Thinking of boosting my first Monk. Seeking Guidance

Classes Monk
1

Hello! Are you ready for the one millionth post about wHaT sHOulD I PlAy?

I apologize for the completely generic post, but the older I get the less time I have for the beautiful wow grind. I just don’t have the time anymore to get a toon up to max level to get endgame content. I have to do the crappy adult thing and spend money for my levels.

With that out of the way. I’m seeking guidance from you master Monks. I have been trialing a monk and I like it. Like, really like it. But I can’t find anything current on how they are really doing.

I’ve been told that if I try to wpvp on any of the specs I’m going to get crushed. Is that true? I mainly like to pvp and do rbgs but I really like the option to do mythics and raids if possible.

What exactly do we excel at and not do well at?

I really appreciate any insight here. It’s hard to drop money on levels, and I just want to make sure I’m making an alright choice.

2

We can do everything really, except mythic raiding it seems in the ww spec.

I say do what you desire and you’ll have fun!

3 Likes
3

Not a TL:DR

Tanking:
Both classes are more than capable of tanking up to M+15, but Brewmaster will eventually become the best tank out of the two, and is always the number one option for progression raiding. If you’re looking for a more laid back tanking style, Guardian is going to be the best choice. Brewmaster can be hectic at times, and requires more micro management.

When playing solo, Guardian is going to get you further than Brewmaster.

DPS:
Feral has the potential to do more raid dps than Windwalker, but Feral is far and above the most punishing spec in the game to play poorly. In PvP, Feral’s offhealing, stealth, and abundant crowd control make it a great open world pvp spec, and is somewhat successful in 2v2 and 3v3. Druid also has the ability to teleport out of world pvp with a 1.5 second cast time. It’s a toy that will teleport you to a “natural” location. This is basically bubble-hearth. Stun the enemy, cast it, you’re gone. You can end up almost anywhere in WoW though… sometimes it’s better to just die.

Windwalker on the other hand, has a pretty straight forward rotation. It has clear choices, and the average person will do more dps on WW than on Feral. WW in arena is one of the top melee specs. You have multiple tools for crowd control, anti-healing, and the highest mobility indoors. WW Monk has roughly double the representation at 2k over Feral, but this may also be due to the number of people playing each spec.

Ranged:
Druid has it, Monk doesn’t. Moonkin is, and always will be, one of the strongest specs in the game. If you don’t enjoy Moonkin, this isn’t an issue.

Healing:
Both Druid and Monk have extremely strong healing specs. Mistweaver being the strongest single target healer in raids, and Resto being, by far, the best M+ healer. Both of these specs have multiple options for utility, and healing multiple targets at once. They also both have a “weaving” dps rotation, “kittyweave” vs “fistweave”. These more advanced rotations allow for a Druid to weave moonfire, rake, and rip in between their healing HoTs to provide a boost in damage to their group. This is the main reason Resto Druid represents roughly half of all high tier M+ dungeons in WoW. While Monks do have this option as well via Fistweaving, their dps is not as strong, and depending on the group you’re playing with, can be frustrating. Fistweaving Monks also don’t have the healing throughput of Resto due to the nature of HoTs and almost 100% uptime.

Transmog (the most important part):
Windwalker Monks’ weapons disappear when using jab, it’s annoying, so if I were you I would suggest the moment you are capable of buying them, buy the training “gloves” which are actually weapons you transmog, which make your weapons disappear so you can actually use your fists. The other specs don’t have this issue, and there are some amazing transmog sets for Monks.

As a Druid, unless you’re a Moonkin using Glyph of the Stars, or Resto, you aren’t going to see your transmog, outside of special Legion animial forms or the fire kitty toy.

Farming: Both Druid and Monk have teleports, which allows for old world dungeon farming. Druid also has the ability to teleport to a random “natural” location, which can be used to quickly get to different zones. Moonkin is the ultimate open world farmer, no other class / spec can pull as many mobs and kill them all without dying.

Did I miss anything? I’m typing this in a Heroic, so sorry for the formatting lol. When you’re overly geared as Mistweaver, all you need to do is spam 1 button every 6 seconds for AoE healing. Druid needs 2 buttons xD

2 Likes
4

Long story short, the reason its kinda hard to find anything truly worth while for monks is that we are currently in the middle of the pack of everything. The above poster did a really good job of explaining things.

For monks in its current state is the general consensus that to play it because you have fun with the class. It will serve you well when you get the gear and a master it no matter what spec you play and what content you do.

One thing I want to point out for WW monks when it comes to raiding is that the rotation is FAR FAR less punishing than some other specs out there. Unfortuantely we are far to dependent on the Azerite traits to be truly competitive as raiders in mythic content.

5

I would contend that a 50% WW Monk will out dps a top 75% Feral, simply because of how punishing Feral is to play at an average level. Yes, Monks are high dependent on their azerite traits, but so are Ferals, Ret Paladins, and Rogues. At the end of the day, if you enjoy what you play, there is a group for you out there somewhere. If you learn to perform at a 90 percentile level on any class, you’re getting into anything you want. So find what you enjoy, and practice practice practice.

You really can’t go wrong with Druid or Monk right now.

6

My itemization somewhat off at the moment (</3 RNJesus) but still, I find I work my monk butt off in raids and still get beat out by other classes with lower ilvl than me. I’ve been working at it all expansion and feel quite comfortable with my spec, I just have trouble staying on top of the meters. It does look like we’re lower down on the relative DPS charts though.

Having said that, I quite enjoy the varied playstyle a WW monk offers me. I have a lot of abilities to play with and some interesting utility to bring to a M+. By contrast, my fury warrior is much less interesting but can output much more damage. At the end of the day, I like my WW monk.

So I guess it’s up to you to decide if that’s for you!

(NOTE: I really like Brewmaster also… it’s a ton of fun and when you learn to play to its strengths, it’s great at outright dismissing some hard hitting boss mechanics. Plus the mobility is still there, which again I find more interesting than my druid.)

7

Jab isn’t an ability we have so I’m not sure why everyone keeps taking about it.

How a transmog looks has 0 affect on the gameplay. The other points are valid, I will still say play what you think is fun for you.

1 Like
9

Top tier in Arena, BG’s, WPvP, and M+ .

Below average for raiding.

10

You know perfectly well that when I say Jab I mean Tiger Palm. Thanks for adding yourself to my google script to block your messages on this forum lol.

11

I do? I’ve only been playing monk for this expansion. I’m just going by what I have exp in.

12

I’ve become pretty casual this xpac, but if it’s one thing monk will excel at…is mobility. I find it unique with the teleport and different ways to gain distance. Like Ring of Peace. Even paralyze once you bait a trinket or racial. Or use it to bait. I mainly heal and kiting is so fun in Rbg and arenas. I’ve only done LFG though so I’m unsure of the higher spots. Learn to conserve mana though.

As far as I know, brm is very good in raiding. Yet, falls behind in M+. Their still very strong due to, again, their mobility and ability to create distance. Also stagger if I remember correctly.

Unsure about how dps is doing this xpac.

13

Have keg, will travel :stuck_out_tongue:

14

Well before I get into anything I think it’s important to mention three big things:

  • TL;DR at the end.
  • Monk has changed more since MoP than any class I have played since 2012. Not just button names or making the resources a bar instead of a buff, or streamlining, but looking at what I used to press, when I used to press it, and what happens when I press it, and seeing how different it is.
  • That monk is one of the two (arguably three but IMO not) trinity specs in the game.

What I mean by this is that you have 3 specs; all of which are different roles.

This can be pretty nice from expansion to expansion or over long periods of time (I constantly have shifted to and from BrM and WW since MoP).

However in the short term or on the more micro scale it’s kind of awful. I carry around like 5 gearsets. One for WW ST, one for WW AOE, one for BrM M+, one for BrM raiding, and one ICE set for MW (which I hardly play).

Now that my warning is over I can tell you my experience playing it. Monks are pretty ok. Usually not at the bottom for anything. And you will find them at the top more than occasionally.

Spec by spec? Ok. Thanks for asking :lying_face:

I love the WW kit. It doesn’t feel empty or slow, nor does it feel hectic and loaded. Instead it does feel light and smooth. A lot of the core strengths from its launch are still there. You still feel like a 1v100 fighting machine. The aoe AND ST are great, and look sick to boot (except SCK, RIP RJW).

BrM I love and hate. I can’t argue with the results (in any expac) but I feel like it was more fun from 2012>2015ish. You are unique. But not like when someone says it to you in a motivational video. It’s really different. You have 1 realistic defensive, you pretty much want it up always. Personally I think it’s strong. I don’t hate playing it. I just hate that it has the same name as a spec I used to play when the class was launched.

MW is kinda yikes. It went from the Mana is a meme healer to a starving beggar. Hungry for mana like a TBC BE. I can’t say much for PVE at the moment but in PVP I feel like I just lose mana wars. Dampening works on my IRL spirits as well as my heals when I get into a drawn out arena.

As a final note: I miss a lot of things. The De-Hybridization of certain classes over others (see pally/druid vs Monk/Shaman) really killed a lot of the fun aspects of Monks that made it more rewarding than: “Look raid papa me did big number, look me, me loot now, papa?”, or the tank version of. A lot of the fun fluff has been trimmed or burned off. Many things have been (over)simplified for ease of understanding and use. More niche or unique abilities are removed, or reworked into something different with the same name. Probably to attempt to evoke class fantasy. Doesn’t work… Why this is something worth of note, however, is always to keep in mind not what your class has but what it can lose. Blizzard will inevitably take good things away, What can you live without? What can you lose without losing enjoyment. If you can’t make a decent list and you already are playing something you enjoy I would say: Maybe skip out. Level it by hand. No rush to get into a “?” type experience.

I’m just coming back to the game, and I will say that it’s less bad than launch. But what has been done to monk was really the reason I left. I don’t hate it. I’m not sure its (as) loveable anymore.

Sorry for the long rant. I just have a good bit to say on the subject.

TL;DR:
You are ret 2.0 in RBGs for WW bro. God bless lmao. Hope you like mages. If you crave vanilla but want to play retail just duel Mages as WW.
For tanking? Your sustain without fat support is pure dog. BrM PVP is fun, but bad, arguably even for a tank.
MW is spotty but I know people who are addicted to that green beam in PVP.

15

Nah this isn’t remotely true. You have a better chance not to die in wpvp. If you get swarmed you can get away fairly easily if you have to. But more even fights, and you have some skill with the class you will come out a head

16

All i can say to this is, i started to do some PvP in BfA( i did tons in MoP, WoW and Legion) … as WW in a BG you are usually Focussed, hammered with a CC barrage and then just killed off in it.

I die less on my 435iLevel Unholy DK then on my 441iLevel WindWalker Monk in a BG or wPvP. Maybe it’s me, i got told in the PvP forum that WW is fine, but i still feel like WW is allot squishier then DK or other classes.

Monk is superfun to play for me … but not in PvP.

In PvE as Heal you got to have a eye for your Mana, they go oom fast if you just spam heals.

As Tank i feel like i die less then the Warrior, DK or Druid we got in my guild here and i take less damage. I guess if you know how to time your Purifying Brews and Self Heals right you golden.

DPS in PvE is good too … you need to focus on single target DPS because … for AoE you not need to worry.

I love mu Monk, i not know if i would suggest it for PvP atm, for Arena yes but wPvP or BGs … no.

17

Idk for me I have no issues with wpvp or bgs.

https://imgur.com/a/sRBMEl9

This is pretty much the norm for me in bgs

18

Haha Maladàth, of course … you again. Do you run BGs like i see you in the Armory? I would need that Conflict and Strife Rank 3 too, Rank 3 raises the Stack Max to 11 and most important if you get a loss of control or movement impairing effect you gain stacks and stacks Versatility counts double …

But yeah, you will see allot PvP players, like Maladàth here, that try to get Versatility on every item even if it means a lower iLevel. And then in PvP they keep say “I have no problem” … but when i go in i get always seen and ganged up on by multiple Enemies … which then stun-lock me down and beat the snot out of me.

But yeah, i don’t like Epic BGs right now, all that DPS u get from Cannons/Vehicles i find super stupid. Before i sit in a Cannon or Vehicle i go play some FPS game with that mechanic.

19

Windwalkers are never really bad per say, its always been up or down in raids. One tier were in the top 5, others where bottom barrel. The nice thing about monk is the hybrid aspect. You have 3 completely separate roles you can play around with, each one being incredibly strong no matter the expansion. So even when Windwalker is doing horribly, you can play a tank or healer.

Personally i love my monk way to much, the mobility play style is just right for me. Plus its always nice being the underdog class and doing well. If you have any questions regarding monk’s feel free to ask away, most monks are always willing to help out, especially if it means converting someone to a monk main :smile: .

1 Like
20 
http://imgur.com/a/XQSZwPe

Here is before essences. And it was a loss and I was still top dmg and kbs