Whirling assault doesn't feel great

It'd be nice if we could cast whirling assault without moving which doesn't seem to work atm.

It also feels a little desyncy when using it

The targeting on it also doesnt feel great

I've been trying this skill out and I feel like it could perhaps lower your hitbox a bit more so mobs wouldn't block you. Looking at the video of the skills and repeating it in practice (going through mobs) is very hard feat to repeat.

Also, the skill seems to be balanced with using Staggering Palm's buff bonus (flying projectiles) in mind, however it would be great if it would be useful without it.

So far the only real upside of this skill vs others is when bossing in campaign. It's very easy to hit the bell with this spell. I've even got 2 bells and can hit them simultaneously and stun boss for a long time.

Yeah the ability to hit two bells is probably the only real use for this skill.

I've been trying to make it useful for clearing for the last 2 weeks and it just so bad it's unbelievable. Sometimes i literally couldn't kill a zombie from cruel Path of Mourning in act 2 with a 190% phys damage staff and three sockets. Nearly died trying to use it in Infested Barrens, on a MAPPING CHARACTER, because you're constantly locked in place.

Whirling Assault has a neat animation, has good synergy with Bell (both building combo and hitting the Bell)... and that's about it. I say this as someone who has spent the past 300+ hours playing physical Monk, for thematic reasons and testing purposes: clear crowds and build Daze with Wind Blast + Devastate + Armour Explosion, build power charges for Charged Staff, Staggering Palm stun-ready targets to gain extra projectiles for Wind Blast and Whirling Assault, WA crowds and bosses to build combo, drop Bell(s) and spin into them next to elites and bosses to murder them with Staggering Palm and Charged Staff active. I sustain T15-18s with this build, and have killed almost every pinnacle boss with it (currently missing Olroth and King).

This is probably how GGG wants Monk to play, and it's not necessarily bad with decent investment. But it pales in comparison to just running Ice Strike + Herald and deleting entire screens. It also takes way, way more effort to play this way. I held off on using Charged Staff for the longest time because it was too easy of an answer to make the build work, but I eventually relented. The damage is just too important.

And that's before we get to Whirling Assault's problems itself:

1. Pitiful Damage: It's designed to proc Bell and shoot little wind projectiles everywhere with Staggering Palm (which has its own set of problems), but there are so few ways to scale physical damage that it's just not worth using WA raw on anything but trash mobs. Even then, the only way to get this skill to do remotely decent damage without Bell up is to have Charged Staff active.

2. Inconsistent Behavior: Sometimes Whirling Assault will spin in place, often when an enemy is directly in front of you. Sometimes it'll travel forward, shoving enemies to the side and allowing you to carve a path out of high density. Sometimes it'll just stop short while moving and cause you to spin in place. There doesn't seem to be much logic about what causes the skill to spin in place and what causes you to travel forward (or in a J-shape).

3. Awkward Movement: Whirling Assault is a thematically satisfying skill. You start off slow, accelerate during the skill, then decelerate at the end. It flows well, but this makes WA very awkward to use in a game where you need lots of damage the moment you hit the button. Whirling Assault's slow movement also means you can easily take lots of damage or die during the travel time unless you cancel the ability with a dodge roll - which is the only way to cancel WA early. Additionally, linking WA to duration gems doesn't alter its travel time. This would be useful to squeeze more hits out of Whirling Assault for Bell damage.

4. Absurd Mana Costs: Every skill currently suffers from painful mana costs, even with mana regen on the tree and mana leech on gear. But Whirling Assault is especially bad. At lv21, WA costs roughly 280 mana. If you miss and don't leech, you run dry in just a few uses. WA also deals so little damage that any leech you DO hit hardly makes a difference, even with Soul Thief.

I like Monk's physical Wind skills. A lot. I'm looking forward to seeing which wind abilities Druid gets, like Tornado, to round out my thematic windy Monk build. But most of these skills need quite a bit of help. Whirling Assault is in an especially awkward position because its sole purpose seems to be combo filler and a platform for Staggering Palm's buff and Charged Staff (which isn't even wind at that point). Once Marauder/Duelist and Axe/Sword skills get added, I have a feeling Monks will use Cyclone with an axe or sword in the weapon swap slot to proc Bell instead. Whirling Assault will be out of a job.

I know there are far more pressing balance issues right now, but I really hope the Monk physical Wind skills get some love over the coming months. More ways to scale physical damage and Daze/Stun, more QoL improvements for these skills, a third Ascendancy that focuses around Monk's physical damage, anything.

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Gwonam#5505 wrote:

I really hope the Monk physical Wind skills get some love over the coming months

I sure hope so but i wouldn't hold my breath really. Like the only reason armour had that 15% buff is because PEOPLE ACTUALLY USE ARMOUR. Big streamers use armour.

Only a small minority of offmeta builds enjoyers and not a single streamer with audience that's larger than his friends and mom uses whirling assault.

This is how GGG overlooked seriously underperforming skills for years. There just isn't enough feedback. If a skill is just underperforming but decent enough to be actually used, they get lots of feedback about it, and eventually buff it, but even then it may take more than one or two leagues. But if it's just too bad to be used it is doomed to spend the next 2000 years in a Purgatory of Forgotten Gems.

the stuck in place for all movement skills has to go. your ability to move forward shouldn't be contingent on an enemy dying in front of you or not. no matter what if you're using a movement skill you should always be moving forward and pushing all enemies out of the way.

all + total seconds to attack time need a maximum of 0.5 seconds or even less to feel good and not get you killed cuz it takes too long to cast. attack speed should also have a greater effect on these skills. putting martial tempo on them to only increase the attack time by 0.05 seconds is fucking absurd.

whirling assault in specific needs a damage increase. hitting trash mobs for half the animation and not killing them is the definition on unviable (this is on a 500 dps staff). its also bugged to not be affected by increases or decreases to area of effect, at least visually. put on concentrated/ magnified effect and see for yourself.

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onetruelai#7327 wrote:

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Gwonam#5505 wrote:

I really hope the Monk physical Wind skills get some love over the coming months

I sure hope so but i wouldn't hold my breath really. Like the only reason armour had that 15% buff is because PEOPLE ACTUALLY USE ARMOUR. Big streamers use armour.

Only a small minority of offmeta builds enjoyers and not a single streamer with audience that's larger than his friends and mom uses whirling assault.

This is how GGG overlooked seriously underperforming skills for years. There just isn't enough feedback. If a skill is just underperforming but decent enough to be actually used, they get lots of feedback about it, and eventually buff it, but even then it may take more than one or two leagues. But if it's just too bad to be used it is doomed to spend the next 2000 years in a Purgatory of Forgotten Gems.

Sadly, I know exactly what you're talking about. I played off meta almost every season, for nearly 10 years. Heavy Strike, MS (before and after the nerf sorry I mean buff), Dom Blow, Shattering Steel, Lacerate, Viper Strike, Frost Blades pre Katabasis, Pestilent Strike... Some of these skills were strong, some still are strong, but most of them never took the spotlight. Most never got buffs. Some, like Dom Blow, even got nerfed for some reason.

The problem, like you said, is that GGG skill balance is a vicious cycle. Most skills - the Cleaves, the Sweeps, the Lancing Steels of the world - never get any exposure. And so they remain in the dark, either as sleeper strong skills or unloved children. Right now is when GGG should be paying attention to unloved skills, when there are so few skills in the game. But I doubt they will, because GGG has a fixation with phys-to-ele screen clearers.