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Brewmaster Monk Tank Starter Guide - Shadowlands 9.0.5
By Llarold
Last updated
2021/03/09 at 1:07 AM
View Changelog
Table of Contents
Quick Facts
Table of Contents
Guide Navigation
Welcome to our Brewmaster Monk starter guide, which covers everything you need to start playing a new character in Shadowlands. While our other guide pages go into more individual detail, this simple starter guide covers all the basics in one place, whether you're a new Brewmaster Monk, a returning player to Shadowlands, hardcore, or casual alike, it's the best place to get a beginners overview on the class. Included are basic talent builds, simplified rotations, stats, legendary recommendations, and more to get you started as quickly as possible.
Please keep in mind that this page is meant to get players started quickly as an introduction, and does not contain much in the way of detailed explanations, mechanics, competitive options, gearing, simulation comparisons, or nuance. For more in-depth information, including all those optimizations and more, check out the complete Brewmaster Monk Guide pages linked in the navigation on the left-hand side of the page, and if you're leveling up in Shadowlands, you can take a look at our
leveling tips
.
Overview
NEW
NEW Best Covenant
Gear
Talent Builds
NEW Legendaries
NEW Twisting Corridors
NEW Conduits
NEW Kyrian
NEW Necrolord
NEW Night Fae
NEW Venthyr
Pre-Patch
Starter Guide
Rotation, Priority, and Abilities
Advanced Concepts
Stats
Consumables
Macros & Addons
WeakAuras
Common Terms
NEW Castle Nathria Tips
NEW Mythic+
Common Questions
NEW Simulations
About the Author
This guide was written by Llarold! I’ve been tanking since Vanilla. During Mists of Pandaria, I saw an opportunity to begin writing guides, and I took it with the hopes of making myself a better tank and making the community into better tanks with me. I hope it’s working!
I am active in all of the tank class Discords but primarily contribute to theorycrafting discussions in
Peak of Serenity
and
Skyhold
(Monk and Warrior). I’m active on
Twitter
, where I mostly talk WoW (and basketball), and I’m half of the team responsible for the YouTube channel
WoW at Night
, which focuses primarily on tank guides and previews.
Best Brewmaster Monk Covenant
As a quick recap, we've created the table below to highlight the notable differences between covenants. Don't hesitate to click the headers to go to their respective guides!
Best Raid Covenants
Covenants
Rating
Best Soulbind
Kyrian
Best
Pelagos
Necrolord
Decent
Emeni
Night Fae
Decent
Niya
Venthyr
Poor
General Draven
Best Mythic+ Covenants
Covenants
Rating
Best Soulbind
Kyrian
Best
Pelagos
Necrolord
Great
Emeni
Night Fae
Great
Niya
Venthyr
Poor
General Draven
Best Brewmaster Monk Covenants for Raiding
Castle Nathria is filled with fights that feature adds and bleed debuffs. Although there is a fair amount of movement in many of the encounters, there's nothing that necessitates the extra movement gained from a Signature skill like
Soulshape
. While the bleed effects were removable through
Phial of Serenity
via
Summon Steward
throughout raid testing, that was removed right at the end of the Shadowlands Beta. Nonetheless,
Summon Steward
is still a great power for any tank. It's an extra health potion with a shorter cooldown! That's a huge advantage!
Kyrian is arguably the safest, most reliable option available to Brewmaster Monks thanks to
Weapons of Order
.
Pelagos
' soulbind tree is good, and Kyrian is a very strong all-around option for Brewmaster Monks.
Combat Meditation
provides an enormous amount of stat budget that overlaps with your two major offensive cooldown (Weapons of Order, obviously, and
Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox
if you are using
Walk with the Ox
), and that's terrific. It's good at dealing burst damage, it's a reasonably simple and easy skill to use, and it's always pretty good. Kyrian doesn't have quite the same potential upside as the alternatives, and it doesn't have the same "fun factor," but as far as safe, reliable choices go? It's great.
That being said, Necrolord and Night Fae are both extremely competitive alternatives. The Necrolord Covenant ability
Bonedust Brew
is arguably the strongest of the Covenant abilities available to Brewmaster Monk, and its only real downside is that it has a short duration. This is offset by its short cooldown in Mythic+, but in raids it is slightly weaker as a burst damage cooldown for lining up with other effects like potions, Bloodlust, and trinkets. It is the most consistent defensive bonus, although the margin is very, very small between all three of Kyrian, Necrolord, and Night Fae in terms of defense. The bonus
Lead by Example
in Emeni's Soulbind tree helps ratchet up the value of Bonedust Brew even further, and it's a very competitive setup in all kinds of content.
Night Fae is also a competitive option with
Faeline Stomp
, which grants a lot of consistent, sustained damage. While it was generally a step behind the other two in single target for a long time, the fix to Niya's Soulbind trait
Niya's Tools: Burrs
that makes it work on bosses has made Night Fae extremely competitive even in single target! Beyond that, it's highly competitive in 2-target cleave, and pulls ahead comfortably in AoE. The major downside is the fact that it compels you to fight on the Faeline for resets, which means that being forced to move by boss mechanics can be a meaningful DPS loss. It does provide a meaningful self-healing and defensive increase, and the Niya Soulbind also grants
Grove Invigoration
. It is worth a constant ~7% Mastery and Maximum Health, making Niya the best and most consistent Soulbind tree available to Monks.
Ultimately, Brewmaster Monks are in the unique position of having three highly-competitive Covenant options that are all really powerful and appealing in all forms of content. It's a tough choice!
Best Brewmaster Monk Covenants for Mythic+
Covenant power is slightly -- but only slightly -- different in Mythic+ than it is in raids for Brewmaster Monks. The defensive power and utility of
Summon Steward
remains unparalleled by other Covenant signature abilities. The bottom line is: Kyrian has a head start on all other Covenants for all 6 tanks, and the other Covenant abilities really have to overperform to catch up to the value of an extra health potion.
Fortunately for Brewmaster Monks, they have options!
Bonedust Brew
adds a lot of value that can make it competitive with Kyrian. The DPS increase it offers is surprisingly decent, and while it is not as effective a burst cooldown, it is available significantly more often -- around every 30 seconds. This makes it a much more reliable option throughout a Mythic+ run. While
Fleshcraft
is no extra health potion, it's
okay
as an extra defensive layer for starting out Mythic+ pulls.
Offensively,
Faeline Stomp
adds the most damage of any Covenant ability in AoE. It's really good in Mythic+. It's not always as defensively consistent as Necrolord or Kyrian, but it's close thanks to a consistent average of 7 stacks of
Grove Invigoration
. Again, it has the highest upside of any Covenant in AoE, it just requires a bit more effort to use competitively.
Best Brewmaster Monk Covenant
Kyrian Brewmaster Monk GuideNecrolord Brewmaster Monk Guide
Night Fae Brewmaster Monk GuideVenthyr Brewmaster Monk Guide
Best Brewmaster Monk Legendaries
For Legendaries, Brewmaster Monks have two options, depending on the type of content being prioritized.
Stormstout's Last Keg
is the best defensive option, and very good offensively.
Charred Passions
changes the rotation significantly, and while it will deal more damage, it’s more complex and less forgiving. It’s not bad defensively, and it’s very usable in Mythic+ and progression raiding, but it’s a more advanced option that’s not as popular.
Stormstout's Last Keg
for Progression Raiding and Mythic+.
Charred Passions
for maximizing damage in raids.
If you plan to make both, remember that you don't have to upgrade them at the same rate. Unless you’re a serious damage-pumping tank,
Stormstout's Last Keg
really is a safe all-around option. It’s very popular among Brewmaster Monks of all skill levels and types of content. It’s the go-to. Take a look at our
legendary guide
to learn more about the legendaries available to Brewmaster Monks, or our
crafting guide
to find all the materials you need to craft them.
Brewmaster Monk Legendaries Guide
Best Brewmaster Monk Talents
Brewmaster Monks use the same talents for a lot of content, and most of the time you can get away with just running this one talent build for nearly all content in the game. Switching to
Chi Torpedo
can be a good choice when you really need massive bursts of movement, and the slow removal component of
Tiger's Lust
isn’t useful.
Healing Elixir
can also be a useful choice in lower-level dungeons, and while leveling or soloing, although at higher levels of difficulty,
Dampen Harm
’s power as an extra defensive cooldown is much more valuable. This talent build is primarily focused on raiding for players getting started with end game activities, but our
Brewmaster Monk Talent Guide
goes into more detail for each talent, as well as providing specific builds for questing, Mythic+, and Raids.
Brewmaster Monk Talents Guide
Brewmaster Monk Stat Priority
Unlike previous expansions, primary stats such as Agility are much more important than they used to be, and secondary stats are close enough together that item level is typically a larger factor when it comes to choosing gear. You can find out more about how stats work, including sample stat weights and scaling plots in the
Stats Guide
, or get an overview of the best-in-slot gear to look for from dungeons and raids in the
Brewmaster Monk Gear Guide
.
Agility > Versatility >= Critical Strike > Haste = Mastery
Agility
: Increases all damage done by native class spells, abilities, and auto attacks, and increases the value of your Ignore Pain. Historically the weakest stat, but now the most powerful, which makes raw item level more important.
Versatility
: An excellent damage and damage reduction stat that still has modest self-healing value. It is a very strong stat, valued just slightly ahead of Critical Strike. Because Versatility is generally in much shorter supply than Critical Strike, it is typically a better option for gems and enchants, but your mileage may vary depending on your specific gear.
Critical Strike
: Thanks to
Celestial Fortune
, Critical Strike directly increases your healing taken, and is integral to surviving with Brewmaster’s limited self-healing toolkit. It's also an excellent offensive stat. Outstanding stuff.
Haste
: Increases Energy generation and reduces the cooldown of
Keg Smash
. Haste is a weaker offensive and defensive option than Critical Strike and Versatility, but not by a huge margin. Its value is slightly higher in AoE than single target.
Mastery
: Functions more or less like Dodge chance. It is a decent, reliable offensive boost as well, about on par with Haste. It has built-in inefficiencies, in that
Blackout Kick
can push stacks over the hard cap, resulting in wasted avoidance - and that it does nothing to reduce damage that cannot be dodged, such as spell damage. Despite those limitations, it is the strongest effective damage reduction stat against auto attacks. Mastery is a good stat, but you will want to prioritize Critical Strike and Versatility ahead of it under normal circumstances.
Brewmaster Monk Stats Guide
Brewmaster Monk Enchants and Consumables
Cloak
: Increase stamina and tertiary bonuses. Avoidance is good for reducing unavoidable AoE damage, and Speed helps make dodging boss effects slightly easier -
Enchant Cloak - Fortified Avoidance
or
Enchant Cloak - Fortified Speed
Chest
: Agility & Stamina -
Enchant Chest - Eternal Stats
Wrists
: Hearth cooldown? -
Enchant Bracers - Shaded Hearthing
Boots
: Increases Agility -
Enchant Boots - Eternal Agility
or
Enchant Boots - Agile Soulwalker
(budget)
Rings
: Increases Versatility -
Enchant Ring - Tenet of Versatility
or
Enchant Ring - Bargain of Versatility
(budget)
Mainhand Weapon
: AoE damage proc -
Enchant Weapon - Lightless Force
Offhand Weapon
: AoE damage proc -
Enchant Weapon - Lightless Force
Brewmaster Monk Enchants Guide
Best Brewmaster Monk Rotation
This is a typical Brewmaster Monk DPS rotation. More detailed information can be found in the
Brewmaster Monk Rotation Guide
.
Touch of Death
when available
Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox
whenever a pull will last at least 25 more seconds
Use Covenant skills when available
Keg Smash
on cooldown
Blackout Kick
on cooldown
Breath of Fire
on cooldown
Rushing Jade Wind
Expel Harm
if you need healing
Tiger Palm
to prevent capping Energy
Never let
Purifying Brew
sit on cooldown while tanking. It is your core defensive skill, and you should always be using it to the fullest. Don't let
Touch of Death
and
Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox
sit on cooldown, either. They are your big offensive cooldowns!
As for timing
Celestial Brew
skillfully, sometimes letting it sit on cooldown for a brief period so that you can use it to mitigate a large enemy hit is the right move. This is true more often in raids and on Tyrannical Mythic+ bosses than it is while tanking trash.
Sometimes the best move is just to use it as close to on cooldown as you can. This is true more often in Mythic+ trash, especially on Fortified weeks. Use Celestial Brew as the situation dictates.
Brewmaster Monk Rotation Guide
Back to Top
Our Brewmaster Monk guides are always updated with the latest information from in-game experience, simulations, and logs; make sure to check our changelog to this page, by clicking on
View Changelog
at the top of the page. If you are interested in more in-depth Brewmaster Monk guides for , make sure to browse the
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below, and our list of
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just beneath the
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.
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