Leveling a Monk Part-1

Source from the awesome wowinsider (props to them):http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/08/10/leveling-a-monk-in-mists-of-pandaria-part-1/

First Steps: Levels 1-10

Like all classes, you don't start out with much. Your only usable ability will be Jab, which is your basic attack that generates chi. Your basic auto-attacks will likely do a lot more damage than Jab at first; don't fret. You'll also have Stance of the Fierce Tiger, which will cause your Jab to generate extra chi, which you won't have any use for at first. Finally, you'll have several passive abilities, the most noticeable being Tiger Strikes. This proc gives you (essentially) +50% melee attack speed and +100% melee damage for your next four swings, which means whatever you're fighting will die very quickly.



So jab, jab, and jab some more until you hit level 3, when you will learn Tiger Palm. (You don't have to visit trainers to learn abilities anymore; they just pop right into your spellbook. Hooray for progress!) This is your first chi-consuming ability, hitting about twice as hard as Jab for 1 chi. This sets up your first rotation: Jab, Tiger Palm, Tiger Palm, repeat. The armor penetration buff you gain from Tiger Palm is helpful but not overly significant, so don't worry about it too much. Keep punching away, until you get to level 5 and learn Roll. (Whee!)

You'll likely be using Roll a lot, so stick it somewhere easy to hit. This tosses you forward about 20 yards in the direction you're moving (or facing, if standing still) and has two charges, so it can be used twice in succession. It's good for travel from point A to point B or as a quick escape from a bad situation.

At level 7, you'll unlock Blackout Kick, which costs 2 chi but hits more than twice as hard as Tiger Palm. I dropped Tiger Palm completely off my bars at this point. A few more levels, and you'll reach level 10 and your big decision -- specialization. (If you're not sure which specialization you'd like to pursue, check out my "So you'd like to play ..." guides for brewmasters, mistweavers, and windwalkers.) For ease of questing, I'd recommend windwalker, and that'll be the spec I follow for the rest of this guide.

Selecting windwalker will immediately grant you Fists of Fury, a very powerful channeled attack. From here on out, you'll want to Jab twice and immediately launch into FoF, which will typically be enough to kill most quest mobs by itself. It's got a cooldown, though, so you'll still need to use Blackout Kick in between to kill stuff.