We break down all the reasons you should consider playing Windwalker Monk in Patch 10.1 and even throw in a few reasons of why you might not. From all the changes since launch to the new tier set bonuses coming in 10.1, join us as we explore Dragonflight Season 2 Windwalker Monk!
Why You Should Play a Spec in Dragonflight Season 2 Series
Blood DK
Havoc DH
Feral Druid
Guardian Druid
Preservation Evoker
Beast Mastery Hunter
Arcane Mage
Fire Mage
Mistweaver Monk
Retribution Paladin
Holy Priest
Shadow Priest
Assassination Rogue
Elemental Shaman
Affliction Warlock
Protection Warrior
Dragonflight Season 2 Monk Tier Set
Why You Should Play Windwalker Monk in Dragonflight Season 2 (and Why You Shouldn’t)
Windwalker Monk has long been a spec that has had a fiercely loyal and passionate, albeit small, group of players and community. It has seen many ups and downs, and ups and downs, and ups and downs. However, Shadowlands was overall a very strong expansion for Windwalker, and the spec started Dragonflight equally strong, if not even stronger. As time has gone on the spec hasn’t weathered the storm of time as well as others, and looking forward into Season 2, that is currently not looking to change.
Windwalker has always been a spec that you play because you love it, with many of us weathering some very difficult storms in the past. However, the unique gameplay, high mobility, and exceptional community have kept many playing through the highs and the lows. Here are some more reasons why you should play Windwalker, and maybe a few reasons you shouldn’t.
| Why You Should | Why You Shouldn’t |
Why You Should Play Windwalker Monk in Dragonflight Season 2
Windwalker Monk Utility in Dragonflight
Windwalkers have always lacked an “identity” when it comes to utility, with nearly all of the tools that Windwalkers have that qualify as “utility” falling into all three specs of the Monk class. In Dragonflight that hasn’t really changed. However, the number of ways you can help your group had increased considerably. Here are some of the ways you can help your group:
- Taunt targets away from allies with Provoke.
- Revive allies (outside of combat) with Resuscitate.
- Stun targets around you with Leg Sweep.
- Speed up yourself or allies and free them from snares and roots with Tiger’s Lust.
- Slow targets trying to get away with Disable.
- Remove Poisons or Diseases from yourself or allies with Detox.
- CC targets for one minute with Paralysis.
- Interrupts casts with Spear Hand Strike.
- Knockback enemies or create a temporary area denial with Ring of Peace.
- Increase healing taken by yourself and allies around you with Close to Heart.
- Pop in and out of an area with Escape from Reality, allowing you to execute mechanics in ways that others cannot.
- Increase the movement speed of yourself and others around you with Windwalking. Faster feet *should* mean less standing in fire.
- Increase avoidance of yourself and allies around you with Generous Pour, thus decreasing damage they take.
- Throw down a statue to help control wayward adds when needed with Summon Black Ox Statue.
- Speed up a target that’s taunted with Hasty Provocation, allowing you to Transcendence out of an area and reset many fights, saving time and wipes.
As you can see, Monks as a whole, and thus Windwalkers, have a large variety of tools for a large variety of situations, pick what you need and leave the rest. If you can’t find a use for many of these, then you’re not trying hard enough.
Burst AOE Damage
If you like playing Mythic+, or seeing your name high on damage meters in AOE packs, then this may be the spec for you. For years, Windwalker has struggled in single target while being at, or near, the top of the charts in AOE. When a fight calls for AOE damage such as most of Mythic+ or a fight like Soulrender Dormazain, there are few classes that are consistently as strong as Windwalkers are. There’s not much to be said about it other than it has been strong more often than not. The Mark of the Crane mechanic used to be more of a barrier to high damage, but it has gotten substantially easier to where its nearly automatic.
Moving into Season 2, Windwalker AOE isn’t likely to be as strong as it was at the start of Season 1, and without buffs is unlikely to reach into the “meta” that it normally spends its time in, but it should be *good enough* for those who enjoy Mythic+ and aren’t competing for the MDI. There is very little Burst AOE in Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible, so raids wont be able to take advantage of a Windwalker’s strength as much as in Vault.
Unique Gameplay
Many specs in the game have unique mechanics, but only Windwalker has a Mastery that rewards you for varying your spell usage. It is so iconic that Blizzard has tossed it into the game sporadically, such as with the Mechagon ring, Logic Loop of Recursion. That trigger isn’t easy for some classes, but for Windwalkers its automatic. The playstyle of not repeating abilities takes some getting used to when you first pick up the spec, and its a hard habit to break when you try to play other classes, but it is what sets Windwalkers apart from the others, and that is important.
Windwalkers are also relatively unique in that we have two resources AND a large amount of abilities with cooldowns to manage. Windwalker is not a spec that just spams X ability until Y happens, or “dumps” everything with Z. The Windwalker priority and execution takes planning, forethought, and finesse, no spamming the same button over and over again. This makes Windwalker one of the more difficult specs to pick up and master, but it also makes it unique and fun if you enjoy it.
Universal Playstyle
This is going into both categories of “should” and “shouldn’t” because it’s different for everyone. In Season 2, due to the tier set, Windwalkers will likely use the same talent set up, focused on maximizing Rising Sun Kick, Faeline Harmony, and Fists of Fury, for all content, with some small variation.
This means that if you enjoy this playstyle then you’ll love how the spec plays in Season 2.
Class/Spec Community
While this may seem somewhat self-congratulatory, I truly believe that one of the biggest reason to play Windwalker, or any Monk, is the Monk class community. Because of the nature and history of Windwalker, Brewmaster, and Mistweaver, the Monk community is smaller than most class communities and tends to be more close-knit than some others. Many long-time Monk players have continued to be a part of the community for years and stuck together as each spec’s had its ups and downs, and ups and downs, and ups and downs, and ups and downs. We were one of the first class communities to transition to our Discord, Peak of Serenity, and while we caught some flak for our formatting and rules over the years, many other class discords have slowly emulated how we’ve been doing things.
The Monk community is also somewhat unique in that we have a consistent Podcast with over 130 episodes and the website, PeakofSerenity.com, where we try to focus on each spec with guides, articles, in-depth analysis of spells, mechanics, and generally anything we think will help the larger community.
There’s a reason that many of us were wearing our custom PeakofSerenity shirts at the last in-person Blizzcon; if you play Monk, its because you love it and the community tries to reflect that.
Why You Shouldn’t Play Windwalker Monk in Dragonflight Season 2
Non-Burst-AOE Damage
Windwalker’s prognosis isn’t as positive now as it was at the start of Season 1. It will still be strong in AOE, very marginally stronger in sustained AOE than in Season 1 due to the new tier bonuses, Fangs of the Vermillion Forge, providing very slightly more sustained pressure than we currently have. Burst AOE will still be the spec’s forte, due to Touch of Death and all its talent modifiers.
The upcoming tier set was looking to be incredibly strong, one of the strongest tier sets ever and all the damage Windwalker needed to be good, as it initially affected all Shadow and Fire damage, such as from Manic Grieftorch and other external sources. However, this was also incredibly unhealthy for the spec, with almost 30% of our damage coming from external sources and requiring people to farm old raids if they didn’t get them when it was current. The tier set was changed so that the 4pc only affected the 2pc which was a SUBSTANTIAL nerf to its power, and thus the spec’s power, but it was a lot “healthier” for the spec.
Single Target and sustained AOE is still looking to be… rough and only get rougher. Given how much more single target-focused Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible is looking to be, it’s may not be a great time to be a Windwalker who loves to raid. Windwalker could take a nearly 20% damage increase and still not be near the top of specs in Single Target; I did the math. From a single target perspective, without buffs or changes, this is looking to be the lowest Windwalker has started a tier, relative to other specs, in a very long time, and its unlikely to get better without serious intervention.
The buffs on April 28 brought Windwalker closer to the average on single target, and did so in a healthy way, but that’s likely to be the starting point. If the current numbers hold true to the future then Windwalker is looking to go from 3-4% below average on ST to 13-15% below average at higher gear levels. I’m hoping this isn’t the case, and sometimes the pre-numbers aren’t the same as the actual numbers, but only time will tell.
With the attention that Shadow and Retribution have seen, there is hope that Windwalker will get some love too, especially since it was stated that Retribution was getting the attention because its “the only DPS option for Paladins, they want to make sure its solid”. Until that happens all we have is hope, something that long-time Windwalkers are well familiar with.
Perception and History
Anyone who’s been around for as long as I have has seen how difficult it can be to be a Windwalker sometimes. For many years Windwalkers had a very negative community perception, even times when it was relatively powerful. In recent years that perception has improved, but there are many situations (such as in raid) were some still believe that playing a Windwalker is throwing away a raid spot because X streamer or Y meme told them so.
There are many things that get tossed around as to why Windwalker is a spec that you shouldn’t play, whether its the, generally, lower APM that leads to a feeling of “downtime”, historically abysmal single target damage, its connection to Kung Fu Panda (which should be a reason to play it, not a reason not to, people are weird), or the boogeyman buzzword of “scaling” (which is absolutely walloping the spec in Dragonflight). Anyone who’s played the spec for any amount of time has likely heard some or all of these as reasons they shouldn’t play it, even when it had been years since some of these mattered (looking at you…scaling (even though you’re back again)). For some reason, many people are quick to condemn the spec for past issues even in the face of any current strengths. Since there’s looking to be less “current strengths” than previously, its possible this negative perception becomes the dominant one again. And I realize that I’m somewhat contributing to that with some of these negatives, but it’s always been my job to inform people of the reality, even when it’s not great.
Historically, Windwalker has been on the weaker side in raids, spending long swathes of time below average. Mythic+ has almost always been Windwalker’s refuge of strength, but for many people that isn’t enough or isn’t the content they want to focus on. For those people who prefer to focus on raid or single target damage, (like myself), Windwalker may not always be the spec that will scratch that single target itch.
For a long time, Windwalker was considered (rightfully so) a buggy mess. Blizzard slapped bandaid on top of bandaid to the point that things were more likely to be broken than not. Storm, Earth, and Fire has long been at the center of this problem. This got substantially better in Shadowlands, but the perception of the spec as being riddled with bugs lingers still. There are still bugs, as there are in all specs, but when looking at other specs, Windwalker isn’t at the top of the list for bugs anymore.
Relative Difficulty
I talked above about the gameplay that makes Windwalker unique. However, the double resources and abilities with cooldowns can be very difficult for new players to manage. Windwalker also has more rotational abilities and frequently used cooldowns than many specs, which can be jarring and require more keybindings and WeakAuras than one might be accustomed to.
I’ve spent many years trying to teach people how to play Windwalker and making it as easy to understand as possible, but there have always been things that are either too difficult to explain simply or too difficult to execute that its simply better if new players don’t know they exist or hold off on learning about them until they are more comfortable.
The largest barrier for learning the spec has always been the need to think and plan ahead several seconds; looking at current Chi, energy, and ability cooldowns to know what to press now so that you don’t lose damage later. This has made programing sims or addons like Hekili, which are otherwise great tools, very difficult for Windwalkers, but still “good enough”. We also get a lot of questions in Discord of specific scenarios where there may be a “right” answer, but that “right” answer may only apply to that specific scenario, and with one variable changed, that “right” answer can become very “wrong”. This also leads to situations where players see high level streamers and players do something that the guide says not to do, or the guide doesn’t say to do, and ask why that player did it. Sometimes the answer is simply that they’re better than everyone else and capable of doing things that will lose damage for most players who attempt it, other times its because what they did is best for their situation, their Mythic+ group, their tank’s style of pulling, or dozens of other variables that can change what is “best” to do in a given situation.
Windwalker is a spec, more than most, that requires practice and practice and practice and practice and practice. I’ve been playing it for nearly all of 10 years, doing a large amount of theorycrafting, testing, and teaching, and I still have to accept there are things that better players can do that will cost me more than I’d gain if I tried to play like them.
Universal Playstyle
This is going into both categories of “should” and “shouldn’t” because it’s different for everyone. In Season 2, due to the tier set, Windwalkers will likely use the same talent set up, focused on maximizing Rising Sun Kick, Faeline Harmony, and Fists of Fury, for all content, with some small variation.
This means that if you do not enjoy this playstyle then you’ll not love how the spec plays in Season 2.
Conclusion
Season 2 is looking like its not likely to be Windwalker’s shining moment without serious help from the people in charge, but as someone who’s played Windwalker for years, many of us don’t play it because it’s strong, we play it because we love it (and Kung Fu Panda is a great movie series, I will fight you). Season 2 will highlight the playstyle that I currently enjoy the most, but without the numbers to back it up, it’s likely to feel pretty futile. Unfortunately, this isn’t a new feeling for long-time Windwalkers. I would love for us to be wrong about this prediction, few things in the game would make me happier.
The spec is still incredibly fun, and despite what some people think, World of Warcraft is a game, so fun should be your #1 priority. In this area, Windwalker continues to excel.
About the Author
This guide is written and maintained by Babylonius; former moderator on MMO-Champion; current owner and administrator of the PeakofSerenity Monk class discord; founder and Windwalker author of the Monk Class site, PeakofSerenity.com and those that came before it; Guild Master and Midweek Raider in Occasional Excellence on US-Area 52; Windwalker main since early Mists of Pandaria, guide writer/theorycrafter/teacher for almost that whole time.
For more information on playing Windwalker Monk, please see our class guide updated for Dragonflight:
Windwalker Monk Guide
