Brewmaster Monk Tank Guide — Shadowlands 9.1.5

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/ Chi Torpedo, 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.
• 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.
• Low self-sustain outside of Expel Harm, but Celestial Fortune works on almost every single heal received.
• Large number of keybinds to keep track of.
• May need to use Addons or WeakAuras to properly track Stagger as the default UI is often insufficient.
• Somewhat low damage output; all offensive cooldowns are also defensive.

We are maintaining a list of changes for Monks, so you can see what changes with every patch of Shadowlands. Be sure to also check out Brewmaster's specific changes for the upcoming patch, 9.2, to hear our thoughts on the new tier set bonuses that will be coming.

From Patch 9.1.5 onward, both Legion Timewalking and the Mage Tower have returned. As such we have created a separate guide detailing what you can expect from the Mage Tower challenge available to Brewmaster Monks.

Overall, Brewmaster has only gotten stronger with Shadowlands' arrival, gaining bonus damage on Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox, Touch of Death adding a Stagger removal component, a shorter cooldown on Paralysis, the ability to move while channeling Zen Meditation, and even the return of the Clash ability to help reposition enemies.

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 60 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.

The Shadowlands have introduced a variety of systems to spice up your experience regardless of specialization. The most important system that every player will interact with in some way is the arrival of four separate factions known as Covenants. By pledging yourself to their cause, you will gain access to an ability shared by all members of that Covenant like Door of Shadows and a second ability that is unique to your class such as Weapons of Order. In addition, as part of a Covenant you will gain access to three unique Soulbinds, which allow you to borrow the power of an NPC member of the Covenant while also empowering your own abilities. This can be as simple as Plaguey's Preemptive Strike or as complex as a cheat death effect through Podtender!

In addition to choosing a Covenant, you will also have access to a wide variety of Legendary Powers to further alter how you play. Some of these effects may be familiar like Stormstout's Last Keg while others such as Invoker's Delight are entirely new. However, you will only have access to one Legendary Power at a time, so it will be important to learn which Powers are the most useful in a given situation.

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.

An especially new piece of content in the end-game for Shadowlands is the release of Torghast, Tower of the Damned. This area functions as a new experience where every attempt at climbing the tower has the potential to be different as you learn more about the structure. You will also acquire materials to empower items with Legendary potential and even core aspects of your abilities may end up modified by various Anima Powers throughout your ascent.

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.

Brewmaster remains quite strong in this stage of Shadowlands. 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 it can easily kite in a pinch to get out of deadly situations with the help of Roll, Ring of Peace, and Transcendence. While the removal of caps on AoE abilities in Patch 9.1.5 is useful, it does not significantly affect the damage output Brewmasters could already achieve.

In Sanctum of Domination, Brewmasters still maintain their strength of being one of the best tanks for most encounters due to their great sturdiness against Physical hits. This is especially noticeable on slow, heavy-hitting bosses like Guardian of the First Ones. Their mobility can also come into play as a useful tool against bosses that revolve around tanks frequently having to separate themselves from the raid, such as Painsmith Raznal, Fatescribe Roh-Kalo, and even Sylvanas Windrunner. However, they do have the lowest Maximum Health out of every tank specialization, which can prove dangerous on encounters with strong damage-over-time effects.