Mistweavers truly considered difficult?

[yasiru]

I read often that mistweavers may be considered one of the more difficult healers to play. I've never played a healer even though I've played off and on since WoW started but thought I may try out a mistweaver as they look interesting. But how difficult are they really?

Granted I will probably never play it anywhere other than 5 mans/LFR (no raiding). On the other hand I am partially disabled in one hand so I often have to click on abilities and/or keyboard turn fairly regularly. Would this be a problem?

Friends have recommended starting with a shaman or druid healer first but if I'm going to spend a lot of time playing him I'd rather play one that looks more interesting....

Side question, would maybe playing a fistweaver (when WoD releases) maybe be a better option than a straight up healer? If so, do fistweavers gear in agility gear or standard int?

Thanks for your time.

[DechCJC]

First off, a mistweaver monk uses intellect 100% of the time, you'll still do good damage.

Secondly, and more importantly - The difficulty of a class should never really be the reason you play it, no one class is substantially harder than any other in PvE; There will be occasions where certain roles or players have more difficult jobs based on the boss fight, but I wouldn't consider any class to just flat-out be much harder to play.

If you like the look of mistweavers, play a mistweaver. It's not hard to get the basics of any class, and after you've got the basics it's really just as simple as doing that while performing the raid mechanics like everyone else. Obviously if you want to push into heroic/mythic content it's going to get harder... But that goes for any class.

[Cannaestia]

I really believe that people only say MW are the hardest to play is because you don't find many people that actually play it, therefore the knowledge base on the class is a bit lower than on other classes and specs. MW monks and Holy priest are probably two of the least played healing classes for the simple fact that they don't shine on most fights like shamans and disc priest will. Everyone always wants to play the super over powered class. When learning how to MW though i would recommend learning how to do the Mistweaving side of it first then dabbling into the Fistweaving and Lightweaving. Mistweaving itself really is not very difficult. It becomes a bit more challenging when you start throwing in a dps rotation with it =P

[yasiru]

Thanks for the responses. Think I will just give it a go and see what happens. Maybe I'll name the character after my wife, so if I end up letting some people die they can yell at her instead... :-)

[CloudedInSanity]

Mistweavers in my opinion are the most complex Healers. It takes playing the class quite a bit to get use to Healing on it. I will point out some things I find playing a MW.

1. The APM requirement. This may be something to consider since you are partially disable. Mistweavers BY FAR require the highest APM. This is because of the 1s GCD, as well as how quick you need to be with your fingers when using certain combinations of abilities. (APM = Actions Per Minute; I sometimes feel like a Starcraft player with my fingers when Raiding)

2. There is a lot to monitor. As a Mistweaver there is a lot of things you need to monitor to play the class well. Mana Tea, tracking Renewing Mists, tracking Chi, and multiple short cooldown abilities.

3. The least forgiving Healer. This is a big one also, Mistweavers are EXTREMELY unforgiving if you mess up. One of the big things is knowing every fight inside and out when to use Thunder Focus Tea so you can spread Renewing Mists onto everyone. If you are not doing this properly, your Healing will greatly suffer.

With all that being said quite a bit is changing in Warlords. Because of the changes to the class the APM requirement from Live to Beta has changed substantially. I am no longer GCD locking myself on beta, and in general there is a lot less spammy rotation. Also, they are making the class slightly more forgiving with how they are changing how Thunder Focus Tea works, it still requires thought when you want to use it, however it is not anywhere near as big of a deal as it is on live.

Now, my general opinion on the class is that it is by far the most fun Healing class I have ever played. I have played every class at some point, through multiple Expansions. I think what really gets me going is the complexity and how fast-pace the Healing feels. It does take quite a while to Master the class compared to others. However the reward for me was definitely there.

All in all, I would have to say yes, Mistweaver is the most complex Healer, however it is being toned down slightly in Warlords.

[yasiru]

Very helpful insight CloudedInSanity, thank you for your help. I plan to give it a try and see how things play out. If I can macro a few abilities that will be helpful so I am also looking into that. If it only ever becomes something I play at lower levels, when there isn't many abilities or complexity yet, or strictly with close friends then so be it. Can always turn it into a BrM if I fail at healing, have played one of those, tanking thru 5 mans (never any raiding including LFR). Generally I can play/learn things fairly quickly so that isn't generally much of a problem. I'm more concerned with letting down others, not myself...

I can macro together several things for the DPS classes I play so I always fall back to them anyway.

[Spotnick]

Only reason why mistweavers are "complex" is because you have to learn 2 ways to play it (mistweave and fistweave)... it's like if you had a button to swap from Discipline to Holy on priests.

So it's a lot more skills to learn compared to others, hence making it more complicated to master the class.

Other than that, it's not worse than any other class.

[Totaltotemic]

Only reason why mistweavers are "complex" is because you have to learn 2 ways to play it (mistweave and fistweave)... it's like if you had a button to swap from Discipline to Holy on priests.

So it's a lot more skills to learn compared to others, hence making it more complicated to master the class.

Other than that, it's not worse than any other class.

Even completely without fistweaving MW is more complex. Only one other healer has to deal with multiple resources, and even that healer doesn't have half of their spells be position-based. Almost all heals outside of MW let you ignore everything except the health bars on your raid frames and whether they are within 40 yards of you or not. None of MW's multi target heals are that simple.

[Ulfhedinn]

Very helpful insight CloudedInSanity, thank you for your help. I plan to give it a try and see how things play out. If I can macro a few abilities that will be helpful so I am also looking into that. If it only ever becomes something I play at lower levels, when there isn't many abilities or complexity yet, or strictly with close friends then so be it. Can always turn it into a BrM if I fail at healing, have played one of those, tanking thru 5 mans (never any raiding including LFR). Generally I can play/learn things fairly quickly so that isn't generally much of a problem. I'm more concerned with letting down others, not myself...

I can macro together several things for the DPS classes I play so I always fall back to them anyway.

If you truly have issues pushing buttons quickly then Monk is going to be a rough class. Very fast paced class.

If your mouse hand is fully functional and your other hand can handle Shift, Alt, and Ctrl then a healing addon would be perfect for you. Far easier than DPSing or tanking IMO. I use Clique but there are others that do similar things. Basically you are setting up mouseover macros without having to deal with actual macros. They also you to press the key combos you like and cast the spell you want on the person who you are mousing over in your party/raid.

I ran into a guy that played using one hand (sort of) and his chin. He was terrible but was good enough for the stuff you are looking to do. If he could pull it off I am sure you can.

[yasiru]

Been playing my little gnome MW lately and am up to lvl 40 already, mainly through healing dungeons. I'm enjoying it so far though I obviously don't have all of my spells yet. Just wanted to thank everyone that's offered advice so far. Been using a good healing addon and adjusted my UI a little but doing well...

[apepi]

The good thing about mistweavers is every time there is a new patch you will have to relearn it!

[burmaben]

Honestly, and this is what I've told everyone that wants to play a mistweaver, Mw's are the easiest healer to learn to play. However, we are, I believe, the hardest to master. It sounds silly, but when you realize all the small details we need to pay attention to, and then couple that with the fact that you can gain more bang for you buck and less effort on almost every other healer, it comes more into focus. The nuances of MWing are above what other classes (except maybe other breakpoint classes) deal with, on top of knowing when to fistweave versus mistweave. Since we are so tied into TFT, which means we need to essentially predict (which by all means at this stage isnt hard) incoming damage before it happens, newer mistweavers who haven't had to do that or aren't used to the fights find us fairly difficult.


So yea, I think mw's are very easy to learn the basics of, but very hard to twist those basics into your playstyle and become an elite mistweaver.