Mistweaver Monk Healing Guide — Shadowlands 9.0.2

The Mistweaver specialisation is versatile, and different talent choices can allow it to fit the requirements of a raid very well. Mistweavers can, therefore, heal both tanks and the raid very well.

Based on talent choices, Mistweavers can be either unparalleled tank healers with strong area of effect throughput, or damage dealing mobile raid healers.

Strengths

• Most powerful sustained single target healing in the game by a wide margin.
• Hyper mobile thanks to Chi Torpedo / Roll, Tiger's Lust, and Transcendence.
• Very tanky due to a plethora of personal damage reduction cooldowns.
• Able to cast a large amount of our healing spells while moving.
• Strong crowd control options by way of Paralysis, Leg Sweep, and Ring of Peace.
• Able to apply the 5% Physical damage debuff, Mystic Touch to enemies.

Weaknesses

• Our raid healing spell Revival is generally pretty weak.
• Mana management can be difficult for newer players to pick up.
• Historically bad scaling as an expansion progresses.
• Does not offer a damage reduction cooldown to the raid.

We are maintaining a list of changes for Monks, so you can see what changed between Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands. The new expansion also introduces new character customization options with Covenants and Legendary Powers, for which we have Monk-specific pages that you can access below.

Mistweaver Monks got a few new abilities, as well as some old ones that were previously removed from our kit. On top of that, the Mana costs and throughput of a few of our spells was changed.

• Vivify had its Mana cost increased by 17%.
• Renewing Mist had its Mana cost reduced by 12%.
• Enveloping Mist had its Mana cost increased by 15% as well as its spell power by 8.5%.
• Summon Jade Serpent Statue had its channel time nerfed from 30 seconds down to 8 seconds.
• Leg Sweep had its range increased by 1 yard.
• Fortifying Brew had both its damage reduction and health bonus reduced from 20% to 15%.

Expel Harm is now available to all Monk specialisations. It heals for a small amount, while also dealing 10% of the healing dealt as damage to a nearby enemy. For Mistweavers specifically it procs our Mastery: Gust of Mists, and can be cast while channeling Soothing Mist. If you cast it while using Soothing Mist, then your target will also be healed by an Expel Harm.

This spell is really tricky to use correctly. It costs quite a bit of Mana for the healing it does, however if you are able to get good value of it on both you and another target, then it might be worth using.

Touch of Death is another returning spell available to all Monks. It works the way it used to before it was changed in Legion, meaning that if your health is greater than your target's, then Touch of Death can be used to instantly kill them. For stronger opponents such as raid bosses, it deals 35% of your max Health and is usable once they are below 15% Health. Not much to say about this; it is just a nice little bit of flavor and a slight DPS boost.

Invoke Yu'lon, the Jade Serpent is a new cooldown available to Mistweavers. All Monks now gain the ability to summon their respective celestial, and Yu'lon is ours. For 25 seconds Yu'lon will heal 3 targets at a time with Soothing Breath. Equally, while Yu'lon is active, all Enveloping Mists you cast will trigger a new effect called Enveloping Breath. This will cause healing to radiate off of the target of the Enveloping Mist, healing up to 6 people within 10 yards for 50% of the spell power of an Enveloping Mist. This cooldown is very powerful. Making good use of Enveloping Breath is crucial to seeing good results with this cooldown.

Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane has been changed pretty substantially. Now this talent will replace Invoke Yu'lon, the Jade Serpent. When activated, you become immune to Roots, Snares and Slows (similar to Way of the Crane) and your Blackout Kicks, Rising Sun Kicks and Spinning Crane Kicks will cause Chi-Ji to heal 2 allies for 100% of your Mastery. Additionally, each of these abilities will grant you a stacking buff that reduces the Mana cost and cast time of your next Enveloping Mist by 33% per stack. Like Yu'lon, Chi-Ji will also cause your Enveloping Mists to proc Enveloping Breath, so your goal during the duration of this cooldown is to quickly generate and spend as many Chi-Ji stacks as you can, to blanket your group with Enveloping Mist to maximize your Enveloping Breath healing. Lastly, Chi-Ji also deals quiet a bit of damage in comparison to his previous iteration.

If you are interested in playing a Mistweaver, but are not yet at max level, consider taking a look at our leveling guide!

Before you start leveling you should consider setting up your addons, to allow yourself some time to become familiar with them. It can be sort of overwhelming to try and set everything up all at once after reaching max level, and once you have already built up some muscle memory. Feel free to browse our recommended addons page linked below.

Like all healers, a Mistweaver needs to have a solid understanding of their spells so that they know which one to use in any given context. Unlike DPS, who can follow a rotation or priority queue, Healers are much more contextual.

Your aim needs to be maximizing efficient casts, to squeeze the most healing out of your Mana bar. Spells like Essence Font and Refreshing Jade Wind are incredibly efficient and should be used as much as possible, assuming you will not be overhealing. Renewing Mist is the driver for our "filler" spell Vivify, causing it to cleave onto any target with a Renewing Mist applied to them. As such, you also need to aim to have as much Renewing Mist out on the group as possible.

If you are a total beginner you should check out the Spell Summary and Easy Mode pages linked below.

However, if you are familiar with Mistweaver Monks, or just need to get a quick build in a hurry, then feel free to head straight to our Talents and Rotation pages.

Gearing can seem a little daunting at first, but there are certain stats that provide more benefit to Mistweaver than others. However, once you get an idea of the value of these stats, then you can begin to intuit which pieces are likely better than others. You can find out how our stats affect our characters as well as a list of Best in Slot gear from the current raid tier in the links below.

In that same vein you will need to enchant your gear, as well as select consumables such as food and flasks. For simple stat buffs it can be pretty easy to just follow your stat priority, but for more complicated effects like weapon enchants, be sure to check out our Enchants and Gems pages.

With the introduction of Shadowlands, we are seeing the introduction of many new systems as well as the return of some old favorites. You are now able to chose a Covenant to join, where they will be able to unlock powerful abilities as well as soulbind to different companions in order to further augment and customize your character. In addition to Covenants, Legendary items are making a return to the game, with new powers to collect and craft. For more info on the new Shadowlands systems and how they affect Mistweavers, check out our dedicated pages!

Once you have reached the end-game, your goals will shift significantly. Below are some handy guides centered around the late game avenues of progression that WoW has to offer, from raiding, to PvP, all the way to the recently added Torghast.

While it might seem as though the goal of a healer is to keep people alive through healing, your goal is actually no different than any other role: to kill bosses, and clear content. Most of the time that means you will be healing, however, when there is little to no healing required, then you ought to be spending your time dealing damage. Being able to consistently deal high damage while also keeping the raid healthy is the mark of a great healer.

If you are finding your performance to be lacking a bit, it then you should check out our guide linked below that goes over common mistakes, as well as external tools that judge your performance and show you specifically where you need to improve.