Windwalker Monk M+ Guide - Legion 7.3.5

By Methodgg 2018/04/29 Changelog Patch: 9.2.7

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Level 15: None of the talents on this row are very strong damage-wise. The main reason most monks default to Chi Wave is for the Combo Strikes reset, acting as a filler skill if you need to Tiger Palm (filler) Tiger Palm without wanting to spend the chi on Blackout Kick. It has similar usage in AOE if you just spent your last 3 chi on Spinning Crane Kick and want to Energizing Elixir and Spinning Crane Kick again. Chi Wave is the perfect filler skill. It can also be used to keep Hit Combo up while out of combat in between pulls. Chi Burst can result in higher overall dungeon damage but has downsides. It can very easily pull extra mobs when cast with Storm, Earth, and Fire. The longer cd makes it a less effective filler skill.

Level 30: Some will say this row is up to player discretion, but in my opinion Tiger's Lust is by far the best option here. Chi Torpedo goes too far and has too long of an animation to be useful in dodging mechanics. It will send you out of melee range most of the time. The only time I ever felt that Chi Torpedo's long-distance mobility was needed was Fallen Avatar(Mythic). Tiger's Lust has many useful applications in the dungeon setting: You can speed up allies that need it, dispel certain debuffs that have snares tied to them, or just speed yourself when the tank feels like kiting mobs away from you at 90 miles per hour.

Level 45: Energizing Elixir provides more resources than Power Strikes and Ascension combined. There is no real choice here. Energizing Elixir (60sec CD) lines up nicely with Storm, Earth, and Fire (70sec CD, reduced by relics) allowing powerful burst for nearly every pull in a high key.

Level 60: Leg Sweep will be the best choice in most dungeons you run. 5 second AoE stun is very hard to compete with. Ring of Peace can be worth considering during sanguine weeks if your group has no other knockback options. I have never encountered a scenario where Summon Black Ox Statue is the right choice in dungeon content.

Level 75: The choice here largely depends on which dungeon you are running. Diffuse Magic if there is high elemental damage and no relevant physical threats (Darkheart Thicket, Halls of Valor, Upper Kara, Seat). Dampen Harm if there is either a hybrid of large physical and elemental hits or just physical. (Black rook hold, Eye of Azshara, maw of souls, nelths, arcway, cath, lower kara). Healing Elixir is my preferred choice in Court of stars due to a lack of 1 shot threats.

Level 90: Hit Combo's 12% passive damage buff is always going to yield more damage than either Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger or Rushing Jade Wind can provide. The extra Spinning Crane Kick tags granted by RJW simply aren't needed with how easy it is to tag every mob in a pack with Storm, Earth and Fire.

Level 100: Serenity isn't as good as Storm, Earth, and Fire in dungeons for a few reasons. Storm, Earth, and Fire's charge-based cooldown system allows you to never lose casts over the course of a dungeon if you don't let 2 stacks fully charge. Storm, Earth, and Fire clones auto tagging makes you gain Spinning Crane Kick stacks 3x faster in AoE scenarios. Storm, Earth, and Fire is also just better single target with the current tier set. This leaves you with 2 options for this talent row: Chi Orbit or Whirling Dragon Punch. Chi Orbit is unreliable and can sometimes hit mobs that you don't want to hit. It also just doesn't do enough damage compared to Whirling Dragon Punch. Whirling Dragon Punch is the default choice here with t21 in mind.

Legendary RankingsCommonly Used:

Drinking Horn Cover: Extends the duration of Storm, Earth, and Fire. By far the best legendary for large packs. 3rd best single target legendary.

The Wind Blows: Very strong legendary with t21 in both single target and light cleave scenarios.

The Emperor's Capacitor: One of our best single target legendaries. Positioning and timing is important as you do not want to have to move after you start your Crackling Jade Lightning cast. Try to use Crackling Jade Lightning in combination with Storm, Earth, and Fire.

Sephuz's Secret: Slightly better than The Wind Blows in situations where Strike of the Windlord is no longer worth the chi it costs due to high Spinning Crane Kick stacks.

Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus: Mandatory for certain bosses in high keys. Extremely useful for surviving periodic unavoidable damage that one shots you in higher keys.

Niche Legendaries:

Cinidaria, the Symbiote: Used on Odyn in Halls of Valor because the fight ends at 80.5%.

Hidden Master's Forbidden Touch: Can be swapped to over Drinking Horn Cover anytime you have Touch of Death off cooldown and are about to pull 2+ mobs that will survive between 8-18 seconds. I do not recommend equipping this over The Wind Blows. The 40% increased damage from this item does not affect the Gale Burst artifact trait. You should never use this item over The Wind Blows or The Emperor's Capacitor against bosses with burst phases like Curator in Upper Karazhan.

March of the Legion: Used in speed sets for those dungeons with long walks (Mana Devourer's room in Upper Karazhan).

Never Used:

Soul of the Grandmaster: Chi Orbit damage is too lackluster to justify using over any of the top 3.

Cenedril, Reflector of Hatred: Simply does less damage than other DPS legendaries and has the downside of forcing you to Touch of Karma offensively.

Katsuo's Eclipse: Any scenario where you are casting Fists of Fury, you are also casting Strike of the Windlord. The Wind Blows with T21 gives you 1 chi every 32 seconds instead of these boots giving you 1 chi every 24, but The Wind Blow's also comes with cooldown reduction for Strike of the Windlord and gives you a Combo Breaker proc which gets scaled by T21.

Kil'jaeden's Burning Wish: The active component doesn't do enough damage to justify a legendary slot.

Legendary Combinations

Single Target: The Wind Blows + The Emperor's Capacitor - This will provide the highest single target DPS assuming the fight allows optimal The Emperor's Capacitor usage.

Multi Target: Drinking Horn Cover + The Wind Blows – If you don't use bracers you will notice a reoccurring problem in every big pull. Your Storm, Earth, and Fire will expire, and you still have lots of chi and energy that you are about to convert into more Spinning Crane Kicks. Drinking Horn Cover and The Wind Blows is a strong setup in pulls with 2-7 enemies.

Big AoE(10+ targets): Drinking Horn Cover + Sephuz's Secret – Due to Spinning Crane Kick's exponential AoE scaling, at a certain number of stacks it becomes the most chi efficient spell to press. Spinning Crane Kick passes Strike of the Windlord in damage per chi spent at 6 stacks 6 enemies. Drinking Horn Cover is the only important monk legendary for AoE. Even in a scenario where you don't press Strike of the Windlord, Sephuz's Secret is only slightly better than The Wind Blows. The active effect of Sephuz's Secret only gives you about 25-30 energy (1 chi worth).

Defensive: The Wind Blows + Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus - Situational for certain dungeon bosses at a high enough key level where unavoidable damage will one shot you. Archimonde's Hatred Reborn can be used over Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus in some fights. You never want to have to use both Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus and Archimonde's. It is generally better to use trinkets like Coagulated Nightwell Residue over Archimonde's so you can use an offensive legendary.

GearingTierStat PriorityRelicsSpinning Crane KickSpinning Crane KickFists of FuryRising Sun KickStrength of XuenSplit PersonalityStrength of XuenSplit PersonalityFists of FuryRising Sun KickStrength of XuenSplit PersonalitySpinning Crane Kick

Master of Shadows

Murderous Intent/Shocklight

Shadowbind/Chaotic Darkness/Secure in the Light/Infusion of Light

Light Speed

Torment the Weak/Dark Sorrows

Refractive Shell/Light's Embrace

Master of ShadowsMurderous IntentShocklightShadowbindChaotic DarknessSecure in the LightInfusion of LightTorment the WeakTrinketsOffensive Trinkets:

Golganneth's Vitality: Simply a beast due to the amount of agility it gives you in addition to having a useful proc. At 1000 itemlevel you will practically never take this off.

Shadow-Singed Fang: The most common 2nd trinket because it is easy to acquire at a high itemlevel.

Hunger of the Pack: Hunger of the Pack (or any Non-haste statstick titanforged to high ilvl) is equal to a Shadow-Singed Fang of the same itemlevel.

Defensive Trinkets:Coagulated Nightwell ResidueCoagulated Nightwell Residue

Coagulated Nightwell Residue

Talisman of the Cragshaper

Reliquary of the Damned

Darkmoon Deck: Immortality

Smoldering Titanguard

Archimonde's Hatred Reborn

Ishkar's Felshield Emitter.

MacrosTiger's Lust

#showtooltip Tiger's Lust
/cast Tiger's Lust

#showtooltip
/cast Chi Burst; Chi Wave
/cast Chi Burst; Chi Wave
/use Lightforged Augment Rune

Mark of the CraneEye of Command

#showtooltip
/cast

Addons

There are tons of addons out there that can help improve your gameplay. I think the most important ones for dungeons are Littlewigs and Weakauras2. Littlewings gives you timers for important boss abilities and displays warnings for dangerous mechanics. Weakauras can do practically anything. You can make custom weakauras to track certain buffs and debuffs, display warnings when enemies target you with certain dangerous abilities, and much much more. Wago.io is a website with many dungeon and class related weakauras. This addon is the single most important addon for improving your gameplay. Click here for my weakaura profile where you can copy my weakauras.

UI addons are very popular as well. I use Elvui and recommend it to any monk. Something I have recently discovered which helped me track Mark of the Crane was the style filter in elvui. This lets me create a filter that causes enemies missing the debuff to have a different nameplate color than those with the debuff, allowing you to quickly identify which enemy your next ability should be used on. Here is a clip detailing how to set this up for yourself.

Useful Items

These are some items you always want to have with you when doing dungeons.

Flask of the Seventh Demon: Damage Flask
Flask of Ten Thousand Scars: I swap to stamina flasks in high key Hyrja and Xavius sometimes
Nightborne Delicacy Platter: Mastery Food
Sugar-Crusted Fish Feast: Best food but can be very expensive, 1 second instead of 10 seconds for buff and the buff is stronger. ~475 versatility instead of 375.
Astral Healing Potion: Health pot for when you don't have a Warlock in the group.
Skystep Potion: 150% movement speed potion. Mandatory for certain pulls and skips.
Avalanche Elixir: Makes you immune to falling damage. Let's you jump down elevators and also mandatory for a certain vault of the wardens skip in the spider area.
Draenic Invisibility Potion or Skaggldrynk: Invisibility potion for skipping dangerous trash packs.
Potion of Prolonged Power: Damage potion. Always try to use out of combat right before a pull to maximize uptime.
Auto-Hammer or Reaves: Useful for repairing mid dungeon if your gear is about to break and you can't use the repair mount.
Failure Detection Pylon: Can be used to prevent having to run back after a failed pull. Also used in certain “Death run” skips instead of invisibility pots.
Drums of Fury or Drums of the Mountain: 25% lust for groups that don't have a real lust class.
Unbending Potion: Armor potion. I use this in high key Black Rook Hold in the archer hallway as a futile effort to survive. (Seriously just bring a paladin)
Frag Belt(Engineering): Throw a frag up to 30 yards that incapacitates enemies for 3 seconds in a 3-yard radius. This ability is extremely powerful due to its ability to interrupt enemies' casts.

Mastering Your Class

When Storm, Earth, and Fire is active, your clones will jump to targets without Mark of the Crane when you cast Tiger Palm, Blackout Kick, or Rising Sun Kick. This means you can tag 3 enemies per second if you are also swapping to unmarked enemies.

Proper Spinning Crane Kick usage is one of the most important things to master when playing Windwalker. Due to Spinning Crane Kick gaining 40% increased damage per enemy tagged with Mark of the Crane, there is a certain number of enemies where Spinning Crane Kick out scales every other ability in damage per chi spent. For example, Strike of the Windlord is no longer worth pressing if you have 6 Mark of the Crane stacks and 6 targets getting hit by Spinning Crane Kick. Fists of Fury is out scaled in chi efficiency between 13 and 15 stacks, depending on your relics. But Chi efficiency is not the only thing to consider when talking about Fists of Fury vs Spinning Crane Kick. There are many factors you need to consider when deciding how you want to tackle a pull. Fists of Fury is a frontal while Spinning Crane Kick is a 360 AoE. That doesn't really matter for yourself, but your clones will not face an optimal direction. They could be on the inside of a pack facing out, they could be at a bad angle and only hitting half. The point is, clones suck with frontals and this can greatly devalue Fists of Fury even if it SHOULD be the higher dps choice. Another thing to factor in is time. Fists of Fury takes 4 seconds to channel whereas Spinning Crane Kick does all of its damage in 1.5 seconds, but it isn't a channel, so you can say Spinning Crane Kick is doing all of its dmg every other global with a standard rotation like Spinning Crane Kick -> Tiger Palm -> Spinning Crane Kick -> Tiger Palm. You can fit in 2 full Spinning Crane Kicks in the time it took for a single fist of fury to complete.

This means that even if there is only 8 mobs 8 targets and Fists of Fury is nearly twice as chi efficient, Spinning Crane Kick will still be more dps assuming the pack dies before you run out of resources. This is another important thing to factor in when deciding which route you want to go with for AoE. If a pack of 10 mobs is going to be alive for less than 7 seconds, you just Fist of fury because you wouldn't have time to build up Mark of the Crane stacks before the pack was already dead. If a pack of 10 mobs is going to be alive between 7 and 16 seconds and you have Energizing Elixir, the following would yield higher DPS than Fists of Fury. Storm, Earth, and Fire -> Tiger Palm -> Blackout Kick -> Tiger Palm -> 9stack Spinning Crane Kick -> Tiger Palm + Arcane Torrent -> 10stack Spinning Crane Kick -> Filler Skill + Energizing Elixir -> 10stack Spinning Crane Kick -> Tiger Palm -> 10stack Spinning Crane Kick -> Tiger Palm ->10stack Spinning Crane Kick -> Tiger Palm -> (if any of the past 4 Tiger Palms procced Blackout Kick! Then use Blackout Kick, otherwise use a filler skill and wait for energy to Tiger Palm) -> Fists of Fury.

If a pack of 10 is going to be alive for longer than 16 seconds and it is decently clumped with either DK grip or DH grip, you would want to go for a slightly more chi efficient rotation starting with Tiger Palm Arcane Torrent (Procs Sephuz) Storm, Earth, and Fire, Fists of Fury, Tiger Palm, Rising Sun Kick, Tiger Palm, Whirling Dragon Punch, Tiger Palm, Spinning Crane Kick, Tiger Palm, Spinning Crane Kick, Filler + Energizing Elixir, Spinning Crane Kick, Tiger Palm, Spinning Crane Kick, Tiger Palm, Fists of Fury, Tiger Palm, Rising Sun Kick, Whirling Dragon Punch.

There are some important interactions with t21 2pc that you need to understand when trying to maximize AoE. If a Blackout Kick! Proc expires, it gives you the 1 chi. If you Tiger Palm when you already have a Blackout Kick! Proc and get another proc, the Tiger Palm will simply give you 3 chi and refresh the duration of the buff. If you use a cancelaura macro to remove the Blackout Kick! Buff, you will instantly gain 1 chi.

This means that in 10-20 target aoe when you are doing 15-60 million dps, you should not be pressing Blackout Kick to consume the proc and gain your 1 chi. It is simply not worth the time investment of a global. Instead you should continue rotating Tiger Palm and Spinning Crane Kick. If you get to the point where you have <50 energy and 2 chi with a Blackout Kick! Proc, you hit your cancelaura macro to gain the 1 chi instantly and Spinning Crane Kick.

Due to t21, if you are in a scenario where you have Energizing Elixir and are very low on resources (0 chi and 40-60 energy), Tiger Palm should be your filler skill before you Energizing Elixir instead of something like Chi Wave or Flying Serpent Kick. The reason for this is that if you get a Blackout Kick! proc, you can cancelaura it and Spinning Crane Kick, followed by Chi Wave + Energizing Elixir -> aoe rotation.

Here is a clip of a decent aoe pull.

A few notes on Sephuz's Secret usage. It isn't nearly as good for monk as it is for classes that have stronger haste scaling. The most value you will get out if it is in the scenario I listed above where it allows you to fit a second fist of fury into a Storm, Earth, and Fire window in a situation that favors Fist of Fury usage. Sephuz's Secret is also the best 2nd legendary alongside Drinking Horn Cover in Big AoE (15+ Enemies). In this scenario the proc is only giving you like 30 energy (about 1 chi). This is just a testament to how few choices we have for AoE legendaries. Drinking Horn Cover is extremely strong and the 2nd legendary doesn't really matter.

Specific Affix Tips

Windwalkers have extremely even AoE damage which is a very good thing for bolstering weeks, where killing all the enemies in a pack at the same time is important.
We also have the option of switching from dealing AoE damage to single target instantly to nuke down a single high health enemy in a pack.

One of the worst things that you can do in bursting week is killing enemies unevenly. If you slowly roll from a 4-stack bursting to a 5-stack bursting to a 6-stack bursting, your healer is going to rightfully be very angry with you. One of the best ways to deal with bursting is to kill the entire pack at roughly the same time, thus allowing your healer to pop some cooldowns and heal through 4-5 seconds of high damage.
Windwalkers evenly distributed high DPS area damage allows you to kill large packs of enemies at the same time. We also have excellent defensive cooldowns for bursting, letting you easily survive almost any bursting damage without a healer.
Here's a clip of me surviving 18 stacks with only Touch of Karma. Combining this with Diffuse Magic or Dampen Harm would allow you to survive double that.

Explosive is a bit of a double-edged sword for Windwalkers. While Storm, Earth, and Fire is active, you deal 50% less damage to explosives and your clones will not target them. This means in high keys, Blackout Kick will not kill them, and even non crit Rising Sun Kicks won't 1 shot them. We can kill them if we absolutely must, but it significantly impacts our damage done to the other targets.
However, on light AoE (2-6 enemies) where your tank can easily solo them, getting the extra Mark of the Crane stacks from just tagging them with Tiger Palm and Blackout Kick will greatly increase our damage dealt with Spinning Crane Kick.

In lower keys you can swap away from Diffuse Magic and Dampen Harm to Healing Elixir to help your healer out. You should only do this if you don't need the damage reduction to survive 1 shots from dangerous bosses.
Usually just Transcendence: Transfer for the artifact trait HoT and using healthstone/health potions at the proper time is enough to handle this affix.

This affix mainly affects your tank. Just use Leg Sweep / Ring of Peace when he calls for it and use Flying Serpent Kick for the 70% slow if he is kiting mobs.
Taunt swaps can be used to drop stacks on single target but be careful as almost any boss can 1 shot you in 22+ if it happens to roll a critical strike.

This affix doesn't change much. Just make sure not to use Crackling Jade Lightning right before quaking. If you have multiple melee dps you will need to avoid stacking to prevent taking extra damage.
One major thing you need to watch out for is how this ability impacts certain boss fights. Quaking will eat up your Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus shield on dangerous fights which means you need to go with a more defensive setup for hard bosses during quaking weeks. You need to be prepared to eat quaking + any dangerous boss ability at the same time.

This affix can ruin your day in keys that have unavoidable damage from trash. Black rook hold archers will start 1 shotting you as early as 21-22 keys with this buff. Any trash that has frontal damage becomes instant death if you get hit. You just need to be on your toes and be prepared to line of sight/run away/use defensives when necessary.

This is another affix that is mostly up to the tank to control. Don't stand in the puddles and be cautious of using Leg Sweep when mobs are low hp.
You might need to take Ring of Peace if your group has no other options for displacing enemies.

Monk is quite good during skittish week. With Storm, Earth, and Fire active, your threat is split 3 ways which makes it very difficult to pull threat unless you attack too soon.
Be careful of opening with an early Fists of Fury or Strike of the Windlord. If one of your clones pulls aggro from the tank, it will almost certainly get 1 shot because the clones are very squishy. If one clone dies, the other despawns as well and you can't recast Storm, Earth, and Fire for a time equal to their remaining duration had they survived.
Here is a clip demonstrating what happens when one clone dies. The clone jumps to the gnasher, who casts its Bite ability that targets the nearest enemy. This 1 shots the clone which causes the other to despawn. Storm, Earth, and Fire then cannot be recast for about 8 seconds which was the remaining duration on the buff. This is the result of an attempted bugfix to prevent a bug where double tapping Storm, Earth, and Fire could consume 2 charges instead of 1.

Due to our exponential scaling with Spinning Crane Kick, bigger pulls are always a good thing for us.
Certain dungeons become extremely dangerous with teeming such as Seat of the Triumvirate. The tank will need to know the altered dungeon routes for this affix.

This affix is very easy to deal with. Volcanic circles will only spawn under you if there are mobs further than 5 yards away, so they rarely spawn under your feet as a melee. Even when they do spawn under your feet, the time to detonate is slow and easily avoidable.

Fortified makes the trash have more health and deal more damage.
This is the preferred affix when pushing keys because certain bosses become impossible with tyrannical. You just need to avoid any frontal cleaves or melee range 360-degree abilities like barbed spear from maw of souls.

You will need to put on defensive trinkets 1-2 key levels sooner when dungeons have this affix. A level 22 boss will deal damage like a 23.5 and have the same health as a 25.
Expect to use more Storm, Earth, and Fire charges on bosses instead of trash when this affix is active.

Dungeon Specific Tips

Recommended Talents:

Make sure to have invisibility potions for skipping the trash up to Amalgam of Souls. Use Touch of Karma + Dampen Harm on the large AoE nuke when the boss casts it. In 26+ Tyrannical you might need a healer external or a tank trinket depending on the amount of avoidance you have.
The hardest part of this dungeon is the archer hallway leading up to Illysanna Ravencrest. I highly recommend this weakaura for all dungeons, it is very useful in BRH. Convince your tank to pull the packs near a corner so that you can line of sight the shoot casts. One thing to note is the archers can change targets whenever they want, causing you to die when you thought you were safe because they were originally targeting the tank. In high keys if you don't have a defensive up, you should line of sight every single shoot cast just to be safe. Armour pots + Dampen Harm can be used to keep you alive while you nuke a pack down. A holy paladin can make this hallway much easier with Blessing of Protection + Blessing of Sacrifice.
There are many ways to survive Illysanna Ravencrest's Dark Rush. Our group uses the triangle method where you stack all 3 players in a triangle inside her hitbox, minimizing the chance to get instantly ticked by the fire on the ground. Here is a clip of this method. I recommend using a defensive cooldown just in case the fire ticks you. The hallway after second boss is rather safe. The only mobs that can kill you are the spinners and firebreathers. We normally pull big and stun them to prevent them from transforming at all. The firebreathers will always breath toward their highest threat target, and the spinners whirlwind radius is smaller than their hitbox. This lets you kite them and hit them without taking damage yourself.
The bats are a serious issue in high keys without a holy paladin for Blessing of Protection. If you are in melee range of multiple bats and get fixated, you will die instantly. I tend to just stay 20 yards away until all 6 dominators are grouped up at the top of the stairs, then Flying Serpent Kick in and Leg Sweep to prevent them from casting Sic Bats! on me. If there are still bats alive when the stun expires, you will have to decide if you want to run away or just gamble and hope they do not cast fixate on you.
In high keys you will want to wear avoidance gear and possibly Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus to prevent getting one shot by the AoE slam for Smashspite the Hateful. The bats are currently bugged so you cannot see which one is casting the fel beam on you which makes it impossible to drop fire in specific locations. This most likely won't be fixed so you will need to play around it. You can roll through the fire without taking damage. If the AoE slam is going to knock you back into fire, use Transcendence: Transfer to teleport back to a safe area.
Windwalker excels at the last boss, Lord Kur'talos Ravencrest. We can easily survive his shadowbolt volley with Touch of Karma + Dampen Harm. You should aim to save your abilities when a Stinging Swarm is about to come out. Killing swarms as soon as possible is critical in high keys.

Recommended Talents

The trash at the start of this dungeon is very dangerous. You need to be on your toes to avoid all of the following; frontal slams targeted at the tank, Fel Strikes targeted at the ranged players behind you, frontal cleaves from bats, Shadow Wave from Dul'zak. Any of these will 1 shot when doing high keys. You also need to interrupt the fear from the bat and prevent Demonic Mending and Shadow Wall from being cast.
Agronox is quite easy as melee. There is pulsing AoE damage so using Transcendence: Transfer on cooldown for the healing is helpful. Don't get hit by the AoE cast from the add spawned by the boss. Use Storm, Earth, and Fire to help kill the fixating adds without getting in range of them, your clones will jump to them and attack them while you safely attack the boss.
Use Leg Sweep/Arcane Torrent/Frag Belt/Spear Hand Strike to prevent imps from casting on your tank. Stunning or incapacitating the books spawned by the scavengers will prevent them from summoning monstrosities. Turn away from the blinding glare cast by the mini-boss before the 2nd boss.
Thrashbite the Scornful isn't much of a threat. Run his charge through a bookshelf and stun/interrupt/kill the adds spawned from them. You can easily roll out of his AoE 1 shot even when you are slowed by 90% from the books. You can also dispel the 90% slow with Tiger's Lust. The spinning weapon on the outside of the room continues after the boss dies, so be careful before entering the next room.
If your group has strong AoE burst, you can kill all of the trash mobs that run away and despawn in this hallway. Just Ring of Peace the stairs and nuke them asap. Follow up with Flying Serpent Kick for a 70% slow after the Ring of Peace expires. This strategy allows you to skip most of the trash at the start of the dungeon. Consult with your group before talenting out of Leg Sweep.
The next trash pack has a few enemies that cast a cleave, one that spawns a dangerous orb that will 1 shot at practically any key level, and the spider queen that teleports then casts a dangerous frontal. Use Detox every 8 seconds on the tank to prevent the poison debuff from killing him.
Windwalker excels at killing the portals on Domatrax. I normally solo 1 portal while the other 2 dps in the group kill the other portal. Repeat this at 50. Drop a Transcendence: Transfer in the middle so you can easily teleport back when he is casting chaotic energy.
The bats on the last boss, Mephistroth, enter the room through 4 windows, if you are standing directly under a window you can get hit by a practically unavoidable Fel Blaze. Keep the boss in between the windows to prevent this from happening. Monks can tank a few orbs in the shadow phase with Touch of Karma and Dampen Harm. Try to wait until the tank needs help before using defensives and soaking the orbs.

Recommended Talents

I use Healing Elixir in court of stars because there is no real 1 shot threat unless the dungeon is Raging. I would recommend taking Dampen Harm in raging for the Shadow Bolt Volley.
This is one of the easiest dungeons for a melee dps. The dangerous trash cleaves have a few seconds windup and very clear graphics. Just make sure to interrupt Charging Station/Searing Glare. Always have a stun or AoE silence before pulling the roaming imp pacts. Line of sight the Fel Detonation and Disintegration Beam.
Patrol Captain Gerdo has a few abilities you need to avoid, Resonant Slash and Streetsweeper. The slash is quite easy to avoid, but Streetsweeper will sometimes bug and hit an area that isn't inside the graphic. If your legs are glowing, you are going to get hit regardless of where the actual beam is pointing. Just don't be greedy and these are both easy to avoid as melee. Arcane Lockdown happens roughly every 25-28 seconds. I normally Tiger's Lust to dispel the first, 3x jump with Touch of Karma the second, Tiger's Lust the third, then 3x jump + healthstone if the fourth happens.
Using Transcendence: Transfer on cooldown can help the healer heal through the constant ticking damage on Talixae Flamewreath. Make sure to have Fists of Fury up for every imp spawn and you will do massive damage on this boss. Use Arcane Torrent/Leg Sweep/Frag Belt to interrupt their casts and AoE them down as quickly as possible. Your group needs to stack tight, so the imps spawn nice and clumped for easy AoE.
Advisor Melandrus is the main reason I choose to run Healing Elixir in this dungeon. The damage he deals with his Slicing Maelstrom isn't a single hit, its 5 smaller hits so Dampen Harm will only provide 20% mitigation here. Normally if you die to this mechanic, you just barely get overkilled because your healer is doing even healing to all 5 members that need heals. Transcendence: Transfer + Healing Elixir will prevent this from happening. Use Touch of Karma whenever the healer tells you to use a cooldown. In high keys I use Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus + 20% avoidance + Coagulated Nightwell Residue for maximum safety.

Recommended Talents

The dangerous boss abilities in this dungeon are all magic damage, so Diffuse Magic is the obvious choice.
I recommend using invisibility potions to skip the first few packs up to the bear. The cats simply do too much damage to justify pulling them at high key levels. You can avoid the roaming 3 pack by waiting for it to be on the far left or right and walking very carefully in between the different packs of enemies. The roars from the bears are magic damage. I also recommend skipping the double bear pack in high keys by pulling it the side with your tank while the other 4 members run past, then resurrect the tank.
Move when Archdruid Glaidalis casts Nightfall. You can stun/slow the adds to prevent them from creating too much corruption on the ground. Don't be in front when he casts Primal Rampage.
The keepers constantly spawn dangerous mushrooms and heal flowers passively. However the packs are not leashed together, so you can pull the 2 keepers without pulling the flowers behind them. Kill the 2 keepers alone then pull the 4 flowers behind the house with the roaming 3 pack and 2 leftover flowers. Use Leg Sweep/Arcane Torrent/Frag Belt to prevent the Tormenting Eye channeled cast on the enemies before the 2nd boss.
The knockback slam on Oakheart is magic damage so diffuse is quite useful here as well. Don't stand in front and kill adds when they spawn. You can step in a flower and Tiger's Lust yourself out of the root to make it de-spawn to prevent adds from spawning. I recommend avoidance gear and Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus when you reach keystone level 26 and higher.
Dresaron is a test for your healer. Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus is a good idea on this fight. You should Tiger's Lust your healer and Transcendence: Transfer before every pushback to make it easier for them. Use Touch of Karma and Diffuse Magic proactively not preemptively.
Shade of Xavius is one of the most dangerous dungeon bosses. I use Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus/20% avoidance/Smoldering Titanguard and Coagulated Nightwell Residue on this fight. Drop a Transcendence: Transfer 60 yards away from where the boss will be tanked at the start of this fight. There will be times when you know the next Nightmare Bolt will kill you, however you can outrange this. If you know nightmare bolt is next and you can't survive, go stand 25 yards away and Transcendence: Transfer if he targets you. Note that the damage of nightmare bolt is calculated the moment the cast finishes. Pressing Diffuse Magic after the bolt is already in the air will not provide any damage mitigation. You generally want to save Diffuse Magic for Feed on the Weak. In high keys Nightmare Bolt will be doing about 11m damage so you will need Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus + Touch of Karma to survive. The boss will randomly Rip targets in melee range for about 3 million damage. If this happens and you don't have Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus, make sure to use coaugulated + Touch of Karma to survive the next nightmare bolt. The AoE at 50% will do about the same damage as a nightmare bolt so you will need to use your defensives properly if you want to survive. If you get unlucky and just get targeted by his abilities over and over, you will die. Going into this fight with 1-2 battle resses will make it much easier.

Recommended Talents

You can Tiger's Lust your allies to dispel Hooked Net from the Hatecoil Wrangler. Don't let them cast Lightning Prod.
Don't do excessive AoE on Warlord Parjesh. If you kill the adds and don't have an immunity for the spear, someone is going to die.
The Arcane Rebound from the Hatecoil Arcanist cleaves off the tank. Don't be within 5 yards of him if a cast isn't going to be interrupted.
Lady Hatecoil is another dangerous boss that you need to wear defensive gear or get externals for. At 27 you need 20% avoidance + Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus + a defensive to survive. A typical defensive rotation (without healer) is something like:
1. Touch of Karma
2. Coagulated Nightwell Residue
3. Dampen Harm
4. Touch of Karma
5. Coagulated
6. Die
You won't even get 5 most of the time, and you probably won't get 4 in 24 and under keys. If your healer puts on a Felshield Emitter you can take that in place of your tank trinket.
Stand upwind of Serpentrix to make his projectiles much slower and easier to avoid. If you stand downwind in melee range they are basically instant. Use Spear Hand Strike then Leg Sweep to prevent the heads from casting.
King Deepbeard doesn't require any defensive gear until at least keystone level 26. You can put on some avoidance pieces here to be safe. Don't stack on allies for Quake.
Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus + avoidance gear is very helpful on Wrath of Azshara. Monks can solo the Crushing Depths with Dampen Harm + Smoldering Titanguard. With 20% avoidance the Crushing Depths does about 36 million physical damage in a 27-fortified key. If you put Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus on 7 seconds before the pull, the shield will activate right before the first crushing depths hits. You can stack on the tank with Touch of Karma + Dampen Harm, but he needs to be ready for an 18 million physical hit.

Recommended Talents

There aren't very many trash mechanics in this dungeon that punish melee, you just need to coordinate stuns and interrupts for all the caster enemies. Avoidance gear or Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus is necessary on the first boss at around keystone level 26 fortified.
Hyrja – One of the most dangerous bosses, Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus/20%avoidance/Coagulated Nightwell Residue is necessary in 24-25. It's a good idea to throw on Smoldering Titanguard as well in 26+. You need to keep track of her stack amounts. A 1 stack Arcing Bolt isn't dangerous, so you shouldn't waste a defensive on it. An 8-stack arcing bolt will kill you without a defensive. Save Diffuse Magic or Smoldering Titanguard for a high stack Expel Light or expel light + arcing bolt combo. Touch of Karma should be the first defensive you use. You don't want to use defensives during eye of the storm. If your healer can't heal through that on their own, you are in big trouble. Use Transcendence: Transfer for a 24% heal if they are struggling. The arcing bolt just after Eye of the Storm is one of the most dangerous abilities so be ready for it
Fenryr – Use Transcendence: Transfer to dodge his leap to avoid getting a stack of the ticking debuff. Don't attempt to tank fenryr when he fixates you, he can crit and 1 shot you even in low keys. Tell your ranged to stack in melee for the 360 degrees cleave that splits damage among all players hit.
King Bjorn's Wicked Dagger before 4th boss can be very dangerous in high keys. It will be doing upwards of 10m+ damage in 26 fortified so you need Touch of Karma to survive. If you get targeted a 2nd time you will most likely die. If you don't have Touch of Karma and it's been 15 seconds since he last cast it, you can run 40 +yards away so he won't target you.
God-King Skovald – Dodge his Felblaze Rush with Transcendence: Transfer. Place it away from where the boss is being tanked and walk slightly out of melee range when you think he is about to pick a felblaze rush target, so you have plenty of time to Transcendence: Transfer. You can also dodge it with Flying Serpent Kick if you are at least 20 yards away. Diffuse Magic can be used to tank it if you have damage cooldowns active and don't want to lose DPS.
Odyn – Swap on Cinidaria, the Symbiote instead of The Emperor's Capacitor for this fight. Don't let an add cast go off and be sure to save 1 charge of your Storm, Earth, and Fire for the damage buff phase.

Recommended Talents

Opera Hall:
Beautiful Beast – Interrupt Heat Wave and avoid Leftovers. Don't kite the broom through fire.
Wikket – Flashy Bolt targets a random player so make sure to have an interrupt order on it. Don't step in Defy Gravity early or you might not have any left to avoid Magic Magnificent.
Westfall Story – Toe Knee's adds need to be stunned and killed as soon as possible. Use Detox to dispel allies when they get the poison debuff. As soon as his adds are dead, the fight is extremely easy.

Maiden of Virtue – Spread out to prevent Holy Bolt from chaining. Get a stack of Sacred Ground right before Mass Repentance. Monk brings high burst damage, so you should have no issue getting through her shield.
Moroes – You normally want to trap 2 of his guests, then use lust and burn the other 2. Interrupt Empowered Arms, Healing Stream, and Mana Drain. Avoid Will Breaker, Whirling Edge and be very careful about Iron Whirlwind. If you are killing Baron Rafe Dreuger, you want to fixate clones onto him and then attack a different mob outside of his Iron Whirlwind range if possible.
Attumen the Huntsman – Avoid Mortal Strike. Most tanks will want to avoid Shared Suffering by kiting the boss, make sure you aren't in melee range when this is happening.

Recommended Talents

The trash in upper is very easy, this is mostly a boss dungeon.
The Curator – Make sure to have Touch of Death, 20 stacks of The Emperor's Capacitor and 1 charge of Storm, Earth, and Fire for the Evocation phase. You can Touch of Karma and step in the lightning ground as well but be careful if multiple ground effects are overlapping.
Shade of Medivh – Dodge Inferno Bolts by rolling out and then Transcendence: Transfer back into melee once the projectile is midair. Use Touch of Karma and Diffuse Magic as needed during either the bird phase or if you are targeted by Flame Wreath. Spread out before flame wreath is cast.
Mana Devourer – This boss is a tank and spank. Let the tank or classes with immunities soak the orbs. You can soak 2 stacks with Diffuse Magic + Touch of Karma, but only do this if you absolutely must.
Make sure to have 1 charge of Storm, Earth, and Fire and Energizing Elixir up for the big mana wyrm pull after Mana devourer.
Viz'aduum the Watcher – Don't stand near players with Chaotic Shadows if they are about to get dispelled. Spread out on the 3rd platform to avoid cleaving allies with the bombardments from fel bats.

Recommended Talents

This dungeon has some of the hardest trash for melee. You will need to avoid frontals like Defiant Strike and Hew Soul. There are multiple dangerous ground targeted abilities like Flare and Swirling Muck. The slavers have a grip in ability that you can dispel with Tiger's Lust. They also have a 360 degree cleave that hits all melee if you are in range. Avoid getting hit by Brackwater Blast if it is on your allies and try not to hit them when it is on you.
Ymiron, the Fallen King can't kill you unless you stand in multiple circles or get hit by the fear. Kill the adds as soon as possible unless you have a Subtly Rogue in the group, as they gain massive single target damage from the adds.
Avoid Six Pound Barrel from the Waterlogged Soul Guard in the bottom of the boat. This will 1 shot in 25+ keys. Seacursed Swiftblade's Deceptive Strike will 1 shot in keys as low as 20. Be very careful to avoid the cleave. Note that Seacursed Soulkeeper's will turn around and face the tank if they run into a wall while casting Defiant Strike.
Harbaron – Avoid Cosmic Scythe. Try to save Fists of Fury for when he casts Fragment on a player. You will need to use Touch of Karma to survive if this targets you in higher key levels.
Whirlpool of Souls and Torrent of Souls are both incredibly dangerous and need to be stunned or interrupted as soon as possible.
The tentacles in the Helya fight only have a certain number of possible spawn locations. This is a graphic roughly showing where they can spawn. Interrupt Torrent and watch out for Turbulent Waters.

Recommended Talents

Don't stand near Vileshard Chunk when they are casting Crush. Try not to stand in front of Vileshard Hulk or they will 1 shot you with their frontal. Rockback Gnasher will bite the closest target and apply a nasty physical dot, do not get in melee of them if the tank is kiting.
Rokmora – Shatter damage is based on the health of Blightshard Skitter. Try to kill them before this cast happens and be ready to use a defensive if Shatter is going to hit with a Skitter at full hp.
Ularogg Cragshaper – Spread out during the intermission to prevent splash damage from the falling rocks.
Stone Shatter splashes off the tank, so don't be within 8 yards of him when this ability is cast. Interrupt Stone Bolt.
Naraxas – Use Detox to dispel the poison when the boss casts Toxic Retch. If you only have 1 ranged dps, Rancid Maw can be cast on melee.
Emberhusk Dominator will cast Crystal Spike which targets the 3 farthest members with a high nature damage projectile. This can be dodged so you want to be one of the 3 members getting hit along with the tank and another tanky member of the group.
Dargrul – Don't nuke the add when it hits the first spike. You want to use as little single target as possible to maximize boss dps. It is fine to let it hit 2 spikes and then use the 3rd spike for avoiding Magma Wave. Avoid the frontal ability Landslide. Molten Crash does not cleave. Don't stand in melee range of the add when he is about to fixate just in case he targets you.

Recommended Talents

Arcway trash consists of many different spellcaster mobs that need to be interrupted. Coordinate silences and stuns to ensure all casts are stopped. For the Dreadborne Seer in General Xakal's room you will need to rotate defensives to survive his casts. Dampen Harm the first Prophecies of Doom. If he casts another prophecy, dampen will still be up for it. The eyes target the nearest player so make sure the tank is closer to the eyes than you. Touch of Karma the next Prophecy and if he casts another and you are out of defensives, use Transcendence: Transfer to line of sight it. You will need to stay line of sight from this point until the mob dies.
Ivanyr – Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus and avoidance gear will be necessary to prevent getting 1 shot by Volatile Magic. Make sure somebody in the party is saving their interrupt for Overcharge Mana.
Corstilax – Be moving when he is about to cast Destabilized Orb to prevent taking damage. It's usually best to let other party members gather the haste buffs due to Windwalkers poor haste scaling. Use Touch of Karma after 2 hits of suppression protocol and the remaining 2 will be absorbed and heal you with Good Karma. Dampen Harm the next suppression protocol. Touch of Karma will be up again for the 3rd. Make sure to be near a friend when the boss is about to cast quarantine.
Nal'tira – The first teleport from Blink Strikes will target a ranged, the second will target a melee. Be strafing when she teleports to melee and it should miss you. I like to rotate defensives just in case it instantly deals damage to avoid getting 1 shot. Set up Transcendence: Transfer 30 yards away so that you can teleport out if you get Tangled Web cast on you.
General Xakal – Throw on some avoidance gear or Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus at 26+. Rotate Touch of Karma for 1st slam, Dampen Harm for 2nd, Touch of Karma for 3rd.
Advisor Vandros – Interrupt Accelerating Blast. Avoid the explosions from Time Split fragments. Take advantage of monk's high mobility to prevent taking unnecessary damage from Force Nova. In high keys you will not be able to attack the adds in the intermission without using multiple defensives. Take it slow and get back to the boss in 1 piece.

Recommended Talents

Use Tiger's Lust on yourself when you get Suppression Field. Use stuns and silences to interrupt Consume Essence. Watch out for the Void Discharge's on death explosion.
Zuraal the Ascended – Avoid Null Palm. Save cooldowns for when the boss is about to enter his 200% increased damage taken phase. If you get sent down into the shadow realm you need to kill 10 Dark Aberration, then hit your extra action button. You might need to save Touch of Karma to heal yourself during this phase.
Saprish – Avoid the purple bombs on the purple floor. Don't stand in the Ravaging Darkness. Make sure to interrupt Dread Screech. Try to maximize cleave damage, the bosses do share HP.
Void Diffusion deals splash damage off the tank, be careful when standing near them. Shadowguard Champions also cast a frontal stun ability which will most likely just 1 shot you in higher keys. Be ready to use Touch of Karma or Diffuse Magic if you are targeted by Corrupting Void. There is very much unavoidable damage on the trash before 3rd boss.
Interrupt Dark Flay and nuke down dark matter as soon as it spawns.
Viceroy Nezhar – This is a heavy add fight. Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus is a good choice in higher key levels. You need one member devoted to kicking every Howling Dark cast. Windwalker has excellent priority target burst damage and you need to make use of that on this fight. The Shadowguard Voidtenders need to be nuked down very quickly to prevent Eternal Twilight from being cast. Make sure to use Spear Hand Strike and Leg Sweep to prevent tentacles from killing your friends. Use a defensive if you get multiple tentacles targeting you.
L'ura – Don't use cooldowns on the first add. You will want to use 1 Storm, Earth, and Fire charge on the first 200% dmg phase, 1 charge on the 2 adds and then another on the next 200% increased damage phase. Make sure to soak Fragment of Despair. You will need to use a defensive if you are soaking this in a high key. You want to maximize your burst damage in the 200% increase damage taken windows with Touch of Death, Storm, Earth, and Fire, and Strike of the Windlord.

Recommended Talents

Immoliant Fury's have a dangerous frontal cleave. They will occasionaly move behind the tank before continuing to attack, be careful with your positioning to avoid getting killed. Glayvianna Soulrender will occasionally charge a ranged player dealing damage to all targets in her path. She will also throw her glaives in a frontal. You need to position at one side and have the ranged players loosely spread towards the other side to avoid her abilities.
Make sure to save Leg Sweep for fel gaze. It will instantly wipe your entire group if it casts. Be ready to followup your stun with a Frag Belt if it casts again.
Tirathon Saltheril – Don't let an add cast Fel Emission. Make sure to avoid Hatred. He has the same ability as Glayvianna Soulrender where he leaps to a ranged player in p1 and p3. Be careful not to get hit by this.
You can Frag Belt the imp mothers A Mother's Love cast.
Inquisitor Tormentorum – Sap Soul has some weird interactions with monk abilities. Pressing Fists of Fury or Rising Sun Kick will remove the debuff but does not incur an increased cooldown. Blackout Kick will go on a 10 second cooldown if you use it but getting a Blackout Kick! proc via Tiger Palm will remove this cooldown. You can just use abilities like Disable or Flying Serpent Kick or Detox if you don't have any other way to get rid of this debuff. Faceless Voidcasters will cast Shadow Crash, shooting a slow moving projectile that does massive damage when it lands. Interrupt Deranged Mindflayer's Frightening Shout and Mind Flay. Interrupt Seed of Corruption as well.
Fel Scorchers explode on death. Try to stagger their deaths to let your healer top your group before you kill the next.
Glazer – Be all the way inside his hitbox to avoid Pulses. Save Touch of Death for the increased damage taken phase.
Ash'Golm – Avoid getting lava stacks and try to kill adds before they get hit by lava. If lava touches an add the add will begin to Detonate, dealing large fire damage to the party. This is survivable with a defensive, but best avoided by killing adds. Use the countermeasures to enter the 25% increased damage taken phase and remove fire from the room.
Our group uses an avalanche + invis potion skip to avoid most of the trash in the bottom half of the dungeon. After killing the front 4 spiders, simply use Avalanche Elixir then invisibility potion and head to the door. Avalanche Elixir is required to prevent fall damage breaking you out of invis. You need to be spamming your jump key when going over the webs to prevent the web damage breaking you out of invis as well. If the tank gets knocked back by the spirit, Leg Sweep it to prevent getting meleed.
Cordana Felsong – When she goes invisible at 75%, stun the add that spawns to prevent it from attacking your party. Use all defensives as soon as the stun fades, there is no more party damage until after the 40% intermission. I like using the ground markers to mark safe spots in the walls, just in case the person with the orb gets a bit crazy. When the add spawns in a corner and makes Cordana invulnerable, stun it to remove the shield from cordana. You will want to kill this add and move cordana away from the corner to prevent the next Creeping Doom from spawning directly on top of you.

Comments

Comment by L4ST

Just 2 things:

1) I would never pick healing elixir over dampen harm. It doesn't trigger on oneshot mechanics and else there's a healer around. MIght want to add: If picked in grievous it has to be actively used, not passively triggered to be of use.

2) The SEF CD reduction trait is top tier with TP procc and FoF dmg to me. Through so many PUG +15-20 runs it's proven to maybe even shine above those. Mainly caught my eye as you called it "100% worthless" for some keys, which I couldn't disagree more, I couldn't imagine any situation/key where this would be true.
E.g. Ukara with its huge downtime before last boss: You won't get 2 stacks back even in that a long waiting time, effectively forcing you to save an SEF stack already the 2nd half of the chess king). This trait can only ever become worthless if forced to sit on 2 stacks.

PS: You forgot to pick a lvl100 talent on SotT - welp key :P

Nice guide! Not an easy task explaining WW mechanics for non-patchwerk situations without getting lost in examples, numbers and exceptions.
Sure Diffuse Magic works on bursting stacks though? The Bab Fanclub on Peak discord once agreed it wouldnt. Same information would be useful for grievous.

Windwalker Monk M+ Guide - Legion 7.3.5

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