[5.2] Mistweaver Survival Guide

[Deleted]

Now that 5.2 is finalized and on some servers, here's something I've been typing up in spare time the past week to help with the transition;

-Have we had any significant changes?

Here's a list of major changes;

1. Tier 30 talents no longer cost Chi.
   
2. We have a new talent, Ring of Peace. Ring of Peace is an incredibly strong 8 second AoE effect which stops player auto attacks, disarms enemies, and silences casters who use offensive casts within an 8 yard radius of any specified friendly target. Obviously effective for PvP, it may see some use in PvE as an AE disarm/silence.
   
3. Mastery: Gift of the Serpent orbs now last a meagre 30 seconds, however on expiration they explode and heal an injured player within a 6 yard radius for 50% of the initial effect.
   
4. Jab now costs 8% of our base mana, this has the effect of making the line between Fistweaving and Mistweaving more distinct. You will no longer be able to achieve "full" healing potential as you would in 5.1 from Jab without going out of mana.
   
5. A new passive effect has been added, Muscle Memory. Muscle Memory increases the damage of your next Tiger Palm or Blackout Kick by 150% and restores 4% of your Maximum Mana. This is to offset the cost of Jab as a generator and is not a mana regeneration tool.
   
6. Discipline priests had their Spirit Shells nerfed, this is an indirect buff to our healing done.

-Have our stat priorities changed?

Yes, the changes have made haste a much more desirable stat. Since we will be spending Chi less and more of our effective healing is made up of passive heals such as Renewing Mist it now makes sense to prioritize haste over Critical Strike rating. You can find a gear list at the bottom of the post which shows one possible configuration to aspire towards which hits the 50% haste point fully buffed and 95% during Blood Lust.

tl:dr;

Int = Spirit Until Comfortable >> Haste [Regular damage/Single Target] = Critical Strike [Spike damage] >>>>>> Mastery (garbage)

Haste is going to be better for fights with a regular damage intake or where you need a single target boost (tsulong). Critical strike will be better for fights where spike damage is prevalent and you can make heavy use of Chi Brew/TFT (empress). I still suggest gearing full haste and then reforging/gemming to crit when the situation arises as you cannot go full haste by gearing crit and reforging away.

I cannot reinforce how bad mastery is as a stat, any gains from it result in a minute increase in healing that's barely worth mentioning. The initial change to mastery would have remedied this (orbs slowly creep towards raid members), the finalized one nerfs mastery for organized raids and movement fights and gives a tiny tiny buff to unorganized, static raids.

Some things to consider while gearing however is that haste significantly increases your mana consumption, but you will also generate more Chi and as a result mana tea. Haste will give you roughly 60% as much mana tea than if you had allocated those points into Critical Strike HOWEVER it will be guaranteed and not based on RNG. The more haste you have, the more spirit you will need to be comfortable.

Haste will be less harmful to your mana with the healer legendary primal, you will get ~ 50% more procs with a full haste build for the clearcast than otherwise.

-How do I fistweave now?

You don't as you do in 5.1, fistweaving is now a very simple priority list;

• Renewing Mist
• Chi Wave/Zen Sphere
• Expel Harm
• Blackout Kick [2+ Chi, MM active]
• Tiger Palm [1 Chi, MM active]
• Jab

The reason we keep Renewing Mist up is because it is one global for a considerable amount of passive healing which you don't need to worry about, it is also a good idea because it lets you fistweave without worrying about AE ramp up.

-How do I heal now?

Any period where eminence isn't ideal you should be using Soothing as a single target filler, SCK as an AoE filler, and the T30 talents for free healing and mana conservation. It's understandable a lot of you will feel the need to conserve chi for long periods of time because access to rapid/reliable generation is scarce, fact is the new Soothing mechanic has given a reasonable reliability so you should still be dumping chi as you get it as to not risk losing both output and mana tea stacks. Healing Sphere is cool too if you can put up with that shit, I can't so I don't bother much.

That information should put you in the position to heal through Throne of Thunder. Can't think of anything I've not covered except maybe the fact there's a few fights in ToT that you cannot use Revival so being at your max will be extremely important. Please feel free to chip in or correct anything!

[Xio]

Nice explanation, but i cannt see the bis list gear to get 50% haste. Could you post?

[Deleted]

Woops, here it is

[Tatuin]

Thanks mate

[Dreyo]

I'm confused on the haste comments. RM doesn't gain any benefit, and actually has negative results via TFT, from haste that goes beyond a breakpoint but not to the next breakpoint. I agree that the changes make haste a better throughput stat due to the Soothing buffs, but as far as RM goes are we really likely to hit 12th tick breakpoint?

[Deleted]

I'm confused on the haste comments. RM doesn't gain any benefit, and actually has negative results via TFT, from haste that goes beyond a breakpoint but not to the next breakpoint. I agree that the changes make haste a better throughput stat due to the Soothing buffs, but as far as RM goes are we really likely to hit 12th tick breakpoint?

With the tier bonus and going from 11 ticks to 14 ticks you're looking at an approximate 50% buff to Renewing Mist, any negative synchronization with TFT is minimal considering the benefits. Simply because we don't have the luxury of immaculate timing anymore with the removal of reliable Chi gen.

[Luqt]

Interesting post.

Your stat priority made my brain explode. I mean, what do you base it on, e.g. for how long would you have to be purely mistweaving to make it worth it, how long would you have to be channeling soothing mist or SCK? Haste is definitely a more interesting stat, I'm not even criticizing the 50% haste idea, but it'll depend on your playstyle.

Based on my experience on the PTR, you're not going to be able to generate all the chi you need from soothing mist (though I only had 27.76% haste and not fucking 50% lol), and I didn't find myself to be channeling SM or SCK that more often. Granted, several encounters in ToT require more bursty type healing, though Iron Qon and Dark Animus seemed to favor haste. I mean, I find the idea eccentric but nevertheless it has it's logic and shouldn't be immediately turned down. Needs more theorycrafting and empirical data. I understand your trinket choice allows you to go upto 50% haste but I still dislike those trinkets and I don't think I would use them just for this particular cause.

[Deleted]

I'm quite short on time (deadlines inc), should have data within the next hour or two further supporting it.

Haste BiS here, with stat weightings showing the difference between it and Crit BiS;
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...qaHpYRWc#gid=8

Crit BiS here;
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...Xc&usp=sharing


Haste BiS stat weightings has the change to crit added, it seems pretty harshly in favor of crit/int but then look at how much Chi you lose in the extra chi field, the scaling of haste with RPPM procs, the fact your ReM will tick 0.4 seconds faster which will make it constitute even more effective healing. You'll probably be able to hit the marker where you can get 3 ticks every second with spamming Soothing Mist as well during bloodlust which would be pretty crazy.

[bizbiz]

How can i keep my mana regen up? i have 11k unbuffed and am having troubles

[Deleted]

I need more information, what are you doing when your mana is depleted? How long does it take?

---------- Post added 2013-03-05 at 11:24 PM ----------

Some very basic steps to increase your mana return are to use Expel Harm on cooldown and always use Mana Tea when you can if it's glyphed. If you're fistweaving a lot Ascension will relieve a lot of tension, you can also take Zen Sphere to eat globals for minimal healing loss.

[bizbiz]

i jab about ever 3-5 sec, with RM on cd use bok and tp whever they need refresh. and chi burst on cd and i dont even use expell harm. i use Mana tea on cd as well

[Prokasa]

Should we go for the 6145 haste breakpoint and ditch crit? (full 5.0 bis)

[Deleted]

Probably yes, the very latest you should still be crit oriented is by the time you get 2 piece. At which point I'm going to say that haste gearing will start to rapidly overtake. You can use my spreadsheet to model what your healing will shift towards by inputting your loss and gain of stats in the "Stat Weighting" sheet.

---------- Post added 2013-03-05 at 11:46 PM ----------

i jab about ever 3-5 sec, with RM on cd use bok and tp whever they need refresh. and chi burst on cd and i dont even use expell harm. i use Mana tea on cd as well

You shouldn't be using Jab as a Chi generator unless you're going to spend it on Tiger Palm or Blackout Kick*. You should be using Expel Harm on cooldown, it's our cheapest and most reliable method of Chi generation this patch.

*Unless you're going to Jab once for an uplift and recoup the Chi with an Expel Harm/ReM then consume the Muscle Memory stack for the 4% mana.

[bizbiz]

okay but EH says it only heals yourself. that can go into alot of over healing. cant it? and 2H is better for us now isnt it?

[apepi]

In pvp I am most likely still going to value crit over haste, maybe ill try to hit 10 ticks on Renewing mist but I am still unsure.

[Deleted]

okay but EH says it only heals yourself. that can go into alot of over healing. cant it? and 2H is better for us now isnt it?

The heal isn't something you should really be considering, if you're low health and it heals you up that's nice but it shouldn't be a deciding factor. 2H isn't necessarily better, itemization, your alternative offhand, and item level can make a 1h/oh combo better.

[Totaltotemic]

Awful, never put haste in a priority like that without at least mentioning that you shouldn't go past X breakpoint.

[Deleted]

In pvp I am most likely still going to value crit over haste, maybe ill try to hit 10 ticks on Renewing mist but I am still unsure.

10 ticks is barely 800 haste if I can recall correctly, also why? The value in crit for us is because of the immense amount of crit rolls you'd get in a raid which make it trend towards it's real value instead of being messed by RNG. Haste is a vastly superior stat for single target healing like you would do in PVP, I guess the prevalence of healing sphere in that environment slightly devalues it though.

[bizbiz]

okay so really its just a cheap chi spell. and oh okay. well i through EH into my roto and it helped alot so ty.

[Deleted]

Awful, never put haste in a priority like that without at least mentioning that you shouldn't go past X breakpoint.

Breakpoints aren't a dealbreaker this patch unfortunately, getting as much Chi as you can and as many ticks as possible before damage is completely healed up is.