Brewmaster Monk Tank Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot (Legion 7.3.5)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.3 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 4. Patch 7.2 Changes
  • 5. Strengths
  • 6. Weaknesses
  • 7. Viability in the Current Patch
  • 8. Contents
  • 9. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Talent Cheat Sheets
    • 2.1. Raid Encounters
    • 2.2. Mythic+
  • 3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression — First 35 Points
  • 2. Patch 7.2: 35+ Trait Path
  • 3. Relic Choice
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths
  • 1. General Optimization Advice
  • 2. Tier 2 Upgrade Priority
    • 2.1. Tier 3 Upgrade Priority
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Single Target Rotation
  • 2. Multiple Target Rotation
  • 3. Cooldown Usage
  • 4. Taunting
  • 5. Optional Read: Mastering Your Brewmaster Monk
    • 5.1. Energy
    • 5.2. Mastery: Elusive Brawler
    • 5.3. Stagger and Active Mitigation
      • 5.3.1. Stagger
      • 5.3.2. Purifying Brew Versus Ironskin Brew
    • 5.4. Gift of the Ox
    • 5.5. Celestial Fortune
    • 5.6. Detailed Cooldown Usage
      • 5.6.1. Fortifying Brew
      • 5.6.2. Zen Meditation
      • 5.6.3. Exploding Keg
      • 5.6.4. Tier 1 Talents
      • 5.6.5. Tier 3 Talents
      • 5.6.6. Tier 4 Talents
      • 5.6.7. Tier 5 Talents
      • 5.6.8. Tier 6 Talents
      • 5.6.9. Tier 7 Talents
    • 5.7. Roll and Transcendence
      • 5.7.1. Roll
      • 5.7.2. Transcendence
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
  • 2. Enchants
  • 3. Consumables
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Macros
    • 1.1. Generic Macros for Monks
      • 1.1.1. Detox Mouseover Macro
      • 1.1.2. Tiger's Lust Mouseover Macro
      • 1.1.3. Ring of Peace Mouseover Macro
      • 1.1.4. Chi Wave Macro
    • 1.2. Specific Macros for Brewmaster Monks
      • 1.2.1. Exploding Keg Macros
      • 1.2.2. Blessing of Protection Cancelaura Macro
      • 1.2.3. Mouseover Taunt Macro
      • 1.2.4. Taunt from Statue
  • 2. Addons
    • 2.1. Generic Addons for Monks
      • 2.1.1. ElvUI
      • 2.1.2. Boss Mods: Deadly Boss Mods or Bigwigs
      • 2.1.3. GTFO
      • 2.1.4. Parrot or Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 2.1.5. Weak Auras
      • 2.1.6. Recount / Skada / Details!
      • 2.1.7. Grid and GridClickSets (Optional)
    • 2.2. Specific Addons for Brewmaster Monks
      • 2.2.1. Omen Threat Meter
  • 3. ChangeLog
• ×Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Tier 21 Set Bonus
  • 2. Tier 20 Set Bonus
    • 2.1. Tier 19 in Tomb of Sargeras
  • 3. Trinket Discussion
  • 4. Legendaries
  • 5. Loot Competition
  • 6. ChangeLog

General Information

This page is a gear reference for Brewmaster Monks. It lists your best items and Legendaries, gives you gearing advice, and shows you how you will be competing for loot with other classes.

The other pages of our Brewmaster Monk guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Author and Reviewers

This guide has been written by Furty, who has an illustrious history in the World of Warcraft raiding scene and race for World First. He has been a member of guilds such as Serenity, Midwinter, and many more, and is currently raiding in Future. He plays most classes at the highest level. You can follow him on Twitter and watch him play on Twitch.

This guide has been reviewed and approved by:

• Justwait, a top tank who raids in Method; you can watch his stream on Twitch and follow him on Twitter;
• Kamp, a theorycrafter from the Peak of Serenity Discord Server.

1. Tier 21 Set Bonus

Our Tier 21 set bonuses augment our Breath of Fire.

• 2-piece bonus: Breath of Fire has a 100% chance to generate an additional stack of Mastery: Elusive Brawler for each target hit.
• 4-piece bonus: Every time you dodge an attack, the remaining cooldown of Breath of Fire is reduced by 1.0 second.

Our Tier 21 set bonus is quite poor. The 2-piece is a slight boost to dodging auto attacks, however, the 4-piece bonus is effectively useless at the current time. Tier 20 4-piece should be used even at a large item level loss. If you do not have access to the Tier 20 4-piece you should prioritize the highest item level pieces you can find over the Tier 21 set bonuses.

2. Tier 20 Set Bonus

The Tier 20 tier set improves our self sustainability by further empowering your Gift of the Ox Healing Spheres.

• 2-piece bonus: Consuming a brew has a 40% chance to generate a Gift of the Ox Healing Sphere.
• 4-piece bonus: When a Gift of the Ox Healing Sphere is consumed, your current Stagger amount is lowered by 5%.

The Tier 20 bonuses are extremely strong for Brewmasters. The 2-piece bonus provides solid self-healing as we are constantly chugging our brews, and has great inherent synergy with the 4-piece bonus. The 4-piece bonus assists in smoothing out our damage intake, especially when we are sitting at very high Stagger values. You should prioritize the pickup of this set bonus as it is extremely valuable. The set bonus is so powerful that it is worth acquiring Raid Finder or Normal pieces to complete the set even if you are a Heroic/Mythic raider.

2.1. Tier 19 in Tomb of Sargeras

If you are not currently using Sal'salabim's Lost Tunic or Stormstout's Last Gasp, it may be worthwhile to continue to use your Tier 19 2-piece bonus in conjunction with the Tier 20 4-piece bonus. The Tier 19 2-piece bonus increases our Stagger amount by an additional 5% when Ironskin Brew is used, which has solid synergy with the Tier 20 set bonuses (as Ironskin Brew will spawn a sphere which we can then use to purify the additional Stagger). Eventually you will want to phase out the use of this bonus as you reach very high item level offpieces unless you are lucky enough to have Titanforged pieces of Tier 19.

3. Trinket Discussion

Aman'Thul's Vision is a great hybrid of damage and defensive use and a better choice as your Pantheon trinket than Aggramar's Conviction.

Darkmoon Deck: Immortality offers a sizeable amount of passive armor, although it comes at the price of a hefty sum of gold. If you fully upgrade it, Immortality is arguably the best defensive trinket for Brewmaster Monks when dealing with primarily physical damage.

Eye of F'harg is slightly worse than the Darkmoon Deck defensively.

Diima's Glacial Aegis is a very good on-use trinket versus primarily Physical damage, and has a low cooldown. This trinket is especially well suited to Mythic+.

Smoldering Titanguard is an exceptional choice for fights that have "tankbuster" style abilities where extremely large and isolated hits will be taken, as the shield is extremely large.

Apocalypse Drive is very bad for Brewmasters due to our innately high dodge rate. Not recommended over any other option.

Eye of Guarm, Ethereal Urn, or any equivalent stat stick are exceptional if you can obtain a high item version, preferably with Mastery or Critical Strike. Stat sticks are great both defensively and for dealing damage.

Eye of Command is a good trinket for purely single target encounters, as Critical Strike has great defensive and offensive properties. It is not advisable for use on fights with adds as it really has to maintain its stacks for the majority of the encounter to be a competitive option.

Damage trinkets are also an acceptable and recommended option if there is no need for additional defensive utility, or you are doing farm content. Typically you should look for trinket with a high amount of passive Agility and, ideally, a large chunk of secondary stats, either passively or via a proc. This allows for these trinkets to also have defensive merit while providing strong damage output. Pure damage trinkets, such as Vial of Ceaseless Toxins, are also fine if the encounter is not threatening.

4. Legendaries

Sal'salabim's Lost Tunic causes Keg Smash to reset the cooldown on Breath of Fire. This legendary helps with rotational smoothing and provides a noticeable damage increase, particularly in AoE scenarios.

Jewel of the Lost Abbey causes Stagger to last 3 seconds longer. Good for reducing high incoming burst damage and smoothing it out more. Arguably the best defensive legendary due to its synergy with the Tier 20 4-piece bonus.

Anvil-Hardened Wristwraps causes your Brews to be reduced by 1.0 second each time you dodge an attack, or an enemy misses you. Overall, likely to be the best legendary for when you are tanking several things at once, particularly potent in Mythic+ dungeons.

Stormstout's Last Gasp causes your Keg Smash to have 2 charges and deal 25% increased damage. This legendary is purely a damage increase, and should be taken if you feel you do not need any other survivability legendaries.

Soul of the Grandmaster grants the talent Mystic Vitality, allowing you to run both Healing Elixir and/or Dampen Harm in combination with Mystic Vitality. This is a situational legendary; it could be a good choice in a situation where you want to run Dampen Harm but still need Mystic Vitality to survive.

Archimonde's Hatred Reborn is a trinket with an on-use effect that grants an absorb shield for 30% of your maximum health for 10 seconds, with a 75-second cooldown. When the barrier is consumed or expires it deals 75% of the damage absorbed to nearby enemies, split evenly. Currently a very strong choice for survivability, particularly for large hits, as it functions as an extra cooldown of sorts. The trinket also provides a high amount of passive stats.

Gai Plin's Soothing Sash instantly heals you for 25% of the Stagger damage when using Purifying Brew. Good for some extra self sustain, prevents a lot of situations that would have otherwise resulted in tank gibs.

Firestone Walkers reduces the cooldown of Fortifying Brew by 1 seconds for each enemy hit by Breath of Fire (max 4 second reduction). Currently a pretty weak choice.

Prydaz, Xavaric's Magnum Opus has all 3 secondary stats and a socket, and provides an absorb for 25% of your maximum health every 30 seconds. Not bad, but nothing special compared to the other available options.

Fundamental Observation causes Zen Meditation to no longer be canceled by melee attacks or movement. It also reduces the cooldown of Zen Meditation by 50%. Situationally useful for cheesing mechanics but not a strong "standard" choice.

5. Loot Competition

Regarding the loot you will get from raid or dungeon bosses, you will compete with other classes in the following cases:

Item Type	Competing Classes
Tier Tokens	Hunters, Mistweaver/Windwalker Monks, Shamans, and Warriors
Leather Armor	Demon Hunters, Druids, Mistweaver/Windwalker Monks, and Rogues
Amulets Cloaks Rings	Everyone
Trinkets	Blood Death Knights, Vengeance Demon Hunters, Guardian Druids, Protection Paladins, and Protection Warriors

6. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 20 Dec. 2017: Fixed a typo referencing a pair of shoulders instead of the correct trinket.
• 30 Nov. 2017: Updated trinket discussion and added Tier 21 bonuses and analysis.
• 19 Jul. 2017: Added trinket discussion.
• 22 Jun. 2017: Updated legendary explanations.
• 19 Jun. 2017: Added Tier 20 set explanation.
• 13 Jun. 2017: Added Soul of the Grandmaster and Stormstout's Last Gasp.
• 17 May 2017: Updated Fundamental Observation tooltip.
• 28 Mar. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 20 Jan. 2017: Added Archimonde's Hatred Reborn to legendaries.
• 12 Jan. 2017: Added new legendary items.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 19 Jul. 2016: Updated trinket recommendations.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.