The majority of comments I have about the Monk class tree are complaints. The whole thing is in desperate need of a significant overhaul.
Row 1
Soothing Mist - This is only useful for Mistweaver monks. Make it baseline for Mistweavers or move it onto the Mistweaver talent tree. Remove it from the class tree.
Rising Sun Kick - This is fine, but should have the effects of the Fast Feet talent baked in… otherwise it’s a relatively mandatory 3 talents to pick up this ability… which feels bad.
Tiger’s Lust - This is fine. I’d prefer to see some sort of “Guard” talent in this position instead, but this is fine.
Row 2
Improved Roll - Biggest current issue is that this is locked behind Soothing Mist. Otherwise, I’d likely be fine if it were locked behind a more appealing talent. Personally, I think 2 charges of Roll should be baseline.
Calming Presence - This is fine. Boring, but fine.
Disable - Remove this from the class tree, it’s more of a PvP talent.
Row 3
Tiger Tail Sweep - This is fine, though often undesirable due to its lock behind Soothing Mist. I’m also not convinced it needs to be a 2-point talent.
Vigorous Expulsion - Another talent locked behind Soothing Mist. Otherwise, it’s fine.
Improved Vivify - This feels like a talent tax. Why is Vivify doing 40% less healing just to merit the existence of these 2 talent points? The improvement is also substantial enough that it feels required if a monk wants to pick up Vivacious Vivification. This talent relationship feels similar to Rising Sun Kick and Fast Feet. Bad talent design.
Detox - This is good.
Paralysis - This is good.
Row 4
Grace of the Crane - This feels lazy, but is otherwise relatively fine. I don’t think it merits 2 talent points though.
Vivacious Vivification - Excellent talent, but held back due to its talent tax and internal cooldown. I think the internal cooldown should be removed for PvE, and present only for PvP. There were lots of players who were praising just how much this talent improved the feeling of the Monk spec(s) before it had the internal cooldown.
Ferocity of Xuen - A very boring yet otherwise mandatory talent. Feels like a 2-point talent tax to meet performance quotas.
Improved Paralysis - Not sure why this isn’t just baked in. Otherwise, the talent is fine.
Row 5
Elusive Mists - The investment to get this far feels heavy due to the talent pathing leading to and from this talent. Personally, I think it should just be removed altogether as a talent (along with Soothing Mists).
Transcendence - This is good, though I’m not sure it merits such a central position in the tree. The abilities certainly have certain niche intentionally uses, but it doesn’t see that much use during normal PvE gameplay.
Spear Hand Strike - This feels like it should be more easily accessible within the class tree (such as being in Transcendence’s current position). Otherwise, this talent is fine.
Fortifying Brew - The pathing to get to this talent feels clunky, and the 6 minute cooldown feels like an artificial bloat to merit the existence of other talents which reduce its cooldown. Engineered inconvenience to offer convenience never feels good.
Row 6
Chi Wave / Chi Burst - Chi Wave shouldn’t exist as a stand-alone active talent and should instead have its mechanics offered as a passive effect on Tiger Palm or some other baseline ability. Chi Burst is thematically cool, but Divine Star behaves similarly and does more as an instant cast on 1/3rd of Chi Burst’s cooldown. I’d rather see Chi Burst be powerful and use the new Empowerment mechanic.
Hasty Provocation - Dead on arrival. This talent’s usefulness is so niche its not worth the 1 talent point cost over ANY other talent on this tree 99.9999% of the time. The most useful application is for taunting pets in PvP to break certain CC affects that break on damage, assuming you can taunt just before getting CC’d. Make this baseline to Provoke or abandon the mechanic altogether.
Ring of Peace / Song of Chi-Ji - Excellent talent choice node. I don’t think it needs to be locked solely behind Transcendence, but the talent choices are useful and compete well with each other.
Fast Feet - Talent tax. Its effects should be baseline baked-in to the relative abilities it augments.
Celerity / Chi Torpedo - Good choice node with good decision tension regarding mobility, though it feels somewhat buried into the side of the tree. I’d like to see more mobility-oriented choice nodes like this (extra Tiger’s Lust charge, extra Transcendence: Transfer charge, etc). More on this later.
Ironshell Brew / Expedition Fortification - This seems okay due to its position in relation to Fortifying Brew, but the base 6 minute cooldown doesn’t real make any of these choices seem particularly appealing as a talent investment.
Row 7
Profound Rebuttal - This talent node feels harder to get to than it should, especially for players looking to minimize their button bloat. Otherwise, the effects of the talent itself are… fine.
Yu’lon’s Grace / Diffuse Magic - I like that there is a passive and an active defensive option competing on the same talent node. Maybe the numbers could use some tweaking, but the concept is great.
Eye of the Tiger - A very underwhelming talent, only ever really picked due to the number of other underwhelming talents in the tree. Why is this so numerically and mechanically… constrained?
Dance of the Wind / Dampen Harm - Good. See my comments on Yu’lon’s Grace / Diffuse Magic.
Improved Touch of Death - Touch of Death is such a contentious ability for the monk class, it deserves its own writeup (largely due to the balancing effects it has on the rest of the class kit simply because it exists). I’ll omit my thoughts on that for now and simply say that this talent is “fine”.
Strength of Spirit - This is fine, aside from the fact that its positioning feels very restrictive.
Row 8
Close to Heart - This is fine, though I’m not particularly a fan of the close-range mini-auras gameplay that this talent and others like it encourage (particularly since these types of talents are so dominant in the final tier of the tree).
Escape from Reality - Cool effect, but it feels super niche and comes with a hidden 3 point talent tax prior to even acquiring it since a player likely wouldn’t care to pick this up without 2 points in Improved Vivify and 1 point in Vivacious Vivification. Originally a PvP talent, it’s applicable list of scenarios is still largely PvP-oriented despite the clog it becomes in talent tree pathing.
Windwalking - Terrible reimagining of this ability from what it used to be, and at a 2-point talent cost too. This needs a massive overhaul. Either transform it into a 1-point talent and match its previous effects (+10% movement, 40 yard radius) or change it entirely. Its locked pathing behind the underwhelming Eye of the Tiger further makes it less desirable to pick up.
Fatal Touch - See my comments on Improved Touch of Death. Otherwise, this talent is “fine”.
Generous Pour - Underwhelming for 2 talent points.
Row 9
Save Them All - Generally underwhelming due to the low duration and the fact that the healing boost isn’t applied until after the moment it’s needed the most (healing a low health target). It’s effects don’t feel like they merit its position in the tree or its talent point costs, despite feeling “good” in comparison to so many other lackluster talent options.
Resonant Fists - This is fine.
Bounce Back - Similar mechanical issues as Save Them All. The duration is short and the effect isn’t granted until after the moment that its needed the most. The internal cooldown further makes it undesirable.
Row 10
Summon Serpent Jade Statue - Its unique relationship with Soothing Mist makes me wonder why its on the class tree at all, and at a capstone position no less. Monks can try to min/max its usefulness by spending a fraction of a second initiating (and then abandoning) a Soothing Mist channel every few seconds, but that sort of rotational disruption doesn’t generate engaging gameplay. This would likely best be suited on the Mistweaver talent tree or given to Mistweavers baseline or something. There’s so much wasted potential with this.
Summon White Tiger Statue - There aren’t many damage throughput talents on the class tree, so this gets picked by monk players wanting to optimize that particular metric. Its effects are otherwise underwhelming and its mechanics aren’t smooth to work with (Brewmasters can at least choose to tank mobs on top of it). Doubtful this merits a capstone position and was likely created just to match the current theme of monk class tree capstone talents.
Summon Black Ox Statue - I love this ability for many reasons, in part because I can pick it up as a non-brewmaster for solo content, but I have doubts that it merits a capstone position on the class talent tree.