Brewmaster Monk Leveling Guide from 1 to 80 — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0.1)

As a tank specialization, Brewmaster Monks excel at gathering up large numbers of enemies and dealing large amounts of AoE damage as they easily survive the onslaught of attacks with the help of Stagger. This makes them ideal for questing with a friend in particular, as they are able to rapidly move between groups of foes, keeping their attention with skills like Rushing Jade Wind and Keg Smash while their partner takes care of defeating them. If you are questing solo, this can still be done, but it may take a little longer due to your relatively reduced damage output. If you are concerned about needing a healer during leveling, the Recuperate ability can be used to repeatedly heal yourself out of combat and recover after a large pull.

Brewmaster Monk is also an excellent choice for gaining experience through dungeon queues and quests. Tank players are always in high demand, resulting in nearly instant queue times. Fortunately, due to leveling quests increasing in level as you do, this means you can repeatedly join queues while traveling to and from questing areas without any disruptions to your overall experience gain!

During leveling, item level is even more important than normal on your Brewmaster. You should always pick the item with a higher level, with the possible exceptions of jewelry and trinkets. For these slots, you may wish to select the item that is providing more Critical Strike or Versatility. On trinkets, you have the opportunity to experiment with various effects, so pick whatever you desire if it is reasonably close to your item level.

Talents are additional effects and abilities that can give you access to more tools in your spellbook. They are unlocked on a regular basis as you level.

You will unlock your first talent point once you reach Level 10.

Your talent setup should be as follows with each talent point as you unlock them. Note that these recommendations may differ from what is shown in our main guide for a maximum-level player.

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From Level 1, your lone ability is Tiger Palm.

1. (Optional): Tag an enemy with Crackling Jade Lightning to have it move toward you, provided you immediately cancel the ability after casting.
2. (Optional): Use Provoke to force an enemy to run to you or briefly "tag" them with Crackling Jade Lightning, provided you immediately cancel its cast afterward.
3. (Optional): Use Provoke to force an enemy to run to you (at high speed if Hasty Provocation is talented) or briefly "tag" them with Crackling Jade Lightning, provided you immediately cancel its cast afterward.
4. (Optional): Use Provoke to force an enemy to run to you or briefly "tag" them with Crackling Jade Lightning, provided you immediately cancel its cast afterward. If you are using Summon Black Ox Statue, place it near multiple enemies to get all of their attention at once.
5. Use Rushing Jade Wind before directly engaging your targets. If Special Delivery is talented instead, you will passively deal damage from using "Brew" abilities.
6. (Optional): Use Touch of Death to instantly kill the target if it is usable. Recommended for tougher enemies or for quest bosses.
7. Cast Keg Smash as your opening ability when entering combat and on cooldown afterward. If you have talented into Chi Wave instead of Chi Burst, this will also cause it to activate.
8. Cast Blackout Kick whenever it is available.
9. Throw Exploding Keg at your enemies to deal a massive burst of damage. You can also reactivate the ability to trigger Empty the Cellar for additional damage.
10. Cast Expel Harm as necessary to offset your damage taken.
11. Refresh your Rushing Jade Wind.
12. Cast Chi Burst, if talented, on cooldown to deal more damage and heal yourself.
13. Cast Tiger Palm as a filler, but do not go below 40 Energy.
14. Cast Tiger Palm as a filler if fighting one target, but do not go below 40 Energy. With Blackout Combo talented, you will always want to spend its buff on this ability after every Blackout Kick.
15. Cast Spinning Crane Kick as a filler time if fighting multiple targets, but do not go below 40 Energy. With Blackout Combo talented, you will only use this ability to assist in gathering enemies.
16. Cast Expel Harm if you are in need of healing and to gather your Healing Spheres from Gift of the Ox/ Spirit of the Ox.
17. In an emergency, you may instantly cast Vivify once per cast of Keg Smash due to Vivacious Vivification. This is largely to be used for convenience during leveling.

• Maintain Shuffle by continuing to cast Blackout Kick and Keg Smash on cooldown to smooth out your damage taken.
• Cast Purifying Brew largely on cooldown when actively fighting an enemy and suffering damage from Stagger, but save one charge for emergencies.
• Cast Celestial Infusion, mostly on cooldown, to shield yourself against some incoming damage.

To avoid this summary becoming overly long, only key rotational abilities from talents and leveling bonuses unique to Brewmaster Monks will be shown. To see every ability, please visit the Spell Summary of the main guide.

• At Level 10, your Tiger Palm and Spinning Crane Kick now cost 25 Energy each rather than 50 and 40.
• Also at Level 10, your Blackout Kick has its cooldown increased to 4 seconds from 3.
• Finally, at Level 10, you unlock access to the Mastery stat and your Mastery: Elusive Brawler. This gives you a chance to dodge attacks that increases until you successfully dodge. It also increases your Attack Power.
• At Level 11, you unlock Keg Smash. This is your primary ability as a Brewmaster, and will grant 5 seconds of Shuffle when used.
• At Level 10, you unlock Stagger, which acts as your unique defensive tool. A portion of all Physical damage you receive will instead be turned into a 10-second damage-over-time effect.
• At Level 13, you unlock Shuffle. This passive effect will cause Blackout Kick to temporarily increase the amount of damage you Stagger.
• At Level 19, you unlock Purifying Brew. This ability acts as your main way to reduce the amount of damage you are taking from the Stagger effect, and its cooldown is reduced by using Keg Smash and Tiger Palm.
• Also at Level 19, you unlock the Brewmaster's Balance Passive, which increases your total Armor by 55% and Stamina by 45%.
• At Level 23, you unlock Spirit of the Ox, occasionally spawning Healing Spheres when casting Blackout Kick. Then, at Level 25 you will also start generating them from taking damage with Gift of the Ox.
• At Level 27, you can unlock Celestial Infusion, allowing you to temporarily create a shield that absorbs a portion of all damage received over a long duration. Its cooldown is reduced by using Keg Smash and Tiger Palm. You may also select Celestial Brew if you want a shorter shield that instead absorbs all damage while active.
• At Level 43, you unlock Expel Harm Rank 2, reducing its cooldown by 10 seconds and causing it to also automatically pick up any Healing Spheres from Gift of the Ox/ Spirit of the Ox that are present.
• At Level 46, you unlock Celestial Fortune, gaining a chance to increase all healing received by 70%, based on your Critical Strike.
• At Level 52, you unlock Touch of Death Rank 3, which causes it to also remove Stagger.
• At Level 71, you can begin to unlock Hero Talents, which are an additional set of thematic effects to further expand your power. For Brewmasters, you may choose between the Shado-Pan and Master of Harmony trees, though we recommend utilizing the Shado-Pan tree while leveling due to its potent AoE damage and passive damage reduction.

If you are willing to utilize War Mode, the following PvP talents are recommended during leveling or for other open-world content. There may be times when you would like to use other options and are encouraged to experiment! PvP talents can be freely changed at any time.

Your first PvP talent slot will unlock at Level 20, your second at Level 30, and the final at Level 40.

• Double Barrel will allow you to frequently increase the damage of your Keg Smash and also allow it to stun everything it hits. It can also be used in a macro to make it effectively a passive benefit.
• Niuzao's Essence acts as a stronger version of the Swift Art talent, allowing you to remove all snare effects every time you cast Purifying Brew, Celestial Brew/ Celestial Infusion, or Roll. With leveling involving a lot of moving around, it is all the more important to be able to travel at full speed without any number of enemy debuffs hindering you.
• Eerie Fermentation will passively give you additional movement speed and magic damage reduction no matter how little Stagger you have.