Tips for using KS on cooldown?

[Teeheestopit]

Hi,

So I know I'm a scrub for this, but I seem to consistently be having trouble making sure I'm using KS on cooldown as a BrM.

I know everyone says it's super easy, but I just seem to consistently have trouble. I've even got a TMW setup for it coming off of cooldown but still seem to miss a lot of casts during fights.

Does anyone have any tips for helping that be better, or is it just something I need to keep focusing on and practicing?

Thanks

[Inthislzon]

Then there is almost nothing else you can do.

Make sure you can properly see the CD on it, and train yourself to have energy to hit it ASAP when it's off CD.

[Densalo]

Yep it really comes down to are you having trouble seeing it visibly when it's ready, or are you finding yourself energy-starved when it comes up. If the problem is seeing it, then maybe adjust the TMW icon size or placement to see it better. If energy is the issue then you could try using tiger palm once (twice if necessary) before KS comes off CD so that you have enough energy built up.

[thaynia]

I use weak auras, but tmw should work fine. Make sure your kegsmash timer is near the center of the screen so its noticeable. Some people add an audio cue when it pops up. The biggest thing is making sure you're watching your energy and saving it for when kegsmash is off cooldown. You don't want to have 20 energy when kegsmash is off cooldown. So if you're spamming jab... stop and control your energy a bit better. If you're going for ranks, kegsmash is a huge part of your dps and pooling your energy for it is very important.

Also, if you're a 2-3 chi during serenity, and keg smash comes up, STILL USE IT! you'll gain the chi that you are losing by not casing BoK.

[WinterQT]

Always have that extra energy for a keg smash when it's about to come off cd and apart from delaying abilities or alternatively spamming tiger palm while waiting for the KS cd to end, not much else you can do.

[The Madgod]

Never use jab before 70-80 energy.

It's the easiest way to guarantee energy to spend for keg smash... so if you get that down pat, all you need is that TMW timer for it to say when it's about to get off CD.

And of course, practice practice practice.

[thaynia]

Never use jab before 70-80 energy.

Never say never. It's fine to jab below 70 energy under certain conditions....
Example. You just keg smashed at 80 energy dropping you down to 40. Serenity is back up, it's fine to jab below 70 energy for the extra chi before casting serenity, since you will be dumping your GCDs on BoK.
Also if you're lusted and your energy regen is high, it's worth it to jab early so you're dumping your BoK gcd while regening that energy. This will help prevent capping your energy which is a dps/tps loss.

[Adaren]

With your TellMeWhen setup, set the Opacity for "Unusable" lower than the one for "Usable". Then go to the Notifications tab and create a new Notification Animation when Opacity Increases (I'm partial to "Activation Border").

Finally, make sure it's close to center screen (mine is just below my character and to the side a little).

Other than that, think of the Brewmaster rotation as mostly "Hit Tiger Palm while thinking about what else to do". The rotation can seem fast because we're GCD capped, but half of those GCDs are Tiger Palm. Get in the mindset of Tiger Palm being your default key to hit while you look at your Keg Smash CD / Energy / Chi and decide what needs to be done to keep you from capping.

[The Madgod]

Never say never. It's fine to jab below 70 energy under certain conditions....
Example. You just keg smashed at 80 energy dropping you down to 40. Serenity is back up, it's fine to jab below 70 energy for the extra chi before casting serenity, since you will be dumping your GCDs on BoK.
Also if you're lusted and your energy regen is high, it's worth it to jab early so you're dumping your BoK gcd while regening that energy. This will help prevent capping your energy which is a dps/tps loss.

We're talking advice about Keg Smash optimization, one of the most important and relatively basic aspects of Brewmaster play. Saying "so you need to do this... but then think about not doing it in X Y Z situations" is counterproductive. While you're right that there are times its okay, it's not something to put on the mind of someone still learning. It's for rare circumstances of min-maxing optimization only, not general play, which should have clearly been what I was talking about. Basics, then the advanced stuff.

[Feawen]

Weakaura for tracking it, ensuring you have the energy to use it as it comes off CD and spamming your keybind for it.


That's it imo.

[thebdc]

I'm using Sunnier's KS and energy bar WA. Having placed it near the center of the screen I can always see my current energy and cooldown of KS. The energy bar also highlighted if KS is off cooldown.

[Clausi]

Make your notification play a sound when comes off cd, I don't use TMW, but I think it should be possible to setup.

[tuesday the paladin]

Keg Smash and Jab cost 40 energy each. You ideally regenerate 10 energy per second. You can use one jab for every keg smash cooldown. Once you get the rhythm down it's fairly straight forward. You can generally sub in a EH for every other jab, I tend to hold off on jab if EH is off cooldown and fighting something threatening. With the haste buff (or if you're frequently dropped low with the EH glyph) you'll infrequently be able to toss out an extra jab/EH to prevent haste capping.

[Odengard]

Make sure to make it pop a big picture right in your face so you have to remove it to see anything to start with and then minimize it as you go.

[Rixarius]

If you're new to Brewmaster, learning energy management can be difficult. You pretty much wanna be spamming tiger palm since it's free, and then start spamming keg smash when it's about to come up. The only time I use jab is to keep from capping on energy and the only time I drop chi is when I need to purify, keep from capping, or refresh shuffle.

TL;DR, the only thing you should be mashing is tiger palm and keg smash really, the other things are situational