How to Play a Mistweaver Monk

Welcome to the How to Play a Mistweaver Monk page! In this guide we’ll take you through the spell use, rotations and best advice for a Mistweaver Monk Healer for maximum level. We’re going through a lot of spells in this section, so if you haven’t already, have a look at the Mistweaver Monk Spells page for descriptions. For this page, we’ll assume that you have or will follow our advice on gems, enchants, glyphs, talents and specs.

Since the arrival of Legion pre-patch in 7.0.3, “Fistweaving” as it once was has been removed. The Mistweaver Monk is now a more traditional ranged-healer play style, with the option to enter melee range, heal and also use mana returning melee abilities.

Buffing

Raid-wide buffing has been removed since patch 7.0.3

Before Combat

Short version:

Ensure you and your party members are at full health.
Consume your consumables.
Drop your Jade Serpent Statue somewhere in the vicinity if you have talented into it.
Cast Renewing Mist on the tank.

Long version:

Drink a consumable such as Conjured Mana Pudding to regain your health & mana, so that you have maximum mana before starting an encounter. As you gain gameplay experience you will gain an understanding of the mana required for each fight and along with your gear improvements, you won’t have to drink to regain mana before every single encounter. But when starting out it’s best to drink when you can. You can’t drink while you’re in combat.

You should also obtain and consume a consumable to gain extra buffs from food or drinks. To view what consumables are beneficial to you head to the Mistweaver Monk Consumables page.

Now that you have full hp/mana bars and the rest of your party/raid members are ready, it’s time to prepare to engage with the enemy NPCs or “mobs”. As a Healer, you’re not going to be the first to engage the enemy, the first to run in will usually be the Tank(Guardian Druid, Protection Warrior, Blood Death Knight, Protection Paladin, Brewmaster Monk or Vengeance Demon Hunter). As a Mistweaver, the play style calls for a balance between a proactive role and a reactive role, meaning you will need to both prepare for situations and also respond to situations.

A Mistweaver Monk’s Summon Jade Serpent Statue is a “totem” that can be dropped which will improve your healing done by Soothing Mist and turns your physically damaging abilities into heals through Eminence.You should drop this statue whenever you need to, as it doesn’t cost any mana and increases your healing. It lasts fifteen minutes, so if you’re going to be within 40 yards it will work for 15 minutes.

If you anticipate heavy damage, you should be in Stance of the Wise Serpent – in this case, begin using your Renewing Mist by using it on the tank. This buff spreads to 3 target with each application, lasts 18 seconds but has a cool down of 8 – so you can use it again on another target – this means you will in turn have 6 targets with this buff – this should be your minimum aim while in this Stance. So after casting it on the tank, use it on another target that hasn’t got the buff. You will also now have 2 Chi built up in preparation for combat. You should also use Expel Harm, which heals yourself for a small amount and generates 1 Chi. Continue using Renewing Mist on party/raid members and Expel Harm to continue building up that Chi.

As you continue building up your Chi, you will reach a maximum of 4 (or 5, depending on your talent choice). Once you have reached your maximum Chi, it’s best to spend those Chi so you’re not wasting further generations. If you’re continuing to build Chi without spending them, it means you’re using your wasting mana. It’s best to try to keep a balance between having 2-5 Chi. Another point on spending Chi is that the more you spend, the more mana you can gain back – we’ll go into this further in the Mana Regeneration section.

You can begin this preparation of building up your Renewing Mists targets and your Chi even if you plan to go into Stance of the Spirited Crane.

Tank Healing

Short version:

Continue casting Renewing Mist off cool down.
Continue to use Expel Harm off cool down.
Use Soothing Mist to channel a small-moderate heal.
While casting Soothing Mist, cast Surging Mist for a burst heal.
While casting Soothing Mist, cast Thunder Focus Tea and then cast Surging Mist for a greater burst heal.
Use Enveloping Mist for sustained large heals over 6 seconds (HoT). Requires 3 Chi.
Use Life Cocoon for tank damage mitigation during heavy damage phases.
Use your level 30 talent such as Chi Wave.

Long version:

As mentioned previously, start by placing Renewing Mist on the tank to being with as soon as you can (even if the tank hasn’t engaged the enemy yet). Continue to place Renewing Mist on the tank off cool down and continually using your Expel Harm to generate Chi. Renewing Mist will heal the tank for a small amount, covering small amounts of damage. Should your tank begin to receive a moderate amount of damage, use your Soothing Mist spell, a spell that is channeled over time and heals while channeling. Because your Summon Jade Serpent Statue was placed in range earlier, it will also channel a heal to an injured party/raid member of its own choosing.

While channeling Soothing Mist, you can cast Surging Mist (which generates 1 Chi) and you will continue to channel Soothing Mist without interruption. Similarly, while channeling Soothing Mist and you have 3 or more Chi available, you can cast Enveloping Mist and you will continue to channel Soothing Mist without interruption. You can also heal with Surging Mist outside of Soothing Mists, but it will have a (short) cast-time. You can also heal with Enveloping Mist (if you have 3 Chi available) outside of Soothing Mist but it will have a long cast-time.

If the tank is or is going to take a lot of damage, you can use Thunder Focus Tea (which costs 1 Chi) and if you use Surging Mist immediately, it heals for double the amount and grants back 1 Chi. You can do all this while channeling Soothing Mists.

You can also use your cool-down Life Cocoon on them and continue healing. It will absorb a considerable amount of damage and also boost any periodic healing (HoTs) received by 50%.

We also suggest using your level 30 talent such as Chi Wave everytime is comes off cool down.

Party/Raid Healing

Short version:

Continue casting Renewing Mist off cool down.
Continue to use Expel Harm off cool down.
Use Spinning Crane Kick when your group is stacked and receiving damage, or Rushing Jade Wind should you have selected that talent.
Spot heal with Soothing Mist, using Surging Mist for those burst heals.

Long version:

Much the same as light-tank healing, your main party/raid based heal is going to be Renewing Mist. We can’t stress enough that this spell should be used as often as possible. The more often it’s used, the more it can spread the HoT to other members and you generate Chi. Continue to use your Expel Harm to also generate Chi. Once your Renewing Mist has spread to multiple members, you can spend your Chi by using your Uplift spell. Repeat these steps, throwing in a Soothing Mist channel onto the tank or a low health member to continue building your Chi.

Another heal you have as a Mistweaver Monk for nearby-low-level-damage is your Spinning Crane Kick: with a great looking animation, heals those within a small radius around you. You can move while using this ability allowing you to heal and move. Great for when you’re in close to those that need healing and it’s more effective the more targets you have closer by. The talent Momentum gives you a speed boost after using your Roll ability. Using Spinning Crane Kick after gaining Momentum combined with the Glyph of Spinning Crane Kick allows you to move around faster while healing those close by to you.

Another multiple-target heal is the talent Chi Torpedo, which when chosen, replaces your Roll spell for another close-by target heal. This talent goes well when combined with the tier 1 talent Celerity, which allows you to use Chi Torpedo more often. Chi Torpedo does require a fair amount of coordination though. You can read more about your talent choice on the Mistweaver Monk Talents & Spec page.

Use can use Soothing Mist to spot heal or top-up individual players during low damage phases to ensure you stay ahead. If a players suffers from a spike of damage, channel Soothing Mist and use Surging Mist for a burst heal.

For heavy damage to the raid, read below.

Heavy Damage Phase Healing

Short version:

Continue casting Renewing Mist off cool down.
Continue to use Expel Harm off cool down.
Ensure Renewing Mist is on 6 or more targets.
Build your Chi to at least 3.
Use your Thunder Focus Tea
Cast Renewing Mist and it will bounce to 2 extra targets.
Continue building Chi and use that Chi on Uplift.
Use Detonate Chi for burst AoE heals.
Use Revival for a raid wide instant heal.
Use Life Cocoon on a particular player if they take significant damage or are being focused.

Long version:

At times during an encounter there is likely to be some heavy damage phases, meaning you and your party/raid members are going to suffer more damage faster, at which point more healing from you is required. We have covered what to do should your tank suffer from large damage spikes, so this will be more about using your cool down abilities for party/raid wide damage (which can include your tank).

When these heavy damage phases occur, they usually last for a short amount of time and occur several times throughout an encounter. During these heavy phases, it’s a good idea to continue using your Renewing Mist and Expel Harm as often as possible to build Chi. If you know that a heavy phase is coming up, we suggest you build up your Chi to maximum, so that you are free to spend it during those heavy phases.

Around about 10 seconds or so before that heavy damage phase comes, spend 1 Chi on Thunder Focus Tea and cast Renewing Mist again to have it bounce to two additional targets. Once Renewing Mist is on as many targets as possible, use your built up Chi on Uplift. This will heal all of the targets with Renewing Mists on them for a considerable amount. You can do this chain of spells once every 45 seconds so timing is critical.

If a single target within the raid has taken significant damage, use your Soothing Mist to heal them, then consume that Chi by casting Enveloping Mists on the target. Once the target has Enveloping Mist on them, you’re free to move onto another damaged target or continue using Soothing Mist.

While you’re healing and punching things in the face, your Mastery: Gift of the Serpent creates healing spheres around the encounter. These spheres can be walked through or will explode after a time. You can use your Detonate Chi to explode all of your healing spheres at once, causing a burst of AoE healing to those near the exploding spheres. Use this for group healing.

Spinning Crane Kick can be used to generate Chi if you’re amongst a stack of targets that may need healing.

Revival is one of the strongest heals in the game, especially for the Mistweaver Monk. It instantly heals all raid/party members, including yourself, for a moderate amount of health. Not only that, it also removes all magic, disease and poison effects from them. Use this spell during heavy damage phases. It’s good to use it at an earlier stage of an encounter, as you may then have the opportunity to use it again in the same encounter. But you may need to co-ordinate with fellow party/raid members as they also have very strong heals and you don’t want to waste either your’s or their’s by using them together.

As with single target healing you can also use your Life Cocoon on any of your party/raid members should they be taking a considerable amount of damage, including yourself or the tank. This can be good for times when damaged is focused on a particular party/raid member and it can’t be avoided. But remember with a 2 minute cool down you should be selective with your spell choice.

Fistweaving

Short version:

Activate Stance of the Spirited Crane.
Begin auto-attacking an enemy.
Expel Harm off cool down to generate Chi.
Use Jab to generate Chi.
Use Tiger Palm to gain Tiger Power and to single target heal if Rising Sun Kick is on cool down.
Use Rising Sun Kick (off cool down) for single target heal & to place a debuff on nearby targets that increases your damage.
Use Blackout Kick to heal up to 4 targets for 20% of the damage done.
Ensure the Rising Sun Kick debuffs and Tiger Palm buff are always up.
Every time you consume 5 Chi you gain a free Surging Mist through Vital Mists. Use Thunder Focus Tea to boost that free heal.
If you feel comfortable stance-dancing – continue casting Renewing Mist off cool down to build Chi.
Use Detonate Chi to explode your generated spheres for burst AoE heals.

Long version:

So you feel like punching stuff in the face (or in the back) huh? Well this is your chance! First, ensure you are in the correct stance: Stance of the Spirited Crane. Begin auto-attacking to start wailing on your foes. Half of the damage that you do to your enemies will be converted into healing yourself or your allies. While in this stance, your melee spells and abilities are now available for use. You can switch back to Stance of the Wise Serpent at any time and continue healing that way, however you can’t use melee abilities in Stance of the Wise Serpent.

You’ll want to make sure you’re using Expel Harm off cool down for a small heal and to generate Chi.

Use Jab to generate Chi when your Expel Harm is on cool down and you need Chi to use on other spells. One of these first couple of Chi, you’re going to want to spend on using your Tiger Palm to gain the Tiger Power buff, which gives you a buff so that your attacks ignore 30% of your enemy’s armor. This is good to keep up because if your enemy’s armor is reduced, it means you will hit harder and therefore heal for more.

To further increase the damage and therefore healing you do, you’ll want to use your Rising Sun Kick – this will provide a (larger) single target heal on an ally and also place a damage increasing debuff on all enemies within range. Try to use this every time it comes off cool down to get a large heal and keep debuffs up.

If your Expel Harm is on cool down, you’ve got your Tiger Power buff up, your Rising Sun Kick is on cool down and you’ve generated Chi through Jab, we need to spend that Chi on something. For more single target heals, use Tiger Palm again. For AoE, to be more efficient in our healing and get the most out of our Chi, we’ll want to use Blackout Kick. This uses 2 Chi and heals 4 of our allies for 80% of the damage we do to our enemy. If you’re talented into it, Chi Explosion replaces your Blackout Kick, at which point you can use 1-4 Chi for different effects.

As you consume Chi using your spells and ablities, with each Chi consumption, you gain a stack of Vital Mists. Each stack reduces the cast time and mana cost of your next Surging Mist by 20%. This means once you reach 5 stacks, you get a free, instant Surging Mist to be used on an ally. You’ll want to use this ASAP so any further Chi consumption goes towards rebuilding your Vital Mist stacks once more. While there appears to be a specific glyph for this in Glyph of Surging Mist, we suggest creating a macro that you can use to choose who you heal rather than a random. If you’re looking for an extra burst of healing, you can use your Thunder Focus Tea, which doubles your Surging Mist heal.

If you’re comfortable with Stance-dancing (changing between your two stances often), you can switch back to your Stance of the Wise Serpent and use Renewing Mist and switch back immediately to get a HoT going around – or you can stay in Stance of the Wise Serpent and continue healing that way.

For Fistweaving we recommend taking the talent Chi Wave for the convenience. Chi Burst is quite difficult to use due to your typical location while Fistweaving. Zen Sphere is also a difficult talent to execute correctly 100% of the time, but you’re free to try either of these talents if you choose to.

You may need to occasionally change targets from the boss to party/raid members to heal them using Mistweaver spells or for dispelling purposes, but then you can return to hitting the enemy target as you were. Because you’re going to be auto-attack healing, we want to keep our ‘non-enemy-target-hitting’ to a minimum. A good option is to take the Glyph of Mana Tea, so that you can use Mana Tea to return mana and immediately return to hitting your target.

Mana Regeneration

Short version:

Consuming 4 Chi gains you a stack of Mana Tea.
You have a chance equal to your crit % to gain an additional stack when you consume those 4 Chi.
For mana efficiency, try not to over-generate Chi. i.e. if you have 4 Chi, spend them on something before using say, Expel Harm.
Use/Drink Mana Tea during lulls in encounters.
Glyph of Mana Tea is good for Fistweaving as you can work it into the rotation.

Long version:

As encounters go on and you use spells to heal, you’re going to use up mana. While typical game mechanics such as buffs and stats like Spirit will return mana to you, it’s usually not enough and you need a little extra help. That’s where your main mana return spell comes in, which for a Mistweaver Monk is Mana Tea. Each time you consume 4 Chi(i.e. Casting Uplift and then again later), your Brewing: Mana Tea passive ability causes you to gain stacks of Mana Tea(up to 20 stacks). You can then use your Mana Tea spell to regain 4% Mana per stack. With the glyph Glyph of Mana Tea (which we recommend for Fistweavers) you consume 2 stacks immediately for a return of 8% mana, but this places a 10 second cooldown on Mana Tea. Use Mana Tea off cool down when you have time.

You have a chance equal to your crit chance to generate double the amount of Mana Tea charges. This is why crit is quite an important stat for the Mistweaver Monk.

Dispelling

Short version:

Use Detox to remove Magic, Poisions and Diseases.
Ensure the debuff you’re removing needs to be removed.

Occasionally encounters present themselves as to place “debuffs” or negative spells, whether from mobs or bosses. These debuffs can range from bleeds, poisons, diseases, curses and magic. All healing specializations can remove magic debuffs, but each class has a different removal tool unique to themselves. A Mistweaver Monk can remove magic debuffs, poisons and diseases using Detox. Remove these debuffs as soon as you can, though be sure that they need removal, as sometimes debuffs, though they may seem bad, may need to remain on a player or be dispelled at a particular time. Revival also removes all magic, poison and disease affects as mentioned previously.

Talents

Like all class specializations, there are more spells that are available to a Mistweaver Monk through talent selection. To learn more about choosing your talents and the benefits, head to the Mistweaver Monk Talents & Specs page.

Now you know How to Play a Mistweaver Monk, it’s time to focus on your stats at the Mistweaver Monk Stat Priority Page.

If you have any questions regarding Mistweaving or Fistweaving feel free to ask us in the comments below.