Mists of Pandaria Classic Windwalker Monk Rotation and Cooldowns

On this page, we provide a list of your core Windwalker Monk abilities and explain how they should be used together (rotation) in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria 5.4. We also describe the appropriate situations for using your various cooldowns. Following that, we delve deeper into the finer details that you will need to understand in order to excel at playing a Windwalker Monk. As a Windwalker Monk, you want to be in Stance of the Fierce Tiger (default stance) all the time.

Before venturing into the rotations, it makes sense to talk about the Monks' two basic resources: Chi and Energy.

Chi is the new Monk-specific resource.

• Chi is generated by several abilities, the most notable of which is Jab.
• Chi is consumed by many essential abilities that form part of your rotation.
• You can hold a maximum of 4 Chi, or 5 if you have selected the Ascension talent.
• Chi decays quickly when you are out of combat, but it remains intact while you are in combat.
• If you generate Chi while already at maximum capacity, the additional Chi will be wasted. The only exception to this is Chi generated through the Power Strikes talent. This talent causes a Chi sphere to spawn whenever Chi would otherwise be wasted. Walking over this sphere grants you 1 Chi.

Energy is a resource known from Feral Druids and Rogues.

• Energy is primarily spent on Chi-generating abilities, with Jab being the most notable example.
• Energy is generated passively, and its regeneration speed is influenced by your Haste. In addition, certain abilities also grant Energy.
• You can store up to a maximum of 100 Energy.
• Energy does not decay. As a result, your default state outside of combat is typically a full Energy bar.
• If you are at maximum capacity, any additional Energy you would generate will be wasted.

The Windwalker Monk Single Target rotation is more of a priority list and is divided into Chi building and Chi spending abilities. When at 2 or less Chi, use Chi builders, at 3 or more Chi use Chi Spenders. Make sure to not forget your cooldowns. Using them properly and frequently makes the difference between a good and a very good player.

1. Use Expel Harm if you are not at full health. To make Expel Harm worthwhile, you must be missing at least twice the amount of health that Jab would deal as damage.
2. Use Jab as your default Chi builder. It is also your primary method of spending Energy.
3. If you have selected the Chi Brew talent, use it frequently enough to ensure that at least one of its two charges is always recharging.

1. Maintain 100% uptime on Tiger Power, the self-buff applied by Tiger Palm:
   • Cast Tiger Palm at the start of the fight to apply the buff.
   • Cast Tiger Palm again if the buff is about to expire.
   • You will often be able to cast free Tiger Palms Jab proccing Combo Breaker, a passive ability, which helps significantly in maintaining the Tiger Power buff.
2. Use Rising Sun Kick on cooldown to apply the debuff from this ability 100% of the time.
3. Use Fists of Fury on cooldown, if:
   • Rising Sun Kick will not come off cooldown during the Fists of Fury channel time.
   • You will not reach maximum Energy while channeling Fists of Fury (either naturally or due to Energizing Brew).
   • Tiger Power has at least 5 seconds remaining on its duration.
   • You will not be forced to move and break the channel.
4. Use Blackout Kick and Tiger Palm when you receive a proc from Combo Breaker. It is important to use these procs before using Jab again.
5. Use Chi Wave (Tier 2 talent) on cooldown, as long as you are not about to reach maximum Energy.
6. Use Blackout Kick to spend excess Chi when no other higher-priority options are available. If you kill an enemy with Blackout Kick, there is a 50% chance to summon a Chi Sphere, restoring 1 Chi when you walk over it.
7. Use Flying Serpent Kick, if you have no Chi or Energy available.

It is very helpful and recommended that you get a WeakAura, which tracks the uptime of your Tiger Power and Rising Sun Kick buffs / debuffs.

Spinning Fire Blossom can be used, if you want to damage a target further than 10 yards, or have no way of attacking it otherwise. When closer than 10 yards to the target, this ability will do too little damage to be useful.

Afterlife summons a Healing Sphere near you, whenever you kill an enemy that grants / would have granted experience points. The healing from it is minor, but better than no healing at all.

The AoE rotation differs between up to two, and more than two targets. In any case, Chi Burst is a DPS increase against multiple targets and should be used as Chi Wave.

You use Storm, Earth, and Fire, if your enemies all have equal priority, are alive/attackable for 10 seconds or longer, and your Storm, Earth, and Fire clones will be alive during all the time they attack your target. Otherwise, just use your single-target rotation.

In this scenario, use Storm, Earth, and Fire on the two targets that will survive longest. Then continue your normal rotation, except that for AoE heavy fights, Ascension and Rushing Jade Wind are the best talents and after Storm, Earth and Fire, Rushing Jade Wind will be your highest priority ability.

As a Windwalker Monk, you have several damage-dealing cooldowns. They are most effective when used as follows:

• Energizing Brew should be used on cooldown, provided that doing so does not cause you to reach maximum Energy. It restores 60 Energy over 6 seconds and has a 1-minute cooldown. To maximize the effectiveness of this cooldown, you should aim to use it as many times as possible throughout the encounter. The only precaution is to avoid activating it while at maximum Energy. If you use it while you have more than 40 Energy, ensure that you use an Energy-consuming ability within the next 6 seconds.
• Tigereye Brew should be used when you have 10 or more stacks (never let it cap to 20 stacks) of the self-buff it generates passively. You may delay its use slightly in order to deliver stronger burst damage when needed. Make sure to stack it with damage increasing effects, such as trinket effects, Virmen's Bite, Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp, or with encounter phases where you deal extra damage or an enemy is is weakened.
• Touch of Death should be used whenever it is available, due to the extremely high amount of damage it deals. Keep watch for any targets against which it can be used (such as adds), since it is often difficult or even impossible to use it against a boss. It instantly kills any target that has less hit points than you currently have.
• The clear best choice for single-target encounters is Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger. This ability should be used as frequently as possible throughout the fight, even when facing a single target. However, if there are moments during the encounter when multiple targets become available, it is advisable to save the ability for those situations to maximize its effectiveness.

As a Windwalker Monk, you have several damage-dealing cooldowns. They are most effective when used as follows:

• Fortifying Brew increases your maximum health by 20% and reduces all damage taken by 20% for 20 seconds. It is a valuable defensive cooldown to use during periods of intense raid-wide damage or other particularly dangerous moments.
• Healing Sphere allows you to place up to three healing spheres on the ground. When a player walks over a sphere, it is consumed and the player is healed. These can be situationally useful, but they come with a high Energy cost, which results in a loss of DPS.
• Touch of Karma redirects all damage you take to your current target for 6 seconds, up to an amount equal to your total health. This ability can be used to deal additional damage to raid bosses when there is incoming raid damage.
• Zen Meditation redirects the next five harmful spells cast against your party or raid members to yourself, and also reduces all damage you take by 90% for 8 seconds. Since this ability is channeled, you cannot deal damage while it is active. The 90% damage reduction is extremely powerful. However, some spells of raid bosses cannot be redirected.

There are a few more important abilities and cooldowns every Windwalker should know, including:

• Power Strikes causes your Jab, Expel Harm, Spinning Crane Kick (when it hits at least three targets), and Crackling Jade Lightning to generate 3 Chi instead of 2. This effect has a 20-second internal cooldown. It is a passive bonus that does not influence your rotation and should simply be taken advantage of as it occurs.
• Chi Brew is a DPS cooldown. The optimal time to use it is when you have between 0 and 2 Chi. Depending on the encounter, you may try to time its use to enable burst damage, but in general, you should aim to use it as many times as possible throughout the fight to maximize its overall value.
• Roll is a mobility ability that is off-cooldown and allows you to quickly move 15 yards forward. It is a highly useful tool for traversing short distances and should be used frequently when repositioning. Whilst Roll has no has no resource cost and no cooldown, it uses charges. Every charge takes 20 seconds to recharge and you can hold up to two charges, basically allowing you to quickly reposition every 40 seconds. With the Celerity talent, you can gain three charges instead of two and the recharge per charge is lowered to 15 seconds. While rollin', rollin', rollin' you cannot use abilities and you roll in to direction you are moving/facing. Objects and obstacles are unrollable and will prematurely stop you from rolling.
• Chi Torpedo replaces Roll and functions exactly like Roll, except it travels 5 yards farther and heals allies and damages enemies along its path.