Blizzard we implore you to reconsider WW's

[Kogochi-argent-dawn]

Monk was one of the last classes talent trees to be announced, and the only new content we were given was the Tiger totem. And lets be honest, the only reason we have the Tiger totem is because there’s a totem for MW and BrM (continuity isn’t exactly the best philosophy to design a spec on).

The problems:

Totems/statues are very caster oriented, generally all ground-targeted AOE abilities feel like that, which IMO is which I think so many people are averse to Bonedust Brew. It just doesn’t feel good to use on any melee class with a hasted global cooldown because it ruins the flow of combat (having to click on the ground inbetween throwing out hasted melee abilities is awkward)

The next issue is Xuen - I get it, some people like pets, but also a lot don’t, and currently Xuen and the talents surrounding it are essentially mandatory, which leaves a lot of us jaded with taking potentially sub-par talents and not being competitive, or adopting a playstyle we don’t like (which we all did with Bonedust in SL because it was so strong).

The solutions:

What I personally think would really help out WW monk right now is;

1. Give Xuen its own path that doesn’t feel like it’s connected to a bunch of mandatory/strong talents (the cross of OP talents below Xuen ATM are too strong to pass up. (completly removing/reworking Xuen to be a steroid so the power is baked into our class is desirable also)

2. Add an extra end-of-tree path that doesn’t revolve around Bonedust, Xuen or Faeline, these abilities really don’t feel good, (I’d suggest bringing back Hurricane Strike, or maybe adding some nodes for WDP so it doesn’t have pre-requisites to cast e.t.c).

3. Please re-balance serenity so it’s competitive, currently the cooldown-clipping element of it makes it often punitive to use unless everything is lined up perfectly (which doesn’t happen when you’re maximising throughput by using abilities off-cooldown), also SEF having 2 charges makes it too strong to pass up (and a lot of us hate SEF due to its buggy nature and the fact we’re dealing damage with pets).

Please stop diverting WW’s power away from the actual WW, statues, clones, pet tigers - none of it feels good for a martial artist. I feel like our design is moving closer and closer to Enhance Shamans, but without the instant procs.

We want our identity back.

[Agrén-argent-dawn]

Completely agree with your points about pets and statues/totems not feeling good on a martial artist class and that they should at least be optional. Especially since all the power behind those talents feels very mandatory even when you don’t try to min max. Talents like Keefer’s, Xuen’s battle gear and Transfer the power should not be locked behind a summon.

For Xuen I think a lot of people are attached to the pet but your suggestion for making another line in the talent tree is good. That would be my preferred solution as well.

It would also have the added bonus of removing one mandatory CD that you just stack with the rest to have an insane burst window and then hit like a wet noodle in between. Something that I think should be looked at for most specs/classes.

Another possible solution I have suggested in another post is to make the Xuen talent a choice node. One choice is Xuen as is and the other would simply add Xuen effect to the player instead of summoning the tiger. That way those who want the summon can have it but if you don’t like the summon you can still use the other talents associated with Xuen.

[Kogochi-argent-dawn]

I just wanna add, I love the return of Strike of the Windlord, and the touch of death powers being added (AOE touch of death sounds incredibly fun), I just think there needs to be a viable build that isn’t so pet/clone focused (serenity often isn’t competitive with SEF).

Thanks!