Sell me the Brewmaster

[Aleslugger 1]

First off, I absolutely adore this class and especially the brewmaster theme, but I'm just not making good use of it. I'm also not very good or knowledgable at it, so please excuse my stupidity in this ramble :P

With other tanks, I always feel like I'm in control. I have abilities that easily gather all enemies to me, but it's so different with the monk. If we're not counting the artifact weapon's special ability (since you spend at least 98 levels without it), I basically have a single proper AoE attack, being the Keg Smash. Compared to other tanks' abilites like Thunder Clap, Blood Boil, etc., I feel like Keg Smash is absolutely terrible. It has a much smaller radius, so I always have to run around and try to herd groups into tight bunches before I can effect all of them. If I'm completely surrounded by enemies within melee range, I feel like I'm lucky if I hit even a third of them with the splash, and so often I have to run around and tag drifters with melee attacks. I'm really jealous of the other classes' spells that are centered on the caster or placeable.

Am I doing something wrong, or is this a common problem? I know I have the Provoke ability as well, but being a single target spell with an 8 second cooldown, it doesn't really help my problem much. I really want to make my monk work, but I feel completely at a loss in dungeons and raids sometimes, and I always fall back to my prot paladin just because I feel like I'm doing an awful job with my monk.

Pleeease show me how I'm being an idiot and how the brewmaster is actually a competent tank!

[Carrn 284]

13 hours ago, Aleslugger said:

If we're not counting the artifact weapon's special ability (since you spend at least 98 levels without it)

I realize that there's a huge part of the game that comes before 'end game', but the game isn't balanced around any of it. Skills and abilities and talents are given with end game in mind, and in many classes cases they get crucial skills and traits from their weapon which completely alter their playstyle.

Keg Smash has a much larger radius (and longer range) than you think. Breath of Fire is a good AoE, and with your traits it gives you 3 pulses which you can turn whatever way you like. Rushing Jade Wind is a talent that gives you AoE around your character if you want to take that talent, and if you're creative you can use Ring of Peace to move mobs wherever you like 

Other than the issue with being unsure about your AoE, do you have any other problems with the spec? 

[Aleslugger 1]

Yeah, crowd control is my biggest problem. I guess I'll switch over to Windwalker while levelling, and get back to my slugger when I get to the Broken Isles. It's just sad that I don't get to enjoy my class for almost a hundred levels :(

[Weltenfeind 40]

I'm honestly also not entirely sure what the problem is. Keg Smash doesn't fundamentally do anything different than Blood Boil or Thunder Clap, except for the nice effect of lowering your CD on Brews, which is crucial, and actually having a longer range than the aforementioned abilities. If you Keg Smash into Firebreath, those mobs WILL stick to you.

Edit: Oh yeah, and enemies affected by Keg Smash gets a dot from Breath of FIre. Also, the radius of Thunder Clap and Keg Smash are the same.

Edited February 7, 2018 by Weltenfeind

[Carrn 284]

17 hours ago, Aleslugger said:

Yeah, crowd control is my biggest problem. I guess I'll switch over to Windwalker while levelling, and get back to my slugger when I get to the Broken Isles. It's just sad that I don't get to enjoy my class for almost a hundred levels :(

Yeah it's kind of a shame, but Brewmaster fundamentally changes once you get points in your weapon and get the traits which reduce Brew cooldowns etc.

That, and things like the legendary shoulders (which give 2 charges on KS) are kind of awesome (if you happen to get them lol)

[Aleslugger 1]

On 2/7/2018 at 9:11 PM, Weltenfeind said:

Edit: Also, the radius of Thunder Clap and Keg Smash are the same.

I guess my complaint is for cases that don't pop up all too often, but instead of bursting out from the user the keg smash has sort of a venn diagram effect, if that makes sense. If I am surrounded by enemies, circling me, a burst like thunder clap or blood boil would cover them all, while the keg smash splashes out from an enemy, only covering the ones that are in the overlapping area. It might be a minor problem, but it just bothers me.

[Kufru 7]

Hi !!

Rushing jade wind is great for aoe aggro.

I think the advantage of the brewmaster is his great mobility, torpedos, speeds, taunt making mobs sprint, you have to use this to pack mobs and place them where you want to smash/breathfire them ^^

Don't let the mobs surround you :)  (besides, any tank trys to avoid behing hit from behind)

[BaronOz 0]

It's important to mention that the Alpha team are considering returning Spinning Crane Kick to Brewmaster in Battle for Azeroth, so we may regain some AoE control given the loss of the Artifact ability

[Elimae 0]

I love my brewmaster monk and have been tanking with her for a long time. My off-tank is always complaining I steal the adds and boss from him. (Not intentionally I might add.) If you are having problems with crowd control and keg smash and breath of fire aren't enough then take the talent Summon Black Ox Statue. Create a macro:

• #showtooltip Provoke
• /target Black Ox Statue
• /cast Provoke
• /targetlasttarget

Guaranteed to bring em running to you.

BTW: it is often useful to get rid of that aggressive statue so you should also build this macro which uses the Alt key to dismiss it.

• #show
• /click [mod:alt] TotemFrameTotem1 RightButton
• /stopmacro [mod:alt]
• /cast Summon Black Ox Statue

Edited June 19, 2018 by Elimae