How hard is monk to play?

[devilsmile]

compared to the other classes. :wave:
and just in general.

[Torr]

It's a great class, once you embrace that it is a high damage, highly mobile character that can't just sit there and absorb damage. It's not a barb, so you need to use that high damage to mitigate your weaknesses. Yes, you can crank up the dodge with a monk and it does help. But his best defense is a good offense with either vampiric/leech type equipment that steals health, or gear that generates health every time you use spirit, like the passive Transcendence does for example. Run correctly I think the monk could be a buzzsaw of melee damage.

[devilsmile]

That is exactly what I wanted to hear! Now, how good is exploding palm? is it nerfed to hell now?
p.s. what other really cool moves will monks use that i'll get a kick out off?

[Torr]

That is exactly what I wanted to hear! Now, how good is exploding palm? is it nerfed to hell now?
p.s. what other really cool moves will monks use that i'll get a kick out off?

It's really hard to really tell anything about Exploding Palm from the beta. The beta only lets you get to level 13, and you don't get Exploding Palm until level 12 as I recall. The problem is, by the time you get Exploding Palm you'll have run through the whole beta and killed the Skeleton King at least twice. By this point you are far too powerful for anything in the beta. If this was the full game, you would have moved far past this point. It's easier to judge the skills you get before level 8. Even though the beta is very easy, at least those skills you get on the first playthrough when you are supposed to be there. By the time I got Exploding Palm, I was one-shotting everything which made the third part of that chain (the explosion) a bit useless. Wish I could tell you more but you just get the skill too late.

I loved Dashing Strike because I feel like it lets me control the battlefield. Lashing Tail kick worked pretty well as a damage/knockback; Deadly Reach was good in that you didn't need to close on opponents to hit them but otherwise felt a little weak to me and I lost interest. My favorite skill was one I wasn't really looking at before I got in the beta: Crippling Wave. For my money it hits the most enemies and looks rather cool, which is what I want in an AoE attack.

[Valkemen]

At low levels:
Fastest toon in game +19% of normal speed
Good survival: mantra of evasion, blinding flash
Easy micro as hell - 1 Spirit generator and 3 Spirit spenders: to move, to AoE dmg, to cc or to heal
Powerful skills with nice design - for example - Crippling Wave and Exploding Palm.