I’d like to give feedback on some of these ideas:
Blackout Combo
I don’t see this really working, having 2 different talents that say “Blackout Kick hits other things” on opposite sides of the tree doesn’t feel correct and without modifiers (Courageous Impulse mainly) I feel like it’s just bloating the effect. In my opinion, it should connect from Shadowboxing Treads as a way to scale it’s AoE up from just the low target cleave or just not have that component at all. As for the combo part, I don’t see see how it can work in a satisfying way. I think an important part of BM’s design for this talent is that Blackout Kick is a resourceless button that can/should always be pressed on cooldown and Tiger Palm can always be available as a satisfying payoff. It feels like a healthy version of this talent for WW would be “not really worth gaming this in a major way” and that wouldn’t be a great use of the design.
Stormspirit Strikes
I don’t see the issue others see with this talent, this specific pet does not reduce your own damage and does not have to switch targets / move between targets which I think are the cause of 99% of SEF problems and pet problems in general. Having a talent that specifically addresses low target counts doesn’t seem odd to me either but I suppose that’s more preference. For Apex Technique, it’s functionally fine but at a baseline it doesn’t seem to do much besides increase those abilities’ damage by 15% where Stormspirit Strikes could at least have some variability and add active gameplay. If the pet part is the issue, a version of the original with a simple “resonating strikes” themed debuff would achieve the same result.
Crane Vortex
I don’t know if I feel this on the base version because it kinda forces a 1.5 second cap, which is fine and functionally necessary for SCK but not for Rushing Jade Wind which I feel could actually be a much cooler addition if this talent could better synergize with it without the anchor attached.
I appreciate the write-up and I agree with your other thoughts, especially Wisdom of the Wall. I was even a big fan of proccing a Xuen, I think looks really cool, random Shado-Pan guy just doesn’t hit like that.