Brewmaster Monk Tank Guide — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

The Shado-Pan Hero Talents have been largely redesigned from the ground up on Brewmaster Monk. Most importantly, Flurry Strikes are no longer triggered after spending a specific amount of Energy, instead occurring after every cast of Keg Smash. In addition, your auto attacks now generate Flurry Charges rather than dealing damage in general, with the number of charges being roughly identical between dual-wield and two-handed weapons. Beyond this, all interactions involving Weapons of Order are now tied to Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox instead and Wisdom of the Wall now rewards you for casting Breath of Fire while this cooldown is active. Overall, these changes have made Shado-Pan Brewmasters capable of dealing much more consistent damage.

On top of reworking its mechanics, the Shado-Pan tree has also received additional talent nodes that may be immediately selected during the Midnight Pre-Patch:

• Shado Over the Battlefield — Flurry Strikes deal additional Nature damage to nearby enemies. This is largely identical to the former "Shadow" effect of Wisdom of the Wall, but present at all times.
• Combat Stance — Reduces the cooldown of Roll; choice node with Initiator's Edge. Replacement for Protect and Serve.
• Initiator's Edge — Gain temporary bonus movement speed when entering combat; choice node with Combat Stance. Replacement for Lead from the Front.
• Stand Ready — Activating Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox instantly grants 10 Flurry Charges that immediately trigger on your next attack. This is identical to the Monk Shado-Pan 11.2 Class Set 2pc bonus of Patch 11.2, but instead triggering off of a different cooldown.
• Weapons of the Wall — Flurry Charge generation is increased, and additional Flurry Strikes are triggered with every Breath of Fire cast during Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox. This is similar to the Monk Shado-Pan 11.2 Class Set 4pc bonus of Patch 11.2, but also with a different cooldown trigger.

In comparison to its counterpart, the Master of Harmony talents have seen less drastic changes. Its gameplay loop still revolves around building and spending vitality, activating Celestial Brew or Celestial Infusion to do so. Where a key difference now lies is in the Coalescence capstone. Rather than universally amping all of your ability damage on any target affected by Aspect of Harmony, this talent now automatically spends vitality to empower every cast of Keg Smash with bonus damage while increasing the generation of all other spells to compensate. As a result, it is now more difficult to "cap" out and waste the resource, and you will not be punished as severely for choosing to not cast Celestial Brew/Infusion in low-damage areas just for bonus DPS.

The Master of Harmony tree, like its Shado-Pan alternative, also brings new talent nodes in the Midnight Pre-Patch that can be selected:

• Harmonic Surge — Casting Celestial Brew or Celestial Infusion causes your next two casts of Tiger Palm or Vivify to deal bonus Nature damage split among nearby enemies as well as a small amount of healing to nearby allies. As with the newer Shado-Pan talents, this is effectively the Monk Master of Harmony 11.2 Class Set 4pc bonus of Patch 11.2.
• Potential Energy — Casting Keg Smash causes your next cast of Tiger Palm or Vivify to trigger a Harmonic Surge. Unlike the Monk Master of Harmony 11.2 Class Set 2pc bonus this talent is based on, there is no longer a random element to when your next Tiger Palm will create a Harmonic Surge.
• Meditative Focus — Empowers your Blackout Combo and Press the Advantage talents:
  • Blackout Combo's bonus damage to Tiger Palm is further increased, along with the bonus Brew cooldown of Keg Smash when either are comboed.
  • Press the Advantage deals increased Nature damage and grants additional cooldown reduction to Brew abilities.

One of the main difficulties in learning Brewmaster Monk as a new player has often been trying to figure out the Stagger passive and all of the talents that interact with it. Many have come with bonus effects that seemingly encourage you to take additional damage, or quietly reduce its danger to you without being clearly visible. No longer. In the Midnight Pre-Patch, any time your Stagger gets reduced by an effect, such as Purifying Brew, a combat text pop-up will occur to tell you exactly how much it was. This should hopefully make the smaller, but consistent reductions from talents like Quick Sip more obvious and let players feel visually rewarded for proper play.

Speaking of Purifying Brew, the ability now also glows at more appropriate times and will additionally Purify a minimum amount of Stagger. Whereas previously it would only highlight in Heavy Stagger, in the Pre-Patch it will also briefly glow whenever you have entered a period of "Elevated Stagger". This occurs whenever you have suffered a large hit that causes your Stagger level to jump, even if it was low beforehand. These two enhancements combine to better teach players how to properly use the ability as mitigation, with the High Tolerance talent now also providing partial cooldown refunds for successfully reacting to Elevated Stagger.

Finally, most talents that once provided different benefits based on your current Stagger level have been adjusted to instead offer consistent effects. Now, rather than Dragonfire Brew buffing Breath of Fire by smaller amounts in only Light Stagger, it will instead offer its maximum bonus at all times. The one remaining exception among a Brewmaster's talents is Training of Niuzao, which varies in its Mastery bonus. Still, these changes and improved Stagger guidance should combine for a better Brewmaster experience across all types of content.

Brewmaster Monk has long had a reputation of requiring many different keybinds to appropriately handle its plethora of abilities. The Midnight Pre-Patch is making a concerted effort to address this concern by removing a number of active abilities for the specialization. These include the following:

• Rising Sun Kick and its supporting talents
• Weapons of Order; many supporting talents are also removed, with some interactions transitioning to Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox
• Clash
• Dampen Harm
• Diffuse Magic; Magic dispelling and redirection effect is now an optional passive enhancement to Fortifying Brew

Overall, this should create a more intuitive damage rotation for Brewmaster players, as many have felt Rising Sun Kick to be disconnected from other abilities or defensive goals. Although the loss of two defensive abilities is unfortunate, this has also happened to most tank specializations and can make for easier decision making in an emergency (ie: just press Fortifying Brew rather than choosing between it, Dampen Harm, and Diffuse Magic). If you were once overwhelmed by keybinds when learning the specialization, give it another try in Midnight and see how you feel!