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.
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