Blizzcon 2009: The latest Diablo III character class has been unveiled in all his open-palmed glory and he is, of course, the Monk.
Following on from the introduction of the Witch Doctor, Barbarian and Wizard classes at previous events the Diablo III Class panel included Leonard Boyarsky, Julian Love and Wyatt Cheng . The devs said they were really looking for a style of combat reminiscent of fighting games and wanted to utilise similar key combinations to provide combo points. The Monk will be all about speed and furious hand to hand combat. However, he will also be able to call on Runes, seen previously with the Wizard class, and be able to use some weapons such as the staff.
Ultimately a group of learned mystics the monks "are feared and respected in equal measure - they may be killing machines, but they are also very holy men," according to Lead World Designer Leonard Boyarsky.
They were kung fu fighting...Today we saw moves such as the Way of the Hundred Fists; a three stage attack that uses fighting game styled combinations. The first click dashes you towards the target, second click attacks multiple enemies, and the final click unleashes an AoE attack that hits all nearby targets. It will be interesting to see how all this hand-to-hand plays out in the game, and how the monk's heavy staff will be utlilised as part of the repertoire.
But that reliance on hand-to-hand comes at a price; the Monk might be fast, but he's not as strong as the Barbarian, nor does he have as much magic as the Wizard or the Witch Doctor. Crippling Wave, the second ability revealed at BlizzCon shows a little more about how the Monk will get around these difficulties. This particular chain-combo will first slow attackers with a debuff, reduce incoming damage with the second click and finally will refresh itself with the third.
Exploding Palm, however, is all about wanting to fulfil that well-known martial arts trope of internal organ damage. Wyatt Cheng described it as a "Signature skill", with multiple stages. Stage 1 and 2 cause damage, Stage three causes a bleed effect that increases on moving targets. In the final stage, should the target die with the bleed effect still in force, players will be rewarded with a spectacular explosion. Sounds like fun!
Stay tuned for more BlizzCon news as Atomic goes head to head with developers on Day 2.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012