Tank Brewmaster Full Guide MoP 5.2

by **Design** Sat Mar 30, 2013 4:33 pm

Monk is a new class on World of Warcraft and not everybody knows how to tank as a beginner, follow this guide and everything will be fine and nobody gonna flame you in your group!

Stat Priority

Agility > Expertise (15%) > Melee Hit (7.5%) > Haste > Stamina > Crit > Mastery > Parry > Dodge

Stat Summaries

Agility Increases your Attack Power, chance to Dodge, and Critical Strike. This is a strong stat for Monks as Attack Power improves the mitigation of Guard and Crit increases the uptime of Brewing: Elusive Brew.

Expertise (15%) Reduces the chance for your attacks to be dodged and parried. At 7.5% Expertise (2550 Rating), your attacks can longer be dodged and at 15% Expertise (5100 Rating) your attacks can no longer be parried. Unlike most other tanks, Brewmaster Monks want to obtain the Parry Cap (15% / 5100 Rating) to maximize their Chi generation and maintain a high uptime on Shuffle and Gift of the Ox. To check your Expertise percentage, open your character panel and then check under the Melee tab for “Expertise” and make sure it is at or just above 15%.

Haste Increases attack speed and slightly improves Energy regeneration resulting in more Chi generated to spend on your mitigation abilities. Also, Haste increases the uptime of Brewing: Elusive Brew.

Stamina Increases your total health. You want to stack just enough Stamina to survive a couple of hits from bosses so that your healers have time to react.

Melee Hit (7.5%) The Hit cap of 7.5% (2550 Rating) will eliminate the chance for any special ability to miss against a boss. Obtaining the Hit Cap helps to maximize Chi generation and maintain a high uptime on Shuffle and Gift of the Ox. To check your Hit percentage, open your character panel and then check under the Melee tab for “Hit Chance” and make sure it is at or just above 7.5%.

Crit Increases the chance for your attacks to critically hit for additional damage. Crit also increases the uptime of Brewing: Elusive Brew.

Mastery Mastery: Elusive Brawler increases your Stagger amount.

Parry Allows you to avoid an incoming physical attack. Parry has very low diminishing returns which means you can stack Parry and it will still be an effective stat. As a rule, you want 2.5x as much Parry as Dodge.

Dodge Allows you to avoid an incoming physical attack. Dodge has a higher rate of diminishing returns than Parry and should not be stacked as high.

Gems and Enchants

Gems

Meta Austere Primal Diamond Effulgent Primal Diamond
Prismatic Delicate Primordial Ruby
Blue Accurate Imperial Amethyst Glinting Imperial Amethyst
Red Delicate Primordial Ruby Precise Primordial Ruby
Yellow Crafty Vermilion Onyx Wicked Vermilion Onyx Deft Vermilion Onyx

Enchants

Shoulders Greater Ox Horn Inscription Greater Tiger Claw Inscription
Cloak Enchant Cloak - Accuracy Enchant Cloak - Superior Critical Strike
Chest Enchant Chest - Superior Stamina Enchant Chest - Glorious Stats
Bracers Enchant Bracer - Greater Agility
Gloves Enchant Gloves - Superior Expertise Enchant Gloves - Greater Haste
Belt Living Steel Belt Buckle
Legs Shadowleather Leg Armor
Boots Enchant Boots - Blurred Speed
Weapon(s) Enchant Weapon - Dancing Steel Details

Profession Perks

The recommended profession bonuses for Brewmaster Monks are provided by Blacksmithing and Leatherworking. Blacksmithing offers the flexibility of gemming for more Stamina or secondary stats. Leatherworking offers choice between a strong Stamina or Agility boost. Always use a profession perk if it is available.

Alchemy Mixology Alchemist's Flask
Blacksmithing Socket Bracer Socket Gloves
Enchanting Enchant Ring - Greater Agility Enchant Ring - Greater Stamina
Engineering Synapse Springs Frag Belt Details
Inscription Secret Ox Horn Inscription Secret Tiger Claw Inscription
Jewelcrafting Delicate Serpent's Eye Subtle Serpent's Eye
Leatherworking Fur Lining - Agility Fur Lining - Stamina
Tailoring Swordguard Embroidery

Talent build and Glyphs

Follow this talent build here for the best brewmaster attacks!
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#n!HJ|

Build Details

This is the base Tanking spec for Brewmaster Monks. Celerity, Zen Sphere, and Leg Sweep provide great utility, but may be swapped with different talents in the same tier based on the needs of the fight. Dampen Harm and Rushing Jade Wind provide excellent threat and survivability boosts. Power Strikes boosts your Chi generation.

Major Glyphs

Glyph of Guard Recommended. Better magic mitigation and healing buff uptime.
Glyph of Breath of Fire Optional. Improved AoE crowd control.
Glyph of Clash Optional. Improved range on your secondary taunt.
Glyph of Expel Harm Optional. Improved range on a key damage/heal ability.
Glyph of Fortifying Brew Optional. Survivability boost if used proactively.
Glyph of Leer of the Ox Optional. Additional taunt is good for multi-target fights.
Glyph of Spinning Crane Kick Optional. Improved mobility during heavy AoE.
Glyph of Stoneskin Optional. Good for fights with bleed damage.

Rotation

Single Target Rotation

Buffs: Maintain these buffs at all times.

Stance: Stance of the Sturdy Ox
Statue: Summon Black Ox Statue

Chi Builders: Follow this priority to generate Chi.

Keg Smash on cooldown when at < 3 Chi. Applies Weakened Blows.
Expel Harm when you are not at full health.
Jab use to build Chi and prevent Energy capping.

Chi Finishers: Follow this priority to spend Chi.

Purifying Brew to remove your Stagger DoT when Yellow or Red.
Elusive Brew if > 10 stacks. Delay up to 10-15 sec for anticipated damage.
Guard on cooldown. Delay up to 10-15 sec for anticipated damage.
Blackout Kick as often as possible. Aim for ~80% uptime on Shuffle.
Tiger Palm does not cost Chi, but is used like a finisher (see explanation).

The Brewmaster Monk single target tanking priority involves building and then spending Chi on abilities that improve your damage and survivability. For building Chi, you want to cast Keg Smash on cooldown as long as you have < 3 Chi or if Weakened Blows might drop. Cast Expel Harm if you are below 100% health and remember that you can spam cast Expel Harm if you are 35% health thanks to Desperate Measures. Otherwise, use Jab as your go-to Chi builder. Finally, be on the lookout for Power Strikes procs to provide an additional Chi or Chi Sphere from your Jab that you can use later.

Spending Chi is a bit more complicated than building Chi. Your first priority is to use Purifying Brew when your Stagger DoT is in its Yellow (moderate damage) or Red (high damage) stages. After this, use Elusive Brew when you have > 10 stacks of Brewing: Elusive Brew to prevent the stacks from capping. This ability may be delayed by 10-15 sec if you are expecting a spike in physical damage. Next, use Guard on cooldown, except when you might need to delay by 10-15 sec to mitigate any spike damage. Cast Blackout Kick as often as possible to activate Shuffle. Generally, you want to obtain an ~80% uptime on Shuffle as any higher uptime reduces how often you can use Guard.

Tiger Palm is a unique ability thanks to Brewmaster Training. For Brewmasters, Tiger Palm has no Chi cost and provides both the Tiger Power and Power Guard buffs. Tiger Power is easy to maintain as you will almost always cast Tiger Palm once every 20 sec, but Power Guard requires some planning. It is ideal to have Power Guard for each Guard. In most situations, you will have a Power Guard in time for each Guard, but if you need to use Guard for a large hit you should make sure to use Tiger Palm just before Guard is required.

Finally, one last ability needs to considered for effective Brewmaster Tanking: Gift of the Ox. This ability places Healing Spheres on the ground that you can move over for a decently sized heal. You should save ~3 spheres at all times and consume other spheres as they appear. Only consume the 3 reserved Spheres when you need a large heal to help recover from a major attack.

AoE Rotation

Dizzying Haze
Breath of Fire
Spinning Crane Kick

AoE tanking is pretty straight forward for Brewmasters. At 2 targets, continue with the single target rotation and switch between the targets as needed to maintain threat. With 3+ targets, maintain the Dizzying Haze debuff that is applied by Keg Smash and the DoT from Breath of Fire. At 10+ targets, spam Spinning Crane Kick to generate Chi and spend the Chi as you normally would. Also, remember to activate Rushing Jade Wind to apply Shuffle.

Effective Cooldowns

These effective cooldowns are available if you chose them in your talent build.

Zen Sphere Use with excess Chi for self-healing or to help with AoE threat.
Dampen Harm Use often to reduce damage. Line up with spike damage when possible.

These are effective cooldowns to try and incorporate into most all encounters.

Avert Harm Use as needed to reduce raid damage. Stack with other survival cooldowns.
Fortifying Brew Use as needed to mitigate damage or to stay alive during an emergency.
Nimble Brew Use to remove and/or prevent crowd control effects.
Provoke Use on an enemy for a single taunt or on Summon Black Ox Statue for an AoE taunt.
Touch of Death Be a ninja and try to time this when boss health < your health.
Zen Meditation Use proactively to reduce the damage of one large magic attack by 90%.