This guide is designed to be the full guide for Windwalker with all the information you need.
For more in-depth, advanced information follow the links to those pages in the “Further Reading” sections or in the “Advanced” section in the menu above.
This guide has been updated for The War Within Patch 11.2 and is regularly updated when discussion, theorycrafting, or testing yields new information.
Talent Builds
TBD
Abilities
Instructions
Windwalkers generally prioritize our abilities by how much damage they do and the resources (Chi, energy, execution time) that they cost. There are a couple of general goals while playing Windwalker that should help with the bigger picture before diving into the priority lists below:
- Manage Energy and Chi
- Outside of big Haste cooldowns, Windwalker’s damage is restricted by how many resources we can generate and spend. This means that sitting at the Energy cap or generating more Chi than you have space for typically results in lost damage potential. Your focus is balancing having enough Chi for spenders and using Blackout Kick just enough to prevent overcapping without using it too much and not having the Chi you need when a bigger spender becomes available.
- During major cooldowns, you will often have more Energy and Chi than you can use due to the GCD and cooldowns of Chi spenders, making avoiding the caps less impactful, but still something to be aware of.
- Keep Abilities on cooldown
- With most of our Chi spenders having their own cooldowns, it is important to reduce the amount of time that these harder-hitting abilities are sitting off cooldown without being used. There will, inevitably, be overlaps where you’ll have to choose what to press based on the priority list. A key part of playing Windwalker recognizing that one of these situations is approaching and trying to have enough Chi for what you need to do.
- React to procs
- Windwalker has several procs that you’ll need to manage in order to maximize damage potential. The main ones are Dance of Chi-Ji and Blackout Kick!. Both of these can stack to 2 so that you don’t need to immediately use them. However, you will want to avoid risking overstacking, as that is lost damage potential. These procs can play an integral part in helping you balance your resources while still benefitting from Mastery: Combo Strikes. They can also throw off what you were planning, so being able to react intelligently and quickly is important.
- Do not break Mastery: Combo Strikes
- Simple as that, do not repeat the same ability twice in a row. For a full list of what counts for mastery, see here. There are currently no situations where it is worth it to break mastery as there have been in the past.
Following these rules is the largest part of playing Windwalker. You may notice that “always be casting” is not one of our core tenets, as you are only pressing something if it aligns with these rules (something comes off cooldown, you are close to capping energy, etc).
This means that as a natural consequence of following these, you may not always fill every GCD. WINDWALKER IS A SPEC WITH NATURAL DOWNTIME.
This is not an indication that you are playing incorrectly or that you need more Haste (which will not really affect this). To execute these rules in the most efficient way, follow the priorities below with the goal of never using something lower in the list if it will delay something higher in the list.
Cooldowns
As said above, the safest bet is to use things as close to their cooldown as possible. However, if you can use most cooldowns at the same time without losing a cast of them, you’ll get the most out of them. You can read more about it in this article by Talby.
- Celestial Conduit: Use on cooldown, pair it with other DPS cooldowns like Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger and Storm, Earth, and Fire. Read more in the Opener.
- Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger: Use on cooldown, pair it with other DPS cooldowns like Storm, Earth, and Fire if delaying it will not lose you a cast throughout the fight. If you don’t know if it will or not, then use on cooldown as the safest strategy.
- Storm, Earth, and Fire: Used close to on cooldown while lining up with other abilities and damage bonuses. Also useful to concentrate your damage on a specific target. Don’t sit on 2 charges, always have it recharging.
- Touch of Death: Use when it can be triggered. If you are looking to really min/max, you can make sure to only use it when it will kill the target, as this can do a maximum of 100% of your HP as damage instead of the 35% it normally does to boss targets. However, the 100% HP hit will be overkill in most cases which wastes the value of your Mastery: Combo Strikes since the hp threshold it will switch to a 100% HP hit is unaffected by your Mastery: Combo Strikes.
- Touch of Karma: Although technically a defensive ability, it can provide offensive power. Best used as frequently as you can, get as much damage absorbed as possible.
Priority Lists
The lists below assume you are doing what you need to do to avoid capping resources, avoid breaking your mastery, and using above cooldowns appropriately. Because Heart of the Jade Serpent has such a big effect on the priority, I have listed it separately. You will follow the standard Conduit priority when outside of the Heart of the Jade Serpent buff, and the Heart of the Jade Serpent priority when the buff is up.
Single Target Priority
NOTES: Skip steps that don’t apply to your Talent build. Those priorities are meant to be used by people regardless of their build, and will include some steps that don’t apply to the recommended builds.
TBD: Include Priority Lists
AOE Priority (Generally 3 or more targets)
NOTES: Skip steps that don’t apply to your Talent build. Those priorities are meant to be used by people regardless of their build, and will include some steps that don’t apply to the recommended builds.
TBD: Include Priority Lists
Openers
Use these ability orders to start pulls, these may change frequently over time. If you are starting a pull with more Chi, such as in M+, then simply skip the steps that get you to the necessary Chi level. See the Trinkets section further down for how on use trinkets may change your opener.
NOTES: Skip steps that don’t apply to your Talent build. Those openers are meant to be used by people regardless of their build, and will include some steps that don’t apply to the recommended builds.
TBD: Include Openers