Mistweaver Monk 8.2 FAQ
It’s here. 8.2. We endured Uldir, we enjoyed Battle of Dazar’alor until our 300th Jaina pull. Now BFA’s savior has arrived. This is a very big patch with a new raid, new dungeon, new pet battles and new content system in Essences. Yes, pet battles! Below we’ll cover everything you need for day one of the patch including which Essences you’re looking for and how to grab them. Unfortunately most of the new items weren’t available for PTR testing so you’ll need to check back in a few days in case anything is in need of revision.
8.2 Quest Quickstart Guide
- Get breadcrumb quest The Wolfs Offensive (Alliance) or The Warchiefs Order (Horde). You should see them on the side of your screen the minute you log in – no matter where in the world you are. I was in Desolace so this is well tested.
- Complete the first seven or eight Nazjatar quests until you pick up Essential Empowerment from Magni. You don’t have to go looking for it. He’ll pop up in your camp.
- Complete the 6-7 quest Heart of Azeroth quest chain until you unlock the Heart Forge. Total playtime to get through to here is ~30 minutes and you’ll want to do it before you raid. You can go quicker if you’re low on time and blasting.
- Complete another 20 to 30 minutes of Nazjatar quests. You’ll find a gnome in your camp that’ll start you on the Mechagon quest chain when you’re up to it.
- Complete the Mechagon opening quests and get started on your world quests so that you can unlock some good Essences on week one. Particularly important if you’re pushing progression pre-season 3.
Essences
We won’t cover all of the Essences here, just the couple you’re most likely to use in the first few weeks of the patch. For a full break down of all 11 Essences take a read through the in depth breakdowns here. You’re not going to get your first minor until level 55 so focus mostly on your first slot to begin with.
The quick version: do your world quests every day in both of the new zones. Take your bodyguard with you to level it up.
Memory of Lucid Dreams
How to get it? Reach rank 3 on any bodyguard. Bodyguards get experience by doing special daily quests or world quests. There is a cap of +1 level per day. Don’t swap between bodyguards until you have rank 3.
This is your best choice if you’re planning on progressing through BoD / CoS in the next two weeks. It’s a little weaker on farm. Remember to use it on cooldown.
Ever Rising Tide
How to get it? Reach honored with your Nazjatar faction (Ankoan for Alliance, Unshackled for Horde). You start at neutral and can get rep from completing world quests and the central storyline.
It’s tough to justify using rank one in any situation. Start progress on it so that you can get to rank 3 by the time you start your Eternal Palace progression. Likely to be subbed out for Conflict & Strife (Way of the crane) frequently but you’ll want it in your toolkit.
Well of Existence
How to get it? Reach honored with the Rustbolt Resistance which is the Mechagon faction. Clear the world quests daily and grab whatever quests you can.
You aren’t likely to use this until you get your first minor-only slot but you should start the grind early.
Way of the Crane
You’ve heard the rumors. Fistweaving returns. Way of the Crane gives us a way to convert damage to healing for 15 seconds every minute. We’re going to have a full guide to the new healing style before the raid comes out but let’s answer some quick questions:
- It costs 25,000 mana! Is it worth it? Way of the Crane during heavy damage is actually pretty efficient. You won’t do better outside of Essence Font.
- Does this change the way we gear? Mastery drops in value quite a bit since it’s the only secondary that doesn’t scale up your DPS spells.
- How do I get it? You’re unable to pick it up until Season 3 begins. Unfortunately it does require rated PVP to unlock higher ranks. The first comes from grabbing 500 conquest. This is a couple of hours of battlegrounds. The second comes from reaching 1000 rating in rated PVP and then opening a weekly PVP chest. The third rank also comes from your weekly PVP chest but we don’t have details on it yet. It’ll likely take a month or two to get rank 3.
- Do I run this on every fight? It’s unlikely. You need to be able to stand in melee for 15 seconds during a period of high damage. Only experience will show us where this is possible and where we have to swap it out.
- Way of the Crane and Ever Rising Tide compete in the same “burst healing” niche. Which is better? They kind of ebb and flow based on your overall throughput and Essence ranks. Way of the Crane rank 1 easily beats ranks 1 and 2 of Ever Rising Tide. It only gets interesting when you pick up rank 3. As a general rule Way of the Crane is stronger unless:
- You can’t stand in melee for the full 15 seconds OR
- You are doing ultra high (70k+) HPS OR
- You are expecting to handle two burst windows within a minute of the fight.
- How is it in Mythic+? Way of the Crane is excellent for any Fortified weeks. It’s a tougher ask for Tyrannical because even though it’s still very efficient healing you are unable to commit so much of your mana to handling just a 15 second window.
Professions in 8.2
Upgrade your gear
8.2 brings new gems, enchants and potions. It’s up to you and your bank account if you want to buy them early and put them on your existing gear. They are in most cases very minor upgrades unless you lucked your way into five sockets.
New Weapon Enchants: Machinists Brilliance and Oceanic Restoration. Machinists is much stronger.
New Ring Enchants: 60 secondary stats. Very tidy.
New Gems: 60 of your favorite secondary stat. For Mistweaver you’re going to socket Crit or Versatility as safe choices, and with whatever Wowanalyzer tells you if you want to be more precise. There are also new +120 intellect gems that you can have one of.
New Potion: The upgraded Replenishment potion doesn’t look like it’s making it live. We do get stronger intellect potions (Superior Battle Potion of Intellect) and something new in Potion of Wild Mending. It isn’t strong but it lasts a full minute so it isn’t a bad pre-pot choice. You’ll otherwise stick with Potion of Replenishment on most raid fights.
Which professions are bis?
None of the professions are so strong that you should drop everything and level them immediately. That said, some are definitely stronger than others. They’re listed in order of overall usefulness below:
Alchemy: Alchemist Stone is still best in slot outside of some 445+ titanforges. Giving up double duration flasks is also really bad for your wallet.
Leatherworking: You get 440 pants and boots with sockets in 8.2. These will last you well into Mythic.
Engineering: The helm isn’t top tier but an early high Azerite piece isn’t awful and it enables some decent trades in raid.
Jewelcrafting: You get a 440 ring with a socket. This isn’t quite as special as it was in 8.1.5 since all crafted pieces get the same thing.
8.2 Trinkets
The QE Trinkets page has been updated for 8.2 but we’ll cover some 8.2 specifics below.
Raid Trinkets (Likely to be tuned)
Azshara’s Font of Power
Drops from: Queen Azshara
At the cost of a four second channel you get a massive 2-3k+ intellect for a long 30 seconds. Overbudget, flexible and always powerful. Azshara loot in general is very very good.
Deferred Sentence
Drops from: The Queens Court
When you are standing still the trinket builds up power which is released as healing when you move. We couldn’t test this but it appears to be slightly underbudget.
Luminous Jellyweed
Drops from: Blackwater Behemoth
This is another gimmicky trinket that you’ll pretty much just judge on throughput value alone. It’s nice that it always picks out your most injured ally but it doesn’t give them any immediate boost and if a direct heal hits them they are likely safe regardless of the trinket giving it a small boost. It isn’t terrible, but you can do better in your second trinket slot.
Za’qul’s Portal Key
Drops from: Za’qul, Harbinger of Ny’alotha (say that three times fast)
A big stat proc with a positional requirement. You get 30 seconds to move to the void tear which opens a portal for 10s that gives you a buff. It isn’t weak, it just isn’t anywhere near as good as Azshara’s Font of Power and on any fight with movement its value plummets pretty quickly. Think of it like a job that you hold down while you wait for something better to come along. It’s hardly a dream, but it’ll pay the bills for a short time.
Zoatroid Egg Sac
Drops from: Orgozoa
This is a very weird trinket. Your single target heals drop Zoatroids on your target that give them Vers. The Versatility is based on the shield amount remaining but it’s eaten so quickly that it’s impossible to get value. There are a few unanswered questions like whether the Zoatroid is removed when the shield reaches 0 or if they stick around to be later juiced by the mana spend portion. The early analysis is that you probably don’t want this but do check back after we get our hands on one.
World Boss Trinkets
Enthrallers Bindstone
Drops from: Ulmath, the Soulbinder
Standard stat stick with a big intellect proc. It’ll hold up well for a 415 trinket and the uptime is very good. It only drops at 415 ilvl so you probably won’t use this for long.
Shockbiters Fang
Intellect stat stick with a 90 second Haste on-use. It’s a little hard to take advantage of the haste window and there are better on-use trinkets with stronger Way of the Crane or Ever Rising Tide synergy.
Pocket-Sized Computation Device
One trinket. Three punchcards. You’ll get the base trinket as part of your Mechagon intro quest but it’s a dead equip until you add some Punchcards. Red cards are always a proc (healing, mana or stats), yellow cards always give you two flat secondary stats, and blue cards are just for fun. It’s a very good trinket for 415 item level but until Mechagon Mythic+ in season 4 you’re unlikely to use this heavily once you start gearing up.
Quick-Fire Questions
- How is the Benthic gear? Poens grips and the gloves that give us a self-heal on crit are both worth ~5-10 item level but the Benthic effects aren’t huge for healers. You’re better off fishing for a leech or socket piece.
- Will our stat weights change? The value of mastery drops quick heavily if we run Way of the Crane since your damage only scales with Haste, Crit and Vers.
- What talents will we use in the new raid? We’ll have talent recommendations for each fight when the raid goes live but Refreshing Jade Wind / Jade Serpent Statue is likely to remain the big flex tier. Your level 100 talent with Way of the Crane becomes much more interesting and we’ll hopefully have some good advice to give here in a few days.
- Is Mistweaver a strong healing spec in 8.2? Mistweaver is solidly middle of the pack. We can’t quite pull off the same shenanigans as a Glimmer Paladin or Disc Priest but we’re versatile, mobile and have a number of interesting Essence synergies. You can expect to stay top three in Mythic+ too.
- How good are the new raid azerite traits? Loyal to the End is really fantastic but synergizes poorly with Way of the Crane. You’re likely to pick one up anyway. Arcane Heart might start seeing use near the end of the tier but kind of sucks when starting out. Undulating Tides only offers damage and a small absorb.
All 8.2 gear is in QE Live.
I do hope you will update this for 8.3
Will you be adding Conflic and Strife to the essence-section?
What about Ruthlessness Protocol Augment? Obtained from Extraodinary Adventurer Augmentation from Mechagon. Probably you can get a good proc.
It’s decent for its item level. Basically equivalent to a Conch. You can compare it to your other trinkets in QE Live.
very interesting first impressions of the FAQ. Awaiting carefully the news brought by you.
Thanks for primer!