Colt#2370: Well for starters I'm a Mexican monk! (viva Ytar!)
I come from a game artist career (focused on 3D modelling mainly), got involved on a bunch of awesome projects both during school and out of it as well (one of the coolest part of my career was visiting France and working with french colleagues on fun game projects!) , focused for around 3 years on helping indie projects for a Mexican studio my ex-teacher (Lune) founded which is called Feline Arts (you guys should totally check it out btw! DragonMaze its the most recent studio title soon to come out on steam! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpe_iRyG-bw ).
This last year & a half or so my work situation however has turned 360 degrees as I keep getting more and more involved helping my family on another small business project we have, and well long stories there! but exciting opportunities around the corner :D.
PLAYER: Id say 3D/clay modelling or drawing really relaxes me (aside from gaming ofc), I think I also have an odd talent for enjoying sitting down and pouring lots of time anylizing things figuring what is it what I like or NOT about something in particular haha .
Also on spare times I try to make funny pics or gifs for my clan website, this one in particular cracked several monks as one night suddenly I had an idea on how awesome would it be if 3 monks decided to be rockstars and thats how the Mystic ChipMonks quickly were born! (didnt sleep that night from the sheer laughter while doing this) :
--> https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4827494/D3/BooTytards/Pic%20sharing/MysticChipMonks_3.jpg
Colt#2370: Prolly as long and passionate as anyone's gamer history, In short everything starts with your first pc/console on childhood, it was a sega genesis for me that my cool uncle gave me along with like 20 cartridges (Lost Vikings among them YAY) I played them all and then took my own path from there :D followed by acquiring an N64 and playing the Legend of Zelda awesome titles T_T the feels.
My experience on Diablo started on D2 with my paladin called Porras which was an offline experience entirely (yeah the internet in my country wasnt so dandy those days) and I COMPLETELY loved it, aside from the talent point system and awesome item/builds I really dug the dark/havok ambience that engulfed the world of sanctuary, it really felt to me like a once peaceful world got turned completely upside down by bizarre beings that you couldnt start to comprehend and all of this greatly enforced by the music, sounds and even the small details like player light radius, I kind of missed this last feature on d3 tbh, It was pretty exciting walking to a room of darkness full of mobs that you werent entirely sure to survive (specially when you were playing at a tough difficulty).
Colt#2370: Right now Diablo 3 and Chivalry Medieval Warfare on steam :D (totally recommend the latter if you like beheading your opponents on first person view muhaha)
Colt#2370: Negativo! Started monk since d3 launch and always will finish monk, one of the things I liked about D3 was that I thought I had a good enough experience even if I just played that one class and stick with it for the rest of my game experience, while sure I have been proven right and wrong many times between each developer's iteration or class balance tweak, I still enjoy the thought of polishing my monk to perfection, to achieve the right balance of toughness, damage and sustain that allows me to adress any challenge the game throws at me.
Colt#2370: Yes! Im the current clan leader of Banned of Gamers (BOG) really awesome, varied and smart group of people and Im particularly really proud the quality of monks that we have/had in our ranks as well!
Colt#2370: Ok haha I remember this very well but I need to establish some context, it was back in the times where MP10 ubbers were freshly introduced (they were pretty tough) and crafting hellfire ring had the potential to outperform some very good rare rings, so I had this friend on my FL that really needed help getting his first ring ever and I overly confident went like OH no problem! I can get you hooked with a guaranteed ring if I carry you on a MP10 run (since mats had 100% drop chance), for those that didnt know, the ubbers back then could drop the ring materials for all the party even if the other members werent inside the actual fight, they just needed to be at least on town before killing the boss to get the drop, so the ideal carry situation was your friend waiting on game lobby (as it reduced the boss HP vs friend staying on town) and then summoning him back when the boss was about to die.
So Magda fight was no problem with my monk (lasted about 3-4 minutes) my friend got the 1st mat, Ghom fight was again smooth as silk (that was the 2nd mat) but THEN it came down to solo with my monk mp10 Kulle + Siege breaker and oh BOY... I kept diying to the most unbelievable combos like:
siege breaker grab --> kulle casts rocks on top --> siege breaker throws you at a slow bubble --> kulle casts a deadly meteor ..gg
Long story short I kept my friend waiting on lobby for 3 HOURS while I failed hard over and over, died about 300 times (I counted them) as I was figuring what build allowed me to pull it off, finally some stun bells did the trick (although their dmg with dualweild was very low) so it TOOK A WHILE to kill ubbers just before the enrage.
My friend became silent and pretty bored after the first hour or so.. but I was determined to get the last mat for him no matter what (not to mention my repair costs OUCH!) ... his ring rolled terrible by the way.. HAHAHA.
Colt#2370: I think it was when I could finally solo kill Ghom on act3 on the early/original inferno difficulty to progress further in the campaign mode, I think my monk had like 2,000 - 4,000 dps back then? its unbelievable we are on the millionaire numbers now, anywho if there was any MINIMUM requirements to successfully kill that boss before the enrage Im PRETTY SURE my monk had all of them (if not slightly lower) it was an incredibly tough fight, after about a dozen of tries there was one I played near perfectly and he was pretty close to die but then enraged too (that means the farts were going to kill me any second now) I think my finishing blow went it just when I had like 5% hp left.. my hearth was pumping.. I felt so accomplished at that moment :)
Colt#2370: What drew me to the monk wasnt just the resemblance to D2 paladin and the quick and agile fantasy, it was MAINLY the fact that they were such a rich class in a sense that they had a meaningful role they could play for almost any game situation that you could think of, group play? no problem mantras and pulling were REALLY noticed and appreciatted , solo play? no problem thunderclap + sweeping wind cleared floors of mobs as good as any other class, speed XP runs? no problem monk had nirvana bells (very bursty dmg) or Palm+ Tempest Rush setups, unfortunately this monk's adaptability has grown thinner in my opinion as they suddenly had support competition with Crusaders (100% crit dmg buffs + more efficient pulling than monk's) and Witch Doctors (perma fear/crowd control), not to mention monks solo damage (after ROS launched and after the exploding palm nerf) for quite a while wasnt even considered relevant for most of the player base wich led to the monk population grow significantly thinner, those were tough times for the class indeed although situation looks more promising with every new patch as devs try to recapture what monks really are supposed to mean. In one word Monk is balance for me.
Colt#2370: Damn, theres so many monk skills I love but I think cyclone strike pull its the most monk defining of them since d3 launched, because controlling monster position adds so much value to any run regardless if youre playing solo or in a group (although it specially shines at groups) and monk being the only class able to pull was a concentrated coolness I enjoyed until they allowed other classes to do so wich kind of hurt the purpose of this skill a bit.
Personally I think this skill needs so much more love, Implosion range should be the default range (using any other rune really diminishes the skill experience) and all the runes could use a rework BUT more importantly its about time developers look into why this skill its not able to pull rare monsters unless youre at a certain range, any other pull skill doesnt have this issue and this kind of quality of life issues have buried this truly awesome monk skill a bit.
Colt#2370: Im working on a fire raiment + cindercoat build to speed farm keywardens! as 6x raiment leaves room for any amulet hellfire ammy became a very interesting farming choice for monks IMO, this build its performing pretty pretty well so far as its capable of exploring the whole fields of misery in roughly 30 seconds but Im still experimenting with it, maybe theres something else I havent thought of yet :D
Colt#2370: I think Id love to have the season 3 exclusive spirit guard's bracer for my non seasonal monk, having it would help greatly on much needed melee mitigation and it would enrich my use of generators, the 40% dmg reduction the bracers give by simply punching isnt too shaby wich is why its considered the 7th raiment piece and its a shame my monk with the most progession (non season) cant currently use it, gotta wait 4 more months.
Personally I think this is an interesting issue other classes are experiencing on non season as well and I humble invite everyone to read my constructive thoughts and community ideas for solutions about this topic on my thread: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/16952155685?page=1
Colt#2370: There are many monk skills that could use a new synergy like inner sanctuary or seven sided strike but I think it would be awesome to have an item supporting cyclone strike, the possibilities with effects on pulling are quite fun to explore like maybe double pulling distance, or an effect that causes dmg to mobs that clash onto each other when pulled and its dmg scaling the more mobs collision each other like some monk bowling game or an effect that launches several hits to random targets being pulled very similar to what happens when you pull whilst having the fire rune of epiphany, or an effect that turns Cyclone Strike into a channeling spell that steadily pulls the targets to you! with an increasing effect based on their distance like if you pull a target 30 yards a way it gets frozen 1 second, if you pull a target 5 yards a way it gets frozen 5 seconds, channelling spell exploding upon release.. maybe!
Colt#2370: Id change the class focus to an even stronger class defining relationship between generators --> spender mechanics, anything other than just the generating spirit --> do damage scheme, raiment set was a great step on this direction but I think monk could use cooler approaches like for example how the fire epiphany rune works as it launches a fireball when you use a generator and spawns swift monks that target monsters or breakable objects if you use a spender now THATS some kind of juice Id love to explore on the generator -> spender mechanics.
Speaking of enhancing the class defining features, Adittionally Id adress immediately the value they have lost on group play specially noticeable in the competitive scene, monks had a lot of concentrated coolness regarding support play (% hp exploding palm was unique, pulling was unique, mantra effects were unique) but this aspect in particular has seen lots of cross class competition or a couple necessary nerfs sadly.
Colt#2370: I think my monk is such one of those cases of extreme specialization that reaches even to the degree of picking up items in the game just because their name reflected my monks fantasy (like my rare spirit stone called Monks belief!)
So my favourite monk's quote its actually linking my helm and saying " I follow the Monks belief ! "
pics or didnt happen: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4827494/D3/Bannedofgamers/Share/MonksBelief.jpg
Colt#2370: Not sure if this advice has been featured before but It is actually possible to pull rare elites with Cyclone Strike only if they are right on the border of your pulling range (this is much more easily achievable with implosion rune), doing this with any other rune however its extremely difficult and in the meanwhile this gets looked at, learning this sweetspot its the only current workaround unfortunately.
Colt#2370: Please interview Laurelynd#1459, she's a very die hard monk and an excellent person :D
Colt#2370: What is your LEAST favourite monk skill (or rune) and why?
Colt#2370: With seasonal, non seasonal and hardcore modes I think we are fine atm as game modes are concerned (wouldnt split the player base further between many different modes) although I DO believe this game really needs more meaningful multiplayer end game activities such as PvP or any challenge that promotes a more developed sense of teamwork/community as this could be the blood and veins that feed many clan structures on this game, right know objectively speaking I believe theres really few meaningful multiplayer activities aside from assembling a 4 man group and just farming things faster.
