The problem with Mistweavers is that they're built as a DPS spec; they're the only healing spec that follows an exact priority rotation when AoE healing. Prior to the patch the spec has had significant weaknesses that those playing at a lower level/have no experience with it could notice. Those weaknesses included:
- Inability to control who you heal
- Next to no utility
- No noteworthy raid cooldown
The only reason you would ever bring a Mistweaver to an encounter as a 25 man guild would be for their throughput. Patch 5.1 adjusted Mistweaver numbers (which were undeniably too high), but did not provide any reworking or fixing of our cooldowns. The rather heavy-handed adjustments mean that Mistweavers can barely compete with other healers on certain fights, and equal out with others on fights where we previously excelled (Garalon, WotE). Probably the worst part about the current scenario is that Blizzard seem blissfully unaware of the actual state of Mistweavers. Instead they balance the class around the clueless majority, who call for nerfs because Monks were topping the HPS meters in their oh-so-important LFR runs.
Having rerolled a Mistweaver from a Restoration Shaman, it's absolutely staggering to see the exact same mistakes being repeated again. Blizzard balances nearly every fight around coordination of raid cooldowns, then makes a new healer spec without any (or gives them one, then makes it useless in 25 mans two days into heroic progression). Now Restoration Shamans have two raid cooldowns, one throughput cooldown, and one mana cooldown while Mistweavers have nothing.
In terms of how Mistweaver is in 5.1, the only answer is clunky. Renewing Mist is more broken than before the "responsiveness" fix and is so unreliable the viability of Uplift is relegated to situations where you're insanely lucky with jumps. For pure throughput, Spinning Crane Kick now trumps Jab as the best chi generator given Uplift's unreliability, and Chi Burst trumps Uplift unless you miraculously manage to get eight or more Renewing Mists up. The rotation is pretty much just as boring as it always was, you're just using different skills to net optimal numbers.
All I can say is, I'm very glad to be moving away from the spec as soon as I can, hopefully there will be a significant rework of the spec before the next raiding tier. Best of luck to anyone who sticks with it despite the significant shortcomings.