Why do brewmasters get hit so hard?

[jimmy valmer]

They get hit so hard. Why is that? I don't know all that much about them but something to do with keeping up shuffle and they should be good. Healing them is a nightmare even in LFR, it takes all the healers to stabilise their health.

[Radio]

As a brewmaster main who often plays a resto druid in LFR/LFD, I can confirm that 90% of brewmasters in LFR/LFD have NFI what they're doing and have poor (or non-existent) shuffle uptimes, poor or non-existent usage of guard, so on so forth.

[The Madgod]

Yeeeeeaaaah Radio just kinda hit the nail on the head. A brewmaster who's getting hit that hard is critically failing at some aspect of the spec.

[pkm]

As a brewmaster main who often plays a resto druid in LFR/LFD, I can confirm that 90% of brewmasters in LFR/LFD have NFI what they're doing and have poor (or non-existent) shuffle uptimes, poor or non-existent usage of guard, so on so forth.

Im curious as to what makes brewmasters get hit harder than other tanks. They can literally go splat in seconds unlike other tanks :S

[Terahertz]

Im curious as to what makes brewmasters get hit harder than other tanks. They can literally go splat in seconds unlike other tanks :S

Compared to other tanks BrM monks have a lot lower armor. Correct me if I'm wrong though, but that's the reason why they have Stagger, to make up for the loss of armor.

I'm fairly certain BrM monk tanking is one of the hardest - if not hardest tanking spec in the game.

[Raugnaut]

Brewmasters essentially take double the damage from unmitigated hits compared to other tanks due to only having ~half the armor of other tank.

Shuffles 20% additional stagger reduces the initial melee hit to the same as other tanks- addition stagger+guard+elusive brew+20% parry equals out to other tanks active mitigation.

---------- Post added 2013-06-28 at 02:49 AM ----------

Compared to other tanks BrM monks have a lot lower armor. Correct me if I'm wrong though, but that's the reason why they have Stagger, to make up for the loss of armor.

I'm fairly certain BrM monk tanking is one of the hardest - if not hardest tanking spec in the game.

BrM tank, rather then being hardest, is more the one that depends on properly keeping up active mitigation. No Shuffle means that you take close to twice as much damage as other tanks. No purify means that you take over twice as much as damage as other tanks within a shorter time frame.

[Radio]

BrM tank, rather then being hardest, is more the one that depends on properly keeping up active mitigation.

This, a BRM facepulling a boss and DCing is going to go splat MUCH faster than any other tank doing the same.

[darkwarrior42]

Everyone else pretty well described the situation. Without our active mitigation (Shuffle + Elusive Brew + Guard) we're horribly squishy.

If a BrM doesn't know what they're doing, they will get destroyed. There's really no alternative.

[snaxattax]

BrM get demolished by stuns, as well, as they require parry/dodge to maintain anything resembling a tank's EHP.

also, most lfrtard BrM's don't use nearly enough blackout kick. if you look at their ability usage in your damage meter (skada/recount) and they used fewer than 1 blackout kick per 6 seconds of fight time, shuffle management is the culprit. also, many bad BrM's sit on their elusive brew as if it is some form of major cooldown which can only be used at maximum stacks.

[squid]

Different skill-floor, if you aren't playing it right, you will do way worse than say a paladin not playing right. Shuffle needs to never drop while you are being melee'd.

[darkwarrior42]

BrM get demolished by stuns, as well, as they require parry/dodge to maintain anything resembling a tank's EHP.

True, but with Nimble Brew you should never have a situation where you're stunned and taking massive damage in a raid.

Goes back to whether the BrM knows what to do

[Deleted]

Basically; the penalty for being afk is much higher as a BrM. The other tank specs all have some kind of mitigation active even if they aren't really doing anything (armor), whereas this needs to be kept active on a BrM, if it falls off... you go splat. A brewmaster letting shuffle fall off is quite similar to a bear shifting out of bear form...

[Schaden]

Low armor, smaller health pool, plus the most demanding active mitigation and skill floor make BrMs either god tier tanks or mana sponges. There's really no middle ground to be had.

[Dietrik]

Brewmasters have the least passive mitigation of any of the tanks, as the poster above said, low armor and should be low health.

Means if they don't get their shuffle, elusive and guard up they only take 25% less damage than an equally geared rogue who is able to hold threat on a boss.

[Felade]

There needs to be one of those default UI power auras for shuffle missing. And it needs to make a really annoying sound. I hope they never change shuffle

[stellvia]

They get hit so hard. Why is that? I don't know all that much about them but something to do with keeping up shuffle and they should be good. Healing them is a nightmare even in LFR, it takes all the healers to stabilise their health.

Brewmaster, when played correctly, is a stellar tank that borders on overpowered. When played poorly, it's like the boss is being tanked by Nothing At All.... Nothing At All... Nothing At All... IE: 90% of LFR BrM have NFI what they're doing as Radio said.

That said, a BrM taking a big hit is not necessarily the end of the world: Usually you want to Guard before the hit, but even if its not quite off CD you can Guard right after the hit and give time for healers to bring you up. Or you time Chi Wave bounces + Expel Harm to buoy you afterwards. Being able to spam Expel Harm under 35% can buy you quite a bit of time as well.

[Hyve]

Brewmasters are the new Death Knights. When Death Knight tanking was implementing (Was available as Unholy, Blood or Frost) 95% of people who did it were catastrophically terrible at it, often screaming that the healers failed, yet never managed to actually play their role properly.

The same can be said for Brewmasters today. They have a lot of active mitigation they need to perform to just stay alive, and timing is quite important. An experienced Brewmaster could easily be the lowest damage taken tanks.

[Alucin]

Because no-one taunts the bloody boss off them and they have far too many debuff stacks

[-aiko-]

As others have mentioned it's mostly skill. A good brewmaster must always have shuffle up, use Guard properly, use Elusive brew properly and purify their stagger at the right time. Not purifying is one of the biggest mistakes I see. If you don't purify you basically have a really nasty DoT on you that will absolutely kill you in a few ticks.

[DemoBytom]

I see many brewmasters in LFR sitting at red stagger for whole fight..
As a brewmaster main I feel that pain..
As a mistweaver off spec I want to cry thinking about healing them..

In one LFR I got similar geared brewmaster as my co-tank. I took 40% of his dmg taken...