On Saturday morning this past weekend, I completed Diablo III on Normal Mode on my Wizard. Sunday afternoon, Luke and I finished Normal mode on his Wizard and my Monk as well.
The game is really great. I enjoyed both classes, but prefer the monk over the Wizard. I feel more durable and less squishy. I'm looking forward to Nightmare on both classes though.
The story is excellent. I'm pleased with the development and how things from D1 and D2 play in to the story of this game. Getting passed the content that was in the beta for the first time was very exciting.
My only gripe was that I wasn't able to kill Diablo on my Wizard by myself. I might not have been using the right skill set, but after bashing my head against a wall for two hours and trying several different combinations of skills (and runes), I eventually caved in and joined a random group, in which we killed Diablo quite easily.
Luke and I had no problem killing Diablo (although he died once, but I resurrected him). I'm really enjoying my Monk simply because she has a little bit of everything on her: defense, durability, mobility, major dps, and healing. I use a two different skill combinations (one for clearing massive amounts of mobs, the other for single-target boss fights).
Mob clearing:
Main Attack (Left Click) - Crippling Wave with Mangle, increasing the damage to 143% weapon damage.
Secondary Attack (Right Click) - Dashing Strike with Flying Side Kick, which kicks the target upon arrival with a 60% chance to stun the target for 1.5 seconds.
Button 1 - Seven-Sided Strike with Several-Sided Strike, increasing the number of attacks from 7 to 9.
Button 2 - Breath of Heaven with Circle of Scorn, searing enemies for 80% weapon damage as Holy.
Button 3 - Cyclone Strike with Eye of the Storm, reducing the spirit cost to 30 spirit.
Button 4 - Mantra of Retribution with Retaliation, increasing the damage reflected to 60% of the damage taken, reflecting both ranged and melee (instead of just melee).
Passives:
Resolve
Transcendence
The Guardian's Path
Link to Build: RAAAAH!
Sometimes I change Mantra of Retribution out to Mantra of Healing with Sustenance simply because it's beast. And we've taken some pretty intense amounts of damage on random mobs in act III and IV. I basically just spam Crippling wave and dash to mobs that might be kicking the crap out of Luke. I use Seven-Sided Strike when there are rare/champion packs, which usually kills them pretty quickly. And then Breath of Heaven whenever I feel like I need a heal (or a little extra AoE damage). Cyclone Strike is great for grouping up large packs so Luke can Meteor the hell out of them. After every pack of mobs, I refresh my mantra. I am rarely spirit starved. That usually only happens when I'm using Dashing Strike too often. My favorite passive it Transcendence. It is absolutely wonderful to just pop Seven-Sided Strike when I'm below 50% hp, and then be fully healed. Really, using ANY spirit spender with that Passive is ridiculously OP.
Boss/Single-Target action:
Main Attack (Left Click) - Way of the Hundred Fists with Blazing Fists which adds 5% attack speed for 5 seconds upon a critical hit, and can stack up to 3 times.
Secondary Attack (Right Click) - Dashing Strike with Flying Side Kick, which kicks the target upon arrival with a 60% chance to stun the target for 1.5 seconds.
Button 1 - Seven-Sided Strike with Several-Sided Strike, increasing the number of attacks from 7 to 9.
Button 2 - Breath of Heaven with Circle of Life, increasing the healing to some crazy amount based on your level and max hp.
Button 3 - Exploding Palm with The Flesh is weak, causing the target to take an additional 12% damage for 3 seconds.
Button 4 - Mantra of Healing with Sustenance, which increases the regeneration amount to a certain number that changes as you level up and is based on your hp, I think mine is 114 per second at level 42 and ~1.5k hp.
Passives:
Resolve
Transcendence
The Guardian's Path
Link to Build: Holy Shit, Kill It, Kill it!
I use this build in a tank-and-spank fashion. Whenever the boss runs away, rushes another target, or teleports, I Dashing Strike right to it and typically I get a nice quick stun out of it. Breath of Heaven and Seven-Sided Strike with the Transcendence Passive keep me pretty well healed, they're great Oh-Shit buttons. Every 3 seconds, as long as I have spirit (which I usually do), I pop one hit of Exploding Palm just to put the debuff on the boss so the damage ticks and he takes the extra damage for 3 seconds. I try to keep that up the entire encounter. Way of the Hundred fists is basically spammed in between, Seven-Sided Strike is used on cooldown or when I need the heal from spending the spirit. And Breath of Heaven whenever I need the heal. I hold on to it until I absolutely need it.
Both of these builds are obviously limited by the fact that I'm level 32. The build will continue to morph as I level, but I don't imagine the actual skills themselves changing between the two builds because, at level 30, I have access to every skill in the Monk's arsenal. The only thing I'll be gaining now are Runes, which will most definitely end up changing as I level.
I really like both builds; I really don't care if they're not the best or most optimal ways to play the Monk, that's fine with me. I'm having fun not having to look shit up outside of the game. I died ONCE on my Monk the entire time Luke and I played. Good thing I don't play Hardcore.
The game is a blast. I'm really enjoying it. I played the hell out of it over the weekend and am looking forward to continue playing, although I need to keep hitting the gym a few times a week otherwise, I'ma end up a fatty because of this game if I don't.
I'm a little worried though; I'm hearing horror stories of Inferno about the two melee classes (Barbarian and Monk). Unfortunately, the amount of melee damage being done by rare and champion packs far exceeds the damage reduction and healing both classes can do. Sounds like the range classes, Wizard especially, have far better chances at surviving the higher difficulties which I find incredibly odd. The Wizard was stupid squishy when I played her through Normal. I'm not an expert gamer by far, and probably and not very skilled when it comes to a ranged character. I like being right in the middle of things, which was why I chose the Monk. I've had enough of standing the back of the group and flinging spells around. I wanted to punch people in the chest and kick 'em in the head this time around.
My third class I'm going to pick up depends on what my sister plays. I'm going to advise her on a Wizard or Demon Hunter since they appear to be fairing the best at later difficulties though I doubt that'll matter to her because I don't think she'll plan on playing that far in to the game. She'll pick whichever one looks cool (so I'm guessing she'll pick the Wizard or Demon Hunter anyway because they look awesome. And their primary avatars are female).
So far, having a blast. Blizzard really outdid themselves with this game.
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