Way of the Hundred Fists

Way of the Hundred Fists is a Spirit Generating Monk skill unlocked at Level 21. Enhances the combat speed of the Monk significantly, allowing him to pound his enemies to dust.

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

Background

Way of the Hundred Fists in action

As part of a Monk's training he strives to become more than just a fighter, focusing his mental energies to enhance combat speed.

Skill Effects

The following is a very quick list. See the Way of the Hundred Fists rune effects page for a more thorough summary of rune effects, or any of the individual rune pages for numbers, screenshots, blue quotes, and much more.

Icon	Skill	Description

Way of the Hundred Fists Spirit Generator Combo (Level 21)

[e] Generate: 6 Spirit per attack A rapid series of punches strikes enemies for 135% weapon damage.

	Fists of Fury	Affected targets will take an additional 35 Holy damage per second for 5 seconds. Also enables the first hit to dash a short distance.
	Hands of Lightning	Increase the number of hits in the second strike from 8 to 22 hits.
	Blazing Fists	Critical hits increase your attack speed by 22% and movement speed by 11%. This effect lasts for 5 seconds and can stack up to 3 times.
	Spirited Salvo	Every activation of the skill has a 15% chance to generate 7 additional Spirit.
	Windforce Flurry	The third strike generates a wave of wind that deals 149-163 physical damage to enemies directly ahead of you.

Note: Information is based on a level 60 character and rank 7 runestones.

Way of the Hundred Fists Video

A video of Way of the Hundred Fists can be seen below, courtesy of the Diablo.IncGamers.com You Tube channel.

Skill Design

This combo skill is a fast series of blows that strikes multiple targets with the third attack.

The attack has three phases. The first attack is a dashing attack, the second is a flurry of blows, and the third an explosive attack that damages additional nearby targets.

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.

Synergies

Monk dashes towards his first target.

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

Development

Way of the Hundred Fists 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 was a blast to use, and was about the most fun Monk skill. It’s just straight out of an action movie, or some game like Tekken 3. The Monk does a short dash to the first punch, throws a flurry of blows for the second stage, and then blasts an explosive, AoE attack. It’s an excellent crowd killer, and when used on a monster marked with the Explosive Palm 3rd stage, it’s almost certain to clear the room.

This skill was one of the Monk's starting skills in the BlizzCon 2010 gameplay demo. Flux described it again:[2]

It was unnecessary, as well as Hands of Lightning was doing, but I wanted to compare the two. I hadn’t really noticed the skill levels at that point, and soon regretted my choice, since rank one Hundred Fists wasn’t nearly as effective as rank five HoL. Hundred Fists was more fun and flashier, with the Superman dashing first punch, and the ability to hit multiple enemies at once, but with just one point the damage was considerably lower than Hands of Lightning.

Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, and Way of the Hundred Fists became a level 21 skill.

Previous Versions

See the Monk skill archive for more details on previous versions of Way of the Hundred Fists and other Monk skills.

Media

Way of the Hundred Fists can be seen in action on video here:

• Gameplay: Blizzcon 2009
• Video: August 2011 Monk Skill Animations

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

• Diablo III screenshots and pictures
• Way of the Hundred Fists specific gallery contents

• 

  There will be blood.

• 

  Dashing to the first hit.

References

• BlizzCon 2009 Full Monk Skill Tree stats and discussion
• BlizzCon 2010 Monk Hands-on Report
• Zediono's translation of JudgeHype's pre-beta report -- IncGamers 1st Aug 2011
• Silva's Monk Runestone Effects -- IncGamers 6th Sep 2011
• Monk Active Skills -- Diablo III 12th Sep 2011

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer primary

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer secondary

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Template:Skill navbox Necromancer reanimation

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