5 Monks - levelling

good stuff guys, i really appreciate the hard work and research you guys are putting in, it sure will make my life easier.

KUDOS 2 u guys!!!!

Update at 82. Finished Wrath feeling that the Monk team was still looking good. Historically I had to push teams through most of Icecrown to ding 80 but with the XP changes I finished 80 in the Storm Peaks at the end of the long quest chain(s) “They Took Our Men”. In addition to the Wrath instances mentioned above I did single runs through OK, DTK, Gun and HoS. Final boss at Gun was difficult.

80 Hyjal picked up two plus levels. Oddly fully questing Hyjal does not yield a full set of replacement Cata ilvl gear for either DPS or caster. I kept waiting to fill out my kit before doing any instances but it didn’t happen. I purchased a couple items for healer and then hit BRC and I’ll probably do VP at some point. BRC at 82 was easy enough sans Corla. I messed up and didn’t get agro on the one zealot I let transform. Wipe but second attempt was fine and other bosses were normal. Both tanking and healing seem pretty solid with maybe the tank still feeling a bit squishy. Single target DPS on bosses and AoE on trash continues to work nicely. I do think AoE healing feels a bit weaker now but AoE dps on trash still is fun. After all these levels I’m still a bit iffy on melee healing. Works fine on trash but hard to mix in on a boss so I have healer not DPS on bosses now. But it does work okay on some bosses depending on incoming tank damage. Hard to put my finger on it…squishy tank? Healer GCD?

I did make a short trip to Deepholm right after 82 to say hello to the Verlok Stand troggs. Was getting about 1.2k per kill. Doable but can’t be too aggressive due to tank. I wiped playing around when healer got stunned and was out of AoE range for a second or two. I think I’ll wait to hit 83 and then twink the tank with the MoP ilvl “Silent” gear available at 83. With Enlightenment the Troggs should be a good (but risky) XP grind. It’s harder to use Enlightenment effectively in Cata due to the whole “Questing on Rails” sequential questing you are forced to do in Cata.

Anyway, so far so good. I really like the Monk team thus far. Post vanilla they seem solid with a good balance of single and aoe abilities.

FWIW. Current rotations:

Brew: /castsequence reset=combat Tiger Palm, Keg Smash, Jab, Jab, Blackout Kick, Breath of Fire, Jab, Purifying Brew
Wind: /castsequence reset=combat/target/5 Jab, Tiger Palm, Tiger Palm, Jab, Blackout Kick, Jab, Chi Wave, Jab, Rising Sun Kick
Mist: /castsequence [nochanneling] reset=combat/target Jab, Tiger Palm, Jab, Jab, Blackout Kick, Jab, Jab, Chi Wave

I'll probably take the "target" reset out of Wind due to spec'ing into Power Strikes. I rarely see them stuck now.

Had an interesting bug last night, enlightenment buff was stuck at 0 secs left, but never left my monks until they finished dungeon and zoned. Great 40 minutes of free xp bonus!

That happens, I assumed it was intentional.

Monks are now level 50, took a break and moved over 4 level 85s to grim batol for a change of scenary

Did Verlok Strand for an hour and went from 83-84 with the Enlightenment buff. As mentioned earlier I purchased MoP ilvl “Silent” prefix 83 greens for the tank which pushed him from 60k-ish HP to 100k+ HP at 83. This helped a ton here. Fun group to grind this spot with optionally using Dizzying Haze for adding to pulls. Finished Cata with questing and did a partial VP run. VP trash and first boss were fine but had to quit the instance due to bugged Howling Gales on the bridge that would “turn off” so I couldn’t pass.

At 85 I did the opening MoP quest chain and got my new green MoP weapon and then went to the NPC vendor that sells “Faded Forest” greens and upgraded the team to them. Did a few quests to check them out and things looked good so I headed for TotJS.

In TotJS I started and sadly ended with many wipes on Anger/Strife. This is only the second time here. Prior time was a one-shot attempt using Prot Pally, Holy Priest, and 3x Hunters. That team was also equipped in “Faded Forest” greens and cleared TotJS to final boss which was then a wipe fest. But the Monk team just couldn’t handle Anger/Strike. Brew tank was getting owned, lots of AoE dmg that Mist couldn’t keep up with while spamming heals on the tank etc etc. What had worked so nicely just a level ago in Cata was now fail.

It’s a new encounter so I’ll reserve judgment for now. Need to look at both Brew and Mist a little more to see what I can do to improve in my main rotation and also the special buttons. The Monk team ended Cata strong and VP seemed fine so this scaling change or whatever in MoP with Monks concerns me a bit. My short summary after TotJS would be Brew incoming damage seems high, melee healing doesn’t work then, and regular Mist healing seems weak and OOMs. I think part of the issue here is a Prot Pally’s Faded Forest greens are true tanking gear (tons of dodge/parry) whereas the Faded Forest leather +AGI gear via reforging are probably a lesser tanking set. So without improved gear the plate tanks just get a better starter set which makes them look better. I’ll try to run a group with same healer/DPS comp but with each tank class using Faded Forest tank gear to test this theory (Real Soon Now).

On a positive note the Monk team continues to be an AoE leveling machine. Easily one of the most stress free class comps to level 46-85 once they have Spinning Crane Kick.

Bunk..what kind of DPS are your monks pulling?

What are "MoP ilvl “Silent” prefix 83" items? ... Nevermind, found em :)

So I was informed in my guild chat that my monks are doing subpar dps. Sigh, I hate figuring out new macros. I noticed I occasionally get stuck where jab will not execute. I am moving all my macros to hotkeys in WoW to see if I can fix it. I assume its because I'm doing lazy mans priority system. It's not like I am having trouble completing dungeons, but I sure could be doing them faster. My monks are 70 now and as soon as they hit 80 I might shelve them a bit for some fun in MoP with a team that I know works. I really like being a monk healer though, lots of fun!

I am leveling a 5x monk team as well.

Dan is right in that spamming Healing Mist will cause faster healing, and when your tank is undergeared, that's the only thing keeping him/her up. I was wiping in low level dungeons until I figured this out.

Monks feel rather squishy in general, but I am way way way under geared. So I went with 1 tank 3x DPS mostly to guide damage onto one character and also to prioritize drops to the tank.

My concern at higher levels is the amount of micro-management that may be necessary. Still, it has been fun so far and it's always nice trying to figure out new mechanics for a class. Problem is I will have to take a hiatus at 80 as I am in RAF and don't want to waste it leveling to 90 :/

I shelved my monks at 80, I can see their shortcomings already. Just not sure about their boxing prowess. I'm now leveling my rets to 90.