MW Monks and Mythic Raiding

#1 - Feb. 13, 2017, 6:53 a.m.

Hello all, hope everyone is well.
I made a post in the 7.1.5 PTR forums when they first went up about the state of our spec and there was a lot of relevant, well communicated discussion going on in there.

After conversing frequently with a Blizzard CM recently (thanks for your time, effort and responses, it is majorly appreciated. I didn't want to mention you by name as I didn't think it my place to do so) I have decided to write up a more in depth thread that hopefully is better written and easier to read.

I'd like to start off by saying that I genuinely love playing the Monk class and I have thoroughly enjoyed the direction that Mistweaver has taken in Legion in regards to being a pure healing spec. I'm not one of the top Mistweavers in the world by any stretch of the imagination, but I love playing this class and progression raiding. I've mained a riad healer since Vanilla (R.Shaman > Holy Paladin > Holy Priest > R.Shaman > MW Monk) and have exclusively played a R.Druid in PvP since TBC.

I welcome all kinds of feedback and discussion to this post and encourage any MW who plays the class frequently to share their experience with the community, but please keep it on topic and most importantly of all, keep it civil.
I also wish to add that I will be covering a wide range of 'issues' that have been talked about in my previous thread on the PTR forums and from various sources such as the Monk Discord channel, other WoW Forums (reddit, MMO-Champ, monk blogs, etc).

As I stated in the last post I made, please do not take what I have said as 'Fix all of these issues' That would be absolutely insane. I would simply like to draw attention to things that myself and many in the MW community have issue with, which we feel jeopardises our position in mythic raids, especially progression and hampers our class.

Table of contents :

1. Sheilun, Staff of Mists
2. Talents
3. Our Toolkit
4. Mana consumption
5. Legendaries
6. Proposed 7.2 changes

Sigma

Game Designer

#35 - Feb. 18, 2017, 2:11 a.m.

Much like the Disc post in the other thread, Mistweaver is more in a state of thinking ahead for possible refinements, but no immediate shake-ups. This is preliminary, but a possible direction is that some things could be smoothed out by reducing the emphasis on Essence Font. That could help with, for example, drawing out more of a regular ongoing decision between Enveloping Mist, Vivify, and Effuse, rather than having that so often pushed out by Essence Font. Also, making the value of mastery more stable, and reducing the importance of churning as much mana into Essence Fonts as possible. For fair warning, a cooldown on EF is not out of the question after seeing how it's played out, but that would come alongside seeing how other heals might have to be strengthened.

Rising Thunder has wound up underperforming which we would likely look at at the same time. It would likely be helped regardless by changes that made it easier to spend mana and GCDs on Rising Sun Kick, without always taking away from something like an Essence Font.

Sigma

Game Designer

#266 - March 31, 2017, 10:51 p.m.

On the initial 7.2.5 PTR, we are trying out a version of Essence Font that is even stronger, but has a cooldown. In addition to some combination of a healing increase and mana cost reduction, the duration of the HoT will be increased.

Essence Font having no cooldown has held back the spell and the spec in a few ways. It essentially says that three relatively heavy heals (Essence Font, Enveloping Mist, Vivify) have to compete with each other at all times. The texture of using a heavy spell on a short cooldown, then falling back to the decision between spammable spells (selecting based on cost, number of targets, etc.) is common among healers for good reason. And Essence Font's HoT mechanic that improves mastery is meant to specifically enhance that sort of gameplay, and will be more effective on a spell with a cooldown.

As already mentioned, the first change that comes along with it is buffing Essence Font itself. It no longer has to be held back by "if it gets too much stronger than e.g. Vivify, people will only use Essence Font", and can simply be a high-priority spell. We will make other adjustments as needed for gameplay or tuning.

Aerythlea

Community Manager

#502 - June 16, 2017, 8:55 a.m.

There has been some great discussion in this thread. I've raised the post cap now so please continue providing any feedback, especially after Tomb of Sargeras is open. Thanks!