Crippling Wave

Crippling Wave is a Monk skill unlocked at level 8. The Monk debuffs his enemies by reducing their damage and speed.

This is one of the combo skills available to the Monk.

Background

Diablo III Active Skill [e]
Crippling Wave
Used by:	Monk
Enabled at:	Clvl 8
Skill Description
Light attacks that apply a series of increasingly debilitating debuffs.
Type:	Combo/Debuff
Resource Use:	Generates Spirit
Skill Rune Effects
Alabaster rune:	Unknown
Crimson rune:	Unknown
Golden rune:	Unknown
Indigo rune:	Unknown
Obsidian rune:	Unknown

As Monks are relatively frail without heavy armour or shields, they have developed techniques to hit enemies where it hurts the most, slowing them down, and making their attacks less successful.

Skill Design

Crippling wave in action.

An interesting sort of combo attack, since it's about defensive bonuses. The damage is lower than any other Monk attacks, lower even than just plain attack (which I never used once during my BlizzCon play time). Like Inner Sanctuary, this one was never needed at BlizzCon. There's no big end boss anywhere, and the only dangers came from large mobs. This skill could be useful against those, but they were generally easier to just destroy with many fast hits than to weaken first.

This one seems like it would be very useful against big bosses, since it makes them susceptible to damage, while making them deal less to you. Throwing in stage 2 or 3 of this in the midst of other more useful combo attacks could be helpful, now and then, since the curse-like debuff can hit multiple enemies in close proximity.

Combo skills are essential for Monks. Combos do bonus damage, grant special properties (i.e. lightning damage and interrupt attacks on Hands of Lightning), and build up the Spirit needed to cast other skills. All combos have three stages, each progressively more powerful and flashier.

Crippling Wave Video

A video of Crippling Wave can be seen below, courtesy of the Diablo.IncGamers.com You Tube channel.

Skill Rank Table

• Rank 1:
  • First hit: Deals 50% of weapon damage. Enemy movement speed reduced 50% for 2 seconds. Generates X Spirit.
  • Second hit: Deals 50% weapon damage. Enemy damage reduced 25% and they take 25% more damage from attacks. Generates X Spirit.
  • Third hit: Deals 60% weapon damage. Debuffs refreshed on all targets. Generates X Spirit.
• Rank 2:
  • First hit: Deals 60% of weapon damage. Enemy movement speed reduced 60% for 2 seconds. Generates X Spirit.
  • Second hit: Deals 60% weapon damage. Enemy damage reduced 30% and take 30% more damage from attack. Generates X Spirit.
  • Third hit: Deals 75% weapon damage. Debuffs refreshed on all targets. Generates X Spirit.

Synergies

• No synergies with any of the passive skills are yet known.

Skill Rune Effects

• No rune effects for Crippling Wave are known.

Development

Crippling Wave was first shown at BlizzCon 2009 as one of the originals when the Monk was unveiled. Flux was able to try it out:[1]

This one seems like it would be very useful against big bosses, since it makes them susceptible to damage, while making them deal less to you. Throwing in stage 2 or 3 of this in the midst of other more useful combo attacks could be helpful, now and then, since the curse-like debuff can hit multiple enemies in close proximity.

Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, and Crippling Wave became a level 8 skill.

Previous Versions

See the Monk skill archive for more details on previous versions of Crippling Wave and other Monk skills.

Media

Crippling Wave can be seen in action on video here:

• Gameplay: Blizzcon 2009

You can find pictures in the Diablo III screenshot and picture gallery:

• Diablo III screenshots and pictures
• Crippling Wave specific gallery contents

• 

  Crippling Wave in use.

References

• BlizzCon 2009 Full Monk Skill Tree stats and discussion
• JudgeHype.com July 2011 Press Event Coverage - The Monk (Translated by Zediono)

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