Windwalker Monk DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents (Legion 7.2.5)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2 Changes
  • 4. Contents
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
    • 4.1. Single Target
    • 4.2. Multiple Target
      • 4.2.1. Against 2-3 Enemies
    • 4.3. Against 4+ Enemies
  • 5. Cooldowns
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Main Resource
  • 3. Basic Abilities
    • 3.1. Movement
    • 3.2. Survival
  • 4. Important Procs
  • 5. Cooldowns
  • 6. ChangeLog
• ×Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 3. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 4. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 5. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 6. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 7. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 8. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 9. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression
  • 2. Relic Choice
    • 2.1. Single Target
    • 2.2. AoE
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Single Target Rotation
  • 2. Multiple Target Rotation
    • 2.1. Against 2-3 Enemies
    • 2.2. Against 4+ Enemies
  • 3. Cooldowns
  • 4. Optional Read: Mastering Your Windwalker Monk
    • 4.1. Energy and Chi
      • 4.1.1. Energy
      • 4.1.2. Chi
    • 4.2. Mastery: Combo Strikes
    • 4.3. Artifact Ability
    • 4.4. Afterlife Procs
    • 4.5. Detailed Cooldown Usage
      • 4.5.1. Touch of Karma
      • 4.5.2. Tier 1 Talents
      • 4.5.3. Tier 3 Talents
      • 4.5.4. Tier 7 Talents
    • 4.6. Roll and Transcendence
      • 4.6.1. Roll
      • 4.6.2. Transcendence
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
    • 1.1. Single Target
    • 1.2. Multiple Target
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
  • 2. Enchants
  • 3. Consumables
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Macros
    • 1.1. Generic Macros for Monks
      • 1.1.1. Detox Mouseover Macro
      • 1.1.2. Tiger's Lust Mouseover Macro
      • 1.1.3. Ring of Peace Mouseover Macro
    • 1.2. Specific Macros for Windwalker Monks
      • 1.2.1. No Fists of Fury Cancelling Macro
  • 2. Addons
    • 2.1. Generic Addons for Monks
      • 2.1.1. ElvUI
      • 2.1.2. Boss Mods: Deadly Boss Mods or Bigwigs
      • 2.1.3. GTFO
      • 2.1.4. Parrot or Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 2.1.5. Weak Auras
      • 2.1.6. Recount / Skada / Details!
      • 2.1.7. Grid and GridClickSets (Optional)
      • 2.1.8. Omen Threat Meter
    • 2.2. Specific Addons for Windwalker Monks
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Tier 20 Set Bonuses
  • 2. Legendary Items
  • 3. Loot Competition
  • 4. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, we present the viable talent choices for Windwalker Monks in World of Warcraft Legion 7.2.5. We detail what each of the talents do and in which situations they should be taken.

The other pages of our Windwalker Monk guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Reviewer

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Babylonius, a prominent Windwalker Monk theorycrafter who maintains the Windwalker sections of Peak of Serenity. You can follow him on Twitter: @BabyloniusMonk.

1. Talent Choices

Level	Choices
15	✔ Chi Burst	✔ Eye of the Tiger	✔ Chi Wave
30	? Chi Torpedo	✔ Tiger's Lust	? Celerity
45	✔ Energizing Elixir	✘ Ascension	✔ Power Strikes
60	? Ring of Peace	? Summon Black Ox Statue	✔ Leg Sweep
75	? Healing Elixir	? Diffuse Magic	? Dampen Harm
90	? Rushing Jade Wind	? Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger	✔ Hit Combo
100	? Chi Orbit	✔ 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.

2. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents

✔ Chi Burst

✔ Eye of the Tiger

✔ Chi Wave

• 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 cone in front of you.
• 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).
• 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.

In this tier, we recommend Chi Wave for single target situations. It is worth noting that while Chi Burst does more damage than Chi Wave against a single target, there are advantages to Chi Wave that we feel make it preferable (free of cost, and a much lower cooldown that makes it easier to keep up your Mastery). If you are using Serenity as your tier 7 talent and you have both the The Emperor's Capacitor and Drinking Horn Cover items, then Eye of the Tiger is a viable choice, since it is passive and in this situation free global cooldowns are not easy to come by.

Against multiple targets, we recommend using Chi Burst.

3. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents

? Chi Torpedo

✔ Tiger's Lust

? Celerity

• 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.
• Celerity passively increases the number of charges of Roll by 1, and reduces its cooldown by 5 seconds.

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. Celerity is a good choice if you need short bursts of movement, and you can take Chi Torpedo for encounters that require extended periods of movement, such as kiting.

4. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents

✔ Energizing Elixir

✘ Ascension

✔ Power Strikes

• 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%.
• Power Strikes causes your next Tiger Palm to generate 1 additional Chi. This effect can only occur once every 15 seconds.

Energizing Elixir is the recommended choice in all situations, as it provides more Chi and Energy than the other options, and being able to use it on demand increases its efficacy. Power Strikes is fairly close behind on single target and can be used on single target if you are not comfortable using Energizing Elixir, but overall the maximum benefit of Power Strikes is well behind that of Energizing Elixir.

Ascension is not worth taking.

5. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents

? Ring of Peace

? Summon Black Ox Statue

✔ Leg Sweep

• Ring of Peace is an active ability with a 45-second cooldown. It forms a ring at the targeted location, which lasts for 8 seconds. During this time, any enemies who enter the ring will be knocked out of it.
• Summon Black Ox Statue is an active ability with a 10-second cooldown, which places a stationary statue that does not attack at the target location. The statue persists for 15 minutes (or until killed), and during this time it pulses threat to all nearby enemies within 30 yards (the threat belongs to the statue, so mobs will try to attack it). When using Provoke on your Black Ox Statue, all enemies within 8 yards of the statue are forced to attack you. This constitutes a sort of AoE taunt.
• Leg Sweep is an active ability with a 45-second cooldown, which stuns all enemies within a 5-yard radius of you for 5 seconds.

These talents have no meaningful impact on your gameplay and will not affect your performance. Therefore, you can choose them based on your own preference or the crowd-control requirements of the encounter.

That said, you will probably find Leg Sweep to be the best choice in most encounters. Summon Black Ox Statue can be used to group enemies up, should a Gorefiend's Grasp not be available. Ring of Peace is useful if you need the very specific effect of keeping enemies out of a designated radius.

6. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents

? Healing Elixir

? Diffuse Magic

? Dampen Harm

• Healing Elixir is an active ability with 2 charges and a 30-second recharge time. It heals you for 15% of your maximum health, and it procs automatically when you have less than 35% health (provided you have at least one charge available).
• Diffuse Magic is an active ability with a 90-second cooldown. It transfers all magical debuffs from you onto their caster, where possible. Additionally, for 6 seconds, it reduces all magic damage taken by 60%.
• Dampen Harm is an active ability with a 2-minute cooldown. For 10 seconds, all damage you take is reduced by 20% to 50%, with larger attacks having their damage reduced by more than smaller attacks.

The choice of talent in this tier is determined by the type of damage present in the encounter.

We recommend Healing Elixir for fights without heavy, predictable damage, but which instead require you to consistently deal with incoming damage.

Dampen Harm is recommended for fights that have predictable bursts of high Physical damage, while Diffuse Magic is preferred for fights with predictable bursts of high magic damage.

7. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents

? Rushing Jade Wind

? Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger

✔ Hit Combo

• Rushing Jade Wind is an active ability with a 6-second cooldown (reduced by Haste). It deals damage to enemies in an 8-yard radius around you over its 6-second duration (also reduced by Haste). Up to 3 of the targets hit will be debuffed with Mark of the Crane. Each instance of this debuff increases the damage of your Spinning Crane Kick (against any target) by 50%.
• Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger is an active ability with a 3-minute cooldown. It summons a pet, Xuen, for 45 seconds. The pet control bar allows you to choose what Xuen will do, although by default he attacks your primary target and uses Crackling Tiger Lightning every second to deal damage to 3 enemies within 10 yards.
• Hit Combo causes each successive attack that triggers Mastery: Combo Strikes grants 2% 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).

We recommend Hit Combo in almost all situations.

Rushing Jade Wind can be used when there are consistently 5+ enemies (and you are using Serenity as your tier 7 talent), or many more targets and you want to cut down the ramp-up time of Storm, Earth, and Fire, but this is almost never the case.

Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger is useful for very high priority burst damage situations that line up with its uptime and cooldown.

8. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents

? Chi Orbit

✔ Whirling Dragon Punch

✔ Serenity

• Chi Orbit passively causes an orb of energy to form every 5 seconds. The orbs rotate around you until they come in contact with an enemy, at which time they explode and deal damage to all nearby enemies. You can have a maximum of 4 orbs active at any one time.
• 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 10 seconds, you deal 40% increased damage (and your healing is also increased by 40%). Moreover, all abilities that cost Chi are free of cost and have a 50% reduced cooldown.

In this tier, we recommend using Whirling Dragon Punch in most situations. That said, if you have the Drinking Horn Cover wrists, you can use Serenity in any situation (though it is not better than Whirling Dragon Punch necessarily). If you also have The Emperor's Capacitor, then you should use Serenity against a single target.

Chi Orbit can be used if you want something passive (though you should count on a loss of DPS), although it could technically be the optimal choice in AoE situations against extremely high numbers of enemies.

9. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 12 Jun. 2017: Updated Hit Combo and Rushing Jade Wind descriptions to account for Patch 7.2.5 changes.
• 28 Apr. 2017: Updated tier 1, 3, 6, and 7 talent discussions.
• 01 Apr. 2017: Fixed an incorrect mention of Drinking Horn Cover being a trinket.
• 27 Mar. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 26 Jan. 2017: Updated tier 7 talent discussion slightly yet again (following Convergence of Fates nerf).
• 18 Jan. 2017: Updated tier 7 talent discussion slightly once again.
• 13 Jan. 2017: Updated tier 7 talent discussion.
• 10 Jan. 2017: Updated talent descriptions to account for Patch 7.1.5, and changed a few talent evaluations (most notably tier 7).
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 04 Aug. 2016: Removed tier 7 talent bug mention, since it has been fixed.
• 29 Jul. 2016: Added a mention that Serenity is currently the best tier 7 talent due to a bug.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.