The Brewmaster Tanking Guide [5.4]

[NeitherDoI]

Something to be mentioned for that fight. When you use SCK you don't generate EB. Remember to stop your AOE rotation now and then to allow some better avoidance during those heavy damage moments. EB, statue's guard and our AoE dps make the monk one of the better suited tank for this encounter. The only exception to this is the prot war insane single target dps on the boss.

[Deix-EU]

Something to be mentioned for that fight. When you use SCK you don't generate EB. Remember to stop your AOE rotation now and then to allow some better avoidance during those heavy damage moments. EB, statue's guard and our AoE dps make the monk one of the better suited tank for this encounter. The only exception to this is the prot war insane single target dps on the boss.

Agree, the last Shek'zeer fight, I took really nothing with my high crit build and EB spamming while alternating "AoE" rotation (SCK) and "single" rotation (Jab). Fact is, IF you don't dodge (which happened), it makes the monk one of the shitty tank for this encounter .
Under good condition, Monk is the best Tank.

And god invented the 12% stagger after each EB ...

[Trendy-Ideology]

Something to be mentioned for that fight. When you use SCK you don't generate EB. Remember to stop your AOE rotation now and then to allow some better avoidance during those heavy damage moments. EB, statue's guard and our AoE dps make the monk one of the better suited tank for this encounter. The only exception to this is the prot war insane single target dps on the boss.

Not sure what parallel universe your tanks are from but I've never seen prot warriors do impressive dps at all, at any point, this entire tier... Though surprisingly, they do manage to keep agro off me on 2 tank fights better than any of our other tanks. They do sorta-same-ballpark dps once in a great while on two tank fights with relatively equal uptime on the boss, but I've yet to be surpassed even when I was significantly less geared. Those are just my anecdotal observations though, but I think raidbots has monks higher than pretty much all tanks on all bosses, don't they?

[Archdrood]

yeah, i thought so. i was just really pissed.
"monk is so squishy...lets go with a DK instead...and btw we change to 3 healer...." *bitches*

but still, some tips for that fight?
what i did was Keg Smash, Wind, Jab, Palm, Crane, Guard and then Smash on CD with BoK or Wind for that Shuffle Buff. But my Stagger is mostly instant red all the time and i cannot clear it as fast as i want to because i think shuffle uptime is more important. am i wrong? we kill the first 3 adds pretty fast so i pop my CDs when there are 6 adds on my.

The first 2 kills we didn't have a priest and it was extremely difficult to kill him and yes as a BrM I was getting smashed on HM. Last week we brought in a DPriest and 1 shot him bc all the priest was doing was rolling mass dispell on the boss/mobs and it became a joke. He did 82 dispells during the fight. So that's all I can recommend.

[Kisho]

I want a disc priest in my raids... =/ We semi-pugged one recently (friend of the guild) and it was glorious, really helped us get the kill on heroic blade lord. Those shields were wonderful.

Alas, it is not to be.

[Asmalya]

I want a disc priest in my raids... =/ We semi-pugged one recently (friend of the guild) and it was glorious, really helped us get the kill on heroic blade lord. Those shields were wonderful.

Alas, it is not to be.

I love my disc.
There are many discs out there but this is mine!

[Kisho]

So we killed Wind Lord Heroic today (woo); as such, just wanted to highlight one very useful tip I picked up from this thread:

Something to be mentioned for that fight. When you use SCK you don't generate EB. Remember to stop your AOE rotation now and then to allow some better avoidance during those heavy damage moments.

This made such a difference. That extra avoidance helped a lot with minimising damage taken, the difference was really noticeable. Thanks for that!

[NeitherDoI]

Thanks for that!

You're welcome, and gratz !

Those are just my anecdotal observations though, but I think raidbots has monks higher than pretty much all tanks on all bosses, don't they?

In a AoE situation, a prot warrior can more effectively dps one particular target than a BM monk :
Because a portion of our "single target" dps is done by Keg Smash and Swift Reflexes and those spells deal less damage to that single target in a AoE situation (dmg per target diminishing after the 5th for KS, and SR 1 sec CD).
SCK preventing you from doing melee adds to that, even if you don't spam the ability.
Expel Harm is not targettable.
Whereas a Warrior has unlimited Revenge spamming during AoE tanking, generating tremendous amount of rage and being able to deal maximum damage to a focused target.

In short, AoE is (a little) detrimential to a BM monk focus single target dps (not speaking about the obvious vengeance gain), while it empowers a prot warrior's one.

[Yorgl]

I always felt that SCK not generating EB was really not logical. :-/ I know it gives a shitton of GotO but still...
Wouldn't be worth asking for the developer to modify that, if someone has access to the US class threads ? (We poor european are virtually mute><)

[siccora]

SCK generating EB would be OP imo. But wtf, i would love it :F

[Kisho]

I always felt that SCK not generating EB was really not logical. :-/ I know it gives a shitton of GotO but still...
Wouldn't be worth asking for the developer to modify that, if someone has access to the US class threads ? (We poor european are virtually mute><)

They may not post as often, but I promise you that they do read the EU forums as well. Posting there will get the feedback taken to the devs (assuming it's constructive, civil, rational, etc. etc. blahblahblah).

Alternatively, send a tweet to GC. He seems to reply a lot on there.

[Yorgl]

While I was DK, I made a suggestion thread that was very well put, with details and readable, etc... The thing got very popular (through thumbs up) and we NEVER got and blue answer, and I'm pretty sure it never got transmitted to the US teams eventhough the sole popularity made it worth imho.
Non really, french CMs (at least) are basically trad-bots.


I'll try a tweet yeah

[Kisho]

They read hundreds of threads on a daily basis. They can't possibly reply to them all, but they can (and do) read them, compile the feedback, then pass it on to the devs.

No reply simply means they had no details to provide about the issue, whatever it was. But they did read it. Also, popularity doesn't necessarily mean it was a change that would've been good for the game, or possible to implement, or any other reason why it may not have been acted upon.

I mean, those CMs that post a lot on the EU forums... a significant part of their job is passing feedback on to the devs. Besides, just scroll through the blue tracker (http://blue.mmo-champion.com/): the amount of blue posts looks to be about 50/50 to me, US and EU.

[Deleted]

I always felt that SCK not generating EB was really not logical

I like it that way. Other tank classes have to make a choice : trade some survival for some dps (Heart Strike/Blood Boil, Heroic Strike, Maul). I want Brewmasters to also have to consider that using Spinning Crane Kick will increase their dps a lot, but will make them loose avoidance, even though it will generate a lot of healing spheres.
Same thing with Breath of Fire. It should remain a daring move after which you risk to loose Shuffle, i prefer it that way, not some spell easy to use and too common.

[Asmalya]

I like it that way. Other tank classes have to make a choice : trade some survival for some dps (Heart Strike/Blood Boil, Heroic Strike, Maul). I want Brewmasters to also have to consider that using Spinning Crane Kick will increase their dps a lot, but will make them loose avoidance, even though it will generate a lot of healing spheres.
Same thing with Breath of Fire. It should remain a daring move after which you risk to loose Shuffle, i prefer it that way, not some spell easy to use and too common.

Were is the surv trade in HS or BB for a DK? (lets ignore that bb can be even better for single target and can be free as proc)
Heroic Strike has many chances to procc free anyway.
No clue about Druids.

But I agree. While its annoying, SCK is pretty strong and easy aoe. I dont think think it needs to generate EB stacks

[Deleted]

Were is the surv trade in HS or BB for a DK?

You can spend your Death Runes on it.

[Kisho]

I can see it going either way, really. Either SCK made to generate EB stacks at the same rate as single target would (or allowing us to auto attack through SCK, thus generating EB stacks that way), or it kept as is to force us to choose.

That said, once we're in 5.2 and in our 4 piece set bonuses, we'll be reforging out of haste anyway. Less haste = less energy = less SCKs = more time to auto attack, so maybe it'll fix itself.

[Asmalya]

You can spend your Death Runes on it.

Right...i did a brainfart misread and thought you meant between HS and BB and thought "they both cost a blood rune and over no surv at all!"
My bad

[Peng]

I wasn't, but if you want to see what I am talking about.... here is a log of Me versus Sunnier on Heroic Elegon.

http://raidbots.com/comparebot/50f33...200055d#damage

How managed Sunnier to completely avoid damage from Radiating Energies?

[Gallahadd]

Does anyone else think now is a great time to add a "Muscle Memory" passive for brewmasters, since WW already had one and this patch adds one for Mistweavers

Muscle Memory - Brewmaster: Whenever you jab, Keg Smash or hit more than 3 targets with your spinning crake kick, you have an X% chance (thinking around 30) to make your next Breath of Fire free and set the target alight, regardless of Dizzying Haze.