Brewmaster Monk Tank Gear and Best in Slot — Dragonflight 10.0.7
On this page, you will find the best gear and best in slot items for your Brewmaster Monk in World of Warcraft Dragonflight 10.0.7.
Gearing your Brewmaster Monk in Dragonflight
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.
Gearing Strategy and Recommendations for a Brewmaster Monk
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.
Recommended Dragonflight Dungeon Items
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 | ||
Neck |
|
|
Shoulders |
|
|
Cloak | ![]() |
Algeth'ar Academy |
Chest | ||
Wrists | ![]() |
Halls of Valor |
Gloves | ||
Belt | ![]() |
Shadowmoon Burial Grounds |
Legs |
|
|
Boots | ![]() |
Court of Stars |
Ring 1 | ![]() |
Temple of the Jade Serpent |
Ring 2 |
|
|
Weapon (2h) | ![]() |
Algeth'ar Academy |
Weapons (Dual Wield) |
Recommended Dragonflight Raid Gear
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 | ||
Neck | ||
Shoulders | ||
Cloak | ![]() |
Sennarth, The Cold Breath |
Chest | ||
Wrists | ![]() |
Broodkeeper Diurna |
Gloves | ||
Belt | ![]() |
Terros |
Legs | ||
Boots | ![]() |
Sennarth, The Cold Breath |
Ring 1 | ![]() |
Eranog |
Ring 2 | ||
Weapon (2h) | ![]() |
Algeth'ar Academy |
Weapons (Dual Wield) |
Recommended Dragonflight Profession Gear and Embellishments
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.
Ideal Gear to Craft
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!
Brewmaster Tier Set - Wrappings of the Waking Fist
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.
The Onyx Annulet and Primordial Gemstones
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.
Choosing a Weapon
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.
Dual-wielding and Two-Hand Comparison
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.
Useful Trinkets
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.
Offensive Dragonflight Trinkets
Vault of the Incarnates Trinkets
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.
Dungeon Trinkets
- 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.
Defensive Dragonflight Trinkets
Vault of the Incarnates Trinkets
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
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.
Dungeon Trinkets
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.
Valor and Item Upgrades
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.
Enchants and Sockets
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.
Changelog
- 20 Mar. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 12 Jan. 2022: Added additional information on embellishments; adjusted dungeon trinket recommendations.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Dungeon gear revised and recommended raid gear added; trinkets substantially expanded for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Monk Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Sinzhu, a Mythic raider on US-Kil'jaeden who has passionately played Brewmaster for the past nine years. He also contributes to the Peak of Serenity and is a Moderator of the Monk Class Discord.
- Dragonflight Patch 10.0.7 Hotfixes: March 24th
- Dragonflight 10.0.7 Class Tuning: March 28th + Retribution Nerfs March 24th
- New Aberrus Unique Drops Added in Patch 10.1 Build 48661
- Aberrus the Shadowed Crucible Loading Screen in Patch 10.1
- New Potential Evoker Spells Added in Patch 10.1 Build 48661
- Dragonflight Patch 10.0.7 Hotfixes: March 23rd
- Primordial Stone Hotfix Changes: March 23rd
- Dragonflight Patch 10.0.7 DPS Log Rankings for Vault of the Incarnates: Day 1