Windwalker Monk GuideMidnight Overview
Windwalker Monk Changes in MidnightAlthough Windwalker got quite a few major changes to the spec in the first iteration of the Midnight Alpha, the biggest changes are more about what isn’t there than what is. The most major of all the major changes are that Storm, Earth, and Fire was replaced with a combination of Weapons of Order, Tigereye Brew, and (at least for the visual of summoning clones) Stormspirit Strikes and a change to Wisdom of the Wall. This is an ability that has been enormously iconic for its uniqueness, longevity, and callback to Warcraft 3 and enormously annoying for how often it doesn’t work correctly, which has been “never fully”. Beyond this, many of the changes for Windwalker are best explained by the Developer’s Note:
Windwalker Monk’s Midnight updates primarily focus on removing conditional modifiers and making sure the base damage of spells feels impactful. Critical strikes will be the main way their damage changes values and otherwise each spell will remain largely consistent between in and out of cooldowns. Our goal is that this will reduce the rotational overhead and allow more focus on procs, resource management, and Mastery: Combo Strikes to drive gameplay.
Personally, I am hopeful, or maybe naive, that designers will do a great job with changes that I think should be beneficial to the health of the spec. I’ll feel even more hopeful if they decide to remove Slicing Winds.
However, while pruning is helpful for the health of the tree, the “pruning” that Windwalker received wasn’t entirely asked for.
Pruning of Excess
Many things that were removed would fall into an odd grey area of mechanics and buffs that could be tracked, but almost no one was tracking. Talents like Martial Mixture and Transfer the Power could have affected the priority, but neither were impactful enough to ever think about or play around. Other talents like Courageous Impulse, Acclamation, and Fury of Xuen fell into a similar pile of buffs that were more noticeable and powerful, but just added to the static of all of the procs and buffs Windwalker could pay attention to. I will greatly miss having two Xuen’s up at the same time and the WeakAura I made to roar when it happens.
While not necessarily “pruning”, several buffs and mechanics were changed to make them simpler. Wisdom of the Wall was changed to no longer be 4 buffs that you could track and Against All Odds is now a static % Agility increase rather than a stacking buff you could manage. These were things that were strong enough to have an impact on how you played your Windwalker, but with so many other things to think about, many players found it difficult to give these the attention they needed.
The change from Storm, Earth, and Fire to Weapons of Order would likely also fall into this category, with Storm, Earth, and Fire being a long-standing point of confusion for some new players. I don’t believe that Weapons of Order combined with the “new” Apex Talents, Tigereye Brew, is much less confusing of an ability than Storm, Earth, and Fire, but at least it *shouldn’t* be as bug riddled. Tigereye Brew is also a shadow of its former self and really just as one of the conditional modifiers to make Weapons of Order do more damage. The same conditional modifiers that they said they were focusing on removing.
Cutting back on the quantity and complexity should be very beneficial for the health of Windwalker and decrease the bar of understanding for new players. I am hoping that this ends up similar to the change from Warlords to Legion, where several Windwalker mechanics were simplified; some people were annoyed or upset at the loss, but it helped to make Windwalker more accessible to new players.
Excess of Pruning
The next big issue with the pruning was that some things were removed that many people think shouldn’t have been. Invoker's Delight has been a core part of the burst capabilities of Windwalker and the strength of Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger since it was added in Shadowlands. Without the huge influx of Haste, a stat that Windwalker “was” designed to maximize, Xuen is just a summoned pet that zaps your enemies. Last Emperor's Capacitor was also pruned, which has become a much more enjoyable button to press with the addition of Power of the Thunder King and a large part of Windwalker’s burst AOE and cleave capabilities. I had long been a hater on Last Emperor's Capacitor since it was added in Legion, but it has become a button I love to hit.
Through some of Dragonflight and most of The War Within, Windwalker has had a very strong burst profile, but with the loss of things like Invoker's Delight, Dance of Chi-Ji's damage increase, and Last Emperor's Capacitor, there is a real concern for if Windwalker will have any burst capabilities, especially in AOE where Windwalker has already struggled more than it used to. Windwalker was fine as a non-burst class for many years when it was first created, but the game is very different than it was back then and burst is often king.
Why Not Pruned?
The last group of changes fall squarely in the “why” category.
The biggest “why” for me, and many others, is the continued existence of Slicing Winds and Blizzard ADDING talents to make it even more frequently used. I understand that I am not indicative of everyone’s opinion, but I loathe this ability. I loathe that it replaces one of my favorite buttons, Flying Serpent Kick. I loathe that it is an Empower ability in a spec designed without anything else like that. I loathe that it moves your character forward; if I wanted to play a spec that used mobility for damage, I’d play Momentum Havoc Demon Hunter. Slicing Winds still being a thing as Strike of the Windlord and Whirling Dragon Punch, two abilities that have almost never had to compete against each other, are made into a choice node, makes me a very sad Windwalker.
Things are a little bit better since they removed Slicing Winds triggering Heart of the Jade Serpent, so it's no longer a required talent node for Conduit of the Celestials. I understand that there are some people who do enjoy this ability, but whether it's confirmation bias or not, it certainly seems like the majority of people do not like it.
Community Opinion
A straw poll in Discord found that 76% of the Vets and over 70% of the +800 community members thought that the posted changes were either net neutral or positive changes. Personally, I think the design direction is the right one and I hope that it is an achievable direction. I will never stop wanting Slicing Winds to be removed, and I am surprised to say that I want Last Emperor's Capacitor back, but I feel their stated direction and the changes they’ve made so far are more positive than negative and many are clearly very necessary to the health of the spec’s future. Time will tell if this design direction will end up positively, and there are certainly concerns of varying severity, but for now all we can do is hope.
If you’re interested in reading more opinions than just my own, or want to see what some of the Vets think about individual changes, you can check out the First Impression Spreadsheet.
