Posted on by Sunnier

Brewmaster Patch 5.1 Survival Guide

Between all the new progression and patch 5.1 (live today), it appears Blizzard’s purpose in life is to prevent me from writing timely boss guides.

Brewmaster Class Changes

I’ve talked about my feelings on most of these changes in this post, so if you want opinions go there.

  • The Power Strikes talent now grants the Power Strikes effect every 20 seconds, which causes the Monk’s next attack to generate 1 additional Chi.
  • The Tiger Power provided by Tiger Palm now reduces target armor by 30% with a single application and no longer stacks.
  • *Undocumented* In addition to increasing your maximum Chi, Ascension now increases your energy regen by 15%.
  • *Undocumented* Dampen Harm now only reduces damage done by attacks that are greater than 20% of your health, up from 10%.
  • Survival Instincts is once again granted to Brewmaster Monks and now costs 2 Chi to use.
  • Spear Hand Strike now costs 10 energy, down from 30. (Still free for brewmasters.)
  • The energy costs of Legacy of the Emperor, and Legacy of the White Tiger have been reduced to 20, down from 50.
  • The energy cost of Healing Sphere has been reduced to 40, down from 60.
  • Stance of the Fierce Tiger now increases the Monk’s movement speed by 10% in addition to its other effects. This movement speed increase stacks with other effects.
  • The healing provided by the Healing Sphere base spell has been increased by 20%.
  • The Healing Elixirs talent now grants the Healing Elixirs effect every 18 seconds, which causes the next Brew or Tea consumed to Heal the Monk for 10% of maximum health.
  • The healing provided by Chi Burst and Chi Wave has been reduced by 25%.
  • The healing provided when detonating Zen Sphere has been reduced by 25%.
  • The Weakened Blows effect has a new icon.

New Reputations to Grind

Brand New PvP Factions

Horde and Alliance get the same gear but with different names. All of this is the same item level as Heart of Fear normal gear.

(For some reason the mouseover info for all of these items is incorrect. If you click through, you’ll find the right information.)

Try to get the agility trinket first. The stamina trinket is good situationally, but the agility one will be useful more often.

Easier Grind for Existing Factions

Once you reach revered, you can purchase Grand Commendations from each MoP quartermaster and increase your reputation gain for that faction. I had totally forgotten about this change and I stopped doing most dailies at revered so yay.

New Reason for Valor Points

Justice points can be used to upgrade blue-quality items and valor points can upgrade epic-quality. Wowhead has a nice guide if you want the details. Generally, use the upgrade system when you don’t need valor gear, the next upgrade is out of reach, or you already have best-in-slot. If you’re like me and stopped grinding valor because you hate dailies, well you’re going to have to suck it up and reach cap every week. :(

Things to do upon logging in

  1. Update addons. You will need to download the alpha versions of some addons (like Weak Auras). I’ve been refreshing my addon downloader every hour or so and keep finding fresh updates, so it seems like addon authors are hard at work.
  2. Turn on “Load out of date AddOns” (but maybe turn off some out-of-date addons that deal with combat events, since those tend to be the biggest source of lag after big patches).
  3. Update Weak Aura strings. I’ve changed a few of them (specifically the chi tracker) and fixed some bugs. There are still a few bugs caused by 5.1 but I think they’re on the WA side, so for some auras you’ll have to wait until the addon stabilizes.
  4. Reevaluate your level 45 talents. All three options should now be viable.
  5. Go get the next step in your Wrathion legendary questline (if you’ve finished the current one).
  6. Go to the coast of Krasarang Wilds for more dailies! D: