Windwalker Monk Dragonflight 10.2.5 Guide

Hey, I’m J-Funk. I have been playing Windwalker Monk since MoP and have been raiding in Humble since Legion which in Amirdrassil was World 48th. In BfA I was consistently one of the higher rated WW Monks in M+ and have been a Windwalker Monk theorycrafter/guide maker for several years.

Windwalker Monk is a melee DPS spec that has a tool for nearly every situation and has flexible cooldowns, great utility, and excellent mobility. In Dragonflight, Windwalker Monk is becoming less of the ‘AoE God’ that it had been in Shadowlands due to losing multiplicative scaling with Calculated Strikes but in exchange is shoring up some of its notable weaknesses in the past such as single and two target damage and expanding on their already extensive utility repertoire with new auras that can provide healing taken increased and avoidance.

Patch 10.2.5 Changes

• Dance of the Wind has been redesigned – Your dodge chance is increased by 10% and an additional 10% every 4 seconds until you dodge an attack.
• Faeline Stomp has been renamed to Jadefire Stomp.
• Faeline Harmony has been renamed to Jadefire Harmony.
• Way of the Fae has been renamed to Path of Jade.
• Fae Exposure has been renamed to Jadefire Brand.

Windwalker Monk was one of the few classes that received any changes going into Patch 10.2.5. The changes themselves are minimal - Dance of the Wind remains an extremely niche talent pick and the added effect further leans into that niche making this talent still unpicked for majority of situations. Faeline Stomp’s visual and theme has been changed to more closely align with Monk “lore” and is functionally the same. There are a few issues with the new visual not aligning with where you would expect it to reset previously.

Patch 10.2 Changes

• Jade Serpent Statue's Soothing Mist healing increased by 40%.
• Escape from Reality is now a 1-rank talent (was 2).
• Rising Sun Kick damage increased by 10%.
• Fists of Fury damage increased by 5% and additional damage to primary target increased by 10%.
• Whirling Dragon Punch damage increased by 10%.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Dance of Chi-Ji from granting Blackout Reinforcement.
• Spinning Crane Kicks cast during Serenity now correctly grant Blackout Reinforcement.
• Blackout Reinforcement is correctly removed at the start of Mythic+ dungeons and raid encounters.
• Blackout Reinforcement can no longer be canceled. Usage of Cancelaura macros on Dance of Chi-Ji without casting a Spinning Crane Kick will no longer grant Blackout Reinforcement.
• Blackout Reinforcement's tooltip updated to reflect the updated cooldown reduction value.
• Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible (2) Set Bonus: Rising Sun Kick bonus damage reduced to 5% (was 10%).
• Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible (4) Set Bonus: Fists of Fury primary target damage reduced to 20% (was 30%).
• UNDOCUMENTED CHANGE: Faeline Harmony no longer increases the damage of external effects such as trinkets and embellishments.

Patch 10.2 once again leaves Windwalker mostly untouched. The main changes come in the form of tuning making part of the Aberrus tier set baseline giving Windwalker much needed Single Target damage. In addition, there is a minor talent change where Escape from Reality is now a 1-rank talent. This could lead to slightly varied talent builds on the class trees on boss fights where you are unable to get multiple Touch of Death casts anyway, giving you an extra point to spend on utility or a defensive talent.