Guide Navigation
- Overview of Hero Talents
- Introduction to the Shado-Pan Monk Hero Talents
- Windwalker Monk Review: The Shado-Pan Talent Tree
- About the Author
Review of Windwalker Monk Talents: A Look into Shado-Pan's Heroic Abilities
Introducing the Shado-Pan Monk Hero Talents in The War Within Expansion
Overview of Hero Talents
What are Hero Talents?
Blizzard has given a sneak peek at the new Hero Talent system, an extension of the existing Talent system, as part of their upcoming expansion, The War Within. Hero Talents offer a third talent tree that explores class fantasy and is separate from your class and specialization. These new talents are designed to provide players with more options and customization in their gameplay.
Shado-Pan Monk Hero Talents in Focus
Our Windwalker Monk guide writer, Babylonius, has conducted an early review of the Shado-Pan Monk Hero Talents. This talent tree is not centered around any specific ability but raises some important questions concerning its interaction with abilities such as Storm, Earth, and Fire, as well as potential conflicts with health buffs and gearing. Let's take a closer look at what this new tree has to offer.
Introduction to the Shado-Pan Monk Hero Talents
Who are the Shado-Pan?
The Shado-Pan are an elite group of Pandaren fighters charged with defending the Pandaren Empire from external threats. Led by Taran Zhu, they employ a mixture of melee and ranged fighting techniques and are skilled in both stealth and direct combat. The Shado-Pan Monastery, located in the Kun-Lai Summit on the Pandaria continent, serves as their base of operations.
What's in the Shado-Pan Monk Hero Tree?
The Shado-Pan Monk Hero Tree offers Windwalkers a more raid and single-target focused talent tree. Here are the key features of this talent tree:
| Talent | Description |
|---|---|
| Overwhelming Flurry | Dealing damage equal to your maximum health generates a Flurry Charge. For each 400 Energy you spend, unleash all Flurry Charges as Flurry Strikes, dealing physical damage per charge. |
| Pride of Pandaria | Flurry Strikes have 15% additional chance to Critically Strike. |
| High Impact | Enemies who die within 5 seconds of being damaged by a Flurry Strike explode, dealing damage to uncontrolled enemies within 8 yards. |
| Controlled Instincts | Striking the same target 5 times within 2 seconds grants 2% haste. Multiple instances of this effect may overlap, stacking up to 10 times. |
| Martial Precision | Attacks penetrate 10% of the target's armor. |
| One versus Many | Damage dealt by Fists of Fury and Keg Smash counts as double towards Flurry Charge generation. Fists of Fury damage increased by 10%. Keg Smash damage increased by 30%. |
| Against All Odds | Flurry Strikes increase your Agility by 1% for 6 seconds, stacking up to 20 times. |
| Efficient Training | Abilities that spend Energy deal an additional 15% damage. Every 50 Energy spent reduces the cooldown of key abilities by 1 second. |
| Vigilant Watch | Blackout Kick deals an additional 20% critical damage and increases the damage of your next set of Flurry Strikes by 10%. |
| Wisdom of the Wall | Every 10 Flurry Strikes, become infused with Wisdom of the Wall for 20 seconds. Grants various effects, including increased critical strike damage and Dodge chance, increased Mastery effect, and additional Shadow damage to uncontrolled enemies within 6 yards. |
These talents offer a range of benefits, including increased damage, critical strike chance, and cooldown reduction. They also introduce new gameplay mechanics, such as Flurry Charges and the stacking buff of Controlled Instincts.
Windwalker Monk Review: The Shado-Pan Talent Tree
The Strengths of the Shado-Pan Talent Tree
The Shado-Pan talent tree provides Windwalkers with additional stat scaling opportunities. While the impact may be relatively minor, it still offers some benefits in terms of customization and player choice. Additionally, for players who focus on raid content, this talent tree offers a suitable option without introducing any disliked abilities.
Potential Concerns and Room for Improvement
Despite its potential strengths, there are several concerns and areas for improvement within the Shado-Pan Monk Hero Tree. Some of these include:
- The semi-random nature of the Flurry Charges and the need to track them during combat.
- Possible conflicts and interactions with Storm, Earth, and Fire and other abilities.
- The lore inconsistency of the Shado-Pan being the primary focus of a Monk talent tree, as they are a Pandaren organization that includes Monks rather than exclusively Monk-based.
Furthermore, it's important to note that the underlying issues and contradictions of the Windwalker spec's baseline talent tree still remain unsolved. While this new talent tree offers some improvements, the spec as a whole requires further attention and streamlining from Blizzard.
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About the Author
This guide was written by WowCarry. Babylonius, the author, is a former moderator on MMO-Champion, the owner and administrator of the Peak of Serenity Monk class discord, and the founder and Windwalker author of the Monk Class site, PeakofSerenity.com. With years of experience as a Windwalker main and extensive knowledge of the class, Babylonius is dedicated to providing valuable insights and resources to the Monk community.
For more information and updates, you can visit the following platforms:
- Discord: http://www.discord.gg/peakofserenity
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Babylonius
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- YouTube: https://youtube.com/babyloniusmonk