By the way, this tank was awesome!
And here I go again! I’ve started yet another healer, this time a mistweaver monk. I’m leveling this one to be the healer in several Herald of the Titans runs. Which in hind sight, might not have been the best idea considering that monks were not around when Wrath was current and there is no tier gear for them. Oops. I’m too far along though to turn back (BC leveled at the moment of writing).
I chose mistweaver for two main reasons. I have never played a monk beyond level 20 and I was curious about fistweaving. Monks beyond level 20 is a truly enjoyable affair, but fistweaving not so much.
First, let’s start with the positives. I’m really enjoying monks! I think the Chi system worked out remarkable well and feels intuitive (instead of tacked on like it is for paladins). There’s a good rhythm of building and spending chi, especially for mistweaving. And the accelerated leveling is a gift that keeps on giving. Monks feel fast, light on their toes, and flexible.
If I had to pick one negative thing, I would chose the fact that one must constantly interrupt the channel of soothing mists. For years I have been trained to never interrupt channeled casts until they are done. Especially for healing abilities (Tranquility and Divine Hymn come to mind), you never want to interrupt if you can help it. And this ingrained knowledge has made it difficult for me to interrupt Soothing Mists to cast other abilities. It’s a small pet peeve, but I feel guilty every time I end Soothing Mists early.
While I think Mistweaving is enjoyable and lively, the same cannot be said for fistweaving. I feel that fistweaving could be fun and enjoyable, but right now it is weak. Very weak. Perhaps this gets better with level or gear, but as it stands I cannot reliably heal by fistweaving.
I know I’ve already mourned the loss of dps healing, but it still haunts me. There is just something innately appealing about being able to do two roles at once. While I don’t advocate for the return of SoO disc levels of power (while enjoyable, it was a balancing nightmare), I do think that dps healing should have some sort of relevance. It’s just too entertaining a mechanic to get nerfed into oblivion.
Other than fistweaving, monk has been an enjoyable healing class! Monks are different enough that the play style doesn’t feel like any other class, an impressive feat considering all the different healing builds out there. And as a bonus, when I get to max level, there are a bunch of monk transmogs just waiting for me to wear them!
Growing up in Azeroth 
I never was too sold on dps healing. I haven’t tried it on a monk yet, but Disc feels very counter-intuitive. I have enough to worry about keeping everyone alive, and then I have to jump on low damage phases with Atonement so I can have Archangel ready for the big damage.
If they had put in some mechanic/talent to bypass the need for Atonement, I’d take it.
I’ll have to give Monk healing a try and see if it works any smoother than Disc – maybe with Monks they got it right.
Yeah, the thing with Disc is that it was basically built around Atonement, and in order to do top healing, you would have to throw some Smites out there. Personally, I loved that multitasking play style but I can definitely see how it can be off putting, especially for someone who just wants to heal.
For monks, you switch stances to change between dps healing and normal healing, so there is much more of a choice on what style you play with. And when you are straight healing, there’s no dps mechanic that increased your healing, like Archangel. So in that regard, you might like it better!