Seven-Sided Strike

Seven Sided Strike is a Tier 7 skill, which requires a clvl of 26. This is a spirit skill.
The Monk uses holy magic to attack multiple enemies at once.

Background

Diablo III Skill [e]
Seven-Sided Strike Active, 5 ranks
Used by:	Monk
Skill Description:
Dash at your enemies, striking several times in succession for 50% of your weapon damage.
Skill Details:
Type:	Direct Damage
Quantity:	50% weapon damage
Effect:	Multi Targets
School:	Physical/Holy (?)
Spirit cost:	X
Cast time:	Instant
Duration:	None
Cooldown:	1.5 sec
Synergies:	None
Requires:	N/A
Prereq of:	N/A

The Monk transcends, calling the holy Light to gain supernatural speed, hitting multiple foes in the timespace of a second.

Skill Design

A very fun skill. Much like a finishing move in a fighter. Jay Wilson described it as "Human Chain Ligtning."

The Monk teleports to his target, Dragon Flight style, and commences to strike multiple times. As best I could tell, the Monk was invulnerable, or perhaps intangible, during this attack. He's not visible except as flashing series of human shapes, all shining gold and two-dimensional. You can see a screenshot in this article, or see it featured in the Blizzcon B-roll gameplay footage. The evolution of the skill was described in detail during the Monk design panel as well.

The hits always seemed to land, and did considerable damage in total. If this one was cast on an empty space, the monk would do three flashing hits before stopping. He’d also stop short of 6 if the target died along the way. If there were multiple targets in the area, he seemed to select targets randomly, hitting each of them some number of times out of his total of 6.

This one was best used on single or double targets, ideally a boss that needed finishing off, especially a teleporter or another elusive one, since all the hits would go to it in rapid succession, and hit it no matter how it squirmed.

Fun and effective. What more do you want?

Skill Rank Table

• Rank 1: 6 strikes. X spirit.
• Rank 2: 7 strikes. X spirit.
• Rank 3: 8 strikes. X spirit. (presumed)
• Rank 4: 9 strikes. X spirit. (presumed)
• Rank 5: 10 strikes. X spirit. (presumed)

Synergies

Seven Sided Strike in action.

Various Monk traits augument this skill.(Since most Monk skills depend on base weapon damage and probably attack speed, traits which enhance those, and not the skill specifically, are also listed here)
Precision  :Increase melee damage for each point in dexterity.
Intimidation  :Increases damage done and reduces vendor costs.
Cruelty  :Increases chance of critical strikes.
Weak Spot  :Increases critical strike damage.
Rapid Strikes  :Increases attack speed.
Frenzied attacks:Increases chance of critical strikes as well as their damage.

Skill Rune Effects

No skill rune properties are yet known for SSS. Crimson boosting the damage is a safe bet, as is Golden lowering the Spirit cost, but it's not known how the Indigo rune might work multishot into the skill effect, when the main benefit of more points is more hits. More hits per each target?

What special effects the Obsidian and Alabaster runes might provide is entirely unknown.

Development

This skill was first shown at BlizzCon 2009 as one of the original Signature Skills revealed with the Monk's debut.

Media

You can find pictures in the Diablo 3 screenshot and picture gallery:

• Diablo 3 screenshots and pictures
• Seven Sided Strike-specific gallery contents

• 

  Male Monk using Seven Sided Strike.

References

• Writings of Abd al-Hazir: Entry no. 0032: Monk
• Full Monk Skill Tree Stats and Discussion