Mistweaver Monk Shadowlands FAQ

Hello, my name is Sweggles. I am a Mistweaver main in the guild Vesper on Area-52 NA and the spec is my heart and soul. I wanted to make this guide because I know a lot of people are returning to WoW for Shadowlands and they might not be in the total know about their favorite healing specialization: Mistweaver Monk! This guide won’t necessarily have a min-max perspective, but instead aims to showcase the strengths and weaknesses of the kit. Monk is in a really good place where multiple playstyles are all viable and you shouldn’t attach yourself too tightly to one. This is a thorough guide so grab a coffee, get comfy in your chair, and let’s learn everything there is to know about Mistweaver Monk. If you missed the prepatch changes you can catch up with them here.

Edits and formatting by Voulk

 

Mistweaver Monk – The New HoTness 

The new Enveloping Breath adds a huge amount of power to the spec and you’ll find it now makes up a significant portion of our strength. Yu’lon/Chi-Ji become monster throughput cooldowns and your raid leader will get great returns from assigning them as proper raid cooldowns. That’s right, Mistweaver finally brings potent raid cooldowns, combining them well with the specs naturally very high sustained HPS. 

 

Catching back up with the rotation

If you are playing Upwelling, not much has changed since Battle for Azeroth apart from the introduction of Yu’lon/Chi-Ji. Rising Mist, on the other hand, sees some changes because of nerfs. The key to playing Mistweaver well in Shadowlands is optimizing cooldown usage so we’ll start there. Yu’lon and fairly similar with Rising Mist again forcing some slight change.

The secret Sauce: Enveloping Breath.

What does it do? EB spreads healing to 5 allies around any target that you cast Enveloping Mist on, as well as applying the breath to our target. The range is 10 yards so if melee and ranged are spread you’ll want to alternate which group you hit with Enveloping Mist.

  • Yu’lon

    Let’s check out a full cast sequence:

    Upwelling: Yu’lon -> Mana Tea -> Enveloping Mist x4 -> Essence Font (full channel) -> Enveloping Mist x4 -> and continue until Yu’lon finishes.

    Rising Mist: Yu’lon -> Mana Tea -> Enveloping Mist x4 -> Essence Font (full channel) -> Enveloping Mist x4 -> Thunder Focus Tea -> Rising Sun Kick -> Renewing Mist -> Rising Sun Kick -> Enveloping Mist until Yu’lon finishes.

    Your main consideration with Yu’lon is your mana expenditure. Enveloping Mist does a ton of healing but it isn’t cheap. Plan ahead and decide in advance how much mana you can spend in your Yu’lon window. Innervates can make this much much easier. Some fights also have downtime, like Council of Blood, where you can naturally regenerate a lot. Throttle as much as you need to, but know that you’re one of the strongest healing specs in the game when you fully unleash.

  • Chi’ji

    Chi-ji is a little bit different because we instead build power by pressing damage abilities, which reduces the cost of our next Enveloping Mist.

    Rising Mist: Tiger Palm x3 -> Full Essence Font -> Chi-Ji ->  then the following until Chi-ji ends -> Black Out Kick -> Enveloping Mist -> Rising Sun Kick -> Enveloping Mist

    If you ever have a gap in the rotation where Rising Sun Kick or Blackout Kick aren’t up, substitute in Spinning Crane Kick. The Essence Font beforehand is important to double our Gust of Mists procs.

    Stack Tiger Palm 3 times > Full Essence Font cast >  Cast Chi-Ji > Blackout Kick > Enveloping Mist > Rising Sun Kick > Enveloping Mist > Follow the bolded rotation until Chi-Ji ends. If Rising Sun Kick or Blackout Kick are not up, substitute with Spinning Crane Kick. You also want to cast Essence Font beforehand because of the double gain from Gust of Mists procs. 

    Some notes:

    • Gust of Mists procs scale off Mastery so any mastery bonuses like the Kyrian’s Weapons of Order.
    • While a 3 stack mana reduction makes the spell effectively free, a better strategy is often to Enveloping Mist sooner. It’s less efficient, but much more healing. Enveloping Breaths are always the priority.
    • Chi-Ji’s main appeal is it’s mana efficiency and bonus damage compared to Yu’lon.

Yu’lon vs Chi-ji

Yu’lon is slightly better suited to an all-in healing strategy, where you can spend a lot of mana for maximum throughput. Chi-ji is better when you need sustained, efficient healing, or when damage is worth a premium. Your decision might also come down to Rushing Jade Wind’s viability for a fight. Both synergize very well with both Rising Mist and Mist Wrap (which also buffs your enveloping breath right now).

 

Talents 

Not much has changed in the way of talents. Our tree is the same as BFA except for the introduction of the new Chi-Ji, which replaces the old Chi-Ji. 

This should be the default talent setup for raiding. Swapping between Upwelling and Rising Mist depends on which you like (although I do think Rising Mist is the better option overall because of how well it synergizes with the kit). If you cannot be in melee because of the fight’s requirements, however, play Upwelling. You can also swap between Invoke Chi-Ji and Refreshing Jade Wind depending on the fight. 

 

Talents Quickfire Questions

Is Spirit of the Crane good? No, you need to spend most of your global cooldowns on Blackout Kick for it to catch Mana Tea.
Should I play Mist Wrap or Chi Burst? Mist Wrap is more HPS than Chi Burst if you are casting more than 12 Enveloping Mists in your Yu’lon window. If not, it is more beneficial to play Chi Burst. This one is up to you.
How do I know when to play RJW or Chi-Ji? Generally, if the boss has a high mana cost requirement it might be a good idea to swap to Chi-Ji because of the mana effectiveness of the spell. It is a great tool to do a good amount of HPS while maintaining mana. If you have good mana preservation skills or if the boss is not really draining mana too hard, you can play RJW. The raid is generally quite stacked, and so you should have no problem with the target count of RJW.
Diffuse Magic or Dampen Harm? Most dangerous incoming damage is magic in nature so Diffuse Magic tends to give you more bang for your buck.
Is Jade Serpent Statue worth it? Only if you have an insane need for single target healing specifically. It’s going to be rare.
Will Chi Wave ever be played? We don’t talk about Chi Wave.

 

Covenants and Soulbinds 

Covenants are the lifeblood of the Shadowlands expansion. You will have to make a conscious decision about which covenant you think is best for you. We’re going to go through the strengths and weaknesses of each to help you decide. From a balance perspective they are quite similar for Mistweaver which is great!

Another quick disclaimer: most of our conduits are very weak. You will almost always run Jade Bond as a potency covenant. I will not tell you what to play for finesse or endurance because that is personal preference. 

 

Necrolords 

Signature ability: Fleshcraft 

Covenant ability: Bonedust Brew 

Key Soulbind: Emeni (Massive intellect buff)

Bonedust Brew allows you to throw down a brew that buffs all targets hit, allowing you to replicate healing or damage on those targets. You can pair it with Potency Conduit Bone Marrow Hops which increases it’s damage / healing and gives it a little cooldown reduction. 

Pros

  • Big healing on stacked players. and lined up with large cooldowns such as Yu’lon or Revival.
  • The cooldown lines up with our kit very nicely.
  • A very strong Soulbind in Emeni which provides a large int increase early in the tree.
  • Fleshcraft is a huge shield with various applications through the raid, even as an already tanky healing spec.

Cons

  • When the raid isn’t completely stacked you lose a bit of healing.

 

Night Fae 

Signature Ability: Soulshape 

Covenant Ability: Faeline Stomp 

Key Soulbind: Dreamweaver (Overhealing Shield, Cheat Death)

Faeline Stomp is a fun (but occasionally frustrating) ability similar to Chi Burst. It sends out a colourful tree that heals up to 5 allies and damages 5 enemies that are caught in the Faeline Stomp for about an Essence Font bolt worth of healing as well as applying the Essence Font HoT to them to benefit your Gust of Mists procs. Faeline Stomp also has a reset mechanic which can be proc’d when you are standing in the tree itself, so make sure you plant yourself on top of your tree to get max benefit. The conduit for this one isn’t great so you can skip it. Faeline Stomp has a strong damage component which you’ll quickly grow to love in dungeons.

Pros

  • Very strong Soulbind option in Dreamweaver. Arguably the best tree in the game currently.
  • Provides are reasonable damage increase in addition to it’s healing
  • Soulshape is quite useful as a mobility cooldown, even for a spec that’s already rich in that department.
  • Nice synergy between Rising Mist and the Essence Font HoT applied from the stomp itself. 
  • Incredibly efficient.

Cons:

  • Almost frustratingly difficult to get maximum value out of. If you move, if the mobs move, if you summon your tree in the wrong position, you lose a lot.

 

Kyrian 

Signature Ability: Summon Stewart 

Covenant Ability: Weapons of Order 

Key Soulbind: Pelagos early, Kleia later when Renown is higher

Another very strong covenant for the Mistweaver spec. Weapons of Order is a flat mastery increase as well as a buff to your next Essence Font cast. Weapons of Order pairs exceptionally well with Chi-Ji, providing a direct buff to its healing by buffing your mastery along with giving you useful burst healing on your next Essence Font cast. The steward from the signature ability is also a very nice bonus to have (and they are very cute). We love our little stewards. 

Pros

  • Very good synergy with Chi-ji through the mastery increase.
  • Provides very strong burst healing, complete with Essence Font reset.
  • Relatively short cooldown that lines up with mechanics and can be played around in raid. 
  • The Stewards healing potion is incredibly useful for progression content.

Cons

  • Not particularly cheap.

 

Venthyr 

Signature Ability: Door of Shadows 

Covenant Ability: Fallen Order 

Key Soulbind: Draven (Healing Increase); Nadja (buffs to enchants, flasks, food)

Fallen Order is a very long but impactful cooldown that requires minimal player interaction. If you prefer a “fire and forget” style of cooldown then this might be your pick. For 24 seconds you will spawn fallen monks every 3 that either heal or punch the boss. It’s a technical detail but the healing clones come out every second interval (3,9,15,21) and the damage clones alternate (0,6,12,18,24). All of the soulbinds for Venthyr are very good. Venthyr combines a smorgasbord of viable Soulbind trees with a very strong covenant-specific conduit to form a great overall package. The signature ability, Door of Shadows, is basically your own personal Warlock gateway. It is an extremely powerful ability and it allows you to evade mechanics very well. This could have a major impact on some boss fights.


Pros

  • Fallen Order is a fire and forget cooldown that benefits both healing and damage. That means you get maximum value every single time.
  • Signature ability can be used to evade and even eliminate certain mechanics.
  • Solid, varied soulbinds so less vulnerable to last minute nerfs.

Cons

  • Three minute cooldowns are a little less flexible.

 

Legendaries Return

One of the best parts of Legion returns, and in a less RNG form. Let’s take a look through them.

Ancient Teachings of the Monastery

Slots: Wrists / Hands

Not the best on it’s own, but if we are able to equip two legendaries later in the expansion it can have a very solid place. This is a really fun legendary and you should definitely check it out at some point in the next two years.

 

Tear of Morning

Slots: Helm / Waist

Your Vivify cleaves are increased by 20% and your healing from Enveloping Mists are applied to targets with Renewing Mist active on them. This healing from Enveloping Mist is done upfront for 20% as one tick, so be mindful of that. Additionally, when you cast Vivify or Enveloping Mist on a target with Renewing Mist you have a 10% chance to spread the Renewing Mist to another target. 

This legendary is extremely strong in raids and in dungeons. It is likely going to be our best bet for healing. 

 

Invoker’s Delight

Slots: Head / Shoulders (knees and toes!

This legendary is very straightforward but do not let its simplicity deceive you. Gaining an effective bloodlust for the duration of your Yu’lon window is extremely strong, and if you really want to pump out huge HPS numbers during your cooldown you will want to play this legendary. Increases your healing ceiling by a ridiculous amount.

 

Clouded Focus

Slots: Neck / Wrists

At the time of writing, this legendary is bugged and not actually cancelling when you finish the cast of Soothing Mist, as long as you immediately cast something afterwards. This is clearly unintended and is likely to be fixed. This legendary is very good for single-target healing and is potentially very strong as a future second legendary when paired with Tear of Morning. 

 

Yu’lon’s Whisper

Slots: Shoulders / Fingers

Veteran Mistweavers might recognize this from Legion. After casting your Thunder Focus Tea, you breathe healing onto 6 nearby allies 3 times over 2 seconds for ~180%sp each. This legendary is okay but we can do better. It’s actually a little tricky to use since you need to be facing 6 injured allies and the throughput isn’t top notch in any case.

 

So how do they rank? If we ignore the blatant bugs for a second I’d recommend them in the following order:

  1. Tear of Morning 
  2. Invoker’s Delight 
  3. Ancient Teachings of the Monastery 
  4. Yu’lon’s Whisper
  5. Clouded Focus

 

The Stats Question

In Shadowlands, item level has a lot more weight to it than before which means intellect is your main priority.

Upwelling: Intellect > Crit > Vers > Haste > Mastery

Rising Mist: Intellect > Haste = Crit = Vers > Mastery

You can compare items in the Shadowlands version of QE Live.

 

Last words 

Things are subject to potentially drastic changes since Blizzard continues to tune multiple facets of the game. Check back for updates. If you have any questions you’re welcome to send me a message on Discord at sweggles#0001, on Twitch at https://twitch.tv/swegglesQT, or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/sweggles1Special thanks to Abelito75, Vohrr, Cele, Voulk, and all the others who have helped from Peak of Serenity.

 

Abbreviation Guide

EF: Essence Font
MT: Mana Tea
Viv: Vivify
ENV: Enveloping Mist
ReM: Renewing Mist
TP: Tiger Palm
BoK: Blackout Kick
RSK: Rising Sun Kick
SCK: Spinning Crane Kick
TFT: Thunder Focus Tea
FT: Focused Thunder
RM: Rising Mist
UW: Upwelling
JSS: Jade Serpent Statue
LC: Life Cocoon
RJW: Rushing Jade Wind
CB: Chi Burst
SotC: Spirit of the Crane
TotM: Teachings of the Monastery
Ring/RoP: Ring of Peace
Incap: Paralysis
AToTM: Ancient Teachings of the Monastery 
ToM: Tear of Morning 
YW: Yu’lon’s Whisper 
BDB: Bonedust Brew
FO: Fallen Order 
WoO: Weapons of Order
FS: Faeline Stomp 
Envb: Enveloping Breath

 

4 responses to “Mistweaver Monk Shadowlands FAQ”

  1. Eschalon says:

    Thank you for the guide, I appreciate it. Yours is the only guide to elaborate on the specifics of the new Yu’lon ability.

    In your full cast sequence rotation for Yu’lon, is there a specific purpose for putting an essence font between two 4x sets of enveloping mists casts? Also for the 4x enveloping mist casts is it [better/worse/a wash] casting a quick soothing mist channel for the instant effect?

  2. Cyancloud says:

    Hi Sweggles!
    First of all,really nice guide that you put here.I am Cyancloud,I’m a community administrator from a forum called NGA,that is a forum for all the players in CN server.
    I’ve been writing Mistweaver guide since WoD,but really start to make a theoretical system since the begining of BfA.
    I had to admit,different cultures also bring different game habits.For example,most CN players kind of resist the concept of fistweaving because that’s a bit unorthodox way of the “healer” in their cognition.But,when the “haste weaving”is super OP,I suppose was on April,they are really interested in it as well.
    Now I’m really tired of telling people Upwilling is not a best option or even a potential option anymore,I just can’t be sure they can get use to stand in melee range all the time.
    But really, your guide really helped me to complete my theory and cognitionwith MW in Shadowlands,I’m really looking forword to discuss with you all about Mistweaver playstyle in the future.
    Thank you for your time,and feel free to text me back.

    • Sweggles says:

      Hey Cyancloud, thank you for taking the time to read my guide and to make this comment.
      I think that the concept of sharing ideas between regions is amazing and I would love to set up some sort of communications between each other to talk more in depth about helping others achieve greatness on Mistweaver.
      Is there any way I can contact you? Thank you once again for the support!

      • Cyancloud says:

        Hey Sweggles,thank you for reply!
        In our region we don’t use Discord or Twitch often,bu I will be get one.
        Before that,let’s use the old school way,my e-mail is [email protected]
        Once I got my Discord account,we can talk in there.
        Thank you again and good luck with the Raid,I heard it is tough just like Beta,gonna be there tmr myself.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *