Brewmaster Monk Tank Spec, Builds, and Talents — Midnight Season 1

Within this page, we will go over every recommended talent build for Brewmaster Monks. These builds feature many different effects, but they all can have an impact on how the spec is played, whether active or passive. To see how these choices fit into your rotation as a Brewmaster, take a look at the Rotation section of our guide.

1.

Talent Cheat Sheets for Brewmaster Monks

Default/Defensive
Raiding Talents Advanced/Offensive
Raiding Talents Default
Mythic+ Talents Delves/Open-World
Talents Legacy Content/Speed
Talents

1.1.

Best Default/Defensive Raiding Talents for Brewmaster Monks

The following build is focused on your performance within raid encounters. As such, it does not opt into utility that is rarely seen within a raid or can be covered by another player instead. Although it opts into some additional defensive talents, it also aims for a slightly more simple rotation. Depending on an encounter's needs, you may still need to switch between Celestial Infusion and Celestial Brew or consider dropping Niuzao's Resolve. If you would like to be even more defensive, remove Empty the Cellar and Dragonfire Brew for High Tolerance, Elixir of Determination, or even Ox Stance, though be warned that this will come with some fairly significant damage losses.

As for Hero Talents, the Master of Harmony tree's second charge of Celestial Infusion and strong single-target performance make it well-tailored to raid environments in particular. Plus, your Purifying Brew will also purify more Stagger with each cast, and Overwhelming Force still enables extra cleave damage in suitable encounters.

Remember that you can easily import the talent tree below into the game with the "Export Talents" button:

1.2.

Best Advanced/Offensive Raiding Talents for Brewmaster Monks

Once you are appropriately comfortable with your playstyle as a Brewmaster Monk, consider switching to this set of talents to fully maximize your single-target damage potential. Be aware that it will opt into a much faster pace in the rotation due to Fluidity of Motion and also ask of you to make use of Black Ox Brew in particular, while sacrificing some defensive power by giving up Tranquil Spirit and Awakening Spirit. It will also expect you to make effective use of Expel Harm due to not having Niuzao's Resolve. Beyond these differences, this build is still focused primarily on raiding, and it will similarly not have all of your available utility selected. In fact, you may end up dropping further options, such as Peace and Prosperity, in favor of easier Touch of Death usage with Improved Touch of Death. If this build's choices seem too daunting, you can even opt for somewhere in between it and our Default raiding talents by keeping Shadowboxing Treads, dropping Fuel on the Fire, and picking up Tranquil Spirit or Awakening Spirit in particular.

For Hero Talents, the Master of Harmony tree remains a clear winner due to its substantial Tiger Palm enhancement with Meditative Focus. The Shado-Pan talents simply cannot compete against this tree at its full power in smaller target counts.

Remember that you can easily import the talent tree below into the game with the "Export Talents" button:

1.3.

Best Standard Mythic+ Talents for Brewmaster Monks

Dungeons feature a lot more talent flexibility due to the variety of scenarios you will encounter. Due to the wider variety of utility and AoE needs, this build opts into Exploding Keg's follow-up talent of Fuel on the Fire. However, it also still defaults to Niuzao's Resolve and Bob and Weave for a more convenient healing experience.

Although this build features the Shado-Pan Hero Talents, you can easily switch to Master of Harmony instead. By comparison, Shado-Pan's total damage output at lower target counts—5 or less—will be worse in exchange for more convenient AoE through Shado Over the Battlefield and more frequent access to Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox. Defensively, Shado-Pan's Predictive Training is also noticeably potent in AoE tanking.

Remember that you can easily import the talent tree below into the game with the "Export Talents" button:

1.4.

Best Delves/Open-World Talents for Brewmaster Monks

While optimizing talents on a contextual basis is the highly recommended method of setting up your build, the talent tree listed below will work well for general purposes such as Delves, world content, and entry-level dungeons and raids. It is still highly recommended to switch to a more specialized build if engaging in something specific.

When making use of this build in Delves in particular, it is recommended to take advantage of the Master of Harmony Hero Talents specifically due to the massive buffs it provides to Tiger Palm to decimate a priority target. You may still use the Shado-Pan talents instead, of course!

Remember that you can easily import the talent tree below into the game with the "Export Talents" button:

1.5.

Best Legacy Content/Movement Speed Talents for Brewmaster Monks

Highlighting the unique amount of flexibility available through talent trees, the following build is intended for trivial content that you wish to get through as quickly as possible, such as old raids or previous expansion features. It makes use of talents that are otherwise not taken during your time in Midnight, though you should further complement it with other legacy speed-boosting effects such as a Charged Phial of Alacrity, Exquisitely Eviscerated Muscle, and Sanguithorn Tea.

Remember that you can easily import the talent tree below into the game with the "Export Talents" button:

One of the key new developments for all specializations in Midnight is the introduction of Apex Talents. These are new, isolated talent nodes accessible from the specialization tree beginning at Level 81, and you can spend up to four points on them to gain a series of effects with increasing strength. However, you must spend all three earlier points if you want the effect of the fourth; it is sequential. Alternatively, you can make use of these four additional points elsewhere in your specialization tree for greater build flexibility. The choice is yours!

The Apex Talent for Brewmaster Monks is called Bring Me Another, and focuses on empowering your Keg Smash spell when you make use of your "Brew" abilities. As you continue to invest points in it, you will also unlock substantial Energy savings, improved Physical damage, and even a consistent source of extra healing for both you and up to two nearby allies! These four versions of the talent are the following:

1. Bring Me Another — Using an ability with Brew in its name has a chance to generate an Empty Barrel (max 1). When you next cast Keg Smash, your Empty Barrel will also be thrown at your target to deal bonus damage and can ricochet to up to three additional enemies. These bounces will not occur in single-target.
2. Bring Me Another — Increase all Physical damage dealt by 10/20%. In addition, the cooldown of Keg Smash is reset and the Energy cost of its next cast reduced by 50/100% whenever you generate an Empty Barrel.
3. Bring Me Another — Whenever you cast Fortifying Brew or Celestial Brew/ Celestial Infusion, you and up to 2 nearby allies gain a Refreshing Drink, along with an Empty Barrel for yourself. Upon taking damage, Refreshing Drink is consumed to trigger a substantial heal-over-time effect. The damage of Empty Barrels is also increased by 100%.

For the most part, Bring Me Another is entirely passive in how it is used, but it also is a key element that ties your entire rotation together as a Brewmaster. In particular, the cooldown and Energy cost reductions to Keg Smash add up to a substantial amount of casts over time. Where a Brewmaster may have opted into a talent like Rushing Jade Wind before to fill in the "empty" space of the rotation rather than waiting around or spending extra Energy, these bonus casts from the middle points of Bring Me Another can now fill the same role while also dealing a lot more damage! Finally, the guaranteed Empty Barrels from Bring Me Another's final point means that you will fully invest into this talent at all times, especially when the only alternative talents in the specialization tree are (mostly) weaker defensive ones.

In Midnight, Brewmaster Monks also have access to two unique Hero Talent trees to supplement gameplay with unique themes that let you really stand out from others. For Brewmasters, these Hero Talent trees are the Shado-Pan, which is all about unleashing unrelenting bursts of damage on your foes, and becoming a Master of Harmony by balancing damage and defense. Both are great for embracing the fantasy of playing a Monk, but you also need a reason to consider each of them.

The Shado-Pan Hero Talents excel at providing burst AoE damage and passive defense. Whether this is through the numerous Flurry Strikes triggered with every cast of Keg Smash (dealing further AoE damage with Shado Over the Battlefield), or empowering Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox with Wisdom of the Wall, there is plenty of power available. Tying it all together, a Brewmaster even gains passive damage resistance when dodging due to Predictive Training. Due to this playstyle, this tree is often tailored to the larger pulls of Mythic+, though it can still remain viable in smaller target counts, too.

A Master of Harmony Brewmaster still has access to some bonus AoE damage through Overwhelming Force, but mainly plays around generating vitality from all of their damage and healing. This is then spent when triggering Celestial Brew or Celestial Infusion to deal bonus damage for a short time. In addition, these Hero Talents offer a second charge of these abilities while also increasing the strength of Purifying Brew! Finally, with the help of Meditative Focus and Harmonic Surge, this set of Hero Talents pushes a Brewmaster's single-target damage to its highest level, making it an excellent overall choice for raiding.

PvP talents are PvP-centric options that activate out in the world when you enable War Mode in the talent pane or when participating in instanced PvP content. If you are comfortable with being flagged for PvP, some offer great benefits to questing.

You are permitted to choose 3 talents from the PvP Talents list. Here is a recommendation of those most helpful for questing:

• Double Barrel is 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. Note that its cooldown does not begin until this buff has been consumed. This is great for larger packs but requires a keybind, which is not useful in Raids and Dungeons. Fortunately, as it is off the global cooldown, it can be cast at the same time as Keg Smash with the help of a macro if you want to passively benefit from it.
• Hot Trub causes your Purifying Brew to also deal split damage to enemies around you based on 20% of how much damage you have Purified. While this is often a small amount of damage due to low Stagger amounts in world content, it is entirely passive and does not require any special planning.
• Microbrew allows you to use Fortifying Brew more frequently without reducing its strength as your most powerful defensive cooldown.
• Eerie Fermentation, while not offering a strong benefit most of the time, will allow you to gain increased movement speed and a little extra defense against magic attacks while questing. Magic damage from players or NPCs is normally a little more dangerous to a Brewmaster.
• Dematerialize acts as a form of stun protection, providing you with temporary damage reduction while stunned. However, its amount decreases with every second you are stunned, completely depleting after only three seconds.
• Admonishment is also worth mentioning. It causes your Provoke to increase the damage a target takes by 3%. However, this amount can increase all the way to 15% bonus damage for every unique player that attacks the target. While this is not very useful while completely solo, if you are taking on elites with other people who happen to be in the zone or questing in a group, it can be worth taking. Be careful using this on world Bosses — they will still attack you when you Provoke them!

For most situations, a solid combo is Double Barrel, Eerie Fermentation, and Microbrew, as these provide largely-passive benefits while increasing your damage-dealing and defensive potential.

While it can be fun to use your PvP talents if you are looking to PvP more seriously, you will likely want to consider doing so as a Windwalker or Mistweaver.