Player Spotlight: Vibezz

Hello everyone! Welcome to the eleventh RaiderIO Player Spotlight. My name is Samantha aka Vitaminpee and with this series, I am aiming to highlight the amazing players of World of Warcraft regardless of their chosen class, spec, language, and/or region. I hope to bring you valuable information and help you learn more about your favorite top players or discover new ones that you may not know.

It has been quite a while since our last healer spotlight, so this week, I reached out to one the world’s best Mistweaver Monks, Vibezz, to learn more about how to heal at the top level as Mistweaver in a sea of Restoration Druids.

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VitaminP: Hi Vibezz! Can you please tell us a little more about yourself?

Vibezz: Hey, my name is name is Isaac. I am 21 years old and I live in Germany, but I am half-German and half-Spanish. I am an ex-esports player from the game called Blade & Soul where I managed to achieve the European Champion title twice, which made me more interested in competing against other players in general. I have been playing WoW since The Burning Crusade and stopped at the end of Wrath of the Lich King. I came back to WoW late during Legion and gained an interest in the Mythic+ scene, which is now the main reason I still play WoW. I started pushing high keys about three months ago and have been maining Mistweaver Monk ever since the start of BFA. I have a Restoration Druid and a Restoration Shaman as alts just for fun, but nothing really noteworthy.



VitaminP: What are the greatest strengths and weaknesses of Mistweaver Monk in high Mythic+? What utility do you bring and what do you think your class may lack?

Vibezz: The greatest strength of Mistweaver Monk is our insane spot-healing. Being able to top a tank in only 2 or 3 globals during Soothing Mist is just awesome, since it allows the tank to face-tank more. Face-tanking keeps mobs stacked up, which in turn helps the whole group do more damage. Our AoE burst healing is also really good, since we can get 4-5 Renewing Mist casts on the party and Essence Font right before damage comes in. It’s a very satisfying feeling. The only weakness towards our AoE healing is that it requires us to setup our burst for about 20 seconds before a large onslaught of incoming AoE damage. This means that Monk is great at predictable AoE damage, but not as good in situations with unpredictable AoE damage that requires more reactive spells. However, falling behind during unpredictable AoE damage can be prevented by never overcapping on Renewing Mist stacks.

Mistweaver Monk utility is pretty valuable. Monk brings a 5% physical damage increase for the melee DPS and the tank, which is especially strong right now since Protection Warrior is the tank meta. Ring of Peace is always a great utility that has many uses. You can Ring of Peace to help the tank kite, push mobs out of Sanguine, disrupt a cast when nobody has an interrupt, or simply just stack mobs closer together. The Monk mobility also helps a lot due to specific mechanics, such as baiting the bird in Skycap’n Kragg, the first boss Freehold. Mobility is great in general, but it’s also helpful to be able to catch up to a tank if they don’t wait for you to get mana!

The Monk dispel is very good since it can cure diseases, which many healers know can be a real pain to deal with otherwise. On top of that, while Revival might not be the greatest healing cooldown in the game, it is definitely strong for Reaping. Since everyone might take a few stacks from the Reaping debuff in the beginning of the phase, Revival can simply be used as a mass-dispel with very large range.

Also with DPS traits in our Azerite gear, we can do quite a lot of damage both in AoE and single-target situations.

One of the bigger problems of Monk is certainly how mana-hungry we are. Using Essence Font too often or not handling Lifecycles properly can really cost us a key if we’re not careful. That being said, Grievous will definitely consume our mana quickly since a lot of our healing ends up as overhealing as a result of topping players off to clear Grievous stacks.




VitaminP: How do you think Mistweaver Monk compares to Restoration Druid in high Mythic+? Do you think this scales any differently the higher keys you do?

Vibezz: I legitimately think that if you can bring a Mistweaver Monk to your group, you are going to be faster. This of course depends on your full group composition as well though, since the difference of having a normal battle res compared to Engineering battle res is quite enormous. In terms of healing output and utility, there are a few dungeons where Restoration Druid is simply better and can go a key level higher than Monk, which would include both Tyrannical Temple of Sethraliss and Tol Dagor. However, there are some keys where I think Mistweaver Monk can push higher than Restoration Druid, such as Kings’ Rest and maybe even Freehold. Overall though, Restoration Druids and Mistweaver Monks appear to be pretty much of equal value in the other dungeons. On Fortified weeks, I like Mistweaver Monk even more, since I can push every dungeon and Monk seems more valuable in keeping the tank alive when he/she is face tanking a pack to keep all the mobs stacked for the DPS players. On lower level dungeons, I would say that the two classes are pretty equal, since you can heal through big pulls either way. However, I would say the Mistweaver strengths are starting to come a little more ahead of the other healing classes in the lower level dungeons for MDI, such as M+14’s and M+15’s.



VitaminP: Are you planning on competing in the upcoming 2019 MDI? If so, are you planning on maining Mistweaver Monk throughout the tournament or do you think you may play other healer classes as well?

Vibezz: I sadly will most likely not be able to compete in MDI this time, but if I could, I think Monk would be a great pick, just with a little bit of different stats. Instead of going for a stat priority Crit/Mastery which you do in higher keys on live servers, you should go for more of an offensive build with a priority of Crit/Haste. I think classes like Holy Paladin and Discipline Priests are going to also be very good picks for MDI.



VitaminP: Why do you think Monk/Paladin/Priest will be the best healers for MDI and why don’t you think Druid will keep up?

Vibezz: It's all about speed in the MDI, which means you need to be able to push some great damage numbers while still being able to keep your group alive during massive pulls. My prediction is that Druid might have more trouble at keeping tanks alive while simultaneously doing high damage and healing during these huge pulls. Furthermore, I think that these three other healing classes will be able to deal more damage and/or provide the group the right environment for them to do the most damage compared to Restoration Druid on the tournament realm.



VitaminP: What are your go-to talent build and Azerite choices for high Mythic+? What variations might you make based on different dungeons/affixes?

Vibezz: Stat Priority for Mythic+: Crit > Mastery > Versatility >>>>>> Haste

My go-to build is:

In Atal Dazar, Freehold, Kings’ Rest, Shrine of the Storm, and The Underrot:
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In Siege of Boralus, Temple of Sethraliss, The MOTHERLODE!!, Tol Dagor, and Waycrest Manor:
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On Bursting weeks, use Diffuse Magic in every Dungeon except Kings’ Rest.

In Temple of Sethraliss:
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Mistweavers can be very versatile with our Azerite traits, but when healing is the main focus, then stacking Uplifted Spirit traits. It’s also good to have Bonded Souls, Blightborne Infusion, Swirling Sands, and one Secret Infusion trait if possible. If you are encountering heavy mana issues, it is worth stacking Azerite pieces with Ephemeral Recovery.

I do swap to more of a DPS-heavy Azerite build on weeks where there is not much group healing required. Having one Secret Infusion, one Sunrise Technique and one Glory of the Dawn is very fun to play with. Misty Peaks is a decent trait too, since its uptime is usually around 20-30% in dungeons which is pretty neat.



VitaminP: What are the most challenging dungeons and affix combinations for a Mistweaver and how do you work around them?

Vibezz: Grievous is probably the most annoying affix to deal with as a Mistweaver Monk, since it already starts applying stacks as soon as someone goes below 90% health. Mistweaver Monk’s bread-and-butter healing spell is Vivify, which usually heals anywhere from 30-80% of somebody's health pool if the target already has both Enveloping Mist and Renewing Mist HoTS on them. This means that most of your healing that you do to top somebody off is going to end up as overhealing, so this is also really mana inefficient just to clear someone’s Grievous stacks. If you pair Grievous with Tyrannical Waycrest Manor on the Heartsbane Triad Boss where the first phase has 50% reduced healing, you will run out of mana in no time. Therefore, having a class like a Balance Druid can really help due to Innervate. DPS classes with high self-sustain or off-healing capability are also really helpful to bring to the group, such as Demon Hunters, Shadow Priests, Elemental Shamans, and Retribution Paladins. Tol Dagor and Temple of Sethraliss are particularly difficult dungeons for us to heal even on Fortified weeks, so Grievous just makes this even more challenging for Mistweaver Monks.

“My best tip for mana management is to really only use Essence Font when you have at least two Renewing Mists on the party and are about to burst heal the group.”

VitaminP: Mistweaver Monk is historically the most challenging healer to play for mana management in the recent expansions. How do you handle this and what advice do you have for aspiring Mistweaver Monks who may be struggling with mana conservation?

Vibezz: My best tip for mana management is to really only use Essence Font when you have at least two Renewing Mists on the party and are about to burst heal the group. The healing in Essence Font itself heals for very little, so being conservative with mana is key. A good example here would be Cragmaw, the second boss in The Underrot. You should use your Thunder Focus Tea with Renewing Mist on the party about 20-25 sec before Tantrum is about to happen. You will get 2 more Renewing Mist before Tantrum, so you can use this to make sure 4 of your party members have Renewing Mist ticking on them before heavy AoE damage starts on the group. You should then Essence Font right before Tantrum starts and hardcast Vivify on different targets. If you do fall behind in healing, use your Revival or call for people’s personal defensives, healing potions, and healthstones. Calling out other people’s defensives is a great way to help with your mana management, since you can then ignore some players during their immunities like Netherwalk, Cloak of Shadows, Bubble, etc.




VitaminP: What is one of the funniest Monk issues you’ve had so far in BFA Mythic+?

Vibezz: As it turns out, Ring of Peace and walls just...don't go well together. Crazy things can happen, as demonstrated in this Freehold clip.



VitaminP: If you could ask Blizzard to grant your class a few reasonable changes, what would you wish for?

Vibezz: I might be asking for too much, but I think it would be cool if every healer had their own kind of Innervate and battle res. It wouldn’t really be a huge change for Monk specifically, but it would help close the gap between Restoration Druids and all other healers, since Druids are the only healer with a battle res. This makes Druid almost a required healer class unless you can run a different battle res class as one of the DPS players. This is very limiting, given that the current tank meta this Mythic+ season is Protection Warrior instead of Blood Death Knight by far, so I think that’s one of the main reasons why such a large population of people are playing Restoration Druids and not much else in high Mythic+.



VitaminP: What advice do you have for aspiring Mistweaver Monks in high Mythic+? Are there any addons/macros/tools you can’t live without?

As long as you are having fun, you will improve, but being able to take criticism is another key element to improving as a player.

I don’t use many macros except for a mouseover cursor macro on my Jade Serpent Statue as well as a cancelaura for Essence Font, which is especially helpful against the Quaking affix.

Jade Serpent Statue macro:


Essence Font Cancelaura macro:


For addons, I recommend Little Wigs for dungeons, since the timers are more precise than Deadly Boss Mods. I use the addon OPie for various things like World Markers and I use the addon Skyline Mythic Tools, to shows important abilities as icons with cooldowns above an enemy target’s head.

As for essential WeakAuras, I use one called Targeted Spells. For the first boss in Freehold, Skycap’n Kragg, I use two different WeakAuras, since I’m the only person responsible for baiting the Dive Bombs and the Vile Bombardment patches in the middle of the ring throughout the majority of the fight. I use one Weakaura to track the timer on the Bird’s charge and one for the Vile Bombardment. Additionally, I use a WeakAura for the third boss in Freehold, Council o’Captains, to track the buffs being thrown on the ground. While Little Wigs now tracks these buffs too, the WeakAura is still better at displaying this information visually.