Windwalker Monk DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Dragonflight 10.1
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 10.1.
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 <6 Chi AND about to cap energy
Tiger Palm if <5 Chi AND about to cap energy
Faeline Stomp if targets don't have
Faeline Harmony debuff
Strike of the Windlord
Whirling Dragon Punch
Rising Sun Kick with
Xuen's Battlegear crit buff
Fists of Fury
Rising Sun Kick
Spinning Crane Kick with
Dance of Chi-Ji proc
Blackout Kick DO NOT OVERCAP
Teachings of the Monastery
Blackout Kick
Rushing Jade Wind
Chi Wave
Faeline Stomp
Chi Burst
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
Expel Harm if <6 Chi AND about to cap energy
Tiger Palm if <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
Fists of Fury
Whirling Dragon Punch and
Rising Sun Kick
Rushing Jade Wind
Rising Sun Kick
Spinning Crane Kick
Blackout Kick DO NOT OVERCAP
Teachings of the Monastery
Faeline Stomp
Chi Burst
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 minutes 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 for the full channel duration
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 for the full channel duration
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.
Vault of the Incarnates Tier Set Bonus
The Vault of the Incarnates 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:
Windwalker Monk 2pc —
Fists of Fury increases the damage dealt by your next 2
Rising Sun Kicks or
Spinning Crane Kicks by 30%.
Windwalker Monk 4pc —
Fists of Fury now instead enhances your next 3
Rising Sun Kicks or
Spinning Crane Kicks and enhanced kicks increase the damage of your next
Fists of Fury by 5%, stacking up to 3 times.
Although these set bonuses are very strong, especially Windwalker Monk 2pc,
they do not result in any reasonable changes to our priorities. It should be very easy
to use the buffed
Rising Sun Kicks and
Spinning Crane Kicks between casts of
Fists of Fury.
If you would like to learn more about which pieces of the tier set to focus on acquiring from the Vault of the Incarnates, 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
- 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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