Why so few Monks?

[Pearstriker]

If I had to give three reasons, these would be them:

1. Nonstandard abilities mean taking more time to come up with interesting uses for things, as opposed to the more standard kit other classes get. My guild's main tank has been tanking since vanilla and plays every tank spec but BM, because she finds the mechanics to be too weird.

2. The weirder, more playful lore and aesthetic. There are people out there who cant stand levity or anything less serious.

3. The fact that they're the only class introduced post vanilla that starts at level 1. Yes, I know about the catch-up mechanics, but there are people who don't , believe it or not.

[Marrilaife]

Oooh, this thread is still going?

Maybe because all 3 specs are bottom feeding right now...
https://www.wowhead.com/news=318659/...-on-warcraft-l

[Icelin]

Someone made a valid point the moves come across as very cartoony. I would completely agree. More so if you compare with say Diablo 3 type abilities. Me personally, I don't really enjoy the green "cloud" animation that is suppose to be mist. (Maybe try and do red instead for Chi-ji and have better looking auras/animations or something..) That is unsettling in itself. So it really has no visual appeal. I'm not entirely sure how fun the gameplay is for them. As I have not maxed one. I think them being massive alcoholics might discourage some people too.(I heard some people complain about the Monk classhall.. I'm not sure if it was humorous or not.) I think animations are probably more of a concern tho.

[Hitei]

Oooh, this thread is still going?

Maybe because all 3 specs are bottom feeding right now...
https://www.wowhead.com/news=318659/...-on-warcraft-l

Doubtful, since it's been the least played class pretty much since MoP launch, and there have been many times where it was perfectly fine or quite strong.

I don't think starting at 1 has to do with its current popularity at all. It might have been a factor in ~MoP-WoD, but at this point it's been 8 years and plenty of brand new level 1 characters have been made and it's still the least played.

I think it's extremely narrow aesthetic (being Pandaria based even though it's been almost a decade since then) hurts it. Some of the animations hurt it (I enjoy monk but the roll animation is still awkward after all this time and both Fists of Fury animations were super silly). I think it's also hurt by just being a monk. Monk works fine in Diablo because you only have a handful of classes to choose from, but in general, monks as an archetype are not wildly popular in games/fantasy media.

[bledgor]

Oooh, this thread is still going?

Maybe because all 3 specs are bottom feeding right now...
https://www.wowhead.com/news=318659/...-on-warcraft-l

Funny when sloot and several other top end mythic tanks have said that brew will be 100% used for progress again (I do think WW and MW could use some help). Also lol at looking at tank DPS on farm content.

[Misuteri]

I have to say the most overpowered 78 twink I ever made was a Mistweaver monk. Crackling lightning was two ticks and dead. I really loved that kind of visual and DPS for streaming. More than mind flay or drain life etc. I wish there had been a caster DPS spec instead of the three that ended up in the game.