There are so many people that are still clueless about Mistweavers.  This guide will attempt to help people to better understand the basics of a Mistweaver and what they are capable of doing.  Mistweavers can be amazing healers when played correctly.  I will not be covering the in and outs of a Mistweaver, but again the basic play style that a Mistweaver has to offer in 5.2.  

Mistweavers have an arsenal of spells, but when it comes down to it it’s actually incredibly simple.  Here’s a Glossary so I can throw down some short hand through this guide.

AA – Auto-Attack

BoK – Blackout Kick

CB – Chi Burst

CJL – Crackling Jade Lightning

CT – Chi Torpedo

CW – Chi Wave

EM – Enveloping Mist

LC – Life Cocoon

MW – Mistweaver

ReM – Renewing Mist

SZ – Serpent’s Zeal

SM – Soothing Mist

SCK – Spinning Crane Kick

SrM – Surging Mist

TfT – Thunder Focus Tea

TP – Tiger Palm

ZS – Zen Sphere

Talents

Let’s talk talents for a bit.  There’s no right and wrong spec when it comes to a MW.  There are some talents that will be amazing for certain fights and then be worthless for others.  The biggest thing is to use your head and find the talents that’ll be used the most for the content you’re working on. 

Tier 15 Talents – Mobility Talents – Celerity, Tiger’s Lust, Momentum

I’d suggest Celerity for a raid setting.  The extra roll is a must for raid healing with Chi Torpedo which we’ll get to in a few. 

Tier 30 Talents – Healing Abilities – Chi Wave, Zen Sphere, Chi Burst

For a twenty five man raid Chi Burst is the way to go.  Yes, it has a long cool down, but it’ll be totally worth it if you’re able to use this spell correctly.  As for a ten man or five man Chi Wave or Zen Sphere might be better for you.  I personally still use Chi Burst, but it can be fight dependent. 

Tier 45 Talents – Chi Generators – Power Strikes, Ascension, Chi Brew

Power Strikes shouldn’t be used.  With the cost of Jab it’s not worth using it.  There can be tons of debates on what talent is better between Ascension and Chi Brew.  Ascension gives you 45k more mana and more mana back from your Mana Tea while Chi Brew becomes an Uplift key bind’s dream during heavy raid damage.  I like to use Ascension personally, but Chi Brew is not a wrong choice. 

Tier 60 Talents – Crowd Control – Ring of Peace, Charging Ox Wave,Leg Sweep

All three of these talents are situational.  I normally stick with Leg Sweep myself.  It’s an instant stun to anything around me.  It’s saved my life too many times.  Ring of Peace can be a great option though.  It can be used to silence mobs in a pinch making it a decent choice. 

Tier 75 Talents – Defensive Cool Downs – Healing Elixirs, Dampen Harm, Diffuse Magic

I’ll be honest.  I’m lazy when it comes to these talents.  I normally stick with Healing Elixirs.  It’s passive and it’s a button I don’t have to press that heals me every eighteen seconds.  What I should be doing is taking advantage of Diffuse Magic and Dampen Harm.  Depending on if you’re taking physical or magical damage they are wonderful tools. 

Tier 90 Talents – Damaging Abilities – Rushing Jade Wind, Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger, Chi Torpedo

Chi Torpedo is win, Xuen is cool, and Rushing Jade Wind is terrible.  For any high damage fight CT is going to be the way, all day, everyday.  Now let’s go back to Tier 15 talents.  Remember Celerity?  This is why Celerity is so good.  You want that extra roll (which is now CT).  It’s free healing.  If the raid is stacked up in three CT you can have the raid topped off.  Don’t forget to jump though!  Jumping reduces the length of your CT which can be a good thing if everyone is grouped tight.  Also, don’t forget you can CT backwards.  USE IT!!!  Xuen counts as Eminence Healing.  It can be used to do some decent healing when Chi Torpedo isn’t viable. 

As a refresher here’s what I suggest.

Celerity

Chi Burst

Ascension or Chi Brew

Leg Sweep or Ring of Peace (depends on the fight)

Healing Elixirs, Dampen Harm, or Diffuse Magic (depends on the fight)

Chi Torpedo

Glyphs

Now that we’ve got and idea of what talents we want to work with lets continue on to glyphs.  There are so many glyphs that are situational, but really you should be keeping the same three major glyphs for most every fight.  To keep it short here are the four glyphs that should be used.

Glyph of Renewing Mist

Glyph of Mana Tea

Glyph of Spinning Crane Kick

Glyph of Zen Meditation

You should be using the ReM glyph period.  This will get ReM on damaged raiders far away.  The Mana Tea glyph turns your Mana Tea into a cool down.  Use it as it comes up when you have two stacks of Mana Tea.  Spinning Crane Kick actually slows your character so getting this glyph will be a huge help for your mobility.  The Zen Meditation glyph is situational.  If you’re assigned to soak some damage use it.  This way you’ll be able to move and stay out of harms way.  

Spells

Stance of the Wise Serpent – This is our healing stance.  Everything we do as a MW should be done in this stance.  Increases our haste from items by 50%.  Turns our energy bar into mana. Attack Power is equal to 200% of our spell power and grants hit and expertise equal to 50% of our spirit.

Renewing Mist – Healing over time spell that jumps twice to damaged players while leaving one stack on its current target.  Generates one Chi.  Our main healing ability.  Should be used on cool down to keep as many stacks up as possible.

Uplift – Instantly heals any target with ReM on them.  Costs two Chi.  This is our main raid healing spell.  Uplift is pure awesome.  Period. 

Soothing Mist – Channel to heal and to generate Chi.  Causes SrM and EM to become instant casts while channeling.

Surging Mist – Our high cost healing spell.  Generates one Chi.  Instant cast while channeling SM.

Enveloping Mist – Massive healing over time spell.  Costs three Chi.  Instant cast while channeling SM.

Expel Harm – Heals you.  Generates one Chi.  Does some damage.  This is our cheapest Chi generator.  Use it on cool down. 

Revival – Instantly heals all party and raid members in sight and removes any magic, poison, or disease from them.  This is a great tool that has many purposes.  Use it wisely. 

Life Cocoon – Absorbs damage and increases all periodic healing spells by 50% during the duration.  This is our “oh shit” button.  I normally try to save it for tanks, but will use it save a raider’s life.

Thunder Focus Tea – Doubles the healing of our next SrM or causes our next Uplift to refresh the duration of ReM on all targets.  Use this before high raid damage to get ReM on as many people as possible.  This spell is amazing when used at the right times.

Mana Tea – Every four Chi you spend you’ll gain a stack of Mana Tea.  Mana Tea restores 4% of your maximum mana.  This spell is channeled, but if you use the glyph it’ll turn into a cool down that you can use every ten seconds.  I highly recommend the glyph.  It is possible to crit for extra stack of Mana Tea.

Detox – Removes Magic, Poisons, and Diseases on your friendly target.

Summon Jade Serpent Statue – When the MW casts SM the statue will also cast SM on a friendly target within forty yards.  This statue also causes Eminence healing.  When the MW deals non auto attack damage the statue will heal the lowest health person within twenty yards equal to 50% of the damage dealt by the MW.

Teachings of the Monastery – This is a big one.  This pretty much tells you what your damaging spells will do for your Eminence healing.

Crackling Jade Lightning – Generates Chi just like SM.  Does damage and Eminence heals.

Tiger Palm – Costs one Chi.  Does damage and Eminence heals. Every TP grants one stack of Vital Mists reducing the cast time of your next SrM by 20%.  Stack five times.

Blackout Kick – Costs two Chi.  Does damage and Eminence heals.  Grants Serpents Zeal which causing you to heal friendly targets equal to 25% of your AA damage.  Hits four additional targets.

Spinning Crane Kick – AoE Heal to anyone around you with three ticks.  Generates one Chi if it hits three targets.   

Jab – Generates one Chi.  High mana cost.  Don’t use it unless you really need to as it does no healing. 

Muscle Memory – Passive ability that when you Jab or SCK at least three enemies it will increase the damage of your next TP or BoK by 150% and restore 4% mana.  This is essential for Fistweaving.

Healing Sphere – It makes orbs on the ground.  You can have three up at one time.  If a player walks through them it’ll heal them.  Super low cost for the amount of healing it does.  Only problem with it is the fact you have to actually place it on the ground and others have to run through it. 

Zen Mediation – Reduces damage taken by 90% and redirects five harmful spells cast on party or raid member to you.  Any melee hit will cancel the effect.  This is awesome when using it at the right time.

Stats

Here’s the quick and easy version on how to choose stats for your Mistweaver.

If you’re below 489 ilvl:

Spirit until you’re comfortable (usually around 10k) > Intellect > Crit > Haste > Mastery

If you’re above 489 ilvl:

Spirit until you’re comfortable (usually around 10k) > Haste Breakpoint 3,145 > Intellect > Crit > Haste > Mastery

If you’re above 510 ilvl:

Spirit until you’re comfortable (usually around 10k) > Haste Breakpoint 6,145 > Intellect > Crit > Haste > Mastery

Spirit – It’s hard to put a number on how much spirit a player should get.  It really depends on the players play style.  10k spirit makes me feel comfortable and that’s why I recommended that amount.

Intellect – Intellect is a throughput stat.  1 intellect = 1 spell power and very small amount of crit.  The more you have the more powerful your spells will be. 

Haste – Haste reduces the cast time of spells and will grant extra ticks on our healing over time spells at certain breakpoints. Use the breakpoints I listed above when reforging, gemming, and enchanting.  This will grant and extra tick to your ReM.  Though this can be tricky.  When you’re working to hit a haste breakpoint don’t be in Serpent of the Wise stance.  Go into Tiger stance.  Remember Serpent stance will increase your haste by 50% of your items and this will throw your numbers off.  Once you’re in Tiger stance get to the breakpoint that applies to you.  Also, these numbers only apply to those who have the 5% haste buff in their raid or party given by moonkins, shadow priest, elemental shaman, or spore bat.  If you do not have this buff you will not get an extra tick on your ReM.  Use the chart below to help better understand the breakpoints for your spells.

Critical Strike – You want as much crit as you can get.  Once you’ve handled all the stat priorities listed above you should be reforging to gain as much crit as you can.  Crit can also be thought of as a mp5 stat.  Using four chi grants a stack of Mana Tea and this can crit giving us a second stack of Mana Tea.

Mastery – Mastery: Gift of the Serpent  Our mastery is very interesting.  When we heal there’s a chance that we will create a Healing Sphere on the ground near injured players.  When an injured player runs through them they get healed.  What makes mastery weak for a MW is the fact that people have to actually run through these to take effect.  With that said our mastery isn’t extremely strong, but it still does a good chunk of our overall healing.  USE THE GREEN BALLS!!!

How to Play Your Mistweaver

There are so many different ways to play a  MW.  It really depends on the fight as to what play style works better for you.  Basically think of a MW like this.  You can purely heal and do 100% healing all the time.  Second, you can DPS and heal at the same time and do 50% damage and 50% healing (think Atonement for priests).  That’s the easiest way to explain it.  Either route you choose to take is incredibly fun.  I’m going to go into detail as to what I do when heal. 

Mistweaving

As a MW your most important spell is Renewing Mist.  ReM should be used on cool down.  It doesn’t matter if every raider is full health you should always have ReM on CD waiting for damage to come, because you always need to be prepared.  Also, ReM is one of our main Chi builders and you want Chi don’t you?  USE IT!

Expel Harm will also be one of our main Chi builders.  I personally use it on CD when I’m not full Chi or when I’m not channeling a SM.  Expel Harm does heal you as well and will account for a lot of over healing, but for its cheap mana cost it’s a prime way to gain Chi.

Soothing Mist is also another Chi builder and it’s great to cast on a tank during light damage.  Use your SM to cast Enveloping Mist and Surging Mist.  Don’t hard cast these spells when you need to use them.

Surging Mist should be an emergency spell only.  Don’t waste your mana using this spell too much. 

Enveloping Mist can be an amazing heal when used correctly.  It ticks fast and is powerful for when your tank or raid member is taking high damage.  With the high cost of three Chi be sure you’ll be getting the most out of your Chi when you use it.

Uplift has to be my favorite spell we have.  My rule of thumb when using Uplift is if three or more raiders are taking damage and they have my ReM on them I’ll Uplift.  Even though it will over heal the other three or four targets use it.  Now the best way to get the most out of your Uplift is when there’s tons of raid wide damage.  When all six or seven players with ReM are taking damage you will get the most out of it. 

Spinning Crane Kick should almost always be used during and AoE healing phase and you’re out of Chi to Uplift.  Be sure there are five or more people around to get some good healing out of this spell.  SCK is another great way to build Chi so you can get more Uplifts in during these AoE healing phases. 

Thunder Focus Tea will be your best friend.  You should be using TfT anytime there’s going to be incoming damage or even on cool down in certain fights.  Prepare for this damage.  Use TfT a couple of seconds before the incoming damage so you can get ReM on as many targets as possible and then Uplift your heart away.  Having twelve, thirteen, or even fourteen ReM healing the raid is mind blowing. 

Mana Tea is simple.  Use the glyph so you don’t have to waste time channeling the spell.  When you get two stacks of Mana Tea use it.  Keep it on cool down if you’re not at full mana. 

Tier two talents should be used as needed.  If you talent Chi Wave or Zen Sphere you can use them on cool down.  If you run with Chi Burst be sure you get the most of it when you use it.  Be sure to have injured players in between you and your target so the most people get healed from it.  Don’t cast is it on yourself.  It always heals you anyways.

Chi Torpedo will be a go to spell for AoE healing.  CT through as many people as you can if they’ve taken damage.  Don’t use CT only as a roll.  The healing it does will go through the roof once you figure out how to use it.

Always have your Jade Serpent Statue down.  Make sure it’s in range of your tanks and as many others as possible.

Life Cocoon should be used to save a life or in a case where one person is going to need a ton of healing. 

Finally we get to Revival.  Revival can be used in all sorts of ways.  It can be used as a quick raid healing cool down, or to remove magic, poison, or diseases off the entire raid.  Revival is an extremely unique spell and is one of the most powerful cool downs a raid can have on certain boss fights.

It’s hard to put into words how to heal and what spells to use at certain times.  The only way to improve is to practice.  Monks are unlike any other healing class in the game.  It can be a lot to take in sometimes, but again practice is your best way to learn. 

Add-ons and Macros

These days’ add-ons are more powerful than ever.  There are so many amazing add-ons that will improve your healing performance.  I’m going to name just a few that I use that helps me heal everyday.

Grid – Grid is simple and easy to use right out of the box.  You can track all of your ReMs so you don’t cast another one someone that already has the heal. See who has raid debuffs, threat, and all sorts of things.  There are many plug ins you can get for grid.  Search and use what you think is needed.

Weak auras – The options are limitless when it comes to Weak auras.  If you only use this add-on for one thing it should be to track your ReM.  Having a tracker for ReM is a must for any Mistweaver in my opinion.  Besides the tracker you can create cool down notifications, procs, timers, or anything you want!  This add-on will boost your performance more than you know.

Deadly Boss Mods – DBM is a must for raiding and for any PvE situation.  Warnings and timers will help you heal better.  Get it. 

These three are the baseline add-ons I suggest.  There are so many others out there will help your performance.  Do some testing and try out more add-ons. 

Macros make healing so much more enjoyable and easier.  How you macro your spells are up to you but I would highly suggest using mouse over macros for almost all your spells.  ReM, SM, LC, and so many other spells will be so much easier to cast when using mouse over macros.   

I hope everyone enjoyed reading my Mistweaver guide and that maybe it’ll help everyone understand Mistweavers a little more.  Please let me know if I’ve left anything out or if you’d like me to explain something in more detail.  I’d like to thank Luqyolo and everyone over at MMO-Champion forums for their articles, charts, and knowledge regarding Mistweavers.