[WINDWALKER] BfA Theorycrafting/Rotation Priority/Stat Weights Discussion

[anesmith]

The Blizz Dev team has moved into the “numbers phase” in preparation for the release of 8.0, BfA. The intent of this thread is to keep everyone informed of the latest theorycrafting/rotation priority info/stat weights/etc., as they become available, heading into the expansion. I'm going to main a WW in BfA and started researching reliable theorycrafters today, and thought why shouldn't we all pool our resources.

Numbers and priorities will no doubt change several times before release, so I will try to update the original post anytime reliable data is released. When replying to this post about theorycrafting/rotation priority/stat weights/etc., please indicate what your source for the information was, whether a person, website, personal sims, etc.

The below information was provided by Pandaconda, one of the main theorycrafters of the spec. He is a co-founder of the Monk resource site Peak of Serenity, in charge of the Windwalker pages. The below information was written by Pandaconda on June 16, 2018. Full page is here. The information below represents the most reliable information I could find today, June 20, 2018.

Again, as numbers are buffed/nerfed by Blizz, I will make every attempt to update the original post with the most accurate information available. Everyone’s assistance in researching and posting, to keep us all updated, is greatly appreciated!

Talents

General Talents

Tier 1 (lv15) – Chi Burst
Tier 2 (lv30) – Personal Preference
Tier 3 (lv45) – Fist of the White Tiger with The Wind Blows and Tier 21, Energizing Elixir without
Tier 4 (lv60) – Good Karma
Tier 5 (lv75) – Dampen Harm for physical, Diffuse Magic for magic damage
Tier 6 (lv90) – Rushing Jade Wind for multi-target, Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger for single target or burst up to 3 targets
Tier 7 (lv100) – Serenity for single target, Whirling Dragon Punch for multi-target

War Mode Talents (for open world)

Gladiator's Medallion
Heavy-Handed Strikes
Tiger Style
Control the Mists

Ability Priority

Windwalkers operate on a priority system, NOT A ROTATION. This means that you use whatever ability is available that’s highest up in the priority. For more information on how priorities are generated, read Babylonius’s Understanding Priorities article.

Single Target

Touch of Death
Fist of the White Tiger (if <3 Chi AND about to cap energy)
Tiger Palm (if <4 Chi AND about to cap energy)
Whirling Dragon Punch (if talented)
Fists of Fury
Chi Burst (if less than max Chi)
Rising Sun Kick (see Ability Usage below)
Blackout Kick
Should be used while benefiting from Mastery as often as possible
Can be spammed, ignoring Mastery, to get Fists of Fury faster as long as you’ll have enough resources for Fists of Fury
Should never be spammed 3x in a row
Fist of the White Tiger (if talented)
Chi Wave (if talented)
Tiger Palm

Multi-Target

Touch of Death
Whirling Dragon Punch
Fists of Fury
Chi Burst (if less than max Chi)
Spinning Crane Kick (3+ Targets)
Blackout Kick
Should be used while benefiting from Mastery as often as possible
Can be spammed, ignoring Mastery, to get Fists of Fury faster as long as you’ll have enough resources for Fists of Fury
Should never be spammed 3x in a row
Rising Sun Kick (see Ability Usage below)
Fist of the White Tiger (if talented)
Chi Wave (if talented)
Tiger Palm

Ability Usage

Serenity – Read: Wizard Dog’s Serenity Guide
Rising Sun Kick – ONLY used to enable Whirling Dragon Punch when talented into it, inside Serenity, Storm, Earth, and Fire, and opener to maximize burst window, and to dump Chi when you would otherwise have to cast 3 Blackout Kick to get rid of it all.
Touch of Death – Use as close to on cooldown while lining up with other abilities and damage bonuses to amplify the 10% damage dealt mechanic.
Energizing Elixir – Ideally used on cooldown when at 1 Chi with Tiger Palm before and after, to maximize resource gain.
Storm, Earth, and Fire – Used as close to on cooldown while lining up with other abilities and damage bonuses. Also useful to easily tag targets for increased Spinning Crane Kick damage. Try to keep one charge recharging at all times. Ideally you fit in 2x Rising Sun Kick, a Fists of Fury, a Whirling Dragon Punch, and with The Emperor's Capacitor, a Crackling Jade Lightning.
Hit Combo and Mastery – Any ability that does damage benefits from and continues Mastery and Hit Combo.
Blackout Kick! – Used before you would potentially generate another proc.
Rushing Jade Wind – If you are talented into this, keep it up ONLY when there are 2 or more targets. Be aware of having less resources and make sure you have enough for Fists of Fury and other important abilities. This ability snapshots, so you want to activate it when your Mastery is at its highest, then never turn it off.

Openers

With The Wind Blows, t21 4p, and Bloodlust: Prepull Chi Burst -> Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger -> Tiger Palm -> Touch of Death -> Storm, Earth, and Fire -> Rising Sun Kick -> Fist of the White Tiger -> Fists of Fury -> Whirling Dragon Punch ->Blackout Kick -> Rising Sun Kick

With The Wind Blows, t21 4p, and no Bloodlust: Prepull Chi Burst -> Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger -> Fist of the White Tiger -> Touch of Death -> Storm, Earth, and Fire -> Rising Sun Kick -> Blackout Kick -> Fists of Fury -> Whirling Dragon Punch -> Tiger Palm -> Rising Sun Kick (small gap before Rising Sun Kick is up)

With Serenity: Start with prepull Chi Burst -> Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger -> Fist of the White Tiger/Tiger Palm -> Touch of Death -> Serenity then follow sequences outlined in Wizard Dog’s Serenity Guide

Stats

Agility > Versatility > Mastery > Critical Strike > Haste

Stat priority can change for your character depending on your current gear and stats. To find the best stat weights for your character, use SimCraft or Raidbots.

Gems/Enchants

For gems and cloak and ring enchants, follow the stat priority for your character.
Neck – Mark of the Hidden Satyr

Trinkets

The best trinkets available in Antorus, the Burning Throne are Golganneth's Vitality and Seeping Scourgewing.

To choose between what trinkets you have available, use SimCraft or Raidbots. If you’d like general “rankings” for trinkets based on simulations, use HeroDamage or BloodyTools. Just know that these tools use the simulation profile, which may not reflect your gear and talent choices.

Last updated 07/20/2018

[Deleted]

i can't cope with BOK (no cd, 1 chi ability) being more damage than RSK (2 chi with cooldown). I would wager it's a numbers issue and it will be fixed, hopefully in such a way that gives overall the same damage.

[anesmith]

i can't cope with BOK (no cd, 1 chi ability) being more damage than RSK (2 chi with cooldown). I would wager it's a numbers issue and it will be fixed, hopefully in such a way that gives overall the same damage.

I agree it is probably a numbers issue that will be resolved in the coming weeks. I think they wanted to make BOK an attractive ability because of it's synergy now with FoF and RSK, but I doubt they want it above RSK. We'll see how it turns out, but ultimately I don't care which button needs to be pushed in what order, as long as our overall dps is competitive.

[JIMM-]

thanks for the informative post, seems like windwalker will be in a good state in bfa as long as the numbers are tuned properly

just one quick question, going to main a WW monk in bfa, whats the most optimal PvE race for horde and alliance ? Just a min-maxing player and dont want to donate to blizz for a race change halfway in the expansion for that 1% extra juice.

https://www.herodamage.com/monk/race...onk-windwalker
https://www.herodamage.com/monk/race...onk-windwalker

is this site reliable? human seems like the only choice for alliance but for horde its a bit blurry, theres tauren / BE / troll.

thank you again for this post as it helped me confirm my main class for the upcoming expansion

[Babylonius]

thanks for the informative post, seems like windwalker will be in a good state in bfa as long as the numbers are tuned properly

just one quick question, going to main a WW monk in bfa, whats the most optimal PvE race for horde and alliance ? Just a min-maxing player and dont want to donate to blizz for a race change halfway in the expansion for that 1% extra juice.

https://www.herodamage.com/monk/race...onk-windwalker
https://www.herodamage.com/monk/race...onk-windwalker

is this site reliable? human seems like the only choice for alliance but for horde its a bit blurry, theres tauren / BE / troll.

thank you again for this post as it helped me confirm my main class for the upcoming expansion

1) Herodamage is reliable, however, its not always relevant. Right now its using Serenity and Eye of the Tiger as talents, because they sim the highest, but no one uses them in raids.
2) The difference between the "top" alliance race of Human and the "bottom" alliance race of Draenei is less than 0.5%. Similarly, the top to bottom for horde is only 0.8%. I don't know of anyone, even true min/max players at the top end, that would consider either of those numbers enough to spend the money to change their races.
3) Going into BfA, none of the racials are really changing, so what race you play will remain as minimally impactful as it is now.

[Xinder]

thanks for the informative post, seems like windwalker will be in a good state in bfa as long as the numbers are tuned properly

just one quick question, going to main a WW monk in bfa, whats the most optimal PvE race for horde and alliance ? Just a min-maxing player and dont want to donate to blizz for a race change halfway in the expansion for that 1% extra juice.

https://www.herodamage.com/monk/race...onk-windwalker
https://www.herodamage.com/monk/race...onk-windwalker

is this site reliable? human seems like the only choice for alliance but for horde its a bit blurry, theres tauren / BE / troll.

thank you again for this post as it helped me confirm my main class for the upcoming expansion

I race changed to Highmountain tauren because I liked the idea of my WW having roll, flying serpent, and bull rush to move around. Plus bull rush has a stun component with it which is always nice.

[Rhaxus]

snip

chi burst only gives a maximum of 2 chi now, right?

[anesmith]

Original post updated with the most current info from Peak of Serenity. Biggest changes: Versatility is king, Trinket change, rotation/priority of course has changed. This is probably how things are now, Blizz being pretty much done with tuning, but if things change a bit before raiding starts I'll update the original post again.

[Deleted]

noticed im energy starved more..so it must be better to use black out kick 2 in a row rather then wait 1-2 seconds..

[anesmith]

noticed im energy starved more..so it must be better to use black out kick 2 in a row rather then wait 1-2 seconds..

You are correct, I read that somewhere... Never 3 in a row, but yes, 2 in a row sometimes smooths the rotation out.

[Rixarius]

So am I supposed to use 2x BoK in a row despite one of them not benefiting from mastery over RSK? Obviously trying to weave abilities in between to try to benefit from mastery would be better, but in a situation where that's not possible, 2x BoK does more than 1x RSK?

[Preplol]

Somethings I noticed:
Wouldnt you want to use Storm,Earth,Fire before Touch of Death due to the GCD? Just to get that extra second of 10% increased damage?
Altho this is mostly prepatch to 115 stuff,I see that the legendary helmet is mentioned, but I dont see the Touch of Karma cloak mentioned? Right now Touch of Karma is my strongest abillity in raids.
Basically fitting in a Karma -> Taunt into your ToD window is a huge boost to damage

[Vidara]

I am not sure if it is a WA error, but when if I go BoK > FotWT > BoK, it tells me the second BoK does not benefit from mastery?

In that case FotWT would be even worse than we thought compared to SotW.

[anesmith]

Somethings I noticed:
Wouldnt you want to use Storm,Earth,Fire before Touch of Death due to the GCD? Just to get that extra second of 10% increased damage?
Altho this is mostly prepatch to 115 stuff,I see that the legendary helmet is mentioned, but I dont see the Touch of Karma cloak mentioned? Right now Touch of Karma is my strongest abillity in raids.
Basically fitting in a Karma -> Taunt into your ToD window is a huge boost to damage

Amen to that! I have the cloak as well and the Touch of Karma damage, with Good Karma, seems broken it's so OP. Should be huge for questing, until 116 at least... I think you're right about S/E/F > ToD also.

We will probably see some things move around in priority/stats by 120. Tuning will continue until raiding starts or after. The nerf to BoK was awesome......................

[ttylol]

Got annoyed with RJW turning off at 0 energy so I cobbled together a weak aura, thought I'd share:

dqucfaGiusJcfQtHc5vKkYSuIClLq2fvOHrfCmuLLrQYZuc10qbDnfkSnvP6Bku04uOkNtHQAEkbCpuu7tHsDquIfsQ0djvyIkuYfjv1gvc0ivc6KOiTsuXmvs1nvLYorP(jvKHsf1svs5PuMkvDvLeBvHk9vuG5sQO2R4VKIbJCyjwSQKhdXKH0LLAZKsFMknAuvNgQvRqfVwjQzROBRGDRYVvQHRkwUQ65sA6exNKTJk9DLKgpkIZRq2p4Wl(ydXqJHgFScIG52(p21T)VTr7W2Hy4t6)vMJB)R49f2loM8XUU9p(yYONogIQk7HyiQQSh0WhJ2Xe8qJgdrvL9qmTQdrW7JXmc4aeqab0CJuMaHSvNaeZa5aWbiGaciT7pqyGygiElbedDai0nWbiGaciGaciGMBKYei1HfGygiwVYq)mlsZQJoIboabeqabeqabewlqRCyrhLJfrkilZywFMLr9N1LasDyHrabCaciGaciGacOYHced6YYSO(LQJ6GFJS8ALZTzS6WYsanElbeRlaZSYiGac4aeqabeqabeqc)(aoabeqabeqabeqabeqiB1jaXmqiB1jaPtaXd4aeqabeqabeq9HcCaciGaQpuGaoabeqa9Br9pGq2QtaASzgi9aArlcie(LZTbQub66gTrbo9HgdHFJSCSMBFsSMBFsn2kSzQxJZoXa9xtZkopwS41pgIQk7bnYONowvkIQgRYFVQtxSk)9QoDSGiyUDKyZDbn(ysz2NOx8XgutbhFKiXKYSpj(yv85o7WM3ygBqnfC8rIe7VND8XgutbhFKiXu1wJuM9jr3yOyTAXiQPmk(ydQPGJpsKy)cshFSb1uWXhjsS6tJeFSk(CNDyZl2GAk44dBEr3WEXr3irI9W9rkZ(K4JnOMco(irIPTGi49fFSb1uWXhjsm85(3QN4JnOMco(irIPQTM6tJKxrIHIRpZYiMISVW(DhEFmy44h73U495h90XWi7lwbffl49vMAKp21T)14dBEXht(yx3(hFmz0thRO(Lyv1RMBFIP0QfZKyA0blMxJ5zznFm11C7tIvuYo2vg6A8HnVyRPQ8XNlqCkOnqmaFOrIPQTMYR6()6TnAhDJ1C7tITWUmf(XQQxn3(eN)TwmtIzoR)6RhR(0ZjtrRXhjwL)EvNUyv(7vD6EdxR4ZnM6WsSNzzu)JPQTg1HLOBm0(LsRw)ONo2c1FDNxWvwpsm1jFSRB)JpsKiXWOX05yNAW)XUU9Vg26fdfxhh1HiyUDSYCgtAMi80)kVMnAEfjwnMEo(UJoeJByZJH6Xlsc

Triggers when >1 nearby target and energy is below 100 (because triggering on "every frame" is laggy).