Brewmaster Monk Tank Guide — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1

1. Brewmaster Monk Overview

Brewmaster is the tanking specialization of Monks, and we possess a wide array of colorful and unique abilities. Brewmasters do not overly rely on avoiding damage through dodging and parrying attacks. Instead, we have an additional way of dealing with incoming damage, completely exclusive to Brewmaster. This is called Staggering damage, which causes only a portion of damage taken to be done to the Monk instantly. The rest of the damage is done over the course of 10 seconds (with the possibility for the Monk to remove part of the non-instant damage by using Purifying Brew).

Mainly for these reasons, Brewmasters benefit from a steady and relatively easily-healed damage intake. We are also exceptional at taking large, isolated hits; perhaps the best at this of any tank. We make excellent tanks in PvE and will always be a valuable asset to your raid.

2. Patch 8.1 Changes for Brewmaster Monk

Tides of Vengeance brings a small nerf in Staggered damage and two new Azerite traits to play with:

• The effectiveness of Stagger has been reduced by around 6%. This leads to direct physical hits doing around 10% more damage. There are no playstyle changes associated with this, you will simply require some more healing.
• Niuzao's Blessing has been removed. All items with this trait will gain Straight, No Chaser. This trait causes Ironskin Brew to increase your armor and occasionally not use a charge. This trait is powerful defensively, and you will want at least one.
• Exit Strategy is an interesting new Inner Ring trait. With this, Rolling or Chi Torpedoing grants a large amount of Avoidance (around 10%) for 2 seconds. During the 2 seconds, if you are hit by direct damage your Roll cooldown is reduced.
• Ranged attacks which are dodged now consume Mastery: Elusive Brawler stacks.

3. Patch 8.0.1 Changes for Brewmaster Monk

In Battle for Azeroth, Brewmaster remains very similar to its Legion incarnation, with mostly background changes.

3.1. Existing Spell Changes in 8.0.1

• The amount of damage you Stagger is now based on your agility, meaning the better your gear is the less up-front damage you will take. Magic stagger has been lowered from 40% of base stagger to 35%, as part of a series of changes to make ALL tanks more vulnerable to magic damage.
• Leg Sweep is now baseline for all Monk specializations.
• Keg Smash has had its slow reduced from 50% to 20%. If you desire a 50% slow, consider using Special Delivery, which remains unchanged.
• The shared cooldowns of Purifying Brew and Ironskin Brew have been reduced from 21 to 15 seconds. Ironskin Brew's duration has been increased from 6 to 7 seconds.
• Mystic Touch has been added, causing targets Brewmasters damage to take 5% more physical damage from all sources.

3.2. Brewmaster Monk Talents in 8.0.1

• Spitfire has replaced Gift of the Mists. It gives a chance to reset the cooldown of Breath of Fire when using Tiger Palm, adding some DPS.
• The cooldown of Black Ox Brew has been increased from 90 to 120 seconds.
• Tiger Tail Sweep modifies Leg Sweep, which is now baseline. It improves Leg Sweep by reducing the cooldown and increasing range.
• Bob and Weave increases the duration of your Stagger DoT by 3 seconds, much like Jewel of the Lost Abbey. This means each stagger tick deals less damage to you.
• Guard has finally returned to the PvE side of the game, replacing Elusive Dance. Its functionality has changed from being an absorb to stopping any staggered damage (up to its tooltip amount) from entering your ticking stagger pool.
• Blackout Combo has changed slightly: it no longer modifies Purifying Brew and the increase in Tiger Palm damage has been lowered. This, coupled with losing the Face Palm trait, means that it will no longer be a giant DPS gain.

If you want more in depth info on the function of or which talents to choose in the Battle for Azeroth prepatch, consider visiting the talents section.

4. Brewmaster Monk Strengths

• Very strong against single large hits
• Highly mobile
• Provides Mystic Touch along with the other monk specializations, which all raids will want.

5. Brewmaster Monk Weaknesses

• Less self sufficient than some other tanks.

6. Brewmaster Monk Viability in the Current Patch

Brewmaster is quite strong currently. It is the best tank for dealing with isolated large hits, making it excellent at certain bosses. In Dungeons, Leg Sweep is an exceptionally powerful stun, and we can kite in a pinch to get out of deadly situations.

7. Changelog