Been awhile since I used the forums but the recent monk changes hooked me up quite a bit It’s clear that the developers have been cooking up something really good in this rework and everything looks really promising as far as of now.
However there were some changes I personally haven’t been a fan of and its in particular the change to Skyreach/Skytouch. It is true once upon a time Windwalker’s didnt need this feature to have good uptime on targets, but as I said “Once upon a time” that is not true anymore.
Monk is one of the few melees in the game which is purely physical and needs to be on melee range to get any damage out with that in mind especially caster DPS classes (mage, hunters, or even Shamans) have a lot of tools and micro CC to pull a windwalker away from them or just simply make him not be able to have uptime.
The Tigerpalm Dash gives you the option to get back to the target faster and not be stuck wiggling the last meters to the caster again after you’ve been either moved away (knocks) or you’re moving after someone (mage blink, shaman rush, hunter disengage etc).
Monk Mobility is very versatile and while most of the times you use it to catch targets there are a lot of times you will find yourself using it to retreat. There are also a lot of slow removal mechanics in this game (mage after pressing barriers, priests after pressing fade, shapeshifting etc) so whenever the windwalker gets to a target he also has to deal that most classes just simply outrun the windwalker by just moving and thats where the tigerpalm dash in particular really is the A and O in monk not being a rp walking simulator.
In the current version of this game there are just way too many options for classes to remove slows and checkmate a windwalker in mobility. the dash gives you a reasonable reason to not waste mobility to stretch over to the target who is 10yards away from you to press your buttons. This is all considering DF, im not sure what others classes might even gain on top of what they have right now in terms of micro cc/mobility options.
- The easiest solution for that would be to just merge the part of skyreach which lets you charge to the target with the PvP Talent Alpha Tiger. I am guessing that Alpha Tiger might catch a small nerf again so making up for that i’d really appreciate if Skyreach returns, that on top of Alpha Tiger granting Haste it should empower the Tigerpalm so it always dash you to the target within 10 yards.
That’s my about biggest complaint as I have right now, again looking at the rework everything is looking really nice and fun. I have some other things though I want to touch upon and these are QoL fixes and PvP Talents.
QOL Fixes:
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Today was a great day seeing that Tiger’s Lust now removes Roots from clones whenever cast. Thats a big step in the right direction for that ability in PvP. There are other ways to completely lock down the clones as well and these are mainly AoE Fears (Intimidating Shout/Psychic Scream etc).
It is a really annoying part for windwalker monks to be cc’d by those abilites and then being dispelled, but then wait a moment your clones are still in the fear. I’m not sure what coding that would require but It would be really such a huge QoL improvement that whenever the Windwalker Monk gets dispelled by his Healer or is freed from Fear effects that the clones will be cleansed too. Or simply make the clones unable to be affected by Fearing/Horror effects. Usually when that happens you have to cancel your clones immediately because while you are on the target your clones are still sitting the fear and even though you have been dispelled your damage is now irrelevant for those remaining seconds. -
Spear Hand Strike should be useable while channeling Fists of Fury, a lot of classes mainly casters abuse this mechanic of windwalkers not being able to do anything while channeling their major damage ability by instantly casting Fear/Cyclones/Polymorphs
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Paralysis should receive a very small barrier before it breaks to damage, as of right now with the amount of cleave abilites in the game and chi wave bouncing around random targets while not considering your team mates. Paralysis while being a very important CC spell for monks is just simply too easy to get rid off with unintentional purposes.
PvP Talents:
Windwalker PvP Talents havent had seen a glimmer of attention ever since the BFA Season 1 rework. It is indeed very true that the majority of the PvP Talents windwalker has access to are simply way too weak, nerf you and are unwanted in any form of content in PvP.
- Predistination, Perpetual Paralysis, Tigereye Brew just exist to nerf you. If you happen to pick those talents you are nerfed in pvp combat. I do not feel like any talent should ever feel like that but these are the main offenders of how weak and sorry but garbage talents can look like.
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While Tigereye Brew is an interesting Idea the increase of damage you gain is really useless against the majority of the classes especially with the recent changes to Armor this talent feels even worse than ever before, it also has an oddly long global cooldown and seems to use outdated Legion mechanics to generate stacks.
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Predistination is just flat out bad, you can flick it around chew on it 500 times and the result will always come out the same It’s just bad. especially in arena since it follows a deathmatch type format it will never have any value in any arena match ever played.
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Perpetual Paralysis, It is an interesting idea but sadly it exists to nerf you and with the QoL change I listed above i already mentioned how problematic paralysis itself is to ever warrant picking this talent. the nerf on the range feels really really bad and the range of spreading the paralysis is way too low
- Wind Waker, Ride the Wind, Reverse Harm, Stormspirit Strikes.
These Talents have an certain use but not good enough to ever consider taking compared to the competition existing.
- Reverse Harm looks to be nerfed on the TWW Alpha and will probably be never picked ever again if that is the final nail in the coffin. Reverse Harm was only picked for the additional chi generation and only because you had no other choices when you didn’t need Grapple Weapon.
- Ride the Wind has a good purpose but I feel like movement impairing effects should be a part of being immune while standing in it otherwise it still really feels too weak to ever pick up.
- Wind Waker is just the worse brother of Ride the Wind and thats how It’s dealt with when you have the option to pick Ride the Wind and if that option ever comes then you don’t think about Wind Waker.
- Stormspirit strikes is just a messy talent it does random stuff you don’t know who the spirit is on you can’t control it apparently you can cc it too and it is not smart coded so it will break CC and just in general this honor talent if it ever worked the way it would is just a small damage increase.
- Alpha Tiger, Turbo Fists, Grapple Weapon, Mighty Ox Kick.
The true options every windwalker will have in TWW to pick as an honor talent speaking as of now.
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Alpha Tiger, 20% Haste which you can have up for almost 100% uptime it is very obvious that this talent has remained as a must pick for such a long time while must pick talents are not necessarily bad, I’ve gotten a feeling with how Haste is going to work in TWW that this honor talent will receive tuning and with that the only thing I want to say is to add the Skyreach dash to this honor talent.
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Turbo Fists, I have always disliked this honor talent because not only it used to be a stun but it limits the options windwalker has to pick interesting honor talents for such a long time. I am not sure what to do with that talent because as it stands it MUST exist so windwalker can even remotely work in PvP if there is no stun on your main damaging ability. It is also essential for the survival vs melees as a windwalker.
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Grapple Weapon, should stay the way it is, perfect honor talent, in my opinion it could be baseline just for the nature and lore of Monks but as it is right now its perfect for now.
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Mighty Ox Kick, good addition good honor talent funny ability with healthy amount of skill cap locked behind it perfect example of how a honor talent should look like for Windwalkers.
I already mentioned having must pick talents are fine but when you play a specc where 2 of those exist at all times (Alpha Tiger and Turbo Fists) the decisions you can make are very limited. I am not sure what the perfect solution here is if PvP Tiersets existed with the option of unlocking a fourth honor talent then I probably wouldn’t see an issue here but having 2 must pick honor talents for such a long time period gets really stale and doesn’t allow creativity. Turbo Fists is really mandatory for windwalkers in PvP but I am unsure how to build it into PvP without it being a PVP talent because I understand the issues having a permanent parry on FoF and 90% slow seems too unbalanced for PvE purposes so I am kinda stumped with that one.
I’d like to add 1-2 additional Ideas for windwalker which could be honor talents looking into the future with inspiration from Brewmaster Honor Talents.
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Zen Meditation, reduces all magic damage taken by 30% and redirects to you up to 5 harmful spells cast against party and raid members within 30 yards. Being a victim of a melee attack will break your meditation, cancelling the effect. Lasts 8 sec. 1.30 min cooldown.
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Nimble Brew, Douse allies in the targeted area with Nimble Brew, preventing the next full loss of control effect within 8 sec. 1.30 Min cooldown.
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Rodeo (reworked), After Clash has been used your next Clash can be reactivated immediately for the next 5 seconds.
And thats about it for me, I will repost it on the beta forums as soon as the beta goes live and will try my best to make sure we’re not forgotten in the pvp department. Feel free to leave your suggestions and feedback.