Can I Guard a Bit "Wut Wut"

So, a very, very big bug has been found in the Brewmaster spec dealing with one of Brewmaster's core abilities: Guard. Previously, Ox Statue's Guard would overwrite the Brewmaster's guard (and, to my knowledge, its proc still causes a random pet bar to appear, which I didn't even realize until I looked back on a stream of Feng the Accursed and took a screenshot, and happened to notice it upon viewing the screenshot. I rarely pay attention to that side of my screen, as I receive auditory warnings about debuffs typically, so when my eyes go there, it's typically to double-check where debuffs stand for certain fights. I haven't had a setup for a pet class since Burning Crusade, when I raided on my warlock, Tastysnack.)

This is great! It honestly gives me some boost of confidence in raiding as a Brewmaster, even though I'll admit some affinity for the Windwalker spec. We're still incredibly squishy compared to other tanks (I still hold to the belief that our mastery has not been scaling well, and is therefore not worth stacking at this point in time so much as stacking haste in order to be able to apply Blackout Kick more often), but at least this makes our raid utility work better.

Also, some notes I have on Windwalker:

I'm noticing that people seem to be disregarding the importance of keeping up Tiger's Palm. While armor penetration was dropped a very long time ago, having anything that disregards the armor of a boss (or player) can be a pretty large DPS boost, even if it's only a %. Armor causes hits to not hit as effectively (ie, do less damage), so having something that can ignore a certain % of armor is GOOD and worth having. In a world where DPS matters (read: any fight ever, other than maybe Spine and a few other super gimmicked fights where DPS has to stop because the 50% nerf means high DPS is going to wipe us), having the highest numbers possible really does matter, as long as those numbers matter.

I've perused a few parses of people who are playing Windwalkers, and I'm noticing some trends. First, some of these people are implementing Spin-To-Win (Spinning Crane Kick, bladestorm, whatever) into their rotation in order to - essentially - pad the meters. If you've followed the threads under Elitist Jerks, this is bad in a fight with 3 or less entities, because you can receive higher numbers by simply following a single target rotation in these types of fights. We aren't a DoT class necessarily (ignoring Blackout Kick's dot here), so focusing on one target isn't such a bad thing (unless the strategy calls for it, as can sometimes be the case in fights without a shared health pool). The best numbers I've seen (and gleaned) so far in Windwalker spec for fights such as Stone Guard have used these single-target rotations.

Also, there's the question of Spinning Tiger Blossom - that rather annoying spell that doesn't require a target (if unglyphed) and does increased damage when done from a range. During Beta, this spell almost required the glyph as it would rarely hit or ignore hit boxes if not centered exactly on a hit box, and that hasn't been as much of a problem. I noticed a few guides recommending the glyph for it (as the stun is useless in a raid situation), but honestly: I'm not running with it. It's got nothing to do with the removal of the stun, but I just feel that it's a mechanic monks (rather, melee) need to get used to. Proper character orientation is important for melee more than even for casters, and I honestly feel that it's a waste of a glyph slot. The spell itself its for quite a bit and is extremely useful for fights where one has to run in and out (Spirit Kings, Feng), so learning how to aim it can make or break your numbers. So, yes, I understand why people feel that they need the glyph, but I feel that learning Windwalker is also about learning proper movement, and removing this requirement from a spell doesn't aid in that (looking at the mechanics between Flying Serpent Kick and Roll, learning which way your character is facing/moving can really hurt or help you.)