Still not actively playing, but the 5.1 changes have stirred my theorycrafters’ heart, so let’s take a look. :) (Much love to wowhead for compiling all this so I can just cut and paste.)

•  Spear Hand Strike now costs 10 energy (was 30).

Nice change for Windwalkers here. Previously, you had to slow DPS to ensure you’d have enough energy to interrupt; now, you don’t need to worry.

• The energy costs of  Legacy of the Emperor, and  Legacy of the White Tiger have been reduced to 20, down from 50.

Quality-of-life change.

• The energy cost of  Healing Sphere has been reduced to 40, down from 60.
• The healing provided by the  Healing Sphere base spell has been increased by 20%.

Healing Sphere still doesn’t put out enough healing to be significant for non-mistweavers, but it’s now significantly easier to heal yourself now if you’re not talented into Zen Sphere.

• The healing provided by  Chi Burst and  Chi Wave has been reduced by 25%.
• The healing provided when detonating  Zen Sphere has been reduced by 25%.

This hurts Mistweavers the most; WW and BM mostly use it for self-healing, so the HS buff helps there, but Mistweaver AoE took a hit across the board (see below).

• The Tiger Power provided by  Tiger Palm now reduces target armor by 30% with a single application and no longer stacks.

No more stacking, yay! This doesn’t really affect Brewmasters at all (TP remains filler) but it definitely helps Windwalker ramp-up time, and even helps Mistweavers do some Eminence healing if they choose. (I’m 99% sure that the wording here is just bad; you don’t actually reduce the target’s armor, you just reduce the target’s armor effectiveness against your attacks.)

•  Stance of the Fierce Tiger now increases the Monk’s movement speed by 10% in addition to its other effects. This movement speed increase stacks with other effects.

Monks didn’t really need a speed boost, but I’ll take it.

• The  Power Strikes talent now grants the  Power Strikes effect every 20 seconds, which causes the Monk’s next attack to generate 1 additional Chi.

The Wowhead wording appears wrong here. The duration of PS hasn’t changed, but now it can be triggered by Jab, Crackling Jade Lightning, or Soothing Mist. Moreover, you also now have a visible buff that pops up every 20 seconds, so it’s easier to plan around.

What’s more interesting, though, is the Ascension change, which isn’t mentioned in the notes at all. Ascension now grants +15% energy/mana regen in addition to the max Chi boost, making it a much more attractive talent. For Windwalkers, some napkin math shows that it’s still inferior to PS or CB, but only if you can trigger those abilities on cooldown. If your PS usage is around 2/min (or CB slips to every 2 min instead of 90 sec) then Ascension will win out. Brewmaster and Mistweaver optimization  will take a bit more in-depth theorycraft.

• The  Healing Elixirs talent now grants the  Healing Elixirs effect every 18 seconds, which causes the next Brew or Tea consumed to heal the Monk for 10% of maximum health.

Nerfed from 15 seconds. Not entirely sure why, wasn’t really a desired talent in the first place.

Mistweaver specific stuff:

•  Renewing Mist now travels to 2 additional targets (was 3 targets).

Ouch, that’s a big AoE healing nerf, which only serves to make the spell even more frustrating.

• All healing spells which cost mana have had their mana cost increased by 10%.
• You now have a chance equal to your crit chance to generate double the amount of  Mana Tea charges.

The second change helps compensate somewhat for the first. More evidence to stack crit, apparently.

•  Enveloping Mist is now available at level 16, down from level 34.

MMOC has this listead as getting a 32% nerf, which appears wrong; probably just an artifact of the spell being available at an earlier level.

• The mana cost of  Soothing Mist has been reduced by 33%.
• Haste for Mistweavers is now 50% more effective through  Stance of the Wise Serpent
• The chance to generate 1 Chi while channeling  Soothing Mist and  Crackling Jade Lightning has increased to 35%, up from 25%.

These changes suggest they’re really trying to push the use of Soothing Mist more; it did need a buff, as it was nearly outperformed by Eminence healing from CJL in its previous incarnation.

Feel free to share your comments! I’ll probably be digging into the new Patch 5.1 content in the next few weeks…I’m in no hurry, as I’ve still got ACIII and BL2 that I’m working through.

With the expansion pack going live tomorrow (YAY!), here’s a roundup post to point you to all the good stuff I have to offer for Monks.

A Quick Intro

Monks can be any race, except goblin or worgen. They are melee fighters who wear leather armor and use staves/one handed weapons, and can serve a role as a damage-dealer (DPS), tank, or healer. All roles utilize Chi, a 4-point power system similar to a paladin’s holy power, to “charge” their strongest attacks.

Leveling a Monk

• Check out my comprehensive Monk Leveling Guide, where I discuss items you’ll want for a new character (heirlooms, bags, the whole list) and a full description of each ability and how to use it as you progress to 90.

Specializations

Whichever specialization you choose, I’ve got a full guide that covers the key abilities and mechanics of the spec, what rotations to use, information on gemming, enchanting, consumables, talents, glyphs, and more!

• Brewmaster: The tanking specialization, focused on using Stagger and Shuffle to avoid and mitigate enemy attacks. Here’s my full Brewmaster guide.
• Mistweaver: The healing specialization, focused on using a variety of heal-over-time effects and damage-based healing to restore party members. Here’s my full Mistweaver guide.
• Windwalker: The damage-dealing specialization, focused on striking like a martial artist to kill things quickly. Here’s my full WIndwalker guide.
• I Have No Idea Don’t Judge Me: Check out my “So you want to be…” articles for WoW Insider, where I break down each spec in plain language. (Brewmaster, Mistweaver, Windwalker.)

General Monk Info

• Here’s a full list of monk talents, with recommendations for each spec.
• And here’s a full list of monk glyphs, again with recommendations for each spec.
• Check out my article on the Peak of Serenity, the monk-only refuge where you can engage in an epic monk-only questline (with great rewards) or train everything you need. (On WoW Insider.)

Other Monk info sites

• My blogroll is woefully out of date, but make sure you bookmark Disargeria over at Monk and Monk. I’ve got some spec-specific guides linked in the guide to each spec: if you have a useful resource to share, just link it in the comments!

Lots of balancing changes ahoy in Build 15972. I’m not going to comment on the DPS ability changes (frankly, I can’t read the datamined tooltip changes, and they look wrong anyway) but my general impression has been that WW DPS was fairly balanced already.

Talents

• Leg Sweep now has a 45 sec cooldown, up from 25 sec.

Brewmaster

• Breath of Fire additional damage reduced by 67%.
• Brewing: Elusive Brew now allows up to 3 stacks of Elusive Brew from autoattacks, up from 2.
• Elusive Brew now has a 9 sec cooldown, up from 1 sec.
• Vengeance now works off of 2% of the unmitigated damage rather than 5% of the damage taken. Now has a 20 sec duration and no cap on a percentage of your health.

Windwalker & Mistweaver

• Tiger Strikes is now Windwalker and Mistweaver Spec.

Leg Sweep had to change; a 5 sec AoE stun on a 25 sec cooldown was just way too powerful for damage mitigation. 45 sec is still probably too low; I’d expect it to settle somewhere around 90 sec. (For comparison’s sake, druids get a level 75 talent, Mighty Bash, that is a single-target 5 sec stun with a 60 sec cooldown.)

Breath of Fire change: meh, tank AoE DPS isn’t a large deal in the scheme of things. Probably a challenge mode change. Elusive Brew change was necessary, sadly, people were trying to time single EBrew charges with boss swings, which is totally unfun.  Vengeance changes were already discussed…oh, and Mistweavers got Tiger Strikes for some reason, which is lolworthy considering they’re primary damage spell has a knockback. :) I guess it buffs Eminence a bit?

From mmo-c:

• Blackout Kick damage was increased. Windwalkers gained an additional effect: If behind the target, you deal an additional 20% damage over 4 sec. If in front of the target, you are instantly healed for 20% of the damage done.
• Expel Harm healing was changed to (3.15 * (MainHand DPS + 50% of OffHand DPS + 7.1% of AP – 1)) to (3.15 * (MainHand DPS + 50% of OffHand DPS + 7.1% of AP + 1)).
• Resuscitate now costs 20% of Base Mana / 50 Energy, down from 67% Base Mana / 100 Energy.

Brewmaster

• Brewmaster Training now buffs an additional ability: Spear Hand Strike no longer costs Energy.
• Dizzying Haze now causes melee attacks to misfire, rather than all attacks.
• Stance of the Sturdy Ox now shrugs off physical attacks, rather than just melee attacks.

Windwalker

• Adaptation: Your chance to dodge is increased by 25% for 5 sec rather than 1% until cancelled.
• Combat Conditioning (New) Your Blackout Kick now also deals an additional 20% damage over 4 sec if behind the target or heals you for 20% of the damage done if if front of the target. Monk – Windwalker Spec.

The new patch isn’t live yet, so I can’t test these changes, but Blackout Kick got a huge buff across the board. Damage doubled, first off. Second, Windwalkers get either 20% more damage if attacking from behind, or a 20% of damage heal if attacking from the front. That should stick it back in the rotation, though I’ll wait to edit the guide until I can test it to be sure. The Expel Harm tooltip is a bit unclear; can’t tell if it now scales off both SP and AP or just changed from SP to AP. That’ll make quite a difference for BM/WW, obviously. Everything else is pretty much expected, though the tanking stance change is interesting. I’d have to look to see what boss specials were Physical-type.

Oh, and free interrupts. I think that’s mostly universal now, or will be (otherwise QQ about X tank with free interrupts is better because they can spend more resources on mitigation).