Why do I see so few Monks?

[Lilly32]

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.

[Lilly32]

It seems silly, but it's the truth. That small deterrent of "you have to level from scratch" has been enough to prevent Monk from becoming popular. Even the daily XP buff (refreshed every 10 levels) wasn't enough to combat it.

This seems pretty dumb if its the reason people dont play a class. Monks came out 6 years ago. Pretty sure thats plenty of time to level one up lol. Also people start alts all the time so dont see how this would stop them from playing monks. People still make fresh warriors, hunters, mages, ect. all the time but they wont make a monk because they start at level 1?

[Gremlincat]

I'm not sure what you mean? Monks legit are probably the most popular they've ever been atm and in a good place. Super great tanking, decent healing and upper-mid dps.

[Malikath]

Believe it or not, the largest group playing the game are people who don't run mythic raids. How they are parsing and how well they tank doesn't affect how many people play the class nearly as much as whiners on forums would have you believe.

i've always doubted the statistics used to justify this view, seeing as leveling is mandatory it makes sense that the "most played" content statistically would be questing.
just like drinking, eating, and sleeping take up most of the human life-span.

[XDurionX]

I'm not sure what you mean? Monks legit are probably the most popular they've ever been atm and in a good place. Super great tanking, decent healing and upper-mid dps.

This. Method had 5(?) Monks on their Zul kill? There by far more popular than they've ever been before.

[Rainyhealz]

This. Method had 5(?) Monks on their Zul kill? There by far more popular than they've ever been before.

Stop talking out ur ass. Oh look method has many so its popular...

https://www.worldofwargraphs.com/global-stats/classes

Ez google

[A Chozo]

I see more Monks than Rogues already.

You need to do more group content.

[Ret4resto]

I’ve always wondered this as well, monks are the least played class in the game according to statistics that I’ve seen.

Monk is my main, Ive only played Mist Weaver, I’ve never tried the other specs

1. I don’t like tanking
2. Visually wind walkers are boring to play. Their attacks aren’t exciting to watch. They definitely need something added to make the fantasy look fun

Maybe the class fantasy doesn’t appeal to most people.

[Lilly32]

Stop talking out ur ass. Oh look method has many so its popular...

https://www.worldofwargraphs.com/global-stats/classes

Ez google

meaningless numbers if u ask me. I mean according to that Shamans are more popular and they are garbage tier. But then again a bad class would be more played since mostly bads play WoW. Monk has all 3 specs mythic viable so it should have more people playing them.

[Deleted]

idk many rerolled monks in bfa

[Bigby]

It was introduced several expansions after WoW hit it's peak, so most would be tied up in their mains.

It begins at Level 1. That doesn't mean much these days, but it was a big reason as to why they didn't take off like DKs and DHs.

It's aesthetic is very tied up in the Pandaren. The race is not especially popular and other races feel out of place being Monks as a result.

I see a fair few Monks in Arenas, but this are usually FotM's - since Windrunner or Mistweaver are usually very good - however almost zero Brewmasters out in the world/dungeons/raids. Most of them are alts anyway.

[RobertMugabe]

Monks were never that popular to begin with, because they weren't a hero class and thus they didn't have any super Special lore, flashy spells etc... basically they weren't just as interesting as DH's and DK's when they were introduced.

And meh honestly I like that. I kinda hate it when I Play a class and just see so many playing the same.

[Rainyhealz]

meaningless numbers if u ask me. I mean according to that Shamans are more popular and they are garbage tier. But then again a bad class would be more played since mostly bads play WoW. Monk has all 3 specs mythic viable so it should have more people playing them.

A lot of people tend to continue playing their main since the beginning and monk hasn't been around since shaman. A lot of the shaman community says "no matter what happens, I wont give up on my shaman that I've played since vanille" etc.

Also, meaningless numbers??? Literally the only numbers we have LOL. No you are right. Let's go by your lfg experience. Let's see your spreadsheet that has such a "large" pool.

Stop talking

[Nefarious Tea]

Monk never really caught on as a popular class, since unlike DH or DK, they start at level 1 and were introduced late.

This has been the case since Pandaria. Even when they were 'the new thing', they just weren't commonly played.

It seems silly, but it's the truth. That small deterrent of "you have to level from scratch" has been enough to prevent Monk from becoming popular. Even the daily XP buff (refreshed every 10 levels) wasn't enough to combat it.

Believe it or not, the largest group playing the game are people who don't run mythic raids. How they are parsing and how well they tank doesn't affect how many people play the class nearly as much as whiners on forums would have you believe.

They're also far less 3edgy5me than DK or DH are.

[Ielenia]

Monk never really caught on as a popular class, since unlike DH or DK, they start at level 1 and were introduced late.

While the fact they indeed start at level one, I don't think that's really an issue, since people do have one free lvl boost from buying expansions, and the class does have a nifty +% experience buff daily that you can get. No, I believe one of the biggest (if not the biggest) reason it never caught up with the average WoW player is because all that "kung-fu panda rip-off/panda is for children" nonsense that permeated the entirety of Mists of Pandaria's expansion life.

[Sialina]

Monk is the only class I've never tried because I feel the aesthetics of it are very lame. For me a guy punching or throwing beer at things in a world like wow just feels out of place and lame.

[Alvito]

I don't pug things often, but they are all over the place. Not only are all 3 specs solid they have the stupid physical dmg debuff so they are extremely popular right now.

[Morgaith]

They are extremely strong in every aspect of the game in every spec they have, you are delusional if you think that people don't play them for any other reason than that they were added late in the game and weren't as flashy as dks or dhs.

[ImpTaimer]

Because there's realistically no reason to play a leather class that isn't Rogue, Druid, or DH. Most monk players went DH.

I feel like people are overhyping BrM too much or they got lucky with perfect Azerite traits. It plays like shit without traits and is ok at best with cheese mechanics like Ring of Peace and Ox Statue. Everything else about it is inferior to Druids. Who gives a shit about staggering damage when a Druid just shrugs it off and can emergency full-heal someone with a crit Swiftmend or even battle-rez? Its mastery is just as garbage as Prot Warrior. It lost most of its haste-scaling abilities because they now have static cooldowns. Its only slightly better than Legion which is still a large gap worse than WoD. MoP BrM might as well never exist it was a nightmare to play optimally regardless of how good or bad it was number-wise.
DK>DH>Paladin>=Druid>BrM>Warrior.

Mistweaver is much better. Not MoP-good/fun, but way better than it was in WoD or Legion. No point comparing any healer to Disc that spec is just blatantly broken OP and hasn't had a meaningful nerf since pre-patch in PvE or PvP.

WW was downgraded slightly from Legion and its numbers are padded heavily by Death/Karma and bad sims. It doesn't feel satisfying to play at all atm. It feels like you're just going through the motion until Death/Karma are off cooldown.

As far as population, I rushed my monk to 120 and 320 ilvl to spam warfronts to get to 340+ and most games resulted in 1-2 monks. Being the only monk (and at one point only healer) is evidence enough that monks are the least played class. Even while doing LFD there was rarely ever another monk in the group. I can't even remember the last time I healed a BrM tank in LFD. Even while doing random BGs if I saw another monk it was usually also a healer.

[Jamie081]

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?