Brewmaster Monks also have a returning passive, Shuffle, which increases the amount of physical damage that’s staggered when the Monk uses one of several abilities including Blackout Kick (previously called Blackout Strike), Keg Smash, and Spinning Crane Kick
To be honest, this is really not needed, at least not for pvp. Brew master really is in need of abilities that can be used while cc’d, or significantly more utility/mobility (to make it more dh - kite oriented).
Celestial Brew is a new ability that absorbs damage based on the imbiber’s attack power.
If there is 4 charges, and this gives 20% or more per a use, it would be amazing for brew, especially if it was usable in cc effects. This single change could make brewmaster a viable and potentially tank in pvp. I will say though, it should be based on max HP not Attack power.
And Brewmaster Monks can once again challenge their chosen target with Clash , a returning ability that causes both the Monk and their target bull-rush each other and—at the epicenter of the conflict—root their opponent for short duration.
Something fun, but it really does not seem to be all that good at the moment for either pvp or pve, out side of arena.
All Brewmaster Monks will be able to use Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox (previously a Talent) to help shoulder Brewmasters’ Stagger damage.
Niuzao also deals additional damage based on Stagger damage purified. For Brewmaster Monks, not only does
Touch of Death instantly kill any creature with less health than the Monk, but it will also clear remaining Stagger damage.
These changes are pointless, and are purely pve related, even more then that, ToD for brew in shadow is really just a 1 shot mob, which at best saves a few seconds of dps.
Lets get into real problems of brew master
Returning Bubble to brew master may be a good move to help bolster the class. I’d rather have something like that then anything (saver the absorb effects) but this would give brewmaster insanes amount of potential. To be honest, the drinking x4 stacks at 20% HP per a use, or something like that would be better over all in pve and pvp, and easier to balance (simply shifting the values). This would HAVE TO BE USABLE IN CC. Bubble would help play a similar role, but require more preemptive, which is not where brew is really hurting in pvp at the moment because of things like guard.
While there are some issues with surviving in stuns, a lot of the death really comes from to lower of a % on magical effects for stagger, shifting this back up to 65% or 55% Would help significantly.
If we do current level math on this, we are looking at upwards of 400k bolts, at 35% thats 140,000 damage done to the monk in stagger, the rest right into his life. This means that 360,000 damage hits the monk, or respectively if we use lower, non-top players we are looking at about 35,000 damage on stagger, and around 90,000 damage direct. With two bolts going into you + gpy and a kidney you are looking at 180k instant + 165k (gpy) + 70k stagger and any other damage added by other classes, its near instant death for the monk in a kidney, even with trinket there is almost no hope of living.
Having the ability to stagger that damage, or at the least to counter the damage in a stun with 4 20% HP absorb drinks, would significantly help. We could also look at making guard stronger, improving stagger magic rates and then allowing guard to be used in any state, or alternatively, making guard be usable in any state and allowing it to absorb all damage (forcing stagger to take on 100% of all damage taken).
In addition to the damage related issues, we are also suffering from a really poor toolkit for brew.
We should have “short port” (reduced transcendence cool down). Also some of our kit is not really working well. [Craft: Nimble Brew][Niuzao’s Essence] In ways seem to be two talents really trying to work at the same issue, to help the monk stay clear of cc effects. For this reason nimble should be moved to removing and preventing snare/root effects for 8 seconds (losing its other benefits) and Niuzao’s should be changed to remove magical effects (and magic curse) when drinking purifying brew. In addition, it should not trigger cleanse related effects (working similar to how reverse magic does) Like warlock anti-dispel bomb.
[Double Barrel]
Change this talent to allowing the break master to have either 1. a second charge of barrel, or two, a new ability that he can throw to knock people away (aoe knock) at a target location (from that target location). The second would be amazing and much needed utility for brew.
When it comes to the discussion of magic damage reduction, [Eerie Fermentation] could potentially provide a better role if it increased the stagger amount of magic damage taken from 35% to 55 or 65%. This would enable it to have value against more caster related comps in battlegrounds and arena.
While the movement speed portion of the ability is interesting the entire “based on stagger amount” is really killing it. If it gave +30% Magic damage stagger, and + 30% movement speed at all times it would be amazing and would love to take it. Alternatively, a +30% Magic damage is staggered, and cannot be slowed beyond base movement speed (like malornes) would be equally good.
[Microbrew][Guided Meditation]
Now we come to the two abilities that really need some serious buffs.
Meditation in general is garbage, but has potential to be used. If it did not break on any damage by default, it would be useful for los situations. If it did not break on any damage and was not kickable/cc while in that state it would merrit the cool down, but until such things take place it really just seems like a useless ability.
doing a design pass on it and shifting it to doing something like “reduces your cool downs on all abilities by x seconds, per a second” might be much more useful and interesting, especially if it was longer duration channel. For example, i could drop port, run around, return to port by using transfer (recall) and then use meditation to bring back the cool down much faster. this would give brew master that ability to kite, just like dh can but in a different way (through walls, etc)
Fortifying brew simply has way, way to much cool down for who knows what reason for brew. It should be reduced to 1 minute, and the 50% talent in place reducing it to 30 seconds.
This sums up my feedback for brew for shadowlands, hope it helps out.