All Stances in Black Myth: Wukong Ranked From Worst to Best 

Discover all the best and worst stances in Black Myth: Wukong ranked, along with how to use them, talent trees, and upgrades.

In Black Myth Wukong, stances are how your heavy attack, talent, and skill function. There are three stances, Smash, Pillar, and Thrust, each altering your heavy attack and unlocking a skill tree to enhance the playstyle further. Stances also interact with Focus Attacks, using the resource to enhance damage, avoid attacks, and give your combat variety and functionality.

Players can manually change their stance in combat depending on the scenario and enemy or boss. There is a slight delay in changing stances, so this won’t be completely fluid. Our guide intends to give you the best and worst stances, the pros and cons of each, and the best talents. That way, you can decide if spending sparks is worth advancing the particular talent tree. However, if you make a mistake, don’t worry! Black Myth: Wukong features a respec ability at Keeper Shrines, allowing players to experiment with their builds.

Stance Talent Trees

Under the Self-Advance tab, you will find the Staff Stance button. Clicking this will bring you to an interface with focus talents and three skill trees for staff stances. Your primary staff stance is Smash unlocked immediately, so you are not required to spend a Spark (talent point). As you progress in level, you can advance the talent tree and obtain new stances. Players can then choose to advance the talent trees or not, depending on their preferred playstyle. Remember that many talent trees exist in Black Myth: Wukong, so spreading yourself thin is not advised. Instead, you should focus on one staff talent tree, passive in the foundation for stamina, and a couple of frequently used spells.

Below is a summary of each stance in Black Mytn Wukong and a general playstyle:

Smash Stance: the default stance unlocked immediately, Smash centers on charging heavy attacks while moving. This stance is helpful for mobility and synergizes well with Focus Attacks because your hardest-hitting abilities scale with more Focus. The left-hand column of the skill tree is more about damage reduction and resource sustain, while the left-hand side is about combos and consuming focus.

Pillar Stance: this stance focuses on supporting yourself high on your staff. The left side of the skill tree is your defensive, while the right incentives you to use an area based channeled attack called Sweeping Gale. Most of the playstyle of Pillar centers around area damage good for enemy clearing.

Thrust Stance: when it comes to ranged damage, the Thrust Stance is your best bet. You get increased range while charging heavy attacks at the expense of mobility. Players should spec into the left side for damage reduction and avoidance, while the right is for the mechanic tactical retreat.

All stances Ranked in Black Myth Wukong

Smash stance is the best in Black Myth Wukong because it aids in heavy attack charging while mobile and increases damage with extra focus points. Moreover, you gain Smash stance immediately, and most talents are helpful throughout the game. The second best stance is Thrust, which is doesn’t have the mobility of Smash but has increased range. This can be helpful to switch to when bosses can’t be attacked in close range. Lastly, we have the Pillar stance, which is an odd defensive stance, and its offensive capabilities are geared toward area damage. That AOE damage is helpful with general enemies but weak against bosses, which are the hardest fights to complete.

Below is a list of the stances in Black Myth: Wukong ranked from best to worst:

1. Smash Stance: mobility, charging heavy attacks, and increased damage with focus attacks.
2. Thrust Stance: great for range in boss encounters.
3. Pillar Stance: helpful as a defensive tree with AOE damage.

3 Pillar Stance

• Description: your heavy attack allows you to perch on top of your staff with adjustable height.
• Unlock Requirements: Level 5
• Strengths: AOE damage and defensive talents
• Weaknesses: lacks mobility while charging and weak against boss fights
• Best Situations: best used to kill multiple enemies
• Best Talents: Steel Pillar, Sweeping Gale, Gale’s Blessing

Ranked third on our list, the Pillar Stance falls behind the other stances in offensive and defensive potential. The strength of the Pillar stance allows you to sit high up perched while charging heavy attacks at the cost of stamina. Therefore, you can avoid incoming damage or time jumping off for a massive heavy attack. Additionally, Pillar Stance gives you an area-based damage skill called Sweeping Gale. Sweep Gale does spinning damage in an AOE. However, the downside is it’s not usable against bosses, and you’re vulnerable to attack while spinning.

The main weakness of the Pillar Stance is its lack of mobility while charging compared to the Smash Stance. Moreover, the defensive capabilities aren’t as good unless you spend many talent points into the tree. Therefore, most players will just unlock this talent to perch high and avoid attacks. The Resolute Counterflow is how you avoid attacks and dealing damage without a fully charged Focus Bar. However, the overall traits don’t compare to the others on this list, and therefore, we rank Pillar Stance as the worst in Black Myth: Wukong.

2 Thrust Stance

• Description: your heavy attacks require you to stand still but gain increased distance.
• Unlock Requirements: Level 20
• Strengths: range of heavy attacks
• Weaknesses: Must take Whilring Thrust
• Best Situations: Stun the enemy with a Whilring Thrust
• Best Talents: Borrowed Strength, Offense in Defense, Adaptability

Ranked the second best, Thrust Stance sacrifices mobility while charging to gain increased range. The increased range is very helpful when attacking bosses who do not allow close-quarters fighting. Additionally, the talent tree centers around Whirling Thrust, which you must take to advance to further talents in the tree. This skill staggers enemies as you attack in succession. The strength of this talent tree is you can stun and control enemies and build around Whirling Thrust. The downside, however, is you must focus on using this skill to avoid attacks and optimize damage.

The best way to use the Thrust Stance is to stagger enemies with Whirling Thrust and take Adaptability and Relentless Talents. These two help you perform a tactical retreat after Whirling Thrust or deal more damage to staggered enemies. These two are important to either finish an enemy after the channeled Whirling Thrust or jump back and avoid damage via Tactical Retreat. We’d rank Thrust Stance higher if it weren’t for its reliance on Whirling Thrust, while a good ability is required to master to make the most out of Thrust.

1 Smash Stance

• Description: you are allowed to charge heavy attacks while moving.
• Unlock Requirements: Unlocked level 1
• Strengths: the best for mobility and general usage.
• Weaknesses: lacks range
• Best Situations: best overall, except boss fights that require range
• Best Talents: Force Unbound, Ironbound Resolve, Resolute Counterflow

Ranked the best stance in Black Myth: Wukong, the Smash Stance has the best offensive and defensive talents combined with mobility. The strength of Smash Stance is being able to charge heavy attacks while moving and with the Force Unbound talent, even while sprinting. Therefore, you can build towards maximum stamina and regeneration and dodge, sprint, and build heavy attack damage.

Additionally, the Smash Stance talent tree has powerful defensive talents like Resolute Counterflow. You can use a heavy attack and spend a focus point to see through enemies, negate their damage, and have a higher stagger chance. Therefore, you gain the defensive benefits of other stances while maintaining high damage and survivability.

Another advantage of Smash Tree is that perfect dodging retains your focus accumulated with the Peace from Peril talent. This gives you the most freedom of movemhe most defensive capability while maintaining focus. Therefore, we recommend making a heavy investment in Smash Stance and ranked it the best in Black Myth: Wukong.

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