US How are F2P Monks Currently?

Monks in this bracket are overall tuned slightly slower than many of the other classes. It doesn't mean they can't pull equal numbers, just that how they get there doesn't always fit the speed of play. They feel like they're better tuned to PvE at the moment. Play a Monk if you feel like playing slightly underpowered specs for fun, I do often and enjoy it.

MW: Does good single-target healing. Has somewhat decent multi-target abilities, but they're a bit slow. If Enveloping was a little faster, it would be viable. But as it stands, it's like a Rejuvenate with an kind of long cast time. Renewing Mist is a similar story, only in its case the slowness comes from its CD of eight seconds. If you understand the kind of fights where those abilities can work, then you can have fun. They work really well as the auxiliary healer in most situations. A good disc or hpal can solo heal in most situations, a MW really wants to be part of a healer team. If you're cool with that, or enjoy a challenge and don't mind dying, then definitely give it a shot.

WW: Like Nutbreaker said, some great damage but it comes out a little slow. FoF on the move is really nice (though it no longer has any stun component), and RSK is great. If you like being in clumped team-fights, WW can be a lot of fun. It does well in EOTS midfights where enemies are often constrained to tight spots. Does alright vs other melee on Flags in AB, but without a healer (or high-level roll-to-los play) will die to a Surv or Arms.

BM: Similar speed issues. I've only played one or two games on it in Legion by accident. In that limited experience, it seemed the toughness the spec is supposed to have didn't scale with the dmg that's coming in. It didn't feel like it had that much more useful survivability over WW or MW. The added stam is nice, but with Kegsmash nerfed all that stam is "boring stam" since you can't do much with it except stand there while you live an extra two seconds.
 
Monks in this bracket are overall tuned slightly slower than many of the other classes. It doesn't mean they can't pull equal numbers, just that how they get there doesn't always fit the speed of play. They feel like they're better tuned to PvE at the moment. Play a Monk if you feel like playing slightly underpowered specs for fun, I do often and enjoy it.

MW: Does good single-target healing. Has somewhat decent multi-target abilities, but they're a bit slow. If Enveloping was a little faster, it would be viable. But as it stands, it's like a Rejuvenate with an kind of long cast time. Renewing Mist is a similar story, only in its case the slowness comes from its CD of eight seconds. If you understand the kind of fights where those abilities can work, then you can have fun. They work really well as the auxiliary healer in most situations. A good disc or hpal can solo heal in most situations, a MW really wants to be part of a healer team. If you're cool with that, or enjoy a challenge and don't mind dying, then definitely give it a shot.

WW: Like Nutbreaker said, some great damage but it comes out a little slow. FoF on the move is really nice (though it no longer has any stun component), and RSK is great. If you like being in clumped team-fights, WW can be a lot of fun. It does well in EOTS midfights where enemies are often constrained to tight spots. Does alright vs other melee on Flags in AB, but without a healer (or high-level roll-to-los play) will die to a Surv or Arms.

BM: Similar speed issues. I've only played one or two games on it in Legion by accident. In that limited experience, it seemed the toughness the spec is supposed to have didn't scale with the dmg that's coming in. It didn't feel like it had that much more useful survivability over WW or MW. The added stam is nice, but with Kegsmash nerfed all that stam is "boring stam" since you can't do much with it except stand there while you live an extra two seconds.
Thanks for your input, helped a lot!
 
No problem. Hope you enjoy yourself. Saw a Tauren monk in a BG the other day and (embarrassing to admit) I didn't know they could be monks, so I thought it was pretty cool, plus Stomp is awesome.

Since rolling new toons is so fast, and since gearing almost doesn't matter anymore, people should definitely give more classes a try. Worst case scenario: you make it and play around for a bit but don't feel it, set it aside for a while, then one day Blizz changes something and it's sitting there ready for you to play. Best case scenario: it's underpowered but you hit the skill ceiling and get into the zone and start doing things with it that are above average.

Goodluck!
 
WW monks are insanely fun to play.

Great at bursting with narly gap closers.

Disable (slow) > Tiger palm > blackout kick tiger palm > sun rising kick > disable (root) > FoF = profit

The only reason people say monks are bad at this bracket is because they either cannot play them correctly or have not seen someone play them well.
 
The only reason people say monks are bad at this bracket is because they either cannot play them correctly or have not seen someone play them well.

Yeah, it's really true how what we see in games can constrain our opinions on classes.

In general I think we could split the difference a bit. I wouldn't say it's the only reason. Their abilities are weaker than most classes, but that doesn't mean you can't find a way to make them work. (and the two shorter melee CDs on WW are at least forgiving, actually so are the melee CDs of MW. I actually have fun dpsing on MW :D) It just takes a bit more skill to make them work at the same level of a surv hunt for example. (I may have picked an extreme comparison there. It's possible that the best WW player may only get results on par with an avg surv player?) Idk if people still use the old language, but I think this is what used to be referred to as having a higher skill-floor? Would it be fair to label WW with that at the moment. ?

As you said, it's pretty unlikely that the average player will encounter a monk in a BG that is playing well. It causes a feedback loop where people make the assumption that it must suck. When in reality that won't be true for someone who can squeeze every drop out of it.

This seems like it's always been a part of WoW, and probably always will. It just jumps from class to class, or spec to spec. Remember how long we went without fire or ret? It's not that there weren't people who couldn't make them work and enjoy them. Which is why I'm in the camp that people try them all (and in this thread specifically Monk). It's fun and satisfying to take something that arguably has limited abilities and make it work. Like you said, WW can be insanely fun to play. I think it's more fun than Surv or arms, but it takes more "work" to get to that point.

I know this is the f2p forum, but do you know how jumping from 20 to 29 affects them? They get detox, right?
 
dont listen to the one who said they have good single target healing their healing is terrible they can outheal a wheelchair bound holy paladin drooling on his auto attack button
 
dont listen to the one who said they have good single target healing their healing is terrible they can outheal a wheelchair bound holy paladin drooling on his auto attack button

While funny, this isn't true. I did what I'd consider pretty decent testing on mw, queuing into about 20 games in late June-early July. And while sometimes frustrating (as I said, they cannot compete with disc/hpal or even rsham) they can do viable single-target if you know what you're doing. Happy to jump on MW and queue with anyone who wants to see their numbers at f2p 20. PM me and we can get a party going for a few games.

Man, idk why I'm defending MW today :p I guess I feel for em. Go play underpowered classes y'all!
 
Lol ww is hella strong except vs arms warr and Surv
Rsk hits like a freight train (but long cd) and disable allows you to chase very well
 
Man, idk why I'm defending MW today :p I guess I feel for em. Go play underpowered classes y'all!
MW ftw!
Lol I really enjoy Mist healing. It isn't as strong as some of the others as it's really a HoT based spec at 20. But Zen Pulse is a cool talent which allows u to Insta-heal ur team mates that are surrounded.
I find playing Mist u have to react very early and sometimes pre-empt the attacks so u don't get caught out with the long cast times. And for short fights, like when u see an enemy on low health you can actually rack up some kills. Triple Tiger Palm then Triple Roundhouse followed by an Upkick and it's good night enemy!
If you want a challenge Mistweaver is the way to go. It's also cool that you can play tank and dps with 1 monk toon so I'd say give it a go!
 
WW monks are insanely fun to play.

Great at bursting with narly gap closers.

Disable (slow) > Tiger palm > blackout kick tiger palm > sun rising kick > disable (root) > FoF = profit

The only reason people say monks are bad at this bracket is because they either cannot play them correctly or have not seen someone play them well.

Idk if I'd say monk is fun to play, especially after they lost flying kick
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top