Brewmaster Monk Patch 9.2 Changes Analysis and Tier Set Thoughts

This page will go over how the changes in Patch 9.2, Eternity's End, will affect Brewmaster Monks, specifically how the changes might impact its playstyle, best Legendary choices, Covenants, and the like. If you are simply interested in what the current changes are for Monks in Patch 9.2 in general, you can instead read our full list of changes to the entire Monk class on our dedicated page below. For an additional list of content coming with Patch 9.2, you can also check out our Patch 9.2 Overview page.

At the moment, Brewmaster Monks have not yet received any changes to the specialization's core kit. However, some of the further adjustments and additional content that will be arriving will likely change how you as a Brewmaster may approach your gameplay.

As with the specialization itself, there have been no direct Talent changes made in PvE or PvP for Brewmasters, though with a new raid and a new season for both Mythic+ and PvP will come new options for finding gear and trying out different talent combinations.

Within the new Sepulcher of the First Ones raid that will be coming in Patch 9.2, every class will once again earn pieces of a gear set that is uniquely class-themed with its own two- and four-piece bonuses for every specialization. For Brewmaster Monks, these set bonuses are:

• Brewmaster Monk 2-Piece (Breath of the Cosmos) — Targets ignited by Breath of Fire deal an additional 4% less damage to you.
• Brewmaster Monk 4-Piece (Keg of the Heavens) — Keg Smash deals an additional 50% damage, heals you for 66% of damage dealt, and grants 66% of damage dealt as maximum health for 10 seconds.

Compared to some set bonuses, Brewmasters received one that is fairly passive in its execution. For the Brewmaster Monk 2-Piece bonus, Breath of Fire's damage reduction was already up for almost all of its potential time (12 seconds out of every 15, or all the time with the Charred Passions Legendary). Nearly doubling the damage reduction is nice, but often unimportant as Brewmasters are not exactly known for being weak defensively. However, an extra 4% reduction against magic damage in particular is still welcome regardless.

The Brewmaster Monk 4-Piece bonus, on the other hand, is a much more exciting, though still passive, improvement. Buffing the damage of Keg Smash will naturally encourage more players to make use of Stormstout's Last Keg as their Legendary of choice, and this buff results in damage gains in both single-target and AoE. The healing of this effect being based on the damage dealt also means that Keg Smash can essentially fully heal you with every cast against multiple enemies, more than making up for the loss of the Shard of Kyr that was used in the Sanctum of Domination. Finally, the increase in maximum health — which can nearly double your maximum health at times — is both easy to keep up and also an indirect damage buff by improving the potential of Touch of Death. Just be careful to not underestimate your total Stagger damage, as the increased health means that you will be staying in Light Stagger more often than Heavy Stagger or even Moderate Stagger.

Overall, these set bonuses are a solid example of how "good" bonuses do not have to be entirely gameplay-changing in their execution. Sometimes, a simple increase in all the things you like most as a tank can also be acceptable, and you will certainly want to acquire the four-piece bonus as soon as possible from the Sepulcher of the First Ones raid!

There has been one change made to Bonedust Brew, the Necrolord ability: its bonus damage and healing is now 40% of the original hit. However, it can no longer critically strike. This translates to a small loss of the ability's overall strength, though the Covenant itself still remains as viable an option as ever.

It should be also pointed out that as of Patch 9.1.5 players may freely switch between Covenants provided they have obtained the Renowned achievement on any character of their account. The only requirement for this achievement is that you must reach Renown level 80 with any Covenant. This has opened up a lot of flexibility for Brewmasters, allowing them to effectively choose the Covenant whose bonuses are most useful at a given time, though the choice for maximizing damage will still largely come to either Kyrian or Necrolord.

In addition, Conduits will be unlocking their final few ranks, though this will not alter gameplay in any substantial way.

To help offset the slight nerf to Bonedust Brew, the Bountiful Brew Legendary Power now extends the duration of an active Bonedust Brew if it should proc while a Bonedust brew is already present. This has resulted in a large potential increase in the uptime of the ability, making it possible to maintain it for an entire minute or longer!

Beyond the change to Bountiful Brew, recall that in Patch 9.1 every class received a Legendary Power that was unique to each Covenant. For Monks, these Powers were:

• Kyrian — Call to Arms — Casting Weapons of Order will also summon your specialization's Celestial for 12 seconds. For Brewmasters, this means you will spawn Niuzao from Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox.
• Necrolord — Bountiful Brew — Your abilities will occasionally cause a cast of Bonedust Brew to occur at your target's location. This occurs at a frequency of roughly 1.5 procs per minute, but has a 5-second cooldown between activations of the effect.
• Night Fae — Faeline Harmony — The 6% chance for your abilities to reset the cooldown of Faeline Stomp is doubled, increasing it to 12%. In addition, both enemies and allies hit by Faeline Stomp gain the Fae Exposure buff. This buff increases the damage taken or healing received from you by 8% for 10 seconds, respectively.
• Venthyr — Sinister Teachings — Fallen Order summons one additional adept matching your specialization that lasts for 24 seconds. While Fallen Order is active, your critical strikes reduce the cooldown of Fallen Order by 5 seconds.

However, new in Patch 9.2 is the ability to eventually use a second Legendary Power, provided it is your Covenant-specific effect. This means that a Venthyr Brewmaster could make use of both Sinister Teachings and Stormstout's Last Keg, or a Necrolord Brewmaster can take advantage of the buff to Bountiful Brew! In addition, access to your Covenant Legendary will be tied to a new Legendary Power that automatically switches to match your current Covenant, further encouraging the flexibility of freely changing Covenants that was introduced in Patch 9.1.5.

With it explained that any combination of Covenant Legendary Power and regular Legendary Power can be used in Patch 9.2, what possibilities does this create? As mentioned above, Covenants that were already making use of a Covenant's Legendary Power, such as Night Fae and Venthyr Brewmasters, have now essentially earned a second Power for free. This means that the common choices of Stormstout's Last Keg or Charred Passions are likely to become even more of a staple in your gear lists and offer a substantial increase in damage and defense.

However, this also means that Kyrian Brewmasters may now use Call to Arms with those staple Legendaries as well, also bolstering their power. For Kyrians in particular, the presence of Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox with every Weapons of Order cast will result in a lot of extra damage dealt over a dungeon or raid encounter if used appropriately. This is because the cooldown of Invoke Niuzao naturally desyncs from Weapons of Order over time due to Effusive Anima Accelerator when playing with Forgelite Prime Mikanikos as your Soulbind.

Bountiful Brew's effect, while also nice to get for free, is hurt by being more random and not being able to plan your largest damage events around the random activations. However, the ability to potentially maintain Bonedust Brew's effect on an enemy or ally for a minute or longer can certainly help make things more consistent. Regardless, it is very likely that Necrolord Brewmasters will fall behind a bit in damage compared to the Kyrian alternative, though they will still be more than fine in defense.