage to everyone around him. So it really supports this idea of, “He runs in. He does something and then he backs off or goes after another monster because he knows the first monster is already dead.”-- [http:/</g4tv.com/games/pc/28197/diablo-iii/articles/68225/BlizzCon-2009-Diablo-III-Game-Director-Interview/ Jay Wilson interview]blue>

The Monk's concept was that of a fighting game character, where the player could create [[combos ]] by pressing the right buttons at the right time. This being not so different with system evolved into the Monk's combos, as almost all skills of which have 3 three stages. Each stage of each skill performs a specific action. The player can chain these stages into a combo, being able to create 64 different combos from only 4 spells. In addition to that, many custom combos can be made that fit the playerthough there's style of combatno real skill required to trigger them in sequence.

::''PD: <blue><font color="#FFFFFF">So you think it'll be inviting to brand new players as well as experienced players? Because it seems like it could make him more challenging for people who, you know, aren't used to the game.''</font><br>::<b>Julian: </b> Yeah, there is an intent that he will be a little bit more challenging, that he is a little bit more for the not-beginner user. That doesn't mean you won't be able to jump right in with him and still be successful. I think that the intent here is that there is just enough of a learning curve that people who want to master that character have some place to go with that idea and become really good at it.

::...But somebody who's more of a master might really follow the intricacies of how to combo multiple skills together, so something that they might do might be rather than just clicking away and having fun with that, they might be doing things like where they rush in, hit a combo that sort of stuns monsters, position themselves in the middle of that pack, then let off the big [[AoE]] [Area of Effect attack]; they're a little more efficient with their moves and maybe taking a little bit less damage as a result of it. </blue>

Most of what we know about the The Monkwas fairly-limited in his weapon options in early development, though his allowed weapons increased over time. Here's weapons was observed while playing the character in the a quote about his early days, from a Blizzcon 2009 interview with Kevin Martens and Leonard Boyarsky.[http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/31/blizzard-interview-leo-boyarsky-and-kevin-martens-on-diablo-3/] <blue><font color="#FFFFFF">The Monk has a very limited weapon set. In the demo build, nearly every weapon the Monk picked up had a big red X on it because he can't use it. How far those observations Is that how he will translate to be in the final game ?</font><br>Leonard: Not quite as limited as it is unknown, now but it's fairly clear we were only shown a small fraction of the character's talents and abilitiesyeah.

That issue was explored in a Blizzcon 2009 interview with Kevin Martens and Leonard Boyarsky<font color="#FFFFFF">Joystiq.[httpcom://www.joystiqRight now the staff he comes with is the only thing I've been able to use.com</2009/08/31/blizzardfont><br>Leonard: He's got fist weapons too, like fist knives, pretty cool-interview-leo-boyarsky-and-kevin-martens-on-diablo-3/]looking stuff.

Kevin::'But it'Joystiqs just not all done yet.com: The Monk has a very limited weapon set. In So we wanted to make sure what we did have on the demo, nearly every weapon is of the Monk picked up same quality as the other classes. We had a big red X on it because he can't use it. Is to limit that how he will be in the final game?''::Leonard: Not quite as limited as it is now but yeah.

::''Joystiq.com: Right now the staff he comes with is the only thing I've been able to use.::'''Leonard:''' He's got fist weapons too, like fist knives, pretty cool-looking stuff. ::'''Kevin:''' But it's just not all done yet. So we wanted to make sure what we did have on the demo is of the same quality as the other classes. We had to limit that. ::'''Leonard:''' And the difference between him and the other characters is that his stuff will probably take a lot longer to percolate into the game because his skills are very much based on his weapon choices, kind of like how the Assassin in D2 was very much defined by her weaponry. That's kind of how he is. When he has a staff, he has a lot of skills available to him. If you've picked them and bought them I guess, they're very sweeping. Whereas if he has fist weapons, his skills are based on quick hits and stuff.

::So that's kind of the way we're going with him. So as you can imagine, it's not as easy as just putting a sword in a character's hand that disappears when he does all his skills and stuff. With the caveat, of course, that if we decide that's not the way we're going to go, we're going to give him 20 weapons, you know. [laughs]</blue>

Further information about It's long been speculated that the Monk's might have some weapon -specific skills came from , or skills that just work better or differently with particular types of weapons. This has not yet been confirmed, though Jay Wilson, spoke warmly of the possibility in an October 2009 interview: inteview. [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/jay-wilson-exclusive-full-transcript/]

::''Diii.net: <blue><font color="#FFFFFF">The Monk has a staff and the fist weapons. Will he have any weapon specific skills? Like dual wielding with just the fist weapons?''</font><br>::'''Jay Wilson:''' We're talking about that. One of the things we’ve talked about with the Monk is that a lot of his skills don’t really use his weapons. So he’s doing melee skills with his weapons almost holstered. For instance, Debilitating ... I think it’s called [[Crippling Wave]] now. We change them a lot and I get mixed up on the titles. Anyway, the Crippling Wave skill seems like it should be a staff skill. It’s kind of AoE, he does it and affects a lot of guys around him. So it’s a possibility that we’ll do skills and redefine them based on combat styles and have those styles have a weapon preference.</blue>

All of the classes in Diablo III are limited in their weapon choices, the Monk more than most. See the [[Class-Specific Weapons]] article for more details:. Bashiok spoke to this in 2009.[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/699367]

::[[Bashiok]]: <blue>Currently our list of weapons the monk class can use is one handed [[swords]], [[polearms]], combat [[staves]], and [[fist]] weapons. That could potentially change, but its probably pretty likely those will be the weapons the monk can equip. The flavor of the monk we’re working on now is a very strong connection between a small and focused group of weapon types, and the skills that use them.</blue>

::<blue><font color="#FFFFFF">A shield is not a class specific item. A shield is something that any sane person would carry into battle, regardless of gender or class…and it’s quite an unreasonable restriction if you ask me.</font><br>::'''Bashiok: '''Bruce Lee would not use a shield, and neither would the monk.<blue>

::''<blue><font color="#FFFFFF">Diii.net: A question from our forums; can the monk use heavy plate mail and still do all of his high motion combo attacks?</font><br>::'''Jay Wilson: '''Well we do different versions of armor for every character. The Diablo II Sorceress could use heavy plate mail without actually looking like she was covered in heavy plate mail. For us, our focus is to make sure that every character has armor that they look cool in. So the Monk’s armor isn’t going to look like heavy plate armor. It’s going to look like a shirt, what our imagination of what the Monk’s armor could be. It’s definitely going to be equipment, but he’s not going to look like he’s covered in metal, like the barb is likely to look. <font color="#FFFFFF">Diii.net: One other question on the Monk’s armor. Traditionally in RPGs, Monks have bonuses to light armor and penalties to heavy armor. Is that something you guys are looking at?</font><br>Jay Wilson: No. We’re an item based game. The idea of a character that doesn’t use items is foreign to our basic game philosophy. So one of the things we decided when we were creating the Monk was that we were not going to explore that aspect of the character. We’re going to make a Diablo Monk, and the Diablo Monk uses items.</blue>

::<blue>They're really religious holy men, they are raised from childhood in secluded monasteries where they are taught to be pure expressions of their deities through perfection of their fighting techniques. They have 1001 gods and they go so far as to tattoo a symbolic representation of them all over their backs, it's this intricate design and it takes their whole life to complete... When they're not fighting they're training to fight, they spend their time in deep meditation to cleanse sin from themselves... They're equally feared and respected, even by their own citizens, because they are a little bit - you know, they dedicate their whole lives to this. The guy who dedicates his whole life to fighting in the service of God is not a guy you want to see coming down the street for you.</blue>