Windwalker Monk PvP Rotation and Playstyle — The War Within (11.0.5)

The main role for a Windwalker Monk is simple: use your mobility to relentlessly attack a target and use your strong single-target cooldowns to burst your enemies down. You have some crowd control for the enemy healer in the forms of Paralysis and Leg Sweep. Because of this, you will use a large amount of damage output you have to make the enemy team use their defensive cooldowns. By managing your damaging buffs, a Windwalker can unleash a devastating amount of damage in a short amount of time.

Before talking about your damage rotation, it is important to note that there are a few spell interactions that Windwalker Monks have that should be understood to ensure you do the most damage. Here is what you should pay attention to:

• Managing your Hit Combo and Mastery: Combo Strikes is crucial to the Windwalker Monk rotation. You want to make sure that you are not pressing the same spell two times in a row. Use a filler Tiger Palm or Blackout Kick to maintain the buff.
• Combo Breaker gives your Tiger Palm a chance to make your next Blackout Kick cost no Chi.
• Teachings of the Monastery is the most important passive spell to understand. This makes it so your Tiger Palm causes your next Blackout Kick to strike an additional time, stacking up to 4 times. It also makes it so Blackout Kick has a chance to reset the cooldown on Rising Sun Kick.
• Blackout Kick reduces the cooldown of Rising Sun Kick and Fists of Fury by 1 second for each use.

Know exactly where to put your Transcendence portal. Although it does not seem like it, using your Transcendence effectively is crucial in Windwalker's survivability. The best place to put it is behind a pillar and make sure your healer knows where you placed it. This way, when you do use Transcendence: Transfer, they will not be confused about where you are.

The opener refers to your team's opening crowd control chain and damage done as soon as you exit the gates. The main goal in the opener is to force your enemies to use defensives or trinkets. They are in trouble if the enemy healer uses their trinket in the opener. Windwalkers have Paralysis (an incapacitating effect with diminishing returns) and Leg Sweep (a stun with diminishing returns). Always use Paralysis on the enemy healer, and if the enemy team is grouped up try to Leg Sweep the healer.

This is the rotation you should use on your target at the beginning of the game.

1. Use Disable to slow your target. This is crucial if you are playing against a ranged class that will try to kite away from your team.
2. Use Tiger Palm to generate 2 Chi.
3. Use Rising Sun Kick off cooldown.
4. Use Fists of Fury.
5. Use Tiger Palm.
6. Use Blackout Kick.
7. Use Rising Sun Kick if the cooldown got reset.
8. Use Tiger Palm.
9. Use Blackout Kick to reduce the cooldown on Rising Sun Kick and Fists of Fury. You also want to use it if you get a Blackout Kick proc.
10. Use Spinning Crane Kick if you get a Dance of Chi-Ji proc.
11. Use Paralysis on the enemy healer.
12. Use your burst rotation.
13. After your burst, perform your sustained damage rotation until your burst cooldowns are available.

When you have the enemy healer in crowd control and are trying to kill an enemy, you use your burst damage.

1. Before you use your burst rotation, generate 2-3 Chi.
2. Use Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger.
3. Use Leg Sweep.
4. Use Storm, Earth, and Fire.
5. Use Spinning Crane Kick when you get a Dance of Chi-Ji proc.
6. Use Strike of the Windlord.
7. Use Rising Sun Kick.
8. Use Fists of Fury.
9. Use Whirling Dragon Punch.
10. Use Spinning Crane Kick when you get a Dance of Chi-Ji proc.
11. Use Celestial Conduit.
12. Use Tiger Palm.
13. Use Blackout Kick.
14. Use Rising Sun Kick.
15. Use Tiger Palm.
16. Use Blackout Kick.
17. Use Rising Sun Kick.
18. Use Touch of Death if the enemy drops below 15% health.

Sustained damage is damage you do when your burst cooldowns are unavailable.

1. Maintain Disable on your team's kill target if you are the only reliable slow on your team.
2. Use Spinning Crane Kick when you get a Dance of Chi-Ji proc.
3. Use Tiger Palm to generate Chi.
4. Use Blackout Kick when you have multiple stacks of Teachings of the Monastery. Blackout kick reduces reduce the cooldown on Rising Sun Kick and Fists of Fury. You also want to use it if you get a Blackout Kick proc.
5. Use Rising Sun Kick off cooldown.
6. Use Fists of Fury off cooldown.
7. Use Whirling Dragon Punch. Ideally, you use this during your burst rotation or if multiple enemies are stacked to get value from Rising Dragon Sweep.
8. Use Strike of the Windlord.
9. Use Touch of Death if the enemy drops below 15% health.

• Leg Sweep should be used for crowd control on the kill target most of the time. If you are being focused and cannot get away or receive help from your teammates, use Leg Sweep to stun enemies near you.
• Transcendence should be the first cooldown you use when being focused, especially if your healer is in crowd control. Use this to port behind a pillar and heal yourself with Vivify until your healer is able to save you. You port back to your previous location, thanks to the talent Escape from Reality.
• Touch of Karma is our primary defensive cooldown. Use this when the enemy team is focusing you down, and your healer cannot heal you through it or is stuck in crowd control. It absorbs 50% of your Health pool and redirects 70% of the amount to the enemy target as nature damage.
• Fortifying Brew is a powerful defensive cooldown. This not only decreases the amount of damage you take, but it increases your Health. This affects how much Health you get back when using a Healthstone.

Finally, use Monk mobility as a defensive technique.

1. Flying Serpent Kick can be useful if you have taken the Ride the Wind PvP talent. Even without the PvP talent, this helps with getting around pillars to get away from enemies.
2. Tiger's Lust removes snares from you. This will help you get away from enemies if you are slowed or rooted.
3. Roll if your final mobility spell. This can be great for ducking behind a pillar when your healer is in crowd control. When you get to a pillar, use Ring of Peace to continue kiting and Vivify to heal yourself.

It is advised to use Macros to use abilities on enemies or allies without having to target them. For this reason, we have a page dedicated to them.