One life to Live #34: Hardcore Monks
Posted 13 April 2012 by XanthTwo years ago I saw the Monk video and knew it was going to be my first class, maybe even my only class since I was so enamored. The quick attacks, the seven sided strikes, and the exploding palms all sucked me in. When I first got a chance to play in the beta I jumped right into a Monk and loved it. Having had that experience I held off on the Monk in this patch until now. Sadly things have changed, it’s still fun but the magic has faded.
So what happened in those few months? Well the skill system changed, the skills were re-mapped and changed..but I’m sure you know that.
I started my monk out like all my other characters and ploughed through everything I could. Killed zombies, saved Cain, Killed Haedrig’s wife and wiped the floor with just about everything. In terms of complications I didn’t have too many. Blinding flash at early levels helps stop those situations in which you would normally get overwhelmed. Just about any spirit generator was good at taking down the enemies around me. Yet what was eating at me was the loss on exploding palm as a spirit generator and the concept creating combos with those generators. Now exploding palm is merely a spender, taking away the ability to dot all you see and sit back and watch it explode.
But when things started to look their darkest for the Monk and I patch 16 had to come and bring us back together again.
One simple rune was all it took. One rune to open up the monk again and help me see it will be all right.
Fists of Thunder runed to Thunderclap. Within a second I was quickly dispatching enemies. I was flying around teleporting to them and killing them quickly and effectively. I was possibly having the most fun I’ve had in the beta in months. It felt like the gameplay videos I had seen years ago and I really enjoyed darting across the screen quickly disposing of enemies and then jumping to the quickest pack I could find nearby and repeating the process over and over and over. I never grew tired of it I actually had to pry myself off the computer that night because I did not want to stop.
Now I’m not saying that everything with the monk is perfect there are still some problems I still would love to see exploding palm be spirit generator and not a spender but it’s grown on me. I’d also like to see weapon animations to match the monk’s attack but for the most part I’m being nitpick. The best part is there’s still so much more potential this class has especially in the realm of hard-core.
So what was keeping me alive and one more importantly has kept me engrossed here’s the breakdown of the skills:
Dashing strike: this is your classic get out of Dodge skill you do not have to worry about being overwhelmed because you can dash out of the trouble surrounding you. This skill will not only save your life but It will speed up the process of getting to where you need to be.
Breath of heaven: When Health potions are on cooldown and there are no orbs to be found this skill again will come in in the clutch keep you alive most importantly keep you killing.
Blinding flash: a nice skill to stun your enemies especially when you’re overwhelmed with those early levels and keep you alive. Once I was able to heal and use dashing strike I found myself using this less and less but it was nice to have it in reserve
I started off this column saying the magic had faded and now I can really say that’s untrue with patch 15 I was not content with where the monk was but I’m very optimistic for the future and now have a tough decision as to where I want to go first
Next week: The Witch Doctor
One Life to Live covers the Hardcore play and life style in the Diablo community. It is written by Xanth and published weekly. Post your comments below, Follow me on Twitter @HCXanth or contact the author directly.
I like the P16 monk, as well.
Your opening paragraph is pretty misleading for what your article is saying. It’s makes for an unpleasant reading experience. Try to put some more time into structuring a good flow – without having to change what you want to say.
The article flowed fine.
But the article was good and informative.
And the opening was not misleading.
Its a style, a set up for what’s to come. Contrast and compare.
It was a fine article.
I doubt I’ll ever play the monk
I disagree; the opening says “The magic has faded”. Since a past participle is used, rather an a simple past-tense, it portrays the feeling that the feeling is still currently bad.
“The magic had faded”. This is the appropriate way to make the statement. Both the fading, and the state of being faded, are in the past.
Perhaps you are not sensitive to linguistic subtlety, but for those who are, there is a world of difference.
I also felt the tone of this article was misleading, though I did enjoy it as a whole.
What I expected from reading the opening was “Monks aren’t really cool anymore”, and what I read was “Previously my monk was amazing, and now he’s still good but less so”.
Not trying to rip on the author too much, I did enjoy the read, but vinnie’s comment is true.
After reading this, Monk will be my 3. character to play.
Good read
Good read, but could really use a comma or two
,,,,,,,,,,,, – you can have these for free
Listen, i get that we’re all English majors here and not totally uber super geeks that think their INT is waay higher than it actually is… but stfu… next time you write the article, haters.
There are haters, but there are also haters that hate haters, I hate those.
The Few, The Proud… The Haters That Hate the Hating Haters
LMAO
Someone forgot his chill pill this morning – I wasn’t insulting the article nor the writer, just merely mentioning that it would have been slightly easier to read with a few commas…
Guess people read what they want to read
Yeah, Thunderclap is a godsend, so to speak.
It was a close toss up between Monk & Witch Doctor for my first play through, but having tried out patch 16, Monk just pips it for the first casual play through, getting to know the acts. I am slightly concerned that we are limited to 4 spirit generators on one skill slot (unless you go elective mode of course) but I’m sure it’ll all make sense & feel good at higher levels. I agree that Thunderclap is a great rune effect for Fists of Thunder. That, with Vulture Claw Kick runed on Lashing Tail Kick & the monk is seriously kick ass!
How is an article this poorly written on the front page? I think you have some interesting things to say, but Flux should really have his writers pass an English Comp 101 course before posting things. It looks like a middle-school student wrote it.
Can you elaborate?
Yes. The sentence structure, grammar, and spelling are all incredibly poor. It makes for a very unpleasant reading experience. There have been numerous articles on this site that are similar.
There doesn’t seem to be any QA, but if I was being snubbed by Blizzard, I wouldn’t care either.
Its an awesome article and I’m glad I read it. Excellent screenshot and very insightful as I was planning on using the monk first as well. I hope he scales well into the later levels of the game rather than becoming a wolf summoner. I’m still unsure if I’ll play a barb first though as I know for sure the barb can tank which will be important to have at some point or another.
What did this article have to do with Hardcore play?
What’s with the weird flow and lack of punctuation?
Final comment: enough with the Hardcore talk and emphasis – Very Few of us would actually be foolish, yes foolish, enough to invest time into a character that, after over a hundred hours invested, could be lost completely in two seconds.
For those of us who grew up with this and now have jobs, a social life, and family, hardcore would be a thrilling but completely stupid way to play. This is how most people feel, so enough about hardcore this and hardcore that.
“What did this article have to do with Hardcore play?”
uh, maybe the part that says, “So what was keeping me alive … here’s the breakdown of the skills:”
“ Very Few of us would actually be foolish, yes foolish, enough to invest time into a character that, after over a hundred hours invested, could be lost completely in two seconds. ”
DOH !
A LOT of people want to play hardcore. People were upset they had to complete Normal before making a HC char. Blizzard responded by lowering the requirement to “completing the first 10 levels of Normal”
Blizzard wouldn’t have changed their “rules” to satisfy a small group of people.
“Very Few of us would actually be foolish, yes foolish, enough to invest time into a character that, after over a hundred hours invested, could be lost completely in two seconds.”
I used to think just like you about hardcore. Why put in so many hours into a character that might just be gone in an instant? Well, the answer is, as long as playing the game itself is fun, it doesn’t really matter if you have to start over occasionaly. You might say it’s a waste of time if you lose your character, but isn’t playing videogames a bit of a time waste in the first place?
For me, the thrills of HC – as laid out in other articles – sounds like a lot of fun and time well spent. For you, that time well spent might come in the form of SC endgame content. To each his own yeah?
This may have been covered earlier, but, how does one build a hardcore character in D3, now that the ability to distribute stat points has been removed?
A “classic” D2 hardcore character would invest heavily in Life. Will this be replaced by item selection?
Item mods no doubt. But it just means that D3 HC will be that much harder than what we’ve been used to.
I think you missed the fact that Xanth is diii.net’s Hardcore mode columnist.
Would you rather his column not exist at all?
Though it’s a little rough around the edges, it’s the only column i read religiously.
Very nice screenshot!
Haven’t looked much into the skills and also won’t but just a question regarding the Monk.
With Diablo 2 you could have a Paladin and really skill him as a healer (with the synergies/aura’s combination). Is the Monk a character you can also skill that way?
There are numerous group defensive abilities and runes that make it possible.