Brewmaster Monk Tank Guide - Midnight (12.0.1)

In this comprehensive WoW The War Within Brewmaster Monk guide, we’ll share everything you need to know about Brewmaster Monks. You’ll discover details about the TWW changes, hero talents, rotation, abilities, builds, best-in-slot (BiS) gear, and much more.

Brewmaster Monk Overview

Brewmaster Monk tanks are martial brawlers capable of surviving all but the most deadly amounts of damage, turning the bulk of it into a unique damage-over-time effect known as Stagger that can be removed with their other abilities. By smoothing it out or dodging it entirely, this way of taking damage makes Brewmaster an incredibly desirable specialization for both progression raiding and dungeons. On top of this, a Brewmaster offers considerable utility and is incredibly mobile.

Brewmaster Monk Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

• Large amount of flexibility in talents and playstyle, allowing you to opt for a more passive or active approach.
• Extremely strong in progression Raiding due to guaranteed smooth damage intake from Stagger, Shuffle, and Ox Stance for both Physical and Magic damage.
• Access to incredible mobility through the use of Roll, Tiger's Lust, and Transcendence.
• Immunity to fall damage with the help of Lighter Than Air.
• Large amount of flexibility in talents and playstyle, allowing you to opt for a more passive or active approach.
• Potent utility abilities for Mythic+, including Paralysis, Leg Sweep, and Ring of Peace.
• Access to a reliable AoE taunt effect and unique enemy grouping with Summon Black Ox Statue.
• The ability to remove Poisons and Diseases with Detox.
• The only source of the Mystic Touch debuff, shared with the other two Monk specs.

Weaknesses

• Lowest base Health of every tank specialization; this can rarely result in being more vulnerable to DoT effects.
• Fairly large number of keybinds to keep track of, even with the most passive talent choices.
• Playstyle can sometimes be unintuitive, and mistakes can be punishing.
• Damage output is heavily reliant on acquiring specific weapons and trinkets.
• Low self-sustain outside of Expel Harm and Celestial Fortune.
• May need to use Addons or WeakAuras to properly track Stagger, as the default UI is often insufficient.

Brewmaster Monk Basic Gameplay

Being a tank specialization, your main job is to stay alive at all times and to ensure that enemies are not attacking your other group members. Brewmaster Monks accomplish the first task by delaying a portion of all damage taken with the help of their Stagger passive, improving its power with the help of Shuffle and negating some of that delayed damage with Purifying Brew or other effects. In addition, plenty of potential damage is dodged entirely with the help of their Mastery, Mastery: Elusive Brawler.

As for keeping the attention of enemies, a Brewmaster Monk converts their Energy into abilities such as Keg Smash, Tiger Palm, and Spinning Crane Kick that both deal damage and help improve the power of Stagger. Woven into this relationship of dealing damage to reduce damage taken are several abilities with no cost that work with other parts of the kit, such as Blackout Kick, allowing them to dodge more attacks, Breath of Fire setting enemies hit by Keg Smash on fire, or instantly killing most enemies with Touch of Death!

Brewmaster Monk Changes in Patch 11.2

Patch 11.2 introduces a variety of updates to Brewmasters, including new talents, talent tree adjustments, and reworks of older effects. Here's a summary of the key changes:

New Talents

• Celestial Infusion — A choice node with Celestial Brew, absorbing 30% of incoming damage over a longer duration for smoother defense.
• Niuzao's Resolve — Healing Spheres from Gift of the Ox  and Spirit of the Ox now heal over time based on missing health instead of an instant heal.
• Zen State — Stagger strength dynamically increases up to 20% based on missing health.

Talent Reworks

• Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox and Walk with the Ox have been reworked to be strong for both damage and defense.
• Improved Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox now provides group utility by adding enemy disruption once per summon.
• Face Palm now triggers on every Tiger Palm, but with reduced bonus damage and cooldown reduction.
• Vivacious Vivification now activates for 20 seconds after casting Rising Sun Kick.

Removed Talents

• Zen Meditation
• Celestial Flames

The overall theme of these updates is greater customization and smoother mitigation options. Players can now choose between a consistent defense style with Celestial Infusion and Niuzao's Resolve, or the older, burst-oriented style with Celestial Brew and Expel Harm. Build flexibility has also increased, allowing the potential to remove Breath of Fire entirely from the rotation.

Patch 11.2 also introduces new raid content, Mythic+ dungeons, and loot, including an artifact cloak called Reshii Wraps and a tier set with bonuses that vary based on your Hero Talent selection. Check the guide for full details in Ghosts of K'aresh.

Brewmaster Monk Leveling Guide for The War Within

Brewmaster Monk Leveling Playstyle

As a tank specialization, Brewmaster Monks excel at gathering large groups of enemies and dealing significant AoE damage while easily surviving attacks with the help of Stagger. This makes them ideal for questing with a friend, as they can rapidly move between enemy groups, maintaining aggro with abilities like Rushing Jade Wind and Keg Smash while their partner focuses on defeating them. Solo questing is still effective but may take slightly longer due to lower damage output.

Brewmaster Monk is also a great choice for leveling through dungeon queues and quests. Tanks are always in high demand, leading to near-instant queue times. Since leveling quests scale with your character’s level, you can seamlessly join dungeon queues while traveling between questing areas without slowing down your experience gain.

Gear Options

During leveling, item level is the most important factor when selecting gear. Always prioritize higher item level pieces, except for jewelry and trinkets, where you may prefer items providing more Critical Strike or Versatility. Trinkets offer a variety of effects, so experiment with different options as long as they remain reasonably close to your highest item level.

Brewmaster Monk Tank Spec, Builds, and Talents

© Wowhead

Copy the Brewmaster Monk talents, paste them into the game.

Raiding Talents

Mythic+ Talents

PvP Talents for Brewmaster

PvP talents are specialized abilities that activate when you enable War Mode or participate in instanced PvP content. If you are comfortable with being flagged for PvP, some of these talents offer significant benefits for questing.

You can choose up to three PvP talents. Here are some of the most useful options for questing:

• Double Barrel – An active ability that is off the global cooldown. When used, it increases the damage of your next Keg Smash by 50% and stuns enemies for 3 seconds. Its cooldown does not begin until this buff is consumed. This is useful for large packs and can be macroed to Keg Smash for passive activation.
• Hot Trub – Causes Purifying Brew to deal split damage to nearby enemies based on 20% of the damage you have purified. While the damage is usually small in world content, it is entirely passive and requires no extra effort.
• Microbrew  – Reduces the cooldown of Fortifying Brew without lowering its effectiveness, allowing for more frequent use of your strongest defensive ability.
• Eerie Fermentation – Provides increased movement speed and some extra defense against magic attacks, which are typically more dangerous for Brewmasters.
• Dematerialize – Acts as stun protection by granting temporary damage reduction while stunned. However, the effect diminishes over time and disappears entirely after three seconds.
• Admonishment – Causes Provoke to increase the damage a target takes by 3%, stacking up to 15% for each unique player attacking it. While not useful for solo play, it can be beneficial when fighting elites in groups. Be cautious when using it on world bosses, as they will still attack you when provoked.

For most situations, a solid combination is Double Barrel, Eerie Fermentation, and Microbrew , as these provide passive benefits while increasing your damage and survivability.

While these talents can be useful, if you plan to PvP more seriously, you may want to consider doing so as a Windwalker or Mistweaver.

Best Hero Talents for Brewmaster Monk in The War Within

Raiding Hero Talents for Brewmaster Monk

Shado-Pan

The Shado-Pan talents may not provide as much consistent defensive value in a raid environment, but they compensate by offering superior single-target damage. Consider using them when maximizing your damage output is the priority, and be sure to optimize your Wisdom of the Wall buffs to take full advantage of their potential.

Master of Harmony

Master of Harmony talents provide a defensive advantage in raids due to the naturally higher damage intake, which leads to more damage being purified through the stronger Purifying Brew granted by Mantra of Purity. Additionally, having two charges of Celestial Brew with Endless Draught offers significantly more defensive control. While the maximum potential damage of this tree is generally lower than its alternative, Master of Harmony remains a reliable choice for progression in encounters where survival is a concern without sacrificing too much offensive capability.

Mythic+ Hero Talents for Brewmaster Monk

Shado-Pan

In Mythic+, the choice of a Brewmaster's Hero Talents remains highly competitive. Shado-Pan provides a buff to Vivify through Protect and Serve, which, when combined with Vivacious Vivification, offers a valuable source of additional self-healing. The frequent AoE pulls in dungeons also create ample opportunities to maintain Predictive Training. Additionally, the numerous buffs to Keg Smash within this tree significantly improve on-pull threat.

However, there is a downside to playing Shado-Pan in Mythic+. Its AoE effects are triggered randomly, making it challenging to optimize performance. Due to the unpredictable nature of obtaining and activating Flurry Strikes with the correct Wisdom of the Wall buff, it can be frustrating to maximize output. While defensive consistency remains intact, some players may find this randomness frustrating to play around.

Master of Harmony

Master of Harmony Brewmasters have no significant weaknesses in Mythic+. While the maximum damage output of Aspect of Harmony is generally slightly lower, it offers more control while still providing excellent defensive benefits that shine in raids. If you prefer a marginally weaker but more consistent playstyle, then utilizing Master of Harmony talents is a solid choice.

Brewmaster Monk Tank Stat Priority

The Basics of Stats for Brewmaster Monks

As a Brewmaster Monk, your stat priority remains simple regardless of whether you are playing as a Shado-Pan or a Master of Harmony. Your Hero Talents do not affect the following stat priorities.

Defensive Brewmaster Monk Secondary Stat Priority

1. Item level (Agility/Armor)
2. Versatility = Mastery = Critical Strike
3. Haste

Brewmaster stats are fairly close in defensive value, so wearing the highest item-level gear available is often the best choice. Jewelry slots are an exception, as they lack Agility and Armor. For these, prioritize pieces with the least amount of Haste when optimizing for defense.

Offensive Brewmaster Monk Secondary Stat Priority

1. Versatility = Critical Strike
2. Mastery
3. Haste

If you are aiming for more damage, check our Simulation section to determine the best stats based on your current gear. However, as a tank, survival should always come first.

Diminishing Returns

At higher item levels, secondary stats reach diminishing returns at certain points: 30% for Haste and Versatility, 37% for Mastery, and 40% for Critical Strike. However, this effect is minor and should not influence your gearing choices significantly.

Brewmaster Monk Stats: Getting a Better Understanding

Critical Strike increases your chance to deal double damage or healing on most spells. Thanks to Celestial Fortune, it also increases the chance for any healing received to heal for an additional 70%. Additionally, it boosts the size of all friendly absorbs on you, such as Celestial Brew or Power Word: Shield, by 70% of your Critical Strike chance. The August Blessing talent further converts a portion of overhealing received into a healing-over-time effect based on your Critical Strike percentage.

Haste increases Energy regeneration, auto-attack speed, and reduces the cooldown on abilities like Rushing Jade Wind, Keg Smash, Rising Sun Kick, and Purifying Brew. While Haste normally reduces the global cooldown, Brewmasters—being Energy-based—always have a 1-second global cooldown regardless of Haste.

Versatility boosts all damage and healing done while also reducing incoming damage.

Mastery (Mastery: Elusive Brawler) grants a stacking buff that increases dodge chance whenever you are attacked or use Blackout Kick (or Rising Sun Kick with Strike At Dawn). This buff lasts for 10 seconds or until you successfully dodge an attack, and multiple incoming attacks can be dodged at once before the buff resets. Mastery also passively increases Attack Power, which enhances healing abilities such as Gift of the Ox.

Agility increases Attack Power, dodge chance, Stagger percentage, and self-healing. Agility naturally increases as you equip higher item-level gear.

Stamina provides a buffer against damage, ensuring you survive long enough to be healed. In most cases, Stamina comes naturally from gear upgrades. Brewmasters typically have lower health pools, but additional Stamina increases the damage dealt by Touch of Death, as it scales with max health.

Armor reduces physical damage taken and scales with item level, making higher-item-level gear an important defensive upgrade.

Brewmaster Monk Tank Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities

Single-Target Rotation Priority

Reminder: This rotational priority is most helpful when you are in the middle of combat and need to decide what ability to use as your next choice. When entering combat, consider following the sample opening ability sequence above first before utilizing this priority system.

1. Use Touch of Death on an enemy if it can be activated.
2. Cast Chi Burst.
3. Use Keg Smash.
4. Use Breath of Fire.
5. Even if taking minimal damage, activate Celestial Brew if near two charges of the ability or your vitality is near your maximum Health.
6. Activate Weapons of Order.
7. Use Blackout Kick.
8. Use Rising Sun Kick.
9. Throw Exploding Keg at your targets. Try to cast the ability while having up to 5 stacks of Balanced Stratagem, using only Physical abilities beforehand to deal increased damage.
10. Use a spare charge of Purifying Brew if you are taking very little damage for additional Special Delivery procs.
11. Use your second charge of Keg Smash to effectively "bank" partial recharge time when Keg Smash comes off cooldown in the middle of another ability's cast.
12. Use Tiger Palm if there is nothing else to do, and you will still have enough Energy for your next Keg Smash.

It is absolutely imperative that you have enough Energy to cast Keg Smash on cooldown, as this is a large source of damage and the main source of both cooldown reduction for your Brew-based abilities and Shuffle to empower your Stagger.

Single-Target Opener

When you are first entering a fight and have access to every one of your cooldowns, you will initially need to focus on establishing Shuffle to bolster your defenses before continuing the main priority below. A simple single-target "opener" can be described as follows:

1. Use Chi Burst as you start moving to your target.
2. Use Keg Smash while moving to your target.
3. Use Blackout Kick.
4. Use Breath of Fire.
5. Activate Weapons of Order.
6. Use Keg Smash.
7. Use Blackout Kick.
8. Use Rising Sun Kick.
9. Follow the main single-target priority below.

AoE Rotation Priority

Brewmaster Monk is a somewhat unique specialization in that your rotation will mostly stay the same whether you are in single-target or multi-target combat. As a reminder, this rotational priority is most helpful when you are in the middle of combat and need to decide what ability to use as your next choice. When entering combat, consider following the sample opening ability sequence above first before utilizing this priority system.

1. Use Touch of Death on an enemy if it can be activated.
2. Use Breath of Fire.
3. Cast Chi Burst.
4. Use Blackout Kick if the Charred Passions buff is present.
5. Use Keg Smash.
6. Use Breath of Fire.
7. Even if taking minimal damage, activate Celestial Brew if near two charges of the ability or your vitality is near your maximum Health.
8. Activate Weapons of Order.
9. Throw Exploding Keg at your targets. Try to cast the ability while having up to 5 stacks of Balanced Stratagem by only using Physical abilities beforehand to deal increased damage.
10. Cast Rising Sun Kick.
11. Use Spinning Crane Kick if the Charred Passions buff is present. Do not use multiple times in a row to avoid spending too much Energy.
12. Use a spare charge of Purifying Brew if you are taking very little damage for additional Special Delivery procs.
13. Use your second charge of Keg Smash to effectively "bank" partial recharge time when Keg Smash comes off cooldown in the middle of another ability's cast.
14. Use Spinning Crane Kick if you will have enough Energy available by the time Keg Smash is available. Use Tiger Palm instead if more Brew cooldown reduction is desired.

Although Spinning Crane Kick deals enough damage to normally justify being a high-priority ability, it is too expensive on Energy to use when there are plenty of other free abilities.

Stagger and Active Mitigation Explained for Brewmaster Monk

In addition to dodging and parrying attacks, Brewmaster Monks have an additional means of mitigating the damage that they take, called Stagger. This is a key element in your survivability as a tank, so it is important to understand it correctly.

Stagger causes all attacks made against you to have their damage split into two portions:

• An instant portion that will immediately deal its damage to you in the moment of the attack.
• A Staggered portion, which does its damage to you every 0.5 seconds for 10 seconds (or 13 seconds with Bob and Weave talented).

The amount of Physical damage Staggered is based on your Agility, and 58% of that amount applies to Magical attacks, including any other DoT effects. While you are Staggering damage, you will have one of three debuffs to represent how intense its DoT is: Light Stagger (green), Moderate Stagger (yellow), and Heavy Stagger (red). If you are in Heavy Stagger, then that means you are taking at least 60% of your Maximum Health as damage over its duration. However, you are likely to regularly exceed this amount in some forms of content.

Beyond that, the division between the instant and Staggered portions of damage your damage taken depends on other factors, namely whether or not you have the High Tolerance talent — which increases the Staggered portion — and whether or not you have Shuffle or Fortifying Brew with the special Fortifying Brew: Determination talent active. There is also the Bob and Weave talent, which increases the duration of the Stagger DoT by 3 seconds, slightly reducing the amount of damage dealt to you during each 0.5-second tick.

As you might have already noticed, Stagger does not by itself provide any form of damage reduction, mitigation, or avoidance. This is where Purifying Brew comes into play. Purifying Brew has 2 charges with a 20-second recharge time, and using it instantly Purifies 50% of the Staggered damage (the damage you are due to take over the next 10 seconds).

A simple example, assuming a Stagger amount of 40%, is as follows:

• An attack of 100,000 Physical damage is performed against you.
• 60,000 damage is dealt to you instantly.
• A Stagger DoT is applied to you, which deals 40,000 damage over 10 seconds — essentially, 2,000 damage every 0.5 seconds.
• With the Bob and Weave talent, this is instead 1,540 damage every 0.5 seconds over 13 seconds!
• You cast Purifying Brew after 5 seconds, removing 50% of the Stagger DoT's 20,000 remaining damage: 10,000.
• After 10 seconds, you have sustained 60,000 instant damage and 30,000 in Staggered damage, for a total of 90,000. You avoided 10,000 damage of the original hit with the help of Purifying Brew!
• If you had cast Purifying Brew after only 1 second, you would have instead avoided 18,000 damage of the hit or even 18,460 with the Bob and Weave talent. Using Purifying Brew closer to the original hit will result in more mitigation!
• In addition, Master of Harmony players have access to an even stronger Purifying Brew with the Mantra of Purity passive, resulting in an extra 3,160 damage avoided here.

Managing Shuffle, Purifying Brew, and Celestial Brew

The hardest part of playing a Brewmaster Monk is remembering to maintain 100% uptime on Shuffle while trying to find the best time to make use of Purifying Brew and Celestial Brew. The latter two abilities have extremely valuable effects, but they have long initial cooldown periods between uses; however, as you continue to perform your rotation, their cooldowns will be substantially reduced. As such, you have to find an appropriate time to use them without letting the abilities sit off-cooldown and waste the cooldown reduction effects your rotation is naturally providing.

Fortunately, Shuffle is not too hard to keep up, nor is the decision on which Brew to use and when too complicated. So long as you are following the Single-Target or AoE priorities above, you should generate plenty of Shuffle time. As for your usage of Purifying Brew, there is a fairly simple set of rules to follow:

• Do not have both charges of Purifying Brew off-cooldown. This also includes Celestial Brew for Master of Harmony players due to their Endless Draught passive.
• Keep one charge available for an emergency to use right after taking a big hit.
• Use a charge as the second charge is about to come off cooldown or if you are about to lose your Purified Chi buff.

You may notice that this set of rules more or less involves you pretending that the ability has only one charge instead of two. This is intentional due to how frequently Purifying Brew will be available during your standard rotation. What this also means is that there may be times when you end up having to purify in only Light Stagger or Moderate Stagger rather than heavy, and that is okay so long as you still have that second charge ready for a sudden spike of damage.

By having access to an abundance of Purifying Brew usage and making use of it directly after taking large amounts of damage, you will also have built up plenty of stacks of Purified Chi to give you larger Celestial Brew absorbs. As a result, this ability is also often used on cooldown. It will usually be better to create more shields over time rather than possibly wasting Purified Chi stacks and cooldown reduction. There is one small thing to consider, however. You may not want to Purify any Staggered damage if you will not take enough to eat away at the entire absorb. Since Celestial Brew's shield only lasts for 8 seconds, any amount of absorption afterward is effectively wasted. As this absorb can soak up any damage — including Stagger — you can think of it as a stronger form of Purifying Brew.

If nothing else, you only need to remember to never let your Purifying Brew or Celestial Brew be unused and off-cooldown.

Defensive Cooldown Ability Usage for Brewmaster Monk

As a Brewmaster, you have a number of talented defensive abilities with long cooldowns. You also have two offensive cooldowns that provide some defensive effects as a bonus. Compared to the reactive nature of purifying any Stagger you have built up with the help of Shuffle, these cooldowns are best used before you have taken damage in the first place.

• Fortifying Brew increases your current and maximum Health by 20% while also reducing all damage taken by 20% for 15 seconds. You can further alter it with the Fortifying Brew: Determination and Ironshell Brew talents to increase your base Stagger amount by 15% or provide you with even more damage reduction and Health. Note that its 6-minute cooldown is reduced by 1 and 3 seconds when you use Tiger Palm and Keg Smash, respectively. This cooldown can also be reduced with the Expeditious Fortification talent. It should be used in planned moments where you are about to take a large amount of damage. Alternatively, it can be used as an emergency cooldown when your Health is low, although it is less effective in this way.
• Zen Meditation is a very powerful defensive cooldown. It reduces damage taken by 60% for 8 seconds, but the effect is canceled prematurely if you are the victim of a melee attack or move. This cooldown allows you to greatly mitigate the damage dealt by abilities with a cast time in particular since the cast allows you to time Zen Meditation perfectly. Alternatively, it can reduce the first melee attack or boss ability that hits you while channeling it.
• Diffuse Magic is a powerful defensive cooldown that you can use to counter magic damage in particular. One of its more unique effects is the ability to both dispel and reapply a variety of potent magic debuffs to enemies.
• Dampen Harm is a survival cooldown that you can use to mitigate the damage from powerful boss attacks. It is most useful if used preemptively. A further breakdown of its damage reduction can be found in the Spell Summary.
• Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox takes on a portion of the damage you are Staggering during the time he is present while also dealing a small amount of damage. If you are not making use of the Improved Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox talent, then this damage is largely negligible, and the cooldown's defensive bonuses are more useful to consider. It is important to note that the damage Niuzao is taking is from damage that is normally draining from your Stagger pool; it does not reduce the amount you Stagger, leaving talents like Training of Niuzao's Mastery bonus unaffected.
• Touch of Death is to be used when an enemy's Health is low enough to allow it. While the damage it deals will also remove a portion of your Stagger, you are usually using it against something that is nearly dead and cannot harm you anymore. This cooldown is, therefore, more useful offensively, but you may rarely be able to plan around its defensive benefit as well.

Other Brewmaster Abilities Explained

Summon Black Ox Statue

Summon Black Ox Statue is a unique ability. Having all of your enemies run to the same place can make everything much easier when trying to grab their attention. Don't forget that you can also use Provoke on your Black Ox Statue to taunt all the mobs near it. However, remember that the statue is killable and only has half of your max Health, so you should be quick to summon another one if it has taken damage recently.

Touch of Death

Touch of Death offers a unique way to execute a target, but the damage it deals can vary greatly due to its usage restrictions. Typically, this ability can only be activated if the target's current Health is lower than your own maximum Health. This means you can potentially deal massive damage in an instant, especially against weaker enemies, bypassing long combat times. With the Improved Touch of Death talent, however, you can use it on any target that has reached 15% of its maximum Health, dealing 35% of your own maximum Health as damage. Even with this talent, there is still a way to deal the "full" damage this ability can offer. When facing an enemy with plenty of Health, you can wait for them to drop below your current maximum Health and then triple the damage Touch of Death will deal. Additionally, any temporary Stamina buffs, such as a Priest's Power Word: Fortitude or your own Fortifying Brew, will increase this threshold. However, trying to use this technique on enemies suffering millions of damage per second can be difficult, so it may be better to use Improved Touch of Death for a more reliable damage output. If you're willing to take a risk, you can substantially increase your damage by using the "sniping" technique with Touch of Death. But if you're not comfortable with this approach, it's perfectly fine to rely on the more guaranteed damage from Improved Touch of Death.

Gift of the Ox

Although Gift of the Ox claims to offer a chance to summon a healing sphere when taking damage, it actually follows a consistent set of rules. A sphere will spawn for every 100% of your maximum Health you take as damage, before accounting for absorbs (including damage delayed from Stagger). These healing spheres persist on the ground until you walk over them or they time out after 30 seconds, automatically healing you. There can be up to 5 active spheres at a time. Any additional spawns will cause the least-recent sphere to heal you and be consumed.

If you can predict when you will take higher-than-usual damage, you can save up some spheres around you and use them all when extra healing is needed.

Since they can sometimes be difficult to spot, Gift of the Ox spheres can also be gathered using your Expel Harm ability. Expel Harm costs 15 Energy and will immediately heal you for a small baseline amount, plus the value of all of your existing spheres, while dealing damage to an enemy equal to 10% of the amount healed. Additionally, your Spinning Crane Kick will slowly draw them toward your position while it is being channeled.

Your healing spheres are precious, so try to save up at least 3 of them before either picking them up or using Expel Harm. Only use the spheres when you're dropping low on Health or need to get topped off before a dangerous hit.

Brewmaster Monk Tank Gems and Consumables

Best Gems for Brewmaster Monk in The War Within

You should ideally aim for a balance of Critical Strike and Versatility in your gems, but also include one Culminating Blasphemite or Elusive Blasphemite along with one gem of each "color" other than orange/amber. This means you'll use one Versatile Ruby, one Deadly Sapphire, one Deadly Onyx, and one Versatile Emerald to maximize your Blasphemite's effect. Afterward, continue socketing Deadly Sapphire or Versatile Ruby in any remaining sockets.

Remember, you can also immediately add up to two sockets to any neck or ring-slot item with the aid of multiple Magnificent Jeweler's Settings.

Best Flask for Brewmaster Monk in The War Within

Flask of Alchemical Chaos should be used in most situations, as it serves as a versatile option providing both damage and defense. It will also enhance the recommended combat potion. However, if you're in an area where potions are not frequently used, the single-stat Flask of Tempered Aggression or Flask of Tempered Versatility may be a more affordable alternative. Keep in mind, you can obtain any flask of your choice by accessing an Algari Flask Cauldron, provided the Alchemist using it knows the recipe.

Best Potion for Brewmaster Monk in The War Within

Tempered Potion is the recommended potion, both as a "pre-pot" before combat and during most encounters. When using a Flask of Alchemical Chaos, it will provide a significant boost to all four secondary stats, as it is not classified as a "tempered" flask like the Flask of Tempered Aggression. On rare occasions, you may also consider using a Frontline Potion as a defensive choice.

Similar to flasks, you can temporarily access any potions of your choice by using an Algari Potion Cauldron, as long as the Alchemist knows the recipe.

Best Food for Brewmaster Monk in The War Within

If available, Feast of the Midnight Masquerade or Feast of the Divine Day should be your food choice for an additional Agility boost in a dungeon or raid group. Otherwise, there are several food items for personal use that increase your highest secondary stat, such as Beledar's Bounty or The Sushi Special. If the main feasts are unavailable, use the most affordable of these alternatives.

Additionally, The War Within allows you to create a "hearty" version of any food item by combining multiple copies of the same dish, such as the Hearty Feast of the Midnight Masquerade. These hearty dishes retain their buffs even upon death, making them particularly useful for dungeons or raids.

Best Enchants for Brewmaster Monk in The War Within

Slot	Enchantment
Necklace	Magnificent Jeweler's Setting (adds up to 2 sockets to a Ring or Neck)
Weapon	Enchant Weapon - Authority of the Depths (Damage) Enchant Weapon - Authority of Radiant Power (Defensive)
Chest	Enchant Chest - Crystalline Radiance
Bracers	Enchant Bracer - Chant of Armored Leech
Legs	Stormbound Armor Kit
Boots	Enchant Boots - Scout's March
Rings	Enchant Ring - Radiant Critical Strike Enchant Ring - Radiant Versatility
Cloak	Enchant Cloak - Chant of Leeching Fangs

Brewmaster Monk Tank Gear and Best in Slot

This section will cover everything you need to know about equipping your character correctly.

BiS Gear for Brewmaster Monk

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Half-Mask of Fallen Storms	Forgeweaver Araz
Neck	Bloodstained Memento	Priory of the Sacred Flame
Shoulder	Glyphs of Fallen Storms	The Soul Hunters
Cloak	Reshii Wraps with Versatility	Campaign quests
Chest	Gi of Fallen Storms	Fractillus
Bracers	Rune-Branded Armbands	Crafted — Leatherworking
Gloves	Grasp of Fallen Storms	Soulbinder Naazindhri
Belt	Adrenal Surge Clasp	Crafted — Leatherworking
Legs	Anomalous Starlit Breeches	Tazavesh: So'Leah's Gambit
Boots	Interloper's Reinforced Sandals	The Soul Hunters
Ring #1	Logic Gate: Alpha	Plexus Sentinel
Ring #2	High Nerubian Signet	The Dawnbreaker
Trinket #1	Brand of Ceaseless Ire	The Soul Hunters
Trinket #2	Tome of Light's Devotion	Priory of the Sacred Flame
2H Weapon	Harvester's Interdiction	Ara-Kara, City of Echoes

Best Trinkets for Brewmaster Monk in The War Within Season 3

Offensive Manaforge Omega Raid Trinkets

• Brand of Ceaseless Ire — A hybrid mix of damage and defense, this trinket becomes your strongest offensive option when maintaining 15 stacks of its Infuriated buff. It also provides reliable absorbs against incoming damage. When leaving combat, you only lose one stack of Infuriated every 3 seconds, allowing you to maintain its bonuses effectively even in Mythic+. This should be a top priority to acquire.
• Unyielding Netherprism — A consistent trinket, reliably triggering every 10 seconds while also granting an on-use Agility buff. Particularly valuable if you want to align with Master of Harmony's damage windows, ideally activating it during Weapons of Order’s debuff.
• Perfidious Projector — Despite offering Haste, a weak secondary stat for damage, its on-use effect is strong and scales well when hitting multiple enemies. A straightforward option for reliable on-demand burst.
• Sigil of the Cosmic Hunt — A passive damage trinket that works well at all target counts. With 2.5 procs per minute, increasing damage as targets lose health, and echoing nearby enemies, this is a versatile and reliable choice.
• Astral Antenna — Provides large amounts of Critical Strike roughly 2.5 times per minute. Multiple buffs can overlap temporarily, resulting in massive crit spikes. Simple but highly effective.
• Araz's Ritual Forge — One of the strongest burst trinkets, offering an enormous Agility buff that pairs well with Weapons of Order for Master of Harmony players. Though it costs a percentage of maximum health, Brewmasters can mitigate most of the drawback with Stagger.

Offensive Dungeon Trinkets in The War Within

• Tome of Light's Devotion — A hybrid defense and damage trinket that becomes one of your strongest offensive choices when used correctly. You alternate between Inner Resilience and Inner Radiance as you take damage, stacking up to 50 times while “reading” the tome.
  • Resilience: Provides passive Armor and a chance to gain a Magic absorb.
  • Radiance: Provides passive Critical Strike and a chance to deal bonus Holy damage.
  On a 90-second cooldown, you can instantly swap and double the chosen buff’s strength for 20 seconds, enabling phenomenal burst damage when transitioning from Resilience into Radiance.
• Cursed Stone Idol — Combines static Agility, on-demand damage, a Critical Strike buff, and a low cooldown. Pairs well with Weapons of Order thanks to Chi Surge. Best used with cooldown alignment, though note it triggers the global cooldown and briefly prevents dodging.
• Improvised Seaforium Pacemaker — Offers Brewmasters a reliable source of Critical Strike. Every 60 seconds, an ability grants a 15-second Critical Strike buff, extendable up to 30 seconds with additional crits. Particularly effective in AoE when synced with major damage windows.
• Lily of the Eternal Weave — Similar to Signet of the Priory, but on a 90-second cooldown. This shorter timer naturally aligns with Weapons of Order, making it a strong option for Shado-Pan players.
• Signet of the Priory — Grants Critical Strike or Versatility, depending on your highest stat, with strong burst potential on a 2-minute cooldown. Allies wearing the same trinket also gain a smaller version of the buff. Master of Harmony players will find it lines up easily with Weapons of Order, and it can also sync with Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox.
• Ticking Sack of Terror — Though it grants Mastery, only average for damage, its damage effect is potent if allowed to stack or time out. Best suited for single-target encounters where its full effect can be utilized.

Defensive Manaforge Omega Raid Trinkets

• Soulbinder's Embrace — Provides an on-demand absorb on a low cooldown, while also dealing a small amount of damage each time it’s activated. Reliable in nearly any dangerous situation and strong enough to save you on its own, making it a top defensive priority.
• All-Devouring Nucleus — A classic "cheat-death" trinket that triggers upon receiving fatal damage. While active, it also grants passive damage and healing when you take damage, though this effect disables if the cheat-death triggers. Due to its low throughput otherwise, it is best used only if survival against lethal damage is a major concern.

Defensive Dungeon Trinkets in The War Within

• Ringing Ritual Mud — Similar to Chromebustible Bomb Suit from Liberation of Undermine, this trinket provides an on-demand absorb that also triggers AoE damage. It is generally stronger thanks to offering static Versatility instead of Haste, and its cooldown is reduced by DoT effects (though not by your own Stagger). Overall, this is your best defensive trinket.
• Tome of Light's Devotion — A hybrid trinket that alternates between two buffs as you take damage, stacking up to 50 times:
  • Inner Resilience grants passive Armor and a chance to gain a Magic absorb.
  • Inner Radiance grants passive Critical Strike and a chance to deal bonus Holy damage.
  Every 90 seconds, you can immediately swap buffs and double their strength for 20 seconds. By activating during Resilience to trigger a double-strength Radiance buff, this trinket can unleash exceptional damage despite lacking raw stats.
• Codex of the First Technique — While it may appear strong due to reflecting damage and providing effective healing over time, it suffers from offering Stamina as its passive stat instead of Agility or a useful secondary. This missing stat value makes it significantly weaker than it first appears.

The War Within Season 3 Tier Set for Brewmaster Monk

Season 3 of The War Within introduces the Crash of Fallen Storms set, a new Monk-themed gear collection. Pieces of this armor can be obtained from bosses in the Manaforge Omega raid, from the weekly Great Vault, or gradually created through the Matrix Catalyst as a catch-up system. When enough pieces are equipped, the set unlocks unique bonuses for Brewmasters, which vary depending on whether you are using the Shado-Pan or Master of Harmony Hero Talents:

Master of Harmony

• Monk Master of Harmony 11.2 Class Set 2pc: Gaining vitality has a chance to cause your next Tiger Palm to unleash a Harmonic Surge, dealing Nature damage split between your target and nearby enemies while healing up to 5 injured allies.
• Monk Master of Harmony 11.2 Class Set 4pc: Casting Celestial Brew or Celestial Infusion guarantees that your next two casts of Tiger Palm will trigger a Harmonic Surge.

Shado-Pan

• Monk Shado-Pan 11.2 Class Set 2pc: Flurry Strikes deal 20% more damage, and activating Weapons of Order instantly grants 10 stacks of Flurry Charge that trigger on your next attack at 70% effectiveness.
• Monk Shado-Pan 11.2 Class Set 4pc: Flurry Charge generation is increased by 50%, and Flurry Strikes trigger every 150 Energy spent during Weapons of Order.

Since only four pieces are required to unlock both bonuses, it’s generally recommended to skip the leg piece in favor of the others. However, obtaining your set bonuses should always take priority over targeting the "perfect" slots. This season, all five pieces remain close in performance, so any four will serve you well.

Addons for Brewmaster Monk

Generic Addons for Monks

• ElvUI
• Boss Mods
  • Deadly Boss Mods
  • BigWigs
• GTFO
• Parrot or Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
• Weak Auras
  • Recommended source: Wago.io (Brewmaster Monk section)
  • Useful WeakAuras:
    • Stagger tracking bar
    • Summon Black Ox Statue health monitor
• Recount / Skada / Details!
• Grid and GridClickSets (Optional)

WeakAuras for Brewmaster Monk

WeakAuras is an essential tool for Brewmaster Monk and Tanks, offering unparalleled customization to enhance your gameplay. Rather than focusing on specific examples, we recommend exploring Wago.io, where you’ll find an extensive library of WeakAuras to suit your needs.

If you are unfamiliar with WeakAuras, it is an incredibly powerful and widely-used AddOn that allows you to create custom displays for nearly everything in the game. This includes tracking buffs, debuffs, cooldowns, Focus, resources, and much more.

To import a WeakAura, visit Wago.io and select one that fits your preferences. Click the "Copy WeakAura Import String" button to copy it to your clipboard. Next, log into the game and type /wa in the chat box to open the WeakAuras interface. Navigate to the "Import" section, press Ctrl+V to paste the copied string, and click "Import". You’re ready to go!

Mastering WeakAuras and customizing it to your playstyle is highly recommended for any serious raider. With countless options available on Wago.io, you can tailor your interface to optimize your performance and focus on what truly matters in combat.

Brewmaster Monk Frequently Asked Questions

Should I use Charred Passions or Dragonfire Brew?

The choice between Charred Passions and Dragonfire Brew depends on your playstyle and the content:

• Charred Passions enhances your rotation by encouraging the use of Spinning Crane Kick and Blackout Kick, creating a more active playstyle. With talents like Sal'salabim's Strength, this talent ensures high uptime on Breath of Fire, making it ideal for those who can maintain tight rotations.
• Dragonfire Brew is a more passive option, excelling in AoE situations due to its lack of damage reduction until hitting 20 targets. It remains competitive in single-target scenarios and is easier to manage for players who prefer less rotational complexity.

Choose the talent that complements your preferred playstyle and the content you’re tackling.

Should I use Rushing Jade Wind or Special Delivery?

Both talents are strong and viable choices, depending on the situation:

• Rushing Jade Wind provides consistent AoE damage and helps manage threat. It’s also a great filler ability with no Energy cost. However, it requires careful management to maintain uptime.
• Special Delivery is a passive talent that triggers with Brew abilities, dealing damage and applying a 50% snare. While it’s strong in all target counts, the 3-second delay can lead to missed targets or unintended hits on crowd-controlled enemies.

If maximizing damage, Special Delivery is slightly better overall, but the difference is small, so choose the one that suits your gameplay.

Am I better off dual-wielding or using a two-handed weapon?

Generally, a two-handed weapon is better if both weapon options are of the same item level, especially when using the Press the Advantage talent. Otherwise, consider the total secondary stats on the weapons you’re comparing. Always equip the weapon with the highest Weapon DPS in your main hand.

Should I sim my character? How would I do that?

Yes, simming your character is the best way to determine if a gear upgrade is beneficial. While DPS simulations are reliable, simulating defensive upgrades is less accurate due to varying boss mechanics.

For simming, use tools like Raidbots, which can evaluate gear, enchants, and trinkets for DPS. Refer to a simming guide for detailed instructions on setting up simulations.

Is it better to play defensively or offensively as a tank?

If you’re new to Brewmaster Monk, focus on playing defensively and learning the class. A tank’s primary role is to stay alive. As you gain confidence and understand your toolkit, you can begin focusing on dealing more damage.

For progression content, especially during boss learning phases, prioritize survivability. Once your group becomes comfortable, you can switch to a more offensive playstyle by adjusting your talents, stats, and trinkets to enhance damage output.

Should I use Press the Advantage or Weapons of Order?

Both talents are strong, but they excel in different scenarios:

• Press the Advantage removes Tiger Palm from your rotation and adds passive bonus damage through additional casts of Keg Smash or Rising Sun Kick. While powerful, it slows the rotation and requires careful monitoring of cooldown interactions.
• Weapons of Order is an active ability that doesn’t change your rotation but excels in prolonged fights by applying a stacking 32% damage debuff to enemies. It also provides a 9% Mastery buff for additional dodge chance.

For ease of use and versatility, Weapons of Order is generally the better choice, especially for experienced players.

Are The Shado-Pan or Master of Harmony Hero Talents Better?

Both Hero Talents are viable but cater to different playstyles:

• Shado-Pan talents boost damage through passives like Flurry Strikes, with an emphasis on dodging attacks and proccing Vivacious Vivification. This path offers higher offensive potential but relies on proper execution.
• Master of Harmony talents improve survivability by enhancing Celestial Brew and Purifying Brew. This path offers better defensive control, making it ideal for progression.

Experiment with both and adjust based on your content and preference.