The One True Monk Rotation

I wanted to share my Monk rotation because I feel like contributing to the community. While this rotation doesn't achieve the highest theoretical DPS possible with Monks, I believe it has one of the highest expected DPS outputs, factoring in likelihood of human execution and mechanics. I'm also not going to justify my claims or points of view because I don't have a lot of time.

There are two broad approaches to Monk rotation design:

1. Stuffing into one GL duration as many high potency actions as possible. Symptoms of these sorts of rotations are that they don't use True Strike and they weave in skills like Impulse Drive.
2. Going through your forms as quickly as possible.

This rotation belongs to the latter umbrella.

Phase 1: Operation Greased Lightning

Dragon Kick -> Twin Snakes -> Demolish
Dragon Kick -> Twin Snakes -> Snap Punch
Bootshine -> True Strike -> Snap Punch

Phase 2: Steady State

Touch of Death
Dragon Kick -> Twin Snakes -> Demolish -> Fracture
Bootshine -> True Strike -> Snap Punch
Dragon Kick -> Twin Snakes -> Snap Punch
Bootshine -> True Strike -> Demolish -> Fracture
Dragon Kick -> Twin Snakes -> Snap Punch
Bootshine -> True Strike -> Snap Punch
Refresh Touch of Death whenever it drops

Off GCD Buffs and Monk Burst

Skills are: Internal Release, Blood for Blood, Perfect Balance.
Pop IR whenever is up.
Pop B4B whenever is up.
Whenever PB is up, I pop B4B, IR, and PB and then do Snap Punch spam. This is a lot of burst dmg for 10s. Details are:
- If you're diligent with IR, you should be able to use it twice before it syncs with PB.
- If you're somewhat diligent with B4B, it should be going off once before it's ready to be synced with PB.
- So for every third IR and for every other B4B, this happens:
Dragon Kick -> (B4B) Twin Snakes -> (IR) Snap Punch -> (PB) Snap Punch x6.

Trailing Crap

Trigger Howling Fist and Mercy Stroke every time they're up. Try to position yourself so HF hits as many as possible but don't bother saving it for "the right moment." Just use it.

In the end, your xclass skills are: Blood for Blood, Bloodbath, Fracture, Invigorate, Mercy Stroke

Have fun!

Oh, One More Thing (About Impulse Drive)

You can also switch out Mercy Stroke with Impulse Drive as a steady state DPS boost, if you have a bard for TP regen, or a burst option for DPS races. You can comfortably fit in two IDs per GL duration and drop True Strike.

I didn't talk about TP, GL refresh risk, mechanics, wiggle room, special conditions, etc. You'll just get a feel for what is right as you play and when you should move from using ID and when not to use ID.

Do you have something against Touch of Death?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Xell

Do you have something against Touch of Death?

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LOL good call. I fixed that typo.

Now all we need is a macro! :)

You can't use True Strike + Fracture between 2 Twin snakes, you will land 1 AA + 1 Twin Snakes without the 10% buff and more if you have a GCD > 2s

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sheth

Now all we need is a macro! :)

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From the looks of the rotation, i would run the following:

#1(Flank)
/ac "Snap Punch" <t>
/ac "Twin Snakes" <t>
/ac "Dragon Kick" <t>

#2(Behind)
/ac "Snap Punch" <t>
/ac "True Strike" <t>
/ac "Bootshine" <t>

#3(DoTs)
/ac "Demolish" <t>
/ac "Touch of Death" <t>

Has your main position cycles covered and then you swap in your DoTs as needed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WLMF

From the looks of the rotation, i would run the following:

#1(Flank)
/ac "Snap Punch" <t>
/ac "Twin Snakes" <t>
/ac "Dragon Kick" <t>

#2(Behind)
/ac "Snap Punch" <t>
/ac "True Strike" <t>
/ac "Bootshine" <t>

#3(DoTs)
/ac "Demolish" <t>
/ac "Touch of Death" <t>

Has your main position cycles covered and then you swap in your DoTs as needed.

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I could be wrong, but why bother with these macros? They don't work as intended, won't automatically use all the skills when they are up in order. You can't even use /wait, since it only deals with whole numbers. This isn't a criticism against your macro, just non-CD macros in general.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sheth

Now all we need is a macro! :)

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I didn't include macros or quality of life suggestions because that's really up to each player and what he's comfortable with. I personally don't use macros for GCD skills because, even though I shared with you a rotation, I often change things up depending on what's going on, what's possible, what's safer for my next GL refresh, etc.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rapiso

You can't use True Strike + Fracture between 2 Twin snakes, you will land 1 AA + 1 Twin Snakes without the 10% buff and more if you have a GCD > 2s

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I'm okay with that. You can certainly use Twin Snakes every time if you're worried about potentially losing 3-13 potency every two GL rotations. Without going too much into how I play my monk, let's just say I really like True Strike for its non-positional potency and that it's ~30% more TP efficient per potency.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Solen

I could be wrong, but why bother with these macros? They don't work as intended, won't automatically use all the skills when they are up in order. You can't even use /wait, since it only deals with whole numbers. This isn't a criticism against your macro, just non-CD macros in general.

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It is not a hit-it-and-forget-it wonder macro which I should have stated before. Its a macro that is hit repeatedly on the global and it will fire off the appropriate ability based upon form.

I really like this. Thanks.
I've seen a lot of rotations which basically does the same thing, but this makes it clearer in my mind.
As I'm levelling I've seen almost no damage distinction between True Strike and Twin Snakes. Also, the buff always drops around the bootshine before the refresh if I try to alternate.
I only have GL2 so perhaps that's why it drops off? What's the damage difference for True and Twin at 50?
I'm not against True Strike, but I'd like to know there's more incentive to use it later.

I find refreshing demolish every 3rd rotation is a problem at times with the way dot clipping in this game works, especially when a <2 second gcd comes along.
It doesn't overwrite a 1/4 second demolish with buffs and it doesn't refresh GL. Been so many times i haven't noticed before i hit bootshine or dragon kick and skipped ceorl form.

I'm not even sure if its a good idea to without that issue. With dots ticking to a server clock could you not start overwriting before the final tick of the previous demolish?

I don't like static rotations because the only time you will ever go through them is during the 100% phase (the phase that don't matter).

I generally recommend sticking to 3+2 during stable phases, 3+1 during unstable phases, and 1-2-3 during end phases

DK-twin-snap is the #1 glory rotation, it's all flank meaning it's easssy to get full damage, it works with internal releases, off gcds skills, and bloodbath spams. You name it, this rotation accommodates for it.

boot-twin-snap/demolish is #2 that you've been using most of the mnk life, and rotated in whenever you feel it's stable, and not run out your dk debuffs.

the +1/2 skills are weaved in at any time you feel the boss is good for it, such as ID/ToD/fracture/etc, and should be skipped at any time you know you're in trouble.

Sure Pro's will go more advance, when they can anticipate every stable window of a boss fight, but the mental stress of a complex rotation does more bad then good IMO. Especially if you switch FoF/FoW/FoE a lot.

True strike should never be used, and boot should be used sparingly at 50. DK and twin are preferred because your auto attack, off GCD attacks, get full benefit for it, and IR is just wasted on a boot. In the long run, your mind and your total output will thank you for that.

When you get down to it...

dk-twin-snap/demolish all flank style will net you 90% effectiveness and give you 50% safely (since you barely need to adjust and dodge at all)

The production of a dk-twin-snap/demolish only rotation is like the drg's fail safe. At worse you're producing respectable output, at best you just avoided being shoved into the gutter from a messy battle.