So far, demon hunters have been hard for me to master. That isn’t because of the class, it’s just me taking forever to learn how to intuitively play something new.
A while back I ran heroic Halls of Valor on my two tanks. My demon hunter was at about 850 ilvl, my monk barely above 810. And throughout the whole thing, I actually felt more confident on my monk than my demon hunter. Not for any class or balance reason, but because when bad stuff happens to my monk I intuitively know how to handle it. When my health becomes unstable, even if I don’t know why, I can probably put up an Ironskin Brew and I’ll be okay. I know to do that without even consciously thinking it.
The aspect of guide writing that has continued to fascinate me is presenting information in a way that brand new players can digest it, and balancing that with providing a resource for experienced players.
As a someone who regularly attempts to teach herself many things, presenting information in an interesting and learnable state has become increasingly important to me, and I’d like to extend that courtesy to when I am trying to teach others. Here are the things I’ve learned.
Brewmasters are a complicated class, there’s no denying that. It’s an enjoyable complexity, and not without reward, but there is a learning curve. I don’t want people to be scared away from the class because of that learning curve. In this post, I will break down the complexity of monk tanks into small steps so that you can master the spec.
If you’re just starting out with a brewmaster, then this is the post for you. If you’re already progressing through normal and heroic raids, then you probably already know the basics but maybe you’ll learn something.
I know a lot of people are worried about brewmaster viability out there. I want to take this moment to reassure you that brewmasters are good tanks right now, and completely capable of clearing current raid content alongside other tanks. They are also very new tanks, and no one out there is a true expert at the class. I believe most of the worry can be traced to a general lack of knowledge of the class. We haven’t figured out many of the subtitles that come with tanking as a monk in the same way that warriors, who have had seven years to master their craft, have had.
Another culprit is that monks fly in the over-emphasized and often incorrect convention that good tanks are ones that reduce the most damage. Once you and your raid team accepts that monks take more damage over the course of a fight than other tanks, but have more control over their survivability, you will feel much better.
Monks also require more micromanagement than other tanks, and it’s very true that an afk druid will take less damage than an afk monk. That comes with the package, but it’s also not all that important because most of us are at our keyboards while tanking. You’re trading passive damage reduction for control, and if you don’t like that then you should probably play another class. Or acknowledge that mastering a monk will take more effort than mastering a more passive tank.
To help out, here are my tips for struggling monk tanks:
