Mistweaver Monk Healing Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities (Legion 7.3)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.3 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 4. Patch 7.2 Changes
  • 5. Contents
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Playstyle
    • 4.1. Single Target Healing
  • 5. Raid Healing
  • 6. Cooldown Usage
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Main Resource
  • 3. Basic Abilities
    • 3.1. Movement
    • 3.2. Defensive
  • 4. Important Procs
  • 5. Cooldowns
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 3. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 4. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 5. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 6. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 7. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 8. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 9. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression
  • 2. Relic Choice
    • 2.1. Raiding/Fistweaving
    • 2.2. Mythic+
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths
  • 1. General Optimization Advice
  • 2. Tier 2 Upgrade Priority
  • 3. Tier 3 Upgrade Priority
    • 3.1. Raiding/Fistweaving
    • 3.2. Mythic+
  • 4. ChangeLog
• ×Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Single Target Healing
  • 2. Raid Healing
  • 3. Fistweaving
  • 4. Cooldown Usage
  • 5. Optional Read: Mastering Your Mistweaver Monk
    • 5.1. Important Concepts
      • 5.1.1. Artifact Ability
      • 5.1.2. Soothing Mist
      • 5.1.3. Uplifting Trance
      • 5.1.4. Mastery: Gust of Mists
    • 5.2. Detailed Cooldown Usage
      • 5.2.1. Thunder Focus Tea
      • 5.2.2. Life Cocoon
      • 5.2.3. Revival
      • 5.2.4. Tier 1 Talents
      • 5.2.5. Tier 6 Talents
      • 5.2.6. Tier 7 Talents
    • 5.3. Roll and Transcendence
      • 5.3.1. Roll
      • 5.3.2. Transcendence
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
    • 1.1. Mistweaving
    • 1.2. Fistweaving
    • 1.3. Mythic+
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
    • 2.1. Statistics Explanations
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
    • 1.1. Mistweaving
    • 1.2. Fistweaving
    • 1.3. Mythic+
  • 2. Enchants
    • 2.1. Mistweaving
    • 2.2. Fistweaving
    • 2.3. Mythic+
  • 3. Consumables
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Macros
    • 1.1. Generic Macros for Monks
      • 1.1.1. Detox Mouseover Macro
      • 1.1.2. Tiger's Lust Mouseover Macro
      • 1.1.3. Ring of Peace Mouseover Macro
    • 1.2. Specific Macros for Mistweaver Monks
      • 1.2.1. Mouseover Macros
  • 2. Addons
    • 2.1. Generic Addons for Monks
      • 2.1.1. ElvUI
      • 2.1.2. Boss Mods: Deadly Boss Mods or Bigwigs
      • 2.1.3. GTFO
      • 2.1.4. Parrot or Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 2.1.5. Weak Auras
      • 2.1.6. Recount / Skada / Details!
      • 2.1.7. Grid and GridClickSets (Optional)
    • 2.2. Specific Addons for Mistweaver Monks
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Best in Slot
  • 2. Tier 20 Set Bonuses
  • 3. Legendary Items
    • 3.1. Raiding
    • 3.2. Mythic+
  • 4. Loot Competition
  • 5. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, we list your Mistweaver Monk core abilities and how they should be used together (rotation) in World of Warcraft Legion 7.3. We also explain when to use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtleties that you will need to know if you want to excel at playing a Mistweaver Monk.

The other pages of our Mistweaver Monk guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Reviewer

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Suplift, a long-time Mistweaver Monk theorycrafter who raids in Ego (the guild that resulted from the merger of Lotion and Entropy). You can follow him on Twitter: @suplift.

1. Single Target Healing

For single-target healing, you should first of all always make sure to be channeling Soothing Mist if the damage you are faced with is low enough (Soothing Mist is automatically channeled indefinitely onto the last target of one of your Effuse, Enveloping Mist, Vivify, or Life Cocoon until you cast another spell or perform another action). In practice, this mostly means that you should avoid any unnecessary movement while channeling Soothing Mist, to ensure that you do not cancel the effect.

Regardless of how much damage there is (unless, of course, there is none), you should use Renewing Mist on cooldown, and maintain maximum Enveloping Mist uptime on the target you are healing (most likely the tank).

As the damage increases, you should use Effuse as needed to supplement your healing. Finally, when there is high damage, you should use Vivify instead of Effuse (bear in mind that this also heals 2 nearby targets, and costs considerably more Mana than Effuse).

If you are using the Chi Burst talent, then it is not worth casting if there are only one or two targets taking damage. If you are using the Zen Pulse talent, you should use this ability on cooldown provided that it will hit at least 3 enemies.

Sheilun's Gift (the artifact ability) should be used often, as it is a good means to spot heal and preserve Mana.

2. Raid Healing

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 with your Mana you can be in relation to raid damage.

To begin with, you should use Renewing Mist on cooldown.

If there are 3-4+ raid members taking damage, you should use Vivify (the radius within which "nearby" allies are healed is rather large, so you do not need to worry too much about the positioning of your allies). It is important to make use of all the Uplifting Trance procs you get.

When 6+ raid members are taking damage, and it is off cooldown, use Essence Font. Essence Font heals targets within 25 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.

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, you should immediately follow up with casts of Effuse/ Sheilun's Gift if the damage is low/you are trying to save Mana, or with Vivify for higher burst healing. The only things that take priority over this are 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.

If you have Refreshing Jade Wind talented, and 6 targets are within range of you, cast Refreshing Jade Wind on cooldown.

With the addition of Whispers of Shaohao and Effusive Mists, Effuse is now a very strong filler spell. During low damage periods, or times where you need to conserve Mana, Effuse should be used heavily to deal with this. This is because each Effuse cast builds up Sheilun's Gift charges, which is important for burst healing.

Effuse is also an incredibly efficient healing spell on Essence Font HoTs, and you should try to cast most of your Effuses on Essence Font HoTs.

Make sure you pre-cast Sheilun's Gift with high stacks before burst damage, or shortly after so you can make use of the Whispers of Shaohao trait. This is a significant part of your burst healing, so make proper use of it.

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.

3. Fistweaving

If you have taken at least the Spirit of the Crane talent (tier 3), or both that and Rising Thunder (tier 7), then you have chosen to fistweave. In short, this means you will also use Tiger Palm, Blackout Kick, and possibly also Rising Sun Kick in addition to using your healing spells.

Since this playstyle offers only a minor increase in healing at the expense of complication the rotation, we will keep all explanations pertaining to it in this section.

To begin with, if you are fistweaving, you will have to stand in melee range of the boss or of another target which you can attack (such as an add).

If you have only taken Spirit of the Crane, then you will have to use 3 Tiger Palms in succession, followed by a Blackout Kick. All the Tiger Palms do is stack your Teachings of the Monastery buff up to 3. Then, Blackout Kick (used while the afore-mentioned buff is still active, so within a 7-second window of having used Tiger Palm) will restore Mana thanks to Spirit of the Crane.

You should use this combination as often as possible, but only during downtime when you do not need to actively heal (since it provides no healing). If you are fistweaving, then this will likely simply take the place of channeling Soothing Mist.

If you have also taken the Rising Thunder talent, then you will have to incorporate Rising Sun Kick into the rotation. Using Rising Sun Kick will reset the cooldown of Thunder Focus Tea, which is obviously very beneficial.

At this point, it is worth pointing out that (thanks to the Teachings of the Monastery passive) you have a 15% chance for Blackout Kick to reset the cooldown of Rising Sun Kick. The result of this is that you should use Rising Sun Kick as often as possible (to benefit from all the cooldown resets), and in turn it means you must make as much use as possible of Thunder Focus Tea (to make sure that each time you use Rising Sun Kick, it does actually reset the cooldown of Thunder Focus Tea).

4. Cooldown Usage

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 Essence Font for burst healing/HPS increase.
• 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.

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.

5. 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.

5.1. Important Concepts

There are many mechanics that, together, make up the complex playstyle of Mistweaver Monks.

5.1.1. Artifact Ability

Sheilun's Gift, the Artifact ability, is a single target heal. The amount of healing done depends on how many clouds of mists you have around you (one cloud is generated every 10 seconds, with a maximum of 12 clouds at any one time; the UI indicates how many clouds there are).

Even though it is not explicitly stated in-game, your Mastery: Gust of Mists also affects Sheilun's Gift.

Sheilun's Gift activates Soothing Mist when cast.

5.1.2. Soothing Mist

Whenever you cast Effuse, Enveloping Mist, Vivify, or Life Cocoon on a player, you automatically begin channeling Soothing Mist on them. This heals them for a small amount every 0.4 seconds, and lasts indefinitely. Performing any action or moving will interrupt the channeling (although with the Mist Wrap talent, you can still channel it while moving).

5.1.3. Uplifting Trance

Uplifting Trance is the only healing proc you have as a Mistweaver Monk. This proc has a 4% chance to trigger each time your Renewing Mist heals a target. The next Vivify you cast within 20 seconds has its healing increased by 40%.

5.1.4. Mastery: Gust of Mists

Your Mastery: Gust of Mists causes each of your Effuse, Renewing Mist, Enveloping Mist, Vivify, and Sheilun's Gift 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.

5.2. Detailed Cooldown Usage

5.2.1. Thunder Focus Tea

Thunder Focus Tea is an active ability with a 30-second cooldown that empowers your next Renewing Mist, Effuse, Enveloping Mist, Essence Font, 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: causes Renewing Mist not to trigger its cooldown when used;
• Effuse: causes the healing of Effuse to be increased by 200%;
• Enveloping Mist: makes Enveloping Mist instant cast;
• Essence Font: causes Essence Font to channel twice as quickly;
• Vivify: removes the Mana cost of Vivify.

It is also important to note that Thunder Focus Tea is not on the global cooldown.

Most of your Thunder Focus Tea casts should be used on Renewing Mist and Vivify. The choice there comes down to HPS versus Mana sustain. If do not need to burst heal, or if the encounter is extremely long, using Thunder Focus Tea with Vivify is the correct choice. If you need more HPS or if you need to dump your Mana, then using it with Renewing Mist is the correct choice. It is also advised to use Thunder Focus Tea with Essence Font during periods of extremely heavy damage, as it is capable of providing excellent burst healing. Using it with Effuse for a strong spot heal is also acceptable.

For Mythic+, most of your Thunder Focus Tea casts will be used on Effuse and Enveloping Mist, due to the high burst damage present in Mythic+. Using it with Vivify is only really a consideration on long Tyrannical boss fights, for Mana sustain, while using it with Renewing Mist is only every useful if the entire group is taking sustained damage.

You should make sure to use this spell as much as possible throughout the fight, and it is recommended to use it with Renewing Mist by default. Alternatively, if you benefit from an Uplifting Trance proc, you should use it with Vivify instead.

If only a single-target requires a large emergency heal, then you should use it with Enveloping Mist. Using it with Effuse and Essence Font is never advised.

5.2.2. 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.

With a 3-minute cooldown, and a rather disappointing amount of damage absorbed, Life Cocoon is quite lackluster. The 50% healing increase, while very appealing, only lasts while the shield lasts, and this is generally no more than a few seconds.

5.2.3. 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 it does not have a range requirement. Instead, it heals all party and raid members "within vision", which should not be a concern on most fights.

5.2.4. 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.

Zen Pulse is only worth using when there are 3+ enemies around the target you wish to heal, at which point it should also be used on cooldown.

5.2.5. Tier 6 Talents

Refreshing Jade Wind is always worth casting over Vivify, provided that it will hit 6 people per cast.

If Mana is a concern, you should be using most of your Thunder Focus Tea casts with Vivify, as Thunder Focus Tea-empowered Vivify is far better than empowered Renewing Mist for Mana sustain. Thunder Focus Tea-empowered Essence Font is also very strong for heavy damage phases of fights. If Mana is not a concern, you should spend the extra Mana on Thunder Focus Tea-empowered Renewing Mist or Enveloping Mist if someone really needs additional healing.

You should always attempt to follow a Refreshing Jade Wind cast with an Essence Font to take advantage of the amplification from Refreshing Jade Wind, provided there is little overhealing.

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.

5.2.6. Tier 7 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 Refreshing Jade Winds (if talented) and Vivifies during the buff, finishing with another Essence Font cast at the end. You should not follow this rotation strictly, but you should try to include an Essence Font before the cast, and an Essence Font at the end.

With Focused Thunder talented, you should ideally be using the additional Thunder Focus Tea charges on Vivify or Renewing Mist, depending on your Mana sustain, or to prepare for burst healing. Alternatively, if you find yourself dealing with consistent heavy movement, you should be using the charges on Essence Font.

5.3. Roll and Transcendence

5.3.1. 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.

5.3.2. 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.

6. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 11 Sep. 2017: Removed an unnecessary repetition.
• 28 Aug. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.3.
• 22 Jun. 2017: Added a mention that Mist Wrap allows you to channel Soothing Mist while moving.
• 13 Jun. 2017: Made many updates to the playstyle parts to account for various changes (especially to Essence Font) in Patch 7.2.5.
• 27 Mar. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 20 Jan. 2017: Removed an outdated mention of Tier 18 Set Bonuses and improved the Thunder Focus Tea recommendations.
• 10 Jan. 2017: Checked and confirmed for Patch 7.1.5.
• 25 Oct. 2016: Added a mention that Sheilun's Gift triggers Soothing Mist, following Patch 7.1 changes.
• 03 Sep. 2016: Removed a section about using the Tier 18 Set Bonus.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 21 Jul. 2016: Several updates.
  • Added a mention that currently, Thunder Focus Tea interrupts Soothing Mist and Essence Font casts, which we believe to be a bug.
  • Added a mention that, if using Lifecycles, Essence Font should only be used during Mana Tea or on short fights where Mana is not a problem.
  • Added a section elaborating on Mana Tea usage.
  • Added a section about the Extend Life Tier 18 Set Bonus.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.