Hey all, Cursed Mistweaver here, so yes I’m gunna be a bit salty. Let’s say we’re in the 1400-1700 range of RBGs and Arena as of December, before the difference became insurmountable. Let’s presume a base 34k HP around 210 ilvl. A Mistweaver, Disc Priest and Resto Druid walk into a bar. 3 non-descript melee each turn to engages them before applying a 3 GCD burst window.
The Mistweaver pops Fortifying Brew and Life Cocoon. They gains 5.1k max and current HP and a 29k absorb. In this moment they soar to 80k EHP, which falls to 46k EHP once Cocoon is popped, which happens in a single GCD as 29k GCDs are not hard to find. This particular Monk runs with Diffuse Magic because they saw a nearby Fire Mage and had aspirations of surviving long enough for that to matter, plus I didn’t want to do the calculus to simulate the variable limits on Dampen Harm since it doesn’t matter to the final argument. Arguably, this Monk could run Healing Elixir and add 6/12k to that burst recovery, but that would be pointless and incorrect since it can’t be used under subsequent CC and it doesn’t auto-trigger now.
The Resto Druid is in Guardian Affinity, taking 6% less damage baseline. They trinket and then transform into Bear Form and hit Barkskin and Ironbark in one instant. In this moment they jump to a similar max HP but also get around 12% additional physical damage reduction from the armour and end up at around 70k EHP with a % based ~12k instant recovery from Renewal. However, unlike Life Cocoon’s benefit to EHP, but they continue to take ~60% (0.8x0.8x0.94) due to their damage reductions remaining in place and so they enjoy the benefit of 70k EHP for 3-5 more seconds GCDs.
Then the Disc Priest laughs. They have Fortitude buff and so already sit at around 37k max HP. They cast a single PW:S on themselves for a meagre 3.5k, but granting them atonement. Let’s take Lenience for that 3% damage reduction because we’re presuming nobody will be able to hard-cast for 3s, so Spirit Shell is mooted. Throw in 15% physical damage reduction from Strength of Soul. Focused Will kicks in and adds another 15% physical damage reduction from the same hit. For the giggles they also throw down PW: Barrier for 50% damage reduction and and pop Pain Suppression on themselves for another 40%. Desperate Prayer brings them to around 43k HP. Percentages multiply, not add, so they’re sitting at around 79% damage reduction. Desperate Prayer brings them to around 43k max and current HP. The Disc Priest now has 222k EHP. A second melee attack pops through that bubble, but grants a second stack of Focused Will so they’ve broken even against the melee. The Disc Priest still has 208k EHP.
15k DPS is required to kill the Mistweaver within 3 seconds once Cocoon is popped…
…Pretending they don’t have Expel Harm or Renewing Mist available.
26k DPS is required to kill the Resto Druid within 3 seconds…
…Pretending they don’t have deep breath Cenarion Ward, Swiftmend, Overgrowth or NS available.
69k DPS is required to kill the Disc Priest within 3 seconds once PW:S is popped…
…Pretending they don’t have Rapture and Ultimate Radiance or Purified Resolve available.
69 is a number 4.6x higher than 15. Blizzard sees this and decide that Roll is worth 80% less EHP because, as a dragon once said, 1.5s of being out of range is 100% damage reduction. Never minding that Roll (presuming Tiger’s Lust is the talent of choice) does not escape the problematic melee abilities providing the 75k globals. They decide the real problem is that Life Cocoon needs a 15s cooldown reduction and that will fix the obvious problem here.
In the corner, a resto shaman teases me for not being able to do the calculus required to estimate the EHP of a class under Spirit Link Totem, but it’s presumed they’re still in a much better situation that MW because their Healing Elixir still automatically pops at 35% HP and when under CC. And Astral Shift provides an immense 40% damage reduction and Ancestral Vigor grants only 5% slightly less max HP than Fortifying Brew, but with 100% up-time and party wide. I haven’t verified the maths on this one since I’m not as proficient with Resto Shaman but I think they’d have around 103k EHP under the same conditions.
I know this boils down to more burst meta QQ, and that this particular problem is only further amplified by many other design imbalances on the cards. And I didn’t factor in the effect of (184) Conduits and Legendary options. Disc can get another 7.8% damage reduction from Fade and a 19.5% HP heal from Pain Suppression; Resto Shammy can get 24% max HP from Earth Elemental; Resto Druid can get a free, automatic Frenzied Regen at 40% HP and the enhanced Bear Form benefits: All of which directly benefit the class in this pressure window more than the sole survival option for MW which is a 6k absorb under Fort Brew. (I refuse to acknowledge the ~700 extra healing on Expel Harm as a Conduit for any Monk spec.)
Honestly, those are smaller contributions than the core kit problems, and they can more easily be changed within the space of a balance patch. I know I’m far from the only MW who has pointed out the problem. And I know people almost universally agree with the problem so adding more detail to it doesn’t really contribute to anything. Either it is a priority for Blizzard or the problem is too hard to solve with the resources available.
But I wanted to point out just the sheer discrepancy in EHP and actually quantify the main problem here. Blizzard could literally double Life Cocoon’s absorb AND the HP AND Reduction of Fortifying Brew. They could do this and Cocoon would still pop in 2-3 GCDs and we’d still only just match a Resto Druid’s EHP in Bear Form once Cocoon is popped. Never mind that their instant, passive healing far exceeds ours (and every other healers).
Large parts of MW’s design requires us to be sustaining in melee for Chi-Ji and the Ancient Teachings of the Monastery Legendary; meaning we need to have a much higher base EHP by design. Disc operates on a similar design intent as MW but can operate from range with permanent up-time; now, fair play, they don’t have the mobility or instant cast options of the other healers, but it doesn’t really matter when they have that many potent survival CDs to compensate. Especially in the burst meta where anything under 2200 rating is only about surviving those opener windows. Especially when the PvP Trinket problem is creating exponential damage scaling in PvP burst windows.
Don’t tell me to play better. Don’t tell me to use my cooldowns differently. I have. I know what I’m doing. I’ve tried. It was manageable until non-scalar damage reductions and heals (% based) totally eclipsed things like Life Cocoon that do SP-based healings/absorbs. This occurred at around 22% versatility at around ilvl 200. That’s the meta now: You either have the most % based kit or you don’t.
