WoW: Chi-Ji vs Yu'lon - how to use the mist caster cooldowns
The Mistcaster Monk in WoW Shadowlands can summon one of the Celestial Exalted every three minutes. We'll show you how to generate a lot of healing from it and when you'd rather choose Chi-Ji as your talent.
The Mistcaster Monk has long been a flexible healer who can single-handedly heal the raid with his spells like Essenceborn and Invigorate. With his cooldown Invigoration, he can especially shine in emergencies. Other than that, though, he hasn't had any notable cooldowns up his sleeve in past expansions. At the beginning of WoW Shadowlands, the developers gave the Mistcaster the Celestial Exalted Yu'lon.
Every three minutes, the Jade Serpent can generate massive HpS, outstripping the healing of a Serenity or God's Hymn. If you choose the Summon Chi Ji the Red Crane talent, you can even increase this healing. Here's how to use the cooldown correctly and when you should choose Chi-Ji.
Once you summon Yu'lon, the Exalted heals various targets with her Calming Breath for 25 seconds. This heals significantly less than your Calming Mist. In return, Yu'lon heals three players at once with her ability. A nice side effect is that Yu'lon focuses on the ally you're healing with Calming Mist. However, since you rarely use the spell in the raid, this is negligible.
The actual healing comes from the passive ability Enveloping Breath, which is hidden in your spellbook on the last page. When you cast Enveloping Mist on a target, Yu'lon heals up to six players for an extraordinarily large amount over the course of six seconds. They also receive ten percent more healing during that time. However, these players must be within ten meters of your target.
Using Enveloping Breath correctly
To make it worthwhile, your raid must be close together. Just before you take damage, summon Yu'lon and cast Enveloping Mist. First select a ranged fighter, then cast a second Enveloping Mist on a melee fighter. This will ensure that as many players as possible receive Yu'lon's healing. In most cases, you'll be able to heal a few injured allies with Revive.
Or you can use Essenceborn, which provides more healing with the ten percent buff from Shrouding Breath. In some fights, you can also use Yu'lon to cancel out two of your opponent's abilities. You cast Enveloping Mist immediately after the summon. Then the jade snake lasts for 25 seconds, so you can cast some Enveloping Mist again just before the end.
Watch your mana
However, if the raid takes a lot of damage in one hit or you're playing with a large raid group, it's worth casting multiple Enveloping Mists in a row. It's best to ask for Druid's Stimulate. Your spell costs 3,000 mana, so the blue resource can run out quickly. Alternatively, you can use the Manatee talent or the Potion of Anima Sacrifice. With the Potion, the next four abilities cost no mana.
Chi-Ji, the red crane
Source: buffed
You can select this talent in the level 45 talent row, replacing Yu'lon. Chi-Ji also supports you with Enveloping Breath for the next 25 seconds, so you can theoretically do exactly as above. However, the red crane does not channel Calming Breath on your allies. Instead, it generates some healing when you use Blackout Kick, Rising Sun Kick, or Whirling Crane Kick. Healing is not based on damage done, but on your mastery rating. All items and abilities that increase your mastery will therefore also increase Chi-Ji's healing. This includes the Pact abilities of the Necrolords and Kyrians. Secondly, Essenzborn doubles Chi-Ji's healing.
Free Enveloping Mist
For each use of Blackout Kick, Rising Sun Kick, or Whirling Crane Kick, the cost and cast time of the next Enveloping Mist is reduced by one-third. So after three abilities, you can cast Enveloping Mist on the fly at no mana cost. This then triggers Enveloping Breath just like Yu'lon, so you can easily medic the entire raid without having to worry about your mana.
How to play with Chi-Ji
What sounds complicated on paper is actually very simple in practice. Once you've summoned Chi-Ji, follow the rotation below:
- 1st Tiger Claw
- 2nd Tiger Claw
- 3rd Blackout Kick
- 4th Enveloping Mist
Each Tiger Claw grants you a stack of Teachings of the Monastery, so the next Blackout Kick hits an additional time per stack. Along the way, the Blackout Kick deals three damage and therefore triggers Chi-Ji's healing three times. If a teammate is in dire need of healing, you can cast Enveloping Mist with less than three stacks. To get the most healing out of Red Crane, you need to use your abilities as follows. To do this, it's important to know when the raid is taking damage so you can prepare.
This way, you increase the healing generated by Essenzborn and your Pact ability, and immediately have the three stacks together to cast Enveloping Mist for free. Awesome!
The best companion in Nathria Castle
Which Celestial Exalted you choose for each boss depends on many factors. When you first fight a boss, you can choose the following companion and then adjust it to your play style later. If you take Yu'lon, then you basically choose Restorative Jade Wind as your talent. Only when saving the Sun King do you choose Summon Statue of Jade Serpent.
- Shrillwing: Yu'lon
- Hunter Altimor: Chi-Ji
- Sun King Rescue: Yu'lon
- Constructor Xy'mox: Chi-Ji
- Starving Destroyer: Chi-Ji
- Lady Inerva Dunkelader: Yu'lon
- Council of Blood: Chi-Ji
- Silt Fist: Yu'lon
- Generals of the Stone Legion: Chi-Ji
- Count Denathrius: Yu'lon
Chi-Ji versus Yu'lon
So bottom line, Chi-Ji does pretty much the same thing as Yu'lon, only better. However, it's not a good idea to choose Chi-Ji as a talent by default. If you do, you won't have access to the talent Restorative Jade Wind, which is one of your strongest heals in raids. Especially if you don't have the ability to deal damage as a melee fighter, you're giving away your advantage. Whether you choose to use Yu'lon and the talent, Invigorating Jade Wind, or just Chi-Ji, depends on four factors.
1. melee possible?
For the Chi-Ji talent to be worthwhile, you should be able to melee the entire time the crane is active. For example, in the last phase with Count Denathrius, you'll have to move around a lot. At the same time, the party takes a lot of damage. There, it's easier to cast one or two Enveloping Mists with Yu'lon and keep Invigorating Jade Wind active.
2. running out of mana?
The big advantage of Red Crane is that you can cast a lot of Enveloping Mist without mana cost. However, if your mana doesn't run out at all, then you can neglect it. This is especially the case in short fights. So with Shrillwing, you don't have to pay as much attention to your blue resource. Council of Blood and Generals of the Stone Legion, on the other hand, take a long time, so Chi-Ji is worth it.
3. constant damage?
If you want to counter a boss ability, Yu'lon is better. If your party takes a lot of damage over a long period of time, go with Chi-Ji. In the Council of Blood, the party takes damage continuously until the dance event starts. Activate Chi-Ji 25 seconds before this event starts so that your raid survives this damage.
4. good positioning?
You want your teammates to be close to each other, as both Restorative Jade Wind and Enveloping Breath will generate more healing. Unfortunately, this is not possible with some strategies. If your party is spread out, choose Chi Ji to at least benefit from the healing provided by your melee abilities. However, if your party is always close together, you can't beat the talent Refreshing Jade Wind. In that case, it's enough if you only cast Enveloping Mist with Yu'lon sporadically.
Mythic-Plus and Fistweaving
For Mythic-Plus dungeons, always choose Chi-Ji. Restorative Jade Wind is not as strong in dungeons due to the small group size. If you have trouble keeping your tank alive, you can choose Summon Statue of Jade Serpent instead. The fights in the dungeons are much shorter than in the raid. In return, your party will take more damage in a shorter amount of time. Also, if you chose Chi-Ji, you can then just cast several Enveloping Mist in a row for your party to survive it. With Pride Manifestation, on the other hand, you can easily build up the stacks and medicate your party mana-efficiently.
Rising Mist
Especially in Mythic-plus dungeons, the Rising Mist talent is strong. Each kick of the rising sun extends the duration of your HoTs by four seconds. While ChiJi is active, cast Rising Sun Kick as often as possible. It's best to use the Kick immediately after an Enveloping Mist to immediately extend the runtime. Then select the level 15 talent Mist Shroud. This will allow you to keep Enveloping Mist active on the tank permanently.
Ancient Teachings of the Monastery
When playing with the Ancient Teachings of the Monastery Legendary, your offensive abilities generate healing. With Chi-Ji and Rising Mist, you then generate high HpS by using their abilities like Kick of the Rising Sun. The Legendary is also very strong in raids. However, you'll still want to choose Yu'lon for some bosses for the reasons mentioned above. Invigorating Jade Wind is too strong to pass up in some fights!
