Filed under: Monk

So the release date's been officially announced, and you've decided you want to roll a monk. Good for you! Now, though, you've got more than 100 million experience points to get through between 1 and 90. Ouch. Here are some ideas for things you'll want to have saved for your new character, whether you're gunning for the realm-first level 90 monk or just want a stress-free experience.

Gear mastery

First up, getting some heirloom items is the obvious starting point. Each heirloom armor piece will give you an XP bonus, and heirloom weapons contribute significantly to your damage output, which gets you through things faster. You've got two choices, agility leather for aspiring brewmasters and windwalkers or intellect leather for potential mistweavers. As it stands now, though, I'd highly recommend sticking with agility leather, at least for leveling purposes, because the offensive spell selection for mistweavers is limited and isn't available until late.

Interested in trying out the new monk class, but can't tell your Tiger Strikes from your Tiger Palms? Written by Chase Hasbrouck of World of Monkcraft, WoW Insider's new monk coverage will get you kicking in no time!

We've covered windwalkers and brewmasters; now we get to mistweavers. One caveat, though: Because this is still beta, things will likely change somewhat between now and live. We'll have a full 101 guide that covers things like enchants, gems, and stats when Mists is released, but this will cover you until then. This goes double for mistweavers, since Ghostcrawler has already acknowledged that their healing is currently too high.

What is a mistweaver monk? Monks have three role options: damage, tanking, and healing, of which mistweaver is the healing role.

How do mistweaver monks work? Mistweaver monks have two primary resources, mana and chi. Mana works similarly to all other mana-based classes; it regenerates at a constant rate, regenerates at half that rate in combat, and powers the majority of your healing abilities. Somewhat similar to holy paladin mechanics, however, is the addition of chi, which is generated by several different abilities. Chi can stack up to 4 (5 if talented) and powers some of the spec's stronger abilities and damage potential.

Damage potential? What is this "melee healer" thing? While it's still heavily being tweaked, mistweavers have several passive abilities that allow them to convert damage into healing. The most important of these is Eminence, which converts 50% of the monk's special ability damage into healing a nearby ally with the lowest health. Eminence can currently be stacked twice if a Jade Serpent Statue is dropped, which provides enough healing for encounters with light damage.

The rotations are pretty simple: Use Jab, Expel Harm, or one of your heals to generate chi, then spend it via Tiger Palm or Blackout Kick to get the Eminence healing. If you're fighting a large pack, use Spinning Crane Kick, which heals based on AoE damage. If things get tough, though, you'll want to switch to full-time healing. As it currently stands, DPS healing isn't required, but it provides a small additional boost to overall raid damage and raid healing -- and it's also pretty fun, too.