Difference between revisions of "Monk"

Revision as of 05:12, 8 August 2011

The Monk is a melee fighter, with an emphasis on speed, combos, aura bonuses, and tactics, rather than the brute force of the Barbarian. Many of the Monk's skills have an Eastern martial arts influence, 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.

Though the Monk shares a name and some properties with the Monk from Diablo I's expansion pack Hellfire, Blizzard has disowned that expansion pack and claims no connection between the characters. [1]

Background

Diablo III Class
The Monk
Skills:	Monk skills, Combos, Auras
Traits:	Monk traits
Resource:	Spirit
Common builds:
Unknown.
Background
Origin:	Sanctuary.
Affiliation:	Monks of Ivgorod
Friends:	Unknown
Foes:	Unknown.

The male Monk character comes from the Monasteries of Ivgorod in the Foothills. They are taken into the Monastery at a young age, where they are taught ancient knowledge; they believe in 1001 gods that dwell within everything (one god in water, one god in fire, one god in the air, etc.), martial arts, and meditation to purify the body and soul.

The Monks have a fondness for structure and creativity, which is why they have various symbols on their bodies. Their light magic is brought to life through runes, symbols that invoke the light to aid them. It is said that each Monk has a tattoo on his back, that chronicles their lifetime/adventures (needs confirmation), and that it may take a monk an entire lifetime to complete the tattoo on his back.

The monk serves the Elder Monks of the monastery, who seek to destroy evil in all forms. He thinks of himself as the weapon of the gods against all that is evil. He is a peaceful, patient and good man who aids those who suffer, with no hatred against anyone, in contrast to the Barbarian. He is adept in Martial Arts, being able to defeat multiple foes without the aid of weapons.

Leonard Boyarsky, Diablo 3's lead story designer, discussed this in an August 2009 interview.[2]

Skills and Traits

The Monk's skills were first revealed at Blizzcon 2009, when only 8 of them were in the game, assigned randomly to three skill trees. The entire skill tree system was reworked during 2010, and at Blizzcon 2010 the Monk's skills were seen again, in a very different form.

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.

All skills in Diablo III are active skills. Passive skills are known as 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.

Tier One Skills

• Hands of Lightning -- This combo skill unleashes a series of lightning infused punches that deal bonus weapon damage as lightning damage, and have an increased chance to interrupt enemy attacks.
• Lashing Tail Kick -- The Monk unleashes a deadly roundhouse kick, causing knockback and bonus damage.
• Long Reach -- This combo skill allows the Monk to project lines of pure force which allow him to hit multiple enemies at greater than melee range.

Tier Two Skills

• Circle of Wrath -- Creates a blast of holy energy that heals the Monk and nearby allies, while also hitting enemies for considerable holy damage.
• Lethal Decoy -- The Monk creates an illusion of himself composed of pure holy energy. This illusion attracts enemies to it, before exploding, dealing holy damage.
• Serenity -- The Monk creates a shield that protects him from all incoming damage for a short duration.

Tier Three Skills

Seven Sided Strike.

• Blinding Flash -- Creates a flash of light that blinds all nearby enemies for a short duration. Blinded enemies will not attack unless they are attacked first, and also suffer a reduced chance to hit.
• Crippling Wave -- This combo skill provides a series of large sweeping attacks that damage and debilitate enemies.
• Holy Aura -- An aura that boosts the Monk's health. Also grants increased health regeneration to the Monk and all his nearby allies.

Tier Four Skills

• Dashing Strike -- This combo skill allows the Monk to dash quickly at the targeted enemy or location, dealing weapon damage and bonus physical damage when he arrives.
• Dominate Aura -- Creates an aura that causes all nearby enemies to take additional damage.
• Way of the Hundred Fists -- This combo skill sends the Monk dashing to deal multiple hits to any number of targets in his range.

Tier Five Skills

• Exploding Palm -- This combo skill hits twice for low damage, before the third hit that sets a pulsing heart over the enemy's head. If an enemy dies while the heart is in place they detonate in a blood supernova, dealing heavy damage to anything in the vicinity.
• Inner Sanctuary -- Creates a protected region on the ground for a short duration, shielding the monk from melee attackers.

Tier Six Skills

• Breath of Heaven -- The Monk banishes any harmful effects from himself and his allies, including stun, slowing, and effects that reduce defensive or offensive abilities.
• Retribution Aura -- Creates an aura that reflects damage back at enemies, dealing holy damage upon them. Also deals holy damage to every enemy in range, whether they're attacking or not.
• Sweeping Wind -- This combo skill causes the Monk to sweep his weapon in a wide circle, forming a barrier of force that deals damage to every enemy hit. Can hit enemies multiple times.

Tier Seven Skills

• Resist Aura -- The Monk creates an aura that protects him and his allies, increasing all resistances. For the first few seconds after this aura is activated, all resistances are granted an additional increase.
• Seven Sided Strike -- A powerful attack that allows the Monk to teleport to a target, then strike it or something nearby multiple times.
• Wave of Light -- The Monk summons a rolling wave of holy fire that scorches everything in its path, dealing holy damage.

Spirit

The Monk's resource is Spirit. See that article for many more 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[3], 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.

Monk Traits

A very quick listing. Consult the Monk Traits article for more detail, or click on any of the individual traits listed. These are the traits revealed at Blizzcon 2010; there will be some removed and others added in the final game.

Level required: Under 10

• Precision -- Increases melee damage for each point in dexterity.
• Toughness -- Increases vitality.
• True Spirit -- Increases Spirit regeneration.
• Superior Skill -- Increases dexterity.
• Healer -- Increases the amount healed by your healing skills.
• Lucky -- Causes monsters to drop larger amounts of gold.

Level requirement: 11

• Sixth Sense -- Increases the Monk's chance to dodge attacks.
• Intimidation -- Increases damage done and reduces vendor costs.

Level requirement: 15

• Die by the Sword -- Increases damage done when the Monk is wielding a sword.

Level requirement: 23

• Beast Hunter -- Damage bonus against Beasts.
• Demonsbane -- Damage bonus against Demons.
• Just... Stay... Dead! -- Damage bonus against Undead.

Level requirement: 27

• Cruelty -- Increases the Monk's chance of dealing critical hits.
• Fleet -- Increases the Monk's movement speed.

Level requirement: 35

• Weak Spot -- Increases critical hit damage.
• Natural Leader -- Effect Unknown.

Level requirement: 39

• Pound of Flesh -- Increases the Monk's chance to get a health globe from normal monsters by 20%. Also increases the amount of healing provided by 10%.
• Rapid Strikes -- Increases attack speed

Level requirement: 43

• Thunderous Blows -- Increases damage done when the Monk is wielding a two-handed weapon.
• Frenzied Attacks -- Increases your chance to deal critical strikes and increases critical strike damage.

Level requirement: 47

• Temperature Control -- Reduces lightning, fire and frost damage taken by the monk.

Class Design

The "theme" of the Society of Monks is a mix of "spiritual" Buddhism and "eradication of evil" of the European churches while maintaining an Asian/Indian visual theme. Abd al-Hazir writes about an encounter with a Monk in a tavern, in his 32nd entry of the Writings of Abd al-Hazir.

The monk was partly made as an opposite to the Barbarian, with more focused gameplay. He is also relatively weak, so a lot of the class design is built upon the monk debuffing his foes, to receive less damage himself.

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. [4]

The Female Monk

Female monk silhouette on the right.

The Monk debuted at Blizzcon 2009 with just the male version playable, and represented in artwork. There was no sign of the female monk at that point, not in the game or in concept art, though it was always understood that there would be a female version. Jokes flew about her being called "the nun," but no hints were given as to how she'd compare to the male, with his prominent bald head.

It wasn't until afterwards that fans realized the silhouette in the character creation screen was in fact taken from a piece of female monk concept art. That artwork has never been seen; the female Monk was redesigned after Blizzcon 2009 but before the reveal in February 2010, losing the long hair for a "pixie cut."[5] None of the concepts of earlier versions of the character design have yet been released.

Light armor action pose.

Prior to the reveal of the female monk there was a great deal of fan speculation about her appearance. Blizzard encouraged this with a semi-contest run through the Battle.net forums. There were no prizes offered, but fan artists enjoyed the experience, and other fans liked to see what they came up with, as well as wagering which one would most accurately reflect the official version. Blizzard was taking something of a risk with this; after all, what if some piece of fan art had been wildly popular, and the official version not very well-liked by the community? (This was not out of the question; see the male Wizard controversy, for example.)

The official version of the female monk finally reared her head on February 5, 2010, when concept art for the character was seen in an episode of the Jace Hall Show.[6] High quality versions of that artwork[7] were released the next week, and after some fairly intense debate,[8] the official art was widely approved.

For instance, fansite Diablo.IncGamers.com ran two votes; one to pick the best of the fan art,[9] and then a second with the top 3 pieces of fan art against the official version. The official version won handily.[10]

The female Monk gained more visual recognition thanks to the efforts of a fan. A cosplayer at BlizzCon 2010, Christina Estrada, wore an amazingly-realistic female Monk costume and won first prize. She's since gone on to appear in that costume at other game conventions as a paid presenter, and it's quite possible that more fans have seen her rendition of the outfit than any of the official game artwork.

Combat System

Way of the Hundred Fists in action.

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 system evolved into the Monk's combos, all of which have three stages, though there's no real skill required to trigger them in sequence.

Using a skill will cast the first stage of that skill. The player has a 0.6 second window to press the skill again to advance to the next stage of that (or a different) skill, that may lead to the 3rd stage of said skill. Alternatively, the player can wait for the 0.6 second window to pass, to re-use the first stage of the skill.

An Example:

• Use/Objective of Skill(s): Easy for Beginners, Depth for veterans.
  • Stage One: Way of the Hundred Fists, move in close to the enemies.
  • Stage Two: Crippling Wave, lower the damage of the enemies.
  • Stage Three: Exploding Palm, Apply the DoT to a damaged enemy and watch the bunch of monsters go boom! (make sure the enemy dies before the bleed ends)

Julian Love described the theory behind the Monk's combat design in an October 2009 interview. [11]

During the BlizzCon 2009 Diablo 3 Heroes and Monsters panel, it was said that the combat style was influenced by the combat styles of the Assassin in Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction and the | Rogue class in World of Warcraft.

Equipment

Though the Monk can use most types of melee weapons, he has two specialties; Fist weapons and combat staves.

Monk Weapons

Monk "fist" weapon concepts.

The Monk was fairly-limited in his weapon options in early development, though his allowed weapons increased over time. Here's a quote about his early days, from a Blizzcon 2009 interview with Kevin Martens and Leonard Boyarsky.[12]

Monk Weapon Skills

Monk posing dramatically.

It's long been speculated that the Monk might have some weapon-specific skills, 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 inteview. [13]

Class-Specific Weapons

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.[14]

This seemed to rule out axes, two-handed swords, spears, wands, daggers, orbs, maces, and possibly bows and crossbows. Later posts clarified that the Monk was much less limited in his weapon choices.

Monks could not use shields as of April 2010, but by August 2010 that had changed, and a Monk was seen using a shield in the Artisan Video. [15]

Expect additional changes as development continues, and quite likely there will be more such changes in expansion packs as well.

Monk Armor

A level 1, "naked" Monk.

In terms of armor, the Monk is set to be just like all of the other characters in the Diablo series (aside from the disavowed Hellfire Monk, whose defense was boosted in light and penalized in heavy armor). The D3 Monk will wear the heaviest armor possible to achieve the most defense possible, an approach that runs counter to the usual RPG trope. Jay Wilson confirmed this in an October 2009 interview. [16]

Class Philosophy and Religion

The D3 Team has thus far only revealed bits and pieces of the Monk's story and lore. They are said to be holy and pure, "lawful/good" to use the D&D terminology. They have a vivid cosmology with 1001 gods, and some of their skills will be directly inspired by one or more of these deities. The first information we received about the Monk came from lead story designer Leonard Boyarsky at the Blizzcon 2009 Character Panel.

Official Lore

The Monk's background was related in the 32nd journal entry of Abd al-Hazir.

The last weeks of autumn had settled upon Ivgorod, and the first breath of winter had crept into the air. As night fell and the sun dipped below the horizon, I was all too grateful to take refuge in a tavern. As I entered, I noted a certain tension in the room. Despite the hour, it was not busy, with only scattered, small groups huddled at the tables around the edges of the room. The benches at the center of the room were empty except for one man.

The man seemed ignorant of the cold. He was dressed like a beggar, wearing little more than an orange sheet wound around his body, leaving half of his chest exposed. A garland of large wooden beads hung around his thick neck. His head was completely shaved, with the exception of a wild bushy beard. Then, recognition struck me: upon his forehead he had a tattoo of two red dots, one larger than the other. As any informed student of the peoples and cultures of this world must also realize, this man was one of the Monks of Ivgorod, the secretive and reclusive holy warriors of the country.

I had heard countless fantastic stories about the monks, tales that were surely the beneficiary of significant embellishment. The monks’ skin, the accounts said, was as hard as iron, impenetrable by the blade of any sword or by the point of any arrow, and their fists could break stone as easily as you or I would snap a twig. Though the unassuming man before me seemed miles away from what I had heard and read of the monks, I approached cautiously, sliding down onto the bench across from him, eager to take his measure. He beckoned me forward with a small wave of his hand.

"Ah, a soul brave enough to sit with me. Come, friend."

Food was placed before me, but I had little hunger for it, focusing instead on recording the details of the monk's life. He told me of his belief in the existence of a thousand and one gods, gods he believed could be found in all things: the fire in the hearth, the water in the river and the air that we breathed. Pretty enough for a story, perhaps. But any reasoned individual must surely, as I did, scoff at such a view of the world as little more than superstition. He went on to describe his intense mental and physical training, his unending quest to hone his mind and body into an instrument of divine justice. Though I do wonder for what need his thousand gods would require a mortal man to implement their will. When I asked him why he did not carry a sword or, indeed, any weapon at all, he simply replied, "My body is my weapon." Then raising his hand and tapping his forehead, he added, "As is my mind."

Most unexpectedly, I would be treated to a display of this mastery.

A group of men approached our table, knocking my book to the floor and shoving me out of the way, producing knives and other weapons as they advanced. They were focused only on the solitary figure of the monk seated across from me. I scrabbled beneath the table, having an inkling of what was to come. I watched as at some unseen signal, they attacked.

Without rising from his seat, the monk met the first man's lunging slash, grabbing his wrist and tossing him carelessly over his shoulder, throwing him into a table with a loud crash. The suddenness of the monk's attack momentarily stunned the men, and as they stood there, he rose.

That was when chaos broke out.

The monk was a fluid mass of restrained energy, meeting every attack with hardly a moment's distress. He fought with hands and feet in a way I had never seen before. In my days, I have witnessed my share of drunken bar brawls, but this was something else altogether. The sound of bones crunching with each of his strikes mixed with something I could not quite believe: the monk was laughing as he fought. One by one, he dispatched his foes until only one remained.

That one picked up a chair and hurled it toward the monk. The monk swung his arm forward and struck the incoming projectile, meeting the solid oak of the chair with his closed fist. The wood broke apart, splinters filling the air as the shattered pieces of the stool fell harmlessly to the ground around him.

"You don't fool me, demon," the monk spat. He pulled his arms back to his sides, then extended his hands before him and began to chant. A nimbus of white light appeared around his head, growing larger and more intense until it completely encompassed the monk’s body. He roared, and the light blew outward. As it washed over the other man, his skin peeled away, revealing a red-skinned demon beneath and threw the creature through the front doors of the tavern.

The monk hurtled forward, but his individual movements were too fast for my eyes to track. It seemed as though there were seven of him raining blows upon the demon from every side. Staggered, the demon stumbled. The monk grabbed the demon by the neck, grinning as he pulled his free arm back, crackling energy glowing on his open hand. He shoved his palm forward, and when it struck the demon, its body exploded: muscle, skin and bones tore apart, and the smell of burning flesh filled the air.

I would not have believed it if I had not seen it with my own two eyes. It seems the stories of these peerless warriors might not have been as exaggerated as I first thought.

Early Development

The Monk was the Fourth class to be revealed by Blizzard, debuting during the opening ceremony of BlizzCon 2009, in front of 26,000 cheering fans and countless DirecTV viewers. As with much of Diablo III, the D3 Team took inspiration from old Pen and Paper RPGs and from Fighting Games/Console Brawlers.

The female version of the Monk was revealed on February 5th, 2010.

Hellfire Monk?

Hellfire Monk

Despite the fact that the official expansion pack for Diablo, Hellfire, added a fourth character called the Monk, the D3 Team has repeatedly insisted that there is no connection between the two characters, either in design or lore.

Here's what Julian Love and Kevin Martens said on that topic at Blizzcon 2009. [17]

GamePlanetNZ: Diablo: Hellfire (the 1997 expansion by Synergistic Software) was obviously not a Blizzard game, but I have to ask about the Monk, because it appeared in Hellfire - did you guys look at Hellfire and draw any kind of inspiration from what they did with the Monk in that?

Julian Love: We can't really talk about non-Blizzard games usually...

GP: So it's no relation at all?

Kevin Martens: No, the monk is much more inspired by... - it's a pretty disparate group of influences, but for example on the gameplay side a pen-and-paper monk from D&D (Dungeons & Dragons), it's kinda like that for the early inspiration. And obviously kung fu movies, Jackie Chan all that sort of stuff, Once Upon a Time in China, many, many things from there. He's a got a bit of that Eastern European monastic thing, as far as cultural development goes.

There's the fighting game mechanic, his combo system. So the way we try to do it is we take something that's archetypal - in this case, a fast but weaker melee character - but we try to put twists on it, with the culture, with the moves, with every aspect of this we can, we try to give it something fresh and interesting. So if we're going to introduce a new class, you know, it's not just the "assassin" by another name, it has some similarities to that but there's enough different about it that he not only plays differently but he feels different, and looks and fits into the world differently as well. We have't met anyone from his part of the world in the game before, so he's actually expanding the universe and the story as well.

Diablo 3 community manager Bashiok drove this point home a month later: [18]

However they announce the Monk... He’s from Diablo Hellfire, while technically not a Diablo 2 character (and I think Hellfire was someone else’s project) hes still known in the Diablo universe. So why did blizzard tell us no more old classes then throw us a curve ball in the Monk?

Bashiok: It’s not a recognized part of the Diablo franchise, and to be honest it is so much so not recognized, that when people asked about returning classes in the Q&A’s and in some of the press interviews the Hellfire expansion just wasn’t in anyone’s minds.

Plus, it isn’t the same class. We aren’t taking an old class and updating it. The monk from Hellfire, and in fact the story and content of Hellfire, doesn’t exist as far as game lore and story is concerned going into Diablo III.

They happen to share a name, the same as all of the other monk classes that have existed in all other RPG’s since the beginning of time. It doesn’t mean they’re related kit/story/flavor wise.

Trivia

The monks symbol is the mitsudomoe, a triple tomoe. It's used in family crests but also associated with Okinawa where many martial arts originated.

Media

You can find every sort of Diablo III screenshot and artwork in the picture gallery.

• Monk Act One screenshots
• Monk Act Two screenshots
• Monk Character Artwork
• Monk Wallpapers

• 

  The Monk

• 

  Monk using Seven Sided Strike.

• 

  A bubble of his own: Impenetrable Defense.

• 

  Exploding Palm

• 

  Way of the Hundred Fists

• 

  Crippling Wave

• 

  From the Monk Trailer

• 

  Concept art for a battle-ready Monk.

• 

  Monk in battle.

References

• Full Monk Skill Tree Stats and Discussion
• Exclusive Jay Wilson Interview
• Wikipedia: mitsudomoe
• Monk Concept art
• Writings of Abd al-Hazir: Entry no. 0032