[M-HFC] Should a MW expect to get benched?

[Seratha]

Partially venting frustration, but I'm also curious if any other Mistweavers have had similar experiences.

My raid team is on the tail end of M-HFC. I've been benched for M-Tyrant, M-Xul'horac, and was supposed to be benched for M-Zakuun, but was taken because a healer was unavailable that week. Our healer team consists of 2 Holy Paladins, 1 Disc Priest, 1 Resto Shaman, and 1 Mistweaver (me). I'm fairly confident that my skill level is at least equal to that of my fellow healers.

I did a few weeks prog on M-Mannoroth, but was just benched in favor of our Resto Shaman because "we need SLT". I've been told I will be able to prog on M-Archimonde, though you'll understand why I might take such a promise with a grain of salt.

Given our healer comp and the demands of the harder Mythic fights, should I have just expected this happen? Or is it me? Is it my breath?

[Supliftz]

x2 hpal is superior to 1 hpal 1 monk, so if equal skill yes you should be sat.

[Deleted]

Yes, you can expect to be benched at all times. Hpala and discs are definitelly worth more than MW with equal skill and rshaman simply has more means of keeping the raid alive than MW. Even if you're equal in terms of skill, rshaman is still more valuable than MW

[Nokcihc]

There should just be a big fat disclaimer when you decide to roll a MW that says "WARNING YOU HAVE NO UTILITY."

We're just not as good as other healers right now. Shamans bring the CDs, Disc Priests are still basically mandatory and have very few weaknesses, Pallies are super OP right now just by design, and then there are Druids and MWs. We do great AoE healing numbers, but that unfortunately isn't enough when other classes do just as much or more and bring utility to the raid(shields, non-throughput raid CDs, better tank CDs, etc.). At this point in the expansion it shouldn't really be that big of a deal who you bring because of the ilvl, but if you're guild is doing things optimally you're not going to be in very often

[Chassara]

Yes, I'm always the first to be sat and it's never because of skill. I can keep up with the other healers fine and know how to pull my weight. Basically, the utility that a RSham/Pal/Druid/Priest brings is far superior to our toolkit. The rsham/hpal/disc combo is just way too good, not to mention Hpals are gods atm. Unfortunately, some fights this tier can be 3 healed, so why would you want a Mistweaver over a Sham who has waaaaaay more to offer in their toolkit. Another significant factor for me is that the RSham in our comp is GM/RL so he basically never sits on prog, even if he wanted to. Xhul Horac, for example, is 3 healed in my guild and I was asked to be WW so I didn't miss out on the kill. Tyrant, I missed out on the Progression kill though, because tranq and brez was preferred over Rev. If I ever missed out on a kill, the raid leader would always sub me in for the following week and another healer would bow out/dps, so in the end it works out

The trick with healers I've found this expansion is to be versatile. Learn another spec so your chances for being sat are limited. Our resto druid frequently DPSes so I can have the 4th healer spot, but I'm always the first to be dropped if we go into 3 healing, or if resto druid utility is preferred. I picked up WW and had alot of fun DPSing on Xhul, so it was a nice change of pace. In saying that, I, for one, hope the overhealing content issues as well as our limited toolkit gets addressed in legion.

[Thugonomics]

Bring the player, not the class. Our MW is a BEAST and she doesn't get sat.

[Ustabil]

Our MW is top HPS on most fights. He is a fucking beast tho.

[Servasus]

My team wouldn't bench me in a million years. I blow the other healers out of the motherfuckin' water on fights where there's actually damage to be healed. That being said, I understand if they had a similar skill level as I do, it would be a much different story.

Try getting better at fistweaving while it's still relevant. If you can convince them that you can pull over 50k single target while still adding a sizeable extra healing buffer to cover up for raid mistakes, they might not bench you as much.

[Spotnick]

Fistweaving is not really an argument on most of the fight these days because you have to stop dps to meet the timers many times. For the first time it's really useful on Archimonde.

Honest, there isn't really that much reason to bring a 2nd holy paladin or a shaman over a monk on pretty much all the fights. But I think there is even less reason to keep a player on the bench for every fight at this point. I don't bench because I'm an officer, but we made sure our resto druid and resto shaman were alternating at every fight.

There are many advantages to bring a monk, I can think of some here:

- Zakuun: Revival (only CD that can actually save your raid from a wipe from a bad explosion) and Diffuse Magic (Soaking those seed going to hit the pilars)
- Velhari: You can't be targetted by Edict, so you are 100% sure to be healing the full last phase (always been top heal on that fight anyways).
- Xhul: Leg Sweep is very good on that fight, but anyways, any 3 healers will do on that fight, but it's stupid to leave the monk on the bench because the trinket drops there and nobody else really want it.
- Mannoroth: You are the only healer who doesn't have to bait the felseeker in last phase and can heal tanks/melee, plus very insane mobility to get back quickly from shadowforce if stuck.
- Archimonde: Fistweaving doomfire and Archimonde in P1 for faster transitions. Pretty good at soaking doomfires without sweating and waiting too many cooldowns.

The damage element is there, but I have yet to see a raid leader who felt it was important (until we got to Archimonde but that will be gone soon once everybody will be upgraded properly lol)