Windwalker Monk Patch 5.4
Beating our way thru Ogrimmar
In this post i will cover the windwalker monk, and its changes and mechanics, with the help from sources like ElitistJerks, and simcraft, because i guess we fell they are the more reliable ones.
Click on the Read more to the full post (it is to big to put it all, on the front page).
IMPORTANT: For the best results, you spreadsheets and use them with the gear that you have, instead of going for the stats that a full T16 ww monk has.
(List from Elistis Jerks)
Spreadsheets
Trinkets Ranking Spreadsheet: Credit to Promdates and Eyedore for creating the two spreadsheets that lead to this. Simply follow the directions in the sheet, rank the trinkets, and profit.
Eyedore's Monk Energy spreadsheet: Credit to Eyedore for compiling this. Inserting mastery and haste, in addition to talent choices, gear choices, and rotation choices, allows the user to view statistics on energy regeneration, regeneration/min, jabs/min, chi/min, etc. Very useful in determining the amount of time active for a Patchwerk situation.
5.2 Monk Energy Sheet (Eyedore): Willl replace the former link upon launch of 5.2
Calligraphy's Spreadsheet of Pre-Raid Gear: Spreadsheet of items a player can obtain without having stepped foot in a raid instance (LFR included) that require no valor to obtain.
Basic Mechanics
Weapons
Like when monks were implemented, nothing has changed in this field, monks can use staves and polearms, or they can dual-wield one-handed maces, swords, axes, and fist weapons. The stats for each weapon is important in calculating the damage of your spells. Therefore, you should always place the most emphasis on upgrading your weapons.
What to choose?
Dual wield is (almost always) king.
This happens because the when the 2 weapons proc the enchants they surpasse the staves and polearms, so in the run of a boss fight dual wielding will pull ahead of a 2-hand weapon.
IMPORTANT: The only time you should consider changing to a 2-hander, is if the 2-hander is 10item levels above your main-hand.
Resources
Energy and Chi
Energy
Energy is regenerated at a constant rate (haste and energy regeneration cooldowns aside). It is typically used for our utility spells (interrupts, disarms, etc), but the primary usage of our Energy (as mentioned above) is to generate Chi. The majority of our energy should be used by the spells Jab and Expel Harm. Setting aside haste procs and haste cooldowns such as Timewarp, the only way to increase energy regeneration is through Energizing Brew.
Chi
Chi is the source for our major damage spells. Windwalkers generate 2 Chi every time they use Jab or Expel Harm. This Chi is then used for some of our major damage spells.
In Raid
Consumables
First, a note on food: I recommend learning the Wok specialization in order to acquire recipes for Agility food and feasts which favor Agility. However, this food is not bind on pickup, so you can also have someone who has learned the desired Wok specialization recipe or purchase it in-game for usage. Note that Pandaren receive double the stat benefit of food; unlike other races, switching from 275 to 300 food is not a change of 25 agility: it is a change of 50 agility. This can be a significant advantage considering how valuable Agility is as a stat, and therefore I recommend that Pandaren windwalkers user 300 food as often as possible. Windwalkers, like other agility users, receive agility from eating banquets (including the banquet introduced in 5.4).
Beating our way thru Ogrimmar
Click on the Read more to the full post (it is to big to put it all, on the front page).
IMPORTANT: For the best results, you spreadsheets and use them with the gear that you have, instead of going for the stats that a full T16 ww monk has.
(List from Elistis Jerks)
Spreadsheets
Trinkets Ranking Spreadsheet: Credit to Promdates and Eyedore for creating the two spreadsheets that lead to this. Simply follow the directions in the sheet, rank the trinkets, and profit.
Eyedore's Monk Energy spreadsheet: Credit to Eyedore for compiling this. Inserting mastery and haste, in addition to talent choices, gear choices, and rotation choices, allows the user to view statistics on energy regeneration, regeneration/min, jabs/min, chi/min, etc. Very useful in determining the amount of time active for a Patchwerk situation.
5.2 Monk Energy Sheet (Eyedore): Willl replace the former link upon launch of 5.2
Calligraphy's Spreadsheet of Pre-Raid Gear: Spreadsheet of items a player can obtain without having stepped foot in a raid instance (LFR included) that require no valor to obtain.
Basic Mechanics
Weapons
Like when monks were implemented, nothing has changed in this field, monks can use staves and polearms, or they can dual-wield one-handed maces, swords, axes, and fist weapons. The stats for each weapon is important in calculating the damage of your spells. Therefore, you should always place the most emphasis on upgrading your weapons.
What to choose?
Dual wield is (almost always) king.
This happens because the when the 2 weapons proc the enchants they surpasse the staves and polearms, so in the run of a boss fight dual wielding will pull ahead of a 2-hand weapon.
IMPORTANT: The only time you should consider changing to a 2-hander, is if the 2-hander is 10item levels above your main-hand.
Resources
Energy and Chi
Energy
Energy is regenerated at a constant rate (haste and energy regeneration cooldowns aside). It is typically used for our utility spells (interrupts, disarms, etc), but the primary usage of our Energy (as mentioned above) is to generate Chi. The majority of our energy should be used by the spells Jab and Expel Harm. Setting aside haste procs and haste cooldowns such as Timewarp, the only way to increase energy regeneration is through Energizing Brew.
Chi
Chi is the source for our major damage spells. Windwalkers generate 2 Chi every time they use Jab or Expel Harm. This Chi is then used for some of our major damage spells.
In Raid
Consumables
First, a note on food: I recommend learning the Wok specialization in order to acquire recipes for Agility food and feasts which favor Agility. However, this food is not bind on pickup, so you can also have someone who has learned the desired Wok specialization recipe or purchase it in-game for usage. Note that Pandaren receive double the stat benefit of food; unlike other races, switching from 275 to 300 food is not a change of 25 agility: it is a change of 50 agility. This can be a significant advantage considering how valuable Agility is as a stat, and therefore I recommend that Pandaren windwalkers user 300 food as often as possible. Windwalkers, like other agility users, receive agility from eating banquets (including the banquet introduced in 5.4).
| 300agi (food) |  Sea Mist Rice Noodles |
| 275agi (food) |  Great Pandaren Banquet, Pandaren Banquet, Valley Stir Fry,  Chao Cookies |
| 250agi (food) | Sauteed Carrots |
| 1000agi (flask) |  Flask of Spring Blossoms |
| 4000agi (potion) |  Virmen's Bite |
Talents and Glyphs
I won't address talents and glyphs in this post, because i believe that they change from fight to fight giving you the best tools at your disposal for each fight (next post will be on talents for SoO), or i will cover them like i did for Thrones of Tides, going over each fight indevidually, for tips and tricks.
Gearing
Agility is the favored stat for monks. Higher agility outweighs secondary stats in a 2:1 ratio.
Stat Prioritization
Your short, basic stat prioritization: Hit/Exp (7.5%) > Haste (5K-8K, depending on fight and player skill) > Crit > Mastery >= Haste after 8k
Best advice for each of you:
Simulating: Learn it, live it, love it. We are a new class, and therefore, as a community, still have things to learn and discover. The value of your Mastery, Haste, and Crit WILL change depending on your item level and gearing choices.
The largest change in Pandaria is the fact that gems with secondary stats have double the stats of gems with primary stats (other than stamina, which has 3/4 the amount of a secondary stat gem). This means that there is less of a disadvantage when socketing for a bonus. In addition, perfect-cut Uncommon gems have the same amount of stats as a rare gem cut.
General tips: Lower gear levels may benefit more from gemming for hit or expertise, but generally speaking, these sockets can be ignored (especially if one is well over hit or expertise cap, unless gemming for a smaller bonus allows one to reforge more into other secondary stats). Testing should be done before writing off gemming for or away from a bonus. Also, lower gear levels will benefit more from gemming for haste until their energy regen is ~12.5 energy/second, after which they will benefit more from gemming for crit.
Yellow sockets will typically use hybrid gems, while red sockets will generally use agility gems. If you are still stacking haste, then using a hybrid haste/agility gem is recommended for yellow sockets - otherwise, agility/crit (Deadly) cuts are preferred. Blue sockets should utilize hit/agility.
Your meta should be
Agile Primal Diamond.
Crafting professions are the preference for monks, as they all give an extra 320 agililty (upon average).
Generally speaking, Engineering is considered the best for min/maxing damage throughput due to the fact that is a large amount of agility that can be paired with another proc or cooldown (such as Tigereye Brew). However, the advantage provided is minimal over other crafting professions. Herbalism, skinning, and mining are not advised.
Generally speaking, you are going to want to favor gear which has Mastery on it (or Haste if you are having issues maintaining at least 5-7K haste), though any combination of your secondary stats is a viable option. However, always favor pieces with a higher item level (and therefore a higher amount of agility). Always run tests through simulations, spreadsheets, and ingame play to determine the strength of an item.
Your short, basic stat prioritization: Hit/Exp (7.5%) > Haste (5K-8K, depending on fight and player skill) > Crit > Mastery >= Haste after 8k
Best advice for each of you:
Simulating: Learn it, live it, love it. We are a new class, and therefore, as a community, still have things to learn and discover. The value of your Mastery, Haste, and Crit WILL change depending on your item level and gearing choices.
Enchantment
| Slot | Enchant | Profession Alternative |
| Shoulder |  Greater Tiger Claw Inscription |  Secret Tiger Claw Inscription |
| Back |  Superior Critical Strike or Accuracy |  Swordguard Embroidery |
| Chest | Glorious Stats | None |
| Wrist | Greater Agility |  Socket Bracer,  Fur Lining - Agility |
| Hands | Greater Haste, Superior Mastery, or Superior Expertise |  Socket Gloves,  Synapse Springs |
| Waist |  Living Steel Buckle | None |
| Legs |  Shadowleather Leg Armor |  Primal Leg Reinforcements |
| Feet | Blurred Speed, Pandren's Step, Greater Haste, or Greater Precision | None |
| Rings | None | Greater Agility |
| Weapons | Dancing Steel, Windsong or Elemental Force | None |
[top]Gemming
The largest change in Pandaria is the fact that gems with secondary stats have double the stats of gems with primary stats (other than stamina, which has 3/4 the amount of a secondary stat gem). This means that there is less of a disadvantage when socketing for a bonus. In addition, perfect-cut Uncommon gems have the same amount of stats as a rare gem cut.
| Agility | Expertise | Haste | Mastery | Critical Strike | Hit | |
| Agility |  P. Delicate Pandarian Garnet | |||||
| Expertise | P. Precise Pandarian Garnet | |||||
| Haste |  P. Deft Tiger Opal | P. Wicked Tiger Opal |  P. Quick Sunstone | |||
| Mastery | P. Adept Tiger Opal | P. Keen Tiger Opal | P. Fractured Sunstone | |||
| Critical Strike | P. Deadly Tiger Opal | P. Crafty Tiger Opal | P. Smooth Sunstone | |||
| Hit |  P. Glinting Roguestone | P. Accurate Roguestone |  P. Lightning Alexandrite | P. Sensei's Alexandrite | P. Piercing Alexandrite |  P. Rigid Lapis Lazuli |
General tips: Lower gear levels may benefit more from gemming for hit or expertise, but generally speaking, these sockets can be ignored (especially if one is well over hit or expertise cap, unless gemming for a smaller bonus allows one to reforge more into other secondary stats). Testing should be done before writing off gemming for or away from a bonus. Also, lower gear levels will benefit more from gemming for haste until their energy regen is ~12.5 energy/second, after which they will benefit more from gemming for crit.
Yellow sockets will typically use hybrid gems, while red sockets will generally use agility gems. If you are still stacking haste, then using a hybrid haste/agility gem is recommended for yellow sockets - otherwise, agility/crit (Deadly) cuts are preferred. Blue sockets should utilize hit/agility.
Your meta should be
Agile Primal Diamond.[top]Professions
Crafting professions are the preference for monks, as they all give an extra 320 agililty (upon average).
| Profession | Enchantment/Effect | Stat |
| Alchemy |  Alchemist's Flask and  Mixology | 320agi |
| Blacksmithing | Delicate Primordial Ruby (x2) | 320agi |
| Engineering | Synapse Springs | ~320agi, or 1920 for 10s every 60s |
| Enchanting | Enchant Ring - Greater Agility (x2) | 320agi |
| Herbalism |  Lifeblood | ~4800haste |
| Inscription | Secret Tiger Claw Inscription | 320agi |
| Jewelcrafting |  Delicate Serpent's Eye (x2) | 320agi |
| Leatherworking | Fur Lining - Agility | 320agi |
| Mining |  Toughness | 480sta |
| Skinning |  Master of Anatomy | 480crit |
| Tailoring | Swordguard Embroidery | 8000ap proc |
Generally speaking, Engineering is considered the best for min/maxing damage throughput due to the fact that is a large amount of agility that can be paired with another proc or cooldown (such as Tigereye Brew). However, the advantage provided is minimal over other crafting professions. Herbalism, skinning, and mining are not advised.
[top]Gearing Choices
Generally speaking, you are going to want to favor gear which has Mastery on it (or Haste if you are having issues maintaining at least 5-7K haste), though any combination of your secondary stats is a viable option. However, always favor pieces with a higher item level (and therefore a higher amount of agility). Always run tests through simulations, spreadsheets, and ingame play to determine the strength of an item.
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