I really hope the monk isn't just another one of those filler classes that few people play so I thought what are the things you want to see that would make you say, "I wana play this character and not a barbarian or a sorcerer ? I'll just go into my personal list of what I want him to have that I hope would be in the game..... but I'm not optimistic.
All the stuff I typed here has a few targets, it looks good, is deadly, capable of killing named monsters, capable of crowd control before killing, fighting with fellow monks increases ability etc. etc, you can find good gear even with ordinary runes, customizable attacks with target runes, capable of killing a barbarian and it is Unique ! (not just a warrior without any clothes on ) if anyone wants to see that there are plenty of real life role playing festivals where I'm sure they'd be happy to oblige.
-First Tree Martial Arts-
1. Bicycle Kicks ! (with small knockback of course )
2. Flying kick. (with knockback, the higher your running, the farther they fly away )
3. Innate Fast running, (as a skill that each point is 30% faster than normal character). ( takes the place of teleport and makes him almost desirable).
4. Exploding Palm/Kick Technique: Knockback masses of enemies while doing heavy damage. (so the monk can actually live in Hell difficulty)
(synergy with running skill which increases damage and knockback)
Next skill in tree, upgrade: to exploading palm/kick with knockback and stun (where enemies falls to ground and have to get up)
5. Dodging missiles and melee attacks ( as one skill ! including while running: during which he flips when he is dodging an arrow or fireball automatically!)
6. One click combos, you enter them in some sort of combo book (like a spell book ) where it automatically tries to cast skills in a particular chain, ex. Run -> flying kick (first monster) -> Exploding palm (with small knockback on adjacent monster).
7. Block (self explanatory) for combo this would be, block one monster's hit then exploding palm.
8. Monk should have high beginning stamina, high vitality, high strength (this explains why he'll be able to wear most armor )
9. Stomach grab: Punch into enemy pulling out stomach ( non-fatal but very bloody with constant loss of blood and hitpoints). : no need to have open wounds sword if he doesn't want to.
10. Lung Puncture: punch into enemy pulling out a piece of lung and throwing it to the floor( or not), enemy stamina lowered permanently till you finish him.
11. In the aforementioned spell book/spell tree every punch should have a target that you determine: Exploding palm on head should make target incapable of casting spells for a time, exploding palm on lungs should stun target making him incapable of swinging a weapon for a time ( but still can cast spells )
12. Exploding kick targeted to legs should make enemy incapable of walking.
13. Eleven and twelve could be found as runes, where the runes in addition to lethality, multiple strike etc. the runes also have random quality of where they target, either head, torso, legs (for the monk only )
-Discipline and Stances-
14. Should be able to go into a stance to give him certain benefits while in that stance ex. Iron Leg stance: His legs don't move fast but his punches have 50, 100, 150% more damage for each level of skill. can be combo with exploding palm all knockbacks for palm increased by 50% or higher depending on level. Bowling: Knock one enemy into group of enemies he knocks them all down, during this stance, all of them on ground for a few seconds.)
Basically this would be a stand your ground way to take out masses of enemies, weapon damage since most use hands, would also be increased by huge amount.
Iron leg stance also should have generic benefits like ground based physical resistance, invulnerable to leg targeting attacks ( for monk Vs. monk PvP ). Its got a very Lord of the Rings/ Rock Paper Scissors feel with regard to the three main stance and disciplines, each one counters where other one is weak. Swan Discipline would suck against Iron Leg (one hit from Iron Leg monk and you fly away super far) while it would be good against Leopard with kicks, but Iron leg discipline would own Leopard discipline in PvP.
15. Leopard Discipline: Leg speed increased to unworldly levels running speed multiplied by 20% times running skill.
16. During Leopard discipline he can run on a wall ( just like the baseball players do it then jump off to land on solid ground at a time of his choosing, or jump off followed by exploding palm in enemy face.
17. During Leopard Discipline monk can jump higher (a good amount higher, not hop..... )
18. During Leopard Discipline monk can punch and grab one enemy and throw him at other enemies for damage and stun (just like Bowling during Iron Leg Stance.). Also Kicks have vastly increased damage during Leopard Discipline.
Some would say that the proposed leopard discipline being unable to kick a monk in iron leg stance would make it useless against them, but, if they put in my proposed idea of "rune targets" in addition to the effects, then he would just put in a target rune for the head in one of his kick abilities or target rune for torso, to be able to hit the other monk.
19. Worship discipline, monks worship too ! Two or three monks fighting together should cause each other to get a speed increase of +20% per monk and damage increase of +50% per monk. This could be skill on tree that you put 1 point into and you get 1 minute of this ability (reset every time you are within 13 game yards of a fellow monk).
20. Swan Discipline, graceful as can be this discipline would give Tornado spin, ( rise into air while spinning with sword out, for striking very tall opponents ( bosses somewhere other than legs ) skill, Skipping Stone skill: (two words, lunar physics) character glides back (a little or a little more based on strength of strike) reducing damage taken by 50% or more, per level. Combo with running skill, and flying kick this would be an interesting and effective way to survive in higher difficulties.
If they had something like this, it should be a temporary thing, like you press a button and this stays on for say 30 seconds or until changed to different discipline/stance basically it would be like a matrix effect, allowing the monk to survive things he wouldn't normally be able to, you all know that feeling when you turn the corner to see the 10 archers with cold enchanted arrows and you just wish you had a way out.... This ability would be that way out. Combat targeting bonuses like critical strike (due to intense concentration) in addition to super low physical damage would be "monk becomes partially ethereal"and spell damage is also cut by 20% per level during this discipline with total poison immunity.
20b. Only one discipline active at one time, each discipline should have a cast time, represented as the monk taking a deep breath, doesn't have to be a long one, give person the feeling their monk is getting in the zone.... Worship discipline would be best as passive skill...
21. During each stance/discipline music particular to that style should play, swan music, bamboo flute, Iron horse, drums, (GOOD music based on oriental style ), Leopard discipline: fast music with those little finger symbols like the Dancing dragons in those parades they have. But music should be just a few instruments so it doesn't get too annoying, and it shouldn't be super loud.
-Staves, and Swords
22. Sword skill for monks should also be able to make use of the Runes with body targets in them.
23. I'm tired and can't write any more... but the runes with body targets as well as regular rune ability I think is my best idea yet maybe that could be in the game.
24. Monk robes should be off the hook flowing robes, maybe a little glow here and there would be cool if option of robe changed the higher your level. as well as findable robes on the trail, and customizable color to some degree.
I think that if they did these things to monk he could be a class that many many people would play.
25. Monk can wear same armor as many other classes, but robe can go over the armor that way he can preserve his particular look while still maintaining the clothes he needs for a harsh world. Also monk robe should be on him but not a huge icon in inventory or whatever it should be like a box that says robes on it. Each robe of course should come have bonuses to various things.
26. Staves and Spears should be of particular use against undead where monk can use head target rune to knock their heads off, he should also be able to whirl staff around to push all enemies away before targeting a particular monster. Monk should also be able to hit the ground with a staff and make a shock wave of dirt rise up in a straight line and blind targets for a bit.
27. Whip chain, monk should be able to use this weapon and a rune with target to throw this around a monster at a particular spot. ex: around head target ( which translates to the neck with this weapon ) he can rip off the head of a weak monster, or just strangle a strong monster then run up and stab it to death with sword.
28. If they did do a rune with body target effect, they wouldn't even need to show it graphically really because the person using the rune knows where its going to hit.
29. Monk should have no shield, at best, sword in one hand, and whip chain in the other and even that would be pushing it, but I think they could make it work.
30. Whip chain with target effect rune for legs would be able to wrap around named monster and drag it away from its pack once monk has a clear line of sight shot. He should be able to snag and use running skill in opposite direction to drag the named monster away from the pack leaving a cloud of generic dust in his wake.
31. Last the whip chains should come in varieties of length, (yes it does matter ) the longer the chain the farther away he should be able to do the aforementioned stuff.
32. To prevent misuse of the whip chain it shouldn't be able to drag monster if monster has less than 50% health, give some sappy statement about how the chain slipped off in the pool of blood or something. Otherwise someone will do this in team games and nobody will be able to catch them. but another monk.
For now... these are a few of my favorite things.
Thinking about it more still I would say without runes or something that targets locations on body so that spells of casters have either a high or low target that also applies to monks, that a monk character on the game would be ridiculous and would only a warrior without a sword. Personally Im lobbying for target runes ( runes with regular abilities which also have a target location on body) as a way to make the monk have a chance at being decent. It would add the final dimension to melee combat that people would like (even if the target runes didn't apply to magic users Monks would have an intelligent type of counter (i.e. head targeting runes with exploding palm and regular punch.) that would make them a playable class.
Balance Issues:
Though I already mentioned balance things before, with the proposed head strikes, torso, or leg strike each skill should give a chance at silencing the target ( for spells ) while the torso strike for lowering lung ability, ( lowering stamina ) should be an adequate but small stamina loss that gets worse the more the target is hit, and target hit to legs should also slow target by small but noticeable and lasting amount. In PvP of course all the values would be a little lower to give person a chance at swinging sword after the first two hits.
Sum of All Fears:
The monk sounds a lot like the Amazon, where the good specialty weapon is hard as hell to find while and the class as a whole is rarely seen in multiplayer games. I read a post where someone said the monk was a support class.... People don't want to support all the time, sometimes they want to kick arse and take names ! Adding the targets for punches, kicks, sword strikes, staves and whip chains on normal runes would make it so that a monk player won't be playing for 50 games before he finds something that makes a big difference in how he plays.
Lets be honest for most people Amazon isn't their first character because of difficulty in finding a bow, they play with Hammerdin and get the gear then when they trade for a bow they decide to start an amazon..... or they do a sorceress and do the same thing. Having the regular runes with targeting and letting monk where alot of the normal armor will keep them from becoming a boring class that nobody wants to start with, and give players something to look forward to. A game can have the special monk gear but without stuff that is findable, that gives real benefits/changes to how they play the class is DOA. I'm comparing Monk to Amazon because I think they have a lot in common, the specialty gear that nobody wants to store, (why I said robes should come in a box that you click on in inventory ) and hybrid that isn't really magic or melee and takes twice as long to get half as good.
I know that said, I'm willing to take it even farther now after he takes stomach out of enemy he should be able to dip his staff into it to give acid damage ! and increased Awesomeness ! I think my use of the whip chain would be awesome for killing named monsters and make the monk partially useful for magic finding against ranged monsters. Also can you imagine its uses for PvP
You search for monk, rest by a tree waiting for stamina to come back then a chain wraps around your character's legs drags him into a clearing where two or more monks are there (having given the other one their speed bonus from Worship discipline) and they beat you down.
But if the monk character had the abilities I just spent so long to type, wouldn't you want to play it ? You have ability to drag named monster to where you want him to be crowd control in exploding palm and kick, gravity bending discipline, speed boosting discipline, reason to play with other monks, and target specifications on Runes so you can choose techniques to further hone your lethal craft, add to that not needing good gear for the martial arts stuff because your using your hands and feet (though boots could add extra damage to kick and gloves all players use could add extra damage to palm explosion, with "palm spike" gloves adding ungodly amounts of damage.
I don't think anyone else has mentioned that idea of the runes having a target on the body for the monk only but it would make him able to begin to cut the Barbarian down to size since he would be able to target head ( to silence spell casting of barbarian ), torso to reduce stamina of barbarian or legs to slow a player down while walking. That system would give players a reason to choose monk vs Barb for PvP possibly. The skills without a rune with target should have a 33% chance to hit in either of the three places.
Good lord man your imagination went fucking overboard... goodwork :thumbsup:
Well lets be honest, the amazon can kick some serious ass with the right gear. Especially since like the Sorcerer she can just stand back and damage deal. However, I think you're right that not many people roll this character as their first. I had a horrible time being an Amazon in single player D2.
I think though that the monk is gonna be kickass too. And rolling him as a first character is a matter of choice, when it comes down to it, most people, when they create their first character have no idea what they're doing. So don't you see that people create their first character based on their own personal preference, not because they're aware of it being difficult?
With all that said, some of your moves sound really cool. Your stances however in PvP would either work out that for 20 minutes before they actually start doing moves they're both standing around switching stances (which could make for a very funny standoff). PvP could also be fun where you have to master switching stances very quickly and pulling off moves very fast while watching your opponent all the time in order to gauge what stance he's in so you can switch to the optimal stance (in monk v monk combat only, of course). Which could actually be very fun to watch if the two people playing were good.
Ummmm well personally Imma leave it up to Blizzard to make it a good character, it's good to see you've put so much work into thinking through these things. Not all of them are viable ideas really but they sound cool :thumbsup:
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"A lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.D., or Ph.D. Unfortunately, they don't have a J.O.B."
Wow, are you an artist too by any chance OP? Your imagination is pretty cool, I would love to see some sketches of that stuff happening. I might sketch out a few of those awesome moves. Welcome by the way!
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"I want to say something but I'll keep it to myself I guess and leave this useless post behind to make you aware that there WAS something... "
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
I don't know maybe the lunar physics on Swan discipline would be difficult and the bowling (throwing one enemy into group of enemies and knocking them all to ground) would just give way to exploding palm/kick which both do the same thing to a group of monsters. Aside from that everything else I thought would be really cool and ya I was thinking about that in terms of PvP when I was typing the stuff about the stances and how one is weak to another but strong to the third one, with that rune target stuff and percent chance to silence a caster monks would have a chance to kick butt in PvP instead of being roasted by sorcerers all the time like everyone else....
I just hope somehow that they take that rune targeting (mentioned for 5th or more time) to heart and put that in as a way for monk to be a real strategy character rather than a naked stupid warrior too ignorant or poor to wear armor. I don't want to have to play the game and see 50 sorcerers a night to 1 monk. I read one website that I think was passing off some of the abilities that might actually be in the game, most of them were lame, multistrike cow poop and I thought to myself, why not just do it with one freaking hit! I've played charger paladin before and it gets a little annoying clicking attack and then having to step back and run at it again.
If the monk was this powerful with the worship discipline to strengthen a monk when around fellow monks I think people would play this character as first one because they wouldn't need to have incredibly good gear and all of them together get to go far and personally that's the kind of enthusiasm that the skills for this character should impart upon the people who read the skill tree rather than.... "oh its a stupid monk with little armor and I'm just going to play sorceress and blow stuff up, and then kill them in game. Or Barbarians "Oh its a stupid monk maybe if I kill enough of them I might want to be one of them to know what its like to be a deer in the headlights."
The stuff I proposed will take the monks off the endangered species list, and give the other classes a reason to mind their tone You never know... Monks United put worship discipline and they might start a union, tell the PK sorcerers: "Don't make me invite my cloister to this game we'll have service on your ass." <-- weird way of referring to "Worship discipline" but can be taken in a variety of ways........
And last but not least, if my theory of rune targeting became a reality, two monks could kill anyone... 1 monk hits the sorceress in the head silencing her every couple of seconds and other monk hits her in the chest slowing her weapon swing. and maybe alternating that with hitting her in the legs too so she can't run away. Though if the effects of silence are only a percent chance per hit, the sorceress or whatever could still get away.
Or Barbarians "Oh its a stupid monk maybe if I kill enough of them I might want to be one of them to know what its like to be a deer in the headlights."
LOL
I just feel that it's necessary for me to express my amusement when I read that
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"A lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.D., or Ph.D. Unfortunately, they don't have a J.O.B."
I know, it would be like watching the Planet of the Apes "field" scene in reverse, normally the barb would be the ape on the horse watching the monks scatter but he might want to experience the exhilaration/adrenaline rush of being hunted (or so I'm told: by my prey).
Some of the stuff there seems more like Mortal Kombat fatalities than Diablo, no need to toy with your oppenent really, exploding him into chunks works fine with me. Those might also work in a God of War type game. Rip the lungs out lol vicous.
All the stuff I typed here has a few targets, it looks good, is deadly, capable of killing named monsters, capable of crowd control before killing, fighting with fellow monks increases ability etc. etc, you can find good gear even with ordinary runes, customizable attacks with target runes, capable of killing a barbarian and it is Unique ! (not just a warrior without any clothes on ) if anyone wants to see that there are plenty of real life role playing festivals where I'm sure they'd be happy to oblige.
-First Tree Martial Arts-
1. Bicycle Kicks ! (with small knockback of course )
2. Flying kick. (with knockback, the higher your running, the farther they fly away )
3. Innate Fast running, (as a skill that each point is 30% faster than normal character). ( takes the place of teleport and makes him almost desirable).
4. Exploding Palm/Kick Technique: Knockback masses of enemies while doing heavy damage. (so the monk can actually live in Hell difficulty)
(synergy with running skill which increases damage and knockback)
Next skill in tree, upgrade: to exploading palm/kick with knockback and stun (where enemies falls to ground and have to get up)
5. Dodging missiles and melee attacks ( as one skill ! including while running: during which he flips when he is dodging an arrow or fireball automatically!)
6. One click combos, you enter them in some sort of combo book (like a spell book ) where it automatically tries to cast skills in a particular chain, ex. Run -> flying kick (first monster) -> Exploding palm (with small knockback on adjacent monster).
7. Block (self explanatory) for combo this would be, block one monster's hit then exploding palm.
8. Monk should have high beginning stamina, high vitality, high strength (this explains why he'll be able to wear most armor )
9. Stomach grab: Punch into enemy pulling out stomach ( non-fatal but very bloody with constant loss of blood and hitpoints). : no need to have open wounds sword if he doesn't want to.
10. Lung Puncture: punch into enemy pulling out a piece of lung and throwing it to the floor( or not), enemy stamina lowered permanently till you finish him.
11. In the aforementioned spell book/spell tree every punch should have a target that you determine: Exploding palm on head should make target incapable of casting spells for a time, exploding palm on lungs should stun target making him incapable of swinging a weapon for a time ( but still can cast spells )
12. Exploding kick targeted to legs should make enemy incapable of walking.
13. Eleven and twelve could be found as runes, where the runes in addition to lethality, multiple strike etc. the runes also have random quality of where they target, either head, torso, legs (for the monk only )
-Discipline and Stances-
14. Should be able to go into a stance to give him certain benefits while in that stance ex. Iron Leg stance: His legs don't move fast but his punches have 50, 100, 150% more damage for each level of skill. can be combo with exploding palm all knockbacks for palm increased by 50% or higher depending on level. Bowling: Knock one enemy into group of enemies he knocks them all down, during this stance, all of them on ground for a few seconds.)
Basically this would be a stand your ground way to take out masses of enemies, weapon damage since most use hands, would also be increased by huge amount.
Iron leg stance also should have generic benefits like ground based physical resistance, invulnerable to leg targeting attacks ( for monk Vs. monk PvP ). Its got a very Lord of the Rings/ Rock Paper Scissors feel with regard to the three main stance and disciplines, each one counters where other one is weak. Swan Discipline would suck against Iron Leg (one hit from Iron Leg monk and you fly away super far) while it would be good against Leopard with kicks, but Iron leg discipline would own Leopard discipline in PvP.
15. Leopard Discipline: Leg speed increased to unworldly levels running speed multiplied by 20% times running skill.
16. During Leopard discipline he can run on a wall ( just like the baseball players do it then jump off to land on solid ground at a time of his choosing, or jump off followed by exploding palm in enemy face.
17. During Leopard Discipline monk can jump higher (a good amount higher, not hop..... )
18. During Leopard Discipline monk can punch and grab one enemy and throw him at other enemies for damage and stun (just like Bowling during Iron Leg Stance.). Also Kicks have vastly increased damage during Leopard Discipline.
Some would say that the proposed leopard discipline being unable to kick a monk in iron leg stance would make it useless against them, but, if they put in my proposed idea of "rune targets" in addition to the effects, then he would just put in a target rune for the head in one of his kick abilities or target rune for torso, to be able to hit the other monk.
19. Worship discipline, monks worship too ! Two or three monks fighting together should cause each other to get a speed increase of +20% per monk and damage increase of +50% per monk. This could be skill on tree that you put 1 point into and you get 1 minute of this ability (reset every time you are within 13 game yards of a fellow monk).
20. Swan Discipline, graceful as can be this discipline would give Tornado spin, ( rise into air while spinning with sword out, for striking very tall opponents ( bosses somewhere other than legs ) skill, Skipping Stone skill: (two words, lunar physics) character glides back (a little or a little more based on strength of strike) reducing damage taken by 50% or more, per level. Combo with running skill, and flying kick this would be an interesting and effective way to survive in higher difficulties.
If they had something like this, it should be a temporary thing, like you press a button and this stays on for say 30 seconds or until changed to different discipline/stance basically it would be like a matrix effect, allowing the monk to survive things he wouldn't normally be able to, you all know that feeling when you turn the corner to see the 10 archers with cold enchanted arrows and you just wish you had a way out.... This ability would be that way out. Combat targeting bonuses like critical strike (due to intense concentration) in addition to super low physical damage would be "monk becomes partially ethereal"and spell damage is also cut by 20% per level during this discipline with total poison immunity.
20b. Only one discipline active at one time, each discipline should have a cast time, represented as the monk taking a deep breath, doesn't have to be a long one, give person the feeling their monk is getting in the zone.... Worship discipline would be best as passive skill...
21. During each stance/discipline music particular to that style should play, swan music, bamboo flute, Iron horse, drums, (GOOD music based on oriental style ), Leopard discipline: fast music with those little finger symbols like the Dancing dragons in those parades they have. But music should be just a few instruments so it doesn't get too annoying, and it shouldn't be super loud.
-Staves, and Swords
22. Sword skill for monks should also be able to make use of the Runes with body targets in them.
23. I'm tired and can't write any more... but the runes with body targets as well as regular rune ability I think is my best idea yet maybe that could be in the game.
24. Monk robes should be off the hook flowing robes, maybe a little glow here and there would be cool if option of robe changed the higher your level. as well as findable robes on the trail, and customizable color to some degree.
I think that if they did these things to monk he could be a class that many many people would play.
25. Monk can wear same armor as many other classes, but robe can go over the armor that way he can preserve his particular look while still maintaining the clothes he needs for a harsh world. Also monk robe should be on him but not a huge icon in inventory or whatever it should be like a box that says robes on it. Each robe of course should come have bonuses to various things.
26. Staves and Spears should be of particular use against undead where monk can use head target rune to knock their heads off, he should also be able to whirl staff around to push all enemies away before targeting a particular monster. Monk should also be able to hit the ground with a staff and make a shock wave of dirt rise up in a straight line and blind targets for a bit.
27. Whip chain, monk should be able to use this weapon and a rune with target to throw this around a monster at a particular spot. ex: around head target ( which translates to the neck with this weapon ) he can rip off the head of a weak monster, or just strangle a strong monster then run up and stab it to death with sword.
28. If they did do a rune with body target effect, they wouldn't even need to show it graphically really because the person using the rune knows where its going to hit.
29. Monk should have no shield, at best, sword in one hand, and whip chain in the other and even that would be pushing it, but I think they could make it work.
30. Whip chain with target effect rune for legs would be able to wrap around named monster and drag it away from its pack once monk has a clear line of sight shot. He should be able to snag and use running skill in opposite direction to drag the named monster away from the pack leaving a cloud of generic dust in his wake.
31. Last the whip chains should come in varieties of length, (yes it does matter ) the longer the chain the farther away he should be able to do the aforementioned stuff.
32. To prevent misuse of the whip chain it shouldn't be able to drag monster if monster has less than 50% health, give some sappy statement about how the chain slipped off in the pool of blood or something. Otherwise someone will do this in team games and nobody will be able to catch them. but another monk.
For now... these are a few of my favorite things.
Thinking about it more still I would say without runes or something that targets locations on body so that spells of casters have either a high or low target that also applies to monks, that a monk character on the game would be ridiculous and would only a warrior without a sword. Personally Im lobbying for target runes ( runes with regular abilities which also have a target location on body) as a way to make the monk have a chance at being decent. It would add the final dimension to melee combat that people would like (even if the target runes didn't apply to magic users Monks would have an intelligent type of counter (i.e. head targeting runes with exploding palm and regular punch.) that would make them a playable class.
Balance Issues:
Though I already mentioned balance things before, with the proposed head strikes, torso, or leg strike each skill should give a chance at silencing the target ( for spells ) while the torso strike for lowering lung ability, ( lowering stamina ) should be an adequate but small stamina loss that gets worse the more the target is hit, and target hit to legs should also slow target by small but noticeable and lasting amount. In PvP of course all the values would be a little lower to give person a chance at swinging sword after the first two hits.
Sum of All Fears:
The monk sounds a lot like the Amazon, where the good specialty weapon is hard as hell to find while and the class as a whole is rarely seen in multiplayer games. I read a post where someone said the monk was a support class.... People don't want to support all the time, sometimes they want to kick arse and take names ! Adding the targets for punches, kicks, sword strikes, staves and whip chains on normal runes would make it so that a monk player won't be playing for 50 games before he finds something that makes a big difference in how he plays.
Lets be honest for most people Amazon isn't their first character because of difficulty in finding a bow, they play with Hammerdin and get the gear then when they trade for a bow they decide to start an amazon..... or they do a sorceress and do the same thing. Having the regular runes with targeting and letting monk where alot of the normal armor will keep them from becoming a boring class that nobody wants to start with, and give players something to look forward to. A game can have the special monk gear but without stuff that is findable, that gives real benefits/changes to how they play the class is DOA. I'm comparing Monk to Amazon because I think they have a lot in common, the specialty gear that nobody wants to store, (why I said robes should come in a box that you click on in inventory ) and hybrid that isn't really magic or melee and takes twice as long to get half as good.
That's totally ridiculous. You should make a computer game.
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
You search for monk, rest by a tree waiting for stamina to come back then a chain wraps around your character's legs drags him into a clearing where two or more monks are there (having given the other one their speed bonus from Worship discipline) and they beat you down.
But if the monk character had the abilities I just spent so long to type, wouldn't you want to play it ? You have ability to drag named monster to where you want him to be crowd control in exploding palm and kick, gravity bending discipline, speed boosting discipline, reason to play with other monks, and target specifications on Runes so you can choose techniques to further hone your lethal craft, add to that not needing good gear for the martial arts stuff because your using your hands and feet (though boots could add extra damage to kick and gloves all players use could add extra damage to palm explosion, with "palm spike" gloves adding ungodly amounts of damage.
I don't think anyone else has mentioned that idea of the runes having a target on the body for the monk only but it would make him able to begin to cut the Barbarian down to size since he would be able to target head ( to silence spell casting of barbarian ), torso to reduce stamina of barbarian or legs to slow a player down while walking. That system would give players a reason to choose monk vs Barb for PvP possibly. The skills without a rune with target should have a 33% chance to hit in either of the three places.
Well lets be honest, the amazon can kick some serious ass with the right gear. Especially since like the Sorcerer she can just stand back and damage deal. However, I think you're right that not many people roll this character as their first. I had a horrible time being an Amazon in single player D2.
I think though that the monk is gonna be kickass too. And rolling him as a first character is a matter of choice, when it comes down to it, most people, when they create their first character have no idea what they're doing. So don't you see that people create their first character based on their own personal preference, not because they're aware of it being difficult?
With all that said, some of your moves sound really cool. Your stances however in PvP would either work out that for 20 minutes before they actually start doing moves they're both standing around switching stances (which could make for a very funny standoff). PvP could also be fun where you have to master switching stances very quickly and pulling off moves very fast while watching your opponent all the time in order to gauge what stance he's in so you can switch to the optimal stance (in monk v monk combat only, of course). Which could actually be very fun to watch if the two people playing were good.
Ummmm well personally Imma leave it up to Blizzard to make it a good character, it's good to see you've put so much work into thinking through these things. Not all of them are viable ideas really but they sound cool :thumbsup:
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Wow, are you an artist too by any chance OP? Your imagination is pretty cool, I would love to see some sketches of that stuff happening. I might sketch out a few of those awesome moves. Welcome by the way!
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
I just hope somehow that they take that rune targeting (mentioned for 5th or more time) to heart and put that in as a way for monk to be a real strategy character rather than a naked stupid warrior too ignorant or poor to wear armor. I don't want to have to play the game and see 50 sorcerers a night to 1 monk. I read one website that I think was passing off some of the abilities that might actually be in the game, most of them were lame, multistrike cow poop and I thought to myself, why not just do it with one freaking hit! I've played charger paladin before and it gets a little annoying clicking attack and then having to step back and run at it again.
If the monk was this powerful with the worship discipline to strengthen a monk when around fellow monks I think people would play this character as first one because they wouldn't need to have incredibly good gear and all of them together get to go far and personally that's the kind of enthusiasm that the skills for this character should impart upon the people who read the skill tree rather than.... "oh its a stupid monk with little armor and I'm just going to play sorceress and blow stuff up, and then kill them in game. Or Barbarians "Oh its a stupid monk maybe if I kill enough of them I might want to be one of them to know what its like to be a deer in the headlights."
The stuff I proposed will take the monks off the endangered species list, and give the other classes a reason to mind their tone You never know... Monks United put worship discipline and they might start a union, tell the PK sorcerers: "Don't make me invite my cloister to this game we'll have service on your ass." <-- weird way of referring to "Worship discipline" but can be taken in a variety of ways........
And last but not least, if my theory of rune targeting became a reality, two monks could kill anyone... 1 monk hits the sorceress in the head silencing her every couple of seconds and other monk hits her in the chest slowing her weapon swing. and maybe alternating that with hitting her in the legs too so she can't run away. Though if the effects of silence are only a percent chance per hit, the sorceress or whatever could still get away.
LOL
I just feel that it's necessary for me to express my amusement when I read that
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