Monk Leveling Guide 1-120 Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1

Table of Contents

• 1. General Battle for Azeroth Leveling Tips
• +2. Leveling 1-120 as a Windwalker Monk
  • 2.1. Gear Options
  • 2.2. Level by Level Rotation and Talents
    • 2.2.1. Talents to Level Up as a Windwalker Monk
    • 2.2.2. Rotation to Level Up as a Windwalker Monk
    • 2.2.3. Summary of Unlocked Abilities for Windwalker Monks
    • 2.2.4. General PvP Talents
    • 2.2.5. Windwalker Monk PvP Talents for Leveling
  • 2.3. Legendary Options
  • 2.4. Quest Rewards
  • 2.5. Consumables
    • 2.5.1. Gunshoes Macro
  • 2.6. Congratulations!
• +3. Leveling 1-120 as a Brewmaster Monk
  • 3.1. Brewmaster Monk Leveling Gear
  • 3.2. Level by Level Rotation and Talents
    • 3.2.1. Talents to Level Up as a Brewmaster Monk
    • 3.2.2. Leveling Rotation for Brewmaster Monks
    • 3.2.3. Summary of Unlocked Abilities for Brewmaster Monks
    • 3.2.4. General War Mode Talents
    • 3.2.5. Brewmaster Monk War Mode Talents for Leveling
  • 3.3. Consumables
    • 3.3.1. Gunshoes Macro
  • 3.4. Congratulations!
• +4. Leveling 110-120 as a Mistweaver Monk
  • 4.1. Gear Options
  • 4.2. Level by Level Rotation and Talents
    • 4.2.1. Talents to Level Up as a Mistweaver Monk
    • 4.2.2. Rotation Priority to Level Up as a Mistweaver Monk
  • 4.3. Gear
    • 4.3.1. Legendary Gear
    • 4.3.2. Trinkets
    • 4.3.3. Azerite Gear
  • 4.4. Mistweaver Monk War Mode Talents for Leveling
    • 4.4.1. General PvP Talents
    • 4.4.2. Mistweaver Monk PvP Talents for Leveling
  • 4.5. Quest Rewards
  • 4.6. Consumables
    • 4.6.1. Gunshoes Macro
  • 4.7. Congratulations!
• 5. Changelog

1. General Battle for Azeroth Leveling Tips

Welcome! While this leveling guide is specifically made for the class and specialization(s) listed, we also have a general Battle for Azeroth leveling guide that focuses on the specific features of the Battle for Azeroth expansion including preparation of your mission table that will be used to unlock new areas, progressing on your faction's War Effort to save time at Level 120, and a reminder to keep ALL of the gear you find for the Scrap-o-Matic 1000 or Shred-Master Mk1, which will greatly increase your resource generating capabilities. Please visit our 110 to 120 leveling guide for this information and more (including Heirloom and War Mode advice that also applies to players who are not yet Level 110.

2. Leveling 1-120 as a Windwalker Monk

2.1. Gear Options

Currently, Windwalker Monks can only cast Fists of Fury when they are dual-wielding, making it impossible to level efficiently with a two-hander.

When leveling up, you should usually choose the piece of loot with the highest item level.

2.2. Level by Level Rotation and Talents

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

2.2.1. Talents to Level Up as a Windwalker Monk

Your first talent row unlocks at Level 15.

• Level 15: Chi Wave
• Level 30: any talent, preference-based
• Level 45: Fist of the White Tiger
• Level 60: Good Karma
• Level 75: Dampen Harm
• Level 90: Rushing Jade Wind
• Level 100: Whirling Dragon Punch

We recommend Rushing Jade Wind as the level 90 talent of choice, as it will make it extremely convenient for you to engage in combat with any nearby enemies. Alternatively, if you are not having issues with this, you can use Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger as a convenient way to kill tough encounters quickly.

Whirling Dragon Punch is the default level 100 talent for leveling. It grants you an additional spell with good AoE damage, as well as keeping the flexibility of Storm, Earth, and Fire, which is very good for leveling.

2.2.2. Rotation to Level Up as a Windwalker Monk

Your initial abilities are Tiger Palm and Blackout Kick. You should use them in combination to generate and spend Chi.

1. Cast Touch of Death if your target will live at least 8 seconds.
2. Cast Fists of Fury off cooldown.
3. Cast Spinning Crane Kick on 3 or more targets. This ability will grant you AoE capabilities when Fists of Fury is on cooldown.
4. Cast Rising Sun Kick off cooldown.
5. Use Storm, Earth, and Fire to keep it on cooldown.
6. Use Tiger Palm to generate Chi.
7. Cast Blackout Kick to use excess Chi.

2.2.3. Summary of Unlocked Abilities for Windwalker Monks

You unlock your first ability of interest at Level 10.

• At Level 10, you get the ability Rising Sun Kick. It is an efficient, single-target damage ability.
• At Level 12, your Blackout Kick costs one fewer Chi.
• At Level 13, you get Provoke. It taunts your target, forcing it to attack you, and increases its movement speed.
• At Level 14, you get Resuscitate. It allows you to bring an ally back to life when outside of combat. You will also gain access to Zen Pilgrimage, which teleports you to the Kun-Lai Summit. Using it again will teleport you back to your starting position.
• At Level 16, you get Disable. It will allow you to apply a slow on specific targets. When applied to a slowed target, it will snare them completely for 8 seconds.
• At Level 18, you get Crackling Jade Lightning. It is convenient to get into combat from afar, but does not serve any relevant purpose otherwise
• At Level 20, you unlock Fists of Fury. This is your highest priority spell for both single and multi-target encounters from here on.
• At Level 22, you unlock Detox, which allows you to remove poison and disease effects from a friendly target.
• At Level 28, you get Afterlife. This ability will help you in sustaining yourself when fighting alone.
• At Level 32, you unlock Touch of Death, a strong single-target ability on a two minute cooldown. It will help a lot on any enemy you would take 8 or more seconds to defeat.
• At Level 35, you unlock Spear Hand Strike, your standard melee interrupt on a 15-second cooldown.
• At Level 38, you gain the Windwalking passive ability. This 10 yard aura grants you and your allies a 10% movespeed buff.
• At Level 40, you unlock Spinning Crane Kick. This ability will grant you AoE capabilities when Fists of Fury is on cooldown.
• From level 42 onwards, your Tiger Palm has an 8% chance to make your next Blackout Kick free to cast.
• At Level 48, you unlock Flying Serpent Kick. Ignore the damage part of this spell, as it is simply an extremely efficient mobility tool.
• At Level 50, you unlock Storm, Earth, and Fire. This is your main DPS cooldown and should be used very often, ensuring you have at least one charge on cooldown as often as possible.
• At Level 55, you unlock Touch of Karma. This will serve both as a defensive cooldown and an offensive nuke and will help you significantly in taking challenging enemies out on your own.
• At Level 70, Storm, Earth, and Fire gains a second charge.
• At Level 78, you unlock the Mastery stat through Combo Breaker.

2.2.4. General PvP Talents

• Relentless is a passive ability, but it does not automatically remove crowd control abilities. Instead, it reduces the duration.
• Gladiator's Medallion is an on-use ability that removes all movement impairing effects and all loss of control effects.
• Adaptation is recommended; it is likely your most passive choice, since it will automatically remove loss of control effects over 5 seconds.

2.2.5. Windwalker Monk PvP Talents for Leveling

1. Fast Feet increases your movement speed by 15% for 3 seconds after being attacked. Additionally, it reduces the duration of snares by 20%.
2. Control the Mists makes Vivify an instant cast every 10 seconds, reduced by using Chi spenders.
3. Fortifying Brew increases your maximum health by 20% and reduces incoming damage by 20% for 15 seconds.

Besides the utility provided by these three War Mode talents, other talent options have very limited PvE utility. Some can be occasionally useful, but you can default to these three.

2.3. Legendary Options

If you are just coming out of Level 110, you will probably have a number of different Legendary items to choose from. Your Legendaries' special effects will stop working at Level 116, but until then, they can be a very powerful addition to help you level up quickly. These are our Legendary recommendations for leveling as a Windwalker Monk in Battle for Azeroth:

• The Sentinel's Eternal Refuge is an extremely potent mobility increase. It provides you significant in-combat movement speed and, even without a mount, you can maintain maximum out-of-combat movement speed. This allows you, as a Monk, to further use Roll or Chi Torpedo for extra efficiency. We highly recommend this craftable Legendary if you can afford it.
• March of the Legion grants a significant movement speed increase to you and your party. This is the best choice for group leveling.
• Sephuz's Secret is also exceptional, giving you passive movement speed and Haste, as well as an even stronger bonus when you use Leg Sweep or Paralysis.
• Cenedril, Reflector of Hatred, when combined with Good Karma, adds up to a huge amount of damage and should allow you to extremely quickly take out any challenging enemy.
• Kil'jaeden's Burning Wish, just like Cenedril, Reflector of Hatred, has a very strong on-use effect, this time for AoE. It is a very efficient way to quickly deal with a pack of enemies.

2.4. Quest Rewards

You should equip new quest rewards when their item level starts beating out your previous set of gear. If you are currently wearing Tier 21 gear, it is best to let the quest rewards significantly beat your existing item level before using them. With that said, you will unlock Azerite pieces early on, which are worth using over Tier gear in most circumstances.

If possible, we recommend holding on to all Quest Rewards you do not use. They can be scrapped at Level 120 for material resources used in profession crafting.

2.5. Consumables

There are several consumable items that can be purchased that will help you with your leveling speed.

• Skystep Potion increases your movement speed by 150% (more than a mount!) for 8 seconds. It has a 1-minute cooldown. This is extremely useful and should be used often and aggressively for any travel that is more than ~100 yards long.
• Gunshoes are an Engineering item that increase your movement speed by 200% for 25 seconds. These will make you almost as fast as a Flying mount. We recommend having a lot of these, and using them whenever you are traveling more than ~250 yards.
• Goblin Glider Kit is very useful for covering long distances from high places.

2.5.1. Gunshoes Macro

The Gunshoes will not let you stop moving for as long as they are active. Using this macro twice will click the buff off and allow you to stop.

• #showtooltip
• /use Gunshoes
• /cancelaura Gunshoes

2.6. Congratulations!

Congratulations on reaching Level 120! Now that you have hit Level 120 we recommend looking at our Easy mode page and Talents section to learn how to play at maximum level. To get yourself prepared for the end-game content ahead, we strongly recommend this Battle for Azeroth Raiding Lexicon/Spreadsheet by Medivh. It is a gold trove of information that will help you when gearing up in Battle for Azeroth and more.

3. Leveling 1-120 as a Brewmaster Monk

3.1. Brewmaster Monk Leveling Gear

Brewmaster Monks should always wear Agility Leather gear, and use Agility two-handed Polearms or Staves. You should simply wear the highest item level gear while leveling. If you have access to legendaries at level 110, you should use Sal'salabim's Lost Tunic and Stormstout's Last Gasp. Their effects will turn off at level 115, at which point you should replace them with higher item level Azerite pieces.

3.2. Level by Level Rotation and Talents

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

3.2.1. Talents to Level Up as a Brewmaster Monk

Your first talent row unlocks at Level 15.

• Level 15: Chi Wave
• Level 30: choose whichever you want, try out them all!
• Level 45: Spitfire
• Level 60: Tiger Tail Sweep
• Level 75: Healing Elixir
• Level 90: Rushing Jade Wind
• Level 100: Blackout Combo

If you wish to pull many enemies at once and AoE them down, Summon Black Ox Statue will help gather them.

3.2.2. Leveling Rotation for Brewmaster Monks

Your initial abilities are Tiger Palm and Blackout Kick. You should use them in combination to generate and spend Chi. When you choose your specialization you will no longer have Chi.

1. Cast Keg Smash on cooldown. This is your most powerful ability.
2. Cast Blackout Strike on cooldown.
3. Cast Breath of Fire on cooldown.
4. Cast Tiger Palm when you have nothing else to do, but make sure to keep enough energy for Keg Smash. If you are using Blackout Combo, try to follow every Blackout Strike with a Tiger Palm.

At Level 16, you unlock Stagger, the defining passive of Brewmaster tanking. It makes any damage you take get split into a portion which you take immediately, and a portion which is dealt to you over time. This makes you easier to heal. You will unlock more abilities to interact with stagger later. While leveling, you do not need to pay too much attention to this but you should keep it in mind, as it is extremely important at max level.

At Level 20, you unlock Ironskin Brew. This increases the amount of damage delayed by Stagger ("Staggered" damage). You should make sure to have this up 100% of the time. Its cooldown is reduced by Tiger Palm and Keg Smash.

Purifying Brew is unlocked at Level 28. It shares charges and cooldown with Ironskin Brew, and when you cast it, the amount of damage you have Staggered is reduced. You should use this when you are taking too much damage from stagger, but make sure not to drop your Ironskin buff.

3.2.3. Summary of Unlocked Abilities for Brewmaster Monks

You will gain various extra non-rotational abilities and passives as you level (starting at Level 8). They are listed here and quickly described. For more in depth information you may wish to check the Brewmaster Monk Spells page.

• Level 8: Vivify. A small casted heal. Do not use this in combat, but between fights you can heal yourself up with it.
• Level 13: Provoke. Your taunt. This causes enemies to run towards you faster, and attack you.
• Level 14: Resuscitate. Your resurrection spell. If your party members die, save them time by using this. You should use it on healers first.
• Level 14: Zen Pilgrimage. This will take you to the Peak of Serenity, where you can use vendors and get experience buffs. At level 100, after completing a scenario this will bring you to the Monk Class Hall instead.
• Level 18: Crackling Jade Lightning. Use this to pull enemies from far away. It does very little damage and costs lots of energy, never use it in combat.
• Level 22: Detox. You can remove Poisons and Diseases from yourself or party members with this. Not useful too often.
• Level 25: Paralysis. Your Crowd Control (CC) effect. Stops an enemy from acting, and will break on damage. Usually used to single out dangerous enemies to deal with later in dungeons.
• Level 26: Mystic Touch. A passive which increases damage you and any party members deal to any enemy you damage.
• Level 32: Gift of the Ox. A passive which will occasionally drop small orbs when you take damage. Move through these to get healed.
• Level 35: Spear Hand Strike is your interrupt. It stops an enemies cast and prevents them from casting similar spells for a short time. Use this often!
• Level 50: Expel Harm. Use this to vacuum up all your Gift of the Ox orbs at once, especially if they are far away.
• Level 52: Leg Sweep. A long duration AoE stun.
• Level 55: Fortifying Brew. Your most powerful defensive cooldown, it increases your health, increases the amount of damage Staggered and decreases damage taken. It has a very long cooldown, but it is reduced by Tiger Palm and Keg Smash. Make sure to use it when you are in trouble!
• Level 65: Zen Meditation. A somewhat strange cooldown that is channeled, stopping when you take melee attacks. Can be used to lower magical damage or a single melee attack.
• Level 70: Celestial Fortune. Increases the healing you recieve based on your Critical Strike rating. Also works on healing you do to yourself.
• Level 78: Mastery: Elusive Brawler. Your mastery. Grants some dodge each time you are hit by a melee attack or cast Blackout Strike, which resets when you dodge an attack. Also increases Attack Power.
• Level 80: Transcendence and Transcendence: Transfer. With the first spell you place a spirit which you can switch positions with when you use transfer. Fun to use and good when you need to go back and forth to places quickly.

3.2.4. General War Mode Talents

• Relentless is a passive ability, but it does not automatically remove crowd control abilities. Instead, it reduces the duration.
• Gladiator's Medallion is an on-use ability that removes all movement impairing effects and all loss of control effects.
• Adaptation is recommended; it is likely your most passive choice, since it will automatically remove loss of control effects over 5 seconds.

3.2.5. Brewmaster Monk War Mode Talents for Leveling

• Double Barrel is an active ability that increases the damage of your next Keg Smash by 15% and stuns enemies for 3 seconds. This is great for larger packs, but does require a keybind that is not useful in Raids and Dungeons.
• Incendiary Breath alters Breath of Fire, increasing its radius and damage greatly and disorienting enemies, but also doubling the cooldown. This is excellent, as often you will only get to use one Breath of Fire, so the increased cooldown will hurt less.
• Niuzao's Essence clears snares when you drink Purifying Brew. While tanks cannot be dazed, many mobs still have frustrating slows. Being able to get rid of these is excellent, and you generally have many free Brew charges while questing.
• Fast Feet reduces the duration of slows against you and causes you to run faster for 3 seconds after being attacked. This is not game breaking, but a high-uptime run speed increase is nothing to scoff at.
• Admonishment is also worth a mention. It causes your Provoke to increase the damage a target takes by 3%. However, if the target takes damage from other people, they also add 3% to this up to 15%. Obviously, this is not useful while completely solo, but if you are taking on elites with other people that happen to be in the zone or questing in a group it can be worth taking. Be careful using this on World Bosses — they will still attack you when you Provoke them!

For most situations, a solid combo is Incendiary Breath, Niuzao's Essence and Fast Feet, as these are totally passive.

3.3. Consumables

There are several consumable items that can be purchased that will help you with your leveling speed.

• Skystep Potion increases your movement speed by 150% (more than a mount!) for 8 seconds. It has a 1-minute cooldown. This is extremely useful and should be used often and aggressively for any travel that is more than ~100 yards long.
• Gunshoes are an Engineering item that increase your movement speed by 200% for 25 seconds. These will make you almost as fast as a Flying mount. We recommend having a lot of these, and using them whenever you are traveling more than ~250 yards.
• Goblin Glider Kit is very useful for covering long distances from high places.

3.3.1. Gunshoes Macro

The Gunshoes will not let you stop moving for as long as they are active. Using this macro twice will click the buff off and allow you to stop.

• #showtooltip
• /use Gunshoes
• /cancelaura Gunshoes

3.4. Congratulations!

Congratulations on reaching Level 120! Now that you have hit Level 120 we recommend looking at our Easy mode page and Talents section to learn how to play at maximum level. To get yourself prepared for the end-game content ahead, we strongly recommend this Battle for Azeroth Raiding Lexicon/Spreadsheet by Medivh. It is a gold trove of information that will help you when gearing up in Battle for Azeroth and more.

4. Leveling 110-120 as a Mistweaver Monk

Leveling as a Mistweaver in Battle for Azeroth should be avoided at all costs. The fastest way to level is by completing quests, the limiting factor of which is generally your mobility and how quickly you can kill quest mobs. Windwalker is strictly better than Mistweaver at both of those things, as well has having more self-sustain, and tankiness.

The one exception to this is if you are going to be leveling in a group. While I would argue that Windwalker is still the better option here, having a healer will allow your group to pull larger and reduce downtime between pulls. However, if your group has any other class that can heal, it is advisable you have them do it instead, as the damage potential of Windwalker in AoE is enormous.

If your goal is to go from 110 to 120 as fast as you can, then I recommend checking out our Windwalker leveling guide, higher up the page. However, if you just enjoy staying as a Mistweaver and are not bothered by the several additional hours that will be added to your leveling experience, then read on.

4.1. Gear Options

When leveling up, you should always choose the piece of loot with the highest item level. The only exception to this rule is if you have a Ring or Necklace with a slightly lower item level, but 2 secondary stats on it instead of 1.

4.2. Level by Level Rotation and Talents

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

4.2.1. Talents to Level Up as a Mistweaver Monk

Your first talent row unlocks at Level 15.

Your talent set up should be as follows.

• Level 15: Chi Burst
• Level 30: Chi Torpedo
• Level 45: Lifecycles
• Level 60: Ring of Peace
• Level 75: Healing Elixir
• Level 90: Summon Jade Serpent Statue
• Level 100: Focused Thunder

4.2.2. Rotation Priority to Level Up as a Mistweaver Monk

1. Cast Chi Burst at 4 or more targets.
2. Cast Spinning Crane Kick at 4 or more targets.
3. Cast Rising Sun Kick whenever it is off cooldown.
4. Cast Chi Burst at 3 or more targets.
5. Cast Spinning Crane Kick at 3 targets.
6. Cast Tiger Palm to stack Teachings of the Monastery 3 times.
7. Cast Blackout Kick.

4.3. Gear

Below is a list of useful legendaries, trinkets and Azerite gear that you should aim to use when leveling.

4.3.1. Legendary Gear

If you are just coming out of Level 110, you will probably have a number of different Legendary items to choose from. Your Legendaries' special effects will stop working at Level 116, but until then they can be a very powerful addition to help you level up quickly. The best Legendaries for leveling are ones that either decrease kill time, make you able to run around faster, or a combination of both. These are our Legendary recommendations for leveling as a Mistweaver Monk in Battle for Azeroth.

• Sephuz's Secret is a great legendary, both for speed and damage.
• The Sentinel's Eternal Refuge is great for passive movement speed.

4.3.2. Trinkets

The best trinkets for Mistweaver leveling are ones that will allow you to take down large packs of enemies as fast as possible.

• Umbral Moonglaives deals large AoE damage in a moderate cooldown.
• Terrorbound Nexus causes melee attacks to have a chance to proc waves that deal AoE damage.
• Ishkar's Felshield Emitter places a large shield on the target. Upon expiration the shield explodes dealing damage equal to the amount it absorbed, split among all nearby enemies.

4.3.3. Azerite Gear

Along with some general damage traits, Mistweaver also has access to a few Windwalker traits, which allow us to increase our damage slightly.

• Sunrise Technique causes Rising Sun Kick to apply a debuff to the target, causing your damaging melee abilities to inflict additional physical damage to the target.
• Vampiric Speed causes you to self-heal and gain Speed for 6 seconds whenever an enemy you damaged dies.
• Filthy Transfusion gives your damaging ability a chance to do damage over 6 seconds to the target, healing you for the damage done.

Sunrise Technique synergizes very well with Spinning Crane Kick, and with the use of Thunder Focus Tea, you can apply several debuffs very quickly.

4.4. Mistweaver Monk War Mode Talents for Leveling

In this section, we will rank the best PvP talents for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking of both General PvP Talents and Mistweaver Monk-specific PvE talents.

4.4.1. General PvP Talents

• Relentless is also a passive ability but it does not automatically remove crowd control abilities. Instead, it reduces the duration.
• Gladiator's Medallion is an on-use ability that removes all movement impairing effects and loss of control effects.
• Adaptation is likely your most passive choice, since it will automatically remove loss of control effects over 5 seconds. It is recommended to take this PvP talent for leveling.

4.4.2. Mistweaver Monk PvP Talents for Leveling

1. Way of the Crane is the only DPS upgrade that the PvP talents provide, making it a pretty obvious choice.
2. Chrysalis lets you cocoon yourself more often, giving more time to DPS;
3. Surging Mist has a 1 second global cooldown when cast with Soothing Mist, allowing you to quickly top yourself if things get dicey.

4.5. Quest Rewards

You should equip new quest rewards when their item level starts beating out your previous set of gear. You will unlock Azerite pieces early on, which are worth using over Tier gear in most circumstances.

If possible, we recommend holding on to all Quest Rewards you do not use. They can be scrapped for material resources for profession crafting.

4.6. Consumables

There are several consumable items that can be purchased that will help you with your leveling speed.

• Skystep Potion increases your movement speed by 150% for 8 seconds. It has a 1-minute cooldown. This is extremely useful and should be used often and aggressively for any travel that is more than ~100 yards long.
• Gunshoes are an Engineering item that increase your movement speed by 200% and allow you to walk on water for 25 seconds. These will make you almost as fast as a Flying mount. We recommend having a lot of these, and using them whenever you are traveling more than ~250 yards.
• Goblin Glider Kit is very useful for covering long distances from high places.

4.6.1. Gunshoes Macro

The Gunshoes will not let you stop moving for as long as they are active. Using this macro twice will click the buff off and allow you to stop.

• #showtooltip
• /use Gunshoes
• /cancelaura Gunshoes

4.7. Congratulations!

Congratulations on reaching Level 120! Now that you have hit Level 120 we recommend looking at our Easy mode page and Talents section to learn how to play at max level. To get yourself prepared for the end-game content ahead, we strongly recommend this Battle for Azeroth Raiding Lexicon/Spreadsheet by Medivh. It is a gold trove of information that will help you when gearing up in Battle for Azeroth and more.

5. Changelog

• 10 Dec. 2018: Updated for Patch 8.1.
• 13 Aug. 2018: Added Mistweaver.
• 12 Aug. 2018: Consistency updates to give all leveling guides a similar feel. Added Brewmaster.
• 09 Aug. 2018: Windwalker Monk Level 1-120 section added.

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