patch 1.0.4 changes

[kestegs]

http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/com...4-preview-monk

What do you think?


Not really that excited. Pretty much just damage boosts and not much else.

2H weapons might be a more viable build though, that could be cool.

EP got a useful boost though, could be useful now.

[Crunchy II]

I'm surprised Sweeping Winds didn't get mentioned, seeing as it's used by most monks! You'd think they'd compare the other Spirit spenders to it.

[Karth]

I'm not sure Sweeping Wind is a good example of a spirit spender. You hit it once and then go back to recasting your mantra as soon as possible, while Sweeping Wind is maintained until combat ends or even longer if you can find stuff to hit.

[WhiteGiant]

i already mentioned most of my concerns on comments section of the mainpage and in the monk preview thread in the general forum.

what i miss in this preview :

blatant inequality among Passive skills , Combo generator and Mantras (Mantra Runes included).

FOT Thunderclap will still be the best generator if "being happy" means changing nothing.
the whole concept of weaving multiple combo generators together for specific reasons / strengths is still not embraced.
i also hate it when combo skill-runes emphasis every aspect of the skill except for its inherent existing strength.
eg. why do i get a longrange "windspear" for Way of the hundred fist but no range extension for Deadly reach ?
why do i get an attackspeed buff for WOTHF which is the sceond slowest skill but not for FOT which is the fastest ?
why can i turn deadly reach into an AE Combogenerator if Crippling wave already got that covered ?



* Conviction Overawe will still be the best Mantra by far. Backlash and hardtarget are also popular but the strength of their synergy with gear and other skills is not very good.

OWE and Seize the Initiative will still be taken by 90% of all monks which leaves one "wildcardslot" ; to transcendence , Guardian Path and resolve.

[windstriker]

I'm also left a little bit unsatisfied with the changes. There are too many runes on skills that I would never ever use atm, even though some of them may become useful in future pvp. Had hoped for more small changes to some runes.
On the other hand, increased use of 2 handers may be really fun and nice and some of the new legendaries may give some new playstyles, and that's great. New seven sided strike with a 1,500k DPS legendary? Ouch... And I believe more thanges will be coming up later, we'll have to wait and see. The patch seems great anyways.

Also, I believe it may even be more than 90% of monks using OWE and Seize which is kind of boring. But perhaps a long time in the future my gear will be godlike enough to be able to skip those two, but it ain't anytime soon for sure

[Solwolf]

I'm also left a little bit unsatisfied with the changes. There are too many runes on skills that I would never ever use atm, even though some of them may become useful in future pvp. Had hoped for more small changes to some runes.
On the other hand, increased use of 2 handers may be really fun and nice and some of the new legendaries may give some new playstyles, and that's great. New seven sided strike with a 1,500k DPS legendary? Ouch... And I believe more thanges will be coming up later, we'll have to wait and see. The patch seems great anyways.

Also, I believe it may even be more than 90% of monks using OWE and Seize which is kind of boring. But perhaps a long time in the future my gear will be godlike enough to be able to skip those two, but it ain't anytime soon for sure

Don't forget us Hardcore monks - OWE/Transcendance is the big combo with Near Death Experience or Seize the Initiative as the optional.

[Thehealthygamer]

i already mentioned most of my concerns on comments section of the mainpage and in the monk preview thread in the general forum.

what i miss in this preview :

blatant inequality among Passive skills , Combo generator and Mantras (Mantra Runes included).

FOT Thunderclap will still be the best generator if "being happy" means changing nothing.
the whole concept of weaving multiple combo generators together for specific reasons / strengths is still not embraced.
i also hate it when combo skill-runes emphasis every aspect of the skill except for its inherent existing strength.
eg. why do i get a longrange "windspear" for Way of the hundred fist but no range extension for Deadly reach ?
why do i get an attackspeed buff for WOTHF which is the sceond slowest skill but not for FOT which is the fastest ?
why can i turn deadly reach into an AE Combogenerator if Crippling wave already got that covered ?



* Conviction Overawe will still be the best Mantra by far. Backlash and hardtarget are also popular but the strength of their synergy with gear and other skills is not very good.

OWE and Seize the Initiative will still be taken by 90% of all monks which leaves one "wildcardslot" ; to transcendence , Guardian Path and resolve.

Agreed, the skill sthat really need major overhaul are the ones which don't scale at all. MoE on a fresh 60 is just as good as MoE on a end-game geared 60(useless).

Tempest rush. Come on, that skill is so useless it's not even funny.

[Donax]

If they'd really want to improve monks and give them a chance to take something else than defensive passives and skills, they should scale the heals (including transcendence) to the max life like barbs.

[WhiteGiant]

If they'd really want to improve monks and give them a chance to take something else than defensive passives and skills, they should scale the heals (including transcendence) to the max life like barbs.

that would be off the mark aswell ; i agree that transcendence should scale based upon maximum Life ( maybe 0.2-0.3 % per spirit ?)

but thats off the mark ; the matter of fact is that the monk has no good offesnive passives ; and not innovative passives which allow you "break the rules of the class" like , Nightstalker , Critical mass , battlerage with 15 rage on crit.

there is no such thing and on the strength Level there is also no equivalent to "Archery" or "Ruthlessness" , man i would give my right arm for ruthlessness ... here is what i wrote in the general topic forum about Monk preview and passives.

Seize the Initiative is fairly balanced imo. the only reason that most monks take it besides OWE is that the rest of the other passives are really boring and/or weak.

Fleet Footed , 10% MS is laughable ; also the MS Caps make these kind of passives very undesireable especially given that we are talking about a whole passive slot here. what about 15% MS and ~7% IAS ?

Exalted Soul ; 100 extra spirit , even if Spirit-spender get desirable i don't see the point it merely makes management easier but thats not the same as being effective or being able to invest spirit smarter now that you have more.

Transcendence ; It kinda useful to a degree ; but its not exciting either and once you get enough LOH which is cheaper as an affix than an entire Passive slot it gets redundant.

Chant of Resonance 7 min mantras + 2 spirit reg ; super boring. the duration increase is totally redundant and 2 spirit reg are not very desirable. I'd rather see something like Mantras -10 spirit cost + 2 sec duration for the special effect.

Sixth Sense ; is merely a penalty for people who are unable to math and super boring on top. what about making it work both ways and 15% of your dodge chance is granted as Critchance and vise versa. for a monk with 30 crit and 40 dodge thats bonus 6 crit and 4,5 bonus dodge.

Pacifism ; too situational and uncreative ; will probably be useful for PVP though.

Beacon of Ytar ; 15% cd reduction ? very uncreative , and unsatisfying ; it also again doesnt change your play style or gearchoice which is the worst kind of passive. If they dont do something creative with it they could atleast buff it. maybe -20% CD and - 50% spiritcost for all skills with cooldowns.

Combination Strike ; It's okayish given that it is the only real offensive monk passive. I'd still wish it was more elaborate.

Near Death Experience ; i dont like it on the first glance it looks like 35% extra health tolerance with a reasonable cooldown.
but in Inferno the problem is not a stream of damage which will eventually kill you ; ****ty situations will kill you like getting surrounded or permawalled / vortexed /frozen or a combination of the above. and in those sitations 35% extra health are not very useful. I'd rather get 2-3 sec invurnability.


OWE ; Seize the Initiative ; Resolve ; and guardian path seem to be okay ish. alas they are boring aswell ; i simply expect Passive to change my play style and mechanics in a fundamental way, thats not the case for most class-passive but i think it's worst for monk.

i also think they could finally add a worthy offensive passive ... i could come up with like 10 on the spot why does Blizzard not ?

[Dogbert]

Agreed the monk passives need some work. Too many are not worth using at all in inferno.
This becomes obvious when all monks use the same.

Also you forgot to mention guiding light whitegiant