As in the tile, what’s up with Brewmaster’s global cooldown and cooldown of Blackout Kick?
From what I understand, both of those have static cooldown: 1sec for GCD and 4sec for BK. Static meaning not reduced by haste, which is why haste is such bad stat.
Above should mean, that you should be able to use BK, then some other 3 abilities, and BK should be ready up again.
But I just picked up brew, and I noticed that after using BK, I then use 3 other abilities, and BK should be ready, but most of the time I need to wait a little while for it to come off cooldown.
It is infuriating!
It feels like GCD is actually slightly lower than 1 sec, or cd of BK is actually little longer than 4 sec. Is this some kind of bug?
It makes the spec super frustrating to play, where I have to wait for BK to come off cooldown when it should be already available. And it is ability that you need to press every 4 sec, so you press it A LOT.
I do not even want to think about it with 2sec kick in 11.1, yikes.
BTW extra question, what is limit of vitality stored on Master of Harmony, is it your total HP? (I have an alt with 8mil HP, and max vitality I can store is about 8 min)
You may say this, however, what you are experiencing is not a bug, it is an illusion created by the interaction between your internal rhythm, the game’s tick rate, and how Brewmaster’s cooldown system actually functions. You see, when you press Blackout Kick, you instinctively count the next three abilities and expect it to be back, but the reality is that abilities do not operate in a vacuum. The global cooldown may be listed as 1 second, but it is subject to server tick rates, latency, and how your actions queue. Likewise, Blackout Kick’s cooldown is 4 seconds, but it does not tick down in a way that perfectly aligns with your ability sequence, it is always nudging forward, slightly desynced from what feels like a perfect rotation.
This is why many new Brewmasters struggle with its flow. Brewmaster is not designed for rigid rotations like other tanks; it is a spec built around adaptability. If you attempt to play it like a strict 1-2-3-4 rotation, you will always feel like something is “off”, because it is meant to be. The key is in understanding how your cooldowns actually align over the course of a fight, not just within a four-second window. It is a dance, not a metronome.
As for the upcoming 2-second Blackout Kick in 11.1? That is where things will become truly interesting. Instead of relying on this mental cycle of four-second resets, Brewmasters will need to let go of the expectation of perfect ability alignment and instead embrace the chaos. Brew is not about pressing buttons on cooldown; it is about managing your stagger, your brews, and your damage intake in a way that makes sure your next move is always the right move.
And as for Master of Harmony’s stored vitality? Yes, it is limited to your total HP. That stored healing is your lifeline, but much like everything else in this spec. It is not something to be blindly relied upon. If you are waiting for Blackout Kick, waiting for vitality to tick up, waiting for everything to be just right, you have already lost the flow. Brewmaster does not wait. It reacts. It adapts. It survives
Well I did some more testing and it is even weirder than I initially thought.
issue is definitely in global cooldown, which is never 1 second, it seems to be 1s ± 70ms.
Kick becomes desynced when delta of GDC between kicks is negative. This makes me think that cooldown of actual kick may work correctly, but I have no way of testing it unless I can normalize GDC, but I have no way of doing.
Longest time I had to wait for kick seems to be around 250ms, which is a veeery looong time.
I did my subjective or ‘feel’ testing in delves, and this is where I noticed delay on kick. To make sure that abilities are used one after another without gaps I am using spell queue of 100ms, and WA which tracks ability usage on a timeline.
For calculating time I am using combat logging.
Example is where I use Keg Smash on 2.242s and after that use Tiger Palm at 3.177s, it gives difference of 0.935 when it should be exactly 1.000s, it gives delta of -0.065 or 65miliseconds. If you roll that on 4 abilities in a row, it creates the 250ms desync.
But thankfully that does not happed that often. GDC can roll to be higher, which cancels itself out, but you still will have unlucky streaks sometimes.
This also means that when new set procs 2sec kick, issue will be a lot less noticeable.
I can only conclude that culprit is blizzard’s spaghetti code. This is definitely not an issue with ping or delay, if that was true, GDS would be always longer, and never shorter.
I am also sure that this is not exclusive for brewmaster and happens for every spec in the game, but it’s not noticeable, since their GDC and most abilities are actually affected by haste.
I know that main purpose of the spec is to actually tank and mitigate damage, but that was not the point of my post.
It is just frustrating that you not only have to wait for energy sometimes, but also have to wait to use ability which should be available already.
It is just very noticeable on brew, where your main ability is on short 4sec static cooldown.