Welcome to the Windwalker Monk Raid guide for the World of Warcraft patch 11.0! This guide covers everything you need to know to understand your character! Are you starting out and leveling up from 70? Check out the leveling guide!
Overview
Windwalker Monk
Windwalker MonkRaid
Hero Talents
Windwalker Monk
- Currently Shado-Pan outperforms Conduit of the Celestials in almost always every scenario apart from burst.
Shado-Pan
Conduit of the Celestials
- Every 300 Energy you spent while in combat, you unleash Flurry Strikes, which makes it vital to not overcap Energy.
- Efficient Training
- Spending 50 Energy spent reduces the cooldown of Storm, Earth, and Fire by 1 second.
- Wisdom of the Wall
- Every time Flurry Strikes proccs with 10 stacks(it is pretty much guaranteed) you gain one of the four buffs.
- It is possible to have multiple buffs at the same time.
- Shado-Pan Choice Nodes are:
- Pride of Pandaria
- Protect and Serve
- Protect and Serve provides a decent chunk of healing combined with Vivacious Vivification.
- Whirling Steel
- Gain access to Celestial Conduit a powerful 90 second cooldown that lines up with Storm, Earth, and Fire.
- Heart of the Jade Serpent
- After spending 45 Chi your next Strike of the Windlord grants you 75% cooldown reduction on Rising Sun Kick, Fists of Fury, Strike of the Windlord and Whirling Dragon Punch.
- While it is up your Fists of Fury channel time is reduced by 50%.
- Unity Within
- After finishing your Celestial Conduit you spawn all Celestials.
- It is also possible to finish the channel early to spawn them faster.
Talents
Windwalker Monk
Shado-Pan Single-Target
Shado-Pan AoE
Gameplay Altering Talents
Discover all talents that significantly alter your gameplay within the Spec and Class Talent trees. This section gives a concise overview of these talents and their applications but for a more detailed look check out the Rotation and Deep Dive sections below.
Spec Tree
- Revolving Whirl
- Whirling Dragon Punch grants you a guaranteed Dance of Chi-Ji proc.
- Thunderfist
- You want to hit as many targets as possible with Strike of the Windlord.
- Gale Force
- The goal is to use your strongest abilities after pressing Strike of the Windlord to take advantage of the 10% damage increase afterward.
- Darting Hurricane
- Your next two Tiger Palm after using Strike of the Windlord have a 50% reduced global cooldown.
- Any Ability that does damage has a chance to give you 1 stack of Darting Hurricane.
- Dance of Chi-Ji
- Always prioritize using Spinning Crane Kick when it procs before casting Blackout Kick.
- You can have 2 stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji now.
- Ordered Elements
- Your Rising Sun Kick cooldown resets after activating Storm, Earth, and Fire so you want to press Rising Sun Kick before Storm, Earth, and Fire.
- Your first Chi spender after activating Storm, Earth, and Fire is always Rising Sun Kick due to the Chi cost reduction on subsequent abilities.
Class Tree
- Summon White Tiger Statue
- Using Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger spawns a statue at your location that damages nearby enemies.
- Fatal Touch
- Prioritize using Touch of Death whenever possible as you gain a 5% damage buff.
Hero Talents
- Pride of Pandaria
- Your default pick since High Impact is weaker.
- Protect and Serve
- Provides a decent chunk of heal especially combined with Vivacious Vivification.
- Whirling Steel
When to use this Spec
New talent build after recent sim fixes!!!
Use this spec if you're fighting 4 or more enemies for an extended period of the fight.
Talent Adjustments
Listing all the changes within the Class and Spec tree compared to the default build.
Spec Tree
- Added
- Last Emperor's Capacitor
- Any Chi spender grants you one stack of Last Emperor's Capacitor which reduces the Energy costs and increases its damage per stack.
- You can have up to 20 stacks.
- Power of the Thunder King
- Crackling Jade Lightning hits up to 4 additional targets and the cast time is reduced by 50%.
- Shadowboxing Treads
- Blackout Kick cleaves 2 additional targets at 70% effectiveness.
- The Cleaving Blackout Kick don't grant you Mark of the Crane stacks.
- Energy Burst
- Blackout Kick! proccs grant you 1 Chi.
- Sequenced Strikes
- Grants a Blackout Kick! proc after Dance of Chi-Ji.
- Last Emperor's Capacitor
- Removed
- Brawler's Intensity
- Removed for Shadowboxing Treads.
- Darting Hurricane
- Removed for Energy Burst.
- Communion With Wind
- Removed for Sequenced Strikes.
- Inner Peace
- Removed for Last Emperor's Capacitor.
- Rising Star
- Removed for Power of the Thunder King.
- Brawler's Intensity
Hero Talents
- Pride of Pandaria
- Your default pick since High Impact is weaker.
- Protect and Serve
- Provides a decent chunk of heal especially combined with Vivacious Vivification.
- Whirling Steel
Rotation
Windwalker Monk
Tier Set
- 2-Set: Tiger Palm increases the damage of your next melee ability by 5.0%.
- 4-Set: Your other melee abilities increase the damage of your next Tiger Palm by 25%, stacking up to 6 times. 15% of Tiger Palm damage is dealt onto nearby enemies, reduced beyond 5 targets.
Single-Target
Shado-Pan
Opener
- Your goal is to cast as many Chi spenders as possible in your Storm, Earth, and Fire window while also keeping relevant abilities on cooldown.
Priority List
This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight.
- Touch of Death if possible.
- Rising Sun Kick when buffed by Xuen's Battlegear.
- Tiger Palm if below 5 Chi and close to capping Energy.
- Strike of the Windlord.
- Whirling Dragon Punch if possible.
- Rising Sun Kick
- Tiger Palm if you are capping energy.
- Fists of Fury.
- Blackout Kick to not overcap on stacks of Teachings of the Monastery.
- Spinning Crane Kick with Dance of Chi-Ji.
- Tiger Palm it is a gain to overcap Chi, to spend energy.
- Jadefire Stomp if talented paired with either Singularly Focused Jade or Jadefire Harmony.
- Last Emperor's Capacitor.
- Chi Burst.
- Blackout Kick
AoE
Shado-Pan
Opener
- Below you can see one variation of the multi-target opener rotation using the Shado-Pan.
Priority List
- Keep up Mark of the Crane on 5 targets.
- Tiger Palm if below 5 Chi and close to capping Energy.
- Touch of Death if possible.
- Spinning Crane Kick with Dance of Chi-Ji with 2 stacks to not overcap.
- Whirling Dragon Punch
- Strike of the Windlord
- Crackling Jade Lightning if you are overcapping Last Emperor's Capacitor with Power of the Thunder King talented.
- Fists of Fury.
- Rising Sun Kick for Whirling Dragon Punch if possible.
- Jadefire Stomp if talented paired with either Singularly Focused Jade or Jadefire Harmony.
- Spinning Crane Kick.
- Blackout Kick to not overcap on stacks of Teachings of the Monastery.
- Chi Burst if talented.
Deep Dive
Windwalker Monk
Mastery
- It is very important to never break your Mastery: Combo Strikes or Hit Combo.
- During downtime you can use Spinning Crane Kick to keep up your Hit Combo.
- If the boss is immune to damage you can also use Crackling Jade Lightning to keep it up.
Touch of Karma
- To maximize your damage output you want to press Touch of Karma on every damage event possible in the fight.
- You can increase the absorbed amount of your Touch of Karma damage by using Fortifying Brew beforehand to increase your maximum health.
- When grouped with a Warrior, you can ask them to press Rallying Cry if it is not needed as a cooldown to get even more health before using Touch of Karma.
Touch of Death
- As a Windwalker Monk it is very important for you to snipe any low health add with Touch of Death.
- You gain Fatal Touch after executing Touch of Death.
Dance of Chi-Ji and Mark of the Crane
- It is worth it to hold your Dance of Chi-Ji proc if you are able to stack Mark of the Crane depending on if adds are going to spawn within the duration of your Dance of Chi-Ji buff.
- Whenever a new adds spawn one of your priorities is always to tag them swiftly with Tiger Palm, Rising Sun Kick or Blackout Kick to gain Mark of the Crane stacks.
- You can have up to two stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji now.
Storm, Earth, and Fire
- Your clones prioritize hitting targets that have no Mark of the Crane on them as their mimicked abilities apply it.
- Only do this if you are confident that you can keep up 5 Mark of the Crane stacks and you know that you are missing out on potential cleave value.
- You can press Storm, Earth, and Fire again to fixate your clones on a target after getting 5 Mark of the Crane stacks. It is especially good if your clones hit targets far away from the rest of the enemies that you would otherwise not be able to spread Mark of the Crane to.
- It is a must to fixate your clones again after your fixate target dies.
- They will do nothing if you don't do it.
- It is extremely important to fixate your clones otherwise you could miss out on potential cleave from Whirling Dragon Punch, Fists of Fury, and Spinning Crane Kick.
Energy usage with Shado-Pan
- It is extremely vital to not overcap Energy to use Flurry Strikes at your maximum potential.
- Especially during downtime make use of Vivify to not overcap Energy, so you can reduce the cooldown of Storm, Earth, and Fire.
- Important to note that the Energy used from Vivify does not count towards Flurry Strikes.
- During downtime you can use Paralysis and Crackling Jade Lightning to spend Energy for Flurry Strikes.
- This only works with a target that you can hit.
Understanding Mechanics
Rotational min-maxing is just one aspect of mastering a specialization, but there are numerous other key mechanics that influence your performance. Use the following guides to improve them.
Nerub-ar Palace
Windwalker Monk
The following tips are mainly applicable to Heroic Bosses. Mythic tips are released after our progression concludes.
← Scroll for more Bosses →
Ulgrax
Bloodbound Horror
Sikran
Rasha'nan
Broodtwister
Nexus-Princess
Silken Court
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- You can free yourself from Stalker Netting with the use of Tiger's Lust.
- Placing a Transcendence away from the boss helps you minimize your downtime on Carnivorous Contest.
- During the transition utilize your Leg Sweep and Ring of Peace to control the Ravenous Swarm.
- You can place a Transcendence on the boss during the Transition to get back to the boss faster after collecting Chunky Visceras.
- Use your mobility spells to feed the boss as fast as possible.
- Alternate the use of Touch of Karma, Diffuse Magic and Fortifying Brew for Carnivorous Contest and Digestive Acid.
- Hulking Crash is a knockback from the center of the arena, don't be on the edge of the arena otherwise you can fall off.
- At the start of the Intermission watch out for the 2 portals to easily dodge the Juggernaut Charge.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
If you're assigned to Group 1:
If you're assigned to Group 2:
- Do note that the length of the fight impacts your cooldown usage heavily. If your fight lasts shorter than 6 minutes you use your Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger on pull followed by using it after every Goresplatter.
- Although if you notice your group is struggling to kill the adds just keep your cooldowns like in this timeline.
Defensive Cooldown Usage
If you're assigned to Group 1:
If you're assigned to Group 2:
Boss Tips
- The rotating laser from Spewing Hemorrhage always turns counterclockwise.
- You can use this knowledge to not lose too much uptime on the adds with the help of a properly placed Transcendence if the tanks face the boss in a bad direction.
- You can easily jump through the Black Blood on the ground by utilizing Lighter Than Air and double jumping through them.
- It is possible to drop up to 3 Grasp From Beyond on the same spot before you have to dodge them to maximize space.
- While you are down in the addphase make sure to control the Blood Horrors with Leg Sweep and Ring of Peace
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Touch of Karma, Diffuse Magic or Fortifying Brew whenever you are targeted by Decimate or Decimates are about to hit Cosmic Simulacrums.
- Place a Transcendence down on the boss to reach the boss quickly after Shattering Sweep.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Stun Infested Spawn with Leg Sweep
- Utilizing Ring of Peace is a way to keep the Infested Spawn away from their fixate target.
- Move out with Spinneret's Strands and quickly teleport back with Transcendence: Transfer.
- Try to snipe the Infested Spawn with Touch of Death to get a damage buff.
- You can give one of your raid members with less mobility Tiger's Lust so they can keep up with the boss after he moves to the next platform.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Defensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Using Roll in paired with Swift Art, you can quickly cleanse yourself from Unstable Web.
- Be aware though it instantly cleanses the debuff on yourself, so make sure you are not surrounded by other players before dispelling yourself.
- Tiger's Lust can also be used to remove Unstable Web from any player in the raid.
- Utilizing your Leg Sweep and Ring of Peace is crucial to keep the Blood Parasites stacked to cleave them down quickly.
- Consider putting the Voracious Worms in focus to interrupt them.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Defensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Use Diffuse Magic as an emergency button. For example, if you get hit by multiple Twilight Massacres.
- The main thing to keep an eye out for on this boss is the position of each Nether Rift. Their placement dictates how much you get pulled towards them.
In the norm, your tank should pull the boss towards a safe position, but still be wary of your surroundings and disengage if you have to.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Defensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Put down a Transcendence and teleport back instantly after getting pulled in by Web Vortex to save yourself some movement.
- Alternatively, use Demonic Gateway to negate the pull in effect.
- Try to get some good distance from the adds that spawn from Call of the Swarm since they fixate on the closest target.
- You can dispel Stinging Swarm yourself from with Diffuse Magic
- Only do this if it is coordinated with your group to help out your healers with dispels.
Stat Priority
Windwalker Monk
Understand your secondary stat priority and the tertiary stats needed for optimal performance during Raid boss fights as a Windwalker Monk. For more detailed information, visit the Stats and Attributes guide.
Higher Item level items are better in most scenarios. For an accurate representation of what item to equip you should use Simcraft! A static "Stat Priority" is just a starting point and can easily shift depending on your individual gear.
- All secondary stats are affected by diminishing returns. Click here to learn more!
Tertiary
- Avoidance - Great stat to reduce the damage intake of "Area of Effect" abilities.
- Leech - Provides additional healing through damage dealing. The damage of your pets does not heal you thus Leech is a great tertiary for you since most of your damage is coming from your own spells.
- Speed - Niche tertiary that can be very useful and has been proven useful in the past. Makes playing certain mechanics a lot easier.
Gear
Windwalker Monk
Best in Slot
Farmable Alternatives
| Slot | Item | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Head | Hood of the Hidden Path | Mists of Tirna Scithe |
| Neck | Sureki Zealot's Insignia | Sikran, Captain of the Sureki |
| Shoulder | Gatecrasher's Enduring Effigy | Rasha'nan / Catalyst |
| Cloak | Consecrated Cloak | Tailoring |
| Chest | Gatecrasher's Gi | Broodtwister Ovi'nax/ Catalyst |
| Wrist | Risen Monstrosity Cuffs | The Necrotic Wake |
| Gloves | Gatecrasher's Protectors | Sikran, Captain of the Sureki/Catalyst |
| Belt | Sapgorger Belt | Mists of Tirna Scithe |
| Legs | Gatecrasher's Kilt | Nexus-Princess Ky'veza / Catalyst |
| Boots | Chitin-Spiked Jackboots | Sikran, Captain of the Sureki |
| Ring 1 | Stitchflesh's Misplaced Signet | The Necrotic Wake |
| Ring 2 | Experiment 08752's Band | City of Threads |
| Trinket 1 | Skardyn's Grace | Grim Batol |
| Trinket 2 | Ara-Kara Sacbrood | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Mainhand | Void Reaper's Warp Blade | Nexus-Princess Ky'veza |
| Offhand | Charged Facesmasher | Blacksmith |
Below you are presented with a good list of farmable alternatives that are obtainable outside of WoW’s weekly lockout system. While replaced in time as you progress, these offer immediate character power.
| Slot | Item | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Head | Hood of the Hidden Path | Mist of Tirna Scithe |
| Neck | "Emergency Stop" Keychain | The Stonevault |
| Shoulder | Epaulets of the Clipped Wings | The Dawnbreaker |
| Cloak | Shroud of Dark Memories | Grim Batol |
| Chest | Arachnofrost Vest | City of Threads |
| Wrist | Risen Monstrosity Cuffs | The Necrotic Wake |
| Gloves | Wharf Warden's Gloves | Siege of Boralus |
| Belt | Sapgorger Belt | Mist of Tirna Scithe |
| Legs | Glimmerthread Pantaloons | Grim Batol |
| Boots | Besieger's Deckstalkers | Siege of Boralus |
| Ring 1 | Stitchflesh's Misplaced Signet | The Necrotic Wake |
| Ring 2 | Experiment 08752's Band | City of Threads |
| Trinket 1 | Skardyn's Grace | Grim Batol |
| Trinket 2 | Ara-Kara Sacbrood | Ara-Kara, City of Echoes |
| Mainhand | Eirich's Fist of Deception | The Stonevault |
| Offhand | Eirich's Fist of Deception | The Stonevault |
Trinkets
Below you can find active and passive alternatives to our recommended trinkets. Do note that some trinkets are better than others depending on the raid boss.
Active Trinket alternatives
- Treacherous Transmitter
- You can use this trinket instead of Skardyn's Grace if you are not getting the high ilvl M+ trinkets. The cryptic instructions can be annoying during encounters.
- Mad Queen's Mandate
- Can be a good choice if you need to kill a priority target quick.
Passive Trinket alternatives
- Void Reaper's Contract
- Good alternative especially if you have the both items of the set.
- Bottled Flayedwing Toxin
- Very decent single target trinket, but lacks in aoe.
- Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj
- Fairly strong secondary stat proc trinket.
Embellishments
It's recommended to hold your Spark of Omens craft and wait for further tuning.
- 1x Duskthread Lining
- The optimal slots to craft on are Wrists, Boots, Waist, or Cloak depending on your available gear.
- 1x Darkmoon Sigil: Vivacity
- This embellishment can only be applied to weapons.
or
- 2x Duskthread Lining
- The optimal slots to craft on are Wrists, Boots, Waist, or Cloak depending on your available gear.
Honorable mention
Remaining Sparks
- Crafted items are 636 item level and regular items are 636 on max item level, therefore, it's not beneficial to equip crafted items outside of your 2x embellishments unless you don't have access to other high item level gear on that slot.
Simcraft
To find the best combination of gear available to you or identify the best possible upgrades, visit our Simcraft guide to learn how to utilize Simcraft easily and effectively.
Consumables
Windwalker Monk
- Phials
- Flask of Tempered Swiftness -- maximum DPS.
- Flask of Tempered Versatility -- less DPS but more survivability.
- Food
- Feast of the Divine Day
- Feast of the Midnight Masquerade
- Combat Potion
- Tempered Potion
- Health Potion
- Algari Healing Potion -- a big burst of healing
- Weapon Oil
- Ironclaw Whetstone-- usable on Sword, Axe, Polearm.
- Ironclaw Weightstone -- usable on Mace, Staff and Fist Weapon.
- Augment Rune
- Crystallized Augment Rune
- Sockets
- Versatile Emerald
- Culminating Blasphemite -- Unique, use one of each gem color to enhance your Culminating Blasphemite.
- Quick Sapphire
- Quick Ruby
- Quick Onyx
Enchantments
| Head | Nerubian Gemweaver |
| Neck | Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Cloak | Enchant Cloak - Chant of Winged Grace |
| Chest | Enchant Chest - Crystalline Radiance |
| Wrist | Enchant Bracer - Chant of Armored Avoidance Nerubian Gemweaver |
| Waist | Nerubian Gemweaver |
| Legs | Stormbound Armor Kit |
| Boots | Enchant Boots - Defender's March |
| Ring 1 | Enchant Ring - Radiant Haste Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Ring 2 | Enchant Ring - Radiant Haste Magnificent Jeweler's Setting 2x |
| Mainhand | Enchant Weapon - Authority of the Depths |
| Offhand | Enchant Weapon - Authority of the Depths |
You buy Nerubian Gemweaver from the Great Vault Vendor to add sockets to your Helm, Wrists & Waist.
Races
Windwalker Monk
For min-maxing a Windwalker Monk in raiding, different racial traits can provide a tremendous benefit to your character. If this is not your top goal, picking a race that fits your style works just as well.
- Stoneform -- Dwarf
- Dispels Magic and Bleed debuffs. Has been useful in the past on some bosses with Bleeds.
- Rocket Jump -- Goblin
- Do a small jump in the direction your character is facing.
- While you're in the Rocket Jump animation you are placed on a global cooldown until your character lands.
- Berserking -- Troll
- Your strongest DPS racial but lines up poorly with Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger.
- Reduce the duration of movement-impairing effects by 20%. This was only useful once in the recent history of progression raiding but is still worth noting.
- Blood Fury -- Orc
- Strong racial for damage both because of Command and Blood Fury which lines up with Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger.
- 20% reduced stun duration on you which can be useful in some situations.
- Spatial Rift -- Void Elf
- Spawn a shadow traveling into your facing direction, and activate it again to teleport to it.
- Maximum range of 100 yards.
Recommendation
In general, it's safe to say that if you care about min-maxing your DPS, you should go with the highest DPS racial. That being said, the story is a bit different if it's about progression raiding. Some help out massively to speed up the progression on certain bosses. Notably, Dwarf with their Stoneform helped out on Tindral Sageswift and Fyrakk the Blazing in the latest Race to World First by having easy access to dispelling yourself at crucial points of the fights mentioned.
Macros
Windwalker Monk
Discover recommended macros for Windwalker Monks during Raid encounters and watch a quick video guide on creating simple macros for your character.
Cursor Macros
Cursor Ring of Peace -- Ring of Peace on your cursor without confirmation.
#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] Ring of PeaceMouseover Macros
Pet Macros
Utility Macros
Addons
Windwalker Monk
Below, you see a screenshot of the author's User Interface for their Windwalker Monk, outlining which addons are used and how they are utilized in Raids to make your life easier.
Addons
WeakAuras
Changes this Patch
Windwalker Monk
Patch 11.0.2
Patch 11.0
FAQ
Windwalker Monk
Q: Why does my Hit Combo drop?
Credits
Written By: Swag
Reviewed By: Meeres