How to Play a Brewmaster Monk in the Shadowlands Pre-Patch

By Llarold Updated: 2020/10/18

How to Play Brewmaster Monk in Shadowlands Pre-PatchStaggerPurifying BrewCelestial BrewKeg Smashbeginner's guiderotation guideHow Different Does Brewmaster Monk Feel in the Shadowlands Pre-Patch?Celestial BrewPurifying BrewKeg SmashPurifying BrewExpel HarmTiger PalmSpinning Crane KickTouch of DeathInvoke Niuzao, the Black OxTl;dr Version:New Abilities for Brewmaster Monk in Shadowlands Pre-Patch

Celestial Brew - An immensely powerful defensive shield, it is empowered by using Purifying Brew, and its cooldown is reduced by Keg Smash and Tiger Palm. It’s a lot like MoP/WoD Guard, but on the GCD.

Spinning Crane Kick - AoE filler skill. While it looks like it deals more damage than Tiger Palm, even in single target, it suspends your auto-attack, so it's not really worth using outside of AoE. It's also not particularly useful defensively.

Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox - Known to the community as “Angry Dave.” He’s a simple AoE damage cooldown who provides a mixture of offensive and defensive value. He’s not a huge cooldown, but he’s better than nothing!

Touch of Death - A very simple offensive cooldown, useful for dealing a lot of damage to a boss or quickly killing an add.

Shuffle - Passive source of Stagger increase. It’s easily maintained at 100% uptime just by playing the class normally.

Exploding Keg is back as a talent. It's in the same tier as Rushing Jade Wind, so it's not generally competitive, but it is available as a burst DPS option.

Celestial Flames has also been added to the class as a talent. It is one of the weakest bonuses Brewmaster has ever been given. Its uptime is low, its effect is weak, and it's next to a terrific talent in High Tolerance. Be prepared to never use it!

How Do AoE Target Caps Affect Brewmaster Monk in Shadowlands Pre-Patch

Keg Smash - Now subject to diminishing returns once you hit more than five targets. It functions as a normal AoE against 5 or fewer targets.

Breath of Fire - Subject to “square root” scaling, dealing full damage to the primary target, then dividing AoE damage evenly among the secondary targets.

Spinning Crane Kick - Capped at 6 targets.

Rushing Jade Wind- Capped at 6 targets.

Spinning Crane KickHow Do the GCD Changes Affect Brewmaster Monk in Shadowlands?

Celestial Brew is on the GCD. This is one of the biggest downsides to Brewmasters in Shadowlands. It's still a great skill, but it's also annoying!

Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox is also on the GCD. Most other offensive CD's have been removed from the GCD, but not our big, beautiful boy.

How Strong is Brewmaster Monk in Shadowlands Pre-Patch?Celestial BrewExpel HarmPurifying BrewWhat are the Big Gameplay Changes for Brewmaster Monk?Celestial BrewHow does the Loss of Corruption Affect Brewmaster Monk in the Shadowlands Pre-Patch?Best Talent Builds for Brewmaster Monk in Pre-patch

Black Ox Brew requires a bit more mental energy to use as effectively as Light Brewing, and it generally won’t be as simple or strong, but the potential to chain back-to-back Celestial Brews can be very strong, and a full Energy bar is always good.

Dampen Harm is a decent defensive cooldown. It comes at the expense of constant damage reduction, so it’s not generally worth taking, but if you find yourself desperately needing another defensive cooldown, it’s a good option.

Blackout Combo has not directly been changed, but the changes to the kit around it have impacted its value. Empowering Keg Smash now has a noticeable defensive value by reducing Celestial Brew’s cooldown. It’s harder to use, especially given the increase to Blackout Kick’s cooldown, but it can potentially provide more defenses when played well. Still, it’s more complicated, and the returns are relatively small. Use at your own peril.

Chi Burst can be useful as a small AoE damage increase, especially against larger pulls.

Ring of Peace is extremely useful for pushing groups of enemies around, but Summon Black Ox Statue can be a good alternative for helping secure threat on packs of mobs.

Best Rotation for Brewmaster Monk in Pre-Patch

Never let Celestial Brew or Purifying Brew sit on cooldown while tanking. They are your core defensive skills, and you should always be using them to the fullest.

Keep Keg Smash on cooldown. It fuels the cooldown reduction for Celestial Brew and Purifying Brew, and it is your strongest offensive skill. Maximize it!

Use Blackout Kick on cooldown.

Keep Breath of Fire on cooldown.

Try to keep Rushing Jade Wind active at all times.

Avoid capping Energy by using Tiger Palm or Spinning Crane Kick. Which should you use? Tiger Palm is better defensively and in single target. Spinning Crane Kick does more damage in AoE. Choose based on your situation.

Expel Harm is a useful self-healing tool. Use it whenever you are in need of healing.

Use Touch of Death and Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox as much as possible to maximize your damage.

Rotation guideBest Stats for Brewmaster Monk in Pre-Patch

Item Level

Sockets

Versatility

Critical Strike

Mastery >= Haste

Best Azerite Traits for Brewmaster Monk in Pre-Patch

Training of Niuzao - The best Azerite Trait around. If you’ve got it, flaunt it!

Heart of Darkness - It will continue to work during the Pre-Patch. It’s terrific. Keep using it!

Elusive Footwork - Adds a small amount of single-target damage, and helps reduce your damage taken overall by a decent amount. Not a mandatory trait, but good if you can get it.

Boiling Brew - Provides a small chunk of damage, and a decent trickle of self-healing. Another decent, non-mandatory trait.

Straight, No Chaser - With Ironskin Brew removed, this was changed to work with Shuffle -- making it basically the same as it ever was! Tuning-wise, it's a little underwhelming, worth ~1% damage reduction from armor per rank. Not worthless, but definitely weaker than most other options.

Best Essences for Brewmaster Monk in Pre-PatchRaiding

Major Power: The Crucible of Flame

Minor Powers: Conflict and Strife, Nullification Dynamo, The Formless Void

Mythic+

Major Power: The Crucible of Flame

Minor Powers: Conflict and Strife, Nullification Dynamo, Aegis of the Deep

All Shadowlands Brewmaster Monk Changes

Comments

Comment by Bravejohn

Thanks for the guide! I am excited to play Brewmaster in upcoming expansion. I wish the damage would be a bit higher. For casual content, if I want to build more towards dps, what would be the talents I should pick and stats I should prioritize?

Comment by Nyarlatoteph

The TL;DR version is hilarious, thank you :) Also, what about clash? Or is that not available at level 50?

Comment by SolSphere

Celestial Brew on GCD is more than just annoying for some bosses. One boss, in particular, has a quick cast ability that will truck you without something up to mitigate it, and Shuffle isn't enough with everything else going on.

Comment by antico

Brewmaster Monks have two main weaknesses, poor self sustain and heavy magic damage boss fights, after 7 year of playing the spec I've come to accept those flaws and pray they keeps dodging the axe blizzard has been swinging at them all this time, I hope this Celestial Brew mini game will provide some fun whilst playing the spec, but worry that the developers will get it's scaling wrong, making it either too weak or too powerful, thou based on past experience I expect the latter to happen, it is a known fact that Brewmaster Monks scale insanely with gear, and will find themselves in a place of power where for the 8 seconds which Celestial Brew lasts wont be taking any damage (which sounds awesome, but it actually a very bad thing), which will make them very difficult to heal consistently.

How to Play a Brewmaster Monk in the Shadowlands Pre-Patch

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