Zomg it's Xmas soon!!!!

Yes, sorry, another "Squee" post.....but I am really enjoying the Winter Veil quests, I spent a whole night in flex doing more dps by throwing snowballs at my guildies than actual dps (I went WW tonight - a guildy wanted to use his DK alt and I am quite enjoying the spec.) The main reason I posted was actually to add to my previous post Builds for Bosses pt 2 - Feature Focus on Spoils of Pandaria, I do have our groups first kill video now, you will have to excuse the "whoops I thought you had that beam" incident in the Mogu room, slight miss-comm's there!! However, my group made a very good recovery and we carried on as if nothing had happpened. Also, something I did differently to usual, and forgot to mention in the post before, in the Mantid room, depending on bomb placement, you may need to pull the mobs away from them to ensure your melee dont get blown up :)

Anyway, here it is in all its glory, picked some more "fun" music to go with this one, in keeping with the theme of the fight - FUN!!

*Stands up* My name is Cat, and i'm a "Mogaholic".....

This weeks topic is something I have yearned to post for a while now, and as nothing particularly interesting has befallen me this week, (apart from getting my second Seismic Bore - more later) I spent an hour or so a few hours collating images of all my different mogs, some are from other toons, as well as being a Mogaholic I am also an Altaholic.....first world issues and all that :D

So, splash on some overly priced perfume, grab your Gucci bag, cue the catwalk music and prepare to be dazzled!!

 This was one of my first ever transmog sets on my Monk. Some of it was a bit mismatched but I was going for a power ranger kind of style!

Shoulders: Firecharm Shoulderguards
Chest: Mistspray Vest
Legs: Slaver's Leggings
Gloves: Gloves of Cushioned Air
Belt: Featherflight Belt
Boots: Extra Credit Boots
Staff: Jalak's Malestrom Staff

 This was my Dk's old set, I did have gloves to match at one point but I accidentally vendored them :(

Legs: Warlords iron Legplates 

Chest : The Exarch's protector 

 This was one of my favorite monk sets, moving from the light green to the dark and adding the awesome goggles of engineering goodness!
Head: Mechanized Snow Goggles 
Shoulders: Same as previous!
Chest: Blessed Elunite Coverings 
Gloves: Grasp of the Moonkin 
Belt: Girdle of the Night and Day 
Legs: Pants of Splendid Recovery 
Boots: Moonwalkers 
Staff: Braxxis' Staff of Slumber

 My DK's current set, one of the easiest sets to obtain as it's all bought from G'eras in Shattrah.

Shoulders: Pauldrons of the Gruseome Fate

Chest: Inferno Tempered Chestguard

Gloves: Inferno Tempered Gauntlets

Legs: Inferno Tempered Leggings

Boots: Inferno Tempered Boots

 My priest's current PvP set. I was going for the whole white purity kind of look, and I used to wear this for PvE as well until I got my Legendary Cloak and it didn't match the rest of the set :(

Head: Buc-Zakai Burning Hood 
Shoulders: Shoulderpads of Absolution 
Chest: Runecloth Robe
Gloves: Earthripper Gloves
Belt: Malevolent Gladiators Cord of Meditation
Cloak: Kharamaa's Shroud of Hope
Staff: Soulkeeper

 Priest current PvE set, which I had to "amend" to try and match the new cloak, I went for a darker look with this one, I am a particuar fan of the robes here :D

Head: Crafted Dreadful Gladiator's Mooncloth Helm 

Shoulders: Bo He Me's Deathwind Mantle 

Chest: Robe of the Shadow Council 

Cloak: Jina-Kang, Kindness of Chi-Ji

 My hunters overly fabulous Striker's Garb set from the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj raid - Beware...this set does take 2 weeks minimum to farm, but totally worth it, the first time I took him in an LFR wearing it the tank whispered me and said "Omg, sorry i dont know you but you look FABULOUS!" He wasn't wrong....
The bow I am using that you can't see here is the Ceath Lotus Crossbow.
My pet here is actually Portent however I found the name Leeroy to be far more fitting!

Seizing the Second Seismic Bore. 

Finally, I managed to coin my second Seismic Bore for my Brewmaster, I was already using one in my main hand with a flex level He Softfoot's last Resort in my Oh, but now I finally have two 10m level weapons and oh my goodness does it do wonders for dps! It also helps that it looks awesome ;)

This is what I am currently wearing on my main Brewmaster spec, I went for a "Badass-Pirate" look.

Head: Other Eye Patch

Shoulders: Spaulders of Dominating Dreams

Chest: Wolfrider's Padded Armor

Gloves: Grips of Vampiric Cruelty

Legs: Booty Bay Pantaloons

Boots: Quilen Hide Boots

Belt: Snow Lily Belt

Weapons: Seismic Bore

Here are some other random items that I love to use for transmog that I have collected from random places, I have a particular fetish for collecting random staffs and weapons :)

Hailstorm 1H Sword from The Eye of Eternity

Netherbane 1H Axe from Tempest Keep

The Nexus Key Staff from Tempest Keep

Staff of the Redeemer Staff (Watch out, MASSIVE quest line for this one)

Staff of Beasts Staff reward from the Ring of Blood

Volcanospike 1H Sword from Firelands

Claw of the Phoenix Fist Weapon from Tempest Keep

Rising Tide 1H Axe from Black Temple

These are just a few of my favorites, if I were to list all my void storage items from 6 toons I would be here a long time :) The point is, Mogaholism is not a bad thing, and should be encouraged, yes I have an obsession with changing my mog pretty much every week, but it's not that much of a burden, I quite like surprising my raid team on a wednesday with a new outfit, so don't be scared, MOGAHOLICS UNITE!!!!!

Builds for bosses pt 2 - Feature focus; The spoils of Pandaria - Brew your way to victory!!

So for this weeks main blog I shall be continuing with the builds that I find useful for more bosses in SoO, with a more in-depth look at the Spoils of Pandaria. So sit back, relax, grab a brew, and lets get down to it....

Galakras.

For this Boss we monks have such an awesome way of handling lots of adds it is silly for us to go up in the towers, so I send my paladin co-tank up there and I stay on the floor the whole time. Building for this fight is quite easy, I basically go all out dps, I use the dps cloak, and stack up on the crit, most of the time I will also use my polearm, simply because I can reach the hit cap on that and I wont miss out on dps as much as my DW build does. Talents for this fight are quite easy to chose for me, the Rushing Jade Wind is an excellent choice for this, simply because it is spammable, and does a LOT of damage. I keep guard unglyphed (though if you struggle with the dot that Galakras places on you, you can glyph for this fight) and I also take dampen harm for the phases where one of my healers is up in the tower.

The Iron Juggabug (Juggernaut, but Juggabug sounds WAY better)

I used to find the dot a bit hefty on this fight, and at first tried glyphing the guard, however, the bombs deal massive amounts of physical damage so I leave the guard unglyphed, and take dampen harm for dealing with the mines. Depending on how good your healers are, particularly if one of them is a priest, you CAN glyph the guard and use dampen harm/fortifying brew for bomb disposal, and let your healers help you out. I also find Tigers Lust to be a handy little tool for mobility, particularly if you do get caught by a shock pulse and sent flying off to Africa by mistake.


The Dark Shamans. 

This fight is relatively easy for Brewmasters, we have mastery to cope with Haromm and if you feel you need to, you can Glyph guard for Kadris, however I generally leave it unglyphed, take dampen harm, tigers lust and I dont find that I take much damage at all as long as I avoid standing in bad. I also find Xuen to be an awesome selection for this fight, especially if you pop him out right on the pull as he is amazing for helping take down the dogs with his cleave. You can also use him again later in the fight for the Blood lust phase where the extra dps is needed :)


Feature Focus - The Spoils of Pandaria - Brew your way to victory!! 

I am aware that I have skipped on ahead a few bosses - I will cover the next few in a later post. But for now, this is how I manage the Spoils of Pandaria, which is pretty much every Brewmasters dream fight, no boss, just a big bunch of adds for you to play with, and if there's one thing we Brewmasters excel at, it's add control!!

Boxes, boxes and...MOAR boxes!! 
For me, this fight should be tank controlled, whatever class you play. Now, there are a few different ways you can approach this fight, you can have a reliable raid member open boxes for you, or, you can open them yourself. I recommend the latter of these two options, as it's YOU that's taking the damage, and you know how much you can handle and when to stop. 
Ok, so what boxes do I open? Well, as much as it is awfully tempting to run into the room like a kid at Christmas, it is advisable not to just open everything at once, as this will flatten your raid. First things first, Panda Boxes.....this fight is quite unique in that you can obtain Two out of Three available buffs before you even start dealing with the adds. The options are; The Claw of Burning Anger (Dps Buff) The Staff of Resonating Water (Healer Buff) and the one that we are really interested in, The Blade of the Hundred Steps (Tank Buff) now, before I go on I will mention something important, it's easy to get blinded into thinking that a certain combo of these is the only way to win the fight, I don't think there is a "best combo", all Three of the buffs have their uses and any of the two will be fine. I will normally open one of the panda crates myself, and send whichever of my team has a speed boost (Kitty form/ghost wolf/burst of speed etc) to go open the other box for me, Important: use keg smash and jab/tiger palm on the box that you open to gain aggro on that panda, then you can save your single target taunt for the other one. You can open these boxes one at a time and deal with the two pandas separately if you wish, but as long as your raid stands well back, you can deal with any two pandas at once no problem. 
Massive crates: Open either one of these next, once you have your buffs, I will usually two or three little crates as well, the reason we can get away with this where other tanks may not be able to is we bring a talent to the table that is in my opinion "op" for this fight. Xuen. Yes, that loveable shiny tiger, is the best thing for this fight, not only does he cleave like hell but he will also happily tank mobs for you, he is a fantastic tool for this and I would recommend using him and switching his taunt on. 
After the first mob from the massive crate is dead move to the second massive crate and repeat the process, obviously Xuen may well have disappeared by now so you might want to open less small boxes, however if you're feeling "ballsy" and have your dampen harm ready, go for it, we have CD's to deal with extra damage so feel free to open another 3 small crates.
Something I would NOT recommend: opening a medium crate with a massive crate, why? Because the medium sized mobs (particularly the golems in the mogu room) have certain abilities that can be harder to deal with when you are tanking one of the larger mobs.
Medium crates: Now that both of your massive crates are dealt with you can start opening mediums, the golems can be a little tricky, so just make sure you get aggro on them straight away and get ready to move them if they start casting crimson reconstruction, the last thing you want is them healing up on you!
Little baby crates: you can open a good few of these while opening your mediums, I usually go for the ones either side of the medium, a few things to note on one or two of the mobs: In the mogu room some of the crates spawn urns, you can help dps these down so be sure to tank the other mobs on top of them and spam keg smash like its running out. In the mantid room  there are some small mobs called Kor'thik Warcallers which have an enrage ability, causing them to deal extra damage and apply an armor reduction debuff to you. Since you have no idea what is in the crates, once you get one of these out, if you're NOT a monk, you should probably kill it before opening another little baby box....however, as we are brewmasters, we have a few tricks up our sleeves to deal with these little beggars. Firstly the armor reduction, we have no real use for armor and most of us run round with a pitiful amount as it is, so this is not an issue for us, the extra damage? Well we have fortifying brew and dampen harm to counteract this so it's best to have one of these available for these mobs, especially if like me you get a bit gung ho on crate opening ;) You can also once again call on Xuen to bail you out if you're feeling a little squishy and haven't collected all your gear yet, he is a very helpful little chap and these mobs will happily place the debuff on him instead of you!

For each room to be completed you need to earn 50 energy from your crates, each massive crate will give you 14 energy, mediums will award 3, and little crates award 1. 
So if you open crates in this order:
1x Massive and 3 x little = 17 energy
1x Massive and 2 x little = 16 energy
2 x medium = 6 energy
1 x medium and 4 x little = 10 energy
1 x little 1 energy.
This will give you your 50 energy needed, I recommend doing them in this order, as when you go into your first room, you have all your pre pots and opening dps to get the massive mobs down, and when you move to the second room, you can pop a timewarp/bloodlust to deal with the massive mobs for that room.

Finally: Where to tank the mobs?
Mogu room - Keep the two big mobs where they are, as far into the corner as you can get away with, so that your raid has room to move away from the stone guards that come with them. The golems, try to keep them close to the wall when they spawn, then move them toward the middle via a backwards roll when they attempt to heal. keep all the rest of the mobs on top of any urns that spawn so that you can help cleave them down. Your raid should stay central to the room wile you have the outer edge to hold your mobs.
Mantid room - Where possible, take the larger of the mobs to the far end of the room and give your raid some room to place the bombs they get put on them, this way you can safely tank away to your hearts content without the fear of being blown up. As with the urns, tank all the little mobs ontop of any amber encased kuchongs that spawn, stay out of the yellow bad that they put on people and help dps them down asap.

I will be making a video to accompany this post very soon, so that you can see exactly what I mean. Hopefully this may help a person or two, and you will learn to love the spoils fight as much as I do!! Happy box opening folks!!

After months of meddling, I have reached my Simcrafting pinnacle!!

 Tonight on our guild weekly flex run I tried out for the first time ever, my very own fully simcrafted build, which has not been easy when for dual wielding the hit and exp caps can be a pain to deal with, If you've seen any of my videos you will notice a fair amount of times the "miss" comes up. At first this used to scare the crap out of me, and my first instinct was to go back to my trusty polearm, however I decided to stick with it as having the Two weapons meant I was hitting faster and therefore generating elusive brew stacks quicker. I also discovered that I can have my own "crit cap" for me personally anything above 40% becomes a little pointless, at 40% I can generate enough brew to be able to use it pretty much on cd, so whereas before I would simply stack as much crit as possible, I now stop at 40% and start stacking mastery instead. 
My current stats:
Mastery - 13.53% (8.1k)
Crit - 42.29% (10.7k)
Haste - 17.21% (7.3k) (I used to run 4.5 k haste but was finding myself a little energy starved which was okay for the lower bosses but when the bigger ones come in, this was not great.)
Hit - 7.01%
Exp - 14.48% on both weapons.
Stamina I find to be an unusual stat for my Brewmaster, on one hand I feel that if I have a load of mastery I shouldn't need it, however I have found that having around 40k means that with raid buffs I have a fairly respectable 800k hp, which seems to do just nicely. At the beginning of 5.4, I was running the effective health build from Mr Robot, as my gear was quite low going into the patch, I felt it might be a little easier to cope with the bosses. Which in all honesty it did, I was running about 57k stamina, which gave me a base hp just shy of 900k, which made me feel a little safer, and allowed me to take that extra bit of damage. 

 At the moment I'm really happy with this build, I still have a few more pieces of gear to upgrade, and I have my 4 set bonus (I will talk about this in a different post). The weapons I am using are Seismic Bore in my main hand and Hellscream's Cleaver in my OH. I occasionally switch to my Halberd of inner shadows to use with my dps cloak for funzies, or for fights such as Galakras.

Monk Meditation is on right now so for all your monk needs, head on over to WoWMonk's Twitch Stream!