Hey all,
With this post I hope to paint a brief picture of my experience playing as a Mistweaver and my thoughts about Mistweavers in 9.2
All that been said below will mainly focus around the recent changes to the Venthyr Legendary, Sinister Teaching, within the context of Mythic Plus play.
Here are the changes;
Sinister Teachings (Venthyr Runecarving Power) now reduces the cooldown of Fallen Order by 2.5 seconds when you critically strike (was 5 seconds)
From a superficial read, I assume we can all understand this means an overall reduction in HPS, longer CD = less healing. Kind of simple.
However, there are two major points that go far beyond a simple HPS nerf.
Itâs Mana and DPS.
MANA
Mistweavers donât sip on Mana, we chug it down.
With the nerf, and increase of Fallen Order CD by 50%, in 9.2, Mana will be an even more difficult resource to manage. If any of you have ever played with a Mistweaver in M+, you will pretty much always see us snacking on the Mage food(if available) in between almost every pull, while the remaining party are going into the next pack.
In 9.1.5, with the introduction of the anima powers from the Tormented Affix, there are two of which are a great relief to our Mana problems; âPortable Feeding Troughâ and âOverflowing Chaliceâ.
The former is simple, that snack time I mentioned is just quick and more efficient.
The latter, synergies great with our Renewing Mist and the residual Essence Font HOTs, which means more Procs from the power. And it did so really often. The mana orbs spawn frequently.
âBottle of Sanguine Ichorâ is another great power which synergised greatly with our HOTs. When Proc , the splash heal has saved the party countless times from wiping. The healing is meaningful. The DPS relative to our overall is fantastic! âBottle of Sanguine Ichorâ is often 3rd or 4th in our dps meters.
None of the above will be available in 9.2.
Back to the 50% nerf on the CD.
When Fallen Order is active, our job is to sustain HOTs, cast Essence Font and spam Spinning Crane Kick to get those AOE crits going in order to reduce the CD. In packs it is highly effective where I am able to get the CD to about 50s to 55s at optimal play. Which meant great Mana save due to Fallen Orderâs passive healing while busy squeezing in whatever DPS I can.
In single target the CD gets to about a minute and a half for me at optimal play.
In 9.2 this will be different. Having the CD nerfed at 50%, will mean that we will most likely be in situations to choose to withhold Fallen Order for a more intense pull or boss phase. This will be at a great mana cost as we will rely on our off CDs healing in the meanwhile . They are powerful but heavy, very heavy on mana!
The best mana related talent will still remain âMana Teaâ. âSpirit of the Craneâ mana return is meaningless. To get the most out of it we would have to always be DPSing which truly is never the case. âLifecyclesâ is a great single target talent which works great in pvp. I donât see why anyone will use it in Mythic plus. Unless talents are adjusted, I donât see a change in the third talent choice for 9.2
(Spirit of the Crane has an amazing potential to be something more in its core design.)
Again, consider this in relation to the absence of the mana powers from the Tormentors.
Some of the truly painful bosses on tyrannical weeks will be near impossible for us. Think of not having Fallen Order back for the âInfectious Rainâ at Margrave in PF. What about the âSevering Smashâ at Kryxis in SD, or the âEndless Tormentâ phases at the Beryllia in SD too!
PUGs & Teams.
The PUG experience is a roller-coaster which we can all agree on. Random things happen at all times which is often very funny and something to laugh about and other times, itâs nerve straining when trying to progress which results in rage quits.
In PUGs, most of the times there are no live communication which means we, as healers, cannot keep track of the partyâs defensive abilities use. Which again reflects back to us at a big mana cost. From experience there is by far a lot more mana pumping in PUGs than in pre made teams.
In pre made teams, assignments are been made, you (as healer) have more of control of party CD use and things are planned ahead.
Like myself, the majority donât have the luxury to play in pre made teams and it should not be required in order to have a different experience of the game.
DPS
Mistweaverâs DPS is⌠wait⌠lol⌠what dps?
As simple as that, what dps? A melee healer class of which its top ranked players can barely scratch the 3.5k overall. Our rotation is purely based on kicking and punching, in order to extend HOTs and heal, only to get minimal to nothing dmg done in return. Our dps is absolutely meaningless in M+. Our DPSing feels more like Shadowboxing.
Recently I failed a 22 SoA, only to get the whisper from the tank at the end âwtf is this dps⌠3.1k?!â.
I wanted to reply - well this is pretty much all we can do, but decided not to because I thought it would do further damage and prevent him from taking another Mistweaver down the line.
Signing up to keys requires to have the patience and well wishes of a real life monk. The few times I am accepted itâs either because the tank knows how great our HPS can be, may need a RoP, or knows the 3 DPS in party can make up for my non existent DPS.
Other times, I get the occasional whispers âlol, a Monk healerâ, âDeclinedâ.
This post is focused on the Sinister Teachings legendary, because it is the sole reason us Mistweavers are even viable for M+ in 9.1.5.
Sinister Teaching is by far the stronger legendary than the next best. It currently is, and will continue to be even with the nerfs into 9.2.
To those who commented that Sinister Teachings was just too powerful and a nerf was long time coming. For whom? Too powerful for Mistweavers? Too powerful for a spec that continues to scrape the bottom of M+ charts even with this amount of power? Too great a power to handle?
I understand and agree with overall spec balance, and I know this nerf was prompted by the overall HPS we do in Raids and our dominance in HPS meters.
However, no matter how much I read it over, it stills reads like a quick-solution, half-asked, adjustment without any awareness of its effect to the spec outside Raid. Itâs superficial. Itâs not interesting.
What does this mean for 9.2.?
We may be completely off the M+ map. I dare say we are by default nerfed in relation to the buffs other healers have received. (can you really nerf a Holy Paladin? )
We have NO dps coming in the form of ability changes.
We have NO dps legendaries which we can combine, (other than Touch of Death CD reduction, but this will be a complete waste of legendary slot).
We have NO dps coming from our tier set bonuses, but more HPS which will just result in even more overhealing.
We will have even LESS DPS because fallen order will be more expensive and we will have to rely on off CDs healing, meaning less time dpsing.
Time in M+is a precious thing. Time is key in progression in M+. A 50% reduction of CD in a 30min dungeon is a big thing.
The nerf tilts the scale for us in M+ into the negatives by a great deal.
I took time to write this because I genuinely enjoy the upbeat playstyle of Mistweavers in M+ and I find its flow unique and engaging. I will continue to play Mistweaver no matter what comes its way. I do not see why it should be wiped off from competitive gameplay in M+.
I hope this writing is just a preemptive reflex shortly before an incoming class buff.
Much love
Gam