The Problem
I believe that Mistweavers problem in Mythic+ is one of toolkit and healing profile rather than one of numerical balance. I think Holy Paladin should be the standard going forward as far as toolkit is concerned. They have excellent spot healing, tank healing, AoE group healing, healing while moving, preemptive CD’s, reactive CD’s, great externals, excellent mana longevity and so on. They have what feels like a complete toolkit to handle all mechanics and damage profiles in Mythic+.
On my Mistweaver, I have found that I often have to stand still and hard cast spells in order to move health bars and that any damaging event that coincides with required movement often means I have no button to press. Being knocked up on Altairus and hoping I didn’t have to heal anyone prior to it so I could save my instant cast Vivify proc in order to have a button to press while I’m in the air feels horrible. Similarly when moving for Rancid Maw on Naraxus or being knocked back on Talondrus, etc. Pressing ReM or EF in those moments doesn’t feel impactful but rather feels like I’m missing a crucial part of my toolkit.
In those same situations on my Holy Paladin I always have buttons to press (Holy Shock, WoG, LoD, Judge, DT, DB) and ways to prepare for the moments when I absolutely have to move but also must move healthbars back up. This is what I feel Mistweaver is lacking. Sheilun’s Gift is great for topping the group when I can cast, so is Vivify, so is Enveloping and Yu’lons but I must be standing still to press those buttons almost all of the time.
The Solution?
I would like to see Vivify become what Uplift used to be. I think Blizzard had the right idea back in beta when they made Vivify instant cast. I think the spec needs it. Vivify should be instant cast but not have a direct heal component. It should be instant cast and just proc the cleave heal on all ReM targets.
Then Soothing Mist should have a Vivify component added to it such that when Vivify is cast while channeling Soothing Mist it procs the direct heal and functions like it does today. I think this solves the issues that instant cast Vivify created in the beta that forced Blizzard to revert the change. Vivify became the panacea and catch-all button that did everything and caused us to ignore the rest of the MW toolkit. I think making it a purely AoE heal that then interacts with Soothing Mist to gain functionality solves that problem while also adding depth to MW by allowing us to choose when we want to heal and move and when we want to prioritize healing onto a single target.
Mana:
Throwing my 2c on the Mana Tea rework in here. I think it’s a fantastic change and solves more problems than it might seem at first glance. Back in Season 1 I remember complaining that I spent more mana on RSK and SCK in a Shadowmoon Burial Ground key that I did on actual healing (I wasn’t specced into AT). I lamented that I spent an entire mana bar purely DPS’ing from 2nd to 3rd boss and had to stop to drink from doing damage too much.
Playing with the new Mana Tea on the PTR feels very much like it did back in WoD. It’s something you build up during combat and use during downtime and between packs. It feels great to finally be able to contribute damage and not go OOM. It feels great to be able to burn through mana if I want to build stacks, then drink quickly and go into a pack or boss with a full mana bar and stacks so I can play a little more liberally with my mana usage. This is the sort of control over mana that MW has been sorely lacking and I’m excited to have it back in 10.1.7.
