8.2 approaches, and while not a ton is changing for Windwalkers, there are new things being introduced to the game that tweaks things around a little bit. As things are continued to get figured out, this page will be updated to reflect changes. The main Windwalker PvE guide has also been updated with these changes.
Talents
There are some changes to talents that many saw coming, or started to feel, but the continued increase of stats or introduction of Reverse Harm costing a little less than Tiger Palm moves our talents around a smidge.
- Tier 1 (lv15) – Because of the wealth of filled GCDs and resources provided by our Azerite traits, this talent tier can pretty much be personal preference, Chi Wave is a much more reasonable choice for PURE single target. Chi Burst for any time that you can hit a second target even once.
- Tier 2 (lv30) – No change; personal preference
- Tier 3 (lv45) – Like with lv15 talents, the wealth of resources we have makes this tier pretty much even across the board, so it can be left up to personal preference. As far as defaults, it moves Ascension to the top for single target (most raid bosses) since it provides an extra cushion of Chi, Fist of the White Tiger for multi-target (Most M+) since its much easier to make use of all the extra resources.
- Tier 4 (lv60) – Personal Preference; Good Karma or Ring of Peace as reasonable defaults
- Tier 5 (lv75) – Dampen Harm for physical, Diffuse Magic for magic damage
- Tier 6 (lv90) – Because of more stats that benefit one but not the other Hit Combo is the best for sustain single target or AOE or a mix (most content), Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger becomes usable for burst single target or up to 3 targets
- Tier 7 (lv100) – Whirling Dragon Punch for all situations
Priority/Opener
Not much changes in the Priority other than slotting in Reverse Harm as often as you can if you have Conflict and Strife. It falls just after Rising Sun Kick in single target, and as often as possible in AOE.
Fists of Fury also now officially moves ahead of Rising Sun Kick since we can reasonably assume that people have at least one Open Palm Strikes.
The opener doesn’t really change much, you just slot in Reverse Harm in place of Tiger Palm whenever its available. You also just start a fight with 2 Tiger Palm, without worrying about Mastery for that second.
Gear, Stats, Azerite
No real changes in these areas, continue to get what you can and use Raidbots. You’ll almost certainly want one Force Multiplier on one weapon.
Trinkets
Currently the Mechagon trinket: Pocket-Sized Computation Device was strong when you use Cyclotronic Blast, now its nerfed, but is still super strong when combined with SEF/ToD.
Courtesy of @wizard dog:
Even though you can no longer cast spells during the channel, the Cyclotronic trinket now crits and seems to still be strong for single target. Cyclotronic opener: Fotwt/RH > TP > ToD > SEF > Trinket > RSK > TP > FoF > WDP Important to note that both on pull and mid fight you want to have the entire channel of the trinket inside a ToD+SEF window cause of a bug causing SEF to triple Gale Burst trinket damage (this might get fixed)
Highborne Compendium of Sundering is currently very strong and worth using.
Benthic Gear
Belts – https://www.raidbots.com/simbot/report/46uUiLsT1jPQXgxuee3pUV
- Vim’s Scalecrusher Clasp – At 425 its on par with 445 raid gear as long as you’re in Nazjatar or Eternal Palace.
- Fathomstalker Waistband – The sims don’t assume that the target is an Aberration, so its safe to assume that if you’re target is an Aberration, this is THE belt to use.
Bracers – https://www.raidbots.com/simbot/report/3EqbFo1pSsesQscLTf8m4L
- Ori’s Tidal Wristwraps – As long as you’re in Nazjatar or EP, this is the bracers you want to use as its noticeably stronger than raid gear at 445.
- Neri’s Wavebreaker Bindings – Although not as strong as Ori’s in single target, scales better with multiple targets, so would be used whenever there’s more than two targets to smack around.
Boots – https://www.raidbots.com/simbot/report/bbocJHARZiH8upW7hohKcJ
- Akana’s Reefstrider Footwraps – Slightly behind 445 Raid gear, but strong up till you get the Mythic boots.
- Fathomstalker Boots – This is hard to rate since it depends on killing targets that are Aberrations.
Gloves – https://www.raidbots.com/simbot/report/2td22wiCbFJMmiQS2KLEoC
- Poen’s Deepsea Grips – Stronger than 445 gloves from raid.
Consumables
These saw new recipes added, but for Gems and Enchants, nothing changes, you still use Raidbots.
For Flasks, you want to use the new Greater Flask of the Currents, Potion of Unbridled Fury for 1-3 targets, Potion of Empowered Proximity for 4 or more. Food will be whatever stat weight is highest from secondary stat food.
Essences
This is the section that you’re all looking for, so I’ll try to be as straightforward as possible. It’s going to work like this;
- 8.2 hits on June 25
- Get all the ones you can; prioritize Crucible of Flames and Purification Protocol
- Use Crucible of Flames for single target and Purification Protocol for multi-target
- Profit… for three weeks
- Season 3 starts on July 9th
- Get 500 Conquest and/or Rated PvP rating of 1000.
- Complete as high a M+ as you can
- Second week of Season 3 starts July 16th
- Open your weekly PvP chest for Conflict and Strife
- Open your weekly M+ chest for Focusing Iris.
- Check Peak to read the article that will come about Conflict and Strife and what to do with your Majors now.
- Once you can get the first Minor at AP 55, use Worldvein as your first Minor for raids and Vision of Perfection as your first Minor for M+
- When you get your second Minor at AP 65, use Conflict and Strife as your Minor in conjunction with the above if you’re not using it as a Major. Use both Vision and Worldvein as your Minors if you are using Conflict and Strife as your Major.
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Cheers Babs for the content as always. Is Conflict & Strife going to be BIS for many DPS? As a woeful PvPer I’m hoping it’s not too rowdy to hit 1000 (which is low to be fair), but with lots of competition comes another 30 games.
I don’t know how strong it is for other specs, but I’d assume most people are going to be getting all the essences.
What about “Lucid Dreams” ?
When you mentioned Ascension will be the default choice for single target I assumed that is due to being flooded with Chi from time to time and that those excess Chi won’t get wasted by overcapping.
-> Are you actually overcapping Chi when NOT using Lucid Dreams as a Minor essence ?
I’m pretty surprised that you didn’t mention Lucid Dreams as a default choice for one of the minor slots due to Windwalker being a resource capped character and this thing helping with that issue.
Has Spiritual Focus been tested with Vision as the minor? I was wondering if it would become viable since the talent and essence could essentially make it so we have spirits up all the time and maybe making haste a better stat to potentially shorten the down time of FoF and RsK
Interesting question, I’ll give it a look.
Its a good idea, but don’t fall into the trap of considering Visions as a major. Not a good option.
On the other hand, depending on the fight, I could see SF being strong on a frequent add wave sort of fight. But also… WDP handles that pretty well.
Why is Reverse Harm in the Priority as a PVP talent?
Because when you get the Conflict and Strife essence you get RH in PvE too
Doesn’t reverse harm only deal damage if you are injured though? Or has that changed?
Hmm I guess there is always the tank to heal
Given that Reverse Harm deals damage based on how much it heals, and it heals 8% of the target’s maximum health, healing the tank (who has the most health) will be your default. I think you’d only heal someone else if the healer can’t keep up with incoming damage.
What about essence of focusing iris ? (for m+)
I did have that in there, I’ll add it back. Not sure where it went
Any info on the BiS for Benthic armour?
There’s a whole section about it in the PvE guide. I’ll add it to this one when I get a chance