Class Tree In-Depth

 ​Disclaimer

This guide is meant to be a complement to the main Windwalker PvE Guide. This guide will cover the use cases of each Class Tree Talent.

Recommendation

There is a lot of flexibility in what you can pick in the Monk Class Tree. Green = Always Pick Blue = Pick as very strong default optional Talents Purple = Pick based on your demands in the content of your Choice White = Pick for very situational Niche Situations Red = Never Pick

Always Pick

• Tiger’s Lust – Very versatile, mainly to increase movement speed for yourself or an ally, but also breaks roots and snares.
• Fast Feet – 70% more Rising Sun Kick/Glory of the Dawn damage and 10% more Spinning Crane Kick damage? No-brainer.
• Grace of the Crane – 4% more healing taken is very strong in any content.
• Calming Presence – 3% less damage taken is very strong in any content.
• Spear Hand Strike – Our Single Target interrupt. Pick it up by default, and you won’t have the issue that it’s not talented when you need it. Good default for pathing as well.
• Chi Wave/Chi Burst – The only active damage spell in the class tree. Picking this talent is a no-brainer.
• Transcendence – Even if it wouldn’t be mandatory due to the position in the tree, this talent is very versatile and can be very useful if used correctly.
• Celerity/Chi Torpedo – Enhancing your Roll with either of these is recommended in all cases. Chi Torpedo has more range and provides a short buff to your movement speed, while Celerity provides a lower cooldown which will result in being able to use a lot more Roll. Which one you pick is up to you but pick one of them, but we generally recommend Celerity.
• Ferocity of Xuen – Flat damage amplifier to our damage. No-brainer.
• Ring of Peace – Very useful in any situation. Keeping enemies in place or from chasing their target is always good. Has an additional niche usage for Paralysis + Ring of Peace skips. Song of Chi-Ji is on the same choice node, but is the worse talent by far.
• Improved Touch of Death – Very useful and very strong. While 35% of your maximum health sounds a lot worse than 100% of your maximum health, this is not really the correct comparison. Our mastery will affect the Touch of Death damage but not the threshold when you can use it, which means that all the amplified damage from mastery will be overkill on the 100% maximum health hit unless you can hit a shielded enemy. Combined with reaction time, which makes it very hard to hit Touch of Death on exact 100% of your max health left, the actual comparison is more like a 35% x Mastery value vs. 60-70%. And that doesn’t include the chi or the damage amplifier from Fatal Touch you can use easier if you didn’t kill your target already.
• Diffuse Magic – Against magic damage, this is our most potent active defensive button. The alternate pick in this choice node is Yu’lon’s Grace which was nerfed too much to be competitive with the release of The War Within.
• Fortifying Brew combined with Ironshell Brew/Expeditious Fortification – Very strong defensive cooldown. Can be used offensively for Touch of Karma or Touch of Death. Follow-up talents can be used to reduce its cooldown from 120 to 90s or to increase its effect by 50%.
• Dance of the Wind – With its rework in 11.1 this talent is a must-have in any content where you may encounter physical damage. Due to its buggy behavior, a lot of damage events don’t remove its stacks, which increases its defensive potential by a lot. Fully stacked, this talent allows surviving a physical hit of more than 10 times your health.
• Strength of Spirit/Profound Rebuttal – This choice node enhances your passive healing through Combat Wisdom. While this gain is not insane, it’s still useful and the position makes it the best choice for pathing further into the left side of the T3 Section of our Class Tree.
• Summon White Tiger Statue – One of the few damage enhancing talents in our tree. Pick it by default, but if you need any further utility/quality of life in the t3 section, this is likely the first talent to drop due to its very low damage potential.
• Chi Proficiency – 4% Increase to magic damage done and healing done. No-brainer.
• Martial Instincts – 4% increase to physical damage done and Avoidance. No-brainer.
• Flow of Chi – One of the most interesting additions to our classtree with The War Within. Provides movement speed while above 90% health, a damage reduction while between 90% and 35%, and an increase to healing received while below 10%. Very versatile and should be a default pick in any situation.
• Fatal Touch – 5% damage increase for 30s after using Touch of Death. Very strong in any situation where you can make use of your Touch of Death. Can be dropped in some raid encounters if you won’t be able to cast it.

Strong Optional Pick

• Vivacious Vivification – This talent has the highest self-healing potential from our entire Toolkit. Highly recommended.
• Ancient Arts – Very high cooldown reduction to Paralysis and Leg Sweep. In any content you can utilize those spells, this talent is a must-have.
• Vigorous Expulsion – The small brother of the choice node with Strength of Spirit and Profound Rebuttal. Unlike the mentioned choice node it’s not required for pathing so it’s a potential talent you drop for additional utility or quality of life.
• Lighter Than Air – If you ask a lot of veteran monks most of them will tell you that this is the best addition to the class in the last few years. High mobility gain, prevents fall damage and even has the potential to save you during Whirling Dragon Punch. (Explained in here)
• Windwalking – 4% movement speed for the entire raid may be useful in a lot of situations, it’s one of the first talents you will sacrifice to pick up other useful utility in the Tier 3 Section.
• Bounce Back – Notoriously bugged talent. Most damage events that should proc it, don’t. Strong potential in situations where it actually works.

Pick based on Demand

• Soothing Mist combined with Elusive Mists – This will always be talented as a package and is mostly picked for very demanding competitive content. The 6% damage reduction comes into play when you or a squishy teammate would not survive a damage spike. We highly recommend to not overuse this since in most situations it will not be necessary and will just reduce your potential output. Use with care.
• Bounding Agility – The additional travel distance is very small, talent into that if you want those 1-3yd of additional reach on your Roll or Chi Torpedo. In competitive content, this will rarely provide any substantial gain.
• Jade Walk – Good for running open world content or for farming old raids/dungeons. Will be useful in dungeons as well, in case you die/wipe and Ground mounts are not allowed.
• Pressure Points – Can be very useful if the situation allows it. Removing Enrage effects on your Paralysis may save your group/raid.
• Disable (can be combined with Wind’s Reach) – Disable has not seen a lot of usage in PvE Content, but may come in handy in situations where your tank needs additional support when kiting strong foes.
• Detox – Poison and Disease dispel can be insanely useful if the situation allows it. Supporting your healer even if they have one of those dispels can save your group and lead to success.
• Tiger Tail Sweep – Additional Range on Leg Sweep may not sound that useful, but in reality it allows you to stun packs with less risk of death. Pick it for dungeon content if you can afford to pick it.
• Peace and Prosperity – Cooldown reduction for Ring of Peace can be very useful. If you have spare points in your build for dungeon content, pick this talent.

Very Situational Pick

• Spirit’s Essence – Additional Snare effects are barely useful in our toolkit. It can be planned around for niche cases, but has no general use case.
• Crashing Momentum – Additional Snare effects are barely useful in our toolkit. It can be planned around for niche cases, but has no general use case.
• Celestial Determination – Preventing your movement speed to drop below 90% during your Xuen is barely useful. Rolling or dashing will usually be enough in those situations.
• Swift Art – Removing snare effects on Roll can be useful in specific boss fights. A good example was Queen Ansurek in Heroic or below in Nerub-ar Palace.
• Clash – Can be useful, but the cooldown is too high, and it can’t compete with the additional movement of Lighter Than Air.
• Healing Winds – In specific boss fights this may be very useful. Especially if you plan your Transcendence: Transfer ahead.
• Escape from Reality – In specific boss fights this may be very useful. Especially if you plan your Transcendence: Transfer ahead.
• Transcendence: Linked Spirits – In specific Boss fights this may be very useful. A dynamic destination for your Transcendence: Transfer can be very useful if the place you are fighting is very big or when the ground is frequently filled with AoE zones.

Never Pick

• Energy Transfer – You can surely find a situation where this type of cooldown reduction can be a niche gain, but talents like Lighter Than Air, Ancient Arts or Celerity do the same thing but better.
• Quick Footed – Snare duration reduction doesn’t matter much if you can just roll or dash instead of moving on your own if you are snared.
• Hasty Provocation – Speed taunt has a very, very small niche in raid. But even this niche is often entirely useless.
• Save Them All – Sounds good in theory, but as a Windwalker this talent is just not good compared to the competitors in the Tier 3 Section.