So, I’m really not a fan of the name “Shado-Pan” for our hero tree. The Shado-Pan order is a pseudo-military force made up entirely (as far as I know) of pandaren. It was founded to protect Pandaria, or at least their fellow pandaren, from the threat of the Sha and the Mantid.
Crucially, it is not an organization of Monks.
Monks within the organization are generally part of the Blackguard discipline, but there are two other disciplines and several other classes are heavily represented among the three.
I’d also point out that the Shado-Pan have never displayed a level of power anywhere near that of the player character or basically any notable lore character, making their current status as a “next level of the Monk class” extremely tenuous. Even its most powerful member and current leader, Taran Zhu, is best known for his crushing defeat at the hands of a pre-Y’Shaarj empowering Garrosh, and his temporary fall to the Sha of Hatred.
Suggesting that the Shado-Pan are an elite force of Monks (which could have made it a valid Hero tree) is factually incorrect, their strength and renown is rather unimpressive, and frankly the name strongly suggests a lack of inspiration when designing the tree.
So, allow me to present you with inspiration:
Fist of Kang
Flurry Strikes→ Fist of the First Dawn:
Every [(Attack Power * 4.25 * (1 + Versatility))] damage you deal generates an Endurance Charge. When you reach 10 charges, unleash a thundering blow, dealing (45% of Attack power) Physical damage per charge.Pride of Pandaria:
Fist of the First Dawn has a 15% additional chance to critically strike.
High Impact:
Fist of the First Dawn deals (500% of Attack power) Nature damage to all uncontrolled enemies within 6 yds.
Veteran’s Eye→ Rebel’s Clarity:
Striking the same target 5 times within 2 sec grants 1% Haste. Multiple instances of this effect may overlap, stacking up to 10 times.Martial Precision:
Your attack penetrate 12% armor.
Protect and Serve→ Grief-stricken:
Your Vivify always heals you for an additional 50% of its total value.
Lead from the Front:
Chi Burst, Chi Wave, and Expel Harm now heal you for 100% of damage dealt.One Versus Many:
Damage dealt by Fists of Fury and Keg Smash counts as double towards Endurance Charge generation. Fists of Fury damage increased by 15%. Keg Smash damage increased by 35%.
Whirling Steel→ Mountain Sanctuary:
When your health drops below 70%, steel your resolve, gaining 20% parry chance and avoidance for 15 sec. This effect can not occur more than once every 90 sec.
Predictive Training:
When you dodge or parry an attack, reduce the damage of the next incoming direct attack by 20%.Against all Odds:
Fist of the First Dawn increases your Agility by 8% and reduces damage taken by 10% for 6 sec.Efficient Training:
Energy spenders deals an additional 20% damage. Every 50 Energy spent reduces the cooldown of Storm, Earth, and Fire by 1 sec.
Vigilant Watch→ Teachings of the Caged Beast:
Blackout Kick deals an additional 20% critical damage and each cast increases the damage of your next Fist of the First Dawn by 2%.
Wisdom of the Wall→ Breaking the Chains:
Fist of the First Dawn grants one of the following effects for 10 sec:
Our Hardened Backs: Effect of your Mastery increased by 100%.
Our Strengthened Arms: Fist of the First Dawn destabilizes the Chi of its targets. Enemies that die with an unstable Chi explode, dealing (200% of Attack Power) Physical damage to enemies within 8 yds. (Lasts 20 sec)
Our Sharpened Minds: Dodge and Critical Strike chance increased by 25% of your Versatility bonus.
Our Strength Combined: Critical strike damage increased by 60%.
- Who is Kang?
- Kang, the Fist of the First Dawn, is the pandaren who led the slave rebellion against the Mogu some 12,000 years ago. He taught the other pandaren to fight with their bare hands, arguably founding the monk class altogether.
- What do all these new talent names mean?
- I’ve taken inspiration from Kang’s story as I know it. Several talents are direct references to his quotes, or events from his life.
- Who cares about the lore accuracy if the tree is good?
- I do, clearly. If you don’t, that’s fine, but it’d be a rather poor stance for a game developer to take.
- These numbers don’t line up with the in-game version.
- Well spotted! I took the liberty of addressing some issues that remain with the tree.
- First off, no more energy threshold. You just discharge when you reach 10 stacks. In return, each stack deals significantly less damage.
- High Impact is currently practically worthless, so I reworked it a tiny bit to be more reliable.
- The defensive value of the Shado-Pan tree is quite lacking, when compared to Conduit of the Celestials. A major reason for this is the hilariously weak defensive node of Whirling Steel and Predictive Training, and the less-but-still-underwhelming node of Protect and Serve and Lead from the Front. The rework I’m proposing would make those nodes a whole lot better.
- Against All Odds is still weirdly broken with its stack limit of 20 which is impossible to reach. Since this rework can only ever discharge at 10 stacks, the interaction with the amount of charges would be pointless, so I’ve made it a static effect.
- Vigilant Watch is strictly speaking functional, but it’s quite weak and the interaction is pretty confusing. Having its full effect from a single Blackout Kick for every discharge is about as close to a passive as an effect can be, so I’m making it actually stack (but obviously significantly weaker from the get-go to compensate).
- Wisdom of the Wall has 4 effects, 2 of which are insanely weak, 1 is alright, and 1 is very strong. That’s rather unbalanced, so I’m aiming to reduce the dominance of the aoe proc and increase the value of the Mastery and Crit damage effects.
- Do you really think they’ll do a full rework, even if mostly thematic, for a Hero tree this quickly after release?
- I suppose that depends on whether you think my points are valid. The recent patch notes on the anniversary event contain several spell updates, icon updates and significant spell changes. I’d say it’s a good time to bring this up.