Brewmaster Rework - Return to Martial Arts?

[Koují-argent-dawn]

Heyhey,
I was wondering how happy or unhappy the playerbase was overall with the state of brewmaster and throw some ideas into the ring.

I had good fun leveling a guardian druid, prot warrior, blood dk among a few other things and must say they have some stellar survivability while being able to dish out a fair amount of hurt at the same time.
Monk was my fav class overall when I returned to wow a couple years back and while I mained mistweaver, for leveling purposes and doing some content here and there, I’ve dived into brewmaster cause I do enjoy pulling big and giving myself a challenge when questing.

I cant help but feel that compared to all other tanks, brewmaster felt like it always took a couple extra steps to perform even close to how other classes did, or simply fell flat cause it lacked something though.
You don’t absorb hits like a warrior or druid, don’t selfheal as efficiently on demand as a paladin or boast tons of leech like a dh or blood dk. You don’t hit that hard either and fairly gradually poke away at the hp of whatever surrounds you.

What if both in terms of gameplay but also aesthetic, brewmaster could find it’s niché as a parry/counter tank of sorts?
Seeing it’s taking inspiration from the drunken master style, why not lean heavier into it and mix in moves based on defense orientated styles like aikido?

I’m thinking about a few core moves re-tooled to deflect and counter incoming hits, throwing some of the force of attacks against you back at whoeever attacks you instead.
Your rotation could for example lead to parrying the next incoming attack, letting you throw some of the deflected damage right back at your target with a follow up skill/procc.
Drinking for a small heal could be more of a core mechanic, perhaps with augments like entering a dodge-stance for a second when doing so, and following it up with a wild and unhinged punch in theme with the drunken fist style.
You could even use the existing stagger mechanic for counter purposes or build stacks on successful drunken dodges or parries.

Anything to make brew a bit more weighty and impactful so it feels more satisfying to play. Making your buttons have a satisfying result and flowing with some ups and downs rather than feeling kinda flat. Most of all, giving it a distinct personality that stands out a bit.

What do y’all think?

[Kyoth-argent-dawn]

Currently the only real issue I see with Brewmaster is our lack of response to consistent magic damage, and the fact that the spec has a high skill ceiling, so it makes it harder for new players, especially those new to tanking, to get into.

Overall the spec is not doing too back though. Our damage is quite good for a tank (one of the highest I would say) but in order to get the most out of it you need to use a lot of cooldowns and trinkets to make it happen.

A lot of our overall tankiness comes from cooldown usage, which we need to time correctly, which leads to one feeling squishy. Our self healing have been buffed a lot, but we are still reliant on having orbs up to make the most of them.

The class is overall fine in my opinion, atleast compared to other tanks like guardian druids. Stagger was always that made us stand out from the tanking roster, which we still have against physical attacks. We can get away with things not many other tanks can.