Windwalker Monk Guide
12.1 Windwalker Monk Changes
12.1 comes with Windwalker Monk changes to many abilities:
Developers’ notes: We are making a few adjustments to Windwalker’s damage profile to reduce the gap between their steady-state damage and high-end burst capabilities.
Melee auto-attack damage increased by 30%.
Zenith Stomp damage reduced by 30%.
Blackout Kick damage increased by 50%.
Tiger Palm damage increased by 200%.
Dual Threat damage increased by 30%.
Weapon of Wind now increases damage during Zenith by 5% (was 10%).
Tigereye Brew now increases Critical Strike damage by 5%/10% (was 10%/20%).
Vivify healing increased by 25%.
Expel Harm healing increased by 25%.
Silent Sanctuary healing increased by 25%.
Celestial Conduit damage reduced by 25%.
Temple Training increases the damage of Fists of Fury and Spinning Crane Kick by 30% (was 10%).
We have a lovely Developer’s note to let us know what the design intention of the spec is. Going into Midnight, many specs got similar comments as Blizzard tried to manage the “burst arms race” that damage had turned into. Unfortunately, it had seemingly gotten worse during Season 1, so clearly they’re trying to take a more aggressive approach. Some of the things listed will obviously have the desired effect. Decreasing the damage of Zenith Stomp and Celestial Conduit and decreasing the values in Weapon of Wind and Tigereye Brew will certainly decrease Windwalker burst, while increasing the damage of auto-attacks, Blackout Kick, and Tiger Palm will take some of that burst damage and spread it out.
The change to Dual Threat might look like it should help 1-handed weapons scale better as it generally fell behind 2-handed weapons halfway through this season. However, because of the fact that there is a modifier to the talent to help 2-handed weapons that works too well, improving this talent actually helps 2-handed weapons pull even further ahead.
The math theorycrafters have discovered that the changes are a definitive decrease in burst, but are within 1-2% in single target and AOE over the course of a fight. Loss of burst damage is a hard thing to accurately gauge and many specs are also losing burst and having it put back into the sustained damage, so we won’t be able to get a good idea of if Windwalker “won” or “lost” these changes until after Season 2 comes out.
Additionally, but unmentioned, Zenith Stomp now correctly works with Windwalker's Mastery and Hit Combo on the PTR. Currently on Live, you are able to get the full benefit from your Mastery even if you cast Zenith Stomp back to back and casting the same ability on either side will result in losing your Mastery bonus and dropping Hit Combo. The change on the PTR puts Zenith Stomp in line with how it "should" have been working and how other Windwalker abilities work. We'll lose out on the ability to cast Zenith > Zenith Stomp > Zenith Stomp for enormous burst damage over 3-seconds, but don't have to micromanage our abilities and can trust the Cooldown Manager to tell us if an ability will maintain Hit Combo and Mastery.
Season 2 Tier Bonus
The Windwalker Monk Set bonus has been revealed for Season 2.
2-Set Bonus: Fists of Fury strikes an additional time at the start of its channel at 50% effectiveness.
4-Set Bonus: Fists of Fury increases the damage of your next Rising Sun Kick by 10% or Spinning Crane Kick by 20% each time it strikes, stacking up to 6 times.
This tier set is relatively straightforward and a style of interaction that Windwalker has had a few times currently and the in the past. While the tier set likely won't set anyone's hair on fire, they should be noticeably stronger than the Season 1 bonuses that often lost out to any increase in item level.
The additional tick of Fists of Fury from the 2-set bonus occurs at the start of the channel and triggers any other interactions and buffs that are triggered from the other ticks, like Momentum Boost. The 4-set bonus helps to add an additional reason to cast Spinning Crane Kick; casting it after Fists of Fury finishes takes advantage of the damage boost when there are enough targets to push it over using Rising Sun Kick to benefit from the stacked buff.
Currently, there are some odd interactions with the 4-set bonus that may dip into being a bug depending on the goal. While the bonus affects things like Rushing Wind Kick and Skyfire Heel, it does not affect Glory of the Dawn which generally mirrors the benefits that are given to Rising Sun Kick. Similarly, Jade Ignition doesn't benefit from the bonus. The lack of synergy with these talents dramatically devalues them when they should see their value increase with the tier bonuses. It is possible that these talents simply work on a whitelist whereas others work on a blacklist, which is why they are frequently left out from benefits until specifically changed.
The Changes We Want
While the above changes aren't "bad" in any way, they're generally mostly lukewarm, inoffensive, and consistent with the Developer's notes about moving damage out of burst windows and into the sustained periods in between. The tier set is also rather bland, even if it really doesn't create a problem, which is often a good thing.
However, anyone who has been in Discord or talked to Windwalkers during Season 1 likely heard of the difficulty that Windwalker has surviving things. Mages have felt a similar sting, but did see some defensive assistance in the 12.1 changes, whereas Windwalker did not. The data supports this feeling of inadequancy, with the WarcraftLogs data (as of my writing this) showing that Windwalker falls at 37th of 40 specs on Paladins and Chimaerus, 40th out of 40 specs by a significant margin on Dragons and Alleria, and 34th out of 40 specs for Rotmire.
People who do Mythic+ also see a similar issue, where many have to coordinate with healers more than anyone else in the group in order to survive higher keys, especially those at +20 or above. While the infinitely scaling nature of Mythic+ means that eventually every spec will no longer be able to survive certain mechanics, Windwalker seems to be hitting that ceiling earlier than other specs. This can, somewhat, be seen in the Raider.io data where only two Windwalkers in the world have cleared +22 in all dungeons and only 17 Windwalkers have cleared +21 in all dungeons. Compare that to Unholy Death Knights who have 597 players who have completed all +22s and 89 players that have completed all +23s. At that level, a spec like Windwalker that cannot survive the damage has no hope of pushing to the same level as the ones that can, even if our damage is sufficient, which it currently is.
Many ideas have been tossed around, and when a Windwalker looks at an equally geared Warlock and sees that they have 15% more health and even more passive damage reduction, some solutions seem more obvious than others. Here are some of the ideas that have been tossed around:
Second stack of Fortifying Brew
Reduce Touch of Karma‘s cooldown (and the damage it deals)
Touch of Karma‘s damage reduction continues after shield and damage redirect is eaten up
Increase HP through passive buffs or talents
Passive increase to damage reduction through talents or buffs
Vivacious Vivification casts Vivify every time you cast Rising Sun Kick
Give us back Diffuse Magic as a separate defensive cooldown or buff the damage reduction so its worth taking more often
Buff Yu'lon's Grace
The class changes and the tier bonus are fine and shouldn't ruffle any feathers, but Windwalkers have been crying out for help staying alive for months, and some would trade any other changes for getting the help we need there. It is possible that Windwalker, and to a similar extent, Mistweavers are struggling with our survivability because some of the things that would help would also benefit Brewmaster which may make tank balance harder, but as a devoted Windwalker, I don't really have to accept that as a viable reason.
