Brewmaster Monk Tank Guide — Dragonflight 10.0.2

Brewmaster Monks are tanks that focus on surviving all but the most deadly amounts of damage, turning the bulk of it into a unique damage-over-time effect known as Stagger that can be removed with their other abilities. Through smoothing it out or dodging it entirely, this way of taking damage makes Brewmaster an incredibly desirable specialization for both progression raiding and dungeons. On top of this, a Brewmaster has considerable utility to offer and is incredibly mobile.

Note: the following guide will detail parts of tanking that are unique to Brewmaster Monks rather than general tanking strategy. If you are new to the role of tanking in general, it is recommended to look into our tanking guide first.

Strengths

• Guaranteed smooth damage intake from Stagger and Shuffle for both Physical and Magic damage.
• Incredible mobility through the use of Roll, Tiger's Lust, and Transcendence.
• Unique abilities to help reposition enemies such as Clash, Summon Black Ox Statue, and Ring of Peace.
• Baseline crowd control abilities such as Paralysis and Leg Sweep.
• Can provide unique auras to themselves and allies with Windwalking, Generous Pour, and Close to Heart.
• The only source of the Mystic Touch debuff, shared with the other two Monk specs.
• Very forgiving to mistakes when playing.

Weaknesses

• Lowest base Health of every tank specialization; this can result in being more vulnerable to DoT effects.
• Unusually weak to sustained Magic damage, despite having plenty of cooldowns.
• Low self-sustain outside of Expel Harm.
• Large number of keybinds to keep track of.
• Playstyle can sometimes be unintuitive.
• May need to use Addons or WeakAuras to properly track Stagger as the default UI is often insufficient.

We are maintaining a list of changes for Monks, so you can see what changes with every patch of Dragonflight.

In Dragonflight, Brewmaster is regaining a lot of classic tools that have been taken away over time, while also gaining a few new tricks all contained within Dragonflight's expansive rework of the talent system. Among these returning effects are seven former legendary powers, a handful of Legion artifact traits, Azerite powers, and even some Anima Powers from Torghast. Not only that, but Brewmasters are also gaining access to the powerful Rising Sun Kick ability that Mistweaver and Windwalkers could already use. All in all, there are more options than ever for tackling content as this incredible versatile tank specialization.

While leveling as a tank specialization can seem a bit inefficient, it does come with its own set of benefits such as the ability to pull larger numbers of enemies while questing without having to be as concerned about survival, thanks to all your defensive skills. It can also give you valuable time to learn your rotation. Finally, it can be overwhelming to reach the level 70 cap and face the potential confusion of getting used to extra elements in your interface. Because of this, it is recommended to browse our list below of some basic Brewmaster addons and macros to make both your learning and leveling experiences easier.

Being a tank specialization, your main job is to both stay alive at all times and to ensure that enemies are not attacking your other party or raid members. Brewmasters accomplish the first task by immediately delaying all damage taken with the help of their Stagger passive, improving its power with the help of Shuffle, and removing some of that delayed damage with Purifying Brew. In addition, plenty of potential damage is dodged entirely with the help of their Mastery, Mastery: Elusive Brawler.

As for keeping the attention of enemies, a Brewmaster converts their Energy into abilities such as Keg Smash, Tiger Palm, and Spinning Crane Kick that both deal damage and help improve the power of Stagger. Woven into this relationship of dealing damage to reduce damage taken are a number of abilities with no cost that work with other parts of the kit, such as Blackout Kick allowing you to dodge more attacks, Breath of Fire setting enemies hit by Keg Smash on fire, or instantly killing most enemies with Touch of Death!

If the above sounds interesting and you would like to learn about even more abilities available to a Brewmaster, then please read the Spell Summary, or if you would prefer a faster breakdown of the entire specialization, check out our Easy Mode for this guide.

Should you instead be a bit familiar with what a Brewmaster can do already, you would benefit more from heading to our breakdown of Talents and the rotation to get a more in-depth look at what to expect.

While figuring out what to wear as an upgrade can be a challenging task, there are a number of tools out there to assist you with the decisions you face. If, for example, you are interested in a long-term goal of best-in-slot items, please see our gearing page for an idea of what to look for.

Beyond that, there is also the matter of knowing what stats to go for on your way to that best item, or what improvements like enchantments, gems, or other consumables to use. Fortunately, we have pages dedicated to that sort of information as well to help you along the way.

Once you have made it to the highest possible character level, you can begin your real journey in the three major end-game activities of Raiding, Mythic+, and PvP. For whichever area you would like to focus more on — if not all three — we have guides to assist you on your Brewmaster and make it easier to perform at your very best. However, when it comes to serious PvP it is far more likely that you will be playing either Windwalker or Mistweaver, so they are shown instead.

After you have become familiar with playing as a Brewmaster, you may benefit from checking out our pages on common mistakes or questions asked by people playing this specialization. Not everything will be clear to everyone right away, and these pages can hopefully clear up any confusion more quickly and allow you to further improve.

The revamped talent system of Dragonflight has given Brewmasters a lot of tools from before, including the ability to have both Bonedust Brew and Weapons of Order at the same time, powerful defensive cooldowns such as Diffuse Magic and Dampen Harm, and even a lot of raw damage with Resonant Fists and the newest iteration of Exploding Keg. It is especially noteworthy that all of this has become obtainable without losing access to the core strengths offered by Stagger's natural defense and the potential to create massive Celestial Brew absorbs.

However, despite the immense power gained within the new talent options, Brewmaster is still prone to its most common weakness: sustained magic damage. Although there are plenty of cooldowns available for the occasional large hit, a continuous chain of casted abilities will easily decimate a Brewmaster's naturally small health bar. While this downside has always been present, in Dragonflight's content it has become even more pronounced, though not to the extent that Brewmaster has become a bad tank by any means. Rather, there is perhaps now a bigger gap than ever before between an "okay" Brewmaster and a "good" one. The specialization's place in the upcoming Vault of the Incarnates raid and Dragonflight Mythic+ Season 1 will otherwise remain unclear for the time being.