Windwalker Monk DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (11.1.5)

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.

1. Tiger Palm
2. Rising Sun Kick
3. Tiger Palm
4. Invoke Xuen
5. Storm, Earth, and Fire
6. Rising Sun Kick
7. Strike of the Windlord
8. Fists of Fury
9. Slicing Winds
10. Tiger Palm
11. Rising Sun Kick
12. Whirling Dragon Punch
13. Fists of Fury if you have enough Haste to make this happen immediately.
14. Celestial Conduit
15. Proceed with the Heart of the Jade Serpent priority until that buff runs out, then return to the primary Conduit of the Celestials Priority.

1. Strike of the Windlord without active Heart of the Jade Serpent
2. Celestial Conduit without active Heart of the Jade Serpent
3. Rising Sun Kick with Xuen's Battlegear buff
4. Tiger Palm if <5 Chi AND about to cap energy
5. Spinning Crane Kick with two stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji buff
6. Whirling Dragon Punch
7. Crackling Jade Lightning at 20 Last Emperor's Capacitor stacks
8. Slicing Winds
9. Fists of Fury
10. Rising Sun Kick
11. Blackout Kick try not to overcap Teachings of the Monastery stacks
12. Spinning Crane Kick with Dance of Chi-Ji buff
13. Chi Burst
14. Crackling Jade Lightning try not to overcap Last Emperor's Capacitor stacks
15. Blackout Kick

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.

1. Fists of Fury
2. Rising Sun Kick
3. Slicing Winds
4. Spinning Crane Kick with two stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji buff
5. Whirling Dragon Punch
6. Tiger Palm
7. Blackout Kick with two stacks of Courageous Impulse
8. Spinning Crane Kick with Dance of Chi-Ji buff

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.

1. Tiger Palm
2. Tiger Palm if less than 5 Chi (yes, really)
3. Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger
4. Storm, Earth, and Fire
5. Strike of the Windlord
6. Slicing Winds
7. Fists of Fury
8. Tiger Palm
9. Rising Sun Kick
10. Spinning Crane Kick with two stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji buff
11. Whirling Dragon Punch
12. Spinning Crane Kick
13. Fists of Fury if you have enough haste and Heart of the Jade Serpent is still up
14. Celestial Conduit
15. Proceed with the Heart of the Jade Serpent priority until that buff runs out, then return to the primary Conduit of the Celestials Priority.

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.

1. Strike of the Windlord without active Heart of the Jade Serpent
2. Celestial Conduit without active Heart of the Jade Serpent
3. Spinning Crane Kick with two stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji buff
4. Tiger Palm if <5 Chi AND about to cap energy
5. Crackling Jade Lightning at 20 Last Emperor's Capacitor stacks
6. Slicing Winds
7. Rising Sun Kick then Whirling Dragon Punch
8. Fists of Fury
9. Rising Sun Kick with Xuen's Battlegear buff
10. Blackout Kick with two stacks of Blackout Kick!
11. Spinning Crane Kick with Dance of Chi-Ji buff
12. Chi Burst
13. Spinning Crane Kick
14. Blackout Kick

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.

1. Spinning Crane Kick with two stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji buff
2. Crackling Jade Lightning at 20 Last Emperor's Capacitor stacks
3. Fists of Fury
4. Spinning Crane Kick at 20 Jade Ignition stacks
5. Rising Sun Kick with Xuen's Battlegear buff
6. Rising Sun Kick
7. Slicing Winds
8. Tiger Palm if <5 Chi AND about to cap energy
9. Blackout Kick with two stacks of Blackout Kick!
10. Spinning Crane Kick with Dance of Chi-Ji buff

1. Tiger Palm
2. Rising Sun Kick
3. Tiger Palm
4. Invoke Xuen
5. Storm, Earth, and Fire
6. Rising Sun Kick
7. Strike of the Windlord
8. Tiger Palm
9. Fists of Fury
10. Rising Sun Kick
11. Whirling Dragon Punch
12. Proceed with your normal Rotation according to the priority list below.

1. Rising Sun Kick with Pressure Points buff
2. Tiger Palm if <5 Chi AND about to cap energy
3. Spinning Crane Kick with two stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji buff
4. Strike of the Windlord
5. Whirling Dragon Punch
6. Crackling Jade Lightning at 20 Last Emperor's Capacitor stacks
7. Slicing Winds
8. Fists of Fury
9. Rising Sun Kick
10. Blackout Kick try not to overcap Teachings of the Monastery stacks
11. Spinning Crane Kick with Dance of Chi-Ji buff
12. Chi Burst
13. Crackling Jade Lightning try not to overcap Last Emperor's Capacitor
14. Blackout 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.

1. Tiger Palm
2. Rising Sun Kick
3. Tiger Palm
4. Invoke Xuen
5. Storm, Earth, and Fire
6. Rising Sun Kick
7. Strike of the Windlord
8. Tiger Palm
9. Fists of Fury
10. Rising Sun Kick
11. Whirling Dragon Punch
12. Proceed with your normal Rotation according to the priority list below.

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.

1. Tiger Palm if <5 Chi AND about to cap energy
2. Spinning Crane Kick with 2 stacks of Dance of Chi-Ji buff
3. Rising Sun Kick then Whirling Dragon Punch
4. Strike of the Windlord
5. Slicing Winds
6. Crackling Jade Lightning try not to overcap Last Emperor's Capacitor stacks with Power of the Thunder King talented
7. Fists of Fury
8. Spinning Crane Kick
9. Rising Sun Kick with Xuen's Battlegear buff
10. Jadefire Stomp
11. Spinning Crane Kick
12. Chi Burst
13. Blackout Kick