So monks and the high skillcap

[jimmy valmer]

What makes them hard compared to the other tanks? Is it because of shuffle having such a low duration and a core ability to be up at all times? But add-ons would eliminate that problem, no? Or no proper tank CDs that others have when shit hits the fan?

[Radio]

People overrate the skillcap of brewmasters, shuffle is actually quite easy to keep up if you simply aim to blackout kick with as much of your chi as possible and you don't even need an addon since it simply stacks upon its own duration, leaving you with 2min+ of shuffle at the end of some fights with next to no haste rating.

I'd say that the one point that does make monks somewhat dangerous for new/inexperienced tanks is that they are the squishiest tank when not played correctly, I've had to heal all kinds of inexperienced tanks in LFR/normal on my druid alt and you notice the monks the most when they aren't playing the class correctly.

Some people also pull the whole "I played X tank class prior to MoP and it was way easier than monk", they have to remember that while you may have played other tank classes in previous expansions, DKs were the only tank class in the past that used an active mitigation model, while all tank classes have moved on to active mitigation in MoP and all have a higher skillcap now. You can't just gear your tank for defense and sit there on the boss popping cooldowns at pre-specified times anymore as any class, you need to use AM and pay a lot more attention to the minute details of your abilities. Warriors, Paladins and Druids are far more active now then they have been at any point prior to T14.

[Nemah]

The "high skillcap" mentality comes from encountering a playerbase that increasingly does not bother to research his/her class, because for most people the content doesn't dictate it.

No class for average content execution has a high skillcap anymore.

[Blizzhoof]

What makes them hard compared to the other tanks? Is it because of shuffle having such a low duration and a core ability to be up at all times? But add-ons would eliminate that problem, no? Or no proper tank CDs that others have when shit hits the fan?

They are one of the easiest tanks to play. The issue is that they aren't good when you're in blues and 476 epics. Once you get a decent ilvl they are a joke to play. My co-tank that switched from a Prot Pally (what this community seems to believe is the easiest tank) to a BrM during H Lei Shen progression, said that playing a Brewmaster was a lot easier. It's pretty much just Blackout Kick when you have 2 Chi, Keg Smash on CD, and Jab when Keg Smash is on CD. More complicated than that, but not much.

The thing that REALLY makes them simple is that their "Active Mitigation" takes no skill to use at all. It's literally a buff that you keep up 100% of the time by doing your highest DPS single-target rotation.

[Yohassakura]

Honestly I'd say that BrM is the most flexible tank, so personally I find them the easiest to play under any circumstance.

Never understood why people thought that Monks have a high skill cap - they just have a basic retard check similar to DON'T STAND IN THE FIRE!

[pkm]

I think its because shuffle is basically a buff that must be up no matter what. Other tanks can get away for a little while without using AM but a monk will get destroyed.

[Radio]

It was a tad more involved when the T30 talents actually cost chi, and being able to fit them in at the right moment could be a benefit to your raid.

But now it's just lolchiwave.

[Zonex]

They are one of the easiest tanks to play. The issue is that they aren't good when you're in blues and 476 epics. Once you get a decent ilvl they are a joke to play. My co-tank that switched from a Prot Pally (what this community seems to believe is the easiest tank) to a BrM during H Lei Shen progression, said that playing a Brewmaster was a lot easier. It's pretty much just Blackout Kick when you have 2 Chi, Keg Smash on CD, and Jab when Keg Smash is on CD. More complicated than that, but not much.

The thing that REALLY makes them simple is that their "Active Mitigation" takes no skill to use at all. It's literally a buff that you keep up 100% of the time by doing your highest DPS single-target rotation.

Lol'd at this

Anyway, yes monks have a high skillcap. what people are talking about, and what you asked is about the skill level to play a BrM well, which suffice to say isn't too difficult.

The genius above states that a BrM is about keeping up shuffle (which is part of the rotation) and so is amazingly easy. Paladin OTOH, has to keep up a sacred shield from a veng spike, and basically dump HP on SotR, sounds hard im sure.

Now, if youre decently knowledgeable, you noticed i didnt say anything about using SotR at the right time to mitigate damage better. The same goes for Monks, except with guard, gotorbs etc.

Both classes have their skillcaps. Minmax wise, monks are the ones that take more focus to pull out ahead (in sheer performance relative to a maxmium skillcap) than a paladin. A paladin gets a plethora CDs (tanking and DPS) to work with, where as a BrM has to work with the basic shield wall (albeit slightly more powerful) and a plethora of lesser AM that needs to be cycled properly.

I dont want to get into a PalavsBrm debate since its been beaten to death.

The point is to the OP's thread title: BrM's indeed do have a high skillcap, the difference is in the fact that it makes noticeable changes in your numbers going from a good player to a great player. Something that is less prevalent in some of the other tank classes.

[Radio]

Yeah you are right on the skill cap vs. required skill level front Zonex, though the OP did namedrop skill cap in the title but then proceeded to query about what is essentially required skill level in his post, hence my responses at the least.

[Crevan]

The genius above states that a BrM is about keeping up shuffle (which is part of the rotation) and so is amazingly easy.

I don't feel that shuffle should be looked at as our main AM mechanic anymore, with its 100% uptime given our "rotation". GotO orbs, guard, expel harm and T30 (and even elusive brew with 2p t15 to some extent) are much more "active" ways to mitigate damage. Using these optimally in every situation is difficult, indeed. Using BoK every 5 seconds is not.

[Raugnaut]

The thing that REALLY makes them simple is that their "Active Mitigation" takes no skill to use at all. It's literally a buff that you keep up 100% of the time by doing your highest DPS single-target rotation.

imho, Shuffle isnt Monks "Active mitigation". Its essentially what happens when you would normally preform your rotation as any other tank- push buttons, build up a buff.

Monks Active Mitigation comes in the form of Guard (Large Absorb, perfect to sit on for large hitters aka Triple Puncture), Purification Brew (Gets rid of Stagger damage, bread and butter of proper monk active mitigation), Elusive Brew (Proper usage of this can see a very decent reduction in dodgeable damage over a fight), and various self healing (Expel Harm, Healing Spheres).

Of course, other classes have similar complexity- Paladins have Sacred Shield (Guard equivalent), SotR (Can be spammed whenever akin to Elusive Brew, but proper timing of it can reduce damage by a great amount), and WoG (Heal self up after a big hit). After playing all 5 tanks at a high->max level, I can say that Guardians have the simplest of all AM- SD on CD, Maul whenever you get TC procs, and FR whenever you need healing. DKs are fairly tricky- having to properly time cooldowns to mitigate burst damage coming in AND properly use Blood Tap/DS for maximum mitigation is pretty tricky.

[stellvia]

He just proves he doesn't understand the nuances of BrM tanking is all. Shuffle isn't active mitigation. It's an extra buff to follow that makes us a tank. Without it we're no better than a Rogue tanking, for the most part.

The proof of the pudding for monk is using Guard, Dampen, Expel Harm etc. around large hits.

[Blizzhoof]

He just proves he doesn't understand the nuances of BrM tanking is all. Shuffle isn't active mitigation. It's an extra buff to follow that makes us a tank. Without it we're no better than a Rogue tanking, for the most part.

The proof of the pudding for monk is using Guard, Dampen, Expel Harm etc. around large hits.

imho, Shuffle isnt Monks "Active mitigation". Its essentially what happens when you would normally preform your rotation as any other tank- push buttons, build up a buff.

Monks Active Mitigation comes in the form of Guard (Large Absorb, perfect to sit on for large hitters aka Triple Puncture), Purification Brew (Gets rid of Stagger damage, bread and butter of proper monk active mitigation), Elusive Brew (Proper usage of this can see a very decent reduction in dodgeable damage over a fight), and various self healing (Expel Harm, Healing Spheres).

I'm not the idiot here. You two are wrong. Maybe you should actually look into something before posting.

Blizzard (you know, the developers of the game) consider Shuffle to be a Monk's active mitigation. Just look at Fatal Strike (one of Ra-den's attacks). It kills you unless you have your active mitigation up. Guess what a Monk has to have up to not die to it. It isn't Guard, Dampen Harm, Fortifying Brew, Elusive Brew, or any of the stuff that you (somebody who had no design influence on Monks) refer to as "Active Mitigation." It's Shuffle. Therefore, the people that designed Active Mitigation AND the Monk, consider Shuffle to be their AM. It's a fact.

The spells you and the other people in this thread are referring to as "Active Mitigation" are their cooldowns. News flash: Every tank has cooldowns and has to use them effectively. However, the other tanks have to intelligently use their AM to stay alive.

Lol'd at this

Anyway, yes monks have a high skillcap. what people are talking about, and what you asked is about the skill level to play a BrM well, which suffice to say isn't too difficult.

The genius above states that a BrM is about keeping up shuffle (which is part of the rotation) and so is amazingly easy. Paladin OTOH, has to keep up a sacred shield from a veng spike, and basically dump HP on SotR, sounds hard im sure.

Now, if youre decently knowledgeable, you noticed i didnt say anything about using SotR at the right time to mitigate damage better. The same goes for Monks, except with guard, gotorbs etc.

Both classes have their skillcaps. Minmax wise, monks are the ones that take more focus to pull out ahead (in sheer performance relative to a maxmium skillcap) than a paladin. A paladin gets a plethora CDs (tanking and DPS) to work with, where as a BrM has to work with the basic shield wall (albeit slightly more powerful) and a plethora of lesser AM that needs to be cycled properly.

I dont want to get into a PalavsBrm debate since its been beaten to death.

The point is to the OP's thread title: BrM's indeed do have a high skillcap, the difference is in the fact that it makes noticeable changes in your numbers going from a good player to a great player. Something that is less prevalent in some of the other tank classes.

Laugh all you want, but you're still wrong. I play at a fairly high level and speak with other great players (many of whom are tanks) a lot. I haven't spoken with one that has played a BrM and at least one other tank this xpac, that thinks they are difficult to play at all or that they have a high skill cap. It comes down to doing a rotation and using short CDs. The "high skill cap" argument is a myth and that is what I am trying to put to rest here, but people like you come in and perpetuate the bullcrap that they do have some sort of lofty skill cap without providing any examples of it. You're just spreading the silly rumor. Give examples of this "high skill cap" in action or stop lying to people about its existence.

I'm not saying that BrM take no skill, but they definitely don't have a higher skill cap than all the other tanks. I'd probably argue that Warriors, Paladins, or DKs have higher skillcaps. Warriors and DKs have a lot more room to max out their survivability and Paladins' raid utility opens up tons of ways for them to help out the other players in the group. Warriors have a real decision to make between SB or SBr on many fights including Tortos (Snapping Bite), Ji-Kun (Infected Talons + Talon Rake), Durumu (Hard Stare with a big healing debuff on you already + his hard hitting melees), Primordius (Huge DoT on you + Primordial Strike), Dark Animus (Massive Anima vs switching to the boss), Iron Qon (Bleed), etc. DKs have TONS of cooldowns to manage in addition to timing DS to be up for Triple Puncture type abilities while also taking into account damage recently taken affecting the size of the Blood Shield. In addition, they have to decide if using DRW as a dps cooldown or a defensive cooldown makes more sense. Paladins have HoP, HoPu, HoSal, HoSac, HoF, WoG, LoH, and Cleanse that can all be used on the raid, but they cost the Paladin himself resources that he could be using for survival or damage whether that be Holy Power, a 10 minute cooldown, or a global. However, the most overlooked resource that the Paladin has to commit to being able to affect the raid in such a big way is his attention. Keeping a vigilant eye on the raid and their debuffs, and then deciding if it is worth the cost to intervene is where a Paladin's skill cap comes into play. All of the tanks mentioned above also have their priority queue change if they need to focus on dps rather than survivability whereas a Monk just does the same rotation regardless.

[Totaltotemic]

BrM doesn't have a high skillcap as much as it has an extremely high level of variance in effectiveness within the skill window. Other tanks get Plate armor values for free, Brewmasters have to keep Shuffle up. It's very binary, don't keep Shuffle up and you might as well be a Windwalker, keep it up and you're at the same passive level as other tanks. That's where 99% of the "omfg why BrM so squishy?!" comes from.

Shield Block/Barrier, Shield of the Righteous, Savage Defense, and Death Strike are the other tank equivalents of Purifying Brew/Elusive Brew. If you don't use them right, you'll get a dead tank in Heroic raids, a more damage than normal tank in Normals, and you won't even notice elsewhere. That's where the real skill is, not much more than the other tanks, but sometimes it seems like it due to the very small entry fee to "become" a real tank in the fight.

[Kroni]

Hmmm... interresting discussion.

Just for refference, i play ProtWarrior, ProtPaladin and Brew Monk at the moment 13/13HC (WR 340, not that high).

At the moment im thinking about switching to my monk, since i really like his playstyle and i also got caught up in this "high skillcap" stuff and wanted to try it out...

Warrior... is just boring for me to play after playing paladin and monk, you have good (raid) CDs and a lot of tools at your disposal, but its not that hard to play. Someone here said its a hard decision if you use barrier or block, i dont think so... after a few pulls you know whats better and even if its situational you dont really have to think about it. In addition to your normal stuff use intervene/safeguard clever and a warrior can be a godly offtank, just boring for me to play.

Paladin... is really powerful. Its not even about the raid CDs but about survival. On many fights healers can just ignore you. In most fights i am responsible for 55-70% of my own healing, so healers dont have to focus that much on you and can heal the raid more. In addition to that you have LoH, BoP, BoS and semi raid healing. Some tools are very simmilar to a monk (chi burst/holy prism, "short" cds, big on demand self heal) and high damage, tho a bit lower than monk probably.

Monk... is just FUN . Its not about the skillcap or anything for me, its just about the playstyle... of course the ultimate damage is a big part. The basics are really simple:

1) keep shuffle up
2) dont purify too much
3) use guard and chiwave sometimes!?

But thats not all you need to do, even then you are not that good of a monk tank. More things are:

1) clever guard usage (just as barrier for warriors)
2) dont just push your chi into shuffle, always pool at minimum 2 for a critical guard (same could be said for paladins, but mostly you dont need it, your god)
3) dont use all your energy, always pool 40-50, never go below for multiple emergency EH'S
4) clever raid burst healing, very useful on most fights expecially ra-den / lei shen / durumu

Someone had a good quote for shuffle.. tanking without shuffle is like tanking with a pally or warrior with no shield and leather armor. On paper it is of course active mitigation, and ra-den's totally dumb mechanic does help to confirm that, but you/we should not think of it as active mitigation, it just always has to be up.

I dont know yet if monk has a higher skillcap then the other tanks or not, but i know that i have to keep track of much more stuff then with warrior and paladin and that makes it a little harder at the moment. This problem could solve itself, if you are used to monk a longer time many off those things to keep track of are intuative.

Just my thoughts,
Kroni

[TheNationGamer]

Because the spec requires you to actually manage your buffs if not squat

I've had so many BRM tanks get shit on cause of RnG procs

[Totaltotemic]

I've had so many BRM tanks get shit on cause of RnG procs

Especially with Rune, but that's a symptom of something else entirely.

Part 2 of the "high skillcap" appearance is BrMs trying to take advantage of something that's possible, but not easy, which is doing lots of DPS while maintaining the same tankiness as a normal tank. It is entirely possible, and very easy, to do slightly more damage than a Warrior or DK tank if all you want to do is press Keg Smash, Jab, and Blackout Kick and gear for straight Mastery/haste.

Problems start to occur when you try to reach Prot Paladin levels of DPS, using things like a RoRo Crit build or the all Crit 4k haste no mastery build. Unskilled BrMs might set up their gear improperly or be overly aggressive trying to gain vengeance and get themselves killed. Like I said in my previous post, it's a problem of extremely high variance in a rather small skill window, if you try things that are too high above your skill level you get destroyed. As long as a BrM starts with the basics (keep Shuffle up), then learns how to manage active mitigation (EB, PB, Guard), and only then moves to maximizing DPS, he/she will be fine. Start trying to run before you can walk though, and you'll have a very unhappy raid.

[lokatii]

"leaving you with 2min+ of shuffle at the end of some fights with next to no haste rating." -Radio-

And this ladies and gentlemen is how you spot a bad brewmaster.

Also I play every other tank and none of them are really "hard." However monk is the "hardest" to do well with and does have the highest skill cap.

[Radio]

"leaving you with 2min+ of shuffle at the end of some fights with next to no haste rating." -Radio-

And this ladies and gentlemen is how you spot a bad brewmaster.

Also I play every other tank and none of them are really "hard." However monk is the "hardest" to do well with and does have the highest skill cap.

And how does that make me a bad brewmaster? Blackout kick is one of our highest sources of DPS and there isn't anything else I can spend the chi on apart from the pre-determined guard.

[Zonex]

I'm not the idiot here. You two are wrong. Maybe you should actually look into something before posting.

Blizzard (you know, the developers of the game) consider Shuffle to be a Monk's active mitigation. Just look at Fatal Strike (one of Ra-den's attacks). It kills you unless you have your active mitigation up. Guess what a Monk has to have up to not die to it. It isn't Guard, Dampen Harm, Fortifying Brew, Elusive Brew, or any of the stuff that you (somebody who had no design influence on Monks) refer to as "Active Mitigation." It's Shuffle. Therefore, the people that designed Active Mitigation AND the Monk, consider Shuffle to be their AM. It's a fact.

The spells you and the other people in this thread are referring to as "Active Mitigation" are their cooldowns. News flash: Every tank has cooldowns and has to use them effectively. However, the other tanks have to intelligently use their AM to stay alive.



Laugh all you want, but you're still wrong. I play at a fairly high level and speak with other great players (many of whom are tanks) a lot. I haven't spoken with one that has played a BrM and at least one other tank this xpac, that thinks they are difficult to play at all or that they have a high skill cap. It comes down to doing a rotation and using short CDs. The "high skill cap" argument is a myth and that is what I am trying to put to rest here, but people like you come in and perpetuate the bullcrap that they do have some sort of lofty skill cap without providing any examples of it. You're just spreading the silly rumor. Give examples of this "high skill cap" in action or stop lying to people about its existence.

I'm not saying that BrM take no skill, but they definitely don't have a higher skill cap than all the other tanks. I'd probably argue that Warriors, Paladins, or DKs have higher skillcaps. Warriors and DKs have a lot more room to max out their survivability and Paladins' raid utility opens up tons of ways for them to help out the other players in the group. Warriors have a real decision to make between SB or SBr on many fights including Tortos (Snapping Bite), Ji-Kun (Infected Talons + Talon Rake), Durumu (Hard Stare with a big healing debuff on you already + his hard hitting melees), Primordius (Huge DoT on you + Primordial Strike), Dark Animus (Massive Anima vs switching to the boss), Iron Qon (Bleed), etc. DKs have TONS of cooldowns to manage in addition to timing DS to be up for Triple Puncture type abilities while also taking into account damage recently taken affecting the size of the Blood Shield. In addition, they have to decide if using DRW as a dps cooldown or a defensive cooldown makes more sense. Paladins have HoP, HoPu, HoSal, HoSac, HoF, WoG, LoH, and Cleanse that can all be used on the raid, but they cost the Paladin himself resources that he could be using for survival or damage whether that be Holy Power, a 10 minute cooldown, or a global. However, the most overlooked resource that the Paladin has to commit to being able to affect the raid in such a big way is his attention. Keeping a vigilant eye on the raid and their debuffs, and then deciding if it is worth the cost to intervene is where a Paladin's skill cap comes into play. All of the tanks mentioned above also have their priority queue change if they need to focus on dps rather than survivability whereas a Monk just does the same rotation regardless.

/cracksfingers

Alright let's go to school, someone was forcefed idiocy.

Firstly, you mention you play at a 'fairly high level", now I dont quite know what exactly you're trying to prove with that, but the difference in progression experience from say a w50 guild and a w100 guild is bigger than you think. Your source of credentiality is up for question, please feel free, to clarify and specify your experience level.

Secondly, the only one spreading rumors seems to be you. Who seemingly thinks the difference between shorter more fluid CD's and longer godmode CD's is little to none..

You wanted arguments for where a progression BrM uses skill, I'll spell it out for you, detail by detail, be sure to read up.

First off, BrM's in progression (10m H) primarily have the choice of going survivability or damage, or a mix of both. When it comes down to it, surviving a tough encounter with a full dps build, not only helps the raid immensely due to less heals/more dmg/bigger shields, it also draws the timer on an encounter to more variable lengths. Survivability is the easy way out, you have any idea how much less attention you have to pull to yourself when going a full mastery build where you dont need it? If you play amazingly with proper AM management (not only shuffle..), mastery becomes moot, as your crit build most likely can handle it. Dw, no examples here, it'll all patch in, in a bit.

Let's go with Guard first; Guard, no idiot uses Guard on CD unless its something like Qon where spikes are limited. Guard is our bread and butter, it provides what SotR provides, except on a 30s CD. READ: it increases our Effective Health. Expel Harm and Orbs dont increase EH. SotR however does. Compare to a warrior, they have something very similar, except on a third of the CD. You're complaining about Durumu for a warrior, seriously? A warrior made Hard Stare completely useless. Paladins had to actually rotate CDs (externals on progression). A Monk got a bit more leeway, as the timer fits our forte a bit more than a Paladin's, not anything like a Warrior's.. lol.

Next, Expel Harm: Expel Harm, is the majority of how BrM's handle spikes. Paladins, DK (albeit harder), and Warriors handle hard Effective Health blows by using Proactive mitigation on no CD (10s for a warrior). Brewmasters, need something between those Guards, that something, is Expel Harm. If you screw it up in progression, you die, simple. Its quite simple to use, it however, is hard to use perfectly. Remember Ra-den? The fight we're gods at, and everything? I'm not going to lie Blizzard gave us a very easy P1 compared to say.. DK's. However, we have the LOWEST HEALTH POOL of all tanks (yes druids scale the same, but the have a higher base value). P2 is HARD hitting melee, with a constant ticking magic dot. Try doing Ra-den in 525 gear, its pretty difficult unless you stack mastery. However, that extra dps was quite important on that first kill as p2 is basicly a kill or be killed phase. What did BrM's do to compensate? They reduced their rotation to its essentials, KS, Jab when reaching energy cap. Other than that, POOL energy at 80 for the entire phase, and be trigger happy with Expel Harm. When expel Harm didn't work, you'd play with GotOrbs. We ARE avoidance tanks, we need to stay focused because our damage is way more spikier than say.. a shield tank's. That is however not a con, a proper Expel Harm user, will still see many many spikes, however, a LOT of those spikes will look like instant ping pong to the healers because of Expel harm (especially with Desperate Measures). Also, Expel Harm, is higher dps/energy than Jab, some BrM's let themselves get hit by attacks/crits as soon as EH comes off CD if they have other AM readily available for dodge RNG (GotOrbs).

Next, we have Elusive Brew. I love this ability, it can be a godsend at times, or absolutely useless at others, as is the nature of RNG. As most progression tanks have anyway, they track the swing timer of their mobs. Which suffice to say, means popping EB before the next swing lands and not right after. (Same deal with SotR, Savage Defense, etc.). However, for progression, without Mastery to fall back to, EB is our most powerful weapon against melee swings. the "skill-cap" for EB runs in tandem with every other AM we have. EB itself is a limited resource (even at 59% DW) and so, you can't use it unerringly everytime you feel like (o I have a few EB stacks). EB comes with certain rules if you want to maximize it. You should never let it sit at 15 stacks. You should have it up almost the ENTIRE time tanking hard hitting AoE packs. On the offchance hardhitting monsters stick on you for a long time, you have to start rotating EB with other AM. When you have a Guard, dont be stupid, don't put up EB. When you CW/EH off CD, dont use up EB. EB RNG is taken care of by GotOrbs. Forgot to mention it in the Guard section. IF you are taking sustained high damage, dont pop guard at full or near full hp, pop it when youre about to hit the shitter, it gives your healers plenty of time to heal you (or if youre feeling DPS-y, use the boosted Expel Harm, though its a waste). Example -> Megaera Breaths, you take the first1-2 ticks, pop up Guard, and youre safe for every other breath. Pop it at the first tick, and they start melee-ing when you have ~50% hp. This is from the pov of 510ilvl doing Hc Megaera, proper CD management mattered.

Next, Purifiying Brew. Now this is an OLD topic, 25man tanks take heavy stagger for a lot longer than 10m tanks do since they have a plethora of Hots (plus a personal healer, lucky bastards). As for a 10man progress raider, it really comes down to your philosophy about the skill. I know some people who base it on their current health, some people who base it on their max health (default); I personally base it on what my healers are doing and/or which AM's I have ready for use (trust me most of my heals, overheal by quite a bit, might as well let stagger tick one more time between a swing before i EH back to full hp). PB in and of itself is the anti EB, in that it is best used right after a swing or a hit (it is reactive AM). This is our ability that offloads current pressure, nothing much to say about it, its a mid "skill" level ability to use properly.

Next, Gift of the OX; This is under used by so many people, but for progression, this is sososososoooo nice. It's usefulness is directly related to how the BrM uses it. After about 15seconds build up, it gives a Lay on Hands on either side of our BrM. OTOH, if you have to use this as an Expel Harm or smth for the occasional few attacks that dip you, you can choose to park yourself at varying melee distance from the boss itself. That means it'll form different sets of orbs. Whats the upside? A lot less overheal, and a lot more control. On AoE, this thing will spawn like crazy, to the point where so many globes will just overheal. I find people just strafing left and right all at once and waste it all. However, for hard hitting AoE packs, GotOrbs loses its "insurance" value and comes to the front line. Spinning Crane Kick severely lowers EB generation, so the AM for those constant spikes are the constant Lay on Hands known as GotOrbs. But you can be spazzy abou tit, else youll just eat an entire set and heal for about 20% of your hp.

Next, Healing Spheres; Let's face it, magic damage is a pain for every tank. Some tanks get 25%, others get 15%, some even get 10%. We're lucky to have 25%, but do you know the downside? Our HP. Guard isn't up all the time, we can't rely on Desperate Measures, and GotOrbs (and those go pretty fast at times as well), what's left? Healing Spheres. The equivalent of WoG (i guess WoG is buffed by the tier bonuses but w/e). Sometimes you just pit yourself in a corner with nothing to fall back on, that what HS helps. On Durumu, i had found that GotOrbs and EH were eaten up by how hard the guy hits. So for thsoe Hard Stares inbetween Guards, Zen Meds, Dampen Harms, there were 1 or 2 that i had no mitigation for. What did i do? I just placed 2 HS next to my char, as soon as i took the spike, it bounced up again. The beauty of HS is that you can PLAN it, so its like next generation reactive AM (if only it was a waste of resources).

Next, t5 abilities -> Dampen Harm and Diffuse Magic. These abilities aren't "skill-capped" hard to use. They however are very powerful and act as our cooldown set for stuff other tanks use Shield Barrier or SotR on. It has to be set on a rotation based on the boss' danger time length. Example, Horridon, that guy hit hard so Hard and often that reactive AM didn't suffice at some point. So.. it came down to proper proactive AM rotations. DH has 3 charges, most people expect it to save them from one Triple Puncture or w/e. On progression, his actual melee would just proc DH regardless, so.. The best way was to pop it right before a Tp, and pop EB and hope he doesnt hit you inbetween or just save it for when charges would happen after a TP, and the chance of getting DH on 2 TP's would increase largely. The only other tank i know, who uses this kind of planning around DH type skills is a DK.

Next, we have Spinning Crane Kick; We are the best AoE tanks and sustained DPSers in the game. The dilemma however, is that we are also one of the weakest to tank high numbrs of hard hitting monsters. Why? Because we are avoidance tanks, overall the dmg intake might be the same, but those RNG spikes are what matter. We reduce that by having EB up constantly, and when it isnt have Guard up, and fill in with EH and GotOrbs. However, we also lose a bulk of our damage by not using SCK, HOWEVER, SCK also makes us produces EB and a very very lowered rate and our AM model shifts much more into the reactive side (GotO reliance). We also have Breath of Fire, comes at the cost of PB if just starting the fight or low on shuffle. Before you think it, the new RJW doesn't change much, RJW will still reset up swing timer, the trick will be to use it right after a swing happens, like PB.

That seems to be enough about AM, though there is more if you'd like to learn more.

Now you mention how a Paladin has to track the raid for snap LoH or BoPs or w/e. Yup I won;t deny it, they have a lot of responsibility on that regard. However, dont dismiss BrMs. We have Tiger's Lust, which is quite a lot more useful than a simple HoF. We also have our Detox, on par with pala Cleanse. On the "focus" front, if you hadn't noticed, we have a lot of other shit to track than a Paladin or Druid. Utility front is easy and is part of the tactic, Leg Sweep or BoPs or RoPs or w/e most of the time aren't snap abilities. They are set in a rotation so as to maximize DRs. Very easy to use for everyone. BoP's are very easy as well, dont play it any other way. Next is Chi Wave, this ability can be used on other characters, and given even decent vengeance, is a LOT OF healing, and on a very short CD as well. As it is part of BrM AM, it must be weighed from a CD to CD basis. Warriors, now they dont have much to do other than focus on their abilities. They have intervene/safeguard/ Banners fal under raid CD's so aren't used on reflex and are used when called, and finally they have a low dura stun that shares DRs with more potent stuns.

Fact is, BrM's have to focus on things more than other tanks do. Palas have it shifted heavily on their HP/raid frames/vengeance counter so they can snapshot SS and Exec Sentence. BrM's have a plethora of Weakauras/auras/w.e to track Shuffle, Stagger, Guard Value/EB stacks/ EB Dura/ Vengeance for snap guards. We have all that + we have to actively track and place GotOrbs (the extent to how much you do here results in how much it pays out). on top of this, we still have to watch raid frames for dips or roots or detoxes.

A lot of wht has been posted above becomes less important the more you stack mastery, although doing both in tandem makes one close to invincible. However, for 10m, tank DPS helps a lot. Our going into crit/haste instead of mastery, increases our dps by quite a noticeable amount, and if death isn't an issue (even on hard fights, but with proper "high-skill" AM usage, you get to reap the benefits of both worlds.

Now for progression, I'm not stupid enough to start fights i have little knowledge about with a full crit build, I will go full survival for the first few tries to learn the timers/ and his ability skips, and ill go into crit once I've got it down. For the harder bosses, I gradually lower mastery instead of in one fell swoop.

You mention "all other" tanks have a priority change (queue?) for survivability to damage. The same thing goes for BrM, except what you do to survive matters much more depending on the gear streategy you go into the fight with, rather than being a jack of all trades midcombat.

I didn't mention many things here which im sure most people know, like t15 2set, t15 4set /sit, t16 4set optimization, and so on.