So the first thing that jumps out to me is that these should be relatively simple and not result in any major changes to how things work now, which is nice from a theorycrafter and guide writer standpoint, but may not be what people are looking for if you’re someone that is looking for some changes. Its a relatively safe set of bonuses, which isn’t the worst thing to do for the first time tier sets are back in a while. But lets break these down a bit. Its been a while since I’ve gotten to flex these article muscles, and this is just a quick pass at them, things could change and we certainly have a few months until this will matter, so cut me some slack.

2-Piece Bonus

2 pieces (Windwalker) : Increases Fists of Fury damage by 40%.

This is about as easy as it comes; boom, more damage. A few obvious effects this will have is that it will keep Windwalker using Fists of Fury in AOE situations for longer, which was already the case. It may have an effect on what it takes for us to cancel Fists of Fury during Weapons of Order, but that’s something that we’ll get around to before it matters, which isn’t right now. Its unlikely that this will change the Spinning Crane Kick-spamming of Necrolords during Bonedust Brew, but until that math is redone, that’s just me guessing. There are some other interesting things, like the fact that history tells us that this is unlikely to work with Storm, Earth, and Fire out of the gate unless someone pays attention to it specifically. It could, on the other hand, work on the Fists of Fury that are cast by the Fallen Order monks, which would be a nice boost to Venthyr covenant that might, unironically, be decent (don’t worry, its still likely to be in 4th place out of 4).

The “problem” is that this further increases Windwalker’s AOE, although not as much as if it was 40% to Spinning Crane Kick or Dance of Chi-Ji. Its something that Windwalker is already strong at, and I’ve been predicting that Spinning Crane Kick and/or Dance of Chi-Ji will see some tuning down for quite a while, which hasn’t come… yet.

Taking a quick look at how much damage this will increase is also pretty easy. Snagging the top Guardian parse, Wajoba, their Fists of Fury damage was 228.5k, plus 67.6k and 65.3k from Storm, Earth, and Fire for a total of 361.4k. Adding another 40% would add another 144.56k damage, 526 DPS, or 4.7%, which isn’t too bad. Looking at the top Soulrender parse (that’s in a language I understand) we come to Batterypunch. While Soulrender damage is obviously heavily controlled by the Spinning Crane Kick and Bonedust Brew damage, Fists of Fury is no slouch in this fight either. Batterypunch did 612.3k with Fists of Fury and none from Storm, Earth, and Fire due to spinning their ass off during that time and aiming to have Fists of Fury on CD before Bonedust Brew. Adding 40% damage would be 244.92k damage, 644.5 DPS, or 2.7%. Finally looking at Sylvanas we come to Varis. Fists of Fury accounted for 504.6k damage plus 134.7k and 127.4k from Storm, Earth, and Fire for a total of 776.7k damage. Increasing this by 40% adds another 306.68k damage, 364.7 DPS, or 3.8%. As you can see, that’s a pretty decent increase, and roughly what you’d expect from a tier bonus. This doesn’t include any damage that you’d get from triggering Bonedust Brew with Fists of Fury or damage that goes into other things like Xuen, because I’m lazy and that’s WAY too much work for me to do for the first post about 9.2.

4-Piece Bonus

4 pieces (Windwalker) : After 10 offensive abilities, your next 3 offensive abilities deal an additional 22% damage.

This one is a little bit more complicated since there are quite a few questions that I cannot answer at this time. Here are some of the important things we have to know before we can estimate how strong this bonus is:

• What does “offensive abilities” mean? Does it include abilities that trigger Mastery but don’t deal damage like Weapons of Order and Bonedust Brew?
• Does the 10 count start as soon as you hit the previous 10? Or does it only start after you use the buffed 3 abilities?
• Is there a time frame before the 22% buff wears off?
• Are we going to be stuck stacking it up before combat or will it reset?

Some of these we can assume answers, but others we cannot. 22% is a lot of damage, and the best players will do a really great job of timing that 22% to affect the big hitters like Rising Sun Kick, Whirling Dragon Punch, and Fists of Fury. For most mere mortals, you’ll probably just play the way you normally would and keep track of it for making sure that those three abilities are within your big cooldown windows, which should be nearly automatic, but not completely automatic. This is likely one of those things that will separate the good from the great rather than the good from the bad.

I’ll certainly be talking about this more in the future as we get information and the ability to actually test. So stay tuned for that.

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