As of 11/17/2020, this has finally been fixed after 4 long years. Rest in peace, WDP bug.
The rest of this article is no longer applicable.
TL;DR: You can get extra damage on Whirling Dragon Punch by using it as Storm, Earth, and Fire expires (around ~0.2 or 0.3 seconds left on it, depending on latency) and the clones rush back to you. They can get the cast off, but without their usual damage reduction, so you can do up to 300% of normal Whirling Dragon Punch damage. There is a WeakAura to help with the timing here.
Click here for a demonstration video from JFunk.
Continue reading for a deeper explanation on why this works and how it plays out.
Use this one weird trick to gain DPS. Blizzard hates it!
Explanation
So what exactly is the bug we’re talking about here? The answer has to do with the way you and your clones deal reduced damage. As you probably know, when you pop Storm, Earth, and Fire , you summon two clones that each mimic your abilities. Both clones and the spirit you control all deal 45% of your normal damage. This damage reduction is applied by the actual buff, Storm, Earth, and Fire , that appears on your character and clones during the duration of the spell. Removing the buff manually, which is no longer possible due to this article getting too popular, will take away the damage reduction but also despawn your clones. The bug that we’re going to take advantage of here is that the clones don’t actually despawn right away; you may recall the FSK-like animation of your clones rushing back into your body as they despawn. During this window, the Storm, Earth, and Fire buff is gone, but your clones are technically still active. What you can do is use a spell in this time and try to get you and your two clones to perform the attack… but without the damage set to 45% of normal value.
First of all, yes, the timing is difficult to get consistently. It’s up to you whether practicing and trying to use this trick is really worth it to your gameplay or not. I only discovered it by mistake (independently, long after a handful of high level monks knew the trick as an open secret) when testing BFA openers for another article and reviewing logs.
While you have probably heard of this as the “WDP bug,” it can be done with most spells. It’s generally used with Whirling Dragon Punch simply because it does the most damage in the single GCD window, basically tied with Rising Sun Kick in single target and blowing anything out of the water in AoE. Let’s go over some general details of how the trick performs and how it interacts with each spell. There’s a few key things to know:
- This trick is definitely not an exact science, and sometimes it seems to give unexpected results regardless of the rest of the guidelines listed below.
- This trick is ping dependent. The higher your ping, the less consistent the bonus damage is. My testing results are from a connection with about a 67 ms ping on average.
- This trick is dependent on the position of your clones when you hit the macro. Generally, the closer they are to your actual character, the more likely it is to work. Rushing back from faraway targets, or even the other side of a boss with a very large hitbox, can cause it to fail sometimes.
- Rising Sun Kick: Generally, it is much harder to pull off and less consistent than Whirling Dragon Punch. Unless you just happen to see this come off cooldown as Storm, Earth, and Fire is ending, it’s not really worth trying.
- Whirling Dragon Punch: Overall, the trick is much more consistent when using Whirling Dragon Punch. When performing it, I usually saw both clones dealt a full 100% damage on all three hits of Whirling Dragon Punch. My own character would flip flop between dealing 100% with all three hits, and dealing 100% on two hits and 45% on the last.
If you’re really set on getting the full use out of this technique, the best advice I can give is to practice it a lot, in as many situations as you can, to get a feel for the timing on your specific connection. If you get it down consistently and want to min max it, considering holding Whirling Dragon Punch when you know you might cast Storm, Earth, and Fire soon, but also try to start Storm, Earth, and Fire when there’s around 13-14 seconds left on the cooldown of Whirling Dragon Punch. That way, you’ll waste the least amount of time with Whirling Dragon Punch sitting off cooldown, and still have room to attempt the bug. Also, since Whirling Dragon Punch is the main use of the bug and does uncapped AoE damage, this trick is obviously much more worth attempting in heavy AoE or dungeon trash compared to a single target boss, though it’s still a nice damage boost there.
Video Demo
Click here for a demonstration video from JFunk.
WeakAura
To help with the timing, you will want to see the remaining duration of Storm, Earth, and Fire down to at least tenths of a second. I’ve made a simple WeakAura to show exactly that, which you can grab here.
straying in to exploit territory here tbh
yea no shit. campaigns for touch of karma nerf because of “degenerative gameplay”… writes in depth article on how to exploit a bug.
Hi, Just a quick question. Does the huge dmg from the macro mean we could possibly delay Touch of death for it?
Or is that such a large waste of time in the Opener to better use it the normal was?
Anyway ty for the great article.
Touch of Death is reliant on your actual characters damage (no benefit from SEF clones as their damage is not added), therefore if you really want to squeeze and extra 1000-1400 damage into your touch of death via WDP you are actually losing damage due to missing casts of Blackout Kick and Rising Sun Kick.
I recommend doing your normal opener but saving WDP until the end ticks of SEF. Hope this helps!
Incoming hotfix after this babs XD
Incoming hotfix after this babs!! XD
This sounds like a very nice trick for PvP where the huge burst might come in handy.
Hi , I just try this and there is something i don’t understand. When i use the macro in a standard rotation ( like during a raid boss outside of the pull ) this work very well , but when i try to use it during my pull rotation with touch of death , xuen … clones don’t copy my Whirling dragon punch and just disapear :/ Am i doing something wrong or is these normal ?
You’re likely not waiting for the GCD so that you can use WDP.
This sounds like something that is screaming to be nerfed the second Blizz picks up on it.
This is the cool type of things i wish blizz would incorporate in their game. Having the option to maximize dmg output through tough decisions and witty planning, but taking a dip in dmg if not used correctly.
I would like to state that until this guide I was a big fan of peak and of the work that has been done to push forward monks. This guide encourages the use of a game bug to increase the windwalker damage, this is an exploit and I have reported as such to Blizzard.
I will no longer use Peak as a resource.
We reported it to Blizzard many times over the past few months before we publicized its existence.
My only concern is that Blizzard might try and take action against this kind of play? Im wondering if anyone has experienced bans, suspensions, or similar for using a trick like this including a Macro? I know the macro is incredibly simple, and I’ve used similar ones before, but this is the first time I’ve used one that essentially breaks the intended application of an ability. Its almost an exploit being that we know we’re supposed to have that 45% dmg output with our clones out and we’re removing the aura to essentially do 300% dmg. In the grand scheme of things it seems quite minor being that its only ever for a single hit during one of our usually 3-4 SEF’s throughout a boss fight, or fewer in Dungeon situations, but it still does concern me.
Would it work as a catch-all macro to combine the two like this?
#showtooltip
/cast Whirling Dragon Punch
/cast Rising Sun Kick
/cancelaura Storm, Earth, and Fire
This idea here would be that you would cast WDP if available, otherwise RSK. Thoughts?
Won’t work. It would only check if WDP is ready and uses it for WDP, RSK won’t be considered at all. Macros don’t check if something is on cd and decide what to use.
Won’t work 🙂
Dear WW monk developer, yes, you who are reading this and fixing it in the next hotfix, please give us some feedback on Good Karma and overall damage balancing. Thank you in advance, your really annoyed customer.
Already got fixed?
Nope, still works
I can use a one botton macro like:
/cast WDP
/cast RSK
/cancelaura SEF
Will this work?
Nope, it will never cast RSK.
Isn’t this more a bug abusing than an advanced trick? 300% WDP/RSK damage vs 135% doesn’t seem right here
fixed this night
worked for an hour or two for me, now i can’t cancel SEF at all. Not even right clicking it.
Doesnt seem to be working anymore unfortuantely. Currently Sept 29 12:33am
The cancelaura doesn’t work anymore 🙁
I’ve made the two macros – copied each directly from your text – however it doesn’t seem to work. It casts the ability, either RSK or WDP, but it will not stop SEF. Do I need to be hitting it twice?
#showtooltip
/cast Rising Sun Kick
/cancelaura Storm, Earth, and Fire
#showtooltip
/cast Whirling Dragon Punch
/cancelaura Storm, Earth, and Fire
Is there something I’m missing? Thanks!
do you use another language ? i use the german client and changed it to the german names, after this it worked
Also having this problem.
I’ve got the same problem as Kechlion
Also having this problem, cant figure it out.
Hi,
Does this still work in BFA / 8.3 Patch?
Nothing has changed since the update at the top of the article, so yes the technique can still be performed, but the macros no longer work.