The Mistweaver Experiment

Any longtime reader will know that while I happily both DPS and Tank (though during Mists, with its de-emphasis on 5-mans, I've found my tanking is rarer,) I've never really been a healer.

Apart from the occasional embarrassing escapade (I healed Utgarde Keep on normal with a level 80 Druid and just barely made it through,) I haven't really ever committed a character to healing.

Until Penbrooke, my scrappy little Undead Monk, who is currently level 36 (and I'm going to limit myself to the abilities I've gotten.)

While DPS is fairly self-explanatory and I long ago developed the instincts that make up the basics of tanking (like making sure you get at least a little threat on everything,) I am now attempting to develop the fast-thinking mindset of a healer.

Unlike tanks and DPS, healers don't really have rotations. That said, at my current level, my arsenal of healing spells is limited enough that it mainly boils down to channeling my main spell and using a Chi-spender whenever I can.

While I'm no experienced healer, I do recognize that Monks are actually a very unusual sort. For one thing, they are really two very different specs rolled into one. The terms that are typically used to describe them are "Mistweaving" and "Fistweaving."

Mistweaving is the more conventional, stand in the back and cast spells style of healer. Yet even these guys are a little unusual.

First off, your first healing spell acquired at level 10 is Renewing Mists. This is a very cheap spell (with only a tiny amount of Spirit, I typically break even or even regenerate mana when spamming this.) Renewing Mists is a channeled spell, and each time it heals (for a modest amount) you have a 30% chance to generate Chi, meaning you'll generate it at a fairly decent rate (a full channel will likely get you up to 3 or 4.)

The thing that's kind of cool about this spell is that there are a couple of other spells that would normally take a second or two to cast, but will cast instantly while channeling Renewing Mists, and will not interrupt the channel.

And because this is a channeled spell, you'll be able to make use of it even if you only channel it for a portion of its full duration.

The other style of healing is very different. This is often called "Fistweaving." The Monk healing stance does a number of things, and among them is something called "Eminence." This causes 25% of the non-auto-attack damage you do to heal whoever needs it most within 20 yards. Because the stance also converts your spell power to attack power (effectively letting your Intellect do double-duty as Agility,) this means that in certain situations, you can actually provide enough healing to the party while also messing up enemies with Kung Fu.

While you won't be doing the damage you'd do as a Windwalker, this actually makes soloing on a Mistweaver relatively painless. As a strategy for healing, you'll probably want to have some of your more convention heals at the ready in case things start going south. Fistweaving, at least at my level, also seems less mana-efficient than the traditional healing, but you do get a few passives that help.

One is Muscle Memory, which makes your Jabs empower you Tiger Palms and Blackout Kicks to do more damage and also to restore a bit of your mana. Another is Lessons of the Monastery, which has several effects, but overall they seem to be there to increase the healing you do by attacking your foes.

So far, Mistweaving is proving to be a fairly enjoyable way to play. I feel free to swap between the two styles on a whim, which can make dungeon runs a bit more exciting. Obviously, I'll have to wait and see how well I do when I get into harder dungeons. The vanilla ones, after all, are tuned very forgivingly, and most people I run with are wearing full heirloom sets.

Actually, this article could also count as "the Heirloom Experiment" as well, as I've outfitted Penbrooke with the finest in scaling gear. Admittedly, this might reduce the challenge of learning this new role by too much, but for now, I'm happy for both the crutch, and the experience boost (while I love questing, it's hard to practice healing while solo, and I have no problem with out leveling a dungeon after a single run.)