When the Pandaren were subjugated by the Mogu centuries ago, it was the Monks that brought hope to a seemingly dim future. Restricted from using any type of weapon by their slave masters, these Pandaren instead focused on harnessing their chi and learning weaponless combat.
Monks are a hybrid class. Masters of bare-handed combat, monks choose to draw their weapons only for devastating finishing moves. Monk healers bring harmony and balance to every group, healing even the most grievous of injuries with ancient remedies and focused spiritual arts. And few can hope to out-last the unquenchable prowess of the Monk Brewmaster, whose empowering beverages and unpredictable combat style allow them to absorb incredible amounts of punishment.
Pandaren masters have chosen to share their ancient martial arts with young fighters in both the Alliance and Horde. Harnessing their inner strength and potent "chi" energy, Monks are extremely capable in every role: damage, defense, and healing.[2]
Like druids and rogues, monks can only use cloth or leather armor and can't use shields, but can use off-hand items. Stats will be primarily based on Agility (DPS and tanking) and Intellect (healing).[3]
Weapons
Monks are expected to rely heavily upon hand-to-hand combat, but will use weapons for their finishing moves.[3]
[Roll]ωτϖ - roll a short distance (presumably like a Mage's Blink spell). Unlike similar abilities it can be used backwards and sideways as well.[5]
[Flying Serpent Kick] - fly through the air, leg outstretched, and then to slam to the ground, damaging and slowing anything where landing (the ability has a max range of about 40 yards).[7]
[Fist of Fury] - blurring multi-attack that stuns multiple targets.[7]
[Statue of the Jade Serpent] - summons a statue that heals nearby friendly units when the Monk deals damage. Up to 3 can be active at the same time.
[Spinning Crane Kick] - AOE that damages every enemy within 8 yards every second for 6 seconds (5 sec cast).
[Blackout Kick] - 2 Chi, Kick with a blast of sha energy, causing Physical damage to an enemy target. Only useable on targets at or below 35% health. If the target is killed by Blackout Kick, you are refunded 1 Chi.
[Touch of Death] - instantly kill any NPC that has less health than you (1.5-minute cooldown and costs 3 chi).
[Clobber,Club, Pike, Sever] -40 Energy Attack the target with your (Staff ,Maces ,Polearm ,axes), dealing damage and generating 1 Chi.
[Paralysis] - 15 Sec cooldown, You cause the target's muscles to contract, incapacitating them for 30 seconds. If done from behind the target, the duration is doubled. Only one target can be victim to Paralysis at any given time. Any damage taken will cancel the effect.
[Crackling Jade Lightning] -40 yard range, Channels Jade Lightning at the target, causing 4,116 Nature damage over 5.50 seconds. If the enemy attacks you within melee range while victim to Crackling Jade Lightning, they are knocked back a short distance. This effect has an 8 second cooldown.
[Detox] - 40 yard range, Instant Cast, 8 sec cooldown, Eliminates ailments from the friendly target, removing all harmful Poison and Bleed effects.
Brewmaster - Tank, reminiscent of the "drunken master" of martial arts films.[5]
Toss their best keg of brew at their enemies with [Drunken Haze]. All enemies hit get drunk and have a 3% chance to hit themselves for 14k damage anytime they attack. The debuff stacks 3 times.
Avoidance abilities like [Shuffle], [Guard], and [Recoil] to bypass damage for short windows of time and can divert damage from group mates to themselves.
[Stance of the Drunken Ox], which causes all incoming damage to stagger: you take 50% immediately and 50% 3 seconds later.
Mistweaver - Healer, wise man with fighting skills.[5]
Mistweavers’ healing spells focus on bouncing between players and flowing all over the battlefield.[7]
Mistweavers drink different types of tea for different benefits, like restoring mana or boosting heals.[7]
Windwalker - Melee DPS, martial arts master doing damage primarily with fists and feet.[5]
[Muscle Memory] skill, which gives them a 1% critical chance buff every time they jab an enemy from behind, which stacks 100 times and lasts 30 seconds and gets totally wiped when you leave combat.[7]
A passive called [Afterlife] (currently at level 26) that creates a Healing Shpere or a Chi Sphere on the ground anytime they kill an enemy that grants XP or honor, which looks like yellow mist, [7] but will only visible to the monk that created it.[8]
As with all classes in the new talent system, monks will get the option to pick a series of other talents as they level up. Here are some of the notable ones:[9]
[Tiger's Lust] (currently at level 15) is CC breaking talent that also increases movement speed briefly.
[Power Strikes] (currently at level 30) allows any monk to potentially generate a Chi Sphere if their Chi is full.
[Leg Sweep] (currently at level 45) is an AoE knockdown and stun.
Choose spec at level 10 as in Cataclysm, will have multiple spec abilities as you gain levels with more to choose.[3]