Dooger
6 years ago
6 years ago
I see another build of 7.2.5 with no imminent changes to MW, yet it has been acknowledged that we need a substantial buff to keep us on par with other healers. Blizzard/Class devs, please do not just ignore this problem. Please don't try and hamper the one useful / spammable healing spell we have without at least addressing the other massive problems with the spec, and I don't think that throwing small % buffs on spells that are hardly worth it is going to solve the problem(s) that we have.
Please.
Listen.
I'm 7/10M and have played MW for the entirety of this expansion. Here's (my take on) our problems that haven't been addressed:
1) Mana inefficiency - Okay well, I can halfway understand this. We can be HPS machines but we have to plan our mana every second of an encounter. EF is powerful but drains mana like a pre-cataclysm Warlock, so there's some interplay there. It does kind of suck to feel handicapped to "Mana tea" on the last talent tier during progression, but I'm fine with it given that it's really our only consistently effective mana saving resource (TFT vivify is nice but you cannot rely on it).
2) Revival - It's a nice bump, but it's almost absolutely worthless in 5 man content. I lucked out and got a Velen's, which really makes it something powerful... but I'm finding that if Velen's is on CD I'd almost rather not use Revival because it hardly seems worth it as opposed to EF/HoT chasing. It's already the most laughed at raid cooldown in the game except when you can actually utilize the cleanse.
3) Mastery - Only affecting some skills really kills this. Why doesn't Vivify proc mastery on anyone but the initial heal? Why does Revival, our main "raid cooldown", not have any interaction with our mastery??? Comparing our mastery to every other healer is a clear way to figure out that Blizzard has no idea what to do with MW monks. (Purely opinion here: I've always thought that MW mastery should be some form of "overhealing results in misty protection that loses health over time." I wouldn't want us to become pre-Legion Disc priests, but I feel like having overhealing mists that stick around is right up the alley of MW monk class fantasy AKA Shaohao's sacrifice)
4) Artifact Ability - The fact that I often go ENTIRE fights without being able to find a good use for this is ridiculous. Every other healer's artifact ability is a powerful tool that they consistently use. Ours got a slight buff in 7.2 that still makes it hardly worth it unless we start specifically building into mastery and whispers/SG spam.
5) Control - I feel like I have hardly any control over a lot of my abilities. Mists of Sheilun procs randomly, and the 20% HoT buff is nice, but that along with the concluding explosion of healing is so insignificant and unplanneable that it hardly feels worth it to ensure you're in range to hit people with the final explosion. Now you're giving me an ability which places a 30yd heal around things that I semi-randomly proc and randomly place in a fight? For a class where positioning is so key (for Breath and Chi Burst healing), this feels really strange.
6) Soothing Mists - As much as I really wish this could be a useful ability, it's not. If you're sitting in SM on someone then you're A) missing out on valuable melee attacks, B) running Unity Spaulders and AFKing in a raid finder, and/or C) letting your group wipe. For something that Blizzard seems to think is so integral to the monk/mistweaver class, it really just feels like an afterthought in its current implementation.
7) Legendaries - Listen, the buffs to the boots were awesome. I only wish I could find more of a use for them / ANY of our class specific legendaries. Prydaz + Velen's is nice, but why shouldn't our class specific legendaries be on par with the non-class specific ones? Wrists are nice if you can use Revival on CD, but even then it's still very questionable. The legs are nice but that's almost purely because of our mana inefficiency. The belt, the chest, and the shoulders are nearly worthless stat sticks. The ring is so bad that I refuse to upgrade mine from 910. I can't even laugh about how bad that ring is.
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So, with all that said, how in the world does "Let's put a CD on EF and slightly buff it" help to fix my favorite class/spec? I'm ignoring the Vivify buff given that it's still only worth it when UT procs (a problem in and of itself).
Please Blizzard, don't ruin Mistweavers. We're already underrepresented in progression content.
Edited by Dooger 04/27/2017 12:37 AM
Sigma
Game Designer
6 years ago
Game Designer
6 years ago
Mistweavers in 7.2.5
Refreshing Jade Wind also has a mana cost reduction that didn't make it into this build, similar to other talented heal spells mentioned in a recent PTR note.
Sigma
Game Designer
6 years ago
Game Designer
6 years ago
Mistweavers in 7.2.5
We're looking into a some of the various things mentioned on this thread and others, for an upcoming PTR build:
--We understand the complaint about losing your Essence Font channel due to movement, now that it has a cooldown. Going straight to "Essence Font can always be cast while moving" is still the sort of thing we want to be careful about. Cast-while-moving isn't something that should proliferate too much outside of special buffs or spells that have that as a main purpose, but it's an option that we may try out on PTR.
--We'll buff Life Cocoon to better account for the large HP inflation in Legion.
--We're going to try a version of Refreshing Jade Wind that no longer has the Essence Font hook, and is much more efficient simply based on its own healing. That likely means making it cheaper rather than stronger, and probably means a longer cooldown or duration than what it has now. Both so that it's less disruptive by using fewer GCDs, and so that it's not a limitless way of pouring mana into smart healing. It should be a basic rotational option for a constant healing boost, with a positional factor.
--We're going to buff Rising Thunder, initially simply using the same knob as in beta of changing Rising Sun Kick's cost. That version of fistweaving was generally popular (among the crowd that wants something with that much complexity), and possibly only fell away because it was never tuned back up enough to account for the loss of the beta version of Black Flame.
Our overall approach to Mistweaver in 7.2.5 is more focused on looking at specific issues like these, rather than any kind of deep overhaul. We also expect that the overall package of changes so far effects an increase to the total healing power of the spec (which was intended), and of course can do further tuning as we get a more solid idea of how much that is.
--We understand the complaint about losing your Essence Font channel due to movement, now that it has a cooldown. Going straight to "Essence Font can always be cast while moving" is still the sort of thing we want to be careful about. Cast-while-moving isn't something that should proliferate too much outside of special buffs or spells that have that as a main purpose, but it's an option that we may try out on PTR.
--We'll buff Life Cocoon to better account for the large HP inflation in Legion.
--We're going to try a version of Refreshing Jade Wind that no longer has the Essence Font hook, and is much more efficient simply based on its own healing. That likely means making it cheaper rather than stronger, and probably means a longer cooldown or duration than what it has now. Both so that it's less disruptive by using fewer GCDs, and so that it's not a limitless way of pouring mana into smart healing. It should be a basic rotational option for a constant healing boost, with a positional factor.
--We're going to buff Rising Thunder, initially simply using the same knob as in beta of changing Rising Sun Kick's cost. That version of fistweaving was generally popular (among the crowd that wants something with that much complexity), and possibly only fell away because it was never tuned back up enough to account for the loss of the beta version of Black Flame.
Our overall approach to Mistweaver in 7.2.5 is more focused on looking at specific issues like these, rather than any kind of deep overhaul. We also expect that the overall package of changes so far effects an increase to the total healing power of the spec (which was intended), and of course can do further tuning as we get a more solid idea of how much that is.
