Brewmaster Monk GuideMidnight Overview
Brewmaster Monk in Midnight
Coming in on the heels of some fairly large updates late in The War Within, Brewmaster Monks are already receiving another round of developer attention from Blizzard. While they certainly maintained a usual presence of "somewhat meta" without warping the game entirely, many players wouldn't say no to more changes, especially when an expansion launch is often the time to see the biggest updates of all to a class or specialization. Perhaps now is the time to decide whether or not growing that third hand for its keybinds is worthwhile? Let's first see what Blizzard has to say about their design philosophy for the course of the Midnight Alpha and Beta, and work from there.
Developers’ notes: Brewmaster’s kit contains a number of very niche cooldowns and abilities, as well as a number of talents which have a highly-transformative impact on gameplay. In aggregate these can cause the specialization to be difficult to learn, especially in combination with developing intuition surrounding Stagger. We are aiming to broaden some of these niches while narrowing the impact of transformational talents. In addition, some abilities have been removed in order to better concentrate both power and gameplay focus on a more manageable core. Finally, many tooltips have been adjusted to improve clarity on their function or how they are expected to impact play.
Based on these notes, there is a clear goal from Blizzard to try to reduce the somewhat steeper learning curve that Brewmasters are known to have among the tank specializations in particular. Whether that is handling the basic damage rotation, consolidating ability effects together, or learning how to properly manage its core Stagger passive with Purifying Brew, there are certainly a lot of directions that Midnight can take the specialization in. So, what all did Blizzard opt to do?
A Firm Foundation
At its most basic level, Brewmaster Monk is a specialization that has always been dedicated to the Stagger passive, using mystical Brews, and combining martial arts with the more wacky elements of throwing barrels and a penchant for pyromania. As a whole, this core fantasy is not changing in Midnight. You will still use Keg Smash, Blackout Kick, and Purifying Brew, among other abilities, while effortlessly Staggering anything that comes your way. What is changing, however, or perhaps being refined, is in how many buttons are necessary to accomplish these goals.
One Less Kick
In what may be the most welcome change to some players, Rising Sun Kick is no longer a Brewmaster ability, bringing the main damage rotation down to only 4-6 buttons. Although it had steadily received more interactions over the years (such as through Spirit of the Ox, Strike At Dawn, and Press the Advantage), Rising Sun Kick's relative position of mainly being a button strictly for damage had earned it the dubious honor of often being called "clunky" among more than a few Brewmasters. However, with its removal comes some of my own concerns about the rotation now being entirely static once again.
Long ago in the Tomb of Sargeras, the Brewmaster community had joked about being able to play the entire damage rotation in a simple castsequence macro, and we are now effectively back at that point due to the relatively static priority and set ability cooldowns that do not scale with Haste. Granted, there is now a dedicated rotation assistant for every specialization anyway, so this is admittedly something of a kneejerk negative reaction from me; I am sure this will help many newer Brewmaster players especially with not feeling like they are learning to play the piano when trying it out.
Improved Purifying Lessons
As another core change seemingly made with learning in mind, Brewmasters have finally received updated in-game guidance on Purifying Brew. Since its release in Mists of Pandaria, this ability has glowed on your action bar any time you were in "Red"/Heavy Stagger. This is only equal to 60% of your maximum health in it, and while that may have been significant 13 years ago, these days content varies enough that sometimes a single auto attack can generate this much Stagger, or you can go an entire encounter without ever reaching it. Something had to change.
To this end, Purifying Brew has been adjusted to now glow whenever it detects that you are in "Elevated Stagger". This is basically whenever it notices that you have experienced a major spike in Stagger (such as from a large hit), or when your pool has reached its highest level within the previous 10 seconds (or 15 with Bob and Weave). A player only purifying based on this new glow would be in a far better position than anyone learning before. On top of this, the ability now also purifies a minimum of 8% of your maximum health in Stagger, which greatly improves its strength in world or solo content. Finally, all of a Brewmaster's Stagger-reducing events now show up as combat text, providing a helpful visual for feedback. We all love watching a big number appear for damage or healing, and similar satisfaction can be had from seeing a big number appear due to a well-timed Purify.
With that being said, I remain very concerned that the default Stagger bar on a player's frame is still likely to be inadequate above even Normal raiding. For most of the specialization's lifetime, it has been considered something of a necessity to obtain your own Stagger bar through WeakAuras that is capable of displaying more than the visual cap of 100% present in-game—the real cap is 10 times higher, and you will regularly exceed 200% in the hardest content! While there is time to improve this element, it is a glaring problem that will quickly undermine these otherwise positive changes as soon as a player steps into any of the tougher battles that Midnight has to offer.
Cooldowns Begone
The final major change to the core playstyle of a Brewmaster Monk is one that will likely upset more experienced players in particular. That is because no less than three cooldowns are currently removed on the Midnight Alpha, two defensive damage reductions (Dampen Harm, Diffuse Magic), and one offensive hybrid (Weapons of Order). When considering that Zen Meditation has also been removed from Brewmasters as of Patch 11.2, there is now only one "big" defensive cooldown left: Fortifying Brew. In my own opinion, a tank specialization only having one major defensive cooldown (and two offensive cooldowns with minor defensive bonuses) is a bit odd. Still, Celestial Brew/Celestial Infusion continue to exist as a smaller cooldown, and the passive, former alternatives of Dance of the Wind and Yu'lon's Grace also remain to help shore up this sudden defensive gap.
Losing Weapons of Order, meanwhile, is certainly a more stinging sacrifice for any DPS-oriented Brewmaster, as playing around its long windows of bonus damage was a large area of skill expression. Its pruning, however, is understandable as Rising Sun Kick was key to quickly ramping up its debuff on targets. Plus, it was an ability on the global cooldown which didn't do anything when pressed without talenting into its supporting nodes of Call to Arms or Chi Surge. Even so, that leaves only Exploding Keg and Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox for damage cooldowns.
Streamlining Talents
New Talents
Reinvigoration - Dispelling an effect with Detox gives the target bonus movement speed for a short time.
Silent Sanctuary - When no enemies are within 15 yards, heal for a small amount every 3 seconds.
Stillstep Coil - Leg Sweep also applies Disable to all enemies after its stun ends.
Improved Blackout Kick - Blackout Kick deals increased damage.
Swift as a Coursing River - Drinking a Brew increases your movement and attack speed for 15 seconds.
Jade Flash - Crackling Jade Lightning's Energy cost is reduced, deals additional damage, and chains to up to 5 extra targets, but has a 1-minute cooldown.
Celestial Flames - Drinking a Brew has a chance to trigger Celestial Flames, empowering Special Delivery and Rushing Jade Wind for a short time.
Special Delivery deals bonus Fire damage to up to 5 enemies.
Rushing Jade Wind's damage becomes Fire, and has an increased radius.
Awakening Spirit - Purifying Brew also generates an absorb against future Stagger DoT damage; choice node with Vital Flame.
Vital Flame - Heal for a portion of all Fire and Nature damage dealt by abilities; choice node with Awakening Spirit.
Fuel on the Fire - After casting Exploding Keg, your next two casts of Keg Smash also trigger a spiraling flame tornado; choice node with Empty the Cellar.
Empty the Cellar - Exploding Keg may be recast within 20 seconds of its initial throw to lob 5 small kegs at your enemies to deal Physical damage and grant Brew cooldown reduction; choice node with Fuel on the Fire.
Keg Volley - The cooldown of Keg Smash is reset when casting Exploding Keg.
Heart of the Ox - Gain passive Mastery percentage at all times, doubled when Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox is active.
Removed Talents
Rising Sun Kick
Dampen Harm
Clash
Hit Scheme
Strike At Dawn
Weapons of Order
Black Ox Adept
Heightened Guard
Call to Arms
Chi Surge
Revised Talents
Fast Feet - Increases Blackout Kick and Spinning Crane Kick damage (was Rising Sun Kick and Spinning Crane Kick).
Vivacious Vivification/Chi Wave - Triggers from Keg Smash (was Rising Sun Kick).
Ferocity of Xuen - Now a two-rank talent for 2/4% damage (was one rank of 2%).
Diffuse Magic - Dispel/rebound effect now an optional passive node enhancing Fortifying Brew; damage reduction removed.
Keg Smash - Deals additional damage to primary target.
Staggering Strikes - Stagger reduction now scales with missing health.
Rushing Jade Wind - Duration is now equal to cooldown (was 50% longer).
Spirit of the Ox - Triggers from only Blackout Kick (was also Rising Sun Kick).
Purifying Brew - Also purifies a minimum of 8% of maximum health in Stagger.
Celestial Brew/Celestial Infusion - Baseline absorb increased; Purified Chi removed.
Pretense of Instability - Triggers from all Brews (was only Purifying Brew and Celestial Brew/Celestial Infusion).
Bob and Weave - Duration increased to 5 seconds (was 3).
Walk with the Ox - No longer reduces the cooldown of Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox.
Dragonfire Brew - Stagger scaling removed, now a flat damage buff.
High Tolerance - Passive Haste removed; now grants 3/6s of cooldown reduction to Purifying Brew if cast while in Elevated Stagger (when the ability is glowing).
Press the Advantage - Triggers an automatic cast of Tiger Palm rather than a bonus attack of Keg Smash or Rising Sun Kick. Now a choice node with Blackout Combo.
Blackout Combo - Combo interactions with Breath of Fire, Celestial Brew/Celestial Infusion, and Purifying Brew removed. Now a choice node with Press the Advantage.
Anvil and Stave - Tooltip now specifies diminishing returns on effect; behavior is otherwise unchanged.
Ox Stance - No longer generates additional stacks based on Stagger level.
Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox - Cooldown reduced to 2 minutes.
Stormstout's Last Keg - Bonus Keg Smash damage only applies to primary target; now also increases the range of Keg Smash.
Theme: Consistency
Despite receiving fairly significant talent changes in Patch 11.2 of The War Within, Brewmasters have nonetheless seen a lot of additional adjustments in the Midnight Alpha. For the most part, many unnecessary buffs (such as Purified Chi and Hit Scheme) have been removed. Likewise, most previous Stagger-scaling interactions, such as the increased Breath of Fire damage from Dragonfire Brew and stacks of Ox Stance, have been streamlined into one consistent effect to improve their behavior across all types of content. Blackout Combo, in particular, should be much less difficult for players to work around, as there are now only interactions with Keg Smash and Tiger Palm to contend with; you will no longer silently curse yourself for accidentally pressing Purifying Brew so close to a cast of Blackout Kick and triggering the nearly-worthless Stagger pause effect! And, all of this is in addition to the well-received new talents of Season 3 sticking around: Niuzao's Resolve, Zen State, and Celestial Infusion especially so.
Theme: Fire!
Beyond this first apparent theme of consolidation, Brewmasters are also seeing an increased emphasis on Fire damage in the coming expansion—Breath of Fire fans, rejoice—through new talents like Celestial Flames temporarily converting Special Delivery and Rushing Jade Wind into Fire damage, as well as the Vital Flame talent causing you to heal for a portion of all Fire and Nature ability damage you deal. Plus, Exploding Keg has moved to something of a "pinnacle" position at the bottom of the tree, complete with supporting nodes such as Fuel on the Fire to really embrace your pyromania with Blessed Hammer-esque fire tornadoes.
However, this is where the charm begins to slip in the Brewmaster fantasy. For all of its new extra hooks at the bottom of the tree, Exploding Keg remains a one-minute cooldown that effectively says "do some AoE damage". While it may also trigger small amounts of bonus damage for all of 3 seconds afterward and cause enemy autoattacks to miss, this is no longer a big enough effect to represent what is becoming a culmination point of the Brewmaster talents. Interestingly enough, despite being a damage loss in almost every scenario, plenty of Brewmasters are still under the impression that dealing multiple hits with Spinning Crane Kick to trigger this damage effect rather than other abilities is worthwhile, which speaks to the compelling potential this part of Exploding Keg has.
What's more, the other supporting "capstone" nodes beneath Exploding Keg certainly do not justify their position at this time. One additional Keg Smash every minute does not make Keg Volley compelling, nor does the equivalent of a few Blackout Kicks of damage from Empty the Cellar make it a worthy alternative to both the visual style and AoE potential of Fuel on the Fire as a choice node. These slots clearly need iteration, and quite possibly Exploding Keg itself. I certainly wouldn't mind a bit of skill expression centered around it opening up a longer damage window much like the old Shadowlands ability of Bonedust Brew (which also had a 1-minute baseline cooldown).
Theme: Celestial?
Finally, the remaining theme of the tree containing your interactions with Niuzao, the Black Ox Celestial seems more like an inclusion by obligation rather than a cohesive part of the kit. Sure, you still have Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox (aka Dave) as a hybrid cooldown to reduce damage taken by Stagger and trigger bonus AoE damage with his Stomps, but this frequently pales in comparison to the general viability of the passive Stomp damage found in Walk with the Ox. Considering that maximizing this AoE damage requires you to recklessly consume your charges of Purifying Brew like a glutton, there's still a mismatch in tone about what the cooldown's purpose is. If anything, the permanent Mastery found in Heart of the Ox below it is more useful overall. I only hope that with further Alpha builds to iterate and eventually tune things appropriately, this branch of the Brewmaster tree will have more of a purpose and blend in appropriately rather than being just another button you press every two minutes for a small bit of damage.
The "Apex" of Your Strength
Apex Talents are a new addition to the specialization talent tree in Midnight, featuring a four-part node that you can invest points into as early as Level 51 to access new effects that sequentially build in strength. For Brewmaster Monks, this Apex Talent is called Bring Me Another, which enables a new source of damage as you make use of Brew abilities. By investing more points into it, you will also unlock cleave damage and an extra source of healing for both yourself and up to two allies. Its four parts are as follows:
Bring Me Another (Point 1): Using a "Brew" ability has a chance to leave you with an Empty Barrel (up to 1). This Barrel will be thrown when you cast Keg Smash to deal additional Physical damage.
Bring Me Another (Points 2/3): Increase all Physical damage dealt by 5/10%, and Empty Barrels now ricochet to an extra 1/3 target(s), dealing reduced damage per bounce.
Bring Me Another (Point 4): Casting Fortifying Brew or Celestial Brew/Celestial Infusion creates a Refreshing Drink for you and up to two nearby allies, along with a guaranteed Empty Barrel. When taking damage, Refreshing Drink is consumed to create a large HoT effect.
This initial iteration of Apex Talent is certainly on the "safer" side for Brewmasters in terms of design. It is entirely passive (but has a fun, likely placeholder sound effect) and does a bit of everything from damage to healing. All of its parts could honestly end up as an extension to the Master of Harmony Hero Talents and would fit in appropriately, while the Physical damage amplifier pairs nicely with the other buffs to Physical abilities found in the Shado-Pan tree. Although the limit of one Empty Barrel at a time can currently cause some tension when all four points are invested or you receive a lucky chain of procs from regular Brew use, it is an easy enough issue to address before launch.
Ultimately, though, an effect as basic and passive as this will have its reputation based on how the tuning works out more than anything else. Investing just one point or up to 2-3 as an encounter demands it should be easy enough to manage in a Brewmaster's talent budget, but reaching the fourth point and unlocking Refreshing Drink (along with the additional Empty Barrel generation) may prove difficult without having to give up something significant. Hopefully, this won't just be an answer for a simulator to solve, and instead open up a more support-style build that both sets of Hero Talents can play nicely with; call me cautiously optimistic.
Hero Talent Refocusing
All Hero Talent trees are receiving an additional column of talent nodes in Midnight, and unlike the additional class and specialization points, you will still have every node in the tree unlocked at all times once you have finished leveling to 90 in the expansion. This translates to three free talent pickups that further synergize with your specialization's available Hero Talents. In the case of Brewmaster, that means going over the Shado-Pan and Master of Harmony Hero Talents that they have access to.
Shado-pan
New Talents
Shadow Over the Battlefield - Flurry Strikes deal bonus Shadow damage to enemies within 6 yards of your target. This is identical to the Shadow damage effect of Wisdom of the Wall in The War Within, and the biggest source of variance in damage from getting this bonus at the right time, but now on every set!
Stand Ready - Activating <cooldown> grants 10 bonus stacks of Flurry Charge that are triggered on your next attack.
Weapons of the Wall - Flurry Charge generation is increased, and Flurry Strikes trigger more frequently during <cooldown>.
Consistency is key with the updated Shado-Pan tree. Rather than having Flurry Strikes trigger when spending 240 Energy, they will instead proc with every cast of Keg Smash. In addition, Wisdom of the Wall's redesign to a summonable ally whose strength scales with how many Flurry Strikes you've dealt removes its somewhat confusing deck of cards system involving four cycling buffs. Fortunately, the most noteworthy buff involving bonus AoE Shadow damage with each Strike has become the new Shadow Over the Battlefield talent, and the well-received War Within Season 3 set bonuses have (currently) been completely copied over to Stand Ready and Weapons of the Wall.
However, what remains a big question for the future of this set of Hero Talents is what cooldown will replace Weapons of Order in all of its mentions across the nodes of Shado-Pan. Whether it's to trigger the new Wisdom of the Wall effect, gain cooldown reduction from Efficient Training, or activate Stand Ready and Weapons of the Wall, this is a key piece of missing information. At this time on Alpha, there are only two candidates: Exploding Keg and Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox. Of course, that is already comparing a 1-minute cooldown with a 2-minute, and both are deep in the specialization tree, which makes Blizzard's decision on which to make "mandatory" all the more difficult. It will be interesting to see what they opt for, though I believe the additional damage when hitting enemies debuffed by Exploding Keg is more thematic to the burst-like nature of Flurry Strikes. Regardless of which cooldown is chosen, Weapons of the Wall will need further adjustments to reflect the new way Flurry Strikes are triggered.
On the whole, this is all a major increase in the amount of Flurry Strikes delivered over time. After all, you could reach the cap of 10 Flurry Charges within a few globals with TWW Season 3's set bonus, especially in aoe, which means there will absolutely have to be some aggressive tuning to balance it out. Other than that, with how "punchy" the visual and sound effects are for Flurry Strikes, it might become a bit excessive when they are now being triggered every 8 seconds or less. We'll have to see where the remaining advancements to the tree go, but I am certainly hopeful about no longer having major swings in my damage based on Wisdom of the Wall in particular.
Master of Harmony
New Talents
Unknown! At this time, we can only speculate.
Compared to the refinement of Shado-Pan, the Master of Harmony tree's updates are still early in development. Its additional talent nodes are not yet implemented, and the only adjustments elsewhere are in the removal of Rising Sun Kick from Overwhelming Force and Way of a Thousand Strikes. Still, if its new talents in particular follow the theme of copying TWW Season 3's set bonuses, then I may be a bit concerned. Currently, the 2-piece bonus's effect has especially resulted in major swings of variance for a Brewmaster's damage, with the spent Harmonic Surges completely overshadowing proper rotational play. While this can and likely will be massively tuned down if made into a baseline talent, I still would not appreciate introducing randomness in an expansion where the overall design goals seem to be about removing it.
Fortunately, outside of these concerns, the Master of Harmony tree is in a fine place already for Brewmaster players. It continues to reward you for simply doing what you were already expected to as a tank, and grants you extra damage or defense along the way. As an added bonus, the Nature damage of Aspect of Harmony and a Manifestation-buffed Chi Burst interacts nicely with the new Vital Flame talent to create a little more self-sufficiency on top!
Rolling It All Together
For now, the Midnight iteration of Brewmaster Monk feels like the same old specialization with a new sip of spirits. Roughly half of its ideas involving consistency and improving the learning experience were already added in its "don't-call-it-a-rework" of Patch 11.2, and all of them have had positive reception by players. Brewmaster may not always be the flashiest specialization, but it is certainly dependable, and some of the extra flourishes of a Celestial Flames-empowered Rushing Jade Wind or the fire tornadoes of Fuel on the Fire do help bridge the gap a bit on style. All the same, losing another four buttons (Rising Sun Kick, Weapons of Order, Dampen Harm, Diffuse Magic) on top of losing Zen Meditation in TWW Season 3 may make its rotation and defenses easier to grasp for players, but could disappoint longtime fans who were used to what has been considered one of the more complicated specializations in WoW. Similarly, the new Apex Talent and realigned Hero Talents are more passive and easy to play around, but the specialization's core Stagger passive must still rely on external tools to track it above casual content, which will be difficult if Addons are too hindered.
Regardless of which side of the pruning debate you are on, I encourage you to give Brewmaster another try if you were previously put off by its keybinds, and be assured that the core of the spec is definitely still there if you were already a fan. If anything, be sure to give plenty of feedback on what abilities remain to get them in the best shape they can be as we approach the hour of Midnight.
