Hey, an expansion is coming up! How to do it?
If you want to know more about the changes that came with the expansion patch, go here.
The Brewmaster 6.0 Need to Know
This is a guide for the upcoming patch before the expansion. Before we step into Tanaan Jungle, before we unlock leveling perks, before Garrisons, and before level 100 talents, we have everything else.
(If you spot anything I missed, please let me know.)
Shuffle vs. Purify in Warlords
A few months ago I wrote about Shuffle’s position as a maintenance buff, and the positives and negatives of it being up all the time. Some changes in Warlords will further decrease any remaining complication that came with maintaining shuffle, while also reducing the necessity to keep it active. In turn, Purifying Brew usage will only increase.
Another Look at Stat Priorities in Warlords
As we drive closer to actual release, we want to know more about what stats we’ll actually need to look for. The tank squish messed some things up, and we still don’t know how hard bosses are actually going to hit, but we can still make some educated guesses.
Continue reading “Another Look at Stat Priorities in Warlords”
Early Perceptions of Tank Squish
Recently there was a nerf to all tanks’ defensive power in Warlords beta. Celestalon has provided quite a bit of background for their reasoning, but the gist is that tanks have too much control over their own survival, to the point where we barely depend on healers to stay alive.
I know nerfs feel bad, but believe it or not this is a good thing, and will lead to more engaging gameplay for both ourselves and for our healers. It will lead to more interesting gearing decisions (since we will be threatened by more than just burst damage) and more social interaction.
Level 100 Talents Preliminary Review
The tier 100 talents are emerging with the unique theme of damage vs. defense tradeoffs. Chi Explosion is at one extreme, actually hurting your defense (by removing your ability to pool chi) but likely providing the largest damage increase. Soul Dance at the other extreme, doing nothing for damage but providing a situational but powerful damage management passive. And Serenity is somewhere in the middle, providing a weak defensive and offensive boost.
Mythic Mode and the Challenge of Tanking
This is the second of a two-part post on the emergence of damage dealing-focused tank. The first one covers the elements of the game that contributed to this attitude, and this one will cover how small raid sizes contributed to the changing paradigm and how 20 man Mythic Mode may help bring back the defensive tank.
The Emergence of the Sturdy Damage Dealer
This is the first of a two-part post on the emergence of damage dealing-focused tank. This one covers the elements of the game that contributed to this attitude, and the next will cover how small raid sizes contributed to the changing paradigm and how 20 man Mythic Mode may help bring back the defensive tank. It’s something that I’ve been working on for more than a year, growing as the expansion aged and as knowledge of the next expansion increased.
Over the course of Mists of Pandaria, the role of the tank has evolved from the traditional, passive damage soaker. Active Mitigation has put our survival into our own hands, instead of relying entirely on our gear and healers. Vengeance has been nearly limitless and brought us to new damage-dealing heights. Traditional damage stats have emerged as an acceptable way to gear, thanks to more tanking classes who gain defensive benefits from them.
All of this has contributed to the emerging transformation of our role. Tanks, especially in small raid sizes, are no longer prized for surviving hard-hitting bosses or relieving their healers. Because survival can be easily achieved, a skilled tank is prized for their damage output. The role of tanks has steadily changed from “person who survives really well” to “person who can survive while also dealing damage”.
Continue reading “The Emergence of the Sturdy Damage Dealer”
A Beginner’s Guide to Vengeance
We only have a few months left of Vengeance, but I wrote this post a while ago and it’s still a pretty common misunderstanding. And I’m trying to clear out my backlog.
I’ve already talked quite a bit about making the best use of vengeance offensively, but I haven’t explained much about the defensive aspect and the basics of gaining vengeance. Vengeance is the most important scaling mechanism for our defenses that scale with attack power, but it’s often forgotten. It’s very important to tanking and sadly I’ve never really talked about it.
Thoughts on Chi Explosion
Chi Explosion is one of the new Brewmaster Talents coming in Warlords. It replaces Blackout Kick with a ranged ability that has stacking effects based on the number of chi used. A 4-chi Chi Explosion will: Deal damage (x amount for every chi consumed), apply Shuffle (10 seconds (2+2*number of chi)), Purify Stagger (3), and deal AoE damage around your target.
