The Brewmaster Tanking Guide [5.4]

[TheWindWalker]

If you want to spend 40 energy on a heal you wait until you're under 35% and can just use Expel Harm to heal 3x as much and get 1 chi and do damage all at the same time. Healing Sphere is a trash spell outside of MW.

Something about the entire concept just seems alien to me. Don't spend energy unless you absolutely have to, sit on Chi, don't use your self-heal that has no CD and keep your resource regeneration down. The spec would make a lot more sense if Tiger Palm wasn't free and we were suppose to be spamming jab for something.

[Totaltotemic]

Something about the entire concept just seems alien to me. Don't spend energy unless you absolutely have to, sit on Chi, don't use your self-heal that has no CD and keep your resource regeneration down. The spec would make a lot more sense if Tiger Palm wasn't free and we were suppose to be spamming jab for something.

Yeah I agree, I don't really see the point of Tiger Palm being a 0 cost ability or there being literally no kind of randomization in the BrM spec, it just seems too simple. I've been tanking heroic Garrosh progression and most of the time I go way up past 1 minute of Shuffle just because if the boss isn't on me at the time there's no reason to hold energy and there's nothing else to spend energy on except BoK. Maybe something like giving Keg Smash a 50% chance to make BoF do 50% more damage and grant Shuffle or even just straight copying Combo Breaker would make BrM a more variable spec instead of just getting your Shuffle and waiting for something bad to happen that forces you to Guard/Purify/Expel.

[Crevan]

Something about the entire concept just seems alien to me. Don't spend energy unless you absolutely have to, sit on Chi, don't use your self-heal that has no CD and keep your resource regeneration down.

Have you ever played an assassination rogue?

[TheWindWalker]

Maybe something like giving Keg Smash a 50% chance to make BoF do 50% more damage and grant Shuffle or even just straight copying Combo Breaker would make BrM a more variable spec instead of just getting your Shuffle and waiting for something bad to happen that forces you to Guard/Purify/Expel.

Hell, even having every boss be "flammable" and autoattacking something with the DoT giving you a stacking buff to your next guard would at least be something.

Have you ever played an assassination rogue?

Nope but Rogues also suffer from "stack haste for the entire first tier no matter what your spec is" syndrome, so "pool energy" is just one of many bad things about their design.

[Crevan]

Pooling energy for rogues is not a design deficiency, it's an intended playstyle (less so for combat); they are designed to be constrained by resources, not by available GCDs. It's actually slightly similar to windwalkers and TEB, but on a much faster time-scale: you hold on to your resources until you enter a high-damage phase.

But that's not very relevant to the current discussion. I enjoy brewmaster playstyle and rotation a lot, but spicing it up a bit would not be a bad idea. It seems that Chi Explosion, one of our lvl100 talents, is aimed at fixing this somewhat, and in the current state of that tier it looks like the default BM choice outside of very specific situations. It's a solution, though not an ideal one.

[diggorey]

Yeah I agree, I don't really see the point of Tiger Palm being a 0 cost ability or there being literally no kind of randomization in the BrM spec, it just seems too simple. I've been tanking heroic Garrosh progression and most of the time I go way up past 1 minute of Shuffle just because if the boss isn't on me at the time there's no reason to hold energy and there's nothing else to spend energy on except BoK.

Which is why I think BrM is not as complicated as most of my guildmates think it is. Of course, any tank is simple if you break it down to core mechanics (keep your AM uptime as high as possible, use CDs appropriatly and so on), but since BrM has only limited active raid support (Statue Guard is somewhat random, ZenMed is more a self CD and Avert Harm...oh, well), I consider Prot Pally far more "difficult" - hell, when I'm on my alt, I sometimes feel like Shiva; so many Hands.

Hell, even having every boss be "flammable" and autoattacking something with the DoT giving you a stacking buff to your next guard would at least be something.

I like the idea of flammable Bosses, BoF was such an iconic ability in WC3. Currently, BoF is the least used ability in my arsenal, I'm not using it even on trash...

[Totaltotemic]

Perhaps the simplest way to make BrM more engaging is just to decouple BoF from the Dizzying Haze debuff. Needing Dizzying Haze is the one thing that makes BoF totally useless. It does more damage than BoK if you get the dot, but it oddly doesn't apply to bosses at all and even when trying to do adds gets overwritten by another BrM's abilities (when no other spec in the game works that way). At the very least it would create an engaging DPS rotation and force an interesting decision as to whether you BoF for damage or BoK for Shuffle.

[diggorey]

Needing Dizzying Haze is the one thing that makes BoF totally useless. It does more damage than BoK if you get the dot, but it oddly doesn't apply to bosses at all and even when trying to do adds gets overwritten by another BrM's abilities (when no other spec in the game works that way).

I guess it doesn't apply to bosses because of Blizzard being afraid of bosses hitting themselves for insane amounts of damage; iirc Dizzying Haze uses something like 100%+ (110%?) AP as damage modifier. I guess that would make it slightly OP *cough* in basically everything from Thok to Garrosh. Though, you could argue they could implement it somehow without misfire chance (and slow) just to make BoF at leat not totally useless.

At the very least it would create an engaging DPS rotation and force an interesting decision as to whether you BoF for damage or BoK for Shuffle.

I agree. Sometimes i really feel bored, especially on farm, waiting for damage to happen and just pushing buttons to prevent capping energy/chi.

[Totaltotemic]

I guess it doesn't apply to bosses because of Blizzard being afraid of bosses hitting themselves for insane amounts of damage; iirc Dizzying Haze uses something like 100%+ (110%?) AP as damage modifier. I guess that would make it slightly OP *cough* in basically everything from Thok to Garrosh. Though, you could argue they could implement it somehow without misfire chance (and slow) just to make BoF at leat not totally useless.

Honestly I don't know what the deal with that misfire chance thing is. Why is it even in the game? What purpose does it serve? It doesn't even seem to work properly because I looked through most of my guild's logs and on the fights where there even is something Dizzying Haze works on, it almost never actually procs and usually accounts for less than 2% of the BrM's damage. It seems stupid to have the only AoE chi spender be hamstrung by the requirement to have a debuff on that is effectively only a slow that oddly doesn't apply to bosses for some reason (they could just make the boss immune to the slow part... like every other ability in the game that has a slow as a secondary component). It's just another one of those weird Monk design choices that makes no sense when you take a step back and look at it.

[Leblue]

I agree with you from a gameplay stand point, but iirc its a thematic thing with the Brewmaster that carried over from WC 3. You could use BoF w/o Dizzying haze but it would only have the dot with it.

Tweaking it so it retained its flavor (have to have dizzying haze) but making it applicable to bosses would be nice and if they kept the damage (with the dot) higher than BoK without it adding stagger it could add an extra level of "do I need more shuffle or can I sacrifice it for a bit more damage" which could make tanking more interesting (at least in single target) because right now most of us end fights with a minute or more of shuffle unless there's significant down time throughout the fight (inbetween adds on Galakras, Kiting Kadriss to avoid stuff, Thok kite phases).

Coupling Dizzying haze as our weakened blows debuff maybe? The only issue I feel like could happen with this is trying to BoF and then your co-tank's (or even a dps) weakened blows overwrites it, but this could be fixed by giving our debuff priority?

[zurm]

I was wondering if anyone had any input for gearing for challenge modes...specifically trinkets. So far we've gotten 7/9 down, with shado-pan and siege of nizuauo being the only two remaining. While we aren't stuck, I've just been using my main raiding trinkets (TED and Haromm's) and I wonder if I'm doing my group/healer a disservice by not using say, the Malkorok tanking trinket, or even another (like a darkmoon trinket or LFR version of an older raid).

[siccora]

hey there. tomorrow my guild wants to make that Ra Den archive and they told me to tank him because monk seems op here. so do i just go full mastery and let my hit or is there really something to look after? armory is in the sig. i dont want to be that guy who fucks it up. maybe someone got a nice guide to watch?

[Babylonius]

hey there. tomorrow my guild wants to make that Ra Den archive and they told me to tank him because monk seems op here. so do i just go full mastery and let my hit or is there really something to look after? armory is in the sig. i dont want to be that guy who fucks it up. maybe someone got a nice guide to watch?

You should have enough gear to do him set up for Crit. If you're doign 25man then a little bit of mastery can't hurt, but I did it last weekend in full crit and barely had to purify.

[Radio]

hey there. tomorrow my guild wants to make that Ra Den archive and they told me to tank him because monk seems op here. so do i just go full mastery and let my hit or is there really something to look after? armory is in the sig. i dont want to be that guy who fucks it up. maybe someone got a nice guide to watch?

It was dead easy in crit build at 543 ilvl in 5.3, should be absolute cake with your gear in full crit and considering the 20% ToT instance nerf in place.

[Deleted]

hey there. tomorrow my guild wants to make that Ra Den archive and they told me to tank him because monk seems op here. so do i just go full mastery and let my hit or is there really something to look after? armory is in the sig. i dont want to be that guy who fucks it up. maybe someone got a nice guide to watch?

Afaik Blizz fixed our "Shuffle=I-win-at-Raden-Button"-thing. The AM needed for his Fatal Strike now is EB. Just have EB up every time and you should be fine.

[siccora]

Yeah but EB is a dodge and what happens if i do not dodge his attack?

[Promdates]

I don't recall the ability caring about EB, as it's not listed in the tooltip or any other patch note since 5.3. Shuffle is still the way to go, as if it was based on EB we would be worse than druids for that fight.

[Deleted]

As far as I know, the AM check for Fatal Strike is still Shuffle. The newer AM checks (e.g. Caustic Blood and Injection on Paragons) check for EB and Guard.

[Tech614]

I was wondering if anyone had any input for gearing for challenge modes...specifically trinkets. So far we've gotten 7/9 down, with shado-pan and siege of nizuauo being the only two remaining. While we aren't stuck, I've just been using my main raiding trinkets (TED and Haromm's) and I wonder if I'm doing my group/healer a disservice by not using say, the Malkorok tanking trinket, or even another (like a darkmoon trinket or LFR version of an older raid).

Best trinkets for challenge modes I think most are still running are Darkmoon Xuen, and Bottle from MSV. Their proc rates don't get nerfed with item levels like most do from siege/tot. Stamina trinkets are always nice safety nets when first running them and only wanting gold and not pushing yourself.

[Deleted]

If you want to spend 40 energy on a heal you wait until you're under 35% and can just use Expel Harm to heal 3x as much and get 1 chi and do damage all at the same time. Healing Sphere is a trash spell outside of MW.

Now if you mean Gift of the Ox, well, that's just a jump to the left and a step to the right.

I think that's a bit harsh, i use spheres a lot. At 200k vengeance they heal nicely and on all bosses with a tank swap you can always spend 80-120 energy on a split heal. Not to mention you can heal others too!