Initial Summary
The new talent tree has 48 talents, up from 42. Many 2-point talents have been reduced down to 1-point, and overall pathing has improved all over the place.
Baseline
- Roll - Now has 2 charges baseline instead of 1. Absolute win.
- Vivify - Now heals for 40% more, effectively baking in the 2-points from the Improved Vivify talent. Absolute win.
Row 1
- Soothing Mist - Some people still liked this talent, most hated the fact that it was required to get to other useful things. It’s new position and “ignorability” is a welcome change.
- Paralysis - Granting this for free for all specs is a win. Great position along-side the revamp into a more “grid-like” tree structure too (similar to Astral Recall’s position on the Shaman class talent tree).
- Rising Sun Kick - Granting this for free to all specs is an absolute win.
Row 2
- Elusive Mists - Better position, better effects, and reduced talent cost. Win win win. Non-“mistweaving” players can ignore this entirely, but it’s super beneficial for mistweavers.
- Tiger’s Lust - Extremely accessible, especially since Paralysis is granted for free.
- Crashing Momentum / Disable - Crashing Momentum is a great choice node to compete with Disable. I like how many new talent choices play into making Roll more dynamic, and I know some folks (especially PvPers) liked Disable, so I’m glad that’s still there.
- Fast Feet - Better position, better effects, and reduced talent cost. Win win win. The only people that might not pick up this talent are “mistweaving” mistweavers, likely opting to pick up Elusive Mists instead.
Row 3
- Grace of the Crane - One point instead of two, but capped at it’s original “4% bonus” per talent point. I count this as an overall win because it doesn’t clog up pathing in the talent tree by requiring two points.
- Bounding Agility - I like the fact that this is an option, but I also don’t know how useful it’ll be. 10% further? 25% further? 50% further? Will it allow a regular Roll to travel closer to the distance of a Chi Torpedo, and will it allow a Chi Torpedo to feel more like a Flying Serpent Kick?
- Calming Presence - Still one of the more powerful “reduce damage taken” talents in the game. Boring, perhaps, but numerically useful. It honestly still kinda feels like a talent tax.
- Wind’s Reach - Adding range to Disable is awesome, though I’d like to see it be a bit higher than just 5 yards. The slow and duration increase for Crashing Momentum makes this pretty desirable, in my opinion.
- Detox (or Improved Detox) - Very accessible considering its proximity to Fast Feet, though “misteaving” mistweavers might not like having to pick up Crashing Momentum or Disable in order to pick this up.
Row 4
- Vivacious Vivification - It somehow strangely seems less accessible than it used to be, despite requiring fewer talents to reach. A part of me wants this to swap positions with Grace of the Crane, but I can also see players preferring to pick up Grace of the Crane without having to pick up this talent first.
- Jade Walk - FINALLY. I’ve been hoping Monks could get some sort of a base movement speed talent (despite the fact that we have Roll, I just wanna move faster). The out of combat requirement is a bit odd for only a 15% movement speed increase, but I’ll take what I can get. I’d prefer to see the combat requirement removed OR the speed increase boosted to 30%. You know what, maybe roll in the effects of “Windwalking” into this too to make it an aura/utility buff.
- Pressure Points - Granting an enrage dispel option to monks is perfect, and Paralysis is a great vehicle through which to accomplish that.
- Spear Hand Strike - Oldie but goodie. Generally well positioned on the new tree.
- Ancient Arts - I love this talent in that it provides cooldown reduction for two of the monk’s major CC abilities (both of which they effectively have baseline now), but I dislike that it’s a 2-point talent. There are so many fun and different talents to choose from, it feels bad draining additional points into any single talent.
Row 5
- Chi Wave/Chi Burst - Chi Wave’s changes are an absolute win. Passive effect that auto triggers every 15 seconds when using abilities that are used pretty frequently on any monk spec/playstyle. Chi Burst’s power boost is welcome, though I’d still prefer to see this as an empowerment ability.
- Transcendence - I like this ability, but also don’t use it as often as I used to. It’s still central to the tree and still feels required in order to pick up lots of other talents beneath it that I’d be interested in. This would feel better if it didn’t feel so required.
- Energy Transfer - PvPers would likely be the most interested in this, though it’s association with Roll still makes it feel desirable to me. If this also reduced the cooldown of Spear Hand Strike to 12 seconds (down from 15), it’d be fantastic.
- Celerity/Chi Torpedo - Chi Torpedo has been my general go-to (I always used to pick up the extra charge for Roll on the current/old tree) simply because it was superior for general traversal. That’s no longer the case if I pick up all the other talents affiliated with Roll. I like that. This kind of flex choice feels great when lots of other synergy options exist.
Row 6
- Quick Footed - Not going to lie, this doesn’t feel very appealing to me. If it also reduced the severity of snare effects by 20%, it’d be much more attractive.
- Resonant Fists - Repositioned higher up in the tree and only a single talent point? Win win. It should have a connecting node from Chi Wave/Chi Burst though. Similar to changes made to Grace of the Crane, the damage equivalent is on par with only a single talent point from the old/current tree, not 2. That’s fine.
- Ring of Peace/Song of Chi-Ji - Still great talents, appropriately competing with one another.
- Spirit’s Essence - Especially useful for PvP. PvE? Not sure. But it’s positioning doesn’t really block off pathing for other talents beneath it, so it’s avoidable if undesired. That’s good.
- Tiger Tail Sweep - Previously a 2-point talent higher up in the tree (in a more awkward position). The cooldown reduction was moved elsewhere (see the new Ancient Arts talent) and the radius increase was boosted from 2 up to 4. That’s a massive radius for an on-demand AoE stun. I love it.
- Improved Touch of Death - Same as it was before, with different positioning in the tree. An overall improvement, I think. It’s still pathed to from desirable talent nodes (so it’s accessible) but it’s not blocking as many other useful things.
Row 7
- Vigorous Expulsion - Still a good talent, and I don’t necessarily have any complaints about its new position in the tree.
- Yu’lon’s Grace/Diffuse Magic - Still a great choice talent node. Diffuse Magic is still better for those that want to deal with more finite controls, but Yu’lon’s Grace is still excellent for overall survivability. Decent spot on tree.
- Peace and Prosperity - This is new. I’d prefer the radius of Ring of Peace to increase and the cast time of Song of Chi-Ji to be removed altogether, but the idea behind this talent is nice. Great positioning too.
- Fortifying Brew - Wowhead claims the cooldown is still 6 minutes, but I think it’s actually 2 minutes now. Its positioning is now similar to what Dampen Harm was, so it’s SIGNIFICANTLY more accessible than it used to be. Win. Also adjusted effects, which is great.
- Dance of the Wind - I love this talent and always picked it over Dampen Harm. Why? Because (as a healer or dps) it allowed you to do things like soak the “homing bullet” from the Tol Dogor but completely mitigate its effects by dodging it. It’s awesome. Fairly accessible talent too. NOTE: Brewmasters also have access to Dampen Harm as a choice node for this talent.
Row 9
- Save Them All - Yet another previously 2-point talent that has been reduced down to 1-point, retaining only the benefits of it’s 1-point version. Still, 1-point talents are a win over 2-point talents because they don’t clog up the talent tree. So, still a win. It’s also more accessible with the new pathing.
- Swift Art - Good intentions, but it’s missing a critical benefit. This should remove snare AND root effects, not just snares. THEN I’d consider it desirable, especially when it’s competing with so many other things so far down in the talent tree.
- Strength of Spirit/Profound Rebuttal - Some monk players may cry that these are competing with each other on the same node. Otherwise, I think this is a fine way to present these talents. Personally, I’d like to see one of these replace Celestial Determination (more on that later).
- Summon [spec specific] Statue - This was a pretty good way to retain access to the statues. Not having access to Black Ox Statue as a Mistweaver (I used it to help the tank gather mobs and sometimes briefly off-tank for squishy DPS). I’d personally prefer to see this as a choice node between Black Ox Statue and the spec’s specific statue (Brewmasters can instead have Black Ox Statue by itself or have it compete with different talent unique to Brewmasters).
- Ironshell Brew/Expeditious Fortification - Useful reworks of these talents considering the changes to Fortifying Brew.
- Celestial Determination - I… don’t like this. For Fistweavers and Conduit of the Celestials in particular, Chi-Ji’s presence already grants you immunity to movement impairing effects while active. I like that a “Celestial-focused” talent is so “out of the way” on the talent tree, but its benefits are so mediocre at best. Most monks will be avoiding this even if their spec build is “centralized around celestials”.
Row 9
- Chi Proficiency - I dislike that this is a 2-point talent. I have other things I’d like to spend that talent point on. 2-point talents are NOT fun. The benefits are also basically negated by random balance patches and number tuning that Blizzard may apply from time to time (more on that concept later).
- Healing Winds - I like this. It makes frequent use of Transcendence more desirable. I’d personally also pair it with a damage reduction mechanic if the Transcendence spirit is active. Is this singular talent why the pathing is so restrictive on this side of the tree, to make sure that this talent can’t be picked up unless Transcendence is also picked up? If that’s the case, maybe revisit the placement of this talent to be closer to Transcendence, possibly switching with Resonant Fists or something.
- Windwalking - WHY IS THIS STILL SO BAD?! If this has a “high pick rate” on the old tree, it’s only because so many of the other monk class tree talents were terrible. This needs to give AT LEAST a 10% AoE movement speed aura in order to be desirable (larger radius would be preferrable too).
- Bounce Back - Another 2-point talent reduced down to a 1-point talent, though this one was actually buffed a bit in the process. Win.
- Martial Instincts - Another 2-point talent. I hate 2-point talents. The physical damage dealt is desirable, but negligible due to patch-by-patch number tuning.
Row 10
- Lighter Than Air - Yes. More of this please. I hate that access to this is restricted behind a 2-point talent, but this is precisely the kind of “skill-based” mobility I want to see more of on the monk.
- Flow of Chi - This talent makes me feel… “meh”? Like, the benefits are good enough to make it desirable, but I also don’t really care for it at the same time. Personally, I’d rather see something like this in place of the Calming Presence talent currently found up at the top of the tree.
- Escape from Reality/Transcendence: Linked Spirits - The Healing Winds talent makes Escape from Reality more desirable, but it’s lost its Vivify healing component… so it’s a wash. Having a new option with Transcendence: Linked Spirits is awesome.
- Fatal Touch - Reduced the full benefits of a 2-point talent down to a 1-point talent AND added a 5% damage increase on top of it? Win win win.
- Rushing Reflexes/Clash - Moving Clash onto the class tree is a win. Rushing Reflexes grants a cool version of Skyreach (the dashing version) that’s available for all classes, which I also consider to be a win. HOWEVER, I’m slightly concerned that Rolling near larger bosses will immediately cause you to dash into danger thereafter. If the dash is into “melee range” of the target instead of “into the center of the target’s hit box”, that might be doable.
Followup-Commentary
- Overall, the revamp is a huge win for monks. Even if no further changes were made, I’d still enjoy it far more than what monks currently have access to.
- I still don’t like the presence of any 2-point talents. I think they should all go away. They do nothing to make the talent tree feel better.
- The existence of minor “+2% to stat/damage/reduction” talents feel absolutely worthless because they often end up being baked into the intended performance of a spec (negated by aura changes in a class/spec’s overall output) instead of being “optional, additional” talents. These all need to go or be replaced with something more interesting.
- Monks lost access to a lot of aura-based utility talents. I think this is healthy for the class (monks aren’t short-range paladins), but I do feel a concern for their diminished “utility add” to group content as a result. A lot of this could be resolved if the Windwalking talent were buffed accordingly (40 yard range, 10% movement speed boost, 1 talent, not locked behind statue).
- Monks lost access to Hasty Provocation, and its effects were not baked in baseline to Provoke. This was mechanically advantageous in some scenarios (mostly in PvE). Hasty Provocation wasn’t chosen most of the time simply because the rest of the class talent tree was chalk-full of slightly better talents despite most of them costing 2-points.
- Monks lost access to Eye of the Tiger. This talent appropriately wasn’t chosen very often (because it’s bad), but it had potential to be better. Perhaps it’s best to drop it altogether since it provides more room for other talents (revamped WW talents and hero talents) to modify Tiger Palm instead. Overall, a good thing.
- Brewmaster is still showing that it has access to Clash in its spec tree, despite it now also existing on the class tree. Is this intended? Are Brewmasters supposed to have access to 2 charges of Clash?
- There is no melee attack/ability range increase talent, despite most melee classes now having access to one.