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This post was originally started back in mid-March of 2007 and it’s about time that I finished it…

Well, it’s time for my second blind prophetic mumbling. Last time, I talked about the direction I think that Horde/Alliance relationships should (and are starting to) move in.

Prediction: The next expansion will not introduce new races, but will introduce new classes.

I’d hit on this topic over a year ago.

Specifically, I would like to see two new character classes available – monk (defensive cloth-wearing melee type) and necromancer (zombie herder).

Pardo claims that one of the design goals of the game is ‘concentrated coolness‘ and thus they have 8 very unique classes in stead of something like EQ2 where you have numerous pairs of very similar classes.

So… before you start whining that necros would basically just be another brand of warlock, no, they aren’t. I actually have a harder time justifying monks than necros – though high end BC fist weapons have finally made an “unarmed” type class much more viable. My general justification for these ideas is that there is prior precedence for both classes and that they would be viable player classes in WoW. They make use of mechanics

I’m not interested in runemasters as a class, largely because I feel that they’d take more work to become viable and because Blizzard would get a lot of flack and accusations of copying Warhammer Online’s runepriest class.

It is my stated opinion that necromancers would make a fine addition to both gameplay and to world theme. They’re very traditional fare for the franchise, with skeleton armies being my arch-nemesis back in WC1… So, how can we make necros both thematically acceptable and give them sufficient uniqueness that they’re not just warlocks with zombies? Easily

And as far as monks vs concentrated coolness? How much cooler can you get than a clothie who can main tank instances?

necromancers

Weapons: dagger, sword (at 10), fist (at 20), wand
Armour: cloth, leather (at 60)
Talent Trees: Decay, Preservation, Animation
Role: nature/shadow/ice spell dps, highly expendable pets, wipe recovery
Races: undead(?), troll, blood elf, gnome, human(?)
Primary Stats: intelligence, spirit

class highlights

Necromancers are primarily a direct damage spell dps class. Their primary attacks are nature (poison/disease) based but they do get access to some shadow and ice direct damage spells. Their poison nukes do proc dots and debuffs, but they have no specific dot spells (ie, dots are all side-effects of nukes, more like a mage than a warlock in this sense).

They have the ability to reanimate corpses (or summon ghosts from a graveyard), but these summons are very different than those of a warlock or a hunter, and the necromancer has much less control over their summons than a hunter or warlock would. Necromancer pets steadily decay over time and cannot be healed through traditional means.

Necros have a number of ‘control’ points at their disposal. These points limit the frequency at which corpses may be reanimated and the number of zombies that may be had at once. Yes, multiple pets. Control points do not regenerate instantly upon the death of the summon.

Because a necro’s summons require that the caster either be in a graveyard or that they have a suitable corpse present, and because they require control points… necromancers will frequently find themselves forced to operate without a legion of zombies.

While they are not healers, necromancers should be very adept at wipe recovery. They can’t prevent party members from dying, but they can certainly bring them back after they do

hordes of zombies

When somebody says necromancer, they’re not talking guys who raise the occasional zombie to do their bidding. They’re talking legions of undead minions. In WC3 terms, we’re talking Arthas the Death Knight, etc…

So, I think a fundamental feature of the necromancer class should be the ability to have multiple combat pets at once. No other class boasts this feature – at least, no other class boasts the ability to actually control multiple combat pets at once. Anyone can get trinkets or temporary uncontrollable pets.

And I think that should be the biggest feature of the class, the ability to raise and control multiple pets at a time. Of course, this comes with two major problems:

• The game interface currently can’t deal with multiple controllable pets at once.
• Everyone else is gonna whine and complain like spoiled little baby childrens.

To the former problem I can only say that since there weren’t any new classes in Burning Crusade, they’ve over a year to iron out the UI/driver issues That, and by limiting the control options given to necro pets, things should be made easier.

To the whining and complaining, it’s a valid concern. However, you must consider who’s gonna be complaining. Hunters and warlocks. Blizzard hates them, so it doesn’t much matter, eh? In all seriousness though, if we allow necromancers to have multiple summons at once, we need to: either make individual necro pets somehow weaker than individual hunter and warlock pets, or make it way more difficult for necros to break the 1 pet at a time limit, or come up with some sort of combination of the two.

Part of the whining and complaining would be Blizzard themselves, of course. But they’ve lost the right to complain about concentration of summoning powers now that they’ve given limited summoning abilities to correctly specced mages (who deserve it), shamans (who don’t), priests (who huh?), and druids (… huh?!?!).

other summoners

Hunters have to catch and train and feed their pets. They can only take one pet with them at a time – and have to buy stable space in order to store other pets. They can call their pet instantly, unless it is dead – at which point they must spend time and mana to rez the critter. Hunter pets must earn xp in order to level up, but the player also gets a very large degree of room in which to customize their pets. Hunters can name their pets.

Warlocks have to quest for each of their new summons, of which they get a total of 8 or so. These quests get increasingly more difficult (it’s possible for a lock to have their imp at level 3 or 4, but the succubus quest is long enough that it took me all the way through level 20 and into 21 to complete, etc…). Warlocks get free mounts. Warlocks always have to spend mana to summon their pets (and shards, and sometimes party members ). Warlock pets have no feelings, so it doesn’t hurt to let them die any more than it does to leave them behind in a dangerous situation. Each warlock pet is a unique critter with vast differences in usefulness, and the player may switch them out at any time. The pets level along with the player but are also completely identical to any other warlock’s pet of the same level. Warlock pets come pre-named.

Other classes with summons must purchase them with high tier talent points. They’re generally short term big attack spells. I’d like to see a necro’s summons fit somewhere in between these and a warlock’s.

I think the first difference between necromancers and warlocks should be that the difference in loyalty and cuddly feelings towards a necro’s pets and a lock’s pets should be roughly the same as the difference between locks and hunters. Ie, it should be cheap to raise zombies.

There should be no names given to the summons. There is no training of zombies. Each minion is a new creature, who will be used up and thrown away. Other players cannot heal zombies. They do not regenerate on their own, in fact, they decay gradually over time. Many of a necromancer’s bigger spells should cost a minion as a reagent.

summoning methods

Ok, so it stands to reason that necros need bodies to re-animate or something like that, ne? Sounds good to me. I’d like corpses to act the role of a warlock’s shards with two major differences. First, shards are portable. Corpses are not. Second, any kill worth xp/honor is worth a shard. Not all corpses will be suitable, and some mobs don’t even leave corpses at all.

Like the warlock can always summon an imp in the absence of shards, a necromancer should be able to animate corpses from a graveyard. These critters will be weaker than those from fresh kills, but oh well.

What corpses are suitable? Well, I think it should be a function of level. Just like a hunter gains different tracking abilities as they advance, a necro should be able to raise different varieties of corpse as they advance.

Level 10 – humanoid
Level 20 – beast (most beasts)
Level 30 – demon (some demons)
Level 50 – giant
Level 70 – dragonkin (some dragonkin)

Note that undead, elementals, and critters w/o a creature type will never be suitable fodder for necromancers. This includes a necro’s pets who have been destroyed (they’ll not actually leave corpses). Also note that the individual creature itself doesn’t much matter (only level). So a lvl 30 bear will be just as useful to a necromancer as a lvl 30 kobold.

Starting at level 10, and continuing every 6 levels afterward, the necromancer should get a new way in which to animate corpses (ie, a new spell). Each spell is only usable with certain corpse types.

Level 10 – skeleton (any)
Level 16 – zombie (humanoid, beast, giant)
Level 22 – ghoul (humanoid, beast, giant)
Level 28 – ghost (any, graveyard)
Level 34 – abomination (humanoid, giant)
Level 40 – death knight (humanoid)
Level 46 – crypt fiend (beast)
Level 52 – felwalker (demon)
Level 58 – deathguard (any)
Level 64 – wraith (humanoid, demon, graveyard)
Level 70 – lich (humanoid, demon, dragonkin)

Animating zombies should be quick compared to warlocks, but not entirely instant. I’m thinking a 3 second casting time to start with on skeletons and +0.5 sec to casting time of each additional level of spell (so ghouls are 4 seconds and liches are 8 seconds). Possibly allow 5 talent points to be spent on reducing casting times of all animation spells by 0.5 seconds (reducing skeletons to 0.5 sec casting time and liches to 5.5).

Each pet will generally fall into one of three categories: offensive, defensive, or utility (pets that aren’t terribly impressive in general combat but have some decent abilities in specific situations).

Skeleton

Animated sack of bones. Offensive, no special abilities.

Zombie

Skeleton with some meat on. Defensive. Cannibalize, can eat zombie-suitable corpses for healing.

Ghoul

Utility zombie. Melee damage inflicted is divided evenly between mana and hp. Against rogues and warriors, that half damage is discarded.

Ghost

White incorporeal spirit. Offensive. Frost bolt.

Abomination

Like the big scourge guys. Defensive. Heavy melee with poison cloud taunt.

Death Knight

Ghoul with armour. Utility. Can heal undead minions.

Crypt Fiend

Undead nerubian. Utility. Root. Ranged insect summon type nature damage attacks.

Felwalker

Skeletal felhound. Defensive. Highly resistant to magic – any spell resisted has a chance of backfiring on the caster for a heavy taunting effect.

Deathguard

Skeletal doomguard. Defensive. Highly resistant to physical damage. Sunder, revenge.

Wraith

Red incorporeal spirit. Offensive. Shadow bolt. Can drain life to heal self.

Lich

Ghoul in mage robes. Offensive. Ice and shadow single target nukes, aoe shadow debuff, single target ice-based snare.

In addition to these guaranteed summon types, necromancers should also be able to purchase a few different types of minions through talent points at tiers 3, 5, and 9 in the Animation tree.

Tier 3 (level 20+) – shambler (any)
Tier 5 (level 30+) – shadow nexus (graveyard)
Tier 9 (level 50+) – mirror image (humanoid)

Shambler

Small slime-shaped mass of flesh. Utility. The necromancer gets 2 shamblers from a corpse, which cost only one CP between the two of them. No combat abilities whatsoever. Shamblers exist only as cheap minions to sacrifice to other spells.

Shadow Nexus

Incorporeal black and purple cloud. Defensive. The nexus has no direct attacks but does possess a powerful AoE taunt ability, an aura that debuffs enemies within range, and an ability that reflects 75% of all damage taken back to the attacker as shadow damage.

Mirror Image

Looks like the necro character with a green tint effect similar to shadowform/berzerk. Offensive. The mirror image echoes any offensive spell cast by the necromancer that does not cost reagents or minions.

control points

Necromancers are allowed multiple pets at a time. However, the more minions they raise, the weaker they become themselves. The hard limit on the number of summons a necro may have at once is measured by ‘control points’. Necros earn 2 CP at level 10 when they complete their quest arc and are given further quests to improve their control by one more point at levels 30, 50, and 70 for a grand total of 5 CP. It might be possible to purchase a single additional CP through the use of a max tier animation talent point.

Skeletons, zombies, ghouls, ghosts, and pairs of shamblers cost 1 CP to animate. Abominations, death knights, shadow nexuses, crypt fiends, and felwalkers cost 2 CP. Deathguards, wraiths, and liches cost 3 CP. Mirror images cost 4 CP. The necro may distribute these points however they want.

The level of the corpse does not affect the CP cost. In fact, it is entirely possible for a necromancer to spend 3 CP on animating a lvl 50 corpse as a lich and then guard it with a pair of level 65 zombies.

For every CP spent in maintaining an undead minion, the necromancer suffers a fairly stiff penalty: -5% max HP, -5% max mana, and -5% to spell damage. Without any pets, the necro should inflict damage on par with a shadow priest. With a full compliment, he should hit about as hard as a paladin with a fishing pole. These penalties may be reduced with animation talent points.

When conjuring minions, a necromancer may only use corpses that were slain by his party. There is no implicit level limit, thus a baby necro could theoretically make himself a level 50 zombie… if he were in a twinking party. But the newbie who wanders into a high level zone can’t animate corpses left behind by high levels too inconsiderate to loot them.

However, when a necromancer DOES wind up with a pet bigger than themselves, the CP cost for that pet is increased by 1.

If a necromancer ever finds themselves overexerted on CP, their smallest minion dies. If they are still over their CP limit, another one dies, etc… though I don’t really see how that one’d be possible.

CP do not regenerate immediately upon the death of the minion – even though the associated stat penalty does. The necromancer must either wait 2 full minutes for the CP to regenerate, or they must cast a lvl 40 spell that regenerates the CP For them (in exchange for a percentage of their base mana).

care and feeding

Necromancer minions do not earn xp. They do not level to scale with their master. They are whatever level of corpse the player re-animated from. Graveyard minions are leveled based on the entry level difficulty of the zone, minus 5 (minimum level of 5 in newbie zones).

So, if a player were to summon a few pets in the kodo graveyard, they’d wind up with some lvl 25 minions since Desolace is lvl 30-40.

Necromancer minions can’t be healed by traditional means. Players can’t use healing spells or bandages on them. The only ways they can be healed are either by eating corpses or by healing themselves. The necromancer has no normal heal spell for his pets – but he CAN sacrifice one pet to heal another.

In fact, much of what a necromancer does involves killing pets to make himself and his remaining pets stronger.

The three most basic necromancer minion sac abilities are:

1. Sac a minion to provide friendly target with a shell that reduces melee/ranged damage taken by X for 30 minutes.
2. Sac a minion to feed another minion. 50% of the sacrificed pet’s health and mana are transferred. If the sacced minion is of equal or higher level than the healed minion, the healed minion’s level is increased by 1.
3. Sac a minion to inflict tremendous damage to a single enemy.

The necromancer may not specify which pet is used to fuel an ability that costs a minion. In stead, the game selects the necro’s weakest, lowest CP value minion automatically.

When a minion dies or is sacrificed, a portion of any aggro they have generated is returned to the necromancer. The rest dissipates.

wipe recovery

Necromancers have two resurrect abilities that they may use on party members. They also have a feign death / ice block type ability that flushes their aggro and takes them out of combat.

Revive Ally

Level 20. Usable only out of combat. 2 second cast. No cooldown. Brings the party member back with 5% of their max hp and mana and a -50% spirit debuff that lasts for 1 minute. Otherwise is very inexpensive to use and quick to cast

Reanimate Ally

Level 40. Usable only during combat. 3 second cast. 30 minute cooldown. Sacrifice one of the necromancer’s minions to bring an ally back to life with 100% health and 100% mana. The party member also comes back in a berzerk and uncontrollable state, with +50% to damage done and immunity to CC that lasts for 30 seconds before the player is given control of their character.

Suspended Animation

Level 20. Instant cast. 10 minute cooldown. The necromancer sacrifices a minion in order to flush all aggro and enter a state of suspended animation that lasts for 1 minute. During this state, the necromancer cannot act or be acted upon. They do not regenerate mana or health. Any of their minions still active will continue to act with their previous orders. The state may not be terminated early. When the spell ends, the necromancer will wake with a 30 second -50% spirit debuff.

spells and abilities

Necromancers get 3 basic nuke spells.

Initially, they start play with Toxic Strike which does a burst of nature damage up front and applies a short debuff that reduces the target’s nature resistance. This debuff may be improved with decay talents such that it stacks up to 5 times and increases the victim’s susceptibility to crits.

At level 6, they pick up Icebolt, a frost damage nuke that does half of its damage up front and the rest as a brief dot that stacks up to 5 times.

At higher levels, necromancers also get a Darkbolt spell that does shadow damage and (with talents) has a chance to proc an accuracy debuff on the victim.

Another general thematic element that I would like to see with necromancers is that they are essentially combat alchemists. Sort of how druids are connected to herbalism and warlocks are connected to tailoring, there should be numerous quests that expect a necromancer to have ready access to a friendly alchemist. Many of a necromancer’s spells will cost rogue poison components as reagents.

The necromancer’s initial 30-minute self buff spell will give them some armour points and will reduce their generated threat.

A large set of spells available to necromancers will be referred to as ‘infusions’. Infusions are not necessarily one type of spell, there are offensive and defensive infusions. Regardless of the type, necros will only be allowed to maintain one infusion at once (as a hunter’s stings, a warlock’s curses, a paladin’s judgements, etc…). Necros should be given a large variety of infusions to choose from. All infusions count as poison debuffs, even the beneficial ones, and no infusions may be cast on the necromancer himself or party members (but they may be used on a necromancer’s minions).

At level 20, necromancers gain a Metabolize Poison buff spell that cures 1 poison effect on the target, replacing it with an hp regeneration effect in stead. The size of the effect depends on the rank of the metabolize spell cast, not on the size of the poison cured. This spell can be used to heal minions.

Nuke-wise, the necromancer should be weak in the AoE damage arena. They should have area attacks, but these should be primarily debuffing in nature – like disease clouds, etc…

At level 60, necromancers should gain Sever Spirit, an expensive high powered shadow nuke that will instantly reanimate the victim as the biggest appropriate minion type available to the necromancer if the target dies within 3 seconds of being hit by the spell.

Necros should also receive some sort of ability to CC undead. Whether it’s more like shackle, turn undead, or enslave, I don’t really care. Perhaps they could have all three.

talent trees

The three talent trees available to necromancers are Preservation, Decay, and Animation.

The preservation tree improves a necromancer’s minions (makes them last longer). It also improves their ice-based nuke spells.

The decay tree improves a necromancer’s debuffs as well as their nature and shadow damage attacks.

The animation tree improves the actual process of creating minions (speeding it up, making it cost less, etc…). The tree also gives the necromancer an additional CP and three additional summon types.

Animation necros will probably be the least viable PvP build, simply because of their limited options for corpses in BG’s and the arena. Decay necros should be similar to shadow priests in party usefulness. Preservation will likely be the soloing spec.

monks

Weapons: fist, staff (at 10), polearm (at 20), thrown
Armour: cloth, leather
Talent Trees: Mind, Body, Weapon
Role: downtime reduction, dodge/resist tank, melee dps
Races: orc, troll, human, night elf, draenei(?)
Primary Stats: agility, spirit

class highlights

Monks have a mana bar, not energy or rage. They are primarily a defensive melee class that relies upon dodging attacks to compensate for their low damage mitigation. Their special abilities do physical and arcane spell damage.

They are capable of wearing both cloth and leather armour but receive major bonuses to dodge and spell resistance when wearing only cloth equipment. The strength of this buff is sufficient to make monks viable tanks.

Monks start off with a pair of fist weapons and the ability to dual wield them. As they progress, they gain the ability to use staves and polearms, and have special abilities that are only usable with either fists or staff/polearm (treated identically for purposes of abilities).

Monks learn a number of ‘forms’ that they may adopt, similar to a hunter’s aspects or a paladin’s auras. Every form enables a single special ability that may only be used while in that form, otherwise, the forms all have passive effects that only directly impact the monk himself.

A monk retains a portion of their mana regen even when casting and is also capable of channeling mana to party members in order to keep them going. Other than channeling mana, they have no ability to heal people other than themselves.

dodging and resisting

Monks should receive a phenomenal amount of base dodge. Like… more than a hunter with permanent aspect of the monkey. On average, they should dodge better than a rogue with similar stats and eq. They should also get good chances to parry when wielding a staff/polearm.

In addition to this, monks should have an ability that gives them an additional chance to dodge every attack. If an attack is avoided as a result of this ability, a large amount of threat is generated. This is the monk’s primary threat generation mechanism – annoying mobs by dodging their attacks. It should therefore also make them very effective at tanking multiple targets at once.

Monks should have high natural spell resist. They receive +1 resist to all 5 spell damage types for every 10 points of spirit they have.

Monks receive a mobility buff whenever they are wearing only cloth armour. This buff is what makes the phenomenal dodge possible, and should also give the monk increased spell resistance chances.

But, you ask… if the mobility buff is so good, why should a monk even consider wearing leather at all? Well, there will still likely be fights where their dodge is insufficient to make up for the lost damage mitigation from wearing cloth. Or there are fights where the increased number of hits taken doesn’t really matter if the mobs are going down fast enough…

forms and specials

Monks have a number of forms that they may adopt. These forms are similar to warrior stances and hunter aspects. Monks begin play with one form and receive a new combat form every 12 or so levels. Every form applies one or two passive affects to the monk and also activates a unique special ability that is only usable within that form.

Specials are powered by ‘momentum points’. These points are earned when the monk dodges or parries an attack or completely resists a spell. A maximum of one momentum point may be earned per second. Once charged up, specials are unleashed in a manner similar to a paladin’s judgement spell (ie, a single ability with a short cooldown that is used to activate all specials).

If the monk does not use their special to flush momentum points, they act as a buff that enhances the effectiveness of the monk’s current form. Momentum charges up to 10 times and has a short duration unless refreshed by avoiding another attack, so it quickly disappears once the fight is over.

Changing forms is instant and does not cost mana. It does, however, flush any momentum points saved up.

Owl (Level 1)

Owl form grants the monk the ability to retain 10% of their natural mana regeneration while casting.
Momentum: Every point of momentum increases the mana regeneration by 8%, thus at 10 points of momentum, the monk retains 90% of their mana regen while casting.
Special: For each point of momentum burnt, the monk regenerates 1% of their maximum mana.

Mongoose (Level 12)

Mongoose form grants the monk increased dodging abilities (+10%). Mongoose form may be improved with talents to give a total of +20% dodge.
Momentum: Every point of momentum increases the monk’s threat generation by 10%.
Special: For each point of momentum burnt, the monk taunts one enemy within range. These points are spent round-robin, starting with whatever mob the monk has targetted. Thus, if burning 7 points in a battle with 3 enemies, every enemy will be taunted twice, with the monk’s target receiving a 3rd taunting effect.

Turtle (Level 24)

Turtle form grants the monk increased spell resistance. This resistance starts at +20, but increases with additional ranks of the ability to a maximum of +60 spell resist.
Momentum: Every point of momentum gives resisted spells a 5% chance of being reflected back at the caster.
Special: The monk gains a buff with 1 charge per momentum point burnt. Every second for 30 seconds (or until out of charges), the buff will attempt to dispel a single negative magic or curse effect from the monk, costing 1 charge per success.

Crane (Level 36)

Crane form grants the monk increased mobility (+8% run speed) and +10% weapon attack speed.
Momentum: Every point of momentum increases the monk’s attack speed by 2% (to a maximum of +30%).
Special: The monk blinks backwards away from their enemy. More momentum translates into a longer distance blinked.

Scorpion (Level 48)

Scorpion form grants the monk arcane spell damage equal to 50% of all physical damage dealt.
Momentum: Every point of momentum increases the damage dealt by 10% (to a maximum of 150%).
Special: Unleashing scorpion form momentum reduces the target’s arcane resist by 5 per point burnt. Additional specials will not stack – the larger effect will stick. The debuff has a short duration but is refreshed any time the target takes arcane damage.

Tiger (Level 60)

Tiger form converts mirrors of the monk’s natural mana regeneration with an equivalent amount of health regeneration.
Momentum: Every point of tiger form momentum allows the monk to retain 3% of their natural mana regeneration while casting.
Special: For each point of momentum burnt, the monk regenerates 2% of their maximum health.

Dragon (Level 72)

Dragon form reduces the casting cost of all Mind and Body abilities by 50%.
Momentum: Each point of momentum reduces the casting cost by a further 3% (to a maximum of 80% cost reduction).
Special: The monk receives a buff with a 30 second duration and one charge per momentum point burnt. Every time the monk gets a critical effect with a spell while the buff lasts, the cost of the spell is refunded.

mana regeneration

Several of a monk’s forms improve their mana availability. A monk in either owl or dragon form should be able to maintain a healthy surplus of mana energy, despite their low intelligence score. This mana should then easily be shared with party members. Starting at about level 20, the monk should receive a Channel Mana spell that very efficiently gives mana to the target ally (over time).

At higher levels, monks should also get the ability to (less efficiently) burst channel mana to a party member or perhaps (even less efficiently) burst channel mana to the entire party.

spells and abilities

Monks start out with an Arcane Palm spell that has a 1 second casting time and inflicts a short magic dot (arcane damage) on the target.

At level 10, they get Arcane Fist, an instant cast spell that empowers their next melee attack with additional arcane damage.

At level 10, they also get Stunning Palm, a short-term (12 seconds without talents) CC ability that works only on humanoids and will disengage the monk from the target and purge any potentially interruptive arcane damage DoT effects on the target (talent). Any damage taken will interrupt the effect (talents may allow dots a chance not to interrupt the CC). When the spell ends, the target will be afflicted as with Arcane Palm.

At level 20, they get an ability to throw their enemy 10-30 yards away. Giants and other large enemies may not be throwable.

At level 30, monks get Far Strike, an inexpensive instant attack that delivers a normal weapon strike as arcane damage up to 20 yards away (up to 30 yards with talents). Far strike has a 6 second cooldown (reduced to 1 second with talents).

At level 40, monks gain a 30 minute buff that allows them to automatically counter up to one melee or ranged attack per second with either arcane fist or far strike as appropriate and as remaining mana allows.

At level 50, monks should be able to perform an AoE attack that inflicts minimal damage but also generates a large amount of threat and knocks back multiple targets (number of potential knockback targets increases with additional ranks).

Monks should also have the ability to heal themselves, but not others. They should be able to flush poison, bleeder and disease effects from themselves via a spell in addition to the turtle form’s ability to purge magic and curses. They should have an instant cast self-heal over time spell as well as a channeled self heal (which can be rendered 70% uninterruptible through talents).

talent trees

The monk talent trees are Mind, Body, and Weapon.

Mind primarily affects the monk’s ability to generate and channel mana. It improves their spellcasting efficiency and their resistance to fear and similar effects. It also improves their arcane damage dealt.

Body affects the monk’s ability to avoid taking damage, increases their unarmed attack damage, and increases their self-healing and threat generating effects.

Weapon affects the monk’s abilities with staves, polearms, and thrown weapons. It should be able to give them a large amount of +parry% as well as several special attacks, including one that depends on thrown weapons. Weapon spec should include threat reduction techniques that allow the monk to act as DPS in a party without stealing aggro.

Each talent tree should also introduce a new combat form at tier 9 and could also improve the efficiency of associated other forms (Owl is a Mind form, Crane is a Weapon form, etc…).