Mists of Pandaria Classic Brewmaster Monk Leveling

As a Brewmaster Monk your leveling will be very safer but slower than as a Windwalker. With your damage avoiding abilities and outstanding mobility, Brewmaster is a very good spec for leveling your Monk in group content. Should you be looking for a faster way of leveling, we recommend the Windwalker Monk Leveling Guide.

In Mists of Pandaria the talent system was changed significantly, making a huge impact on leveling. In the previous expansions, the leveling tree locked you into a path: Either single-target or AoE, either survival or glass-cannon style. The new talent system is much less complicated and makes choices easier. The available talents get more useful, the further you level up.

As a Brewmaster Monk, you want to be in Stance of the Sturdy Ox all the time. This stance has tremendeous benefits as you are tanking.

• Celerity — Celerity passively reduces the recharge time of Roll and Chi Torpedo by 5 seconds and increases their charges by 1.
• Tiger's Lust — removes all immobilizing and movement-slowing effects from the target and increases their movement speed by 70% for 6 seconds. It has a 30-second cooldown and can be used on yourself or a friendly target.
• Momentum — passively increases your movement speed by 25% for 10 seconds each time you use Roll or Chi Torpedo, stacking up to two times.

Tiger's Lust is very good for to get you out of sticky situations, while you are at low health, and can be used to kill an enemy and reach the next one faster. Until you have a mount, Momentum can be used to boost your travel speed, as it increases your travel speed by up to 50%. However, overall the benefit of removing movement-impairing effects with Tiger's Lust is more useful, especially as a melee class, as melee mobs have more opportunity to apply slows and snares much more frequently.

• Chi Wave — functions as a chain heal/lightning, that jumps between the 7 nearest targets, alternating between allies and enemies. Each bounce either heals or damages its target based on their alignment. The healing is smart-targeted, prioritizing allies with the lowest health. It has a 15-second cooldown and costs no resources.
• Zen Sphere — Zen Sphere creates a healing sphere above a friendly target, which can also be yourself, lasting 16 seconds. Every 2 seconds, it heals the target and deals damage to the nearest enemy within 10 yards. The ability has a 10-second cooldown and is free to use. You can have up to two spheres active at once. If the target’s health drops below 35% or when the duration expires, the sphere detonates, dealing moderate healing and damage to all nearby units within 10 yards.
• Chi Burst — emits a wave in a 40-yard cone in front of the caster, healing all friendly targets and damaging all enemies within its range. It has a short cast time, a 30-second cooldown, and costs no resources.

Chi Wave is really the best option here, as it provides damage and healing at the same time.

• Power Strikes — Passively causes Jab, Expel Harm, Spinning Crane Kick (when it hits at least three enemies), and Crackling Jade Lightning to generate one extra Chi. This effect has a 20-second internal cooldown. If you’re already at maximum Chi when it triggers, a Chi sphere will spawn near you. Walking over the Chi sphere consumes it and grants you 1 Chi.
• Ascension — Increases your maximum Chi by 1 (raising it from 4 to 5), boosts your total mana by 15%, and increases your energy regeneration rate by 15%.
• Chi Brew — Instantly restores 2 Chi and grants two stacks of Tigereye Brew. It has a 45-second cooldown.

Since Chi Brew excels in situations where you need to quickly regain control of a new boss or add, it is an excellent talent for leveling in dungeons or other forms of group content. Whenever you find yourself low on both Chi and Elusive Brew stacks, this talent allows you to recover both instantly.

• Ring of Peace — can be cast on a friendly target, creating an 8-yard radius ring around them that lasts for 8 seconds. Enemy players within the ring are immediately disarmed for 4 seconds and silenced for 3 seconds. Additionally, any enemies inside the ring who cast spells or use non-melee abilities will also be disarmed and silenced for the same durations. Both effects are subject to diminishing returns and Ring of Peace has a 45-second cooldown.
• Charging Ox Wave — summons an ox that charges forward, stunning all enemies in a 30-yard line in front of you for 3 seconds. It has a 30-second cooldown.
• Leg Sweep — stuns all enemies within 5 yards of you for 5 seconds. This ability has a 45-second cooldown.

The Charging Ox Wave and Leg Sweep stun, but Ox Wave does on a lower cooldown, so it is the preferred leveling talent.

• Healing Elixirs — restores 15% of your maximum health each time you consume a Brew or Tea. This effect has an internal cooldown of 18 seconds and does not trigger if you are at full health. It will automatically activate if your health drops below 35%.
• Dampen Harm — reduces the damage of the next three attacks against you (within 45 seconds) by 50%, provided each attack deals at least 20% of your maximum health. This ability has a cooldown of 1.5 minutes.
• Diffuse Magic — removes all magical debuffs currently affecting you. For the next 6 seconds, it reduces all magic damage taken by 90% and reflects all spells back to their caster.

Diffuse Magic is really good when fighting caster enemies or having to deal with sources of strong magical damage. Dampen Harm is basically useless for leveling, because leveling enemies almost never do such big attacks, and then it is only a 50% reduction. Healing Elixirs can be useful when fighting exclusively melee mobs, but that just is not the norm while leveling. Even for group content with a healer, the damage you take from group quests and leveling dungeons is usually easily outhealed by the healer.

The essential spells are listed by when you can learn them below:

• Tiger Palm — Level 3
• Roll — Level 5
• Blackout Kick — Level 7
• Expel Harm — Level 7
• Provoke — Level 14
• Enveloping Mist — Level 16
• Resuscitate — Level 18
• Detox — Level 20
• Zen Pilgrimage — Level 20
• Tiger Strikes — Level 20
• Touch of Death — Level 22
• Legacy of the Emperor — Level 22
• Swift Reflexes — Level 23
• Fortifying Brew — Level 24
• Expel Harm — Level 26
• Disable — Level 28
• Nimble Brew — Level 30
• Zen Pilgrimage: Return — Level 30
• Spear Hand Strike — Level 32
• Surging Mist — Level 34
• Paralysis — Level 44
• Reawaken — Level 44
• Spinning Crane Kick — Level 46
• Crackling Jade Lightning — Level 54
• Healing Sphere — Level 64
• Grapple Weapon — Level 68
• Zen Meditation — Level 82
• Transcendence — Level 87
• Transcendence: Transfer — Level 87

Here are the recommended Major and Minor Glyphs for leveling:

Glyph of Fortuitous Spheres causes a healing sphere to appear near the Monk when their health drops below 25%. This effect has no cost and a 30-second internal cooldown. It is particularly useful if your health frequently falls below the 25% threshold.

Glyph of Rapid Rolling is good, because you are already going to be rolling frequently, so it is beneficial to enhance your primary movement ability. This will help increase your overall efficiency and allow you to level up more quickly.

Glyph of Spinning Crane Kick removes the movement speed reduction while channeling Spinning Crane Kick, making it a practical option for dealing AoE damage while moving.

Glyph of Fortifying Brew increases the damage reduction of Fortifying Brew by 5% (bringing it to 25%), but reduces the health increase by 10% (bringing it to 10%). Since Fortifying Brew is best used preemptively, this glyph can often be beneficial, trading reactive health for more consistent mitigation.

Glyph of Leer of the Ox grants you the Leer of the Ox ability, which allows your Black Ox Statue to perform a single-target taunt. However, this taunt does not work on raid bosses, but it is useful for smaller-scale content or trash control.

Glyph of Spirit Roll and Glyph of Water Roll allow you to use Roll and Chi Torpedo while dead and while moving across water, respectively. These glyphs have no impact in raid encounters but can be quite convenient in other scenarios.

Glyph of Zen Flight makes your flying form instant cast. It is extremely useful while questing or farming in the open world. You can even cast Zen Pilgrimage without needing to land first.

For information on the proper leveling rotation, which is equal to the optimal DPS rotation, check out our Brewmaster Monk Rotations Guide.

Congratulations on hitting Level 90 in Mists of Pandaria! Now that your leveling process is over, you can learn more about Level 90 Brewmaster Monk gameplay by reading our fully detailed guide below.