Everything you need to gear up your WindWalker Monk
for PvP in the Warlords of Draenor

Skill Capped note: This guide was originally produced by SkillCapped. All of their written guides are available for free (videos guides require membership.) This guide is reprinted on this site with permission. (The original guide is here.)

Gotwarcraft note: This guide was originally produced for patch 5.2, we’ve updated it for Warlords Season 1. This page covers just the gear and stats and such, you can see our WindWalker PvP page for more general info. For all the Warlords changes to Monks go here.

Naturally this guide assume that you’re level 100. If you’re not, then go here and get leveled.

Table of Contents

1. Stat Priority – These are the stats you need, for best effect.
2. Getting Started – Ok, you’re now 100. Here’s how to start.
   • Gems & Enchants
   • Starting  gear
3. Honor Gear – The next stop, getting ready for tougher stuff.
4. Conquest Gear – Now we’re getting serious.
5. Windwalker Monk PvP Professions – No longer for the buffs.
6. Consumables – Useful foods and chemicals.

 

Stat Priority For Windwalker Monk PvP

Windwalker Stat Priority, Briefly

• Agility > Versatility > Multistrike > Crit > Haste > Mastery (source)

Haste, Mastery, and Crit are pretty close in value.

The Descriptions

Agility increases your Attack Power and so increases all of your damage. It no longer adds Crit.

Versatility is a direct add to your damage, your healing, and (at half value) your damage reduction. The defensive value is a good part of the reason that it ranks so highly.

Multistrike gives you one chance (two in PvE) at an additional strike or heal at 30% effect. This is your “attuned” stat and you get an extra 5% from all sources with your level 90 Battle Trance ability. Multistrikes can crit and are increased in damage by your Versatility.

Critical Strike, or Crit, is one of the best secondary stats for a Windwalker Monk. In PvP Crit does 150% damage, 200% in MvP. Also, as an Agility class, you start out with 15% base crit.

Monk play style centers around lining up very strong burst damage in conjunction with your teammate. Critical Strike increases the likelihood of solid damage output during your important cooldowns, namely Rising Sun Kick, Fists of Fury, and Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger.This is the most valuable of “the rest” of the stats.

Haste is esp. important if you’re taking the Chi Brew talent over Ascension (which is recommended.) You will want to extra energy regen that Haste gives you when using Chi Brew. The problem with Haste in Season 1 is that you won’t be able to get enough of it on your gear to make any difference.

Mastery – Your mastery, Mastery: Bottled Fury generates brew stacks faster, allowing you to use those stacks a little more often. The problem is that that speed improvement usually doesn’t matter much as you’re saving stacks for later use anyway.

 

Gemming

There is no PvP gemming in the Warlords of Draenor, not as of Season 1 anyway. Will it happen later? We’ll see. The gems exists, but there are no sockets on PvP gear, only on some raid gear.

For earlier Gearing:

An easy way to go is just to drop Agility gems (Delicate Primordial Ruby) into all sockets and ignore any bonuses, esp. since they’re be tiny.

• Meta: the Agile Primal Diamond adds some damage until you can get the Tyrannical Primal Diamond. Consider using the Powerful Primal Diamond for the reduction in stun duration. it’s not a lot, but it will get you out of that Rogue/Warrior stun just that much sooner (it also stacks with Orc stun resistance.) The legendary gem, if you can get it, is also quite nice.
• Red, Belt Buckle, Blacksmithing (or other prismatic) socket: Delicate Primordial Ruby
• Yellow: Deadly Vermilion Onyx – You probably already have enough Haste from your gear by this point.
• Blue: Assassin’s Imperial Amethyst

Just in case you have a gem socket handy: 

Gems for Warlords of Draenor
Prismatic	Greater Haste Taladite: +50 Haste Haste Taladite: +35 Haste Greater Critical Strike Taladite: +50 Crit Critical Strike Taladite: +35 Crit In the Mists: Delicate Primordial Ruby: 10 Agility
Mists of Pandaria Gems, for gear under ilevel 600.
Meta	Agile Primal Diamond: 14 Agil & 3% Increased Crit Effect
Red	Delicate Primordial Ruby: 10 Agility
Yellow	Quick Sun’s Radiance: 20 Haste Smooth Sun’s Radiance: 20 Crit
Blue	Rigid River’s Heart: +20 Crit Lightning Wild Jade: +10 Haste and +10 Crit
Orange	Deadly Vermilion Onyx: 5 Agility, 10 Crit Crafty Vermilion Onyx: 10 Haste, 10 Crit Deft Vermilion Onyx: 5 Agility, 10 Haste
Purple	Glinting Imperial Amethyst: 5 Ag, 10 Crit Accurate Imperial Amethyst: 10 Haste, 10 Crit
Green	Lightning Wild Jade: +10 Haste and +10 Crit
Cogwheel	equires an engie helm, such as this. Precise Tinker’s Gear: 38 Haste Fractured Tinker’s Gear: 38 Mastery Quick Tinker’s Gear: 38 Haste

 

WW Monk PvP Enchants

Note that these are the same as the PvE enchants.

Warlords Notes: There are no head enchants, all shoulder enchants come from the Inscription profession and are only for items under item level 600. There are new enchants for Neck, Cloak, Weapons, and your Rings. Not for any other pieces. (Not yet, anyway.)

Weapon note: Depending on your interests you might want to try the bleed instead of the stat increases.

Mists enchants can only be added to items under ilevel 600. Warlord enchants can be added to any item, including level 1 heirlooms.

Enchantments
Ranged wpns	Not applicable
Weapons Main and off hands	Enchant Weapon – Glory of the Thunderlord: Sometimes procs 500 Crit for 6 seconds. Enchant Weapon – Mark of the Shattered Hand: Sometimes bleed your enemy for 6 seconds. Enchant Weapon – Glory of the Warsong: Sometimes increase Haste by 1000, which then diminishes by 10% every 2 sec. Mists Enchant Weapon – Dancing Steel: Sometimes add 103 Ag when striking.
Cloak	Enchant Cloak – Gift of Critical Strike: +50 Crit Enchant Cloak – Gift of Haste: +50 Haste As with the rings, there are similar “breath of…” enchants which add +30 to the stat and will likely be much cheaper. Mists Enchant Cloak – Accuracy: 12 Crit rating
Neck	Enchant Neck – Gift of Critical Strike: +50 Crit Enchant Neck – Gift of Haste: +50 Haste As with the rings, there are similar “breath of…” enchants which add +30 to the stat and will likely be much cheaper.
Rings	Enchant Ring – Gift of Critical Strike: +50 Crit Enchant Ring – Gift of Haste: +50 Haste There are similar “breath of…” enchants which add +30 to the stat and will likely be much cheaper.
Other enchants, for gear under item level 600.
Shoulders	Greater Tiger Claw Inscription: 15 Ag, 5 Crit
Chest	Enchant Chest – Glorious Stats: 9 to all Stats
Bracers	Enchant Bracer – Greater Agility: 16 Agility
Gloves	Enchant Gloves – Superior Mastery: 25 Mastery
Belt	Living Steel Belt Buckle: put a nice gem into this slot.
Leggings	Shadowleather Leg Armor: 19 Agility & 11 Crit rating
Boots	Enchant Boots – Blurred Speed: 10 Agility and Slight run speed increase.

 

Getting Started with Windwalker PvP Gearing

This section is geared towards people who have recently hit 100 for the first time, or have an under-geared alt that needs to be primed for beginning the PvP gear grind. (If you need to get to 100, fast, go here.)

Upon achieving level 100, we do NOT advise you to just jump into an Arena, or start grinding Battleground’s, or do any sort of PvP for that matter fresh off of leveling in your leveling items. Chances are many of the enemies in a Battleground will seriously out-gear your fresh level 100, which means they will have a major advantage over you in a PvP setting.

There is no crafted PvP gear in Warlords, unlike prior expansions, but you can equip some pretty decent PvE gear at level 91. This is going to cost you some time and work in your garrison or a fair amount of gold, which you should have if you quested your way to 100. If you don’t then see our gold tips and earn some.

Depending on how fast you’re gaining honor, and your cash supply, you might want to skip the expense of the enchants, even though they will give you a bit of a plus.

 

The Gear

Most of this section assumes that you’re at least level 90, but if you’re lower level you shouild be able to get an idea or two from it.

Remember that Resilience and PvP power are dead on high level gear. They do appear on lower level PvP gear, but it’s not likely that you’ll be able to gain enough to be interesting.

The Gear at Level 90

If you just hit 90 and you’re going to PvP at that level for awhile, then grab the crafted set off the Auction House or from a friendly Leatherworker. Or skip it if you’re just blasting through the levels. Here’s the gear, if you’re interested:

1. Crafted Malevolent Gladiator’s Medallion of Tenacity – This is #1 if you don’t already have something similar, otherwise save the gold.
2. Crafted Malevolent Gladiator’s Ironskin Gloves -Your Gloves come with the major benefit of clearing all movement impairing effects whenever you use your Roll, Chi Torpedo (when talented), or Flying Serpent Kick abilities. This allows your Monk to stay very mobile and increases uptime on your target dramatically, in addition to saving your PvP trinket for roots and such.
3. Crafted Malevolent Gladiator’s Ironskin Tunic – 2 piece set bonus increases the range of Fists of Fury and Keg Smash.
4. Crafted Malevolent Gladiator’s Ironskin Helm
5. Crafted Malevolent Gladiator’s Ironskin Legguards – 4 piece set bonus for +5% damage.
6. Crafted Malevolent Gladiator’s Waistband of Cruelty
7. Crafted Malevolent Gladiator’s Boots of Cruelty
8. Crafted Malevolent Gladiator’s Ironskin Spaulders
9. Crafted Malevolent Gladiator’s Armwraps of Accuracy
10. Crafted Malevolent Gladiator’s Cape of Cruelty

At Level 91

91? Yes. While there is no crafted PvP gear in Draenor you can equip high level crafted crafted PvE gear at 91. You can only equip three pieces though. On the other hand, you can reroll stats on pieces that need it and you can upgrade the pieces (for a hefty price.) Weapons start at 630 and the armor at 640.

If you have Alchemy you can make an Alchemist trinket, in addition to the three pieces of crafted gear ( Draenic Philosopher’s Stone, requires Alchemy 500.) In patch 6.1 this trinket can be upgraded. It has a pretty nice Agility proc and gives you a better effect from your healing potions (if you ever use them.)

This gear will carry you through till 100, when you can get the official PvP stuff.

Gearing At Level 100

PvP gear in WoD has two ratings, one for PvE, the other for PvP. For example, the Honor gear is 620/675. The second number applies to any PvP that you do and is higher than any PvE gear that you’re likely to get.

PvE gear is uprated in instanced PvP to 650, but the PvP gear starts at 660 and so is clearly better. Very high level raid gear will be better than any but the Conquest gear, so if you’re decked out in 675+ raid gear keep it and work on the conquest gear.

There are actually three tiers of PvP gear in Warlords.

1. Primal Aspirant is ilevel 600/660 and is found in strongboxes won from the BGs or Ashran PvP events. It can also be found as “Warforged,” which adds 6 item levels. This gear can only be found in the strongboxes.
2. Primal Combatant is the honor gear. It’s 620/675 and can also be Warforged. This gear can be bought, awarded from your Gladiator’s Sanctum work orders, or found in strongboxes.
3. Primal Gladiator is the Conquest gear and is 660/690. It cannot be Warforged.

Every gear slot has two options for the honor gear and three, with sufficient faction rep, for the Conquest gear. Only one of those options come with a set bonus, the others do not. The Season 1 set bonuses are:

1. 2 piece: When you use Roll, the Energy cost of your Jab is reduced by 30 for 3 sec.
2. 4 piece: Increases the duration of Tigereye Brew by 3 sec (15 -> 18 seconds.)

Example chest items for the Conquest gear. Honor is similar, but without the Rep piece.

The rep pieces are the only way to get Versatility on your Conquest gear.  There is no Versatility on the Honor gear.

1. Primal Gladiator’s Ironskin Tunic has the set bonus. This piece has Crit & Mastery
2. Primal Gladiator’s Tunic has no bonus, it comes with Crit & Multistrike.
3. Primal Gladiator’s Chestguard is the Rep piece, has no set bonus, and has Haste & Versatility.

Another set bonus is from your PvP trinkets. Equip two (one medallion and one emblem) and you get a 10% damage reduction Vs all player caused damage.

 

Windwalker Monk Conquest Gear

What Conquest Gear to Get, and What Order

This season, there are three pieces of conquest gear for each slot. In hopes of creating a more level playing field, Blizzard has decided to do away with rating requirements for all items (except for the weapons.) This means that all players will have access to the best PvP gear available, provided they earn enough conquest points to purchase the items.

These are the Versatility pieces (all Alliance, but the Horde pieces are the same.) All require Revered rep with Wyrnn’s Vanguard or Vol’jin’s Spear. If you want the set bonuses then you can get them without the rep requirement and then get the rep for the remaining pieces.

Your Weapon(s,) neck, rings, and cloak can be enchanted.

You will need 7,250 Conquest points to get your weapon(s,) but the honor pieces have no such requirement. In that case get your weapon first.

For the Set Bonuses…

For the Honor set go ahead on grab the Ironskin pieces, since there is no Versatility set. For the Conquest set give it serious consideration. Pick any four for the 4-piece set.

Other items that do not have the set bonuses, rep requirement, or Versatility are listed also.

1. Primal Gladiator’s Ironskin Gloves (Crit & Haste) – get these and any one of the other pieces first for the 2-piece Conquest set, as the point total for your weapons will be very close (7,500 earned, 7250 needed.)
2. Primal Gladiator’s Ironskin Tunic (Crit & Mastery)
3. Primal Gladiator’s Ironskin Helm (Multistrike & Haste)
4. Primal Gladiator’s Ironskin Legguards (Haste & Mastery)
5. Primal Gladiator’s Ironskin Spaulders (Multistrike & Mastery)

The other pieces

No set bonuses, no rep required, no Vesatility.

1. Weapon: Primal Gladiator’s Pike – All the weapons are Crit & Mastery. 2h weapons have more stats then the pair of one handers, but with the latter you get two enchants.
2. DPS trinket – Primal Gladiator’s Insignia of Conquest
3. Primal Gladiator’s Cape of Cruelty (Crit & Mastery)
4. Ring #1 – Primal Gladiator’s Ring of Prowess (Crit & Multistrike)
5. Ring #2 – Primal Gladiator’s Ring of Cruelty (Crit & Mastery)
6. Primal Gladiator’s Necklace of Cruelty
7. Trinket #2 – Primal Gladiator’s Medallion of Cruelty

The Whole Set of Windwalker PvP Gear

All the Versatility (Rep) pieces are listed here. If you’re going for the honor version then get the weapon first.

1. Primal Gladiator’s Chestguard
2. Primal Gladiator’s Grips
3. Weapon(s) & enchant(s) (above)
4. Primal Gladiator’s Headcover
5. Primal Gladiator’s Leggings
6. Primal Gladiator’s Pauldrons
7. Primal Gladiator’s Belt of Victory
8. Primal Gladiator’s Boots of Victory
9. Primal Gladiator’s Bindings of Victory
10. Back and enchant (above)
11. Rings and enchants (above)
12. Neck and enchant (above)
13. Trinket #2 (above)

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Windwalker Monk PvP Professions

Warlords killed off all of the profession perks. There is no longer a Leatherworking Agility enchant, no more Agility cooldown from Engineering, etc.

You can make some useful starting pieces, but there is no PvP specific gear and no special bonuses, and non of the special items can be used in rated PvP.

Leveling a new profession used to be costly, but the Warlords professions are easier, faster, and much cheaper than before with your Garrison.

That being said, here are the best professions for a Windwalker Monks:

Professions for …

In Warlords there are no professions bonuses. No special stat boosts that characters without the profession cannot get. The only profession that provides a stat buff, to yourself or anyone else, is cooking (feasts will feed the raid for +75 to their best secondary stat.)

Professions now are for the gear and/or the gold. Most have something that can be used as starting raid/pvp gear or sold, such as ilevel 640 gear pieces. Leveling a profession can be done quickly and relatively easily once you get the Draenor version.

Some of the professions, eg: Engineering, have really useful items for leveling and world events. They’re not usable in raids, however (sigh.. no firing rockets at the boss…)

At this point, probably the most useful professions for you are Engineering (cool toys) and Leatherworking (tents, drums.)

Professions
Blacksmithing	Mail and Plate armor and weapons. Keys for locks.
Engineering	will let you create a number of useful items, such as rockets, shields, a stealth device, etc. These cannot be used in rated PvP, but that can be used elsewhere, such as World PvP or in Highmaul Coliseum.
Jewelcrafting	Useful (ilevel 640) rings and neck items, pretty gems, gemmed mounts.
Inscription	Glyphs, some trinkets, caster weapons, fortune & Darkmoon cards, and more.
Alchemy	Chemistry is fun, unfortunately you can’t make acids or bombs. You can make flasks and potions to boost stats and cause other interesting effects. You can also make a very nice DPS trinket: Draenic Philosopher’s Stone, requires Alchemy 500. This item is upgradable in 6.1.
Enchanting	Enchant all those items and cast illusionary enchants.
Tailoring	Cloth armor, flying carpet, murlock chew toy and allows you to make nets (Embersilk Net) and battle standards (such as: Fearsome Battle Standard)
Leatherworking	will let you make entry level armor for raids (ilevel 640.) You can also make the items to reroll the stats and also to upgrade the items to 665, at a cost far exceeding that of the original piece. You can also make Drums of Fury for a Heroism type buff (25% Haste for 40 sec.) Through the Leatherworking hut in your Garrison you can make single use tents that will increase your agility by 10% for an hour.
Archeology	will let you pick up ilevel 620 items, usable at 91, which are bind on account. There are four items, but only the one is for you. Here‘s the list.
Skinning	For gold gathering and for leatherworking
Herbalism	For Inscription, Alchemy, and gold gathering
Mining	Making gold and powering Blacksmithing and some engineering.

 

Comsumables

Various consumables will have some use outside of rated PvP.

Note that Pandarens get twice the food buff. All food buffs last one hour. Any Agility bonuses (such as your level 50 leather bonus) also add to the food and chemical bonuses.

Food buffs go away when killed, flasks do not. Your agility flask is better than any pair of elixirs.

Foods

• Feast of Blood: 75 in highest secondary stat, feeds up to 30
• Feast of the Waters: 75 in highest secondary stat, feeds up to 10
• Gorgrond Chowder: 100 Versatility
• Skulker Chowder or Clefthoof Sausages: 75 Versatility

Agility Foods

• Sea Mist Rice Noodles: 34 Ag
• Valley Stir Fry: 31 Ag

Flasks

• Greater Draenic Agility Flask: 250 Ag for an hour
• Draenic Agility Flask: 200 Ag for an hour
• Flask of Spring Blossoms: 114 Ag for one hour

Potions

• Draenic Agility Potion: +1,000 Ag for 25 seconds
• Virmen’s Bite: 456 Ag for 25 seconds. If you pop one immediately before combat you will be able to pop another during combat.
• Master Healing Potion: Heals 12k HP
• Darkwater Potion: When 15 seconds of faster running/swimming might be useful.

Other

• Runescroll of Fortitude III: 8% increased Stamina to your entire group.
• Oralius’ Whispering Crystal: +200 to all stats.

 

Good Luck!

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