Brewmaster Monk Tank Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Dragonflight 10.2.6

Last updated on Mar 19, 2024 at 18:50 by Sinzhu 27 comments
General Information

On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Brewmaster Monk, depending on the type of damage you will be tanking. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc. in order to maximize your survivability and DPS. All our content is updated for World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2.6.

1.

Rotation for Brewmaster Monk

Welcome to the Rotation section of our Brewmaster Monk guide. If you came here without first checking over the Spell List/Glossary, it is recommended that you do so. Understanding what your spells and abilities do will make it easier to consider where they stand in the topics discussed here.

If you are not interested in learning the smaller details of how to play as a Brewmaster, then the Easy Mode version of this guide may be more along the lines of what you are looking for. It will briefly summarize the core of what you need to do as a Brewmaster, but it is still highly recommended that you read the other sections as well to gain a full understanding of how to maximize your character's potential.

In addition to your rotation in general content, there is also a separate section of this guide devoted to how your playstyle may change in Mythic+. Please take a look at it if you would like to learn more about how to play there.

The rotation for Brewmaster Monk is based on a priority system. That is, you are not using abilities in a strict order so much as you are casting the ability that is highest on the list when it is available for use. However, we will still be using the term "rotation" to describe this behavior throughout the remainder of this guide.

Your best way to think of how to handle this larger priority is to base your gameplay around the use of Blackout Kick Icon Blackout Kick. This ability has a 4-second cooldown and is not reduced by your Haste. Due to always having a global cooldown of 1 second between abilities, this means you will only be planning for three other abilities between each cast of Blackout Kick. Even if the priority lists below seem daunting, stick to this core idea of breaking things down into Blackout+3 and you will be well on your way to success!

The priorities below will not account for your active mitigation abilities (which we discuss in depth in a dedicated section) or your survival cooldowns (also discussed separately).

To begin, please select the options on the following table that represent your chosen active and passive talents. For convenience, all talents suggested in our "default" build have been pre-selected, and you may easily switch to the talent configurations of our other recommended builds by using the buttons above the table. Other options not shown in this list will not alter the rotation enough to be mentioned:

Generic/Open World Defensive/Raiding Offensive/Raiding AoE/Mythic+
Active Talents Passive Talents
Rushing Jade Wind Icon Rushing Jade Wind Special Delivery Icon Special Delivery
Chi Wave Icon Chi Wave Charred Passions Icon Charred Passions
Chi Burst Icon Chi Burst Dragonfire Brew Icon Dragonfire Brew
Exploding Keg Icon Exploding Keg Walk with the Ox Icon Walk with the Ox/Call to Arms Icon Call to Arms
Summon White Tiger Statue Icon Summon White Tiger Statue Stormstout's Last Keg Icon Stormstout's Last Keg
Bonedust Brew Icon Bonedust Brew Bountiful Brew Icon Bountiful Brew
Weapons of Order Icon Weapons of Order Press the Advantage Icon Press the Advantage
Black Ox Brew Icon Black Ox Brew Blackout Combo Icon Blackout Combo
2.

Brewmaster Monk Rotations and Explanations

Single-Target Rotation AoE Rotation Active Mitigation and Stagger Talented Active Ability Tips Defensive Cooldown Usage Amirdrassil Set Bonus
3.

Single-Target Rotation for Brewmaster Monk

2.1.

Single-Target Opener

When you are first entering a fight and have access to every one of your cooldowns, you will initially need to focus on establishing Shuffle Icon Shuffle to bolster your defenses before continuing the main priority below. A simple single-target "opener" can be described as follows:

  1. Activate Rushing Jade Wind Icon Rushing Jade Wind before entering combat, and use Chi Wave Icon Chi Wave as you are moving to your target. Consider also placing your Summon White Tiger Statue Icon Summon White Tiger Statue.
  2. Use Blackout Kick Icon Blackout Kick.
  3. Use Keg Smash Icon Keg Smash.
  4. Use Breath of Fire Icon Breath of Fire.
  5. Activate Weapons of Order Icon Weapons of Order.
  6. Use Blackout Kick Icon Blackout Kick.
  7. Use Keg Smash Icon Keg Smash.
  8. Use Rising Sun Kick Icon Rising Sun Kick.
  9. Refresh your Rushing Jade Wind Icon Rushing Jade Wind.
  10. Follow the main single-target priority below.
2.2.

Single-Target Rotation Priority

Reminder: This rotational priority is most helpful when you are in the middle of combat and need to decide what ability to use as your next choice. When entering combat, consider following the sample opening ability sequence above first before utilizing this priority system.

  1. Use Touch of Death Icon Touch of Death on an enemy if it can be activated.
  2. Place your Summon White Tiger Statue Icon Summon White Tiger Statue if the enemies nearby will survive for 30 seconds or more.
  3. Throw your Bonedust Brew Icon Bonedust Brew to hit both yourself and your targets, even if the enemy is already debuffed by an activation of Bountiful Brew Icon Bountiful Brew.
  4. Use Keg Smash Icon Keg Smash. Do not cast this if you have 10 stacks of Press the Advantage Icon Press the Advantage, unless you are in need of additional defense.
  5. Use Breath of Fire Icon Breath of Fire.
  6. Activate Weapons of Order Icon Weapons of Order.
  7. Use Blackout Kick Icon Blackout Kick.
  8. Use Rising Sun Kick Icon Rising Sun Kick.
  9. Throw Exploding Keg Icon Exploding Keg at your targets , and ensure Rushing Jade Wind Icon Rushing Jade Wind is active beforehand.
  10. Use Rushing Jade Wind Icon Rushing Jade Wind to maintain its buff.
  11. Use your second charge of Keg Smash Icon Keg Smash to effectively "bank" partial recharge time when Keg Smash comes off cooldown in the middle of another ability's cast.
  12. Activate Chi Wave Icon Chi Wave.
  13. Use Tiger Palm Icon Tiger Palm if there is nothing else to do, and you will still have enough Energy for your next Keg Smash Icon Keg Smash.

It is absolutely imperative that you have enough Energy to cast Keg Smash Icon Keg Smash on cooldown, as this is a large source of damage and the main source of both cooldown reduction for your Brew-based abilities and Shuffle Icon Shuffle to empower your Stagger Icon Stagger.

3.

AoE Rotation for Brewmaster Monk

2.3.

AoE Opener

Against multiple targets, it is especially important to establish Shuffle Icon Shuffle to bolster your defenses before continuing the main priority below. A basic multi-target "opener" can be described as follows:

  1. Activate Rushing Jade Wind Icon Rushing Jade Wind before entering combat, and use Chi Wave Icon Chi Wave as you are moving to your target. Consider also placing your Summon White Tiger Statue Icon Summon White Tiger Statue.
  2. Use Keg Smash Icon Keg Smash.
  3. Use Breath of Fire Icon Breath of Fire.
  4. Use Blackout Kick Icon Blackout Kick.
  5. Activate Weapons of Order Icon Weapons of Order.
  6. Use Keg Smash Icon Keg Smash.
  7. Use Rising Sun Kick Icon Rising Sun Kick.
  8. Refresh your Rushing Jade Wind Icon Rushing Jade Wind.
  9. Follow the main AoE priority below.
2.4.

AoE Rotation Priority

Brewmaster Monk is a somewhat unique specialization in that your rotation will mostly stay the same whether you are in single-target or multi-target combat. As a reminder, this rotational priority is most helpful when you are in the middle of combat and need to decide what ability to use as your next choice. When entering combat, consider following the sample opening ability sequence above first before utilizing this priority system.

  1. Use Touch of Death Icon Touch of Death on an enemy if it can be activated.
  2. Place your Summon White Tiger Statue Icon Summon White Tiger Statue if the enemies nearby will survive for 30 seconds or more.
  3. Throw your Bonedust Brew Icon Bonedust Brew to hit both yourself and your targets, even if the enemy is already debuffed by an activation of Bountiful Brew Icon Bountiful Brew.
  4. Use Breath of Fire Icon Breath of Fire.
  5. Use Keg Smash Icon Keg Smash. Do not cast this if you have 10 stacks of Press the Advantage Icon Press the Advantage, unless you are facing 4+ targets.
  6. Activate Weapons of Order Icon Weapons of Order.
  7. Throw Exploding Keg Icon Exploding Keg at your targets , and ensure Rushing Jade Wind Icon Rushing Jade Wind is active beforehand.
  8. Cast Blackout Kick Icon Blackout Kick.
  9. Cast Rising Sun Kick Icon Rising Sun Kick.
  10. Use Rushing Jade Wind Icon Rushing Jade Wind to maintain its buff.
  11. Use your second charge of Keg Smash Icon Keg Smash to effectively "bank" partial recharge time when Keg Smash comes off cooldown in the middle of another ability's cast.
  12. Use Spinning Crane Kick Icon Spinning Crane Kick if you will have enough Energy available by the time Keg Smash Icon Keg Smash is available. Do not use more than once in a row unless fighting 3+ enemies, as this prevents you from gaining stacks of Press the Advantage Icon Press the Advantage. Use Tiger Palm Icon Tiger Palm instead if more Brew cooldown reduction is desired.
  13. Activate Chi Wave Icon Chi Wave.

Although Spinning Crane Kick Icon Spinning Crane Kick deals enough damage to normally justify being a high-priority ability, it is too expensive on Energy to use when there are plenty of other abilities that are free. It will also cause you to gain stacks of Press the Advantage Icon Press the Advantage more slowly due to pausing your auto attack timer during its channel.

3.

Stagger and Active Mitigation Explained for Brewmaster Monk

Brewmaster Monks rely on a specific ability (Stagger Icon Stagger) to smooth out the damage they take throughout fights. This is a somewhat complex ability, and is explained in-depth in the sections that follow.

2.5.

Stagger

In addition to dodging and parrying attacks, Brewmaster Monks have an additional means of mitigating the damage that they take, called Stagger Icon Stagger. This is a key element in your survivability as a tank, so it is important to understand it correctly.

Stagger Icon Stagger causes all attacks made against you to have their damage split into two portions:

  • An instant portion will immediately deal its damage to you in the moment of the attack.
  • A Stagger Icon Staggered portion, which does its damage to you every 0.5 seconds for 10 seconds (or 13 seconds with Bob and Weave Icon Bob and Weave talented).

The amount of Physical damage Staggered is based on your Agility, and 45% of that amount applies to MagicMagical attacks, including any other DoT effects. While you are Staggering damage, you will have one of three debuffs to represent how intense its DoT is: Light Stagger Icon Light Stagger (green), Moderate Stagger Icon Moderate Stagger (yellow), and Heavy Stagger Icon Heavy Stagger (red). If you are in Heavy Stagger, then that means you are taking at least 60% of your Maximum Health as damage over its duration. However, you are likely to regularly exceed this amount in some forms of content.

Beyond that, the division between the instant and Stagger Icon Staggered portions of damage your damage taken depends on other factors, namely whether or not you have the High Tolerance Icon High Tolerance talent — which increases the Staggered portion — and whether or not you have Shuffle Icon Shuffle or Fortifying Brew Icon Fortifying Brew with the special Fortifying Brew: Determination Icon Fortifying Brew: Determination talent active. There is also the Bob and Weave Icon Bob and Weave talent, which increases the duration of the Stagger DoT by 3 seconds, slightly reducing the amount of damage dealt to you during each 0.5-second tick.

As you might have already noticed, Stagger Icon Stagger does not by itself provide any form of damage reduction, mitigation, or avoidance. This is where Purifying Brew Icon Purifying Brew comes into play. Purifying Brew has 2 charges with a 20-second recharge time, and using it instantly Purifies 50% of the Staggered damage (the damage you are due to take over the next 10 seconds).

A simple example, assuming a Stagger Icon Stagger amount of 40%, is as follows:

  1. An attack of 10,000 Physical damage is performed against you.
  2. 6,000 damage is dealt to you instantly.
  3. A Stagger Icon Stagger DoT is applied to you, which deals 4,000 damage over 10 seconds — essentially, 200 damage every 0.5 seconds.
    • With the Bob and Weave Icon Bob and Weave talent, this is instead 154 damage every 0.5 seconds over 13 seconds!
  4. You cast Purifying Brew Icon Purifying Brew after 5 seconds, removing 50% of the Stagger Icon Stagger DoT's 2,000 remaining damage: 1,000.
  5. After 10 seconds, you have sustained 6,000 instant damage and 3,000 in Stagger Icon Staggered damage, for a total of 9,000. You avoided 1,000 damage of the original hit with the help of Purifying Brew Icon Purifying Brew!
    • If you had cast Purifying Brew Icon Purifying Brew after only 1 second, you would have instead avoided 1,800 damage of the hit, or even 1,846 with the Bob and Weave Icon Bob and Weave talent.
2.5.1.

Stagger Enhancements

Beyond this basic loop of Stagger Icon Stagger and Purifying Brew Icon Purifying Brew, there are a number of additional effects that interact with how much damage you can delay, along with how to reduce that amount. The most important of these abilities is a passive called Shuffle Icon Shuffle. This buff increases the amount of damage you Stagger, and you are given 5 and 3 seconds of it when you Keg Smash Icon Keg Smash or Blackout Kick Icon Blackout Kick, respectively, along with up to 4 seconds when casting Spinning Crane Kick Icon Spinning Crane Kick. Shuffle can be extended until it reaches 15 seconds. Note, however, that Shuffle has no impact on "old" damage you have already Staggered, instead affecting new damage you take while the buff is active.

Shuffle Icon Shuffle is not the only effect that rewards you for actively making use of your other abilities when it comes to Stagger Icon Stagger. There are further effects that can be used to additionally remove some of your delayed damage, such as the Staggering Strikes Icon Staggering Strikes, Tranquil Spirit Icon Tranquil Spirit, and Quick Sip Icon Quick Sip talents, or even heal you for a portion of the damage with Gai Plin's Imperial Brew Icon Gai Plin's Imperial Brew. These talents exist alongside additional options that provide you with benefits for reaching ever-higher levels of Stagger Icon Stagger as well, including High Tolerance Icon High Tolerance, Training of Niuzao Icon Training of Niuzao, and Dragonfire Brew Icon Dragonfire Brew.

There is one more ability that indirectly works with your Stagger Icon Stagger: Celestial Brew Icon Celestial Brew. Although the absorb it provides for only 8 seconds may seem small at first, it can be increased to up to three times its original size with the Improved Celestial Brew Icon Improved Celestial Brew talent! This is caused by the Purified Chi Icon Purified Chi buff, which you will gain stacks of with every use of Purifying Brew Icon Purifying Brew: one stack is gained from Purifying while at Light Stagger Icon Light Stagger, two stacks from Purifying in Moderate Stagger Icon Moderate Stagger, and three from Heavy Stagger Icon Heavy Stagger. Each stack increases the size of your next Celestial Brew shield by 20% per stack, going up to +200% at the stack cap of 10.

Finally, it is important to remember that the recharge time of Purifying Brew Icon Purifying Brew — along with the remaining cooldowns of Celestial Brew Icon Celestial Brew and Fortifying Brew Icon Fortifying Brew — are reduced by 1 second each time you use Tiger Palm Icon Tiger Palm and by 3 seconds each time you use Keg Smash Icon Keg Smash.

2.6.

Managing Shuffle, Purifying Brew, and Celestial Brew

The hardest part of playing a Brewmaster Monk is remembering to maintain 100% uptime on Shuffle Icon Shuffle while trying to find the best time to make use of Purifying Brew Icon Purifying Brew and Celestial Brew Icon Celestial Brew. The latter two abilities have extremely valuable effects, but they have long initial cooldown periods between uses; however, as you continue to perform your rotation, their cooldowns will be substantially reduced. As such, you have to find an appropriate time to use them without letting the abilities sit off-cooldown and waste the cooldown reduction effects your rotation is naturally providing.

Fortunately, Shuffle Icon Shuffle is not too hard to keep up, nor is the decision on which Brew to use and when too complicated. So long as you are following the Single-Target or AoE priorities above, you should generate plenty of Shuffle time. As for your usage of Purifying Brew Icon Purifying Brew, there is a fairly simple set of rules to follow:

  • Do not have both charges of Purifying Brew Icon Purifying Brew off-cooldown.
  • Keep one charge available for an emergency to use right after taking a big hit.
  • Use a charge as the second charge is about to come off cooldown, or if you are about to lose your Purified Chi Icon Purified Chi buff from Improved Celestial Brew Icon Improved Celestial Brew.

You may notice that this set of rules more or less involves you pretending that the ability has only one charge instead of two. This is intentional due to how frequently Purifying Brew Icon Purifying Brew will be available during your standard rotation. What this also means is that there may be times when you end up having to purify in only Light Stagger Icon Light Stagger or Moderate Stagger Icon Moderate Stagger rather than heavy, and that is okay so long as you still have that second charge ready for a sudden spike of damage.

By having access to an abundance of Purifying Brew Icon Purifying Brew usage, and making use of it directly after taking large amounts of damage, you will also have built up plenty of stacks of Purified Chi Icon Purified Chi from Improved Celestial Brew Icon Improved Celestial Brew to give you larger Celestial Brew Icon Celestial Brew absorbs. As a result, this ability is also often used on cooldown. It will usually be better to create more shields over time rather than possibly wasting Purified Chi stacks and cooldown reduction. There is one small thing to consider, however. You may not want to Purify any Stagger Icon Staggered damage if you will not take enough to eat away at the entire absorb. Since Celestial Brew's shield only lasts for 8 seconds, any amount of absorption afterward is effectively wasted. As this absorb can soak up any damage — including Stagger — you can think of it as a stronger form of Purifying Brew.

If nothing else, you only need to remember to never let your Purifying Brew Icon Purifying Brew or Celestial Brew Icon Celestial Brew be unused and off-cooldown.

3.

Talented Active Ability Usage Tips for Brewmaster Monk

There are potentially 10 or more active abilities and passive effects that need to be considered in the rotation priority among your chosen talents, and many provide very different effects.

  • Rising Sun Kick Icon Rising Sun Kick should essentially be used on cooldown. Although it does not directly interact with the defensive parts of the Brewmaster kit beyond the Spirit of the Ox Icon Spirit of the Ox talent, it deals plenty of damage and has no cost, making it an excellent ability to help you avoid running out of Energy.
  • Chi Wave Icon Chi Wave is another ability with no cost that will only be used when there is nothing else available. Its "smart" nature will choose to bounce to injured allies over those with full Health.
  • Chi Burst Icon Chi Burst also has no cost, but a longer cooldown than Chi Wave Icon Chi Wave and exists as a secondary choice. While less useful in single-target, it has decent value in AoE and still allows you to dodge while casting.
  • Summon White Tiger Statue Icon Summon White Tiger Statue allows you to place a statue anywhere within 40 yards that will pulse damage over a 30-second period. Due to this ability having a massive 2-minute cooldown despite its somewhat low damage, you should aim to place it near enemies that will survive for at least 30 seconds to maximize its damage potential.
  • Rushing Jade Wind Icon Rushing Jade Wind allows you to passively deal damage around you and has no Energy cost to maintain, so long as you remember to regularly activate the ability due to its low cooldown.
  • Exploding Keg Icon Exploding Keg operates as one of the few tools of burst available to Brewmasters. This is due to its secondary effect of dealing bonus damage on direct hits to targets that were originally hit by the ability over a 3-second window. Due to how this ability interacts with both Rushing Jade Wind Icon Rushing Jade Wind and Spinning Crane Kick Icon Spinning Crane Kick, it is possible to achieve 10 or more additional hits to an enemy during this time.
  • While Weapons of Order Icon Weapons of Order does reset the cooldown of Keg Smash Icon Keg Smash, bear in mind that it only resets the cooldown of one charge if using the Stormstout's Last Keg Icon Stormstout's Last Keg talent. In addition, there is functionally little difference in how you apply the bonus damage debuff. So long as Keg Smash and Rising Sun Kick Icon Rising Sun Kick are being used on cooldown, you can largely ignore the bonus damage effect, as it will not cause a major change in rotation, nor will it buff the damage of trinkets or consumables. At most, you should aim to cast Bonedust Brew Icon Bonedust Brew and Exploding Keg Icon Exploding Keg while your enemies have four stacks of the increased damage taken debuff.
2.7.

Press the Advantage

Although it is a passive talent at its core, Press the Advantage Icon Press the Advantage substantially alters the flow of your rotation as a Brewmaster Monk and features massive opportunities to maximize its potential. This is primarily achieved through simply consuming your 10 stacks of the Press the Advantage buff on Rising Sun Kick Icon Rising Sun Kick whenever you can, even if it means leaving Keg Smash Icon Keg Smash off-cooldown for a few seconds at a time — though it can still be useful if you are in need of a large amount of Brew cooldown reduction. Done correctly, roughly every third Rising Sun Kick will trigger Press the Advantage's extra attack!

Where the real potential of this talent comes into play is when its interactions with other talents are considered. The bonus attack of Press the Advantage Icon Press the Advantage works with all talents that affect Tiger Palm Icon Tiger Palm or Weapons of Order Icon Weapons of Order. These talents are:

  • Face Palm Icon Face Palm — A 50% chance to deal 50% additional damage and gain additional Brew cooldown reduction.
  • Counterstrike Icon Counterstrike — After dodging an attack, gain 100% increased damage to your next Spinning Crane Kick Icon Spinning Crane Kick or 50% to your Press the Advantage Icon Press the Advantage ability.
  • Eye of the Tiger Icon Eye of the Tiger — Consuming your 10 stacks of Press the Advantage Icon Press the Advantage applies a small DoT, healing you for the same amount over time.
  • Blackout Combo Icon Blackout Combo — Casting Blackout Kick Icon Blackout Kick immediately before consuming your 10 stacks of Press the Advantage Icon Press the Advantage on Rising Sun Kick Icon Rising Sun Kick increases its damage by 50%.
  • Chi Surge Icon Chi Surge — Consuming your 10 stacks of Press the Advantage Icon Press the Advantage applies a massive DoT, split among all targets hit. This DoT is only 50% as strong as when cast by Weapons of Order Icon Weapons of Order.
  • Call to Arms Icon Call to Arms — Consuming your 10 stacks of Press the Advantage Icon Press the Advantage has a chance to summon Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox Icon Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox for 12 seconds.

Between all of these effects, it is possible to massively inflate the damage of the extra attack from spending your 10 stacks of Press the Advantage Icon Press the Advantage, though it will also require incredible attention on your part to do so and still not be able to rival Weapons of Order Icon Weapons of Order's power. However, due to stacks of Press the Advantage buff only being generated from auto attacks with your main hand weapon, it is a substantial damage gain to receive the Windfury Totem Icon Windfury Totem buff from an Enhancement Shaman or even Power Infusion Icon Power Infusion from a Priest when talented!

However, there is a hidden downside to this talent removing access to Tiger Palm Icon Tiger Palm. Without this ability, you will need to incorporate more casts of Spinning Crane Kick Icon Spinning Crane Kick into your rotation, even in single-target. Ordinarily, this would not matter much, but because Spinning Crane Kick is a channeled ability, you are unable to perform auto attacks while spinning. This means that you will delay building up your stacks of Press the Advantage Icon Press the Advantage, and significantly so if you cast Spinning Crane Kick multiple times in a row. To get around this, make sure that you do not repeatedly use this ability unless you are fighting 3 or more targets.

2.8.

Bonedust Brew

Bonedust Brew Icon Bonedust Brew's effect to replicate damage and healing effects also applies to your own self-healing, such as Expel Harm Icon Expel Harm, Gift of the Ox Icon Gift of the Ox, and even Celestial Fortune Icon Celestial Fortune. Because of this, you should try to hit yourself with the ability on each cast to provide a nice source of additional healing. This replication also applies to abilities that deal damage over time, like Rushing Jade Wind Icon Rushing Jade Wind and Breath of Fire Icon Breath of Fire.

When making use of the Bountiful Brew Icon Bountiful Brew talent, be aware that you may still safely cast Bonedust Brew Icon Bonedust Brew at any time, as its duration will simply be added to the current debuff's, up to a total of 20 seconds. By doing this, and with a little luck, it is possible to maintain Bonedust Brew for over 30 seconds at a time!

2.9.

Black Ox Brew

If you have chosen Black Ox Brew Icon Black Ox Brew, you should always make sure to have consumed both of your Purifying Brew Icon Purifying Brew charges and that Celestial Brew Icon Celestial Brew is on cooldown before using it. Remember that you will also need to use another Purifying Brew charge afterward to avoid wasting any cooldown reduction and will likely put up a Celestial Brew shield that does not have many stacks of Purified Chi Icon Purified Chi improving it. Since Black Ox Brew also refills all your Energy, you may also wish to cast Keg Smash Icon Keg Smash or Tiger Palm Icon Tiger Palm/Spinning Crane Kick Icon Spinning Crane Kick at the same time. If your priority does not allow for this, however, then it is okay to waste a little bit of Energy regeneration.

2.10.

Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox

Ordinarily, Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox Icon Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox will fall under a defensive cooldown in your kit as a Brewmaster Monk and will not require much additional thought. However, this entire perspective shifts if you have opted to talent into Improved Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox Icon Improved Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox alongside Walk with the Ox Icon Walk with the Ox. With this combination of talents, you will instead need to focus on maximizing the amount of damage you can Purify with Purifying Brew Icon Purifying Brew to create larger Stomp Icon Stomps.

To do this, there are a couple of "rules" to remember regarding how Improved Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox Icon Improved Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox works:

  • Stagger Icon Stagger damage Purified within the previous 6 seconds is considered for buffing Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox Icon Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox's Stomp Icon Stomp. This includes the 6 seconds before it is even summoned!
  • Only Stagger Icon Stagger damage Purified with Purifying Brew Icon Purifying Brew counts for increasing your summon's Stomp Icon Stomp damage. Other sources, such as Quick Sip Icon Quick Sip, Staggering Strikes Icon Staggering Strikes, Tranquil Spirit Icon Tranquil Spirit, and Touch of Death Icon Touch of Death will not count.
  • Stomp Icon Stomp can critically strike and will have its bonus damage split in AoE; it can also trigger the bonus damage of Bonedust Brew Icon Bonedust Brew.
  • Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox Icon Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox will cast Stomp Icon Stomp immediately upon being summoned, and up to an additional five times afterward before disappearing; a copy summoned from the Call to Arms Icon Call to Arms talent will only be able to stomp up to three times instead.
  • If two copies of Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox Icon Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox are active due to the Call to Arms Icon Call to Arms talent, they will both draw from the same pool of Purified damage and reduce the effective Stomp Icon Stomp damage of each.

With these rules in mind, some guidelines become pretty clear, such as aiming to have as many casts of Purifying Brew Icon Purifying Brew available as possible during each activation of Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox Icon Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox. In addition, if you are making use of the Call to Arms Icon Call to Arms talent, then you need to make one small adjustment to your playstyle: you should not cast Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox Icon Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox if a copy of your celestial is already present from Weapons of Order Icon Weapons of Order or Press the Advantage Icon Press the Advantage.

3.

Defensive Cooldown Ability Usage for Brewmaster Monk

As a Brewmaster, you have a number of talented defensive abilities with long cooldowns. You also have two offensive cooldowns that also provide some defensive effects as a bonus. Compared to the reactive nature of Purifying any Stagger Icon Stagger you have built up with the help of Shuffle Icon Shuffle, these cooldowns are best used before you have taken damage in the first place.

  • Fortifying Brew Icon Fortifying Brew increases your current and maximum Health by 20% while also reducing all damage taken by 20% for 15 seconds. You can further alter it with the Fortifying Brew: Determination Icon Fortifying Brew: Determination and Ironshell Brew Icon Ironshell Brew talents to increase your base Stagger Icon Stagger amount by 15% or provide you with 25% Armor and Dodge chance while active. Note that its 6-minute cooldown is reduced by 1 and 3 seconds when you use Tiger Palm Icon Tiger Palm and Keg Smash Icon Keg Smash, respectively. This cooldown can also be reduced with the Expeditious Fortification Icon Expeditious Fortification talent. It should be used whenever you are about to take a large amount of damage. Alternatively, it can be used as an emergency cooldown when your Health is low, although it is less effective in this way.
  • Zen Meditation Icon Zen Meditation is a very powerful defensive cooldown. It reduces damage taken by 60% for 8 seconds, but the effect is canceled prematurely if you are the victim of a melee attack or move if you do not have Fundamental Observation Icon Fundamental Observation talented. This cooldown allows you to greatly mitigate the damage dealt by abilities with a cast time in particular, since the cast allows you to time Zen Meditation perfectly. Alternatively, it can reduce the first melee attack or boss ability that hits you while channeling it.
  • Diffuse Magic Icon Diffuse Magic is a powerful defensive cooldown that you can use to counter magic damage in particular. One of its more unique effects is the ability to both dispel and reapply a variety of potent magic debuffs to enemies.
  • Dampen Harm Icon Dampen Harm is a survival cooldown that you can use to mitigate the damage from powerful boss attacks. It is most useful if used preemptively. A further breakdown of its damage reduction can be found in the Spell Summary.
  • Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox Icon Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox takes on a portion of the damage you are Stagger Icon Staggering during the time he is present while also dealing a small amount of damage. If you are not making use of the Improved Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox Icon Improved Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox talent, then this damage is negligible, and the cooldown's defensive bonuses are more useful to consider.
  • Touch of Death Icon Touch of Death is to be used when an enemy's Health is low enough to allow it. While the damage it deals will also remove a portion of your Stagger Icon Stagger, you are usually using it against something that is nearly dead and cannot harm you anymore. This cooldown is, therefore, more useful offensively, but you may rarely be able to plan around its defensive benefit as well.
3.

Amirdrassil, the Dream's Hope Tier Set Bonus for Brewmaster Monk

The Amirdrassil raid features a new tier set for you to collect, and comes with two unique bonuses when wearing at least two or four pieces of its equipment:

  • Monk Brewmaster 10.2 Class Set 2pc Icon Monk Brewmaster 10.2 Class Set 2pcBreath of Fire Icon Breath of Fire deals 40% bonus damage as Shadowflame and causes you to heal for 50% of your fire damage dealt.
  • Monk Brewmaster 10.2 Class Set 4pc Icon Monk Brewmaster 10.2 Class Set 4pc — Your attacks against targets afflicted by Breath of Fire Icon Breath of Fire have a chance to deal 15% extra damage as Shadowflame, and each Celestial Brew Icon Celestial Brew also grants a Stagger Icon Stagger absorb for 100% of the Shadowflame damage you have dealt, causing damage delayed by Stagger Icon Stagger to instead be prevented.
2.11.

Set Bonuses Explained

At first glance, the Monk Brewmaster 10.2 Class Set 2pc Icon Monk Brewmaster 10.2 Class Set 2pc bonus sounds like an absurd amount of additional healing. After all, with a running theme of Shadowflame and Fire damage effects on gear throughout the entirety of Dragonflight, surely healing for 50% of all of it would make you nearly invincible! Unfortunately, however, the effect's description is a bit misleading. Rather than applying to all Fire damage you deal, it will only apply to your Fire-damage-dealing abilities as a Brewmaster Monk. This includes:

  • Breath of Fire Icon Breath of Fire's initial hit (and additional hits from Dragonfire Brew Icon Dragonfire Brew)
  • Exploding Keg Icon Exploding Keg's initial hit, as well as additional hits of it in the three seconds after impact
  • Charred Passions Icon Charred Passions damage

Although this substantially limits the amount of healing you will receive from the Monk Brewmaster 10.2 Class Set 2pc Icon Monk Brewmaster 10.2 Class Set 2pc bonus, it will still effectively turn Exploding Keg Icon Exploding Keg into a full-heal when cast on multiple targets.

In comparison to the limited scope of the 2pc bonus, the Monk Brewmaster 10.2 Class Set 4pc Icon Monk Brewmaster 10.2 Class Set 4pc is capable of triggering on nearly everything in your Brewmaster Monk toolkit, and will do so roughly 50% of the time you deal damage with any of your abilities. This is helpful, as the additional absorb against new Stagger Icon Stagger damage when casting Celestial Brew Icon Celestial Brew is purely based on this additional Shadowflame damage, as well as the 40% bonus Shadowflame damage dealt through the Monk Brewmaster 10.2 Class Set 2pc Icon Monk Brewmaster 10.2 Class Set 2pc bonus. On top of this, the additional Stagger absorb from this bonus effectively turns your Stagger percentage into a temporary damage reduction instead!

Overall, the Amirdrassil Brewmaster Monk set bonuses are full of potential, but due to their limited usability and relatively average tuning, are only a bit more effective than if you had thrown another set of enchantments on your gear. They are still certainly worth seeking out, but do not expect your survivability, damage potential, or rotation to suddenly shift as a result.

If you would like to learn more about which pieces of the tier set to focus on acquiring from Amirdrassil, please see the gearing section of this guide, linked below.

3.

Other Brewmaster Abilities

3.1.

Ring of Peace

Ring of Peace Icon Ring of Peace is fairly unique among enemy-moving abilities, allowing you to deny access to an area they may be trying to reach or to use it as an emergency interrupt by knocking the target away. If placed in a corner, an enemy may be forced to bounce against the wall repeatedly. Be warned, however, that some enemies and all raid bosses are immune to its effects. Otherwise, you can find plenty of creative uses for this talent.

3.2.

Summon Black Ox Statue

Summon Black Ox Statue Icon Summon Black Ox Statue is a one-of-a-kind ability. Having all of your enemies running to the same place can make everything so much easier when trying to get their attention. Do not forget that you can also use Provoke Icon Provoke on your Black Ox Statue to taunt all the mobs near it. However, remember that the statue is killable and only has half of your max Health, so you should be quick to summon another one if it has been attacked recently. This WeakAura can help you keep track of your statue's Health.

3.3.

Roll

Roll Icon Roll is an ability that allows you to quickly move 15 yards in front of you. It is a useful mobility ability, which you should use extensively for quickly traversing short distances. Here are a few facts about Roll:

  • Roll has no resource cost and no cooldown. It is based on a charge system.
    • It has a baseline maximum of 1 charge, and this charge has a 20-second recharge time.
    • The Improved Roll Icon Improved Roll talent grants you one additional charge of Roll Icon Roll.
    • The Celerity Icon Celerity talent also grants an additional charge, and reduces recharge time to 15 seconds.
  • Roll is off the global cooldown, but while you are rolling, you are unable to use any other ability.
  • Roll will always send you in the direction that your character is currently moving (including backward). If your character is stationary, Roll will send you in the direction your character is facing.
  • You cannot roll through objects or obstacles. If you encounter an obstacle, your Roll is ended prematurely.
  • Your movement speed while rolling is greater than while running, so rolling off a cliff will push you further than if you were just running and jumping.
3.4.

Transcendence

Transcendence Icon Transcendence allows you to place a copy of yourself at your current location for up to 15 minutes. If you then use Transcendence: Transfer Icon Transcendence: Transfer, you will instantly switch places with your copy's location. This can be useful in a wide range of situations, typically those where you know you will have to return to a certain location after moving away from it. It can also be used to save you from most knockback effects that would otherwise send you flying off of an edge, even if you need to resort to placing your spirit in midair!

Transcendence Icon Transcendence can also be used to reset most raid encounters. If placed outside the room before engaging the boss, you can taunt the boss and use Transcendence: Transfer Icon Transcendence: Transfer. Should the boss follow you outside of its encounter area, it will despawn. This can save your raid a substantial amount of time and gold in a progression environment. As such, if Transcendence is not being used already in an encounter, this unique behavior can be very desirable.

3.5.

Touch of Death

Touch of Death Icon Touch of Death offers a fairly unique way to execute a target, but the damage it deals can vary wildly due to the restrictions on when you are allowed to use it. Ordinarily, this ability can only be activated if your target's current health is lower than your current maximum health. In other words, you can potentially deal hundreds of thousands of damage in an instant if you time this ability well, bypassing tons of combat time against weaker enemies in particular. Alternatively, with the Improved Touch of Death Icon Improved Touch of Death talent, you can instead use this ability on any target that has reached 15% of its maximum health, dealing 35% of your own maximum health as damage. However, even with this talent, there is still a way to deal the "full" amount of damage this ability can offer.

When facing an enemy with plenty of health, you can instead wait for them to reach a point that is less than your current maximum health, and triple the damage your Touch of Death Icon Touch of Death will do to them. Furthermore, any temporary Stamina buffs, such as a Priest's Power Word: Fortitude Icon Power Word: Fortitude or your own Fortifying Brew Icon Fortifying Brew will increase this threshold. Of course, when trying to use this technique against enemies suffering millions of damage per second, it can be difficult to perform this "sniping" technique, in which case it may be wiser to just utilize Improved Touch of Death Icon Improved Touch of Death's more forgiving conditions.

If you are willing to take a chance, you can create a substantial increase in your overall damage by "sniping" with Touch of Death Icon Touch of Death in this way. However, if you are not comfortable with this approach, do not feel forced to try it and instead take the more guaranteed damage of Improved Touch of Death Icon Improved Touch of Death.

4.

Further Optimizations

The information presented until now will allow you to tank successfully as a Brewmaster Monk, in the vast majority of situations. However, there are further aspects of your class and spec that require a very deep understanding if you wish to take full advantage of your character. Some of these explanations can also be found in our Spell List and Glossary, linked below.

4.1.

Taunting as a Brewmaster Monk

Provoke Icon Provoke is your single-target taunt, forcing an enemy to attack you for up to 3 seconds at a time. Be aware, however, that multiple taunt effects within a short period of time can result in your target gradually becoming immune to its effects! In addition, if you have taken the Summon Black Ox Statue Icon Summon Black Ox Statue talent, you can also cast Provoke on your statue to force all enemies within 8 yards of it to attack you. This constitutes a sort of AoE taunt. It is worth noting that taunting a target while talented into Hasty Provocation Icon Hasty Provocation also increases its movement speed by 50% for three seconds, which is useful when you have to quickly change the positioning of an enemy. However, it can also be dangerous when you are trying to keep an enemy from attacking you but need to maintain your Threat against it.

4.2.

Gift of the Ox

Although Gift of the Ox Icon Gift of the Ox claims to offer a chance to summon a healing sphere when taking damage, it actually follows a consistent set of rules. One of these spheres will spawn for every 100% of your maximum Health you have taken as damage, before accounting for absorbs (including damage delayed from Stagger Icon Stagger). These healing spheres will persist on the ground until you either walk over them, or they time out after 30 seconds and automatically provide you with their healing. There can only be up to 5 active spheres at a time. Any further spawns beyond that will cause the least-recent sphere to heal you and be consumed.

If you can predict when you will take higher than usual damage, you can save up some spheres around you and use them all when you need the extra healing.

Since they can sometimes be hard to spot, Gift of the Ox Icon Gift of the Ox spheres can also be gathered using your Expel Harm Icon Expel Harm ability. Expel Harm costs 15 Energy and will immediately heal you for a small baseline amount, plus the value of all of your existing spheres, along with dealing damage to an enemy equal to 10% of the amount healed. In addition, your Spinning Crane Kick Icon Spinning Crane Kick will slowly draw them toward your position while it is being channeled.

Your healing spheres are precious, and you should try to save up at least 3 of them before you either pick them up or use Expel Harm Icon Expel Harm. With this said, you should only use the spheres when you are dropping low on Health or need to get topped off before a dangerous hit occurs.

4.3.

When to Use Special Delivery Versus Rushing Jade Wind

Despite being a very early choice node in the Brewmaster specialization tree, your decision between Special Delivery Icon Special Delivery and Rushing Jade Wind Icon Rushing Jade Wind will make a large difference in the pacing and feel of your rotation. Indeed, this node represents a very real choice, where one option is sometimes better than the other depending on how well you can use either of them and how many targets are being fought.

Special Delivery Icon Special Delivery acts as a "simpler" option between these two talents, being a passive damage increase that also offers a hefty 50% snare to targets that are hit by all of the falling kegs. It is also somewhat unique among AoE damage sources in that it does not deal reduced damage until hitting a massive 20 targets or more. The main thing to bear in mind when using this talent, however, is that you may have more "empty" moments in the rotation where you will need to not press any abilities while waiting to restore Energy. In addition, there may be times where a crowd-controlled enemy is accidentally freed by a stray falling keg.

Rushing Jade Wind Icon Rushing Jade Wind, meanwhile, is the much more "active" option of the two talents, requiring you to press its button very frequently in the rotation. However, in exchange, it provides a useful amount of passive damage and Threat, particularly in the opening moments of a pull; note that compared to Special Delivery Icon Special Delivery, this talent instead begins dealing reduced damage beyond 5 targets. It is also uniquely powerful with effects that trigger from dealing damage, as each of its hits may count as activators, such as with Resonant Fists Icon Resonant Fists.

Overall, this makes the choice between Special Delivery Icon Special Delivery and Rushing Jade Wind Icon Rushing Jade Wind rather complicated. If you are having a hard time managing your rotation, then Special Delivery Icon Special Delivery will usually be better due to not maintaining high uptime of Rushing Jade Wind's buff, though you will have to be more careful about managing your Energy. On the other hand, if you are facing more than a single enemy at a time, the continuous AoE threat and activations of Resonant Fists Icon Resonant Fists will allow Rushing Jade Wind more of an advantage. Feel free to experiment and use which of the two you prefer, based on your own comfort level!

4.4.

When to Use Dragonfire Brew Versus Charred Passions

Continuing the trend of many choice talent nodes representing genuine decisions, both Charred Passions Icon Charred Passions and Dragonfire Brew Icon Dragonfire Brew are each viable talents where one may be superior over the other in certain circumstances.

Dragonfire Brew Icon Dragonfire Brew again acts as the "passive" option between the two, minimally impacting the rotation beyond potentially encouraging you to use Breath of Fire Icon Breath of Fire when beginning a pull (assuming you are using the always-recommended Sal'salabim's Strength Icon Sal'salabim's Strength talent) rather than Keg Smash Icon Keg Smash. The unique strength of this talent, likewise, comes from its damage not being reduced until hitting 20 targets or more. This makes the talent very powerful at all target counts while still remaining competitive in specifically single-target scenarios.

Charred Passions Icon Charred Passions, on the other hand, makes a larger impact on your rotation as a Brewmaster. More specifically, it further emphasizes the use of Blackout Kick Icon Blackout Kick on cooldown, regardless of target count. In addition, due to the general recommendation of Sal'salabim's Strength Icon Sal'salabim's Strength, its effect will almost always be active due to the low cooldown of Keg Smash Icon Keg Smash resulting in always being able to cast another Breath of Fire Icon Breath of Fire before the Charred Passions buff expires. However, this does result in a rotation where you are heavily punished for failing to reliably press Blackout Kick.

Where things seem to get more complicated is when the Monk Brewmaster 10.2 Class Set 2pc Icon Monk Brewmaster 10.2 Class Set 2pc bonus gets involved. Due to specifically buffing Breath of Fire Icon Breath of Fire damage, it may look like a no-brainer to exclusively use Dragonfire Brew Icon Dragonfire Brew and even increase its damage further with the help of Blackout Combo Icon Blackout Combo. However, this still does not result in Dragonfire Brew's damage exceeding that of Charred Passions Icon Charred Passions when played correctly, unless you are reliably reaching Heavy Stagger Icon Heavy Stagger to maximize the bonus damage to Breath of Fire. In addition, due to this 2pc bonus's self-healing applying to your Fire damage dealt, Charred Passions still receives this benefit, and, due to dealing more damage, generally results in more self-healing received. Of course, this performance difference is still dependent on your ability to reliably press Blackout Kick Icon Blackout Kick on cooldown as mentioned before.

What the distinction between these two talents boils down to is primarily one of comfort with Brewmaster Monk's complex rotation. Due to the overall damage gap being small when both choices are played optimally, you can certainly get away with using Dragonfire Brew Icon Dragonfire Brew at all times if you wish. Charred Passions Icon Charred Passions, meanwhile, acts as a choice to help gain every possible bit of damage-dealing you can, while punishing you more heavily for failing to press Blackout Kick Icon Blackout Kick on cooldown. As such, you may choose whichever of the two you prefer. Note that these general guidelines are identical to when you should use Special Delivery Icon Special Delivery or Rushing Jade Wind Icon Rushing Jade Wind.

4.5.

When to Use Tiger Palm Versus Spinning Crane Kick

At first, choosing between Tiger Palm Icon Tiger Palm and Spinning Crane Kick Icon Spinning Crane Kick seems like a decision with an obvious answer: use Tiger Palm against one target and switch to Spinning Crane Kick if there are two or more. However, the actual choice is not so simple. Spinning Crane Kick also generates additional Shuffle Icon Shuffle time with every target hit and attracts your Gift of the Ox Icon Gift of the Ox spheres to you, while Tiger Palm reduces the cooldown of your Brew abilities by 1 second.

Even though it is a channeled ability, Spinning Crane Kick Icon Spinning Crane Kick deals damage longer than a Brewmaster Monk's global cooldown. In fact, if you use another ability as soon as you can, Spinning Crane Kick will finish its damage even though you have "stopped" channeling to cast something else. Plus, if using Spinning Crane Kick twice in a row, the two casts' channel times will combine to prevent any potential damage being wasted. Finally, when making use of the Walk with the Ox Icon Walk with the Ox talent, its effects will trigger four times due to each tick of damage individually granting Shuffle Icon Shuffle.

Spinning Crane Kick Icon Spinning Crane Kick is not without its downsides, however. While it may seem convenient for your Spinning Crane Kick to draw in Gift of the Ox Icon Gift of the Ox orbs, this also means that you are not able to easily save them up for a large heal with Expel Harm Icon Expel Harm in an emergency. You also already should have maximum uptime on Shuffle Icon Shuffle by using both Keg Smash Icon Keg Smash and Blackout Kick Icon Blackout Kick on cooldown. In addition, while channeling Spinning Crane Kick, your autoattacks — which are still an important part of your overall damage — , do not occur. This means that all of the supposed defensive benefits of Spinning Crane Kick do not really help you out as a Brewmaster, and it may actually reduce your damage if used inappropriately.

Knowing all of this, your actual choice between the two abilities only becomes a little more complicated. Even if you do not need extra cooldown reduction on your Brews and do not need to use a stronger Expel Harm Icon Expel Harm, Spinning Crane Kick Icon Spinning Crane Kick will still not provide you with more damage unless you are fighting multiple targets or using Walk with the Ox Icon Walk with the Ox. Even then, if you use it, remember that though the channel is longer than your global cooldown, other abilities can be used without the channel being broken early! Using Spinning Crane Kick multiple times in a row will also combine the channel durations to avoid any of the damage being "wasted." On the other hand, if you need more defensive power or are fighting only a single target, then Tiger Palm Icon Tiger Palm makes more sense to use. Do not forget that Tiger Palm still needs to be used occasionally if you have talented into Eye of the Tiger Icon Eye of the Tiger!

4.5.1.

Charred Passions and Spinning Crane Kick

If you have chosen to make use of the Charred Passions Icon Charred Passions talent, the decision between Tiger Palm Icon Tiger Palm and Spinning Crane Kick Icon Spinning Crane Kick actually does not change. While the Charred Passions buff is present after using Breath of Fire Icon Breath of Fire, even in single-target, your use of Tiger Palm will not be replaced with Spinning Crane Kick; you will still make use of Spinning Crane Kick once fighting two or more enemies. The main exception to this behavior will occur if you ever have both Charred Passions and Walk with the Ox Icon Walk with the Ox talented. Should this be the case, you will use Spinning Crane Kick even in single-target combat!

4.5.2.

Press the Advantage and Spinning Crane Kick

On a similar level, if you have chosen to talent into Press the Advantage Icon Press the Advantage, you will not have access to Tiger Palm Icon Tiger Palm at all and therefore need something to utilize your excess Energy on. Ordinarily, this would mean you simply replace every potential cast of Tiger Palm with Spinning Crane Kick, no matter how many enemies you are facing. However, while channeling Spinning Crane Kick, you will not be able to perform auto attacks with your weapons and may miss out on hits entirely. This can substantially slow down your ability to build up stacks of Press the Advantage's buff, which could even result in a loss of damage overall!

With this warning in mind, you will still want to utilize Spinning Crane Kick Icon Spinning Crane Kick at least some of the time when playing with Press the Advantage Icon Press the Advantage. You will, however, want to avoid casting it twice in a row to limit the chance of missing auto attacks. Fortunately, once you are fighting larger groups of enemies, you may again safely cast Spinning Crane Kick multiple times without fear of it being a loss of damage, which mirrors how the ability is normally used without Press the Advantage.

4.6.

Blackout Combo

Blackout Combo Icon Blackout Combo empowers your next ability and, therefore, changes your rotation somewhat. However, it is a difficult talent to properly incorporate into your playstyle and optimize its effectiveness. Most importantly, you must continue to prioritize casting Blackout Kick Icon Blackout Kick on cooldown to maximize the amount of abilities empowered.

If you are feeling up to the challenge, then the main thing that needs to be noted is that every Blackout Combo Icon Blackout Combo buff from casting Blackout Kick Icon Blackout Kick should be consumed by a Tiger Palm Icon Tiger Palm for more offensive power (particularly a Tiger Palm Icon Tiger Palm that has been empowered by either the Face Palm Icon Face Palm or Counterstrike Icon Counterstrike talents), Breath of Fire Icon Breath of Fire for extra defense (or damage against 3+ targets), or Keg Smash Icon Keg Smash for additional cooldown reduction of your "Brew" abilities. If you are regularly consuming your Blackout Combos on Purifying Brew Icon Purifying Brew or Celestial Brew Icon Celestial Brew — an easy mistake to make since Purifying Brew Icon Purifying Brew, in particular, is not on the global cooldown — then this talent will rapidly drop in value. Your survival may also suffer if you regularly cast a "normal" Breath of Fire and overwrite the additional damage reduction of an empowered one.

However, when performing your rotation with this talent, remember that Blackout Combo Icon Blackout Combo does not have an interaction with Spinning Crane Kick Icon Spinning Crane Kick, Rising Sun Kick Icon Rising Sun Kick (outside of Press the Advantage Icon Press the Advantage), Rushing Jade Wind Icon Rushing Jade Wind, or Chi Wave Icon Chi Wave/Chi Burst Icon Chi Burst, in addition to all of your cooldown abilities, allowing them to be effective "gap-fillers" that can safely be used as necessary while still maximizing your casts of Blackout Kick Icon Blackout Kick to enable further combos. A key part of properly utilizing Blackout Combo is often delaying consuming the Combo's buff and instead using these other abilities. Depending on what abilities are coming off cooldown, do not forget this behavior!

5.

Changelog

  • 19 Mar. 2024: Revised rotation basics to emphasize thinking in 4-second chunks; page reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
  • 19 Jan. 2024: Elaborated further on Dragonfire Brew vs Charred Passions with the Amirdrassil Set Bonuses.
  • 15 Jan. 2024: Page reviewed for Patch 10.2.5
  • 10 Nov. 2023: Added buttons to quickly select talents based on recommended builds; slightly adjusted rotations for specific talent setups based on recent simulation optimizations; further clarified Press the Advantage and Blackout Combo behaviors, among other abilities.
  • 06 Nov. 2023: Revised Walk with the Ox Checkbox to also include Call to Arms; added further discussion of Improved Invoke Niuzao and sample opening ability sequences; page sections reformatted for reduced visual clutter.
  • 10 Sep. 2023: Added an additional rotation line in single-target with Press the Advantage; adjusted Rushing Jade Wind maintenance and Chi Wave priorities.
  • 04 Sep. 2023: Added disclaimer to Exploding Keg in single-target with Blackout Combo talented; slightly revised AoE priority for Rising Sun Kick.
  • 10 Jul. 2023: Rotation adjusted to reflect new talents and possibilities; added a section detailing advanced usage of Press the Advantage.
  • 02 Jun. 2023: Bountiful Brew usage advice adjusted based on a recent hotfix.
  • 03 May 2023: Slight rotation priority adjustment based on the specific talent combination of Charred Passions and Blackout Combo.
  • 01 May 2023: Added discussion of the Aberrus 4-piece bonus slightly changing talent choices.
  • 14 Apr. 2023: Slightly adjusted priority of Breath of Fire for specific talent builds.
  • 20 Mar. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.0.7.
  • 24 Jan. 2023: Expanded notes on Blackout Combo usage to account for greater selection potential in Patch 10.0.5.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Sections describing when to choose certain rotation-altering talents have been adjusted based on recent theorycrafting.
  • 11 Dec. 2022: Added a section regarding the Vault of the Incarnates Tier Set bonuses; general wording adjustments.
  • 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
  • 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
Show more
Show less