RIP Fistweaving - Blue Tracker

#1 - Nov. 11, 2015, 9:01 p.m.

Devboss: Alright team, how will we change specs to feel more unique? Let's start with Mistweaver monks. Their ability to heal while doing damage is fairly unique, and we're trying to give other healers meaningful attacks in the same spirit. how can we improve fistweaving for Legion?

Jenkins: It's too hard to balance, so we decided to remove it.

Devboss: That's a damn shame. Moving on to Discipline Priests, their absorbs are unique, but too strong. How can we reign them in but still have them feel unique?

Jenkins: How about we make them heal... WHILE DOING DAMAGE?

Devboss: My God Jenkins, you're a genius.

Lore

Community Manager

#34 - Nov. 11, 2015, 10:36 p.m.

Fistweaving (and Gladiator Stance) will not be joining us in Legion.

We love the fantasy that each of those “subspecs” promise, but leaving them as subspecs has proven to be problematic, making us unable to properly deliver on their fantasy. Trying to support two different playstyles within one spec restricts how much we can focus and bring out the strengths of either of them. We still love both of their concepts, however, and will look for opportunities to bring them back in the future.

Fistweaving in particular ended up being used mostly as a mana management tool to support Serpent Stance, instead of a damage/heal hybrid, which didn’t support its fantasy well. While we recognize that the initial goal for Mistweaver Monk -- combining a ranged healer with a melee healing style -- attracted some people to the class, quite a few things have changed since then. Most importantly, there’s been a huge shift away from smart heals in Warlords, which is continuing in Legion.

Mistweaver gameplay for most players was centered around their ranged healing spells, and our focus for the spec in 7.0 consists of reinforcing their unique array of healing tools and adding talents and artifact powers that support this style.