Now that we’ve had time to play with the changes and adjust, I want to give feedback about this ability.
With the expansion patch, SCK was changed so that it would get interrupted by almost all other abilities. Previously, you could use other abilities (except other channels) as soon as your GCD finished and you would still get the last tick of SCK. This meant that SCK functioned in your rotation as a normal GCD button, which was good. It gave the rotation a consistent rhythm/flow that felt great.
With the expansion changes though, now you need to wait for SCK to completely finish, or you would interrupt it and waste the last tick. This is a huge downgrade in two aspects. Furthermore, Mark of the Crane is outdated and unnecessary in the spec.
1. Rotation Flow
SCK is pressed very frequently (in both ST and AoE). Not only that, now that WW stacks Haste, the duration is only slightly longer than your normal GCD, just enough to feel clunky. Instead of being a satisfying button, SCK is now an annoying “speedbump” in the rotation, where you have to be careful to press your next button slightly slower.
I’ve macro’d my other rotational abilities to prevent them from cancelling SCK, but this doesn’t help in the feels department. It’s still an annoying, slightly longer GCD. Not only that, this way the ability can’t take advantage of the spell queue function.
There have been several cases in the past where a random ability would have a longer than usual GCD. Every time these got fixed, it was always received very positively.
2. Functionally
Not only is SCK interrupted by other rotational abilities, but pretty much any button at all will interrupt it and cause you to lose damage. This includes off-GCD abilities such as Karma, Diffuse, Fort Brew, KICK (a very annoying one, many other classes are rewarded with resources for kicking), and even Chi Burst damage.
It’s just a huge feelsbad whenever you kick to stop an important cast and see the rest of your DoCJ juiced SCK fizzle into the nether.
I did see you’ve fixed it being interrupted by picking up Health and Chi Orbs, so that’s good.
3. Mark of the Crane
A lot of players have been put off and are struggling with Mark of the Crane. In Dragonflight, this was mostly passive because your Blackout Kick cleaves would apply the mark. This is no longer the case.
Mark of the Crane was a cool concept in previous expansions when the spec was much simpler. However, modern Windwalker is a MUCH more complex spec and is much faster paced. MotC is not needed for the spec to feel engaging and currently just feels like an extra overbearing chore on top of an already extremely engaging spec.
Even with Rushing Jade Wind talented, you still need to manually manage marks the majority of the time.
MotC in the context of modern WW is overbloat in terms of spec mechanics and really shouldn’t exist, or just be automatic if it does.
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The last time SCK was interruptible was Legion. But back then, Windwalker was a much slower spec with actual downtime, played close to 0 haste, and SCK cost 3 chi with no proc. It was a much more infrequent cast and lasted longer, so it felt like a proper channeled ability.
Modern SCK does not work like that. It’s role in the rotation should really be a normal GCD, rather than a clunky feeling channel. The feelsbad moments are overshadowing the rest of the gameplay.
PLEASE seriously consider changing SCK.