Windwalker Monk Playstyle and Rotation Guide

General Rotation

Windwalkers use a priority system, not a rotation. This means that you want to use the highest priority ability available and don’t delay a higher priority ability for a lower one.

Storm, Earth, and Fire (and outside of Serenity) Single Target:

1. Faeline Stomp (if targets don’t have Faeline Harmony debuff)
2. Strike of the Windlord
3. Whirling Dragon Punch and Rising Sun Kick
4. Rising Sun Kick with Xuen's Battlegear buff
5. Fists of Fury
6. Rising Sun Kick
7. Blackout Kick (with Blackout Reinforcement)
8. Spinning Crane Kick (With Dance of Chi-Ji proc and no Blackout Reinforcement)
9. Blackout Kick
10. Chi Burst / Chi Wave
11. Expel Harm
12. Tiger Palm

Cleave (2-4 Targets)

1. Faeline Stomp if targets don’t have Jadefire Harmony debuff
2. Strike of the Windlord
3. Whirling Dragon Punch and Rising Sun Kick.
4. Fists of Fury
5. Blackout Kick with Blackout Reinforcement.
6. Spinning Crane Kick with Dance of Chi-Ji proc
7. Rushing Jade Wind
8. Rising Sun Kick with Xuen's Battlegear crit buff
9. Blackout Kick (Make sure to not overcap Teachings of the Monastery stacks)
10. Rising Sun Kick
11. Spinning Crane Kick
12. Chi Burst
13. Faeline Stomp

AoE (5+ Targets)

1. Faeline Stomp if targets don’t have the Faeline Harmony debuff
2. Strike of the Windlord
3. Spinning Crane Kick with Dance of Chi-Ji proc
4. Whirling Dragon Punch and Rising Sun Kick
5. Fists of Fury
6. Rushing Jade Wind
7. Blackout Kick (with Blackout Reinforcement)
8. Spinning Crane Kick
9. Rising Sun Kick (with Xuen’s Battlegear buff)
10. Blackout Kick (Make sure to not overcap Teachings of the Monastery stacks)
11. Rising Sun Kick
12. Chi Burst
13. Faeline Stomp

Serenity Single Target:

Follow this priority only during Serenity, follow the other priority otherwise.

1. Faeline Stomp to apply Faeline Harmony (if Serenity has more than 2 seconds remaining)
2. Strike of the Windlord
3. Rising Sun Kick
4. Fists of Fury (channel until Rising Sun Kick or Strike of the Windlord are ready)
5. Spinning Crane Kick with Dance of Chi-Ji Proc (if talented)
6. Spinning Crane Kick (with no Blackout Reinforcement buff)
7. Blackout Kick
8. Spinning Crane Kick

Serenity AoE

Follow this priority only during Serenity, follow the other priority otherwise.

1. Faeline Stomp to apply Faeline Harmony (if not active or has less than 1s remaining)
2. Strike of the Windlord
3. Spinning Crane Kick with Dance of Chi-Ji proc
4. Fists of Fury (clip early for higher priority)
5. Spinning Crane Kick without Blackout Reinforcement
6. Blackout Kick
7. Spinning Crane Kick

Single Target Opener

Storm, Earth, and Fire:

1. Expel Harm (14 seconds before pull)
2. Chi Burst (2 seconds before pull)
3. Expel Harm
4. Summon White Tiger Statue
5. Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger
6. Bonedust Brew (if talented)
7. Faeline Stomp (if talented)
8. Tiger Palm
9. Storm, Earth, and Fire
10. Strike of the Windlord
11. Rising Sun Kick
12. Tiger Palm
13. Fists of Fury 

Serenity:

1. Expel Harm (14 seconds before pull)
2. Chi Burst (2 seconds before pull)
3. Expel Harm
4. Summon White Tiger Statue
5. Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger
6. Bonedust Brew (if talented)
7. Faeline Stomp (if talented)
8. Tiger Palm
9. Serenity
10. Rising Sun Kick (This can be done in one button press with macro)
11. Strike of the Windlord
12. Fists of Fury

Multi Target Opener:

Storm, Earth, and Fire AoE

1. Expel Harm before pull
2. Chi Burst on pull
3. Summon White Tiger Statue
4. Faeline Stomp
5. Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger
6. Bonedust Brew (if talented)
7. Tiger Palm
8. Blackout Kick
9. Storm, Earth, and Fire
10. Strike of the Windlord
11. Fists of Fury
12. Tiger Palm
13. Rising Sun Kick (if Whirling Dragon Punch is talented)
14. Whirling Dragon Punch
15. Follow Priority

Serenity AoE:

1. Expel Harm before pull
2. Chi Burst on pull
3. Summon White Tiger Statue
4. Get to at least 4 Mark of the Crane stacks
5. Faeline Stomp (if talented)
6. Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger
7. Bonedust Brew (if talented)
8. Fists of Fury (full channel)
9. Tiger Palm to get to 5 Mark of the Crane stacks
10. Serenity
11. Rising Sun Kick
12. Strike of the Windlord
13. Blackout Kick
14. Follow Priority

Playstyle

Mark of the Crane

Mark of the Crane is the term for the mechanic when you use Tiger Palm, Blackout Kick, or Rising Sun Kick. It applies a 20-second debuff that increases the damage of your Spinning Crane Kick by 18% per stack. In AoE, it is crucial to maintain as many debuffs as there are targets up to a maximum of 5 to deal the most damage with Spinning Crane Kick. This can be accomplished when you use Storm, Earth, and Fire because by default the spirits will seek out targets that you are in combat with and targets that do not have a mark applied to them. When you use an ability that would normally apply a Mark of the Crane, it effectively triples the speed at which you can gain stacks in AoE.

In Dragonflight with the addition of Shadowboxing Treads this process has been made significantly faster and easier because the additional hits from Blackout Kick also apply Mark of the Crane to targets. Additionally, Coordinated Offensive is no longer and thus you do not need to fixate your spirits anymore for a DPS increase. Fixating your spirits can theoretically be a DPS increase in some situations in order to position them better to hit more targets with their AoE abilities.

Movement

Windwalker Monk is one of the most mobile classes in the game. You have a plethora of mobility tools available, such as Flying Serpent Kick, Roll, Transcendence, and Tiger's Lust if you have it talented.

Survivability

You have many defensive cooldowns available to you, such as Touch of Karma, Fortifying Brew, Dampen Harm, and Diffuse Magic, as well as the constant healing from Expel Harm. If you have it talented, you should try to identify good times to use Touch of Karma to deal damage as long as it is not detrimental to your group and does not put you at risk later on.