Eminence

Hello everyone. It's been a long time since I actually added something good to the forums, except for whoring myself out, that was good <3. I thought I would make a brief guide to the Brewmaster spec incase someone needed some guidance or help, seeing as it is quite a compelling and difficult spec to play.

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Mitigation

To start, the overall play style of the Brewmaster is very different to any other tanking class, we do not have block like a paladin or warrior, and we do not gain as much dodge from agility like druids, and the same goes for parry. So where do we get this mitigation? Our spells.

We gain parry by using one of our spells called Blackout kick. Blackout kick deals damage to the enemy, and if the enemy is in front of us, it gives us a healing buff, healing you for 20% of the damage. It also gives us a parry buff:

Blackout Kick
After you Blackout Kick, you gain Shuffle, increasing your parry chance by 20% and your Stagger amount by an additional 20% for 6 sec.

This will give a level 90 monk (With no reforging/gems into parry) around the 30% parry chance, which is essential for single target boss tanking, and it is also very helpful when tanking an AoE pack.

This buff lasts for 6 seconds, but if used again while the buff is up, it will add to the current buff, making it a maximum of 10 seconds.

The second mitigation buff is from the spell Elusive Brew:

Elusive Brew
Increases your chance to dodge melee and ranged attacks by 30% for 1 sec per stack of Elusive Brew active, consuming your Elusive Brew charges.

To use this brew, you will need stacks of the Elusive Brew charge. These charges are gained from auto-attack critical hits made by the player. Depending on how slow your weapon speed is, you will gain more or less charges, for 2Hs, you get an average of Speed/1.8 charges. For 1Hs, you get an average of speed/2.6 charges. If you have an unusually slow weapon, you can get 3 charges, but its rare to have such a slow weapon.

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Cooldowns

Monks have some very nice cooldowns in terms of group and self cooldowns.

To start, one of the most OP AoE cooldowns in-game at the moment, Avert Harm;

Avert Harm
You reduce the damage taken by all nearby party and raid members within 10 yards by 50%, and cause half of all remaining damage they take to be re-directed to you. Lasts for 15 sec.

Avert Harm is cancelled if you reach 10% or lower health.

This spell will reduce the damage you, ad your party/raid members take by 50%, and causes 50% of any damage they take while the buff is up to be redirected to you.

This means that in a raid situation, cooldowns such as Ironbark from a druid, or any other damage mitigation cooldowns like Pain Sup can be used to keep the buff on the whole raid, this could even be used will tank switching and you don't have the boss taunted onto yourself so that your raid could survive more hits. Oh and did I add? This only has a 1 MIN COOLDOWN! Truly an interesting spell which could make or break a kill in a raid.

The next spell is Guard, which is a small cooldown / personal CD which absorbs damage on you:

Guard
2 Chi
You Guard against future attacks, absorbing (AP * 1.971)+14232 damage for 30 sec.
Any heals you apply to yourself while Guarding are increased by 30%.

This can be used as a small filler in raids, it will only absorb maybe 1/2 hits if you should fail to parry/dodge them, but it is still a nice spell none the less for a 30 second cooldown.[/u] The amount absorbed by guard can be increased by using a spell called tigers palm, tigers palm deals moderate damage, around 20-25k, 40k crits, and DOES NOT COST ANY CHI to use. When using tigers palm, you will gain 2 stacking buffs:

[i]Tigers Palm grants you Tiger Power, causing your attacks to ignore 5% of enemies' armor for 20 sec. Stacks up to 3 times.)
&
Tiger Palm no longer costs Chi, and when you deal damage with Tiger Palm the amount of your next Guard is increased by 5%. Lasts 30 sec. Stacks up to 3 times.

This means you will hit more with all your spells, and will increase the amount you absorb with guard, keep using this as a filler when you have no energy!

Heals done to yourself are increased by 30%, which brings me onto the next spell which is a talent, but an obvious tanking one, Zen Sphere:

Zen Sphere
2 Chi
Forms a Zen Sphere above the target, healing the target for 101 and dealing 101 damage to the nearest enemy within 10 yards of the target every 2 sec for 16 sec. Only one Zen Sphere can be summoned at any one time.

If Zen Sphere is cast again while active, the Zen Sphere will detonate, dealing 360 damage and 360 healing to all targets within 10 yards.

The tooltip on this is bugged, is does heal for a lot more, maybe around 5-10k ticks, 15 crits when periodically healing, but once you detonate it, it heals everyone around you, and you included for a whopping 30-40k. and with 30% more healing to yourself while guarding, it really can be a life savior.

Black Ox Statue

Black Ox Statue is another confusing cooldown which doesn't help the Brewmaster at all, but rather helps the raid/healers by doing so:

Sanctuary of the Ox (Passive)
Everytime the Monk deals AP*16) damage, the Black Ox statue will cast Guard on an injured party or raid member within 40 yards absorbing ((AP * 1.971) + 14232 * 1 damage lasting 30 sec. This effect cannot be cast onto the Monk.)

Theorycrafting needed here (The more AP you have, the more damage you will need to do to give out the buff. But the bigger the absorb you do)

So in theory, every time you do a set amount of damage, you will cast an absorb on a party member, but it can not be cast on yourself.

Last but not least, our personal CD like any other class:

Fortifying Brew
3 min cooldown
Turns your skin to stone, increasing your health by 20%, and reducing damage taken by 20%. Lasts 20 sec.
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Mastery and Staggering

So far, Brewmasters definitely have one of the most OP tanking buffs in the game, and to make it even better their mastery buffs it even more!

Stagger is a debuff that you will gain when ANYTHING hits you with physical damage.

Stagger
You shrug off physical attacks, causing 70% of the damage to happen instantly and the remaining 30% to be divided over 10 sec.

The more you get hit, the more damage you will stagger, the debuff will change name and color depending on how much is being staggered, a light stagger, a moderate stagger and a heavy stagger.

Purifying Brew
1 Chi
Instantly purifies all of your staggered damage.

Purifying brew will remove the stagger debuff, meaning all the damage you would have taken over 10 seconds is now removed. This is SO VITAL for any end game brewmaster, and it really is a gamebreaking ability.

For example, by default (and zero mastery) you would stagger 30% of any physical hit incoming. On my level 88 brewmaster, I have not reforged anything into mastery, and I only gain a small amount from my gear, I gain an extra 10.43% on my stagger, meaning I would stagger 40.43% of the hit I receive, but once you add in the buff you gain from Blackout kick which we saw earlier:

Blackout Kick
After you Blackout Kick, you gain Shuffle, increasing your parry chance by 20% and your Stagger amount by an additional 20% for 6 sec.

You gain an amazing 20% extra stagger amount, 20%! This means I would have a total stagger amount of 60.43%! Now this is where more theory crafting comes in.(It's not confusing)

For example, I use 1 global, Jab, which is a single target damage spell that costs energy and gives me 1 Chi, Simple. I then use Keg smash, which again, is a single(or damages up to 3 enemies if possible within 8 yards) target damage spell that costs energy, gives the weakened blows debuff to the enemy and gives me 2 chi. I whack the boss with a blackout kick, increasing my parry chance, and my stagger amount making it 60.43%. The boss decides, hey I'm going to hit you for a 100k blow. My stagger kicks in, and I only receive a 40k hit, but the other 60k is ticking over 10 seconds (So 5k a second), but as soon as I hit my Purifying brew, that 60k over 10 seconds is gone, and I just mitigated all that damage, saving myself, and making less work/stress for the healers.

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Rotation / Priority lists

Single Target (Boss)

Spells used:

Avert Harm
You reduce the damage taken by all nearby party and raid members within 10 yards by 50%, and cause half of all remaining damage they take to be re-directed to you. Lasts for 15 sec.

Avert Harm is cancelled if you reach 10% or lower health.

Black Ox Statue
Sanctuary of the Ox (Passive)
Everytime the Monk deals AP*16) damage, the Black Ox statue will cast Guard on an injured party or raid member within 40 yards absorbing ((AP * 1.971) + 14232 * 1 damage lasting 30 sec. This effect cannot be cast onto the Monk.)

Provoke
You mock the target, causing them to rush towards you with a 50% increased movement speed.

Jab
You Jab the target, dealing X damage and generating 1 Chi.)

Blackout Kick
Kick with a blast of Chi energy, dealing X Physical damage. After you Blackout Kick, you gain Shuffle, increasing your parry chance by 20% and your Stagger amount by an additional 20% for 6 sec.

Tiger Palm
Attack with the palm of your hand, dealing X damage and grants you Tiger Power, causing your attacks to ignore 5% of enemies' armor for 20 sec. Stacks up to 3 times, and Tiger Palm no longer costs Chi, and when you deal damage with Tiger Palm the amount of your next Guard is increased by 5%. Lasts 30 sec. Stacks up to 3 times.

Keg Smash
You swing a keg of brew, dealing X damage up to 3 nearby enemies within 8 yards. Also drenches the target in your Dizzying Haze and applies the Weakened Blows effect. Generates 2 Chi.

Guard
2 Chi
You Guard against future attacks, absorbing (AP * 1.971)+14232 damage for 30 sec.
Any heals you apply to yourself while Guarding are increased by 30%.

Purifying Brew
1 Chi
Instantly purifies all of your staggered damage.

Elusive Brew
Increases your chance to dodge melee and ranged attacks by 30% for 1 sec per stack of Elusive Brew active, consuming your Elusive Brew charges.

To start a boss fight, you will first lay down your Black Ox Statue, to start with the absorbs*, you will then use tiger palm 3 times to gain the armor and guard buff*, use keg smash, and then guard so you can start to get your shuffle buff up. This will give you time to get 2/3 globals out without taking damage. Start to jab until you have 2 chi, then Blackout Kick, by then your keg smash should be up again, if it isn't, throw out some tigers palms, they cost no chi, and do damage towards your Ox statue absorbs*. Keg smash, and then blackout kick again.


Once you have 15 stacks of Elusive Brew charges, use Elusive Brew* and gain your 30% dodge chance to mitigate some damage, if you know when the damage is coming, save it for that, to make it easier on the healers.

When you have a moderate or heavy stagger, use your Purifying Brew* to mitigate the damage that will come for you, but once again, if you know the fight, and know when a large physical hit is incoming wait, and Purify it as soon as the stagger debuff comes on.

Keep your blackout kick buff* and Tigers palm buffs* up and guard when needed, and you will never even drop below 50%. Use Avert harm when it comes off Cooldown, as it is a constant 50% damage reduction for you and the whole of your raid.

*Check above for details of spell/buff.

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AoE guide coming tommorow.

#6471520 Twatbash wrote:

Reserved - Vesp delete your post you gay<3

Done, sorry

Liking the read, did you make it by yourself?

Yes, so far i've made this guide from my own personal playing style, and just using the tooltips from WoWhead, I only wanted to make it because I want to play it in MoP, take this as a... application if you will.

#6471541 Twatbash wrote:

Yes, so far i've made this guide from my own personal playing style, and just using the tooltips from WoWhead, I only wanted to make it because I want to play it in MoP, take this as a... application if you will.

You seem very confident then, I'm starting to understand the spec without having ever played monk thanks to this read, I would give you a vote for trying it out definitely

Does this mean I have to make an arms guide?

Mortal strike > colossus smash > overpower > slam

done LOL

MOAR TANKS!

Nice guide bro, Josh just told me about it, my god do Brewmasters sound crazy with mitigation.