Having the freedom of doing something, and actually doing it are different things. You can still spam Tiger Palm if you wanted to, tho it doesn’t make sense. As it didn’t make sense before Legion, so nothing has really changed. I actually like the design on WW after Legion more, it became viable in PvP, which was not the case before.
As a person who was mained this monk ever since the class came out, I can safely say that monks are in a pretty good spot at the moment - they are fun and good in both PVP and PVE, so there is nothing you can want more. But hey, whiners gonna whine always I guess.
I disagree with you here. While I did enjoy the old windwalker, I think it’s one of the most fun DPS specs in the game since Legion. the hitcombo mechanic really makes for an interesting playstyle where I set up combos and then execute them. Yeah, there’s “downtimes” where I only alternate TP and BoK until stuff comes off cooldown, but then I can pop SEF again and combo FoF, WDP, RSK and all the good stuff, maybe even during a ToD, pulling ahead in dps again when I fell behind during my “downtime”.
I can’t see your set-up, but have you tried thinning out your abilities with Passives? (Ascension / Hit Combo…).
I don’t struggle too much, but some BfA abilities (FotWT instead of Power Strikes / Leg Sweep instead of FoF stun / Reverse Harm instead of CtM) kind of nudged some handy spells into modified keys for me.
I like a packed action bar (I like having useful options) but more buttons for the sake of buttons doesn’t = more fun.
It did make sense if you had to fill up your chi bar and then spend it all on…spenders obviously. Legion changed everything completely, unlike before that, you are now very restricted by your mastery, by what spells you can use at any given time.
You can continue being a delusional buffoon, or you can actually try and understand where me and others are coming from.
I get that few people enjoy the current hit combo mechanic, but the very least they could have made it a talent and not a secondary stat, therefore ruining the spec for many who loved it before.
Instead of fun, WW is now a headache, as you have to look at your bars 24/7 so you don’t accidentally use the wrong spell. There just isn’t that freedom anymore, yet it was very skill capped before regardless.
It’s was less about spamming and more about spending chi efficiently, if i had 1 or 2 left and everything else is on CD or noenergy, i could have just used blackout twice, and still maintain numbers, where as now in the same situation i can just stand and autoattack because of this stupid mastery.
BFA did actually free it a little, it sometimes makes sense to do two blackout kick in a row for example just to cool down other abilities faster if you are at 4 chi and low on energy at least.
Mastery is fun to me though, I didn’t play WoD WW (I exclusively played MW that expansion) and I think the mastery works well with the spec, it creates a bit more variety and makes you think about when it is good to repeat an ability or when it would be a waste. It has a nice flow to it.
I get how it could be jarring though to someone who loved a previous incarnation. I really miss WoD MW for example, I thought the whole fistweaving lark in its old incarnation great.
Playing since Legion and don’t know how it was before but monk has been my favourite class since I started playing. Right now have 4 characters (prot warrior, frost mage and havoc dh) and ww monk is definitely the most fun. Feels solid really with sef and lots of aoe, and not so squishy when compared to my mage of course. I can manage 4 to 5 mobs easily, can even do more thanks to sef. Also, ability options are not necessarily narrow (tiger palm, blackout kick, raisin sun kick, spinning crane, fists and so on) and we have relatively shorter cd s compared to most other classes. Whenever I have to do double blackout kicks, I use either leg sweep or the spell interrupting ability (don’t remember its name) between the two kicks so as not to repeat. So we are not lacking abilities I think. Also I remember we have whirling dragon punch and xuen from spec talents which are both sweet, sweet abilities. All in all, to me its very fun to play monk, both in bfa and legion.