Holy Mistweaver Monk Nerfs Batman!

Monk Mistweaver

• All healing spells which cost mana have had their mana cost increased by 10%.
• The healing provided by the Healing Sphere base spell has been increased by 20%.
• The chance to generate 1 Chi while channeling Soothing Mist and Crackling Jade Lightning has increased to 35%, up from 25%.
• The Power Strikes talent now grants the Power Strikes effect every 22 20 seconds, which causes the Monk's next attack to generate 1 additional Chi.
• Enveloping Mist is now available at level 16, down from level 34.
• The healing provided by Chi Burst, Chi Wave, and Zen Sphere has been reduced by 25%.
• You now have a chance equal to your crit chance to generate double the amount of Mana Tea Charge.
• Renewing Mist now travels to 2 additional targets (was 3 targets).
• The mana cost of Soothing Mist has been reduced by 33%.
• Haste for Mistweavers is now 50% more effective through Stance of the Wise Serpent.

Mana costs increase, healing effectiveness reduced, useless stat buffed, and please go back to your usual boring base spell. Did I miss anything?

Oh yah, the healing talents BAM nerf. And wait, to pretend that we compensate for all this we'll buff mana tea. Lets just forget that fights do not offer constant opportunity to use this, shall we?

Yes, I might agree that monks need fine tuning because they are powerful at the moment. Do I believe that it needs this much? nope. Blizzard is doing what they're usually doing and swinging the pendulum way far to the other side. 

I hope Blizzard reconsiders and doesn't nerf the mistweaver from every single side possible. Because the next patch is a while again after this one, and I would hate to have to park the mistweaver until then. 

Just to be sure I guess I'll start working on the priest, since Blizzard has been swinging the pendulum their way, they might just be the next best thing for heals. 

Current WoW Feeling:

Shy's MistWeaver Monk Stat Priority

I was reading the mistweaver guide at wowinsider and I came to the conclusion that I should review the stat priority I posted a few posts ago.

So for my Mistweaver I will be going with:

Spirit up the wazoo > 8.32% haste > Mastery > Crit > Int

• Spirit because I have always been, and probably will always be, a thirsty healer. 
• 8.32% haste because the 5% haste buff is not always available, and haste is always useful, though not as useful beyond the extra tick
• Mastery because I do have a good raid team normally, and they will stand in little green orbs
• Crit because double healing numbers are nomnomNOM
• Then int because...well, bigger heals are nice and all, but a primary stat is way more expensive than a secondary stat and it doesn't do anything for my manapool anymore anyways. 

The other thing I realized when reading this guide is that I should jab more, jab all the time and constantly. It gives the nummy chi's to spend on heals without having to spend mana. 

I also have to set up some weakauras:

• One that shows me when my Serpent's Zeal buff is about to run out. 
• One that reminds me to cast Renewing Mist on cooldown (I didn't have to deal with that sort of stuff as a priest)
• One that tracks when I need to explode my Zen Sphere because, unlike the writer of the wowinsider guide, I do like this talent. I find this really really pleasant in stacked up groups, I cast it on a rogue in the melee and make it explode when it's close to expiration, while I keep my renewing mist travelling around in the ranged with the glyph for example. And I love being able to set it up before hand. 
• One that alerts me that Grapple Weapon is available again, if it goes off it increases healing after all

Things I should explore and play with:

• Xuen - I love the tiger in the dps spec, such a gorgeous pet to have around. So I really will have to try out how well it does for a healer. 
• Glyph of Surging Mist - I've been avoiding this glyph so far, but it seems that none of the major glyphs is really something I want in my playstyle so maybe this is an option. 

Current WoW Feeling:

The Nerf Bat

So I haven't set foot in a normal raid yet. I did LFR last week and Sha of Anger, but we just don't have all of our people ready to raid.

Our group is never the first to get to content, but we're most of the times also not last. And generally our group manages to finish content.

Yet, nerfs and buffs have been given out already by Blizzard. And I am wondering...


WTF!


Seriously Blizz? What are you basing these buffs and nerfs on? Players who do have a mountain of time, players who belong to the hardcorehardcore crowd. Granted, that may mean that the buffs were desperately needed, because if even a player from that caliber needs it, then the overal middle ground crowd will definitely need it, but nerfs?

Sigh.

This means that the people who haven't reached certain content yet, and who are already not as good will also get it harder. Because the people who the nerf was intended for already have managed to get gear to compensate for the nerf in the first place.

I think Blizzard is whopping around with the nerfbat a bit too fast and while it may be obvious to what they have seen on parses so far, I think they could just have waited a little to see what the larger crowd was doing.

I feel very very behind and the fact that a new patch is already on the horizon is not making that much better. I feel hunted and chased and as if I will never have enough time to get all of it done on time.

Unfortunately enough I am one of those people that if it reaches this point I sort of turn around and flop down. Done.

If I cannot do it properly, I'd rather not do it at all.

I guess for the moment I'll see where it all goes, but bah, not happy about the expansion at the moment. Too much to do before you can get where you want, too many chores.

Current Feeling about WoW:

Monk Mastery & Blogs

I found some monk blogs that I thought were interesting. Most of them have excellent guides, so I'll not bore you with writing my own version of that.

What I will do is give my opinion on some of the things expressed in these guides. If you want to follow these blogs, they are listed on the left here, in the 'blogs I read' section. The 10 blogs with the most recent posts are shown in that list, though I do have more blogs in there.

From most of these guides on MistWeavers I read that they almost all find mastery a bad stat. Which is how they get to placing this stat all the way at the back in their stat priorities.

I have been thinking, and experimenting, with this a little, and I wonder if the mastery is really that bad.

Of course, I have seen the little green orbs appear everywhere but under the right targets as well. And of course, I haven't done any raiding yet. However, if I use experiences from the past (and I do have quite a bit of that ;)) I think this mastery might be quite a bit better than what people are thinking so far.

In fact, I think I might be nicely stubborn and go for a different stat order than what is recommended in most guides.

Spirit > haste until 1350 > mastery > int > crit

I will use 'Glyph of Enduring Healing Sphere' with this as well even. The most useless glyph, as others will say.

Let me share my reasons for this stubborness...

- My raid has had quite a few years of training in clicking the lightwell. I have been a priest for a looong time, and they've heard 'click the lightwell!' so often that my lightwells were generally used up entirely.

- Yes, the orbs spawn in locations where you might not need them immediately, but with the glyph they stay around for 5 minutes, 2 minutes base, and 3 minutes extra from the glyph.

- Fights always have a lot of movement in them and that means that while moving people will get healed by all those pretty orbs.

- These orbs are free! They do not cost any extra mana, or any effort to create. They happen as part of your normal healing. I have always loved trinkets that gave free healing on equip, this sounds even prettier.

Now of course I have to find out in practice if I am rightfully stubborn, or if I am completely wrong. I will keep you updated on which one it turns out to be.

Monk Stat Priority

Been reading up some on Elitist Jerks about the MistWeaver, which will be my main spec. (careful the information there can be a bit older)

Conclusion:

Spirit > Haste 1350 > Int > Crit/Mastery

- Stack spirit up the wazoo especially in the beginning. It is the only stat that affects regen.
(and I am the master in being OOMM Out of Mana Monk(ey))

- Magical number for haste is 1350, anything above does not really add anything

- Int when you can get it

- Crit/Mastery, Do you want big heals or free orbs everywhere?

I have heard other people say they find the monk mastery soso, but I sort of like it. I have always liked the trinkets that would heal other people randomly and the orbs do so as well. So I might just become a mastery addict.