The Monk was designed with both orthodox Eastern European monks and Asian archetypes in mind, and you can see this merging of traditions in his garb. He also appears to have taken advice on facial hair from the new, old Max Payne. In any case, the Monk is designed to project a holy vibe; not only from his clothes, but from every aspect of his character. Thus, the team have complemented the orange in his outfit with a holy colour palettes for his attacks – primarily gold and silver – so that everything he does feels suffused with a brilliant light; with divine justice. To further emphasise this, the team have also used patterns of runes on certain attacks. Not only does this point to the Monk as a man of knowledge, it is also symbolic of arcane power; of drawing on something other.
Total bad-assery.
- The Monk Walks the Way of the Hundred Combos
In action the monk feels like he's straight out of kung fu monastery in Shaolin. He's all about speed and agility, which makes him slightly more vulnerable than other classes, but he has a [not so] secret weapon – combos. Inspired by fighting games and looking to expand on the Assassin's combo system in Diablo II, the team has put together a no nonsense system that works really well. The basic idea is that many of the Monk's attacks are three stage moves – you click three times to move through the sequence. What this means is that if you have another three stage attack assigned to the right mouse button, you can mix and match between them. You might utilise the dash in and attack from Way of the Hundred Fists, then end on Exploding Palm, which literally results in your enemy's heart exploding [more on this in a sec]. Cooler still, you can tab-swap the right click ability in the middle of a combo, which means you can create combos utilising attacks from three different skills.
Click here to see the Monk kicking ass.
We spent a fair amount of time experimenting with the combo system, and in practice it works well. You don't have to be too fast on the click to create combos either - we found you could really pause between clicks if you wanted to.
The success of the combo system will come entirely down to how well different skills complement each other – i.e. whether it's actually necessary for you to create custom combos to beat particular enemies. It's a bit early to say whether the team will succeed in this regard or not, but they're certainly on the right track, and the animations all blend together really well.
We should also mention that not all active skills are three-sequence moves. Something like Impenetrable Defence, for instance, is a one-shot defensive skill. You can't use it to build a three part combo [aside from as the final move] as it resets the combo when used. Same with Seven-Sided Strike.
Not pictured: the rest of this presumably bad-ass sequence.
- If Every Enemy Encounter Doesn't End in a Shower of Blood You're Not Trying Hard Enough
We love Exploding Palm. It's awesome. How does it work? Well, all three hits are single precision attacks, but on the third a bleed dot is placed on the enemy [you'll see a heart icon over their head], which basically means they'll bleed for a certain number of seconds [which presumably changes depending on the skill's level]. If the enemy dies during that time, their heart [and everything else] explodes doing area of effect damage to anything close by, and showering the surroundings in gore. What's not to love?
As you can imagine, it gets mighty tempting to use that third hit in most combos. For instance, the first two hits in Crippling Wave slow enemy movement and reduce damage respectively, which is a great set-up for an Exploding Palm bleed – provided they're likely to die over the bleed time. If not, you could always dash in and attack with Way of the Hundred Fists, then place a bleed and dash off to another set of enemies to begin again.
Oh, and here's an alternate heading to the one above: "If The Skeletons of Your Enemies Aren't Catapulted Out of Their Bodies in a Shower of Blood You're Not Trying Hard Enough". Yes, not only is this game filled with explosions of gore – you'll often hit enemies so hard they explode in a shower of blood, sending their skeleton flying free. So good.
Shower of blood - good, anything less than that - bad.
- He's A Saint... And A Sinner
The Monk is a religious, spiritual figure who believes in the existence of a thousand and one gods; he believes that the gods are all around us – in fire, water and air. Indeed, each monk gets a tattoo of the thousand and one gods on his back, and it takes a lifetime to complete. At his core, however, he's a holy warrior – a killing machine who does the secret work of the church, reporting in to the 'Priest Kings' of his society. These mysterious and reclusive figures hone their minds and bodies to be instruments of divine justice, and are respected and feared in almost equal measure. Their powers and exploits are legend in the world of Sanctuary.
Click here to see the trailer that introduces the Monk.
- It's Fun to Play With Your Food and Have an Impenetrable Defence
The Monk is all about the flashy moves, and one of our favourites is 'Impenetrable Defence' where he rapidly spins his staff, creating a brief defensive bubble around himself. Not only does this grant 100% dodge against melee attacks, it also rebounds ranged projectiles and can repel Sandwasp attacks and the like. Thus, with this hot-keyed you have a powerful tool against fireball-hurling enemies like Fallen Shaman or Dark Cultists, and the best part is you can treat their ranged attacks with contempt – if a fireball is coming towards you midway through wailing on another group of enemies, just activate Impenetrable Defence to parry it and continue on.
Impenetrable Defence, also known as 'The Monk in the Bubble'.
- He's Still Got Mana... But Probably Not For Long
One of the things Blizzard is attempting to do in Diablo III is to move away from having a mana system as standard for every character class. They're already radically different from one another, so why not take that a step further? The plan, then, is for each character class to have its own unique system, with only one using mana. The Barbarian, for instance, has Fury as his resource system, and it's now quite different to what was shown last year, as you can basically create an endless fury cycle – the more targets you hit, the more Fury you have, so now you can wade into battle against huge numbers of enemies and chain powerful skills together using Fury – as long as you're hitting multiple targets at a time. The team hasn't unveiled what system the Monk will have – the hands-on demo still utilised mana – but chances are it's going to be something cool.
The Monk on his way to the post box to see if his mana system alternative has arrived.
- Weapons Define The Monk
There are a lot of weapons The Monk can't use. In our playtime we picked up wands, clubs, giant swords, axes, daggers and more – none of which we could equip. That's fine though, because as the team highlighted at Blizzcon, the Monk is defined by his weapons more than any other class, much like the Assassin was in D2, and thus, he uses a very selective range. He's all about weapons that complement his blazing-fast melee skills, so he has a range of fist weapons and does lots of jabbing attacks. He's also handy with a staff, utilising sweeping attacks that complement his ability to get up close and personal.
Frankly speaking, I wouldn't want to get stabbed with any of these. How about one of those comically oversized 'we're number one' hands people wear at sporting events?
- The Monk Kicks it Old School
Not only is the Monk's combo system inspired by the fighting game genre, but there are some other nods to old school gaming in Diablo III's monster design. Take the Sandwasp - one of the native inhabitants of the Howling Plains – this critter pops up regularly, but rather than attacking you directly, it sits back and fires a stream of little insects, who fly in a straight direction towards you. This projectile fire leaves you having to dance around the incoming attacks like an old school top down shooter; a feeling that's reinforced even more when several Sandwasps are firing at you from different positions. It's a cool old school element... and entirely blockable with Impenetrable Defence, bless it.
Click here to see a whole heap of footage of the Monk in action.
- The Monk Fears Only the Sand Shark
Okay, so that's not true – the Monk fears no one - but it made for a good heading, right? Of the hundred or so monsters Blizzard is planning on including in Diablo III, we've really only seen a handful, but it's already given us an inkling of how the Monk will handle different situations. On the one hand, he's capable of very focused attacks, so if the aforementioned Sand Shark [or the Dune Thresher, to give it its 'official' name] rises up out of the sand, using the Way of the Hundred Fists to dash to it and do focused damage is key, whereas if you're surrounded by heaps of weak enemies, the Seven-Sided Strike, which sees the Monk teleport about doing wide damage to many enemies, comes in handy. The Monk, however, is nothing if not versatile, so if he comes up against a Desert Dervish – a creature that periodically starts whirling around – during which it can interrupt combos and knock back the Monk, he can actually use either move. Hundred Fists can get you close to it before it starts spinning, whereas Seven-Sided Strike lets him launch from a distance.
The Seven-Sided Strike, Diablo III's get-out-of-gaol move. As you'd expect, prioritisation is key – you'll want to get to any enemy that can resurrect other enemies as fast as possible, while monsters like the Fallen Overseer, which has a battle cry which can make regular Imps braver and tougher, and the Fallen Lunatic, which runs at you and stabs himself in the chest until he explodes, also need to be taken out as quickly as possible.
There are plenty of other useful skills to be unlocked in the early game. If he needs a respite, for instance, the Monk has Inner Sanctuary, which creates a protected region on the ground for a period of time that cannot be passed by enemies. He can - as mentioned several times already – counter attacks and projectiles with Impenetrable Defence, while he has a couple of debuffing moves early on, such as Crippling Wave [which slows enemies and lowers the damage they do], and Radiant Visage, which is a flash of light that sears the eyes of nearby enemies, blinding them for a period.
Radiant Visage - one of many very literal skill names, along with Crippling Wave, Seven-Sided Strike and You Got Served.
- Mastering the Monk May Require Perseverance
The flipside of the Monk's speed and incredible melee skills is the fact that he's relatively fragile. 'Speed over toughness' is the mantra for the Monk. We only died a couple of times in our two hour session with the class at Blizzcon, but the team has told us to expect the early game for the Monk to be quite challenging. You're really going to need to know this character and his mechanics to get the most out of him, and the reward once you've levelled up a decent amount will be more than worth it. Remember how punishing the early game for the Sorceress was in D2... and how kick-ass she was in the end? Yeah, it's going to be great.