Windwalker Monk DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Dragonflight 10.2.5
On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Windwalker Monk in both single-target and multiple-target situations. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc. in order to minmax your DPS. All our content is updated for World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2.5.
Windwalker Monks Rotation
Welcome to our Rotation page for Windwalker Monks. On this page, you will find everything you need to know about actually playing the spec in Raiding and Mythic+ scenarios.
Beginner Mode
If the rotations below seem overwhelming to you, you might benefit from visiting our Beginner Mode page, which outlines a close-to-optimal rotation in simpler terms.
PvP
The content on this page is purely PvE-related. If you are looking for PvP Rotation Tips, please visit our PvP page below.
Windwalker Monk Single-Target Rotation
The Windwalker Monk rotation is based on a priority system.
- Invoke Xuen
- Touch of Death
- Expel Harm if below 6 Chi AND about to cap energy
- Tiger Palm if below 5 Chi AND about to cap energy
- Faeline Stomp if targets don't have Faeline Harmony debuff
- Strike of the Windlord
- Whirling Dragon Punch and Rising Sun Kick.
- Rising Sun Kick with Xuen's Battlegear crit buff
- Fists of Fury
- Rising Sun Kick
- Blackout Kick with Blackout Reinforcement
- Rushing Jade Wind
- Blackout Kick with Dance of Chi-Ji proc
- Spinning Crane Kick DO NOT OVERCAP Teachings of the Monastery
- Chi Wave
- Spinning Crane Kick
- Chi Burst
- Faeline Stomp
Important Note on Spinning Crane Kick
When talented into Dance of Chi-Ji, Chi-spenders have a chance to cause the next Spinning Crane Kick not to cost any Chi and deal extra damage.
It is important to use Spinning Crane Kick before you use any other Chi-spender to ensure that the proc is not overwritten; that said, any abilities with a cooldown should be used before Spinning Crane Kick, so there will be times that you need to risk overwriting a Spinning Crane Kick proc to not delay a cooldown.
Multiple Target Rotation for Windwalker Monks
Against multiple enemies, the rotation is also based on a priority system, and it depends slightly based on how many enemies you are facing.
Keep in mind that Tiger Palm and Blackout Kick (as well as Rising Sun Kick) apply a 15-second debuff on their target, called Mark of the Crane. Each instance of this debuff increases the damage of your Spinning Crane Kick (against any target) by 10%, up to 50%. Therefore, your Tiger Palms and Blackout Kicks should be distributed among your enemies in such a way as to keep the Mark of the Crane debuff up on as many targets as possible.
Moreover, you should make use of Storm, Earth, and Fire by using it once at the start of the fight and then using its next charge when Fists of Fury becomes available again. From then on, simply reuse it with Fists of Fury, making sure that you never let both of Storm, Earth, and Fire's charges remain available.
- Invoke Xuen
- Touch of Death
- Tiger Palm if below 5 Chi AND about to cap energy
- Faeline Stomp if targets don't have Faeline Harmony debuff
- Strike of the Windlord
- Spinning Crane Kick with Dance of Chi-Ji proc
- Whirling Dragon Punch and Rising Sun Kick.
- Fists of Fury
- Rushing Jade Wind
- Blackout Kick with Blackout Reinforcement.
- Spinning Crane Kick
- Rising Sun Kick with Xuen's Battlegear crit buff
- Blackout Kick DO NOT OVERCAP Teachings of the Monastery
- Rising Sun Kick
- Chi Burst
- Faeline Stomp
- Chi Wave
Cooldowns for Windwalker Monks
As a Windwalker Monk, you have 2 main DPS cooldowns by default, Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger and Storm, Earth, and Fire.
- Touch of Death should be used as often as possible throughout the fight, essentially on cooldown any time a target falls under the required health threshold.
- Storm, Earth, and Fire should be used as often as possible while attempting to stack it with other periods of increased damage done. Make sure you always have at least one of its charges on cooldown. This gives you up to 3 minutes without using it as long as it is kept on cooldown, allowing you to easily use it in combination with all of your damaging abilities.
- Serenity replaces Storm, Earth, and Fire and is an extremely potent cooldown. It does not have two stacks, meaning its usage is much more rigid. Considering how strong this talent is, we have a section dedicated to it in a subsequent section.
- Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger is a very straightforward cooldown. It summons a strong guardian on a two-minute cooldown. For the most part, you want to pair this with other damage-increasing windows, like Storm, Earth, and Fire, trinket procs, or phases in a fight that results in the target taking extra damage.
Optional Read: Mastering Your Windwalker Monk
The above information tells you everything you need to know in order to have a highly competitive DPS as a Windwalker Monk. However, in order for you to truly master the spec, there are more things that you need to understand in detail.
Energy and Chi
Energy
Energy is a resource that Monks share with Rogues and Feral Druids. There are several things you need to know about Energy:
- Energy is generated passively. The regeneration speed is affected by your haste.
- You have a maximum capacity of 100 Energy.
- Energy never decays. A natural consequence of this is that your normal state is to have a full Energy bar (such as before starting combat).
- Being at maximum capacity causes any additional Energy you would generate to be wasted.
Chi
Chi is a Monk-only resource. There are several things you need to know about Chi:
- Chi is generated by using Tiger Palm, Energizing Elixir, Chi Burst and Fist of the White Tiger.
- Chi is spent on many crucial abilities that are part of your rotation.
- You have a maximum capacity of 5 Chi (6 if you have the Ascension talent).
- Chi decays quickly when outside of combat, but it does not decay while in combat. A natural consequence of this is that, when starting a fight, you will have no Chi.
- Your Chi is reset to a maximum of 1 when entering a raid encounter.
- Generating Chi while you are at maximum capacity will cause the new Chi to be wasted.
Mastery: Combo Strikes
Your Mastery ( Mastery: Combo Strikes) causes your abilities to deal increased damage (the amount depends on your amount of Mastery) when they are not used two or more times in a row. For example, using Blackout Kick and Tiger Palm gives both of them the damage bonus, but if you use Tiger Palm twice in a row, the second Tiger Palm will no longer benefit from the increase.
Afterlife Procs
Afterlife is a passive ability that causes you to summon a Healing Sphere next to you each time you kill an enemy. The Healing Sphere lasts for 30 seconds and heals you for a moderate amount when you walk over it.
Furthermore, Afterlife also grants you a 50% chance to summon a Chi sphere each time you kill an enemy using Blackout Kick. The Chi sphere lasts for 2 minutes and grants you 1 Chi when you walk over it.
Detailed Cooldown Usage for Windwalker Monks
Storm, Earth, and Fire
Storm, Earth, and Fire is the main offensive Cooldown for Windwalker Monks. Making the most out of this is paramount when trying to maximize your damage. Furthermore, this buff often behaves in unexpected ways. It is very important to be aware of all intricacies.
First and foremost, Storm, Earth, and Fire has two charges. This allows you to easily always have one charge on cooldown and makes Windwalker Monks one of the most flexible classes in the game, damage-wise. It also means that it is very easy to line up Storm, Earth, and Fire with other damage increases such as temporary buffs, AoE spawns, or Touch of Death.
Touch of Karma
Touch of Karma causes all damage you take for 10 seconds (up to a maximum of 50% of your maximum health) to be redirected to the enemy target as a 6-second Nature damage DoT.
Chi Burst
Chi Burst should be used in the way indicated in the single and multiple target rotation at the start of the guide.
Whirling Dragon Punch
Whirling Dragon Punch should be used as part of your single target rotations. It is placed in the correct position in the priority at the start of this guide. Keep in mind that both Fists of Fury and Rising Sun Kick must be on cooldown for this ability to be usable. It is a very potent AoE tool.
Serenity
Serenity is a complicated talent which changes a lot of your gameplay and should be used wisely. This talent changes the way the Windwalker Monk specialization plays even outside of the Serenity buff, as you will have more resources to spend outside of Serenity.
Serenity should be used as close to on cooldown as possible while fitting three Rising Sun Kicks and using Fists of Fury when it comes up during its 12-second duration. It is worth noting that you can cast two Fists of Fury for free with a single serenity if it is cast early on. Therefore, slight delays of either spell will be beneficial if they allow this, even if the full channel will not fit within Serenity.
Here is an example of a Serenity sequence outside of Bloodlust:
- Serenity
- Rising Sun Kick
- Fists of Fury until Rising Sun Kick is available
- Rising Sun Kick
- Blackout Kick
- Strike of the Windlord
- Blackout Kick
- Rising Sun Kick
- Blackout Kick
- Fists of Fury
Keep in mind this last Fists of Fury will not benefit from Serenity for the most part, but being able to cast it without a Chi cost is a significant gain.
If Fists of Fury is not available in the first 2-3 seconds of Serenity, you will delay it until Serenity ends:
- Serenity
- Rising Sun Kick
- Blackout Kick
- Spinning Crane Kick
- Blackout Kick
- Rising Sun Kick
- Blackout Kick
- Tiger Palm
- Blackout Kick
- Rising Sun Kick
- Blackout Kick
- Fists of Fury
During Bloodlust, your Fists of Fury are shorter to channel, which allows you to get an extra Rising Sun Kick inside Serenity at a low cost, as well as two Fists of Fury channels inside the buff. Here is a sample sequence:
- Serenity
- Rising Sun Kick
- Fists of Fury until Rising Sun Kick is available
- Rising Sun Kick
- Blackout Kick
- Blackout Kick
- Rising Sun Kick
- Fists of Fury
- Rising Sun Kick
Opening Sequence for Windwalker Monks
Windwalker Monks want two things for their opening sequence: getting resource generation going and getting their spells on cooldown as soon as possible. As long as a spell is not on cooldown, you are not gaining anything from it, and as long as you are capped on Energy, you are wasting the regeneration.
In addition, the opening sequence is one of the key moments in a raid encounter when all your offensive cooldowns are up at the same time. This allows you to maximize their synergies.
Here is a sample opening sequence following these rules:
Prior to the fight beginning, you should use whichever Battle Potion you have before entering combat. It is also possible to use Chi Torpedo a few seconds before the fight starts to get the Movement Speed buff from it stacked as you Torpedo a second time into the encounter.
- Expel Harm before pull
- Chi Wave on pull
- Invoke Xuen
- Faeline Stomp
- Storm, Earth, and Fire
- Tiger Palm
- Fists of Fury
- Rising Sun Kick
- Tiger Palm
- Strike of the Windlord
- Tiger Palm
- Rising Sun Kick
Following this, proceed with your usual rotation.
Amirdrassil, the Dream's Hope Tier Set Bonus
The Amirdrassil raid features a new tier set for you to collect, and comes with two unique bonuses when wearing at least two or four pieces of its equipment:
- Monk Windwalker 10.2 Class Set 2pc — Free Spinning Crane Kicks grant Blackout Reinforcement, increasing the damage of your next Blackout Kick by 150%. Melee abilities have a chance to grant Blackout Reinforcement.
- Monk Windwalker 10.2 Class Set 4pc — Blackout Reinforcement empowered Blackout Kicks reduce the cooldown of Fists of Fury, Rising Sun Kick, Strike of the Windlord, and Whirling Dragon Punch by 3.0 sec. Damage of Fists of Fury, Rising Sun Kick, Strike of the Windlord, and Whirling Dragon Punch increased by 4%.
Although these set bonuses are strong enough to use, they do not result in any reasonable changes to our priorities.
If you would like to learn more about which pieces of the tier set to focus on acquiring from the Amirdrassil, please see the gearing section of this guide, linked below.
Mastering your Rotation: Lining up Cooldowns
Windwalker Monks have access to many spells with cooldowns, ranging from a few seconds, like Rising Sun Kick, to a couple of minutes, like Touch of Death. Sometimes, they will line up naturally and deal increased damage when used in combination, and sometimes they will not. Knowing when to delay the use of certain spells or not will make a great difference in optimizing your performance as a Windwalker Monk.
First and foremost, Storm, Earth, and Fire is your most important offensive cooldown and the one that depends most on other spells. Using it at the wrong moment will simply be a waste. Luckily, you have up to two stacks of Storm, Earth, and Fire. This means you can wait up to 3 minutes to use it without ever wasting its Cooldown. Thanks to that, Windwalkers are one of the most flexible DPS specializations available.
When you decide to use a stack of Storm, Earth, and Fire, make sure you fit the maximum number of damaging cooldowns within its duration: 2 Rising Sun Kicks, 3 if Bloodlust is up, a Fists of Fury channel, followed by a Whirling Dragon Punch.
Last, you should be aware that there are at least two times in any raid encounter when you have all your spells up at the same time. The first one is the opening sequence, while the second one is the end of the encounter. Towards the end of a fight, when it becomes obvious that the encounter will end one way or another before you get another cast of your spells; it is advised not to cast them instantly but instead, wait as long as possible to line them up. Even though some may not benefit from one another (for instance, Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger does not benefit from any other spell we have), this is a prime opportunity for you to use a Battle Potion in combination with all your spells. Some encounters will not allow for this, as they have other timings which require cooldown usage; however, as a rule of thumb, it will help you maximize your output.
Changelog
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated and Reviewed for Patch 10.2, updated priorities and tier set information.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Updated and Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7, no changes necessary.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated and Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5, no changes necessary.
- 01 May 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1, moved Rising Sun Kick higher in the priority.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Season 1, added notes about the Vault of the Incarnates tier bonuses.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch, removed Shadowlands stuff.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Monk Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide is written and maintained by Babylonius; Guild Master and Raider in Occasional Excellence on US-Turalyon; Eight year veteran of Windwalker; Founder and owner of the dedicated Monk website, Peak of Serenity; and Admin/Owner of the Monk discord, PeakofSerenity. You can find him on Twitch, Twitter, and occasionally YouTube.
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