Spiritual Guidance: Monk healing vs. priest healing in Mists of Pandaria
by Dawn Moore 
Mar 21st 2012 at 8:00PM
Well, I don't know about you, but I'm starting to feel pretty pumped up after Monday's release of the information from Blizzard's Mists of Pandaria press event. Some of the new zones are very striking, the pandaren ladies are absolutely adorable, and monks get an ability called Shuffle, which means we'll have an expansion full of Party Rock Anthem jokes to look forward to. Priests didn't see anything new on Monday, but with all the information released about mistweavers and monk healing in general, I thought I might make some comparisons to get a better idea about what priest healing is going to look like in MoP.
Raid cooldowns: Meditation, Power Word: Barrier, and Divine Hymn
- Meditation Channeled, 3-minute cooldown. Reduces all damage taken by 99% and redirects to you all harmful spells cast against your allies within 30 yards. Lasts 10 seconds. Being the victim of a melee attack will break your Meditation, canceling the effect.
At first glance, the monk's raid cooldown ability seems massively overpowered. A 99% damage reduction? Really? Baseline ability? Seriously? At a second glance, however, you'll quickly notice that Meditation only seems to be effective for spell damage. Will it be like grounding totem and only work for single-target spells? Will it work on AoE spells too? It's too early to know, but for now, it doesn't seem too bad from a balance perspective. Woosaaah, everyone.
As a priest, what I find interesting about this ability is how fight-specific it stands to be. Spell damage reduction isn't necessarily going to be handy on every encounter, since obviously not all bosses use spells to attack. Because of this, I suspect Power Word: Barrier will still hold its reign as the all-purpose, go-to cooldown in progression raiding. Divine Hymn will still bring in the numbers, of course, though I don't see it sharing much synergy with Meditation. Power Word: Barrier only reduces 30% of incoming damage on the raid to all targets, which means Divine Hymn and Power Word: Barrier go together like a hot fudge brownie and ice cream. Meditation, on the other hand, won't leave much healing to be done on anyone other than the monk.
Static location healing: Jade Serpent Statue and Lightwell
- Summon Jade Serpent Statue Summons a Jade Serpent Statue at the target location. Lasts for 15 minutes. Limit 2 statues. Only two statues can be active or summoned within a combat session. Eminence (passive) when the monk deals damage, the summoned Jade Serpent Statues will heal the lowest health nearby target within 20 yards equal to 50% of the damage done. Serpent's Salve (on-click effect) allies can right-click on the statue to instantly be healed for 3,786. 10 charges.
I have to admit, I did not see this coming. Another Lightwell? Well, sort of. Jade Serpent Statue isn't exactly a Lightwell. When monks are in melee range and able to attack their target, they will utilize these statues to heal the lowest health target within 20 yards. (This is similar to the smart healing done by Atonement, which also prioritizes the target at lowest health within a slightly less generous range of 15 yards. Being able to control the location of the Jade Serpent Statues makes it superior to Atonement, though, in my opinion.) At any time the Jade Serpent Statue has charges, it is also clickable by players just as a Lightwell is. This may be ideal for when the boss is out of range and can't be hit by the monk; think of Blood-Queen Lana'thel's air phase, as an example. In such an instance, players could click the statue for additional healing.
It's hard to say whether the range to click these statues will be the same as Lightwell or not. The statues certainly last longer than a Lightwell, although because they have charges, monks may need to resummon them every time all the charges are completely consumed. You can also have two statues up at a time, as a perk. Overall, I don't think priests should mind this little jade homage to Lightwell. I doubt it will get used any more by players than Lightwell currently is, so if anything, we'll have another class that understands our pain. I can hear it now: "Click the statue!"
Mana restoration: Cherry Mana Tea and Hymn of Hope
- Cherry Mana Tea Channeled. Requires Serpent Stance. For each 3 chi you consume, you gain a charge of Mana Tea. Use Mana Tea to consume the charges. Each charge restores 5% of you maximum mana. Mana Tea must be channeled, lasting 1 second per stack. Mana Tea can stack up to 50 times. Canceling the channel will not waste stacks.
Ever since the priest talent and ability preview was released for MoP and Hymn of Hope became an ability exclusive to discipline priests, I wondered what was in store for mana regenerative abilities in the next expansion. Would monks be receiving something in line with Mana Tide Totem or Hymn of Hope? What were holy priests going to do about mana?
This monk ability appears to be the primary means for mistweavers to restore mana. Monks trade chi for Cherry Mana Tea, which they then trade for mana. The mechanic of the spell strikes me as a cross between Evocation and Innervate, but the important part to note is that it only returns mana to the monk himself.
This makes me quite curious about what kind of role Hymn of Hope will play in MoP. Will holy priests and other classes rely less on outside sources of mana regeneration, or will having a resto shaman or discipline priest be pivotal to managing mana-intensive fights? I'm inclined to go with the former, but who knows?
Damage to healing: Spinning Crane Kick and Atonement
- Spinning Crane Kick 1 chi, instant. Requires Serpent Stance, Ox Stance, Tiger Stance. You spin while kicking in the air, dealing 218 Physical damage every 1 second to all nearby enemies within 8 yards. Movement speed is reduced by 30%. Lasts 6 seconds.
- Teachings of the Monastery When you deal damage with Spinning Crane Kick while in Stance of the Wise Serpent, you heal nearby allies equal to 100% of the damage done.
When Blizzard first announced it'd be reworking Holy Nova for discipline AoE healing, I immediately wondered if the spell would tie into Atonement somehow. I thought since Holy Nova currently does both damage and healing, it might make sense to link our AoE healing and damage together in some way. How cool would that be, right?
Well, unfortunately, the hope for that idea started to diminish after the developers announced last week that discipline priests would be keeping Prayer of Healing as our primary AoE heal after all. At the time, they stated no additional plans were in store for Holy Nova, but I had hope. Now that I've seen the mistweaver's version of Spinning Crane Kick, however, I'm almost certain discipline won't be getting an AoE damaging ability that also heals. I figure it would just be too similar to the mechanic of Spinning Crane Kick to be implemented.
Next week on Spiritual Guidance
Next week, I'll draw up a few more comparisons between priests and monks based on the great wealth of information we received on Monday. Do you have any observations of your own? Let's hear them.
Personally, my biggest disappointment from all the news was still not knowing anything about our new healing talent, Divine Star. I was thinking the monk's talent and abilities preview would shed some light on how Divine Star might work in the next expansion, since class abilities are often mirrored in other classes with a tweak or two. In this case, however, either monks don't have anything like Divine Star, or the information on Divine Star (or monks) is too limited to draw a comparison right now. The whole thing makes me anxious as a priest, but with beta surely right around the corner, I'm sure we'll know more soon. Exciting times!
Come to Spiritual Guidance for the inside line on current healing gear and trinkets, as well as advice for healing in Dragon Soul. Newcomer to the priest class? Look into leveling a healing priest, and consult our guides to Discipline Priest 101 and Holy Priest 101.
Filed under: Priest, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Heii Mar 21st 2012 8:32PM
Divine Star shoots out from you then returns, right?
Doesn't Glaive Toss for Hunters also work the same way? Shoots out, if it hits 2 or so targets, it returns.
gomezmp Mar 21st 2012 8:37PM
I imagine it would be the same. I would like to know the healing and damage numbers though. It doesnt seem like it would be a very useful tool in pve, and only rarely decent in pvp. Honestly, how often do you have people lined up in a line in front of you?
Revynn Mar 21st 2012 9:29PM
I'm envisioning Divine Star as a healing version of a Mage's Flame Orb. Those things have a pretty decent range.
gomezmp Mar 21st 2012 8:32PM
I was a little disappointed at the lack of priest information. Although I tend to sit in the Fox Den with my playstyle, for arena and rated battlegrounds, as well as 25 man progression, I have to choose a healing offspec as well. I used to heal during 10 man HM progression during FL, and the changes to the priest system looks incredible for discipline (my favored healing spec.) However, the lack of information worries me. Warlocks seem completely fleshed out and have so many revamps to them. Mages have their new abilitity and well explained talents. Priests though... priests feel like the 3 year old toy left in the bottom corner of the toy chest.
greenfuse80 Mar 21st 2012 8:35PM
"Monks trade chi for Cherry Mana Tea, which they then trade for mana."
Maybe I'm misinterpreting what you wrote, Dawn, but the wording on Cherry Mana Tea makes it sound like as you normally spend chi on abilities, you gain charges on CMT. Not that CMT consumes chi and builds charges.
Personally I love this active style of mana regen (sans cd). Mistweavers look like they are going to have a very active and engaging playstyle. Also, I hope that using up the charges of the statue doesn't make the statue despawn. It says you can only summon two in a combat session so there's a risk of both statues being used up and the mistweaver not being able to heal via dps.
Revynn Mar 21st 2012 9:21PM
Meditation seems like it will be good in certain situations (and I'm sure there will be plenty of those just like there was plenty of places in early Wrath that were designed for a DK tank) and the first one that comes to mind is Heroic Magmaw when Nefarian starts shadowbolting random people in the raid. You can redirect all of those shadow bolts to you which then get reduced by 99%, but the tradeoff is that you'll be channeling and unable to put out any normal heals.
Needs a new name, though. There's a certain priest ability called Meditation already.
Brett Porter Mar 21st 2012 11:19PM
I assume you're talking about http://www.wowhead.com/spell=95860
The problem is, that's not an ability listed in the new talent calculators. I know, it may be missing, but if I am remembering correctly, that sort of ability won't be present in the Mist healing world.
Revynn Mar 21st 2012 11:23PM
You may be right. My main's a warlock so I haven't been keeping up with every change to every spec, even on alts I play regularly (8 85's now and I try to at least do LFR on each one every week).
Jem Mar 21st 2012 9:27PM
I ntoiced that there seems to be no monk equivalent for heal/gheal/flash heal in the information I saw (wowheadnews). The monk list seems to have a lot of smart heals and aoe heals that heal people around the target, but very little in the way of single target healing as it currently stands.
greenfuse80 Mar 21st 2012 10:10PM
Soothing Mist and Surging Mist seemed to fall within the H/FH/GH category. Perhaps Soothing is their Heal and Surging is their FH or GH. Expel Harm is also single target but it requires to be in melee range.
Homeschool Mar 21st 2012 9:34PM
I know this was primarily about Monks vs. Priests, but consider Meditation + Spirit Link Totem - on a heavy AoE spell damage phase, that means 99% damage reduction for everyone!
Even if the combination only lasts for 6 seconds (Spirit Link's time), that's a whole lot of acceptable damage - and at the end, the Monk is still Meditating for 4 more seconds.
I think that beats Barrier plus Divine Hymn.
marcus Mar 21st 2012 11:55PM
I think you guys may be reading that meditation wrong. I think it only puts the monk at 99% reduction and redirects all harmful spells within the 10 seconds to the monk. So therefore no one at all will be taking that damage at the time just the monk at 1% of the damage.
Kenneth Mar 22nd 2012 5:19AM
Blizzard used some of my idea for a new class! I posted this on wow.com years ago. See if you can find the similarities between Monk heals, and my new class creation.
I had an idea about a new class. Might not fit into lore, but I think it is about time we get another plate healing class. I also think its about time we get some ranged plate DPS. My class would be a hybrid of a druid and hunter. The class would focus more on the synergy between the player and his companion. In my opinion, as a hunter you either are BM, where the focus is just on your pet and you do nothing, or you are Surv/MM and well your pet means almost nothing. I want to have a class where the pet is not a pet, but more of a companion that actually adds to the raid instead of just being there. That said, the class would focus on using the magical light energies to either heal or attack. The the trees 52 talent point would be something like this
1st tree- end talent would allow the owner and his/her companion to conjoin where the owner would benefit from his or her companion depending on what companion they have. For exm, if joined with a turtle they might gain exta stam and armor, or if joined with a wolf they might gain extra ap and a dmg bonus. or if joined with a bird they would gain the ability of flight, as well as more agility. In the works but hope you get the basic concept.
2nd tree- would focus on players magical abilities. The 51st ability would enable the player to unleash a devastating light ability between the companion and the player. Again the companion is going to play an important role in all three of the talent trees. This is a rather new idea, and very loose in terms of what I want to do with it.
3rd tree- This tree would focus on using the light energy to heal. the 51st ability of this tree would allow the player to become great partners with light beast. Light beast would all have different healing/buff abilities that would expand the abilities of the player in a different way. It almost resembles the first tree, but this one enables to to "tame" light beast. in a raid these beast would be able to be assigned to heal a certain target or multiple targets depending on the beast. (HOLY Nova type abilities, or chain heal type abilities)
To add to it, the way to get this class would be either A- already have a hunter and when making the "light hunter", just a prototype name, your hunter goes back to whomever they learned to be a hunter for and is told a story which unlocks the light inside of the player thus making them a light hunter. or B having at lease 2 80s. I am not sure about the 2nd option, but the first option would have to have a hunter that is at lease level 30.