World of Warcraft XIV: Fish Felreed, and the Reed Pond fish

[Traab]

Spinning fire lotus tends to make it better to level Windwalker, at least until it reaches cata or pandaria, since it can often allow you to kill things before they even reach melee range.
For dungeons or questing in a group though, Brewmaster is great regardless of level.

This. This is a hilarious way to pass the time. Make sure you have full chi, fire off 2 shots, use one of the skills that gives you extra chi, im blanking on the name, fire off another 5 blasts (if needed, it often isnt) and grats, you just turned into a mage. Gives me the giggles every time I do it that way. Its still an awesome use of chi even in melee range.

[Psyren]

I just want to point out your whole scenario there has nothing to do with casuals. When you're running heroic anything, much less able to measure your progression in terms of Top X on the server, you're far outside casual range. Yes, raiding guilds with a focus on progression expect certain things of their raiders. That's just part of what you have to put up with if you want to raid at that level.

Seriously, I've been playing casual for the last few months. The pestering at that level is more like every now and then I get a complaint "Man these queues suck, wouldn't it be nice if we had a tank right now?" or "It would be so great if we didn't have to put up with this ****ty tank right now, wouldn't it?", or occasionally a more firm "Dude why the **** are you using your tank spec? I know you have one!" I dealt with passive pestering like that for months before someone else in the guild got tired of expecting me to play something I didn't want and leveled his DK.

Indeed! This is precisely what I was getting at two posts ago.

I will however be calmer as I make my final point:

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I do believe Blizzard should consider any changes to the game carefully, and I believe that they did do so here. I just hope that more went into the decision to delay this feature than solely worrying about peer pressure. I can see how peer pressure can be a big deal to a high-end raiding guild, certainly, but again - those kinds of environments don't care whether tri-spec or dual-spec exists anyway. If high-end guilds have a need, their members are expected to fill it. That comes with the territory if you're hardcore, since the game's most lucrative hardcore rewards cannot be gotten solo, but the expectations of these organizations are again independent of the existence or absence of such a feature.

Anyone leveled a tank-spec monk? I don't have a monk character, and if I'm going to level something from 1-90, I want it to be something I'll enjoy at 90.

As a matter of fact, I did level as a Brewmaster, from 1-90 in about a week and a half. Monks get a daily quest that gives them an exp buff, which appears to stack with your heirlooms, so a rise to the top will be pretty quick for you. (Hell, I could have done it even faster, but I was leveling Alchemy and Herbalism at the same time so that I would have my Zen Alchemist Stone waiting for me as soon as I hit 85. Naturally this involved a lot of dull flying around in deserted Northrend and BC areas getting the specific herbs I needed, that weren't on my AH.)

Anyway, I'm not sold on the idea that WW makes leveling any faster. For one, tanks of all kinds get to instance more often thanks to insta-queues, and those instances tend to have quests of their own. For two, in my experience, DPS specs don't really start outdamaging tanks until Mastery enters the equation; until then, Vengeance has you keeping pace with them for the most part, and you have a lot more survivability - able to round up literally a dozen mobs and drop them all at the same time at full health, even in Pandaria. And for three, because they're in dungeons more often, tanks get their pick of the best gear - this is particularly true for Monks, who can actually wear rogue gear for the most part and tank perfectly fine. (They are for instance the only tank in the game that can dual-wield, and they gain defensive benefits from Crit/Haste and so have no need to stack defensive stats like Dodge/Parry while leveling.)

As to the class, it's a great deal of fun - my new favorite class to tank on, and certainly the most mobile tank around since Druids. Their advantages are:

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Mobility - As I mentioned, I would say that Brewmasters are even more mobile than Druids (and they don't have to lower their defenses to move quickly either.) No other tank can get out of bad as quickly as a Brewmaster can. For example, Ozruk is a joke on a monk as you flip and dive away from every Shatter and Ground Slam, and dodging the Slams and Fire Circles from Xin is trivial for them as well. Moves like Uthok's Dark Fissure won't come close to touching you. And simply rolling/torpedoing to get around dungeons makes solo transmog runs much faster than they would be otherwise. (Not to mention Spinning Crane Kick - running through an old dungeon with lowbies in tow? Just run in front and Spin to Win!)

Speaking of soloing:

Self-Healing - They have a LOT; as much as a Death Knight if not more, thanks to techniques like Expel Harm, Chi Wave (or the other talents on this tier), Chi Torpedo, Healing Spheres, Healing Elixirs, and Gift of the Ox. Multiple times on the way to 90 I've had to solo a boss after the healer or rest of the group died (this happened for instance on Lady Naz'jar when the healer ate a geyser, or on Cookie in Deadmines when the rotten food piled up).

Ranged capability - They're no mage of course, but Crackling Jade Lightning is phenomenal for maintaining threat during "keep-away" phases (Like Ertan when she retracts her cyclones, Hoptallus during Furlwind, or Ga'dok's Strafing Run.) Certainly it beats Icy Touch spam or Judgment's cooldown. It's much easier for them to switch to ranged on command than most other tanks as a result.

Picking up adds - Dizzying Haze is a very unique ability they get: spammable ranged AoE threat with a snare and debuff attached. Basically, you can throw kegs around like candy any time you need to pull mobs or pick up adds from any source, such as grabbing skeleton adds on Keleseth, or cultist swarms on Azil, or anything Ozumat happens to drop in. Getting things off the healer is pretty easy as a result.

Pull Control - like Druids with Cyclone, Monks get a universal ranged CC (Paralysis.) I've yet to find a creature type this doesn't work on; Sure, some mobs can't be CC'ed, but if they are susceptible to anything at all they are susceptible to this. Best of all, you don't have to wait for gung-ho dps to do it or waste time marking; you can simply run in front like you normally do, lock down that annoying caster and then toss a keg at his buddies. In fact, you can even hit your paralyzed mob with the keg - it does no damage and so won't break it.

Another form of pull control monks get is their Ox statue - if you place it ahead of you, mobs will initially aggro on it instead, and it has about half your maximum health. This is highly useful for mobs that do something nasty when pulled, like the Gillblin goblins in TotT with their volley of poison spears, or any mobs that chargestun you when aggro'ed - get them to waste their opener on your statue, and run in behind it tossing kegs and spin-kicking.

For all their benefits though, they do have drawbacks.

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Dual resource management - Like Death Knights, you have two bars to keep watch over; only, where they have runes and runic power, you have to manage energy and Chi. The rule of thumb is the same - spend one to make the other, then spend that second one while the other refills. At least you don't have to play rune tetris, so it's a little easier than DK, but it's still something else to keep track of that warriors and paladins don't have to worry about. (Paladin tanks may as well be just HoPo, they don't really go OOM unless they're manually casting outside of their rotation.)

And speaking of micromanagement:

Active Mitigation - On tougher fights, monks require you to pay a bit more attention than you might be used to. A major one is maintaining uptime on Shuffle - it has a very short duration but accounts for a huge portion of your avoidance (20% Parry to be precise), so you always have to be watching the buff to make sure it doesn't fall off. You also have to keep an eye on your Elusive Brew stacks to make sure you don't cap (and are therefore wasting additional charges from crits.) You also have to keep an eye on the Dizzying Haze debuff on your foes, which accounts for another portion of your avoidance, so you want to make sure that doesn't fall off as well. Finally, while you fight, you will randomly spawn health orbs that only you can see from your passive ability called Gift of the Ox - you'll want to leave a couple of these floating near you for emergencies, but you'll be constantly shifting and sidestepping to grab them in most fights. They heal for quite a lot - each one heals around 12k for me currently, and I tend to end up with 6-10 floating near me at all times - but it seems monks were designed as a tank that bobs and weaves and doesn't still, rather than an implacable wall of meat/iron/faith like the others.

The biggest thing you have to track by far though is Stagger - Brewmasters have a unique mechanic whereby they break all incoming physical damage into two parts. By default, they take 80% up front, and the rest is placed into an untyped DoT called "stagger" which damages them over time. This smooths out their damage spikes to make life easier on the healer, but during periods of heavy damage the DoT can start to pile up a bit. Luckily, you'll get a pretty spammable ability called Purifying Brew that removes the DoT completely, including all damage not yet taken from it.

The reason this one is big because this is the one your mastery interacts with; the more mastery you have, the more damage gets shifted into Stagger, going from 80/20 to something closer to 60/40. This means that perversely, as your gear gets better (i.e. your mastery increases) you'll have to keep more of an eye on it. So in addition to watching your energy, chi, and various procs like Evasive Brew/Dizzying Haze/Tiger Power, you also have to keep an eye on the Stagger DoT itself, as you are the only one who can remove it when it starts to tick for too much. Blizzard helpfully color coded it to assist you - when it turns yellow or red, you know there's a huge amount of damage saved up in it (relative to your total HP) and so it might be a good idea to purge it before your healer has trouble keeping up, especially if a high-damage phase is coming. But again, this has the benefit of making the damage you take even out more regularly instead of being spiky or swingy.

Lack of Cooldowns - This is probably the worst thing about them. Paladins and DKs have a laundry list of panic buttons they can hit if things start to go south (for either themselves or the rest of the party.) Monks have... Fortifying Brew for heavy self-damage, Avert Harm to help protect the group (similar to Devotion Aura, except the mitigated damage is transferred to you) and Nimble Brew to clear a root/stun/fear. And maybe Dampen Harm/Diffuse Magic, if you specced into one of those two. That's about it. (Well, there's Zen Meditation, if you're in that odd fight where the boss has a powerful magic attack and doesn't melee you for awhile.) Now, if you're good at weaving self-healing into your rotation and good at the active mitigation above, you won't have to worry about not having cooldowns as much... but when other tanks can refill their health (or their healer's!) with a keypress, or summon a legion of auto-taunting minions to give themselves a breather, you can feel a bit left out. And active mitigation is harder to do if you're stunned or feared, during which time your shuffle will probably fall off and you won't be able to grab more healing spheres.

[PrinceOfThieves]

Is anyone else getting tired of farming Spirits Of Harmony? In trying to gear myself up to try LFR (thanks to Karoht for talking me into it ). Took me over a week to get 8 to make Ghost Reaver Gauntlets. Its to the point that I'm hoping a plate chest drops so I can just sell off the stack of Living Steel I have just so I can make some money.

[Zherog]

You can plant them on your farm. You'll only get one per crop, but if you have the full farm that gets your 16 a day.

edit: well, you plant motes, which you turn into spirits.

[PrinceOfThieves]

You can plant them on your farm. You'll only get one per crop, but if you have the full farm that gets your 16 a day.

edit: well, you plant motes, which you turn into spirits.

I did not know this. Now I have a reason to go do the Tillers stuff. Thanks.

[The Glyphstone]

Tillers are just overall great now. You can farm special stuff like motes, you can use them (once you hit exalted) to grind rep with other factions you don't like doing dailies for, you can eventually build yourself a nice little home base (complete with portals to capital cities, you just have to farm them).

[otakuryoga]

so....is there any trinket out there that has a click effect that summons a critter or two to attack for you(melee not range)?
i just need a little something extra so i can crack Viscidus apart with regularity

[Zherog]

The quilen statuette gained from archeology does what you want.

[Psyren]

The quilen statuette gained from archeology does what you want.

It's apparently horrible too so I wouldn't bother grinding that thing out.

I believe there's a trinket you get from questing in Jade Forest that can summon backup as well. But my advice for any rare is to bring along some potions and a flask to beef you up.

[Seerow]

It's apparently horrible too so I wouldn't bother grinding that thing out.

I believe there's a trinket you get from questing in Jade Forest that can summon backup as well. But my advice for any rare is to bring along some potions and a flask to beef you up.

He's not talking about a rare, he's talking about the boss in AQ40 that after you freeze you have to hit X number of times before it unfreezes to kill it. I didn't realize there were classes that had trouble hitting that number since the 5.1 nerf, but if there are then a quellion summon would contribute what is needed. Actual damage doesn't matter, just that it deals extra hits.

[Traab]

So.... I just looted a bff necklace. Does that do anything? Anything at all?

[The Glyphstone]

So.... I just looted a bff necklace. Does that do anything? Anything at all?

Nope, nothing. Just another random vanity item.

[Traab]

Seriously, this expansion had way too much of that crap. Little trinkets that do silly things and cant even be sold to a vendor.

[The Glyphstone]

You killed an obscure Captain Planet joke to get it, I hope you weren't expecting much.

[Traab]

You killed an obscure Captain Planet joke to get it, I hope you weren't expecting much.

Honestly? I wasnt expecting anything. I was hoping for more exp than I got though. I was so damn close to 90 and figured getting a solid amount of exp for hammering this elite to death for several minutes would do it, but even the exp was crappy.

[Togath]

Seriously, this expansion had way too much of that crap. Little trinkets that do silly things and cant even be sold to a vendor.

How is a fun little trinket bad? If you want dark, go play Diablo(not an insult, it just annoys me when people complain about finding novelty things in a game)

[Traab]

How is a fun little trinket bad? If you want dark, go play Diablo(not an insult, it just annoys me when people complain about finding novelty things in a game)

Its the fact that you cant even vendor them. Some of them are cute and fun to play with, I just dont like it when halfway through a zone I find I have half a bag full of random items that no vendor is interested in. I just dont get why that is.

[Antonok]

so....is there any trinket out there that has a click effect that summons a critter or two to attack for you(melee not range)?
i just need a little something extra so i can crack Viscidus apart with regularity

Quick attack speed dagger, the jade statuette and the arch trinkets, CDs depending on your class...

C'Thun also drops a trinket that summons a tentacle (which off topic, can be used to produce some rather great reactions if summoned on top of female chars).

Various Engineering items like bombs, chickens, etc can be used to.

[otakuryoga]

The quilen statuette gained from archeology does what you want.

kewl..will look that up when i get home

He's not talking about a rare, he's talking about the boss in AQ40 that after you freeze you have to hit X number of times before it unfreezes to kill it. I didn't realize there were classes that had trouble hitting that number since the 5.1 nerf, but if there are then a quellion summon would contribute what is needed. Actual damage doesn't matter, just that it deals extra hits.

yeah...Prot Pally..we have two melee attacks that share a cooldown and the shield bash for 3 holy power..so without an insane amount of avenging shield procs it is tough to generate that many melee attacks--though i at least get the "he is about to shatter" message every time

Quick attack speed dagger, the jade statuette and the arch trinkets, CDs depending on your class...

C'Thun also drops a trinket that summons a tentacle (which off topic, can be used to produce some rather great reactions if summoned on top of female chars).

Various Engineering items like bombs, chickens, etc can be used to.

using a 1.7 speed weapon..got the 200 haste food, a 700 haste pot, and switched a cog in ghost dragon trinket to 600 haste..still cant crack him unless i get lucky with avenging shield procs
--and cant do the dps to outgun the twins healing to get to C'thun--though on thinking about it and realizing just how many of my attacks are holy damage instead of physical i think next try i will focus on the physical immune one instead
..or if i get enough gearups for ret i may try em that way(and visc as well..if ret has more melee attacks)

[Antonok]

using a 1.7 speed weapon..got the 200 haste food, a 700 haste pot, and switched a cog in ghost dragon trinket to 600 haste..still cant crack him unless i get lucky with avenging shield procs
--and cant do the dps to outgun the twins healing to get to C'thun--though on thinking about it and realizing just how many of my attacks are holy damage instead of physical i think next try i will focus on the physical immune one instead
..or if i get enough gearups for ret i may try em that way(and visc as well..if ret has more melee attacks)

Go ret. I solo it the entire thing with an 85 Ret pally with an Ilvl of 394. Can also solo BWL though the second boss will still occasionally get me once or twice before I kill him.

With Visc I use the jade statuette and pop guardian, wrath, and holy avenger, and down him in one shot. This using a 2h sword with the elemental force enchant.

With the twins its a bit more tricky. I use crit food with kings (no pot buff) and pull them over to the closed doorway (one that opens after they die) to negate the knockback (thank you low ceiling). Use either sacred shield or eternal flame with 3 HP(what I prefer*). Pop all your CDs and do a burst phase, then maintain Inqusition and keep up on dps so thier healing doesn't get out of control until wrath and HA get off CD then pop and burst.

*Reason I prefer eternal flame over shield is due to the HoT it gives. At 3 HP it heals me for about 20-30k a tick.

[The Glyphstone]

So I just learned an interesting bit of trivia.

In the 5-man version of Zul'Gurub, Bloodlord Mandokir has a move called Decapitate that instant kills its target, but incurs no durability loss. Apparently, having this happen with the Reinforced Guild Perk (-5%/10% durability loss) causes negative durability loss, you can repair your armor by repeatedly getting your head cut off by a troll.

[otakuryoga]

It's apparently horrible too so I wouldn't bother grinding that thing out.

I believe there's a trinket you get from questing in Jade Forest that can summon backup as well. But my advice for any rare is to bring along some potions and a flask to beef you up.

would that be the jade raccoon? i dont see anything in the comments about it being an attacking summon...

So I just learned an interesting bit of trivia.

In the 5-man version of Zul'Gurub, Bloodlord Mandokir has a move called Decapitate that instant kills its target, but incurs no durability loss. Apparently, having this happen with the Reinforced Guild Perk (-5%/10% durability loss) causes negative durability loss, you can repair your armor by repeatedly getting your head cut off by a troll.

Trollololololol

[Lord Raziere]

ah Bloodlord Mandokir. from making it possible to get our own cute raptor pet, to yelling "ding!" when he kills a player, to repairing your armor when he does so, he is awesome.

Bloodlord Mandokir: never change, mon, never change.

[Traab]

YAY! Just took out my first jinyu rare spawn. Wow, that was a lot tougher than the mogu or the tauren knockoff rares ive faced so far. Took me 2 deaths to figure out what skills I had to stand there and take, what skills I had to silence, and what skills I had to death grip to force him to move. And one stupid mistake is all it takes to lose those fights. At one point I actually fell to less than 10khp because I screwed up and tried to death grip him while he was too close so it didnt make him move. Cant believe I survived that rain storm of exploding water or whatever the hell it was. It was the jinyu in ambermarsh if it matters.

[Zherog]

So, Golden Lotus rep... Even though it's a pain in the ass to get it to Exalted, I recommend folks do it, then grab the quest chain that's available once you're there. Freakin' awesome! Does a fantastic job of making you feel like a hero, and a challenging boss fight at the end.

[The Glyphstone]

YAY! Just took out my first jinyu rare spawn. Wow, that was a lot tougher than the mogu or the tauren knockoff rares ive faced so far. Took me 2 deaths to figure out what skills I had to stand there and take, what skills I had to silence, and what skills I had to death grip to force him to move. And one stupid mistake is all it takes to lose those fights. At one point I actually fell to less than 10khp because I screwed up and tried to death grip him while he was too close so it didnt make him move. Cant believe I survived that rain storm of exploding water or whatever the hell it was. It was the jinyu in ambermarsh if it matters.

Yeah, Jinyu are tough. If you've got at least two interrupts, you're in the clear - Waterbolt is weak, but Rain Dance is vicious unless you can run good, and Torrent is a guaranteed kill unless it's interrupted.

Interesting factoid - if you're fighting a jinyu near a lake/pond, try to pull him out onto the water itself....Rain Dance blobs will impact on the bottom of the lake instead of the surface, so if you can Water Walk somehow, you're effectively immune to the spell.

[Traab]

Yeah, Jinyu are tough. If you've got at least two interrupts, you're in the clear - Waterbolt is weak, but Rain Dance is vicious unless you can run good, and Torrent is a guaranteed kill unless it's interrupted.

Interesting factoid - if you're fighting a jinyu near a lake/pond, try to pull him out onto the water itself....Rain Dance blobs will impact on the bottom of the lake instead of the surface, so if you can Water Walk somehow, you're effectively immune to the spell.

Yeah there was water there and I AM a deathknight, but I wasnt sure it was deep enough to avoid the rain dance and figured I had a nice solid method of ensuring I didnt die. Death grip fast enough and he never even gets off a single shot. Torrent is when I mind freeze, I ignore waterbolt. "Ooooh! A whole 20k damage?! Whatever shall I do?" /death strike heals you for 25k health "Well, now I have time to contemplate what I will do about that scary, scary spell! lol"

[Togath]

Any tips for killing Dinomancers as a hunter? is it possible to solo them?(I don't die, it just become an endless stalemate, as they heal back to full when they reach 75% hp)

[The Glyphstone]

Did you try interrupting their heal with Silent Shot or Scatter Shot?

[Traab]

Well, I just faced my first panda rare and got my ass kicked royally. How the hell do I stop that crane kick as a death knight? Mind freeze doesnt stop it, strangulate doesnt stop it, and I cant get enough distance to try and death grip him out of it. Thats insane, its 120k damage a second for WAY too many seconds to outlast.