MW Changes in 7.2.5


I generally understand why EF now has a CD and the Vivify buff is nice, but these changes do nothing to address the actual issues with MW.There are a few underlying issues with MW as the class pertains to raiding:Our artifact ability is terrible because it has such a large cast time. In a raid setting it only adds to overheal, or you need to use it at low stacks, in which case you aren't really gaining much value from the new traits besides a small ST no-mana heal.Mana costs. Everyone understands this. Because there is some magic dreamland where we can DPS and heal, blizz has cursed us with absurdly high mana costs on our best healing spells (EF and Vivify.) In reality, it's not reasonable to fistweave because of all the changes to the spec, so the high mana costs on our best throughput spells are crippling to MW. The new EF helps this a little, but in reality our mana issues derive from that fact that Effuse, our "efficient" healing spell, is weak so we never actually use it.Effuse. I LOVE the idea behind the new traits. Coupled with the Elisande trinket, it really makes a lot of sense, and on the surface seems pretty awesome. Unfortunately, in practice its trash. Effuse still sucks. Even if you stack mastery (which you shouldn't,) Effuse is a bad healing spell. It's relatively expensive compared to it's heal - to the point where Gusts of Mists ends up healing for more than the spell even if you have low mastery, and ends up being the only reason you would cast it - and the cast time is a little long for what it actually outputs compared to other healers (Flash of Light, Healing Surge, etc.)I honestly feel like there are only a couple changes that would help to make MW a viable healer in progression content, and they would be the following:Keep the current PTR EF changes, but allow movement during EF baseline. A channeled cast with a CD on our best throughput heal is pretty weak if the channel is interrupted by having to move, taking damage, etc.Let Mastery bonus apply to all allies healed by Vivify. This seems pretty obvious and many people on the blizz forums have suggested this change. It also makes sense with the 7.2 changes to the Legendary boots (although it may make them too strong comparitively, especially since most of the MW legendaries are pretty weak.)Decrease cast time of Effuse by 20% (1.25 second cast time.) This would allow you to actually use Effuse to heal a few targets under the benefit of the EF buff, and makes sense as it applies to the new artifact traits. While paired with the new traits and Mana Tea, this makes Effuse a spell you may actually cast.Decrease cast time of Sheilun's Gift by 25% (1.5 second cast time.) It's already a little crazy that this is our best ST heal but is dependent on stacks. Yes, the new traits let us build these stacks by casting Effuse, but as previously mentioned, Effuse is pretty weak. I've also seen some other ideas about tweaking this spell to either be a an instant cast HoT, or to reduce it's cast time per stack. There is some leeway here in terms of tweaking this, but I think a flat cast time reduction makes the most sense.I'd rather see these small changes implemented as opposed to Blizz trying to rework the spec in general which seems like what they are trying to do on the PTR with the Essence Font changes. I love playing this class but would like some small tweaks and I think these would help MW without drastically changing how the spec should play.