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Patch 5.2 changes for Mistweaver Monks

The Monk class has undergone many changes already in it’s short life-span and the changes will continue to pour in as Blizzard tweaks the class until they’re happy with it. This is to be expected. Not only is the Monk the newest class that has become available to players, but it is the newest Healing Class. Blizzard has never before attempted to implement and balance a whole new healing specialization before, so there are going to be some hiccups along the way. Not only do we Mistweavers need to learn the class from the beginning, but we may need to learn the class all over again as patches are released. The upcoming patch 5.2, is no exception.

In this patch a few of our major spells undergo a large adjustment, as well as a brand new Talent replacing an old one and even a change to one of our stats, Mastery. Remember these are early patch notes and could change at anytime. Patch 5.2 will be released on March 5th 2013. To read through the patch notes that are related to the Mistweaver and an analysis of each change, continue on after the break.

For a quick & easy summary head to ‘What you need to know as a healer for Patch 5.2‘.

New Level-60 Talent: Ring of Peace. Ring of Peace forms an 8-yard sanctuary around a friendly target for 8 seconds, disabling enemy player auto-attacks in PvP, and causing all enemies (both players and NPCs) in the area of effect to be disarmed for the duration. In addition, enemies that cast a damaging spell while within the area of effect will be silenced for 3-seconds. The ability has a 45 second cooldown.

A brand new level 60 Talent that will replace the Talent Deadly Reach that will be made baseline in Paralysis with Patch 5.2 going live. This is the strong defensive spell that many Mistweaver Monks have been calling for. Not only usable on yourself but any target in your party or raid. Handy for sticky PvE situations and excellent for PvP.

Jab now costs 8% (was 4%) of base mana to use.

Originally 4%, then 4.5%, then 6%, now 8% of base mana to use. At what point will this spell become too expensive to use and effectively force us to remove it from rotation? And then at what point does this new melee-style-healing disappear? Yes, this is unfortunately a nerf to one of our main Chi generators. However, having said that, our next Tiger Palm or Blackout Kick after using Jab will also restore 4% mana through the new passive ability Muscle Memory outlined below. So when you Jab and then Tiger Palm, the Jab effectively cost you 4% mana. If you Jab twice and then Blackout Kick, the Jab effectively cost you 12% mana.

The Glyphed version of Uplift now costs 8% of base mana (was 6.6%) to cast.

Another increase to one of our mana-using abilities. It would appear from the changes to uplift now and in the past and the constant increase of mana cost to Jab, Blizzard doesn’t want us to simply Jab, Jab, Uplift repeatedly. Which is fair enough. But with such an increase to Uplift mana cost with this glyph, in what situations would it be beneficial?

Chi Wave now does 100% more damage and 14% less healing, and no longer costs Chi, but now has a 15-second cooldown.

Although with a healing decrease, Chi Wave does have a reduction of 0 Chi cost so we’re probably going to start using this off cool down, which is now 15 seconds and we’ll need to be more selective when using it. Remember: to get the most healing out of Chi Wave you should cast it on an ally first, so it will heal 4 times and damage 3 times. It doesn’t cost mana either!

Zen Sphere now has a limit of 2 (was 1), now detonates when either the recipient reaches 35% health or the Zen Sphere is dispelled, and no longer costs Chi, and has a 10 second cooldown. Its periodic damage has been increased by 22%, periodic healing has been reduced by 61%, its detonation healing has been reduced by 62%, and detonation range has been increased by 40%.

Another spell that has had it’s spell cost completely removed so it’s now free. It doesn’t cost mana or Chi and can also be applied to up to 2 targets. It will be great for tank healing and should be kept up on 2 targets at all times(usually 2 tanks). If you’re to detonate these, wait until damage has occurred so you’re not over-healing too much. It will be interesting to see final healing numbers with the reduction of healing these Zen Spheres produce.

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Chi Burst now does 340% more damage and 69% more healing, no longer costs Chi, and now has a 30-second cool down.

Again, another increase to healing done and removal of Chi cost for this spell, but a huge increase to the cool down from 0 to 30 seconds. This means we need to be very selective when using this spell, but it can be great for AoE healing large groups. It will be best to wait for those large damage spikes before casting, and remember to position yourself as best as you can to get the most out of this heal.

Paralysis is now a physical, non-magical effect, and can no longer be dispelled, grounded or reflected, and its base range has been increased to 20 yards. The paralysis effect lasts 40 seconds (was 30 seconds) for non-player targets, 4 seconds when used against other players, and lasts 50% (was 200%) longer when used from behind a target.

Not a massive change for PvE as us Mistweavers aren’t often called upon for CC, but can be handy to get out of a bind. This is a huge change for PvP though, especially with Deadly Reach being baseline within this spell.

Tiger’s Lust no longer has a Chi cost.
Tiger’s Lust can no longer be used on targets that have other temporary speed increases active.

You’ll be able to use this talent at any time without Chi cost, another great PvP change. However for PvE, we believe the other two talents available are still more viable for Mistweavers.

Dampen Harm can now be used while stunned, and its cooldown will now begin when used, not when the effect ends.

Another solid change for PvP, another defensive cool down, one of the things the Monk community has definitely been asking for.

Healing Elixirs now heals the Monk for 15% of maximum health (was 10%).

An increase to the heal provided by Healing Elixirs is always a positive. If you’re following our talent recommendations, we suggest using this talent.

Chi Torpedo now deals 15% more damage.

Not entirely relevant to the Mistweaver, but not a negative either.

Healing Spheres now have a duration of 1 minute. Healing Spheres generated by Mastery: Gift of the Serpent now have a duration of 30 seconds.

This change to Healing Spheres may seem like a bit of a nerf or negative change, but combined with the change to Mistweaver Healing Spheres below it’s actually not that bad. Read below for more info.

Mistweaver

Life Cocoon can no longer be dispelled.

Another change to enhance the Mistweaver Monk’s defence, especially in PvP situations. Doesn’t really effect us in PvE situations.

Zen Focus, the 4-piece Mistweaver set bonus, is now more responsive.

Another PvP change, due to this effect coming from the PvP item set for Mistweaver Monks.

It is no longer possible to use Thunder Focus Tea while silenced.

Self explanatory. Thunder Focus Tea can’t be used while silenced.

Soothing Mists now generates chi more consistently and average generation rate is slightly higher.

This is going to help us generate Chi, as at the moment we can get strings of bad luck in generating Chi using this spell. But without specific numbers it’s hard to tell how beneficial this change will be. The word consistent hopefully means that it should be close to the same generation every time you use it. So we should be able to anticipate how much Chi we can generate, but whether this will be true on live we don’t know.

Summon Jade Serpent Statue no longer costs mana.

Thank goodness for this change! No longer do we have to drop our statue and quickly try and drink before entering combat. No longer do we basically empty our mana bars dropping our statue after being battle-rezzed. A very welcome change that should have been implemented when Mists launched.

Healing Spheres will now heal for 50% of their original value if they expire without being picked up. This healing will factor in relevant Mastery.

One of the more interesting changes for the Mistweaver. Your healing spheres will now “explode” upon expiration (after 1 minute for placed spheres and after 30 seconds for those generated by our Mastery) and heal those within 6 yards for 50% of the original effect. With so many healing spheres being wasted this is a welcome change.

Eminence now heals for 25% of the damage done (was 50%).

Unfortunately this is a bit of a nerf for the general heal generated by Eminence as compared to the current live version. However, the abilities that we use to cause damage are actually getting a buff, as you can see below, which in turn will increase damage and therefore the healing done through Eminence. It’s basically a way of improving our DPS but controlling our Eminence healing, which seems a bit weird as we’re not really meant to be ‘DPS’.

Serpent’s Zeal heals for 25% of damage done and only stacks once immediately upon use of Blackout Kick.

Again another nerf to a healing portion of our Fistweaver rotation, meaning our auto-attack damage can only heal for 25% with max stacks(2). We believe this will encourage less AFK auto-attacking and a more active play style.

Teachings of the Monastery now provides additional benefits.

  • Tiger Palm damage increased by 100% and restores 1% of max mana.

An increase to our damage is an increase to our healing. It will also return 4% of our mana when used soon after Jab.

Crackling Jade Lightning also heals through Eminence when you use it on an enemy target, so again, increase to damage is an increase to our healing.

  • Blackout Kick now hits 4 additional nearby targets for 50% damage.

Becomes an AoE damaging ability that not only hits 1 target for 100% damage, but can hit 4 additional targets for 50% damage on each. Convert all those hits into a heal through Eminence and you’ve got a pretty solid heal for a tank that’s tanking multiple adds. Combine this with your new passive ability below: Muscle Memory and you can heal for even more!

Muscle Memory: A new Mistweaver passive activated by a successful Jab or damaging at least 3 enemies with Spinning Crane Kick. Upon gaining Muscle Memory, the Monk’s next Tiger Palm or Blackout Kick deals 150% more damage and restore 4% mana.

This is a new spell to come to the Mistweaver Monk only. You will need to make sure to train it from your Monk Trainer should you need to or just check your spellbook if not. With the increase of mana cost to some spells, this will hopefully return the balance and allow us to continue to “Fistweave” which is what the spec is all about.

All in all these changes are up and down and a bit all over the place as the developers try to find a happy medium between uplift spam/afk auto-attack healing/weak healing. Yes they have nerfed Jab and Uplift. Yes they have buffed Serpent’s Zeal and Tiger Palm. All in all, we think the Mistweaver could land in a better place with these changes, but we won’t know until the changes are live. But don’t abandon hope yet!

Here’s what Ghostcrawler had to say on the topic:

 

Originally Posted by Ghostcrawler (Source / Blue Posts)

Monk – In efforts to further discourage Jab, Jab, Uplift, we increased the mana cost of Jab from 6% to 8%, increased the mana restore on Muscle Memory from 2% to 4%, and increased the mana cost of glyphed Uplift to 16% mana. So that monks feel like they can be less reliant on Jab, Jab, Uplift, we also changed Soothing Mist to generate chi more consistently (to avoid long stretches of bad luck) and increased its generation rate overall.

Renewing Mist – mana cost reduced 10%

That’s about it for the Mistweaver changes at this stage. Remember these patch notes refer to the 5.2 PTR and could be changed at any time and some if not all of these changes may or may not go live.

So what do you think of the changes for the Mistweaver?

Originally published on February 25th, 2013 by on HealingWoW.com, Last modified: in the Mistweaver Monk category/s.

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