Fists of Thunder

Fists of Thunder (known as Hands of Lightning prior to July 2011) is a Monk skill enabled at level 1. The Monk charges his strikes with lightning in a three-stage attack.

This is one of the Monk's Combo skills. Combo skills generate Spirit.

Background

Diablo III Active Skill [e]
Fists of Thunder
Used by:	Monk
Enabled at:	Clvl 1
Skill Description
Deal a series of extremely fast punches that deal X% weapon damage as Lightning damage. Each strike has a X% chance to interrupt enemy attacks. Generates X Spirit per attack.
Type:	AoE Damage/Combo
Resource Use:	Generates Spirit
Skill Rune Effects
Alabaster rune:	Unknown
Crimson rune:	Unknown
Golden rune:	Unknown
Indigo rune:	Unknown
Obsidian rune:	Unknown

The Monk charges his strikes with lightning in a three-stage attack that ends with an area of effect blast.

Skill Design

Welcome to electric avenue.

This skill first appeared at BlizzCon 2010, playable in the demo. It adds lightning damage to the Monk's strikes.

The attack has three phases. Each strike deals X% weapon damage as lightning damage, varying by rank and other factors, which may be valuable for later difficulty settings with enemies who are resistant to physical damage. Each strike also has a chance to interrupt the enemy being struck.

Combo skills are the cornerstone 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.

Skill Effect

Skill		Effect
45px Fists of Thunder (Level 1)		Deal a series of extremely fast punches that deal 100% weapon damage as Lightning damage. Each strike has a 15% chance to interrupt enemy attacks. . Generates 6 Spirit Per Hit
	Thunderclap	Each punch causes a shockwave that hits all enemies within X yards of your primary target for X% weapon damage as Lightning damage. Also enables the Monk to teleport a short distance during the ability's first strike.
	Chain Lightning	The third strike creates chain lightning that can jump to up to other nearby targets. Each lightning strike inflicts X% weapon damage as Lightning damage.
	Static Charge	Enemies attacked are charged with static for X seconds. Charged enemies take X% weapon damage as Lightning damage when the Monk attacks other nearby enemies with Fists of Thunder.
	Rolling Thunder	Critical hits generate X additional Spirit.
	Lightning Flash	Each attack with Fists of Thunder increases the Monk's Dodge chance by X%. This effect stacks up to Y times.

Synergies

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

Skill Rune Effects

• No rune effects for Hands of Lightning are known.

A male Monk poses while delivering the second stage hit.

Development

Fists of Thunder was first shown at BlizzCon 2010, then named Hands of Lightning. Blascid reported on using the skill at BlizzCon:[1]

In the Monks case, with her actual lightning fist skill (I do not remember the name), the first hit would be a claw sweep with lightning damage, the second one granted more lightning damage with more lightning graphics, and the third hit was a lightning blast that created a nice AOE arc. (The third move’s animation {Monk’s move and spell effect} reminded me of how Ryu and Ken’s Hadouken looked in Street Fighter 2 {Sorry, I have not played any more recent than that) if your opponent was right in front of you.)

Flux also wrote about using this skill at Blizzcon. A small excerpt:[2]

The only drawback of Hands of Lightning was the fun factor. It was a fairly plain attack. It looks pretty with the big lightning blasts, but it’s basically just a straight ahead right, left, right combo. It doesn’t hit multiple enemies, it doesn’t debuff them, it doesn’t let you dash across the screen to start hitting, etc. It’s the lowest level combo skill for a reason; it’s just a damn powerful attack to use against a single or a few enemies, and sure, killing them quickly and efficiently is fun. But if I were playing for real, I’d probably respec it to another combo when I had the chance. (Though it might be handy long term for the huge lightning damage.)

Before the July 2011 Press Event, Hands of Lightning was renamed Fists of Thunder. Skill tiers were also removed, and Fists of Thunder became a level 1 skill.

Previous Versions

See Hands of Lightning for the original version of this skill.

Compilation image showing the three hits of Hands of Lightning, with the big blast on the final hit.

Media

Fists of Thunder can be seen in action on video here:

• Gameplay: July 2011
• Video: August 2011 Monk Skill Animations

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

• Diablo III screenshots and pictures
• Fists of Thunder specific gallery contents

• 

  Posing the final strike.

• 

  Monk using Hands of Lightning.

• 

  Arcing lightning damage.

• 

  The three-hit sequence.

References

• BlizzCon 2010 Hands-on Blascid
• BlizzCon 2010 Monk Hands-on Report
• Zediono's translation of JudgeHype's pre-beta report -- IncGamers 1st Aug 2011

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Template:Skill navbox Necromancer reanimation

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