Class Changes: Monk

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Monk Core Changes

Monks previously underwent two revamps aimed at improving their power scaling, but both had significant issues. These changes invalidated much of the existing itemization, made monks overly reliant on monk-specific gear, and introduced scaling caps that were quickly reached. Our goal now is to provide monks with scaling options that don’t disrupt old item designs or require developers to create monk-specific gear at every tier. As a result, monks are receiving a full redesign. Below are the main changes and what has been removed. What Hasn’t Changed :

  • Fist elemental damage remains as flat damage, not affected by resistances.
  • Positioning mechanics still do not consider mobs as “behind” the monk. What’s Has Changed :
  • Monks no longer provide an auxiliary bonus .
  • Fist damage no longer scales from Strength and Dexterity.
  • Martial abilities no longer spend endurance to be empowered.
  • Bare hands no longer receive an accuracy bonus.
  • Elemental damage on gloves now works below level 65.
  • The monk focus mechanic has been removed.

Monk Discipline Changes

Monks, like all melee classes, have moved from the stance system to the discipline system. Monks still passively generate endurance by hitting enemies in combat, but they start with 20% endurance instead of 40%. They have two main endurance spenders: a single-target discipline and a three-target area of effect (AoE) discipline. Both abilities have flat endurance costs (approximately 5-10% based on level, total endurance, and cost reduction) and a shared 1-second cooldown. Additionally, monks have a low-endurance cost stunning discipline, a short-range tagging ability, and six discipline buffs that require no endurance. Four of these buffs are new, while the remaining two are converted from Ethereal Form and Wall of Will . Note that only one discipline buff can be active at a time. New Disciplines:

  • Crushing Palm (single-target discipline): Six ranks, dealing 10/28/40/56/90/150 base damage.
  • Meteoric Kick (three-target AoE discipline): Five ranks, dealing 21/30/42/68/115 base damage.
  • Unwavering Focus (accuracy buff): Three ranks, increasing accuracy by 5/12/20%. This affects all weapon attacks and kicks.
  • Mistform (defensive buff): Doubles your dodge skill, improving on the old defensive stance.
  • Way of the Wind (movement speed buff): Five ranks, providing 5/12/20/29/40% movement speed, which works indoors. Movement speed effects do not stack.
  • Soul Barrier (resistance buff): Three ranks, providing 10/25/50 to all resistances.
  • Stunning Fist : Two ranks, stunning the target for 3s/6s. Has a 1-minute cooldown and a small endurance cost.
  • Throw Stone : Deals 2 damage, scaling up by 1 per level. Costs 8 endurance with a range of 30-70 units.

Monk Martial Abilities

Monk martial abilities have been redesigned with actual scaling tied to Strength and Dexterity, replacing the old empowered versions. There is no cap, but scaling diminishes as Strength and Dexterity increase. Cooldowns can still be halved by haste, and while they are shared across abilities, each ability has a unique cooldown duration that is not triggered by the others. This remains consistent with how monk martial ability cooldowns functioned previously.

Martial Adjustments

  • Martial abilities now scale with strength and dexterity. Every 4 strength and dexterity provides a 1% increase from the abilities base damage.
  • Martial abilities now scale with codex of power bonus. Martial Abilities
  • Round Kick : Attacks 3 targets, 9-second cooldown, approximately double the damage of Flying Kick against three targets.
  • Tiger Claw : Base 6-second cooldown, damage scales, and threat now scales with damage rather than being a flat 75 hate.
  • Eagle Strike : Now a life tap spell attack. First it scales the melee portion of the attack using strength and dexterity, then it passees through standard spell lifetap scaling.
  • Dragon Punch/Tail Rake : Deals Fire/Cold damage, with a -20 resist adjust, 6-second cooldown. The expectation is you’ll use them against enemies with high armor and low resistances.
  • Flying Kick : Heavy melee scaling, 8-second cooldown, and a tighter damage range (75-100% rather than 50%-100%). On a high tier monk fighting enemies with low armor you can expect to pretty reliably hit for over a thousand damage before crits.

Monk Item Adjustments

We still aim for empty-handed combat to be a strong option for pure DPS. In many cases, bare fists paired with gloves will be the best choice for DPS at the appropriate level. However, there are variables, and the gap can sometimes be rather small. Through testing, we identified several items that were either underperforming or overperforming and made adjustments. The goal is that gloves at a given tier should generally be better than other on-tier options, but missing the tier-appropriate gloves will no longer severely impact your performance. Here are a few key adjustments to Monk itemization:

  • Ragecaller : Damage increased to 74, proc rate increased to 10%.
    • Ragecaller item hadn’t received a proper update in previous item patches, so it has been significantly buffed to reflect its difficulty of acquisition.
  • Silence : Damage increased to 6.
  • Nail of Festering Darkness : Proc rate increased to 7%, with a resist adjust of -50.
  • Calcified Perfection : Damage increased to 51, proc chance increased to 10%.
  • Fist Wraps of the Chosen (Tier 6) : Elemental damage increased to 3, with a proc chance increased to 6%.
  • Fistwraps of the Flame (Monk Starfall) : Fire damage reduced to 1, with a 10% chance to proc burn.
    • Fistwraps of the Flame have been adjusted to ensure other gloves serve as meaningful upgrades at later levels. A proc was added to keep the gloves power level appropriately high when you acquire them, but to minimize their scaled power.
  • Saturated Spirit Gloves : Proc rate reduced to 9%.
    • Saturated Spirit Gloves were a Bind On Equip option that were as strong as most Tier 7-8 items not named Combine Leather Gloves , so their power has been scaled down to align with their tier.
  • Combine Leather Gloves : Damage reduced to 3.
    • Combine Leather Gloves were the best weapon from Tier 5 up through Tier 9, which is longer than we’d like a single item to last. These changes ensure that gloves scale more appropriately with content tiers, while bare fists remain a solid option in pure DPS scenarios.

Monk Alternative Advancement Changes

Both of the existing monk special Alternative Advancements were buffed as both were subpar. In addition, monks were given a new AA aimed at providing defensive utility by reducing the cost of providing auxiliary tanking.

  • Force of Body has been reworked:

    • Flurry chance now applies to both main hand and offhand : Previously, this ability only affected the main hand, making two-handed weapons a better choice. This adjustment balances flurry for all weapon setups.
    • Flurry chance scaling corrected : While originally listed as providing 5%, it actually gave up to 15% (11% at rank 1, 12% at rank 2, 13% at rank 3, and 15% at rank 4). Now, the ability provides a consistent 4% flurry chance per rank, ensuring smoother scaling.
    • Removed kick bonuses : The kick bonuses provided by this ability were minimal and have been removed to streamline the AA.

  • Elemental Fists :

    • Proc rate doubled
    • Elemental damage has been increased by 66%
    • Fixed a bug where bare fists had a 40% increased proc rate, with proc buffs and AA procs. This bug effected more than this AA, but it is highly relevant to mention here.

  • New AA: Mind’s Eye :

    • This new AA grants monks the ability to anticipate their opponents’ defensive maneuvers.
    • Reduces the chance for enemies to block, parry, or riposte monk attacks by 10% per rank. This reduction is multiplicative , not additive.
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