Kung Fu Fighting: Monk Skill Analysis, Part 1

2011-11-24

Kung Fu Fighting: Monk Skill Analysis, Part 1

Image by DiabloWiki

Welcome to the first class analysis, an in-depth review of each and every skill, runestone, and passive. We’ll be doing at least three skills per class per week. Please keep in mind, however, that Diablo 3 is still in beta, so this information might change and become outdated.

 

Class Overview

Monks are holy warriors, praying to their gods above as they beat the living crap out of the demonic forces at hand. Comparable to a fusion of the Assassin and Paladin from Diablo 2, Monks weave in and out of combat with their high mobility, all while delivering rapid-fire bare-knuckle assaults or aiding their allies with protective holy magic.

The Monk’s resource system is Spirit, which starts at 200 and depeletes whenever the player uses Spirit Spenders, powerful skills that usually have some utility compenent attached. Spirit is gained through Spirit Generators, offensive “combo” skills that can be chained together in the heat of battle. Each combo climaxes after three attacks, resulting in area-of-effect damage, enemy debuffs, damage-over-time, etc.

Unlike the Barbarian’s Fury, whose resource system is similar, Monks do not gain Spirit from taking damage. Also unlike the Fury, Spirit does not degenerate over time. It is static; if a player finishes a battle with 65 Spirit, they will keep that amount until they decide to use a generator or a spender.

 

Skill Analysis

FISTS OF THUNDER
Unleash a series of extremely fast punches that deal 120% weapon damage as Lightning damage. Every third hit deals damage to all enemies in front of you and knocks them back a short distance. Generate 6 Spirit per attack.
While this skill gives players a nice source of alternative damage, the AoE component is a little strange, only affecting the area immediately in front of the player. Admittedly, I’m also never a fan of knockback effects on melee abilities, mainly because it can cause needless chasing. All that being said, there’s probably a reason this skill is the first players are given. It seems pretty noob friendly.

 

Lightning Flash
Each hit with Fists of Thunder increases your Dodge chance by 2.5%. This effect stacks up to 5 times.
Don’t underestimate stacking dodge chance. This runestone not only promotes the “a good offense is the best defense” ideology, it demands you worship it. Sure, you may be sacrificing damage here, but if Inferno is as difficult as Blizzard wants it to be, this rune could repreatedly save your life.

 

Thunderclap
Each punch causes a shockwave that hits all enemies within 6 yards of your primary target for 171% weapon damage as Lightning damage. Also enables you to teleport a short distance during the ability’s first strike.
In areas with enemy clusters, this runestone is going to be very useful. But even without that, the teleport alone is sounds pretty amazing. I can easily see scenarios where players are warping between new enemies every few seconds, adding to Monk’s flavor of being elusive.

 

Quickening
Critical hits with this skill generate 4 Spirit.
If you’re going for high critical, this is great! If you aren’t, then it’s not so great. Easy enough. I’ve heard that Monks tend to run low on Spirit, so this rune could really help with that. There’s also a particular passive this runestone would work well with (*cough, cough, Sixth Sense), though we’ll talk about this more in later posts.

 

Bounding Light
Instead of knocking enemies back, the third hit creates a chain of lightning that can jump to up to 6 other nearby targets. Each lightning strike inflicts 157% weapon damage as Lightning damage.
I love this runestone for two reasons: chain lightning and no knockback. I can’t see anything bad about this; it’s freakin’ chain lighting!

 

Static Charge
Your primary target is charged with static for 7 seconds. Static charged enemies take 120% weapon damage as Lightning damage when you attack other nearby enemies with Fists of Thunder.
There’s a lot of potential here. The place I see it shining the most is versus champions/rares/bosses, but only when additional monsters are surrounding them. Hit them with Fists of Thunder, fight the adds. Rinse and repeat.
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BLINDING FLASH
Create a flash of light that blinds all enemies within 20 yards for 3 seconds. Blinded enemies have a 30% chance to miss with attacks and will not attack unless they are attacked first. Costs 30 Spirit.
I don’t like this skill. I can see where it could come in handy, but only in Inferno, and only in spots you probably shouldn’t be in to begin with. Three seconds doesn’t sound like a long time, but it’s long enough to run away from a crappy situation. The fact that the enemies gain a chance to miss is nice, though I can’t see any reason to attack before the duration finishes. My guess is that this skill will be most practical in PvP.

 

Searing Light
Increases the chance affected enemies will miss attacks to 50%.
A nice bump to the miss chance. However, like I said, I don’t see any reason to break the sedation effect, so this runestone seems a little pointless.

 

Faith in the Light
For 10 seconds after using Blinding Flash, all of your attacks are infused to deal 36% additional weapon damage as Holy.
Not a lot of extra damage, though it’s always nice to have other source types. At earlier levels, this and Fists of Thunder will allow players to get around any encountered resistances.

 

Self Reflection
Increases the duration enemies are blinded to 7 seconds.
Seven seconds is a long time to put anything into a passive state. In the case of Inferno, if you’re in a dire situation and need to heal up or escape, this rune would give you ample time to do so. In the case of PvP, this could temporarily shut down an opponent, though I’d imagine it won’t last the whole seven seconds on players.

 

Blinding Echo
3 seconds after using Blinding Flash, a second flash of light will blind enemies within 20 yards for 2.5 seconds.
I don’t understand how this effect is wildly different from Self Reflection. In PvP, I could see an opponent being surprised when they’re hit with the effect a second time, though this will only happen once or twice in a battle. As for PvE, I find this to be the worst of them all.

 

Blind and Confused
Blinded enemies have a 30% chance to attack each other.
This is my favorite of the five. Not only are enemies prevented from attacking you, they might actually decide to kill each other instead. I wonder if they still have a chance to miss while fighting each other. If so, this runestone loses a little of its luster.
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MANTRA OF EVASION
Recite a Mantra that grants you and all allies within 40 yards a 25% chance to dodge attacks. Lasts 60 seconds. For 3 seconds after activation, a second effect grants an additional 25% chance to dodge attacks. 15 second cooldown.
So the Monk has “active” auras. Auras for the Paladin in Diablo 2 were basically fire-and-forget. They didn’t drain mana (usually) and there was never any worry of reactivation. Blizzard’s goal is for Monks to have the same area-of-effect utility that Paladins did, though in a more dynamic way. There’s three seconds post-activation where the dodge chance is doubled, so if you’re team is caught in a tight spot, simply recast this mantra.

 

Divine Protection
When you or an ally under the effect of Mantra of Evasion is reduced below 20% Life, a shield of protection forms around that target, reducing incoming damage by 80% for 7 seconds. Each target can be protected at most once every 120 seconds by this effect.
This death prevention mechanic will be very helpful for glass cannons, allowing them time to get away from the damage. The cooldown is a little lengthy, though might be well worth it if a death is prevented.

 

Backlash
Successfully dodging an attack creates a burst of flame dealing 79% weapon damage as Fire damage to all nearby enemies.
Sure, this doesn’t seem like a lot of damage, but it can be assumed that the burst will happen every few seconds, and even more frequently during the three seconds after activation. Plus, my assumption is that this can occur for each member of your party. If you’re teamed up with a dodge-stacking barbarian or a fellow evasive monk, there’s going to be lots of explosions happening.

 

Wind Through the Reeds
Mantra of Evasion also grants an increase in movement speed by 7%.
Yes, movement speed is always helpful, if only for quality of life purposes, though it’s such a low increase that players might be better off equipping a different runestone. Sorry, gold! If it’s any consolation, I like your name.

 

Perseverance
Mantra of Evasion also reduces the duration of all control impairing effects by 30%.
This one is going to be nice in PvP. In World of Warcraft for instance, crowd control can make or break your win. I can see this being the case with Diablo 3 as well. Slows, freezes, hexes, etc. will all have their effectiveness reduced by a third. This is huge, especially against a character or team that is banking on this control. In PvE, I can see this being marginally valuable, maybe against bosses that spread debuffs.

 

Hard Target
Mantra of Evasion also grants an increase in armor by 120%.
Not only will you have a solid chance to dodge, your armor more than doubles! Keep in mind, however, that we don’t know exactly how much damage armor will mitigate, so maybe this won’t be as good as it sounds.

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