Windwalker Monk DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Shadowlands 9.0.2

Level	Choices
15	✓ Eye of the Tiger	✓ Chi Wave	✓ Chi Burst
25	✓ Celerity	✓ Chi Torpedo	✓ Tiger's Lust
30	✓ Ascension	✓ Fist of the White Tiger	✓ Energizing Elixir
35	? Tiger Tail Sweep	✓ Good Karma	✓ Ring of Peace
40	? Inner Strength	✓ Diffuse Magic	✓ Dampen Harm
45	✓ Hit Combo	✗ Rushing Jade Wind	✓ Dance of Chi-Ji
50	✗ Spiritual Focus	✓ Whirling Dragon Punch	✗ Serenity

Talents can be freely changed when out of combat and in a rested XP area (such as an inn or a capital city). Moreover, Tome of the Tranquil Mind and Codex of the Tranquil Mind can be used to temporarily allow players to change talents anywhere, as long as they are out of combat.

Optimizing talents on a contextual basis is the highly recommended method of setting up your build. That being said, the builds listed below are very well rounded and should give you good results. For Mythic+, your choices will depend on whether the key is Fortified or Tyrannical, although other affixes are also important. Either way, you should generally use the AoE/Cleave build as a baseline for dungeons.

This is the best generic-single target build.

• Level 15: Chi Wave
• Level 25: Tiger's Lust
• Level 30: Fist of the White Tiger
• Level 35: Good Karma
• Level 40: Diffuse Magic
• Level 45: Hit Combo
• Level 50: Whirling Dragon Punch

This is our recommended build for encounters with cleave and intermittent AoE, as well as Mythic+ dungeons.

• Level 15: Chi Burst
• Level 25: Tiger's Lust
• Level 30: Energizing Elixir
• Level 35: Good Karma
• Level 40: Diffuse Magic
• Level 45: Dance of Chi-Ji
• Level 50: Whirling Dragon Punch

The builds suggested above do not account for specific fights in the current raid tier. If you wish to have a boss-by-boss breakdown of talent choices, you should check out our dedicated page below.

Mythic+ can potentially require a mix of certain AoE and Single-Target talents, depending on affixes and other variables. If you want advice that is specific to Mythic+, you should check out our page below.

There are multiple talents that require a change or addition to your rotation in order to use them optimally. You can find more information on how your rotation will look after selecting your talents on our rotation page below.

✔ Eye of the Tiger

✔ Chi Wave

✔ Chi Burst

• Eye of the Tiger causes Tiger Palm to also apply both a buff (to yourself) and a debuff (to the target) called Eye of the Tiger. On you, it is an 8-second HoT, while on the target it is an 8-second DoT (dealing Nature damage). The DoT may only be active on one target at a time.
• Chi Wave is an active ability with a 15-second cooldown. It is essentially a chain-heal that bounces to the 7 nearest targets (within 25 yards). The bounces target allies and enemies alternatively. Each target that the wave bounces to is healed or damaged (Nature damage), depending on their alignment. The healing portion of Chi Wave is a smart heal, in the sense that it prefers healing low health players.
• Chi Burst is an active ability with a 30-second cooldown. It heals all friendly targets, and damages all hostile targets in a 40-yard line in front of you.

In this tier, we recommend Chi Burst for AoE situations, and any other talent for single-target situations. These talents are close enough for single-target that you can default to Chi Burst or whatever you feel most comfortable with.

✔ Celerity

✔ Chi Torpedo

✔ Tiger's Lust

• Celerity passively increases the number of charges of Roll by 1, and reduces its cooldown by 5 seconds.
• Chi Torpedo replaces Roll. It causes you to roll a moderate distance in front of you (further than Roll), increasing your movement speed by 30% for 10 seconds. This effect stacks up to 2 times.
• Tiger's Lust is an active ability with a 30-second cooldown, which removes all roots and snares from the target, and grants them 70% increased movement speed for 6 seconds. It can be used either on yourself or on an ally.

In this tier that revolves around movement, the choice depends on your preference and on the requirements of the encounter.

Tiger's Lust is a great choice for a movement speed boost, and this should probably be your default choice, as it is not linked to Roll and is therefore more versatile.

All three options fill different needs and preferences. Due to the large amount of mobility available to Monk specialisation, you can usually use any of the talents.

Tiger's Lust can be used on allies which can be a life-saver for some slower specialisation. It will also occasionally remove some slow debuffs applied during encounters, linked to other effects.

✔ Ascension

✔ Fist of the White Tiger

✔ Energizing Elixir

• Energizing Elixir is an active ability with a 1-minute cooldown. It instantly restores all of your Energy and Chi.
• Ascension increases your maximum Chi by 1 and your Energy regeneration by 10%. It is not worth using in any scenario currently.
• Fist of the White Tiger gives you a strong Chi builder with a good damage component.

All three options are reasonable for single-target during the Pre-expansion patch. Fist of the White Tiger is by default the best option, if you feel that you struggle with resource management then Ascension becomes a strong option. Energizing Elixir becomes the best for sustained AoE situations, where its very easy to utilize all the resources it provides.

? Tiger Tail Sweep

✔ Good Karma

✔ Ring of Peace

• Tiger Tail Sweep reduces the cooldown and improves the range of Leg Sweep.
• Good Karma makes any damage prevented by Touch of Karma also heal you for the same amount.
• Ring of Peace places a ring on the ground which will knock away any enemy inside of it or entering it. This is occasionally game breaking in some encounters.

Only Good Karma affects your personal survivability. However, since it does not provide output anymore, you can use both other options in encounters that benefit from the added crowd control.

? Inner Strength

✔ Diffuse Magic

✔ Dampen Harm

• Inner Strength reduces the damage you take for a few seconds whenever you spend Chi. This will overall increase your effective health throughout the fight, reduce the healing you will require and decrease the chances of getting killed instantly in high level dungeon runs.
• Diffuse Magic reduces any magical damage you take.
• Dampen Harm reduces physical damage you take based on how large each hit is.

None of the talents in this row will affect your performance. You will use all three of them in different circumstances. By default, if you do not know what sort of damage you will be facing, or when you will use defensives, pick Inner Strength until you get a better idea.

As Diffuse Magic acts as a personal dispel, it can very often be game changing in raid or dungeon encounters. Also, this can damage your group if it is used at the wrong time. Be aware of its effects.

✔ Hit Combo

✘ Rushing Jade Wind

✔ Dance of Chi-Ji

• Rushing Jade Wind deals damage over 6 seconds at the cost of one Chi. It is a solid option for pure AoE encounters from a numbers perspective but is functionally very disruptive to the spec and makes the rest of its performance more difficult.
• Dance of Chi-Ji gives your Chi-spenders a chance to cause the next cast of Spinning Crane Kick to be free and deal 200% more damage.
• Hit Combo causes each successive attack that triggers Mastery: Combo Strikes grants 1% increased damage, stacking up to 6 times. The buff lasts for 10 seconds, with each new application refreshing its duration. However, the buff fades immediately when you use a series of attacks that would not trigger Combo Strikes (so, using the same attack twice in a row).

Hit Combo is the most flexible of the talent tier, being strong in both single-target and AoE encounters. Dance of Chi-Ji specializes in AoE encounters, but is dependent on frequency and timing of procs. Currently, due to tuning, Dance of Chi-Ji is generally the strongest in sustained AoE and mixed content like M+ and certain fights, where Hit Combo is generally the strongest for single target content.

✘ Spiritual Focus

✔ Whirling Dragon Punch

✘ Serenity

• Spiritual Focus reduces the cooldown on Storm, Earth, and Fire whenever you spend Chi.
• Whirling Dragon Punch is an active ability with a 24-second cooldown. It deals damage to all nearby enemies, but it can only be used while both Fists of Fury and Rising Sun Kick are on cooldown.
• Serenity is an active ability with a 90-second cooldown. For 12 seconds, you deal 20% increased damage (and your healing is also increased by 20%). Moreover, all abilities that cost Chi are free of cost and have a 50% reduced cooldown. Currently, it also makes both Fist of the White Tiger and Rushing Jade Wind free.

Whirling Dragon Punch is the default talent used in every scenario.

Spiritual Focus will reduce the cooldown on Storm, Earth, and Fire by around 22 seconds, depending on your haste and the situation. This does not make it compete on a single target with the alternatives, however, this may occasionally be an exception in encounters where burst cooldowns are valued much more than usual.

Enabling War Mode provides the following benefits:

• PvP talents enabled in the outdoor world.
• 10% increase in World Quest rewards at maximum level.
• 10% more experience gained while leveling.
• Earn Conquest Points which can reward gear every week.

With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended to enable the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at maximum level. However, you will make yourself available for open world PvP, and the possibility to be "ganked" while leveling or doing World Quests exists.

In this section we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking of both General PvP Talents and Windwalker Monk-specific PvE talents.

1. Adaptation is likely your most passive choice since it will automatically remove loss of control effects over 5 seconds. It is recommended for leveling to take this PvP talent.
2. Gladiator's Medallion is an on-use ability that removes all movement impairing effects and all loss of control effects.
3. Relentless is also a passive ability but it does not automatically remove crowd control abilities but instead reduces the duration.

1. Wind Waker grants you and allies affected by Windwalking an effect that makes them immune to slow and snare effects once every 30 seconds.
2. Reverse Harm doubles the healing of Expel Harm and provides an extra Chi when used.
3. Disabling Reach increases the range of your Disable to 10 yards.
4. Alpha Tiger grants you 30% Haste upon attacking a new target with Tiger Palm. This can happen once every 30 seconds per target.
5. Grapple Weapon grants you an additional spell which prevents your target from using their weapons for 6 seconds.
6. Turbo Fists causes Fists of Fury to deal full damage to all targets hit and reduce their movement speed by 90%. It additionally grants you 100% Parry chance during the channel.
7. Ride the Wind causes Flying Serpent Kick to increase the movement speed of allies in its path by 30%. This applies to yourself. Also increases Flying Serpent Kicks cooldown by 10 seconds.
8. Pressure Points reduces the cooldown of Touch of Death by 60 seconds if you kill a player with it.
9. Tigereye Brew generates stacks of Tigereye Brew whenever you spend 3 Chi. Using these stacks makes your attacks bypass armor but deal slightly less damage for 2 seconds per stack.

Turbo Fists, Reverse Harm, and Alpha Tiger are the three talents that will benefit you the most when doing PvE content. They grant you sustainability, as well as survivability.