The Monk Down Under

Tank Guide Tuesday: Council of Elders

•May 7, 2013 • 5 Comments

The history of the troll tribes — the Drakkari, the Farraki, the Amani, and the Gurubashi — is awash with millennia of betrayal and conflict, but the Zandalari’s promise of a new, unstoppable empire has finally united these disparate troll leaders.

If you haven’t seen the Council of Elders encounter before you can check out the Fatboss guide for 10 man here.

Talents

The Talents that I recommend for this encounter are;

Tier 1 – Like most fights, this talent is up to you, I’m using Tiger’s Lust at the moment as I find it the most useful.

Tier 2 – For this tier I use Chi Wave instead of Zen Sphere or Chi Burst.

Tier 3 – I use Ascension for the quality of life improvement.

Tier 4 – If you are dealing with the Loa Spirits (which I don’t recommend) you could use Charging Ox Wave or Leg Sweep. As far as I know, Ring of Peace doesn’t work against Sul or Mar’li any more, but either of the 3 choices could work.

Tier 5 – For this tier I use Dampen Harm, as there is no really heavy Magic damage.

Tier 6 – I use Invoke Xuen for this tier, as you don’t have 3 or more mobs to make use of Rushing Jade Wind.

Glyphs

The Major Glyphs that I use for this fight are;

Glyph of Enduring Healing

Glyph of Fortifying Brew

Glyph of Zen Meditation

The Fight

This fight is a council fight, there are 4 bosses that you need to defeat to beat this encounter. They are;

Frost King Malakk

High Priestess Mar’li

Kazra’jin

Sul the Sandcrawler

This fights main mechanic revolves around the Spirit of Gara’jal, yes, Mogu’shan Vaults was just a set back. Gara’jal will possess one of the members of the council, which will cause them to gain Dark Energy, once they reach 100 Dark Energy they will inflict Shadow damage to every player in the raid until the possession stops. To remove the Spirit of Gara’jal, you must deal 25% of the council members total health while they are possessed.

Out of these bosses Kazra’jin cannot be tanked, and because of this we don’t really need to worry about him.

So lets go through the bosses and what they are able to do.

Frost King Malakk: Malakk does the melee damage during this fight, he hits fairly hard, especially during Frigid Assault. Frigid Assault is a buff that he casts on himself periodically, this causes his melee attacks to deal additional Frost damage and apply a stacking debuff on his target. Once this debuff gets to 15 stacks the target is stunned for 15 seconds. Malakk will also cast Biting Cold on a player which will deal Frost damage to them and all players within 4 yards.

When Malakk is possed he will cast Frostbite instead of Biting Cold, which will deal damage like Biting Cold, but it will be shared and reduced by up to 2 raid members within 4 yards.

High Priestess Mar’li: Mar’li casts Wrath of the Loa as her main source of damage. It deals Holy damage to a random raid member. This ability can, and should be interrupted. She will also summon a Blessed Loa Spirit which will move towards the boss with the lowest health. If they reach them, or are still alive after 20 seconds it will heal them for 10% of their damage. These adds can be stunned, rooted, snared etc.

When Mar’li is possessed her Wrath of the Loa spell deals Shadow damage instead of Holy, and her Blessed Loa Spirit changes to a Shadowed Loa Spirit. The Shadowed Loa Spirit will fixate on a player, if they reach the player, or are still alive after 20 seconds the player that they are fixated on will die.

Sul the Sandcrawler: Sul the Sandcrawler is also another caster. He will cast Sand Bolt at a random raid member, which will deal splash damage to all players within 5 yards of the target, this spell can and should be interrupted. Sul will also cast Quicksand, which will create a pool under a player which will deal damage every second and debuff players standing in it with a snare. Once this reaches 5 stacks the player will be rooted.

When Sul is possessed he will cast Sandstorm. This causes the quicksand pools to turn into Living Sand. These adds are tankable and when they die they will turn back into quicksand. If there are any adds still alive when Sul casts Sandstorm again they will be restored to full health and have their damage increased by 100%.

Kazra’jin: While Kazra’jin doesn’t need to be tanked, his abilities are still important for you to know. He will charge at a random player and knock back anyone within 5 yards of the spot where he lands.

When Kazra’jin is possessed he will cast Overload after he uses Reckless Charge. Overload stuns himself for 20 seconds and will reflect 25% of all damage that he takes as Nature damage.

As to the strategy for this fight on 10 man, Sul the Sandcrawler is generally considered to be the toughest to deal with when possessed. Due to this, it is wise to kill him before he gets possessed. To deal with this fight have one of your tanks pick up High Priestess Mar’li and the other one (preferably you) to pick up Sul the Sandcrawler and Frost King Malakk, mainly because of the damage that we can output, and our on call Dodge chance increase.

You should be attacking Sul at all times, interrupting Sand Bolt when you are able to and saving all stacks of Elusive Brew for when Malakk casts Frigid Assault. If you are in danger of getting to 15 stacks use Fortifying Brew to reduce the damage you will take. If you don’t have Elusive Brew up make sure you have Guard for it.

The majority of your DPS should be on the boss that is possessed by Gara’jal, and at least 1 DPS on Sul. For this strategy you should use Bloodlust at the start of the fight and have all of your DPS attacking Sul until the first possessed target reaches about 60% Dark Energy, depending on your raid teams DPS.

This fight starts to get easier the moment one of the bosses dies, however, if you aren’t careful about keeping the damage relatively even amongst the bosses one of them might have more then 25% health when the other 2 bosses die.

Brewmaster Tips:

The top tips that I have for this fight are;

You cannot use Nimble Brew to break out of the stun from Frigid Assault unfortunately.
Tiger’s Lust can be used to help people move from Quicksand.
You can use Charging Ox Wave on the Blessed and Cursed Loa Spirits to help stun them.
If Sul does get possessed you can use Dizzying Haze and Spinning Crane Kick to pick up the adds, however, coupled with the damage from Malakk and Sul you will need tank cooldowns and healer cooldowns.
I don’t really have a 5^th tip.

So that’s it from me today everyone, I hope that you have learned something from reading these. Do you have any tips for these fights as a Tank? Let me know through comments below this post. This is a bit of a new layout for these guides, so let me know what you think.

As always if you have any questions, suggestions or comment you can reply here, you can contact me on Twitter at @matthews9292 or you can email me at [email protected]

Posted in Brewmaster Monk, Tank Guide, Throne of Thunder
Tags: Council of Elders, Raiding, Tanking, Throne of Thunder

Survivability vs. Damage

•May 5, 2013 • Leave a Comment

With the bosses in the Throne of Thunder raid hitting much harder than the previous tier the way we look at tanking has had to change as well. Especially in heroics, survivability enchants, gems, reforging and trinkets are becoming much more prevalent then their DPS counter parts.

So, the main question that I am going to try and answer today is;

When should I stop gearing for damage and start gearing for survivability, or vice-versa?

What are our current stat priorities?

So going for our damage build we want to use a reforging priority like this;

Hit (7.5%) > Expertise (7.5%/15%) > Haste (Until you have enough) > Crit > Mastery

So with this build, we want to cap our Hit and Expertise, making sure we are as close to the cap, without going under. If damage is your concern then the 15% Expertise cap is the one you want to go for.

Haste is something that is purely up to you, you want to have enough to make sure that you have the Chi generation for the following:

Keep Shuffle at 100%.
Use Guard on cooldown.
Use Purifying Brew as often as you need to.

After you have reached the above point on your gear, you want to max out the amount of Critical Strike Rating you have on your gear. This not only increases the damage that you deal, but also increases the number of Elusive Brew stacks that you will get during a fight, increasing the uptime on the 30% Dodge chance increase.

Mastery as a stat adds no damage, so it isn’t something to aim for, but Mastery on your gear isn’t something to worry about.

When going for survivability we want to use a reforging priority like this;

Hit (7.5%) > Expertise (7.5%/15%) > Haste (Until you have enough) > Mastery > Crit

Like the above build, you want to at least have 7.5% Hit and Expertise, you can go for the 15% Expertise cap, and it will increase the damage that you do, but it isn’t necessary.

For the survivability build you will want to have more Haste then the damage build as you will be using Purifying Brew much more often.

Mastery is what you will want to be gemming and enchanting for. This will increase the Physical damage that you push to Stagger, which will result in your Stagger damage going to Yellow much more frequently.

Critical Strike Rating does add survivability via Elusive Brew.

So How Do I Know Which To Gear For?

As a tank survivability isn’t the only thing that we need to be concerned with, this doesn’t mean that it isn’t important, as if you can’t take the hits your raid team won’t be able to kill bosses. If you do find that you aren’t able to stand up to the hits you’re taking, make sure you are using your cooldowns properly.

Once you are able to stand up to the bosses attacks you need to work out what is killing you. Most of the time it is spike damage that tends to kill tanks. Mastery, and Stamina, are the stats that you will want to gear for if you find that this is happening to you.

On the other hand, if you find that your raid team is unable to beat the enrage timers, gearing so that you can do more damage is one way of helping this. I am personally in this scenario right now, so I am using a Crit build to increase the damage that I am doing.

You need to make sure that you communicate with your healer, as your survivability will definitely be noticed by them.

So Do I Need To Change The Way I Gear?

The only way to know if you do need to change your gear is to actually do it. You aren’t going to know if the change in going to be beneficial until you actually go through with it and stand in front of a raid boss.

Make sure you talk to your healers so that they know you have changed the way you are gearing. For the first few attempts you are probably going to need to actively think about what you are doing, changing how often you use Purifying Brew and Elusive Brew.

If you are using World of Logs I believe that the damage that you Stagger is also included in the damage that you take from the bosses melee attacks. So that the total damage that you have taken will be lower then what is shown.

You might find that you only need to change your gear slightly to make sure you are survivable, in this case, I recommend changing the trinkets that you use from Agility trinkets to Stamina/Mastery trinkets. My favourite trinkets for this are Soul Barrier (I have the LFR version) and Lao-Chin’s Liquid Courage.

So thanks it from me today everyone, let me know what you think. Leave a comment below with your own experiences or questions/suggestions.

If you want to reach me feel free to leave me an email me at [email protected], find me on twitter at @matthews9292 or you can chat to me while I am streaming at http://www.twitch.tv/jdmatthews.

I hope you all have had a good International Star Wars day, but remember to beware the Revenge of the 5^th.

Posted in Brewmaster Monk
Tags: Brewmaster Monks, Damage, Survivability, Tanking, Throne of Thunder

Tank Guide Tuesday: Horridon aka Dinosaur of DOOOOOOOM!!

•April 30, 2013 • 4 Comments

The Zandalari brought powerful creatures with them to the Isle of the Thunder King to use as engines of war. Led by the War-God Jalak, the dinomancers of the Zandalari Beast Ward use ancient tribal magics to strengthen the great beasts and command obedience. The horns of Horridon, the fabled mount of Jalak himself, can tear through the stone walls of a keep as a blade cuts silk.

If you haven’t seen the Horridon encounter before, you can check out the Fatboss guide for it on 10 man here. Be warned, these guides do generally contain swearing.

Talents

The Talents that I recommend or this fight are;

Tier 1 – This choice is up to you, I generally use Tiger’s Lust but any of the three talents are fine.

Tier 2 – For this tier I use Chi Wave, but if you prefer Zen Sphere or Chi Burst then you can use them.

Tier 3 – I use Ascension for this tier for the huge quality of life change it provides.

Tier 4 – This tier is up to you, Ring of Peace is useful when dealing with the Gurubashi Door and Amani Door, but not very useful for the Farraki or Drakkari Door. Both Leg Sweep and Charging Ox Wave are useful for wrangling the adds that come down.

Tier 5 – For this encounter I use Dampen Harm.

Tier 6 – I use Rushing Jade Wind during this encounter as I find that Invoke Xuen, tends to pick up adds and tank them at a different spot then you, reducing the AoE/Cleave damage that you and your raid can do.

Glyphs

The Major Glyphs that I use for this fight are;

Glyph of Spinning Crane Kick

Glyph of Zen Meditation

Glyph of Fortifying Brew

The Fight

As a tank you have 2 separate roles to do during this fight. The first is to be able to gather the adds when they spawn and interrupt as much of the casting as you can, and the second is to tank Horridon, who through Triple Puncture, starts to deal a high amount of physical damage.

As a Brewmaster gathering the adds is not a difficult task, with the combination of Dizzying Haze, Provoke and Spinning Crane Kick you can pick up the adds easily. Once you have them, there are priority adds for each Door.

These adds are;

Zandalari Dinomancer: This add needs to be interrupted when it casts Dino-Mending. Once it reaches 50% health and drops the Orb of Control however, it stops becoming a priority.

Farraki Wastewalker: Three of these adds will spawn at the 1^stDoor, they place a magic debuff on players that should be dispelled by anyone that can. They also create Sand Traps that slowly expand over time and deal a large amount of damage to anyone standing in them.

Gurubashi Venom Priest: Three of these adds will spawn at the 2^nd Door. The cast a spell called Venom Bolt Volley which deals nature damage to the raid and places a stacking DoT that lasts 60 seconds. This ability can, and should be interrupted and the DoT is a poison effect, which means we can use Detox to remove it. The Venom Priests will also summon adds called Venomous Effusion which casts Venom Bolt Volley and create pools of poison that move.

Drakkari Frozen Warlord: Three of these adds will spawn at the 3^rdDoor. These adds apply a Mortal Strike debuff, which will reduce the healing you receive by 50% for 8 seconds and also summon a Frozen Orb which will move around and cast Frozen bolt on any plater within 8 yards.

Amani Beast Shaman: These adds sit atop of the Amani Warbears that enter the arena during the 4^th Door. They will use no abilities until the Warbear is killed. The Warbear will use Swipe which will deal a large amount of damage to anyone in front if them. The Beast Shaman will cast Chain Lightning which can and should be interrupted, they also place a Hex of Confusion on platers which gives them a chance to injured themselves with their abilities. The last ability they use is Lightning Nova Totem, which remain stationary and cast Lightning Nova on players within 8 yards of them.

The harder part of this fight as a Brewmaster is tanking Horridon. You should be tank swapping at each door, (so you would take Doors 1 and 3 for example) ideally you don’t want to be taking any more then 9 stacks of the Triple Puncture debuff. Set up a rotation of your cooldowns, and try to use them as close to the Triple Puncture as possible. Dampen Harm, Fortifying Brew, Guard and even Zen Meditation can be used when timed correctly. As a tip make sure you have the Chi to use Purifying Brew after each Triple Puncture, and either Expel Harm or Chi Wave up to help healers.

After all 4 Doors have been destroyed you enter the next phase. The War-God Jalak will enter the arena and needs to be tanked (You should have swapped after the 4^th Door). Jalak casts Bestial Cry which deals a large amount of physical damage to everyone and increases the damage that he does with Bestial Cry by 25%. This is generally when you will want to use Bloodlust to burn Jalak down. Keep in mind that Jalak can be disarmed which will reduce the damage that he does with Bestial Cry and will reduce the damage you take by 5% due to Grapple Weapon.

Once Jalak dies, Horridon will enrage which will make him attack 50% faster and deal 100% more damage. Make sure all of your cooldowns are up for this part of the fight, and that healers are ready with whatever tank cooldowns that they have.

Brewmaster Tips

The top tips that I have for this fight are;

You can use Detox during the 2^nd and 3^rd Door to help the healers out.
Nimble Brew can be used if you get stunned at the 1^st Door.
Make sure you place your Black Ox Statue at each Door as you can out range it.
Keep Expel Harm and Chi Wave for after Triple Puncture applications.
Tiger’s Lust can be used to help your raid move from Double Swipe or move for Charge.

As always if you have any questions, suggestions or comment you can reply here, you can contact me on Twitter at @matthews9292 or you can email me at [email protected]

Posted in Brewmaster Monk, Tank Guide, Throne of Thunder
Tags: Horridon, Raiding, Tanking, Throne of Thunder

Back to Posting!

•April 26, 2013 • Leave a Comment

Hey there everyone,

I would like to apologize for not posting as frequently as I should be. I’ve been dealing with some personal stuff, which is a reason but not an excuse. Starting from next week, I will be posting at least once a week with another post for a guide for tanking.

The Brewmaster guide that I am working on is still on the way, if you have anything that you want me to cover in it let me know. I think that right now I will have to split the guide into a Beginner’s and an Advanced guide.

My guild is currently 11/12 on Normal Mode, and we are hopefully going to kill Lei Shen this week, so we can start on heroics. I would like to thank everyone that has watched me stream, it has been great being able to do that.

That’s it from me today, a nice short one.

Have a good one.

Posted in General Monk

Tank Guide Tuesday: Jin’rokh the Breaker

•April 2, 2013 • 2 Comments

Hey everyone,

Now that everything has settled down a little bit it is time to get back to posting more than once a week, and that starts with Tank Guides. So for you all I have written up the first encounter in the Throne of Thunder, Jin’rokh the Breaker.

If you haven’t seen the Jin’rokh fight before, you can check out the Fatboss guides for it on 10 man here. I will warn you, these guides can contain swearing and the like.

Talents

The Talents that I recommend for this fight are;

Tier 1 – This choice is completely up to you, I use Tiger’s Lust as it can be cast on other members of your group.

Tier 2 – For this tier I use Chi Wave, but if you prefer Zen Sphere or Chi Burst you can use them.

Tier 3 – I use Ascension for this tier as it is a huge Quality of Life change.

Tier 4 – I take Leg Sweep as default unless the fight calls for Ring of Peace or Charging Ox Wave.

Tier 5 – For this encounter I use Diffuse Magic in this tier.

Tier 6 – I always default to Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger in this tier, but you might find a use for Chi Torpedo or Rushing Jade Wind

Glyphs

The Major Glyphs that I use for this fight are;

Glyph of Enduring Healing

Glyph of Zen Meditation

Glyph of Fortifying Brew

The Fight

Jin’rokh will use an ability called Thundering Throw 4 times throughout the encounter. He will grab the current tank and throw them at 1 of the 4 Mogu Statues around the room and stun the tank for 5 seconds when they hit the ground. From the statue Conductive Water will flow, which grants players standing in the water the buff Fluidity. As a tank you shouldn’t stand in the water, but you should tank Jin’rokh with his back to the water so the Melee DPS in your raid can attack him without being parried.

During this fight you will be tank swapping after you gain the debuff called Static Burst. This debuff will apply a new debuff called Static Wound after three seconds. While this debuff is active anytime that you take melee damage you take additional nature damage and the raid takes nature damage. While I have been tanking this fight I have found that the debuff will not drop before it is applied to the other tank, so by using Elusive Brew you can reduce the damage you and the raid take for the few seconds you will have the boss attacking you.

Every 1 minute and 30 seconds (I believe) Jin’rokh will summon a Lightning Storm and turn the Conductive Water into a void zone (Don’t stand in it). During Lightning Storm you should have your raid stack on the boss so that raid healing and damage mitigation cooldowns can be used. I suggest working out a rotation for these cooldowns, knowing that at most you will have 4 Lightning Storms. Do remember to use the raid cooldowns that your Tanks and DPS possess. Once the Lightning Storm is over, Jin’rokh will use Thundering Throw again, this process repeats until Jin’rokh is dead or there are no more Statues.

Brewmaster Tips

The top tips that I have for this fight are;

Rotate between using Guard and Elusive Brew. This boss hits much harder than the bosses from last tier, so use Purifying Brew when you need to.
You can use Avert Harm and Diffuse Magic as a raid cooldown for Lightning Storm, meaning that you can use Zen Meditation later on.
You can use our new ability Nimble Brew to end the stun from Thundering Throw early.
Use any Healing Spheres you gain from Gift of the Ox as they appear if you can, as chances are, you will not be able to use them later in the fight.
Tiger’s Lust can be used on DPS or Healers that are being chased by Focused Lightning to help them get out of the Conductive Water quicker.

As always if you have any questions, suggestions or comment you can reply here, you can contact me on Twitter at @matthews9292 or you can email me at [email protected]

Posted in Brewmaster Monk, Tank Guide, Throne of Thunder
Tags: Jin'rokh the Breaker, Raiding, Tanking, Throne of Thunder

Tank Guide Tuesday: Council of Elders

Survivability vs. Damage

Tank Guide Tuesday: Horridon aka Dinosaur of DOOOOOOOM!!

Back to Posting!

Tank Guide Tuesday: Jin’rokh the Breaker

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