I haven’t completed my challenge mode set yet, but since Challenge Modes will be going away eventually I thought I’d share my notes with the rest of you.
Brewmasters in Real Life
Sometimes I see the word “brewmaster” used in a real life context and I get a little confused because my brain defaults to the WoW version. But the truth is there is a lot of real world inspiration behind the brewmaster and the “drunken ox” fighting style.
One Year of Brewmasters
It’s been a little more than a year since brewmasters became playable on the MoP Beta. And my, have things turned out differently. We went from using Guard as our primary active mitigation tool, to spending most of our time channeling, to finally kicking our enemies in the face to reduce damage and loving crit. Here is a look back at the changing state of brewmasters.
[Guest Post] Brewmaster Secondary Stats
Sunnier Note: This is a guest post from Manníx, a Brewmaster on Shadowsong-EU. It will be (hopefully) part of a continuing series on experimenting with secondary stats. If you would also would like to contribute to this blog as a guest, I would love to hear from you!
One of the hardest things when you begin Brewmaster tanking is working out which secondary stats are best. Part of the problem is that many people come from a history of DPS classes to try tanking perhaps for the first time and expect there to be a clear and simple stat priority. Well unfortunately when it comes to the Brewmaster there isn’t, whilst mathematically you can attempt to simulate a fight and work out which stats produce the best results the simple truth is that almost all the off stats on the Brewmaster are useful if used in the correct manner. So what should you be stacking? I’m going to go over the most popular stats and try and give some insight into how each works and how your playstyle may have to adjust to use them correctly. I am not going to go into the maths in any of these examples and rather give you an idea of how you would play using them so you can pick the one that suits you the most, and in my experience the best tanks are the ones that are playing comfortably and feel in control of the situation.
Things I Found in China that Reminded Me of Pandaria
I went to China recently and couldn’t help but wonder where the Mists of Pandaria artists found their inspiration. I only got to see a relatively small part of the country, but some of it seemed pretty familiar already.
Continue reading “Things I Found in China that Reminded Me of Pandaria”
Tank Comparison: Cooldowns
This is the second in an MoP series on tank comparison. I’ve asked several tanks for improvements to this list, but it’s still possible that I’ve missed something. Please comment if I’ve forgotten or improperly evaluated something. Next I will cover passive bonuses and masteries.
My plans for this series are as follows:
- Active Mitigation
- Long Cooldowns
- Passive Bonuses and Masteries
- Strengths and Weaknesses in all of the above
In this post I compare defensive abilities for all tanks, which I define as situational skills with long cooldowns (greater than 30sec) that keep you alive through extreme damage. Raid utilities are included if they help keep the tank alive as well, though it should be noted that they cannot always be used this way. Also, passive cooldowns like Purgatory are included because they have internal cooldowns and can normally be depended on just like a traditional cooldown.
Tank Comparison: Active Mitigation
This is the first of an MoP series on tank comparison. I’ve asked several tanks for improvements to this list, but it’s still possible that I’ve missed something. Please comment if I’ve forgotten or improperly evaluated something. Next I will cover long cooldowns.
My plans for this series are as follows:
- Active Mitigation
- Long Cooldowns
- Passive Bonuses and Masteries
- Strengths and Weaknesses in all of the above
In this post I compare active mitigation for all tanks, which I define as rotational skills with short cooldowns (less than 30sec) that keep you alive through average damage (i.e. melee hits or spells that are used very often), or consume resources that would otherwise keep you alive. Some of these abilities are more situational than others, but my goal is to include everything that fits the above definition.
This Week in Brewmastery
As brewmasters are starting to settle down into our niches and the MoP release date draws ever nearer, the theorycrafters fire up their Mathematicas (do theorycrafters use Mathematica? I wouldn’t know). This gives us regular folks an opportunity to squeeze their mind grapes and make a delicious alcoholic beverage from whatever tastiness we can gather.
In this week’s edition of mastering the way of the brew, we will cover optimal Shuffle uptime, Avert Harm paradoxes, and why monks are going to be super overpowered in niche cases.
An Early Guide to the Will of the Emperor Dance
I am tempted to call this dance The Emperor’s New Groove.
So far, I’ve only had the chance to do this fight on heroic. We never got very far, either. But in an attempt to learn how to do this fight properly once the time comes, I am cataloging what I’ve learned. Of course, this guide will be useful to exactly zero people until MoP releases or they decide to test these bosses again. Oh well. At least Google will have plenty of time to rank this post.
Continue reading “An Early Guide to the Will of the Emperor Dance”
MoP Beta Addons
Addons have been enabled on the beta, and here’s what I’ve been using.