Why do I see so few Monks?

[Louz]

Up until BFA, none of the specs brought anything unique to the table, but now they bring at least... something? (melee debuff). It's not a flashy class with any 'iconic' spells. Blizzard tried so hard to make Monks fit in with the original non-hero classes that they've left it to be blander than the original specs which have updated animations and shiny spells.

WW lost Strike of the Windlord and most of its DPS comes from Touch of Karma and Touch of Death, so it's pretty lame in comparison to Legion.
MW is in a strong position and I'm glad we're away from the terrible Legion iteration (I've missed Soothing Mist and I don't miss spamming Essence Font).
BRM I literally don't know shit about but like... who cares?

Monks have definitely the most distinct visuals among all other classes. Not only all their character animations are unique, but their spells are uniquely jade colored, while other classes have the usual frost/fire/shadow/holy themes, while "physical damage based" classes have almost no visuals, just a little more polished weapon swing traces, compared to past.

Problem is that most people think monk = pandaren. Some even call the class "panda" instead of "monk".
And most people dislike pandaren for how stupid they look.

Also monk tier sets have always looked incredibly stupid and gaudy, making you look like a clown with a rice farmer hat.

Blizz had a unique chance to de-pandafy the class in legion, to add themes from other actual monks that are long established in the game, but they apparently didn't care that much, or simply didn't want to.

As for the gameplay, I'd say most people won't even know whether the class "is lacking compared to legion/wod/pandas" or plays better now or needs specific traits or talents or whatever, simply because people won't even give it a shot as it looks so unappealing to them - again, because they think monk = pandaren.

People like to complain that classes are dull, that they feel slow and that you just press one button over and over - WW monk is the exact opposite.
With 1 sec base GCD and their mastery that literally forces you to press different buttons all the time, the class is the precise opposite of what they complain about, plus they can be almost any race, so no excuses there.

[Bosen]

The theme of the Monk isn't as flashy,edgy or traditional fantasy as other classes.

As far as the level boost,why would you use a level boost when you know that the Monk class has the xp buff? You could use the boost on another class. This creates the chore of leveling the Monk through old content,albeit faster. You'd really have to like the theme of the Monk to "waste" a boost on it.

[Hell-Nicø]

Because blizzard failed on an epic scale to deliver a "class fantasy" that would appeal to western audience, and there's two reasons for that:

1) They made it EXTREMELY chiness inspired, because, just like with the rest of Mop, Monk were created to appeal to the chinese market.
The side effect is that it ended up no appealing to wester audience at all, eastern and western audience have wildly different taste.

2) They made the "fantasy" of the class way, WAY to tied to the Pandaren culture instead of changing some spell fx to depending on the race (like pal, sham or drood) which mean that ALL other classes playing monk feel out of place. Only Pandaren can rock the Monk style properly, and the reality is that a lot of people don't want to play fat pandas.

It's really a shame, because had they done the fantasy properly, with something that would fit more the different races playing them, I think the classes would have been a HUGE success. Just look at D3 Monks, they are badass and wildly popular, and I would have rolled a Karazim like human monk in a heartbeat, but I'm just not interested in the pandary style monk.

It's especialy sad since the classe itself, it's gameplay, isn't that bad at all, in fact it's one of the best!

[Deleted]

Monks are amazing, it's everyone else's loss if they're not playing them. Been playing BrM, and it's the most fun I've had with a class in years. Amazing mobility, not hindered by GCD changes, Dave the black ox.

The only really bad part of playing a Monk... terrible tier sets. Only so many times you can do "beads and silly hat", and with the removal of tier sets, we'll never get the chance to have a nice sholin monk, or an MMA Mag'har Orc. Sad times.

[Nouk]

Can only speak for myself...mained Monk for some time in MoP and going into WoD. Love the gameplay and martial artist fantasy, but really really HATE the aesthetic. would love to tank, but throwing kegs and chugging tea? nah. the whole thai chi - theme doesnt really connect with me. if WoW monk was more like D3 Monk animation and effect-wise: i wouldnt play anything else really.

[Deleted]

Monks aren't edgy enough to be popular

[crusadernero]

I see monks everyday, more now in BfA than before.

[Selerian]

Switched to BrM monk in BfA from Guardian Druid, it's alot more fun to play with his ridiculous mobility and a much stronger tank (especially for raids) cause of Stagger. The hype is real for sure. Mistweaver is also strong af currently. Don't have a solid opinion on WW.

In any case, the small number of monks is definitely not a matter of the class' strength.

Like others already suggested, I think people don't play monks cause they are not very interesting and attractive lore-wise and style-wise compared to pretty much every other class. Who would prefer using their fists instead of carrying Warglaves or any other cool weapon available or throw beer on the floor instead of being a huge bear, a DK or w/e. Personally I would never consider playing one if they weren't so strong in their current iteration (at least concerning tanks) and I'll most probably switch away again if/when they get on the lower end of the tanking rankings.

So yeah, I don't think the pie chart is going to change in the future regarding Monks, they will always be the poor relative and only get picked if their strength makes ignoring that fact worth.

[Saverem]

When I do dungeons, never see a Monk. When I do BGs never, see a Monk. However, they seem to be in a VERY good spot for all 3 specs. I watched Method streaming world first Mythic Kills and they were running double BrM tanks. When I watch other Mythic videos lots of raids have at least 1 of each spec and saw lots of double MW monk setups. WW Monks seem to be parsing well. On the other hand Shaman and Shadow Priests are dumpster tier and yet I see them everywhere.

Huh? I see them everywhere now. I see at least 1 in like half the dungeons I do and there's 4 of them in my raid now (before raid had anywhere between 0 and 1). A bunch of our guildies rerolled to Monk at start of BfA.

[Onikaroshi]

In a world where we have obtained 2 free max level boosts I find this argument hard to swallow anymore. I don't know why monks are so unpopular, but Im sure that this is not the reason. Maybe people prefer big flashy spells or giant ass swords to punching things.

3 actually, lvl 90 with WoD, lvl 100 with legion, and lvl 110 with Bfa.

[i5Typical]

I mained monk since they came out (BrM) and still do, but got kind of bored. Played all 3 specs at CE level, just mixing it up now and going DH for now personally lol

[Deleted]

When I do dungeons, never see a Monk. When I do BGs never, see a Monk. However, they seem to be in a VERY good spot for all 3 specs. I watched Method streaming world first Mythic Kills and they were running double BrM tanks. When I watch other Mythic videos lots of raids have at least 1 of each spec and saw lots of double MW monk setups. WW Monks seem to be parsing well. On the other hand Shaman and Shadow Priests are dumpster tier and yet I see them everywhere.

Monks are just so silly. It's too ingrained in Pandaren lore. I like to play my monk every now and then but along with priest, it's always the one I like to play the least. Every time I think about leveling him I cringe at how out of place he feels.

[antico]

I feel like all these posts are from people who either never played a monk, or picked up played it for about 30-40 levels and went back to their mains, as a monk player since MoP myself I cannot identify with these claims.

Brewmasters were always strong, practically solo tanking bosses since Throne of Thunder (at my highest I've solo tanked the majority of Siege of Orgrimmar), WoD with the broken OP Guard (especially in Hellfire Citadel), I was doing things other tanks couldn't even try to copy. Legion I was right up there next to druids, Nighthold had a lot of magic damage which wasn't too friendly, but in Tomb of Sargeras I was making other tanks jealous with the ability to dodge boss skills, effortlessly tanking high tank damage bosses such as Mistress of Valor or Fallen Avatar. I haven't tanked mythic Antorus, but in heroic only Varimathras with his "healing block" debuff was a concern to me. And now in BFA I don't think I need to say more than what everyone has seen on Method's streams brewmasters being at the forefront of bleeding edge progression. I guess the reason why they never caught on was the fact stagger was a completely new mechanic never seen in wow before, and the game UI didn't reflect that in any way to draw players attention (there wasn't a default stagger bar like we have today), and the fact you get a key tanking ability to manage it at level 75 (but those are sins of the past, leveling has improved significantly since then). Personally I like the current iteration of brewmasters (with the introduction of Ironskin Brew), I find it's gameplay to be more engaging than any other tank.

The last time brewmasters were early Legion Guardian Druid levels of broken OP was in Blackrock Foundry, and even then we dodged the axe and came out really strong in Hellfire Citadel, the nerf to stagger in Nighthold was merely to stop some nonsense like tanking enraged Tichondrius for the next 20 seconds, on a pool of stagger that should kill you 10 times over.

Mistweavers had a bumpy ride since their introduction, being broken OP one patch than useless the next in MoP, I liked the balls to the wall style of healing where you couldn't run out of mana, unfortunately blizzard had other plans.. I was never a big fan of Fistweaving (to me it was like the Gladiator Stance of healers - if you wanna DPS than go play a DPS class) and making it mandatory made the shy away from healing in WoD. Legion was a dark time for Mistweavers, being average at everything with major mana consumption problems, unless you outgear the rest of the healers you were middle of the pack at best.

Windwalkers I can't really speak about, DPSing was never my thing in WoW, yes I fiddled about with the spec in Legion cause free weapons, and did the artifact mage tower challenge, but that's not really a feat of prowess. But I saw them making some really good numbers, especially in AOE in raids throughout Legion, and the fact the majority of arena compositions featured a Windwalker monk shows that the class was a solid addition to the DPS line up of any team, be it PVE or PVP.

[Augrelle]

I feel it's mainly the aesthetic of the class. It feels really really tied to Pandaria. And that it just feels a bit out of place when put in other parts of the game. Even if the Scarlet Crusade has have monks since vanilla.

Part of this I feel is due to how focused the class is on Teas and having spells/abilities named after things from Pandaria.

If they went with a more generic feeling, I bet it would be a bit more popular.


However I know a few people who are salty that we will most likely never get rune masters due to monks. For those who don't know: Rune Masters were the wow version of Monk essentially. They were considered to be the hero class in Wrath but lost to Death Knights. They were also a cut class from vanilla ( alongside Death Knights and Necromancers).

[kran1um]

Antico said it best.

BrM will remain top raid tank until Blizz messes with stagger
WW keeps getting easier
Mist use font all the time. hit stuff when nothing to heal, dont stay as a dps healer, people will die.

[tyrlaan]

I feel it's mainly the aesthetic of the class. It feels really really tied to Pandaria. And that it just feels a bit out of place when put in other parts of the game. Even if the Scarlet Crusade has have monks since vanilla.

Tend to agree with this, but more because I feel that pandaren are the only race with good monk animations.

Also, to me, monks just stick out like sore thumbs in fantasy settings; they just feel incredibly out of place.

However I know a few people who are salty that we will most likely never get rune masters due to monks. For those who don't know: Rune Masters were the wow version of Monk essentially. They were considered to be the hero class in Wrath but lost to Death Knights. They were also a cut class from vanilla ( alongside Death Knights and Necromancers).

This strikes me as a bit odd. Aren't Rune Masters from the RPG and not in the game lore at all?

[Gurg]

However I know a few people who are salty that we will most likely never get rune masters due to monks. For those who don't know: Rune Masters were the wow version of Monk essentially. They were considered to be the hero class in Wrath but lost to Death Knights. They were also a cut class from vanilla ( alongside Death Knights and Necromancers).

This strikes me as a bit odd. Aren't Rune Masters from the RPG and not in the game lore at all?

Weeelll. Eastern part of Stormheim is full of them. Atleast NPC Hostile versions of it. But yea, i remember reading somewhere about it ages ago, the idea for runemasters was that they would use clothish armor (looking more like leather) or lether armor that resembles DH sets with upper torso exposure. Torso would be covered with runes that would switch animations depending on your invoke. The idea was to boost your defensiveness or offensiveness via runes and idea of DW was in the air. Something between Monks and Enhance Shammies.

Heres SamWise's concept art for it, he used to be blizzards artist at the time
https://www.deviantart.com/samwisedi...ster-450471326

And heres some warcraft lore behind it:
http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Runemaster

Also, to me, monks just stick out like sore thumbs in fantasy settings; they just feel incredibly out of place.

Eh, you were using most powerful weapons ever made and traveled trough dimensional rift to different part of space on a high tech ship build by space goats and powered just by light it self. Once you were there you were battling on a broken world surrounded by space ships, lasers, robots, androids and even titans.

Why does Kung Fu panda strikes you so odd?

My idea is that pandaren, with which is monk most promoted during pandaria add campaign, initial zone is done a bit out of place and the "feel" that emits is not for everybody's taste. To much Zen bears that just meditate and eat veggies. Taken in concern that expansion before that you were taking down a deranged Earth dragon and faced cataclysm, and the expansion before that you were fighting hordes and hordes of skeletons, all stuff undead and get to kill Arthas Pandaria brought with it to much colorful environment and somewhat large turn in design and storytelling.

Back on topic. Im not sure on which server are you, im on one of most populated servers in EU and i see more Monks than ever before. My progression raiding team has 5 of them. Two tanks, two heals and me as DPS.

I have one too and i think that i know why.

WW monks are not as much dependent on haste as other melees are, they play the same with low and with high haste. Im sitting at around 16% haste, which is a number i was aiming at carrying it over from Legion even so its not their highly rated secondary stat. Its sooo fluent, you always have something to press and with that haste you never actually run out of Energy.

Brewmasters are, as always, good tanks due to how they handle damage mitigation.

Mist, havent tried it yet.

[ymirsson]

Also, to me, monks just stick out like sore thumbs in fantasy settings; they just feel incredibly out of place.

Like steam punk technology? In the end, all this "out of place" or not is really really subjective.
I can live better with the idea of an asian themed continent and appropriate class and race content in the world than capitalistic techno-goblins.

[Augrelle]

Tend to agree with this, but more because I feel that pandaren are the only race with good monk animations.

Also, to me, monks just stick out like sore thumbs in fantasy settings; they just feel incredibly out of place.



This strikes me as a bit odd. Aren't Rune Masters from the RPG and not in the game lore at all?

Rune Masters were pretty prominent in Wrath of the Lich King. They showed up in Howling Forj, was in Grizzly hills, and the stormpeaks. They were featured in Utgarde Keep, The halls of stone, the halls of lightning, the trial of valor, and Ulduar. More recently they showed up in Stormheim. And yes, they were also in the RPGs originally.

Link to the post that said they were originally going to be in vanilla but eventually got replaced by druids: https://www.reddit.com/r/classicwow/...text=8&depth=9

Blizzcast episode 7 was when they said that they were torn between Rune masters and Death knights for Wrath of the Lich king. Basically it explains why Wrath felt 'divided' with half the expansion zones focusing on ulduar and runemasters and the rest on death knights and Ice crown.

Like steam punk technology? In the end, all this "out of place" or not is really really subjective.
I can live better with the idea of an asian themed continent and appropriate class and race content in the world than capitalistic techno-goblins.

I think it would of felt better if it was more integrated into the world. Pandaria feels very isolated. Yes I know that was the point from a lore perspective but still, it feels trapped, and monks along with it. Yes the steam-punk stuff would stick it if it showed up only in one area but it has been sown throughout the world. it doesn't feel so out of place due to that.

[ymirsson]

Yes the steam-punk stuff would stick it if it showed up only in one area but it has been sown throughout the world. it doesn't feel so out of place due to that.

I especially dislike the goblin stuff. Dwarfen steam tanks and similar was already used in WoW:The RTS, but goblin lore feels forced.