Monk Changes in Warlords of Draenor: Alpha Patch Notes

by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

Brief Summary

The most junior of classes saw the light of day as Mists of Pandaria launched, and while two of the three monk specializations have remained decently solid throughout the expansion, Mistweavers have had a bit of a bumpy ride to say the least. While some changes were implemented during the course of MoP, others proved too big to make midway through the expansion. With Warlords of Draenor, the time has come for Blizzard to get Mistweavers where they need to be.

One thing that they are addressing is that Mistweavers aren’t valuing mana and haste as much as other healers, and another issue is that Eminence (the practice of healing through dealing damage) hasn’t played out they way Blizzard had hoped it would. In order to solve these problems they are increasing the GCD (Global Cooldown) of all abilities to 1.5 seconds, which Monks will be able to reduce with haste. They are also giving Mistweavers two stances; Stance of the Wise Serpent (from which to do traditional Mistweaving), and Stance of the Spirited Crane (which will allow Mistweavers to trade healing for damage).

Healing Spheres have also undergone changes. Most notably, they have had their healing increased and you will now be able to detonate them at will.

Uplift and Thunder Focus Tea have changed as well; not only does Uplift have a 1.5 second cast time now, but Thunder Focus Tea now causes the next Renewing Mist to jump up to four times (used to cause the next Uplift to refresh the duration of Renewing Mists on all targets).

First impressions

Objectively, the so called Fistweaving (Eminence) healing wasn’t working as intended, and personally I was never a fan, so that they are giving Mistweavers two stances makes perfect sense to me. That way they can still keep the damage dealing element of Mistweaving without ending up with the same balancing issues as they did before. The fact that Blizzard is giving us a way to control the healing from Healing Spheres is a much needed change too.

Join me next week for a more in depth analysis when we will take a look at the level 100 talents for Monks, and the newly added Draenor Perks.

Check out the blue post below to read the changes for all three Monk specializations:

• All abilities available to Mistweavers now have a 1.5 second global cooldown (up from 1 second).
  • Stance of the Sturdy Ox and Stance of the Fierce Tiger now reduce the global cooldown of the Monk’s abilities by 0.5 seconds.
• Stance of the Wise Serpent no longer increases Haste from items by 50%.
• Focus and Harmony is a new passive ability for Mistweaver Monks.
  • Focus and Harmony: Haste effects lower the global cooldown of your spells and abilities.
• Crackling Jade Lightning no longer generates Chi for Mistweaver Monks.
• Soothing Mist no longer generates Chi for Mistweaver Monks.
• Thunder Focus Tea now causes the next Renewing Mist to jump up to 4 times (used to cause the next Uplift to refresh the duration of Renewing Mists on all targets).
• Healing Spheres now heal an ally within 12yd (up from 6yd) for 100% (up from 50%) of their normal healing, when they expire.
• Detonate Chi is a new spell available to Mistweavers:
  • Detonate Chi: Instantly detonate all of your Healing Spheres, causing each of them to heal a nearby ally within 12 yards of the sphere. 15 sec cooldown.
• Stance of the Spirited Crane is a new ability for Mistweaver Monks, which replaces Stance of the Fierce Tiger.
  • The Spell-Power-to-Attack-Power conversion effect has been moved from Stance of the Wise Serpent to Stance of the Spirited Crane.
  • The Eminence effect has been moved from Stance of the Wise Serpent to Stance of the Spirited Crane.
• Teachings of the Monastery now makes Spinning Crane Kick heal friends instead of damaging enemies, while in Stance of the Wise Serpent (previously, it would heal allies in addition to damaging enemies).
• Mastery: Gift of the Serpent’s Healing Spheres now scale with Spell Power instead of Attack Power.
• Serpent’s Zeal has been removed. Eminence now always includes Auto Attacks.
• Muscle Memory and Vital Mists have been merged. Muscle Memory now requires Stance of the Spirited Crane, and passively increases the damage of Crackling Jade Lightning by 100%, causes Tiger Palm to trigger the Vital Mists effect, and causes Blackout Kick to hit 4 additional nearby targets for 50% damage.
• The following abilities now require Stance of the Wise Serpent for Mistweavers:
  • Enveloping Mist, Renewing Mist, Soothing Mist, Uplift
• The following abilities now require Stance of the Spirited Crane for Mistweavers:
  • Blackout Kick, Jab, Tiger Palm
• When a player runs through multiple Healing Spheres at once, only as many as needed to heal the player to full health will be consumed (instead of all of them if the player is injured at all).
• Healing Spheres from Gift of the Serpent now heal an injured ally within 12 yards (up from 6 yards) for 100% (up from 50%) of their normal effect, when they expire.
• Afterlife’s Healing Sphere now heals for the same amount as other Healing Spheres (instead of healing for 15% of maximum health).
• Transcendence: Transfer no longer has an energy or mana cost.
• Storm, Earth, and Fire no longer has an energy cost, and is off the GCD.
• Touch of Death is now usable on targets that have 10% or less health remaining, or have less current health than your maximum health. The rules against players remain unchanged.
• Fists of Fury now always deal full damage to your primary target; additional targets are still affected by the damage split.
• Glyph of Leer of the Ox now also causes Black Ox Statue to passively pulse a minor amount of threat to all enemies within 30 yards.