Monk

The Monk is a melee/caster hybrid, with focus on martial arts close combat. He is like a mix between the Assassin and Paladin from Diablo II, and shares a few traits with the Monk from Diablo: Hellfire.

Background

Diablo III Class [e]

Monk
Role:	Melee/Caster
Primary Attributes:	Strength Dexterity Vitality Willpower Life Mana
Class Skills
Skills and Traits
Background
Origin:	Sanctuary
Affiliation:	Monks of Ivgorod
Friends:	None Known
Foes:	None Known

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; the belief 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.

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 D3 Team wanted to make a character than 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.

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 being not so different with the Monk, as almost all skills have 3 stages. Each stage of each skill performs a specific action. The player can chain these stages into a combo, being able to create 12 different combos from only 4 spells. In addition to that, many custom combos can be made that fit the player's style of combat.

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)

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.

Attributes and Skills

Monk Skills

The Monk skillss are arranged into three distinctive skill tree categories:

A
B
C

All three trees have a combination of active and passive skills. Active skills are used in combat, while the passive skills boost or change the behaviour of the active skills.

The monk uses a very special combat system that is better explained above.

Tree A Skills

Seven Sided Strike

The A-Tree seems to be a "Combat" skill tree, with skills related to dodging, or maneuvering in combat.

Tier 2 Skills
- Force Without Thought
Tier 3 Skills
- Seven Sided Strike
Tier 4 Skills
- Inner Sanctuary
- Way of the Hundred Fists

Tree B Skills

Exploding Palm

The B-skills resemble a debuffing tree, where you make your opponents weaker (or part of your arsenal with Exploding Palm.

Tier 1 Skills
- Crippling Wave
Tier 2 Skills
- Exploding Palm

Tree C Skills

Impenetrable Defense

The C-skills seem to be the "Holy" skills, with power infused by the Light, especially Impenetrable Defense.

Tier 1 Skills
- Impenetrable Defense
Tier 2 Skills
- Radiant Visage

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.

There is no female Monk at the moment, but according to Jay Wilson, the creation of the female Monk is in progress.

The Monk was first heard of almost a year ago, shortly after the Wizard was unveiled at BlizzCon 2008. Jay Wilson just commented and said us fans would love it [1].