Mists of Pandaria Classic Brewmaster Monk Rotation and Cooldowns

On this page, we provide a list of your core Brewmaster Monk abilities and explain how they should be used together (rotation) in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria 5.4. We also describe the appropriate situations for using your various cooldowns. Following that, we delve deeper into the finer details that you will need to understand in order to excel at playing a Brewmaster Monk.

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:

• Grants immunity to critical strikes.
• Increases Stamina by 20%.
• Reduces all damage taken by 25%.
• Increases Energy regeneration by 10%.
• Grants access to Stagger.

Stagger is explained in more detail below in the Cooldowns-section.

Taunting enemies, forcing them to attack you, is one of the core abilities of tanks in World of Warcraft. Here is a list of your taunt abilities, how they are modified by the Black Ox Statue, and the benefits provided by the Black Ox Statue itself:

• Each time you deal a fixed amount of damage (Attack Power based), the Black Ox Statue will Guard a low-hp player within 40 yards. The Guard spell from your Black Ox Statue shields a raid member and does not interact with your own Guard spell and cannot be cast on yourself.
• Provoke is your single-target taunt. When you use Provoke on your Black Ox Statue, all enemies within 8 yards of the statue are forced to attack you. This functions as a form of area-of-effect (AoE) taunt. It is important to note that taunting a target with Provoke increases its movement speed by 50%, which can be useful for repositioning a boss quickly.
• With the Glyph of Leer of the Ox, you gain access to a new ability called Leer of the Ox. This ability causes your Black Ox Statue to perform a single-target taunt. However, this taunt does not work on raid bosses, which significantly limits its usefulness.
• The tiger summoned by Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger has the ability to taunt targets. You can control this behavior, including disabling the auto-taunt feature, using the pet control bar that appears when the tiger is active. It is important to note that this taunt does not work on raid bosses.

In our Monk Macros section, you will find some very useful macros for your Black Ox Statue management.

Before venturing into the rotations, it makes sense to talk about the Monks' two basic resources: Chi and Energy.

Chi is the new Monk-specific resource.

• Chi is generated by several abilities, the most notable of which is Jab.
• Chi is consumed by many essential abilities that form part of your rotation.
• You can hold a maximum of 4 Chi, or 5 if you have selected the Ascension talent.
• Chi decays quickly when you are out of combat, but it remains intact while you are in combat. As a result, you will begin a fight with no Chi.
• If you generate Chi while already at maximum capacity, the additional Chi will be wasted. The only exception to this is Chi generated through the Power Strikes talent. This talent causes a Chi sphere to spawn whenever Chi would otherwise be wasted. Walking over this sphere grants you 1 Chi.

Energy is a resource known from Feral Druids and Rogues.

• Energy is primarily spent on Chi-generating abilities, with Jab being the most notable example.
• Energy is generated passively, and its regeneration speed is influenced by your Haste. In addition, certain abilities also grant Energy.
• You can store up to a maximum of 100 Energy.
• Energy does not decay. As a result, your default state outside of combat is typically a full Energy bar.
• If you are at maximum capacity, any additional Energy you would generate will be wasted.

The single-target rotation for Brewmaster Monks revolves around spending your Energy to generate Chi when not at maximum Chi, and then using your Chi to enhance your survivability and threat generation. The priority list below does not take into account the various defensive cooldowns available to you, which will be covered in detail in the cooldowns section below.

1. Use Keg Smash when you have 2 or fewer Chi, as it generates 2 Chi.
2. Use Expel Harm when you are not at full health. It provides a small amount of self-healing.
3. Jab is your default Chi-generating ability and your primary method of spending excess Energy, unless you are below 35% health. In that case use Expel Harm, as it becomes cooldownless from Desperate Measures.

1. Use Blackout Kick at least once every 6 seconds. This maintains high uptime on Shuffle, the self-buff applied by Blackout Kick that increases your survivability.
2. Maintain optimal uptime on the self-buffs applied by Tiger Palm:
   • Cast Tiger Palm at the start of the fight to apply its damage-increasing (more accurately, armor-ignoring) self-buff.
   • Cast Tiger Palm before using Guard in order to enhance the effect of Guard.
3. Use Tiger Palm as a filler when there is nothing else to cast.

Touch of Death kills any enemy that have equal or less health than you. Use this whenever feasible. It can be a great way to kill low-health enemies that use a strong defensive ability.

Always maintain your Shuffle buff by using Blackout Kick.

Use your single-target rotation.

In addition to your normal rotation and maintaining Shuffle, your priority list for 3 or more targets looks like this:

1. Use Keg Smash, making sure the Dizzying Haze debuff is applied to all targets.
2. If you have taken the talent, use Rushing Jade Wind, otherwise Spinning Crane Kick.
3. If Shuffle is not about to expire soon (you need Chi for it), keep the debuff from Breath of Fire up on all enemies.
4. If you have taken the talent, use Rushing Jade Wind, otherwise Spinning Crane Kick.

If you are tanking a large number of mobs, just follow steps 1 and 2 of your priority list. Furthermore, it is important to note that Keg Smash applies Dizzying Haze for on all targets within 8 yards of your main target. Dizzying Haze gives enemies a 3% chance of hitting themselves with their attacks and slows their movement speed by 50% and lasts 15 seconds. This can be used to kite enemies and reduce incoming damage, if you tank a lot of them.

While technically cooldowns (most of those abilities are part of your rotation), these abilities are detrimental for your survivability:

• Purifying Brew should be used frequently whenever you have accumulated a significant amount of Staggered damage, in order to get rid of it. For more information about Staggering damage, see below this table.
• Elusive Brew should be used whenever you anticipate dangerous melee attacks. Critical strikes from your auto-attacks give you 3 stacks of Brewing: Elusive Brew, stacking to a maximum of 15 stacks. Elusive Brew increases your chance to dodge by 30% for 1 second per stack of Elusive Brew. Since this ability has a 6-second cooldown, you want to use it only above 6 stacks. While not optimal, sometimes it can be clever to be at the Elusive Brew cap of 15 stacks, if you need to save the dodging for an important part of the fight. Elusive Brew is off the global cooldown.
• Guard. This 30-seconds cooldown ability should be used as often as possible throughout the encounter, especially whenever your health drops unexpectedly or when you expect a highly damaging ability. Always ensure that Power Guard is active (by using Tiger Palm) before using Guard to maximize its effectiveness. The damage absorbed is modified by your Attack Power (greatly influenced by Vengeance, which was buffed in Mists of Pandaria Classic). While the shield from Guard is active, your minor self-healing abilites are 30% stronger.
• Blackout Kick applies a six-second self-buff called Shuffle each time it is used. This buff is essential for survivability, especially during periods of intense incoming damage, as it increases your chance to parry and the Staggered damage by 20%. Maintaining a high uptime on Shuffle (close to, or 100% is realistic) is very important. Each time you use Blackout Kick, the duration of Shuffle will be extended.

Stagger is a key ability of Brewmaster Monks and you can only benefit from it, when you are in the Stance of the Sturdy Ox. The base form of Stagger causes 80% of incoming physical damage to be taken (instant amount), and 20% of it to be turned into a 10-seconds damage over time debuff on you (staggered amount), dealing damage every second. The good news is, that Mastery Rating (via Mastery: Elusive Brawler) and Shuffle (from Blackout Kick) increase the staggered amount, making Mastery Rating and a high Shuffle uptime most important for survival.

The best part about Stagger is, that you can remove the staggered damage with Purifying Brew for 1 Chi every second. This is particularly useful, after you have received huge hits from abilities with high damage. If this section was too theoretical for you, here is an example of how Stagger works with Shuffle active (which means 40% staggered amount and 60% instant amount):

1. You get hit by an attack that deals 100,000 damage.
2. You take 60,000 damage instantly.
3. A 10-seconds duration DoT with 40,000 damage is applied, ticking for 4,000 damage every second.
4. After 3 seconds you remove the DoT with Purifying Brew.
5. You took 60,000 instant damage, 12,000 (3 seconds times 4,000 damage per second) staggered damage, and you avoided 28,000 damage with Purifying Brew.

In addition to the active defensive abilities mentioned above, you also have access to three long-cooldown abilities:

• Fortifying Brew increases your health and Stagger amount by 20%, while reducing all damage taken by 20% for 20 seconds. It should be used when you are about to take a large amount of damage. It can also serve as an emergency cooldown when your health is low, although it is less effective in that situation due to its proactive nature. This cooldown should be used preemptively and it is wise to save 1 Chi for Purifying Brew when you expect high Stagger damage.
• Avert Harm is a raid cooldown that redirects 20% of all damage taken by raid members within 10 yards to you for 6 seconds. The effect will end early if your health drops below 10% of your maximum health. This can be a double-edged sword, because even though you can save nearby raid/group members from dying, it is dangerous to be hit by any attack, when you are at 10% health. Fortifying Brew can make you absorb more damage (keep 1 Chi for Purifying Brew). If you get Hand of Protection during Avert Harm, you take no damage at all. However, you cannot tank during that time.
• Zen Meditation allows you to significantly reduce the damage of the first melee attack that hits you while you are channeling the ability. Further, this ability can be used to redirect the next five harmful spells cast against your party or raid members to yourself, and also reduces all damage you take by 90% for 8 seconds. Since this ability is channeled, you cannot deal damage while it is active. The 90% damage reduction is extremely powerful. However, some spells of raid bosses cannot be redirected.

There are a few more important abilities and cooldowns every Brewmaster should know about, including:

• Tier 2:
  • Zen Sphere should be refreshed each time it expires to maintain its healing and damage output. Chi Wave should be used on cooldown, although it can be delayed slightly if you are anticipating incoming damage. Chi Burst is only truly effective when the raid is stacked together; it should be used during those moments for maximum benefit.
• Tier 3:
  • Power Strikes causes your Jab, Expel Harm, Spinning Crane Kick (when it hits at least three targets), and Crackling Jade Lightning to generate 2 Chi instead of 1. This effect has a 20-second internal cooldown. It is a passive bonus that does not influence your rotation and should simply be taken advantage of as it occurs.
  • Chi Brew is good for picking up new enemies when you have no Chi, and to apply your/maintain your Elusive Brew and Shuffle.
  • Ascension is generalling a great talent, as it increases your Chi pool by 1 and gives you a 15% higher Energy generation.
• Tier 5:
  • Healing Elixirs provides its effect passively. It heals you for 15% of your maximum health (with a 15-second internal gooldown) each time you use Purifying Brew, Elusive Brew, Chi Brew, Nimble Brew, or Fortifying Brew. If you have selected this talent, it is important to use Elusive Brew and Purifying Brew when you are in need of self-healing. Unfortunately, because Purifying Brew is part of your regular rotation, it is very likely that the healing effect will be on cooldown when you need it most. That said, the talent does not activate when you are at full health, so it may still provide a meaningful benefit, triggering automatically as soon as your health drops.
  • Dampen Harm is a defensive cooldown that should be used to mitigate powerful boss abilities. It is most effective when used preemptively.
  • Diffuse Magic is your only reliable form of defense against magic damage. Like Dampen Harm, it must be used before the damage occurs in order to be effective.
• Tier 6:
  • Rushing Jade Wind should be used whenever there are three or more enemies near you. Since it does not require channeling, you can immediately continue using your other abilities, such as your defensive cooldowns and > Keg Smash, after activating it.
  • Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger can be directed to attack and taunt specific targets using the pet control bar. It is recommended that you disable the auto-taunt feature. Keep in mind that most bosses are not affected by Xuen's taunt.

With Gift of the Ox as a passive ability, you have a chance to summon a Healing Sphere each time you deal damage with a melee attack. These healing spheres remain on the ground around you, and walking over them will consume them, restoring your health. Collecting these spheres whenever you are in need of additional healing will help your healers.

Roll is a mobility ability that is off-cooldown and allows you to quickly move 15 yards forward. It is a highly useful tool for traversing short distances and should be used frequently when repositioning. Whilst Roll has no has no resource cost and no cooldown, it uses charges. Every charge takes 20 seconds to recharge and you can hold up to two charges, basically allowing you to quickly reposition every 40 seconds. With the Celerity talent, you can gain three charges instead of 2 and the recharge per charge is lowered to 15 seconds. While rollin', rollin', rollin' you cannot use abilities and you roll in to direction you are moving/facing. Objects and obstacles are unrollable and will prematurely stop you from rolling.

Chi Torpedo replaces Roll and functions exactly like Roll, except it travels 5 yards farther and heals allies and damages enemies along its path.