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:
