Tier 19

Today we're going to examine how the upcoming Tier 19 set bonuses might appear in your rotation.

* Specifically, we're going to examine how they might appear in your rotation if Strike of the Windlord's cooldown were 45 seconds instead of 40 seconds, because we're just that bad at reading numbers off Wowhead.

This first video shows off the fastest singletarget build we could come up with.  It's anyone's guess whether this talent setup is actually worth using; we just wanted to maximize singletarget APM.

We managed 36 APM with Serenity.  In Warlords, we had about 46 APM.

Our second video shows off a typical AOE build.

Even without Serenity, we managed 38 APM here.
Windwalker AOE is considerably faster than ST.

The third video shows off the slowest possible playstyle we could come up with.  Pay special attention to how many times we use Strike of the Windlord and (non-Combo Breaker) Blackout Kick.

28 APM.  Quick reminder that some classes get 40 APM baseline.

Set bonus details

(2) Set: RSK cooldown reduced by 2 seconds.

We can now easily fit three RSKs in between every FoF.  That's about all the nice things we can say about it.

Against a single target, this effect chews up an additional 5 chi per minute, when we're already starved for chi.  As we saw in the above video, some talent combinations can't even afford the extra RSKs without dropping some other spell (SotW) from the rotation entirely.  (It is possible to afford RSK+SotW if we take Energizing Elixir, though we don't believe this distinction will survive the first balancing pass.)

Against multiple targets, this effect is almost worse than nothing.  Consider that in AOE fights,

·          we prefer RJW over RSK as our primary chi consumer;

·          we want to take SDS; and

·          reducing the cooldown of RSK only makes SDS harder to use.

(4) Set: Using three sequentially different abilities increases Mastery (damage multiplier) by X%.

This appears to be an enhanced version of Combo Strikes, and it presumably wears off as soon as the player uses the same attack twice in a set of three.  This is an intimidating set effect, and we don't yet know whether the damage bonus kicks in for the third attack, or after the third attack.  

If it's the former, then our rotation is hardly affected at all and we can simply enjoy the damage bonus for our strongest attacks; the only thing we want to avoid is TPing twice in a row before a strong attack (and if we took Hit Combo, we're already looking out for that).

TP > BoK > TP > (bonus activates) FoF > (bonus ends) TP > (bonus activates) RSK >

On the other hand, if the damage bonus doesn't apply until after the third attack, this makes our rotation considerably more difficult.  Our 3-chi abilities become very tricky to use, as we need to plan about 4 moves ahead in order to gain the damage bonus.

TP > BoK > CW (bonus activates) > TP > FoF > (bonus ends) TP > RSK (bonus activates) >

Hopefully this isn't the case.

Either way, mind you, this is probably the nail in the coffin for Serenity. 

If somebody asked us for suggestions, we'd say...

Windwalker Monks can't afford either set bonus.  We desperately need an additional source of energy and/or chi (super-rare legendary gear drops don't count) before we even take set bonuses into account.  We would remind you that we are a single-minded blog concerned only with Fasts Per Minute.  So, how would we adjust the effects while keeping them in the spirit of the original?

2pc set bonus: increase the cooldown of RSK by X%, and also increase the damage of RSK by Y%.  This still increases the effectiveness of RSK overall, while leaving us more chi with which to furiously press buttons, and it doesn't impair our AOE rotation.

4pc set bonus: Using three sequentially different abilities increases Haste (instead of Mastery) by Z%.  The 4pc set bonus is going to be a pain no matter what; any time we have to stop and think about what buttons to press is ... well, it's more time thinking and less time pressing buttons.  So if we have to do that, at least give us a fun reward.  Haste is more fun than Mastery, and it would be nice to get haste from a set bonus as we'll be avoiding it on gear.

Next time, we'll talk about what makes a stat, talent, or artifact trait "interesting" vs "boring", and we'll talk about why Haste is the new Mastery.