LF BrM Critics and Tips [WoL included]

[Drugshock]

Hello fellow beerdrinkers.
I’m kinda new to monk (2 weeks @90), rerolling from protection warrior, tanking on a 10m casual group. Read the guide here @mmo-c plus some tips outside, like Sunnier’s blog, Gynshon’s website (that seems blocked for my HUE_BR_HUE country right now lolwat) and stuff like that.

Need some log analysis, critics and tips from some experienced BrM kegsmashers.

Got logs from yesterday: (normal mode only)
http://worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-ua.../?s=799&e=1044

Obs: Solo tanked Durumu, Iron Qon and Twins (with a bad timed CD for Fan of Flames = owned!).

That’s my armory (after lots of drops from yesterday):
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...nshou/advanced

Now some questions:
1) At 505 ilvl, should I try to grab the 15% expertise cap? Doing some changes on Reforgelite, the best scenario I’d get was like 9.5k crit and close to 2.5k haste (too low I thik, isn’t?).
2) Banking Shuffle: Is it ‘ok’? I mean, during Twins I had an astonishing ONE MINUTE shuffle. That’s right?
3) T15 2p /cancelaura macro. Should be used only on ‘predictable hits’ like Talon Rake/Hard Stare or should I try something like “half elusive / half staggering”?
4) About scumbag /sit. Is it still worth (after the 50% vengeance nerf)? Maybe on taunt swaps? If yes, how you guys handle it? Kinda scared to take a 400k hit on the face with my 600k raid buffed health! =x

Sorry if some of the questions have been already answered somewhere. Feel free to point me where are the answers. Sorry for the English and thanks in advance.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm 95% sure that my Keg Smash usage is really, really low. =(

[Makova]

Hey there,

Welcome to Monk tanking, I'm not particularly wonderful at log analysis, from looking at Keg Smash for your Durumu fight you could have used it 30 times instead of the 21 that you have used. Trying to bring that number up can help your chi generation and damage done.

1) Expertise is entirely up to you, some Monks swear by 15%, others are fine with 7.5%. I personally use 15% expertise because of the damage increase that I get from it (No parries).

2) In regards to banking Shuffle, it isn't terrible, but if you find that you do have a large time on it at the end of the fight you can try using Purifying Brew more often.

3) I don't use a cancelaura macro for it often, as I find that I don't need it (10 mans), but I do have one in case I do drop low on health for those hits.

4) I don't /sit for the vengeance, the vengeance nerf is coming in patch 5.4.

Hopefully this helps with your tanking, I've just started on Heroics (3/13) so I'm sure that there are other Monks here that have more knowledge then me.

Makova.

[Inthislzon]

1) At 505 ilvl, should I try to grab the 15% expertise cap? Doing some changes on Reforgelite, the best scenario I’d get was like 9.5k crit and close to 2.5k haste (too low I thik, isn’t?).

100% personal preference. I run with 15%, but in the end it doesn't matter much. Anyway if you are the one solo-tanking everything go 15%, you gain DPS and your need for an offset decreases, as you spend more time tanking.

Again that's a PERSONAL advice, not a rule.

2) Banking Shuffle: Is it ‘ok’? I mean, during Twins I had an astonishing ONE MINUTE shuffle. That’s right?

On a perfect world you put shuffle up on the first 4 seconds of any fight and it drops as the boss dies, what happens on that time doesn't matter Anyway, if you have lots of shuffle remaining purify more often, if you have a lack of shuffle keg smash more.

3) T15 2p /cancelaura macro. Should be used only on ‘predictable hits’ like Talon Rake/Hard Stare or should I try something like “half elusive / half staggering”?

I don't have that macro, predictable hits are exactly that, predictable, and i just pop elusive with enough time to have 2P up for the strike.

4) About scumbag /sit. Is it still worth (after the 50% vengeance nerf)? Maybe on taunt swaps? If yes, how you guys handle it? Kinda scared to take a 400k hit on the face with my 600k raid buffed health! =x

Sometimes do, sometimes don't. Also you are not going to be hit for 400k. See here -> http://worldoflogs.com/reports/ywpi6...?s=4108&e=4711

I'm getting critted for ~600k, now substract staggered damage from there. Worst case scenario is 20% from stance, 20% from shuffle and 5% from mastery for a 330k hit post-stagger, add whatever mastery you have and 2P and number goes WAY down, just purify

I'm 95% sure that my Keg Smash usage is really, really low. =(

It is, not really abysmal but more chi is always good to have

[Thiassi]

I gotta agree with the two posts before me. Only separate advice I could give is for you to gem for more expertise to help you have more reforge flexibility. I'm one of those BrM's that swear by the 15% exp

[Yohassakura]

Your shuffle is dropping off randomly during the fights when it shouldn't be.

Taking the three fights that you said you solo tank (Durumu, Iron Qon & Twin Consorts):

Iron Qon:

Your shuffle and tiger power dropped twice (for a while), which i'm assuming is purely from the tornado / whirlwind phase, which is okay I guess.

The problem comes with the lots of mini breaks from there on - you should be hitting the boss constantly. You can roll over all of the lines on the floor and not get any of the debuffs, so you can always hit the boss even if the shields are in a bad position.



This is one of my Iron Qon (heroic) attempts in comparison:



You may not be able to keep shuffle up during the whirlwind due to your haste being very low, whereas mine's very high - but that's fine, as long as you keep it up while you're actually tanking the boss!

Durumu:

Again, there's gaps in shuffle uptime, can't really say any more other than to keep it up 100%.



Twins:

Looks fine until you died ofc - You didn't plan your cooldowns out properly like you said and personally I'd use Dampen Harm over Diffuse Magic for Twins.

You seemed to be sitting on your EB stacks a lot just to use the 2pc, which is okay but if you use EB at 5-8 stacks you'll have better use of EB as a whole rather than sitting on 15 for a while, procing EB it, and then immediately cancelling effect for 2pc. - You'll still most likely have some stacks gained for the EB Macro if you plan to use it around the 8 stack mark or if you delay using it if you know an attack is coming up, then you won't waste so many stacks.

[allaiva]

Yohassakura does a very good job at breaking down the big shuffle/tiger power buff details.

I run 15% expertise for lack of parries and have since I started tanking in T14. It's a preference, but that's the side I lean on.

As for other stats and tips, I'd spearhead a fair amount of haste until you feel comfortable with your shuffle uptime. That is a much more consistent mitigation source than elusive brew at lower gear levels and should not be ignored. When I felt comfortable with my haste level was when I started to really push crit to work on extended Elusive Brew uptime for the 30% dodge. I've never seen the need for the elusive brew cancel aura, but that can be a matter of preference.

On the point of excess shuffle, as long as you're not getting destroyed by stagger, keep smashing that BoK key for extra damage at the very least. My healers LOVE to see guards thrown on the raid. It means they can focus less on them, and more on us tanks. For fights like Ji'kun where soaking puddles comes to play, they can be amazing tools to absorb a fair portion of that damage.

Also, you shouldn't need to bother about a sit macro or whatever for extra vengence. Threat is not an issue BrM has. A Keg smash + BoK and a TP will 99.99+% of the time be more than enough threat after a taunt. Even with the proposed 18% damage nerf to Smash we'll be fine for post taunt threat atm.

[Thiassi]

Yohassakura +1 for the detailed breakdown!

[SurrealNight]

1) At 505 ilvl, should I try to grab the 15% expertise cap? Doing some changes on Reforgelite, the best scenario I’d get was like 9.5k crit and close to 2.5k haste (too low I thik, isn’t?).

Already plenty of good advice so I'll just chime in on this "opinion". I ran 7.5% all the way through T14 (didn't get as far as I'd have liked) and through normal mode but switched 1st night into T15 heroics. I would say your iLevel is strong enough to run with 15% and not leave you feeling short on haste/crit. My reasonings:
1) Expertise has been proven as the highest DPS boost stat wise until 15%. Seems veng stacking for DPS is on your radar.
2) Consistency on the pull. Nothing spoils what could have been a good pull than getting a few parries and having a DPS pop.
3) Solo tanking as many fights as possible. This gives # 2 many more chances to happen.

Note that I still don't care much about random misses mid fight as I always bank chi/energy to use what I need to on demand, most of my points are focused on the initial pull and early moments where they can prove problematic to both you and the other raiders.

I've advocated 7.5% was fine in the past and at the time I still feel it was a correct stance but with 522+ gear going into T16 we have so many secondary stats coming out our big panda butt's that there is really no solid reason to avoid the cap.

[Drugshock]

Thanks everyone for the really quick and nice answers!
Btw, great breakdown Yohassakura, appreciate it.
I'm at work right now, gonna read and learn a lot of this when I got home

[Drugshock]

I'm here posting again to thank you all, again!
Did lots of things you guys told me. I'm now at 15% expertise and thats, at least for me, more "fluid". Working on haste right now (could reforge to 5k mark - was running 2k~ and my regen was "too slow") and them I'll work on more critical. RNG Gods love me, got some nice upgrades. Still hoping for new trinkets to rule!

Oh, and could focus a bit more on Shuffle uptime... think it's better (far from perfect ofc) now
Here some logs from yesterday (Normal mode only) --> [EDIT] NVM logs were recorded as private, noob me. =(

Tonight we're attempting Ji-Kun on Heroic mode. Our group already killed it once, so I hope it'll be fine. Any tips for Talon Rakes? I mean, CD rotation and stuff... Think something like: Eating 1st/purify, Guard on 2nd, Dampen Harm for 3rd, Fort Brew/Guard (if up) for 4ht (if something bad happens) and Zen Meditation if 5th (again, something bad happens).... Would it be enough?

Thanks again, and again....

[Deleted]

Tonight we're attempting Ji-Kun on Heroic mode. Our group already killed it once, so I hope it'll be fine. Any tips for Talon Rakes? I mean, CD rotation and stuff... Think something like: Eating 1st/purify, Guard on 2nd, Dampen Harm for 3rd, Fort Brew/Guard (if up) for 4ht (if something bad happens) and Zen Meditation if 5th (again, something bad happens).... Would it be enough?

Thanks again, and again....

Eat 1st, Guard 2nd (You can eat it if you stand on Gotox orbs, Normally the follow up melee attack that kills me on 25man) 3rd, Dampen, 4th Guard. You can use Zen meditation if you time it correctly. This however can be very risky. Eat pools when not tanking anything. Avert Harm is also Great here for a raid CD and I'd Advise you get that in on a Quills when not tanking.
Watch your Infectious wound debuff. It'll eat your Guard in seconds if you pop guard too early. So time Guard with the Cast of Talon and you should be golden.

Your logs are also set to private.

[Drugshock]

Ohh damm. Forgot the "private" thing. Was testing stuff and forgot it. My bad :/

Ty for the advices, sir!

[Ddos]

I run:
Hard cap expertise and hit.
Haste between 6.5-7k because I single tank a lot of fights.
All crit after that.
Anything less than 100% up-time on shuffle is not acceptable so make sure you have enough haste to do so.

H Ji-Kun Rake:
Eat 1
Guard 2
Dampen Harm 3
Fort Brew 4
Pain Suppression+Guard 5
Zen Med 6

Good Luck!