Mistweaver Monk Best Covenants, Soulbinds, and Conduits — Dragonflight 10.2.5
Covenants, Soulbinds, and Conduits are the most important character customization options in Shadowlands. They have a substantial impact on your toolkit and performance as Mistweaver Monk. This page's purpose is to help you pick the right options according to the content you intend to do in Shadowlands.
Dragonflight Disclaimer
Please be aware that as of the Dragonflight Pre-Patch and Dragonflight expansion, all Covenant abilities, Soulbinds, and Conduits will only function while within the Shadowlands. This page will temporarily remain as a reference.
Introduction: Prerequisites
This page assumes that you are already familiar with Covenants, Soulbinds, and Conduits. If that is not the case, we have a number of pages that can help you get up to speed:
- Covenants Guide, which explains what Covenants are, what perks they bring, and how you can join one;
- Monk Covenant Abilities, which lists all the abilities that Monks gain by joining each Covenant;
- How To Change Covenant?, which tells you how you can switch Covenant (rejoining a former Covenant will require you to perform a number of tasks to regain their trusts);
- General Soulbind Guide, which explains what Soulbinds are and how you can pledge yourself to them to open up their Soulbind tree;
- Monk Conduits, which lists all of the Conduits available to Monks.
Best Covenant / Soulbind for Mistweaver Monks
Focus | Covenant | Soulbind | Recommended Tree |
---|---|---|---|
Raiding | Venthyr | Theotar the Mad Duke | Theotar Tree |
Mythic+ | Venthyr | Theotar the Mad Duke | Theotar Tree |
|
Necrolord | Emeni | Emeni Tree |
Venthyr is the one of the strongest overall selections for Mistweavers. This is largely due to our Legendary power Sinister Teachings, which the rest of the Venthyr Covenant's Conduits and Soulbinds accentuate nicely.
Necrolord is likely tied with Venthyr in terms of power for Mistweavers, and also happens to be very strong in Torghast. The Necrolord signature ability Fleshcraft gives you an additional defensive option, making you that much harder to kill.
Kyrian is another powerful choice for raiding. The active ability, Weapons of Order, coupled with good Soulbind options makes this Covenant a solid pick. It also has the added bonus of being the best selection for Windwalkers and Brewmasters, making your off-specs competitive as well. On top of all that, the covenant specific legendary power Call to Arms is exceptionally powerful in Mythic+.
Night Fae is also a somewhat competitive choice. Faeline Stomp will actually provide more healing when compared to Weapons of Order, however it requires more Mana to maintain. Night Fae Soulbinds are particularly powerful, however their conduits leave something to be desired.
In summary, every covenant is a viable choice, however currently Venthyr and Necrolord are the strongest choices in general, while the other two are somewhat similar, each exceeding at their own niche.
It should be noted that with the introduction of Patch 9.1.5, you are now able to freely swap between Covenants once you reach Renown level 80. This is less of a big deal for Mistweavers currently because of how powerful Venthyr is, but if you are simply looking to shake things up, you can do so with no penalty.
For a more in-depth look at Covenants for Mistweaver, be sure to read our Covenant Analysis at the bottom of this page.
Best Conduits for Mistweaver Monks
Below, we will list the optimal Conduit selection for Mistweavers. If you would like to see a full list of all available Monk Conduits, check out our Monk Conduit List
- Best Potency Conduits: Rising Sun Revival and Resplendent Mist. If playing Venthyr, Imbued Reflections takes priority over other conduits.
- Best Endurance Conduits: Fortifying Ingredients is a great choice if you need to absorb a large hit, while Grounding Breath will offer up some extra Mana over the course of a fight.
- Best Finesse Conduits: Swift Transference is likely the best all around pick, but Lingering Numbness and Dizzying Tumble have applications in PvP and Mythic+.
Mistweaver Monk Conduits
As you progress through Shadowlands, you will unlock and earn Conduits. These are independent from your Covenant selection, with the exception of one Conduit that is unique to each Covenant. Unlike many other specs, Conduits for Mistweaver are not the most impactful, so our options are both limited and somewhat inconsequential. Below we will listing Monk Conduits, in order of how desirable they are for Mistweavers.
Mistweaver Monk Potency Conduits
Outside of rare instances, you will generally want to select the path in your Soulbind that will grant you access to two of these Conduits.
- Resplendent Mist is a good pick by default since it applies to most content. It provides a random chance for your Mastery to be stronger.
- Rising Sun Revival is good all around pick for raids. The cooldown reduction requires investment in DPS, unlike the somewhat passive reduction on Jade Bond. The HoT aspect of this Conduit will likely make it more valuable at later ranks.
- Jade Bond is reasonable. It gives you the option to perhaps hit certain timers with the cooldown reduction it applies, as well as giving a decent HPS boost to our Celestials.
- Nourishing Chi is so fundamentally bad for Mistweavers that it is more impactful for the Druid in your raid than for you.
Mistweaver Monk Endurance Conduits
- Fortifying Ingredients is powerful Endurance Conduit for Mistweavers. It provides a scaling shield whenever you activate Fortifying Brew
- Grounding Breath seems like a very strong Conduit on the surface, however the Mana refund that it offers has a 1-minute internal cooldown. That being said, over the course of a fight, the small Mana savings it offers add up to around 2 or 3 extra casts of Essence Font.
- Harm Denial increases the healing of Expel Harm. At the time of writing, Expel Harm should almost never be cast, making this Conduit basically useless.
Mistweaver Monk Finesse Conduits
Due to the abstract and situational nature of these Conduits, this ranking is meant in terms of a general, broad-brush approach. Feel free to take any of Conduits to counter specific threats.
- Swift Transference grants you a short movement speed bonus after using Transcendence: Transfer.
- Lingering Numbness applies a slow to the target of your Paralysis upon removal.
- Dizzying Tumble causes targets afflicted by your Leg Sweep to deal reduced damage for a few seconds.
- Tumbling Technique gives your Blackout Kick a small chance to grant you a charge of Roll.
In-depth Covenant Analysis
Each Covenant for Mistweaver is viable, and even preferred depending on which content you find yourself engaging with the most. For general purposes however, Venthyr is the most desirable choice. It excels in raiding, while still being very powerful in Mythic+.
Venthyr Mistweaver Monk Deep Dive
Fallen Order gives Mistweavers an additional 3-minute cooldown. This ability summons 8 fallen Monks, 4 of which will be Crane adepts, 4 of which will be either Tiger or Ox adepts. Crane adepts will heal random injured targets with Soothing Mist, as well as cast Enveloping Mist as well. The Ox and Tiger adepts will DPS random enemy targets that you have engaged in combat.
There is not much to say about Fallen Order. It is a largely passive cooldown that applies its healing over a roughly 30-second time frame. It does have the added benefit of also slightly increasing your DPS however.
Door of Shadows is the Venthyr signature ability, and it allows you to teleport to a location withing 35 yards after a short cast. Like with Night Fae, this add another movement tool to our kit which is already packed full.
Venthyr Mistweaver Monk Soulbinds
Theotar the Mad Duke provides the most synergy for a healer among the Venthyr Soulbinds. Soothing Shade provides a nice Mastery proc, and Token of Appreciation adds some passive shielding to your kit.
General Draven is the tanking option for Venthyr. However his final ability Hold Your Ground grants a passive 4% healing bonus that is fairly easy to maintain.
Nadjia the Mistblade is a good pick for PvP, as most of her kit revolves around increasing damaging, augmenting abilities so that they crowd control, or reducing the duration of crowd control on you.
Mistweaver Monk Theotar Soulbind
Below is our chosen path for Theotar.
Mistweaver Monk Draven Soulbind
Below is our chosen path for Draven.
Mistweaver Monk Nadjia Soulbind
Below is our chosen path for Nadjia.
Necrolord Mistweaver Monk Deep Dive
Bonedust Brew is the Monk Covenant ability. On a 1-minute cooldown, you can target an area 16 yards in diameter, and apply a debuff to all targets within it for 10 seconds. Your spells and abilities will have a 50% chance to duplicate on the target at 35% effectiveness. Additionally, healing targets with Bonedust Brew will also proc a small bit of extra healing on them.
What makes this ability appealing is that, firstly, it is free. You can use it for no cost, on cooldown. Second is its versatility; if the group is not in need of extra healing, then you can use it as a damaging ability. Thirdly, with Revival's Mastery: Gust of Mists procs triggering the extra healing bonus, Bonedust Brew has excellent synergy with our cooldowns.
Fleshcraft is the Necrolord Signature Ability. This allows you to channel for 3 seconds in order to gain a shield for 40% of your Health lasting for 2 minutes. Additionally, while channeling your damage taken is reduced by 20%, and moving near a corpse will reduce Fleshcraft's cooldown by 1 second. This ability's 2-minute cooldown and duration means it is effectively impossible to not get 100% effectiveness out of the shield.
Necrolord Mistweaver Monk Soulbinds
Emeni is a powerful Soulbind for Mistweavers due to Lead by Example. This ability grants you and 4 nearby allies a large Intellect buff after you use Bonedust Brew. Equally, this Soulbind grants you access to 3 Potency slots.
Plague Deviser Marileth is also a good choice, granting passive buffs if you are able to channel Fleshcraft near a corpse, thanks to Volatile Solvent.
Bonesmith Heirmir is not the greatest choice for Mistweavers. Outside of an interesting initial power, the rest of his Soulbind tree does not offer much.
Mistweaver Monk Emeni Soulbind
Below is our chosen path for Emeni.
Mistweaver Monk Marileth Soulbind
Below is our chosen path for Marileth.
Mistweaver Monk Heirmir Soulbind
Below is our chosen path for Heirmir.
Kyrian Mistweaver Monk Deep Dive
Weapons of Order is a 2-minute cooldown that provides a large Mastery buff, as well as resetting the cooldown of Essence Font and causing it to heal 6 targets for a small amount at the start and end of the channel. The buff lasts for 30 seconds and can be extended by the Strike with Clarity Conduit.
Your first use of this cooldown can line up with Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane for a nice bonus to Chi-Ji's Mastery healing. However, beyond that it is likely better to use each cooldown as they come up, until they resync. Equally, the Mastery bonus will make your Revival much stronger if you are able to use both those cooldowns without overhealing too much.
Outside of stacking up these cooldowns, Weapons of Order can be used effectively on cooldown as a way to increase your throughput and Mana efficiency. It is worth holding briefly if you can align it with a large damage event that would require you to spam heal, just keep in mind that the buff lasts 30 seconds, so you can use it quiet early just to get the cooldown rolling.
The signature ability of the Kyrian is Summon Steward that gives you a Phial of Serenity. These Phials have 3 stacks and will heal you for 20% of your Health as well as remove all Curse, Poison, Disease, and Bleed effects. This is less notable, but still pretty good in certain situations.
Kyrian Mistweaver Monk Soulbinds
Kleia is a powerful Soulbound, however the Conduit route can be somewhat awkward. In order to gain access to the 6% crit from Pointed Courage, you must give up a Potency slot. This is fine, as Mistweaver Conduits are somewhat weak. The largest downside to Kleia is her strongest ability is her last one.
Pelagos is a decent Soulbind for Mistweavers. He has a good route that allows us to pick 2 Potency and Endurance Conduits. He also grants Combat Meditation which is free Mastery buff that can be extended, as well as Let Go of the Past, which grants free magic damage reduction. He is a fine early pick, but loses out to Kleia once you unlock all her abilities.
Lastly we have Forgelite Prime Mikanikos. There is not much to say about this Soulbind. He is mainly geared towards tanks, with little benefit for Mistweavers. This Soulbind should only really be used when doing solo content.
Mistweaver Monk Kleia Soulbind
Below is our chosen path for Kleia.
Mistweaver Monk Pelagos Soulbind
Below is our chosen path for Pelagos.
Mistweaver Monk Mikanikos Soulbind
Below is our chosen path for Mikanikos.
Night Fae Mistweaver Monk Deep Dive
Faeline Stomp is a somewhat cone-shaped ability that strikes the ground in front of you. Up to 5 enemies will receive a small amount of damage, and 5 allies will be healed as well as struck with an Essence Font bolt. Interestingly, while you are standing on the laylines this ability leaves, all your abilities have a 6% chance to reset its cooldown.
This ability is strong, if not a little Mana-hungry, however it does suffer from range issues. The best way to make use of it, is to be stacked with the melee, but melee is often an over crowded space for AoE ground-based healing.
Their signature ability is Soulshape. This ability transforms you into a fox and teleports you 15 yards forward while also increasing your movement speed by 50% for 15 seconds. During the duration of this buff, it can be reactivated every few seconds to teleport again. This ability is interesting and fun, however Monks already have a powerful movement toolkit. Adding a blink ability is still pretty good in certain situations, however this is likely overkill for us.
Night Fae Mistweaver Monk Soulbinds
Dreamweaver is a powerful choice for Mistweavers. Her Soulbind tree is the most suited to our spec. Podtender grants us a Cheat Death ability that will be excellent for progression or Mythic+.
Korayn seems to be more geared towards Tanks or DPS than healers. His initial ability Wild Hunt Tactics seems decent, however that is the only power that meaningfully helps us in combat. Also his second Potency slot is extremely deep in the tree, making this a weird pick for progression.
Niya is somewhat awkward. Many of her abilities do not exactly line up with the Mistweaver kit, or have us choosing weird Conduit paths. That being said, her initial ability grants a fairly large Mastery bonus which can be very nice in Mythic+.
Mistweaver Monk Dreamweaver Soulbind
Below is our chosen path for Dreamweaver.
Mistweaver Monk Korayn Soulbind
Below is our chosen path for Korayn.
Mistweaver Monk Niya Soulbind
Below is our chosen path for Niya.
Changelog
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Monk Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Dhaubbs a Mistweaver Monk theorycrafter, and moderator on the Monk Discord Peak of Serenity. He raids in Big Dumb Guild on Illidan-US, where he also produces encounter videos. You can follow him on Twitter, Twitch, and/or YouTube.
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