Windwalker Monk PvE Guide

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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 Midnight Patch 12.1 and is regularly updated when discussion, theorycrafting, or testing yields new information.

Last Updated on August 18, 2026 @ 10:08 pm.

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.

There is a lot of flexibility in what you can pick in the Monk Class Tree.

  • Green = Always Pick
  • Blue = Pick as very strong default optional Talents
  • Purple = Pick based on your demands in the content of your Choice
  • White = Pick for very situational Niche Situations
  • Red = Never Pick

In-Depth Guide

 

Shado-Pan is generally recommended due to simplicity, Conduit of the Celestials can be stronger at the highest levels of play.

Shado-Pan

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Conduit of the Celestials

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Note: Decision between Restore Balance and Xuen’s Bond is entirely down to the on use trinket you currently use. If you play a 2 min trinket default to Restore Balance, if you play a 90 second trinket default to Xuen’s Bond. Playing double passive trinkets allows you to talent into any of those two, depending on the situation one may be more useful than the other.

Conduit should be better in Mythic+, but is also more difficult. You may be better off playing Shado-Pan.

Shado-Pan

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Conduit of the Celestials

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Note: Decision between Restore Balance and Xuen’s Bond is entirely down to the on use trinket you currently use. If you play a 2 min trinket default to Restore Balance, if you play a 90 second trinket default to Xuen’s Bond. Playing double passive trinkets allows you to talent into any of those two, depending on the situation one may be more useful than the other.

Shado-Pan is generally recommended due to strength and ease. Both Hero Talents are viable and can be played.

Shado-Pan

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Conduit of the Celestials

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Omnium Folio

The 4th and 5th Rows are best simmed for your character as there may be variations.

 

 

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:

  • Manage Energy and Chi – Outside of big Haste cooldowns, Windwalker’s damage is restricted by how many resources we can generate and spend. This means that sitting at the Energy cap or generating more Chi than you have space for typically results in lost damage potential. Your focus is balancing having enough Chi for spenders and using  Blackout Kick just enough to prevent overcapping without using it too much and not having the Chi you need when a bigger spender becomes available.
    • During major cooldowns, you will often have more Energy and Chi than you can use due to the GCD and cooldowns of Chi spenders, making avoiding the caps less impactful, but still something to be aware of.
  • Keep Abilities on cooldown – With most of our Chi spenders having their own cooldowns, it is important to reduce the amount of time that these harder-hitting abilities are sitting off cooldown without being used. There will, inevitably, be overlaps where you’ll have to choose what to press based on the priority list. A key part of playing Windwalker recognizing that one of these situations is approaching and trying to have enough Chi for what you need to do.
  • React to procs – Windwalker has several procs that you’ll need to manage in order to maximize damage potential. The main ones are  Dance of Chi-Ji and  Blackout Kick!. Both of these can stack to 2 so that you don’t need to immediately use them. However, you will want to avoid risking overstacking, as that is lost damage potential. These procs can play an integral part in helping you balance your resources while still benefitting from  Mastery: Combo Strikes. They can also throw off what you were planning, so being able to react intelligently and quickly is important.
  • 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.

Celestial Conduit

 Celestial Conduit is a powerful ability to use, but the most powerful aspect of it is that it adds the  Heart of the Jade Serpent buff. However, because this buff can also come from using  Strike of the Windlord or  Whirling Dragon Punch, you need to stagger these uses for maximum benefit. This generally means using  Celestial Conduit spaced out between casts of  Strike of the Windlord or  Whirling Dragon Punch. This attempts to insure maximum uptime and value.

The instance of  Heart of the Jade Serpent that is triggered from using  Zenith stacks with the version of  Heart of the Jade Serpent that comes from  Celestial Conduit Strike of the Windlord, or  Whirling Dragon Punch. However, the instance of  Heart of the Jade Serpent that is generated from  Celestial Conduit does not stack with the instance that comes from  Strike of the Windlord or  Whirling Dragon Punch.

This means that you can cast  Zenith when you already have  Heart of the Jade Serpent up, and you should because they stack very well. You want to try and avoid casting  Celestial Conduit if you already have the buff that comes from  Strike of the Windlord or  Whirling Dragon Punch and visa versa.

Key takeaways are:

Fortifying Brew

 Fortifying Brew increases your maximum health, so it also increases the damage that  Touch of Death deals and that  Touch of Karma can absorb. Because of this, using  Fortifying Brew before you use  Touch of Death or  Touch of Karma is a damage increase. This can be used to further improve your defense in a time of need, but it also has the secondary effect of increasing the amount of damage that is redirected back to the target.

If you are not going to need the defensive value of  Fortifying Brew on its own, like if large damage intake is more frequent and you need to stagger your defensive cooldowns, then you can stack them together for added benefit. Just be sure to use  Fortifying Brew BEFORE using  Touch of Death or  Touch of Karma as both snapshot on use.

A real good way to use this is to find a way to use  Fortifying Brew then  Touch of Karma at a time when you’ll also be able to use  Touch of Death during the duration of  Fortifying Brew. This gets you both benefits for one use. If you’re already going to use it for DPS purposes, then you might as well be efficient about it.

Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger

With the changes in Midnight  Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger is mainly a button you press so that you can then channel  Celestial Conduit afterwards. This means that you’ll want to plan ahead slightly so that you are not wasting a GCD summoning Xuen when you want to be dealing damage.

There is a large window after casting  Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger where you’re able to cast  Celestial Conduit. Because balancing the above  Heart of the Jade Serpent buff generally means a somewhat strict sequence of abilities, you will want to avoid deviating much from the above opener, even if it’s the middle of a fight.

Touch of Death

 Touch of Death seems like a straightforward ability to use but attempting to min/max it can lead to losing damage rather than gaining it. With the change to  Fatal Touch in Midnight, it no longer provides a damage increase after using it.

While this generally means that you’ll want to use it as soon as its available and you have space to press it without delaying another ability, it also means that you CAN try to use it right before the target dies when your target has less health than your maximum health so that it deals 100% of your health rather than just the 35% of your maximum health that it deals if you use it on a target that is at 15% health or lower.

This is a very small window and  Touch of Death can sometimes have a delay before being usable if you just swap to a target to try and hit it with  Touch of Death. This delay can be the difference between making or missing the very small window. Missing the window generally means that you don’t get  Touch of Death off and thus lose damage that you would have done if you had cast it sooner.

In Mythic+ trash you generally want to use this ASAP as the window to do so may be small. On bosses in Raid and Mythic+ you typically have a longer window to use it, so you want to prioritize other abilities with shorter cooldowns like Fists of Fury as long as you cast Touch of Death before the fight is over.

Touch of Karma

 Touch of Karma is, first and foremost, a defensive ability. Its primary use is to absorb some damage in order to lessen the damage that you are dealt. However, the secondary function of  Touch of Karma is that some of the damage that the shield absorbs is redirected back to the target that you cast the spell on. This means that  Touch of Karma can be used offensively if you do not need its defensive value.

Most fights in most content have times where you will be taking damage and can cleanly use  Touch of Karma for both its defensive and offensive value. However, sometimes the damage you are taking isn’t enough to necessitate a defensive cooldown like  Touch of Karma. In these situations it is, technically, optimal to find some damage that you can then absorb and redirect. This can be done through standing in some damage effect on the ground, or in extreme situations, casting  Provoke on a target and taking a few smacks.

Needing to  Provoke a target to get the benefit from  Touch of Karma should be used as a last resort and only ever be done with the express permission of your tanks and healers as you’re often likely to get killed once the shield ends without direct intervention. Do this at your own risk.

Zenith

 Zenith doesn’t provide any direct damage increase without the addition of additional talents like the Apex Talents of  Tigereye Brew. However, it does reduce the cost of all of your Chi spenders by 1 and increases the cooldown reduction provided by  Blackout Kick by an additional second. When you press the button it resets the cooldown of  Rising Sun Kick and provides you an additional 2 Chi to use right away.

Key takeaways are:

  • While  Zenith is active,  Blackout Kick becomes free, so it is your primary filler in order to get  Rising Sun Kick and  Fists of Fury back from cooldown as quickly as possible.
    • This also means that you can very quickly feel like you have too much Chi if you’re also using  Tiger Palm too often.
  • Due to getting your cooldowns back faster, it is even more important to have the Chi that you need to cast them right away.
  • If talented into  Obsidian Spiral then  Blackout Kick generates a Chi rather than consuming one. This causes it to function as both your primary filler and primary Chi-builder.
  •  Zenith has two stacks, so you do not need to use it as soon as it is available but can plan its use for the best possible time.
    • Through talents,  Zenith can have a cooldown that takes 60, 70, 80, or 90-seconds to return. With two possible stacks, this means you can safely use it based on when you get the most value out of it, during a high-damage phase of a fight, a time with many targets to hit, or during large buffs like  Bloodlust or with your trinkets.

 

Priority Lists

The lists below assume you are doing what you need to do to avoid capping resources, avoid breaking your mastery, and using above cooldowns appropriately. Right now  Heart of the Jade Serpent doesn’t require its own priority, but that may change in the future. We’ve included a “simplified” version of each priority if the “detailed” one is a bit much.

 

Single Target Priority

NOTES: Skip steps that don’t apply to your Talent build. Those priorities are meant to be used by people regardless of their build, and will include some steps that don’t apply to the recommended builds.

  1. Cast  Whirling Dragon Punch
  2. Cast  Zenith Stomp if low on Chi or  Zenith is almost over
  3. Cast  Tiger Palm to avoid capping energy outside of  Zenith and Bloodlust or if not enough Chi to cast  Fists of Fury
  4. Cast  Fists of Fury
  5. Cast  Rushing Wind Kick
  6. Cast  Spinning Crane Kick with  Dance of Chi-Ji and with an active  Unbroken Rhythm buff
  7. Cast  Rising Sun Kick
  8. Cast  Blackout Kick with  Combo Breaker OR during  Zenith and talented into  Obsidian Spiral
  9. Cast  Spinning Crane Kick during  Zenith AND either more than 4 Chi OR  Dance of Chi-Ji
  10. Cast  Tiger Palm if less than 2 Chi
  11. Cast  Spinning Crane Kick with  Dance of Chi-Ji
  12. Cast  Tiger Palm without overcapping Chi
  13. Cast  Blackout Kick

Losing Combo Breaker or Dance of Chi-Ji procs by overcapping or their buffs running out should be avoided by using their respective ability with a slightly higher priority than the list shows. Don’t overthink that too hard.

  1. Cast  Whirling Dragon Punch if your next Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger will not happen within the next 10 seconds
  2. Cast Celestial Conduit if no active Heart of the Jade Serpent from Whirling Dragon Punch/Strike of the Windlord
  3. Cast  Zenith Stomp if low on Chi or  Zenith is almost over
  4. Cast  Fists of Fury if  Heart of the Jade Serpent lasts less than 1 second
  5. Cast  Tiger Palm to avoid capping energy outside of  Zenith and Bloodlust OR if not enough Chi to cast  Fists of Fury
  6. Cast  Fists of Fury
  7. Cast  Rushing Wind Kick
  8. Cast  Spinning Crane Kick with an active  Unbroken Rhythm buff
  9. Cast  Rising Sun Kick
  10. Cast  Blackout Kick with  Combo Breaker OR during  Zenith and talented into  Obsidian Spiral
  11. Cast  Spinning Crane Kick during  Zenith AND either more than 4 Chi OR  Dance of Chi-Ji
  12. Cast  Tiger Palm if less than 2 Chi
  13. Cast  Spinning Crane Kick with  Dance of Chi-Ji
  14. Cast  Tiger Palm without overcapping Chi
  15. Cast  Blackout Kick

Losing Combo Breaker or Dance of Chi-Ji procs by overcapping or their buffs running out should be avoided by using their respective ability with a slightly higher priority than the list shows. Don’t overthink that too hard.

  1. Cast  Whirling Dragon Punch during its grace period
  2. Cast  Zenith Stomp if low on Chi or  Zenith is almost over
  3. Cast  Tiger Palm to avoid capping energy outside of  Zenith and Bloodlust
  4. Cast  Fists of Fury
  5. Cast  Whirling Dragon Punch
  6. Cast  Strike of the Windlord
  7. Cast  Tiger Palm if not enough Chi to cast  Fists of Fury
  8. Cast  Rushing Wind Kick
  9. Cast  Spinning Crane Kick with  Dance of Chi-Ji and with an active  Unbroken Rhythm buff
  10. Cast  Rising Sun Kick
  11. Cast  Blackout Kick with 2x stacks of  Combo Breaker
  12. Cast  Blackout Kick during  Zenith with  Combo Breaker OR talented into  Obsidian Spiral
  13. Cast  Spinning Crane Kick during  Zenith AND either more than 4 Chi OR  Dance of Chi-Ji
  14. Cast  Touch of Death
  15. Cast  Tiger Palm if less than 2 Chi
  16. Cast  Blackout Kick with  Combo Breaker
  17. Cast  Spinning Crane Kick with  Dance of Chi-Ji
  18. Cast  Slicing Winds
  19. Cast  Tiger Palm without overcapping Chi
  20. Cast  Blackout Kick

 

  1. Cast  Whirling Dragon Punch during its grace period AND the cooldown of  Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger is longer than 10 seconds
  2. Cast  Zenith Stomp if low on Chi or  Zenith is almost over
  3. Cast  Fists of Fury if  Heart of the Jade Serpent lasts less than 1 second
  4. Cast  Tiger Palm to avoid capping energy outside of  Zenith and Bloodlust
  5. Cast  Fists of Fury
  6. Cast  Whirling Dragon Punch if the cooldown of  Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger is longer than 10 seconds
  7. Cast  Strike of the Windlord if the cooldown of  Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger is longer than 10 seconds
  8. Cast Celestial Conduit if no active Heart of the Jade Serpent from Whirling Dragon Punch/Strike of the Windlord
  9. Cast  Tiger Palm if not enough Chi to cast  Fists of Fury
  10. Cast  Rushing Wind Kick
  11. Cast  Spinning Crane Kick with  Dance of Chi-Ji and with an active  Unbroken Rhythm buff
  12. Cast  Rising Sun Kick during Bloodlust AND without  Dance of Chi-Ji
  13. Cast  Spinning Crane Kick with Season 2 4-piece bonus,  Unbroken Rhythm
  14. Cast  Rising Sun Kick
  15. Cast  Blackout Kick with 2x stacks of  Combo Breaker
  16. Cast  Blackout Kick during  Zenith with  Combo Breaker OR talented into  Obsidian Spiral
  17. Cast  Spinning Crane Kick during  Zenith AND either more than 4 Chi OR  Dance of Chi-Ji
  18. Cast  Touch of Death
  19. Cast  Tiger Palm if less than 2 Chi
  20. Cast  Blackout Kick with  Combo Breaker
  21. Cast  Spinning Crane Kick with  Dance of Chi-Ji
  22. Cast  Slicing Winds
  23. Cast  Tiger Palm without overcapping Chi
  24. Cast  Blackout Kick

 

AOE Priority (Generally 2 or more targets)

NOTES: Skip steps that don’t apply to your Talent build. Those priorities are meant to be used by people regardless of their build, and will include some steps that don’t apply to the recommended builds.

  1. Cast  Whirling Dragon Punch
  2. Cast  Strike of the Windlord
  3. Cast  Zenith Stomp if low on Chi or  Zenith is almost over
  4. Cast  Tiger Palm if missing the Chi to cast  Fists of Fury
  5. Cast  Fists of Fury
  6. Cast  Spinning Crane Kick with Season 2 4-piece bonus,  Unbroken Rhythm
  7. Cast  Tiger Palm to avoid capping Energy outside of  Zenith
  8. Cast  Rising Sun Kick to enable  Whirling Dragon Punch
  9. Cast  Rushing Wind Kick without Season 2 4-piece bonus,  Unbroken Rhythm
  10. Cast  Spinning Crane Kick during  Zenith with at least 5 targets
  11. Cast  Rising Sun Kick with either Bloodlust or  Zenith but without Season 2 4-piece bonus,  Unbroken Rhythm
  12. Cast  Blackout Kick with  Obsidian Spiral talented AND  Zenith active AND  Rising Sun Kick on cooldown
  13. Cast  Spinning Crane Kick
  14. Cast  Slicing Winds
  15. Cast  Blackout Kick with  Combo Breaker
  16. Cast  Tiger Palm with less than 5 Chi AND no  Zenith active
  17. Cast  Blackout Kick with  Shadowboxing Treads talented
  18. Cast  Rising Sun Kick
  19. Cast  Blackout Kick
  1. Cast  Fists of Fury if  Heart of the Jade Serpent is about to end
  2. Cast  Whirling Dragon Punch if  Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger cooldown is longer than 10 seconds
  3. Cast  Strike of the Windlord if  Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger cooldown is longer than 10 seconds
  4. Cast  Zenith Stomp if low on Chi or  Zenith is almost over
  5. Cast  Tiger Palm if missing the Chi to cast  Fists of Fury
  6. Cast  Fists of Fury
  7. Cast  Spinning Crane Kick with Season 2 4-piece bonus,  Unbroken Rhythm
  8. Cast  Tiger Palm to avoid capping Energy outside of  Zenith
  9. Cast  Rising Sun Kick to enable  Whirling Dragon Punch
  10. Cast  Rushing Wind Kick without Season 2 4-piece bonus,  Unbroken Rhythm
  11. Cast  Rising Sun Kick with  Heart of the Jade Serpent active and NO with Season 2 4-piece bonus,  Unbroken Rhythm
  12. Cast  Spinning Crane Kick during  Zenith with at least 5 targets
  13. Cast  Rising Sun Kick with either Bloodlust or  Zenith but without Season 2 4-piece bonus,  Unbroken Rhythm
  14. Cast  Blackout Kick with  Obsidian Spiral talented AND  Zenith active AND  Rising Sun Kick on cooldown
  15. Cast  Spinning Crane Kick
  16. Cast  Slicing Winds
  17. Cast  Blackout Kick with  Combo Breaker
  18. Cast  Tiger Palm with less than 5 Chi AND no  Zenith active
  19. Cast  Blackout Kick with  Shadowboxing Treads talented
  20. Cast  Rising Sun Kick
  21. Cast  Blackout Kick

 

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.

NOTES: Skip steps that don’t apply to your Talent build. Those openers are meant to be used by people regardless of their build, and will include some steps that don’t apply to the recommended builds.

  1. Cast  Tiger Palm
  2. Use Potion of Recklessness (if Algeth’ar Puzzle Box equipped and your sim tells you its the better potion)
  3. Use Algeth’ar Puzzle Box (if equipped)
  4. Cast  Zenith with potions, racials and trinkets (make sure to use stat buffs prior Zenith is cast to buff Zenith Stomp)
  5. Cast  Strike of the Windlord (if talented)
  6. Cast  Fists of Fury
  7. Cast  Rising Sun Kick
  8. Cast  Fists of Fury (if #7 did reset your Fists of Fury cooldown)
  9. Cast  Whirling Dragon Punch (if talented and #7 did not reset your Fists of Fury cooldown)
  10. Continue with normal priority

Notes: Ideally, you want to repeat the steps 4 and onwards every time Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger and Celestial Conduit will be ready. Keep one charge of Zenith ready for this window and delay Strike of the Windlord and Fists of Fury if necessary.

 

  1. Use Algeth’ar Puzzle Box pre combat (if equipped)
  2. Cast  Tiger Palm
  3. Cast  Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger
  4. Cast  Zenith with potions, racials and trinkets (make sure to use stat buffs prior Zenith is cast to buff Zenith Stomp)
  5. Cast  Strike of the Windlord (if talented)
  6. Cast  Fists of Fury
  7. Cast  Rising Sun Kick
  8. Cast  Fists of Fury (if #7 reset your Fists of Fury cooldown)
  9. Cast  Whirling Dragon Punch (if talented and #7 did not reset your Fists of Fury cooldown)
  10. Continue with normal priority

Make sure to not cast your Celestial Conduit too early so you dont overlap your Heart of the Jade Serpent windows from Strike of the Windlord/Whirling Dragon Punch with the Heart of the Jade Serpent window from Celestial Conduit. Delaying it that much is not an issue since the plan is to send a second charge of Zenith right after the first one in your opener.

 

Ability Usage Notes

 

Gearing

Stats

General stat priority for each Windwalker Hero tree.

Agility > Haste = Critical Strike = Mastery >>> Versatility

Stat priorities can and will change for your character depending on your current gear, stats and talents. 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.

 

Crafting

Generally, we recommend simulating your character through Top Gear to find what piece is best for you. For everything else, here is a flowchart.

 

 

Weapons and 1H vs 2H

2H is better.

For specific situations or item level gaps, sim your character’s options with Raidbot’s Top Gear Tool.

 

Trinkets

Ideally you want Voracious Heart of Ula’tek and Zul’jin’s Guillotine Technique. As always, sim your options to see what’s best for you in particular.

Honorable Mentions:

 

“Best-in-Slot”

Sim the gear you have through Top Gear. If you’re looking for what gear to aim for, use Droptimizer.

 

Gems/Enchants

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.

 

Enchants

Voidcores

Bonus Rolls

Best explained in a flowchart:

 

Gear Upgrades

Once they’re available, you’ll want to use them to upgrade your Weapon and Trinkets. Generally it’s Weapon First and then sim what trinkets you have to see what one should be upgraded first.

 

Miscellaneous

Consumables

 

Racials

Currently, all races sim within a small range of each other and reshuffle constantly. Other than that, pick whatever race you prefer.

Using the racial available to you depends highly on the exact racial. In general, they are divided into three different groups.
Buff racials, direct damage racials and special racials.

Buff racials are the following racials:

Those are used with your cooldowns and can be put into a Burst Macro like the macro you can find in the macro section.
Direct damage racials are the following racials:

Those are very undertuned and are used at the very end of the priority or whenever you are unable to cast something else.
The only special racial existing right now is the Blood Elf racial Arcane Torrent. This can be used whenever you need a quick chi for your big spenders and you are not able to press a tiger palm for it.

 

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.

Macros

Don’t Clip Things

#showtooltip Tiger Palm
/stopmacro [channeling:Fists of Fury]
/cast Tiger Palm

OR

#showtooltip Tiger Palm
/cast [nochanneling:Fists of Fury]Tiger Palm

Change  Tiger Palm to whatever ability you want. This macro prevents you from cancelling the channel of  Fists of Fury. With 12.1 cancelling Celestial Conduit is now a thing which makes us return to the old format of using a single stopmacro line rather than conditionals that prevent your cast from being executed during specific channels. It is recommended to use this on your main rotational abilities as it’s very very unlikely that we’ll look to cancel these abilities.

Here is a version of the Don’t Clip Things Macro that swaps between Whirling Dragon Punch and Strike of the Windlord depending on what you have talented.

#showtooltip [known:392983] Strike of the Windlord; Whirling Dragon Punch
/stopmacro [channeling:Fists of Fury]
/cast [known:152175] Whirling Dragon Punch
/cast [known:392983] Strike of the Windlord

 

Fists of Fury and Unity Within

#showtooltip Fists of Fury
/cast Unity Within
/cast Fists of Fury

This macro is required due to a slight issue with the execution of things in the game. If you cancel your Celestial Conduit with a Fists of Fury the end of channel happens at the exact time the new channel is started resulting in the application of your Heart of the Jade Serpent window that you get from Unity Within happening after your Fists of Fury channel has already snapshot the duration of the channel. Unity Within is affected by your global cooldown while it doesnt cause one itself. This behaviour requires you to use this macro right after the current global cooldown has finished to execute Unity Within properly in time for Fists of Fury to snapshot the duration of the channel properly. There is sadly no other solution for this at the current point.

 

Zenith Stomp and Tiger Palm

#showtooltip 
/cast Zenith Stomp
/cast Tiger Palm

This macro layers Zenith Stomp on top of Tiger Palm so you can treat Zenith Stomp as a glorified Tiger Palm. It abuses the fact that you unlearn Zenith Stomp as ability once either Zenith Stomp stacks are consumed or Zenith ends. It can bug out if you enter any loading screen while you still have stacks remaining so pay attention to that. If you want to add the Don’t Clip conditionals feel free to do so.

 

Burst Macro

#showtooltip Zenith
/use [pet][known:450615]13
/use [mod:shift,pet][mod:shift,known:450615]item:212971
/use [mod:shift,pet][mod:shift,known:450615]item:212265
/cast Zenith

This Macro uses your on-use stat trinket and potions in the correct order to allow your Zenith Stomp from casting Zenith to be affected by the stat buffs as well. However, this macro has a few nuances you need to adjust for your personal use, so here is an explanation for all lines and how to change them appropriately.
/use [pet][known:450615]13
This line uses your trinket in slot 13 whenever you have an active pet OR when you are talented into Shado-Pan by utilizing the very first passive point Flurry Strikes. For Windwalker the only active pet that triggers this condition is a summoned Xuen from Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger by talenting into Conduit of the Celestials. If you have your on-use stat trinket on slot 14 you need to adjust this line. If you don’t use a trinket that should be used that close between Xuen and Zenith or don’t have one (example for the first would be a trinket like Algeth’ar Puzzle Box) you should delete this line to make sure you don’t accidentally misuse the trinket you have.
/use [mod:shift,pet][mod:shift,known:450615]item:212971
/use [mod:shift,pet][mod:shift,known:450615]item:212265
Those two lines allow you to use less binds by using a shift modifier to pop your potion at the same time as your trinket, right before your Zenith Stomp from casting Zenith. The used IDs are the Fleeting Tempered Potion and the normal Tempered Potion, both at rank 3. By using this order given in the macro, you will first use your existing Fleeting Potions before starting to use your personal property. If you use rank 2 or even rank 1 potions, you can add those lines by using the same format with the IDs you can find on wowhead. If you want to use different modifiers, you can also replace shift by ctrl or alt or even get rid of it fully. Just be aware that you may end up consuming all your precious potions in content you may not want to use them for if you remove the modifier condition.
/cast Zenith
Simply casts Zenith as the very last thing inside this macro.

 

Seperating Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger and Celestial Conduit

When you want to seperate Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger and Celestial Conduit as seperate keybinds, just because you are used to it from your time in The War Within you can use the following two macros.
This is for Xuen:

#showtooltip
/cast [nopet]Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger

And this is for Celestial Conduit

#showtooltip Celestial Conduit
/cast [pet]Celestial Conduit

If you want their icons to properly show you have to hard assign the icon through the pre selection of the icon yourself.

 

Focus Cast Macros

Windwalker has a number of spells you may want to target using the /Focus targetting option. You can replace the sample text in the macro below with spells such as  Spear Hand Strike Paralysis, or  Detox depending on your preference:

#showtooltip
/cast [@focus,exists] Sample Text

 

Mouseover Macros

In some cases being able to cast spells/heals on targets without having to switch targets is extremely useful. You can use the following macro to make the desired spell cast on the target you are currently mousing over instead of your active target. Replace the sample text with the desired spell name:

#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover] Sample Text

 

Ring of Peace Placement

The following two macros will place  Ring of Peace without having to use a targeting circle to do so The first will place if at your feet when pressed immediately:

#showtooltip
/cast [@player] Ring of Peace

And this will place it where your cursor is currently targeting:

#showtooltip
/cast [@cursor] Ring of Peace

Changelog

  • Aug 10, 2026 – Updated for Patch 12.1
  • March 5, 2026 – Adjusted Talentbuilds, Priorities and Openers.