Let’s be honest, we all knew it was coming, we just didn’t know then WHEN and the HOW. But now we have it. I’m going to try and break down as much of these changes as I can, some will just not be easily doable, and its already after 9pm when I’m starting this, so I have to sleep at some point.

DISCLAIMER

This is after one week of Pre-Patch, DO NOT FREAK OUT!! Windwalker had PLENTY of damage to give away without being dead, it was absolutely overpowered. There is NO WAY this will kill the spec. at worst it will be brought down closer to the average. Enhancement Shaman was nerfed by 25% across the board, lets avoid the Chicken Little syndrome. There will be more class tuning up to and through the start of Dragonflight, this isn’t the end. The above picture is just a meme for all you new Windwalkers out there. THE SPEC ISN’T DEAD!!

Changes

Initial Impressions

Yes, it’s a lot. Its nerfs to just about everything we expected and some things we didn’t. The numbers nerfs to Fists of Fury, Rising Sun Kick, Blackout Kick, Whirling Dragon Punch, and Rushing Jade Wind are completely reasonable and expected. The nerfs to Storm, Earth, and Fire, Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger, Serenity, Teachings of the Monastery, Fury of Xuen, Fatal Touch, and Xuen’s Battlegear are head scratchers, but make sense with their rationale.

Let me break down my impressions of these:

• Fists of Fury damage reduced by 20%.
  • Totally reasonable, Windwalker was doing a LOT of damage.
• Rising Sun Kick damage reduced by 20%.
  • Totally reasonable, Windwalker was doing a LOT of damage.
• Blackout Kick damage reduced by 10%.
  • Totally reasonable, Windwalker was doing a LOT of damage.
• Storm, Earth, and Fire damage transfer reduced by 6.66(repeating, of course)%.
  • Very odd. Storm, Earth, and Fire has existed this way for years, and the wording of this is very confusing. This is something that we’ll just have to wait and see what it means.
• Serenity causes the Monk to deal 15% increased damage (was 20%).
  • Another odd one, but given that we “think” Storm, Earth, and Fire was nerfed more, it may mean that we actually want to use Serenity more for the situations where we were already likely to use it.
• Invoke Xuen duration reduced to 20 seconds (was 24 seconds).
  • ODD. Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger used to be 20s, so I guess now he’s just back to it.
• Shadowboxing Treads increases Blackout Kick damage by 10% (was 20%).
  • Totally understandable, it was a big part of Blackout Kick‘s damage profile in AOE, the strongest part of the talent wasn’t nerfed.
• Teachings of the Monastery now causes Blackout Kick to have a 12% chance to reset the remaining cooldown on Rising Sun Kick (was 15%).
  • 15% reset was quite a lot in practice, so I don’t think 12% will be unreasonable. The other part of the talent wasn’t nerfed, and its quite strong.
• Fury of Xuen haste bonus has been reduced to 5% (was 8%).
  • Fury of Xuen was very strong relative to other talents, so very understandable.
• Whirling Dragon Punch damage reduced by 10%.
  • Totally reasonable, Windwalker was doing a LOT of damage.
• Forbidden Technique now causes Touch of Death to deal 20% increased damage (was 40%) in addition to its current effects.
  • Likely more of a PvP nerf? This should be relatively minor in the grand scheme, just a slight ding to anyone who wanted to live their life through as much Touch of Death as possible.
• Rushing Jade Wind damage reduced by 10%.
  • The #1 complaint we’ve had the past week is Rushing Jade Wind, so nerfing it is fine.
• Xuen’s Battlegear now causes Rising Sun Kick critical strikes to reduce the cooldown of Fists of Fury by 4 seconds (was 5) and when Fists of Fury ends, the critical strike chance of Rising Sun Kick is now increased by 40% (was 50%).
  • This one really grinds my gears since I think Xuen’s Battlegear is a huge part of the flow and enjoyment of the spec. I don’t think its going to have an earthshattering effect on the spec, but its existence just bugs me.
• Developers’ notes: Windwalker Monks are dealing too much damage across the board. As a result, we’ve reduced the damage of most Chi spenders (Spinning Crane Kick and the recently improved Strike of the Windlord being the notable exceptions), reduced the throughput of major cooldowns (Storm, Earth, and Fire, Serenity, and Invoke Xuen), and reduced the effect of some powerful talents with the goal of preserving build parity after these changes.
  • I am unsure why major cooldowns were nerfed, but I guess Windwalker was pretty strong in burst windows throughout Shadowlands, whether it was during WoO in ST in Nathria or during BdB in AOE in Sanctum, Sepulcher, and Season 4
  • Angling to make Strike of the Windlord and Spinning Crane Kick stronger, relative to the other abilities, makes sense
  • The talents that were nerfed were generally ones that we took in all content, so this may change things up and free up some talent points for other talents that are, relatively, stronger now.

Napkin Math

So, whenever this happens, I like to remind myself and others that I am not a math wizard, I am a speech pathologist. I will do my best but I’m normally more wrong than right. I’ll be using Caelestes’s Halondrus log from this week to go through the numbers in single target since I don’t care about M+. I will include the nerf to Storm, Earth, and Fire clones in each line and then total them together under that bullet.

• Fists of Fury damage reduced by 20%.
  • 4,351 DPS * 0.8 = 3,480 DPS (-870 DPS)
  • Storm, Earth, and Fire Clones: 3,416 DPS * 0.8 * 0.93333 = 2,550 DPS (-865 DPS)
• Rising Sun Kick damage reduced by 20%.
  • 2,155 DPS * 0.8 * 0.94 = 1,621 DPS (-534 DPS)
  • Storm, Earth, and Fire Clones: 1,616 DPS * 0.8 * 0.93333 * 0.94 = 1,135 DPS (-481 DPS)
• Blackout Kick damage reduced by 10%.
  • 2,936 DPS * 0.9 * 0.91 = 2,404 DPS (-532 DPS)
  • Storm, Earth, and Fire Clones: 1,209 DPS * 0.9 * 0.93333 * 0.91 = 924 DPS (-285 DPS)
• Storm, Earth, and Fire damage transfer reduced by 6.66(repeating, of course)%.
  • Fists of Fury: 3,416 DPS * 0.8 * 0.93333 = 2,550 DPS (-865 DPS)
  • Rising Sun Kick: 1,616 DPS * 0.8 * 0.93333 * 0.94 = 1,135 DPS (-481 DPS)
  • Blackout Kick: 1,209 DPS * 0.9 * 0.93333 * 0.91 = 924 DPS (-285 DPS)
  • Others: 3,066 DPS * 0.93333 = 2,861 DPS (-204 DPS)
• Serenity causes the Monk to deal 15% increased damage (was 20%).
  • The log didn’t use Serenity and I’m not about to figure it out.
• Invoke Xuen duration reduced to 20 seconds (was 24 seconds).
  • Empowered Tiger Lightning Damage while Xuen is out from a cast: 838 DPS * 0.83333 = 698 DPS (-140 DPS)
  • Other Xuen damage from a Xuen that was cast: 1,096 DPS * 0.83333 = 913 DPS (-183 DPS)
  • This isn’t perfect because I have no idea how to do it perfectly.
• Shadowboxing Treads increases Blackout Kick damage by 10% (was 20%).
  • Accounted for above as the 0.91 multiplier to Blackout Kick
• Teachings of the Monastery now causes Blackout Kick to have a 12% chance to reset the remaining cooldown on Rising Sun Kick (was 15%).
  • Too hard to math out
• Fury of Xuen haste bonus has been reduced to 5% (was 8%).
  • Too hard to math out
• Whirling Dragon Punch damage reduced by 10%.
  • Cealestes didn’t play it, not concerned, since it still locks us in place, it can go kick rocks.
• Forbidden Technique now causes Touch of Death to deal 20% increased damage (was 40%) in addition to its current effects.
  • Cealestes didn’t play it, not concerned
• Rushing Jade Wind damage reduced by 10%.
  • Cealestes didn’t play it, not concerned
• Xuen’s Battlegear now causes Rising Sun Kick critical strikes to reduce the cooldown of Fists of Fury by 4 seconds (was 5) and when Fists of Fury ends, the critical strike chance of Rising Sun Kick is now increased by 40% (was 50%).
  • The CDR on Fists of Fury is too hard to math out
  • I generalized above as the 0.94 multiplier to Rising Sun Kick

TOTAL

• BEFORE: 30484.9 DPS
• DAMAGE LOST: 870 + 534 + 532 + 865 + 481 + 285 + 204 + 140 + 183 = AT LEAST 4,094 DPS LOST
• AFTER NERFS: 26,391 DPS
• % LOST: AT LEAST 13.4%

So, if we pull up the Statistics page on WarcraftLogs for Halondrus, where the 75th percentile Windwalker is #6 and does 26,447 DPS; the nerfs do this:

• 13.4% nerf = 22,903 DPS, #16
• 15% nerf = 22,480 DPS, #17
• 20% nerf = 21,158 DPS, #19

For context, Enhancement Shaman got a 25% nerf, which will put them in about the same spot as Windwalker on Halondrus. The nerfs are certainly more than the 13.4% I mathed out above, but almost certainly not 20%.

Conclusion

The sky hasn’t fallen, but our ST numbers have by a bit. Windwalker had more ground to give in AOE, so that’s less concerning, even for people that do Mythic+ exclusively, it will take a lot more than what we got for Windwalker to fall out of power in Mythic+. When it comes to single target, this is far from as low as Windwalker has been in the past, and we’re looking at a tier bonus at the start of Dragonflight that is VERY strong in single target; Monk Windwalker Class Set 2pc.

Overall, I think that Blizzard’s goals are pretty clear, and whether we agree with them or not, I believe they will accomplish what they’re seeking to accomplish. It will take a few weeks, and the start of Dragonflight to know where Windwalker falls with the rest, and we’ll certainly see several rounds of class tuning between now and then. This is the first tuning pass of the Pre-Patch, but it’s unlikely to be the last.

If I had to choose tweaks to the above, I’d like to see Rising Sun Kick nerfed less as it is mostly a ST ability, and that’s where Windwalker always needs the help, but without considering the upcoming tier bonus, Monk Windwalker Class Set 2pc, its hard to say if the buff is needed or just desired. 30% to Rising Sun Kick is a lot of single target damage.

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