
Windwalker PvE Guide
This guide is designed to be the full guide for Windwalker with all the information you need. For more in-depth, advanced information follow the links to those pages in the “Further Reading” sections or in the “Advanced” section in the menu above.
This guide has been updated for Dragonflight Season 2 and is regularly updated when discussion, theorycrafting, or testing yields new information.
Talent Builds
There is a lot of flexibility with talents, so if you prefer a different setup or like to change a talent here or there then you can likely do that without dramatically lowering your damage. It’s a game, play what you’d like.
This build is your general-purpose build for pure single target fights, which is common in raid.
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Personal Preference Changes:
There is a TON of flexibility for other personal preferences, sim your thoughts through Top Gear‘s talent trees on Raidbots and decide if your preferred choices are worth any damage loss. |
This is the the Bonedust Brew build, which also uses Fatal Flying Guillotine.
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Personal Preference Changes: There is a TON of flexibility for other personal preferences, sim your thoughts through Top Gear‘s talent trees on Raidbots and decide if your preferred choices are worth any damage loss. All 3 AOE builds here sim within 1-2% of each other and can each shine in their own situations, depending on the content you are doing and your group’s playstyle. None of them are a bad option. |
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This is the main Fatal Flying Guillotine build, which does not use Bonedust Brew.
Default Import: B0QAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAikIJJKJRiAAAAAJSSaSAkkEIpEJiESRSSSSaJAAAA
Personal Preference Changes:
There is a TON of flexibility for other personal preferences, sim your thoughts through Top Gear‘s talent trees on Raidbots and decide if your preferred choices are worth any damage loss. All 3 AOE builds here sim within 1-2% of each other and can each shine in their own situations, depending on the content you are doing and your group’s playstyle. None of them are a bad option. |
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This is the closest build to the single target one, using Faeline Stomp and Serenity.
Default Import: B0QAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACJSSiWEJCAAAAkIJpBIJJJBSKRiIhUkkkkkWCAAAA
Personal Preference Changes:
There is a TON of flexibility for other personal preferences, sim your thoughts through Top Gear‘s talent trees on Raidbots and decide if your preferred choices are worth any damage loss. All 3 AOE builds here sim within 1-2% of each other and can each shine in their own situations, depending on the content you are doing and your group’s playstyle. None of them are a bad option. |
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Abilities
Instructions
Windwalkers generally prioritize our abilities by how much damage they do and the resources (Chi, energy, execution time) that they cost. There are a couple of general goals while playing Windwalker that should help with the bigger picture before diving into the priority lists below:
- Use damaging abilities with cooldowns as soon as you can once they are off cooldown, following the priority below for the order in which to do so. This is generally about shorter cooldown core damage abilities like Rising Sun Kick. For longer damage boosting cooldowns like Storm, Earth, and Fire, see Ability Usage Notes below, though as a general rule of thumb for all of WoW, you want to stack your major cooldowns together.
- Do not overcap things. This includes Chi, Energy, and buffs such as Teachings of the Monastery stacks, if talented. You want to spend these resources before they would overcap. For Chi, this means “don’t use Chi generators if they would put you over your maximum Chi.” For Energy, this means “spend energy before it fills up.” For Teachings of the Monastery and other buffs (Blackout Kick!, Dance of Chi-Ji), see Ability Usage Notes below, but it generally means “spend these buffs before doing something that may generate them again.”
- Do not break mastery. Simple as that, do not repeat the same ability twice in a row. For a full list of what counts for mastery, see here. There are currently no situations where it is worth it to break mastery as there have been in the past.
Following these rules is the largest part of playing Windwalker. You may notice that “always be casting” is not one of our core tenets, as you are only pressing something if it aligns with these rules (something comes off cooldown, you are close to capping energy, etc). This means that as a natural consequence of following these, you may not always fill every GCD. WINDWALKER IS A SPEC WITH NATURAL DOWNTIME. This is not an indication that you are playing incorrectly or that you need more Haste (which will not really affect this). To execute these rules in the most efficient way, follow the priorities below with the goal of never using something lower in the list if it will delay something higher in the list.
Cooldowns
As said above, the safest bet is to use things as close to their cooldown as possible. However, if you can use most cooldowns at the same time without losing a cast of them, you’ll get the most out of them. You can read more about it in this article by Talby.
- Bonedust Brew – Use on AOE packs, preferably with other DPS cooldowns. DO NOT JUST SPAM Spinning Crane Kick DURING THIS! Due to the relatively low power of Bonedust Brew and Spinning Crane Kick compared to the past, it is not worth losing the damage bonus from Mastery. It’s even less worth it since we take Hit Combo in nearly every talent build.
- Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger – Use on cooldown, pair it with other DPS cooldowns like
Storm, Earth, and Fire if delaying it will not lose you a cast throughout the fight. If you don’t know if it will or not, then use on cooldown as the safest strategy.
- Serenity – See the priority lists below for more info, but the general goals are:
- Get as many Rising Sun Kick as you can inside the window
- Don’t worry about Chi/Energy
- Clip Fists of Fury if Rising Sun Kick is up (by pressing Rising Sun Kick on the next GCD)
- Try to use Fists of Fury at the last second to snapshot the free cost
- Hold Serenity to sync up with Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger unless the remaining time in the fight means you will get an extra cast of Serenity by not waiting.
- Storm, Earth, and Fire – Used close to on cooldown while lining up with other abilities and damage bonuses. Also useful to easily tag targets for increased
Spinning Crane Kick damage. Don’t sit on 2 charges, always have it recharging.
- Summon White Tiger Statue – Mostly a “use on cooldown” button, easiest way is to macro it with an @cursor and use it as you’re running to the targets.
- Touch of Death – Use when it can be triggered. If you are looking to really min/max, you can make sure to only use it when it will kill the target, as this can do a maximum of 100% of your HP as damage instead of the 35% it normally does to boss targets. If using a full build centered around this with Forbidden Technique and Fatal Flying Guillotine, ideally you pull a large pack of mobs and get a single target to low HP to be able to use it on them, which cleaves to the rest of the pack. Then, you target the lowest HP remaining mob and repeat within 5 seconds (using another spell between them to keep up mastery).
- Touch of Karma – Although technically a defensive ability, it can provide offensive power. Best used as frequently as you can get as much damage absorbed as possible.
Priority Lists
The lists below assume you are doing what you need to do to avoid capping resources and using above cooldowns appropriately.
Faeline Stomp if targets don’t have
Faeline Harmony debuff
Strike of the Windlord
Whirling Dragon Punch
Rising Sun Kick with
Xuen’s Battlegear crit buff
Fists of Fury
Rising Sun Kick
Spinning Crane Kick with
Dance of Chi-Ji proc
Blackout Kick DO NOT OVERCAP
Teachings of the Monastery
Rushing Jade Wind
Chi Wave
Faeline Stomp
Chi Burst
Faeline Stomp if targets don’t have
Faeline Harmony debuff
Strike of the Windlord
Spinning Crane Kick with
Dance of Chi-Ji proc
Fists of Fury
Whirling Dragon Punch and
Rising Sun Kick.
Spinning Crane Kick during
Bonedust Brew
Rising Sun Kick
Blackout Kick DO NOT OVERCAP
Teachings of the Monastery
Rushing Jade Wind
Spinning Crane Kick
Faeline Stomp
Chi Burst
Faeline Stomp if targets don’t have
Faeline Harmony debuff
Spinning Crane Kick with
Dance of Chi-Ji proc
Strike of the Windlord
Fists of Fury
Whirling Dragon Punch and
Rising Sun Kick
Rushing Jade Wind
Rising Sun Kick
Spinning Crane Kick with 7+ targets
Blackout Kick DO NOT OVERCAP
Teachings of the Monastery
Spinning Crane Kick
Faeline Stomp
Chi Burst
Chi Wave
This priority is only for DURING the Serenity buff, follow the SEF ST priority for outside of the Serenity buff.
- Faeline Stomp to apply Faeline Harmony (Bloodlust effect is active)
- Rising Sun Kick (press as soon as you can after casting Fists of Fury, clipping it)
- Faeline Stomp to apply Faeline Harmony (Bloodlust effect is NOT active)
- Strike of the Windlord
- Fists of Fury
- Blackout Kick
- Spinning Crane Kick with Dance proc (if talented)
- Tiger Palm
This priority is only for DURING the Serenity buff, follow the other AOE priority for outside of the Serenity buff. This priority also assumed that you are stacking Serenity with Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger every time, so the Invoker’s Delight buff will be active.
- Rising Sun Kick (if channeling Fists of Fury, clip it)
- Faeline Stomp to apply Faeline Harmony if not active or has less than 1s remaining
- Strike of the Windlord
- Spinning Crane Kick with Dance proc
- Whirling Dragon Punch (if talented) (10+ targets only)
- Fists of Fury
- Spinning Crane Kick
- Blackout Kick
Additional notes: Bloodlust-like buffs change the priority of Faeline Stomp to apply Faeline Harmony and Spinning Crane Kick with Dance proc, moving both above Rising Sun Kick.
Since Whirling Dragon Punch is uncapped, it scales with targets beyond 5 better than any other ability on this list. Due to that, it overtakes Fists of Fury at 10+ targets. Between 5 and 10 targets, it’s not worth casting Whirling Dragon Punch during Serenity at all.
Openers
Use these ability orders to start pulls, these may change frequently over time. If you are starting a pull with more Chi, such as in M+, then simply skip the steps that get you to the necessary Chi level. See the Trinkets section further down for how on use trinkets may change your opener. Note that trinkets are NOT affected by the crit buff from Skyreach, but ARE affected byFaeline Harmony.
Expel Harm 15s before pull
Chi Wave on pull
Expel Harm
Summon White Tiger Statue
Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger
Faeline Stomp for
Faeline Harmony if talented
Tiger Palm
Storm, Earth, and Fire
Strike of the Windlord
Fists of Fury
Tiger Palm
Rising Sun Kick
- Follow Priority
Expel Harm before pull
Chi Burst on pull
Summon White Tiger Statue
Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger
Bonedust Brew if talented
Storm, Earth, and Fire
Tiger Palm
Strike of the Windlord
Fists of Fury
Tiger Palm
Rising Sun Kick ONLY if
Whirling Dragon Punch is talented
Whirling Dragon Punch if talented
- Follow Priority
Expel Harm before pull
Chi Wave on pull
Expel Harm
Summon White Tiger Statue
Faeline Stomp for
Faeline Harmony if talented
Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger
Tiger Palm
Serenity
Rising Sun Kick
Strike of the Windlord
Fists of Fury
Rising Sun Kick (clip
Fists of Fury)
- Follow Priority
Expel Harm before pull
Chi Burst on pull
Summon White Tiger Statue
- Get to at least 4
Mark of the Crane stacks
- Faeline Stomp if talented
Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger
Fists of Fury (full channel)
Tiger Palm to get to 5
Mark of the Crane stacks
Serenity
- Rising Sun Kick
Strike of the Windlord
Blackout Kick
- Follow Priority
Ability Usage Notes
- Blackout Kick – Generally used between other abilities to “dump” excess resources.
- Teachings of the Monastery – Use Blackout Kick as usual UNLESS you are at 3 stacks, then it moves up the priority. DO NOT OVERCAP STACKS.
- Blackout Kick! (Free Proc) – Used before you would potentially generate another proc.
- Chi Burst – When not using Faeline Stomp, just use this as filler whenever you have room according to the priority. When using Faeline Stomp, you usually would rather use this for nearly guaranteed resets when you need to refresh the Faeline Harmony debuff (Fae Exposure) or reposition your Faeline. You can do this by casting Chi Burst into as many targets as possible (e.g., your raid or a big pack of mobs) while standing in the Faeline.
- Expel Harm – Damage based on the healing it does, healing amount is based on your health, but because it generates Chi for very little Energy, just use it on cooldown when you have room for the Chi it generates.
- Faeline Stomp – Used to keep up the Faeline Harmony debuff (Fae Exposure) as much as possible. This debuff does not stack, so even if you get a reset, there’s no need to stomp again until you want to refresh the debuff. For a pretty high chance of a reset, you can use Chi Burst into as many targets as possible (e.g., your raid or a big pack of mobs) while standing in the Faeline. Faeline Harmony affects pretty much all sources of damage, including trinkets, so you want to use it before those in your opener. Note that trinkets are NOT affected by the crit buff from Skyreach.
- Fists of Fury – Most of the time, cancelling the channel (whether it be intentionally or accidentally) is a dps loss. During Serenity, the chi cost is removed as a factor which makes it worth “clipping”, or using your next ability as soon as the gcd allows.
- Transfer the Power – Use Fists of Fury as usual, pretend this doesn’t exist, don’t aim to get to any stack count before a cast or anything like that.
- Hit Combo and Mastery – Generally, any ability that directly deals damage both benefits from and continues Mastery and
Hit Combo, as well as a few that don’t directly deal damage. For a full list, see here. Currently, there are no cases where we want to break Mastery that would outweigh its damage bonus.
- Rushing Jade Wind – If you are talented into it, then you do not have to keep it up 100% of the time, use it at its place in the priority and let it do damage for you while you do other abilities. Think of it as a strong filler, not a maintained buff.
- Spinning Crane Kick – Casting another spell does not interrupt the channel of Spinning Crane Kick, with the exception of anything that is a cast/channel (Fists of Fury, Chi Burst, Crackling Jade Lightning, Vivify, or another Spinning Crane Kick, which you cannot cast anyway while already channeling Spinning Crane Kick unless you use a specific macro to do so). You can cast your next spell as soon as the GCD is up and not interrupt Spinning Crane Kick as long as it is not one of the abilities mentioned, except Expel Harm which cannot be cast during the channel at all. For when to use this spell in general, follow the AoE priority above.
- Dance of Chi-Ji – It is best to use the proc on
Spinning Crane Kick quickly to prevent overwriting a proc.
- Dance of Chi-Ji – It is best to use the proc on
- Strike of the Windlord – Use on cooldown unless a damage amplifier is happening in the near future (5 seconds at max)
- Thunderfist – Changes how you use Strike of the Windlord, so it is worth delaying Strike of the Windlord until add spawns if they would otherwise spawn while its on cooldown.
Gearing
Stats
Agility > Versatility = Critical Strike > Mastery > Haste
Stat priority can change for your character depending on your current gear and stats. Stat weights are largely an outdated thought. Sim the gear you have through Top Gear. If you’re looking for what gear to aim for, use Droptimizer.
Embellishments
The best option for embellishments is Slimy Expulsion Boots + a Toxified Armor Patch on another item. Note that the Toxified Armor Patch can be applied to any crafted leather armor, so just craft leather items that have the most value to you. For many people, a crafted leather Chest will be the biggest upgrade, but prioritize getting your 4p tier set bonus. If you have a tier chest, you can craft bracers or belt, or more likely just catalyze another tier slot instead.
Crafting Priority:
- Slimy Expulsion Boots
- An item with Toxified Armor Patch on another slot, like Chest, Bracers or Belt
- An item with Alchemical Flavor Pocket (does not count towards the 2 embellishment limit), or just any other item slot you could use an upgrade in, like rings
As always, sim yourself to see exact numbers for your own character.
Weapons and 1H vs 2H
TL;DR: Generally, dual wielding wins for now with full enchants and consumables. It is likely that later in the expansion, 2 handed weapons will pull ahead. In season 2, though:
Djaruun (Mythic) > Forgestorm + Crawg >= Djaruun (Heroic 441) > Dual Wielding Regular Weapons > 2 Handed Weapons
For specific situations or item level gaps, sim your character’s options with Raidbot’s Top Gear Tool.
While we are still not at the point where 2 handed weapons generally win over dual wielding, there is a now a special case: Djaruun. At a mythic item level, this will beat all other available options. After that, the heroic version fully upgraded is more or less equal to dual wielding the max item level version of Forgestorm alongside Crawg. After that, normal 1 handed weapons still beat out 2 handers. For any more specific situations, like item level or stat differences, you will need to sim. As always, the best way to tell what is best for your character is to use Raidbot’s Top Gear Tool for the most specific and accurate results.
Gems
Use Raidbot’s Top Gear Tool for the most specific and accurate results for your character. In general, it will usually follow the stat priority above.
A special note: Don’t forget you can use Tiered Medallion Setting to put up to 3 gem slots on any neck!
Enchants
- Weapon –
- (Double) Enchant Weapon – Shadowflame Wreathe (Raid)
- (Double) Enchant Weapon – Sophic Devotion (M+)
- Cloak – Enchant Cloak – Graceful Avoidance
- Chest – Enchant Chest – Waking Stats
- Bracers – Enchant Bracer – Devotion of Avoidance
- Boots – Enchant Boots – Watcher’s Loam
- Ring – Enchant Ring – Devotion of Versatility as a general recommendation, or sim for your character through Top Gear.
- Armor Kit – Fierce Armor Kit (functionally an enchant)
- Belt – Shadowed Belt Clasp
Trinkets
The easiest thing is to look at the lists on BloodMallet. They’re lists based on the sim profiles.
As always, sim your options to see what’s best for you in particular.
- As a general rule of thumb, our best trinkets for all content seem to be coming from raid: Bomb Dispenser and Beacon to the Beyond. Elementium Pocket Anvil is also a decent option, especially for mythic+ due to its increasing value over time.
- Dungeon trinkets worth mentioning are Homeland Raid Horn, Mark of Dargrul, Mutated Magmammoth Scale.
Note on trinket usage
Faeline Harmony currently still buffs direct-damage trinkets (such as all of the aforementioned recommendations), which makes it highly worth holding the cast until after Faeline Stomp. Note that trinkets are NOT affected by the crit buff from Skyreach. Additionally, certain trinkets have a cast time or a channeled cast (notably Beacon to the Beyond and Manic Grieftorch) which can be started during the global cooldown and may or may not be hasted (Beacon). A sample opener with a hasted channel/cast would look like this:
-
- Faeline Stomp
- Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger (to activate Invoker’s Delight)
- Beacon to the Beyond at the same time as Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger
- Tiger Palm
- Serenity
- rest of Serenity opener
Or, with an unhasted channel/cast:
-
- Faeline Stomp
- Manic Grieftorch at the same time as Faeline Stomp
- Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger
- Tiger Palm
- Serenity
- rest of Serenity opener
Other trinkets, such as Irideus Fragment, provide a buff to primary or secondary stats. These trinkets should be activated after popping all cooldown, and right before the first damaging ability. Example:
-
- Faeline Stomp
- Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger
- Tiger Palm
- Serenity
- Irideus Fragment at the same time as Serenity
- rest of Serenity opener
The remaining category of trinket, namely instant-cast direct damage trinkets such as Dragonfire Bomb Dispenser and Homeland Raid Horn, should be cast after Faeline Stomp without interfering with the above (if used together).
“Best-in-Slot”
Sim the gear you have through Top Gear. If you’re looking for what gear to aim for, use Droptimizer.
Seal of Diurna’s Chosen
For Windwalkers, the Seal from Eranog in Vault of the Incarnates is still powerful at mythic item level, mostly if you already have one with a socket (note that you cannot get a season 1 socket item anymore, or use a season 2 socket item on this). In single target specifically, it can beat any regular ring even at the highest item levels available in season 2 (447 with a socket). For any other situations, just sim whatever options you have available.
Miscellaneous
Consumables
- Phial – Iced Phial of Corrupting Rage for all content, or Phial of Tepid Versatility for a nearly equal but slightly tankier option
- Potion – Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power
- Food – Grand Banquet of the Kalu’ak/Hoard of Draconic Delicacies, Deviously Deviled Eggs, or Fated Fortune Cookie
- Weapon Enhancement –
Buzzing Rune
Racials
Currently, all races sim within a small range of each other and reshuffle constantly. Other than that, pick whatever race you prefer.
Professions
Professions have no bearing on your ability to perform your role. Pick whatever will make your playing time easier and more enjoyable. As a starting point, many players take Engineering and/or Alchemy for some small perks.
WeakAuras
WeakAuras are ways to show things on your screen in a customized and personalized way. The best WeakAuras are the ones that you set up for yourself specific to your style and needs. However, many people have already made ones for themselves to share, so check them out and use them as bases to customize your own.
No WeakAuras are “required” but some are very useful:
- Babylonius’s WeakAura Suite – WeakAura group created by Babylonius (author of this guide), aimed at having all you need to play Windwalker.
- Last Ability Tracker – Tracks the last ability you used in order to minimize mistakes with Mastery. Turns red when a mistake is made, turns blue when an ability is dodged, parried, or misses.
- Jeremy’s Magic Rotation Helper – Works similar to Hekili, but uses dynamically updating math to tell you what to press.
- Touch of Karma Absorb Remaining – Tracks the duration of Touch of Karma and the amount of shield left to absorb.
- Mark of the Crane Stacks – Tracks the amount of Mark of the Crane debuffs you have out.
- Mark of the Crane Duration Tracker – Tracks your current Marks of the Crane up on enemies in a single bar with sparks for each mark. Also available in a multi-bar version with individual bars.
- Diffuse Magic – Gives you a warning when you have a debuff on you that can be dispelled or reflected using Diffuse Magic in Mythic/Mythic+ dungeons.
- Skyreach Tracker – Tracks the buff and subsequent debuff from the Skyreach talent.
Here are some additional Plater things
- Babylonius’s Plater profile – Just tracks Mark of the Crane
- Mark of the Crane tracking plugin – Changes the color of the nameplate if it has the MotC debuff.
Macros
Don’t Clip FoF
#showtooltip Tiger Palm
/stopmacro [channeling:Fists of Fury]
/cast Tiger Palm
Change Tiger Palm to whatever ability you want. This macro prevents you from cancelling the channel of Fists of Fury early and missing a tick of damage. It is recommended to use this on your main rotational abilities. If you are using Last Emperor’s Capacitor, you may want to add this line in the middle for the same effect for Crackling Jade Lightning:
/stopmacro [channeling:Crackling Jade Lightning]
Using Invoke Xuen in a Castsequence Macro
Normally, Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger cannot be used in a castsequence macro due to the comma in the name. However, there is a workaround that will allow you to, as an example from Shadowlands, combine Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger and Weapons of Order into a single macro. Note that you still have to press this twice, since they are both on the GCD:
#showtooltip
/cast [nopet] Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger
/cast [pet] Weapons of Order
Shared Buttons
If you’d like for two talents to be on the same keybinding and change whether or not you know one of them, then use this:
#showtooltip
/cast [known:Chi Burst] Chi Burst;
/cast [known:Chi Wave] Chi Wave;
or this:
#showtooltip
/cast [known:137639] Storm, Earth, and Fire;
/cast [known:152173] Serenity;
Simply change out the ability so it looks like this: /cast [known: Talent A] Talent A; Talent B
You can either use the spell name in the known condition or the spell ID (which you need addons to see in your UI), but spell names with commas such as “Storm, Earth, and Fire” or “Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger” cannot be used and will require the id.
Changelog
- May 4, 2023 – Updated for 10.1
- Mar 24, 2023 – Onyx Annulet Updates
- Nov 26, 2022 – Guide created for Dragonflight