Are Mist-weavers a support role?

[Rawriorpriest]

It's hard to tell, and I KNOW they are supposed to be healers, but I was so excited when I heard about monks because of the "damage to healing/healing to damage" mechanic. So my question is, can Mist-weavers be a medium damage, light heal build with some buff/debuff mixed in?

[Daos]

Much like the other healers, Mistweavers don't appear to bring any buffs of their own that all monks don't get anyway, so in the buff/debuff department they're likely to be as strong as any other healer (read: not very).

As to whether they can be a medium damage, light heal build... that pretty much remains to be seen. The main question is whether they get an AP --> SP mechanic much like Paladins and Shaman do. If they do, one could potentially wear physical leather in Serpent Stance and throw out smart heals while attacking in melee.

At this point there's too many unanswered questions.

[Rawriorpriest]

Thanks Daos! I kinda figured the buff/debuff department would be a no-go, but I thought i'd ask anyways. i guess i'll just have to wait to get my hands on a panda of my own when MoP comes out and find out for myself

[Deleted]

As to whether they can be a medium damage, light heal build... that pretty much remains to be seen. The main question is whether they get an AP --> SP mechanic much like Paladins and Shaman do. If they do, one could potentially wear physical leather in Serpent Stance and throw out smart heals while attacking in melee.

Although need an hit boost (glyph or spirit)

[Daos]

Although need an hit boost (glyph or spirit)

Yeah, this is another unknown.

[Keiyra]

So my question is, can Mist-weavers be a medium damage, light heal build with some buff/debuff mixed in?

For solo it doesn't matter, call it whatever you want to call it.

But why would a raid take a "medium damage light heal class?" If you didn't heal enough to be a real healer, they'd replace you. And if they didn't need the full heals of a real healer, they'd take a real dps.

Mistweavers are healers, who should be able to do as much healing as the other healing specs. They happen to do some of that healing, by doing light to moderate damage.

All im saying is if you are spec'd mistweaver and queue up for LFR or LFD, when you fill that healing slot, you better be able to pull some heal numbers or the vote kicks will be coming.

[Azutael]

Since mist-weavers will be in melee, from what we know. Will they need expertise as well as hit you think ?
or will they add a glyph or something kinda like disc priest have for smite/holy fire perhaps.

And so far fro mwatching mist-weavers at low lvls, their heals are insanely OP. But clearly that will be nerfed, early beta and all.

[Speedy92286]

Since mist-weavers will be in melee, from what we know. Will they need expertise as well as hit you think ?
or will they add a glyph or something kinda like disc priest have for smite/holy fire perhaps.

And so far fro mwatching mist-weavers at low lvls, their heals are insanely OP. But clearly that will be nerfed, early beta and all.

Maybe they will get a conversion from spirit to hit/expertise conversion? Or they can go the Disc route. And all heals are op at low level. Even the Draeni racial and the herbal buff. I am sure that once you get to a higher level your health will catch up to the heals.

I assume you can probably do light damage and medium healing, but I am sure that if you wanted to, you can probably do the reverse, especially in an easier dungeon.

[sinisterwyvern]

They'll have a healing ability equal to any other healers in the game. There is no "I suck at everything but I support the group" role in WoW anymore. There's just no other way to do that and no reason to expect it to happen.

On amount of damage I suspect it to be very much like atonement is right now. There are plenty of abilities that do damage but I don't suspect for much. You'll be using Jab just for building Chi. Then there's Expel Harm and Chi Wave. After level 72 Spinning Kick becomes a Divine Storm that heals for 100% of the damage done.

[Ivirus]

On Affinittii's stream he says that with the current numbers, which seem to be very unbalanced at the moment, you don't even really need to do any damage, it's just there for fun right now.

Once everything gets fixed and the numbers are balanced, straight healer mode should still be viable. Damaging and healing should be viable as well, mainly because it's a big selling point for me being able to do real damage. I played Atonement but it was just Smite spam, which was boring for me, lol. Everything from melee hits, Jab chi builder and Crane Kick will do decent passive healing via Serpent Statues. Mistweaver damage will not be as high as a devoted dps but it should around that of tanks. For instance (for the sake of numbers) dps does 30k, tank does ~15k, Mistweavers focusing on the damage->healing route should do ~12k since at least some of their time will be spent direct healing.

I'd like to try and find a way of viably healing popping only a couple global cooldowns on real heals and the rest of the time dpsing. Most likely will be Renewing Mist spam and Uplift with both Serpent Statues out. Fun to be had.

[sinisterwyvern]

Once everything gets fixed and the numbers are balanced, straight healer mode should still be viable.

You will not have an efficient way to generate Chi w/o using Jab. The only other Chi generation is the 25% chance at the end of channeling at the end of Soothing Mists, or by spending 1200 mana a second on Jasmine Force Tea, which defeats the purpose of gaining Chi to spend it on abilities to proc Cherry Mana Tea to regen mana with.

[Ivirus]

There will probably be some fights where Mistweavers being constantly in melee range will be more hassle than it's worth. In Affinitti's live stream, numbers not finalized of course, he doesn't have any mana problems, even on his other casters really.

Jasmine Tea doesn't have a cooldown either, so when you get Renewing Mists rolling on people you can stand to take a couple seconds to channel some Chi. Besides, the only healer spells that cost Chi at the moment are Thunder Tea, Uplift and Chi Wave. You should be using Thunder Tea/Uplift combo every ~9 seconds anyway to refresh Renewing Mists, a combo which already takes 3 Chi which gives you a "free" Cherry Tea charge. Then just a 3 second Jasmine Tea channel to get back that 3 Chi leaves the other ~5 seconds for Soothing Mists/Surging Mists combos, Chi Waves for if you have excess Chi, dpsing or anything else the group might need.

The only time I could see needing some serious Chi generation is if you need to Thunder Tea/Uplift more than the ~9 seconds to refresh Renewing Mists for massive raid heals. Even then, Jasmine Tea will give you Chi faster than 3 Jabs will. Jasmine tea give you 3 Chi over a 3 second channel. Jab will have a global cooldown attached slowing it to 4.5 seconds for 3 Chi.

I see both methods working out well for healers with different playstyles.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Looking over the abilities at their disposal, Monk healers would be best suited as a tank healer. Put one statue by the casters, one by the melee, target the tank, then go to town. A few moves of note and how they'd fit in this formation:

Chi Wave - With the main tank targetted, they're healed first. Then it pulses between the various melee characters, possibly even the boss. Hitting the boss would cause the statues to pulse healing to the casters and melee.

Expel Harm - Use this in case you're getting low on health as a pick-up and to pulse healing (because the heal also damages a nearby enemy).

Surging Mist - Useful if the tank is taking damage faster than you can use your Soothing Mist. Or just to heal a melee player nearby.

Magic Healey Orbey Things - Put them down in areas of high traffic, such as the route out of the fire, or near the area the off-tank is working.


Please Note: Just because this looks like a good formation now, may not mean it is functional in all raid scenarios. The Monk may also be assigned to off-tank duty, or even raid healing (since they do have a number of AoEs).

---------- Post added 2012-03-26 at 11:30 PM ----------

You will not have an efficient way to generate Chi w/o using Jab. The only other Chi generation is the 25% chance at the end of channeling at the end of Soothing Mists, or by spending 1200 mana a second on Jasmine Force Tea, which defeats the purpose of gaining Chi to spend it on abilities to proc Cherry Mana Tea to regen mana with.

I fully suspect that once Blizz gets into testing the class (right now it's just the starting zone) they'll add some healing variation on Jab. Likely a small, quick heal that generates 1 chi.

[huth]

You will not have an efficient way to generate Chi w/o using Jab. The only other Chi generation is the 25% chance at the end of channeling at the end of Soothing Mists, or by spending 1200 mana a second on Jasmine Force Tea, which defeats the purpose of gaining Chi to spend it on abilities to proc Cherry Mana Tea to regen mana with.

Actually, that's per tick, not per spell. You can fill your entire Chi bar in a single cast.

Another thing of note is that you can only bounce Chi wave if you have both a friendly and an enemy target. It will not bounce from friendly to friendly or enemy to enemy, only from friendly to enemy and vice versa.

[Servasus]

They are incredibly broken on the Beta right now, with having almost zero mana cost for spells. If you search youtube for mistweaver videos you can see it in action yourself. They are incredibly OP at the moment, able to heal the same or more than a current healing class, but also dish out tons of damage at the same time.

[sinisterwyvern]

Looking over the abilities at their disposal, Monk healers would be best suited as a tank healer.

Although for raid healing you put out several Renewing mists and maintain them with Uplift as they heal the person they're on, 3 around them, and then travel every time they heal. Having multiples out and using Uplift every 9 seconds or so would keep them going uninterrupted.

---------- Post added 2012-03-27 at 02:12 PM ----------

I fully suspect that once Blizz gets into testing the class (right now it's just the starting zone) they'll add some healing variation on Jab. Likely a small, quick heal that generates 1 chi.

I don't know about that. There doesn't seem to be a reason to. You'll trigger your statue off of Jab anyway as well as reduce Surging Mist cast time with Teachings of the Monastery. I mean I guess they could still, but I like Jab.

[Deleted]

Mistweaver is healing speckt + your need do damage where you get someting power what you use to heal or i dont known ;(

[Goretex]

They are incredibly broken on the Beta right now, with having almost zero mana cost for spells. If you search youtube for mistweaver videos you can see it in action yourself. They are incredibly OP at the moment, able to heal the same or more than a current healing class, but also dish out tons of damage at the same time.

Man that playstyle of damage healing looks really attractive. I might have to make my monks offspec healing. I love how you can do decent amount of damge to heal, this is what I was hoping healing monks would be like. The numbers seem a bit high but hopefully they don't nerf it too much this is the kinda healer I wouldn't get bored of

[Deleted]

Although need an hit boost (glyph or spirit)

Here we go!

Stance of the Wise Serpent: Now also increases your spell and melee hit rating equal to your Spirit gained from items or effects.

[krebul]

Actually, that's per tick, not per spell. You can fill your entire Chi bar in a single cast.

It would still seem to me that Jab is a more effective method of generating Chi than Jasmine Force Tea, since you are doing damage (and thus healing), instead of sitting there channeling for 4 seconds every time you run out of Chi.