Brewmaster - working as intended?

[Carnifex-doomhammer]

So I have gotten a guardian druid and prot warrior to 70, and am just about there with my prot paladin & vengeance dh.

I have been working on my Brewmaster, which is almost 70, but I would like to share some observations and see if anyone else has run into this or what exactly is going on.

Basically I am comparing the pulling of packs in the initial boss are of Nokhud Offensive. Here are my experiences on each tank spec so far:

Prot Warrior: No issue - AOE stuns, Ignore Pain works well, self-healing keeps up. Powerful feeling when jumping into a new pack. Can fight the pack of mobs for quite some time without worry (if healer is not there for example).

Guardian Druid: No issue - can pop cooldowns if necessary and enrage. Lots of fun. Big damage numbers. Overall pleasant experience. A bit more squishy than the prot warrior.

Prot Paladin: EZ-Mode. Run in, drop AOE, alternate DPS or healing with holy wrath spenders. Pretty fun. No need to pop any cooldowns (but fun to do so with avenging wrath mechanic). Health drops quicker than the prot warrior / guardian druid, but the heals are very powerful.

Vengeance DH: Jump in, go to town. Mitigation is good enough w/self-healing that it is easy to look for mobs doing things that should be interrupted and handle it. Cooldown usage increases flavor/fun of the spec.

Blood DK: only at 60 so far so no experience yet.

Brewmaster Monk: I jump into a pack ahead of my teammates, like I have done with every other tank, and I find I am using all of my cooldowns in order to stay alive. The stagger mechanic does not seem to be working properly, or I am taking so much damage that it doesn’t matter. I feel like I have no armor, and the self-healing I have is not able to keep up.

So my question is, at level 70 with good gear, do these issues with Brewmaster get fixed? Does stagger start to work better? Currently I find the spec extremely squishy. I also find that in order to get the same level of “Quality” when playing, it is necessary to push about 3x the amount of buttons.

I do not mind having to use the brews, etc, but it seems that every fight I have to use Expel Harm, Vivivy (when instant), Healing Elixirs, Dampen Harm, and Celestial Brew just in order to not explode after a few seconds.

Thanks and Happy New Year

p.s. my current monk build is based around breath of fire and I feel like I do excellent DPS but no tanking. I wonder if like 10% leech would solve the issue.

[Mibba-draenor]

@Carnifex-doomhammer

So my question is, at level 70 with good gear, do these issues with Brewmaster get fixed?

no

@Carnifex-doomhammer

Does stagger start to work better?

no

@Carnifex-doomhammer

I wonder if like 10% leech would solve the issue.

no again

[Zenergy-defias-brotherhood]

It is true that we take more damage than other tanks, but we get more stronger the more damage we take: by that I mean that the more stagger you clear, the more Purified Chi stacks you will have which results in a big Celestial Shield (200-250k). Also, the lower your hp is, the more Expel Harm will heal.

It is perfectly normal for your hp to be yoyo’ing so much.

I have had no problems surviving big trash packs. I normally jump in and pop Dampen Harm few seconds into the fight. By the time that falls off, I am on 6-8 stacks of Purified Chi, giving me a big shield when I am low on hp. During this fight, you will also accumulate healing orbs, and 1x Expel Harms usually heals me to full. During the stage of accumulating Purified Chi stacks, use Exploding Keg when kinda low on hp, those 3 seconds of enemies missing you is plenty for healer to top you up and let you get back to stacking Purified Chi. And this is just a normal pull.

For larger pulls, pulling rooms or say: one pack by the ballista + patrol on Nokhund: I would accumulate Purified Chi stacks from a fight before, jump into fight having access to a big a shield when needed: use it and then reset brews with Black Ox Brew, when that’s gone I pop fully decked out Fortifying Brew, by the time that is gone I again have Purified Chi stacks for a big shield. And you still have Nizao, Exploding Keg, Diffuse, kitting, ring of peace, aoe stun.

[Mibba-draenor]

@Zenergy-defias-brotherhood

It is true that we take more damage than other tanks, but we get more stronger the more damage we take: by that I mean that the more stagger you clear, the more Purified Chi stacks you will have which results in a big Celestial Shield (200-250k)

It stop work when mob/boss destroy shield in one second

[Zenergy-defias-brotherhood]

They absolutely do not to that. If that was the case, then such dmg would happen randomly when you don’t have a shield, which means we would be getting hit for 80% hp while having ~75% stagger on top of physical defense from armor and innate tank passives.

[Mibba-draenor]

@Zenergy-defias-brotherhood

getting hit for 80% hp while having ~75% stagger on top of physical defense from armor and innate tank passives.

physical melee damage not scare
scare - bleeds / magic dots / magic damage → stagger practically not work