Monk

The Monk is the Fourth Class in Diablo 3. He is a light armored, fast hitting melee fighter, utilizing Martial Arts and Light magic. His Combat Style is unique and based on Fighting Games.

Background

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, belief in 1001 gods that are in everything (one god in water, one god in fire, one god in the air, etc.), meditation to remove sins from the body and martial arts. The Monks have a fondness of structure and creativity, which is why they have various symbols on their bodies and 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), it may take a monk an entire lifetime to finish the tattoo on his back.

He serves the Elder Monks of the monastery, who seek to destroy evil in all forms.

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 thirty second entry of the Writings of Abd al-Hazir.

Class Design

The Monk thinks of himself as the weapon of the gods against all that is evil, he is a peaceful, patient and a good man who aids people 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.

Combat System

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 not so different with the Monk, as almost all skills have 3 stages. Each stage of each skill does a specific action, the player can chain these stages into a combo, being able to create 12 different combos from only 4 spells, 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 skill OR to press another skill to advance to the next stage of that skill, that may lead to the 3rd stage of any other skill. Alternatively, the player can wait for the 0.6 second window to pass and use the skill again to re-use the first stage of that skill, if he wishes so.

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 enemy dies from the bleed)

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

Attributes

HP: Unknown. Mana: Unknown.

Skills

• Way of the Hundred Fists
  • Use/Objective of Skill: This Skill has visually distinct stages, the stages feel like moderate moves from console brawlers.
    • Stage One: Dash to the target, dealing damage.
    • Stage Two: Multiple Strikes to enemies around you.
    • Stage Three: AoE attack.

• Crippling Wave
  • Use/Objective of Skill: The Monk is fragile but fast, the debuffs make the hits of enemies avoidable/weaker.
    • Stage One: Slows the Movement speed of targeted enemies.
    • Stage Two: Reduces the damage of targeted enemies.
    • Stage Three: Refreshes both Debuffs (Stage one and two) on all enemies around you.

• Exploding Palm
  • Use/Objective of Skill: Distinctive "signature" Skill, fulfill the fantasy of internal damage.
    • Stage One: Damages enemies.
    • Stage Two: Damages enemies. (Identical to stage one)
    • Stage Three: Applies a Moderate DoT debuff on the enemy, if the enemy dies from the debuff, he explodes and damages monsters around him.

• Seven-Sided Strike
  • Use/Objective of Skill: To "become the chain lightning".
    • Stage One: Attack numerous amounts of enemies around, like chain lightning (see above).
    • Stage Two: Unknown.
    • Stage Three: Unknown.

• Impenetrable Defense:
  • Use/Objective of Skill: To provide the Monk with some defense against ranged attackers.
    • Stage One: Start swirling your staff with skill, deflecting all Projectiles that come close to you.
    • Stage Two: Unknown.
    • Stage Three: Unknown.

Development

The Monk was the Fourth class to be revealed by blizzard, he debuted during the opening ceremony of BlizzCon 2009, in front of 26,000 cheering fans. He takes inspiration from old Pen and Paper RPG's and from Fighting Games/Console Brawlers.

There is no female Monk at the moment, but according to Jay Wilson, they have started the process on creating the female Monk.