Mistweaver Monk Healing Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Shadowlands 9.0.2
On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Mistweaver Monk, depending on the type of damage your group is receiving. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc. in order to minmax your healing output and your mana efficiency. All our content is updated for World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.0.2.
Easy mode
If the explanations below seem too in-depth for your purposes, then check out our Easy Mode section, for a more quick and concise description.
PvP
The following information is purely tailored to PvE situations. While some of content is applicable across content types, for a more rigorous look at our spells within the context of PvP, please visit our PvP guide.
Single Target Healing for Mistweaver Monks
For single-target healing, your bread and butter heal is going to be
Vivify. If the target is going to be taking consistent damage, then
you should channel
Soothing Mist onto them as well. If the damage is
high enough, you can also apply
Enveloping Mist. Enveloping Mist
can also be used to pre-empt damage, as it does not tick immediately upon
application.
Renewing Mist should be used on cooldown, unless there is no damage
to heal, or you are intentionally saving charges. A good time to hold charges
would be if you are running
Focused Thunder and
Thunder Focus Tea is coming up within 16 seconds, allowing you to
double-empower Renewing Mist.
If things get messy, be ready to cast Life Cocoon on a target who
is in immediate danger of dying.
Raid Healing for Mistweaver Monks
If you are healing raid damage, you need to be aware of the type of damage intake, how many targets are taking damage, as well as how efficient you need to be with your Mana in relation to raid damage.
To begin with, you should use Renewing Mist on cooldown, again,
unless you have a specific reason to hold your charges.
If there are 3-4+ raid members taking damage, you should use Vivify
to top them off; however, only do so if they are in danger of dying, as Vivify
is not the most efficient spell in our toolkit.
When 6+ raid members are taking damage, and it is off cooldown, use
Essence Font. Essence Font heals targets within 30 yards of you. Since
you can cast Essence Font on the move, do not be afraid of accidentally wasting
the ability. Essence Font is the highest priority AoE healing spell assuming
enough targets have taken damage, so it is important you use this ability
often, and get full value out of it. Also, it is wise to take full advantage of
your ability to move and cast the spell in order to effectively increase its range.
Essence Font places a HoT which lasts 8 seconds, which applies the
benefit of
Mastery: Gust of Mists twice. It is very important, regardless
of how much Mastery you have, to make use of the double Mastery procs from
Essence Font. After every usage of Essence Font, if damage warrants it, you
should immediately follow up with casts of
Vivify. The only things
that take priority over this are
Rising Sun Kick (if talented into
Rising Mist),
Chi Burst and
Refreshing Jade Wind.
It goes without saying that you should heal people without the Essence Font HoT
on them if they are about to die, but you should try to avoid healing people
without the HoT in general. Finally, as mentioned previously, the minimum number
of targets for Essence Font to be efficient is 6, however, you should aim for
closer to at least 10. This is because roughly 25% of Essence Font's healing
comes from the HoT it places after the bolt heals a target. If there are only
6 available targets, then Essence Font is guaranteed to overwrite the HoT and
lose a significant amount of throughput.
If you have Refreshing Jade Wind talented, and 6 targets are within
range of you, cast Refreshing Jade Wind on cooldown.
Finally, if you are using the Chi Burst talent, you should use it
on cooldown provided that you can hit 6+ damaged allies with it.
Rising Mist
The 8.3 patch brought significant buffs to Rising Mist, making it the
default pick for most content. The healing was increased by 33% and the amount that
it extends the duration of our HoTs was doubled. Before, the amount of time
gained from extending our HoTs was almost completely lost to the GCD of
Rising Sun Kick itself. Now, we can rack up to
+100% of the original duration of the HoT, allowing for large
burst windows, or just increased efficiency. We will be going through
how you should think about these HoT extensions for each of our
spells, then how you can put it all together in whatever content
you are running.
Enveloping Mist
This is an often overlooked aspect of Rising Mist, but it is important to
know. Since
Enveloping Mist lasts for 6 seconds by default, each
Rising Sun Kick is a 66% increase to that duration. The Mana efficiency
gained from that is insane. In a situation in which you would otherwise be
casting back to back Enveloping Mists, getting 2 Rising Sun Kicks effectively
gives you a free Enveloping Mist. This also says nothing about being able to put
two Enveloping Mists on each Tank during raids. Of course these
are only really powerful if they are not overhealing, so the Tanks
must be taking significant damage, but it is something to keep in
mind.
Essence Font
Of the three HoT interactions, this one is the weakest and there is little
to talk about. It is worth noting though, that a single extension from
Rising Mist, is equivalent to the extension granted from
Upwelling. In fact, it is very easy to extend several Essence Font HoTs
all the way until Essence is off cooldown again.
Renewing Mist
The interaction with Renewing Mist is what makes
Rising Mist
so powerful. Without even trying, you can extend the duration of every Renewing
Mist by 8 seconds, which increases its efficiency by 40%. But more importantly,
this also increases the power of
Vivify as well. In fact, once you
reach 5 Renewing Mists it is actually more Mana and throughput efficient
to cast Vivify instead of
Essence Font. So your goal should be to get
the longest duration Renewing Mist that you can. This means, if you have a charge
of Renewing Mist up and you see that
Rising Sun Kick is coming off
cooldown, it can be smart to wait until Rising Sun Kick has 1.5 seconds left on
the cooldown before casting Renewing Mist, in order to more closely align those
abilities.
Furthermore, you want to consider HoT durations when it comes to your
Thunder Focus Tea usage too. It can be all too easy to assume you simply
always spend Thunder Focus Tea charges on
Rising Sun Kick. However, this
might not always net you the longest amount of HoT duration. Consider that, if
you only have 2 Renewing Mists out, then the extra Rising Sun Kick will only
grant you 8 total bonus seconds of Renewing Mist, whereas if you had spent
Thunder Focus Tea on Renewing Mist itself, then you would gain 10 seconds.
This does not mean it is good to sit on Thunder Focus Tea, however; if Renewing
Mist is on cooldown, and you have a chance to Rising Sun Kick, you might as well
take it even if you will only get an 8 seconds increase.
General Gameplay
In Raids, your general goal with Rising Mist is going to be to
maintain large amounts of
Renewing Mist, enabling you to burst during
damage windows, and sustain through rot damage with
Essence Font. If the
tanks are going to take large extended damage, hard cast
Enveloping Mist
into them before extending with Rising Mist. It is worth noting that, if the
Tanks need additional healing during this time,
Vivify will act as both
triage for them, and group cleave healing for the 4-6 targets with your Renewing
Mist.
In Mythic+, Rising Mist will be used to passively increase your damage
While allowing you to sustain a large number of
Renewing Mists. You will
be able to pretty easily maintain
Renewing Mist on most of the group,
while also reaping the benefits of the single target Enveloping Mist extensions
mentioned above.
Cooldown Usage for Mistweaver Monks
As a Mistweaver Monk, you have a number of cooldowns in your arsenal, which you must use in tandem with your regular rotation.
Thunder Focus Tea should be used as many times as possible during the encounter. You should normally use this spell either with
Vivify to save Mana or with
Rising Sun Kick if you are fistweaving.
Life Cocoon should be used on the tank or another target who is about to sustain a large amount of damage. You should time this in such a way that its effect coincides with dangerous encounter abilities.
Revival is a raid-wide heal, and it could be considered a raid cooldown, in which case your raid leader may ask you to use it at a specific time. Otherwise, just use it when the raid is dangerously low, or when you want to dispel the entire raid.
Invoke Yu'lon, the Jade Serpent is one of your more powerful cooldowns and should be used as frequently as possible. To get the most out of this cooldown you will want to pair it with
Mana Tea so that the repeated casts of
Enveloping Mist do not deplete your Mana supply.
Additionally, your talents have the potential to provide you with additional abilities and cooldowns. We discuss this, as well as the proper timing and usage of your default cooldowns in a subsequent section.
Optional Read: Mastering Your Mistweaver Monk
The information we provide above will set you on the right path towards healing efficiently as a Mistweaver Monk. Indeed, you can probably perform to a relatively high level just on what we have written above; however, to fully reach the maximum potential of your character, you must understand several subtleties and complexities about your class and spec.
Important Concepts
There are many mechanics that, together, make up the complex playstyle of Mistweaver Monks.
Soothing Mist
Soothing Mist is a cheap, efficient, channeled heal that allows
us to instantly cast all of our other single target abilities onto that target
without breaking the channel. It also has a 1 second global cooldown, as
opposed to the normal 1.5, meaning it is faster to channel Soothing Mist then
Vivify than it would be to just cast Vivify on its own. However,
you are not actually gaining any GCDs, you are just front-loading cast times, so
if you are ever swapping targets, the "borrowed" time from the instant cast will
catch up to you as soon as you need to hard cast. There is a strong temptation
to precede every ability with a Soothing Mist, but it is important to remember
that the SooM -> instant spell combo is a Faustian bargain of sorts; it delivers
the healing of your powerful abilities after just 1 second, but it costs 2.5
seconds of GCDs that need to be paid eventually.
Rising Sun Kick
Rising Sun Kick is the core of the Fistweaving build, and
our strongest single target damage ability. Its cooldown is augmented by 3 seperate
mechanics, offering some on the fly randomness and variation to our rotation.
First, haste will reduce the its cooldown such that it will always be in sync with
your GCDs. Second,
Teachings of the Monastery give
Blackout Kick
the chance to reset Rising Sun Kick. Third,
Thunder Focus Tea reduces
the cooldown by 9 seconds. This reduction happens before the haste reduction,
so you will always have 1 global cooldown in between your two Rising Sun Kicks.
It is a good idea to plan out your Blackout Kicks in such a way that
they provide high value resets. For example, using a 3 stack Blackout Kick when
Rising Sun Kick has 3 seconds left on its cooldown is generally pretty
weak, when you could save it and get a very high chance for a 1st GCD reset.
Mastery: Gust of Mists
Your Mastery: Gust of Mists causes each of your
Soothing Mist,
Renewing Mist,
Enveloping Mist,
Vivify, and heals to
also heal the primary target for a certain amount (determined by how much
Mastery you have). The primary target mention refers to the fact that
only the player you cast Vivify on is healed by the Mastery, and only the first
heal of Renewing Mist (on the initial target) triggers a heal.
It is also worth noting that players under the effect of the HoT applied by
Essence Font benefit from your Mastery twice, meaning that each of
the above-mentioned heals triggers two Mastery heals on them instead of just
one.
Detailed Cooldown Usage for Mistweaver Monks
Thunder Focus Tea
Thunder Focus Tea is an active ability with a 30-second cooldown that
empowers your next
Renewing Mist,
Rising Sun Kick,
Enveloping Mist, or
Vivify cast within
30 seconds (the cooldown does not begin until the effect has been triggered).
Depending on which spell you use the effect on, it has the following
consequences.
Renewing Mist: extends Renewing Mist's duration to 30 seconds;
Enveloping Mist: makes Enveloping Mist instantly heal for an additional 200% spell power;
Rising Sun Kick: reduces the cooldown of Rising Sun Kick by 9 seconds;
Vivify: removes the Mana cost of Vivify.
It is also important to note that Thunder Focus Tea is not on the
global cooldown, and can be cast during channeled spells, like
Soothing Mist
and
Essence Font.
Most of your Thunder Focus Tea casts should be used on
Rising Sun Kick and
Vivify. The choice here will depend on
if you are running
Rising Mist or not.
Enveloping Mist
can also be used in a pinch to counter extreme damage on a target you were
already channeling
Soothing Mist onto, but its applications are much
more niche than the others.
For Mythic+, most of your Thunder Focus Tea casts will be used on
Renewing Mist. This allows for a high uptime of Renewing Mist
coverage on the group, significantly buffing the throughput of
Vivify.
Life Cocoon
Life Cocoon is a single-target healing cooldown, which places a
damage absorption shield on the target, lasting for 12 seconds, or until
broken by damage. While the shield is active, the target also receives 50%
increased healing from healing over time spells. It is not on the global
cooldown, will not break
Soothing Mist's channel if cast into the
same target.
Revival
Revival is a raid-wide heal, which also removes any Magical,
Disease or Poison effects from all targets. It can be considered a raid
cooldown, in many respects.
In most cases, you should use it for the heal it provides (which is quite powerful, considering the number of targets it heals), but it can also be used as a sort of "mass dispel". The spell has a 3-minute cooldown and a 40 yard range.
Tier 1 Talents
Chi Burst should be used only when there are 6 or more damaged
raid members that you can hit with the spell, in which case it should be used
on cooldown. Alternatively, in dungeons it is a great spell to pre-cast before
your group pulls a trash pack, as it will apply
Mystic Touch to all
enemies it strikes.
Tier 3 Talents
Mana Tea should be used as often as possible throughout the fight,
ideally during periods of heavy damage when you can gain the highest overall
Mana cost reduction. The optimal usage of Mana Tea is to cast
Essence Font before using the ability, use the ability, and cast as
many Vivifies during the buff, finishing with another Essence Font cast at the
end.
Tier 6 Talents
Refreshing Jade Wind is always worth casting over
Vivify, provided that it will hit 6 people per cast.
Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane should be used as often as possible during
the fight. It is best used during heavy AoE damage phases, or before
predictable raid damage.
Summon Jade Serpent Statue should simply be kept up with maximum
uptime, and you will benefit passively from its effect.
Tier 7 Talents
With Focused Thunder talented, you should ideally be using the
additional
Thunder Focus Tea charges on
Renewing Mist. Having
both charges of Renewing Mist's duration extended to 30 seconds allows for terrific
coverage of the group. If you want to maintain a high average coverage, be sure
to hold your Renewing Mist charges as Thunder Focus Tea is about halfway through
its cooldown to ensure you have 2 charges ready to go when it comes up.
Roll and Transcendence for Mistweaver Monks
Roll
Roll is an ability that allows you to quickly move 15 yards in
front of you. It is a useful mobility ability, which you should use
extensively for quickly traversing short distances. Here are a few facts about
Roll:
- Roll has no resource cost and no cooldown. It is based on a charge
system.
- It has a maximum of 2 charges, and each charge has a 20-second recharge time.
- The
Celerity talent increases the number of charges to 3, and reduces recharge time to 15 seconds.
- Roll is off the global cooldown, but while you are rolling, you are unable to use any other ability.
- Roll will always send you in the direction that your character is currently moving (including backwards). If your character is stationary, Roll will send you in the direction your character is facing.
- You cannot roll through objects or obstacles. If you encounter an obstacle, your Roll is ended prematurely.
- Your movement speed while rolling is greater than while running, so rolling off a cliff will push you further than if you were just running and jumping.
Transcendence
Transcendence allows you to place a copy of yourself behind for
up to 15 minutes. If you then use
Transcendence: Transfer, you will be
instantly moved back to the location of your copy. This can be useful in a
wide range of situations, typically those where you know you will have to
return to a certain location after moving away from it.
Changelog
- 24 Nov. 2020: Page updated for Shadowlands.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands 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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