State of Balance: The 2.1 Revamped Monk
by JR Cook - 10 years ago show comments
Monks have long been considered the worst class of Diablo 3. If it wasn’t for the generous scaling on Exploding Palm and One With Everything, they would’ve been considered almost completely non-viable.
The Diablo Dev Team took note of this and decided for 2.1 to be the turning point for this particular class. Buffs are all over the place, all at the cost of Exploding Palm and One With Everything being completely redesigned.
Take a look at most of the proposed changes, now currently live on the 2.1 PTR.
Note: The Exploding Palm changes will be addressed in a totally different post, so I’ve left them out for now.
- Monk
- Dexterity no longer grants Dodge chance
- Dexterity now grants 1 Armor per point
- Maximum Spirit increased from 150 to 250
- Active Skills
- Blinding Flash
- Skill Rune – Replenishing Light
- Spirit gained for each enemy you Blind increased from 7 to 10
- Breath of Heaven
- Skill Rune – Infused with Light
- Extra Spirit generated by Spirit Generating attacks increased from 4 to 14
- Crippling Wave
- Weapon damage increased from 143% to 175%
- Skill Rune – Mangle
- Weapon damage increased from 216% to 265%
- Skill Rune – Mangle
- Weapon damage increased from 216% to 265%
- Skill Rune – Rising Tide
- Now generates 3.5 additional Spirit for each enemy hit
- Skill Rune – Tsunami
- Every third hit now also Freezes enemies for 1.5 seconds
- Cyclone Strike
- Skill Rune – Wall of Wind
- Now Freezes enemies for 1.5 seconds after pulling them in
- Dashing Strike
- Skill Rune – Barrage
- Weapon damage increased from 489% to 750% over 2 seconds
- Skill Rune – Flying Side Kick
- Has been removed
- New skill rune added: Radiance
- Gain 15% increased Attack Speed for 3 seconds after using Dashing Strike
- Skill Rune – Quicksilver
- Damage type changed from Physical to Lightning
- Skill Rune – Way of the Falling Star
- Damage type changed from Physical to Holy
- Deadly Reach
- Weapon damage increased from 109% to 120%
- Skill Rune – Foresight
- Buff duration increased from 3 to 5 seconds
- Skill Rune – Keen Eye
- Has been removed
- New skill rune added: “Searing Grasp”
- Increases weapon damage dealt to 200%
- Skill Rune – Piercing Trident
- Chance to knock enemies up on the third hit increased to 100%
- Skill Rune – Scattered Blows
- Third hit weapon damage increased from 156% to 185%
- Skill Rune – Strike from Beyond
- Has been redesigned
- Now reduces the Spirit cost of your next Spirit spender by 8% for each enemy hit by the third hit
- Fists of Thunder
- First and second hit weapon damage increased from 122% to 255%
- Third hit weapon damage increased from 183% to 510%
- Skill Rune – Bounding Light
- Weapon damage increased from 195% to 240%
- Skill Rune – Quickening
- Has been redesigned
- Now increases Spirit generated to 22
- Skill Rune – Static Charge
- Additional weapon damage dealt to enemies affected by Static Charge increased from 125% to 180%
- Skill Rune – Thunderclap
- Shockwave weapon damage increased from 95% to 105%
- Skill Rune – Wind Blast
- Freeze duration increased from 1 to 2 seconds
- Lashing Tail Kick
- Increased damage arc from 150 to 180 degrees
- Skill Rune – Spinning Flame Kick
- Significantly increased the Column’s collision radius and height
- Skill Rune – Hand of Ytar
- Significantly increased the damage radius of this skill
- Mystic Ally
- Weapon damage per hit increased from 40% to 130%
- Skill Rune – Air Ally
- Spirit generated increased from 2 to 4
- Skill Rune – Earth Ally
- Boulder weapon damage increased from 333% to 380%
- Skill Rune – Enduring Ally
- Passive Life Regeneration is now increased by 30% of your Life per Second
- Skill Rune – Fire Ally
- Explosion weapon damage increased from 149% to 290%
- Skill Rune – Water Ally
- Wave attack weapon damage increased from 190% to 625%
- Wave attack now Freezes enemies hit for 3 seconds
- Seven Sided Strike
- Significantly increased proc coefficient
- Skill Rune – Fulminating Onslaught
- Explosion weapon damage reduced from 977% to 877% per hit
- Significantly increased proc coefficient
- Skill Rune – Pandemonium
- Has been redesigned
- Now removes the Spirit cost and Freezes all enemies hit for 7 seconds
- Significantly increased proc coefficient
- Damage type changed from Physical to Cold
- Skill Rune – Several-Sided Strike
- Has been removed
- New skill rune added: Incinerate
- Seven-Sided Strike causes enemies to burn for 630% weapon damage as Fire over 3 seconds
- Skill Rune – Sudden Assault
- Weapon damage increased from 6477% to 8285%
- Damage type changed from Physical to Lightning
- Significantly increased proc coefficient
- Skill Rune – Sustained Attack
- Cooldown reduced from 17 to 14 seconds
- Significantly increased proc coefficient
- Sweeping Wind
- Weapon damage increased from 30% to 60% per stack
- Skill Rune – Blade Storm
- Weapon damage increased from 40% to 85% per stack
- Skill Rune – Cyclone
- Tornado weapon damage increased from 23% to 35%
- Skill Rune – Inner Storm
- Spirit generated at maximum stacks has been increased from 4 to 8
- Skill Rune – Master of Wind
- Has been redesigned
- Enemies damaged by Sweeping Wind for 3 consecutive seconds while the vortex is at 3 stacks will now be Frozen for 2 seconds
- Enemies cannot be Frozen by Sweeping Wind more than once every 3 seconds
- Tempest Rush
- Weapon damage increased from 240% to 390%
- Initial resource cost removed
- Channeling resource cost increased to 30 Spirit (up from 10)
- Skill Rune – Bluster
- Buff duration increased from 2 to 4 seconds
- Skill Rune – Flurry
- Has been redesigned
- Now creates an icy blast that deals 135% weapon damage as cold to all enemies within 15 yards when you stop channeling
- While channeling you periodically build stacks that increase the damage of the blast
- Skill Rune – Northern Breeze
- Weapon damage increased from 285% to 500%
- Reduces the channeling cost to 25 Spirit
- Skill Rune – Slipstream
- Has been removed
- New skill rune added: “PH Lightning Rune” (name TBD)
- Enemies within 20 yards are shocked for 135% weapon damage as Lightning every second while channeling
- Wave of Light
- Skill Rune – Empowered Wave
- Has been redesigned
- Now increases bell weapon damage to 960% and projectile weapon damage to 125%
- Skill Rune – Numbing Light
- Has been removed
- New skill rune added: “Shattering Light”
- Frozen targets have a 20% increased chance to be critically hit by Wave of Light
- Skill Rune – Wall of Light
- Now has a 40% chance to stun enemies
- Removed knockback
- Way of the Hundred Fists
- Weapon damage increased from 192% to 220%
- Removed the target cap on the third hit
- Skill Rune – Hands of Lightning
- Weapon damage increased from 429% to 490%
- Skill Rune – Spirited Salvo
- Has been removed
- New skill rune added: “Assimilation”
- Each enemy hit by the third hit increased your damage by 5%
- Skill Rune – Windforce Flurry
- Wave of wind weapon damage increased from 191% to 285%
- Passive Skills
- Chant of Resonance
- Spirit generated increased from 2 to 4
- Exalted Soul
- Spirit generated increased from 2 to 4
- Maximum Spirit bonus reduced from 100 to 50
- One With Everything
- Has been removed
- New passive added: “Harmony”
- 30% of your single elemental resistances from items instead increases your resistance to all elements
- Provocation
- Has been removed
- New passive added: “Determination”
- Your damage is increased by 4% for each enemy within 12 yards of you up to a maximum of 20%
- Relentless Assault
- New passive skill
- Available at Level 30
- You deal 20% more damage to enemies that are Blind, Frozen, or Stunned
- Resolve
- Duration increased to 4 seconds
- Added a spell effect for enemies that are affected by the debuff
- Seize the Initiative
- Has been redesigned
- Damage dealt to enemies above 80% 75% Life will now increase your Attack Speed by 15% 30% for 4 seconds
So as I mentioned earlier, the buffs are all over the place. The buffs to Fist of Thunder make a Bi-Gen build with Combination Strike and Way of the Thousand Fists – Hands of Lightning look really interesting. The Changes to Seven Sided Strike will help a lot with elemental diversity. The Crowd Control Mechanics of the Monk have been touched up, this in tandem with the new passive Relentless Assault also opens cool posibilities.
The Tempest Rush changes seem like a bit of a nerf, I’m not opposed to a 30 spirit per second cost, but the damage needs to be a bit higher if the cost is going to remain that high.
There’s also all sorts of buffs to sources of additional spirit generation. This, combined with the massive Two-Hander damage buff, will make Two-Handed builds really strong as you might even forgo the use of a generator entirely and use this passive generation to spam Lashing Tail Kick.
Monks are going to be changing a lot on 2.1, but will they finally be viable with the more traditional specs? Hop onto the PTR, give it a whirl and give Blizzard your feedback. It’s up to us to make sure that the Monks finally get the retuning they direly need. The changes will keep on coming, and you can believe that. Check out more info from the EU forums.
As we announced yesterday on the US forum, this next PTR patch is going to have a BUNCH of Monk changes headed your way.While we touched on Spirit Regeneration a little bit in the last patch, that was the tip of the iceberg. We’re going over all the Monk Spirit Generators and making some significant changes.
Monks are quick strikers, and we wanted to increase the Spirit generation and damage of each Primary skill without just upping the numbers. We’re addressing this by increasing the Attack Speed scalar of most Monk generators. This means that each will operate more quickly and scale better with Attack Speed. This is a change you won’t see reflected in the tooltip or PTR data mining, but should experience in practice, especially if you already have a substantial amount of Attack Speed. This change addresses both concerns while further embracing that Monk fantasy of being fast and nimble.
We’re also addressing some of the remaining Dodge mechanics that Monks have left in their kit. We’re leaving a few options for players who really want to embrace the Dodge mechanic and focus on it, but others we’re retooling to provide more consistent and reliable benefits. Mantra of Evasion is being replaced with Mantra of Salvation, and the base skill will now provide you and your allies within 60 yards a 20% bonus to All Resistance. We’ve moved the Dodge bonus to a new rune, Agility, and you’ll find some other useful utility among the other new runes.
There are plenty of other changes coming as well, but I don’t want to get too patch-notey here. Expect some quality of life and DPS boosts to spenders like Lashing Tail Kick and Wave of Light to make them more competitive and offer you additional options. The new Alabaster Gloves have been removed and replaced with a new Monk Seasonal Legendary Fist Weapon that increases the maximum stack count of Sweeping Winds by 5-7. Overall, there will be new toys to play with, and we’re looking forward to seeing your feedback on these changes as we move into our next PTR patch.
