Brewmaster Monk Tank Gear and Best in Slot — Dragonflight 10.2

Although the bulk of your ideal pieces of gear will come from selecting items within the Great Vault every week, raiding Mythic Amirdrassil, completing very high keys in Mythic+, or even acquiring items crafted by Professions using the Crafting Orders system and Spark of Dreams, not all of this content will be feasible when first reaching Level 70 in Dragonflight. Instead, your initial items will largely come from exploring both the Emerald Dream and participating in Dreamsurges.

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 do 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 recommendations do not include items obtained from PvP. If you are interested in recommended crafted gear, please see the section dedicated to it below.

Continuing an idea from the previous season, Patch 10.2 retains the presence of Flightstones and what are now known as Dreaming Crests, both obtainable from practically all forms of content in the game. They can be used to upgrade gear up to Item Level 489, which is Mythic Raid Item Level. They can also upgrade Crafted Gear up to 486 as well.

For more information on the Gear Upgrades system, check out our dedicated page for it below.

As with Valor, the cost to upgrade scales differs per slot but now also increases quickly as item levels go up.

Given the near-universal nature of gear upgrades in Dragonflight Season 3, it can be difficult to figure out what items you should invest your limited amounts of Dreaming Crests in each week. As the decision will ultimately be based on what items you have been able to obtain, listed below are some guidelines and "wishlist" items to upgrade as soon as possible:

1. Weapons, particularly Thorncaller Claw/ Gholak, the Final Conflagration or Rashon, the Immortal Blaze — these items from Amirdrassil feature powerful procs that will substantially bolster your damage.
2. Crafted gear, specifically Slimy Expulsion Boots and Life-Bound Belt with a Toxified Armor Patch — due to obtaining one Spark of Dreams every two weeks, it is very beneficial to upgrade your chosen embellishment items for a surge of power in an area you can completely decide. You may also opt for a crafted weapon if you will not be regularly clearing the Amirdrassil raid to obtain its weapons instead.
3. Trinkets — specifically, the top options listed in the full trinket breakdown below based on what you can obtain.

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 486! However, acquiring items of suitable strength is limited by a unique reagent known as a Spark of Dreams, of which you will only earn one every two weeks. Over time, you can utilize entire sets of crafted gear if you are willing to create them (with or without the help of the Crafting Orders system), but be warned that you cannot convert crafted gear into tier pieces at the Revival Catalyst.

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 be 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.

• Slimy Expulsion Boots and Toxified Armor Patch — 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 Toxified Armor Patch embellishment. During Dragonflight Season 3, this is to be your first priority to craft and upgrade.
• Armor and accessories, such as Life-Bound Belt and Torc of Passed Time — Created through Leatherworking and Jewelcrafting, pieces such as these are great for getting more of your desired secondaries in equipment slots that are difficult to find better alternatives for without getting lucky in the Great Vault.
• Needlessly Complex Wristguards — These bracers can only be created 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. Note that you do not need to be an Engineer to equip and make use of them.
• Weapons, such as Primal Molten Longsword — Generally made by Blacksmithing, weapons offer a convenient power boost all around, though crafting them will be unnecessary if you are regularly clearing Amirdrassil for a chance at the best-in-slot weapons it contains.

There is one final effect to mention that uniquely does not count as an embellishment when added to any 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!

Amirdrassil features a new round of Tier sets, with the theme for Monks being based around Chi-Ji, the Red Crane celestial. 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 gradually be made at the Revival Catalyst as a catchup system. This armor, when enough pieces of it are worn, unlocks two special bonuses for Brewmasters:

• Monk Brewmaster 10.2 Class Set 2pc — Breath of Fire deals 40% bonus damage as Shadowflame and causes you to heal for 50% of your fire damage dealt.
• Monk Brewmaster 10.2 Class Set 4pc — Your attacks against targets afflicted by Breath of Fire have a chance to deal 15% extra damage as Shadowflame, and each Celestial Brew also grants a Stagger absorb for 100% of the Shadowflame damage you have dealt, causing damage delayed by Stagger to instead be prevented.

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

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.

Between Mythic+ and Amirdrassil, Dragonflight Season 3 features four weapons with unique effects that Brewmaster Monks can equip: Rashon, the Immortal Blaze, Gholak, the Final Conflagration, Thorncaller Claw, and Borrowed Time. Each of them will be very powerful, should you seek them out, and which remains best will be highly dependent on your current gear.

Rashon, the Immortal Blaze, from Fyrakk, the Blazing in Amirdrassil, is a two-handed polearm with a chance to deal Shadowflame damage to both your target and yourself. This effect is purely a bonus in the weapon's overall damage budget, and even has the additional benefit of dealing 400% more damage if your target still has at least 90% of their maximum health remaining; it can also critically strike! Fortunately, this increased damage effect does not apply to the damage it deals to you. Due to this powerful effect, Rashon is the strongest available two-handed weapon in Patch 10.2.

Gholak, the Final Conflagration, also from Fyrakk, the Blazing in Amirdrassil, is a one-handed axe that has the exact same effect as Rashon, the Immortal Blaze, while still leaving you with the ability to equip a second weapon in your other hand! However, Gholak is a weapon normally intended for Strength users rather than Agility. This means that you will be unable to loot it yourself directly from Fyrakk or even the Great Vault. Despite these limitations, it remains the strongest weapon you can equip when dual-wielding this season.

Thorncaller Claw, from the Council of Dreams Amirdrassil, is a more traditional choice for an Agility user. This fist weapon comes with a chance to apply a strong Nature DoT effect roughly once per minute. While your target is affected by this DoT, your attacks against them will cause additional pulses of Nature damage on a 2-second cooldown, and it will even spread to another enemy if the initial target is defeated. With that being said, you may only equip one copy of this weapon, making it an ideal choice to pair with Gholak, the Final Conflagration for dual-wielding as your best possible weapon combination.

Borrowed Time, from Dawn of the Infinite: Murozond's Rise, is a two-handed polearm featuring the special secondary stat of Timestrike. This stat gives your attacks a chance to create an echo of their damage that strikes again 3 seconds later. Due to being two-handed and featuring otherwise poor itemization, this weapon is the weakest of the four unique choices in Dragonflight Season 3. However, it can still prove viable if you obtain it at a high item level early on.

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 the items are listed in order of their approximate strength. 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.

• Fyrakk's Tainted Rageheart, from Fyrakk, the Blazing, is considered a "very rare" trinket, and rightfully so for its effective hybrid power. While equipped, this trinket will passively deal Shadowflame damage to you and up to 8 nearby enemies every 3 seconds. It can also be activated once every 90 seconds to create a massive absorb shield and trigger additional, much larger Shadowflame pulses for 10 seconds. All of this combined results in the trinket being a very reasonable offensive choice, alongside an incredibly potent defensive one. Note that the Shadowflame damage does not interact with your Monk Brewmaster 10.2 Class Set 4pc bonus.
• Bandolier of Twisted Blades, from Igira the Cruel, acts as a more "traditional" style of trinket, allowing you to activate it every 90 seconds and impale a blade to deal Physical damage to your target. Three seconds later, this blade will return to you and deal Shadowflame damage to all enemies in its path. Be mindful of its short range, and note that the Shadowflame damage does not interact with your Monk Brewmaster 10.2 Class Set 4pc bonus.
• Cataclysmic Signet Brand, from Smolderon, is a more passive trinket choice that provides a chance for your abilities to inflict a short Fire DoT effect to your target and grant you the Firestarter buff. This buff will increase the DoT's damage with every stack, while also causing you to suffer a portion of the damage at 5 or more stacks, and for it to deal a small amount of AoE damage at the max of 15 stacks. However, your stacks of FIrestarter will quickly decay outside of combat. Despite dealing Fire damage, it does not count for your Monk Brewmaster 10.2 Class Set 2pc bonus.
• Gift of Ursine Vengeance, from the Council of Dreams, is another passive choice that is slightly more defensive-oriented. With it equipped, you will gain a stacking Agility buff once every 3 seconds when you or a nearby ally receives damage. Upon reaching 30 stacks, this buff will transform into 8 seconds of retaliating for a bit of damage when attacked and cause you to passively heal for the same time before restarting the cycle. Although it is not the strongest option, this trinket does offer both offensive and defensive benefits.
• Coiled Serpent Idol, from Volcoross, attempts to act as a trinket capable of both single-target and AoE damage. With it, your critical hits will occasionally spawn a serpent to attack your target with Fire damage, with every third activation spawning three instead. Should your target be defeated, the serpent will instead deal AoE damage for its remaining time. This trinket is a fairly safe option for damage, as it has no mechanics to really play around, nor does it come with any downsides. Note that the Fire damage also does not interact with your Monk Brewmaster 10.2 Class Set 2pc bonus.
• Augury of the Primal Flame, from Fyrakk, the Blazing, is another "very rare" item, though it falls woefully short of the power contained by Fyrakk's Tainted Rageheart. With it, you have a chance to cause your critical hits to deal 50% additional damage for 20 seconds at a time, up to a large bonus damage cap. However, as this bonus damage is based upon your own damage as a tank player, it will often fall short of the heights reached by the other options above. Note that the Fire damage of this trinket also does not interact with your Monk Brewmaster 10.2 Class Set 2pc bonus.

• My'das Talisman, from Atal'Dazar, is an on-use trinket that provides some measure of burst damage when dual wielding in particular. With it equipped, every 90 seconds, you may cause your next 5 auto attacks to deal massively increased damage. Although the effect is simple, it is incredibly potent and should be sought out as your primary offensive dungeon trinket.
• Accelerating Sandglass, from Dawn of the Infinite: Galakrond's Fall, is a trinket that passively operates on cycles. During each period of 20 seconds, you will have a large chance to gain up to 8 stacks of a Haste buff, with your next attack then dealing bonus damage based on your stack count when the buff ends before restarting the pattern again. Although Haste is not ideal, the bonus damage will add up over time.
• A similarly passive choice, Spiked Counterweight from Black Rook Hold will occasionally deal Physical damage and cause your target to receive additional damage from all of your attacks for the next 15 seconds, or until reaching a fairly small cap of damage. Since the cap is very achievable even as a tank, this trinket acts as a weaker, though more easily obtained, version of Augury of the Primal Flame.
• Finally, there are a number of trinkets such as Oakheart's Gnarled Root, Corrupted Starlight, and Caged Horror that can act as potent choices for Brewmaster Monks due to triggering from abilities such as Rushing Jade Wind. However, as these trinkets must be looted by a ranged DPS player and traded to you afterward, they will be fairly difficult to obtain.

• Described above, Fyrakk's Tainted Rageheart from Fyrakk, the Blazing is among your most powerful offensive trinkets and your strongest option for defense due to the massive absorb you can create with it on demand. There are no real defensive alternatives to be found within Amirdrassil.

• Leaf of the Ancient Protectors, from The Everbloom, is technically lootable only by healers, but this is not a problem for Monks who can opt to loot as Mistweavers. With it, you may shield either yourself or another ally once every minute; should the shield be fully consumed, you will gain a large amount of Versatility for 15 seconds. While the absorb may be small, it is frequently available and can even be used to help support another player if you do not need it, resulting in a versatile defensive choice.
• Prophetic Stonescales, from Dawn of the Infinite: Galakrond's Fall, is a familiar type of trinket known as a "cheat-death," activating only when you would have died to an attack. In this case, taking otherwise fatal damage will restore a large amount of health you had lost within the previous 10 seconds while also giving you a massive amount of Haste and damage reduction against any enemies that contributed to your "death" for the next 12 seconds, all on an 8-minute cooldown. Of course, its value is ultimately worthless if you are never in danger of dying in the first place, so choose carefully when you want to wear it.

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.