The Brewmaster Tanking Guide [5.4]

[Deleted]

Hoy!
I play a brm tank in our alt runs and the healers says that im taking dmg spikes sometimes, which I in fact does but im not entire sure about if its just regular healing bitching or that I take alot more dmg then other tanks.
So if anyone want to give me a few pointers it'll be awesome.
The reason for my low shuffle uptime on some of the fights is that I cant really dps when our paladin taunts of from me as i'll outhreat him.
So im thinking about going for some stamina, but idk if its worth it

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...%A4ft/advanced
http://worldoflogs.com/reports/hcsaqlr5496vg2fp/

[Kisho]

Hoy!
I play a brm tank in our alt runs and the healers says that im taking dmg spikes sometimes, which I in fact does but im not entire sure about if its just regular healing bitching or that I take alot more dmg then other tanks.
So if anyone want to give me a few pointers it'll be awesome.
The reason for my low shuffle uptime on some of the fights is that I cant really dps when our paladin taunts of from me as i'll outhreat him.
So im thinking about going for some stamina, but idk if its worth it

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...%A4ft/advanced
http://worldoflogs.com/reports/hcsaqlr5496vg2fp/

You say that Shuffle uptime is low on some fights because of tank swaps and not wanting to pull aggro back, but I'm checking fights without tank swaps (Will of the Emperor, Garalon, Wind Lord Mel'jerak, etc.) and I'm still seeing relatively low Shuffle uptimes. On Mel'jerak it's especially bad: It's a 42.4% uptime.

That's the primary source of your damage spikes, I'd wager. And besides, if you're worried about aggro then make a /cancelaura Vengeance macro and that should solve your problem.

You're also not using all of your active mitigation in general. You gain more stacks of EB than duration of the dodge buff in seconds, you only used Guard 8 times in a 7:30 fight (where you could've used it 13-15 times), etc.

Ah, found the problem. You're using Chi Wave too much. Cut back on the use of that and get more Shuffle uptime, you should find you have happier healers.

[Archknight]

(Sorry for the lack of an actual link)

I've been checking out the items introduced in the latest PTR build and I couldn't contain myself to ask what are your thoughts on Talisman of Bloodlust?

Is the haste given by it (7690 (N)/8680 (H)) significant enough to make a priority shift in gearing?

I know this is still a bit early to talk about it, since I believe nobody tested how long it takes to actually get all 5 procs and if it's possible to keep all 5 at a constant rate, but I would like to hear your first thoughts on it.

This might not include people who just go for a full haste build.

Apologies if I posted where I shouldn't.

[Chuupag]

Probably, but to be really sur it would be worth checking with Venyasure/Moryiar's spreadsheet and try DS/DS, WS/DS and Col/DS. Can't do it now but i will tomorrow if the answer is still needed.
(But I'd be surprised if Ds/DS didn't win ^^)

DS/DS has been best since they fixed the double proc thing. Only reason you should go DS/WS is if you can't afford the chant. It's pretty simple really; which would you rather have? 1650 Agility or 1500 Haste/Crit/Mastery.

[Radio]

Hoy!
I play a brm tank in our alt runs and the healers says that im taking dmg spikes sometimes, which I in fact does but im not entire sure about if its just regular healing bitching or that I take alot more dmg then other tanks.
So if anyone want to give me a few pointers it'll be awesome.
The reason for my low shuffle uptime on some of the fights is that I cant really dps when our paladin taunts of from me as i'll outhreat him.
So im thinking about going for some stamina, but idk if its worth it

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...%A4ft/advanced
http://worldoflogs.com/reports/hcsaqlr5496vg2fp/

(Might reiterate some points made by Kisho)

General rules noticeable across your logs:

- You seem to use Chi Wave a lot even on fights where you seem to be doing most of the tanking, now, if this wasn't cutting into your shuffle time it's fine, but your shuffle uptimes are relatively insufficient on non tank swap encounters.
- Fix up your hit rating
- Personal opinion: move down to 7.5% expertise and pour it into haste and/or crit, will improve elusive brew uptimes and should improve your chi flow.
- You could try purifying more often (as soon as you hit yellow, not sure how you're doing it) but it may be hard with your current level of haste.


Some fights I looked at in particular:

Will of the Emperor:
Took 1 Devastating Arc. Didn't check whether you were or not, but it's good to save defensive cooldowns for titan gas. Now, I notice you re-applied shuffle (which means you dropped it) 16 times in this fight, now, it's fine you're doing this during the dances, as long as it's back up for when the dance ends, but just a note in case you are losing it during melee phases.

Blade Lord:
You are taking wayyyy more damage from the boss than your pally tank. Your shuffle uptime looks good... elusive brew looks underutilised but that can be caused by phase 2... the only thing I can directly see which would affect your damage taken is timing guard for overwhelming assault, cause it seems that you are being railed by it. Last night working on Blade lord on heroic I was taking next to no damage from assault cause I was guarding the entire thing nearly every time, occasionally I would literally take 0 damage from it.

Wind Lord:
You're clearly prioritising breath of fire over keeping up shuffle, and when you're doing almost all of the tanking in that fight it will be very noticeable on your damage taken.

Empress:
Shuffle uptime seems reallllly low here, even with tank swaps and without using a /cancelaura on vengeance I tend to keep shuffle up for the entire fight. This is a big fight for tank survivability so shuffle is important here.

[Glurp]

Trying to get into Brewmaster Tanking but it all seems a bit confusing at first glance. It says Hit > Exp > Agi > Haste is our general stat priority but the Brewmaster in my guild stacks all out haste gems, why would this be?

From what I've read it seems that Shuffle Uptime is fairly important. I would assume this would mean there is somewhat a basic rotation of Keg Smash/Jab > Blackout Kick and using Purify/Guard when required. Where does Breath of Fire fit in? Is it purely a DPS ability to spend extra Chi on when Shuffle isn't at risk of dropping?

Any pointers appreciated.

[The Madgod]

Trying to get into Brewmaster Tanking but it all seems a bit confusing at first glance. It says Hit > Exp > Agi > Haste is our general stat priority but the Brewmaster in my guild stacks all out haste gems, why would this be?

From what I've read it seems that Shuffle Uptime is fairly important. I would assume this would mean there is somewhat a basic rotation of Keg Smash/Jab > Blackout Kick and using Purify/Guard when required. Where does Breath of Fire fit in? Is it purely a DPS ability to spend extra Chi on when Shuffle isn't at risk of dropping?

Any pointers appreciated.

Check my gemming section, it'll tell you why. Short version: secondary stat gems have twice the "budget" as primary stat gems.

And BoF is purely DPS, yes.

[Deleted]

Hi there,

i hope someone could give me a advice for the shek'zer heroic fight. Since we have no block tank in our 10 man raid (Blood DK + me) I take up the 6 little adds while the DK takes the two big ones. That is how we do it :

I start up stunnig 3 of the 6 adds so that the have a different CD on their sonic blade abbility. Then i start up kiting them untile one or two adds are in fixate mode. Then I stop, rotate CD's with the healers and basically pray ... Sometimes they just oneshot me in a second between 2 CD's and sometimes it works out but it is always very close ...

I wonder if yome of you guys have expierience tanking those adds as a brm and could help me out here. My ideas so far : Reforge on mastery/stam ? Kite them the whole time (--> much less dmg on the adds) ?

Thank you !

Imbanane

[Kisho]

That's definitely one of the fights where higher stamina is helpful. I've only done it on normal, but I usually have to switch to a higher stamina set up for that fight anyway, and I seem to remember Gynshon saying he does the same on heroic.

I also seem to remember him saying kiting isn't a valid strategy, but I can't remember why. I'm not being very helpful here!

So yeah: all I can suggest is use a couple of stamina trinkets, get more stamina if you can elsewhere, and be super watchful of your active mitigation/HP. I'd also question whether splitting the adds up, 6 windblades on 1 tank and 2 reavers on the other tank is the most optimal method... Surely it would be best to keep it split evenly, 4 on each (basically as they come from each side)?

That's how we do it on normal, anyway. I see no reason to split them up on heroic either: no extra abilities, just bigger numbers. No point in complicating matters by having both tanks have to pick up adds from both sides, rather than have each tank only need to worry about one side.

But y'know, my inexperience may be showing here! :P

[siccora]

A good one is, to be the active tank on the boss before phase 2 starts. u have a higher guard value up. the ae stun isn't good, the adds will reset their attacktimer so in the worst case, they will hit you at the same time.

[Deleted]

Thx so far for the input.

@ siccora:
I am the active tank before phase 2 starts and I try to go in with shuffle >1 minute. I only stun 3 of them. This way I can make certain that their sonic blade time is different.

@Kisho:
I will devinitely try out stam and mastery gear next time. Btw. the adds are splitted that way because if the reavers get the buff from the little ones the deal enormous amounts of dmg ... you would basically have to rotate CD's on both tanks. reavers without adds already deal quite significant dmg. We tried once that the DK tank took 2 Reavers and 1 add but that even made it worse because he required much more healing and I died even faster.

[Deleted]

Holy damn. List of new trinkets in 5.2 is massive. Luxury of having tons of options as monk tanks yay!

Bad Juju
Delicate Vial of the Sanguinaire
Fortitude of the Zandalari
Ji-Kun's Rising Winds
Renataki's Soul Charm
Rune of Re-Origination
Soul Barrier
Talisman of Bloodlust

Steadfast Talisman of the Shado-Pan Assault
Vicious Talisman of the Shado-Pan Assault

The last 2 are VP items and can already be aquired at friendly. There may be trash drops amongst first 8 though, so not sure if they have heroic/lfr version in-game (they are datamined but then again we've seen impossible heroic/lfr loot datamined before).
If Talisman of Bloodlust has 100% up-time it could be nice and all the haste we need just from this 1 trinket. Rune of Re-Origination seems odd, not sure what to think of it yet. Wondering if/how the proc from Ji-Kun's Rising Winds will scale, could be nice in combination with new zen sphere. Them voodoo gnomes hopefully scale with vengeance too. ^^

[gynshon]

Rune of Re-Origination and Talisman of Bloodlust seem to be the clear winners from where I sit. Passive agility, with procs that increase times of active mitigation(Rune), and hopefully higher Haste values consistently.

[SurrealNight]

Rune of Re-Origination and Talisman of Bloodlust seem to be the clear winners from where I sit. Passive agility, with procs that increase times of active mitigation(Rune), and hopefully higher Haste values consistently.

Here is what I'd get out of the Re-Origination looking at my stats from armory
Haste: 6584
Crit: 5355 (Why can't raid buff give 5% worth of rating!)
Mastery: 2544(+3000 raid buff)

So I'd get 1229 Crit and 1040 Mastery. I suppose you could do things like purposely adding more Haste so the proc gives you more of the other two and stuff like that. Any datamining show what the proc uptime will most likely be?

[Kisho]

Rune of re-origination scares me somewhat. Losing all your mastery, oh well whatever... but losing all your crit or haste?

1. No crit: no EB procs.
2. No haste: slooooooow energy regen, which could come at a time when we REALLY need some Chi.

And what do we gain? Either a ton of haste to give us Chi we probably won't need, or a ton of crit to give us too many EB procs, more than we can use potentially.

That's what that trinket says to me. I'd rather give that trinket to someone else and take something like... Renataki's, perhaps. Although I guess the thing with Rune of Re-origination is the passive agility...

I dunno. I'd like to see the Rune in action first. Just seems potentially problematic, is all.

[Deleted]

The problem with the rune imo seems that we will lose all our haste with t15 gear, which will kind of suck; there's a reason we stack a reasonable amount. On top of that we don't seem to actually gain stats if I'm reading correctly: we'll just have some mastery shift to crit. Let's say we got 3k crit on gear we can't reforge out of, AND it also converts the mastery raid buff for a total of 6k crit. Yeah that's terror in the mist lfr version, except that version doesn't take away our mastery; let alone if you'd compare it to a t15 trinket. Terror in the mist 522 ilvl would be worth almost 9k crit.

[Vasilisa]

Hello there,

Today we started our progress on wind lord hc. With warrior tank (Samesh) at the start then I took over due to dmg I'm doing. Then at the end of the raid we tried with 2 tanks. Generally (Im mainly talking about our tries with me tanking alone) the problem appears at ~37% when he calls reinforcements. Could you guys look at our logs and perhaps suggest what I could improve? or other people from my team if you had time to look at them as well Many thanks.

Here is the log link: http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/68qxaxqlizqxginh/

Quite obiously my character is Beatrixe

[SurrealNight]

Rune of re-origination scares me somewhat. Losing all your mastery, oh well whatever... but losing all your crit or haste?

Maybe I'm reading the tooltip wrong but how are you saying it causes you to lose all your crit or haste? In my example since Haste is highest it will bump up my crit and mastery rating to 6584. The resulting gain in rating isn't all that much but if you start getting some big discrepancies between the 3 stats it could boost the other two by quite a bit.

[Zonex]

I dont think you understand how rune works;

You have:
4k haste
3k mastery
7k crit

Rune procs:
0 haste
0 mastery
14k crit

if it works the opther way around, it's a godly OP ability, but that seems quite farfetched

[SurrealNight]

Today we started our progress on wind lord hc.

Here is the log link: http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/68qxaxqlizqxginh/

Your shuffle uptime could be a bit better (maybe need more haste?) and you really don't seem to be using your CD's as much as you can. The hardest hitting part of the fight is the pull and each time the reinforcements respawn. I usually make sure I have Fort Brew up for those stages and call for a good external, mostly use DH near CD and around Whirling Blades to keep damage smooth from the adds.

Clearing stagger is a tricky part of the fight you will probably have to accept being at moderate/heavy stagger more than normal unless you have a ton of haste to fuel your Chi. I've sort of gotten in a rythm of using KS and SCK to fuel Stagger+Guard and use the Chi from EH to PB (so about 4x a minute) since the EH will heal the stagger tick anyways and then gets cleared.

If your two tanking it you can probably afford to use SKC a lot more it was my most damaging ability with Keg Smash coming in close 2nd. This will result in a lot less EB stacks but a huge amount of GotO orbs to feed yourself health endlessly. Also I use Xuen instead of RJW, my last kill he did 35mil damage and my total DPS ended up at 570k.

This is all 25m HC but I think the advise would be the same either way.