[EN] Brewmaster Monk 5.4.8 PvE Guide.

[Sashas]

Brewmaster Monk PvE 5.4 guide by Sashas












UPDATE: Added download links to addons.
UPDATE: Added a further discussion into Purifying Brew.
UPDATE: Finished adding icons to every ability.



I've kept the simplicity of the design and have focused more on the content of the guide and the information required to play this class and spec to its maximum efficiency.

1: Personal Introduction

1.1: Introduction to MoP Tanking/Active Mitigation

1.2: Introduction to Monk Abilities

2: Explicit Stat Discussion.

2.1: 10 M vs 25 M Stat Priorities.

2.2: Gearing

2.3: Reforging

2.4: Enchanting

2.5: Gemming

2.6: Dual Wield or 2h?

3. Talents

3.1: Glyphs

4. Further Discussion into Monk Abilities

5. Spell Priorities

5.1: Single-Target Rotation

5.2: AoE Rotation

6. Professions

7. Races

8. Additional Information

8.1: Addons

8.2: Macros

1: About myself and why you should read this guide

Spoiler:

Simple question with an easy answer I'd assume. I've been playing WoW and mainly retail since the release of TBC, being an avid raider throughout Wotlk up to MoP, taking part in server first kills throughout Wotlk and Cata, maintaining my status as a hardcore raider. Primarily experienced in tanking and healing throughout my gaming era, I've decided that I'd be moving to this server as to re-experience the joy of MoP raiding once again, more chill this time. Being in one of the top guilds on Ravencrest (eXample), it'd be safe say that this guide would keep its credibility. Almost everything posted will have it's theorycrafting done by myself personally as I've also posted many guides beginning of MoP on retail regarding tanks in general. Currently playing a monk tank in Aeon Nox.

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1.1: Introduction

Ever since the launch of Cataclysm, the gamestyle of many roles have been drastically altered to a new approach. Since the release of MoP, a new concept called Active Mitigation. has been introduced primarily for tanks. Active mitigation is currently one of the most crucial factors to take into consideration if you are willing to tank EFFECTIVELY. Mastering this concept will make the difference between a skilled tank raiding progression and a tank wiping RDFs.

Quote:

Active Mitigation - A model for tanking which requires to display an active role in their own damage mitigation.

Examples of Active Mitigation.


Guardian druids - Savage Defense Frenzied Regeneration

Protection Warriors - Shield Block and Shield Barrier

Paladins - Shield of the Righteousness proccing Bastion of Glory, Word of Glory through Holy Power use.

Monk - Shuffle, Guard, Dampen Harm Diffuse Magic, Expel Harm, Purifying Brew, Elusive Brew.


Knowing how to utilize your cooldowns and effective cooldown management for efficient active mitigation is the sole difference between a good and a bad raider. Mastering this will take time, and properly knowing the boss fight will allow you to predict your next move to reduce damage in-take/lower the healing necessary on you or your raid.

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1.2: Introduction to Monk Abilities/Spells.

Quote:

Stagger - You shrug off physical attacks, causing 70% of the damage to happen instantly and the remaining 30% to be divided over 10 sec.

Offensive Abilities

Jab - You Jab the target, dealing X damage and generating 1 Chi.


Tiger's Palm - Attack with the palm of your hand, dealing X damage. Also grants you Tiger Power, causing your attacks to ignore 30% of enemies' armor for 20 seconds.


Blackout Kick - Kick with a blast of Chi energy, dealing X Physical damage.


Keg Smash - You smash a keg of brew on the target, dealing X damage to all nearby enemies within 8 yards. Also drenches targets in your Dizzying Haze and applies the Weakened Blows effect. Generates 2 Chi. Reducing the movement speed of all enemies within Y yards by 50% for 15 seconds. Deals a high amount of threat. Demoralizes the target, reducing their physical damage dealt by 10% for 30 seconds.





Utility

Guard - You Guard against future attacks, absorbing $ damage for 30 seconds. Any heals you apply to yourself while Guarding are increased by 30%.


Expel Harm - Instantly heals yourself for X, and causes 50% of the amount healed to instantly be dealt to a nearby enemy as Nature damage within yards. Generates 1 Chi.


Summon Black Ox Statue - Everytime the Monk deals X (Your Attack Power * 16) damage, the Black Ox statue will cast Guard on an injured party or raid member within yards absorbing Y damage lasting 30 seconds. This effect cannot be cast onto the Monk.


Detox - Eliminates ailments from the friendly target, removing all harmful Poison and Disease effects.


Nimble Brew - Clears you of all root, stun, fear and horror effects and reduces the duration of future such effects by 60% for 6 seconds.


Spear Hand Strike - You jab the target in the throat, interrupting their spell cast and preventing any spell in that school from being cast for 4 seconds. If the enemy is facing you when cast, they are also silenced for 2 seconds.


Purifying Brew - Instantly purifies all of your staggered damage.


Elusive Brew - Increases your chance to dodge melee and ranged attacks by 30% for 1 second per stack of Elusive Brew active, consuming your Elusive Brew charges.





Buffs



Legacy of the Emperor - You extol the words of the last emperor, increasing Strength, Agility, and Intellect by 5%.




Crowd Control


Paralysis - You cause the target's muscles to contract, incapacitating them for 40 seconds. If done from behind the target, the duration is increased 50%. Only one target can be victim to Paralysis at any given time. Any damage taken will cancel the effect.


Provoke - You mock the target, causing them to rush towards you with a 50% increased movement speed.

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2: Explicit Stat Discussion/Values.

Stamina: Obviously playing a huge role in Effective Health. By raising your stamina, you clearly get a greater health pool and so allowing you to take more damage before you're dead. Stamina at the current moment for a monk should only be focused on with enchants/gems/consumables if you are REALLY struggling on fights which are MAGIC based. Mastery and other types of mitigation methods do not help with taking less magic damage, and so your best bet to survive such encounters would be more stamina focused. Glyph of Guard (wowhead link) is also a huge bonus to pickup in these cases combined with stamina, though I will go more into glyph choices further on. Being a primary stat, this will passively increase the better your iLvl gets through raiding or weekly bags if you get lucky. Trinket swapping should definitely be considered for specific encounters.


Agility: By far your primary stat, providing you with higher attack power as well as dodge and crit (Crit also converted into dodge from Elusive Brew). Like stamina, agility will also passively increasing as your iLvl increases.


Critical Strike: Crit will increase our chance to land critical hits with our white hits as well as abilities. Crit being converted into dodge through Elusive Brew, the higher our crit is the more likely our Elusive Brew % uptime will increase due to more crits being landed.


Mastery: Mastery increasing the % of damage we stagger over time, thus reducing the INSTANT damage we take as well. Huge debate whether monks should go for Crit or Mastery which I'll explain further on.


Haste: Increasing our energy regeneration, allowing us to land more hits with Jab and other Chi required abilities. Combined with Ascension, the haste cap is purely dependant on the player and the energy he/she feels comfortable playing on. Haste could also be passively combined with crit as it makes our attacks faster, thus a higher chance to land more crits allowing more Elusive Brews. However, this stat should not be preferred over mastery or crit in any case.





Just as a general use and concept, here are values of stat rating (Value to 1%)

Stat | Value
Agility (Crit) | 1259.5
Agility (Dodge) | 1394.3
Crit Rating | 600
Haste Rating | 425
Expertise Rating | 340
Hit Rating | 340
Dodge Rating | 900
Parry Rating | 900

Expertise Capping and Hit Chance

Right now, bosses have a 7.5% to parry, dodge or miss your attacks. The hit cap being 7.5% (2550) removes your 7.5% chance to miss. If you are a Draenei, you'll be needing 2210 hit in order to get the hit cap. Other races like Orcs and Humans will benefit from the expertise gain depending on the type of weapon they use.




Further into Expertise Cap.

For every tank, there is a 'Soft Cap' and a 'Hard Cap' for expertise.


Soft Cap: 7.5% Expertise (2550). reduces the target's 7.5% chance to dodge.
Hard Cap: 15% Expertise (5100), reduces the target's 7.5% chance to parry.

Quote:

EVERY TANK MUST GO FOR THE HARD EXPERTISE CAP. It is a Chi generation increase and a dps increase. It makes Chi generation more consistent, which is important while tanking. Consistency is the greatest factor for a player in order to achieve, the ability to predict your rotation a few seconds ahead and to be able to react to up coming mechanics instead of reacting accordingly .

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2.1: 10 M vs 25 M Stat priority. (Mastery vs Crit Vs Stamina)

This is quite the debate as many people usually analyze stat priorities for their raiding content and difficulty so I'll try to sum it up here so everyone can understand.
Since mastery functions as PERCENTAGE VALUES, it seems to be more decisive in 25 mans than in 10 man. Mastery actually DOES NOT provide any damage reduction, however more control of damage taken as you're able to stagger more, so better DAMAGE REDISTRIBUTION.

10 Man Raiding

Now this definitely does not mean that mastery is completely useless for 10 mans, mastery is probably one of the best scaling stats overall.
Now let's just take 10 man raiding as an example. Self-healing as a monk is always crucial when raiding regardless of the mode. Haste and Crit increase self-healing whereas mastery does not (Gift of the Ox). Self-healing values in 10 man are way too important to not consider in comparison to 25 man.



25 Man Raiding

When tanking 25 mans, it isn't as big anymore to focus on self-healing as you generally would in 10 man, so crit and haste will potentially fall off compared to mastery as a base increase in damage redistribution compared to RNG relying stat like crit.




Mastery vs Stamina

MASTERY DOES NOT TAKE ANY EFFECT AGAINST ANY SPELLS. You gain passive stamina from all the items you have, easier gain for mastery due to reforging as well.
Stamina does NOT effect damage redistribution. It is by FAR a lot more valuable for unavoidable damage than stamina (if Purify is used correctly).

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2.1: Gearing


Starter Brewmaster Gear

Wowhead Link for Preview

A few things to note here: The stamina trinket which I put on there could be swapped out for another agi trinket. At this point it really depends on the player and how well they can control stagger in-take. I would suggest going with the stamina trinket until you get used to it as you might consider yourself too squishy at start.

Best in Slot Gear List from current content (No Donating).

Wowhead Link for Preview

Not many tweaks to do on here. At this point you should have spare stamina trinkets to swap on heavy magic fights if necessary.

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2.2: Reforging

Reforging once again will solely depend on the specific encounter and mode you're raiding, as well as which stat you chose to pursue.

10 Man Scenario


Hit = Expertise --> Crit --> Mastery --> Haste (You may want to prioritize this a bit more until comfort zone) --> Dodge/Parry



25 Man Scenario


Hit = Expertise --> Mastery --> Crit --> Haste (You may want to prioritize this a bit more until comfort zone) --> Dodge/Parry




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2.3: Enchanting

The way you choose to enchant will solely depend on your gear, whether or not you've reached your stat caps basically.
There isn't much variety of enchants you can pick out once you set your stat priority straight.

Shoulders

• Greater Tiger Claw Inscription
  
• Greater Ox Horn Inscription
  
  
  Cloak
  
• Greater Protection
  
• Superior Critical Strike
  
• Accuracy
  
  
  Chest
  
• Glorious Stats
  
• Superior Stamina
  
  
  Bracers
  
• Greater Agility
  
• Mastery
  
  Gloves
  
• Superior Expertise
  
• Superior Mastery
  
  
  Legs
  
• Ironscale Leg Armor
  
• Shadowleather Leg Armor
  
  
  Boots
  
• Blurred Speed
  
• Pandaren's Step
  
  
  Weapon
  
• Dancing Steel
  
• Windsong

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2.4: Gemming

Gemming is slightly different to how you would prioritize your stat choice. Since secondary stats have a 2:1 ratio when gemming, it'd be best to go for secondary stat gemming.
This again PURELY depends on the stats you're lacking and your gear level. So it is fairly obvious that our main priority would be gemming into Hit and expertise, followed by Crit or mastery, or haste before you reach a comfortable level. There is no ONE way to gem a Brewmaster and it's up to your own judgement.

Meta Gem

Heavy Magic Damage Encounters Effulgent Primal Diamond
High DPS in return for less Stamina Agile Primal Diamond
Slightly Lower Geared Austere Primal Diamond

Red Slots


Expertise Capped?

Adept Vermillion Onyx

Deadly Vermillion Onyx



Otherwise

Precise Primordial Ruby

Keen Vermillion Onyx

Crafty Vermillion Onyx

Blue Slots


Expertise Capped?

Sensei's Wild Jade

Piercing Wild Jade

Puissant Wild Jade




Otherwise

Guardian's Imperial Amethyst

Yellow Slots


Expertise Capped?

Fractured Sun's Radiance

Smooth Sun's radiance



Otherwise

Keen Vermillion Onyx

Crafty Vermillion Onyx

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2.5: Dual Wield or 2h?

Dual Wielding will generally provide less Elusive Brew generation. Dual Wield crits will grant you 2 stacks of Elusive Brew, 2h stacks 3. At equal terms of weapons, 2h seems to be the preferred choice as it stands out to be the tankier style compared to Dual Wield. Just use the best you can pick up generally. Dual Wield could be more rewarding in terms of DPS not considering the due to the offhand penalty taken into consideration, double Dancing Steel would do the trick.

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3: Talents

Celerity - Allows you to Roll and Chi Torpedo more often, increases their maximum number of charges by 1, and reduces their cooldown by 5 sec.

Generally the best option when insane mobility and quick positioning involved. Goes well with Chi Torpedo

Tiger's Lust - Instantly clears the target of all immobilizing and movement impairing effects, and increases their movement speed by 70% for 6 sec. 1 Chi, 30 second cooldown.

Probably the best choice in this tier as it can be used on other players. Active movement procs will ALWAYS beat passive effects. Can also save your raid's *** if used on a slacker.

Momentum - Every time you Roll or Chi Torpedo, your movement speed is increased by 25% for 10 seconds. Stacks up to 2 times.

A lower burst movement talent than Celerity, the worst talent in this tier probably. Still inferior to both other choices.

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Chi Wave - You cause a wave of Chi energy to flow through friend and foe, dealing (493 + 45% of AP) Nature damage or (493 + 45% of AP) healing. Bounces up to 7 times to the nearest targets within 20 yards. When bouncing to allies, Chi Wave will prefer those injured over full health. 15 second cooldown.


Does a fairly good amount of healing but primarily it's a SMART heal, targetting the lowest % of HP in the raid. Improves Self-Healing drastically jumping from boss to tank and raid members. SHOULD ALWAYS BE USED ON YOURSELF FIRST.


Zen Sphere - Forms a Zen Sphere above the target, healing the target for (99 + 9% of AP) and dealing (99 + 9% of AP) Nature damage to the nearest enemy within 10 yards of the target every 2 sec for 16 sec. Two Zen Sphere can be summoned at any one time. If the target drops to or below 35% health or Zen Sphere is dispelled or expires, the Zen Sphere detonates, dealing (144 + 26.3% of AP) Nature damage and (128 + 23.4% of AP) healing to all targets within 10 yards. 10 second cooldown.

REALLY REALLY BAD, however the burst healing could do something, not gonna discuss this, do not take this.

Chi Burst - You summon a torrent of Chi energy and hurl it forward, up to 40 yards, dealing (662 to 1982 + 121% of AP) Nature damage to all enemies and (549 to 1643 + 100% of AP) healing to all allies in its path. Chi Burst will always heal the Monk. While casting Chi Burst, you continue to dodge, parry, and auto-attack. 30 second cooldown

Once again, should ONLY be picked up when heavy AoE damage is about to come and a lot of stacking is involved (Feng the Accursed).

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Power Strikes - Every 20 sec, you gain Power Strikes, causing your next Jab, Spinning Crane Kick, Soothing Mist, or Crackling Jade Lightning to generate 1 additional Chi. If you are already at maximum Chi, a Chi Sphere will be summoned near you.

Greatly recommended for players who aren't comfortable with their haste and can't fully benefit from Ascension JUST yet. Would be prefered for under-geared monks HOWEVER I have not tested this talent out yet.


Ascension - Increases your maximum Chi by 1, your maximum mana by 15%, and your energy regen by 15%


Since it's a greater energy regeneration, this obviously means more Jabs/Expel Harms running throughout the fight. Heavily scales off your current gear as other abilities like Heroism/ Bloodlust and other haste procs/potions will scale off this. This can also combo REALLY well with the following.




Purifying Brew --> Guard --> Blackout Kick.



Since Shuffle is bugged and constant Blackout Kicks will NOT increase the duration of Shuffle, this can lead up to a great combo to keep it up as well as getting your shield up.
Chi Brew - Instantly restores 2 Chi and generates 5 stacks of Elusive Brew. 2 charges, 45 second recharge.


Probably the best option for a shorter duration fight, as this will scale off compared to Ascension in the longer period. However, having that instant Chi ready for emergencies could come in handy for clutch Guard or Shuffle uptime.

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Ring of Peace - The ability forms an 8-yard Sanctuary around a friendly target for 8 seconds, instantly disarming and silencing enemies within the area-of-effect for 4 seconds. Enemies that use abilities other than auto-attacks or cast spells on allies within the Ring of Peace will be disarmed and silenced for 3 seconds. 45 second cooldown.

Primarily a PvP based talent, however could have its uses if you're willing to Disarm or Silence a group of adds. Also does not DR with stuns. Seems like the worst talent out of this tier.

Charging Ox Wave - A mighty Ox effigy rushes forward 30 yards in front of you, stunning all enemies within its path for 3 sec. 30 second cooldown.

3 second stun duration from a huge range. Has potential if adds could be stunned out of melee range or away from the raid from a distance.

Leg Sweep - You knock down all enemies within 5 yards, effectively stunning them for 5 sec. 45 second cooldown.

5 second AoE stun, by far my personal choice for many encounters. Only downside compared to the others is its very small range.

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Healing Elixirs - Every 18 sec, you gain Healing Elixirs, causing your next Brew or Tea to also heal you for 15% of your total health. Additionally, if you are brought below 35% health, Healing Elixirs will automatically proc.

Only benefits from Purifying Brew, Fortifying Brew, Nimble Brew and Elusive Brew.
Passive talent once again proccing on your Brews. Slightly bad as a lot of offhealing could be done as Elusive Brew is generally timed for use before heavy hits would be incoming, which by then you should be topped off by your healers nonetheless.

Dampen Harm - The next 3 attacks within 45 sec that deal damage equal to 20% or more of your total health are reduced in half. Can be cast while stunned. 90 second cooldown.

Bugged I believe, not worth talking about it until it gets fixed, which then I'll update my guide about it. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)


Diffuse Magic - Reduces all spell damage taken by 90% and clears all magical effects on you, reversing them back to their original caster if within 40 yards if possible. Lasts for 6 sec. 90 second cooldown.

The Way to go talent. A lot of bosses in this content released on our server focus on heavy magic damage. Could be used to prevent a huge spell attack coming beforehand or to dispel debuffs off yourself which are undispellable.

Examples - Spray from Lei Shi, Touch of Sha off Protectors in ToEs and similar other debuffs.

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Rushing Jade Wind - Rushing Jade Wind replaces Spinning Crane Kick. It has the same period, the same cost the same Chi generation and deals only 80% of the normal damage of Spinning Crane kick per tick, but now lasts for 6 seconds and does not have to be channeled. It also has a 6 second cooldown.

Good damage, considered a passive DPS ability after it is used, also scales off haste. Take this for AoE encounters.


Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger - Invokes the White Tiger Celestial, summoning an effigy at the command of the caster. The effigy will assist you, attacking your primary target and also inflicting tiger lightning every 1 sec to 3 nearby enemies within 10 yards dealing (1,605 + 50.5% of AP) damage over 5 sec. Lasts for 45 sec. 3 minute cooldown

Controllable pet with taunt whenever you need it, also a great DPS boost. Take this for fights which don't require too much AoE.



Chi Torpedo - Torpedo a distance in front of you, dealing (2077 + 55.7% of AP) Nature damage to all enemies and (8408 + 38.5% of AP) healing to all allies in your path. Chi Torpedo replaces Roll.

Should only be taken when you're expected to help out with healing or simply your group can't keep up with the healing. Only be used when downtime on boss is there and you can't do anything except stand there so might as well take this. Does decent amount of healing combined with Chi Burst or Chi Wave

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3.1: Glyphs

Essential Glyph - Glyph of Fortifying Brew

Giving up base health for more mitigation is way too good to give up. Stamina is not as strong as it is on other tanks compared to Brewmasters, where avoidance and mitigation is our primary way to go.

Situational Glyph - Glyph of Guard

Should only be taken for fights where magic damage will clearly out-throw white melee hits out of the way to not even consider as a threat.
Use this on Lei Shi and similar heavy magic damage bosses.

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4. Further Discussion into Monk Abilities

Let's start analyzing the most important feature of a Brewmaster monk, Stagger

Stagger (wowhead link) is the only feature which makes Brewmaster monks so unique compared to other tanks and the ability in which we control damage in-take. Thus receiving NO armor from our gear, it is crucial to first master Stagger control before moving on to anything else.

A very easy example in the following:

A tank gets hit for 700k = 1 shot (So to say)
In the case of a Brewmaster, from the 700k hit (Maths time)

80% of 700k = 448k (Remaining 252k is Staggered).

In this case, if you instantly use your Purify, you would be dispelling the incoming 252k damage over 10 seconds = Profit

As you start playing Brewmaster, you'll notice that your Stagger (wowhead link) will turn into 3 different colors as you start taking your damage.

Light Stagger(Green) < 3% Total Health Dealt Per Second
Moderate Stagger(Yellow) (wowhead link) < 3-6% Total Health Dealt Per Second
Heavy Stagger(Red) (wowhead link) > 6% Total Health Dealt Per Second








Purifying Brew

Purifying Brew is our only tool into improving active mitigation by removing our DoT intake from Stagger (wowhead link).





General rotation would be

Heavy Stagger (wowhead link) --> Purifying Brew --> Heavy Stagger (wowhead link) --> Purifying Brew and so on.





When to Purify Effectively

One of the mistakes beginner monks do and I also used to do is to spam Purifying Brew on any Stagger (wowhead link) amount of no use Purifying Brew at all. Heavy staggers should generally be purified at once, although each type of Heavy Stagger (wowhead link) will vary depending on damage in-take.
NOT EVERY HEAVY STAGGER (wowhead link) IS THE SAME DAMAGE. Keeping track of your Stagger (wowhead link) through the use of addons will be a huge plus to your tanking, addons which I will mention later on.

As a general idea of Purifying ONLY right after you have refreshed Shuffle or you have enough Chi to Purify then land a Blackout Kick instantly




Purify Heavy Stagger (wowhead link) - As soon as you can.
Purify Stagger > 40% of my health
Purify Moderate Stagger (wowhead link) before a predictable burst damage so I can easily get healed, can also be combined with the healing buff from Guard (Will discuss soon)
Purify Moderate Stagger (wowhead link) if below 70% health





Shuffle vs Purifying Brew

Shuffle is one of our HIGHEST priority in terms of keeping up higher Stagger (wowhead link) and should be very very easy to maintain 100% up time. The gain to Stagger (wowhead link) from Shuffle with +1% increase for every 960 Mastery gain.

Now if you're left with a choice of either using Purify or Blackout Kick to maintain Shuffle, you will have to consider the following.

How big was the hit landed on you?
How much current stagger do you have stacked?

For this reason, it is once again very important to track your stagger amounts using certain scripts or addons. Of course, if you're struck by an attack which would have seemed deadly for another tank, you would have to prioritize using Purify as the Shuffle buff will probably not save you, and whatever big attack 1 shots a tank will generally 2 shot a Brewmaster with the first tick of Stagger (wowhead link).

BREWMASTER MONK IS ALL ABOUT PRACTISE AND SELF-JUDGEMENT. Gameplay can be very situational and it would be too long for me to post each one of them. These are decisions you will have to make yourself in regards to what you prioritize in each scenario. Theoretically, Shuffle should be maintained 100% of the time.





Jab vs Expel Harm

Jab and Expel Harm both generate 1 Chi, with Expel Harm having a cooldown however.
Expel Harm should be prioritized over if you are NOT overhealing. Self-healing is always great and should be taken advantage of it whenever possible, can also generate Chi when you are out of melee range.

Thanks to our passive ability Desperate Measures, Expel Harm has no cooldown at 35% health or below. Of course this does not make it spammable as the Chi cost is far too big for us to do that. However, take as much advantage of it as you can, an instant heal granting 1 Chi with no cooldown.





Elusive Brew

Elusive Brew has a lot of potential for uptime and a huge avoidance boost, granting 30% dodge depending how many stacks it was used on. The active is determined Brewing: Elusive Brew by a stacking buff whenever you crit with your auto attacks (The amount of charges you get per crit depend on your weapon speed). As mentioned before, generally 2 with Dual Wield and 3 with a Staff/Polearm.

The dodge provided is the same no matter how many stacks it's used on, however it's just the duration which is increased. It is optimal that you would use Elusive Brew above 6 stacks all the time, and NEVER cap it to 15 stacks without using it. Having to know the encounters as a Brewmaster, you would have to predict incoming damage and use Elusive Brew pre-emptively. It is merely impossible to keep 100% uptime on this as it would generally mean you would have to be critting every 1-2 seconds regardless of your weapon speed and Crit chance.





Tiger Palm & Power Guard

Now Tiger Palm has quite a few uses for a NO-ENERGY COST ability.

Applying a self buff, Tiger Power, allowing you to ignore 30% of your target's armor with your attacks. Obviously a DPS and a threat gain, and should always be opened with at start.

Applying Power Guard, increasing the shield amount of your next Guard by 15%. Always have this buff up before getting ready to use Guard.

Lastly, use Tiger Palm as a filler to gain extra DPS and threat as it does not cost any energy, literally spammable. You can only do this when Shuffle is up and Keg Smash is on cooldown.

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5: Spell Priorities

Summon Black Ox Statue should always be put right on the pull, and repositioned if necessary, THIS IS VERY VERY CRUCIAL DO NOT FORGET. However, it can also ninjapull like I have done a few times so do take care.

In Order of Priority

• Keg Smash
  
• Shuffle uptime
  
• Tiger Palm for Power Guard and Tiger Power
  
• Expel Harm on cooldown if necessary.

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5.1: General Rotation

• Pull with Keg Smash then keep it on cooldown, your primary threat ability, also your strongest. Generates 2 Chi.
  
• Get Tiger Power going ASAP.
  
• From this point on, try to maintain Shuffle throughout the whole encounter.
  
• Jab or Expel Harm to generate Chi. NEVER CAP YOUR ENERGY, it is a DPS and a threat loss.
  
• Blackout Kick even if Shuffle has not run out yet however you are very close to capping energy.
  
• Tiger Palm if nothing else.

As mentioned above, you should never ever have free GCD's going to waste due to Tiger Palm not costing any energy. Always try to track Keg Smash cooldown so it is used immediately. Keeping that on cooldown will automatically result in a DPS and Chi lost.

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5.2: Multi-Target Rotation

• Keg Smash on cooldown once again.
  
• Get Shuffle up.
  
• Maintain Tiger Power
  
• Use Rushing Jade Wind or Spinning Crane Kick
  
• Use Breath of Fire to get the ticking DoT going. Prioritize Shuffle over this and only get this going with if you can afford to use both.

NOTE: If you are using Spinning Crane Kick, take into account that during the duration of this spell, you are locked out of all abilities so it is CRUCIAL that you try not to use this if Keg Smash] will go on cooldown or you are about to cap energy.

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6: Professions

Alchemy | 240 Hit/Expertise/Haste/Crit/Mastery and 480 Armor or 320 Agility
Blacksmithing | 640 Hit/Expertise/Haste or 320 Agility
Enchanting | 320 Agility
Engineering | 1920 Agility (10 sec/60 sec cd) - Burst 320 Agi
Inscription | 320 Agility
Jewelcrafting | 320 Agility or 320 Haste/Expertise
Leatherworking | 320 Agility or 750 Stamina at loss of 180 Agility
Tailoring | 4000 AP proc for 15 sec

• Blacksmithing will come on top over any other profession for a Brewmaster. Since we prioritize gemming secondary stats and getting a free gem slot from blacksmithing, that gives the variety of options to choose the stats we're mostly in need of. Do take this.
  
  
• Engineering is more solely up to the player's preference. The tinkers on gloves granting +1920 Agility for 10 seconds could simply be amazing for either burst damage, or sudden Dodge/Crit whenever in need of Elusive Brew. Nitro boots also rock.
  
  
• Leatherworking is pretty nice for all tanks in terms of the +750 stamina on wrists. As we're a more offensive tanking class, the tremendous agility boost on bracers could really payoff compared to the other available enchants. Agility value is too big to give up.
  
  
• Other professions I could not really recommend except Alchemy for a good trinket boost, however trinkets are fairly easy to obtain on this server.

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7: Races

As monks and Pandarens were introduced in the same expansion, it would only make sense that a Pandaren is the best current race for a monk but let's just take all the races.

I will only be listing the races which I believe are worth analyzing.


Pandaren - Your passive allows you to gain double the food buff. Unfortunately right now, this does not work. Talking in the long run however, gaining 600 Agility compared to 300 is crazy. 600 agility is worth 1200 secondary stats regarding gems. I would recommend Pandaren for every tanking class, also provides the greatest damage boost passively.

Horde


Tauren - 5% maximum health increased. Good for other tanks but not Brewmasters, we don't prioritize stamina as much as other tanks.

Orc - 4514 Attack Power for 15 seconds on a 2 minute cooldown, 1% expertise if dual-wielding axes and 15% stun duration reduction.
On use effect might scale well although still inferior to the Pandaren Race. 1% expertise if dual-wielding is pretty situational depending on your weapon types and should not be relied on.

Troll - Provides 20% Haste for 10 seconds on a 3 minute cooldown, equaling a 1.1% increase to total haste (472 Haste Rating) if used on cooldown. Scales alright though the cooldown sort of lets it down for a 10 second haste boost which only affects our Energy regeneration with Ascension





Alliance

Night Elf - 2% dodge increase, summing up to 1770 dodge rating. Most preferred race for ally currently granting free passive avoidance. Nothing else to say.

Draenei - 1% hit and Gift of the Naaru. Self-healing is never bad and should be considered greatly. 1% hit is also very good to consider as a passive, stops you from reforging/gemming all the hit necessary although reaching the hit cap is fairly simple.

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8: Essential Addons

MonkTimers

Crucial addon, do take this if you are planning on playing a Brewmaster. Basically tracks your Stagger (wowhead link) value as a bar on your interface with a slight tweak on your whole UI.


TellMeWhen

Another amazing addon to keep track of Shuffle, Elusive Brew, Tiger Power and many other buffs with durations which are easily displayed on bars you can setup easily.



DeadlyBossMods

A clear addon if you're willing to progress in raiding. Would not say it's a necessity but a great addon telling you more about the raid encounter on the spot, basically makes raiding slightly easier with less awareness needed.


Recount

Track DPS, Healing, Deaths, Damage Taken, Dispells, Interrupts and so on. Don't use it to get greedy DPS as everyone does, probably myself as well.

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8.1: Macros

Selfcast/Mouseover Tiger's Lust:



Quote:

#showtooltip Tiger's Lust /cast [@mouseover,help] Tiger's Lust; [@player] Tiger's Lust




Focus Spear Hand Strike (Could be used for Protectors, or basically to stick to a target while following another)



Quote:

#showtooltip Spear Hand Strike cast [target=focus] Spear Hand Strike




Self Chi-Wave



Quote:

#showtooltip Chi Wave /cast [@Name] Chi Wave

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Closing Words

Would like to thank everyone for reading my guide, took me some time to sum up all the information by myself without any help off websites. If you did enjoy it and actually learned something do not hesitate to give me an upvote or even rep

Brewmaster Monk 5.4.8 English PvE guide

[Enqu]

Detailed guide, good work

[Sashas]

Regarding any misleading information or the horrible design it, please excuse me I honestly don't know how to anchor things in my content or prettier looks. Everything written here is all by me with no plagiarism involved except the mathematical statistics taken.



Brewmaster Monk 5.4.8 English PvE guide

[nos2006]

Very good guide. Congratulations for your work!

[ryangg]

Good work,one of the best guides so far ,well explained

[k0s]

Wow, nice guide!
Thanks!

[Fenriabis]

very big big big guide

nice one !!!



[quote="bossutai"]Ca enha iti zic sa nu alegi shaman.[/quote]

[Orga]

Hahaha poor Sasha can't Anchor

Tho very nice guide , i highly recommend anyone to read this if he is not satisfied of the results he is getting with his character , he plays his brewmaster very nicely and you could learn some stuff from this

[makaveli123]

Frumoss

[Sashas]

Thank you all regarding the comments



Brewmaster Monk 5.4.8 English PvE guide

[Optikall]

This is a very nice guide, I hoped someone will come one day with a guide like this for brewmasters. Cheers!

Cumpar Cioara neagrã / Corb

[Denim]

Very worked and detailed guide. Congratulations! Hope this will help everyone who wishes to play Brewmaster in the future.


Retired

[Sashas]

Thanks a lot, and yeah I'd definitely hope so, not many brewmaster players around



Brewmaster Monk 5.4.8 English PvE guide

[Snoppy]

Nice guide there, mate.


,,Angel Among demons"

[Sashas]

Thanks mate



Brewmaster Monk 5.4.8 English PvE guide