[LEGION] WW Monk Guide

[patrity]

What Has Changed in Legion?

Stance of the Fierce Tiger has been removed.
Jab has been removed.
Tigereye Brew has been removed.
Combo Breaker has been removed.
Mastery has been changed to Mastery: Combo Strikes Icon Mastery: Combo Strikes.
Expel Harm has been removed.
Fortifying Brew and Zen Meditation have been removed.


1. The Basics

Windwalker Monks are a melee DPS specialisation that is viable in all situations, providing strong priority and AoE damage, as well as having smooth and relatively easy to execute rotations.

Throughout the fight, you will need to manage Energy and Chi, your two resources, in order to get as many uses of your abilities as possible. You will have to make sure not to cap and waste either of these resources, while also keeping enough in store to allow immediate use of your abilities, as delaying some can cost you considerable DPS.


2. Talent Choice

The following talent choices result in damage output that is close to that of the most optimal talent choices, although the recommendations here lead to considerable ease-of-play.

Level 15: Eye of the Tiger
Level 30: Tiger's Lust
Level 45: Energizing Elixir
Level 60: Leg Sweep
Level 75: situational / Healing Elixir (Typically stick with Healing Elixer unless you understand the other two talents and are progressing against a boss where it is necessary)
Level 90: Hit Combo
Level 100: Whirling Dragon Punch




3. Stat Choice

Currently, you will want to prioritize secondary stats as follows:

Mastery;
Critical Strike;
Versatility;
Haste.
Against multiple targets, you should prioritise Haste after Mastery.


4. Basic Rotation

4.1. Single Target

The single target Windwalker Monk rotation is based on a priority system.

Use Fists of Fury.
Use Strike of the Windlord
Use Whirling Dragon Punch.
Use Tiger Palm
If you have less than 4 Chi AND you are about to reach maximum Energy.
Use Rising Sun Kick.
Use Blackout Kick.
Keep in mind that Tiger Palm Icon Tiger Palm has a chance to cause the next Blackout Kick Icon Blackout Kick not to cost any Chi.
Use Tiger Palm.

4.2. Multiple Target

Against multiple targets, you should make use of Storm, Earth, and Fire by using it once at the start of the fight, and then using its next charge when Fists of Fury becomes available again. From then on, simply reuse it with Fists of Fury, making sure that you never let both of Earth, Storm, and Fire's charges remain available.

Tiger Palm, Blackout Kick, Rising Sun Kick, Rushing Jade Wind apply a 15-second debuff on their target, called Mark of the Crane. Each instance of this debuff increases the damage of your Spinning Crane Kick (against any target) by 50%. Therefore, your should distribute these spells among your enemies in such a way as to keep the Mark of the Crane debuff up on as many targets as possible.

Against multiple enemies, the rotation is also based on a priority system, and it depends slightly based on how many enemies you are facing.

4.2.1. Against 2-3 Enemies

Use Whirling Dragon Punch.
Use Fists of Fury.
Use Strike of the Windlord.
Use Rising Sun Kick.
Only use it when needed to enable the use of Whirling Dragon Punch Icon Whirling Dragon Punch.
Use Spinning Crane Kick.
Use Blackout Kick.
Use Tiger Palm.

4.3. Against 4+ Enemies

Use Whirling Dragon Punch.
Use Fists of Fury.
Use Strike of the Windlord.
Use Rising Sun Kick.
Only use it when needed to enable the use of Whirling Dragon Punch Icon Whirling Dragon Punch.
Use Spinning Crane Kick.
Use Blackout Kick.
Use Tiger Palm.


5. Cooldowns

As a Windwalker Monk, you have 2 DPS cooldowns by default, Touch of Death Icon Touch of Death and Storm, Earth, and Fire Icon Storm, Earth, and Fire.

Touch of Death should be used as often as possible throughout the fight, essentially on cooldown. Keep in mind that it deals its damage 8 seconds after your cast it, so do not place it on targets that will die before that time.
Storm, Earth, and Fire should be used as often as possible, while attempting to stack it with other periods of increased damage done. Make sure you always have at least one of its charges on cooldown.



6. Best in Slot Items

(From Emerald Nightmare and Trials of Valor)





So far, this expansion, WW monks have been a very solid pick for BOTH PvP and PvE. Their mobility and high burst makes them ideal in PvP situations, and their unmatched AoE makes them coveted for raid and dungeon environments.

Any Italicized font are additions/edits that I have made to this guide.
All credit goes to "babylonius" @ Icy-Veins.
I-V Link: http://www.icy-veins.com/wow/windwalker-monk-pve-dps-guide

[Quicksand]

Combine Gale Burst with some SEF Strike of the Windlord + Fists of Fury, targets still go down in a chain-stun. That's why I always liked WW monks, Blackout Kick + the stun from Heavy-Handed Strikes give you 7 seconds of stun, just enough for gale burst to pop. you catch a healer without trinket, most possibly he's done for

Nevertheless, good guide, nice work

btw: "Fortifying Brew and Zen Meditation have been removed. " -> Fortifying Brew is now a PvP talent, so you it's not completely removed

Also, fun tip: you can choose Diffuse Magic against Afflictions Warlock for quite a good amount of burst combined with Karma (should be self-explanatory, but in case you have 5 UAs on you, dispel damage is going to hurt a lot... however, you can do Karma->Diffuse Magic, and both the UAs and the dispel damage is going to hit the enemy warlock)

[darkrasta]

After replying to your MW guide, i also checked in on this one and wanted to point out some things.
While Eye of the Tiger is good, i strongly recommend Chi Wave. It helps keep Hit Combo and your mastery up, since it counts towards it and, in the end, it's a good DPS increase.
Also Whirlwind Dragon Punch and Serenity are both viable and pretty much equal. Whirlwind Dragon Punch is good for trash and aoe fights and does a considerable single target damage, and also keeps up your mastery, while, Serenity is a burst cooldown that increases your damage by a lot. I honestly preffer Serenity. At least for me, i have found that it helps you do more damage, since it has a very low cooldown and makes WW better for single target dps (since WW, in Legion, is one of the best AoE dps, but doesn't "excel" in single target dps). The choice between those 2 is highly debatable. You can switch in and out of each, depending on the fight or prefference, but i just run with Serenity at any time.

[Hackyqts]

"Stats priority".
Isn't legion the expansion where your power comes from ilvl ? Like...theres no reforge anymore. I dont think this guide is good. And another thing, the monk I'm watching on youtube is using xuen instead of hit combo. It helps your burst damage.. So idk what to say about this guide. Should i follow a 2500+ monk's playstyle or your guide?

[Hoona]

@Hackyqts its a PvE guide and even for that its not a good one.
Talents for PvE:
Level 15: Chi Burst for AoE, Chi Wave for single target. Dont even consider EotT because it's simply less damage and doesnt trigger your passive/hit combo.

Level 90: Xuen is by far the only choice for PvP because of his buff (120% AP from monk -> 400% AP from monk) for some refference https://youtube.com/watch?v=JXJRPyBFtF4:

- Venruki trying Xuen in Arena after the buffs.
Also because of kiting and CC it's way harder to keep hit combo fully stacked so you'll loose damage if the buff falls off.
for PvE hit combo is better simply because you have no downtime and the buff can be kept up all the time.

Level 100: WDP+SEF for AoE damage and Serenity for single target. Even with SEF beeing buffed in 7.1.5 the double-tap single target SEF is only 120% damage while Serenity is 145% with more potential to burst on a single target.
!!! When you get the legendary bracers WDP+SEF becomes better then Serenity, simply because attacking while SEF is up increases it's remaining time !!!
You also could use Chi Orb for PvE if you're not safe with the WDP+SEF burst combo, because overall Chi Orb does more damage then WDP in longer fights (sadly it's bugged here i heard).

Also no suggestion on how to spend artifact power to progress your weapon. there are crucial traits for PvE and PvP to get first (deppending on your lvl 100 talent you go: serenity-> (left for more burst with ToD) WDP-> right for more burst with FoF+SEF

Burst/Rotation Guide from Aerisk (2.4k+ WW Monk Main that also has some nice video's on how to 2v1 arena vs 2..1-2.4k teams, so he knows how to play his class): https://youtube.com/watch?v=hIZFCdJtfC8:


i know it says 7.2 but the rotation is still the same to 7.1.5 and it perfectly explains how to burst with ether WDP+SEF or Serenity.