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Gaming Illustrated has posted a new preview of the monk class in Mists of Pandaria, the upcoming fourth expansion for Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft. Features of Mists of Pandaria will include the introduction of the Pandaren as a playable race, the new martial arts focused Monk class, a level cap increase to 90, and a range of new content to explore.

Of the three specs, mistweaver intrigues me the most. Blizzard has experimented with indirect healing before, such as vanilla shadow priests and the atonement talent added in Cataclysm. However, disregarding the rare fight such as Vor’sahj, such experiments lacked the viability of the other more direct approaches to healing. While of course the raw numbers are not finalized yet, the mistweaver appears to finally take the indirect healing concept beyond novelty. First of all, all of the monk attacks give indirect healing while playing a mistweaver, allowing players familiar with the windwalker skill rotation to make an easier transition to healing. Still, the mistweaver still needs to cast direct heals as the situation warrants. The bread-and-butter heal, soothing mists, is a channeled skill that heals a single target over time, with the relatively low mana cost deducted each second spent channeling. The emergency big heal, surging mists, synergizes with soothing mist by becoming an instant cast spell when used while you channel soothing mist. The salient challenge facing future mistweavers lies in the decision of when to switch from indirect to direct healing and will separate the good players from the great.

Gaming Illustrated: Mists Of Pandaria Monk Preview

Blizzard Entertainment

World Of Warcraft: Mists Of Pandaria

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