Brewmaster Monk Talents Guide

Patch 10.2 Last Updated: 11th Dec, 2023
Kian Brewmaster Monk Author
Kian

Class Talents

Row 1 Talents:

Soothing Mist - Pretty terrible, pretty much just taken to reach further down the tree

Rising Sun Kick - Great DPS talent. Helps fill your rotation and you also get to make it stronger further down the tree.

Tiger’s Lust - Amazing mobility skill, luckily we get it for free.

Row 2 Talents:

Improved Roll - Good talent that helps you get further down the tree.

Calming Presence - Some passive damage reduction, nothing much to say.

Disable - Basic single target slow. Pick it if you need it, but generally not recommended.

Row 3 Talents:

Tiger Tail Sweep - Pretty poor talent that is also located on the wrong side of the tree.

Vigorous Expulsion - Solid talent for Expel Harm and helps you further down the side with not so great options

Improved Vivify - Generally not recommended. Might be useful for some solo play

Detox - Poison and Disease dispel that costs energy. Pick it if you need it.

Paralysis - Our crowd-control ability. Can be very useful in dungeons, especially together with Ring of Peace.

Row 4 Talents

Grace of the Crane - Increases your healing taken from all sources. Good talent that helps you get further down on the left side.

Vivacious Vivification - Picked together with Improved Vivify it might be decent. However it still costs energy which makes it less good. Might be solid for solo play stuff.

Ferocity of Xuen - Extra damage is always good, and helps with the pathing.

Improved Paralysis - Simple cooldown reduction for Paralysis. Helps with pathing.

Row 5 Talents

Elusive Mists - Basically useless. Makes you unable to dodge and parry while channeling.

Transcendence - Great talent for many situations. 

Spear Hand Strike - Basic interrupt. Get it because the rest of your group probably doesn't have one.

Fortifying Brew - Big defensive cooldown, basically a must have.

Row 6 Talents

Chi Wave / Chi Burst Choice Node: Sort of just taken to path further down the line on the bad side. Neither are great. Chi Wave can be a tool to pull packs.

Hasty Provocation - Solid tool as a brewmaster to make the things you taunt get into position faster. Can be skipped but generally not a bad thing to take.

Ring of Peace - Generally best used in open world or dungeons, however can be very useful in raids too. Great talent.

Fast Feet - Buffs a very good DPS ability, as well as our AoE filler. 

Celerity / Chi Torpedo - Choice Node: Pick whichever you prefer

Ironshell Brew/ Expeditious Fortification Choice Node: Take Expeditious Fortification.

Ironshell Brew is overkill, and Expeditious Fortification means you just have a good defensive CD more often.

Row 7 Talents

Profound Rebuttal - Decent talent for Expel Harm, and kind of just picked to reach Close to Heart.

Diffuse Magic / Yu'lon's Grace - Choice Node: Diffuse is basically a must have for most situations. Yu’lon’s Grace can be picked up in situations with a lot of constant magic damage without the need for the additional cooldown from Diffuse.

Eye of the Tiger - Terrible. Doesn't help with pathing and you hardly ever press Tiger Palm.

Dampen Harm / Dance of the Wind - Choice Node: Generally Dampen Harm is always picked, however if you're in a situation where you don't feel the need for the extra cooldown, you can pick the other node.

Improved Touch of Death - Not great.

Strength of Spirit - Very good for our selfhealing. 

Row 8 Talents

Close to Heart - Solid if you take advantage of using it together with your raid.

Escape from Reality - Again a weird Vivify talent that might be useful in solo play.

Windwalking - Not very good and “hard” to get to. Don't take.

Fatal Touch - Required for pathing and great if you can get use out of the cooldown reduction

Generous Pour - Not great currently.

Row 9 Talents

Save Them All - Bad for us and on the wrong side. Don't take.

Resonant Fists - Great dps talent. 

Bounce Back - Solid but kind of unreliable damage reduction. Can be picked if needed.

Row 10 Talents

Summon Jade Serpent Statue - No.

Summon White Tiger Statue - Good damage in aoe and overshadows the other options on this row.

Summon Black Ox Statue - Good if you need it for picking up adds or simply just require an aoe taunt.

Spec Talents

brewmaster general talents colour coded

Ranked as such:

  • Green is basically required.
  • Purple is good talents you should try to get based on need while still getting most/all of the green points.
  • Yellow is fillers you can take while pathing towards other better talents, and doesn't completely suck(most of the time).
  • Red you should basically never pick unless for some very specific thing you think it will be good for.

Row 1 Talents:

Keg Smash - Core ability and no other options.

Row 2 Talents:

Purifying Brew - Another Core ability that is basically required to play the spec.

Shuffle - Great and easy to maintain as long as you actually press your buttons; take it.

Row 3 Talents:

Staggering Strikes - Underwhelming, potentially better than Quick Sip in lower/easy content.

Gift of the Ox - Great self-healing via orbs when you take damage. Must have.

Spirit of the Ox - A lot of extra self-healing. A must-have pick.

Quick Sip - Decent choice with the recent buffs.

Row 4 Talents: 

Hit Scheme - Adds a lot of damage and helps with pathing. Take it.

Healing Elixir - Extra self healing if needed. Not required for specific pathing but can help to fill a point spent.

Rushing Jade Wind / Special Delivery Choice Node: Both are solid options.

Rushing Jade Wind helps proccing Resonant Fists and its a solid dps ability for the GCD spent, however while it used to be good to fill gaps in our rotation, it might now cause some issues as we have gained other abilities.

Special Delivery is nice and passive, and will be recommended as the standard choice, however there's no wrong choice of the two.

Row 5 Talents:

Celestial Flames - While it might look like decent damage reduction, it can be overwritten by other casts of BoF, making it not a very good talent.

Celestial Brew - Core defensive ability, always picked.

Graceful Exit - Similar to Staggering Strikes, it does close to nothing, for way too many talent points. Never pick it.

Zen Meditation - Can be very strong, especially if further talented into further down. Also helps with pathing.

Clash - Meh. It can be useful but generally nah.

Row 6 Talents:

Breath of Fire - Core rotational ability. Take it.

Improved Celestial Brew - Makes a core defensive skill better. Take it.

Improved Purifying Brew - Same as Celestial Brew. Take it.

Tranquil Spirit / Gai Plin’s Imperial Brew Choice Node: Both can be great options for different scenarios. 

Tranquil Spirit gives some solid stagger reduction through consuming GotOx or using Expel Harm. Both happens quite often when getting slammed hard.

Gai Plin’s Imperial Brew provides some healing when you purify, it can be alot if you get hit hard and is often times more consistent and useful.

Fundamental Observation - Reduces the cooldown of Zen Meditation and makes it a lot easier to use as it makes it not break on melee hits. Not needed for pathing but can be useful for certain situations.

Shadowboxing Treads / Fluidity of Motion Choice Node: Most of the time you will likely pick Shadowboxing Treads.

Shadowboxing Treads makes Blackout Kick do more damage and cleave. The additional targets hits also grants a stack of Mastery: Elusive Brawler.

Fluidity of Motion reduces the cooldown on Blackout Kick by 1 second and also reduces the damage by 10%. You get to use it more often meaning the 10% reduction isnt massive, and in single target it gives you a decent amount more of Elusive Brawler. 

Row 7 Talents:

Scalding Brew / Sal’salabim’s Strength Choice Node: Basically always take Sal’salabim’s Strength.

Sal increases the amount of Breath of Fires you have available as well as synergize with the talent below.

Fortifying Brew: Determination - Makes an already strong defensive stronger, generally not worth it and not needed for pathing.

Black Ox Brew / Bob and Weave Choice Node: Almost always take Bob and Weave.

Black Ox Brew can be useful for certain things if you need it but it sadly just competes with a very good talent in Bob and Weave that helps smooth your damage intake even more.

Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox - Simple offensive(a bit defensive) cooldown that can do very good damage with some additional talents further down the tree, but often times just alright. Must have for pathing so take it.

Light Brewing / Training of Niuzao - Basically always take Light Brewing

It grants us 20% cooldown reduction on our primary defensive abilities and greatly overshadows Training of Niuzao.

Pretense of Instability - Grants some dodge when Purify or Celestial Brew is used. Nothing great and not needed for pathing.

Face Palm - Decent single target pick combo’d with the other Tiger Palm talents and Blackout Combo.

Row 8 Talents: 

Dragonfire Brew / Charred Passions Choice Node:

Dragonfire Brew will be the preferred pick of the 2, and it beats Charred Passion in most situations; however, if you like the playstyle of Charred Passions, it's perfectly fine to pick.

High Tolerance - Not as good as it used to be but still decent, can be picked if needing to fill some points out.

Walk with the Ox - Good synergy with the recommended Spinning Crane Kick playstyle through Charred Passion. Only really useful if you pick Improved Invoke Niuzao further down.

Elusive Footwork - Small damage and defense increase. Just alright and usually just a decent pick for pathing.

Anvil & Starve - The internal cooldown on this makes it pretty underwhelming.

Counterstrike - Similar to Facepalm, it's good when combo'd with the other Tiger Palm talents and Blackout Combo.

Row 9 Talents: 

Bonedust Brew - If you played Shadowlands, this was the Necrolord Covenant ability. It adds some solid damage as well as extra Brew reduction while active. 

Improved Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox - Makes the 2 other Niuzao talents actually worth it. If played correctly with a lot of damage taken and good purifying done, this can be a great talent.

Exploding Keg - Good ol’ but buffed. Will be the standard pick if you don't want to go the Niuzao route. 

Blackout Combo - Finally, a worthy pick. The rules of BoC are, as always, to press Blackout Kick on cooldown. Breath of Fire should always be combo’d. Outside of that, the other choices are either Tiger Palm(offensive) or Keg Smash (defensive).

Weapons of Order / Press the Advantage - Choice Node: Just like Bonedust Brew, Weapons of Order was also a covenant ability but from Kyrian. An excellent offensive pick with some decent defensive value as well. Press the Advantage is interesting, gives some passive cooldown reduction on brew as well as some solid offensive power.

Row 10 Talents:

Bountiful Brew / Attenuation Choice Node: Bountiful Brew will be the choice of these two. Gives you better uptime on Bonedust Brew that boosts your other abilities.

Stormstout’s Last Keg - Works just like the legendary from Shadowlands and is a decent talent, that not only boosts damage, but also helps rotationally.

Call to Arms / Chi Surge Choice Node: Chi Surge is the stronger option of the two. 

Call to Arms relies on the Niuzao nodes and is generally not very good even then.

Chi Surge adds a bunch of damage when Weapons of Order is used as well as reducing the cooldown of the ability.

Talent Builds

General Build

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This build covers most things, while being able to change some things around in case needed.

The points in Transcendence and Ring of Peace can be freely moved around, in case you need Detox for specific things, or simply just don't need those abilities and want some extra occasional damage reduction through Bounce Back.