Monks are having a hard time in World of Warcraft right now. Especially Brewmasters – because hardly anyone wants them around.
Tanks in World of Warcraft are in demand. Most groups take the longest time looking for a tank willing to take the team through the dungeon or raid. However, a tank is often neglected – the Brewmaster monk. Because the harder the content is, the more often others say: “No, you. We’d rather find a real tank.”
How bad is the problem? The current state of the Brewmaster can be clearly demonstrated with numbers by looking at the tank distribution in “Mythic+” dungeons, such as on Raider.io. When you see how the monk tank performs, it quickly becomes clear that Brewmasters have a problem. At key stone levels +2 and +3, monks make up 7.2% of tanks, while all other tank specializations range between 15.7% and 23%.
- The higher the key stone, the rarer Brewmasters become. Starting at level 12 and above, it’s only 3.9%.
- At level 15 and above, it’s only 2.3% – where basically everyone is just playing Paladin and Warrior, leaving the other tank specializations looking outdated.
What is the problem with the Brewmaster? The Brewmaster is currently plagued by two issues. On one hand, healers complain that he falls over particularly quickly (compared to other tanks), and on the other hand, Brewmasters deal relatively low damage. While this is not necessarily the primary role of tanks, when comparing the damage output of Brewmasters and other tank specializations, the monks look quite outdated.
On the WoW subreddit and in the official forum, new posts appear every few days, either filled with memes or trying to convince Blizzard to rework the Brewmaster again:
Many Brewmasters even report having trouble holding threat against DPS characters – something that should practically be impossible in World of Warcraft. An actively playing tank should never be able to lose threat. Blizzard had already introduced this many expansions ago.
Nevertheless, some classes currently manage to deal so much damage compared to the Brewmaster that aggro often gets lost – and then usually the affected DPS too.
One person’s misery is another’s joy: Because where Brewmasters are currently neglected, Warriors are in a pretty good spot. They are extremely popular, deal high damage, and survive most fights with flying colors.
However, there are not only problems with tanks but also with new features – one is delayed indefinitely and will not be ready for the patch.
