I'm planning to switch from Guardian to Brew and your critical review is excellent.One thing only - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vvW26wJ5JsSpeccing into the left side of the class tree and yes, going down to Jade Statue can actually be used by brew (and WW).The idea is indeed (I tested in beta) to use statue to continuously cast Soothing mists on you (you have to just start the cast and then proceed with the tank rotation). Yes, it's crazy, but it can allow for some crazy and creative things with Brew - like soloing M+ and Raid bosses. Remains to be seen.
Without ever reading on Monk, like ever, and looking through my Altoholic and seeing my monk with 7 days of play time, being by far my lowest used character with multiple in the hundreds of hours mark, I only had to play test them on alpha and beta to know how much better they were going to be as a tank compared to my druid.And after reading through this I am glad I made the choice to drop playing druid and move onto something which admittedly is more complex, far more complex (and even more complex than it is now in SL), but with a much wider range of options and more rewarding.It's night and day how much better some specs are than others for the same role and it's no wonder they have trouble balancing them to try and be as equal as possible, when you have now more buttons to use than a druid, something aint right with their class devs, or in druids case, lack of class devs it seems.
With Shadowboxing Treads, each individual Blackout Kick (up to 3) triggers Staggering Strikes. So in AoE/cleave, you get that stagger reduction three times per use of BoK. Does that push the talent even slightly out of the "Hall of Shame"? This write-up doesn't make any effort to quantity how "bad" it is.
Guardian druids are losing things in DF. It's the only tanking spec (maybe the only spec in the game) that is actually losing abilities with the expansion. You are not only losing your set 4-pc bonus like monks, you are losing also 3 out of 4 covenant active abilities (monks have two), and those three are prefered by many players, especially Ravenous Frenzy, but also Kindred spirits and last but not least Adaptive Swarm in single target. Even the Fae guardian cannot pick Incarnation and Convoke together. To me it's now a 3rd distant offspec of a healer or DPS druid main.
It's always nice to see somebody take a hard, critical eye at the specs. Bonus points since Brewmaster Monk might be worth it. Still, I hope the two Covenant abilities were actually well-liked and did something.
Does Brewmaster really need RSK? It has no synergy with the spec (that already has a lot of buttons to press). I don't believe it would increase the DPS significantly, maybe it is better to get things like Generous Pour in its place.
This is a good write up, thank you. I feel the same about a lot of changes (even though I'd just prefer to have improved roll be baseline) and it's good to read up about all the good things BM has coming. It's been a spec I've enjoyed off and on since BFA- technically Legion but that was like 3 weeks prior to pre-patch BFA- and I've picked up an interest in it again lately. It already feels really good to play right now and I'm excited to see that things will get even better next expansion too.
So, Protection Warrior or Brewmaster Monk for DF?🤔
Testing BRM on 10s and 12s Thundering affix only in Halls, Academy and RLP. The only one I made it through was Halls with 8 deaths. I can tell you 'sometimes' the orbs are nice, but other times Im looking for them, very inconsistent drop rate, also purifying doesnt 'light up' until Im basically frustrated it doesnt get 'red' until too late to 'clear' stagger. Am i getting hit hard enough? IM just about dead and still no high stagger? Testing all the tanks (not Bear), BRM needs work. This write-up is questionable at best on the survivability of Monk compared to the other tanks. Im literally falling over and the healer stressing out spamming 25k hps on me almost at all times (small exaggeration). There was a time - one time - where I had 3 orbs and healed myself for 15k. I can tell you the constant damage from Stagger, it makes- with all the defensives that you have to push on cd - is very squishy. Never have I ever spammed expel harm so much waiting for Celestial Brew to come off CD. For Instance: On Fenryr only 5 orbs dropped total, PB was pushed on yellow just for the 25% clear to heal so it was optimal. On trash it seems to work as intended 'sometimes' - sometimes I get great orb generation, and sometimes I get nothing. One thing is that have to be careful with SCK if you dont need your orbs just yet as they come to you when you dont need the heal yet, and SCK is used nowadays in place of tiger palm if talented.TLDR; BRM is the squishiest tank.