Brewmaster Monk Tank Guide – The War Within Season 3 (11.2.0)
This guide is designed to be a basic, quick guide for playing Brewmaster Monk in The War Within, featuring just the key information you need. Navigate quickly to the section you need using the sidebar on the right.
This guide has been updated for Patch 11.2.0/The War Within Season 3 and is regularly updated when discussion, theorycrafting, or testing yields new information.
Brewmaster Monk Talent Builds in The War Within
For Brewmasters, most of your specialization tree talent points in particular are “locked in” and will rarely be changed. Despite this, there are four distinct builds present depending on the type of content you are doing. All of them are shown below.
Both the Shado-Pan and Master of Harmony talents may be used somewhat interchangeably across all builds. In general, Shado-Pan will be better for maximum damage, and Master of Harmony for defense/sustained AoE.
- Delves/Open-World
- Standard/Defensive Raiding
- Advanced/Offensive Raiding
- Standard AoE/Mythic+
- Advanced AoE/Mythic+
Build Import Code: CwQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgZZDzYGzyM2mZmZAAAAAAAYZBEzMwMMYGsMzMjZWGmx2sMT8ALz2MzgNAAYDBAAwsNLNzMzCzwG
Build notes:
- This build opts for the Shado-Pan Hero Talents due to the boosts to burst-AoE and a smaller amount of damage intake that can be easily handled by Protect and Serve. Master of Harmony‘s talents can still be used if you prefer them, and may provide more overall AoE damage in particular.
- You have plenty of flexibility in the class tree for additional utility, such as Detox, Pressure Points, or Quick Footed/Swift Art. Experiment with the content you encounter!
- Due to not selecting Breath of Fire or its supporting talents, this build talents into Rushing Jade Wind to fill some gaps between abilities that may tempt you to overspend Energy
- In terms of your own defense and self-healing, you are largely free to choose what you want out of Staggering Strikes, Elixir of Determination, or Quick Sip. Spirit of the Ox and Gift of the Ox are non-negotiable.
- Celestial Infusion and Niuzao’s Resolve are chosen among your defensive talents due to the relatively low and predictable damage intake of world content and Delves. This is also why Zen State is ignored in favor of an additional damage talent. Because of this, focus more on spending your Vivacious Vivification procs than on using Expel Harm for healing.
Build Import Code: CwQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgZbzYGzYWmx2MmZAAAAAAAYZBjwMwMMzGD2mZmhZZMGbzyMttZx2MzwsAAALz20ysNzyAAACADbA
Build Notes:
- This can be considered your “standard” raiding build, featuring most of the utility that is frequently useful in raid encounters while also staying relatively more simple in its damage-dealing potential.
- Master of Harmony‘s Hero Talents offer additional control over your survival in the higher-damage-taken scenarios commonly seen in raid.
- If you are feeling more confident in your skills as a Brewmaster, consult our “Advanced” raiding build instead, which focuses on maximizing your damage at the expense of a small amount of defense. Both builds can still clear any raid content, however.
- You may still need to talent into Detox at times, or even Pressure Points.
- If you are up against a fight with regular add spawns, switch out of Windwalking and instead talent Fatal Touch.
Additional talent swaps for Raiding can be found below, organized by color. Talents in Green will always be selected, Yellow will often be swapped into or out of, Purple more rarely, and Red should be avoided.
Build Import Code: CwQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgxmxMmxsMjNmZGAAAAAAAWWAxMDMDDMGbzMzYmlhZsNLz02mtZbmZYWAAgNEAAAz2s0MzMLMDLA
Build Notes:
- In comparison to our defensive raiding build, you will instead opt into Black Ox Brew, Call to Arms, and Chi Surge for additional damage.
- Niuzao’s Resolve is switched into Elixir of Determination to enable more traditional healing orbs that allow you to reactively heal with Expel Harm in an emergency.
- The Shado-Pan Hero Talents offer major increases to Tiger Palm‘s damage, along with other Energy-spenders. However, its defensive tools are often not as useful in a raid, though they still have their place.
- This build will still perform well enough defensively, though it is more reliant on your skill as a player to do so. Do not force yourself into it if you are not confident.
- As with our other raid build, you may need to sometimes talent into Detox or Hasty Provocation.
Additional talent swaps for Raiding can be found below, organized by color. Talents in Green will always be selected, Yellow will often be swapped into or out of, Purple more rarely, and Red should be avoided.
Build Import Code: CwQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgZbDzYGzyM2mxMDAAAAAAALLwEzMwMMYGsNzMDzywMWmlZiHYZ2mZGmFAAYZ2mWmtZWGAAQAMDbA
Build Notes:
- The Master of Harmony Hero Talents utilize Endless Draught and Mantra of Tenacity to aim for more defense over a dungeon. However, the Shado-Pan Hero Talents may still be used if you like, instead utilizing Predictive Training and Protect and Serve‘s buff to Vivify with Vivacious Vivification procs for potent self-healing.
- Depending on what utilities the dungeon would benefit from, you may want to talent into Detox, Hasty Provocation, or Pressure Points.
- The greater demand for self-reliant defense in dungeons results in this build dropping Breath of Fire and its supporting talents. If you feel the rotation is too empty, consider swapping Special Delivery for Rushing Jade Wind.
- Celestial Infusion and Niuzao’s Resolve are used to provide a smoother healing experience and reduce the odds of making a dangerous mistake with your healing spheres. However, Elixir of Determination may be used instead if you prefer a more traditional, reactive experience with Expel Harm.
- Do not hesitate to switch from Dance of the Wind to Dampen Harm if in need of another defensive cooldown!
Additional talent swaps for Mythic+ can be found below, organized by color. Talents in Green will always be selected, Yellow will often be swapped into or out of, Purple more rarely, and Red should be avoided.
Build Import Code: CwQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgZbDzMzYWmx2YmZAAAAAAAYZBmYmBmhBzgtZmZYWGmx2sMTYb2mZGmFAAYDBAAwsNLNzMzCzwG
Build Notes:
- Compared to the Standard AoE build, this alternative focuses on the higher key level experience and dealing more damage through the use of Black Ox Brew. In addition, it assumes you are comfortable knowing when to make use of Dampen Harm. It will require a little more skill with the rotation in order to be played effectively.
- While Celestial Infusion is still chosen by default, Niuzao’s Resolve is ignored in favor of more traditional healing spheres to reactively make use of Expel Harm. You may even wish to consider Celestial Brew
- Improved Invoke Niuzao is chosen here for additional enemy disruption, but is largely a matter of preference.
- Shado-Pan Hero Talents utilize Predictive Training and Protect and Serve‘s buff to Vivify with Vivacious Vivification procs for potent self-healing. However, the Master of Harmony Hero Talents may still be safely used if you like, and may result in greater AoE damage.
- Depending on what utilities the dungeon would benefit from, you may want to talent into Detox, Hasty Provocation, or Pressure Points.
Additional talent swaps for Mythic+ can be found below, organized by color. Talents in Green will always be selected, Yellow will often be swapped into or out of, Purple more rarely, and Red should be avoided.
Brewmaster Monk Ability Priority
Brewmasters follow a priority system rather than a strict rotation, based on which abilities are coming off cooldown and how much Energy is available. In addition, use of this priority system impacts your unique defensive tools, many of which get reduced cooldowns from your offensive abilities. With this in mind, your main pillars of playing Brewmaster are the following:
- Blackout Kick and Keg Smash are cast on cooldown: simply put, Blackout Kick is the most important ability you have as a Brewmaster. It both deals a large amount of your total damage, and gives plenty of defensive benefits. Keg Smash falls into a similar spot, providing both damage and defense on a low cooldown.
- Stagger is not damage reduction by itself: Although Stagger does not make you take the full amount of damage from a hit right away, if you do not do anything about the damage in your Stagger pool you are still taking the full hit over a period of 10 or 13 seconds. Making proper use of Purifying Brew in particular is the biggest difference between an average Brewmaster and a great one.
- Use the right cooldown for the job: Brewmasters have many defensive cooldowns in The War Within, including Dampen Harm, Diffuse Magic, Fortifying Brew (and its modifier talents), Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox, and Celestial Brew/Celestial Infusion. Some of these abilities have cooldown timers that are much longer than the others, and some have their cooldowns reduced by your other abilities and talents. While this will make things complicated in judging the “value” of using one, in general you should consider abilities with longer cooldowns as being your “stronger” ones that you should be more judicious about using. Likewise, you shouldn’t be using a magic damage reduction cooldown like Diffuse Magic against Physical damage. Plan appropriately!
- Customize your mitigation: Brewmasters have the option to choose certain talents that greatly affect their defensive playstyle. First among these is Celestial Brew versus Celestial Infusion. While these two talents are very similar, the key difference between them is that Celestial Brew will absorb all damage over a shorter duration, whereas Infusion will absorb only some damage taken over a longer time period. This tends to result in a smoother experience for your healers, as some damage is still able to reduce your health and be offset by any passive forms of healing that may be wasted otherwise. Next is Niuzao’s Resolve, which converts the healing spheres a Brewmaster generates into a heal-over-time effect rather than an instant one. This, too, creates an easier time for counteracting the damage you receive, although you lose the ability to quickly top yourself off in an emergency with Expel Harm (this usually wastes a large amount of healing, however). Overall, you will usually opt into Celestial Infusion and Niuzao’s Resolve, with more advanced or difficult content occasionally switching to Celestial Brew and regular healing spheres.
- Your Hero Talents are almost entirely passive: Whether you are a Shado-Pan or Master of Harmony Brewmaster, your Hero Talent effects will passively occur as you perform the standard rotation. For the most part, there isn’t much to worry about in the way of optimizing their use. Just remember that you will need to use Celestial Brew to activate Aspect of Harmony and spend your vitality!
Although these four big guidelines may seem daunting to follow, the Brewmaster ability priority will become second-nature over time, as many of your effects are passively performed by following it correctly. The hard part is getting over the initial learning curve (and number of keybinds). With that in mind, here is your full ability priority as a Brewmaster Monk.
- Touch of Death/Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox, if possible.
- Blackout Kick (if Charred Passions is talented and active, or with Blackout Combo). Consume Blackout Combo‘s buff with Tiger Palm.
- Rising Sun Kick (with 10 stacks of Press the Advantage, if talented and facing 3 or less targets)
- Keg Smash
- Breath of Fire
- Weapons of Order
- Blackout Kick (regardless of talents)
- Rising Sun Kick. This will also trigger your Chi Wave, if talented.
- Chi Burst, if talented
- Exploding Keg
- Use your second charge of Keg Smash from Stormstout’s Last Keg to start “banking” partial recharge time when Keg Smash comes off cooldown in the middle of using another ability.
- Rushing Jade Wind (refreshing its buff, if talented)
- Tiger Palm, so long as you will have enough Energy to spend on Keg Smash once it is off cooldown again. With Press the Advantage talented, you must instead cast Spinning Crane Kick. Do not cast Spinning Crane Kick twice in a row, and if Blackout Combo is talented, do not cast it at all beyond an occasional tool for gathering enemies at the beginning of a pull before an initial Keg Smash.
Brewmaster Monk Hero Talent Usage:
- If you are playing as a Shado-Pan Brewmaster, your Flurry Strikes passive will occur as you perform your rotation and follow the priority above. Do not worry about altering how much Energy you are spending to trigger Flurry Strikes. This will generally result in a damage loss when trying to.
- Master of Harmony Brewmasters passively generate vitality from dealing damage and healing (overhealing does not count). By casting Celestial Brew, you will spend this vitality to apply a bonus damage over time effect to your enemies. However, you cannot build vitality in the spending period. Fortunately, this will only matter for the couple of abilities you cast before your vitality is spent; if anything, avoid casting Exploding Keg during these brief moments.
Brewmaster Monk Ability Usage:
- Keg Smash – Your highest-priority Energy ability; also grants Shuffle and cooldown reduction to your “Brew” abilities.
- Blackout Kick – Your highest-priority free ability; also grants Shuffle to improve your Stagger.
- Breath of Fire– A damage-over-time effect that also reduces damage enemies deal to you. This ability’s cooldown does not matter when using the Sal’salabim’s Strength talent.
- Rising Sun Kick – Although it has only a few talented interactions with the rest of your toolkit, this ability deals massive damage while also being free and having a low cooldown. Use it as often as you can.
- Gift of the Ox/Spirit of The Ox– You will passively generate a healing sphere for every 100% of your maximum health taken as damage (before counting any Armor or mitigation). Additional spheres will also be generated from Black Ox Kick and Rising Sun Kick.
- Expel Harm – A cheap, low-cooldown heal that will also immediately gather any healing spheres from Gift of the Ox/Spirit of The Ox.
- Tiger Palm/Spinning Crane Kick – Your main “filler” abilities that also cost Energy. In general, use Tiger Palm in single-target and Spinning Crane Kick when facing larger groups of enemies or when gathering at the start of a pull. With Blackout Combo talented, you will rarely, if ever, use Spinning Crane Kick.
- Charred Passions/Dragonfire Brew – Two competing choice talents that both interact with Breath of Fire. Due to Sal’salabim’s Strength, both talents are competitive in single-target, though Charred Passions has an advantage against 2-5 targets and Dragonfire Brew against 6 or more.
- Rushing Jade Wind/Special Delivery – Two choices on the same talent node that increase your damage. Keep Rushing Jade Wind‘s buff active if you have it.
- Purifying Brew – Used to reduce your Staggered damage; gets cooldown reduction from Keg Smash and Tiger Palm.
- Celestial Brew/Celestial Infusion – Cast this ability more or less on cooldown, as it offers defensive benefits and gets cooldown reduction from Keg Smash and Tiger Palm.
- Dampen Harm/Diffuse Magic/Fortifying Brew – your primary defensive cooldowns. Use as appropriate based on both the type of damage being taken and how large the hits are.
- Exploding Keg – You deal additional damage to all targets hit by this ability for 3 seconds based on the number of hits you deal. If anything, make sure to have Rushing Jade Wind active during this time if you have it talented.
- Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox – deals substantial damage by Stomping after every use of Purifying Brew while active. In addition, 40% of your Stagger damage is instead taken by him, and he will be healed via Oxen Fortitude when you purify Stagger. If you have also talented into Call to Arms, do not summon both copies of your celestial at once, as only one will be able to Stomp or transfer Stagger damage at a time.
- Ox Stance – If talented, this buff will be generated as you cast Purifying Brew (and when casting Rising Sun Kick with Black Ox Adept talented). It will then automatically be consumed against especially dangerous hits to increase your Stagger‘s strength against them.
- Weapons of Order – Use this ability on cooldown for bonus damage. So long as you are properly casting Keg Smash and Rising Sun Kick, you will already be maximizing this ability’s potential.
- Touch of Death – Use when it can be triggered. If you are looking to really maximize its power, you can make sure to only use it when it will kill the target, as this can do a maximum of 100% of your HP as damage instead of the 35% it normally does to boss targets (and only if Improved Touch of Death is talented).
Brewmaster Monk Gearing in The War Within Season 2
Stats
Offense: Agility (item level) > Critical Strike = Versatility > Mastery > Haste
Defense: Item level (Armor/Stamina/Agility) > Mastery = Versatility = Critical Strike > Haste
The offensive stat priority can change for your character depending on your current gear and stats. Stat weights are largely an outdated thought. Sim the gear you have through Top Gear. If you’re looking for what gear to aim for, use Droptimizer.
Dual Wielding vs 2 Handed Weapons
Generally, 2-handed weapons win with full enchants and consumables outside of single-target. It is possible for dual-wielding to pull ahead based on your current gear, however. For specific situations or item level gaps, sim your character’s options with Raidbot’s Top Gear Tool.
Gems
Use Raidbot’s Top Gear Tool for the most specific and accurate results for your character, or default to Deadly Sapphire/Versatile Ruby. In general, it will usually follow the stat priority above, though when making use of a Culminating or Elusive Blasphemite you will want to use one of each secondary stat gem to maximize the effect.
Enchants
- Weapons (dual-wield and 2h, offense) – Enchant Weapon – Authority of the Depths
- Weapons (dual-wield and 2h, defense) – Enchant Weapon – Authority of Radiant Power (or Enchant Weapon – Oathsworn’s Tenacity)
- Cloak – Enchant Cloak – Chant of Winged Grace/Leeching Fangs/Burrowing Rapidity (Avoidance, Leech, or Movespeed; largely your preference)
- Chest – Enchant Chest – Crystalline Radiance or Stormrider’s Agility (slightly less Agility in exchange for movement speed)
- Bracers – Enchant Bracer – Chant of Armored Avoidance/Leech/Speed (Avoidance, Leech, or Movespeed; largely your preference)
- Boots – Enchant Boots – Defender’s March/Scout’s March (Stamina or Movespeed; your preference)
- Ring – Enchant Ring – Radiant Versatility/Enchant Ring – Radiant Critical Strike as a general recommendation, or sim for your character. Cursed enchants (such as Cursed Versatility or Cursed Critical Strike) provide more of the chosen stat, but less total stats. This makes them worse for defense, but often better for damage.
- Armor Kit – Stormbound Armor Kit
Trinkets
The easiest method of choosing trinkets is to look at the lists on BloodMallet. They’re lists based on the sim profiles, demonstrating each trinket’s relative damage potential at all relevant item level brackets.
Beyond that, look for the following trinkets as a general guideline:
- Brand of Ceaseless Ire (Hybrid) – The Soul hunters (Manaforge Omega)
- Tome of Light’s Devotion (Hybrid) – Priory of the Sacred Flame
- Ticking Sack of Terror (Damage) – Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder
- Sigil of the Cosmic Hunt (Damage) – The Soul Hunters (Manaforge Omega)
- Ringing Ritual Mud (Defense) – Operation: Floodgate
- Soulbinder’s Embrace (Defense) – Soulbinder Naazindhri (Manaforge Omega)
Tier Set
Manaforge Omega contains the Crash of Fallen Storms tier set. This set’s bonuses change with your currently selected hero talents, with Shado Pan Brewmasters gaining additional Flurry Strikes during Weapons of Order (along with a bonus set when first activating the ability), and Masters of Harmony gaining the ability to trigger Harmonic Surges. Neither of these bonuses will particularly change your rotation, instead combining nicely with the already-passive nature of both Hero Talents. However, there may be a slight incentive to talent into Black Ox Brew and Rushing Jade Wind for Master of Harmony players to trigger slightly more Harmonic Surges over time.
As you only need to wear four out of five pieces to obtain your set bonuses, consider treating the Shoulders or Legs as your pieces to ignore. However, obtaining your bonuses matters more than finding the “best” slots; don’t be too picky with how close all pieces ultimately are in strength.
“Best-in-Slot” Gear
Sim the gear you have through Top Gear to determine your current “best-in-slot” gear. If you’re looking for what gear to aim for, use Droptimizer. Otherwise, prioritize equipping gear of a higher item level; Agility, Armor, and Stamina are the biggest impact to your overall survival in gear, along with properly using your abilities. Similarly, for defense, getting “more” secondaries takes priority over getting “better” ones.
Brewmaster Monk Consumables, Races, and Professions
Consumables
- Flask – Flask of Alchemical Chaos/Flask of Tempered Versatility.
- Potion – Tempered Potion (general use; especially with Flask of Alchemical Chaos), Frontline Potion (defense).
- Health Potion – Invigorating Healing Potion.
- Food – (Hearty) Feast of the Midnight Masquerade/Feast of the Divine Day. You can use stat food that matches your gems/ring enchants as well, such as Beledar’s Bounty.
- Weapon Enhancement – Ironclaw Weightstone/Whetstone (use 2 if dual wielding).
- Additional consumables – Crystalized Augment Rune or the reusable Ethereal Augment Rune for additional Agility; Convincingly Real Jumper Cables for a battle res.
Races
Currently, all races sim within a small range of each other and reshuffle constantly. The added utility of Blood Elf’s Arcane Torrent can be useful at times, as can Dwarf’s Stoneform. Other than that, pick whatever race you prefer.
Professions
Professions have no bearing on your ability to perform your role. Pick whatever will make your playing time easier and more enjoyable. As a starting point, many players take Engineering and/or Alchemy for some small perks.
Brewmaster Monk WeakAuras
There are very few, if any, required WeakAuras for Brewmaster. The most commonly used are to track current Stagger damage, though WeakAuras can be used for more complicated tasks as well such as monitoring the health of your Black Ox Statue.
- Traditional Stagger
- Use this aura to track Stagger more effectively. Traditional Stagger can let you adjust how your Stagger is displayed in a number of ways, such as how much of your Maximum Health is being Staggered, the total amount per tick, and the like; each level of Stagger can also have its colors customized.
- Black Ox Statue Health can be useful for those moments when you are relying on your Black Ox Statue (Dave) to hold the attention of some enemies but want to be aware of how soon it will be destroyed if it does not receive any healing.
- Aspect of Harmony Tracker allows you reliably watch your amount of vitality stored as a Master of Harmony.
- A Flurry Strikes Tracker is by no means necessary as a Shado-Pan Brewmaster, but can be useful from an information point of view in knowing how close you are to triggering a set of Flurry Strikes. It may also be helpful to track the status of your Wisdom of the Wall buffs.
Brewmaster Monk Macros
All-in-One Taunt Macro
- #showtooltip Provoke
- /cast [nomod,@mouseover,harm,nodead] Provoke
- /cast [nomod] Provoke
- /targetexact [mod:alt] Black Ox Statue
- /cast [mod:alt] Provoke
- /targetlasttarget [mod:alt,exists]
This macro will allow you to use Provoke in a variety of ways. It can target whatever you are currently mousing over, or if the modifier key is used, target your Black Ox Statue for its aoe-taunt capability. Should alt not be the key you wish to use for statue-taunting, you can modify that section of the macro.
Passive Double Barrel Macro
- #showtooltip Keg Smash
- /cast Double Barrel
- /cast Keg Smash
This macro will automatically make use of the Double Barrel Honor Talent if you have it selected and cast it at the same time as your Keg Smash whenever the ability is off-cooldown. It will still work even if you do not have this Honor Talent selected and is useful if you would just like to benefit from its passive damage increase and stun effect every 45 seconds while out in the world.
Changelog
- Aug 05, 2025 – Updated for Season 3 of The War WIthin
- Feb 24, 2025 – Talent builds adjusted for Season 2 of the War Within; added further clarity to spending vitality as a Master of Harmony during Weapons of Order.
- Oct 10, 2024 – Talent builds slightly adjusted; AoE build separated into Standard and Advanced variants
- Sep 10, 2024 – Talent builds updated for Season 1 of The War Within.
- Aug 22, 2024 – Page refreshed for launch of The War Within (Builds, Hero Talents, Consumables, Enchants)
- Jul 23, 2024 – Talent Builds and rotation priority updated for The War Within Prepatch.
- Apr 23, 2024 – Talent Builds updated for Dragonflight Season 4. Added recommended Antique Bronze Bullion purchases.
- Nov 06, 2023 – Talent Builds/consumables updated for Patch 10.2. Added an opener section to the rotation.
- Jul 10, 2023 – Talent Builds updated for Patch 10.1.5.
- May 01, 2023 – Page initially updated for Patch 10.1
- Apr 14, 2023 – Talent/Rotation Priority consistency pass.
- Mar 21, 2023 – Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- Jan 24, 2023 – Updated for Patch 10.0.5. Talents adjusted; slight consumable/enchant adjustments.
- Nov 28, 2022 – Guide created for Dragonflight
