Just a forewarning, this post pertains primarily to the state of the windwalker class tree and some of the gripes/issues I have with it. Overall, I think that Blizzard has done a decent job of getting the specialization (spec) tree to a good starting point; yet, there are still plenty of changes that could be made to greatly improve the tree from a gameplay standpoint.
General Monk Class Tree
The good:
I think that this most recent iteration of the general class tree is phenomenal, especially when compared to the previous iteration. The swapping of Paralysis and Disable makes the tree flow nicely. Also, making Expel Harm baseline again feels great.
The bad:
First and foremost, the Summon White Tiger Statue doesnât really fit the monk theme. Personally, when I think monk fantasy in video games, I donât think of totem classes or classes that play around summons. This capstone should probably be redesigned from the ground up or there is a good chance that windwalkers donât bother taking any capstones in the general tree in any form of content (assuming the White Tiger Statue isnât massively overtuned in which case you would only take it because of tuning).
Second and not necessarily a bad thing, for whatever reason, it doesnât feel like there is any meaningful choice you make on this tree as a windwalker. You basically just take every node that isnât on the far left.
Windwalker Spec Tree
The good
I like that weâre seeing the return of old, well-loved abilities like Strike of the Windlord,Drinking Horn Cover, and Xuenâs Battlegear.
The bad
There are several talent options and positions that I find to be problematic.
Talent options like Feather of a Hundred Flocks (row 3) and Crane Vortex (row 8) should be combined into a single 2 point node. Spinning Crane Kick Radius isnât usually something weâre concerned about since weâre already a melee spec and will be âin the thick of itâ anyways.
The talent Inner Peace (row 5) should be reworked to either increase energy regen or decrease the energy cost of Tiger Palm by 10. For comparison, Ascension (row 2) increases your maximum energy by 20, increases maximum chi by 1, and increases your energy regeneration. Thus, Inner peace, which is deeper in the tree, is severely lacking.
Hit Combo, this ability is rather contentious. In practice, it is a more punishing version of our baseline Mastery: Combo Strikes which gives us increased damage for not repeating abilities. Hit Combo could be reworked to have an effect like when Rising Sun Kick and Fists of Fury are on cooldown something happens on an X second internal cooldown. This gives us something that is âcombo-y.â The effect that the current Hit Combo has could be implemented into our Mastery: Combo Strikes and made to be less punishing by losing only 1 stack when a mistake is made instead of all 6 stacks.
Rushing Jade Wind is present in the spec trees of every since monk spec and is not something that a windwalker would ever want to talent into (this is because it costs 1 chi and has such a low uptime especially in high haste situations). This ability should either be made baseline or moved to the general tree. In the general tree, it could replace Tigerâs Lust and then Tigerâs Lust could be moved to be a fourth starting starting point (row 1, column 4).
Flashing Fists and Open Palm Strikes (both on row 3) could be combined into a single 2 point node. Both of these talent do essentially the same thing which is a % increase to Fists of Fury damage.
Storm, Earth, and Fire/Serenity (both on row 5): As it currently stands, and has stood for years, serenity is strictly worse than Storm, Earth, and Fire (SEF) in nearly all use cases. Serenity is particularly awkward to use because it is on a 1.5 min cooldown and only has one charge while other big cooldowns like Xuen, the White Tiger or the new Summon White Tiger Statue are on two minute cooldowns. I would like to see Serenityâs cooldown either reduced to 1 minute or it be given a second charge like SEF.
Jade Ignition (row 5) seems to be out of place in its current position. By out of place I mean that it is an AoE-centric talent on the single target-focused side of the tree. I would propose moving Jade Ignition to Rushing Jade Windâs current spot on the talent tree (after removing Rushing Jade Wind from the spec tree).
Bonedust Brew (row 9) was a rather controversial ability for much of Shadowlands. It augments your AoE playstyle in what many in the monk community (Peak of Serenity) consider to be degenerate wherein one might spam only Spinning Crane Kick.
Faeline Stomp (row 9) was one of the least used covenant abilities BY ALL monk specs for the entirety of Shadowlands. Itâs actually puzzling to see this ability make a return for Dragonflight. I would propose that Faeline Stomp is replaced with Weapons of Order (WoO) given that WoO was used by windwalkers for the entirety of season 1 and situationally thereafter for certain single target fights.
Iâm going to assume that Attenuation replacing Calculated Strikes on row 10 is a mistake in the most recent PTR build. Calculated Strikes should be combined with Mark of the Crane (MotC, row 4) since it effectively does the same thing as MotC.
It also seems a bit excessive to have 5 talents (2 in the general tree and 3 in the spec tree) that augment Touch of Death.
Overall, I think that what we have now is a good starting point. I would love to see more frequent changes be made to the talent tree and look forward to any such changes.
They should change Hit Combo to Crosswinds, and have Crosswinds just give every main ability a chance to spawn the wind clones for an extra bit of damage. Not just FoF like it was in Legion.
At this point I donât think any WW player likes Hit Combo. It needs to change one way or another.
And forcing every spec to get Soothing Mists since it locks off an extra roll charge, a boost to expel, tiger tail and increased healing taken is really bad.
They should change Hit Combo to Crosswinds, and have Crosswinds just give every main ability a chance to spawn the wind clones for an extra bit of damage. Not just FoF like it was in Legion.
I agree that Crosswinds would be nice to have instead of Hit Combo. Perhaps if Jade Ignition is moved to replace Rushing Jade Wind, then Crosswinds could take its current place on the talent tree.
And forcing every spec to get Soothing Mists since it locks off an extra roll charge, a boost to expel, tiger tail and increased healing taken is really bad.
I think this aspect on the general tree is fine as is. We should have to make some degree of sacrifice if we want extra things.
Also, I like your comment in a different thread about potentially making Xuen a stance/aura that hovers over your shoulders and replicates your abilities.
Ideally the statue needs to go, at the bare minimum needs a huge rework. it doesnât fit the theme and it certainly doesnât fit our game play.
There are too many talents like this that youâll take because of whats behind it, not because you care about the node itself. This and Inner Peace stand out as super uninteresting and weak nodes. Both Inner peace and Flock need more to them.
Really confused why they would do this when most Monks thought that this was a majorly lazy talent that was punishing while also not feeling rewarding. Personally I also think itâs on the wrong side of the tree considering Bonedustâs location in the tree and how was used this expansion.
It needs a rework. Ideally the cost needs to be changed to energy, and the duration needs an extension mechanic. Lets say if it hits 3 or more targets its duration is increased by 3 seconds, up to a maximum of 6 additional seconds, lastly it could add a stack of MotC per tick.
I think SEF needs to go. Serenity is more interesting, it would make people work harder for those mark of the crane stacks and wouldnât have all the inherent issue SEF does. P.S. 2 stacks on Serenity would be so fun!
Pretty much 100% on the same page with the other comments and have nothing to add.
2 things you didnât mention that I have an issue with is:
How so many good talents are hostage to Xuen. I really donât like be a pet wrangling monk and between clones and Xuen it just feels a bit crap. If I could I would avoid taking Xuen but as is Keefers, Battlegear, Transfer the Power and Emperors are all behind Xuen and have nothing to do with Xuen. Doesnât really feel like a choice.
Soothing mists still being a talent in the class tree. If you look at all the other classes they have something borderline must have in their first row. Comparatively we have SM which we will likely never use. This needs to change and my vote is for Zen Pulse to be moved from the MW tree to the class tree and SM to be baseline for MW.
Hmm I have to disagree on your last point. Yes, choice and sacrifice should be made but it should be done in a way that makes sense. Those choices should be based upon neighboring alternatives, not vertical choices.
If we look at Soothing Mist, it has connection points to Calming Presence which is centered within the tree, to Vivify which allows Vivify to be cast instantly when Soothing Mist is active (a support function to the next talent choice), Vigorous Expulsion (which impacts healing, again supporting Soothing Mist), and Roll whichâŚhas absolutely zero to do with Soothing Mist.
Not every talent should support the next one, but when you see a foundational talent like Soothing Mist which is at the early portion of that side of the tree, there should be a better synergy there. My suggestion would be to take Roll and Calming Presence and swap their place. This allows Roll to take center stage since it is a core talent that pretty much every spec will take regardless and it shifts Calming Presence over to support Soothing Mist and Vigorous Expulsion. The natural path will be to take Roll at that point with the option to go Soothing Mist and further choice to pick up Calming Presence if you want to invest more points into healing and less into utility.
Some quick thoughts regarding the most recent PTR build that went live earlier today.
There are a couple glaring issues with the Windwalker spec tree (on top of the issues listed in the original post).
Presently you are able to talent into Xuenâs Bond (row 8) and Empowered Tiger Lightning (row 8) without talenting into Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger (row 7). This is a massive oversight. Once could potentially spec into TWO talents that do absolutely nothing for them because the prerequisite talent is missing.
You can also take Spiritual Focus and Drinking Horn Cover without talenting into Storm, Earth, and Fire/Serenity
Also, the new Dust in the Wind (row 10) talent that adds increased radius to Bonedust Brew (row 9) seems rather useless given that Windwalkers are a melee spec.
Also, here are some interesting ideas for abilities that could be given to us in Dragonflight (shamelessly taken from the Peak of Serenity discord).
Stomp of Li Zen Ba - This is intended to be a replacement for Faeline Stomp. It simultaneously gives the ability a new image to fit the monk fantasy and removes the positional requirement which improves the quality of life of the ability
Storm Brew - This is a replacement for Bonedust Brew that incorporates monk fantasy.
Jadefire Wind - This is a replacement for Rushing Jade Wind (which is an ability that will never see use on windwalkers without a serious redesign).
Jade Ignition - This is a redesign to the current Jade Ignition that we have.
Crackling Jade Tether - This ability would replace Emperorâs Capacitor. This is a charge-up ability similar to what evokers will be using, which consumes 5 stacks of Capacitor per second of the button being held down, and deals damage based on the amount of stacks consumed.
Tigereye Brew - This is a redesigned Tigereye Brew that interacts directly with Hit Combo and thus would need to be placed after Hit Combo on the talent tree.
Every update I hope soothing mists disappears from the class tree, every update Iâm disappointed.
Soothing Mists is so unbelievably MW-Centric that I cant believe it made it to the class tree where there is meant to be some universality to the talents.
Alternatives could be:
Zen Pulse from the MW tree
Healing Elixirs
Song of Chi Ji
My vote is for Zen Pulse as itâs the most interesting of the options and i can see it be ok for WW and BrM but obviously stronger as MW. I imagine Zen Pulse would at least get used every now and then unlike Soothing Mists.
Sucks theyâre shifting towards bug fixes and tuning now according to their post. Our trees might be âset in stoneâ for the time being now. And thatâs truly disappointing if that remains true. Copious amounts of feedback on the state of the class tree and spec trees and hardly any of it was used.
Majority of people hate where soothing mists is, hate the capstones in the class tree and hate that Faeline Stomp is a thing since it has major issues with movement fights and the fact that Bone Dust brew is a thing again. Both of which just arenât thematically Monk in any way. That and the middle of the tree (WW) is super bloated.
On a personal note: Why is capacitor even there, the thing is crap and forces a mobile class to stop and channel it.
It wouldnât surprise me if we launch like this and 90% of Monks donât even touch the bottom 2 rows of their class tree. Then focus on the AoE side of the spec tree since bone dust is proven to be effective even though a lot of people hate it. So in the end nothing changes overall for the most part. Just sad.
I figure one of two things must be true: Thereâs a dev that absolutely LOVES the statues as capstones, or they literally canât come up with anything better. Iâm not sure which is more disheartening.
I actually happen to like Faeline Stomp. I think it looks beautiful, but it does need to branch out more. I agree that it does need to branch out a lot more, though, like itâs blue lightening emanating from where we stomped. It would look even better AND give us more branches to stand on.
I could have sworn that, during early Shadowlands, testing was done that determined you didnât actually have to stand directly on the faeline, just near it, to get the reset chance. I may be confusing that with the idea that the AOE damage from it is actually wider than the effect itself, though.
I agree that it does need to branch out a lot more
I think that it needs to have its positional requirement removed. Enemies hit by the branching ground effect should get a debuff on them them that has all the effects that standing in the ground effect has. That way you arenât pushed for having to move
I have to disagree with windwalkers not using statues.
What differentiates monks in WoW from your average videogame monk is that theyâre mystical fighters who harness chi, use magical brews, and channel the powers of the Celestials in a rather shamanistic manner, but with its Pandarian spin.
When Celestalon pruned all brews and chi magic from windwalkers in Legion, it killed the class fantasy and just made them a lame, basic martial artist.
Martial arts is only part of what a monk is. Keep the statues, the icons, the chi energy and mists, the celestial summons and related magic, and the brews. It fleshes the class out.
Brewmaster in Legion was also a significant step down from WoD. I loved my big shields and self healing, not just staggering damage.
Statues adding to theme is almost a separate argument, and I could likely concede that point, but I think itâs infinitely more relevant to look at whether it compliments and synergizes with the game play of the class or whether it steals from it.
Whether its thematic or not is much less of an issue than whether the ability is engaging and fun to use, which currently they arent.
Thatâs fair enough, it could use more interaction for sure. But in an xpac where theyâre trimming a lot of visuals from a lot of classes (shamans randomly losing the Earthen Rage earth spikes for boring stat increase passive talents, warlocks losing decimating bolt for a boring fairy dust soul rot, removing dimensional rift from an easily accessible class tree; balance druids having to choose between Orbit Breaker, Wrath of Elune, or New Moon, Demonhunter having to choose between Glaive Tempest or mastery scaling), Iâd rather not lose more interesting visuals and themes in the name of a numbers game that never ends up balanced anyways.
So much of class and spec centric thematic design has already been cannibalized in favor of just designing for UI games and flavorless optimization. Shamans and druids stuck using necrotic undeath magic, warlocks and demonhunters using fairy magic, priests using Venthyr magic that does not fit the lore of the light nor the void, etc.
