So I realized that within the MW Monk community, there seems to be 2 individual specs within a spec and one is a damage healer and one is semi-full ranged healer.
In every expansion, I always seen one build be dominant and the other one being weak.
Example:
Mistweaving was best in Legion and now Fistweaving is best in DF, it’s like a constant cycle of one playstyle being better than the other
Blizzard really needs to start making both of these playstyles viable, it’s disappointing to know that MW’s are the only healers who have such a divided community regarding talent builds.
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Paladins have basically the exact same divide for holy, but I agree for both of them:
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There is no controversy.
Its just trolls trying to start a fire on the forums like always.
Both styles are viable. You can play both to high keys and in raid. Its just more people like to do damage. Its really simple.
Its not even 2 individual specs within the tree. Its a different build which is what the talent trees should be encouraging. The dev’s did a good job with our tree. We don’t have a 1 build fits all.
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This exactly…
Technically there is not even an actual “ranged” build for monk. There is only a “caster” build that still benefits from melee-ing if and when it can. Both ARE viable and what you take depends on the situation and what is right for you to keep your group alive. (For instance, fistweaving would be suicidal in PVP.)
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The caster build forgoes dealing damage to channel Soothing instead. The fistweaving build still stands still to channel Soothing and press Vivify/Enveloping often.
One of the issues I’m having with my MW right now is that regardless of the build I’m playing I always end up playing the same. Doesn’t matter if I’ve taken the whole FLS branch or instead playing around Tear;
- I’m always pressing RSK on CD for Rapid Diffusion whether I have Rising Mists talented or not.
- I’m always stopping damage dealing to channel Soothing and hard cast Vivify/Enveloping when dangerous debuffs go out or the tank is getting pummeled.
- I’m always leaning on a CD to heal through AoE damage or going OOM spamming Vivify.
- I’m always in melee range for stun/kick.
- I’m always using ReM on CD and EF when I’m worried about incoming damage patterns about to start.
Reading the forums makes me think there is a Fistweaving build that just deals damage to heal through AT and there is a build that only channels Soothing to heal with Tear and Viv/Env but from my experience MW is the opposite. When I play the Soothing/Tear build I constantly stop channeling Soothing to do damage or dispel or kick or stun or move and when I play the Fistweaving build I constantly stop doing damage to heal via casting, dispel or kick or stun. Both build feel clunky to me for this reason.
I wish I could play MW by Fistweaving only or casting only. Instead I either talent into Fistweaving and still have to hard cast or I talent into hard casting and still have to be in melee range pressing damage buttons.
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Just, every kind of gross. Designing a healer to be a dps character with incidental healing is the worst option.
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To be honest, I hardly ever hardcast anything. A few bosses require the vivify/enveloping spam but thats about it. The only reason I need to cast on tempest is because everyone is so spread. If people were grouped it would be easy healing like stonestep.
Like the fel enforcer girls in CoS don’t even require casting. Don’t even need to really LoS them on a +16. We had a Fel enforcer girl + the eye guy + his succubus pet thing. Was an easy chi-ji heal moment. Didn’t los or anything.
Or the water elemental in Jade. That area is so much fun to heal. Spin to Win and do an easy 80+k hps. That is so much fun just like the tree boss in AA. The tree boss has got to be my favorite fight. Do 60k dps on a boss by spinning like a panda ballerina.
I’m living life right now in keys. We could use a good HPS buff, but I am still loving life. Raiding is good and mythic+ is good.
edit:
AlsO!
Dragonriding is good.
Flower Picking is good.
Fishing is good.
My flower hat is good.
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I saw this post, got inspired and went into a 13 TJS Fistweaving and you weren’t wrong. Felt pretty easy to heal. Did 45k HPS on the trash prior to first boss and sustained 40k on Stonestep by Fistweaving at 380 ilvl.
I’m impressed with those numbers at my ilvl and likely scuffed play.
Went into a 14 RLP straight after and banged out ~40k on the first boss Fistweaving again. Being able to spam SCK on FLS on the Whelps as the Frost Shield is pulsing feels like cheating it’s so good.
Then got to the upstairs trash and wanted to uninstall the game. Having zero Fistweaving healing capabilities on single targets like the dragons is omega feelsbad. Trying to be in melee to Fistweave while the DPS runs the Living Bomb into melee (as they should) while dealing with the ground effect vomit through my SCK and FLS graphic was utterly horrible.
Really feels like Fistweaving is amazing half the time and horrible half the time but maybe I just need to get good and get better gear or play with groups that do a better job of kicking.
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Traditional Fistweaving and Faeline Fistweaving is great for raiding because its a build where you can nearly keep HoT up on your whole raid while providing full raid heals.
Mistweaving is great for 5mans since its a bit more concentrated healing over the very open and split healing from fistweaving.
That’s very simplified and missleading, noone in the top 50 m+ MW players uses anything but full faeline/AT/RM build - there is a reason for that.
However, going heavier into casting talents is an easier playstyle to execute and if people prefer that, then they should play it
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Up top is good stuff as well. Share the living bomb with them. Don’t think it matters because we have so many defensives. I sit in aoe’s all the time now. I chi-ji the inferno so hard that people don’t even notice inferno went off.
I sit in everything now-a-days. Even in raid i sit in the fire on council the whole fight. No1 can give me the lightning debuff because they’re all afraid of the fire LOL. I had over triple the fire damage taken compared to the next fella. Leech is a hell of a drug.
The thunder dragon should be an easy kill kill. Prep with renewing mists → tiger palm ToTM → chi-ji as rolling thunder is casted. You should be able to blackout kick every1 to full even in single target. Just make sure to have essence font on every1 so you get double mist procs. I think I even revivaled both of them this week on a +14. I might of used diffuse magic as well on the next set. I can’t remember.
I didn’t notice the fire dragon doing anything. I think it had a fire dot on the tank maybe.
IDK what Blizzard did to the lightning aoe fellas at the end of the dungeon but they don’t hit for anything like their beta version. We had pulled both (I did this with faeline by accident) the last packs and it was like a tiny lil lightning aoe.
U got the turtle trinket? That thing is OP. Might be BiS trinket for MW / Rshm for this tier. BiS trinket for m+ that is. I also have 396 ilvl with turtle trinket so there probably is a gear difference here. 28% haste
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I would not give general advice specifically based on the top 50 m+ MW players in the game.
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Fire dragon does pulsing AOE when it goes below 50% hp
Yea I need the HoV trinket to help with burst AoE and the Turtle trinket because it’s 10%+ of overall healing and I’m missing both.
I think a huge part of this is me playing with bad pugs. You Chi’Ji the Inferno, I get DPS so low that even in a 12 each of those mobs gets 3 Inferno’s off.
I stay in melee with the Living Bomb and eat the damage but someone dies because the Cinder casters aren’t kicked once and yea gear is a huge factor to making Fistweaving work it seems.
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I had a good +16 RLP today.
We pulled an inferno pack + fire dragon. It was a juicer moment. The only person to die was the fury warrior who stood in the fire breath at the end of the pull.
And yes i interrupt quite a bit. Had 17 in todays azure
It’s also a huge part of how badly MW can handle other teammates mistakes. So don’t be so harsh on you.
That is as a fistweaver though, unless I see a mistweaver doing a +16, I am not satisfied. I’m tired of Blizzard pushing us down the “dps monk” playstyle but pruned our options for ranged MW.
P.S. I know that there is ranged MW’s out there, i’ve yet to seen one that can do over a +15. Do you have proof? until then, mw is heavily unbalanced and needs attention from the devs
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A week ago there were like 4 MW in the top 10 in M+ that are not playing faeline build instead going for a more caster build with BDB.
Haven’t checked how it is today
