Windwalker Monk 9.0.5 Guide

Windwalker Monk in Shadowlands

Welcome to the Overgear guide on the Monk’s “Windwalker” spec! This guide will show you all the intricacies of the spec in various aspects of the game and teach you how to survive even the toughest Shadowlands challenges. You’ll learn which talents to use, how to equip your character, and which covenant to choose. In each section you will find answers to these and many other questions.

Windwalker Monk is a master of melee combat with the knowledge of martial arts. Monk is one of the most mobile classes in the game. Monk’s strength is in proper usage of his abilities. That’s what this guide will teach you. Apart from that, we’ll tell you which talent is better to use, what covenant to choose, and which gear will allow you to get to the top of the DPS meters.

Advantages:

• Mobility.
• Survivability.
• Flexible DPS cooldowns both for target and AoE damage.
• Increased Physical damage to enemy targets.

Disadvantages:

• Melee fighter.
• No immune abilities.

Basic information on the spec:

Windwalker Monk has 2 main resources: Energy and Chi (combo points). Your gameplay is based on the correct use of these resources.

The Author

Laevate1nn – raider from the Exorsus guild since 2018. Twitch – https://www.twitch.tv/laevate1nn

Glossary

Main Abilities

Talents

General information. On reaching several levels, you will open new Talent tiers. In each tier, you can choose one Talent at a time. Talents can affect your abilities in different ways: add new ones, replace old ones, passively modify various effects and spells. You can change Talents while you’re in Sanctums or in rest areas, but if there are no such places nearby, you can use Tome of the Tranquil Mind, which allows you to change Talents within a minute. Note that Talents can’t be changed in combat. Also, if a Talent selected in a certain tier is on CD, you’ll have to wait for it to recharge in order to change it. 

Tier 1 Lvl 15

• Eye of the Tiger – Tiger Palm also applies Eye of the Tiger, dealing Nature damage to the enemy and healing to the Monk over 8 sec. 
• Chi Wave – A wave of Chi energy flows through friends and foes, dealing Nature damage or healing. Bounces up to 7 times to targets within 25 yards. 
• Chi Burst – hurls a torrent of Chi energy up to 40 yds forward, dealing Nature damage to all enemies, and healing to the Monk and all allies in its path. Chi Burst generates 1 Chi per enemy target damaged, up to a maximum of 2. CD 30 sec. 

* Chi Burst is your standard choice, it’s good for both AoE and single targets.

Tier 2 Lvl 25

• Celerity – reduces the cooldown of Roll by 5 sec and increases its maximum number of charges by 1 (2->3). 
• Chi Torpedo – replaces your Roll. Torpedoes you forward a long distance and increases your movement speed by 30% for 10 sec, stacking up to 2 times. Has 2 charges. 
• Tiger’s Lust – can be applied to you or your ally. Increases a friendly target’s movement speed by 70% for 6 sec and removes all roots and snares. 

* The choice affects your mobility. Tiger’s Lust is preferable in neutral situations, as it’s an additional ability to your Roll. This Talent also allows you to remove movement impairing spells. Chi Torpedo is good for travelling long distances.

Tier 3 Lvl 30

• Ascension – Increases your maximum Chi by 1, maximum Energy by 20, and your Energy regeneration by 10%. 
• Fist of the White Tiger – strike with the technique of the White Tiger, dealing Physical damage. Generates 3 Chi. Costs 40 Energy, CD 30 sec. 
• Energizing Elixir – chug an Energizing Elixir, granting a maximum amount of Chi and Energy. 

* Fist of the White Tiger is the best choice in any situation.

Tier 4 Lvl 35

• Tiger Tail Sweep – increases the range of Leg Sweep by 2 yds and reduces its cooldown by 10 sec.
• Good Karma – 100% of the damage redirected by Touch of Karma also heals you. 
• Ring of Peace – form a Ring of Peace at the target location for 5 sec. Enemies that enter will be ejected from the Ring. CD 45 sec. 

* Good Karma is used by default, but this tier is quite situational, especially Ring of Peace, which is widely used in Mythic Keystones.

Tier 5 Lvl 40

• Inner Strength – each Chi you spend reduces damage taken by 2% for 5 sec, stacking up to 5 times. 
• Diffuse Magic – reduces magic damage you take by 60% for 6 sec, and transfers all currently active harmful magical effects on you back to their original caster if possible. CD 1.5 min. 
• Dampen Harm – reduces all damage you take by 20% to 50% for 10 sec, with larger attacks being reduced by more. 

* This tier improves your survivability. The choice depends on the type of incoming damage and its frequency. If you receive constant predictable average damage, use Inner Strength. If you have to take a great amount of Physical damage, go for Dampen Harm; of Magic damage – Diffuse Magic.

Tier 6 lvl 45

• Hit Combo – each successive attack that triggers Combo Strikes in a row grants 1% increased damage, stacking up to 6 times. 

• Rushing Jade Wind – summons a whirling tornado around you, causing Nature damage to all enemies within 8 yards. CD 6 sec, costs 3 Energy, plus 3 per sec. 
• Dance of Chi-Ji – spending Chi has a chance to make your next Spinning Crane Kick free and deal an additional 200% damage.

* for single targets and cleave, pick Hit Combo. For AoE – Dance of Chi-Ji. However, at the moment Dance of Chi-Ji is better than Hit Combo even against single targets.

Tier 7 Lvl 50

• Spiritual Focus – every 2 Chi you spend reduces the cooldown of Storm, Earth, and Fire by 1 sec. 
• Whirling Dragon Punch – deals high Physical damage to all nearby enemies. Only usable while both Fists of Fury and Rising Sun Kick are on cooldown. CD 24 sec. 
• Serenity – replaces Storm, Earth, and Fire. Enter an elevated state of mental and physical serenity for 12 sec. While in this state, you deal 20% increased damage and healing, and all Chi consumers are free and cool down 100% more quickly. 

* Whirling Dragon Punch is the best option at the moment and is used in most cases. Serenity isn’t too far behind, but it’s barely used in practice.

Here are your common builds:

Chi Wave, Tiger’s Lust, Fist of the White Tiger, Good Karma, Diffuse Magic/Dampen Harm, Dance of Chi-Ji, Whirling Dragon Punch – for single targets and cleave. For AoE: Chi Burst, Tiger’s Lust, Energizing Elixir, Good Karma, Diffuse Magic/Dampen Harm, Dance of Chi-Ji, Whirling Dragon Punch. 

Covenants: 

The Venthyr 

• Fallen Order – opens a mystic portal for 24 sec. Every 3 sec, it summons a spirit of your order’s fallen Ox, Crane, or Tiger adepts for 6 sec. Fallen adepts assist for an additional 2 sec, and will also attack your enemies with Fists of Fury.

Very powerful burst ability.

• Door of Shadows – castable blink with a great potential (skipping enemies in Mythic+ dungeons and outplaying such mechanics as those of Queen Azshara).

The Kyrian

• Weapons of Order – for the next 30 sec, your Mastery is increased by 13%. Additionally, Rising Sun Kick reduces Chi costs by 1 for 5 sec, and Blackout Kick reduces the cooldown of Rising Sun Kick and Fists of Fury by an additional 1 sec.

Good burst ability for AoE and cleave, can compete with Fallen Order. The choice depends on the needs of your raid or Mythic + affixes.

• Summon Steward – call your steward to bring you a Phial of Serenity. CD 4 min. It may seem useless, but don’t underestimate the extra heal. It also removes all Curse, Disease, Poison, and Bleed effects – very useful throughout the game.

The Night Fae

• Faeline Stomp – strike the ground fiercely to expose a faeline for 30 sec, dealing Nature damage to up to 5 enemies, and restore health to up to 5 allies within 30 yds caught in the faeline. Up to 5 enemies suffer an additional damage while the spell is active. Your abilities have a 6% chance of resetting the cooldown of Faeline Stomp while fighting on a faeline.

Interesting option for M+ dungeons, but it still deals low damage. To get the most of it, you have to be in its area of effect, which is not always possible, thus making it fairly useless.

• Soulshape – turn into a Vulpin, teleporting 15 yards forward and increasing your movement speed by 50%. You may reactivate Soulshape every few sec to teleport again. Lasts 12 sec, or indefinitely while in a rest area. Additional sprint and blink for the mobile class.

The Necrolords

• Bonedust Brew – hurl a brew created from the bones of your enemies at the ground, coating all targets struck for 10 sec. Your abilities have a 35% chance to affect the target a second time at 35% effectiveness as Shadow damage or healing. Spinning Crane Kick refunds 1 Chi when striking enemies with your Bonedust Brew active.

Nice AoE potential in M+ dungeons. Overall, the ability is rather weak.

• Fleshcraft – form a shield of flesh and bone over 4 sec that absorbs damage equal to 20% of your maximum health. Channeling near a corpse claims their essence to grow the shield, up to 50% of your maximum health. This is most effective against strong enemies.

Surprisingly powerful absorb, a bit better than the kyrian Phial. It can be extremely useful against raid bosses that periodically take massive damage.

Soulbinds and Conduits

As for Conduits, we can highlight the following: 

Potency

• Inner Fury – Fists of Fury‘s damage is increased by 5%.
• Calculated Strikes – Spinning Crane Kick‘s bonus from striking a unique target with Tiger Palm, Blackout Kick, or Rising Sun Kick is increased by an additional 10%.
• Coordinated Offensive – after your Storm, Earth, and Fire spirits fixate on the same target, they deal 8.8% increased damage.
• Xuen’s Bond – abilities that activate Combo Strikes reduce the cooldown of Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger by 0.1 sec, and Xuen’s damage is increased by 10%.
• Strike with Clarity – Weapons of Order‘s duration is increased by 5 sec, it increases your Mastery by an additional 25% (requires Kyrian).
• Imbued Reflections – Fallen Order monks deal 29% more damage and healing (requires Venthyr).
• Bone Marrow Hops – Bonedust Brew‘s Shadow damage or healing is increased by 32%, and when Bonedust Brew deals Shadow damage or healing, its cooldown is reduced by 0.5 sec (requires Necrolord).
• Way of the Fae – increases the initial damage of Faeline Stomp by 5.5% per target hit by that damage, up to a maximum of 27.5% additional damage (requires Night Fae).

In descending order, disregarding covenants: Inner Fury, Calculated Strikes, Coordinated Offensive for single targets or Xuen’s Bond for AoE.

Finesse

• Dizzying Tumble – targets affected by your Leg Sweep deal 5% less damage for 5 sec.
• Tumbling Technique – Blackout Kick has a 5% chance to grant a charge of Roll.
• Swift Transference – Transcendence: Transfer increases your movement speed by 10% for 5 sec.

Endurance

• Fortifying Ingredients – Fortifying Brew grants you a shield equal to 10% of your maximum health for 15 sec.
• Harm Denial – Expel Harm‘s healing is increased by 20%.
• Grounding Breath – when casting Vivify on yourself, its healing is increased by 12%, and it has a 30% chance to refund its cost.

Soulbinds

The Venthyr:

Nadjia the Mistblade: 

Dauntless Duelist– The first enemy you damage in combat is marked as your Adversary. You deal 3% more damage to them, and they deal 1.5% less damage to you. You may only have one Adversary at a time (tree with 1 less Potency Conduit).

Thrill Seeker– while in combat, you gain a stack of Thrill Seeker every 2 sec, or 4 stacks on killing an enemy. At 40 stacks Thrill Seeker is consumed to grant you Euphoria, increasing your Haste by 20% for 10 sec. Thrill Seeker decays rapidly while you are not in combat.

Exacting Preparation – the benefits of Well Fed, Flask, and weapon enchant effects are increased by 20%.

Theotar the Mad Duke: 

Soothing Shade– your spells and abilities have a chance to call Tubbins and Gubbins to your side for 12 sec, parasol in hand. Standing in the shaded area grants you 525 Mastery (tree with 1 less Potency Conduit).

Wasteland Propriety – activating Fallen Order signals the start of tea time, granting 10% Versatility to you and 4% Versatility to up to 4 nearby allies. Lasts 10 sec. Tea time may only occur once every 1 min.

Refined Palate – the effects of combat potions last 100% to 200% longer.

General Draven is good for survivability and maybe PvP, while for DD’s he’s not quite useful.

The Kyrian:

Pelagos:

Let Go of the Past – using a spell or ability increases your Versatility by 1% for 10 sec. Using another spell or ability increases this amount by 1% when it is not a repeat of the previous spell or ability, stacking to 5%.

Combat Meditation – activating Weapons of Order increases your Mastery by 5% for 20 sec and occasionally expels Sorrowful Memories. Walking through Sorrowful Memories extends this effect by 3 sec.

Kleia: 

Valiant Strikes – you and your nearby allies’ critical strikes grant you stacks of Valiant Strikes, up to 40. At 40 stacks, you heal yourself for 10% of your maximum health and up to 4 nearby allies for 5% of their maximum health over 10 sec.

Pointed Courage – critical strike is increased by 1% for every nearby enemy or ally, up to 8%.

Forgelite Prime Mikanikos:

Hammer of Genesis – damaging a new enemy grants you 2% Haste for 10 sec, up to 5 stacks (tree with 1 less Potency Conduit).

Bron’s Call to Action – after using 90 damaging or healing spells and abilities, your next spell or ability summons Bron, knocking back enemies on arrival and attacking and healing your targets for 30 sec.

The Necrolords:

Plague Deviser Marileth has no useful abilities for DD’s.

Emeni: 

Gnashing Chompers – gain 3% Haste for 10 sec after defeating an enemy, up to 15%. 

Lead by Example – activating Bonedust Brew increases your primary stats by 5% and nearby allies’ primary stats by 2% for 10 sec. You gain 5% additional primary stats for each ally affected, up to 15%.

Bonesmith Heirmir:

Heirmir’s Arsenal: Marrowed Gemstone – after landing 10 critical strikes, you gain 18% increased chance to critically strike for 10 sec. Cannot occur more than once every 60 sec. 

The Night Fae:

Niya:

Niya’s Tools: Burrs – your damaging attacks and spells have a chance to toss Niya’s Spiked Burrs under your target. The burrs latch onto the first enemy to cross them, reducing movement speed by 20% and inflicting Nature damage over 6 sec (tree with 1 less Potency Conduit).

Niya’s Tools: Poison – your interrupting abilities apply Niya’s Paralytic Poison to the target, dealing Nature damage over 30 sec. Targets with Niya’s Paralytic Poison take additional Nature damage if interrupted once more. 

Grove Invigoration – healing or dealing damage has a chance to grant you a stack of Redirected Anima, up to 10. Activating Faeline Stomp grants you 1% maximum health and bonus Mastery per stack for 30 sec.

Dreamweaver has no useful abilities for DD’s.

Korayn: 

First Strike – damaging an enemy before they damage you increases your chance to critically strike by 25% for 10 sec (tree with 1 less Potency Conduit).

Wild Hunt Tactics – your damage to targets above 75% health and healing to targets below 35% health are increased by 10%. When your spells and abilities are enhanced this way, you gain 10% bonus movement speed for 5 sec.

Legendaries:

Overall, Windwalker Monk has 16 available Legendary Items.

Let’s have a look at the most useful of them:

Good item effects:

• Escape from Reality – after you use Transcendence: Transfer, you can use Transcendence: Transfer again within 10 sec, ignoring its cooldown. During this time, if you cast Vivify on yourself, its healing is increased by 50% and 50% of its cost is refunded.
• Invoker’s Delight – you gain 12% Haste for 15 sec after summoning your Celestial.

Weaker than others.

• Roll Out – during Roll, you are immune to roots and snares.
• Fatal Touch – Touch of Death cooldown reduced by 120 sec.

Possible for AoE and cleave, but weaker than other effects.

• Keefer’s Skyreach – Tiger Palm now has a 10 yard range and dashes you to the target when used. Tiger Palm also applies an effect which increases your critical strike chance by 30% for 6 sec on the target. This effect cannot be applied more than once every 1 min per target. 

Weaker than other effects, but it does provide some burst.

• Last Emperor’s Capacitor – Chi spenders increase the damage of your next Crackling Jade Lightning by 100% and reduce its cost by 5%, stacking up to 20 times. 

Even with the maximum number of stacks, it deals low damage.

• Jade Ignition – whenever you deal damage to a target with Fists of Fury, you gain a stack of Chi Energy up to a maximum of 30 stacks. Using Spinning Crane Kick will cause the energy to detonate in a Chi Explosion, dealing damage to all enemies within 8 yards. The damage is increased by 5% for each stack of Chi Energy. 

A bit better for AoE than Xuen’s Battlegear.

The best items effects:

• Xuen’s Battlegear – when Fists of Fury ends, the critical strike chance of Rising Sun Kick is increased by 30% for 5 sec. Rising Sun Kick critical strikes reduce the cooldown of Fists of Fury by 2.5 sec.

AoE or single targets, it’s good for both of these.

As for non-class Legendary Item Effects:

• Echo of Eonar – summon a spiritual familiar to your side, increasing your damage and healing by 5%. Your spells and abilities have a chance to send your familiar to a nearby ally, increasing their damage and healing by 5% for 15 sec. 

This feature is fairly useful for the whole raid or certain classes in it.

• Sephuz’s Proclamation – reduce the effectiveness of crowd controlling effects by 10%. Successfully applying a loss of control effect to an enemy, interrupting an enemy, or dispelling any target will boost all your secondary stats for 15 sec. Cannot occur more than once every 30 sec.

This effect has a great potential in M+ dungeons and in those areas where you can achieve its maximum duration.

If you have different Legendaries that are not listed above, and you want to find out which one will suit you better, we recommend using Simcraft. 

Rotation: 

Base priority:

• Single target

1. Touch of Death (when the target is under 15% health)
2. Spinning Crane Kick(with the Dance of Chi-Ji proc)
3. Fist of the White Tiger (if you have < 3 Chi and are about to reach the Energy cap) 
4. Tiger Palm (< 4 Chi, about to reach the Energy cap) 
5. Whirling Dragon Punch (if you have the Talent) 
6. Fists of Fury
7. Rising Sun Kick
8. Chi Burst (with < 5 Chi) 
9. Fist of the White Tiger (with < 3 Chi) 
10. Spinning Crane Kick(with the Dance of Chi-Ji proc)
11. Blackout Kick (to avoid the Chi cap) 
12. Chi Wave (if you have the Talent) 
13. Tiger Palm

• AoE

1. Touch of Death (when the target is under 15% health)
2. Spinning Crane Kick(with the Dance of Chi-Ji proc)
3. Whirling Dragon Punch (if you have the Talent) 
4. Fists of Fury
5. Rising Sun Kick (only so that you can use Whirling Dragon Punch, if you have the Talent)
6. Chi Burst 
7. Rushing Jade Wind (if you have it)
8. Spinning Crane Kick (on 3+ targets)
9. Rising Sun Kick
10. Blackout Kick ( to stack Spinning Crane Kick)
11. Fist of the White Tiger
12. Chi Wave (if you have the Talent) 
13. Tiger Palm

Detailed instructions: 

• Touch of Death – use it as often as possible, for AoE or cleave. And just don’t forget about this ability when you fight single targets.
• Energizing Elixir (if you have it) – use on recharge at 0-1 Chi, then instantly cast Tiger Palm to generate more resources. 
• Storm, Earth, and Fire – same as Touch of Death, spam it and combine with other damage buffs. It’s also useful for AoE if you want to quickly stack Spinning Crane Kick. Always keep 1 charge of Storm ready, so that you can use it at a proper moment. Try to cast 2 x Rising Sun Kick, Fists of Fury and Whirling Dragon Punch in a single spell use.
• Hit Combo and Mastery – each ability that deals damage is amplified and extends these effects. 
• Blackout Kick – used before another possible proc of Tiger Palm. 
• Rushing Jade Wind (if you have it) – only cast on 2+ targets. Keep in mind that while this ability is active, you have reduced Energy generation. 
• Touch of Karma – technically, it’s a defensive ability, but it can be used to deal damage. You should use it as often as possible, taking damage and completely breaking the shield to get the most benefit.
• With Dance of Chi-Ji, use Spinning Crane Kick right after abilities with cooldowns. Next, implement the Talent proc.

To start with:

 Your opener for a standard build with Whirling Dragon Punch:

1. Invoke Xuen
2. Fist of the White Tiger 
3. Tiger Palm 
4. Storm, Earth, and Fire + Rising Sun Kick 
5. Tiger Palm 
6. Fists of Fury
7. Whirling Dragon Punch 
8. Tiger Palm 
9. Rising Sun Kick

Stats

Your basic stats priority is the following:

Finesse > Versatility > Mastery = Crit > Haste 

Haste reduces the cooldowns of your main abilities, GCD, increases your attack speed and Energy generation. 

Due to Mastery, your abilities deal 10% more damage when they are not a repeat of the previous ability. Mastery level affects the ability damage.

Versatility simply amplifies damage dealt and reduces damage taken.

Crit increases your chance to deal double damage with your abilities. 

These stats are connected quite tightly, while their value is constantly changing. 

For that reason, we recommend that you use Simcraft or Raidbots.com after getting new equipment, so that you can know for sure what attribute to focus on.

Based on the above-mentioned characteristics and your own simulation results, let’s move on to Gems, Enchants and Consumables.

1. Gems

• Versatile Jewel Cluster/Masterful Jewel Cluster by default, or Deadly Jewel Cluster/Quick Jewel Cluster

1. Enchants

• Boots: Eternal Agility
• Rings: Tenet of Versatility or Tenet of Mastery 
• Cloak: Soul Vitality
• Chest: Eternal Stats
• Weapon: Lightless Force

1. Stones, Oils and Armor kits

• Shaded Sharpening Stone/Shaded Weightstone
• Heavy Desolate Armor Kit
• Shadowcore Oil

1. Food

• Feast of Gluttonous Hedonism or Steak a la Mode

1. Flasks and Pots

• Eternal Cauldron > Spectral Flask of Power 
• Potion of Spectral Agility
• Potion of Phantom Fire(apply Shadowcore Oil to your weapon for single targets)
• Spiritual Healing Potion

Macros:

• Paralysis at the cursor position:

#showtooltip Paralysis

/cast [@mouseover] Paralysis

• Spear Hand Strike with a modifier, cast on the focus target or on the current target.

#showtooltip Spear Hand Strike

/cast [@focus, exists, harm][@target, harm, nodead] Spear Hand Strike

• Tiger’s Lust at the cursor position, as it’s sometimes useful to give it to your ally:

#showtooltip Tiger’s Lust

/cast [@mouseover] Tiger’s Lust

AddOns:

Bartender4 – panel addon with great customization

Chatter – chat customization addon

Deja Character stats – even more info on your character

Sexy map – makes your minimap sexy!

Shadowed unit frames – ElvUI alternative, unit frames only

WeakAuras – possibly the most important in modern WoW. You can tune almost anything with it, and at wago.io you can find hundreds of useful auras and import them within a few clicks. You also can find a special aura pack for your spec, here’s a link on WW auras.

BigWigs/Deadly Boss Mods – timing and warning addons for the raid and m+ bosses, pick one of them. It’s also very useful for PvE in general. If you want instance warnings for your BigWigs addon – get a LittleWigs addon. 

ElvUI – a global “all-in-one” addon, makes your interface very neat. Replaces dozens of addons at once. You can also find a lot of profiles for it on wago.io.
Details! Damage Meter – the most modern and popular DPS meter atm.

Plater Nameplates – addon comes from Details author, it changes enemies nameplates. It is fully customizable with a lot of features and profile import from wago.io – what else do you want?

Pawn – helps you on improving your gear. Requires Simcraft string for usage.

SimulationCraft – Makes your character simulation easier by creating an in-game Simcraft string for import to Raidbots or SimCraft.

Exorsus Raid Tools – raiding addon with tons of useful features.

Move Anything – this addon resizes and moves any part of the user interface.
World Quest List – Organizes your world quests to the left of your map and sorts them by zones.

PRO Tips:

Windwalker is not a difficult spec to play. You will deal great DPS if you’ll follow the base priorities. Always try to maximize the usage of Touch of Death in M+. Don’t forget to focus your copies from Storm, Earth, and Fire on the single target if you’ve got to kill it fast. Touch of Karma should be used as an offensive ability if you don’t need any defense atm. Don’t forget to use Transcendence to get an advantage in the battle if you’re being knocked out or you have to change your position ASAP.

This guide ends here. We hope that we have answered all of your questions and the only thing left for you is to try all of this by yourself. Thank you for reading this! Wish you the best of luck in Azeroth, Champion!