Hey guys! My favorite thing about the Monk is how certain abilities seem to flow together, but I thought it would be fun to have a unique rework or talent choice (maybe a PvP talent, considering the nature of it) that would make a significant change on how our abilities interact with stunned targets.
The idea draws from fighting game juggles, and is pretty simple. Monk stuns are drastically reduced and instead, certain abilities will juggle the target in the air, applying the Launched debuff. This all stems from Leg Sweep, which is the ‘combo starter’.
Launch lasts for 1.5 seconds, during which they are unable to act unless broken free from any traditional stunbreak, like a trinket. Enemies could be applied with Launched only 2 times before becoming immune (averaging out to 5 second stun). For example,
Leg Sweep Knocks Down all enemies for two seconds, enabling the alternative effects of Rising Sun Kick, Spinning Crane Kick, Whirling Dragon Punch, Fists of Fury, and Leg Sweep.
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Rising Sun Kick may combo Knocked Down or Launched enemies. In addition to dealing its normal damage, it will Relaunch the targeted enemy.
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After using Leg Sweep, your next Spinning Crane Kick is free and may combo Knocked Down or Launched enemies, Relaunching and dealing XXX% more damage.
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Whirling Dragon Punch may combo Launched enemies, dealing its normal damage and Relaunching any nearby enemies.
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Fists of Fury may finish a combo at any time, rooting Launched enemies in place for 2 seconds as you begin to pummel your targets, after which they fall back onto the ground.
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Leg Sweep may be reactivated for 7 seconds after being used, in which case it turns into Crashing River. Crashing River will drop kick Knocked Down or Launched targets, (think Rising Sun Kick damage) knocking them 20 yds away. Grants 1 charge of Flying Serpent Kick.
Lastly, one thing to note is that a stunbreak at any time will drop you out of the combo, as it would remove the Launched or Knocked Down status effects. Furthermore, failure to Relaunch a target means that they simply fall back onto the ground after the 1.5 seconds and can’t be combo’d anymore. I think that this can free up some room to apply Knocked Down to either other classes for unique class combos, or to other Monk abilities for more opportunities to use fun combos. Thanks for reading!
Aren’t we already fairly ridiculous at pvp? I’m not even a pvper but I do fairly well when I don’t know what I’m doing. Having something that continues to stun an enemy over and over with other things also hitting that enemy, seems a little ridiculous
Thanks for replying! In regards to your question, the idea of this post is more to pitch a rework in terms of class playstyle and flavor more than any specific balance. I’ve left things relatively vague for that reason (damage numbers can easily be tweaked), but if its balance you’re concerned about, then there could easily be something added to get around extended stuns. Even without this, however, the max duration stun that could be applied would only be around 5 or 5 and a half seconds (longer stuns exist in the game, and this would be the Monk’s only stun effect as far as I can see anyway).
For example, the Extended Combo status effect. Extended Combo is a debuff applied to the monk every time they use a Launcher, which reduces their damage output by 25% per stack, lasting 1.5s in duration each and stacking up to 2 times.
But again, the idea is simply imagining a cool and unique playstyle to give Monk abilities a more impactful feel, something that makes your bone-crushing moves feel powerful.
Good luck having Blizz rebuild an entire fighting system for a class that no one gives a rat’s a** about since MoP.
Disclaimer: I main and love my monk but it’s a sad reality.
I think everyone says that about every class so…
class with the least representation and group playing. Tweaks and minor changes yes, overhaul of combat style? Naive.
Low representation just means we need more effort and ideas put in to get players excited about the class! I firmly believe that if the class felt impactful and had cool mechanics like this, we would definitely be seeing more Monks flying around here.
I do believe they released Demon Hunter earlier than they planned (as late as it was) simply because Monks weren’t attractive enough as leather brawlers. It’s appealing to such a small group of us but at this rate where WoW’s popularity is going, they are spending all their effort and energy towards overall generic “systems” rather than individual class flavors. Fistweaving has been asked since forever and they rather double down on Holy Paladin and Disc Priest. To me, the whole thing with Demon Hunters and examples of Pally and Priests tell me Blizz will tell you they hear you but they won’t actively make major changes if it doesn’t translate to dollars and popularity. Look how wimpy Enhancement has been as a melee class… again, just not a very popular spec.
In fairness monks should be wearing cloth not leather.
Ever tried martial arts in leather? Oof… No
Only if they can make flow-y robes with giant sleeves. I want to look like Zhang San Feng, not a humanoid soccer ball.
Cloth gear need a major overhaul. Taking Monks off leather is a good start.
p.s. I do Wing Chun, boxing and other martial arts in my leather jacket from time to time, not a big deal, really. I could probably even do BJJ wearing one too.
Cloth / Leather argument aside, I’d love to hear if you have any improvements or ways to better translate this idea. For example, ideas like different combo enders having different effects (crashing river is a knockback, maybe crackling jade lightning could have a slow attached, etc.), or how other specs would interact with the mechanic. I have to imagine it would be cool to have the Spirit of the Crane damage=>healing effect apply during the combo
What I would love to address is impact of blows. My major attacks HAVE to feel, look and sound like Templar’s Verdict, Chaos Bolt, Obliterate and old Execute for example.
If we’re talking about revamping actual combat flow, let’s start from Fists of Fury. God I hate that skill since day one. That one move from Fury… is it Rampage? That’s how a fists of fury should be, basically a combo of fists, palm and kicks. You can see fighting games for reference.
Next is way how fundamentals like Tiger Palm, BOK and RSK work, hell make WDP baseline and make all of them give each other bonuses, elemental effects or whatever but no more than 3. That way you’ll never rotate the same thing over and over again. Maybe single target one combo, self buff one combo and aoe another string.
Also remove SCK and SEF. Not a fan of those unless they are completely changed.
That’s exactly the kind of thing I’m hoping to address! The lack of impact/oomph on our attacks is something that I think could really use some work, and I believe that a mechanic like this could go a long way with a pretty simple implementation.
I agree with you on the Rampage change, I have a 120 fury warrior and Rampage just feels like an improvement on FoF. And while we’re on WDP, it wouldn’t hurt to have it do some sort of proper uppercut animation, even if it meant being single target.
Our abilities definitely need a rework. SCK feels like nothing when we use it. RSK and FSK feel good to use, but the rest just feel really disconnected from actual damage.
They could rework a lot of animations and sound effects for sure.
Besides what was said about Fists of Fury and other skills, i feel that since monks can use other types of weapons other than fist weapons, they could get animations to match the weapon they’re using, after all monks are masters of armed and unarmed combat.
Change WDP to an uppercut with wave/dragon/fire effect shooting upwards but no jump. If we’re keeping the jump animation, allow a new move that combos it with a landing hit. In Legion you could do that with the hidden artifact special skill though it did little to no damage.