Dragonflight Vault

About The Author

Hello everyone! My name is Sweggles, I raid in Might on Zul’jin and I have been a Mistweaver main/fanatic for 5 years now. This Dragonflight guide is intended for those who wish to maximize their performance on Mistweaver Monk in raid. 

What changed going into Dragonflight? 

Dragonflight introduced a new, revamped talent system for all classes and specializations. With the new talent tree, Mistweaver has seen a lot of new goodies and the reappearance of some old favourites which we will get into later. The only notable things which were removed going into Dragonflight was our Venthyr covenant ability: Fallen Order and Kyrian covenant ability: Weapons of Order.  

Fistweaving vs Mistweaving 

I know this is going to be a sore spot for a lot of Mistweaver mains out there but I wanted to briefly talk about this to clarify some issues with Mistweaver Monk and how it should be played in PvE content. Mistweaver Monk is considered a melee specialization by the game’s targeted mechanics in PvE content. Furthermore, our kit largely focuses on melee  abilities for DPS and talents that synergistically amplify our healing and damage. For this reason we are going to consider the standard “Fistweaving” build as just being considered “Mistweaver”. Any ranged build option will be considered “Ranged Mistweaver” or as I like to call it “Rangedweaver”. 

Vault of the Incarnates Raid Tier Set

Our tier set is very strong – it increases our base healing with Essence Font and Vivify by 10% along with increasing the healing of Essence Font, Enveloping Mist, and Vivify when the target is affected by Renewing Mist. Our 4 set also increases the duration of our existing Renewing Mists by 1 second for each direct heal from Essence Font’s bolts. This does not impact the cap to the duration with Rising Mist, and Faeline Stomp’s bolts can increase the duration of the Renewing Mist. 

The Talent Tree 

With the revamp of the talent tree in Dragonflight, Mistweaver Monk has received a lot of new (and some recurring) talents that drastically change the playstyle, healing profile, and overall feel of the spec. For this section we will primarily be talking about the Mistweaver tree directly. The Monk class tree will be spoken about later but for now we will focus on the most impactful talents we have and what a standard Mistweaving tree would look like for raid and M+.

Default Raiding Build Talents

This is the gold standard Mistweaving raid build for 10.0 with current tuning. This build allows for you to do high DPS while maintaining consistent HPS and frequent small burst HPS and occasional larger burst HPS windows. The primary focus of this build is to apply as many Renewing Mists as possible with the maximum amount of Ancient Teachings (renamed from Ancient Teachings of the Monastery) uptime. 

With this tree, Renewing Mist becomes one of our highest priority healing spells in raid encounters. We want to be using it as much as possible to capitalize on the selected talents.

Other Notable Talents

Some other notable talents in the tree that we will highlight here are: 

• Upwelling: A staple of ranged Mistweaving builds, this talent is now reintroduced separately from Rising Mist making it of interest as previously it was in competition for beating Rising Mist in some fights. 
• Faeline Stomp: Our beloved Night Fae covenant ability makes a return with some new functionality, it now activates Ancient Teachings which solves the issue of running Ancient Teachings and Upwelling at the same time. This talent is taken for maintenance uptime on your Ancient Teachings buff. 
• Ancient Teachings: Previously Ancient Teachings of the Monastery, this talent has been nerfed from 250% to 150% but is still in contention because of how much HPS it provides. 
• Jade Bond: A conduit that has been reintroduced on a choice node with another notable talent which we will talk about later called Gift of the Celestial. Jade Bond functions identically its parent conduit but is buffed up to increase the direct healing of either of our celestials by 40%. 
• Secret Infusion: A BFA Azerite trait which now increases a stat by  15% for 10 seconds. The determination of the stat is dependent on your ability usage with Thunder Focus Tea.
• Font of Life: An Azerite trait which has made its way back as a talent that has very good synergy with Secret Infusion. This talent increases the direct healing of your Essence Font bolts by a flat amount and gives them a chance to reduce the cooldown of Thunder Focus Tea by 1 second. 
• Yu’lon’s Whisper: A legendary power from Shadowlands which upon activating Thunder Focus Tea, will spew out healing to 6 allies over 2 seconds. 
• Invoker’s Delight: A legendary power from Shadowlands which increases your haste by 33% for 20 seconds after summoning your celestial. 

I understand the build… How do I play it? 

This section will only cover new changes to our playstyle in Dragonflight. If you are new to Mistweaver, make sure to check out the Fistweaving Raid Compendium to learn the basics of healing in raids first. 

Due to how powerful Renewing Mist is in Dragonflight, we want to be making sure that we are casting it off cooldown. To do this we will be changing our rule of thumb from previous expansions and shifting Renewing Mist up the priority hierarchy. Our new priority list goes as follows: 

1. If needed to keep someone alive from immediate danger, cast Vivify.
2. Apply Renewing Mist when at two charges to keep it on cooldown.
3. Apply/Reapply your Ancient Teachings buff with Essence Font or Faeline Stomp.
4. Cast Rising Sun Kick to extend heal over time effects and heal affected players.
5. Vivify above five Renewing Mist if a player needs healing.
6. Cycle Blackout Kick and Tiger Palm to reset Rising Sun Kick and to heal through Ancient Teachings.

In downtime, you should be DPSing and following the standard rotation while utilising your instant Vivify procs to do bonus spot healing when applicable. Because you play Spirit of the Crane, you want to be DPSing as much as possible to supplement your natural mana returns in order to not go OOM (Out of Mana) as quickly.

This is generally all you need to know for the playstyle in raid outside of your celestial window.

Some Other Cool Interactions:

• Mist of Life is a talent that applies a full duration Enveloping Mist and Renewing Mist to your target when you apply Life Cocoon to them.
  • If you apply Life Cocoon off CD on your main tank it will provide a lot of HPS, so make sure Life Cocoon your tank frequently.

Stats for Default Raiding Build

Intellect > Haste > Mastery (Chi-ji) > Crit > Versatility > Mastery (Yu’lon)

Default Build Q&A 

Why Chi-ji over Yu’lon? 

Chi-ji is generally your go to celestial with Jade Bond because of how much it buffs your direct Gust of Mist HPS from Chi-ji and how little Chi-ji costs relatively to Yu’lon. This does not mean that Yu’lon is entirely out of the question and it can be played but under certain conditions. Chi-ji means that you do not need to require an innervate to keep you from going OOM which is a huge boon for us in raids because if we are able to remain self-sufficient then we are more likely to be slotted. 

Spirit of the Crane or Mana Tea? 

Spirit of the Crane is generally going to be better for the casual player. Mana Tea can be min-maxed and be a lot better for you if you are able to consistently spam Vivify during it. I recommend for experienced players to use Mana Tea if the fight has burstier windows. For any other fight where you do not need to spam Vivify as much, it is best to go with Spirit of the Crane. 

What happened to Refreshing Jade Wind?

Got reworked and now it falls behind comparatively to the other talents available. It can be good depending on the fight if we need rot healing but generally this talent is never going to be played because of it being on the same choice node as Mist Wrap (which is a major HPS increase with Misty Peaks).

Gift of the Celestial or Jade Bond? 

This is entirely dependent on the fight’s timers. If there are consistent 1 minute raidwide damage mechanics then Gift of the Celestial is going to be a lot better. If there are less consistent timers then Jade Bond is going to be better. It is worth noting that whenever you are playing Yu’lon you want to only ever play Gift of the Celestial. Chi-ji has the flexibility of allowing you to use Jade Bond whereas Yu’lon does not really have this option. 

Why no Overflowing Mists? 

A cool talent in concept, the idea of your targets with Enveloping Mist being healed for a flat % of their HP whenever they take damage can sound very appealing however, this talent does not proc off anything but direct physical damage making it next to useless for raid. 

Why no Uplifted Spirits? 

This talent generally performs worse than Font of Life but it can be flexed depending on if you meet the following conditions: the cooldown reduction from Uplifted Spirits allows for an extra one or two Revivals or Restorals that you would not be able to hit without it. 

Revival or Restoral? 

Depends on the fight and if you need a magic dispel or if a magic dispel will grief your raid. They do the same healing just one dispels magic and one does not. 

Why do we use Thunder Focus Tea on Essence Font rather than Rising Sun Kick?

A number of factors cause this shift in playstyle. Thunder Focus Tea now works with Essence Font once again making it channel 100% faster. This in combination with Secret Infusion giving 15% haste when used with Essence Font and Upwelling no longer being on the same row as Rising Mist meaning you can play it makes the combination of Essence Font and Thunder Focus Tea very rewarding and very satisfying. 

The Cleave Build 

As the name suggests, this build is primarily for cleave healing and should only ever be used on fights with extended 2 or 3 target cleave within melee range. The main gimmick with this build is that the Faeline Stomp talents allow for you to cleave Blackout Kicks to nearby enemies but still provide all the benefits from Ancient Teaching and Chi-ji’s Gust of Mist healing. This means that in any scenario in a raid where you will be able to cleave 3 targets, you will do incredible HPS and DPS. This is important because in the first tier there is a 4 target cleave fight. 

Let’s quickly go over what makes this build work and why the talents are played. 

How does this build change the way you play comparatively to the way you would play the standard build? 

• The general rotation is not much different from what you would normally do. You still prioritise all the same spells but you focus more on Faeline Stomp uptime and keeping the bosses and yourself within your Faeline Stomp. 
• You never want to press Tiger Palm more than once with this build unless you are setting up your Chi-ji beforehand as you will waste a global on the second cast of Tiger Palm. It is more efficient to just press Tiger Palm and then Blackout Kick. 

Cleave Build Q&A

Is Bonedust Brew viable? 

Yes, it is definitely viable if you have a scenario where the raid is stacked and you can play around its 1 minute timer. Because you do not play Secret Infusion you do not need to exclusively press Thunder Focus Tea on Essence Font and you can use it on some other things. This makes it possible to swap Upwelling for Bonedust Brew if the fight is good for it. 

Should I ever play Invoker’s Delight? 

You can if you would like to play a more DPS focused build. Depending on the situation you may find this more beneficial than Rising Mist because you can still do relevant HPS but you will do significantly more DPS and have higher uptime on Chi-ji as well

Does playing the cleave build increase my mastery stat weight? 

Yep the cleave build makes Mastery even better to the point where it rivals even Haste. You’re still good to stick with the priority above though and you can use QE Live to check your specific pieces.

The Monk Class Tree

The class tree is largely utility and defensive buffs with some major nodes that should always be taken in a raid environment. 

Here is the ideal talent tree that you would play in raid. This covers all your bases defensively, offensively, and gives you all the required utility you may need apart from some specific scenario nodes like Paralysis and Provoke. Let’s go over some of the key nodes that need to be played. 

The other notable talents in the tree that should always be taken: 

• Fast Feet: Buffs the damage of your Rising Sun Kick by 70% and Spinning Crane Kick by 10%. 
• Improved Vivify: Buffs the healing of your Vivify by 40%. 
• Vivacious Vilification: Every 10 seconds your next Vivify cast is instant. 
• Chi Burst: Good old Chi Burst, not much to say, solid node.
• Ferocity of Xuen: Increases all damage dealt by 4%. 
• Resonant Fists: Your attacks have a chance to deal a small proc of nature damage to enemies within 8 yards adding a small amount of DPS.  

Final Notes

Overall I am extremely happy with this iteration of Mistweaver and I hope that you will enjoy it as well. I think we are very strong in a lot of aspects of the meta and we are competitive in all forms of content. The playstyle is also extremely fast paced and very engaging which reminds me of Ny’alotha Mistweaver before haste broke the spec. I hope that this guide was helpful and if you have any questions please feel free to ask me directly in the Peak of Serenity Discord or on any of my social medias:
Discord: sweggles#0001
Twitch: SwegglesQT
Twitter: sweggles1
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