Overview
- New talents in the level 75 defensive tier! (Healing Elixir, Mystic Vitality, Dampen Harm) You should swap that talent tier around much more often now.
- Re-balanced numbers for some underused talents. You should experiment with them. (Elusive Dance, Gift of the Mists, Niuzao, Rushing Jade Wind, Ring of Peace)
- Item level should be more important in deciding whether items, especially rings and necklaces, are an upgrade.
- Many lackluster legendaries got buffed.
Talent Changes
Elusive Dance: Grants up to 20% dodge and damage after purifying Stagger, up from 15%.
I’m a big fan of this talent in dungeons, especially for affixes that benefit from avoidance like Necrotic. The pure damage reduction is really nice for reducing stress on your healers with Overflowing.
Gift of the Mists: Gift of the Mists has up to 75% increased chance to proc, up from 60%.
Any time I know my health will rarely be at max but I’m not taking significant burst damage, I favor this talent. It works really well in dungeons, or in raids where I’m separated from some of the healers.
Niuzao. 244% increase in the attack power he inherits from the player. (undocumented)
This talent should be considered for any situation that benefits from a damage cooldown, especially in cleave (1-3 targets). He’s a good ox now!
Rushing Jade Wind. 283% increase in attack power. (undocumented)
This talent should be considered for sustained AoE, especially where you might need AoE pickup. It’s still a pain to fit into a single target rotation, but in places like dungeons it’s a nice tool for handling trash.
Mystic Vitality: Replaces Diffuse Magic. Stagger is 40% more effective against magical attacks.
Mystic Vitality fills a niche talent that’s really strong for magic damage, which we encounter mostly in raids. The fact that it’s passive allows it to synergize with our active mitigation, instead of supplanting it. Take this talent when you’re facing lots of magic damage. Unlike it’s predecessor Diffuse Magic, Mystic Vitality will also be effective against sustained magic damage as well as burst.
Dampen Harm: Redesigned. Reduces all damage you take by 20% to 50% for 10 sec, with larger attacks being reduced by more.
Dampen Harm fills the role of reducing big, predictable damage, with the additional benefit of no longer requiring big hits to trigger, and no limit of three big hits. Take this talent for especially heavy-hitting bosses, or for situations where you might need an extra defensive ability on a shorter cooldown than Fortifying Brew.
Healing Elixir didn’t see any changes, but it didn’t need to. It was adjusted to the new tanking paradigm quite early, and fills a vital self-healing niche that’s lacking in the brewmaster toolkit. Continue to favor Healing Elixir in solo play and dungeons, or any other situation where you have limited healers. Like before Legion, Healing Elixir remains the generic choice, though with these changes it won’t be the only choice anymore.
Ring of Peace: Redesigned. Form a Ring of Peace at the target location for 8 sec. Enemies that enter will be ejected from the Ring.
Ring of Peace is now ground-targeted and no longer requires enemy targets to attack to activate the knockback. Its use in raids will be limited, but it has a lot of potential in dungeons and pvp (if tanks ever become viable in pvp). Take Ring of Peace if your dungeon team is already heavy on stuns, to knock enemies out of things like Sanguine, or potentially a kiting tool for Raging, Necrotic, or Bolstering.
Leg Sweep will probably remain the default choice in that talent tier in dungeons because of it’s generic utility, and Ox Statue will remain the default choice for raids, but I plan on experimenting with Ring of Peace quite a bit because I think it has the potential to lead to some very creative solutions.
For an overall look at talents, check out my talent page.
Generic Changes
- All agility classes lost 5% crit but gained a damage/healing boost to compensate.
- Secondary stats changes: In general, item level should be more important in deciding whether something is an upgrade, especially in rings and necklaces. Go here for more details.
- New legendaries
- Archimonde’s Hatred Reborn: Gain an absorb shield for 30% of your maximum health for 10 sec. When the shield is consumed or expires, 75% of the damage absorbed is dealt to nearby enemies, split evenly.
- Anvil-Hardened Wristwraps: Each time you dodge or an enemy misses you, the remaining cooldown on your Brews is reduced by 1.0 sec.
- Buffed legendaries
- Firestone Walkers: Each enemy you hit with Breath of Fire reduces the cooldown of Fortifying Brew by 2 sec., up to a maximum of 6 sec.
- Fundamental Observation: Zen Meditation has 50% reduced cooldown and is no longer cancelled when you move or when you are hit by melee attacks.
- Cinidaria, the Symbiote: Your attacks cause an additional 30% damage to enemies above 90% health and heal you for 100% of the damage done.
- Sephuz’s Secret: Successfully applying a loss of control effect to or interrupting, or dispelling any target an enemy grants you 70% increased movement speed and 25% Haste for 10 sec. This effect may occur once every 30 sec.
- Prydaz, Xavaric’s Magnum Opus: Every 30 sec, gain an absorb shield for 25% (15% if tank) of your maximum health for 30 sec. Also now has Haste in addition to Critical Strike and Mastery.