I was reading a blog talking about the enlightenment xp buff monks get when they level, and the person talking about it missed something very important about that buff that I assumed everyone knew, and now I am beginning to think maybe they don't.
First off, the way I discovered it. I used to port and get the enlightenment buff whenever my current one ran out, but this was sometimes an annoyance, because if the buff dropped off mid dungeon, then I lost all the extra xp you would get from turning in the quests at the end of the dungeon. So, on the day I was doing Zul'Furak and all its many quests, mid dungeon, I asked my group if they would mind if I quickly reset my buff so as not to waste the quest xp. I did the zen pilgrimage, beat the monk trainer for the quest, and when I went to turn in the quest, I had 2 minutes left on my buff. I thought to myself that it is dumb to waste the 2 minutes, but that if I waited, I was wasting all the xp from kills my group was making in Zul'Furak, so I took the buff and went back to the dungeon.
Now, I knew you could stack the buff before this, but the renewing here had been at the end of a two hour buff already. After turning the quest in, my buff bar showed 2 hours. I thought maybe it was showing that because the system didn't have a way to show one hour and 2 minutes, but 3 minutes later, it still showed two hours. As I finished that dungeon and two others during that two hour span, I realized a cool trick.
DON'T IMMEDIATELY STACK THE BUFF TO 2 HOURS! Wait until the hour buff drops under 5 minutes, then turn in the quest, and you will get an additional 2 hours, allowing you to get three hours worth of buff out of two quest turn ins. As I rarely play more then three hours in a day, and I was leveling so quickly with this trick that I could easily level 10 levels in a day or two, I found that from the mid 30's all the way to 65, I was never without the buff. It wasn't until the end of bc that the tricks benefit finally started slowing down. It still worked but there was more non buff time inbetween buffs.
This really does speed up leveling, so if you are leveling a monk...might be something to consider...unless of course you prefer leveling slower, in which case I would imagine you didn't use the enlightenment buff at all.
Friday, November 30, 2012
Patch 5.1 Monk Nerf Follow Up
Last night I went into my second raid night after the patch 5.1 nerfs, and I learned some more that might be worth mentioning in regards to the nerf. We downed the Bladelord in Heart of Fear, and got a lot of work on Garalon. On the bladelord, despite fistweaving most pulls (which is good heals but should not be competing with other classes all out healing), the 20% burn phase, and how good it is for spinning crane kick, allowed me to be in the top two or three every pull. Our last pull, (the one we downed it on) I tank healed as our tank kept dying due to taking too high of stacks. That pull, I was much more in line with my usual output.
Bladelord is a great fight for Mistweavers, despite the nerf, because there just isn't a lot of aoe damage, and when there is, the raid is almost always stacked, and so spinning crane kick is better. I still used renewing mist on cd, but it was a lot more overheal then normal, which makes its nerf much less noticeable. I also used xuen instead of rushing jade wind, because even though rushing jade wind likely would have given more heal numbers (but not by much), xuen gave a big dps boost that helped us get a bit more time to work with at the end before the enrage. (I know that the damage is minimal compared to a all out dps, but even 20k dps while healing is better then nothing)
After we got done with bladelord, we moved on to Garalon, which was the best fight by far on LFR for the mistweaver. The only one even close was Elegon, and yet with the increased damage involved in garalon, monk heals were insane on that fight. This is the fight that I think the nerf most hurt us on. I consistently was in the 70-80k heals per second area on every pull last night, and that was with renewing mist only going to two targets instead of three. Renewing Mist was about a 1/3 of my healing, with uplift accounting for about 20%. So that means half that 80k was due to the spells affected by the nerf. So if 40k was due to nerfed spells and adding another spread hot would result in 33% more healing, then I would likely have gotten 10-12k more healing pre- nerf. That would have put me at 80-90k. Our top healer was doing around 90k per pull, and he has about 7 ilvl better then me, so you can see that had the nerf not happened I would have been tying his output with significantly less ilvl. That would be AWESOME, but also not very fair to him, so as you can see, as much as the nerf sucks, it was needed to bring healing back in line with other healers.
Despite all that though, the rest of our healing team was struggling to keep up 50k heals. I don't mean to critique them too hard. That fight with all its spreading is best aoe healed by a monk, a holy priest, or a druid. We did not have a druid, and the other classes were a pally, two shaman and a disc priest. So it is understandable they would be lower then me and the holy priest, but if you were one of those classes, struggling to maintain 50k (side note, I do think they could have been higher, just trying to not be too critical and understand the mechanics), and then seeing a poorly geared monk (I am not really poorly geared, just a good 5 to 10 ilvls behind the others...got a late start) killing your heals and competing with the holy priest who is the best healer in the guild, I think I would be annoyed too and complain they need to be nerfed.
So again, while the nerf sucks on fights like elegon and garalon, it was needed. And the best part is that, on fights like bladelord, it hardly affects us at all.
Just an update for those who care. We progressively got Garalon lower and lower throughout the night, until we got him down to 9% on our last pull when he enraged, so with a little better pheremone management and little more dps, we will get him, hopefully this sunday (even though I won't be there, have prior commitments).
P.S. Just a side note, and I need to do more research before I officially announce it. Xuen was really acting wierd on the garalon fight, not wanting to attack anything, so I switched to chi tornado (I think that is what it is called), so I could heal while moving into position. Might not be the best way to handle that fight, but I just couldn't seem to get xuen to be his usual epic self.
Bladelord is a great fight for Mistweavers, despite the nerf, because there just isn't a lot of aoe damage, and when there is, the raid is almost always stacked, and so spinning crane kick is better. I still used renewing mist on cd, but it was a lot more overheal then normal, which makes its nerf much less noticeable. I also used xuen instead of rushing jade wind, because even though rushing jade wind likely would have given more heal numbers (but not by much), xuen gave a big dps boost that helped us get a bit more time to work with at the end before the enrage. (I know that the damage is minimal compared to a all out dps, but even 20k dps while healing is better then nothing)
After we got done with bladelord, we moved on to Garalon, which was the best fight by far on LFR for the mistweaver. The only one even close was Elegon, and yet with the increased damage involved in garalon, monk heals were insane on that fight. This is the fight that I think the nerf most hurt us on. I consistently was in the 70-80k heals per second area on every pull last night, and that was with renewing mist only going to two targets instead of three. Renewing Mist was about a 1/3 of my healing, with uplift accounting for about 20%. So that means half that 80k was due to the spells affected by the nerf. So if 40k was due to nerfed spells and adding another spread hot would result in 33% more healing, then I would likely have gotten 10-12k more healing pre- nerf. That would have put me at 80-90k. Our top healer was doing around 90k per pull, and he has about 7 ilvl better then me, so you can see that had the nerf not happened I would have been tying his output with significantly less ilvl. That would be AWESOME, but also not very fair to him, so as you can see, as much as the nerf sucks, it was needed to bring healing back in line with other healers.
Despite all that though, the rest of our healing team was struggling to keep up 50k heals. I don't mean to critique them too hard. That fight with all its spreading is best aoe healed by a monk, a holy priest, or a druid. We did not have a druid, and the other classes were a pally, two shaman and a disc priest. So it is understandable they would be lower then me and the holy priest, but if you were one of those classes, struggling to maintain 50k (side note, I do think they could have been higher, just trying to not be too critical and understand the mechanics), and then seeing a poorly geared monk (I am not really poorly geared, just a good 5 to 10 ilvls behind the others...got a late start) killing your heals and competing with the holy priest who is the best healer in the guild, I think I would be annoyed too and complain they need to be nerfed.
So again, while the nerf sucks on fights like elegon and garalon, it was needed. And the best part is that, on fights like bladelord, it hardly affects us at all.
Just an update for those who care. We progressively got Garalon lower and lower throughout the night, until we got him down to 9% on our last pull when he enraged, so with a little better pheremone management and little more dps, we will get him, hopefully this sunday (even though I won't be there, have prior commitments).
P.S. Just a side note, and I need to do more research before I officially announce it. Xuen was really acting wierd on the garalon fight, not wanting to attack anything, so I switched to chi tornado (I think that is what it is called), so I could heal while moving into position. Might not be the best way to handle that fight, but I just couldn't seem to get xuen to be his usual epic self.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Mistweaver Tank Healing like a Pro
With all of the crazy parses being reported by monks and their aoe healing, it has seemed to me that most mistweaver sites talk about the potent power of monk aoe healing, which I agree, is quite staggering. The problem is that this often causes these same sites to ignore the quality of tank heals that a monk can bring to a raid. With the changes that came from 5.1, the ability of the mistweaver monk to put up incredible aoe numbers has been put more in line with other healers, making us no longer the stars of aoe healing. As a result, it may be time for mistweaver monks to consider a different option: Tank healing. (Don't get me wrong, they are still great aoe healers, but they are equally good tank healers, and I would argue, better tank healers than other classes)
Mistweaver monks have a very unique wasy on tank healing that is drastically different from any other class, and these differences are what make them the best tank healers in my opinion. In order to make this point though, we first need to look at how they tank heal, and the tools they have at their disposal. The following are a list of the tank healing abilities a monk has:
Soothing Mist - Your basic "heal" ability. It is cheap and is a channeling spell. Use this as your filler when not casting other heals.
Enveloping Mist - Your basic "flash heal" ability. It is a quick cast short but powerful hot. It should never should be hardcast though, because it is an instant cast if you are channeling soothing mists.
Surging Mist - Your basic "greater heal" ability. It is a long cast but powerful heal. It should never should be hardcast though, because it is an instant cast if you are channeling soothing mists.
Renewing Mist - Not a spell you would normally call a tank heal, but it is for two reasons. One, it is a hot, and a hot that heals, even if it is a smaller hot then enveloping mists, is still extra healing. It is also a long hot, so it is not hard to keep up. Secondly, Life cocoon increases the power of hots, so if you have this on the tank, it makes life cocoon stronger. (also, should be cast on cd so it is on all tanks and will give you some extra aoe heals too for free)
Zen Sphere - another hot, albeit a weak one. I personally prefer to spend 3 chi on enveloping mists instead of 2 on Zen sphere, but in certain circumstances (healing one tank instead of two, needing to heal tank and a stacked raid), Zen sphere has its benefits.
Life Cocoon - the only real tank cooldown we have, but it is a strong one. Not only does it shield your tank with a shield about 2.5 times as strong as power word:shield, but it also increases the effects of hots on that target while the shield lasts. I wish they would make the hot increase last the full duration of the cd instead of just when the shield is up, but despite this, life cocoon can buy you precious seconds to hit the tank with an instant cast surging mist.
Zen Meditation - A weak tank cd at best, and why I view life cocoon as the only real tank cd. This spell is better used for its 90% damage mitigation on you, but it will also redirect 5 single target attacks onto you, which could save you some tank healing in a high tank damage phase. Even then though, it is probably not best to use as a tank cooldown though, because it is a channel spell, and during the channel, you can't heal the tank.
Jade Statue - Should always be down in every fight. Serves two purposes. It redirects eminence heals to players near it, and when soothing mist is cast (which should be a lot when tank healing) it also casts soothing mist on a nearby damaged player (usually the other tank if your statue is by the other tank). The statue is in effect our beacon as it allows us to focus the tank, but have some of our heals also hit the other tank. by switching soothing mists between tanks, it is very feasible to have enveloping mists on both tanks, as well as soothing mists on both tanks.
Spells not included:
Uplift - powerful for aoe, but your chi is much better spent on enveloping mists if you are tank healing.
Jab - Because jab causes eminence heals, it will likely go to the tank but not guarenteed. It is a better chi generator, but it prevents you from being able to instant cast enveloping mists and surging mists.
I will now go over the rotation, which is not the only way, but will usually be the most effective way to heal tanks.
General Spell rotation - Make sure Jade statue is down, preferably by the tank you are not focusing. Cast renewing mist on the tank you are healing, and recast on the other tank when cooldown resets. Make sure renewing mist is always on your tanks (it is better to use thunder focus tea to reset the hots then to use surging mist, as unless the tank is about to die, surging mist will be wasted, and in that situation life cocoon is better to use anyways) Cast soothing mist to generate chi and heal both tanks. Pool chi (preferably with ascendency so you can have five instead of four) and cast enveloping mists on the tank (I cast this even when damage is low, just because it will quickly heal the tank if they do take high damage, and it spends chi to give you mana tea stacks. If you choose to only use enveloping mists when tank is taking high damage, you can cast zen sphere instead to spend chi for mana tea stacks) I prefer to use ascendency, because once you cast enveloping mists, if you had 5 chi, you have 2 left over which makes you only one chi away from another three. That last chi usually comes quick enough to have enveloping mists rolling on both tanks. If only one tank is taking damage, it is better to pool chi instead of doing a second enveloping mists. When the tank takes spike damage that brings him below 30%, cast enveloping mists if you have the chi, if not cast surging mist (generates chi) until you can cast enveloping mists. If enveloping mists is up, then surging mists will likely not be needed so it should be used only when you do not have the chi for an enveloping mist. If tank is below 20%, or if it is a pre-designated point called out by the raid leader, use life cocoon.
If you do what that very complicated paragraph above says, you should have no problem keeping the tank up, even in extreme damage phases. Mana can be an issue when tank healing, so make sure you spend chi as often as you can so you have plenty of mana tea stacks to regen with. Also, if that paragraph was too complicated, here is a simple flow chart.
Jade Statue by tank your not focusing -> renewing mists on both tanks, used on cd -> Soothing mist on the tank to build chi -> spend chi on enveloping mists in order to keep from capping chi -> surging mist if tank is below 30% and there is no chi for enveloping mist -> Life cocoon when tank is below 20% or when guild leader schedules its use.
Ok, I thought that would be simpler, guess its not. But seriously, if you do it right, the tank will never die, even if they are undergeared. That is how good monk tank healing is.
Lastly, I will explain why I think it is the best tank healing class in the game. When I was a pally healer in ICC (a phenonminal tank healer at the time), the one weakness in my class was that my spell cast was 1.2 seconds for Holy Light. This was short enough to be fine in most cases, but there was always the rare case of bad rng where the tank would be one shot just before the Holy Light hits. Mistweaver Monks don't have this problem as there best tank heal spell, surging mist, is instant cast with no cd. Meaning you can spam surging mist if needed with no chance of a death between casts. This will drain your mana really fast, and so can not be sustained very long, but it ensures that for short periods, as long as you are on the ball, the tank CAN'T die. No other healing class can consistently do that. With all other classes, you run the risk of your heal coming just a split second too late. Best of luck to you in keeping your tanks alive and your guild leaders happy.
P.S. Guild leading is hard (I know, I did it for a while), so anything you can do to keep them happy, you should do, so make sure their tanks never die, I promise it will make them happy.
Mistweaver monks have a very unique wasy on tank healing that is drastically different from any other class, and these differences are what make them the best tank healers in my opinion. In order to make this point though, we first need to look at how they tank heal, and the tools they have at their disposal. The following are a list of the tank healing abilities a monk has:
Soothing Mist - Your basic "heal" ability. It is cheap and is a channeling spell. Use this as your filler when not casting other heals.
Enveloping Mist - Your basic "flash heal" ability. It is a quick cast short but powerful hot. It should never should be hardcast though, because it is an instant cast if you are channeling soothing mists.
Surging Mist - Your basic "greater heal" ability. It is a long cast but powerful heal. It should never should be hardcast though, because it is an instant cast if you are channeling soothing mists.
Renewing Mist - Not a spell you would normally call a tank heal, but it is for two reasons. One, it is a hot, and a hot that heals, even if it is a smaller hot then enveloping mists, is still extra healing. It is also a long hot, so it is not hard to keep up. Secondly, Life cocoon increases the power of hots, so if you have this on the tank, it makes life cocoon stronger. (also, should be cast on cd so it is on all tanks and will give you some extra aoe heals too for free)
Zen Sphere - another hot, albeit a weak one. I personally prefer to spend 3 chi on enveloping mists instead of 2 on Zen sphere, but in certain circumstances (healing one tank instead of two, needing to heal tank and a stacked raid), Zen sphere has its benefits.
Life Cocoon - the only real tank cooldown we have, but it is a strong one. Not only does it shield your tank with a shield about 2.5 times as strong as power word:shield, but it also increases the effects of hots on that target while the shield lasts. I wish they would make the hot increase last the full duration of the cd instead of just when the shield is up, but despite this, life cocoon can buy you precious seconds to hit the tank with an instant cast surging mist.
Zen Meditation - A weak tank cd at best, and why I view life cocoon as the only real tank cd. This spell is better used for its 90% damage mitigation on you, but it will also redirect 5 single target attacks onto you, which could save you some tank healing in a high tank damage phase. Even then though, it is probably not best to use as a tank cooldown though, because it is a channel spell, and during the channel, you can't heal the tank.
Jade Statue - Should always be down in every fight. Serves two purposes. It redirects eminence heals to players near it, and when soothing mist is cast (which should be a lot when tank healing) it also casts soothing mist on a nearby damaged player (usually the other tank if your statue is by the other tank). The statue is in effect our beacon as it allows us to focus the tank, but have some of our heals also hit the other tank. by switching soothing mists between tanks, it is very feasible to have enveloping mists on both tanks, as well as soothing mists on both tanks.
Spells not included:
Uplift - powerful for aoe, but your chi is much better spent on enveloping mists if you are tank healing.
Jab - Because jab causes eminence heals, it will likely go to the tank but not guarenteed. It is a better chi generator, but it prevents you from being able to instant cast enveloping mists and surging mists.
I will now go over the rotation, which is not the only way, but will usually be the most effective way to heal tanks.
General Spell rotation - Make sure Jade statue is down, preferably by the tank you are not focusing. Cast renewing mist on the tank you are healing, and recast on the other tank when cooldown resets. Make sure renewing mist is always on your tanks (it is better to use thunder focus tea to reset the hots then to use surging mist, as unless the tank is about to die, surging mist will be wasted, and in that situation life cocoon is better to use anyways) Cast soothing mist to generate chi and heal both tanks. Pool chi (preferably with ascendency so you can have five instead of four) and cast enveloping mists on the tank (I cast this even when damage is low, just because it will quickly heal the tank if they do take high damage, and it spends chi to give you mana tea stacks. If you choose to only use enveloping mists when tank is taking high damage, you can cast zen sphere instead to spend chi for mana tea stacks) I prefer to use ascendency, because once you cast enveloping mists, if you had 5 chi, you have 2 left over which makes you only one chi away from another three. That last chi usually comes quick enough to have enveloping mists rolling on both tanks. If only one tank is taking damage, it is better to pool chi instead of doing a second enveloping mists. When the tank takes spike damage that brings him below 30%, cast enveloping mists if you have the chi, if not cast surging mist (generates chi) until you can cast enveloping mists. If enveloping mists is up, then surging mists will likely not be needed so it should be used only when you do not have the chi for an enveloping mist. If tank is below 20%, or if it is a pre-designated point called out by the raid leader, use life cocoon.
If you do what that very complicated paragraph above says, you should have no problem keeping the tank up, even in extreme damage phases. Mana can be an issue when tank healing, so make sure you spend chi as often as you can so you have plenty of mana tea stacks to regen with. Also, if that paragraph was too complicated, here is a simple flow chart.
Jade Statue by tank your not focusing -> renewing mists on both tanks, used on cd -> Soothing mist on the tank to build chi -> spend chi on enveloping mists in order to keep from capping chi -> surging mist if tank is below 30% and there is no chi for enveloping mist -> Life cocoon when tank is below 20% or when guild leader schedules its use.
Ok, I thought that would be simpler, guess its not. But seriously, if you do it right, the tank will never die, even if they are undergeared. That is how good monk tank healing is.
Lastly, I will explain why I think it is the best tank healing class in the game. When I was a pally healer in ICC (a phenonminal tank healer at the time), the one weakness in my class was that my spell cast was 1.2 seconds for Holy Light. This was short enough to be fine in most cases, but there was always the rare case of bad rng where the tank would be one shot just before the Holy Light hits. Mistweaver Monks don't have this problem as there best tank heal spell, surging mist, is instant cast with no cd. Meaning you can spam surging mist if needed with no chance of a death between casts. This will drain your mana really fast, and so can not be sustained very long, but it ensures that for short periods, as long as you are on the ball, the tank CAN'T die. No other healing class can consistently do that. With all other classes, you run the risk of your heal coming just a split second too late. Best of luck to you in keeping your tanks alive and your guild leaders happy.
P.S. Guild leading is hard (I know, I did it for a while), so anything you can do to keep them happy, you should do, so make sure their tanks never die, I promise it will make them happy.
The great Monk nerf of 5.1
When I saw the first set of patch notes for 5.1 that involved the mistweaver (my new main), I was really discouraged. I had just reached 90 and was gearing to be able to raid. I almost just quit gearing, deciding to play my pally as my main instead. It seemed like everything that made the monk good was getting nerfed hard core. After hyperventilating for a couple seconds, I decided to take the same approach as I did in Dragon Soul when druid heals were nerfed quite badly. Don't complain, and just make the best of a bad situation. (During Dragon Soul, despite being told that druids couldn't beat the other healing classes, I was consistently in the top 2 in heals for my guild) This change in viewpoint was freeing, and allowed me to not be as discouraged.
With 5.1 finally dropping, the time has come to analyze how bad the nerf was to Mistweaver healing. So first off, let's look at the complete list of changes as stated on the patch notes:
The mana cost increase had me very worried, but after being in a raid, it is not that bad, because half your spells use chi anyways, and the crit bonus makes up for the lost mana. (more on the crit effect later)
The tiger power change is most beneficial to windwalkers, but if you are a fistweaver (dps healing through eminence), this is also a nice quality of life change for that. If you range heal with the monk, this change will not affect you.
The Enveloping Mists nerf really made me mad when I first saw it, but when using it in a raid, I realized it was put in to counteract the haste buff, in order to make the amount of healing "feel" the same, which it does. (more on the haste change later)
Healing sphere went from being a lonely, never pushed button on my bar to now very important. In high aoe damage phases, it is still lackluster, but in low aoe damage phases, for tank healing, or pre-healing, it owns. With my current gear it does 35k regular and 70k as a crit. That means in 3 global cooldowns, you can get between 105k and 210k heals. That is a lot of healing for very little cost. Finding moments to drop them is well worth it now. Pre 5.1, there were just too many other options. Renewing Mists, Uplift, Expel Harm, Soothing Mists, just to name a few. You still want to do renewing mists on cool down, but healing sphere is now a great filler spell.
The nerf to Chi Burst, Chi Wave and Zen Sphere is disappointing as it reduces our utilty. These spells are not always worth using on cd anymore. It used to be that you wanted to use them whenever you could. Now I only use them as a chi dump in order to keep my mana tea stacks as high as possible. (again to benefit from the crit change)
The change to soothing mist and Crackling Jade Lightning is probably my favorite change, because it makes range healing come more in line with melee healing. Pre 5.1, jabbing for chi was king and any good mistweaver was doing that. Post 5.1 jabbing for chi is still the fastest was to generate chi, but the efficiency of that chi development is now closer. This change makes it much less damaging to use soothing mist or crackling jade lightning as your filler spell.
Power strikes and Healing elixers are only minor changes, and since I didn't use them anyways, have little affect on my healing. If you are a full time fistweaver though, then the benefit of power strikes is worth considering. I still prefer the extra chi (5 chi instead of four) and the new 15% additional mana that ascendency gives, but an argument can be made for power strikes in that situation.
The enveloping mist change to level 16 is purely a quality of life change for early questing. If you leveled a monk pre 5.1, you found that in the early levels, all you could do was soothing mist (which was more then enough healing, but very boring). Getting enveloping mists earlier gives more buttons to push and makes leveling more fun.
The change to crit and mana tea charges is huge, because it has an affect on our stat distribution. Pre 5.1, I went with a mastery heavy build because in a 25 man raiding team, spheres rarely get wasted. I did this against most of the research I did, as most people said crit was slightly better. This change finally made me switch to a crit heavy build, and I gotta say, I have no intention to chnage back to mastery. The additional tea stacks, while not gamebreaking, are noticeble, and make your amount of needed spirit go down. Being able to convert some of the spirit reforging to crit allows a monk to keep the same regen, but also have the same random benefits of crit. I much prefer regen that can increase healing to regen that doesn't. Spirit is still the king stat, but with the crit change, you no longer need to stack it as high as you used to.
The renewing mist change is what really hurts us. On fights like Elegon, with high aoe damage, I could jab for chi, renewing mist on cd, thunder tea on cd, and then uplift in between and put up insane healing numbers. With a 15 ilvl gap between me and our best healers, I was still beating them consistently on that fight. This was great for my ego, but also an obvious overpowerment of the mechanic. In low to mid damage aoe fights, this will not hurt us all that much as some of the other changes will compensate for the loss in heals. The only place where this will hurt is in high aoe damage fights, and on those fight we will be more akin to other healers instead of being the "Gods" of aoe healing. I don't like this change, but I understand why they made it, and if you use healing sphere more, and better use of your tank heals, you can make up the lost heals quite easily. There will be more pressure on yout healing team for aoe heals though. In a 10 man team, this change has negligible affect, and is not much of a nerf at all.
The soothing mist mana change is very big. Without a statue, you could soothing mist all day and never run out, but with a statue out (as you always should have), the mana drain from soothing mist made jabbing for chi the better option. Now, soothing mist is a much more realistic chi generating alternative to jabbing for chi.
The haste change is also pretty big, because it changed our haste tick points. It used to be that a mistweaver should not stack any haste as they would get enough just from gear to get an extra tick of renewing mist and enveloping mist. Now, with very little stacking, you can get two extra ticks of each spell. (3140 is now the objective of haste) These extra ticks help compensate for the reduction in healing that renewing mists only going to two targets make.
So now the overall judging. It turns out that the great mistweaver monk nerf of 5.1 was actually not much of a nerf at all. Instead blizzard has forced monks to use more of their spells in a more triage fashion, which does fit their current model for healing. The importance of healing sphere has jumped and is worth using when you can fit it in, but don't neglect your normal rotation of spells to fit it in. A good monk will have plenty of chances to throw it in, so look for those oppurtunities. Renewing mist should still be cast on cd, but uplift's power has been greatly reduced. It should still be used in high aoe damage moments the way it was before, but in mid to low aoe damage situations, monks now have other spells worth casting instead. The new stat priority as I see it is: Spirit -> Int -> Haste to 3140 -> Crit -> Mastery -> Haste after 3140. This could change, especially as gear gets better, but currently I think it is your best bet. If you make the adjustments, there is no reason why a mistweaver monk can't continure to shine in a raid setting and still outheal the other classses. It is a lot harder then it used to be though, and at least in my opinion, that makes it more fun.
P.S. This is not related to the patch directly, but is worth mentioning. Mistweaver monks are incredible tank healers. I would argue the best class at tank healing, especially if you get the tier bonuses, so with the nerf to renewing mist and the inadvertant nerf to uplift because of it, it might be worth suggesting to your raid leader that he let you tank heal, and throw out some aoe heals while you are doing it. A mistweaver can put out aoe heal like numbers just tank healing if the tank damage is sufficient (which is the case on pretty much every progression fight). I plan to do my next post on how to best accomplish tank healing, and why it is a change worth making if your guild leader will allow it.
With 5.1 finally dropping, the time has come to analyze how bad the nerf was to Mistweaver healing. So first off, let's look at the complete list of changes as stated on the patch notes:
Monk
- All healing spells which cost mana have had their mana cost increased by 10%.
- The Tiger Power provided by Tiger Palm now reduces target armor by 30% with a single application and no longer stacks.
- The healing provided by Enveloping Mists has been reduced by 32%.
- The healing provided by the Healing Sphere base spell has been increased by 20%.
- The healing provided by Chi Burst and Chi Wave has been reduced by 25%.
- The healing provided when detonating Zen Sphere has been reduced by 25%.
- The chance to generate 1 Chi while channeling Soothing Mist and Crackling Jade Lightning has increased to 35%, up from 25%.
- The Power Strikes talent now grants the Power Strikes effect every 20 seconds, which causes the Monk's next attack to generate 1 additional Chi.
- The Healing Elixirs talent now grants the Healing Elixirs effect every 18 seconds, which causes the next Brew or Tea consumed to heal the Monk for 10% of maximum health.
- Mistweaver
- Enveloping Mist is now available at level 16, down from level 34.
- You now have a chance equal to your crit chance to generate double the amount of Mana Tea charges.
- Renewing Mists now travels to 2 additional targets (was 3 targets).
- The mana cost of Soothing Mists has been reduced by 33%.
- Haste for Mistweavers is now 50% more effective through Stance of the Wise Serpent.
The mana cost increase had me very worried, but after being in a raid, it is not that bad, because half your spells use chi anyways, and the crit bonus makes up for the lost mana. (more on the crit effect later)
The tiger power change is most beneficial to windwalkers, but if you are a fistweaver (dps healing through eminence), this is also a nice quality of life change for that. If you range heal with the monk, this change will not affect you.
The Enveloping Mists nerf really made me mad when I first saw it, but when using it in a raid, I realized it was put in to counteract the haste buff, in order to make the amount of healing "feel" the same, which it does. (more on the haste change later)
Healing sphere went from being a lonely, never pushed button on my bar to now very important. In high aoe damage phases, it is still lackluster, but in low aoe damage phases, for tank healing, or pre-healing, it owns. With my current gear it does 35k regular and 70k as a crit. That means in 3 global cooldowns, you can get between 105k and 210k heals. That is a lot of healing for very little cost. Finding moments to drop them is well worth it now. Pre 5.1, there were just too many other options. Renewing Mists, Uplift, Expel Harm, Soothing Mists, just to name a few. You still want to do renewing mists on cool down, but healing sphere is now a great filler spell.
The nerf to Chi Burst, Chi Wave and Zen Sphere is disappointing as it reduces our utilty. These spells are not always worth using on cd anymore. It used to be that you wanted to use them whenever you could. Now I only use them as a chi dump in order to keep my mana tea stacks as high as possible. (again to benefit from the crit change)
The change to soothing mist and Crackling Jade Lightning is probably my favorite change, because it makes range healing come more in line with melee healing. Pre 5.1, jabbing for chi was king and any good mistweaver was doing that. Post 5.1 jabbing for chi is still the fastest was to generate chi, but the efficiency of that chi development is now closer. This change makes it much less damaging to use soothing mist or crackling jade lightning as your filler spell.
Power strikes and Healing elixers are only minor changes, and since I didn't use them anyways, have little affect on my healing. If you are a full time fistweaver though, then the benefit of power strikes is worth considering. I still prefer the extra chi (5 chi instead of four) and the new 15% additional mana that ascendency gives, but an argument can be made for power strikes in that situation.
The enveloping mist change to level 16 is purely a quality of life change for early questing. If you leveled a monk pre 5.1, you found that in the early levels, all you could do was soothing mist (which was more then enough healing, but very boring). Getting enveloping mists earlier gives more buttons to push and makes leveling more fun.
The change to crit and mana tea charges is huge, because it has an affect on our stat distribution. Pre 5.1, I went with a mastery heavy build because in a 25 man raiding team, spheres rarely get wasted. I did this against most of the research I did, as most people said crit was slightly better. This change finally made me switch to a crit heavy build, and I gotta say, I have no intention to chnage back to mastery. The additional tea stacks, while not gamebreaking, are noticeble, and make your amount of needed spirit go down. Being able to convert some of the spirit reforging to crit allows a monk to keep the same regen, but also have the same random benefits of crit. I much prefer regen that can increase healing to regen that doesn't. Spirit is still the king stat, but with the crit change, you no longer need to stack it as high as you used to.
The renewing mist change is what really hurts us. On fights like Elegon, with high aoe damage, I could jab for chi, renewing mist on cd, thunder tea on cd, and then uplift in between and put up insane healing numbers. With a 15 ilvl gap between me and our best healers, I was still beating them consistently on that fight. This was great for my ego, but also an obvious overpowerment of the mechanic. In low to mid damage aoe fights, this will not hurt us all that much as some of the other changes will compensate for the loss in heals. The only place where this will hurt is in high aoe damage fights, and on those fight we will be more akin to other healers instead of being the "Gods" of aoe healing. I don't like this change, but I understand why they made it, and if you use healing sphere more, and better use of your tank heals, you can make up the lost heals quite easily. There will be more pressure on yout healing team for aoe heals though. In a 10 man team, this change has negligible affect, and is not much of a nerf at all.
The soothing mist mana change is very big. Without a statue, you could soothing mist all day and never run out, but with a statue out (as you always should have), the mana drain from soothing mist made jabbing for chi the better option. Now, soothing mist is a much more realistic chi generating alternative to jabbing for chi.
The haste change is also pretty big, because it changed our haste tick points. It used to be that a mistweaver should not stack any haste as they would get enough just from gear to get an extra tick of renewing mist and enveloping mist. Now, with very little stacking, you can get two extra ticks of each spell. (3140 is now the objective of haste) These extra ticks help compensate for the reduction in healing that renewing mists only going to two targets make.
So now the overall judging. It turns out that the great mistweaver monk nerf of 5.1 was actually not much of a nerf at all. Instead blizzard has forced monks to use more of their spells in a more triage fashion, which does fit their current model for healing. The importance of healing sphere has jumped and is worth using when you can fit it in, but don't neglect your normal rotation of spells to fit it in. A good monk will have plenty of chances to throw it in, so look for those oppurtunities. Renewing mist should still be cast on cd, but uplift's power has been greatly reduced. It should still be used in high aoe damage moments the way it was before, but in mid to low aoe damage situations, monks now have other spells worth casting instead. The new stat priority as I see it is: Spirit -> Int -> Haste to 3140 -> Crit -> Mastery -> Haste after 3140. This could change, especially as gear gets better, but currently I think it is your best bet. If you make the adjustments, there is no reason why a mistweaver monk can't continure to shine in a raid setting and still outheal the other classses. It is a lot harder then it used to be though, and at least in my opinion, that makes it more fun.
P.S. This is not related to the patch directly, but is worth mentioning. Mistweaver monks are incredible tank healers. I would argue the best class at tank healing, especially if you get the tier bonuses, so with the nerf to renewing mist and the inadvertant nerf to uplift because of it, it might be worth suggesting to your raid leader that he let you tank heal, and throw out some aoe heals while you are doing it. A mistweaver can put out aoe heal like numbers just tank healing if the tank damage is sufficient (which is the case on pretty much every progression fight). I plan to do my next post on how to best accomplish tank healing, and why it is a change worth making if your guild leader will allow it.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
My new main
I have been playing world of warcraft for about three years now. I have seen highs and lows in raiding, finally finishing a tier of raiding through heroic while it was current content for the first time in Dragon Soul. I have had many mains, including a paladin named Moradon (my first main), a druid by the name of behomet, a priest by the name of charam, and now, I add my new main Deroggen, a monk, to the ranks of the classes I have raided with seriously.
I got a late start to this expansion as I took a month break so I could help my wife take care of our new baby boy. He is our first, and he has changed my life drastically, including my priorities. I am not as hard core as I once was, but I still pride myself on being the best healer I can, and on never letting things like nerfs be used as an excuse for poor performance (with the exception of the great paladin nerf that was the patch before cataclysm dropped with all the talent changes. Trying to heal in ICC with the new paladin changes was flat out broken)
I am learning this new class the hard way, by trial and error, as well as by loads of research online. The data isn't as clear cut on monks right now, but it is getting clearer and I am starting to feel like I know him like I knew my previous mains.
This blog is about everything wow, with a specific emphasis on my monk, but I may occasionally dabble in posts about other classes. So I hope you come back, and enjoy it.
P.S. My first official post will be about the "great monk nerf of patch 5.1" and why it is not nearly as big a problem as many thought it would be...myself included.
I got a late start to this expansion as I took a month break so I could help my wife take care of our new baby boy. He is our first, and he has changed my life drastically, including my priorities. I am not as hard core as I once was, but I still pride myself on being the best healer I can, and on never letting things like nerfs be used as an excuse for poor performance (with the exception of the great paladin nerf that was the patch before cataclysm dropped with all the talent changes. Trying to heal in ICC with the new paladin changes was flat out broken)
I am learning this new class the hard way, by trial and error, as well as by loads of research online. The data isn't as clear cut on monks right now, but it is getting clearer and I am starting to feel like I know him like I knew my previous mains.
This blog is about everything wow, with a specific emphasis on my monk, but I may occasionally dabble in posts about other classes. So I hope you come back, and enjoy it.
P.S. My first official post will be about the "great monk nerf of patch 5.1" and why it is not nearly as big a problem as many thought it would be...myself included.
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