[Guide] B?Ñten’s Mistweaver Monk Guide

This is not my guide, I'm just posting this here from ArenaJunkies.

1 A Mistweaver’s Abilities
If you’re reading this guide you probably have a fair perception of how Mistweaver Monks work and what their abilities do, but for the sake of it I’ll explain what they do, how they work and how to use them. I’m intentionally leaving out a couple of abilities that will be covered under section 3.

1.1 Healing Abilities

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Soothing Mist: Their main way of getting Chi. You want to use it as often as you’re allowed to. It’s channeled and has a 30% chance to generate 1 Chi with each tick. Low mana cost.
Surging Mist: A fast, strong, but expensive heal. Similar to Healing Surge for Shamans. It generates 1 Chi and becomes instant when channeling Soothing Mist. Try avoid using it unless you have Thunder Focus Tea activated.

Enveloping Mist: The only heal you are supposed spend your Chi on when playing arena. It’s a strong short HoT ability that costs 3 Chi. Similar to Surging Mist, this one becomes instant when channeling Soothing Mist. Basically, as soon as you have 3 Chi and someone is taking damage, this is what you want to use.

Renewing Mist: Hybrid between Rejuvenation and Prayer of Mending; on the first tick it spreads to a second player, and continues to spread until it has healed a total of 3 players. Despite its high mana cost it should still be used almost on cooldown as it generates 1 Chi. Only 8 sec. cooldown. Works as a trash debuff for your Enveloping Mist. Whenever it gets dispelled you get 1 Mana Tea.

Chi Wave: Talent in the second tier that bounces between friendly targets and enemy targets. The healing portion of Chi Wave is a smart heal, in the sense that it prefers healing low health players. It has a 15 second cooldown and should be used on cooldown, though it can be used preemtively as described above under section 2.

Uplift: A solid AoE heal that costs 2 Chi. Should be used in BGs and RBGs. In arena, you should not spend your Chi on Uplift as Enveloping Mist is a way more effective heal at the cost of 3 Chi.

Expel Harm: 15 sec. cooldown. Probably one of the most underrated abilities for Mistweaver Monks. It heals you for a rather significant amount and has a short cooldown. It also generates 1 Chi, which is huge! Even if you are full hp, you should use this talent on cooldown for the Chi, as it has a low mana cost. In order for you to play as mana efficient as possible, this ability is important. It also deals a low amount of damage to a nearby enemy, but have no fear – it no longer breaks CC!

Healing Sphere: Does a ridiculous amount of healing, but should not be abused as it does not generate any Chi. If you prioritize this one over Enveloping Mist, you’ll end up going OOM. That being said, you should always look for a way to use Enveloping Mist, which sometimes can be tricky considering the amount of interrupts and CC effects in this game. These spheres are especially useful when your party member is stunned as they could be hard to place under a moving target. They also work when the target are in Smoke Bomb, which makes Smoke Bomb next to useless against Mistweaver Monks unless they're in CC.

1.2 DPS Abilities

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Jab: A basic attack and generates 1 Chi. Also grants you the buff Muscle Memory, causing your next Blackout Kick and Tiger’s Palm to deal 150% increased damage and restore 4% mana. Basically when dealing damage you want to do every other Jab (Jab -> Tiger’s Palm/Blackout Kick -> Jab -> Tiger’s Palm/Blackout Kick and so on).

Tiger’s Palm: Stacks up the Vital Mists buff, which reduces the cast time and cost of your next Surging mist by 100%. Stacks up to 5 times. Also grants you Tiger Power, which causes your attacks to ignore 30% armor. Tiger’s Palm is the ability that should be used when dealing melee damage as it only costs 1 Chi, whereas Blackout Kick costs 2 Chi. You want to save Chi for Enveloping.

Spinning Crane Kick: Does AoE damage to enemies and AoE healing to friends within 8 yards. Generates 1 Chi if it heals 3 targets. Should only be used to try get enemies out of stealth.

Crackling Jade Lightning: The DPS version of Soothing Mist. A good way of getting Chi if nobody is taking any damage. Does a fair bit of damage and should be used more often than Jab -> Tiger’s Palm in a 3v3 situation as it has a long range and won’t cause you to overextend. Eats Grounding Totem and Spell Reflect.

1.3 Cooldowns

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Transcendance: Similar to the warlock’s Demonic Portal, except you have to replace your portal after you use it. The transfer has a 30 sec. cooldown whereas the portal itself has a 45 sec. cooldown. Should be used to avoid CC. Remember to use 3 Healing Spheres on your portal in the beginning of the game!

On Nagrand Arena you should place the portal behind a pillar. On Blade’s Edge you should always have it behind one of the pillars by the ramp. On Ruins of Lordaeron you should place it in your starting area. However, if your team wants to take middle and you think it’s likely that you will manage to push the enemy team back to their starting area, you should place it by the tomb. On Tol’Viron Arena you should place it by one of the pillars closest to your starting area. You might end up switching it to the other pillar, but you never want to have your portal in the middle of the enemy team. Mistweaver Monks are all about positioning as they have very few ways of avoiding CC.

Nimble Brew: 2 min. cooldown. Clears you of all root, stun, fear and horror effects and reduces the duration of future such effects for 6 sec. Should be used if it can be used instead of your normal PvP trinket.

Thunder Focus Tea: Mistweaver Monks aura mastery on a 45 sec. cooldown. Doubles the healing of your next Surging Mist. Do not feel bad for using a Surging Mist with Thunder Focus Tea activated; it’s the only time you’re supposed to use Surging Mist unless you’re facing a team where mana absolutely won’t be a problem.

Life Cocoon: 2 min. cooldown. Your big ”oh ****”-button. Encases the target in a cocoon, absorbing around 250k damage in arena and increases all periodic healing taken by 50%. Can be used preemtively; if you know you’re going to eat a CC or blanket silence from the enemy casters with Thunder Focus Tea on cooldown, this can be used to ruin the enemy team’s entire swap.

Revival: Huge instant AoE heal and dispel on a 3 min. cooldown. Used almost like Nature’s Swiftness and can be used on targets out of your line of sight. Also works when a target is in Smoke Bomb. As of 5.4, Revival got nerfed by 30% and will only roughly 110k in arena, which opens up the possibility to use it as a dispel for your partners when they're going offensive.

Fortifying Brew: Increases your health by 20% and reduces damage taken by 20%. Has a 3 min. cooldown, so be careful with what you use it on. I tend to use it when big cooldowns are being used by the enemy team. Try use it before you take damage; the last stand effect is just a bonus unless you’re being locked out.

Zen Meditation: 3 min. cooldown and 8 sec. channel. Interrupted by melee hits. Reduces all damage taken by 90% and redirects to you up to 5 harmful spells cast against your party members. As Mistweaver Monk it’s difficult to use this ability as Counterspell and Spell Lock can be redirected to you when you’re standing behind a pillar and end up with you being locked out on cast. If you’re playing with a Warlock, you can use Zen Meditation as the gates open to ensure a mage can’t stop your Warlock from getting a Demonic Gateway.

1.4 Other Abilities

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Summon Jade Serpent Statue: 30 sec. cooldown. The statue will heal the lowest health nearby party member within 20 yards for 25% of the your damage done and when you cast Soothing Mist, the statue will also cast Soothing Mist on an injured ally within 40 yards. Since patch 5.2 it no longer costs any mana, so there is no excuse not to use it! Remember to switch locations if needed. Usually you only have to change position of the statue on Tol'Viron Arena.

Disable: A spamable 50% slow. Similar to the Warriors' Hamstring. If you re-apply it when the enemy is slowed already, it will root them.

Paralysis: A physical, 20 yard range, 4 sec. incapacitate. Double duration if used from behind. Used for CC or to avoid getting CC’d.

Spear Hand Strike: A melee range interrupt on a 15 sec. cooldown. Also silences for 2 sec. if the enemy is facing you when cast. Keep in mind that this the blanket silence is slightly delayed, so use this ability 0.5 seconds before you want the blanket to hit.

Grapple Weapon: The Monk's disarm. Use when enemy melee uses some sort of offensive cooldown, i.e. Summon Gargoyle for Death Knights, Recklessness for Warriors and Berserk for Feral Druids (Feral Druids do 50% less damage while under a disarm effect). It can also be used to stop Hunters from trapping you. Hunters can not use Trap Launcher when they are disarmed, so if you time it well you can get the disarm when they use Scatter Shot and therefore they will be unable to trap you from range.

Provoke: A taunt on a 8 sec. cooldown. It should be on your actionbars as it is the easiest way to eat Grounding Totem.

Tip: Use Disable twice on the target first to immobilize him; it’s much easier to hit an ability with a positional ’requirement’ if the target is standing still.

2 Talents
First Tier

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Tiger’s Lust is the obvious choice. It clears the target of all immobilizing and movement impairing effects and increases their movement speed. In other words, this basically works as an inferior version of dispel as you don’t have to ’waste’ dispel on roots. It can also be used as a sprint, which is very useful when your Priest or Warlock wants to go for a fear on the enemy team’s healer. Only downside with the talent is the short range (20 yards), but if used correctly it can win you games.

Second Tier

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Chi Wave is the best, even after the nerf in 5.2. It still does a great amount of healing and can/should be used preemtively, i.e. when you know you’re going to get CC’d and you can’t avoid it. Observe that it breaks traps and other CC effects, so use it carefully!

Third Tier

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As of 5.4, Chi Brew got buffed. It now has a 45 sec. cooldown and instantly restores 2 Chi aswell as generates 2 stacks of Mana Tea. Has 2 charges. This means you can get two quick Enveloping Mists out whilst regenerating Mana Tea. This is the talent of choice.

Fourth Tier

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You swap between all talents in this tier depending on what you play and what you're facing. Ring of Peace silences and disarms all enemies within the ring for 4 seconds. Ring of Peace was generally the talent of choice in 5.2, but since 5.3 Ring of Peace shares diminishing returns with other silence and disarm effects, so keep that in mind if you choose this talent. Now in 5.4 it got slightly buffed and it a good choice.

Leg Sweep stuns all enemies within a 5-yard radius of you for 5 seconds. In some cases, this talent can be amazing. This is especially true in 2s when facing DPS/healer comps and you need as much CC as possible to score a kill. Depending on what comp you play and what comp you face, you may find use of this talent in 3s aswell. For the sake of it, I’ll explain how Leg Sweep can be used in the following scenario. You’re playing a comp with very few stuns so you don’t have to worry about putting your partners’ stuns on diminishing returns and you’re facing a Shadow Priest/Mage/healer comp, which is fairly common these days. The enemy Priest will most likely push in on you to get fears as often as you let him. On some maps, such as Ruins of Lordaeron and Blade’s Edge Arena it is difficult to avoid every fear by running away from him as it might completely ruin your positioning. A Paralysis followed up with a Leg Sweep could be just what you need to avoid the fear and still maintain a decent positioning. It is also an excellent stun on the kill target.

And last, but certainly not least, there's Charging Ox Wave. This talent stuns all enemies stuns all enemies in front of you within 30 yards for 3 seconds and has a 30 second cooldown. The use of this talent is endless; you can stop Priests when they're going for fear without worrying about putting yourself in an awkward position and you can stop Scatter into trap combos as Charging Ox Wave has a travel time. If you use it well, you should be able to stun 2-3 enemies every time.

This tier is very interesting because you seem to change it all the time depending on what comp you're playing and what you're facing.

Fifth Tier

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This is the tier you change depending on what comp you’re up against. Diffuse Magic reduces all spell damage taken by 90% and clears all magical effects on you, reversing them back to their caster. Observe that this talent does not reduce damage taken from UA dispel, so using this one and following it up with a Revival is not the best idea. Been there, done that…

With Diffuse Magic you can reflect a full row of dots back on the enemy caster (Warlock or Shadow priest) and make a hard swap to him. It can be risky, so be careful!

Dampen Harm reduces the 3 next attacks that deal damage equal to 20% or more of your total health in half. Can be used while stunned since patch 5.2. This talent can be taken when facing a team where atleast one enemy can deal more than 80k damage in one hit. Against Death Knights this talent is worthless. But against warriors, rogues, hunters and Fire mages this talent is useful. Dampen Harm is off GCD, unlike Diffuse Magic, so in some cases Dampen Harm could be more valuable.

Healing Elixirs is a passive talent that causes your next Brew of Tea (in this case Mana Tea, Thunder Focus Tea and even Fortifying Brew) to heal you for 15% of your total health. It’s particularly useful against melee cleaves where no enemy can deal more than 80k damage in a single hit. As of 5.4, Healing Elixirs will no longer activate if the Monk is already at full health, and activate automatically when the Monk has less than 35% if their maximum health. This is a huge buff to the talent, and you should really look into using it whenever you feel Diffuse Magic or Dampen Harm won't be a good choice.

Sixth Tier

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The general choice is Chi Torpedo as it actually does quite a bit of healing on you and the ones you hit when you roll. It no longer breaks your own CC, thank God for that! It also does a tiny amount of damage to enemies and even totems. Though, if you’re up against a Rogue and you don’t want to sit a full Blind followed up by a Sap, you can use Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger preemtively. Yes, it does keep you in combat. I prefer Chi Torpedo. As of 5.4, it now has a pet bar so your pet tiger won't go rambo and break CC anymore. You can also move your tiger manually so can be used to pick up traps against Hunters.

3 Glyphs
Your glyphs depend on which comp you’re playing and which comp you’re facing, however there are a few specific glyphs we’re going to look into.

3.1 Major Glyphs

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Glyph of Life Cocoon: The first obvious choice. Being able to use Life Cocoon while stunned is not only a lifesafer for you, but also for your partners. If you get stunned and you know you’re going to eat an unavoidable follow-up CC, you can use Life Cocoon at the end of the stun and potentially save your partner(s). With this glyph you’re also able to use Life Cocoon when you’re trapped and feared by a Warrior provided he targetted you when he feared.

Glyph of Paralysis: This is my second choice. it could be gamebreaking if you manage to land a full Paralysis without it breaking from dots. However, if I play a comp where we rely on having tons of split pressure but still I need to use Paralysis on cooldown to avoid CC, I might swap it out for Glyph of Renewing Mist. Generally I tend to just keep the glyph and use Paralysis more carefully.

Glyph of Enduring Healing Sphere: My third choice. Basically increases the duration of your spheres, including the mastery ones, by 3 minutes. This is the way to go as you'll have spheres all over the place for you and your partners to pick up.

Glyph of Nimble Brew: This glyph could be useful against a team that you know will tunnel you. If you're not certain they will go for you, it will most likely be a waste.

Glyph of Detox: Could be used in rare situations. For example if you're playing a comp that relies heavily on DoTs and you're facing another DoT team, i.e. when you don't want to remove your partners DoTs because you'll lose a ton of pressure and if you want get that extra heal as you dispel Unstable Afflicted or Vampiric Touch.

Glyph of Mana Tea: It removes the channeling behavior and causes Mana Tea to simply use two stacks (8% mana) instantly, with a 10 second cooldown. Just make sure you use it on cooldown; you don’t want to sit on 20 stacks at the end of a game. As of 5.4, Mana Tea without glyph got buffed and the glyph is no longer mandatory in PvP.

3.2 Minor Glyphs

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Minor Glyphs are only for cosmetic purposes, so these glyphs are unimportant. Though, if you must know, I use Glyph of Fighting Pose and Glyph of Crackling Tiger Lightning to look like a badass.

4 Gemming/Reforging/Enchants/Professions

4.1 Gemming

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Gemming as Mistweaver isn't difficult. Critical Strike gems is the way to go right now. I have tried Intellect gems aswell but I found that it's not as strong. The reason is simple.

That extra Intellect won’t make a difference when it comes to keeping your partners alive – atleast not in a 3v3 situation. The extra Critical Strike, on the other hand, will make a huge difference. As you know, Mistweaver Monks are very susceptible to CC and if they get a few crits with any of their abilities inbetween these long CC chains it can change the outcome of a game. You also get Mana Tea stacks faster.

Please bear in mind that this is merely from my own experience, but I'm sure any top rated Mistweaver Monk would agree.

Meta: The meta gem of choice is either Ember Primal Diamond, Destructive Primal Diamond or Tyrannical Primal Diamond. It all comes down what you're playing and what you're facing. I got 3 helms with different meta gems.

Blue: 160 Spirit and 160 Critical Strike

Yellow: 320 Critical Strike

Red: 80 Intellect and 160 Critical Strike

4.2 Reforging

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Reforging as Mistweaver is fairly straightforward; you go for soft Haste cap (2348 Haste in Stance of the Fierce Tiger) for an extra tick of Enveloping Mist. After that you max out your Critical Strike. Spirit isn't a high priority right now because Mistweaver Monks rarely go oom, but in high rated games you still want to have a solid amount of Spirit, so don't reforge it all away. I suggest you download the AddOn ’ReforgeLite’ to ensure your reforge is as indefectible as possible.

4.3 Enchants

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Enchanting your gear has always been very simple, so I won't go into deeper detail than just listing the enchants.

Shoulders: 200 Intellect and 100 Critical Strike
Cloak: 180 Intellect
Chest: 80 All Stats
Bracers: 180 Intellect
Gloves: 170 Haste
Legs: 285 Intellect and 165 Spirit
Boots: 140 Mastery & Minor Speed Increase
Weapon: Jade Spirit
Off-hand: 165 Intellect

4.4 Professions

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The best professions you can have as Mistweaver Monk is BS and JC. These are the only professions that can give you additional Critical Strike rating.

5 Macros

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To make this guide as Monk specific as possible, I’ll only mention macros designed for my Monk.

Paralysis: You’re unable to use Paralysis if you’re channeling Soothing Mist unless you interrupt the channel first. To make it all easier for me I added /stopcasting to my Paralysis macro.

Code:

/stopcasting /cast [modifier: shift, target=focus] Paralysis; Paralysis

Paralysis Arena 1/2/3: These macros are mandatory for Monks as you can stop the enemy team’s entire opener by stopping the stealther’s first cast. You can also interrupt Night Elves when they try to get a "safe" cast after using Shadowmeld. I also added /stopcasting to these macros so I don’t have to manually interrupt the channel.

Code:

/stopcasting /cast [target=arena1] Paralysis /cast [target=arena1] Paralysis /cast [target=arena1] Paralysis

Spear Hand Strike: Similar to Paralysis, Spear Hand Strike is unusable when channeling Soothing Mist, so adding /stopcasting to this ability is helpful. I also added /cancelaura Spinning Crane Kick so I can kick people even if I'm spinning around like a ballerina.

Code:

/stopcasting /cancelaura Spinning Crane Kick /cast [modifier: shift, target=focus] Spear Hand Strike; Spear Hand Strike

Grapple Weapon (Disarm): Only reason I made this a macro is because Grapple Weapon can’t be used if you’re channeling Soothing Mist unless you cancel the channel first, so I smply added /stopcasting to make my disarm more effective. When you have the buff Hand of Protection you are unable to disarm enemies, so /cancelaura Hand of Protection is amazing too. As it has a short travel time it’s important to use it as soon as possible.

Code:

/stopcasting /cancelaura Hand of Protection /cast Grapple Weapon

I also have a focus macro for this one as I swap my focus in arena very often.

Code:

/stopcasting /cancelaura Hand of Protection /cast [target=focus] Grapple Weapon

Tiger’s Lust: If you are under the effect of Stampeding Roar or Body and Soul, you can’t use Tiger’s Lust on yourself to break a root. You must first cancel the first movement speed increase effect. No need to add /stopcasting as Tiger's Lust already cancels the channeling of Soothing Mist.

Code:

/cancelaura Stampeding Roar /cancelaura Body and Soul /cast Tiger’s Lust

6 How To Heal
Healing as Mistweaver is rather simple once you understand how all the abilities work. Enveloping Mist always has the highest priority, but as I mentioned above it could be tricky to find time to use it. Soothing Mist should be used whenever you need Chi and should be used prioritized over the other Chi generating abilities. You still want to use Chi Wave, Expel Harm, Rewewing Mist and Mana Tea on cooldown. Avoid using Surging Mist when Thunder Focus Tea is not activated. Healing Spheres should be used when enemy team has many ways of interrupt you and you can’t risk getting caught on cast. Healing Spheres are also very effective when targets are stunned, as mentioned above under section 6.1. Try save your Revival for when the enemy team uses major cooldowns. It’s a really good way of catching up on healing if you’re having a hard time keeping up with the healing. It should also be used when enemy team has CC for you and you can’t risk going in range to heal your partner because of them having no cooldowns or you having no PvP trinket available.

7 Best Comps For Mistweaver Monks
The best comps for a Mistweaver Monk are Warrior/Mage/Mistweaver Monk, Warrior/Elemental Shaman/Mistweaver Monk, Affliction Lock/Elemental Shaman/Mistweaver Monk, Warrior/Enhancement Shaman/Mistweaver Monk, Death Knight/Hunter/Mistweaver Monk in no particular order.

As sad as it is, there is always a healer better suited for the comp than a Mistweaver Monk, but there are a few comps that work well with a Mistweaver too. I’m not going into how the following comps should be played as it all comes down to what comp you’re facing and which map you get. The general playstyle from your point of view is very defensive, similar to Holy Paladins in previous expansions. Don’t overextend, play it safe, make sure you manage your cooldowns. You want to make it as hard as possible for the enemy team to CC you, but don't sacrifice too much to avoid a CC – try keeping that in mind! Don't rely on your partners to get you out of CC, even if they can.

I have played a countless amount of comps to 2.6k+, but the comps mentioned above are in my opinion the best ones you can play as Mistweaver Monk.

I wrote out a really long guide for why not to gem resilence; but then it quickly started becoming a wall-of-text. So i'll sum up the highlights to help some mistweavers who struggle to survive. As a Mistweaver you should almost never die if you have mana and regardless of cooldowns it dosn't matter what bracket your playing in you have all the tools you need to survive you just need to use them. So i'll start by saying as a mistweaver gem however you like just make sure your running battlemasters; battlemasters is by far a necessity especially if your playing in the higher bracket because its off the GCD and can be used while silenced.

8 Surviving as Mistweaver
So I'll start with the most common ways of dying and how to counter them:
~Moonkin/Rogue teams in solar beam; just legsweep rogue and para his trinket -> Fortbrew/Battlemasters -> Chi Torpedo Spam
all of this can be done while silenced if needed disarm the rogue and silence the moonkin.
~Rogue/X/X if they swap to you with cheapshot and dance cacoon in demateralise to avoid them overlapping garrote and stopping it; Legseep/Para/Disarm/Torpedo when garrote hits. If needed Fort/BattleM.
~Beastcleave if they swap to you diffuse magic enh's ascendance fort/battlemasters -> chi torpedo
~Moonkin/Warlock pick up charging ox and just spam your ox/para/silence/fort/battleM/Chi torpedo when solar hits
~Dk/Ferals/Warrs, Don't think I really need to add anything more pretty much the same as most comps if they force dematerlise with a small stun just nimble brew out of the incoming shockwave/bash/etc or disarm them as demateralise is ending.
General: If you're getting trained just kite with torpedo/Port/globes and chi wave off CD as long as you have mana you should never die.

Hope this guide helped, sorry my english isn't the best. Note this isn't a fool-proof guide and I'm not saying I never die, I'm just saying I’ve never died when i could have done something that would have allowed me to live.

I do not own this guide, or by any means claim it as my own.