Mists of Pandaria Classic Windwalker Monk Talent Builds

On this page, we outline the most effective talent and glyph options available to Windwalker Monks in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. We explain the function of each talent and glyph, along with the situations in which they are most beneficial.

There is no longer a single 'default' talent build, as most talents are now viable choices. They can be easily swapped using Dust of Disappearance, or Tome of the Clear Mind for characters between levels 86 and 90. You will often need to adjust your talents and glyphs between encounters to better suit specific mechanics. As a result, it is essential to understand the effects of each talent and how they influence your play style.

• Celerity — Celerity passively reduces the recharge time of Roll and Chi Torpedo by 5 seconds and increases their charges by 1.
• Tiger's Lust — removes all immobilizing and movement-slowing effects from the target and increases their movement speed by 70% for 6 seconds. It has a 30-second cooldown and can be used on yourself or a friendly target.
• Momentum — passively increases your movement speed by 25% for 10 seconds each time you use Roll or Chi Torpedo, stacking up to two times.

Although the optimal talent can vary depending on the encounter, Tiger's Lust is usually the superior choice in most situations. The bonuses to Roll provided by Celerity and Momentum are often redundant, as Roll alone generally meets movement needs. Tiger's Lust, on the other hand, offers an additional burst of speed and the added benefit of removing movement-impairing effects, which can be especially helpful in certain PvE scenarios.

• Chi Wave — functions as a chain heal/lightning, that jumps between the 7 nearest targets, alternating between allies and enemies. Each bounce either heals or damages its target based on their alignment. The healing is smart-targeted, prioritizing allies with the lowest health. It has a 15-second cooldown and costs no resources.
• Zen Sphere — Zen Sphere creates a healing sphere above a friendly target, which can also be yourself, lasting 16 seconds. Every 2 seconds, it heals the target and deals damage to the nearest enemy within 10 yards. The ability has a 10-second cooldown and is free to use. You can have up to two spheres active at once. If the target’s health drops below 35% or when the duration expires, the sphere detonates, dealing moderate healing and damage to all nearby units within 10 yards.
• Chi Burst — emits a wave in a 40-yard cone in front of the caster, healing all friendly targets and damaging all enemies within its range. It has a short cast time, a 30-second cooldown, and costs no resources.

Chi Wave is used in your single-target rotation and provides a solid boost to single-target DPS. In multi-target scenarios (hitting three or more enemies), Chi Burst offers a greater DPS benefit. Zen Sphere, however, is not considered a viable option for DPS.

• Power Strikes — passively causes Jab, Expel Harm, Spinning Crane Kick (when it hits at least three enemies), and Crackling Jade Lightning to generate one extra Chi. This effect has a 20-second internal cooldown. If you’re already at maximum Chi when it triggers, a Chi sphere will spawn near you. Walking over the Chi sphere consumes it and grants you 1 Chi.
• Ascension — increases your maximum Chi by 1 (raising it from 4 to 5), boosts your total mana by 15%, and increases your energy regeneration rate by 15%.
• Chi Brew — instantly restores 2 Chi and grants 2 stacks of Tigereye Brew. It has a 45-second cooldown.

In most situations, Chi Brew is considered the strongest option. It’s especially valuable during phases that require high burst DPS, such as when dealing with dangerous adds, thanks to its ability to instantly generate Chi and Tigereye Brew stacks.

Ascension is also a solid choice. Increasing your maximum Chi by 1 makes resource management more forgiving, and the passive boost to energy regeneration helps maintain a smoother flow throughout the fight. Furthermore, Ascension excels in AoE situations. When focusing on AoE damage, energy becomes more critical than Chi—for for sustaining Spinning Crane Kick or Rushing Jade Wind (a Tier 6 talent often chosen for AoE builds).

Power Strikes is only worth considering in encounters with frequent and predictable downtime. Its 20-second internal cooldown continues even when you're not attacking, which can result in a Chi gain as soon as combat resumes. However, such scenarios are relatively uncommon.

• Ring of Peace — can be cast on a friendly target, creating an 8-yard radius ring around them that lasts for 8 seconds. Enemy players within the ring are immediately disarmed for 4 seconds and silenced for 3 seconds. Additionally, any enemies inside the ring who cast spells or use non-melee abilities will also be disarmed and silenced for the same durations. Both effects are subject to diminishing returns and Ring of Peace has a 45-second cooldown.
• Charging Ox Wave — summons an ox that charges forward, stunning all enemies in a 30-yard line in front of you for 3 seconds. It has a 30-second cooldown.
• Leg Sweep — stuns all enemies within 5 yards of you for 5 seconds. This ability has a 45-second cooldown.

These talents have little to no impact on your core gameplay and will not significantly affect your performance. As such, you can select them based on personal preference or the specific crowd-control needs of the encounter. That said, Leg Sweep proves especially useful in certain raid encounters, while Ring of Peace can also offer valuable situational utility in some fights.

• Healing Elixirs — restores 15% of your maximum health each time you consume a Brew or Tea. This effect has an internal cooldown of 18 seconds and does not trigger if you are at full health. It will automatically activate if your health drops below 35%.
• Dampen Harm — reduces the damage of the next three attacks against you (within 45 seconds) by 50%, provided each attack deals at least 20% of your maximum health. This ability has a cooldown of 1.5 minutes.
• Diffuse Magic — removes all magical debuffs currently affecting you. For the next 6 seconds, it reduces all magic damage taken by 90% and reflects all spells back to their caster.

While Healing Elixirs can provide meaningful self-healing over the duration of a fight, its effectiveness is limited by its dependency on the use of other abilities. This makes the healing less reliable, as it may either be wasted when not needed or force you to delay important abilities in order to take advantage of the healing effect. Therefore we believe that the most effective choice is either Dampen Harm or Diffuse Magic.

Diffuse Magic is generally the stronger option. It significantly reduces incoming magic damage, which constitutes the majority of raid damage, and also removes harmful magic debuffs from yourself. Dampen Harm can also be valuable, though it typically offers less overall damage mitigation compared to Diffuse Magic. Despite the somewhat unclear wording in its tooltip, Dampen Harm functions against both magic and physical attacks. Its 45-second duration allows it to mitigate several heavy hits spaced out over time, making it useful in certain scenarios.

• Rushing Jade Wind — is an upgraded version of Spinning Crane Kick, which it replaces. While it deals only 80% of the damage and healing of Spinning Crane Kick, it is instant and not channeled, allowing you to continue casting other spells while it is active.
• Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger — summons a white tiger that attacks your current target as well as up to three nearby enemies. The tiger remains active for 45 seconds and can be controlled using the pet action bar. This ability has a 3-minute cooldown.
• Chi Torpedo — is an enhanced version of Roll, replacing it. It propels you a short distance forward, dealing damage to all enemies and healing all allies in your path.

At present, Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger offers the highest single-target DPS increase among the three talent options, while Rushing Jade Wind becomes the superior choice when cleaving three or more targets for the majority of the encounter. Chi Torpedo serves a hybrid purpose by contributing both damage and healing. However, from a pure DPS perspective, it is currently not a favorable option.

There are several Major Glyphs that may be of interest to Windwalker Monks, although they do not provide any direct performance benefits. Below, we highlight only those we consider to be the most noteworthy.

• Glyph of Touch of Karma increases the range of your Touch of Karma ability. Since Touch of Karma is a powerful defensive cooldown, this glyph is useful when there is no enemy within melee range, allowing you to activate it more flexibly.
• Glyph of Zen Meditation allows you to move while channeling Zen Meditation. This is especially helpful, as Zen Meditation is often used to soak damage, and being able to reposition during the channel is a significant advantage.
• Glyph of Fortuitous Spheres causes a healing sphere to appear near the Monk when their health drops below 25%. This effect has no cost and a 30-second internal cooldown. It is particularly useful if you have an unused glyph slot, and in encounters where your health frequently falls below the 25% threshold.
• Glyph of Touch of Death removes the Chi cost of Touch of Death, but increases its cooldown by 2 minutes. Because using Touch of Death on a raid boss is challenging (you must cast it when the boss's health is between approximately 400,000 and 0) eliminating the Chi requirement can help ensure you use it at the optimal moment.
• Glyph of Spinning Crane Kick removes the movement speed reduction while channeling Spinning Crane Kick, making it a practical option for dealing AoE damage while moving.

There is a Minor Glyph for Windwalker Monks that can increase your dps, along with a few others that offer situational utility:

• Glyph of Blackout Kick causes Blackout Kick to behave as if it were used from behind the target, applying an additional 20% of its damage over 4 seconds, regardless of your actual positioning. The drawback is that you will no longer receive the self-healing benefit when attacking from the front. While this glyph has limited use in standard situations, since you should typically be positioned behind the target, it can be valuable when enemies are moving frequently or when mechanics prevent rear attacks.

Glyph of Spirit Roll and Glyph of Water Roll allow you to use Roll and Chi Torpedo while dead and while moving across water, respectively. These glyphs have no impact in raid encounters but can be quite convenient in other scenarios.