Well, a new build is out, and with it some interesting changes to The Drunk Tank, I figured we need somewhere to discuss them
The good:
Fortifying Brew - After Fortifying Brew ends, you will be healed for the amount abosrbed. Not an outstanding change, but it's good to know any healing you recieve while this is active wont be wasted, also makes it a slightly better CD for Tanks.
Dampen Harm New: You dampen the damage from the most harmful attacks done to you. The next 3 attacks that deal damage equal to 10% or more of your total health are reduced in half. 1 Chi, Instant cast, 30 sec cooldown. very nice mini CD, good for soaking large breaths etc
Healing Elixers New: Anytime you drink from a Brew or Tea, you gain 10% of your total health. This effect cannot occur once every 15 sec. very very nice, makes Purifying Brew even better, sadly I get the feeling this and Dampen Harm will be on the same tier... I guess you can use this for bosses that don't have the big spikey attack, and DH for the ones that do
Dizzying Haze - Deals a high amount of threat. Nomnom, this will go some of the way to balancing the Breath of Fire changes
Keg Smash - Now costs 40 Energy instead of 1 Chi. Generates 2 Chi. Thank you Jesus.... we have an energy based cleave that generates Chi, now just lower the energy cost to something a bit less stupid (maybe 20) and we're good to go
Purifying Brew - Now has a 6 sec cooldown, down from 45. not really sure why they've done this, as Stagger doesn't stack up fast enough for you to NEED to purify every 6 seconds...
Shuffle - No longer has a cooldown. Ah.. That's why so basically build up a good chunk of threat, then start Shufflin' till the Dps get close, Purify, hit a bit, repeat.
Stance of the Sturdy Ox - Now also increases your total health by 30%. Wow... I know I said Brews need a +stamina passive but damn tbh though I can't see it going live like this, would just turn Brew's into mana sponges, I forsee this getting changed to 15% stam and 100% armor.
The Bad:
Blackout Kick - Additional damage now over 6 sec, down from 8 sec. I know this isn't a bad change, but I just don't see the point in BK with this Dot anymore... It was fine as an Execute, just leave it like that.
Breath of Fire - Now does 1,400 to 1,786 damage, down from 2,001 to 2,552. Myeh, not too bad really, with it doing 3x damage with DH stacks, it IS hitting somewhat like a firey truck, I think we all saw this coming.
Brewmaster Training - No longer makes Tiger Palm cost no Chi. awwww, lame
Guard - Now has a 30 sec cooldown. This is a wierd change... again don't see this going live, 30 seconds seems a bit high for a CD on a move so integral to our survival , tbh if you're going to stick such a CD on it, either make guard soak more base, or increase the scaling with Mastery.
Overall: Really not sure where Blizz are going with Monks... I can see it all coming together, I'm just not sure if they'll be any good once all is said and done... the good changes this patch are very good, and the bad are pretty bad, the change to Guard being the worst of them...
To be honest, if i was in charge I would change the brewmaster Mastery, at the moment it's a fixed chance (25%) to Stagger a scaling amount (50% - Mastery) but with the changes to Purifying Brew, we will NEVER take more than maybe one or two DoT ticks... Add in the CD on Guard and Mastery seems to be pretty much the worst stat for Brewmasters. I would change it to something more like 'Increases your chance to stagger by 1.25% and increases the amount absorbed by your guard by 3%'. This way it'd be a scaling chance to mitigate a fixed amount of damage, which is far easier to balance than the current version, would also make the use of Shuffle and PB more interesting than just 'use them both when they're off CD' the increase to Guard's absorbtion would also make it more of a mini CD than it is now.