Windwalker Monk Playstyle and Rotation Guide

General 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.

1. Cast Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger
2. Cast Strike of the Windlord
3. Cast Touch of Death
4. Cast Tiger Palm if <5 Chi AND about to cap energy
5. Cast Jadefire Stomp with Jadefire Harmony talented
6. Cast Whirling Dragon Punch
7. Cast Celestial Conduit (if talented into Conduit of the Celestials)
8. Cast Rising Sun Kick
9. Cast Fists of Fury
10. Cast Blackout Kick to not overcap Teachings of the Monastery
11. Cast Jadefire Stomp with Singularly Focused Jade talented
12. Cast Spinning Crane Kick with Dance of Chi-Ji buff
13. Cast Chi Burst
14. Cast Crackling Jade Lightning try not to overcap Last Emperor's Capacitor stacks
15. Cast Blackout Kick
16. Cast Jadefire Stomp

Multi Target:

1. Cast Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger
2. Cast Touch of Death
3. Cast Tiger Palm if <5 Chi AND about to cap energy
4. Cast Jadefire Stomp with Jadefire Harmony talented
5. Cast Strike of the Windlord
6. Cast Rising Sun Kick then Whirling Dragon Punch
7. Cast Celestial Conduit (if talented into Conduit of the Celestials)
8. Cast Crackling Jade Lightning to not overcap Last Emperor's Capacitor stacks with Power of the Thunder King talented
9. Cast Spinning Crane Kick with Dance of Chi-Ji buff
10. Cast Blackout Kick try not to overcap Teachings of the Monastery
11. Cast Fists of Fury
12. Cast Rising Sun Kick with Xuen's Battlegear buff
13. Cast Spinning Crane Kick
14. Cast Chi Burst
15. Cast Blackout Kick
16. Cast Jadefire Stomp

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 Jadefire Stomp (if talented)
6. Cast Storm, Earth, and Fire
7. Cast Rising Sun Kick
8. Cast Strike of the Windlord
9. Cast Tiger Palm
10. Cast Fists of Fury
11. Cast Celestial Conduit
12. Cast Rising Sun Kick
13. Cast Fists of Fury
14. Cast Whirling Dragon Punch (if talented)
15. Proceed onto the normal priority list

Single Target (Shado-Pan)

This is a much more simple opener as Shado-Pan does not drastically alter your gameplay.

1. Cast Tiger Palm
2. Cast Rising Sun Kick
3. Cast Tiger Palm
4. Cast Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger
5. Cast Jadefire Stomp (if talented)
6. Cast Storm, Earth, and Fire
7. Cast Rising Sun Kick
8. Cast Strike of the Windlord
9. Cast Fists of Fury
10. Cast Rising Sun Kick
11. Cast Whirling Dragon Punch (if talented)
12. Proceed onto the normal priority list

Playstyle

Mark of the Crane

Mark of the Crane is the term for the mechanic when you use Tiger Palm, Blackout Kick, or Rising Sun Kick. It applies a 20-second debuff that increases the damage of your Spinning Crane Kick by 18% per stack. In AoE, it is crucial to maintain as many debuffs as there are targets up to a maximum of 5 to deal the most damage with Spinning Crane Kick. This can be accomplished when you use Storm, Earth, and Fire because by default the spirits will seek out targets that you are in combat with and targets that do not have a mark applied to them. When you use an ability that would normally apply a Mark of the Crane, it effectively triples the speed at which you can gain stacks in AoE.

In The War Within, Rushing Jade Wind has been reworked as a passive talent that makes your Strike of the Windlord apply Mark of the Crane to all targets struck. This makes it significantly easier to reach maximum Mark of the Crane stacks immediately.

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 several strong Defensive cooldowns including Touch of Karma, Fortifying Brew, and Diffuse Magic. 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 War Within, Expel Harm is a passive. The functionality of this has been reallocated to Vivacious Vivification in the class tree with the intention of Vivify providing the on-demand healing that Expel Harm did before.

Setting up Flurry Strikes

As of 11.0.5, Blizzard have ‘fixed’ the other method of setting this up which involved aura canceling, but this method should still work.

Shado-Pan’s Flurry Strikes has an interesting functionality where the amount of Flurry Strikes you have spent is counted in the game until you relog or switch specs. You can game this by getting to 9 Flurry Strikes on a target dummy and then casting Crackling Jade Lightning or Disable to trigger it at 9. This will mean that the next time you proc Flurry Strikes, it will proc on the first one giving you the Wisdom buff, and then give you up to 9 additional Flurry Strikes with whatever wisdom buff you get.

Ideally, you get the Shadow Wisdom of the Wall and then benefit greatly. This can result in a total of 1.5-2% more output in single target situations.