Pandaren Monk is very fun to play past the Wandering Isle phase. I have been leveling up through The Northern Barrens, Ashenvale and Stonetalon Mountains with a lot of optimism.
The pandaren monk still needs some minor tweaks, and bug fixes, but definitely feels right once you get used to the abilities and their cooldown rotations.
I open up with two hits of Clobber to build up Chi. Now with two Chi, I can toss the enemy a Chi Wave.
- Chi Wave: You cause a wave of Chi energy to flow through friend and foe, dealing 297 damage or 360 healing. Bounces up to 5 times to targets within 15 yards. 15 sec cooldown. Instant. Requires 2 Chi. 40 yd range.
It took me a while to figure out the Chi Wave spell. I figured it out around level 15. Basically, it is an essential part of your rotation. For as long as you are hitting your enemy, the Chi Wave jumps from the enemy, to you, then to the enemy, and so on for five jumps (5 seconds). The odd times it’s on the enemy, it will deal damage. The even times it jumps on you and heals you. At level 32, mobs take 297 damage on the odd jumps. Pretty much, they die faster. In total they take nigh 891 damage over 5 sec. It has a 15 sec cooldown. Take in mind this are the stats of a level 32. The spell damage scales up as you level up.
The other ability is named Tiger Palm which is another Chi spender (Requires 1 Chi) – Attack with the palm of your hand, dealing 109 Physical damage. Deals 55 additional damage if the target is above 50% health.
My rotation currently looks like this: Clobber x 2, Chi Wave x 1, Clobber x 1, Palm of the Tiger x 1. There is a finisher move named Blackout Kick, but sometimes mobs die before you can generate two Chi to use it. Soothing Mists is a heal spell. I love it. I think it should be nerfed a bit because in less than two seconds, no matter how low in health I am, it gets me to full health in a blink. Overall, I can’t wait for Mists of Pandaria to go live.
Check out the livestream. I’m about to finish Stonetalon Mountain and move on to the next zone.
I’ve been wondering: how do the stats work for the monk? Since they wear leather and use the same melee weapons as rogues and hunters, I suppose the Brewmaster and Windwalker specs use agility, but what about Mistweaver?
My char in the video is a Mistweaver. All abilities that use energy in the other spec automatically are converted to mana. So Mistweaver uses spirit and intellect. I’m confused on whether it should wear cloth or leather. In beta I don’t really care, because I never run out of mana. Might be a bug or they are still tweaking.
I also rarely die unless I get silly — like using “Roll” near a mountain edge, or going Leeroy.
You’ll probably know once you reach level 50 and unlock leather or cloth specialization.
Thanks for answering my little conundrum! 🙂