Windwalker Monk DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (11.1.7)
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 — The War Within (11.1.7).
Windwalker Monk Rotation for The War Within
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.
Each of the sections below explain the rotation for Windwalker Monk at different target counts. Click the boxes to switch to the desired damage type.
Windwalker Monk Rotation
Rotation Goals for Windwalker Monk
Manage Energy and Chi - Outside of big Haste cooldowns,
Windwalker's damage is restricted by how many resources we can
generate and spend. This means that sitting at the Energy cap
or generating more Chi than you have space for typically results
in lost damage potential. Your focus is balancing having enough
Chi for spenders and using 
Blackout Kick just enough to prevent
overcapping without using it too much and not having the Chi
you need when a bigger spender becomes available.
During major cooldowns, you will often have more Energy and Chi than you can use due to the GCD and cooldowns of Chi spenders, making avoiding the caps less impactful, but still something to be aware of.
Keep Abilities on cooldown - With most of our Chi spenders having their own cooldowns, it is important to reduce the amount of time that these harder-hitting abilities are sitting off cooldown without being used. There will, inevitably, be overlaps where you'll have to choose what to press based on the priority list. A key part of playing Windwalker recognizing that one of these situations is approaching and trying to have enough Chi for what you need to do.
React to procs - Windwalker has several procs that
you'll need to manage in order to maximize damage potential.
The main ones are 
Dance of Chi-Ji and Blackout Kick.
Both of these can stack to 2 so that you don't need to immediately
use them. However, you will want to avoid risking overstacking, as
that is lost damage potential. These procs can play an integral part
in helping you balance your resources while still benefitting from
Mastery: Combo Strikes. They can also throw off what you were planning,
so being able to react intelligently and quickly is important.
In the Single-Target and AoE sections, you will find a highly detailed priority list breakdown of the Rotation, as well as optimal openers.
Single-Target Opener for Windwalker Monk
Tiger Palm 
Rising Sun Kick - Tiger Palm
Invoke Xuen 
Storm, Earth, and Fire - Rising Sun Kick
Strike of the Windlord 
Fists of Fury 
Slicing Winds - Tiger Palm
- Rising Sun Kick
Whirling Dragon Punch - Fists of Fury if you have enough Haste to make this happen immediately.
Celestial Conduit -
Proceed with the
Heart of the Jade Serpent priority until that buff runs out, then return to the primary 
Conduit of the Celestials Priority.
Conduit of the CelestialsSingle-Target Rotation for Windwalker Monk
- Strike of the Windlord without active Heart of the Jade Serpent
- Celestial Conduit without active Heart of the Jade Serpent
- Rising Sun Kick with Xuen's Battlegear buff
- Tiger Palm if <5 Chi AND about to cap energy
Spinning Crane Kick with two stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji buff- Whirling Dragon Punch
Crackling Jade Lightning at 20 
Last Emperor's Capacitor stacks- Slicing Winds
- Fists of Fury
- Rising Sun Kick
Blackout Kick try not to overcap 
Teachings of the Monastery stacks- Spinning Crane Kick with Dance of Chi-Ji buff
Chi Burst - Crackling Jade Lightning try not to overcap Last Emperor's Capacitor stacks
- Blackout Kick
Single-Target Rotation during Heart of the Jade Serpent
Heart of the Jade Serpent is a strong cooldown window that requires its own priority.
You will want to follow this priority while you have the buff and the general priority when the buff is not present.
- Fists of Fury
- Rising Sun Kick
- Slicing Winds
- Spinning Crane Kick with two stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji buff
- Whirling Dragon Punch
- Tiger Palm
- Blackout Kick with two stacks of
Courageous Impulse - Spinning Crane Kick with Dance of Chi-Ji buff
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.
AoE Opener for Windwalker Monk
- Tiger Palm
- Tiger Palm if less than 5 Chi (yes, really)
Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger - Storm, Earth, and Fire
- Strike of the Windlord
- Slicing Winds
- Fists of Fury
- Tiger Palm
- Rising Sun Kick
- Spinning Crane Kick with two stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji buff
- Whirling Dragon Punch
- Spinning Crane Kick
- Fists of Fury if you have enough haste and Heart of the Jade Serpent is still up
- Celestial Conduit
-
Proceed with the Heart of the Jade Serpent priority until that buff runs out, then return to the primary Conduit of the Celestials Priority.
AoE Rotation for Windwalker Monk
Against multiple enemies, the rotation is also based on a priority system, and it depends slightly based on how many enemies you are facing.
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.
- Strike of the Windlord without active Heart of the Jade Serpent
- Celestial Conduit without active Heart of the Jade Serpent
- Spinning Crane Kick with two stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji buff
- Tiger Palm if <5 Chi AND about to cap energy
- Crackling Jade Lightning at 20 Last Emperor's Capacitor stacks
- Slicing Winds
- Rising Sun Kick then Whirling Dragon Punch
- Fists of Fury
- Rising Sun Kick with Xuen's Battlegear buff
- Blackout Kick with two stacks of Blackout Kick!
- Spinning Crane Kick with Dance of Chi-Ji buff
- Chi Burst
- Spinning Crane Kick
- Blackout Kick
AoE Rotation during Heart of the Jade Serpent
Heart of the Jade Serpent is a strong cooldown window that requires its own priority.
You will want to follow this priority while you have the buff and the general priority when the buff is not present.
- Spinning Crane Kick with two stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji buff
- Crackling Jade Lightning at 20 Last Emperor's Capacitor stacks
- Fists of Fury
- Spinning Crane Kick at 20
Jade Ignition stacks - Rising Sun Kick with Xuen's Battlegear buff
- Rising Sun Kick
- Slicing Winds
- Tiger Palm if <5 Chi AND about to cap energy
- Blackout Kick with two stacks of Blackout Kick!
- Spinning Crane Kick with Dance of Chi-Ji buff
Shado-Pan Single-Target Opener for Windwalker Monk
Shado-Pan- Tiger Palm
- Rising Sun Kick
- Tiger Palm
- Invoke Xuen
- Storm, Earth, and Fire
- Rising Sun Kick
- Strike of the Windlord
- Tiger Palm
- Fists of Fury
- Rising Sun Kick
- Whirling Dragon Punch
- Proceed with your normal Rotation according to the priority list below.
Shado-Pan Single-Target Rotation for Windwalker Monk
- Rising Sun Kick with
Pressure Points buff - Tiger Palm if <5 Chi AND about to cap energy
- Spinning Crane Kick with two stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji buff
- Strike of the Windlord
- Whirling Dragon Punch
- Crackling Jade Lightning at 20 Last Emperor's Capacitor stacks
- Slicing Winds
- Fists of Fury
- Rising Sun Kick
- Blackout Kick try not to overcap Teachings of the Monastery stacks
- Spinning Crane Kick with Dance of Chi-Ji buff
- Chi Burst
- Crackling Jade Lightning try not to overcap Last Emperor's Capacitor
- Blackout Kick
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.
Shado-Pan AoE Opener for Windwalker Monk
- Tiger Palm
- Rising Sun Kick
- Tiger Palm
- Invoke Xuen
- Storm, Earth, and Fire
- Rising Sun Kick
- Strike of the Windlord
- Tiger Palm
- Fists of Fury
- Rising Sun Kick
- Whirling Dragon Punch
- Proceed with your normal Rotation according to the priority list below.
Shado-Pan AoE Rotation for Windwalker Monk
Against multiple enemies, the rotation is also based on a priority system, and it depends slightly based on how many enemies you are facing.
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.
- Tiger Palm if <5 Chi AND about to cap energy
- Spinning Crane Kick with 2 stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji buff
- Rising Sun Kick then Whirling Dragon Punch
- Strike of the Windlord
- Slicing Winds
- Crackling Jade Lightning try not to overcap Last Emperor's Capacitor stacks with
Power of the Thunder King talented - Fists of Fury
- Spinning Crane Kick
- Rising Sun Kick with Xuen's Battlegear buff
Jadefire Stomp - Spinning Crane Kick
- Chi Burst
- Blackout Kick
Windwalker Monk Single-Button Rotation Assistant
Windwalker Monks, along with every other specialization, has access to a
Combat Assistant in their spellbook, which can perform a simplified version
of the damage rotation all on a single keybind. In exchange, any time this assistant
is used, your global cooldown will be increased by 25% for that ability—in
other words, using it will cause a global cooldown of 1.25 seconds rather than
the default of 1 second on a Windwalker. It will also not repeat abilities in order to
keep up our Mastery and 
Hit Combo. The abilities that this assistant will
attempt to use for you in roughly their priority are the following:
Touch of Death- Storm, Earth, and Fire
- Strike of the Windlord
- Celestial Conduit
- Spinning Crane Kick with 2 stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji
- Tiger Palm if Chi is needed
- Crackling Jade Lightning with 20 stacks of
The Emperor's Capacitor - Whirling Dragon Punch
- Fists of Fury
- Rising Sun Kick
- Blackout Kick with the Blackout Kick proc
- Chi Burst
- Spinning Crane Kick with more than 3 targets
- Jadefire Stomp if talented
- Blackout Kick if less than 3 targets
- Tiger Palm to spend Energy
Note that this list does not include any defensive abilities or the
major cooldown 
Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger.
If you are making use of the assistant, do not
forget to still use them, or your damage potential will suffer
tremendously!
Can I Use the Rotation Assistant to Play Effectively as a Windwalker Monk?
The simulations state that using the Rotation Assistant results in the following damage loss:
Single Target:
- Assisted Highlight: About ~15% DPS Loss if using Cooldowns, ~30% loss without Cooldowns.
- Single-Button Assistant: About ~26% DPS Loss if using Cooldowns, ~38% loss without Cooldowns.
Multi-Target:
- Assisted Highlight: About ~16% DPS Loss if using Cooldowns, ~32% loss without Cooldowns.
- Single-Button Assistant: About ~27% DPS Loss if using Cooldowns, ~40% loss without Cooldowns.
Windwalker is largely seen as one of the more difficult specs to play and master. This means that the potential loss from using the Rotation Assistant is likely to be smaller than the sims will say. This is because the sims play "perfectly" and many players do not, especially players new to the spec and playstyle. There may also be a gain for some players in fight situations where focusing on the mechanics results in a loss of DPS or focusing on DPS results in taking more damage than you need to and potentially dying. For these reasons it is impossible to say how much damage loss you may face by using this tool or by doing things "manually".
You should still continue to think of the assistant as a training tool rather than a full replacement. To that end, there is a separate option you can enable to highlight the recommended ability to press next without suffering from the cooldown penalty. With the help of this highlighting feature or the assistant's one-button rotation, you can then focus on improving other parts of your gameplay as a Windwalker.
Addons for Windwalker Monk Rotation
Check out our Addons page below for some recommended Addons to get the most out of your Windwalker Monk!
Macros for Windwalker Monk Rotation
Check out our Macros page below for some recommended Macros to get the most out of your Windwalker Monk!
Mythic+ Tips and Tricks for Windwalker Monk
For information about Mythic+ as a Windwalker Monk, please refer to our Mythic+ page.
Changelog
- 15 Jun. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.1.7, added section on Rotation Assist.
- 21 Apr. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.1.5, no changes needed.
- 24 Feb. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.1, added rotation information for Conduit and Heart windows.
- 15 Dec. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.7.
- 22 Oct. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.5.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Reviewed and updated for The War Within Launch, changed the "includes".
- 23 Jul. 2024: Reviewed and updated for The War Within Prepatch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4, removed information about S3 tier bonus.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6, no changes necessary.
- 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; Raider in Zero Pecent Wipe; Twelve 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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