I understand this subject has been talked about in some threads, but, this is my effort to sum all my thoughts and points I want to make when it comes to this simple desire: Xuen, SEF, and the white tiger statue should be optional choices, not mandatory parts of our kit.
Now, to address the simplest point out of the way, the white tiger statue isn’t mandatory part of our kit, and that’s already fine. But, Xuen pretty much has been mandatory ever since it became baseline in Shadowlands, and SEF is receiving some buffs and becoming the only damage cooldown besides Xuen.
I understand monk is normally an overlooked class, and the changes applied in the war within alpha are simply amazing, but If any of the team behind the class would hear my appeal, you could understand where I come from, and I can present on a gameplay design aspect, and also on a class fantasy side why said skills should be at best, options, with competing choices.
Gameplay aspects:
Xuen: Simply put, it is a pet, a temporary pet, the downside to this is of course, said pet can be kept by CCs, but also is a victim of the fact that it is not directly controlled by the player, It will normally target what we’re targetting, but the system isn’t perfect, and while we can control it manually like other pets, It is not the best experience, this problem isn’t shared with the other monk pets, as chi-ji and yulon main purpose is help the healing and niuzao’s purpose is to just draw aggro from enemies, but Xuen’s main purpose is attacking the enemy we’re attacking, and while good at it, it is flawed.
SEF: SEF tracking is far from perfect, SEF clones can be caught under AOE crowd control, so it becomes annoying, swapping targets with sef active is also problematic, the clones sometimes doing nothing is also another element that can happen.
Class fantasy/lore:
This is a more subjective part of the whole thing, but let’s go.
I understand WoW monks have a side of magic, that’s true for every RPG monk. But looking at those skills from the class fantasy side, here is why I think they should be, optional, again.
Monks have a very unique niche in WoW in terms of class fantasy, it is the only unarmed combat class in the game, no other class does this in the game, but when you look at Xuen and SEF, they aren’t unique skills by any means, Xuen is a pet, hunters have pets, mages have summon pets, warlocks have summon pets, Shaman have summon pets, why have another class have this as necessary part of their toolkit? SEF isn’t very unique either, summoning clones exist for other classes as well. And i’m not saying they function the same across classes, but purely from a class fantasy theme, having those skills as mandatory parts of the player moveset only makes the class less unique and more generic. SEF only exists in the windwalker kit because Chen had in WC3, but it doesn’t fit the themes stablished for windwalker monks inside WoW either. Some players look at the monk class wanting a proper martial arts class, and while magical elements don’t get in the way of that fantasy, for some, summoning pets or clones to help does get in the way of the martial arts fantasy.
In the end, I will still be playing WW in TWW, and that’s not changing, but I hope they make those talents optional choices, not mandatory ones, and maybe bring or create some competing talents or choices inside those talents, making them choice nodes, there is already a hero spec focused on summoning the celestials.