Encrypted Text: 3 Diablo monk moves that WoW rogues should steal
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Like many of you, I've been playing a monk all week. Every minute of my free time has been spent using my fists to dole out some serious justice. I've been alternating between twirling a staff and a pair of bladed fist weapons. Monks are a lot of fun to play.
I'm not talking about our furry panda friends from Pandaria, but rather the master martial artists from Sanctuary. While there are plenty of pandaren monk abilities that I wouldn't mind borrowing, the Diablo III monk's arsenal is quite appealing. Due to our mutual focus on martial arts, several of their techniques would fit right into our toolbox. There might not be any poisonous strikes or sneaky stabbing going on, but we're adept at kicking and punching as well.
Diablo is an AoE game; WoW is not
While many of the monk's skills revolve around nuking a horde of opponents, rogues typically find themselves fighting enemies one-on-one. While I like the direction of the new Fan of Knives, it just doesn't feel like it fits into our arsenal. We do find ourselves in AoE situations every once in a while, though, and that's where the monk ability Crippling Wave could be valuable.
I would love to see rogues execute an arcing clash, swirling around and slicing everyone nearby. Crippling Wave allows the monk to attack in a circular pattern, creating a vortex of death. The new Fan of Knives is already struggling with an identity crisis, since it's essentially an AoE-based combo point generator, like a multitarget Sinister Strike. Crimson Tempest comes close to giving us a swirling attack, but I'd like to see the twirl attached to the generator rather than the finisher.
An explosive kick
Kick is pretty boring. It's identical to all of the other interrupts out there, and most rogues wouldn't notice if it was replaced by Rebuke or Pummel tomorrow. I have always imagined Kick being more exciting, and the monk's Lashing Tail Kick fills that role perfectly.
Imagine having a knockback effect attached to our Kick via a glyph or even a talent. While rogues normally like to keep their targets close, it would still be valuable to have some control over our opponents' positioning. There are only a couple of classes with knockback abilities, and I think it would fit in well with our theme. Since Kick doesn't generate combo points, we could even use it to toss an unfriendly melee class away from us while we burn down their healer.
An AoE Blind
Blind is a great PvP ability, probably one of the best in our arsenal. It's crucial for crowd control and restealthing purposes, and it can often be the deciding ability in a match. However, its biggest weakness is that it's useless in most raiding situations. There aren't a lot of mobs that are susceptible to CC in raids, and bosses are never controllable. My first thought was to make our Blind hit multiple targets, like the monk's Blinding Flash. Unfortunately, paladins are already receiving that move in the form of Blinding Light.
The monk's Searing Light version of the ability gives me a different an idea of how Blind could work in PvE. Instead of actually Blinding the boss, it instead works by applying a short debuff that causes the boss to miss more often. If a rogue's Blind were to apply a similar short debuff to a raid boss, it could come in handy as a backup cooldown for heavy tank damage situations.
Blind's cooldown is sufficiently long to rule out any abuse, and it would give rogues a bit of interesting PvE flavor. Most PvE cooldowns come in the form of tanks using their CDs or healers reducing incoming damage with their CDs, and this would unlock a new area: DPS classes using their CDs to help out as well.
What monk ability would you like to see in our arsenal? Obviously, the heals and mantras don't really fit our playstyle, but there are plenty of combat techniques and attacks that I could see meshing very well with our theme. Shadowstep is the parallel to Dashing Strike, while Killing Spree and Seven-Sided Strike were definitely designed by the same developer. What other similarities between the classes have you enjoyed?
Sneak in every Wednesday for our Molten Front ganking guide, a deep-dive into the world of playing a subtlety rogue -- and of course, all the basics in our guide to the latest rogue gear.
