Reflecting on Windwalker Monk in Dragonflight & War Within: A Wishlist - Editorial

Now that we’re looking at the end of Dragonflight and towards The War Within, it's a great time to look back at all that has transpired and the “big picture” for how Windwalker has fared over the past expansion. I haven’t been anywhere near as engaged with Windwalker this expansion as I have in the past, so I have enlisted the help of several of the Veteran Windwalker community members from Discord to help me cover some big topics with Dragonflight. 

Dragonflight Retrospective

It's no secret that Windwalker did not have a great time through much of the expansion. Whether it was due to unpopular playstyles, divisive talent options, or impressively poor damage, there have been parts of Dragonflight that may live in infamy. However, it hasn’t been all bad, so I’ll try not to focus purely on the negatives, especially since I wrote aLENGTHY article back in Octoberoutlining many of the problems the spec faced, but it's been a rough expansion for Windwalker.

New Talent System

Going into Dragonflight, this was the big ticket item and the thing that caused the most excitement, headache, concern, and anticipation for most of the community. Looking back at the changes it's clear that this system is an improvement over the old one, but that Windwalkers didn’t see the necessary talent tree iterations that some other specs saw to really get the most out of the trees.

• The Good

Windwalker got a spec tree full of things that we had enjoyed from the past;Strike of the Windlord,Invoker's Delight,Xuen's Battlegear,Drinking Horn Cover, and more. We also got new things that hadn’t seen a prominent place in the past if they had existed at all likeShadowboxing Treads,Teachings of the Monastery, andTransfer the Power. The spec talent tree had many, if not all, of the things from the past that promoted interaction between our abilities, something that was at the top of many people’s wish lists, including my own.

The ability to swap betweenSerenityandStorm, Earth, and Fire, and the “relative” balance of the two has allowed for more flexibility for people wishing to play one over the other rather than being stuck playing something they don’t like.

• The Bad

At a quick calculation, the spec tree has anywhere from 6 to 13 talents that are completely ignored or just used to get to a “better” node. There are 10 talents whose only purpose is to increase the damage of other abilities. This leads to much of the tree feeling like just a placeholder waiting for something better to take its place.

The spec tree has seen almost no changes as the expansion has gone on, and the changes that have occurred have had very little impact. The addition ofSkytouchto the node withSkyreachis probably the most impactful talent change that we’ve seen all expansion. Not every class and spec saw consistent iteration of their talent trees, but Windwalker has to be on the low side compared to others.

When looking at the spec tree, there is one thing that keeps popping into discussions; the tree feels like it's stuck in limbo without any real direction or directions. The tree is basically split into three paths that we’ve given “color” names: the Left or “Green” path that heads over to takeBonedust Brewand focus on sustained AOE damage, the Middle or “Red” path that does everything it can to maximizeTouch of DeathandFatal Flying Guillotinefor burst AOE damage, and the Right or “Blue” path that grabsJadefire Stompand focuses on single target damage.

Having our three builds focused onBonedust Brew,Touch of Death, orJadefire Stompdoesn’t feel too great given that two were from Shadowlands Covenants, and not even the most-liked Covenant Ability (Weapons of Order). The other turns a former single target execute ability that was mostly for fun and flavor, and turns it into a monstrous AOE explosion that is so powerful you could basically press nothing else and still do decent damage, complete with a trigger delay so infuriating that it made the spec nearly unplayable when grouped with other classes that have capable AOE. When it comes to playstyle builds, many people agree that these are the ones from the worst timeline.

The Class Tree

I understand that not everyone is a fan of their class tree for whatever class(es) they play. However, the Monk one has to go down as one of the most boring. Whether it's the statues as capstones, two more talent nodes that improveTouch of Death, the one “Windwalker” aura, Windwalking, being so hilariously terrible that no one in their right mind would take it, or that some talents were improved for the other specs but not Windwalker.

Having access toDiffuse Magic,Dampen Harm, andRing of Peaceall at once is really great, but the rest of the tree is hilariously forgettable.

Utility

This discussion belongs in the Talent section because all of Windwalker’s “utility” is inside the Class Tree. Windwalkers don’t have any unique utility; everything we can bring to the raid, a Brewmaster or a Mistweaver could do so also. This means that a Windwalker’s place often continues to be based more on how strong Brewmaster or Mistweaver are and less on how strong Windwalker is.

Windwalker Gameplay

When it comes to divisive conversations, how one feels about the evolution of Windwalker gameplay has to be toward the top of the list.

Throughout Dragonflight, starting with the new talent trees, Windwalker has been flooded with resources. This means that the spec plays significantly faster than it has been in the past. There are some arthritic old farts (like myself) who loathe the new speed and prefer things go back to being slower and more thoughtful and other spritely nimble-fingered folks who like that they always have something to press. I talked about this disparity between the past and the present in thearticle back in October, but many people feel that the spec would benefit from designers picking a direction and focusing on that, rather than trying to have their cake and eat it too.

I mentioned above how the headfirst dive intoJadefire StompandTouch of Deathleaves a sour taste in the mouths of many.

Jadefire Stomplocks Windwalker, the most mobile spec in the game, into a very narrow line of movement.Touch of DeathandFatal Flying Guillotinetake one button press every 2 minutes and make it the majority of your damage in that M+ trash pack, if you don’t get the full value out of it then “oh well there goes your damage.”

The last thing that some love and some hate about Windwalker in Dragonflight is that the number of things that are RNG or proc dependent has exploded. Many of the talents from the past that were added to the tree in Dragonflight had some element of randomness to it. Having them all at once can be very overwhelming and frustrating for some or exciting to others.

Windwalker’s Place in PvE

Windwalker has seen rather substantial changes to what it’s “best” at as the expansion has gone on. For most of the expansion, Windwalker has been in its age-old position of relying on how strong Mistweaver or Brewmaster are to decide whether there’s a place for Windwalker in groups.

During Season 1, even following the (shortsighted, but justified-in-the-moment) nerfs, the spec was completely dominant at burst AOE situations. When it came to Mythic+ trash or a fight likeDathea, AscendedinVault of the Incarnates, Windwalkers were untouchable. Unfortunately, it came at the cost of any attempt at single target damage where Windwalker was really… really bad. Season 2 saw the pendulum swing the other way, with the tier set,Fangs of the Vermillion Forge, actually pushing the spec to be better at single target than at AOE, although both were decidedly generally mediocre. Season 3 started off as poorly as any tier has ever started for Windwalker. After a few weeks there were significant buffs to bring the spec to the good place it is now, but it was a hard few weeks for those that stuck with it, many did not and the population of Windwalker fell by more than half according to logs.

When looking at Dragonflight, compared to other expansions, it seems evident to me that designers were/are very hesitant to risk Windwalker being so dominant at large scale AOE as it was during Shadowlands withCalculated Strikes. This is a completely reasonable concern to have, given how Shadowlands went, but it's left the spec meandering without a distinct direction.

Borrowed Power

Anyone who’s been around Windwalker for as long as many of us have will know that “Borrowed Power” generally translates into “Windwalker isn’t good”. No matter what borrowed power system you look at, it's hard to find one that truly benefited Windwalker as much, or more, than other specs. The primary exception may beCalculated Strikesin Shadowlands if you consider conduits as “borrowed power”.

With the lack of borrowed power in Dragonflight, many of us were excited for the spec’s damage to shine. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. Windwalker, more than most other specs, still spent most of the expansion reliant on non-Windwalker power. Whether it wasManic Grieftorch,Seal of Diurna's Chosen,Storm-Eater's Boon,Beacon to the Beyond, or S2 tier set,Fangs of the Vermillion Forge, Windwalker spent WAY too long seeing big chunks of its damage come from outside sources. For Windwalker, this problem was compounded by the effect this had on the already dismal stat scaling, as external damage doesn’t benefit from Windwalker’s Mastery, leaving Windwalkers looking for only Crit or Vers on gear. HavingJadefire Harmonyno longer buff external damage will help in the future, but it doesn't really fix the problem, and its part of why Windwalker has needed so much help as this expansion has gone on.

As we’ve moved into S3, there are less external damage sources to go around, but looking toward S4 where we may have access to ALL of the previous effects on top of more item level increases and no fix to horrendous stat scaling, it can be very worrisome.

Dragonflight Additions

• Reworks

Several specs got reworks throughout Dragonflight, and while there seems to be a general consensus amongst the people I talk to that Windwalker should be a spec more than qualifying for changes, it was not a spec that got any. Sure, Windwalker got number tuning to make up for the atrocious damage at the start of S3, but nothing has changed to fix the causes, just two of the largest bandaids in the history of Warcraft. There are still significant underlying problems that need to be addressed or the spec will continue to be reliant on semi-yearly 10% buffs.

• Augmentation Evokers

Unless you’ve been under a rock, then you’re aware of the effect that Augmentation Evokers have had on the game. Generally Windwalkers are a spec that does very poorly with the buffs from other specs, especiallyWindfury Totemwhere Windwalker gets beat by several tank specs. However, given that Windwalker is one of the strongest 2-minute burst specs, it is actually a very good target for Augmentation buffs. Unfortunately, the community perception of Windwalker is generally so poor that it would be a cold day in hell before Windwalkers get Aug attention en masse.

• Tier Sets

Historically, tier sets are what have really made Windwalkers shine at different times, which is why several of them returned as talents in our tree. The tier sets in Dragonflight were a mixed bag and varied widely from season to season. The S1 tier set,Wrappings of the Waking Fistwas generally passive and forgettable. S2 broughtFangs of the Vermillion Forgethat pushed Windwalker’s single target damage ahead of AOE damage, which is very rare for the spec. S3 has the tier setMystic Heron's Disciplinethat had the largest effect on how the spec plays, and is generally well liked, it just needed significant buffs to make it competitive.

On the whole, tier sets were good for Windwalker, even if nothing more than a help to handle the poor scaling.

Concerns of the Past and Present

One of the biggest things to think about when gauging the success of an expansion for a spec, is whether the problems of the past were fixed. When this question is asked about Windwalker, the answer is a resounding “lol no”.

• Scaling

Scaling and how Windwalker’s damage increases as our gear increases has been a problem for the spec for almost a decade. Dragonflight not only didn’t fix this problem, it may have exacerbated it more than any previous expansion. The prevalence of external damage sources crushed our Mastery scaling, the copious amount of free resources from talents put a functional cap on the value of Haste, and the diminishing returns on all stats hurt Windwalker when it had no choice but to stack Versatility and Critical Strike. Years ago, it was said by a prominent Blizzard employee, that if a spec valued Versatility more than others, there was a major problem. Windwalker has valued Versatility above the other stats for as long as Versatility has been a stat, and Dragonflight did nothing to change that.

• Jadefire Stomp

Going into Dragonflight, there were many who were concerned aboutJadefire Stompand its restriction on Windwalker’s mobility. Some of us, myself included, were blinded by its beauty and quickly found out that it was awful to play with on any fight with movement, of which there have been many. Mages lostRune of Powerin 10.1.5 because it unfairly restricted their movement, so why Windwalker still has to contend withJadefire Stompkeeping us in place is simply beyond me.

• Touch of Death

I’ve certainly talked about it several times above, but there was some concern about the strength ofTouch of Deathat the start of the expansion. When Blizzard nerfed the rest of Windwalker’s AOE damage, it simply leftTouch of Death/Fatal Flying Guillotineas the pigeon-hole of what the spec was capable of. It was really cool when we were leveling and doing outdoor content, but lost its luster very quickly when we started doing instanced content. 5 talents devoted to one ability that we use every 2-minutes is inexplicable.

Future Wishlist

There are a few things that many people agree would make the spec better overall.

Quality of Life

Jadefire Stompbeing removed or at least a removal of the movement restriction is nearly always at the top of people’s list. A “simple” solution is to allow for the ability to reset as long as you’re hitting a target with the debuff that is already in place. The visual can be kept as a momentary flash, the way it looks if you’re playing a non-Monk and see a Windwalker or Mistweaver use the ability, but the requirement to remain on the line has to go.

Another section, another plea for puttingTouch of Deathback in its own place and moving its damage into the rest of the kit.

As mentioned above, the Windwalker talent tree needs significant attention, especially the talents on the outside fringes.

Bonedust BrewandJadefire Stompare not Monk or Windwalker abilities, they are Covenant abilities, and the Covenants were sooo last expansion.

Blackout Reinforcementfrom the S3 tier is something that's generally liked, but would benefit from added charges so that your “good” luck is not wasted because it occurred too close together.

It's time that Windwalkers can interrupt duringFists of Fury… our fists can be furious, but they can’t strike like a spear hand?

Windwalker has a LOT of buttons, so some cutbacks can be good for the spec, starting with the Cat Statue (Summon White Tiger Statue).

Many of Windwalker’s abilities, if not most of them, have very outdated or lackluster visuals. This is important to many people and could use being brought into this decade.

Hero Talents

We have basically no knowledge of what Hero Talents will look like, although I’m sure we’ll get information as soon as this article gets posted and I have to fix this section. However, there are some things that would be nice to have, or not to have, in our Hero Talents.

Personally I’d like Windwalkers to get some increased range to our abilities, playing Feral Druid for the past few months really shows how nice it is to have that extra melee space.

Fists of Furyalready has further range than other abilities, so the rest should be given its range.

Windwalker has seen too many talents or mechanics push damage away from what the character can do, even looking atXuenand his associated talents. It would be nice if the Hero Talents effected what the spec can already do instead of adding extra things externally.

Ultimately, given the concerns about the current Windwalker talent tree, it would be nice for that to see the necessary attention before we see any more talents added that further convolute things and make it harder to iterate on.

Conclusion

It may seem like I am very negative on how Dragonflight has been for Windwalker. That’s because I am. I think Dragonflight has added a lot of great things for the spec, but that is where it was left, just added but not integrated or incorporated. There are good things for players to look at and enjoy about the spec during Dragonflight and give hope for what comes in the future, but to me it feels like Windwalker is still at the same place with the same concerns as it was at the start of Dragonflight. Hopefully it will get the attention it needs sooner rather than later, as there is the potential for the spec to be incredibly fun and powerful if it's given the opportunity to be.

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