Originally written by /u/ProgsRS of reddit
This is going to be somewhat of a rant, because things are just not acceptable anymore. I will not go into the details and problems of the specs (specifically WW & MW) because there’s been several posts on here, on forums, on Peak of Serenity, on Wowhead and elsewhere that have gone in full depth and detail about them and at this point we’re really tired of talking and all of our feedback falling on deaf ears.
Our only hope is getting enough attention from the community, and content creators, that we finally get what we need just to be a balanced and functional class (brewmaster aside) that is (at least) a serious raid option and not riddled with bugs, lack of utility and awful tuning (we’re just asking for the bare minimum to be average or above average, not left at the bottom again). This seems like the only way for Blizzard to get things done.
To preface this, I’ve been playing Monk since the end of Legion and for the entirety of BFA, and I’m one of only a few hundred Windwalker Monks who got Cutting Edge this tier (since June). Monk is one of the most fun classes to play, and at a surface level, just like every new person and content creator who picks it up and plays with it for a bit, it feels amazing. This is not our issue and is exactly the reason why loyalists stick with it. The issue is, at the surface everything looks fun and fine, but it’s at the surface only and this unfortunately causes content creators (for example) to give off a very wrong and misleading image about Monk to their audience (and Blizzard), which actually damages us.
The issues lie deeper, far beyond where someone taking Monk for a spin will look. What if I told you your Combustion, your Metamorphosis and your Vendetta’s are usually dealing only 45% (instead of 135% in total) of your damage that you should be dealing? That hitting your most ‘exciting’ DPS cooldown is essentially a nerf button, or hitting another ability (such as your max level talent) simply doesn’t work or activate at all? That’s the weight of the bugs and issues we’re experiencing. It’s just a complete shame that all of these issues make one of the most fun classes to play one of the worst statistically and the most frustrating.
For the record, and extremely late into the tier, they gave us a 5% damage aura buff given how miserable our state was, which papered over cracks and pulled us very slightly from the bottom, but after a couple of weeks we slipped back into total obscurity at the bottom because of our lack of scaling and fundamental class issues which carry on into SL and introduce more issues with the new systems. No matter how well polished you’re trying to make the new systems, if the class is broken then the game is just not fun to play.
As I said, though, if you’re looking for details, there are a ton of posts and resources, along with interviews (like Sloot’s interview for Monks). This post is just regarding the state of communication that Monks have received from Blizzard regarding more than 5 months of alpha and beta Shadowlands feedback. The truth is the communication has been nothing short of absolute garbage.
Let’s start with the beginning after the Shadowlands announcement at Blizzcon. Monks received absolutely no mention or coverage on any panel, including the class and unpruning one. A while after Blizzcon, Holinka finally posted something about Monks (for some reason, the original tweet is now deleted) which stated the following:
Yes, Monk was a class we didn’t cover in the panel. Sorry about that. We are currently working on them and weren’t sure exactly what was coming back just yet. Stay tuned!
This wasn’t an issue in itself, but it just shows how we’re not really in their focus or attention and how neglected we generally are.
For around 5 months since the Alpha started, tons of feedback were posted regarding bugs and other core and fundamental problems, while some classes have had more than ten blue posts (with the majority receiving at least a few), but we were met with pure radio silence from Blizzard. It personally feels like over the past few years they hardly acknowledge or recognise us as a class anymore, and we’re always just an afterthought. Do any devs even play Windwalker or Mistweaver?
On 27 August, however, Monks finally had a blue post. What did the post include? A new rank for Xuen that was already datamined months ago for Windwalkers. It was very disappointing, but the post stated this on the Monk feedback thread in reply to the excellent beta testers who have been putting in tons of effort compiling huge, exhaustive and comprehensive lists of every bug and providing very careful, precise and detailed feedback:
We’ve been working hard to address the many bugs that have been submitted, with a focus on those bugs that are impacting testing, and we expect to have Monk testing in a much better place with next week’s build of the Shadowlands Beta (the first week of September).
Our goal is to make use of the feedback we’ve received here and elsewhere, with respect to Covenant class abilities, core class abilities, and legendaries. Thank you for your commitment to providing us with so much valuable information. Please look for more updates next week!
This gave some hope and something to finally look forward to the following week. Come the next week, however, and there were absolutely no posts about Monks . This was really strange, we waited and waited during the day until the new beta build went live, and there were still no posts. Some remained optimistic on the Monk discord that it could be late, while some were already resigned to the fact that nothing will be posted.
Ok, we’ll look forward to the next week, maybe something happened or it’s not entirely done yet and they decided to delay it. Another week later, and there’s still been no posts from Blizzard, and zero communication or updates regarding Monks. Back to radio silence.
It’s definitely understandable that they’re probably super busy with getting everything ready, but if you can’t address the feedback regarding and fix one of your core classes and dedicate some resources to doing so, you might as well give up, especially when other classes have received a huge amount of attention (compared to a class where WW & MW have been at the bottom for successive raid tiers), which is just utterly beyond comprehension.
I’m honestly struggling to believe and accept that the expansion is planned to release in just over a month. If things are just not ready yet, at least let us know what’s going on and what you’re planning to do - give us something - a crumb at least, we can work with that. Right now, a lot of things on beta, including covenants, are simply broken and cannot be tested.
Please get yourselves together and start communicating . It’s very disheartening to have seen so many Monk loyalists reroll (if not quit) over the past expansion even though they only played the spec for fun (but at some point enough is enough), and what’s left of them is also considering and planning to reroll with the way things are headed so far. We already suffer from the lowest class population, and at this point there will be no one left because you’re literally ignoring the class when as a historically below than average class it should be one of your top priorities to address.
Regards,
One of many extremely disappointed and hopeless players in the Monk community. (And another monk who wanted to signal boost this elsewhere)
TL;DR - Monks, specifically Windwalker and Mistweaver, have been neglected in a broken state and at the bottom for most of the past few years, carrying the same core and fundamental issues and bugs into the new expansion which introduce even more problems with the new systems and abilities. After over 5 months of alpha and beta testing (with the class literally being in an untestable state) and feedback on the Monk feedback thread with some of the most well written and detailed posts among all classes about the issues we’re facing, there has been a complete lack of communication from Blizzard and nothing but radio silence. A blue post was finally made more than 2 weeks ago which acknowledged our patience and mainly told us to look out for more Monk updates the following week, but 2 weeks on so far (with only over a month left till Shadowlands launch) and there’s still been completely no updates or communication.
