Brewmaster Guide 7.1.5. by Charlie

[Charles_Francis]

Simplest Brewmaster guide
(I don't want to complicate it with an explanation of each spell/item/tallent..etc Let's keep it simple)



1) Itemization (Stat priority)
Stamina>Critical/Mastery>Haste
(Versatility is not that great. I 'll tell you why in 'Stagger' section)

Main set (Head, Shoulders, Chest, Hands and Legs)Critical > Mastery

Accessories (Neck, Fingers)Critical > Mastery / Critical > Haste

Off set (Wrist, Waist, Feet, Back)Haste>Mastery / Haste>Critical


Stamina is important on Brewmaster, more health you have, bigger Stagger bar is.
It increases percentage of maximum Stagger. Also, Brewmaster is way stronger on low health, therefore if you have 7Milion-ish health, 35% health is around 2Milion which is not that low.
And on 2Milion health you take double healing from Gift of the Ox's Healing Spheres, which is like an extra healer healing you only. Great, right?

Around 900-ish item level, Brewmaster is supposed to have Critical equal to Mastery, with at least two times less haste.
Haste is important because it lowers cooldown of Keg Smash and Ironskin Brew, but don't overcap it. Figure out how much haste is enough for you.
I personally prefer 8-10% haste because i won't benefit that much with one second smaller cooldown on Keg Smash as much as i would benefit from Critical that allows me to heal harder.
(I am 907ilvl, and this is how my stats look like)

(Why you need so much Critical? Because of Celestial Fortune, everything above 40% is great. More about it in 4)Selfhealing section)



2) Stagger (Thing that makes Brewmaster tanky)
(Stagger works kinda like versatility, you don't reduce damage taken, you take it overtime. Therefore you don't need Versatility, stronger the hit is, stronger the Stagger is).

Stagger - You shrug off attacks, delaying 40% of Physical damage, instead taking it over 10sec. Affects magical attacks at 50% effectiveness.
Ironskin Brew - Increases the damage you delay with Stagger by an additional 40% for 8 sec.

Ironskin Brew is most important thing, you must keep it up all the time. Because, with Ironskin Brew up you delay 80% damage taken instead of 40%.
(Let's say, a certain boss hits 1milion with a auto attack, instead of any other tank, Brewmaster will take 200k damage instantly, and a debuff that will deal 800k overtime)

Ironskin Brew's cooldown is reduced with Tiger Palm(by one sec) and Keg Smash(by four sec), therefore it's possible to keep it up for entire encounter.



3) Talents

1- In most situations


2- Skittish in Mythic+ dungeons

(Because you can taunt your statue, and make it aoe taunt every 8 sec. Therefore you don't really need hunter or rogue)

Macro for taunting statue -

/tar black ox statue
/cast provoke
/targetlasttarget


3- Necrotic in Mythic+ dungeons

(When you stand inside of Ring of Peace, no mob can reach you. Therefore you can easy reset Necrotic stacks)




4) Selfhealing


Sources of healing
Celestial Fortune - You have chance equal to your critical strike chance to be healed for an additional 65% of the amount healed.
Gift of the Ox - When you take damage, you have a chance to summon Healing Sphere visible only to you. Moving through this Healing Sphere heals you for 270.000.
Healing Eilixir - Drink a healing elixir, healing you for 15% of your maximum healrth. Healing Elixir will automaticlly trigger if you drop below 35% health, and a charge is available.

Bremaster have decent amount of selfhealing, which is even better when Brewmaster is on 35% health or less.
Celestial Fortune benefits out of Critical (Mentioned above), therefore we need as much Critical we possibly can have. Celestial Fortune can also be triggered by Gift of the Ox's healing spheres and Healing Elixirs.

4,1) Corner Tanking

Gift of the Ox's Healing Spheres are supposed to spawn at the right side of the monk, so, if you possition your monk next to a wall, hugging the wall with the right shoulder, it will force Healing Spheres to spawn at your feet. You will consume them instantly. When you are at 35% health or less, it will proc Healing Spheres even more because of the Artifact Trait 'Obstinate Determination'.

Obstinate Determination- Gift of the Ox summons an additional Healing Sphere when your health drops below 35%

Perfect possitioning, on Video you can follow healing of the Gift of the Ox's Healing Spheres.
(PS. I removed few items to make myself take more damage in order to show you how to Corner Tank)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=y9TSzkEpcLg&t=153:





5) Legendaries

BIS Legendaries are
Chest - Sal'salabim's Lost Tunic
Neck - Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus
Trinket - Archimonde's Hatred Reborn

Good legendaries to have if you don't have three mentioned above
Wrist - Anvil-Hardened Wristwraps
Waist - Cinidaria, the Symbiote
Feet - Firestone Walkers (I don't like feet, you benefit only when Fortifying Brew is on cooldown. Otherwise, it's just item that gives stats. Unlike Neck and Chest, you benefit all the time)



6) Blackout Combo (Talent)

If you find Blackout Combo too hard to control, i would suggest High Tolerance as a replacement.

If you do want Blackout Combo then you are supposed to combine it with
Tiger Palm - Damange increased by 200%
Keg Smash - Reduces the remaining cooldown on your Brews by 2 additional sec.
Ironskin Brew - Pauses Stagger damage for 3sec. (Which is best choice, 3sec no damage taken. But don't overuse it, you might kill yourself with it).

Blackout Combo ft. Ironskin Brew is risky. My suggestion is to use it only in 'OMG im dead' situations.



7) Artifact Weapon (Leveling)

1- Hurry up and get Obstinate Determination (Extra Healing)
2- Then go for Swift as a Coursing River after Healthy Appetite (More health and Movement speed)
3- Overflow (Extra Healing)
4- Dark Side of the Moon and Smashed are musthave (Less damage take from auto attacks)
5- Fulfill rest




I hope it helps, if you have any extra questions feel free to PM me on Discord or contact me ingame.
Discord - Charlie#6565
Ingame nick - Charlie

[Joshbang]

Good Overall guide, not much detailed tho! I liked it , but it's mainly focused around M+ content rather than Mythic Raiding and for that in my opinion the wrist leggo combined with chest are the best , the more adds you will pull the less dmg u will take because of the wrist, the dodge chance will be extremly high with =30% mastery so the leggo benefits more + way tons of adds hitting you, Prydaz is not that great tho because we will be taking dmg all the time from stagger so the shield is kinda useless.

[Charles_Francis]

There are like 5-ish Brewmasters that can currently tank Mythic Raids. I wanted to start guide with simplest explanation how to play Brewmaster. I'll update it once new patch is released and once i clean Mythic Nighthold myself. Can't really guide people through NH Mythic if i haven't finished it myself. Also, i listed 3 legendary items as BIS. Not just Prydaz xD Wrist part i agree with, but you kinda need to learn how Brewmaster works before you pull whole instance, dont'cha think? You're comparing yourself as experianced Brewmaster to a people that want to learn how Brewmaster works.

[Magnus06]

Hello there !

I'm a veteran tank but i never touched the monk class ever, i mean, a little during MoP but it was more about struterring around with fancy pandas more than playing the class itself. Prot warrior is subject to my deepest hatred ever since they butchered it in 4.3, Guardian druids are boring, i already played Prot Paladin during MoP so it would be more of the same and least flavorful, Blood DK are a bunch of fanatics with too much sadomasochism and Vengeance Demon Hunters feel are melancholic, one is sure to make a burn out during work days playing that.

That leaves me with Monk, the only reason i avoided it so long was because of Wisemonk himself but aside from that it feels satisfying to play so i gave it a shot and i enjoy it so far.

I have some questions though :

•Comboing Ironskin Brew just means you freeze your stagger but all damage you take while it's paused is reported afterwards ?

•You say comboing IB is the best choice but at the same time it isn't, i understand your point and it actually requires a good understanding of the encounter (to be able to know approximatively when to pause your stagger) but what would you combo for instead of IB ? Breathe Fire is out of way because of the leg chest, Tiger Palm allows some crazy hit with good RNG and Keg may be just overkill towards reducing brews CD.

•If i keep pausing my stagger then i must hold one charge to use Purifying Brew to solve the problem, right ?

•Who wins between Agility and Crit ?

•Do you record yourself playing or know someone that does and could be quite educationnal ?

•Do you have any secret addons that are very QoL for playing that spec ?

•Are you tired of these questions ?

•Are you sure ?

•Do you really wish to validate this answer ? You won't be able to change it after.

•ARE YOU INSANE ? YOU REALLY CONFIRMED THAT CHOICE ?


I'm done. You did good work on this, expect rep soon enough.

[pamatiss]

i don't want to sound mean or something ,but this guide is actually the opposite of what a BM monk should have/use ,starting from stat priority to talent and even to leggos

[kuro14]

[quote="
•Comboing Ironskin Brew just means you freeze your stagger but all damage you take while it's paused is reported afterwards ?

•You say comboing IB is the best choice but at the same time it isn't, i understand your point and it actually requires a good understanding of the encounter (to be able to know approximatively when to pause your stagger) but what would you combo for instead of IB ? Breathe Fire is out of way because of the leg chest, Tiger Palm allows some crazy hit with good RNG and Keg may be just overkill towards reducing brews CD.

•If i keep pausing my stagger then i must hold one charge to use Purifying Brew to solve the problem, right ?


[/quote]



The idea is you can facetank almost anything, freeze your stagger at yellow/red and afterwards purify it with remaining charges/black ox brew. Taking no spikes damage. You can always prevent running out of charges by comboing into keg with time