I’ve been raiding as WW since its inception, and gone through all the peaks and valleys of the spec over the years. I really don’t mind being on the low end of the community charts. My fairly casual guild consistently completes AotC every tier but I have no interest in mythic raiding. Even when WW is in the bottom tier of DPS specs, I’m still competitive in my group, so it’s fine. Bring the player, not the class.
That said, the number of unaddressed quality of life bugs for WW has only grown over the years. Fixing the bug where WDP would randomly not be available despite FoF and RSK being on CD was great, but the fix being reverted in the very next patch felt like a gut punch, and it hasn’t been re-fixed since. The FoF bug that locks you in combat if you’re channeling it when enemies die sucks the fun out of open world content because it makes me feel like I’m being punished for using my highest damage ability. SEF has had a laundry list of bugs that changes but never goes away.
I love the class fantasy. I really enjoy the WW rotation. I don’t mind being undertuned from time to time, as tuning tends to be cyclical. (We’ll always have Antorus.) I just don’t think I can force myself to keep playing a spec with fundamental gameplay issues that just don’t seem to be getting any attention over long periods of time. Speaking for myself only, that’s what will drive me away from the spec, not failing to tweak our damage aura.
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The 5% is the same as the Aug blue post its another slieght of hand desigened to keep monks occupied a while longer.
#KungfuStruggle
What fundamental gameplay issues?
[citation needed]
I found in paragraph salad:
- WDP unavailable issue
- SEF bugs (enumerate/split please)
- FoF combat locks for 5s, reproducible
Is WDP unavailable due to bad timing?
I’ve seen where it seems to go off “available” before FoF and RSK finish cooling down. Is this what you mean?
Need more detail on SEF bugs, but most are common to all pet AI–something unfortunately impacting mandatory Xuen now.
FoF combat lock is annoying but is the criticality of this issue high? Is this truly a fundamental gameplay issue or just a nuisance?
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For SEF start here https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/a-list-of-why-storm-earth-and-fire-is-an-absolute-mess/669369?u=senpu-thrall.
WDP has issues where even though the requirements are met you can’t use it. Also the jump locks you in place and will trigger some mechanics, in one SL instance causing raidwide damage.
Getting stuck in combat for 5+s after every mob means you can’t mount for that time, can’t use out of combat items for that time, more likely to get tagged by another mob and start the cycle again.
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For WDP, I was very frustrated in Visions and Scorched Feet until I broke my training and stopped using it (because it triggers a backwards leap, as it counts as a backstep).
That said, it is also a benefit as the giant bugs in Vision of Orgrimmar do a massive headbutt knockback that can be effectively nullified by timing your RSK to the initial cast and the WDP immediately after it finishes–you halt in midair and it saves you precious distance and chance of pulling more mobs.
I feel this is a place where awareness is heightened to how the skill functions and enables high level play–lowering a skill ceiling, even though it may be beneficial in some cases, is not something I generally ask to happen.
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As far as SEF and FoF, there are definite QoL asks that have gone unresolved on the beta feedback forums. I feel they will continue to be ignored for some time… Either we need to accept it and embrace Monk as it is (continue to provide feedback though), or (as I’ve finally done myself) reroll.
I think we could accept it more if we didn’t load into 2 expansions now with promises that things would be addresed and fixed
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I completely agree that WDP has an awareness component that raises the skill ceiling in a good way. The WDP issue I have has nothing to do with timing. There are occasions where both FoF and RSK have several seconds left on their CD, WDP is off CD, but it’s still unusable. This was fixed in 8.1.5, but broke again in 8.2. I have absolutely no idea how you can play the spec and not experience this regularly.
Senpu’s link re: SEF covers that nicely.
Personally, the FoF combat lock is a big deal. Deliberately avoiding a core rotational ability in solo content is feels terrible. It would be like being a fire mage and not being able to hit Pyroblast on mobs under 50% health, or else you can’t mount until the Ignite would wear off. It becomes a conscious decision in every single combat, whether FoF will kill it, and if it will, if I’m okay with not being able to mount and move onto the next objective for several seconds. Compound that with mechanics that punish you for not dropping combat quickly (e.g. Leaden Foot) and it can be more than a persistent nuisance.
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I have no illusion that Blizzard will fix all the conduit and legendary issues described in that one post. Plus in fact, fixing all of those issues might not be what WW has balanced around at this time. Maybe flat damage increases to the base form while it’s active or a boost for x seconds to a conduit ability would be a better alternative.