Mistweaver is probably the best spec out of the lot in terms of visuals and immersion but Brew and WW could really use some updates.
Mainly, the sound and the impact of the spells feel lackluster. The only decent spells are Strike of the Windlord and Whirling Dragon Punch but they’re on long cooldowns. The general rotational abilities should feel more flashy and impactful, similar in essence to how Enhancement shamans got reworked.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that the spells don’t feel like they “connect”. Good examples of meaty sounds and the feeling of connection would be Sett from League of Legends who has powerful meaty strikes.
I also think the spells could do with some visual enhancements, maybe wind coming off the feet during blackout kick, lightning during fists of fury or secondary / third ghost images.
Tiger Palm definitely needs a rework, again, maybe some sort of ghost image in the form of a chi tiger.
Another nice addition would be the stance when selecting an enemy target – the typical kung fu stance is a bit boring now, it would be nice to customize this a bit.
Windwalkers need a lot. The most obvious problems for now are:
Do something with Faeline Stomp. This is basically Rune of Power for Monks and you know what, it’s just bad design to root mobile melee class this way. Either remove it or rework it or make another abilities in its tier more competitive.
Remove the statues. They are garbage. No one likes them. Especially for WW, pulsing damage from the statue now even worth spending GCD sometimes. This is one of the most dull talent tiers in the game.
Remove self-root from WDP. Like, imagine that one of our most iconic abilities still fixes us on place for entire second. This is…clumsy. Especially in PvP.
Some talents are just rarely or even never used and need reimagine or removal. Like Last Emperor’s Capacitor. What is this and why it’s so deep in talent tree? I never saw someone using it through entirety of its existence. Or maybe Rushing Jade Wind. Why is it locked behind Chi while it’s free in other specs? It could be good aura spell for old content but in current form it has no particular purpose.
Speaking about Chi: it’s exceptionally clumsy that WW has need to use ST ability builder to use any AoE as they’re locked behind Chi. BMs and MWs have SCK unlocked without any form of CD and it feels great. I don’t understand why it needs this kind of lock in WW.
Amirdrassil tier set…I get that it’s designed heavily for M+ but man, raids and PvP still exist. Forcing player to use AoE spells in ST rotation is bad design. Sticking procs to AAs while having Fists of Fury that disable AAing during its channel is bad design.
Mistweavers are okay-ish, can’t say they need some serious reworks as it works well now. Brew too, but it could be debloated for a bit as it’s one of the most piano specs in the game.
And you know what? This can be summed up in one sentence: find one dedicated class designer for Monk that listens to feedback from community, knows his class, hangs in class discord with people, like Realz does with Rogue community (and look at the Rogue state).
You summarized this from a fundamental point of view way better than I could! Kudos. Agree with everything you’ve said here, especially with the statues.
From a personal point of view, I’d love to see more graphical flare and improved sounds but the fundamental needs to be reworked completely imo.