Why are Monks the least Played Class at lvl.110?

[Noomz]

From here
Is it the "class fantasy/ theme", the "performance" or the "gameplay"?

I'm confused because if it's the "theme" that means people also hated Mists of Pandaria.

And if is the "performance" then why does my alt WW Monk does 2 times more damage than my Demon Hunter in Mythic+ Dungeons effortlessly?

The "gameplay", i'm not sure about other specs but WW is very fun and teaches you discipline (because you can't repeat the same spell twice...ever). And if you run with Dragon Punch the class becomes even more fun to play.
Maybe the gameplay is hard to understand?

For me it's the class fantasy that doesn't appeal to me. The fact that Pandaren are the origin doesn't help.

[Deleted]

This is why I actually finally threw in my WoW towel. BrM has been my main since it was introduced and I'm tired of re learning it each patch. If it was just per expansion that'd be fine but fuck me if they just don't know what to do with them.

- - - Updated - - -



"Pandas are for kids."

That's not a theme though. It's just people who like to generalise happy fluffy stuff as for kids

[klaghatagh]

I think all answers listed here so far are accurate and form part of the answer. I think the largest share is "class fantasy", though. They're thematically at odds with most of the rest of the game. Blizz has said in the past that a lot of their design decisions come down to the things "cool" factor. Undead agents of the Lich King who broke free, are driven by a quest for vengeance, and who deal in necromancy and disease? That's cool. Horned, winged elves who made a pact with the devil to destroy that devil and who are fast and mobile? That's cool. Bloodthirsty juggernaut wielding weapons twice his size and slashing furiously? That's cool. Casters who tap into the darkest, most twisted powers in creation, riding the edge of insanity? That's cool. Martial artists who use beer and/or their fists? That's...a little less cool in comparison.

But it goes deeper than that: this is World of WARcraft and so every other class has its class fantasy shaped by violence. Monks, on the other hand, are all about peace and balance and zen and emotions and engagements other than war and struggle. I, personally, found that to be massively appealing and it's part of the reason I've been a monk main since MoP, but I do think it would be better if the devs did a little bit more to emphasize the WAR in Warcraft monks by downplaying the beer and the family and the drinking and focusing more on imagery like http://imgur.com/VqUKeJs. The short stories and books depict the Shado-Pan as brutal and elite, able to give the the most elite agents of the SI:7 a run for their money, but that doesn't come across much in-game. (The Shado-Pan aren't all monks, but they could be a good place to drive the fantasy). I think that Monks (and MoP's themes) are good for the game - I just think some more work can be done to emphasize the "cool" factor of the monk. The D3 monk and the story depictions of the Shado-Pan are great examples of how you can make an ascetic class "cool".

tl;dr - Gamers like "cool" things. Monks are not as "cool" as even the vanilla classes.

[Deleted]

tl;dr - Gamers like "cool" things. Monks are not as "cool" as even the vanilla classes.

I grew up watching endless chinese/jpn martial arts movies and games...so for me Monk is the coolest class in the game xD

[Spotnick]

"Starting at level 1".. had a free boost with 2 xpacs since.

Suuuure.

[klaghatagh]

I grew up watching endless chinese/jpn martial arts movies and games...so for me Monk is the coolest class in the game xD

Monk is my favorite class for that reason too. That and the fact that the things I list in my post I find appealing. My thoughts are just things I've gathered from talking to the many people I've played this game with as to why they don't want to play a monk.

[Shammyrock]

I tried ww and found it massively over engineered

Personal opinion doe

[Deleted]

"Starting at level 1".. had a free boost with 2 xpacs since.

Suuuure.

This ^^^^^^

- - - Updated - - -

I tried ww and found it massively over engineered

Personal opinion doe

You have so many buttons to press with dragon punch included AND you have to constantly check cooldowns AND you can't repeat spells.
Its so interesting with the help of a few addons. It's the most fun i have ever had compared to other classes.

[DarkAmbient]

Go roll a level 1 orc monk without looms and go see how long it takes to kill the boars for the first quest. New players probably die of boredom before they even hit level 2 with a monk.

[GreenJesus]

It's a melee class that competes with the strong theme of a paladin, death knight, and demon hunter. Would I rather be a wielder of the ashbringer smiting foes, a death knight who was a chosen champion of the lich king, a demon hunter who was basically the right hand man of Illidan, or warrior berserker that thirsts for blood and slams down with weapons, or a random Jack Black Kung-fu panda?

[Deleted]

And if is the "performance" then why does my alt WW Monk does 2 times more damage than my Demon Hunter in Mythic+ Dungeons effortlessly?

Because youre bad at playing a DH?

[Polarthief]

Newer class, and they start at level 1.

The perfect combination of low-population classes.

Willing to bet no new classes from here on out will be Level 1 because of it.

"Starting at level 1".. had a free boost with 2 xpacs since.

Suuuure.

People use boosts on classes they want to play, not necessarily the newest class, unless the newest class was level 1, interesting to the player, and also came with a boost. WoD came with a boost, but Monks started in MoP. If the player was interested enough pre-WoD, they would have already made a Monk.

I mean, prove me wrong with the huge amount of DKs (new class since 3.0), DHs (new class since 7.0, and they're not even the lowest pop-class!); it's simply because they started at a higher level.

[Jademist]

Some class has to be the least played. Wasn't it Shamans before Monks came around?

People probably dislike the theme...martial arts, drunken brawling and mystic eastern healing doesn't always appeal to everyone. I'm Asian by descent so I got excited about monks and Pandaria and all that.

[zlygork]

Because people really seem to love their classes with an extra edge. Have you seen the most popular new class proposals on these forums? Except for tinker, they are all quite a few levels up there in the edge-o-meter

[dlhak]

It has never been a problem of leveling for me, I loved doing it, I hate new windwalker mastery, mistweaver is ok.

[McTroll]

Monks are RAF-powerleveling fodder. Nothing more.

[Icecat]

Because they suck. Look, I think thematically they are awesome (I main a monk) and I even love the Pandaren. I love the Pandaren because their values are cool (and reflected ingame) as well as their mythology kicking ass, but Blizzard did suuuuuch a shitty job at marketing them. As much as it pains me to say it, the darker themes of MoP that many appreciated myself included were hugely overshadowed in the eyes of just about everyone by the Pandaren being sold as a strictly funny race. Of course, the story did its best to show more multi faceted characters and sell their culture as more complex, but the average player doesn't give a fuck about that. Like 90% of the people who play this game don't even notice that and let's not deny that the WoW community is already a fucking dim bulb on the whole. Is it really such a surprise that monk is the least played race when the average player probably just hears that fucking kazoo inn theme at the mention of them?

As for the class itself, I do love it thematically but it is a WILD ride to have mained it since MoP. Every fucking spec undergoes massive changes from expansion to expansion. I am legitimately, genuinely, 100% surprised that someone at Blizzard hasn't already come out and said flat out that "monks were failed experiment" or something. They bitched out when it came to making Mistweaver a dps/healing hybrid and homogenized it so intensely in Legion that there is almost nothing left to the identity of the spec other than "mobile in PvP". Windwalker as others have said in this thread are constantly getting fucked over, scale poorly, usually have numerous bugs that go unaddressed, and are more complicated than other DPS specs for less reward. Brewmasters I'd say are in the best position right now in Legion but they are still widely accepted as more complicated than other tanking specs which is off putting for new players. And let's not forget that for the longest time even in Legion, BrM wasn't in a very good place.

If it sounds like I'm salty, it's because I am. The fact that they even added Demon Hunters as a "mobile, leather wearing class" should be solid proof to anyone that they had no fucking commitment to Windwalker whatsoever. I don't even know why I still main this shit. I just love the flexibility and the aesthetic but at times, it feels out of spite.

[Awsyme]

A few things mentioned above:

They're associated with an expac people either loved or hated, they have to be leveled from 1, and they've been shifted all over the place since their introduction.

[Deleted]

A few things mentioned above:

They're associated with an expac people either loved or hated, they have to be leveled from 1, and they've been shifted all over the place since their introduction.

I Think your last two points are valid. I Think the first One is mostly ppl on mmo-c. I May be wrong

[Prokne]

I would play my monk more if they hadn't messed up MW. It was my favorite healer before legion because it was different and felt fast. Leveled during mid MoP healing dungeons with looms and it was super fast. If you can tank or heal the lvl 1 start isn't really a huge impediment.