I have been playing/maining priest for so many years, and maybe this coming season is a change of pace. I have been wanting to play a class that is all 3 specs…DPS, Tank, Healer…With the nerfs and changes to priest, it’s looking like only really 1 spec is going to be quite viable for PvE content.
TLDR: i have been looking into monk, primarily as a healer, and wanted to get your thoughts on the class, new tier set bonus’s, and personal thoughts.
Thanks!
MW is pretty fun. I used to rotate around during my early healer years from R sham to Priest to druid…till I started MW monk-ing.
I’m not sure how it is now but I originally swapped off my Holy Priest in Legion because MW monk movement, defensives, and healing toolkit felt much more fun in m+ and raids. H Priest at the time felt sluggish with only having feathers and was extremely squish - though I believe they have worked on this iirc the last time I checked the priest talents out.
As MW I felt/feel I had/have the abilities to easily move away from bad/reposition, prevent one shots with various defensives ( though there is still a bit of a squish factor you’ll notice in higher tyrannical keys ), and could still turn mana into hps quickly. All while it being more fun and engaging than on priest.
Weaving in damage was oddly satisfying compared to just hitting smite, holy fire, chastise, nova over and over. Getting mana regen from doing the melee dmg rotation ( that is gone now ) or getting more RSK resets for more HoT’s made it feel more satisfying to use those damage abilities. Touch of death-ing something is a serotonin boost.
MW has tons of CC/Mob control with the aoe stun, interrupt, Hard CC with paralyze, and especially ring of peace.
Ring of peace can be many things: a pseudo interrupt, knockback, can make safe zone to protect allies from things like spiteful/melee adds, can skip packs with Paralyze/RoP, buy a tank time. It’s extremely versatile and good MW can do some amazing things with a properly placed Ring of Peace.
.
The upcoming 10.2 healing buffs to various spells look very good in general, no major complaints there. Tier was fixed and is intended to work with all healing, and was recently buffed some. It should be a prettystrong tierset. I want to compare it to little tiny cloudburst totems going off once the chi harmonies expire - but that might not be the best comparison.
( Im not sure what your goals are but: ) There are multiple viable talents and you should still easily be able to play either/any build up to 20’s+pushing and mythic raiding. If your goal is to be the top/meta m+ player Id probably play a different class entirely but there are a few people who do push higher m+ (up to like 27/28?) iirc. I’d get in touch with them if you end up enjoying the spec and want to go big, but if you are here for the fun MW has it in abundance and really there are people pushing iirc up to 23/24 with various builds.
There are currently 2 main, somewhat different, playstyles. One being more active in damage and the other opting out of dmg for more healing, though you are still in melee either way. ( and the clouded focus build does not do 0 damage like some claim, you can still maintain decent damage as a non fey line user, esp if you get a great dps trinket or combine the various stat buffs )
Sheilun’s being the beast healing spell it is is also a serotonin boost when you heal everyone to full + get a nice buff.
Coming from someone who doesn’t run the meta fey line build/playstyle: the buffs to all of the single target healing (viv/env/soom and statue ), and to invigorating mists/env mists are all welcome. Means more spread healing through ren mist/viv/env with/tears of the morning, CF/SooM-env-viv combos, etc.
There are some really strong MW that can probably assist if you are looking to time the highest keys though. My point is the devs did a pretty good job making most of the talent tree and combos viable for 20’s/Mythic raiding so you can just jump in and do what is more fun for you. There is always some incentive to hit those damage buttons though, especially because they have more or less ( depending on talents ) synergy with our healing. ( IE more RSK kicks means more ren mists, meaning easier set up, RSK can also extend HoT’s if talented, etcetc )
Tons of fun options/talents imo, even if the class tree is a little bland and has tons of placeholder talents. ( something I hope is worked on with the upcoming Expel Harm changes )
The healing elixir changes are a bit…odd…we are still waiting to see it’s fate, and we are waiting to see what they will do with another spell we currently barely press as MW, expel harm. Check out the PTR forums for more details here. We dont have a clear answer yet as to what is going to be happening.
Mana tea rework is okay - if they want healers to manage mana again more actively it’s probably a good time to be a MW, you can both lean into mana discounts and mana regen with the ability, the more you need to burst/cast the more stacks you get. Though I am curious to see how it feels once we lose the mana from our current tier/rashoks.
Ive been a MW monk main for years. Through the bad and the worst it’s been. I’m looking forward to the next patch. The tier set (while I haven’t had time to test it myself) looks like it’s really gonna be good for the more caster oriented build.
I’m not a high end player, best key I’ve done is a 19. I play a homebrew build that feels good, keeps the group alive and is fun. I am a little concerned about the changes to aoe healing but I feel the buff to single target heals will help balance it out.
MW has always been a mana hungry spec, so having to pay more attention to mana management isn’t new. The recent changes to mana tea will help alleviate some of it.
I honestly think MW is looking good going into the next patch. There is still a ton of work that needs to be done on the class tree, but hopefully the devs are paying attention (funny, I know).
Thanks for the Feedback! I very enjoy Brewmaster as a tank, WW is alright (i dont normally DPS) and i find MW monk to be one of the most interactive healers in the game. So i think my decision is made, knowing that i have the ability to play all 3 styles is something that i have been wanting for quite some time now.
I think my hardest thing is to let go for even a moment, everything i have accomplished, everything i have achieved has been on my priest. So it’s hard to let go lol, even for a season 
I understand that completely. I love my monk, but I’ve also been wanting to play my resto shaman more. It’s hard to move away from the character you’ve put so much into. Usually I focus on my monk first and then do lesser content with my shaman.
I’ve been there. I still have my main shaman who has to this day more hours than my monk. ( I think they are almost tied at this point :3 )
Very hard to let go of old mains. I keep them at max level each expansion to honor them, almost wanted to swap back to my R sham for a bit
Thank you for your insights into the class, i have played monk off an on, but i think i want to give a hard go at it this season.
every time i play my MW monk, i honestly feel my game sense kick up a notch. My awareness goes up during M+ fights.
Maybe for 1 season…i can hang up my priest. The tier sets this round arent great, Shadow is essentially Swamp tier now, even though its damage is still decent. And im worried about holy. So knowing 2 of the 3 specs are quite rough. It seems Monk is getting an overhaul, and wouldn’t mind picking it up.
I’ve played monk since Mists when it came out, and it’s by far my favorite class thematically.
From being able to jump into combat with nothing but your skills under your belt, to throwing brew at a monster and staggering your damage, and being able to punch and kick or simply mistweave, the class is a dream come true in variety.
The class has seen a lot of good… and a lot of bad. It can be intimidating coming in for the first time with all the button bloat we tend to have. We’ve also seen fistweaving come in and out of style a lot, and Bell of the Emperor’s removal. But honestly, the class has always been what I’ve invested into as it does feel so unique.
Mistweavers do have a lot of mana management to take into consideration when getting into the spec, and knowing how to use your bursts effectively is important. It’s such a unique healer and there’s truly nothing else like it in the game when it comes to fistweaving, and I’m personally a mistweaver person so I’m excited for the tier set bonuses.
Welcome to the monk team friend! We’re few but mighty! 
as a convert to mw from rsham i highly advise against this right now especially with the s3 playstyle
Unless they make STAGGERING changes to shadow, i doubt i will play priest this season. Unless my guild begs me to stay priest lol.
Testing on PTR with MW has been fun, now that the healing and bonuses are working properly now.
Context? Did something change?
I keep hearing that they are in a worse spot than us, if not equal, minus the raid buffs we bring. ( 4% avoid/8%more healing/5% more melee dmg )? Plus still no tank external outside of spirit link, and MW’s Life cocoon/RoP easily keeps tanks safe. Sounds like R sham still needs some buffage.
Theun doesn’t seem to excited to it. ( he makes the wowhead guides )
Resto Shaman Dragonflight Season 3 - YouTube
I tried my R sham in S2 but it felt meh compared to my MW. CBT still isn’t a fun spell to have to rely on for burst for me. I think the only thing I actually liked better was being able to delete every Afflicted via poison cleanse totem
theun posted this last night and puts it way better than i can.
The video I posted is after that. He doesn’t sound too excited.
What really stings is when the character you are focusing on passes your previous main’s ilvl.
kek my shaman was my first 444 now i have 4 toons that passed it and now my aug is about to pass it. buff rsham.
or when an alt gets generally better luck/items in the vault than your main.
I think my first week doing my R sham in heroic Abberus I got the heroic cloak in my vault…after I made the Sporecloak on them. Sad. My R sham also got the beacon dps trinket the week after. My r sham seems to have better luck getting a buncha neat things my MW never sees.
heroic sark cloak? for rsham? is not better than sporecloak
Poor choice of words there on my part. I was replying to the other guy. I meant it sucks when an alt gets better luck in vault items in general than a main.
Sporecloak is deff better assuming same ilvl, that shield is very nice. It was the first thing I crafted on them because I was expecting to run a ton of 16’s for crests and that shield is a life saver, but iirc my shamans cloak isn’t even 447 yet, I think it was 424 ( possibly even base Ilvl / freshly crafted ) when I cleared heroic the first time and the H Sark cloak was in my vault the following day/tues.
When I saw the higher I lvl I kinda just sperged out and picked the cloak that week without thinking, only to find out Sark’s Cloak wasn’t as good as the fully upgraded 447 sporecloak a minute later when I looked it up. However they werent the same Ilvl. The higher sark cloak was also simming higher than my lower ilvl sporecloak. So technically it was still an upgrade in the end…till I can farm the crests for the 447 sporecloak. That sporecloak shield is so nice as a life saver when gearing up - so in the end I still kept using the sporecloak anyways.
My bad for the poor choice of words/ miscommunication. I’ve edited my other post for clarity.
See I like the riptide, healing surge play. I didn’t really enjoy the build up and spam chain heal method. I don’t play my shaman in any high level content anyway, she’s meant to be a poor man’s tidesage anyway so I don’t make use of many totems either. It’s just for fun.