14 DAY TRIAL // Blizzard has confirmed that Diablo 3 update 2.1.0, which is set to appear in the near future, will include a variety of changes for the Monk class overall as well as for its different legendary items and gear.
Diablo 3 launched two years ago for PC and Mac and surfaced onto PS3 and Xbox 360 last year. In 2014, it received the Reaper of Souls expansion on PC and Mac and will soon appear as an Ultimate Evil Edition for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
Meanwhile, Blizzard is busy developing new updates for the game and has rolled out earlier this week patch 2.0.5, which brought forth a huge amount of changes for most of the classes in the game, starting with the Crusader, which got plenty of buffs to most of its abilities.
However, one major class that continues to be underpowered and undergeared is the Monk, prompting players to complain a lot on the Battle.net forums.
Now, one of the studio's representatives has posted an official statement confirming that patch 2.0.5 ended up having many class changes because of the imbalanced Crusader.
"I'd like to start by pointing out that patch 2.0.5 wasn’t really intended to focus much on class balance when it first was scheduled, but there were some circumstances that resulted in it including a lot of class changes, particularly for the Crusader."
"The Crusader is not only the newest class in Diablo III (and a big feature of Reaper of Souls), but was in a state that (we felt) merited some immediate tuning and balancing, so 2.0.5 did end up featuring a lot of Crusader changes."
He then confirmed that the Monks are in for some major changes in the next big update, in the form of patch 2.1.0, which will include meaningful modifications to all the classes in the game.
"While 2.0.5 didn’t include many changes to Monks, it doesn’t mean we feel there isn’t room for improvement (or that your feedback has fallen on deaf ears). Instead, we have many changes planned for patch 2.1.0, which is our first big content patch for Reaper of Souls and first big opportunity to do some meaningful evaluations for each class, Monk included."
According to Blizzard, the main goal it has for the monk class is to improve core abilities, class abilities, and address some of the Legendary items that need improvement. These sets will also get plenty of buffs or redesigns and all these changes will be retroactive, meaning old gear will also see its stats improved.
Among the legendary items that will be enhanced are: Firebird's Finery, Raiment of a Thousand Storms, Monkey King’s Garb, Thorns of the Invoker, or The Shadow’s Mantle.
As of yet, however, patch 2.1.0 doesn't have a concrete release date.