The Monk plays much like I imagine a Pandarian Monk to play, with quick attacks and a spirit based energy system it dashes around the targets using Dashing Strike. In the beta, I’ve used fist weapons for a long time which is a piece of equipment unique to the Monk. As with the other 4 classes, you’ll have two types of abilities. In the Monk’s case you’ll generate spirit with one set of abilities and spend spirit with another. Let’s take a look at what it’s going to take to level and gear a powerful Monk character.

Monk Equipment

The monk has two unique weapon types that it is the sole user of. The Daibo is a monk specific stave, used to strike the enemy and held with 2 hands. The fist weapon is the second, which can be dual wielded. These usually look like a set of brass knuckles or a claw attached to a handle. The monk’s special armor type is the Spirit Stone. It’s not actually a stone or even something you carry but instead it’s a type of helmet. They look more like fancy tiaras if you ask me.

Why use these weapons over the generic weapon types already available in the game? Daibos, first weapons and tiaras, I mean spirit stones, will be more likely to have the monk specific SpiritHeals and SpiritRegen affixes on them. These affixes will heal you when you exhaust spirit and increase your rate of spirit regen.

Monk Stats

The monk is going to look primarily Dexterity. They will have to compete with Demon Hunters for this stat as it significantly increases both classes damage by a % for every 10 points of dexterity (in beta at least). Vitality may also be an important stat for monks, since they will take a lot of damage in close combat battles.

Monk Itemization

Monks, like Demon Hunters, are going to look for gear with their primary stat as Dexterity. Since it appears to be the most powerful stat to have for damage. After dexterity they are going to want any other damage increases mods available, anything that will help them generate spirit like SpiritRegen and finally they will look to ways to mitigate damage or regenerate life during combat. There are a lot of different item mods that can offer these befits, let’s take a look in the Monk stat cheat sheet below:

The desired item mods ended up looking very similar to the barbarian mods except for the monk skills and dexterity which only monks will benefit from. This will be a competitive class to gear, unlike the Wizard who will have fewer people to compete with when it comes to finding gear.

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