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Kissed by the Mist: The mistweaver 101 guide
Interested in trying out the new monk class, but can't tell your Tiger Strikes from your Tiger Palms? Written by Chase Hasbrouck of World of Monkcraft, WoW Insider's new monk coverage will get you kicking in no time! With Mists of Pandaria now released, I've been actively engaged in playing my monk, and having a blast doing it. I've received several polite notes from readers about how I haven't written a mistweaver guide yet, so this week: mistweavers! Mistweaver is the healing specialization for the monk class. Any race, except Worgen and Goblin, can be a monk. Mistweaver monks have two resources that power their healing abilities: mana and chi. Resource Management Unlike the other two specializations, Mistweavers use mana instead of energy as their primary resource. This powers the majority of their heals. Mistweavers can regain mana through the same ways as other healers (in-combat Spirit regeneration via Mana Meditation, mana potions, etc.). However, Mistweavers also generate Mana Tea stacks by using chi; one stack is generated for every 4 chi consumed (Brewing: Mana Tea). To regain mana, you channel the Mana Tea ability, which regenerates 4% mana/sec/stack. An alternative solution is to glyph Mana Tea which removes the channeling behavior and causes it to simply use two stacks (8% mana) instantly, on a 10 second cooldown. As a supplement to mana, chi is a static 4-point pool, similar to a paladin's holy power, that decays when out of combat. Maximizing your chi generation is vital for maximizing your healing output; while you can heal without chi at all, most of your strongest HPS abilities require chi to use. Overall, of all the healing classes, Mistweavers likely require the most thought when it comes to resource management. All the other healers get large mana regeneration cooldowns (Mana Tide Totem, Innervate, Hymn of Hope) that they can typically fire and forget; Mistweavers require more constant attention to mana and chi levels in order to maximize their performance.
So you want to play a brewmaster monk?
Interested in trying out the new monk class, but can't tell your Tiger Strikes from your Tiger Palms? Written by Chase Hasbrouck of World of Monkcraft, WoW Insider's new monk coverage will get you kicking in no time! Last week, I covered windwalker monks and how to fly around kicking butt like a kung fu master. This week, I'm delving into the "spirited" version, the brewmaster. One caveat, though: Because this is still beta, things will likely change somewhat between now and live. We'll have a full 101 guide that covers things like enchants, gems, and stats when Mists is released, but this will cover you until then. What is a brewmaster monk? Monks have three role options: damage, tanking, and healing, of which brewmaster is the tanking role. How do brewmaster monks work? Brewmaster monks have two primary resources, energy and chi. Energy replenishes at a constant rate and is used to power your basic moves and abilities. These attacks generate chi, which is then used to buff your survivability. What is this "stagger" thing? Stagger is a new mitigation mechanic that is exclusive to brewmaster tanks. For every physical attack taken, a percentage of the damage is not taken immediately but instead is turned into a damage over time effect that stacks. In and of itself, this does nothing except spread out the damage taken a bit. However, brewmasters also have Purifying Brew, which completely eliminates the Stagger DoT effect. Depending on the fight, you may have enough chi to use PB often, or you may need to let Stagger stack a bit. Many abilities buff Stagger, such as the Shuffle effect from Blackout Kick.
So you want to play a windwalker monk?
Interested in trying out the new monk class, but can't tell your Tiger Strikes from your Tiger Palms? Written by Chase Hasbrouck of World of Monkcraft, WoW Insider's new monk coverage will get you kicking in no time! If you're anything like me, as soon as premade monks became available, you dived in. Pick the right name, get the right look, log in for the first time, admire your look, open the spellbook ... Whoa. Wha? Stop! Don't feel like you need to run back to that character creation screen to start from the beginning. Over the next few weeks, I'll give you all the info you need to start playing with power; you won't even need to spend $3.99 per minute. One caveat, though: Because this is still beta, things will likely change somewhat between now and live. We'll have a full 101 guide that covers things like enchants, gems, and stats when Mists is released, but this will cover you until then. What is a windwalker monk? Monks have three role options: damage, tanking, and healing, of which windwalker is the melee damage role. I'm covering this first because I expect windwalker to be the most commonly used specialization, especially for leveling. How do windwalker monks work? Windwalker monks have two primary resources, energy and chi. Energy replenishes at a constant rate and is used to power your basic attacks and abilities. These attacks generate chi, which is then used to power your stronger attacks. Since the chi pool is small, though, you'll typically be rotating the use of chi generators and chi spenders in order to maximize efficiency.
Spiritual Guidance: Monk healing vs. priest healing in Mists of Pandaria
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Dawn Moore covers the healing side of things for discipline and holy priests. She also writes for LearnToRaid.com and produces the Circle of Healing Podcast. Well, I don't know about you, but I'm starting to feel pretty pumped up after Monday's release of the information from Blizzard's Mists of Pandaria press event. Some of the new zones are very striking, the pandaren ladies are absolutely adorable, and monks get an ability called Shuffle, which means we'll have an expansion full of Party Rock Anthem jokes to look forward to. Priests didn't see anything new on Monday, but with all the information released about mistweavers and monk healing in general, I thought I might make some comparisons to get a better idea about what priest healing is going to look like in MoP.
