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A+ guide. Probably could be consolidated a fair bit but for those of us who have the ability to read, this is great!

I'll review the guide when i get some time out of windwalker simc fiasco and try and pick out any mistakes.

Just a note: the new power strikes gives an increased amount of chi over live, and makes it MILES better than ascension, even if the 15% eps buff goes live.

[quote]Guard and EB both become cooldowns best used to mitigate damage spikes. Healers who are constantly healing you for little bits at a time--they expect that. But lots of damage spikes cause them to notice, even if overall you're taking less damage.

This is most definitely correct. Not only do they notice but will tend to expend a lot more mana on more "emergency" heals like Flash Heal or Surging Mist, whereas if the damage is smoother, the moderate cheap heal could be used in it's place.

When a tank dips to 20% health, I'm not going to start using Soothing Mist unless I'm using it to pump Surging Mist into a tank.

11/27/2012 08:36 AMPosted by Advanced

Just a note: the new power strikes gives an increased amount of chi over live, and makes it MILES better than ascension, even if the 15% eps buff goes live.

The point where ascension pulls ahead is 13.33 energy per second, which is 4332 haste raidbuffed.

If you can reach this point, then if you're raid buffed, go ascension, otherwise, go power strikes.

Raid buffs ARE a thing, you know.

Bear in mind, those numbers assume perfect Keg Smash timing, always making sure you have the energy to do it on cooldown.

If you have a habit of jabbing too much and missing Keg Smashes, Ascension actually pulls ahead by tightening your Keg Smashes, which is more important for chi generation.

EDIT: Pending investigation, this might be incorrect

11/27/2012 08:05 AMPosted by Repley

Mistweaver is fine for survival but the damage leaves something to be desired when doing these raids.

One big difference between monk soloing and dk soloing is that monk shields and self healing scales with AP, but dk shields and self-healing scales with stamina.

Both scale with incoming damage, monks through vengeance and dks through the damage itself.

Brewmaster damage is excellent, so if soloing raids is your thing, brewmaster works great.

Sorry for the slowness of updating, RL has kept me a little preoccupied lately and my free time is a little tight. I'm currently trying to round up what all I'm going to change and (try to) fix some of the sections so they don't have their own zip codes anymore.

5.1 changes will be added asap.

EDIT: Pending investigation, this might be incorrect

As a brewmaster main, I'm with you on this. Good luck.

I would help but windwalkers are bombarding me with questions on 5.1 sims :(

Updated for 5.1! If I missed something, lemmie know and I'll get it up there.

11/28/2012 12:27 PMPosted by Zegreiart

Updated for 5.1! If I missed something, lemmie know and I'll get it up there.

Thanks, Zeg!

What do you recommend for the lvl 45 talents now that ascension looks pretty good now? I tried it, i really can't decide.

Previously i was using power strikes and liked it because occasionally i could use 1 jab per blackout kick as opposed to 2, but with the new ascension I'm not sure anymore.

I'm just starting my monking career and have no desire or intention to play Brewmaster anytime soon. But this guide almost makes me reconsider. It's a fun read.

Dr. Strangelove, Pink Floyd, how can you go wrong?

Being a reformed feral druid, I have a great deal of respect for Alaron, but this guide has a lot more practical information and I thank you for taking the time to write it.

11/28/2012 01:02 PMPosted by Meditation

Thanks, Zeg!

Welcome :3 Now I just need to actually finish the rest ;_;

What do you recommend for the lvl 45 talents now that ascension looks pretty good now? I tried it, i really can't decide.

Theoretically Power Strikes is winning. I'm addicted to Ascension because I have 15 e/sec with it :P

I'm in the same boat as you, though.

I'm just starting my monking career and have no desire or intention to play Brewmaster anytime soon. But this guide almost makes me reconsider. It's a fun read.

Dr. Strangelove, Pink Floyd, how can you go wrong?

Being a reformed feral druid, I have a great deal of respect for Alaron, but this guide has a lot more practical information and I thank you for taking the time to write it.

You're very welcome. And I'm glad you picked up on the references, haha. Keeps things interesting, I think, because it's a looooong read, but I wanted to be incredibly thorough with it.

Like I said in the introduction, it's assuming you've never played a brewmaster before, and goes into detail from there.

That said, I would like to clean up a few sections, or at least try to.

yea its a great guide, I'm one of those people who aren't happy until my character is perfect (luckily tho, I'm not a jerk about it) and I'm having a difficult time trying to figure things out. Your guide helped to at least point me in the right direction as far as stats and the like.

One piece of advice I would give is to split it up a little. The current format just makes it seem like it rambles on and on. Even something as simple as using the quote box when your putting in ability descriptions would help a ton to make it a little more managable for us. That way we know when we get to another box, were done reading about ability 1 and were moving on to ability 2.

Thanks for the great guide, and keep up the good work!

One piece of advice I would give is to split it up a little. The current format just makes it seem like it rambles on and on. Even something as simple as using the quote box when your putting in ability descriptions would help a ton to make it a little more managable for us. That way we know when we get to another box, were done reading about ability 1 and were moving on to ability 2.

That's a great idea. I'll give it a whirl and work on the formatting. I felt the same way, but didn't know how to go about making it "readable". Thanks!

9 more levels!

Hope they sticky this guide before I hit 90

11/28/2012 02:34 PMPosted by Zegreiart

One piece of advice I would give is to split it up a little. The current format just makes it seem like it rambles on and on. Even something as simple as using the quote box when your putting in ability descriptions would help a ton to make it a little more managable for us. That way we know when we get to another box, were done reading about ability 1 and were moving on to ability 2.

That's a great idea.

yeah, what an awesome idea!

Also, I'm doing with this guide what I did with un-stickied guides we had on the Priest forum pre-MoP (the Cata sticky guide writers gradually stopped maintaining them & frequenting the forums, but Blizz wouldn't un-sticky them, so they were providing outdated info...) I am bookmarking it so I can link it when I see Brewmasters asking for help.

13.33 energy per second, which is 4332

unless I'm missing something for some reason this is wrong

5,221 haste is giving me 12.35 eps

All I saw was Agility > Stam > Exp to 7.5/15%, depending > Hit to cap > One of the 3 other stats.

The guide says all 3 secondary stat builds exist and all work well.

Can you expand on what secondary stat we should work for in a crit build, haste build, or mastery build?

Like, you go for a crit build. Piece has crit and mastery on it. Would it be better to leave it alone, reforge the mastery to haste, dodge/parry, or what?

And is there an addon like the Tao Addon, only it shows not only stagger, but shuffle and elusive brew charges as well, and the Tiger Palm buffs?

And as for Ascension vs Power Strikes: Have you seen any difference in it? Do they roughly equate to the same amount of chi over time from the faster energy regen?

And a random question for any brewmaster: I occasionally in bgs get a spell alert of 2 semi circles on the side of me, brown with bubbles, presumably brew. Is this when my stagger amount reaches red? (I don't have Purifying Brew yet. :P) It happens on things like Drek with 1/2 towers up, and I kinda freaked out the first time it happened.

11/28/2012 08:15 PMPosted by Brewfist

Like, you go for a crit build. Piece has crit and mastery on it. Would it be better to leave it alone, reforge the mastery to haste, dodge/parry, or what?

I can expand on that, sure thing.

11/28/2012 08:15 PMPosted by Brewfist

And is there an addon like the Tao Addon, only it shows not only stagger, but shuffle and elusive brew charges as well, and the Tiger Palm buffs?

Yeah, there's one that does that, can't think of the name right now though.

11/28/2012 08:15 PMPosted by Brewfist

And as for Ascension vs Power Strikes: Have you seen any difference in it? Do they roughly equate to the same amount of chi over time from the faster energy regen?

Theoretically PS wins. I don't care for PS and I use Ascension (with it I'm at 15 e/sec). So if you're wanting the absolute most Chi, PS is where it's at. I can get that in there.

11/28/2012 08:15 PMPosted by Brewfist

And a random question for any brewmaster: I occasionally in bgs get a spell alert of 2 semi circles on the side of me, brown with bubbles, presumably brew. Is this when my stagger amount reaches red?

Yes. You're in heavy stagger.

What did you think of the formatting? Was it easy enough to follow with the sections broken up like that?

Thanks for the critique. :D

I actually swapped to Ascension/Dual Wield for 2 levels.

I found it to be MUCH easier to do my things. However, without hit/expertise, 2h wins out for leveling, as elusive brew never stacks with DW when you don't have the hit/exp. xD I even found ascension/2h to be better for me personally. I just flow better when I have more reliable energy, rather than more reliable chi.

I liked the formatting. Though, it might be a good idea to break down the gemming section based on the builds. Like, if you choose a crit build, these are the best choices, if you choose a mastery, etc. I only say that because as it is now, there's just half the gem supply in wow listed under each color. :P

11/29/2012 06:13 PMPosted by Brewfist

elusive brew never stacks with DW when you don't have the hit/exp.

Elusive brew stacking is not affected by hit or expertise.

It only stacks when you crit with a white hit, and white hits use a single roll system. The only time hit/expertise affect this is if you're crit capped.

Which you don't.

hit/exp DOES affect yellow crits, but yellow crits don't affect Elusive Brew.