Brewmaster Monk Tank Gear and Best in Slot — Dragonflight 10.0.7

Although the bulk of your ideal pieces of gear will come from selecting items within the Great Vault every week, raiding Mythic Vault of the Incarnates, completing very high keys in Dragonflight Mythic+ Season 1, or even acquiring items crafted by Professions using the Crafting Orders system and Spark of Ingenuity, all of this content will not be feasible when first reaching Level 70 in Dragonflight. Instead, your initial items will largely come from increasing your Renown with the four main Reputations and their weekly activities, completing world quests, defeating rares, and dungeons that are not Mythic Plus.

Fortunately, gearing as a Brewmaster is generally simple for most item slots: use the highest item level gear you can get, while trying to avoid unnecessary Haste. However, even an item that is 5 item levels higher with Haste will often still be an upgrade, so not go entirely out of your way to avoid the stat. Rings are sometimes a different matter, as they do not contain Agility or Armor. However, unless you are trying to maximize your damage output, you can still safely equip a ring with a higher item level no matter what its stats are. To learn about the rest of your stat priority, see our dedicated page for it.

When you are figuring out if an item is an upgrade, it is highly recommended to get in the practice of simulating it. You can only do this to compare gear offensively as a tank specialization, however; fortunately, if you are looking to improve your defenses you can focus entirely on item level.

If you are unfamiliar with what simulations are or how to use them, our Simulation page can help you learn more. Otherwise, as mentioned earlier, you can safely prioritize item level.

Beyond the disclaimer above, please note that the following tables do not include every possible quality level of crafted gear, items with potential embellishment effects, or items obtained from PvP.

This table contains loot from the eight dungeons available as part of Dragonflight Mythic+ Season 1. Remember that if you are seeking tier set pieces, you will need to acquire them directly from the Great Vault the Vault of the Incarnates raid, or through the Inspiration Catalyst.

Slot	Item	Source
Head	Crown of Roaring Storms Gaze of the Waking Fist	Ruby Life Pools Inspiration Catalyst
Neck	Pendant of the Stormforger Torc of Passed Time (with Draconic Missive of the Quickblade)	Halls of Valor Jewelcrafting
Shoulders	Felbat Leather Pauldrons Mantle of the Waking Fist	Court of Stars Inspiration Catalyst
Cloak	Potion-Stained Cloak	Algeth'ar Academy
Chest	Invader's Firestorm Chestguard Chestwrap of the Waking Fist	Ruby Life Pools Inspiration Catalyst
Wrists	Adorned Guardian's Bracers	Halls of Valor
Gloves	Subjugator's Chilling Grips Palms of the Waking Fist	Ruby Life Pools Inspiration Catalyst
Belt	Belt of Burning Focus	Shadowmoon Burial Grounds
Legs	Biornskin Leggings Legguards of the Waking Fist	Halls of Valor Inspiration Catalyst
Boots	Footpads of the Swift Balestra	Court of Stars
Ring 1	Crystallized Droplet	Temple of the Jade Serpent
Ring 2	Jeweled Signet of Melandrus Signet of Titanic Insight (with Draconic Missive of the Quickblade)	Court of Stars Jewelcrafting
Weapon (2h)	Obsidian Goaltending Spire	Algeth'ar Academy
Weapons (Dual Wield)	Refraction's Edge Havoc Crusher	The Azure Vault Ruby Life Pools

Remember that the following gear table is meant to act as a general recommendation for items to seek out from the Vault of the Incarnates raid. It is almost guaranteed that some pieces not mentioned here will still be an upgrade for you based on item level alone. If you want to optimize yourself further for damage, then you should still simulate yourself. You should also be careful about using your Spark of Ingenuity items on crafted gear, as earning additional sparks beyond your first five may take some time.

Slot	Item	Source
Head	Gaze of the Waking Fist Windborne Hatsuburi	Raszageth the Storm-Eater Dathea, Ascended
Neck	Terros's Captive Core Torc of Passed Time (with Draconic Missive of the Quickblade)	Terros Jewelcrafting
Shoulders	Mantle of the Waking Fist Twisted Loam Spaulders	Broodkeeper Diurna The Primal Council
Cloak	Acid-Proof Webbing	Sennarth, The Cold Breath
Chest	Chestwrap of the Waking Fist Valdrakken Protector's Turncoat	Kurog Grimtotem Eranog
Wrists	Loyal Flametender's Bracers	Broodkeeper Diurna
Gloves	Palms of the Waking Fist Treacherous Totem Wraps	Dathea, Ascended Kurog Grimtotem
Belt	Fused Shale Waistband	Terros
Legs	Legguards of the Waking Fist Loathsome Thunderhosen	Sennarth, The Cold Breath Raszageth the Storm-Eater
Boots	Ice-Climber's Cleats	Sennarth, The Cold Breath
Ring 1	Seal of Diurna's Chosen	Eranog
Ring 2	Seal of Filial Duty Signet of Titanic Insight (with Draconic Missive of the Quickblade)	Broodkeeper Diurna Jewelcrafting
Weapon (2h)	Awakened Planar Pillar	Algeth'ar Academy
Weapons (Dual Wield)	Frostbreath Thumper Fist of the Grand Summoner	Sennarth, The Cold Breath Kurog Grimtotem

Dragonflight features the option to utilize profession gear to a greater extent than ever before, including the ability to create powerful items at an item level of up to 418! However, acquiring items of suitable strength is limited by a unique reagent known as a Spark of Ingenuity, of which you may initially obtain 5. You may gradually earn more over time, enabling you to utilize entire sets of crafted gear if you are willing to create them (with or without the help of the Crafting Orders system).

In addition to having customizable secondary stats, there are a variety of powerful optional effects that are either innately present on crafted gear or can be manually added with extra reagents. These bonuses are known as embellishments, and you may have up to two effects present on equipped crafted gear at a time.

Due to the flexibility of crafted gear, such as the ability to specify your secondary stats along with your potential embellishment, you have many options available for gear to have created depending on items you have been able to obtain from other content sources in Dragonflight. In general, however, some items are more likely to be useful for all Brewmaster Monks, which are listed below for convenience.

• Weapons, such as Primal Molten Longsword — Generally made by Blacksmithing, weapons offer a convenient power boost and may be fitted with an embellishment of your choosing, such as Fang Adornments or Potion Absorption Inhibitor.
• Slimy Expulsion Boots — Made with the help of Leatherworking, these boots will slightly reduce your Haste in exchange for frequently dealing bonus Nature damage to your target. Both of these effects can be increased by wearing another crafted item with the optional Toxified Armor Patch embellishment.
• Elemental Lariat — Created through Jewelcrafting, this item in the neck slot comes with a unique embellishment effect that will grant extra secondary stats depending on the gems socketed within.
• Flaring Cowl — Created through Leatherworking, this helm may have the undesirable secondary stats of Haste and Mastery, but will also radiate Fire damage to enemies around you every three seconds!
• Peripheral Vision Projectors/ Needlessly Complex Wristguards — Both of these items can only be created and used by those with Engineering, but do not contribute toward the 2-item cap on embellishments. Instead, they uniquely feature only one secondary stat, along with a special tinker socket that can be used for additional Engineering "gems" known as tinkers, such as enabling a battle resurrection with Tinker: Arclight Vital Correctors.

There is one final effect to mention that uniquely does not count as an embellishment when added to a crafted item that otherwise has no embellishment: Alchemical Flavor Pocket. This item can be obtained from the weekly Community Feast quest reward of Supply-Laden Soup Pot or bought on the auction house. Consider creating and equipping an item with this bonus for additional quality of life!

The Vault of the Incarnates raid features a new round of Primalist Tier Sets themed around the four elements. In addition, pieces of this set can potentially be earned from any of the nine slots in the weekly Dragonflight Great Vault and can also eventually be made at the Inspiration Catalyst as a catchup system. This armor, when enough pieces of it are worn, unlocks two special bonuses for Brewmasters:

• Brewmaster Monk 2pc — Hitting an enemy with Tiger Palm or Spinning Crane Kick grants Brewmaster's Rhythm, increasing damage dealt and reducing damage taken by 1% for 15 sec, stacking up to 4 times.
• Brewmaster Monk 4pc — For each stack of Brewmaster's Rhythm, Purifying Brew clears 3% more of your damage delayed with Stagger.

As there are five total slots, but only four needed to gain both equipment bonuses, we recommend that you consider ignoring the helm piece in favor of the remaining four. However, getting your set bonuses takes priority over getting the "correct" pieces.

New in Patch 10.0.7, the Onyx Annulet is a unique ring that contains three special primordial sockets and can be obtained from the Forbidden Reach. These sockets can hold special Primordial Gemstones that offer powerful effects, with the ring itself acting as a way to prepare yourself for the greater challenges arriving in Patch 10.1 and Dragonflight Season 2.

To learn which Primordial Gemstones you should look for as a Brewmaster Monk, see the Enchants section of this guide, or for more information regarding the Onyx Annulet and Primordial Gemstones overall, check out our dedicated guide below.

Brewmaster Monks are unique in that they can opt for either a two-handed weapon or to dual-wield one-handed weapons. This results in a massive amount of potential choices to consider. Although you will often opt for whichever choice has the higher item level or more Weapon DPS, there is some nuance to bear in mind.

As you are acquiring weapons, you may have to at times decide between dual-wielding a weapon in each hand or equipping a single two-handed option. This decision may be a little more complicated than it first would seem, as there is a hidden buff — called Windwalker Monk Two-Hand Adjustment despite also affecting Brewmasters — which increases the damage of your abilities by 2% when dual-wielding. However, many of your abilities do not actually take a weapon in the off-hand into account for calculating their damage dealt!

What this all ends up meaning is that when dual-wielding, your autoattack damage is greater, but when using a two-handed weapon your ability damage is higher instead. However, if both of your dual-wielded weapons are enchanted then they more than make up this difference in ability damage. Of course, this assumes all three weapons involved are the same item level and have identical secondary stats.

To summarize: when deciding between dual-wield and 2h, you can safely choose either option if it results in a higher total item level or amount of secondary stats. If you would like to know the best offensive option for your current selection of weapons, then it is still recommended to simulate your character for the best item available.

Trinkets are a gear slot that can provide shifting value across different areas of content. They are also the easiest piece to alter how offensive or defensive-minded you wish to be. Because of this, you should keep many of the trinkets you obtain and be ready to swap them out when the situation calls for it.

Bloodmallet can also be used to see a comprehensive grouping of all available trinkets for Brewmaster Monks organized by their damage capabilities. If the source of the trinket is not listed on mouseover, then it only appears from world quests or events and will be difficult to acquire.

Finally, note that if a trinket is not discussed here, then it is not worth seeking out or holding onto due to its lackluster effects compared to the alternatives.

• Manic Grieftorch, from Broodkeeper Diurna in Vault of the Incarnates, provides you with a useful source of burst damage that also has massive potential in AoE. In addition, its cooldown can be substantially lowered in any content where you are grouped with other players that are at risk of death.
• Spiteful Storm, from Raszageth the Storm-Eater in Vault of the Incarnates, performs best in extended encounters with a target. Due to having a one-second global cooldown, Brewmaster Monks are uniquely suited to reliably activating this trinket's stacking effects.
• Storm-Eater's Boon, from Dathea, Ascended in Vault of the Incarnates, offers plenty of power — especially in AoE — but with the dangerous downside of being rooted for 10 seconds while activating the effect. However, you can still cast all of your abilities without cancelling the transformation; you also cannot remove its root with effects such as Tiger's Lust.
• Although substantially less useful in only single-target, Controlled Current Technique from Kurog Grimtotem in Vault of the Incarnates is a trinket whose damage is dependent on auto attacks rather than your own stats, making it a natural pairing for a dual-wielding tank such as Brewmaster.

• While Windscar Whetstone, from Court of Stars, may have Mastery rather than Agility as its primary stat, the amount of raw damage it deals with its 2-minute on-use effect is incredibly potent among dungeon trinkets.
• Ruby Whelp Shell, from Ruby Life Pools, has a fairly ambiguous tooltip and even more mysterious on-use effect. In essence, this trinket can trigger one of six different effects ranging from single-target or AoE damage and healing, or a buff to Haste or Critical Strike. In general, by "training" your whelpling to use its damage effect on enemies, it will become a powerful offensive option!
• Horn of Valor, also from Halls of Valor, provides a large amount of Agility on a 2-minute cooldown while always providing Versatility. This can be considered something of a "hybrid" trinket, offering both offensive and defensive bonuses.
• Algeth'ar Puzzle Box, from Algeth'ar Academy, provides a truly massive amount of Mastery for 20 seconds on a 3-minute cooldown. However, while Mastery does also provide Attack Power, Brewmasters tend to lack burst damage to capitalize on it. In addition, activating this buff requires performing a 1.5-second cast during which you are unable to dodge attacks. Use this trinket carefully if you choose to equip it.

• Decoration of Flame, from Eranog in Vault of the Incarnates, offers a reliable source of both damage and defense that both increase based on the number of targets hit. In addition, due to a slight delay on the absorb re-applying itself from the flames needing to travel back, you can potentially time its effects to be especially potent against incoming damage!
• All-Totem of the Master, from Kurog Grimtotem in Vault of the Incarnates, is a trinket that will rotate between four different elemental stances in 30-second intervals, provided you dodge or parry an attack. Each of these four stances provides a unique effect:
  • Earth grants bonus Armor
  • Fire applies a damage-over-time effect to an enemy.
  • Air increases your Haste
  • Ice heals you over time
  Although it provides an okay amount of damage from a passive effect, this trinket is likely to trigger immediately as a pull begins and be somewhat wasted. In addition, its often lackluster and unpredictable defensive effects make it largely useless when you really need defensive power.
• Whispering Incarnate Icon, from The Primal Council in Vault of the Incarnates, will grant you additional Versatility at all times when equipped while also gaining additional Haste or Critical Strike if a healer or DPS player with the same trinket is nearby. While this trinket is powerful for the raw amount of stats it provides, it is a particularly rare drop from its encounter and will not be available to many players for general use.

• Granyth's Enduring Scale, from The Nokhud Offensive, can generate an absorb shield for you when taking damage that will both increase your Armor while it holds and deal Physical damage when removed. With that being said, this trinket's main downside is that it is both unreliable and comes with a low proc-rate of 1 proc per minute.
• Burgeoning Seed, from The Azure Vault, also has a useful defensive effect that can grant both Versatility and additional health when you need them the most. However, it similarly suffers from a very low proc-rate on generating the stacks that you can consume, resulting in not being as available as it should be compared to other on-use options.

Beginning in Dragonflight Mythic+ Season 1, the Valor currency can be obtained from completing Mythic or Mythic+ dungeons. After earning enough of it, Valor can be used to upgrade any item obtained from a Mythic+ dungeon of any difficulty (including regular Mythic)! These upgrades carry through all the way to item level 415, though you must also have achieved Dragonflight Keystone Hero: Season One in order to bring an item that high.

Once you have obtained a piece of gear containing a prismatic socket or needing to be enchanted, you will need to know how to modify it. Details about these tweaks can be found on our dedicated gems, enchants, and consumables page.