The Brewmaster Tanking Guide [5.4]

[Deleted]

got a question for brewmaster. is it mandatory to keep side stepping to collect healing orbs?

cause i kinda feel like its pretty bad design for a tank. specially for a raid boss if the boss decides to side step with you. and if you have to move to a different location when you were stacking up healing orbs but cant get them anymore

Yes, you have to strafe in order to pick up a healing orb.
Personally I like the concept of healing orbs but the implementation is not optimal. There was a suggestion earlier in the beta to have a spell that pulls all the orbs in an area to you but it was never appreciated by Blizzard as you can see :|

[Ergar]

got a question for brewmaster. is it mandatory to keep side stepping to collect healing orbs?

cause i kinda feel like its pretty bad design for a tank. specially for a raid boss if the boss decides to side step with you. and if you have to move to a different location when you were stacking up healing orbs but cant get them anymore

Its not that important to activelly try to move so you get the healing spheres. They are mostly meant for random healing and giggles i think.

[Edds]

Yes, you have to strafe in order to pick up a healing orb.
Personally I like the concept of healing orbs but the implementation is not optimal. There was a suggestion earlier in the beta to have a spell that pulls all the orbs in an area to you but it was never appreciated by Blizzard as you can see :|

i love this kind of idea. the only problem i find with that is brewmaster has too many abilities. maybe merge it with another ability like for example purifying brew or expel harm

[Yorgl]

got a question for brewmaster. is it mandatory to keep side stepping to collect healing orbs?

cause i kinda feel like its pretty bad design for a tank. specially for a raid boss if the boss decides to side step with you. and if you have to move to a different location when you were stacking up healing orbs but cant get them anymore

For a static boss, if you do that correctly, the boss shouldn't move that much, except rotate a little bit (but around a fixed axis ^^). You just have to let know you partners that it's normal.
From my experience, they pop pretty close (but I didnt' tank for several weeks on the beta so it might have changed ?).

For boss with a lot of moving involved, well yes I guess we lose some value of the GotO. :/

[Asmalya]

I really hope they revert the energy and shuffle nerf now that other tanks get buffed across. Hell even paladin will get their Stamina benefit of Guarded by the Light from 15% to 25%.

So lowest health, lowest armor and not even on par less damage taken when playing perfectly. That most certainly cant be how they want things to go.
Iam fine with the GotO nerf tho as long as the the other nerfs get reverted.

[Yorgl]

I was wondering about the way Chi Burst works as I didn't have the chance to use it in raid/group.
If I'm not mistaken, the spell heals and DPS everything between the player and the target , right ? Therefore if we want to use it while tanking a boss who is between us and the rest of the raid, we should target (or use a mouseover macro on) the furthest ally possible, say a caster or a healer, right ?

[Horace]

Regarding the Gift of the Ox "nerf" it was probably just a late fix after the vengeance change, seeing as the AP portion hasn't changed.

[Felade]

There's some guy or maybe a few guys over at Blizzard. They love abilities that make you interact with the environment more. They are very stubborn. They have been designing the Priest class for years (and stubbornly holding on to Lightwell). They apparently quit worrying about Priests (and gave them Lightspring) and decided to come over and give Monks healing spheres. Because trying to run through little green orbs when you already have enough to worry about sounds *soo cool*.

[NRL1515]

Just by reading this guide, I'm pretty stoked about the BM and I really hope that when MoP comes out my BM will become my main. You guys have done an excellent job explaining the spec and all the little nuances that come with it; I will admit it seems a little daunting but I look forward to the challenge of trying to master this class. Having said that, and I know MoP is a couple weeks away and there's still plenty of time for things to change, I'm worried that the Blizz design team will turn them into DK 2.0 (although not quite being as OP as they first were) and have all these great ideas but they throw them all in one class.

I love tanking - I have a (all are 395+ geared) prot pally, prot warrior, and bear druid, and I think the BM is an interesting and fresh change from those styles (or what I'm used to a 'tank' being) and having another tank in my arsenal is something I'm looking forward to. I'm afraid BMs wont feel like they're at a good place until MoP has gotten legs.

I do like the idea of sidestepping to grab the orbs, though... although having ONE MORE THING to keep in mind will be quite daunting

[Ivalen]

The guide is not up to date with the numbers - and there are sections still left blank. Not quite ready for a sticky yet.

[The Madgod]

The guide is not up to date with the numbers - and there are sections still left blank. Not quite ready for a sticky yet.

Considering how many people have said that this guide has helped them, and to do such is the purpose of a guide, I'm inclined to disagree with your opinion. Now, if you want to be constructive, be my guest, otherwise, please leave the thread for discussions pertaining to the brewmaster spec

[arisoh]

I really hope they revert the energy and shuffle nerf now that other tanks get buffed across. Hell even paladin will get their Stamina benefit of Guarded by the Light from 15% to 25%.

So lowest health, lowest armor and not even on par less damage taken when playing perfectly. That most certainly cant be how they want things to go.
Iam fine with the GotO nerf tho as long as the the other nerfs get reverted.

This is what's killed my excitement about BrMing. There's number comparisons on the official forums that show that a bear *DOING NOTHING* takes as much damage as a monk with *100% uptime on Shuffle*.

So, the whole point of BrM mitigation is supposed to be "lowest armor, lowest health, takes most damage *BUT STAGGERED*". But now, since they fkd the Stagger to 80%/20% from 70%/30% then BrM is just depressing.

[Deleted]

What baffles me is the fact that our concerns are brought up in multiple threads all over the Beta Classes Forum & the Beta Class Analysis Thread and still there is no real feedback on either numbers nor a weird feeling from playing the Brewmaster at the current state...

Is Blizzard just sitting the issue out until release or even later?
What's up with them?!

[arisoh]

What baffles me is the fact that our concerns are brought up in multiple threads all over the Beta Classes Forum & the Beta Class Analysis Thread and still there is no real feedback on either numbers nor a weird feeling from playing the Brewmaster at the current state...

Is Blizzard just sitting the issue out until release or even later?
What's up with them?!

I'm glad I don't work for Blizzard, because seriously, the moment I read these changes, I would've stormed GC's office be like "WHAT. THE. FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA---!!!!!" like the onyxia rage guy.

[Deleted]

What baffles me is the fact that our concerns are brought up in multiple threads all over the Beta Classes Forum & the Beta Class Analysis Thread and still there is no real feedback on either numbers nor a weird feeling from playing the Brewmaster at the current state...

Is Blizzard just sitting the issue out until release or even later?
What's up with them?!

I think they are afraid that there will be another DK fiasco where the first few days the total amount of dk's is higher then all classes together. ( wotlk start... wasn't on all realms though ) To prevent this it might be a strategic move to have them slightly lower performance so that only people who really like the playstyle to roll one rather then them FoTM players. ( I geuss this on the fact that they haven't really reacted on the WW concerns either. ) And then adjust them where neccesary over the first few weeks by buffing them where buffing is due.

[Hijiri]

For Ivalen

Blacksmithing - socket bracer, socket gloves
Alchemy - mixology
Enchanting - ring enchants 160 agi or stam per ring
Leatherworking - Fur Lining to bracer agi or stam
Engineering - Phase Fingers mk II or Synapse Springs mk II
Jewelcrafting - 2 Serpent's eye gems
Inscription - +320 agi or +450 stam to shoulders over the boe ones

Enchants - Most enchants are obvious except for weapons.
When enchantng your stats see stat priority section and your options of reforging.

Weapon Enchants
Dancing Steel, Colossus, Windsong, River's Song
We're in a unique situation for 2h enchant and dual wielding 1h enchant

[arisoh]

Re: the guide, specifically the stat priorities, I'm inclined to disagree about where haste prioritized.

IMO, haste should be near the top, in front of dodge/parry. Dodge/parry are still subject to RNG whereas all our survival tools - Stagger, PB, Guard, lvl 30 healing spells (which all need chi and therefore subject to needing hastened energy regen) are reliable.

That's what I'm planning at least.

[The Madgod]

Haste in terms of this has already been discussed, and I'm inclined to agree with Radux's post, which shall be linked below.

The one problem I have with Haste as a whole is the idea that it actually takes quite a bit to even gain 1 additional energy per second.

Let's just assume you sit at 11 EPS. You get enough Haste to somehow get to 12 EPS (about ~10%). That means you have the potential to gain 3 jabs/chi per 2 minutes. So on a per-minute basis, 1% Haste will approximately equals 0.15 additional Chi generated.

Compare that to a 3.6 Staff (ends up being ~2.5 via Way of the Monk), and trading that 10% Haste for even 5% Crit...
Assuming you have ~10% crit base, you get ~2.4 Crits per minute, thus ~4.8 EB charges - or a passive 2.4% dodge (assuming you EB every chance you can).
Add that 5% I mentioned above, and you'll get ~3.6 Crits per minute, thus ~7.2 EB charges - or a passive 3.6% dodge (assuming you EB every chance you can).

And unfortunately with Crit (from my basic napkin math), we're left with an effective parabola of benefit - where lower levels (i.e. 10% to 11%) will provide much larger benefit than higher levels (i.e. 50% to 51%) to your overall % to passive dodge.

That said, I'd much rather take more Dodge via Crit, opposed to gaining 1 BoK (6 seconds of stagger) per 80 seconds.

[Hijiri]

For Ivalen pt 2.

This is what I'll suggest for a ilvl 463 gear list.
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...1#post18008372

and 480ish
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...1#post18027431

[Asmalya]

What baffles me is the fact that our concerns are brought up in multiple threads all over the Beta Classes Forum & the Beta Class Analysis Thread and still there is no real feedback on either numbers nor a weird feeling from playing the Brewmaster at the current state...

Is Blizzard just sitting the issue out until release or even later?
What's up with them?!

Ya...yet gc happily answers 2-3 times about some stupid stuff about stealth and people FEELING they get turned out of stealth sooner then before...