Post 5.1 Mistweaver Monk Healing Guide

(This is by no means meants to be an expert guide...I am not yet in heroic raiding for this tier, but since information on monk healingis not easy to come by, I thought I would list my insights based on my own research and my own raiding experience as a Mistweaver Monk)

This post is specifically meant to address the changes in healing for the mistweaver after the 5.1 nerf and the subsequent 5.1 hotfix that so drastically affected this spec.

I will start with the new stat priorities: 

Spirit -> Int -> Haste to 3148 -> Crit -> Mastery -> Haste above 3148





 

Mastery may look like a nice stat for output, and it is, but with the mana increases from the hotfix, crit is needed as much as possible, along with as much spirit as possible to not run out of mana mid fight.  If you are early in gearing, and mana is an issue, you might even want to consider pushing crit before haste to 3148, but if you choose this route, switch back to haste to 3148 as quickly as possible.

 

 

Tank Healing

Tank healing will be your strongest role post 5.1.  Mistweavers can aoe heal, and can do it quite well, but our aoe is so expensive, and as such it is better to let the classes that have less mana constraints on their aoe focus on the aoe healing.  The one notable exception to this is garalon and elegon, as these fights are built with monk aoe healing in mind.

 

If you are tanking, always start by placing your statue within 20 yards of either the other tank, your melee group, of if the range is grouped up, the ranged.  I personally like to put it near the other tank so it can best benefit the other tank.

 

One tank healing

If your assignment is to keep one tank alive, and not worry about the other, then this is what you should do.  Cast renewing mist on the tank.  Then cast Zen sphere on the tank.  Then cast soothing mist until you have 3 chi, at which point you will cast enveloping mists on the tank. (Soothing Mist is used instead of jab, because during soothing mist channeling, both enveloping mists and surging mists are instant cast heals)  Cast this even if the tank doesn't need it, because you need the chi spent to create mana tea stacks for mana.  If the tank drops below 50% and you don't have an enveloping mist available, cast surging mists.  Surging mist will give you a chi for each cast, and thus will let you cast enveloping mists sooner.  Refresh renewing mists and zen sphere whenver they fall off.  (Cast your mana tea stacks whenever damage is low, or if you have it glyphed, on cd)  Use Life Cocoon when there will be a predictable damage spike on your tank, or if he is below 20%. 

NEVER HARD CAST ENVELOPING MIST OR SURGING MIST!

 

Dual tank healing

Sometimes you may be asked to try to keep two tank up at the same time.  This is very doable with a Mistweaver.  The only difference is that you don't cast zen sphere, and instead use the chi you would have used for that to roll a second enveloping mist on the second tank.  Dual tank healing requires a lot more switching of soothing mists target between tanks.

 

Aoe Spread Healing

There are two options for aoe spread healing, but for both, it is best if you are in melee range.  Both options start with you rolling renewing mists on the raid on cooldown and then jabbing for chi.  Whenever there will be a big aoe damage spike coming in the next 10-15 seconds, cast thunder focus tea, and then uplift in order to reset the 6 stacks of renewing mist to their original duration.  Then, you can either use uplift or chi burst to spend the chi you gain with renewing mists.  If melee is stacked, and their is a path of ranged leading to the melee, then stand at the back of the ranged, and then cast chi burst on the boss, it will run through the ranged, healing them, and then through the melee as it hits the boss.  This results in extremely high healing output.  If the melee are not stacked, or there is no clear path of ranged to shoot it through, use uplift instead.  If your renewing mists targets are close to full health, then chi burst is the better option, even if there is not a good group to shoot it through (melee will almost always be in a stacked group around boss, giving you a group to shoot it through).  Regardless of which you use, during any mechanic where the bulk of the raid goes below 70%, you should use revival as an instant cast health pick up.  (below 50% is even better, but if you wait for the raid to get this low, you run the risk of a raid member dying before you cast it, and the benefit is only slightly greater)

 

Aoe Stacked Healing

Your best option here is spinning crane kick, but unfortunately, since the hotfix, this is now too expensive to do more then 2 or 3 times in a row.  so inbetween, use chi burst on yourself (if stacked away from the boss) or on the boss (if group is stacked on the boss).  It is helpful to roll renewing mist as well, but it is now always easy to squeeze this in, if the damage is high.  If the bulk of the group goes under 70%, use revival to pop people back up.  You can also cast renewing mist 10-15 seconds before stacking and use uplift in between spinning crane kicks, but if you choose this approach, you need to set it up 10-20 seconds in advance.  You can also cast Zen sphere on a target in the stack, and then cast it to burst the hot for an aoe heal, but the 4 chi cost to use it seems too high for me when so many other options are available.

 

Level 30 Talent

If one tank healing, take Zen sphere and cast it on the tank.  If aoe healing, take chi burst.  If you want something easy to use that will not require much thought, use chi wave, but be aware that this is only a hps gain if you are using the other two abilities the wrong way.  Proper use of chi burst and zen sphere accomplish more then chi wave.

 

Level 90 Talent

People like to debate this one, but there is really no debate, especially after the hotfix change that made spinning crane kick to expensive to use a lot.  Pick Xuen.  He does a lot of damage, and does incredible amounts of eminence healing.  In virtually all cases (there are some wierd situations that are otherwise) you will get more raw healing output from Xuen.  If you are doing heroic raiding, there may be times to use the others, but otherwise Xuen is best.  Some argue chi torpedo is good because it is free and can be cast often, but using chi torpedo will prevent you from having roll available for movement, which is not a good thing, so I still choose Xuen.

 

Jab vs. Soothing Mist

Jab is now more expensive then it used to be, but still produces more chi  then soothing mist will.  So, if your gear is good enough, jab for chi, if not, then soothing mist may be your better option.  If you choose to jab for chi, it is critical you have good jade statue placement.

 

Eminence Healing

Eminence healing will never produce the same output as outright healing, but can be beneficial at certain times.  Fights like elegon, where dps gets a buff, are great for eminence healing.  It is also great in low damage phases.  The most traditional way is to be in melee range, jab for chi, cast tiger palm once every 20 seconds to keep the buff up, and then use blackout kick as your chi spender that will also create a buff that can stack twice.  By keeping both buffs up, you can push around 25-30k heals in decent gear.  Also, you should be using Xuen on cd while eminence healing.  Make sure you spend your mana tea on cooldown as eminence healing is very mana intensive.

 

There is also another way to eminence heal that requires little effort and can produce higher healing numbers, but it is very inefficient on mana, and will cause you to go oom before the fight is over.  (I use this in lfr when I am too lazy to actually heal...and I still often get 40-50k heals)  You start by placing your statue near the melee group, and then from ranged cast crackling jade lightening.  When you get 4 chi, cut off your lightening cast and cast two chi bursts.  Make sure you are behind all the range when you cast chi burst and that the melee group is between you and the boss.  Once chi is spent, go back to crackling jad lightening.  Use Xuen on cd, and make sure to spend your mana tea stacks on cd, because this will drain your mana fast.  If chi burst placement is optimal, you can put up some very good healing numbers using this style.  I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS STYLE IN REGULAR RAIDS, your raid leader might take your spot away if you do.

 

Gems, Enchants, and Buffs

Previous to 5.1 we had some wiggle room with these, but post 5.1, spirit is king.  If you can'get spirit, get crit, and if you can't get that, get int.  Mastery and haste should only be taken if there are not other options.  I am not going to go into a big list on these as there are plenty of sites you can go to to get optimal gems, buffs, and enchants.

If money is not an issue, or time to farm the mats is not an issue, steamed crab is the food of choice, not feasts...even if your raid does drop feasts before each boss.

 

In a later post, I will give some tips on specific bosses to maximize output, but that is a post for another day.

 

 

 

 

 

 



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.

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:

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.

That is a lot of information, so to simplify it, I will go through each one individually.

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.