Question(s) about MW monks

[Orthios 271]

So I'm leveling up my monk (currently lvl 54), and I've been thinking about what I should have my off-spec should be, my main spec being brewmaster.  I'm looking into creating a healer (it will be my first) and was wondering how do MW monks compare to other heal specs on easy of play and utility.  Also, what is "fistweaving," as I've seen that come up a few times.

 

My armory link to my monk (so far):

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/the-forgotten-coast/Niija/advanced

[Krazyito 521]

Fistweaving refers to when a monk healer is doing damage to heal (such as Disc priests atonement healing.  Though, the term really does not matter until you reach max level.

 

As far as ease of play and utility, I'm sorry to say, but as your first healer I would not recommend it.  Don't get me wrong, its a very good class and is very fun to play when done correctly, but it is very gear dependant and is not very friendly to new healers because the playstyle is very different than the other healers, while most other healers have about the same feel.

 

My suggestion is to learn healing with another class and have a feel for it before doing something completely different with monks.

 

If you're dead set on using your monk as a healer here are the pros and cons:

 

Pros:

• Very output heavy.  Meaning, they just do a lot of overall healing.  With all the hots and instants they have, monks can easily just output a good amount of raw numbers.
• Damage. Mistweaver Monks can output insane DPS numbers, especially on AoE. This can make or break progression kills sometimes.
• Mobile.  Monks are very mobile healers and can move around without disrupting their healing.
• Raid cooldown.  Monks have an Instant Raid-wide raid cooldown that heals every person in the raid.
• Tank Cooldown. Monks have a fairly short tank cooldown (1.5m) that puts an absorb on the target and also increase HoT healing on the target by 50%

Cons:

• Single Target Healing: Monks are pretty bad single target healers.  Mostly because it just OOMS them if they do it for too long.
• Cooldown reliant.  You have to keep up with a HoT every 8s to make sure your raid has what you need to heal them.
• Mastery: Its bad.  Needs to be deleted and/or changed.
• Susceptible to absorbs: as most other healers monks just lose so much healing from other healers absorbs.  But since its mainly a HoT class, its even more so.
• Raid Cooldown: The raid wide instant heal.  Well since patch 5.4 its a pretty pitiful amount of healing, at least for 25 man.
• Tank Cooldown: The 50% healing effect goes away when the shield is fully absorbed.  and the absorb is only about 500k~.  Not bad, but still not great.

I hope that this post gave a good general idea of the healing monk spec.  I don't mean to tell you to not play it, but I just would not recommend it as a beginner spec.

[Orthios 271]

OK, so I wasn't too far off about what I thought fistweaving was.  I don't know what the play style is like for other healers is, so it being different doesn't make too much of a difference to me.  I have plenty of time to learn MW monks, being lvl 54 atm, and that is probably what I will do.  So far I like what I've seen about MW so I will likely use that as my off spec for now, and if I don't like it I can simply switch.  Big thanks for the infos you gave.

[Shine 144]

Hey Orthios, I just read this and wanted to add a link to the Fistweaving guide in these forums, If you ever get more interested you can find enough info there.

[Orthios 271]

Hey Orthios, I just read this and wanted to add a link to the Fistweaving guide in these forums, If you ever get more interested you can find enough info there.

That is a really good guide, thanks for linking it. I just got the duel spec this morning, but won't be able to do anything with MW until tomorrow :P so that's when I'll decide whether or not to keep it, but I more than likely will. Also turns out I'm not that great at listening to advice, as my monk is my first tank (even though sunniers blog and the guide here warned against it) and now will also be my first healer.

[Tarazet 144]

I don't think the Monk is that hard to play as a healer. I think the thing that throws people is that it has a very active playstyle, almost like playing a DPS class. Mistweaver relies on constantly and efficiently building chi by using Expel Harm, Renewing Mist, and Soothing Mist, and spending it on Uplift and Enveloping Mist. The more Chi that we spend, the more stacks of Mana Tea we get to get our resources back. We will also break with our pattern to use Chi Wave on cooldown and Chi Torpedo situationally, since they are free. They don't interact with the Monk's other abilities, but do heal for quite a lot on their own.

 

The key, at least for me, was making sure to use ReM enough so that Uplift was as effective as possible. If the tanks were both covered, then I would target someone else with it to make sure it spread to the maximum number of targets. Your heals don't seem potent individually, but tanks always know they're being healed by a Monk because they see billions of little green numbers flying everywhere.

[kika 1]

Hi Orthios, Seems that you already knew what you wanted to do before you asked the question :P ... Anyway, usually is adviced to have a dps off-spec, regardless of class ... Not a rule carved in stone, just a suggestion