Windwalker Monk The War Within 11.1.5 Guide

Hey, I’m J-Funk. I have been playing Windwalker Monk since Mists of Pandaria and have been raiding in Humble since Legion which in Nerub-ar Palace was World 50th. In Battle for Azeroth, I was consistently one of the higher rated WW Monks in M+ and have been a Windwalker Monk theorycrafter/guide maker for several years.

Windwalker Monk is a melee DPS spec that has a tool for nearly every situation and has flexible cooldowns, great utility, and excellent mobility.

In The War Within, Windwalker Monk has received a significant rework to its talent trees. As a result, the playstyle has been changed with many new effects, but still retaining its core identity. One of the biggest benefits of this rework has been to Windwalker Monk’s historically poor secondary scaling; With Haste and Mastery now being the most valuable secondary stats, it truly is a new day from iterations past.

If you tried out Dragonflight Windwalker Monk and thought it wasn’t for you because of poor secondary scaling, annoying playstyle stuff like Jadefire Stomp, or didn’t like how wasteful it was with resources, give The War Within Windwalker Monk a shot.

Patch 11.1.5 Changes

Patch 11.1.5 doesn’t bring any class or spec changes to Windwalker Monk, but does introduce Corruption helm enchant effects. While the content that grants these enchants, Horrific Visions, isn’t available immediately, the enchant section has been updated with our recommendation.

Week of March 24th Class Tuning

• All damage decreased by 4%. Does not apply to PvP combat.
• Slicing Winds damage increased by 20%. Does not apply to PvP combat.

These changes are going to harm Shado-Pan’s viability slightly as it is currently unable to run Slicing Winds. This will also push Slicing Winds in most builds, especially once you enter multi-target scenarios.

Patch 11.1.0 Changes

Patch 11.1 brings a slew of changes which includes a new capstone talent, significant talent changes that increase build variety, an increase to Mastery scaling, and some Hero talent changes.

• New Talent: Slicing Winds – Envelop yourself in razor-sharp winds, then lunge forward dealing Nature damage to enemies in your path. Damage reduced beyond 5 enemies. Hold to increase lunge distance. Replaces Flying Serpent Kick.
• Mastery: Combo Strikes effectiveness increased by 35%.
• Dance of the Wind has been redesigned – Now reduces physical damage taken by 10% and an additional 10% every 4 seconds until you receive a physical attack.
• Spinning Crane Kick damage increased by 80%.
• Courageous Impulse now increases the damage of Blackout Kick by 350% (was 200%).
• Shadowboxing Treads now increases the damage of Blackout Kick by 10% (was 20%).
• The following talents have been removed: Darting Hurricane and Mark of the Crane.
• Xuen’s Bond now reduces the cooldown of Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger by a static 30 seconds.
• Last Emperor’s Capacitor now increases the damage of Crackling Jade Lightning by 400% per stack (was 200%).
• Power of the Thunder King now cleaves Crackling Jade Lightning at 80% effectiveness (was 100%).
• Ordered Elements now reduces Chi costs by 1 during Storm, Earth, and Fire (was Rising Sun Kick reduces Chi costs during Storm, Earth, and Fire for 7 seconds).

Conduit of the Celestials

• Heart of the Jade Serpent now reduces the cooldown of Flying Serpent Kick.
• Heart of the Jade Serpent now triggers each time you cast Strike of the Windlord, but its duration has been decreased to 6 seconds for Windwalker Monks.

Patch 11.0.7 Changes

Patch 11.0.7 didn't bring any changes for Windwalker Monk. There was however a new ring introduced, Cyrce's Circlet that is unlocked on Siren Isle (the new zone) and can be upgraded to item level 658.

Week of November 25th Class Tuning

• Conduit of the Celestials: Strength of the Black Ox damage increased by 100%.
• Conduit of the Celestials: Flight of the Red Crane damage increased by 100%.
• Conduit of the Celestials: Courage of the White Tiger damage increased by 35%.
• Fists of Fury damage increased by 20%.
• Blackout Kick damage increased by 8%.
• Flurry of Xuen damage increased by 40%.
• Courageous Impulse now increases the damage of your next Blackout Kick by 200% (was 125%).
• Shadowboxing Treads now increases the damage of Blackout Kick by 20% (was 10%) and causes additional Blackout Kicks at 80% effectiveness (was 70%).

These buffs are mostly aimed at closing the gap between Conduit of the Celestials and Shado-Pan with a spritz of additional build diversity, and a small baseline increase to overall damage.

There are a few build adjustments that come from these changes. In Single Target builds, You’ll want to drop something (usually Inner Peace for Shado-Pan, RJW for Conduit) in order to pick up the newly buffed Shadowboxing Treads. In AoE, you’ll want to start investing in Blackout Kick related talents as those have been buffed. This does mean you’ll most likely end up dropping Ordered Elements which will take some time to adjust to.

Patch 11.0.5 Changes

Patch 11.0.5 brings along mostly QoL changes to Windwalker as well as some small buffs that result in an overall 3-4% DPS increase.

Shado-Pan

• Added an energy tracker aura. This aura shows the player how much energy they have spent towards their next set of Flurry Strikes.
• Flurry Charges are no longer cancelable and no longer have a duration.
• Flurry Strikes unleash energy trigger threshold is now 240 energy (was 300).
• Flurry Strike damage reduced by 8%.
• Flurry Strike Accumulator Threshold increased by 47%.
• Wisdom of the Wall bonus effects duration reduced to 16 seconds (was 20%).
• Against All Odds duration reduced to 5 seconds (was 6 seconds).

The goal of these changes is to increase the frequency at which you discharge your Flurry Strikes. The most notable of these changes is the addition of an energy tracker aura in-game which will make it significantly easier (and more reliable) to keep track of your Flurry Strikes progress. Making Flurry Strikes unable to be canceled and no longer have a duration is an attempt on Blizzard’s part to stop the degenerate setup process that can occur with Flurry Strikes. However, there is still a way to do so which is listed in the Playstyle section of the guide.

• Blackout Kick's damage increased by 20%.
• Flurry of Xuen damage increased by 40%.
• Fixed an issue that caused Courageous Impulse to incorrectly buff the damage of Blackout Kick by more than intended when multiple stacks are active.
• Fixed an issue that caused Courageous Impulse to incorrectly buff Teachings of the Monastery Blackout Kicks.

The buff to Blackout Kick’s damage is sorely needed but perhaps misses the mark in tuning. I don’t foresee this affecting any talent builds unless further tuning occurs. Flurry of Xuen’s buff, on the other hand, does affect your talent choice. It should now be a DPS increase to play Flurry of Xuen on any encounter where more than 1 target shows up at any point.