Windwalker Monk Playstyle and Rotation Guide

Single-Target Rotation

Windwalkers use a priority system, not a rotation. This means that you want to use the highest priority ability available and don’t delay a higher priority ability for a lower one.

The lists below assume you are doing what you need to do to avoid capping resources, avoid breaking your mastery and using above cooldowns appropriately.

DISCLAIMER: As of updating this guide on January 14th, Prepatch sims were unavailable so these recommendations come from general spec knowledge and collaboration with SimC contributors. It is entirely possible these recommendations will change.

Conduit of the Celestials

1. Cast Strike of the Windlord without active Heart of the Jade Serpent
2. Cast Whirling Dragon Punch without active Heart of the Jade Serpent
3. Cast Celestial Conduit without active Heart of the Jade Serpent
4. Cast Slicing Winds
5. Cast Rising Sun Kick
6. Cast Tiger Palm if <5 Chi AND about to cap energy
7. Cast Fists of Fury
8. Cast Blackout Kick try not to overcap Teachings of the Monastery
9. Cast Spinning Crane Kick with two stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji buff
10. Cast Spinning Crane Kick with Dance of Chi-Ji buff
11. Cast Blackout Kick

1. Shado-Pan

   1. Cast Rising Sun Kick
   2. Cast Strike of the Windlord
   3. Cast Whirling Dragon Punch
   4. Cast Slicing Winds
   5. Cast Fists of Fury
   6. Cast Rising Sun Kick
   7. Cast Blackout Kick try not to overcap Teachings of the Monastery
   8. Cast Tiger Palm if <5 Chi AND about to cap energy
   9. Cast Spinning Crane Kick with two stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji buff
   10. Cast Spinning Crane Kick with Dance of Chi-Ji buff
   11. Cast Blackout Kick

   Heart of the Jade Serpent

   ONLY DURING Heart of the Jade Serpent.

   1. Cast Fists of Fury
   2. Cast Rising Sun Kick
   3. Cast Slicing Winds
   4. Cast Tiger Palm
   5. Cast Spinning Crane Kick with two stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji buff
   6. Cast Blackout Kick with two stacks of Blackout Kick!
   7. Cast Spinning Crane Kick with one stack of Dance of Chi-Ji

   Multi Target Rotation

   Conduit of the Celestials

   1. Cast Strike of the Windlord without active Heart of the Jade Serpent
   2. Cast Whirling Dragon Punch without active Heart of the Jade Serpent
   3. Cast Celestial Conduit without active Heart of the Jade Serpent
   4. Cast Tiger Palm if <5 Chi AND about to cap energy
   5. Cast Slicing Winds
   6. Cast Fists of Fury
   7. Cast Rising Sun Kick
   8. Cast Spinning Crane Kick with two stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji buff
   9. Cast Blackout Kick with two stacks of Blackout Kick!
   10. Cast Spinning Crane Kick with one stack of Dance of Chi-Ji
   11. Cast Spinning Crane Kick
   12. Cast Blackout Kick

   Shado-Pan

   1. Cast Rising Sun Kick then Whirling Dragon Punch
   2. Cast Strike of the Windlord
   3. Cast Slicing Winds
   4. Cast Fists of Fury
   5. Cast Rising Sun Kick
   6. Cast Tiger Palm if <5 Chi AND about to cap energy
   7. Cast Spinning Crane Kick with 2 stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji buff, to avoid overcapping
   8. Cast Spinning Crane Kick if at maximum Chi
   9. Cast Spinning Crane Kick
   10. Cast Blackout Kick

   Heart of the Jade Serpent

   ONLY DURING Heart of the Jade Serpent.

   1. Cast Fists of Fury
   2. Cast Rising Sun Kick
   3. Cast Slicing Winds
   4. Cast Tiger Palm if <5 Chi AND about to cap energy
   5. Cast Spinning Crane Kick with two stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji buff
   6. Cast Blackout Kick with two stacks of Blackout Kick!
   7. Cast Spinning Crane Kick with one stack of Dance of Chi-Ji

Opener

Single Target (Conduit of the Celestials)

The key to a Celestial Conduit opener involves properly utilizing your improved Heart of the Jade Serpent window provided by the Unity Within hero talent. This will effectively allow you to cast Rising Sun Kick and Fists of Fury back-to-back while it is active.

1. Cast Tiger Palm
2. Cast Rising Sun Kick
3. Cast Tiger Palm
4. Cast Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger
5. Cast Slicing Winds (if talented)
6. Cast Zenith
7. Cast Rising Sun Kick
8. Cast Strike of the Windlord (if talented)
9. Cast Fists of Fury
10. Cast Whirling Dragon Punch (if talented)
11. Cast Tiger Palm
12. Cast Rising Sun Kick
13. Cast Celestial Conduit
14. Cast Rising Sun Kick
15. Cast Fists of Fury
16. Proceed onto the normal priority list

Single Target (Shado-Pan)

Shado-Pan’s gameplay and opener is much more simpler than it has been in iterations past. Once inside your cooldown, you just want to prioritize pressing your buttons off cooldown and making sure you have the resource available to do so.

1. Cast Tiger Palm
2. Cast Rising Sun Kick
3. Cast Tiger Palm
4. Cast Zenith
5. Cast Rising Sun Kick
6. Cast Slicing Winds (if talented)
7. Cast Strike of the Windlord (if talented)
8. Cast Fists of Fury
9. Cast Tiger Palm
10. Cast Rising Sun Kick
11. Cast Whirling Dragon Punch (if talented)
12. Proceed onto the normal priority list

Rotation Assist

Is the Single Button Rotation Assistant good for Windwalker Monk?

Unfortunately for Windwalker Monk, the Rotation Assist performs a simplified rotation which results in a huge DPS loss. However, since Windwalker is predominantly known as one of the more difficult specs to play, some players may find it not as big of a loss.

Rotation Assist Losses for Windwalker Monk

When using the Rotation Assist, you can expect the following losses compared to performing your rotation perfectly:

• Single Target
• Assisted Highlight: ~24% DPS loss if using Cooldowns, ~37% loss without Cooldowns.
• Single-Button Assistant: ~33% DPS loss if using Cooldowns, ~45% loss without Cooldowns.

• Multi-Target
• Assisted Highlight: ~20% DPS loss if using Cooldowns, ~28% loss without cooldowns.
• Single-Button Assistant: ~32.5% DPS loss if using Cooldowns, ~39% loss without Cooldowns.

DISCLAIMER: The Single-Button Assistant does not pause when you are channeling an ability like Fists of Fury. As a result, it’s recommended to use the macro below instead of dragging the button from your spellbook.

#showtooltip
/stopmacro [channeling]
/cast Single-Button Assistant

Lastly, the Rotation Assist will not cast Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger automatically. Make sure to manually use it before your other cooldowns as specified above in the Rotation section.

Playstyle

You decide how detailed to be and what headings are used for your class/spec. Explain the spec enough that a new player could understand what to do, and some of the “why” they do it and what to focus on to get better at it.

Examples: Cooldown and Ability usage, Pandemic, Movement, Survivability & Defensives

General Playstyle

Mobility

Windwalker Monk is one of the most mobile classes in the game. You have a plethora of mobility tools available, such as Flying Serpent Kick, Roll, Transcendence, Tiger’s Lust, and the newly added Lighter than Air.

Defensives

Windwalker Monk has two Defensive cooldowns: Touch of Karma and Fortifying Brew. There are also several passive effects on the Class Tree as well as some in the Hero Talent trees that enhance your tankiness.

You should identify good moments to use Touch of Karma before important damage spikes in encounters.

Diffuse Magic has an additional functionality where it can transfer harmful magical effects back to the target that casted them. This has inconsistent behavior but has its uses in M+ dungeons.

In Midnight, Diffuse Magic has been turned into an optional talent attached to Fortifying Brew. It still retains the debuff reflect functionality where it can transfer harmful magical effects back to the target that casted them. This has inconsistent behavior but has its uses in M+ dungeons.