House of the Red Crane: Redux

[Deleted]

It's been a while since I did a state of the nation for all things Crane so I thought I'd fill that gap with a lovely wall of text.

Stated Design Philosophy

The stated goal for fistweaving in WoD is for us to be able to trade off healing to enter a DPS mode, Windwalker-lite, an hit things to generate a multitude of small heals which are somewhat smart in hitting damaged targets. Blizzard quoted a figure of being something like 50% damage and 50% healing compared to a full DPS and full healer. So in doing so they created a truly hybrid sub-specialization, similar only to Protection Gladiators with the obvious trade off of flexibility for 50% effectiveness. At the same time they removed the nippy 1s GCD and put us to the standard 1.5s GCD to "make us care about haste", a relevant issue for the 'feel' of a melee DPS-like class.

At no point in the 6.02 patch noted did they comment or appreciate when and where they expected Crane to be used. In tweets and sources elsewhere there was somewhat mixed signals regarding whether it was intended to have use in Progression and they came down on the side of it would be useful and wasn't solely intended for farm content and jokes. They also suggested it would be useful to use when healing needs were low, and provide additional raid utility (as a non-healing raid benefit). An interesting omission is that it would be useful to use for the purpose of mana tea.

Opening Pandora's Box

So the rumours of Crane's death prior to live were greatly exaggerated. As it happened Fistweaving found new life in a couple of unexpected places, at least for apparently for Blizzard: mana tea and the Butcher. So it turns out that when they reworked Serpent to reduced the number of chi generators there was an expected rate of mana tea generation and therefore expected mana return. Crane stance largely pisses all over that. By having rapid chi generators and big spenders the tea generation rate is both high and mana efficient, especially during bloodlust and similar. So by spending a minute or two at the beginning of a fight where healing needs were low (well done Blizzard, partly right) you could aim for near to max tea stacks for later in the fight. So whilst mistweaver's spells are comparatively more costly for similar healing if you look at a good mistweaver's mana over the course of a fight its stupidly volatile. It all comes out in the wash but given the proposed mana tea changes for 6.1 apparently this is not something they want in BRF.

Chi Explosion on heavy-hitting fights with well stacked groups, Butcher mainly and Twins less so, turned out to be pretty great for healing. Some log weirdness and bugs aside, providing good DPS as and high efficiency of ChiEx(4)(beats all but perfect uplifts) combined with low overheal you have a situation which is think surprised a lot of people who'd spent months mocking mistweavers in general and Crane specifically, both inside and out of the community here.

The amount of damage provided by mistweaver using almost any amount of time in Crane stance I suspect either matched or exceeded their expectations. If you go through some of the top 20 on warcraft logs the better fistweavers are doing 50-70% of both the DPS and 60-90% HPS of their colleagues with full Crane. Again given the 6.1 changes to try and boost up healer damage I think they've chosen to bring others up rather than put us down, but they've shown in the past that having a low skill floor and a high skill ceiling isn't something they like or are keen on.

Changes in 6.1

So the biggest thing is going to be that mana tea is changing to 3x unbuffed spirit rather than 4% mana and I won't go into why this is such a bad idea here because we've flogged it to death elsewhere. The short answer is that it will hurt the lower geared and CMs most, will lead to throughput loss for equivalent overall mana regen for those in the middle and for the best geared it will mean they have even more mana with a slightly diluted overall throughput. I expect bad things from this. The net effect of this will be fewer people at lower gear using Crane, stacking more passive spirit and more time healing cheaply in Serpent in my opinion at least. It won't change the very dull use of Crane for 1-2mins to stack mana for the better geared. If you're using Crane full time now I doubt you're all that bothered to be honest (my hero https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports...e=19&spell=100).

At present the only real changes have been a slight boost to Tiger Palm, which rather tiresomely may be just an oversight which is actually quite nice if only minor, and a probably small hit to Chi Explosion. Personal opinion is that this is a poke in the eye of those who actually want to use Crane to heal and a reminder that they aren't actually serious about providing a niche for Crane to exceed Serpent in the occasional situation. Blizz, please throw us a bone.

I don't think they're done with changes to us as yet and I have the ominous feeling what they'll do is further cut the mana regen from mana tea and now they've tried buffing talents Pool of Mists is going to get a nerf for Crane. When used well I suspect Blizz feels we do slightly too much damage/healing and the simplest way would be to cut RSK to +25% damage. Depressingly I wouldn't be surprised if they took 10-20% off our Eminence healing. Especially as the t17 gear should lead to a decent boost in efficiency.

Issues with Crane Itself

So apart from the problem with the inconsistency between the stated design philosophy and general use, the Crane fistweaving rotation has a couple of issues within itself.
* Jab is boring
* Expel Harm is even more boring - effectively just a cheap(er) spell for 1 chi
* CJL is both boring and expensive - the 4 chi in 1 GCD is fine, but itself it does a pitiful amount of damage
* rotation is overly simplistic if you're not having to move around
* SCK and RJW are expensive and their potential is wasted by not having many adds in most fights (and usually <3 targets)
* Chi Explosion unfortunately makes most of the rest of the rotation pointless.

The last point I'll dwell on a moment. Floopa mentioned recently he finds ChiEx boring becasue he just Jabs to 4. Hes probably right - RSK gives you 70% SP spread over 10 targets at the cost of half a full ChiEx(4). Tiger Palm does literally nothing for your explosion and costs you a fourth, though does let you hit 5 stacks of VM for efficiency and boosts your AA damage. You get your Zeal from the Explosion itself. So the best healing you can do actually requires the least interaction from yourself.

Now tier 17 gear is great and should do exactly what we want - cast less Jabs, free up more GCDs for 'business' spells and improve output significantly. Whether that compares to the awesome bonuses from others, like Rshamans, is another matter entirely both in effectiveness and flashiness (double chain heals look great!) and I guess only time and testing will tell.

Conclusions

I'm not an overly pessimistic person, but it looks like Crane is just going to be kicked around by Blizzard for a while. It certainly won't be useless, but I do predict it will be less effective than present in comparison and the rough edges aren't getting any love. I've deliberately not included what I'd like done with the subspec, and would welcome any innovations. I need to get myself on the US forums and start campaigning for some changes! Thoughts? Predictions? Disagreements?

[Deleted]

I liked every part of this text except the "Issues with crane stance itself" where you basically listed that everything is boring ._.

Besides, with the imminent nerf to ChiEx is it even worth considering being FW full-time?

[isRobin]

The biggest problem is I think most MW can agree. WE DON'T CARE ABOUT DPS IN FISTWEAVING. We want the same healing as other healers if it means doing crap dps. Doesn't have to be better than serpent. But has to fulfill a niche. Right now as of 6.1, Fistweaving is below par for a healer and doing about 5-10k less than a tank.

Ways to fix Crane:
Make blackout kick hit 5 targets again.
Make SCK/RJW do dps/healing (essentially double dipping for high mana costs)
Make eminence hit 5 targets for 15% damage done (Statue will copy) (effective 150% Healing that's all small relative numbers)
Make 1H/OH do the same amount as Staff (our BiS crane is a staff, our BiS Serpent is Axe/OH)
Revert the RSK nerf to Fistweavers (I don't actually know if this was applied to MW)
Proportionally Reduce damage done and increase healing dealt
Change Xuen into Chi-Ji (increases healing done by X% and does some sort of Chi-Ji bullshit) (BTW while were at it, change xuen to Niozao, same function as xuen just cosmetic)
Change tiger-palm to a off/on buff the way blackout kick used to be when you used it auto attacks would convert as well, instead this time make it make all your healing split onto 5 targets (just throwing ideas out now)

FINAL TWO ABSOLUTE CHANGES
Get rid of Mana tea!
Change the freaking mastery!

[Deleted]

They should have seen that enough people liked fistweaving to warrant giving it a 0 damage and full healing switch, I'd be willing to bet the majority of people still like crane more than serpent stance. ~_~

[Deleted]

I liked every part of this text except the "Issues with crane stance itself" where you basically listed that everything is boring ._.

Besides, with the imminent nerf to ChiEx is it even worth considering being FW full-time?

This is true though! We have 2 buttons that say "Gain one chi" and one button that says "Gain four chi and cry a little inside" and functionally all-but-identical to chi brew. Spamming one key in your downtime is crappy (like TP for Brewmasters) but having to do it to power rotation is annoying. It just doesn't have to be be that way!

To make it into an independent healing rotation it needs
* choice of abilities to use at any one time - the ability to make a wrong decision is actually healthy
* to be able to heal single targets, stacked groups and spread groups to some degree (but at least be functional)
* to not do so much damage that it's fundamentally imbalanced compared to other healers
* to not vary so much with damage boosting encounter mechanics to make them mandatory rather than just 'good'
* some way to heal people up independent of damage dealt - e.g. to top people off before a pull or whatever
* to be distinct from Serpent stance both ideologically and playstyle

I'll update post when I have my suggestion thought through

- - - Updated - - -

They should have seen that enough people liked fistweaving to warrant giving it a 0 damage and full healing switch, I'd be willing to bet the majority of people still like crane more than serpent stance. ~_~

#meleehealerhype

[Solemnity]

This is true though! We have 2 buttons that say "Gain one chi" and one button that says "Gain four chi and cry a little inside" and functionally all-but-identical to chi brew. Spamming one key in your downtime is crappy (like TP for Brewmasters) but having to do it to power rotation is annoying. It just doesn't have to be be that way!

Remember this is just a simplistic version of the Windwalker; all of those 'boring' chi generation abilities are tied into all of the specializations.

I don't think giving crane more options is necessarily the right way to go about it. Mistweavers are already a little complex in application relative to the other healers, and effectively cramming another specialization into the crane stance is not going to make it more popular. People can roll Druids for that. Crane stance is supposed to be a method of healing, an option of it's own volition, and I think it should be polished not broadened. One thing Mistweavers are god awful at is snipe and isolated healing. I believe if they turned crane into more of a literal means of healing those around the Monks body and around the totem it would help narrow the gap. Sticking your body in melee and the totem in ranged could give us decent coverage and we could do legitimate positional and semi-smart healing. As for the damaging factor I think making it a percentage of how much healing is done would likely be more effective in retaining our abilities as a healer, but to not make us overpowered the smart-healing capacity would have to be very minimal.

Personally I don't think the spec doing damage in any real capacity is a great design. I wouldn't be opposed to it being just 100% melee healing and no more damage than any of the other healers could put out, but that may upset some.

[Deleted]

You people are asking way too much :P

If FW should be made all-around functional, it's almost a 4th spec... I sure woudln't mind but that's outside the scope of reality.

Personally I'd just like the chiEx change to NOT go through on the crane nerf :/

Remember this is just a simplistic version of the Windwalker; all of those 'boring' chi generation abilities are tied into all of the specializations.

I don't think giving crane more options is necessarily the right way to go about it. Mistweavers are already a little complex in application relative to the other healers, and effectively cramming another specialization into the crane stance is not going to make it more popular. People can roll Druids for that. Crane stance is supposed to be a method of healing, an option of it's own volition, and I think it should be polished not broadened. One thing Mistweavers are god awful at is snipe and isolated healing. I believe if they turned crane into more of a literal means of healing those around the Monks body and around the totem it would help narrow the gap. Sticking your body in melee and the totem in ranged could give us decent coverage and we could do legitimate positional and semi-smart healing. As for the damaging factor I think making it a percentage of how much healing is done would likely be more effective in retaining our abilities as a healer, but to not make us overpowered the smart-healing capacity would have to be very minimal.

Personally I don't think the spec doing damage in any real capacity is a great design. I wouldn't be opposed to it being just 100% melee healing and no more damage than any of the other healers could put out, but that may upset some.

This sums up my feeling pretty well, I too wished FW served the role of "snipe"/"spothealing", whatever you want to call it - That's also why FWing is so good on Butcher, because it's a TERRIBLE fight for regular MW, seeing as we go not reliable way to switch between the 2 groups taking damage, while ChiEx+Crane stance is EXCELLENT at it

[Deleted]

The issue is for Crane to be acceptable healing rotation on its own it cannot just be hitting all the right buttons at the right time. You need both choice and the ability to do well and mess up. For that we need a couple more options - not loads, but still more than present.

The Crane Stance v2

Or how to improve what we already have going for us, based on retaining a 50:50 DPS:HPS mix and slightly reducing Eminence healing and increasing the amount of targeted healing but keeping it based on melee chi generation. By casting EnvM instead of RSK or BoK can trade damage into more healing.

To improve single target/tank healing:
* Vital Mists - allow to stack to 10 (max 5 per use)
* Enveloping Mists - can be cast in Crane stance, cast time reduced by 20% for each stack of VM expended (max 5) but doesnt generate more vital mists stacks itself, for 6s duplicates all Eminence healing to target
* Thunder Focus Tea - your next Blackout Kick heals for twice as much or your next Surging Mist is doubled

To make chi generators more interesting:
* Jab - now has a chance equal to crit% to for 1 extra chi, if at full chi generates a chi orb (a la Power Strikes)
* Expel Harm - Glyph baked in (can use on others) without penalty and healing effect increased by 200% (its currently just too weak for a 15 CD for a healer, but limited by sharing with other Monk specs); chance to crit for +1 chi as above
* CJL - now deals 225% damage over 4s (with same 150% extra channelling speed as present), generating one chi/tick (at present it deals half the damage of the 4 jabs it replaces, despite added penalty cost)

To neaten up the DPS abilities:
* Tiger Palm - more than happy to have the PTR values (coefficient of 6x)
* Blackout Kick - again no particular change to damage, boost eminence heal to 5x35% if the TP coeffecient *is* increased of 6, so that BoK does more healing but less damage than the chi spent on TP
* Rising Sun Kick - no change *unless* you didn't increase the single target as above, where increasing eminence to 70% would be acceptable; the issue with RSK is you want it on cooldown and not kept in reserve.. so it would need to be Always Good When Used
* SCK/RJW - I think there are so few occasions where either is useful in Crane (vs a boss) you could reduce their costs signifcantly and it not cause a problem
* Chi Explosion - I think the simplest thing would be just not replacing BoK, as actually having ChiEx do everything reduces involvement with the rest of the kit as it gets no benefit from TP and only minor benefit from RSK

Passive effects:
* Stance of the Spirited Crane - 35% of your damage is converted to healing on an injured ally within 20 yards; mana tea no longer crits for additional tea
* Statue (of Chi-Ji) - replicate eminence as current statue does

[MagicRen]

It's hard to say how to improve Crane Weaver, because I think it should never born. BLZ is afraid of JJU, then split MW into 2 stances, make this specialization awful.
Recent nerfs on ChiExp is terrible for Crane Weaver, this is the core skill we used to heal.

Something I hope for MW:
Make haste affects mana tea. This is a channel skill, but can't be accerelated by haste, inconsistent design.
BLZ forget about mana tea glyph? Since GCD is 1.5 sec, it becomes 1gcd for 2 stacks tea, even slower than channling version. Please fix it up -- Either remove the gcd or 1 gcd for 3 stacks.

BLZ afraid of FW been too stronger, then PFU raids takes several FWs to get more DPS. So they cut lots of Crane's abilities, made it raids-only stance. It's not funny, really.
More buffs? I don't expect more...