Monks are brilliant!

[Psykewne]

Every thread in this forum at the moment seems to be moaning over some perceived short coming of the monk class and why Blizzard doesn't just do X or Y ill thought out change to make us overpowered, so I wanted to make a thread saying all the things I love about the monk class since after playing it I really don't find any other class (and I have nearly all of them at 85 or above) as fun.

Brewmaster - Yes it is harder to play than the other tanks, that i believe is quite clear due to how much punishment we get from a mistake. However the damage we can do while tanking is amazing and I don't think it can be ignored in a world where there's quite some tricky enrage timers this tier.
The versatility in design is incredible, we basically get to customize our guard and our 1.5 minute cooldown to suite the fight, with all options actually being functional and useful given the right circumstances.
We have amazing mobility when compared to other tanks, the freedom that roll gives us when doing things like will of the emperor makes handling movement mechanics a breeze.
Our statue function is incomparable to anything else in any other spec's toolkit and does a surprising amount of absorb over the course of a fight.
We can monitor and control our damage taken in a way like no other tank. Stagger gives us a clear visual of the damage we take and purifying brew lets us tailor out the damage to a level that suite the healers.
Ranged and damageless threat using our dizzying brew, this is quite a unique tool as well allowing us to do interesting things with adds such as the ones on elegon when picking them up.
lvl 30 healing talents with our vengeance up actually have a meaningful impact when we have the chi to utilize them.

Mistweaver - We get excellent mana efficient raid coverage against constant aoe damage and have no requirement for a raid to stack up. We can customize one of our core aoe healing abilities to use chi or mana depending on the fight. We have multiple options to generate our secondary resource. We carry a unique tank healing toolset offering heavy healing over time effects that can pushed into overdrive with instant heals depending on the damage.
Eminence lets us give constant cheap throughput using serpent's zeal on certain fights in a unique style.
Again mobility is excellent with plenty of stuff we can do on the move.
We have access to the same customizable defensive tools of the other specs making us a highly resilient class to most damage.

Windwalker - we carry the most consistent damage of any spec meaning we dont rely on short windows and correct cooldown usage but rather a constant and reliable performance and uptime. This allows us to lose much less damage when things go wrong than many classes.
Touch of Karma is a unique and powerful offensive and defensive tool that opens up many opportunities for ignoring boss mechanics to do even higher damage. Our damage cooldown tigereye brew can be utilised at any stack level letting us sync it in with different trinket procs increasing it's value through intelligent use.
We have base movement speed as well as our excellent roll and flying serpent kick to get around quicker than any other class.
For a melee we actually have a relatively strong ranged dps with jade lightning and spinning fire blossom.
Again the level 75 defensive talents are simply amazing along with the core defensive tools we get.

Quite simply I think monk is amazing, sure it is missing some mainstay type features we expect of other classes like a lack of a strong healing cooldown (although the more I look at revival the more I think it is better than most give credit, think of it like an instant tranquility and it starts to feel alot better). Yes our tanking does take some getting use to for the people healing us and for us playing it, but overall it's not really any weaker than other tanks it's just very different.
Windwalker dps is a sophisticated and very personal spec where you can tailor your haste levels and play style to suite yourself and still come out on top rather than being a slave to stat priorities and a fixed rotation.
We should play this class because we enjoy it, not because we want to sit and complain about the things that Blizzard needs to do to fix it. Personally I feel that alot of other classes are far less fun and interesting right now and could use blizzard's attention more.

[Fainth]

i think your post was to big to read. i just looked over the mistweaver part. I agree i love my mw monk more than my resto druid in pvp.

[Nanaboostme]

same just really skimmed through it. Its the forum, people read many threads so big paragraphs are scary. But finally someone who agrees with me monk is a fun and unique class

[Aqua]

Truly a worthy addition to the groups. And far less problems than the launch of the death knights (if you recall the forums were nothing BUT 'DKs ARE BROKEN FIX PLZ') I agree the monk is a good solid class.

[jameswho]

Loved the post. I read every single word. My monk is only level 34, but have already enjoyed tanking with him in dungeons. I'll start healing when I hit level 90. Good insight on the three specs. Mostly, tho, I appreciate a thread that isn't full of QQing about this or that.

[Tiarromba]

Nice post!
Playing with my brewmaster is the most fun i had in wow since tanking in BC, so many cooldowns *o*
I even forgot my poor warrior XD

[TheWindWalker]

We should play this class because we enjoy it, not because we want to sit and complain about the things that Blizzard needs to do to fix it.

And that's fine. I didn't switch to my Windwalker from my Elemental Shaman because I thought I wanted to have highest DPS (I have a frost mage on hiatus, she'd make my Monk look like a joke in comparison.) but rather because I thought they were fun and closer to what I wanted to be. Thing is, if I were in a hardcore guild and there was already a couple melee non-tanks, I'd be asked to drop that monk for that Mage in a heartbeat or sit out.

[Serendepityz]

i started playing a WW monk because it was everything i asked of blizz playstyle wise that my enh shammy was never given Easilly top movement among melle class's minus the FoF issues with movement intensive fights has great defensive CD's and touch of karma is the most fun raid abillity ive ever had in my possesion. as others have said in other threads though we do need SOME form of a recklessness CD for fights such as HM spirtkings where all the dmg needed is in bursts

[Astraios]

Sure we have unique toolsets.

They just suck comparing to the "mainstay" toolset. Especially the tank healing one. Lack of noticeable raid smart heals means our spot healing is non-existant.

If I wanted to play a class that takes 10x the effort for .9y the effect, then I'd play my MW. As it happens I still play it because of gear, but next tier is an entirely different story. Other classes bring the only thing we have (raw healing) and infinitely more utility.

[Deleted]

Every class has its advantages and disadvantages. I always play a class I enjoy which I consider to be the main thing - other people however, pick a class for numerous other reasons. I love the Monk class - its the most fun I've had for a long time in WoW!

[Bodakane]

I agree that Monk is far and away the best class Blizz has ever made. I've already leveled 2.

Having said that, the complaints about the class are few and the complaining is for the most part refreshingly pleasant. There are a couple of things that do need fixing though. Brewmaster needs a little help on stuns and BoF needs to be usable, and there needs to be a bigger connection to Nizou (sp?).

[Ragethorn]

I think the problem with your post is this. The monk class is new and exciting. Yes, blizzard did a good job with the class, but that doesn't mean its flawless and couldn't use some polishing. Brewmasters have some serious issues dealing with stuns. Windwalker burst is nonexistent. Those are just a few examples.

[germanpk]

but that doesn't mean its flawless

it's fare away from this....

[TheWindWalker]

Honestly, I still think if they gave us the treatment they gave other classes that have healer specs we'd be at least somewhat better off. Druids get Tranquility (even potentially stronger Tranquility in Cat/Bear/Moonkin form using the right talents), Ret Paladins get Lay On Hands (and Devotion Aura which is a raid wide -20% magic damage buff for Thrall's sake) Ele/Enh Shamans can bring Ancestral Guidance and not even lose a GCD when putting out potentially 120k HPS for 10 seconds (not an exaggeration, mind you) and Shadow Priests can use Hymn of Hope giving mana back to the healers and can even Void Shift a tank which is almost as good as Lay On Hands itself and then cast Mass Dispel.

Windwalkers should come with Revival even if it has double the cooldown length. That would give them raid healing and thus make as attractive as Shamans and that mass dispel that Revival comes with would put them closer with Shadow Priests but not so close as to be equal. Finally a glyph that effects the Tier 30 talents in a similar way that the Glyph of Fire Blast does for Mages would be nice. Specifically I mean this:

Glyph of Chi Mastery - Windwalker Only
Chi Wave travels to five additional targets, your Zen Sphere lasts twice as long and your Chi Burst does 50% more healing.

[Doktor Faustus]

My monk is 74 at the mo, levelled purely as Brewmaster (have Windwalker as OS but not played as that yet).

Had a lot of fun levelling purely by dungeons so far, minus the 'bad asses' who decide to pull or TYPE IN CAPS AT THE SLIGHTEST MISTAKE.

Roll on 85 for my Spear of Xuen that I am going to transmog to a pitch fork from my bank character's old farmer set :P

[scvd]

They remind me of WOTLK Enhance, a little more on the hectic side ( WW that is ), that's the reason I switched, enhance went too slow.

[Deleted]

I also agree on monks are not as broken as people make it out to be. Brewmaster may be hard to play, But they are the i think the greast tank if you use all the cd. They just require more focus

[Deleted]

The only place I feel Mistweaver suffers is where random targets take a heavy burst in PvP, such as BGs, since it takes an extra GCD to first cast Soothing Mist and then instant cast heals it feels a little slower to switch from one person to the other, if a target is at 50% and gets bursted down to 5% there's nothing instant right there that you can do to bring them back up. Another time it occurs is when you get stunned, forcing you to do the same thing. It's only a small ramp up, maybe 2 seconds maximum but I really feel it, of course when you do get the heal in time it's extremely strong single target burst so perhaps that's the tradeoff. I haven't played my Rsham in a while but my priest can always fall back on a PW:S, Rdruid has a sneaky little Swiftmend and multi hotting, Hpally has WoG/Shock. That's the only area I've found I feel sluggish with in BGs.

[Callimonk]

Honestly - while I think WW can use a few buffs - I can safely say that I wouldn't be happy on any other class. I've played rogue, shaman, and druid (maining shaman and druid), and WW seemed to have "fixed" the things I disliked about both. I just don't think I'd be as happy if I rerolled.

Brewmaster is pretty fun, too - but I'm not tanking this expansion, so I won't comment as much on that

[DocQuantum]

My alt monk (my poor alts never get the play time they deserve) is only an 87 brewmaster... but I find myself REALLY enjoying it.

I'd tried tanking on a prot pally (hated it), DK (found it boring), and druid (OK... but I'd rather heal on a druid). Figured tanking just wasn't my thing (my main is ranged DPS) and never bothered trying on my warrior. So when monks came out, I figured I'd go Mistweaver/Windwalker.

I don't remember what, but something made me decide to try out brewmaster instead... and I love it. I have no clue how effective it is at end-game (though I'm 12/16 heroic on my main, and our alt brewmaster tank holds up very well on a lot of fights)... but it's FUN. The brewmaster mechanics are "easy to learn, lifetime to master" and reward intelligent play.

Besides, my monk is constantly getting drunk, throwing alcohol on people, and setting them on fire - what more could you ask for? (I should point out that this isn't "beer" we're throwing... it has to be closer to 200 proof for the fire to ignite like that.)