Brewmaster Monk Talents Guide

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The Monk class tree has a lot to play with now. You have an abundance of talent points to move around, and below you will find a layout of all the options available to us in the Class tree.

Important/Essential: The talents highlighted in Green are essential talents you will not deviate from. You will always use these talents as they are either too powerful not to have, or are necessary to give you access to talents that are powerful.

Optional: The talents highlighted in Yellow are optional talents that you can swap between in any given scenario.

Banned: The talents highlighted in Red are bad talents that you should not use.

Notable talents

Dampen Harm/Dance of the Wind - The choice here will typically be Dampen harm as it’s very nice to have an additional large defensive to press in times of need. Dance of the Wind only really has value in specific Mythic+ dungeons, and even then I’d personally still recommend Dampen as it’s more forgiving for even the most advanced Brewmaster players, with more of an impact.

Yu’lons Grace/Diffuse Magic - In most situations I’d recommend Diffuse as it’s quite handy to have an extra, large defensive cooldown. Yu’lon’s Grace is definitely good, allowing the damage smoothing nature of Brewmaster to do it’s work, however it’s only consumed by magic damage. So in most cases you’ll get more value from Diffuse even though the healing meters love Yu’lon’s Grace.

Detox - There are numerous encounters where Detox has a use and it’s a powerful piece of utility in those scenarios that I’d definitely recommend taking if needed.

Pressure Points - Any time an enrage effect takes place, this can benefit you greatly. It’s almost exclusively a dungeon specific talent as there aren’t any raid encounters with an enrage.

Windwalking - Gotta go fast. You have extra points to play with in the monk class tree as a brewmaster, so why not buff yourself and your party with some extra movement speed?

In this section I will discuss some of the more notable talent nodes, where you want to use them and how they synergise with your spec.

Elixir of Determination - This is an extremely powerful 1 point talent node right near the top of our spec tree. The absorb is based on how much damage you’re purifying, and can be treated as an extra defensive/safety net. It cannot occur more than once every 15 seconds so I do recommend tracking this where possible.

August Blessing/One with the Wind - Both of these talents are very minor defensive gains. They provide you access to Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox, and each one is more beneficial in different content. August Blessing sees more potential in Raid whereas One with the Wind sees more potential in Mythic+.

High Tolerance - This is easily one of your best purely defensive talent options. The value from this is very high if you ever feel you need extra durability.

Face Palm - This talent is a very strong single damage option. It does have minor defensive value, but it’s almost exclusively used for the damage. It incentivises more tiger palms, which synergises with our Shado-pan hero talent to generate flurry charges, which is even more damage.

Anvil & Stave - This is a purely defensive talent node that gives us access to more brew cooldown reduction. It’s far better in Mythic+ than it is raid due to the reduction rate from melee attacks being more frequent.

Ox stance - Ox stance and its capstones provide large defensive benefits against any form of tank buster. Black Ox Adept is the weaker capstone of the two, as Ox stance doesn’t proc too often so you end up overcapping on stacks regardless. Heightened Guard allows you to proc it more reliably and more often.

Blackout combo - This talent adds a level of complexity to the spec. It has the potential to add both a large amount of damage and a large amount of defensive bonuses to you. It’s not typically recommended to newcomers of the spec, however once you’re more comfortable this talent is too good to pass up.

With some number adjustments here and there, as well as a change of tier set, Mastery of Harmony is looking a lot more competitive with Shado-pan in season 2.

Best Defensive Hero Talents: Master of Harmony

Best Offensive Hero Talents: Shado-pan

The different types of content you’re doing and at what levels will determine what Hero talent really shines. In raid, Shado-pan tends to be the better option, generally speaking. Offensively it’s stronger than Master of Harmony, and defensively it’s better against magic damage, which certain encounters have a sizable amount of. However, Master of Harmony isn’t too far behind Shado-pan now in terms of damage out-put in single target, and against any encounter with a majority of physical damage, this hero talent shines.

In Mythic+, I’d say Master of Harmony takes the cake. For well honed players, Master of Harmony offers more offensively and defensively in season 2, although it comes with added complexity based on how you optimize the hero talent, utilizing your celestial brew and vitality to deal large amounts of damage on demand. For those looking for a simpler time on an already complex tank, definitely just stick to Shado-pan! It’s still extremely solid, and shado-pan played decently will out perform Master of Harmony played poorly. You can make both work, and both are very competitive.