Speaking specifically from a Brewmaster perspective, so many animations are unenjoyable or just plain bad.
My best example is Pandaren’s Black Out Strike vs everyone elses. The way the Panda moves with the staff is beautiful. It’s a fluid motion that looks as if he has invested quiet a few years of…martial arts training into it? No! Impossible!
MEANWHILE. Almost everyone else just slaps things in the face! It is insanely disappointing to see and, for me, ruins the flow of combat. Nightelves even jump and spin with the hit. Why are so many others just slapping?
I also personally hate the way Rushing Jade Wind looks. Its a complete mess. If it was cleaned up it would be great, but I wouldnt mind if it was just renamed Chi Orbit and took the old animation from that legendary trait.
Personally, I wouldnt even mind a universal animation often seen in martial arts where they stand on one foot, the other comes up with the knee bent, one arm goes up and back, and the staff is used to thrust the target. Give us more martial arts based animations.
If paladins can get fancy book animations, there is no reason why other classes cant get new animations as well. (other than the clear paladin bias Blizz appears to have).
If nothing else, just make them glyphs! Glyphs are so underutilized! We are a generation of gamers that want more customization, so give us more options in more areas to adjust how our characters look and feel.
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Blizzard really needs to motion cap some actual martial arts. Speaking as an actual martial artist it’s very bitter sweet. I am happy we have monks in the best mmo ever created but I am sad that we look nothing like actual martial arts.
Brewmaster is the worst offender its just a golfers swing… not a single punch or kick left. Just golf swinging yelling four… no teep, no 360 spin to crushing counter, no side swipe to kick… just golf swing then chug a brew like we are on the back nine.
This is also why I am adamant blizzard leaves weapon animations off ww spec. Because they absolutely murdered the brew spec by making it 100% weapons with no martial arts left. The company has proven there is not middle ground. It’s 100% hand to hand or 100% not martial arts in the only martial arts class in game.
We do need animation update. We need a side kick to go with our spinning hook kick(black out kick) and we need a reverse punch to go with our tiger palm. We need our dragon punch to actually be a dragon punch not this wwe spinning cloths line. We need leg sweep to sweep the ground not a jumping 360 crescent kick.
And we need Worgen monks 
7 Likes
They need to separate Monks from Pandarens. If you look at our ability icons, most of it is still panda paws or a panda doing a pose, or a panda head silhouette, etc.
I get that they are the originator of the class, but my Monk is an Orc. Orcs don’t drink tea. Monks are like Warriors and Hunters in that almost every race can be one, don’t make all the icons and abilities focused on only one race, (especially a race that happens to be the biggest joke race in the game that’s straight out of Kung fu Panda).
1 Like
It’s bait… But I’ll bite.
- Pandaren existed before kung fu panda (warcraft 3, 2002. Kung fu panda, 2008).
- They are the originator of the monk class as you said, the only reason your orc can be a monk is because pandaren taught other races how to be monks so yes it makes sense that it’s linked to the pandaren race.
- Warrior icons feature humans and orcs, so should they have to make different icons just for my pandaren warrior? Or a gnome warrior? No that’s silly.
- How do you know orcs don’t drink tea? Just because they are a brutish race (arguable, I dunno) doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy a cup of tea.
6 Likes
Wrong.
1: They are older than the movie but they weren’t goofy like the movie until after the movie came out. Chen was always a bad azz in WC, he didn’t have Bouncy racial back then.
2: And my Orc doesn’t have panda paws or a panda body, so her icons are incorrect. Look at the warrior icons. They are all racially diverse. Monks are a racially diverse class whether you accept it or not.
3: They also feature Tauren, Undead, NELFs, and prob more that I’m missing. Where as again, Monks only feature ugly furry Pandas, a race that has become a caricature of itself.
4: Nice meme
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Kung Fu movies have always had a silly / ridiculous side to them going back to the start of kung fu movies.
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And my panda does have paws so now all icons have to match my race, that’s a lot of extra work for no reason for blizzard.
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And yet no panda icons, or Vulperan, etc…
Really you can replace the icons yourself so why don’t you if they bug you 
I’m not asking for them to change icons to fit every race, just saying MORE RACIAL DIVERSITY on those icons. The Monk class doesn’t belong to any one race now.
Stop being racist and embrace it.
But all playable monks learned under Pandaren or from people that learned from Pandaren, i have nothing against the icons remaining the same. Being a monk, is being tied to backstory of the war against the mogus, the journey of emperor shao hao and so on, is part of the in-game fantasy.
About the animations, i agree, there is a lot to be desired and upgraded.
Monks are supposed to be masters of armed and unarmed combat, achieving balance, and i think implementing proper weapon animations for all specs and improving the fist animations is a must. Tiger Palm should use the weapon you have, be a staff, a sword or a fist weapon (it currently shows none), Fists of Fury could use a rework on animation, and have proper animations for weapons as well. Fist of the white tiger already has animation for fist weapon, it could be added an animation for other weapon types. While unique animations would be ideal, using animations that already exist in the game would be better than not having animations at all.
Again, in answer of the argument: if you want weapons, you should pick X class. The monk class fantasy is about armed and unarmed combat, you can’t even use a fist weapon with a monk without it vanishing every button in your rotation, the class is based on chinese martial arts, shaolin temples, they had swords, spears, all that stuff.
About the goofy and funny aspect, is part of kung fu tropes, just look at jackie chan movies, it fits the monk class fantasy and characters like Chen.
Pandarens are awesome and idiots will always be idiots . Someone needs to switch from Orc to the other tusked Horde race.