Beta: Third Impressions:

Ok, today brought us a new build of the Mists beta, and already I'm feeling a lot better about Brewmasters - even though I know there's some serious tweaking that is needed.

Brewmasters got a new ability: a 1-Chi cleave called Keg Smash. This, I think, is the hero of the latest build. Keg Smash is a cleave that causes targets hit by it to guarantee a misfire, hitting themselves instead for a set amount of damage (no, you can't make a boss do 150k damage to themselves - at least not yet,) thus making it both a nice aggro move and a nice survival move. Tiger Palm is also made free by Brewmaster Training at higher levels, which is probably overpowered (according to Ghostcrawler.) Tiger Palm improves your next Guard, which has a very cool new graphic. Guard, it seems, is actually on a fairly hefty cooldown, though the tooltip does not show it. Keg Smash has an 8-second cooldown, which puts it more in line with something like Shield of the Righteous (which doesn't have a cooldown, but is limited by Holy Power, which is kind of like a cooldown.)

Anyway, something of a tanking rotation is actually starting to take hold. Dizzying Haze and Breath of Fire are really more AoE moves akin to Cataclysm-era Consecration. So we Jab (or Clobber, or whatever) to gain Chi, then we probably hit Keg Smash to get a little mitigation/aggro off the bat (groups larger than three will probably need Dizzying Haze - assuming it causes sufficient aggro, otherwise there's still a problem.) Then you probably want to Tiger Palm three times, hit Guard, and then you've probably got Keg Smash off cooldown. From there, you probably need to Jab some more, Tiger Palm a bit, and survive until Guard is off cooldown using Expel Harm and keeping up with Keg Smashes.

Still needs some work, but holy crap does this feel better.

I still haven't used it in a group (I'm probably going to have my first Monk tanking experience in Deadmines on the low-level Brewmaster to learn the spec in a more forgiving environment) but I was able to clear the first trash pack in Temple of the Jade Serpent on my own (though it took a few tries, getting all my abilities in order.) I think Guard could stand to use a shorter cooldown if we're expected to use it rotationally, though if they want us to save that for the big hits, I suppose I understand it (though we're dangerously close to the current implementation of Holy Shield that I loathe and will be glad to see gone.) If Keg Smash is the kind of rotational damage reducer and Guard is the "every time the boss does his big hit" ability, then I guess it works. Still not crazy about Shuffle requiring you to channel.

Now, moving on to Protection Paladins. I took Jarsus into the same dungeon and cleared every trash pack and the first boss on my own. Using the Eternal Flame talent, I kept the EF HoT up, used Shield of the Righteous whenever I could, and Word of Glory whenever my health dipped low. Honestly, if you can clear the trash solo, you can probably clear the first boss solo. Essentially, you just fight four of those trash pulls in a row, then dps the boss while he turns in a circle. As long as you have a HoT up and don't stand in the water too long, and of course avoid his water jet, you can kill him. Admittedly, this is normal mode, so perhaps it doesn't have to be that complex, but it just seemed that I'm either way to overpowered in the self-healing department or that boss needs something a bit more dangerous.

Noblegarden begins tonight. Guess I'll have to take some time off the Beta to get Mage #2 (who's actually better geared at this point) his Rabbit-polymorph.