I am here today to advocate for the removal of Bonedust Brew. I have 3 interconnected arguments as to why I think this Shadowlands Covenant ability should stay in the Shadowlands. (Please note, the following arguments are specifically from the viewpoint of Windwalker Monk.)
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It becomes the only valid choice. It’s a very easy-to-use ability that always outclasses the other ones. Even during 9.1 when Kyrian technically simmed better, Necrolord was the superior choice in most content due to how easy it was to use in comparison. This easiness comes at a real cost:
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It’s very boring. It doesn’t feel like an exciting button to press, just something you make sure to use every minute somewhere near the targets you are damaging. While this could technically be helped by adding some sort of damage-on-front effect to it, where applying it deals some amount of shadow damage, most of its damage comes from other things you do while it’s active. Speaking of:
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It negatively affects the rotation. Currently on Beta it doesn’t seem to renew a chi whenever you use SCK, but due to the ability lines into Bonedust Brew, it will likely still mean that you will forego mastery and the way your aoe rotation usually works in favor of spamming SCK while Bonedust Brew is applied. Even if this isn’t the case, the ability isn’t interesting enough to warrant cluttering your AOE rotation (see point 2).
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Bonus point, which isn’t major, but really annoys me: It doesn’t really fit into class fantasy. Yes, it is technically a “brew” but only in name. It might as well be called “Bonedust Bomb” if it wasn’t specifically for Brewmaster synergies. It just creates a dark green shadowy cloud that is a far cry from other monk abilities. If it was reflavored to be something along the lines of “Burning Brew” or “Lightning Brew” it wouldn’t at least conflict with the monk’s class fantasy, which includes deriving your powers from the cosmic force of Life, the opposite of where Bonedust Brew originates from.