On today’s installment of How to Train your Celestial, we will be talking all about Invoke Yu'lon, the Jade Serpent and Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane. We will hit on what each Celestial does, any fun interactions they have with our kit, how to pick the right one, what to do during each one, and how to decide which one is stronger.

What can my Celestial do?

Invoke Yu'lon, the Jade Serpent and Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane both share a passive called Celestial Harmony. This ability places a HoT on 6 different people within 10 yards of your Enveloping Mist target while your Celestial is alive (one of these 6 HoTs will always go on the person you casted Enveloping Mist on). This HoT is decently hard hitting, and also has a buff that increases all healing done to the target by 10%. This usually contributes a large part of your Celestial’s healing in raid, but due to the HoT having a short range, it doesn’t find much use in Mythic+ unless your group is stacked.

Invoke Yu'lon, the Jade Serpent has its own special ability called Soothing Breath, which is just 3 half-power Soothing Mist that channel from Yu’lon herself; you don’t need to cast Soothing Mist for her to cast it. You have the ability to direct who she is casting Soothing Mist on the same way you would with Summon Jade Serpent Statue. This has very niche use cases and can generally be ignored.

Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane also has its own special ability which converts certain damaging spells into healing through Gust of Mists. Additionally, it grants you a buff which reduces the cast time and mana cost of Enveloping Mist by 33% each — this can stack up to 3 times, making it instant cast and cost no mana. The damaging abilities that Chi-Ji can convert to healing are Blackout Kick, Rising Sun Kick, and Spinning Crane Kick. It also indirectly converts Tiger Palm into healing through Teachings of the Monastery when you use Blackout Kick. Each time you use one of these abilities, it will proc 2 Gust of Mists heals that will randomly target injured players within 40 yards; this will no longer prioritize the closest ally. These Gust of Mists scale off of Intellect, Mastery and Versatility, and can also Crit, while also working with any Gust of Mists duplication powers such as Essence Font and Bonedust Brew. Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane also will passively attack the boss for a decent amount of damage, as well as rendering you immune to movement impairing effects.

How does my Celestial interact with my kit?

There are only a few interactions with other spells/talents to mention here.

• Mist Wrap extends Celestial Harmony by 1 second, but doesn’t increase the healing buff.
• Rising Mist does NOT interact with Celestial Harmony
• Fallen Order‘s Enveloping Mists do not proc Celestial Harmony
• Casting Soothing Mist focuses one of Yu’lon’s Soothing Breath on that target.
• Teachings of the Monastery Blackout Kicks do produce Gust of Mists healing events
• Essence Font and Bonedust Brew duplicate Chi-Ji’s Gust of Mists
• Weapons of Order increases Mastery, thus increasing Gust of Mists healing
• Jade Bond doesn’t increase Celestial Harmony
• Chi-Ji’s Gust of Mists does work with Jade Bond’s reduction
• Resplendent Mist does work with Chi-Ji’s Gust of Mists

How do I know when to pick each Celestial?

Picking the right Celestial depends on a few factors, such as  “Can I be in melee?” and “Do I care about mana?”.

The first is fairly obvious, as in, if you can’t (or don’t like to) be in melee, then Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane will be pointless, as you have to proactively hit melee dps buttons to use him correctly. So if you can’t be in melee, then don’t take Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane.

The latter isn’t as obvious, but is extremely important, as your aim during a Celestial cooldown is to cast a good amount of Enveloping Mists which costs a sizable portion of your mana. This mana cost can be virtually dropped to 0 if you use Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane as his buff through using damaging spells will reduce the cost of Enveloping Mist massively, while also replacing other expensive casts with low mana/free dps casts. There are things you can do to lower the mana usage during Invoke Yu'lon, the Jade Serpent such as using Mana Tea, calling for Innervate, or using Potion of Sacrificial Anima.

How to play with each Celestial?

One core concept about Celestials is to cast it right before damage hits, as the button press to summon them does absolutely nothing. You also need to decide how far ahead/what you should do beforehand, which changes based on which Celestial you have selected.

Celestial Harmony

The fundamentals of what to do during a Celestial remains the same either way: cast Enveloping Mist to proc Celestial Harmony. However, the way you accomplish this is different for both of them. Another core concept is to hard-cast Enveloping Mist during this window, as hard-casting is always faster than Soothing Mist -> Enveloping Mist. Now, for the most important Enveloping Mist casting rules, these require on-the-fly brainpower, as you can’t just reference frames for an answer.

• There should be at least 2 people within 10 yards of your Enveloping Mist target
• These people don’t have Celestial Harmony on them
• There is (or is about to be) damage to heal

If one of these conditions is not met, do not cast Enveloping Mist, and play as you normally would.

Invoke Yu'lon, the Jade Serpent

With Yu’lon, you will want to cast it about 2 GCDs before damage hits, and then precast an Enveloping Mist so it finishes as damage hits. From here on out, you will just run through the normal healing rotation while replacing Essence Font casts with Enveloping Mist if they meet the cast requirements.

Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane

With Chi-Ji you have some pre-planning happening here, since he does convert Teachings of the Monastery Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane and his Gust of Mists are duplicated by Essence Font‘s HoT. This means you’ll want to enter Chi-Ji with a fully stacked Teachings of the Monastery and a fresh set of Essence Font HoTs out — this does mean cast Essence Font BEFORE damage. Your rotation will look something like this:
Tiger Palm x3 -> Essence Font -> Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane -> Blackout Kick -> Enveloping Mist
After this, you should try to get 3 stacks of Chi-Ji’s buff before casting Enveloping Mist, but if you need more healing, you should consider casting with lower stacks. The way you should get stacks follows a priority list of dps buttons that changes based on the situation:

Max mana savings/burst

1. Rising Sun Kick
2. Tiger Palm (if Rising Sun Kick isn’t up and you have 0 stacks, you should Tiger Palm twice here)
3. Blackout Kick

Constant healing

1. Rising Sun Kick
2. Blackout Kick
3. Spinning Crane Kick

Note: These do the same hps, the only difference is how the hps comes out.

Which one is Stronger?

There is no black-and-white “strongest one”, as each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

So, depending on your situation and values, the better pick varies.