7.1.5. Resto Shaman vs. Mistweaver Monk

[Ham on Rye]

Leveling a toon and interested to hear what people think about the comparison between these two healing classes. I know Shamans have great cooldowns and Monks... well... yeah. But other than that, for Mythic Raid Healing itself, how would you compare the two in a post-7.1.5 world?

Thanks for your help.

[Berlitz]

Not to rag on you too much, but I don't think (especially the day after/of a patch), there is going to be many folks out there that have dove so deeply into those two healing specs. I would simply refer to previous posts and opinions of the two and draw conclusions based off patch notes or "trying" the two specs yourself.

[Deleted]

they're very different. i suggest just leveling both to 110 since it doesn't really take all that long anyway and they both have fun off specs you might enjoy in case the healing side doesn't appeal to you.

[Saverem]

Shamans have much better utility and heals when people are stacked up.

MWs have better mobility and heals when people are spread out.


I'd say OVERALL, Shamans are the better healing class as they provide unique utility that only they can provide (as well as 2 lives) to the raid where as MWs are more like "filler" healers as they pretty much only accomplish the role of healing and don't really provide anything unique to the raid.

[Apokavkos]

Unless a major change happens soon 9 out of 10 times you'll be better off as a Rshaman. (As 7/7 M EN MW I've been too stubborn to switch)

[Deleted]

I don't think there is any doubt about it in all honesty, R.Shaman is simply the better class. They have amazing utility and great healing spells.
the only reason the rest of us are still playing MW is because we've invested so much time into it, but we simply will not get the changes we require to be competitive this expansion, they would have to change way too much to fix all of our bugs and concerns and they aren't going to do that.
So you basically got to ask yourself, 'do I want to play the worst healer this expansion in raids?'
If you wish to play any easier content as a healer, normal/heroic raids, low m+ dungeons, etc, then MW is actually awesome fun cos you can derpderp soom and jump round like Lore on his stream and pretend that everything is ok with MW Monks.

[Deleted]

I don't think there is any doubt about it in all honesty, R.Shaman is simply the better class. They have amazing utility and great healing spells.
the only reason the rest of us are still playing MW is because we've invested so much time into it, but we simply will not get the changes we require to be competitive this expansion, they would have to change way too much to fix all of our bugs and concerns and they aren't going to do that.
So you basically got to ask yourself, 'do I want to play the worst healer this expansion in raids?'
If you wish to play any easier content as a healer, normal/heroic raids, low m+ dungeons, etc, then MW is actually awesome fun cos you can derpderp soom and jump round like Lore on his stream and pretend that everything is ok with MW Monks.

Lore? who is that? he streams MW? love see one, whats his twitch or so?

[Deleted]

Lore? who is that? he streams MW? love see one, whats his twitch or so?

He's the guy who hosts the Developer Q&A. You can find his twitch here : https://www.twitch.tv/devolore
He plays a couple of different classes, so he's not just always streaming MW. I doubt you'll learn anything from watching him do DHT +4 but he's good fun and seems like a very nice guy.

[Zimakai]

We've got some nice buffs as a MW this patch, I am enjoying it a lot! Though the play styles between both classes are very different. I would say that you need to pay more attention as MW to get the most out of it; e.g. you need to use your ReM on cooldown or you are losing a lot of healing.

I do feel that it is easier to raid heal as my Resto shaman, but I would only say the class makes for a better raid healer if you are chaining cooldowns. Which you often need to do, especially in higher M+, while a MW is more easy to spamheal a group.

I play both classes, but I am not a pro, so take from that what you will. I don't raid other than Heroic pugs, and I've done up to M+ 13.

[Deleted]

Unless a major change happens soon 9 out of 10 times you'll be better off as a Rshaman. (As 7/7 M EN MW I've been too stubborn to switch)

10 out of 10*

Can also confirm this as a 7/7 M EN & 2/3 M ToV MW that is about to reroll. Play MW only if you're ok with either playing more casually or occasionally being likened to a sack of potatoes.

[Solemnity]

With the set bonuses, Mistweaver will probably lean towards a playstyle that mimics Shaman healing, but is simply inferior. Shaman will be doing pretty much what Monks will be doing, but properly tuned and with cool downs. Mistweaver isn't always so straightforward as to what is optimal and is very different if healing circumstances change. If you're not dedicated to the class you probably won't like it. The only reason to play it is if you enjoy aspects to it that aren't relevant to its performance compared to another healer.

[Ham on Rye]

With the set bonuses, Mistweaver will probably lean towards a playstyle that mimics Shaman healing, but is simply inferior. Shaman will be doing pretty much what Monks will be doing, but properly tuned and with cool downs. Mistweaver isn't always so straightforward as to what is optimal and is very different if healing circumstances change. If you're not dedicated to the class you probably won't like it. The only reason to play it is if you enjoy aspects to it that aren't relevant to its performance compared to another healer.

Just looking at the warcraftlogs results from 7.1.5 the last two days in Mythic, it looks like Mistweaver throughput is right up there and doing well. Maybe the mastery buff helped? Is this not the case?

[Deleted]

Yes but MW is still not #1 which it would need to be by a significant margin to make up for the complete lack of other contributions.

[Apokavkos]

Yes but MW is still not #1 which it would need to be by a significant margin to make up for the complete lack of other contributions.

This is key point. The only unique ability MW has is we can DUMP our whole mana bar into healing for 45 seconds. At the start of the expansion it gave us a boost in logged HPS. Currently all healing specs have more throughput, bring useful utility, handles their role better (Tank, Spot Healing, AoE), and scale better with gear. All without the inane complexity our mastery/AoE/ST heals require.

Monks have asked for changes to this poor design since day 1 in Legion closed beta and have been flatly ignored.

[AetherMcLoud]

At the end of the day both classes' raw healing abilities are roughly about equal, but resto shaman SHITS heavy cooldowns and utility left and right, while mistweaver monk has nothing besides cocoon and maybe revival (meh-ish in raids and completely underpowered in dungeons), and all the movement ability is only really useful in pvp.

Shaman has spirit link totem, self-rez, battle-ish-rez totem (both in addition to all your raids normal battlrezzes), a fucking ranged interrupt (seriously, they get to keep their interrupt but the MARTIAL ARTS HEALER doesn't?), cast-while-running for 15 seconds with low cooldown, healing tide totem, wind rush totem and 2 or 3 other heavy burst healing cooldowns they can spec if they want.

And of course, Bloodlust.

[robbymc88]

i play both rsham and mist monk and id say in mythic+ monk is way better healing wise D: