MW fun enough to main a Monk?

[Magic Sausage]

Subjective question, I know. I have been debating whether or not to power level my Monk and make her my main. I love end game healing and have heard that max level MW healing is not only effective but also a really fun and an engaging spec to play. I have no intention of main speccing BM/WW except for doing to odd daily/soloing old content.

So my question to all you end game MW Monks is whether the spec is worth putting the time and energy into leveling up? What are the pros/cons of the spec and why do you, if you, main MW Monk?

Thanks in advance for your input and thoughts.

Edit. It should also be noted that I have no intention of stepping into heroic raiding. LFR and normals are more than enough for me.

[Ponk]

I've legitimately played both a Holy paladin and a Resto shaman and can definitely say that Mistweaver monks are a bit more engaging than both. Chi/Tea adds adds a little extra depth to the spec that just isn't present in other classes. It's also been said before on these forums that to play a Mistweaver effectively, you need to be able to predict damage at least to some degree, which is something other specs don't really necessitate.

Worth leveling up? Obviously it depends on what you define as being "worth it", but I don't regret leveling mine even in the slightest.

As for pros/cons, I'll do what I can, other people should be able to chime in a bit more. These are also a bit general.

Pros:

• Fantastic raid healers in both 10 and 25 man.
• Exceptional mobility. (Transcendence, Roll, etc.)
• Being able to "Fistweave" for additional dps on a given encounter, healing for a portion of the damage done.
• Potent damage soaking.
• While not as competitive as some other classes, Mistweaver soloing is very viable and is gaining quite some momentum.

Cons:

• Lack of "Utility". Revival and Chi brew are really our only raid cooldowns, and calling Chi brew a raid cooldown is being loose with the term. Zen Med doesn't find much use outside of a personal soak CD.
• Tank healing is sketchy in 25m. It's not the most effective way to be spending Chi, whereas in 10m it's difficult to avoid.
• Mistweavers are, by the nature of the spec, much more effective in a 25m enviroment. This doesn't mean they're bad in 10m, but you won't reach your full healing potential unless you're in a 25m. (Although I guess that can be said about quite a few healing specs)

Another point to note that I can't really classify as a pro or con: Mistweavers are considered melee by raid mechanics. This means you will not get mechanics that specifically target ranged members. While this is good in that your attention won't be diverted as much and it allows you to switch to fistweaving at a moment's notice, in a 10m raid with few ranged it can prove to be a little inconvenient from some perspectives.


Why I main my Mistweaver? It's different from other specs. Not only is there Chi/Tea adding depth to the spec, but many of the spells a Mistweaver possesses have interactions with one or more other spells. Gives a better feel to the spec, IMO. I think the deciding factor for me was the interaction between and potential of Renewing Mist, Uplift, and Thunder Focus Tea (and Chi Brew :P).

I'll be the first to say that due to its unique nature, the spec probably isn't for everyone. But it's definitely worth a shot, and should you find yourself leveling a monk, wait until higher levels to really start judging your interest in Mistweaving.

[Deleted]

Maybe it's different in 10m but if you're healing 25m, MW gets really boring after a while. Most of your healing comes from RnM and Uplift which you can't really control. It's as easy as using RnM on cooldown and knowing when to use TfT/Chi Brew. This is fun the first few times you do a new fight but once you figured it out, you more or less just follow a set rotation. The only thing you have control over is who to spam SM on (which doesn't heal for much) or where to use chi torpedo (which is just going to be the melee 90% of the time).

If you're just doing normals/LFR I would really advise going Disc Priest. It does everything a monk can do only better (in both 10 and 25) and is much more engaging.

[Nzete]

I did level a MW for raiding. We progress some into heroics while current (last tier we got 10). I am back on my priest for healing. Why? Every patch this expansion has been removing options from the MW spec. The entire MW spec is based on RNG (renewing mists going to the right people and whether or not you get chi for your soothing mists. A lot of the healing is based on hitting renewing mists on cooldown or being screwed. Futhermore, the lack of raid utilty just doesn't fly for 10 man heroic raiding.

Even on a fight that agruably caters to MWs (Garalon), I could get the same results on my priest for less effort (RM on cooldown, uplift when you have the chi, expel harm on cooldown, drink your tea, thunder focus tea to have RM up every where leading up to crush, staying in melee range to jab for chi as needed vs. PoM on cooldown, prayer of healing as needed, penance/holy fire/smite the boss to cover trivial damage while standing in the middle like a turret.

[Purpleisbetter]

go BrM and get a serious addiction

[Luneward]

I think preference for Mistweavers is going to come down with your favored style of healing. Mistweavers are far more druid than they are paladin or shaman. It's all about predicting damage beforehand and setting up for it than healing the damage afterward. As someone who came from the more direct healing background of paladin/shaman/disc, Mistweaving felt very, very odd to me.

Still, they have very effective raid healing when RNG isn't working against you (biggest beef with MW is that you can't control your Renewing Mist, which is the base of all of your AoE), particularly they're the most mobile raid healers since they can AoE on the move. We have the best quick emergency heals of any class - though unfortunately it will hose your mana pool, and we don't have any emergency mana cooldowns.

Honestly, it's all going to come down to how you feel about it after you practice it for awhile. It took me about a month to really get comfortable with it. It functions so differently from the other healers it is almost impossible to guess whether you would feel it was worthwhile after leveling.

[Junkdepot]

Once you start to get geared up, you won't even need to switch to another spec to solo/do the random daily. I farm Warscouts on my MW all the time, the damage is high enough and the self-healing from fistweaving more than sustains me.

[Terahertz]

I play MW in PvP and it's really quite much fun to play. You're capable of surviving, kiting and burst healing extremely well (healing spheres/soothing mist - surging mist spam). MW monks are also quite offensive due to fistweaving.

In PvE I didn't like MW as much as I would have liked. This was begin MoP though, but I still didn't like it when they were OP.

[Magic Sausage]

Thanks for the replies everyone! The RNG that comes along with the spec in conjunction with the mastery is the only turn off. Coming from a former Fire Mage, RNG is a pain to deal with. I'll keep my monk as a side project for when I can't be bothered to mow down some dailies. The theme of the class is really driving me to play it.

[Deleted]

Thanks for the replies everyone! The RNG that comes along with the spec in conjunction with the mastery is the only turn off. Coming from a former Fire Mage, RNG is a pain to deal with. I'll keep my monk as a side project for when I can't be bothered to mow down some dailies. The theme of the class is really driving me to play it.

It won't make or break your healing

[DeadmanWalking]

I leveled a mist weaver because I was really into the ideal of fistweaving, the ideal that I could heal while dealing damage and I didn't expect to be rocking the dps charts but I wanted to enjoy healing while kung fu'n the enemy.

This worked out great right up until level 80, then the cost of Jab because so high that I was forced to go ranged healing and the cost got worse as my level went up. Wrath and lower content you are just boss, and then the rug gets pulled off from under you.

Now I am in the back lines with the rest of the healers but I am wishing I had a better aoe heal.

[Deleted]

IDK, fistweaving is pretty silly if you have the gear.

[DirewolfX]

IDK, fistweaving is pretty silly if you have the gear.

What do you change between your normal spec/gear for it? Ascension for Chi Brew? Do you need more spirit to maintain mana?

[Deleted]

What do you change between your normal spec/gear for it? Ascension for Chi Brew? Do you need more spirit to maintain mana?

Chi wave, Ascension, Xuen

[Henriksson]

You can heal with your fists, yo.

[itsdub]

I enjoy mistweavers enough to level a second mistweaver. One thing I also rather enjoy about the class is you don't even need a BW or WW spec to do dailies as you can do more then enough dps as MW to do them all and you'll never die ^^

[Yonie]

I find Mistweaver extremely fun to play. I enjoy healing and I have tried all healing classes on some level and monk is my favorite. Even though I don't have raid utility I can do a great amount of AoE healing, have great personal cooldowns that can make me never die if I use them right and. I can do a decent dps if needed and I can evade many bosses with my Transcendence! The healing burst timing (TFT + Chi brew) is also fun, you need to know the encounter well though.

[DirewolfX]

I enjoy mistweavers enough to level a second mistweaver. One thing I also rather enjoy about the class is you don't even need a BW or WW spec to do dailies as you can do more then enough dps as MW to do them all and you'll never die ^^

It's also fantastic for soloing old raid content in my experience. You can trivially do everything that drops a pet from 5.1/5.3 + Kael'thas. (Razorgore requires a bit of skill to beat phase 1, but that's the same for every class).

[Djaye]

I swapped my main to mw after about 2 days of playing at lvl 90. Hands down just felt like the most unique of the classes as far as play style. I love the mobility! I played hpally for several years and mw just feels like a better overall melee healer. It takes a good amount of time to get used to learning the balance of going melee and ranged and when to 'fistweave' and when to straight out heal.
In pvp is really where the fun of this class shines! Good luck locking down a mw. And the heals they do on the move are pretty sic.

[apepi]

Mistweaver is one of the funnest classes to play as a healer, very good mobility, counters melee hard, good survivability, and good offensive pressure.