First, I want to say that I’m in no fashion a developer and I truly have no idea what is easy or hard to implement, I’m just going by logic that something that already exists in the game is easier to implement than creating something from nothing.
Monks are great, they’re fun, they’re versatile, the class fantasy is cool, the few important lore characters we have are all fun, but it seems that I’m not the only one that is sad with how some animations work currently, and this is a list of suggestions, mainly related to the weapons players will have equipped. I will try to list suggestions, from simple changes to more ambitious changes that i consider “ideal”. Since we are at the end of an Expansion, going into the next, i think if any change will happen, this would be the ideal time, so I hope fellow monk players agree with what I think, if not, this is a good place to leave suggestions as well. And before I finally start, this is also a thread about animations alone, I will not suggest any change to how a skill works, or change its gameplay. I have one suggestion for all 3 specs, and then all the other suggestions will apply only to Windwalker. So after all those warnings let’s go:
For all 3 Specializations:
Tiger Palm: Tiger Palm has a cool animation, not going to lie, but it looks really lame when it doesn’t use any weapon at all, not even Fist Weapon on its animation, it is annoying how it looks, since it is a skill you use all the time, you have this weird effect of your weapon vanishing all the time. It even looks worse on Brewmaster or Mistweaver, since they have a staff or polearm always and could be using it. So, here is my suggestion.
Simple:
For Mistweavers and Brewmasters, replace Tiger Palm animation with one of the many staff/polearm animations that already exist in the game, this is not the best scenario, since those are “generic” animations, but I honestly think it is better than having your weapon as decoration only, mainly on the case of MW and Brewmaster, where one has only one staff animation and the other has none.
For WindWalker, there are animations that look very similar like the tiger palm except they use your fist weapon, I believe the Spear Hand strike when using a fist weapon is one of them, and I’ve heard on previous expansions Tiger Palm had a proper fist weapon animation.
Ideal:
For Brewmaster and Mistweaver, would be the developing of an unique Tiger Palm animation using their weapons.
Auto-Attacks: Should also use your weapon animations, no matter the weapon type you have, this could take some work to implement due to the unique stances of the 3 specs of monk, but it could be done, at least the character holding the weapons and doing the same animations, even if this results in the character hitting the enemy with the hilt of the sword, I think in this case is fine since auto attacks are rarely seen and are supposed to be weak.
Windwalker:
With Tiger palm covered, which is my major gripe really, let’s go to improving WindWalker. And this is will be all about giving weapon animations. Windwalker already have animations for Fist Weapons in all hand attacks except Tiger Palm, so, this side is already covered, now let’s go towards other weapon types.
Implementing Sword/Mace/Axe animations. Right now, the way the game works, if you equip two weapons that are not fist weapons, the game will just keep them “sheathed” during your WW animations, but if you equip at least one fist weapon, your character will hold both weapons in combat, but you still have your weird animations of your character just punching while holding the weapon, and I think in some cases this can work, in most cases, it doesn’t.
Time to go over the suggestions.
Fist of the White Tiger: It has an unique animation, and it keeps your fist weapon, amazing. The animation kinda works if you’re using a mace on your left hand as well, but not much, so here is the suggestion:
Simple: When using mace/sword/Axe replace with a left hand strike of those weapons that other classes have.
Ideal: Creation of an unique animation that fits those weapon types.
Spear hand Strike and Touch of Death: I think this shouldn’t be changed, even with swords/mace/axes equipped, due to the theme of the abilities, I think it looks cool you using the hand to hit it, even if you’re holding a weapon, but they’re generic animations of your auto attacks as a monk, so if was the case, they could have generic animations of other weapons that other classes do have.
Fists of Fury: This is the big one, I’ll be honest, I don’t like how Fists of Fury looks, at all, or the sound it makes, so my first suggestion would be to change the sound effect to something more brutal.
The punching animation is not the best either, but I honestly don’t see a fix for this without changing how the skill works, since for this type of animation to look good, you need the character standing still, so the punching animation can use the whole body, instead of just using from the waist to the top, so I have no suggestions for the skill with fist weapons or bare fists. So, that is it with the punching animation, it already uses fist weapons when you have them equipped, if you have one fist weapon and one weapon of other type, it will use said weapon but still do the punching animation, but my suggestion goes for when using 2 weapons that are not fist weapons, and it is to simply adapt the animation of the Fury Warrior ability “Rampage”, that animation uses both weapons, It is already made to be done while walking or moving, and I think it could be implemented with a difference in speed for the fists of fury without changing how FoF works gameplay wise. Plus, it would even look cooler if you only use fist weapon, but during Storm, Earth and Fire, you would have two clones doing a different animation than yours during FoF, which I think would look even cooler.
I wouldn’t suggest any change to any of the kicks, to be honest, maybe sound effects, but I like Spinning Crane Kick since it is a Tatsu, and Rising Sun Kick is a Flash kick.
Brewmaster:
Not an skill on itself, but I think everyone would love if by default Brewmasters held their staff weapons as they hold the artifact weapon.
Mistweaver:
Besides the change in tiger palm, I don’t have any, since all the spell casting with MW already looks amazing.
Final Thoughts and adressing some issues:
This is it, this was a long thread, sorry for that. To finish this, I just want to say, I like monks the way they are already, those are just suggestions that wouldn’t affect rotation, or balance or anything like that, would just bring more flavor to the class. And I can imagine some counter arguments like:
“If you want weapon animations you should play X class, adding weapon animations would make monks less unique”: This isn’t valid honestly, Rogues, Dks, Shaman all dual wield and they are different, and this doesn’t make them the same, and it is part of the Monk fantasy wielding weapons as well.
Monks from what i’ve heard are one of the least popular classes in the game, adding more flavor, more visual options I think would just be good for the class overall, and none of the changes I made remove what is unique about monks, the kicks are still there, you can transmog fist weapons for the punching animations, nothing really changes, it would just add options.
Sorry for any mistakes in the text, it took a while to write and i didn’t read it again to look for errors. If you got here and read everything, thanks!