Ghostcrawler Talks About Monks

The most recent Blizzard Insider features an interview with Dr. Greg Street, Lead Systems Designer for World of Warcraft, better known as everybody's favorite spectral crab Ghostcrawler. Ghostcrawler gives us some insight into the design philosophy for Monks and the feel they try to capture with each spec. Let's look over some of what he says.

Insider:How did the team decide on monks as the new playable class? Were there any other ideas that were considered?
Ghostcrawler:We settled on the pandaren race first, and after that, the new class was a no-brainer. We actually did discuss whether World of Warcraft needed a new class at this time. As awesome as they are, it was disruptive to add the death knight, and it took us some time to get them feeling fun and balanced. Ultimately, though, we decided the time was right, and at that point the big decision was whether the new class would be a Brewmaster specifically, or a monk that you could play with a Brewmaster kit. At the moment, we’re going with the tank being the Brewmaster, but that could change.

This is interesting - the developers have often acknowledged the difficulty in balancing Death Knights, and how that led to their hesitance to implement another class into the game. What's odd here is that Ghostcrawler says that they decided "the time was right" for a new class. Personally I think the game is in a good place class wise - I'd be interested to know what made the developers feel that a new class was merited.

He also mentions that they discussed a full on Brewmaster class, but decided to make Brewmaster a subset of the Monk class. I think this is a good decision, partially because a Brewmaster would seem very similar to an alchemist with potions and the like as a toolkit. Further, it allows for the more interesting specs to make their way into the game - I find it difficult to see how a Brewmaster would be a healer, much less one of the same vein as the Monk healing spec.

Insider:How will the monk differ from other classes?
Ghostcrawler: We’re trying a few different things. For now, the monk has no auto-attack, which is unique among melee classes. The monk has a different resource as players might expect, where they have both light and dark resources that power different abilities. We are even trying to have the monk healing spec use a lot of punches and kicks. While monk characters will care about weapons, and weapons contribute to their damage and healing, you don’t see the weapons in a lot of attacks. We save them for some of the big finishers. 

From a non-gameplay standpoint, the most noticeable difference is the huge number of animations the monk has. When you think of a magic-using class, you think of a lot of splashy spell effects. With the monk we thought it made more sense to invest heavily in animation, and the artists really delivered on that.

I like this. I like it a lot. World of Warcraft undeniably has some nice spell effects; the problem, however, is that they often overpower each other in a raid or group setting. The focus on the animation of the Monk itself is a very astute one, and I am excited to see how well it translates.

Toward that end, the developers are not going to be giving Monks auto attack. This is an interesting move, I feel, and can end one of two ways - one is good, one is bad. The bad ending would be if they decide to fill the void left by auto attacks with a lot of abilities like Jab, the Light/Dark Force builder. This will create a very, very button-masher feel for the Monk, and I think that is not very conducive to a good play experience - fluidity is good, SMASH THAT BUTTON SMASH IT GOOD is not.

On the other side of the coin is the good solution - making a Monk's attacks more meaningful. That Jab only needs to be done once, but it hits with some power behind it - no simple little weapon swing, it's a directed blow straight at a target's weak spot. Likewise, the finishers should be equally powerful, and given their intended design to have finishers - and only finishers - utilize a weapon, that feeling of very powerful precise strikes is likely to be preserved, and I think that is the way to go for Monks. If Blizzard pulls it off, I will be enthused to play it.

Insider: How are you structuring the monk’s talent tree?
Ghostcrawler: Well, the talent tree design overall is changing dramatically in Mists of Pandaria. Each class will just have one talent tree with a lot of attractive -- and hard -- decisions. However, like other classes, the monk will have three different specializations available at level 10. For now, we are calling these for the melee damage spec, Brewmaster for the tanking spec, and Mistweaver for the healing spec. The Brewmaster should have the feel of dodging and weaving in combat, reminiscent of the drunken master from martial arts flicks. The Windwalker will be the kung fu master who beats the crap out of opponents with fists and feet. The Mistweaver is partially the wise healer archetype, but like the old men in martial arts movies, he can beat down his enemies as well. 

It’s also worth pointing out that even though many races can be monks, the story of the game is that it is the pandaren who introduce the ways of the monk to the Alliance and the Horde, so even non-pandaren monks will have a strong Pandarian -- the continent -- kit.

Alright, there is a lot to talk about here.

The talent overhaul is big news, and I'll have a bigger post about that later - suffice to say, I love it and I think it gets us closest to free character customization that we've ever been. While Ghostcrawler didn't elaborate on the Monk talents here, I would expect that we will see a few abilities that feature unique animations, which appear already to be a signature of the Monk class.

As for specs, as we know he mentions the tank, healer and melee DPS specs - Brewmaster, Mistweaver, and Windwalker respectively. The Brewmaster as drunken martial arts master is an interesting vibe, but I fear that far too much an emphasis will be placed on the "drunken" part. If Monks are based on animations, please let us SEE those animations, not the blurred outline of them. At any rate, Brewmaster tanks are likely going to be routine tanks with a Monk spin on things - I imagine a Chi-based Light/Dark Force builder that causes high threat (which may just be a passive modification to Jab) and Light Force defensive cooldowns with Dark Force attacks and AoE control.

As for the Windwalker, again, fairly routine melee DPS. We're getting to have a lot of those, however, between Feral Druids, Enhancement Shaman, Rogues, Frost and Unholy Death Knights and now Windwalker Monks. Feral Druids and Rogues play very similarly, and Frost and Unholy Death Knights - naturally - play similarly. Enhancement Shaman are pretty novel, and I hope that Monks continue in their footsteps - a unique playstyle. He mentions that Windwalkers will be the "kung fu masters" - I picture a singular, powerful Chi builder with finishers that compound upon each other - perhaps a special strike that imbalances the target, which is followed up with a finishing kick that does massive damage and knocks them over.

The last spec is by far the most interesting - the Mistweaver Monk, a healer. Unlike today's healers, though, the Mistweaver is apparently a melee healer. This is exciting - how many of you can honestly say you have never wanted to beat the hell out of a boss while healing your friends at the same time? I can't stay that honestly at all. While I'm not sure how Blizzard will manage to pull this off, I hope that they keep in mind the way Paladin healers worked back in Wrath. On my Holy Paladin (which has been abandoned to the Cataclysm, unable to cope with the new Holy Power healing model), I would toss up Seal of Wisdom, Judge on cooldown for the Haste buff and auto-attack the boss while healing people, getting mana regen from my smacks as I did. It was fun times, and I was always in range of the tank and melee. If the Mistweaver manages to go full-blown melee healer rather than just "melee helps you heal, but it's not necessary," then we shall have a new most awesome class, my friends (sorry, Hunters - you're still uncommonly good looking).

Ghostcrawler's interview, while not providing us a wealth of information, really drove home the idea that animations are critical to the Monk class, and that they are capitalizing on the technology available to them. This is a very good thing, and just the breath of fresh air the game needs right now on the tail end of the disillusioning Cataclysm.