[LEGION] Future of Monkcraft

[Babylonius]

I'll try to keep the main page as updated as I can. Feel free to PM me or post any new info here, I'm not going to catch it all. Please keep this to confirmed or official information, not speculation.

This thread is for posting information, not discussing it. Please keep discussion of changes to the appropriate spec threads.

All Specs

No more Chi Explosion (Nov 18)

Chi Explosion disagreed with the fantasy quite a bit, and was extremely complex. Instead, we're adding other alternatives.

Touch of Death is staying but changing (Nov 18)

Touch of Death is remaining, but it works rather differently. It's more of a cooldown than an execute.

Brewmaster

From Class Preview Blog (Nov 11)

The brewmaster is a quirky character, though dangerous when underestimated. Brewmasters may seem to struggle with balance as they chug their concoctions in the middle of a fight, but this unpredictable behavior is far from foolhardiness. Most opponents barely have time to process the erratic nature of the brewmaster’s fighting tactics before they find themselves laid low—possibly the result of a keg smash to the head. When an opponent actually manages to land an attack, it’s often unclear how much the brewmaster feels it . . . if at all.

"The brewmaster is a quirky character, though dangerous when underestimated."

Gameplay

The gameplay for Brewmasters hasn’t quite fit their archetypes to this point. Rather than being the tricky martial artists, staggering around with an evasiveness that frustrates their opponent while being a little squishy when taking an unmitigated blow, Brewmasters have been more focused around large absorption shields and clutch self-healing. Our new design approach is to get more gameplay depth out of their strong, thematic abilities. Instead of Chi as a resource, which had little depth for Brewmasters, we’re switching to charges on Brew abilities that other abilities still interact with.

Here’s a basic look at the core defensive and offensive combat abilities for Brewmaster Monks:

•Defensive

•Ironskin Brew

•Instant, 20 sec recharge, 3 charges
•Increases your Stagger amount by an additional 60% for 6 sec.
•Shares charges with Purifying Brew.

•Purifying Brew

•Instant, 20 sec recharge, 3 charges
•Instantly purifies all of your staggered damage.
•Shares charges with Ironskin Brew.

•Gift of the Ox

•Passive
•When you take damage, you have a chance to summon a Healing Sphere visible only to you. Moving through this Healing Sphere will heal you for 25% of your maximum health.
•This chance is increased the lower health you are.

•Mastery: Elusive Brawler

•Each time you are hit by a melee attack, you gain 20% (with Mastery from typical gear) Dodge, until your next successful Dodge.
•Also increases your attack power by 20% (with Mastery from typical gear).

•Offensive

•Keg Smash

•40 Energy, 15 yd range, Instant, 8 sec cooldown
•Smash a keg of brew on the target, dealing strong damage to all enemies within 8 yds and reducing their movement speed by 50% for 15 sec.
•Reduces the remaining cooldown on your Brews by 4 sec.

•Tiger Palm

•50 Energy, Melee Range, Instant
•Attack with the palm of your hand, dealing minor damage.
•Reduces the remaining cooldown on your Brews by 1 sec.

•Blackout Strike

•Melee Range, Instant, 3 sec cooldown
•Thwack the enemy with your weapon, dealing moderate Physical damage.
•Shares cooldown with Breath of Fire.

•Breath of Fire

•Instant, 3 sec cooldown
•Targets in front of the caster take minor Fire damage. If affected by Keg Smash, they will also burn for minor Fire damage over 8 sec.
•Shares cooldown with Blackout Kick.

Additionally, to give you an idea of how some talents may build upon this, here’s an example of one of their Brewmaster-specific talents:

•Elusive Dance
•Passive
•Purifying Brew also grants up to 15% Dodge for 6 sec, based on the level of Stagger damage purified.

Mistweaver

No more Healing Spheres (Nov 18)

There will be no more Healing Spheres as a baseline. We may add them as a PvP talent, however.

From Class Preview Blog (Nov 11)

Mistweavers are unique among those who heal. The energies they channel are mysterious, oftentimes misunderstood by commoners—who rarely travel beyond the borders of their homelands—as some form of folk medicine. But those who weave the mists wield the power of life’s essence, using a mixture of preventative and restorative spells to mend their allies’ wounds. The inner tranquility that guides mistweavers allows them to sustain their healing for long periods of time, and gives them the strength to care for multiple injured allies.

"...those who weave the mists wield the power of life's essence, using a mixture of preventative and restorative spells to mend their allies' wounds."

Gameplay

Our goal with Mistweaver Monks is to accentuate the existing characteristics that define them, and resolve some core gameplay issues. In simple terms, this means we’ve redesigned their abilities so that you can directly use the spells you want rather than having to set up an excessive amount of other abilities first

The most prominent example of this was Renewing Mist, which served primarily as a setup for Uplift; we’ve reworked Renewing Mist to stand on its own, and replaced Uplift with a couple of new spells: Vivify and Essence Font. In addition, a new passive Soothing Mist mechanic gives Mistweavers a unique healing style with variable efficiency, over which you have more direct control.

We’re also focusing Mistweavers solely on healing, rather than supporting a type of mixed attack-healing gameplay that felt awkward and ultimately didn’t live up to our goals for the spec—it was unintuitive, and chiefly useful as a mana management tool. Lastly, Mistweavers will now use Mana, not Chi, as a resource, since it reduced choices and restricted gameplay in many situations..

Here’s a basic look at the core combat healing abilities for Mistweaver Monks:

•Mastery: Gust of Mists

•Your targeted heals also cause a gust of healing mists, instantly healing the target for a minor amount (increasing with Mastery from gear).

•Soothing Mist

•Passive
•Your Effuse, Enveloping Mist, and Vivify also trigger Soothing Mist.
•After casting these spells, you continue to channel healing mists into the target, healing them for a minor amount every 0.5 sec, until you take any other action.

•Developer Comments

•Need efficient healing? Cast any heal and let Soothing Mist continue to provide free healing as long as you feel comfortable!
•Need high-throughput healing? Cast any heal and move onto the next target in need of healing, without spending time on Soothing Mist.
•For Mistweavers, it’s OK to have open global cooldowns between heals—Soothing Mist fills these gaps.

•Effuse

•1.8% Mana, 40 yd range, 1.5 sec cast
•A fast and efficient spell, healing the target for a minor amount.

•Enveloping Mist

•6.0% Mana, 40 yd range, 2 sec cast
•Wrap the target in healing mists, healing them for a huge amount over 6 sec, and increasing healing received from your spells by 30%.

•Renewing Mist

•3.5% Mana, Instant, 6 sec cooldown
•You surround the target with healing mists, restoring a huge amount of health over 20 sec.
•If Renewing Mist causes any overhealing, it will travel to the most injured ally within 20 yds.
•When Renewing Mist heals, it has a 4% chance to increase the healing of your next Vivify by 50%.

•Essence Font

•8.0% Mana, 40 yd range, Channeled
•Unleash a rapid twirl of healing bolts at up to 6 allies within 25 yds, every 1 sec for 3 sec.
•Each bolt heals the target for a moderate amount, plus an additional moderate amount over 8 sec.

•Vivify

•5.0% Mana, 40 yd range, 1.5 sec cast
•Cause a surge of invigorating mists around the target, healing them and their 2 nearest injured allies for a moderate amount.

Additionally, to give you an idea of how some talents may build upon this, here’s an example of one of their Mistweaver-specific talents:
•Mistwalk

•40 yd range, Instant, 20 sec recharge, 2 charges
•Instantly dash to an ally, and heal them for a large amount.

Windwalker
Storm Earth and Fire:

The new Storm, Earth, and Fire is being simplified and made more intuitive. It will be a simple toggle, somewhat similar to Blade Flurry.
You turn it on and split into three, turn it off and you recombine into one. They won't attack the same target as you, but they will find something nearby to attack. You do lose the customizability of assigning targets, but it will do something useful at all times.

On new SEF split (Nov 17)

All 3 Spirits (you being one) will deal 50% max damage to their target. Its intended for use on 3+ targets, not 1 or 2.

SCK will not need a target (Nov 18)

We chose to turn SCK into a spender, so that its damage could be strong. It will not require a target.

From Class Preview Blog (Nov 11)

Among monks, none have mastered the martial arts as the windwalkers have, and few across Azeroth can fight with their grace. Windwalkers possess unparalleled physical finesse, and are capable of overwhelming their enemies with a dizzying flurry of punches and kicks. Their skill comes primarily from a lifetime of intense training and discipline, but the power they exhibit is shrouded in more mysticism than meets the untrained eye. The combination of their peak physical conditioning, state of inner calm, and leveraging of mystical chi makes windwalker monks a true force to be reckoned with.

"Windwalkers possess unparalleled physical finesse, and are capable of overwhelming their enemies with a dizzying flurry of punches and kicks."

Gameplay

Powerful themes fuel the Guardian Druid, but the gameplay falls short of delivering on them. In particular,
Similar to Brewmasters, here we focused on getting more depth out of less complexity. Windwalkers’ new Mastery, Combo Strikes, encourages mixing a variety of abilities, which provides a constant gameplay hook that influences every ability they use and draws inspiration from classic fighting games. In addition, we’ve polished Storm, Earth, and Fire to remove some cumbersome mechanics. Windwalkers still use a combination of Energy and Chi, along with a heavy dose of short cooldowns.

Here’s a basic look at the core combat abilities for Windwalker Monks:

•Mastery: Combo Strikes

•Your abilities deal 25% (with Mastery from typical gear) more damage when they are not a repeat of the previous ability.

•Tiger Palm

•50 Energy, Melee Range, Instant
•Attack with the palm of your hand, dealing minor damage and generating 2 Chi.
•Tiger Palm has an 8% chance to make your next Blackout Kick cost no Chi.

•Blackout Kick

•1 Chi, Melee Range, Instant
•Kick with a blast of Chi energy, dealing moderate Physical damage.

•Rising Sun Kick

•2 Chi, Melee Range, Instant, 8 sec cooldown
•You kick upwards, dealing strong damage, and reducing the effectiveness of healing on the target for 10 sec.

•Fists of Fury

•3 Chi, Melee Range, Channeled, 20 sec cooldown
•Pummel all targets in front of you, dealing massive damage over 4 sec. Deals reduced damage to secondary targets.
•Can be channeled while moving.

•Spinning Crane Kick

•1 Chi, Channeled
•You spin while kicking in the air, dealing moderate damage over 1.5 sec to enemies within 8 yds.

•Storm, Earth, and Fire

•Split into 3 elemental spirits, suited to attacking 3 or more enemies. Each spirit deals 50% of normal damage and healing.
•The Monk directly controls the Storm spirit, while Earth and Fire spirits mimic the Monk's attacks on different nearby enemies.
•Lasts until toggled off, or either Earth or Fire are destroyed.

•Developer Comment: Now a simple toggle—no targeting necessary! Spirits will automatically seek out nearby enemies to attack while you attack your target.

Additionally, to give you an idea of how some talents may build upon this, here’s an example of one of their Windwalker-specific talents:

•Hit Combo

•Passive
•Each successive attack that triggers Combo Strikes in a row grants 1% increased damage, stacking up to 10 times.

[Deleted]

Brewmaster tiger palm cost has been confirmed to be 25, not 50.

[DisposableHero]

So, similar to windwalker in WoD beta the proposed changes to Brewmaster look to take it from one of the highest actions per minute and decisions per minute specs in its role to one of the lowest.

Somehow I feel the cadence and rhythm associated with playing a spec is not a factor considered when they talk about spec identity. I hope this time they figure it out in Beta and don't have to patch it with set bonuses that add disturbing amounts of free casts to make up for the slow as molasses gameplay of the base spec.

[Felancelan]

Well, we also don't know talents or artifacts, they could easily have a row to regenerate energy, one could be tigereye brew (1 minute cooldown 60 energy over 6 seconds, maybe affected by cd reductions from keg smash and tiger palm), energy when we dodge and a passive that increases base regeneration. Or any or all could be rolled into the artifact and be made stronger with relics.

[Pucek]

I'm a bit bothered that whenever a question was asked: Do we keep X/Do we still have X? The answer is: "Talents". Fine. But we can pick 7 talents, if they turn more abilities into talents then we simply won't be able to pick them.

In the end we still lose abilities be they normal or former talents.

[stross01]

So, similar to windwalker in WoD beta the proposed changes to Brewmaster look to take it from one of the highest actions per minute and decisions per minute specs in its role to one of the lowest.

There's no basis for this and it's already almost fully disproven. It requires a low-to-medium amount of haste to go back to the 70-100apm it is now. Please don't spread misinformation.

Also, you can probably add Sunnier's twitter posts to this. He got some solidish responses from Blizzard guys.

[Xiaojin]

I'm a bit bothered that whenever a question was asked: Do we keep X/Do we still have X? The answer is: "Talents". Fine. But we can pick 7 talents, if they turn more abilities into talents then we simply won't be able to pick them.

In the end we still lose abilities be they normal or former talents.

The answer isn't always "talents". In the class blog posts Blizzard only listed the core rotational abilities. Cooldowns and utility abilities usually weren't listed even though they still exist and are available baseline. Yes, some things will go away or change (Crane Stance for Mistweaver, ChiEx (at least for WW; probably for every monk because other specs don't have Chi anymore), Serenity) but we still will have a lot of stuff baseline. Also, even if they turn many things into talents: do you really need that many abilities available at all times? Guild Wars 1 proved years ago that you can create engaging gameplay around a very limited amount of abilities available during a mission or quest. I don't need a lot of abilities, I need abilities which together create fun gameplay.

[Deleted]

Doesn't anyone feel disturbed that they are removing chi from MW and turning both it and WW into a common spec. They are getting rid of all the unique features monks had. Healing with combo points? No more! 2x ST heals, one 6 ppl aoe and some smart healing.... "mindblowing". Same with WW. Most retarded mastery+talent ever. It's enforcing you to play a certain (seemingly much slower) way.All the proc tracking and prioritising is removed. Completely ruining SEF as well. It seems like all the fun mechanics will be gone.

[randomamer]

I agree if the talents serious don't do something amazing to save windwalker I will no longer be maining it legion. I think a lot of the people who play windwalker now have a real sour taste in the mouth after reading the class blog and the subsequent tweets.

[Babylonius]

I reiterate:

This thread is for posting information, not discussing it. Please keep discussion of changes to the appropriate spec threads.

From here on out, any post that's not notifying me of new information to add to the main post will be deleted. If you want to discuss the changes then do so in the class threads, if you want to complain about how you feel about the changes, there is also a thread for that.

[Kaylisto]

SEF is intended as a 3 target ability, not for 1 - 2 targets.

https://twitter.com/WarcraftDevs/sta...06812251455488

You and the clones EACH deal 50% dmg.

[LoKSET]

Terrible...

[Ihatepanda]

Yep when i got the answer to my tweet... I felt like a sad panda... :/
Can't control the clone and absolutely 3 targets + fight...

[Celede]

SEF News (2 Target no longer effective, 3 only), no more Chi Explosion, MW Healing spheres, Touch of Death mention, SCK mention:

https://twitter.com/WarcraftDevs/sta...06812251455488

I need clarification on storm-earth-fire, Will us the main character deal 100% of the damage while both clone deal 50% damage?

No. All three, including you, will deal 50% damage. It's not for use on one or two targets.

https://twitter.com/WarcraftDevs/sta...06986348613632

will we see Chi Explosion in Legion in a new form now that chi is gone? It's one of my favorite spells!

Chi Explosion disagreed with the fantasy quite a bit, and was extremely complex. Instead, we're adding other alternatives.

https://twitter.com/WarcraftDevs/sta...09472971091971

With their mastery changing, will Mistweaver monks still create healing spheres?

There will be no more Healing Spheres as a baseline. We may add them as a PvP talent, however.

https://twitter.com/WarcraftDevs/sta...03945721483264

is Touch of Death staying around? it's pretty iconic to monks.

Touch of Death is remaining, but it works rather differently. It's more of a cooldown than an execute.

https://twitter.com/WarcraftDevs/sta...03255917846528

SCK having a chi req.. so it's no longer spammable and can't be used without first selecting a target and generating a chi?

We chose to turn SCK into a spender, so that its damage could be strong. It will not require a target.

[vulena]

Also, you can probably add Sunnier's twitter posts to this. He got some solidish responses from Blizzard guys.

*She

/10char

[Hinalover]

Well based on datamined spells

Spirite and Crane stance are gone
Ox Stance is now a passive (titled "Stagger")
Fierce Tiger stance is still in but there is a tag saying "Hidden" so not sure if it will be viewable or not at this time.