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Can a Brewmaster solo as well as a Blood DK?
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Post by
AngelKnight52
Hey there folks!
It's been a while, I just got back into WoW after a 3 month hiatus. I am currently trying to decide a good tank class that I can solo with and be able to do raids/instances with. I'm currently stuck between Blood DK and Brewmaster Monk-both which I do enjoy. I was wondering, as my title implies, if one is better than the other? Thanks for any useful feedback :D
Post by
Adamsm
Death Knights are still the hardcore solo class, but Brews are getting up there as well.
Post by
AngelKnight52
Thanks Adamsm. Do you know how well Brewmasters are at 90?
Post by
Headsnap
i have a brewmaster and a DK. i got all the tank classes covered and for me personally i dont think the DK is "stronger" i actually believe blizz has them pretty evenly matched as of this patch but i will say the the brewmaster is MUCH more fun! its a matter of personal preference you might like the other for your own reasons but i just find the monk much more exciting. FOR THE HORDE!
Post by
Rankkor
I can say with 100% certainty that the DK is MILES ahead of the Monk in terms of solo potential.
First off, because the brewmasters are the squishiest of all tanks, you need to dump all of your chi into blackout kick to get shuffle up, or you get squashed, their only mitigation comes from Parry and Stagger, but stagger doesn't prevent damage, it only turns part of it into a dot which you then have to purge with...... you guessed it, more chi.
Then there's their healing, Monks have only 3 ways to heal, Chi wave, (which costs 2 chi, a very limited resource that you also need to survive) expel harm and your passive Gift of the Ox, your other heal (Healing Spheres) can't be used because you need your energy to generate chi for your blackout kick.
Now analyze the DK.
First and foremost, Death Strike. Heals by A METRIC TON, and the more damage you take, the more effective it is, second, with enough mastery, all that heals also converts into an absorption shield THAT STACKS. Currently, I have 125% mastery, which means my average Death Strike heals me for 60k, and I get a bubble that absorbs 75k. A second DS would add a second bubble, stacking with the first. And this is only DS, they also have Rune Tap, Dark Pact, Bloodworms, and Will of the Necropolis.
Secondly, the offensive power of the DKs is MILES ahead of what a monk could do. Monks are forced to spend all of their energy on jab (with keg smash every 8 seconds) and all their chi on blackout kick.
DKs can put diseases up, spread them, use Death & Decay, spam blood boil with your blood runes, use DS (which with enough vengeance deals A LOT of damage, heals you, and bubbles you) and spam Rune Strike. DKs also have an execute (Soul Reaper) a CD that both increases parry, as well as duplicates all of your attacks (Dancing Rune Weapon) and an army of zombies (Army of the Dead)
The total offensive power of a monk is Keg Smash (Deals decent damage but only to 5 enemies or less, the more enemies are within range, the less damage it will do) Breath of Fire (deals decent damage, but the dot is pathetic, DK diseases hit for SO MUCH MORE) which they can't use often due to their need on blackout kick, then there's blackout kick, the move you will spam the most as a brewmaster, and spinning crane kick which does a good damage but only provides chi if there's 3 enemies or more. They also have Xuen the white tiger.
Finally, there's your "Oh Crap" Buttons, which I found to be very lackluster on a monk.
Their main "Oh Crap" buttons are Guard, a bubble that not only has a HUGE cooldown, but also doesn't absorbs anywhere near to make a noticeable difference, a single Death Strike on my DK absorbs more, and heals, and can be used more often. Their second emergency button is fortifying brew, a rather decent one that reduces damage, increases HP, and increases stagger, and their third and final Oh Crap button is Xuen, which can tank for you. They also have Elusive Brew, but for this you have to build AND KEEP stacks of it, and it depends too much on RNG, since all it takes is 15 seconds of you not doing any crits to lose all your stacks, so bad luck on your end can make this entirely worthless.
Compare to the DKs.
Anti-magic shell (Absorbs 100% of all magic damage, equal to half of my total HP. Damage absorbed turns into Runic Power) for magic attacks, Icebound Fortitude (Removes stuns, makes me immune to them, reduces damage taken by 50%) for both physical and magical, Dancing Rune Weapon, (Increases parry by 25%, and duplicates any attack I use) Vampiric Blood (Increases max HP, and increases healing I make), Rune Tap (Heals for 10% of your HP), Will of the Necropolis (upon reaching a certain % of your HP, it resets the CD of your rune tap, and reduces damage taken by 25% for 8 seconds), Army of the dead (Summons 8 pets to taunt for you, and while channeling the spell you take reduced damage), Dark Pact (Sacrifice half of the HP of a pet, to heal you for 50% of your own HP), and Empower Rune Weapon (Automatically reload all your runes and recharge half your Runic power, enabling you to land 2 (possibly 3 if you've used Blood tap efficiently) Death Strikes for massive healing and bubbling)
Come on, the difference is noticeable by miles ahead.
Honestly, the only class that comes even close to have the solo-potential of a blood DK is a hunter, (Specially BM) and guardian Druids. Monks don't get even to first base.
Post by
Adamsm
Honestly, the only class that comes even close to have the solo-potential of a blood DK is a hunter, (Specially BM) and guardian Druids. Monks don't get even to first base.I seriously disagree there Rank; with Zen Sphere, Powerguard, and the regular Guard, you can solo things fairly well. Yes the Brews are screwed if they get stun locked, but other then that they can keep up to a DK. I've pulled just as many mobs on my Monk as I have on my DK and survived to tell the tale.
Mind, a majority of my solo experience was back in Beta, but my current Brew is level 68 and heading towards 90 to begin the extreme soloing.
Post by
AngelKnight52
Thank you for the feedback. This may be a bit off topic but I was wondering how are protection paladins at lvl 90 doing tanking? I have been playing my monk and I do enjoy it but I had some members in my instances telling me that monk tanks are crappy tanks and that I should consider DK or paladin. DK is pretty beast and I do enjoy it, how would paladins fair? I'm just asking because I have never leveled a tanking class from 1 to 90 and I don't have a main tank which is something I would like to work on while i can.
Post by
877811
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Br0tha
DK is and have been the best class to solo old content for a while, and I don't see it changing soon.
All the other tank have always been good to do it so, just less easily, or need more gears.
And BM hunter in Pandaria are also pretty solid in solo'ing old content.
I've actually see Prot Warrior do better than Brew monk, but that's just me.
As a Guardian Druid I'm a bit jealous of Blood DK because my DPS can't never be as high as them.
Post by
Magician22773
I think what we are seeing here, is that DK's have been THE go-to solo class (are still are), and Monks are still new enough, that their full potential has not been realized (or learned) by everyone.
I can speak only for DK, as I have yet to get a monk out of the 20's. On my DK, soloing is easy. I rarely feel that I am in danger. I have enough CD's and heals to make everything I have tried to solo seem trivial.
Personally, I enjoy soloing on my hunter more than any other class. It takes more thought, and, as a main spec healer, I like the added challenge of keeping my pet alive, while controlling burst damage and aggro. Its kind of like getting to play all 3 classes at once...keep aggro on pet, keep heals on pet, control aggro while putting out as much DPS as I can....the total package.
Post by
Azrile
I dunno, with the 4pc frenzy regen and the ability to stealth, guardians are up there too.
Frenzy regens come very fast when you are criting like crazy, plus you can do crazy burst dps with the right talent and going into cat form.
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