BlizzCon 09: Diablo 3 Monk
With a sizable chunk of the crowd at BlizzCon being denizens of Azeroth, Diablo 3 news might not have been the talk of the town last week, but there definitely was a lot of excitement here at BlizzCon as information was given about the heroes and monsters that are beginning to populate the third chapter of the Diablo world. The big news today with Diablo 3 is the announcement of the new Monk hero, who brings a more holy and righteous face to the playable heroes when compared to the Barbarian and Witch Doctor heroes already announced.
The idea behind the Monk hero is that it plays as almost a counterpoint to the Barbarian in that it is a fast but fragile melee fighter. Unlike the traditional view of a monk, these monks will use weapons, with cinematics showing him using a staff, and the panel revealing that fist weapons will also be used. The actual look of the monk is a cross between the eastern and western versions of religious monks, making the monk a very religious and spiritual fighter. The monks that characters play are basically the working arms of a philosopher king / theocratic society. The monks are both equally feared and revered by their citizens, and there are many reasons for that, as showcased through by their skills and fighting style.
Hit the jump to read more about the Monk class and its crazy and furious combo system.
With Diablo 3, the designers wanted to make sure that each hero feels unique, and one way they hope to accomplish it is to make each hero have a unique resource system. With the Monk, that's done through the combo system they have given the class. When deciding how to work the combo system they first looked at the Assassin class in Diablo 2, and then at the Rogue class in World of Warcraft. They liked the two button simplicity of the Assassin's skills, but felt that stringing together combos often left you with a finisher your couldn't use since all enemies were dead. With rogues, they loved the way that the openers and finishers chained together, but saw that the rogue also had far more skills at their disposal than would be available in Diablo. They're resolution was to make each of the Monk's skills have three phases to the attack. This way you can have two skills tied to the two mouse buttons, and then chain the different phases of those skills to create unique and powerful combos.
With the new combo system, they decided to showcase a few skills to show the three phase aspect of the system. here are the examples they gave:
100 Fists - Quick Attack that closes range with enemy - 1st click: Dash torward enemy, 2nd click: Three quick melee hits, 3rd click: AoE explosion.
Crippling Wave - Powerful Debuffing Attack - 1st click: Slowing debuff added to enemy, 2nd click: Adds a DoT, 3rd click Refreshes DoT and debuff along with some added instant damage.
Exploding Palm - Internal Damage that requires build-up - 1st click Normal melee damage, 2nd click Normal melee damage, 3rd click Powerful DoT added to enemy and if enemy dies with the DoT on it, it will do an AoE explosion on death.
I have to admit, the skills not only sounded great, but the demos they showed made them look fantastic too. The combos and chains that will be available to the Monk class really do seem to be creative and also give the monk the fast and furious play style that the designers are going for. I'm really excited to get some hands-on time with the game and really see how all the Monk skills mesh with the fantastic world and mosnters Blizzard has created for Diablo 3.
PixelPoet
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 21 August 2009
· Comments (1)
Other stuff like this: blizzard, blizzcon 09, diablo 3, heroes, monk, monsters, panel
A link to the vid would be great, and they're != their.
D3 may just be the first Blizzard game I take up immediately after release, it looks so much fun in Multiplayer. D2 kind of gets old when you just grind. Wonder how long the new one will stay fresh.