I leveled my druid (boomie for leveling but maining Resto) and really had no problems with soloing content while leveling.
Decided on this toon I’m posting on to go Threads of Fate and I feel more squishy on her than any time I’ve played her in the past - feels worse than a caster Boomkin in current content which kind of rubs me the wrong way.
I know this class but starting to feel like maybe there were more changes under the hood so to speak than I thought because she just doesn’t feel as tough.
TL;DR : So, pointers if it’s just me on how to ‘git gud’, or maybe a “it’s not just you” affirmation… either way, I want to excel with my monk, I’ve played her has a main up til BfA and wanted to main her again. Words of advice?
Use Touch of Karma more than you think you need.
I leveled as WW (always disliked it, but it’s faster than Brew) and honestly, I was struggling against anything more than two enemies. Even two mobs usually meant I was going to end the fight at 30-40%. Large mistakes were usually death.
I am not new to Monk by any stretch, but I think they’re squishy in general right now. Even as Brew, I’m sitting under 20% armor reduction. There was a lot of discussion about monks and their lack of changes/attention during the beta, so take that how you will.
1 Like
Reading this is kind of ironic because I leveled my boomie in threads of fate and I got stuck in Rivendreth pulling one at a time because 2 would kill me. It made me realize how strong war mode leveling was for my monk. 100% parry, reverse harm heal, 30% haste after a tiger palm.
Use Karma frequently, use Storm earth and fire BEFORE you engage the mob (so xuen can generate more threat than you) and let Xuen tank, and don’t forget that Fortifying Brew exists because it’s really good.
3 Likes
Seems like WW needs to set up before fights while other DPS is like “haa haa keys go clickity clack”
5 Likes
I noticed that I am a bit squishy but found that I have a lot of self healing, chi wave, expel harm and faeline stomp keeps me from being popped
1 Like
I’ve been wondering about switching my covenant - went Kyrian but honestly it’s not a fun ability IMO and you basically just get a temporary mastery buff…
I wonder if that would help with survivability when I get into tough spots.
Case in point, did a daily in Maldraxxus protecting an NPC from mobs and I couldn’t survive the 4 adds that spawned. 
I wouldn’t go so far to say that it would be a drastic survivability boost but it has saved me from dying a few times.
I find it feels satisfying to push and gorgeous to look at
Good Karma, para + heal, kite + heal… Lots of tricks for staying alive.
If the area is just too much for some reason go Brewmaster for that quest and then swap back.
Also if there happens to be a lot of people in the area you become really popular if you drop a Ox statue. Several kill quests I just used a statue and ran around tagging everything with CJL while the local dps killed everything for me.
Yes this is good advice. I find myself using karma WAY more now then I used to and much earlier. I used to wait about till I was 50% hp now its like 70% hp.
With how fast paced things are tho karma doesn’t hold up to most of what you’re doing. They through a lot of stuff at you in shadowlands and karma has a bit of a CD. And at any moment an elite can just spawn on you.
Most other classes just go “brrrrr” while i’m trying to use all of my abilities and have everything on CD just to survive. I’m only getting by cause i have a DK friend. Self healing only does so much and we also have ramp up with our DPS.
Our CD’s should be their when we need it for good moments. Not their just to survive fights with basic world mobs.
EDIT: I also don’t stand still i’m constantly moving while fighting but with all the heavy casts and ranged melee attacks mobs have i’m still getting hit. Even when i slow them.
Since hitting level cap I’ve had more stability in survival. It helps that my gear is pretty much solidly from dungeons and my gear is rare/blue quality. I feel that monk is pretty dependent on good gear.
Also, I’ve increased my use of Karma when I can, and utilized pretty much all my CDs more frequently and it helps.
However, I will say I agree with Pellyna - we shouldn’t have to rely so heavily on popping all our CDs just to survive in general situations. I do feel the neglect Blizz inflicted on the class - they are squishy.
However, on the flip side damage output is still solid because in 5-mans with my guild I was out DPSing a ranged hunter half the time and fluctuated between 1st or 2nd on the dps meter. And I had the lowest IL gear of the group - so, despite how weak I feel solo in certain situations, in groups the class can still shine.
So I skipped BFA but coming from legion I can very much confirm its a different experience. In legion, strike of the wind lord was so absurdly good that I intentionally would round up every mob in the area and burst them all down in less than 3 seconds. I tried this in SL and got STOMPED lol.
So basically what I learned, and I leveled my monk to 60 pretty much day 1, was that I need to just utilize all my abilities. WW is, for the most part, high effort, normal reward class in SL. In legion I would say its a high effort very high reward spec because strike of the wind lord was just so damn good. Without that spell (using the water down version) I can really feel how gimped monk is without war mode on. Essentially you should be rounding up mobs with your pet tiger, dropping weapons of the order and summoning your spirits. You can burst down most large mob packs if you pop a brew or karama. Dont forget to use your AOE 3 second stun. IF your not using ALL your abilities, your playing the spec wrong. Touch of Karma isn’t a save for an oh sht moment, because the way the spell works isn’t like BoP. Its important to realize when you need Karma BEFORE you start saying "OH SHT I NEED KARMA".
1 Like
Ww is feeling squishy in pvp for me. Karma isn’t scary at all, people just burst through it and don’t care lol. Have to use our ability to kite, but I sure wish karma was a little better or good karma was baseline.
1 Like
You have your mobility abilities for a reason!
Vivify is a extremely, extremely powerful heal that can full heal you in a few casts with a good conduit. If you feel yourself being beaten up by group of mobs throw down a ring of peace and full heal. With a elite you can just Disable and roll out of LOS and heal that way.
Take advantage of mobility and Vivify! You aren’t supposed to play monk like you would a DK with Death Strike.
Used them - but honestly, leveling mobs are dense and you easily chi torpedo/roll into other mobs. Mobility wasn’t really the issue, tho. It was leveling a monk that didn’t feel the same as previous expack launches.
There’s no access to soulbinds/conduits while leveling… which majority of my issues felt like were simply from leveling. Now that I’m lvl 60 my surivability has stablized.
It’s the new expansion. All classes gear based. I am now above 170ilvl + and mobs don’t hurt as much anymore like they did when I was starting out. If you started threads of fate you are likely 133-140+ ivl which is squishy.
As for advice? Use Karma a lot, change talents to inner strength so you always have a damage reduction active and not a cd one.