(With very little information to go on.)
In an attempt to better understand Brewmaster monks, I’ve compared them to Guardian druids. I tried comparing similar abilities side-by-side, but many skills do not have a direct correlation between classes. A couple skills fit into more than one category, so they’re on this list more than once. I probably also missed some skills, so if you find any mistakes, please let me know.
Bears will still be the only offensive tank. That is, Guardians benefit from haste and crit, and will probably have more reasons to cap hit and expertise than other tanks. These stats will increase our rage generation, which leads to more frequent Savage Defenses and Frenzied Regenerations. Brewmaster monks, on the other hand, don’t appear to benefit from these offensive stats. I think they will love dodge, since each dodge gives them a huge amount of Chi (their primary resource). Parry will make their rotation a bit more dynamic and probably increase their damage.
This makes me wonder how Brewmasters will get the defensive stats they need from leather. Guardians benefit from the offensive stats because they contribute to rage generation, but it doesn’t look like Brewmasters benefit from offensive stats in the same way. Hit and expertise will still be useful, since a few of their defensive attacks still need to land, but I don’t see a motivation for them to wear gear with crit or haste. Their primary stat will be agility, which as of this moment doesn’t provide parry. We’re obviously missing some key stat balancing here. I wonder if Brewmasters will have a stat conversion like haste turns into dodge or something like that. Ugly, but it might be required to differentiate the play styles of bears and guardians while keeping them in the same gear.
Brewmasters have a skill that will grant them 50% dodge nearly 100% of the time. This leads me to believe that they will be the closest thing WoW has ever had to a true avoidance tank. (It’s also possible that there’s a typo in there somewhere, but I’m going off of what we can see now.) They use lots of absorption skills, but not nearly as many heals in their toolkit compared to druids. They have their own replacement for block called Stagger, which shaves off 50% of the damage dealt and deals the remaining 50% three seconds later (similar to Stay of Execution ). That’s pretty huge for smoothing out burst damage, though it will likely be physical only so I’m not too worried.
I don’t know where monk tanks will get their passive health and armor bonuses. They probably won’t have as much armor as bears, but they have to have a bonus to leather armor somewhere. They’re also missing a passive health bonus that all tanks get.
Overall, if you like passive damage reduction, straight heals, and nature flavor, you’ll like the Guardian druid best. If you like burst control, high avoidance, and Jackie Chan flavor, you’ll like the Brewmaster monk best.
Overall, if you like passive damage reduction, straight heals, and nature flavor, you’ll like the Guardian druid best. If you like burst control, high avoidance, and Jackie Chan flavor, you’ll like the Brewmaster monk best.
The data we have is obviously incomplete. I assume Blizzard left some of these out intentionally because they’re a given and not so interesting to have on a big press release, but there are a few key tanking skills that they do not have, such as:
- Short term interrupt (like skull bash)
- AoE damage reduction (demo/Weakened Blows)
- Critical hit reduction
- Vengeance
- Armor/health increase that all tanks get
- 50% reduction cd
As is to be expected, all the information I have on monks and MoP druids
comes from the Blizzard talent calculator and the information presented
by MMO-Champion/WowheadNews/WoW Insider from the recent press release. I
personally played low level monks a little at Blizzcon but a lot has
changed since then. Naturally, this is pre-beta information and it will
change dramatically over the next few months.
Passive Tanking Benefits
| Monk | Bear |
| Stance of the Drunken Ox Reduces damage taken by 20% and increases your chance to Stagger damage by 25%. |
Bear Form Armor from leather increased by 120%. Stamina increased by 20%. Many other druid/form benefits that we all know and love. |
| Tiger Palm (Modified by Brewmaster Training) Increase the amount of your next Guard by 5%. Lasts 30 sec. Stacks up to 3 times. |
Thick Hide Increases the armor bonus of Bear Form to 330% and reduces all magical damage taken by 25%. |
Passive Defenses
| Monk | Bear |
| Stagger Instant You shrug off attacks, causing 50% of the damage to happen instantly and the remaining 50% to happen 3 sec later. Brewmaster Mastery reduces the after-effect Stagger damage taken. |
Leader of the Pack […] Causes your melee critical strikes to heal you for 4% of your health and energize you for 8% of your mana. This effect cannot occur more than once every 6 sec. |
| Dodge | Dodge |
| Parry | |
| Miss | Miss |
From what I can see, Stagger will be similar to block. (It’s actually what the proposed parry was from Cataclysm beta, I believe.) It’s interesting because it doesn’t necessarily reduce damage (not until the monk mastery comes into play), but it reduces burst. As far as I can tell, the player does not have control over it, except for certain cooldowns that force it to proc and stances that increase its chance to proc. It’s also not perfectly clear whether the later half of Stagger happens as a DoT over three seconds or if it simply delays half of the damage three seconds. Right now I’m leaning towards the latter since that is the less over powered option.
I included Leader of the pack for completeness. It’s a small and usually insignificant bonus, but it’s nevertheless a passive defense. I have to admit that druids look really boring in this area, with all of our avoidance pushed into dodge, but that’s the way it’s always been.
Short Cooldown Defensive Skills
| Monk | Bear |
| Guard 3 Chi, Instant Requires Ox Stance You guard against future attacks, absorbing 38,478 damage for 8 seconds. Any heals you apply to yourself while guarding are increased by 30%. |
Savage Defense 60 Rage, Instant Requires Bear Form Reduces all physical damage taken by 40% for 6 sec. |
| Shuffle 2 Chi, Channeled Requires Ox Stance You shuffle around, causing all melee attacks to be staggered. While shuffling, you cannot move, attack, or cast spells. |
Frenzied Regeneration 60 Rage total, Instant Requires Bear Form Converts 10 rage per second into health for 6 seconds, at the rate of 5% health per 10 rage consumed. |
| Elusive Ale 1 Chi, Instant, 45 sec cooldown Requires Ox Stance Increases your chance to dodge melee and ranged attacks by 50% for 45 seconds. |
**Level 30 Talent** Cenarion Ward 22% of base mana, 40 yd range, instant, 30 sec cooldown Protects a friendly target, causing any damage taken to heal the target for 4,015 every 2 sec for 6 sec. Gaining the healing effect consumes the Cenarion Ward. Usable in all shapeshift forms. Lasts 30 sec. |
| Summon Black Ox Statue 40 yard range, 5.5 sec cast, 3 min cooldown Requires Ox Stance Summons a Black Ox Statue at the target location. Lasts for 10 minutes. Only one Black Ox Statue can be summoned at any one time. The Black Ox Statue interacts with your Provoke and Leer of the Ox abilities. Guard (on-click effect)Allies can right-click the Statue to gain the Guard effect, absorbing 12,826 damage. Any healing done by the Monk is increased by 30% while Guard is active. Guard has 10 charges. |
**Level 90 Talent** Dream of Cenarius Wrath, Starfire, Starsurge, and melee abilities increase healing down by your next healing spell by 30%. Non-instant casts of Nourish, Healing Touch, and Regrowth increase the damage done by your next damaging spll or ability by 30%. Each of these bonuses lasts 30 sec and cannot be gained more often than once every 30 sec. |
| Expel Harm 400 Mana, Melee Range, Instant Cast, 15 sec cooldown Instantly heals the target for 14,896, and causes 120% of the amount healed to instantly be dealt to a nearby enemy as damage within 5 yards of the target. |
**Level 90 Talent** Disentanglement Shapeshifting now removes roots. In additino, shifting into a form heals the Druid for 20% of maximum health. This heal cannot be received more often than once every 30 sec. |
| **Level 60 Talent** Dematerialize Channeled, 45 sec cooldown You escape your Physical form, dematerializing into the ether avoiding all damage for 3 seconds. |
It looks like the primary short term defenses will be Guard and Shuffle. Guard is a bubble and Shuffle forces Stagger. I don’t know how long Shuffle can be channeled. Each tank appears to have one damage reduction short term defense (Guard, Savage Defense) and one healer-helper defense (Shuffle, Frenzied Regen).
Elusive Ale is a bit confusing because it looks like it’s going to be up almost 100% of the time, just like Pulverize was. I thought that they were moving away from abilities like that, but who knows. It’s also a ton of dodge.
I’m also not sure how to catagorize the Ox Statue. If the tank can click it, and the tank clicks on it most of the time, then it can count as a mini-guard for them. It shouldn’t be assumed that this is a reliable short term defense, because it’s likely the raid will need it as well.
Resource Generation
| Monk | Bear |
| Energy-consuming attacks usually grant 1 Chi. Chi is used for defense and most hard-hitting attacks. |
Most attacks have no resource cost but are limited by short cooldowns. |
| Short cd defenses cost 2-3 Chi (50% – 75% total) | Short cd defenses cost 60 rage (60% total) |
| Primary attack (Tiger Palm) increases damage absorption from Guard by 5% per stack, up to 3 stacks. |
Primary attack (Mangle) grants resource (rage). |
| Recoil Whenever you dodge, you gain 5 Chi. |
Mangle and autoattack crits grant resource (rage). |
| **Level 30 Talent** Jiny’u Cider Instant, 1.5 min cooldown Instantly restores all your Chi. |
Enrage Instant, 1 min cooldown Generates 20 Rage, and then generates an additional 10 Rage over 10 sec. |
| **Level 30 Talent** Ascendance Increases the amount of maximum Chi by 1. |
Berserk Instant, 3 min cooldown When used in Bear Form, removes the cooldown from Mangle and causes it to hit up to 3 targets and lasts 10 sec. |
| **Level 60 Talent** Soul of the Forest Mangle now generates an additional 2 rage. |
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| **Level 60 Talent** Incarnation: Son of Ursoc Instant, 3 min cooldown Improved Bear Form that reduces the cooldown on melee damage abilities and Growl to 1.5 sec. |
Monks have a maximum of 4 Chi (5 with the talent).
Single Target Skills
| Monk | Bear |
| Tiger Palm 1 Chi, Melee Range, Instant Attack with the palm of your hand, dealing 279 Physical damage. Deals 140 additional damage if the target is above 50% health. |
Mangle No Cost, Melee range, Instant, 6 second cooldown Requires Bear Form Mangle the target for physical damage. Grants 15 rage. |
| Clobber/Pike/Jab 40 Energy, Melee Range, Instant You Clobber the target with your staff/polearm/no weapon, dealing 1,548 damage and generating 1 Chi. |
Lacerate No cost, Melee range, Instant, 3 second cooldown Requires Bear Form Lacerates the enemy target, dealing 3730 damage. Every 3 sec, the effect will deal 71 bleed damage and grant a 12% chance to reset the cooldown on Mangle. Stacks up to 3 times and lasts 15 sec. |
| Drunken Haze 40 Energy, 40 yd range, Instant Requires Ox Stance You hurl a keg of your finest brew, reducing the movement speed of all enemies within 8 yards by 15%. Affected targets have a 3% chance to have their attacks misfire and strike themselves instead for 5141 damage. Stacks up to 3 times. |
Faerie Fire No cost, 35 yd range, Instant Faeries surround the target, preventing it from stealthing or turning invisible, and causing 3 applications of the Weakened Armor debuff. Deals 16 damage when cast from Bear Form. |
| Blackout Kick 2 Chi, Melee Range, Instant, 3 sec cooldown Kick with a blast of sha energy, causing 471 Physical damage to an enemy target. Only usable on targets at or below 35% health.If the target is killed by Blackout Kick, you are refunded 1 Chi. |
Thrash 15 Rage, Melee range, Instant Requires Bear Form, Cat Form Thrash all nearby enemies, dealing immediate physial damage and periodic bleed damage, and also causes the Weakened Blows effect. Damage varies by shapeshift form. |
| Breath of Fire 2 Chi, 40 yd range, Instant Requires Ox Stance Breathes fire onto the target, causing 2.385 damage. Damage is multiplied by the number of Drunken Haze stacks of the target. |
Maul 30 Rage, 3 sec cooldown, Melee, Instant Requires Bear Form An attack that instantly deals 44 physical damage. Deals 20% additional damage against bleeding targets. |
At this point in time, Tiger Palm is probably the primary attack, since it improves your next Guard and it has a relatively cheap cost. Blackout Kick gets modified by a brewmaster passive that will let you use it after a parry (similar to Revenge) at no cost. Jab/Clobber/Pike will likely be the filler skill since it costs only energy and grants 1 Chi.
Breath of Fire is in a weird spot since it doesn’t provide any defensive benefit and consumes 2 Chi. It might be in the same position as Maul, and intended as a button for a tank to push for dps when it’s not currently tanking. It might also function as a pull ability, but I don’t know if a monk will start out with enough Chi at the beginning of a fight to use it first. Then again, brewmasters might be overflowing with Chi since they have a ridiculously high dodge rate and are rewarded 5 Chi per dodge. Maybe they can just use all their abilities whenever they want. :{
Drunken Haze is another weird skill that doesn’t directly inflict any damage, though it increases the damage of Breath of Fire and has a chance to randomly inflict a chunk of damage. This might be used as a dot, or just an extra button to press during those non-tanking phases.
The thing I find interesting in comparison to bears is that we both have a relatively cheap skill that improves defenses in some way, Tiger Palm and Thrash. Tiger Palm grants a self buff that improves Guard, while Thrash causes the Weakened Blows (old Demoralizing Roar) debuff. The problem with Thrash is that it applies a debuff that any other tank and some dps can also provide, which leaves guardians in a rough spot where they perform better when someone else applies the debuff, and perform worse when they have to do it themselves. Overall, I think Tiger Palm is a much better implementation, though we have yet to see how Brewmasters will apply Weakened Blows.
Multi-Target Skills
| Monk | Bear |
| Spinning Crane Kick 1 Chi, Instant Requires Serpent Stance, Ox Stance, Tiger Stance You spin while kicking in the air, dealing 218 Physical damage every 1 second to all nearby enemies within 8 yards. Movement speed is reduced by 30%. Lasts 6 seconds. |
Swipe No cost, Instant Requires Bear Form, Cat Form Swipe nearby enemies, inflicting physical damage. Damage dealt varies by shapeshift form. Deals 20% additional damage against bleeding targets. |
| Drunken Haze 40 Energy, 40 yd range, Instant Requires Ox Stance You hurl a keg of your finest brew, reducing the movement speed of all enemies within 8 yards by 15%. Affected targets have a 3% chance to have their attacks misfire and strike themselves instead for 5141 damage. Stacks up to 3 times. |
Thrash 15 Rage, Melee range, Instant, 6 sec cooldown Requires Bear Form, Cat Form Thrash all nearby enemies, dealing immediate physial damage and periodic bleed damage, and also causes the Weakened Blows effect. Damage varies by shapeshift form. |
I’ll be honest, I have no idea how to classify Drunken Haze. It’s apparently supposed to be used in single target, but it affects multiple targets, and it’s primary use is utility.
Raid Cooldowns/Utility
| Monk | Bear |
| Avert Harm 15 yd range, Instant, 1 min cooldown Requires Ox Stance You reduce the damage taken by all nearby friendly targets with in 10 yards by 20% and cause half of all remaining damage they take to be re-directed to you. Lasts for 15 sec. Avert Harm is cancelled if you reach 10% or lower health. |
Rebirth 40 yd range, 2 sec cast, 10 min cooldown Returns the spirit to the body, restoring a dead target to life with 20% health and 20% mana. (Can be used in combat) |
| Meditation Channeled, 3 min cooldown Reduces all damage taken by 99% and redirects to you all harmful spells cast against your allies within 30 yards. Lasts 10 seconds.Being the victim of a melee attack will break your Meditation, cancelling the effect. |
Tranquility 29% base mana, Channeled, 8 min cooldown Requires caster form Heals 5 nearby lowest health party or raid targets withing 40 yards with Tranquility every 2 sec for 8 sec. Tranquility heals for 5,818 plus an additional 523 every 2 sec over 8 sec. Stacks up to 3 times. The druid must channel to maintain the spell. |
| Summon Black Ox Statue 40 yard range, 5.5 sec cast, 3 min cooldown Requires Ox Stance Summons a Black Ox Statue at the target location. Lasts for 10 minutes. Only one Black Ox Statue can be summoned at any one time. The Black Ox Statue interacts with your Provoke and Leer of the Ox abilities. Guard (on-click effect)Allies can right-click the Statue to gain the Guard effect, absorbing 12,826 damage. Any healing done by the Monk is increased by 30% while Guard is active. Guard has 10 charges. |
Innervate 30 yd range, 3 min cooldown, instant Causes the target to regenerate 10% of the caster’s maximum mana over 10 seconds. If cast on self, the caster will regenerate an addiitonal 10% of maximum mana over 10 sec. |
| Stampeding Roar Instant, 2 min cooldown The Druid roars, increasing the movement speed of all friendly players within 10 yards by 60% for 8 sec and removing all roots and snares on those targets. |
The monk can’t be tanking during Meditation, though as a general cooldown it’s pretty damn powerful. I can’t say Tranquility is equally as powerful, though with a bear’s default spell power it will at least be worth using come MoP (especially for 10 mans).
Avert Harm is interesting because it has a short cooldown but small range, and also inflicts damage upon yourself, so it must be used wisely while tanking.
Innervate has gotten even worse for non-caster druids, but I posted it here just for completeness.
Raid Buffs
| Monk | Bear |
| Legacy of the Emperor (5% stats) |
Mark of the Wild (5% stats) |
| Armor Debuff | |
| 5% crit |
Bears have always been really strong in the raid buffs/debuff apartment. According the the recent Ghostcrawler blog, Brewmaster monks offer just the standard tanking debuffs and 5% stats, which seems a little unfair considering all the other tanks offer at least one extra effect. I can’t imagine that Brewmaster monks will be very popular for 10 mans should they bring just a handful of common buffs.
Healing
Specifically healing to the raid that can be considered a minor utility.
| **Level 75 Talent** Chi Torpedo 50 Energy, Instant Torpedo a distance in front of you, dealing 1 damage to all enemies and 981 healing all allies in your path. |
**Level 30 Talent** Nature’s Swiftness Instant, 1 min cooldown When activated, your next Cyclone, Entangling Roots, Healing Touch, Hibernate, Nourish, Rebirth, or Regrowth becomes instant, free, and castable in all forms. The healing and duration of the spell is increased by 50%. |
| **Level 75 Talent** Chi Bind Instant, 1 min cooldown Binds yourself to your targeted statue with a tether of chi energy, causing any friend or foe caught in its path to take x damage or y healing. |
**Level 30 Talent** Renewal Instant, 2 min cooldown Instantly heals the Druid for 30% of maximum health. Usable in all shapeshift forms. |
| **Level 75 Talent** Chi Serpent 1 Chi, 60 yard range, Instant, 2 min cooldown You summon a ball of chi energy, dealing damage and healing all targets within its path within 60 yards.While it’s traveling, you can discharge the sphere, dealing x damage/healing to all targets at it’s current location and reducing/increasing all targets movement speed by 70% for 3 seconds, but cancelling the sphere. |
**Level 30 Talent** Cenarion Ward 22% of base mana, 40 yd range, instant, 30 sec cooldown Protects a friendly target, causing any damage taken to heal the target for 4,015 every 2 sec for 6 sec. Gaining the healing effect consumes the Cenarion Ward. Usable in all shapeshift forms. Lasts 30 sec. |
| **Level 90 Talent** Heart of the Wild Grants 50% of Agility as Intellect and increases hit rating by 100%. In addition, regenerates 2% of maximum mana every 5 sec. |
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| **Level 90 Talent** Dream of Cenarius Wrath, Starfire, Starsurge, and melee abilities increase healing down by your next healing spell by 30%. Non-instant casts of Nourish, Healing Touch, and Regrowth increase the damage done by your next damaging spll or ability by 30%. Each of these bonuses lasts 30 sec and cannot be gained more often than once every 30 sec. |
This is a strange bracket, and the healing skills can’t really be compared since all of them are talents. Druids have a ton because we basically have 2 tiers of healing talents.
Long Cooldown Defenses
| Monk | Bear |
| Fortifying Ale Instant, 3 min cooldown Increases your health by 100%, but you cannot be healed. Lasts 20 seconds. |
Might of Ursoc Instant, 3 min cooldown Increases maximum health by 30% and increases health to 30% (if below that value). Lasts 20 sec. |
| Grapple Weapon 40 yard range, Instant, 1 min cooldown You fire off a rope spear, grappling the target’s weapon and shield, returning them to you. Depending on the quality of the weapon, your damage done, healing done, and damage reduction may be increased. |
Barkskin Instant, 1 min cooldown The Druid’s skin becomes as tough as bark. All damage taken is reduced by 20%. While protected, damaging attacks will not cause spellcasting delays. This spell is usable while stunned, frozen, incapacitated, feared or asleep. Usable in all forms. Lasts 12 sec. |
| Survival Instincts Instant, 3 min cooldown Reduces all damage taken by 50% for 12 seconds. Only usable while in Bear Form. |
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| **Level 30 Talent** Renewal Instant, 2 min cooldown Instantly heals the Druid for 30% of maximum health. Usable in all shapeshift forms. |
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| **Level 30 Talent** Nature’s Swiftness Instant, 1 min cooldown When activated, your next Cyclone, Entangling Roots, Healing Touch, Hibernate, Nourish, Rebirth, or Regrowth becomes instant, free, and castable in all forms. The healing and duration of the spell is increased by 50%. |
Fortifying Ale seems like a pretty awkward cooldown for a tank, but I’ll list it nonetheless. I can see it being useful in conjuction with a cancel macro, to absorb one big hit and then remove the buff before you die from lack of heals. You’d have to be pretty fast, and the chance for failure is pretty high with that one.
I’m not sure if Grapple Weapon fits here, but with the 1 min cooldown it might be a monk’s version of Barkskin. Maybe if you use it on a boss you get 20% damage reduction or something. I might be totally wrong here.
I couldn’t find a 50% damage reduction skill, so either I missed it or it’s not yet implemented. I can’t imagine monks would be the only tank without a 50% reduction skill.
Single Target Control Skills
| Monk | Bear |
| Crackling Jade Lightning 600 Mana, 40 yard range, Channeled Channels Jade Lightning at the target, causing 4,116 Nature damage over 5.50 seconds. If the enemy attacks you within melee range while victim to Crackling Jade Lightning, they are knocked back a short distance. This effect has an 8 second cooldown. |
Nature’s Grasp Instant, 1 min cooldown While active, any time an enemy strikes the caster they have a 100% chance to become afflicted by Entangling Roots. 1 charge. Lasts 45 sec. |
| Disable 15 Energy, Melee Range, Instant You attempt to disable the target’s movement, reducing their movement speed by 25%. Stacks up to 2 times. If you use Disable a third time on a target while they have 2 stacks, all stacks will be consumed and they will be rooted for 8 seconds. |
**Level 45 Talent** Faerie Swarm Grants an improved version of Faerie Fire that also reduces the target’s movement speed by 50% for 15 sec. This talent replaces Faerie Fire. |
| Paralysis Melee Range, Instant 15 sec cooldown You cause the target’s muscles to contract, incapacitating them for 30 seconds. If done from behind the target, the duration is doubled. Only one target can be victim to Paralysis at any given time. Any damage taken will cancel the effect. |
Entangling Roots 6% base mana, 35 yd range, 1.7 sec cast Roots the target in place for 30 sec. Damage caused may interrupt the effect. |
| Quaking Palm Melee Range, Instant, 2 min cooldown Strikes the target with lightning speed, incapacitating them for 4 seconds, and turns off your attack. |
Bear Hug Instant cast, 1 min cooldown Melee attack that stuns the target for 3 sec and each 1 sec deals 10% of the Druid’s health in damage. The druid is immobolized for 3 sec. Using this ability activates Bear Form. |
| Spear Hand 30 Energy, Melee Range, Instant, 30 sec cooldown Requires Ox Stance, Tiger Stance You jab the target in their throat, interrupting their spell cast and preventing any spell in that school from being cast for 5 seconds.If the enemy is facing you, when they cast, they are also silenced out of all schools for 5 seconds. |
Skull Bash 13 yd range, Instant, 10 sec cooldown You charge and skull bash the target, interrupting spellcasting, preventing any spell in that school from being cast for 4 sec, and increasing the mana cost of all spells by 10% for 10 sec. |
| **Level 45 Talent** Deadly Reach Your Paralysis ability is now usable from 40 yards away. |
**Level 75 Talent** Mighty Bash 50 sec cooldown, Instant, Melee range Invokes the spirit of Ursoc to stun the target for 5 sec. Usable in all shapeshift forms. |
| **Level 90 Talent** Rushing Jade Wind 40 yard range, Instant, 2 min cooldown You encase the friendly or enemy target in a whirling jade tornado, becoming immune to all damage and healing and traveling at a quick speed in a distance in front of you. |
Cyclone 20 yd range, 7% base mana, 1.7 sec cast Tosses the enemy target into the air, preventing all action but making them invulnerable for up to 6 sec. Only one target can be affected by your Cyclone at a time. |
| **Level 90 Talent** Chi Cocoon Channeled, 2 min cooldown You encase the friendly or enemy target in a cocoon, shielding them from all outside damage and healing and causing them unable to attack. Deals x damage to enemies and y healing to allies every 1 second for 8 seconds. |
I have no idea what Rushing Jade Wind will look like in practice. Sounds like cyclone, except you can cyclone your friends too.
Multi-Target Control Skills
| Monk | Bear |
| Drunken Haze 40 Energy, 40 yd range, Instant Requires Ox Stance You hurl a keg of your finest brew, reducing the movement speed of all enemies within 8 yards by 15%. Affected targets have a 3% chance to have their attacks misfire and strike themselves instead for 5141 damage. Stacks up to 3 times. |
**Level 45 Talent** Mass Entanglement 30 yd range, 2 min cooldown, instant Roots your target in place for 20 sec and spreads to additional enemies. Affects 5 total targets. Damage caused may interrupt the effect. Usable in all shapeshift forms. |
| **Level 45 Talent** Charging Ox Wave 1 Chi, 40 yard range, Instant A mighty Ox effigy rushes towards the target, stunning all enemies within its path for 3 seconds. When the Ox reaches the enemy, they and all nearby enemies within 0 yards are knocked back a short distance. |
**Level 45 Talent** Typhoon 30 yd range, 20 sec cooldown, instant Summones a violent Typhoon that stikes targets in front of the caster withing 30 yards, knocking them back and dazing them for 6 sec. Usable in all shapeshift forms. |
| **Level 45 Talent** Leg Sweep 1 Chi, Instant, 25 sec cooldown You knock down all enemies within 5 yards, effectively stunning them for 6 seconds. |
**Level 75 Talent** Disorienting Roar Instant, 30 sec cooldown Invokes the spirit of Ursol to roar, disorienting all enemies withing 10 yards for 4 sec. Usable in all shapeshift forms. |
| **Level 90 Talent** Ring of Peace Instant, 2 min cooldown Forms a sanctuary around you, causing all enemies to be unable to attack or cast harmful spells while within it. Lasts 10 seconds. |
**Level 75 Talent** Ursol’s Vortex Instant, 30 yd range, 30 sec cooldown Conjures a vortex of wind at the destination location that pulls all enemies within 15 yards toward it. Lasts 15 sec. Usable in all shapeshift forms. |
Ring of Peace sounds way too game-breaking to actually prevent a boss from attacking, but I bet it works on trash and adds.
Mastery
| Monk | Bear |
| Mastery: Drunken Brawler Reduces the damage taken by Stagger by 14.5%, and increases the effect of your Guard by 14.5%. Each point of Mastery reduces the Stagger damage taken by an additional 1.1% and increases the amount you Guard by an additional 1.1%. |
Nature’s Guardian Increases your armor by 5.2%. Each point of Mastery increases armor by an additional 0.65%. |
Nothing to see here except that the Brewmaster mastery is about 1000% more interesting. Though to be fair, guardians’ secondary stats influence their active mitigation, their mastery influences their passive mitigation. Brewmasters are apparently the opposite: secondary stats influence passive mitigation, mastery influences active.
Taunts
| Monk | Bear |
| Provoke 40 yard range, Instant, 8 sec cooldown You mock the target, causing them to rush toward to attack you at an increased 50% movement speed. If targeting your Statue of the Black Ox, you provoke all enemies within an 8 yard radius of your statue. |
Growl 30 yd range, Instant, 8 sec cooldown Taunts the target to attack you, but has no effect if the target is already attacking you. Using this ability activates Bear Form. |
I compare these two simply because the monk has an AoE taunt when druids lost theirs (I’m not complaining, though, druids won’t need it with all of the AoE control they have). I wonder how large these statues will be, since the player has to find it under a crowd of adds to use the AoE taunt. With the addition of a run speed increase for the target, Provoke is obviously supposed to function as a monk’s ranged pull as well.
Movement
| Monk | Bear |
| Roll 50 Energy, Instant Roll a short distance. |
Stampeding Roar Instant, 2 min cooldown The Druid roars, increasing the movement speed of all friendly players within 10 yards by 60% for 8 sec and removing all roots and snares on those targets. |
| **Level 15 Talent** Intuition Your roll ability cost no Chi. This effect becomes inactive for 15 seconds after use. |
**Level 15 Talent** Wild Charge 15 sec cooldown Charge to the enemy, immobilizing them for 4 seconds. |
| **Level 15 Talent** Celerity Your roll ability will move you at a slightly longer distance, and at a slightly quicker speed. |
**Level 15 Talent** Feline Swiftness Increases your movement speed by 15%. |
| **Level 15 Talent** Momentum Every time you roll, you gain a stacking 10% movement speed buff. Stacks up to 3 times. |
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| **Level 60 Talent** Beguile When attacked, your movement speed is increased by 3% and you cause all nearby enemies to move at 3% reduced speed within 8 yards. This effect can stack up to 6 times. |
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| **Level 60 Talent** Tiger’s Lust Melee Range, Instant, 1 min cooldown Instantly clears the target of all immobilizing and movement impairing effects, and increases their movement speed by 70% for 6 seconds. |
So there we have it. Personally, I’m very excited for monks because they reportedly have awesome unique animations, which are a pretty big deal to me. The hard part is picking a race.