monk
Latest
Are you a rare?
Inspired by a thread we found on the EU forums, which in turn is inspired by a thread on the US forums, WoW Insider began thinking about rare class-race combinations. It's interesting, really, in a world where you can be anything, how many people all choose to be the same thing. Doubtless, there are reasons behind it, more than just preference. Racial skills, for example, are likely a huge influence, but maybe others surface, as, with a little investigation, excluding Pandaren as they're very new, it seems that the three least popular races are also the ones that don't show off transmogs so well, and are perhaps less conventionally "pretty": gnomes, goblins and dwarves. We headed over to RealmPop to check out their statistics and see what was the most popular and what was the least. Of course, no resource is completely perfect, and a few sites exist, but alas, the other well-known resource, WarcraftRealms, was offline. Looking at the US statistics, the least popular race, including pandaren, but by a narrow margin is the dwarf. The EU stats tell a very similar story, with dwarves outpaced by everyone, even pandaren. Why is that? So, it makes sense that dwarves make up the race element of some of the rarest race-class combinations. Notably, however, although their total numbers are higher overall, the huge proportion of pandaren monks (64-65%) means that they're among the very rarest of combinations when playing anything but a monk. Hit the break for the top 15 underplayed class-race combinations! Or should that be the bottom 15?
An early look at patch 5.2 for monks, part 2
Interested in trying out the new monk class, but can't tell your Tiger Strikes from your Tiger Palms? Written by Chase Hasbrouck of World of Monkcraft, WoW Insider's new monk coverage will get you kicking in no time! In my last column, I explored how monks (well, windwalkers and mistweavers) are dramatically changing in terms of PvP. This week, we'll take a spec-by-spec look at what you can expect to change for PvE content, and draw some tentative conclusions as to what abilities and stats you'll be using and not using. Keep in mind that this is still PTR content, so things change on a day-by-day basis; a hotfix tomorrow might invalidate every conclusion I make today. Changes for all specs When you first log in for patch 5.2, take a look at your healing talents. All of them have been redesigned from the "uses chi and no-cooldown" model to "free with cooldown" model, so the only cost to using your self-heals now is one global cooldown. The actual strength of the heals are still being tweaked, but given this new model, I expect Brewmasters to continue to go for Chi Wave; Chi Burst to be decent for Mistweavers needing to raid heal; and Windwalkers to go "meh," since they'll want the GCD's for damaging abilities. Zen Sphere is interesting, but it took a massive nerf (62%) which makes it not very desirable at first glance.
An early look at patch 5.2 for monks, part 1
Interested in trying out the new monk class, but can't tell your Tiger Strikes from your Tiger Palms? Written by Chase Hasbrouck of World of Monkcraft, WoW Insider's new monk coverage will get you kicking in no time! Greetings! I've been bitten by the real-life bug for the last few weeks, but I'm back and ready to break down the changes occurring in patch 5.2. As a new class, Monks have a ton of changes and new abilities coming, so let's buckle down and take a look! This week, we'll look at the major mechanics changes from a PvP perspective; next week, we'll take a look at PvE and speculate how your rotations and weighting might be affected. PvP woes Let's face it: Monks were pretty weak for PvP. Windwalkers were reasonably good at generating sustained damage but had trouble putting out good burst (getting a kill typically required having a high Tigereye Brew stack, full chi, and a damage trinket effect active). Unfortunately, they frequently didn't have time to generate the brew stacks they needed due to having weak passive defense. Once your trinket was down, a Shockwave or Deep Freeze usually meant you were done. Touch of Karma helped, but required skill to use pre-emptively. Add to this diffficult-to-use CC making it hard for Monks to help land lockdown chains on healers, and windwalkers were, well, terrible.
Patch 5.2 features new spell effects
The folks at Wowhead have found a whole mess of new spell effects coming in Patch 5.2. These include effects for several new talents, like the rogue talents Marked for Death and Hit and Run, which replace current talents like Preparation which is going baseline. Also getting new effects are redesigned talents such as the warlock's Blood Fear and the Monk ability Nimble Brew. It's interesting to see redesigned abilities also getting new effects - you'd expect it of entirely new talents, of course, but going back and redoing existing abilities, even if they are getting revamped, is not quite as expected. It's welcome, of course, and some other abilities could use some new paint as well - I'd like to see Enrage get a once over, as an example. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
A closer look at the Ascension talent for monks
Interested in trying out the new monk class, but can't tell your Tiger Strikes from your Tiger Palms? Written by Chase Hasbrouck of World of Monkcraft, WoW Insider's new monk coverage will get you kicking in no time! Ascension: Passive talent. Increases your maximum Chi by 1, your maximum mana by 15%, and your energy regen by 15%. In patch 5.1, Blizzard quietly reworked Ascension to make it a more useful talent. (I say quietly, because the change wasn't listed in the official patch notes, which was likely an oversight.) Previously, the talent had only increased maximum chi by 1, which made the talent useless for most players. Sure, in theory, you could use it to save up an extra chi for burst-type situations, but Chi Brew and its instant four chi was a much better choice for those anyway. After finding out about the changes, my initial reaction (after a bit of napkin math) was that the talent was significantly improved to the level where it was a reasonable choice, but probably still not ideal over Power Strikes or Chi Brew. After I posted that in last week's column, a few commenters asked me to take a closer look, so I'll go spec-by-spec and take a closer look at the talent.
Patch 5.2: Potential monk changes
Stemming out of a relatively good post on PvP quality of life changes that could be implemented for the monk class, Daxxarri weighed in on some upcoming things that are possible for patch 5.2. Notably Renewing Mists being usable while mounted and Soothing Mists not being able to be purged. This isn't the first time the blues have been dropping hints about upcoming patch 5.2 features. While there doesn't seem to be any pending release of a PTR, there's certainly a bit of chatter lately. Daxxarri's full blue posts is as follows: Daxxarri The following changes are currently on the table for 5.2: Life Cocoon will be undispellable and won't interrupt the cast at the end of the effect (and players will also be able to jump as well). We're working to resolve the issues with Renewing Mist not being able to be used while mounted, though it will dismount the caster after it is cast. Soothing Mist will no longer be able to be Purged, so it will work in a manner similar to the Priest's Penance. It will still be considered a periodic heal. source
Where does the pressure lie in healing?
I used to be a healer, once upon a time. It was in the days of vanilla, when being a healer consisted largely of staring at 40 bars, pressing Flash Heal, and occasionally mixing it up with a bubble or Heal Rank 4 while swigging potions like they were going out of style. It was a very different time, and healing was by and large much less complex than it is today. My guild didn't use Vent, so I did all the healing rotation calls via macros on my keyboard -- that's how easy healing was. I had time to press macro buttons and pay attention to calling things. But at some point that guild fell apart, as guilds are wont to do on occasion. And since server transfers weren't even a possibility at that point in time, I simply rolled another character on another server, vowing to take a break from any and all raiding. It lasted until paid server transfers were added as a feature, at which point my priest was promptly moved to my new server and I began healing again -- this time, in battlegrounds. I helped a lot of friends by healing them while they tried their hardest to get High Warlord in the original honor grind. So what happened? Well ... healing happened.
Addon Spotlight: Tillers, Cloud Serpents and Monks
Lately we've been talking a lot about addons for features that have been implemented in Mists, and today is no different. However, we are going to be shying away from re-treading old ground, and moving into some new areas. If you're looking for pet battle addons, there have been three posts about them recently, two from Addon Spotlight, and one other. As we're all grinding out our reputation with each faction, last week's Addon Spotlight took on reputation addons to try to make this experience easier and hopefully less frustrating! This week we're examining some other addons that help with some new features brought in in Mists. As ever, your feedback and addon suggestions are much appreciated, and if you think there's a type of addon I should be featuring, drop me a line! And in exciting news, we can announce that Reader UI of the Week is making a return! Send me your UIs, and we'll get to posting!
A guide to monk talents for all specializations
Interested in trying out the new monk class, but can't tell your Tiger Strikes from your Tiger Palms? Written by Chase Hasbrouck of World of Monkcraft, WoW Insider's new monk coverage will get you kicking in no time! Due to an unfortunate family situation, I had to take a break from writing and playing right around the time of release. Now, though, I'm back and ready to talk monk! I've leveled a monk to 90, and in the process, have learned quite a bit more about all three specializations. Build some chi and follow me as we talk turkey about talents. Keep it rolling I'd originally felt that Momentum and Celerity were pretty equal choices. Now, though, Momentum has my heart. Why? Well, two reasons. First, Roll is great, but save for the interposition of a solid object, there's no way to do a half-roll. That means if the object you are trying to get to is not some multiple of 20, Roll doesn't get you "right" there, which can be a problem. (Canny PvP opponents are already discussing how to stay 10 yards away from windwalkers to ensure rolls go right past them.) Momentum doesn't fix this, but it makes closing the remaining distance much less painful.
10 most common names for monks
It's another expansion with a new class, making it a perfect time to kick back and reflect on our auspicious naming conventions. After all, certainly the most popular monk names are steeped in lore and dignity, right? Our good pals over at GuildOx have sorted through huge, mountainous stacks of data to find the most popular monk names. These are the same folks who told us about popular warrior names like Cleaveland and Sunderwear, as well as common paladin names like Layonhooves and Unstopbubble. So, what are the most popular names for monks? Are they roleplaying names or original creations? Well, let's take a look and unveil the top 10 most popular monk names.
The Soapbox: Diablo III's endgame is fundamentally flawed
Diablo III was arguably the biggest online game release of the year, but its predecessor's decade of consistent popularity left some pretty big shoes to fill. Despite being the most pre-ordered PC game in history and selling more than 6.3 million units in its first week, Diablo III has started to seriously wane in popularity. I've seen over a dozen friends stop playing completely in the last few months, and Xfire's usage stats for D3 have dropped by around 90% since June. Guild Wars 2's timely release accounts for some of the drop, but there's a lot more going on than just competition. The Diablo III beta showed only the first few levels and part of the game's highly polished first act, and soon after release it became obvious that parts of the game weren't exactly finished. PvP was cut from release, the Auction House was a mess, and Inferno difficulty was a poor excuse for an endgame. Poor itemisation made the carrot on the end of the stick taste sour, and the runaway inflation on top-end items is crying out for some kind of ladder reset mechanic. But there is hope for improvement, with new legendary items, the Paragon level system, and the upcoming Uber boss mechanic taking a few steps in the right direction. In this opinion piece, I look at some of the fundamental flaws in Diablo III's endgame and suggest a few improvements that would make a world of difference.
Officers' Quarters: 4 radical ways to help your guild stand out in Mists
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. Today we stand at the precipice of a new era. In less than 24 hours, Mists of Pandaria will usher in what could be called the Fifth Age of WoW. The long wait through 2012 has been hard on guilds, but that time is now over. If your guild has made it this far, you should be proud of that, but this is not a time to rest. This is a time to ensure that your guild will thrive. In this new era, the best method to recruit players will not change: finding ways to set your guild apart from the dozens of others on your server. Here are four ways to do just that -- but be warned! These are not for the faint of heart. 1. Offer tutorial runs of the new dungeons. Blizzard's new guild mentoring program is a great idea, but just because your guild wasn't selected doesn't mean you can't be a force for good on your server. This strategy requires patient guild members who have run the dungeons in beta or who get a lot of practice in the early weeks of the expansion. Start an initiative on your server in which, one night a week, you offer to run players through dungeons while teaching them the boss mechanics. Players will very much appreciate the chance to learn the runs in a low-stress and constructive environment rather than the merciless meat-grinder boot camp of the dungeon finder.
Stagger like Jagger: The brewmaster monk 101 guide
Interested in trying out the new monk class, but can't tell your Tiger Strikes from your Tiger Palms? Written by Chase Hasbrouck of World of Monkcraft, WoW Insider's new monk coverage will get you kicking in no time! With Mists of Pandaria nearing release, the monk class is rounding into its final form. While a few things may still be tweaked, the design and abilities have now stabilized enough that I feel comfortable presenting you with a series of guides for each specialization. This week: brewmasters! Brewmaster is the tanking specialization for the monk class. Themed after the classic Drunken Master, your job is to keep the enemies busy trying to hit you while your compatriots take them out. Any race, except for worgen and goblin, can play a monk. Like all monks, they have two resources that must be managed; energy and chi. Energy functions identically to rogues and feral druids, as a 100-point pool that regenerates at a constant rate, in and out of combat. This energy regeneration can be increased with haste, and is used to power your basic attacks. These abilities don't do much on their own, but they build up the brewmaster's second resource: chi. Chi is a static 4-point pool, similar to a rogue's combo points, that decays when out of combat. Once you've built up a few points of chi, it can be used to power stronger abilities that do significant damage, provide self-healing, or make you more resilient.
Pandaren and Monk Trainers appear in starting zones
You may think I took the above screenshot on the beta, but if the rumors are true and you really can gather my account information from secret codes embedded in every picture, you'll be able to tell that this is actually taken in the troll start zone on a live realm! As the lifting of the Mists of Pandaria draws ever closer, changes are already starting to take place, and out of nowhere, what must currently be exceedingly enigmatic pandaren are coming out of the woodwork into our game world. Tsu the Wanderer has made it to the troll island, where he can be found sparring with Zabrax, the newly arrived monk trainer, and the only trainer who is not a pandaren. In the orc start zone, Gato is standing in a group with some other trainers, enjoying what appears to be rather an awkward silence, while in the Undead zone, the amusingly named Ting, strong of Stomach, is offered various delights by Archibald Kava. Shoyu (d'you see what they did there?) seems to fit right in with the Tauren, but Pao, the lonely pandaren among the blood elves, seems a tad more incongruous.
Would you want to see another hero class?
When World of Warcraft launched, we were told that one of the features that would make it into the game was the hero class, although at the time there was no definition of what, exactly, a hero class would be. We ultimately found out when Wrath of the Lich King gave us the game's first hero class, the Death Knight, a class that started at level 55 and had unique mechanics, blue gear to start with, and a starting experience unique to the class. Neither Cataclysm nor Mists of Pandaria have introduced another hero class. The former instead chose to bring us two new races, the goblin and worgen, while Mists of Pandaria added the pandaren race and the monk class, but the monk starts at level 1 like any other class. Forum poster Lobster asked point blank if monks were a hero class, and the answer was a definitive no from Ghostcrawler. Ghostcrawler - The Term "Hero Class" "Hero class" meant that the DK started at higher level (and also with a lot of blue gear and so on). We thought it made sense for the DK story because you're treated as a high-level character and veteran of past events. We didn't think that made as much sense for the monk, especially when there were so many low-level pandaren running around, and the (perhaps flimsy) justification for non-pandaren monks learning how to be monks from the pandaren. We might very well use hero classes again if it makes sense for a future class though. source This got me thinking: do we want another hero class? Clearly, Blizzard isn't ruling it out. As the game continues, max level increased, and we all find ourselves having to get from 1 to an ever increasing number, the idea of starting at level 55 (as per the DK) or perhaps even higher starts to have some serious appeal.
World of Warcraft releases pre-expansion patch
If palling around with lettuce people and giant Vikings isn't your thing today, may we interest you in the panda express lane? World of Warcraft is paving the way for next month's Mists of Pandaria with today's 5.0.4 patch, an update that includes several new features that are part of the expansion rollout. While playable Pandaren and Monks aren't available until September 25th, there's plenty to chew on with patch 5.0.4. Players will experience the massive talent revamp that eliminates the old talent trees entirely, a spellbook overhaul, AoE looting, cross-realm zones, UI changes, significant currency conversions, and account-wide achievements, mounts, and pets. The patch will be up following extended maintenance, and our sister site WoW Insider has been hard at work preparing a massive Mists of Pandaria guide for current and returning Azerothians.
Roleplaying a non-pandaren monk
As we embark on the closing weeks of Cataclysm, roleplayers have a lot to look forward to. Not only do we have an entirely new race to roleplay, we've also got an entirely new class -- something we haven't seen since death knights were introduced. The monk class is not restricted to the pandaren race, which brings up this question, submitted via email: As a gnome RP'er and a bit of a lore junkie I was wondering about a few things. First off how exactly would one go around RP'ing a non-Panderan monk? I ask this since Mists comes out soon and I haven't seen an All the World's a Stage on it and based on some of the Realm Forum posts on my realm I am not the only one wondering this. Thank you, Coggling Arcanegrin Well, Coggling, I'm certainly happy enough to answer your question. It's a good one, too. Roleplayers take in several different factors when creating characters, and the monk class is one that takes a bit more attention to detail than most. So let's go over the basics of the basics and see what roleplaying a monk is all about when you aren't a pandaren.
A Monk's Refuge: Exploring the Peak of Serenity in Mists of Pandaria
Interested in trying out the new monk class, but can't tell your Tiger Strikes from your Tiger Palms? Written by Chase Hasbrouck of World of Monkcraft, WoW Insider's new monk coverage will get you kicking in no time! After reading the wonderful travelogues posted by SinisterWyvern and Disargeria, I knew it was time for me to go check out the Peak of Serenity. While the spell to teleport there has been present in the beta for some time, that Peak of Serenity was completely devoid of life. It was definitely serene -- but somewhat boring. Now, though, there are loads of nifty things there for new and experienced monks to do. There and back again Reaching the Peak of Serenity is quite simple. Once your monk reaches level 20, you receive the spell Zen Pilgrimage, which works just like a druid's Teleport: Moonglade or a death knight's Death Gate, instantly teleporting you to the Shrine of the Ox on the Peak of Serenity. Unlike those spells, however, once you arrive, it becomes Zen Pilgrimage: Return, which will whisk you back to your original location.
Diablo III reveals patch 1.0.4 class updates [Updated]
As the dust settled following Diablo III's tumultuous launch, players quickly figured out the most effective skills and items to use for each class. In the game's upcoming patch 1.0.4, underused skills and legendary items are receiving some big buffs, and several overpowered skills are due for a nerf. This week Blizzard revealed details of the legendary item revamp and some big balance updates for the Wizard, Monk, and Barbarian classes. The popular Wizard Critical Mass build is due for a nerf, with Energy Twister's spell coefficient being cut in half. Venom Hydra has emerged as the most powerful variant, but rather than nerfing it, Blizzard will be buffing the alternative versions. Barbarians will be seeing a buff to fury-generating abilities Bash and Cleave and huge increases in the damage output of fury spenders. Finally, Monks will enjoy a huge damage boost to Wave of Light and Seven-Sided Strike, and all players will see improvements to make two-handed weapons more competitive. [Update: The Demon Hunter preview has also just gone live.]
Leveling a monk in Mists of Pandaria, part 1
Interested in trying out the new monk class, but can't tell your Tiger Strikes from your Tiger Palms? Written by Chase Hasbrouck of World of Monkcraft, WoW Insider's new monk coverage will get you kicking in no time! In less than two months, Mists of Pandaria comes out. If you followed my guide from last week, you'll have all the stuff you need to level -- but that still leaves you with a brand new class with a bunch of buttons that you don't recognize. Yay. Don't worry, I'm here to help. This week and next, I'll give you the leveling lowdown so you know exactly what abilities you'll need and what you won't. After that, I'll bring you a series of 101 articles on how to play your chosen specialization of monk at level 90. Excited? Good. Bow, and let's begin. First Steps: Levels 1 to 10 Like all classes, you don't start out with much. Your only usable ability will be Jab, which is your basic attack that generates chi. Your basic auto-attacks will likely do a lot more damage than Jab at first; don't fret. You'll also have Stance of the Fierce Tiger, which will cause your Jab to generate extra chi, which you won't have any use for at first. Finally, you'll have several passive abilities, the most noticeable being Tiger Strikes. This proc gives you (essentially) +50% melee attack speed and +100% melee damage for your next four swings, which means whatever you're fighting will die very quickly. So jab, jab, and jab some more until you hit level 3, when you will learn Tiger Palm. (You don't have to visit trainers to learn abilities anymore; they just pop right into your spellbook. Hooray for progress!) This is your first chi-consuming ability, hitting about twice as hard as Jab for 1 chi. This sets up your first rotation: Jab, Tiger Palm, Tiger Palm, repeat. The armor penetration buff you gain from Tiger Palm is helpful but not overly significant, so don't worry about it too much. Keep punching away, until you get to level 5 and learn Roll. (Whee!) You'll likely be using Roll a lot, so stick it somewhere easy to hit. This tosses you forward about 20 yards in the direction you're moving (or facing, if standing still) and has two charges, so it can be used twice in succession. It's good for travel from point A to point B or as a quick escape from a bad situation.
