Ive been playing MW since Legion ( took SL off ) and you cant go wrong with MW. Very fun spec that pumps and is very unique. Looks like it will be just as fun/versatile in TWW as it was in DF.
Conduit is a pretty cool talent tree in general, giving us another CD to replace the loss of Essence Font, and it summons all 4 august celestials, which is visually pretty cool. ( cant speak much for the other hero tree, it didn’t interest me much ).
I don’t find MW plays much more different in the BETA than DF but the loss of essence font is bettersweet. Ill miss it in raids but for m+ ill be glad to have one less thing to “set up” before we can burst people up, I am going to miss the Sheilun’s Gift->Essence Font->Revival combo though. I am excited to see how SG’s buffs will affect the conduit hero tree’s cooldown.
There is a bit of a learning curve to learning all the nuances to MW imo.
If you enjoy disc you will probably enjoy monk. We are frequently waving in RSK/dmg abilities and it is pretty fun because there is more or less synergy between the dmg and healing abilities, depending on the talents you chose or not. ( ex: one of our harder hitting ST damage abilities, RSK, also puts a hot on people, increases HoT duration, procs mastery, reducing the cd on your main HoT, etcetc ). Depending on the talents you pick you will either be doing more of this type of healing or less.
We have some shielding type abilities on top of this. The one talent in the conduit tree that procs shields from Niuzao is pretty significant. Summoning Yu’Lon or Chi’Ji also procs some beefy shields. Life cocoon is super beefy.
Being in melee to RSK, interrupt and aoe stun are pretty important still imo, the conduit tree also has a talent that can give you more mana tea stacks if you are spinning Crane Kicking and it can summon the long missed crazy red crack chicken that runs around and heals people. ( I wish they could make him bigger ) I wont tell anyone how to play though. I have my lazy days where I just hang around mid range, always do what works and what is fun for you and your group.
Getting used to being in melee is a bit interesting at first but once you get comfy and know where to stand it’s not much different than being anywhere else. I find it nice to not get targeted by most ranged mechanics like other healers. We get various defensives, passives and healing abilities to help out if we make mistakes or if things get scary.
If you enjoy the HoT gameplay of druid you might also enjoy MW monk, we are a combination of burst/HoT’s where you want to maintain your main HoT’s so you can cleave heal when it’s needed - while also extending those HoT’s to optimize that cleave healing. We also have various cooldowns and ways to burst people back up very quickly so we are very pug friendly imo. Regrowth and Enveloping Mist are pretty similar, Rejuv and Ren Mist are pretty similar. There are some overlaps/similarities.
We have a messed up amt of mobility in TWW, and now a fall/death prevent.
We have an enrage dispel in TWW. So our m+ stonks are rising greatly. Chi Cocoon is a huge life saver, if you run the talent that makes it beefier it will be an extremely large absorption shield. Might be good when tanks need that extra oomph on certain weeks or if certain bosses in raids require an external defensive.
Like R sham we also have a bunch of ways to mess with adds and control them. Ring of peace is very fun and doubles as a way to prevent adds from hitting an ally or to keep spiteful mobs off people, to push those far off casters in closer to the group’s cleave range, or to even give a tank some breathing room if their CDS aren’t up. Annoying caster add near a wall casting mean things? Just push them back against the wall with ring of peace. Uninterruptible cast about to go off but the add is still CC-able? Paralyze can instantly pseudo interrupt to buy time. We got it all: aoe stun, interrupt, paralyze/CC, and in TWW rolling through adds will now slow them 40%-60% ( depending on the talent choices ). Mastering Ring of Peace is very fun. ( just don’t use it on top of a tank or while pulling, that is mean )
MW has lots of ways to buff our stats/burst ( Secret infusion/Invoker’s delight, Shaohao’s Lessons ) and it’s super satisfying to combine or manage these buffs. Plus you can use the various buffs to min/max your healer dps when things get slow - if you are into that. These stat buffs from the above mentioned talents will be nice in S1/P1 of TWW imo because stats will probably be lower than where we want them for some time and it will feel better to make up the lack of haste till stronger gear comes along.
Sheilun’s gift is a huge lay on hands type heal on 3-5 people, it’s epic. Playing with the buffs from it’s other talent too can be really fun.
Mana tea gives you a pretty good amt of control over your mana regen. It is a really nice thing to have on a healer imo. You can still OOM yourself pretty fast if you aren’t paying attention, esp in raids, but once you figure out just how much you can pump/regen each fight it gets fun.
In DF you could go full fistweaver type where a portion of dmg is converted to healing, more caster type, or even a hybrid - and still perform very well in the main content of the game if you are a competent healer. ( could easily do m+ to max reward and some pushing keys, n-m raiding, max vault rewards/etc in either “build” ), it looks like it will be the same in BETA/TWW so far. Just play with your talents and find what works for you, if you are also into meta builds they exist in the usual places. In DF it was proven you could do whatever talent build wise and be viable for all content that gives rewards if you are a strong healer, have a good team, and practice. Never let anyone tell you how to play; making your own decisions will probably be more fun. ( of course if you are having issues there are tons of guides/videos and info online to dip into to get some tips/tricks, and it never hurts to check them out on and off to see what you will learn )
It looks like TWW will be more alt friendly so I don’t think it will be too hard to main more than one healer. I plan to split my TWW time between Conduit MW monk and Farseer Resto Sham in s1 to see how I feel about both. In the BETA I am enjoying both equally but nothing beats MW monk’s unique feel and insane mobility.
