Is a Monk Melee Healer Viable?

**Hhavok** · 2015-03-25, 04:44 PM

Is a Monk melee healer viable? I've been away for a few years (before MoP), and I remember the Monk being advertised as a sort of melee class that generates resources while doing melee, and then heals as a result of those resources that are generated.

In my searches, I feel like I'm not seeing much of that. It looks like I'm seeing that WW spec is melee dps, and MW spec stands back and heals with the other squishies. I tried youtube, and a search for "wow Monk melee healer" brought up videos of Monks standing in the distance and healing.

I'm curious because I've always played dps (and a little tanking) for the fun factor, and I can't see myself enjoying a healer role without the melee included. My family is talking about moving over to WoW from FFXI, and if they do, I'll be joining them, and a Monk melee healer would probably be my first choice to either level from 1 or 90, but I'm not feeling it at all if it is just a stand back and heal class. I definitely wouldn't want to find out my spec wasn't viable after boosting it to 90.

**Inay** · 2015-03-25, 05:07 PM

Well honestly you can't just melee to heal. You have stance to do melee damage which converts to some healing but you have to switch to casting heals during heavy damage periods. Overall you have to cast most of the time while you can add some damage here and there.

**Zimgee** · 2015-03-25, 06:25 PM

What inay said, if you plan to melee 100% it wont work out well for you. The best monks utilize both stances using melee to help with dmg during burn phases and low dmg output phases, while building mana tea stacks. Only certain fights with constant stacking and raid aoe dmg come close to being viable to crane stance 100%.

**Totaltotemic** · 2015-03-25, 06:42 PM

You missed the whole "melee healer" train by about 18 months. MW was like that up until 5.2, and then those elements of the spec were stripped away more and more every patch until the current setup where punching things as a MW is just a more involved way to DPS rather than something you do to heal. These days MWs sometimes stand in melee just because that's where they're needed since they can't get hit by ranged mechanics, but don't actually hit things unless you're specifically foregoing doing some healing to do extra damage.

**Ampere** · 2015-03-25, 06:51 PM

Our Mistweaver does a lot of melee healing, he's kind of there as a half healer/half dps a lot of the time since he ends up doing about as much damage as a tank, sometimes more. It works for us, but it really depends of the needs of your raid.

**Sickjen** · 2015-03-25, 06:58 PM

Originally Posted by Totaltotemic

You missed the whole "melee healer" train by about 18 months. MW was like that up until 5.2, and then those elements of the spec were stripped away more and more every patch until the current setup where punching things as a MW is just a more involved way to DPS rather than something you do to heal. These days MWs sometimes stand in melee just because that's where they're needed since they can't get hit by ranged mechanics, but don't actually hit things unless you're specifically foregoing doing some healing to do extra damage.

Totem <3
Off Topic: Will we be getting weekly updates again this expansion (at some point ) i really enjoyed your posts!

On Topic: Totem is 100% right you get treated like a melee,you can hit things but do little healing while doing so. Some may argue to the death that fistweaving can sustain high numbers but even so the healing isn't really worth it anymore. RIP fun fistweaving.

**Hhavok** · 2015-03-25, 07:32 PM

Thanks everyone. Your feedback really helps. I definitely have a better picture of what to expect now, and totem also helped to fill in the blanks between what I was expecting to see, and where things are now.

Well I was really hoping to roll a kung-fu healer, but it looks like it might not be in the cards. It looks like if I wind up rolling a monk, it will probably just be because there's a decent monk community on here.

**Sickjen** · 2015-03-25, 07:46 PM

Originally Posted by Paul

Thanks everyone. Your feedback really helps. I definitely have a better picture of what to expect now, and totem also helped to fill in the blanks between what I was expecting to see, and where things are now.

Well I was really hoping to roll a kung-fu healer, but it looks like it might not be in the cards. It looks like if I wind up rolling a monk, it will probably just be because there's a decent monk community on here.

With a monk you get pretty much the same results but putting more work in then any other healer. At low gear item levels mana is terrible to deal with,but when you hit around 1500 spirit some where around that threshold don't quote me on that your mana goes crazy. When you hit a good skill cap with the class it becomes fairly easy.

-More spirit = Mara Base Regen + More % gained per mana tea stack
-Instant cast revival it's "very useful"
-On this forum you get a lot of great monk posters that are normally around to help.
- The fun part of it all is your talent will reflect how comfortable you are with mana

Why play a monk?
You can almost find a way out of most situations with your mobility and offers insane aoe healing on spread fights which most classes can't offer
(M oregorger)

Deleted · 2015-03-26, 08:33 AM

When do I revival? You have to use revival at the right time.
Druids use an ability called "tranquility" to signal it.