I have three Monks on the Beta: a pre-made 85 named Wuxiang, a Brewmaster Pandaren named Shengwu (see what I did there) who is at 18 or 19 (can't remember) and a Human Female named Icatia who just hit level 20 (and if you get the reference her name is making, congratulations! You're almost as nerdy as I am!)
Couple things: Is it weird that I kind of want to make my primary monk a human? The Pandaren are cool, and all, and their starting zone, while inferior to the Cataclysm races' starting zones in my opinion, is still quite good, and very pretty. Part of the motivation here is that everyone's going to have a Pandaren Monk. Ironically, by choosing a human I would actually be going against the grain (though not as much as, say, a Dwarf - though can you think of a better race for a Brewmaster? I don't care what Blizzard says: dwarves are the greatest drinkers in Azeroth or any other world. That's just a fundamental fact of the universe.)
This raises a conundrum or two, though. Given the plethora of alts I have, I really only have one chance to make a Pandaren (unless I were to make two Pandaren Monks, which seems a bit silly.) And while I know they're officially the neutral race, I don't really feel the Pandaren make a good fit with the rest of the Horde. Ok, that's not entirely true. I can see them getting along with Tauren, Trolls, Blood Elves, and even Goblins. But I really don't see Pandaren fitting in with the Horde's two most dominant races - the Orcs and the Undead (though perhaps after Garrosh is no longer in charge...)
The other thing is that, as much as I'd prefer not to marginalize my Horde characters, the fact is that my main, and the characters I can actually take on real, non-LFR raids are Alliance. That's where the guild is. That means that the Monk I should probably focus on will be my Alliance one, and if I'm going to focus on a new toon, I figure I should go with the new race (Hell, I had a level 80 warrior in Wrath, but I leveled up Ardten mainly so I could have a Worgen I actually played. I even switched the Orc, Rechtar, from Prot/Arms to Prot/Fury so that Ardten could have my favorite Warrior spec and still give both warriors a useful offspec.)
Still as much as people may say it's boring to play a human, I actually think that there's a lot of cool story stuff going on for them. While the Orcs are a disgraced people struggling between their desire to restore their honor and their desire to restore their pride, the humans are caught between a desire for peace and a desire for justice. Let's be totally frank here: the Alliance have suffered at the hands of the Horde far more than the Horde has suffered at the hands of the Alliance. The internment camps following the second war were not perfect, but when you defeat a vast army who have no way of getting back to their homeland, what are you supposed to do with them? Better than exterminating them.
Anyway, while one can complain about the overdose of pop-culture references, I absolutely adore the story of Westfall, which I have just quested through on Icatia. It's wonderfully frustrating, as you see how there is a real pain in the people there, and they really aren't getting the kind of life they deserve. Vanessa VanCleef is not a good person. She is a manipulator, and ultimately a destructive force. Yet at the same time, defeating her does not make all the problems that made her go away. It's that kind of ambiguity beneath the typical black and white morality of the Alliance that I really wish we saw more of. Oddly, I actually think the Humans are the Alliance's darkest race (though it really should be the Worgen, and probably would be if they had a chance to get their story developed.)
But this is all just my own ranting. Let's talk about the actual leveling process for early-game monks.
Windwalkers now get a passive bonus that causes Jab to generate two chi instead of one. Combined with the Chi spheres pouring out of every Blackout Kick (which I have to imagine is slightly bugged) it's going to be quite rare that you'll find yourself out of resources. If for no other reason, I like this change because it gives you something I really think was missing, which is a definitive "now you are a Windwalker" moment upon picking a spec. Those level 10 spec abilities need to be radical to really enforce in people's minds what kind of Monk (or other class) they are.
Like Brewmasters, there is the disappointing drip-drip of abilities in those early levels. At 10 you get Fists of Fury, and then at 18 you get Flying Serpent Kick. Now, don't get me wrong. Flying Serpent Kick is really, really cool. But it seems like you should be getting more abilities.
One thing I like is that you can really use whichever kinds of weapons you'd prefer. For me, I'm definitely most interested in Polearms and Staves, because what other class actually gets to fight with those? Hunter and Druids were the only classes before that used them (well, and casters use caster staves, but that's neither here nor there,) and in both cases they were only really stat-sticks. I've heard them say they want Brewmasters to stick to 2-handers while Windwalkers can choose either, but I don't really see why either should be limited. The only attack that is based on weapon damage is Jab, which is normalized between 2-handers and dual-wielding. Everything else is an unarmed Kung Fu move. And since parry-haste hasn't really been an issue since Wrath of the Lich King, I don't see why a Brewmaster couldn't dual-wield Tankards of Terror (and oh man, shouldn't they?)
I can't really recall when other classes get their cleaves and AoE moves, but getting nothing until 46 seems a little harsh.
In terms of UI, I'll repeat that I'd like to be able to see my Chi meter above my action bar, though with a Windwalker you're less likely to be worried about it. The other main thing is that with all the health-bar-watching, I'm sure I'll either need to set up a Power Aura to tell me when to switch from Tiger Palm to Blackout Kick, or they should put one in themselves.
Anyway, overall the Windwalker seems to be the spec that is making the most sense (though I have not yet tried the Mistweaver. I really should try it, but in the five and a half years I've been playing I have never been able to get myself to stick to a dedicated healer.)
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