“Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water.... Water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” — Bruce Lee

Last updated: 6/15/2013

5.4 Monk PTR News:

• T16 Brewmaster 2P Bonus - When your Black Ox statue Guards another player, you also get a Guard for 15% of that amount. Some simple math from Daught shows this at a 1.5% damage to self-shielding conversion. It will not overwrite or be overwritten by normal Guard, and it does not increase self-healing. It's not great, but it's nice, and it's passive. I would rank this, on a scale from 1 to 10, as good.
• T16 Brewmaster 4P Bonus - Purifying Brew also heals you for 30% of the amount of staggered damage cleared. Again, math from Daught puts this at healing ~14% of damage taken, but mileage will vary considerably more than with 2pc based upon Haste, Mastery and playstyle. It will alter our playstyle slightly, in that high-health PB's will be verboten. Very strange to see BrM tier bonuses that don't explicitly improve the value of crit relative to other secondaries, but it's about time. This is an excellent bonus, and will cause us to reconsider all of our relative secondary stat values. Oh boy.
• No other changes yet announced. I see no reason to expect us to remain unchanged, but I can hope. We're great right now, and the best change would be no change, but we'll see what happens in the coming weeks as new PTR builds roll out.

Greetings, I am Porc. I have been tanking in WoW for eight years, and I have been good at it for less than half that time, probably. I want this guide to serve as a long-term resource for Monks of all experience and skill ranges, and I want the assumptions and assertions made with regards to gearing and skill order to be supported mathematically. I am not a mathemagical genius and I welcome all criticism, suggestions and support. My desire is to create a feedback loop between this guide and the Brewmaster Discussion Thread.

 

Contents

1 Introduction 2 Stagger, Shuffle and Brew 2.1 Shuffle 2.2 Purifying Brew 2.2.1 When to Purify 3 Avoidance 3.1 Elusive Brew 4 Effective Health vs. Damage Reduction 5 Cooldown Usage 5.1 Guard 5.2 Fortifying Brew 5.3 Dampen Harm and Diffuse Magic 5.4 Zen Meditation 5.5 Special Mentions 6 Self-Healing 6.1 Gift of the Ox 6.1.1 SCK and GotOx 6.2 Expel Harm 6.3 Healing Sphere 7 Mobility 7.1 Roll 7.2 Transcendence 7.3 Clash 7.4 Provoke 8 Talent Assessment 8.1 Level 15 Talents – Mobility 8.2 Level 30 Talents – Healing 8.3 Level 45 Talents – Chi Generation 8.4 Level 60 Talents – Crowd Control 8.5 Level 75 Talents – Defensive Cooldowns 8.6 Level 90 Talents – Damage 9 Glyph Discussion 9.1 Why Glyph of Guard is Not Good for Self-Healing 9.2 Important Glyphs 9.3 Situational Glyphs 10 Tanking Priority 10.1 How to spend your GCD's 10.2 How to use Purifying Brew 10.3 Parsing as a Tank 11 Stat Priority 11.1 Stat Values 11.2 Expertise Hard-Capping and Hit Chance 11.3 Critical Strike 11.4 Haste 11.5 Mastery 11.6 Elixirs vs. Flasks 11.7 2h or Dual Wield? 11.8 Tier 15 12 Professions 13 Races 14 How to Read a Brewmaster Parse 14.1 Uptime 14.2 Avoidance 14.3 Self-Healing 15 A Long-Winded Treatise on Chi Generation Talents 15.1 Brewmaster Chi Generation Talent Rehash 16 Additional Information 16.1 Brewmaster Spreadsheet 16.2 Brewmaster Simulator 16.3 Essential Addons 16.4 Weak Auraville 16.5 Macros 17 Thanks 18 Changelog

[top] Introduction

I believe that the Brewmaster Monk, in its present form, possesses the most control over mitigation, avoidance and elimination of incoming damage of any tanking class ever put into this game. We have an extremely powerful reactionary tanking toolkit, and our primary mitigation mechanic makes us the most effective class for living through tremendous bursts of damage.

We are active mitigation in its purest form to date. In many regards we are the counterpoint to Death Knights. They take large hits, heal back up and absorb the following hit. We absorb large portions of hits upfront and purify the damage away once it gets too high. Our greatest strength (handling spike damage) is their greatest weakness, and our biggest weakness (sustained spell damage) is one of their greatest strengths.

The amount of control we have over our fate means that we are more responsible for our own safety than any other tank class. This allows us to alleviate more pressure off of our healers, but also magnifies our failures and means that we must accept nothing short of excellence in our execution.

[top] Stagger, Shuffle and Brew

Stagger is the mechanism through which we control incoming damage. While we have a baseline 25% damage reduction from Stance of the Sturdy Ox, we have no armor increase whatsoever. Consequently, we take much larger melee hits than our tanking counterparts.
Whenever a Brewmaster Monk takes physical damage, a portion of that damage is absorbed and put into a 10-second debuff (Stagger) that deals 10% of the total damage every second. If struck again while Stagger is up, the remaining damage is added to the newly absorbed damage and the duration reset to 10 seconds.

Tank deaths are usually the result of sudden bursts of damage coming in faster than healers can put out healing to replace (yes, players die when their health reaches zero). Healers should love Stagger, and here is why: While Stagger causes Monks to take more damage over the course of a fight assuming all avoidances are equal (they aren't at all!), it gives them much smoother and more predictable damage taken than other tanks.

Stagger	Total health dealt per second
Light (Green)	< 3%
Medium (Yellow)	3%-6%
Heavy (Red)	> 6%

[top] Shuffle

Shuffle can easily be kept up 100% of the time, and doing so is fundamental to Monk tanking. The increase to Stagger value is additive, as is Monk Mastery - 4% increase to Stagger value baseline, +1% every 960 Mastery rating.

With Shuffle, a raid-buffed Monk with minimal Mastery rating on gear will take ~52% of damage from physical sources upfront with the remaining ~48% being Staggered over the following 10 seconds.

Consider a Monk's damage taken from five 350k hits on a 2-second swing timer:
Monk: 25% passive damage reduction, 31% damage reduction from armor, 49% Stagger
Swing #1, 92373 Hit, 88751 Stagger
1 sec, 8875 Stagger
2 sec, 8875 Stagger
Swing #2, 92373 Hit, 71001 + 88751 = 159752 Stagger
3 sec, 15975 Stagger
4 sec, 15975 Stagger
Swing #3, 92373 Hit, 127802 + 88751 = 216553 Stagger
5 sec, 21655 Stagger
6 sec, 21655 Stagger
Swing #4, 92373 Hit, 173243 + 88751 = 261994 Stagger
7 sec, 26199 Stagger
8 sec, 26199 Stagger
Swing #5, 92373 Hit, 209596 + 88751 = 298347 Stagger
Damage from melee strikes: 461865
Total Stagger Damage: 145408
Total Damage: 607273

[top] Purifying Brew

Purifying Brew completely removes Stagger from the Monk. PB is the skill that gives Monks control over incoming damage. There is an ebb and flow with Stagger and PB in which we take several hits, purify the Stagger away, take several hits, purify the Stagger away, ad infinitum.

Let's compare the prior damage taken using PB after the fourth melee hit:
Swing #1, 92373 Hit, 88751 Stagger
1 sec, 8875 Stagger
2 sec, 8875 Stagger
Swing #2, 92373 Hit, 71001 + 88751 = 159752 Stagger
3 sec, 15975 Stagger
4 sec, 15975 Stagger
Swing #3, 92373 Hit, 127802 + 88751 = 216553 Stagger
5 sec, 21655 Stagger
6 sec, 21655 Stagger
Swing #4, 92373 Hit, 261994 Stagger
Purifying Brew
7 sec, 0 Stagger
8 sec, 0 Stagger
Swing #5, 92373 Hit, 71001 + 88751 = 88751 Stagger
Damage from melee strikes: 461865
Total Stagger Damage: 93010
Total Damage: 554875

Being able to eliminate 100k damage that would have been taken over six seconds is not bad at all.

Now let's consider a DK under the same circumstances:
DK: 10% passive damage reduction, 52% damage reduction from armor, 140% Mastery
Swing #1, 151,200 Hit
Swing #2, 151,200 Hit
Swing #3, 151,200 Hit
Death Strike, 90720 Heal, 127008 Blood Shield
Swing #4, 24192 Hit
Swing #5, 151,200 Hit
Total Damage minus self-healing: 538272

Now, let's consider the total damage taken and the rate at which it is taken. The DK takes less damage over the course of ten seconds. How about over the first three attacks? The DK takes 453,600 damage in three hits, whereas the Monk takes 326,819.
In the following two attacks, the DK takes 175,392 damage, whereas the Monk takes
228,056 damage. The DK is averaging less damage per attack, but the damage taken is spiky, whereas the Monk's damage taken is smooth.

[top] When to Purify

One of the biggest mistakes a novice Monk can make is trying to purify more damage than their Chi generation will allow and losing uptime on Shuffle due to lack of Chi.

Heavy staggers should be purified at once, but a medium stagger is not a serious threat, and purifying it is a service to your healers, not a life-saver. More importantly, you need to be aware of the value of your stagger, not just the color. All medium staggers are not equal, and this is why most overuse of PB occurs. To be clear, purifying medium staggers is not a bad thing at all. Doing so at the expense of allowing Shuffle to fall off or failing to use Guard at a key moment is. Purifying medium stagger is a low-priority use of Chi.

Stagger + PB also gives us AMAZING control over predictable, large strikes of damage (e.g., Thrash, single-tanked Massive Attacks). Stagger a 7-figure hit that would kill another class and purify immediately - all's well.

Ordinarily Stagger damage ramps upward as you take hits, but on occasion taking hits can result in a decrease in Stagger's damage per second. This is almost always a result of the abnormally high avoidance provided by Elusive Brew, and is a good thing.

[top] Avoidance

I posited earlier that if all avoidances were created equal, Monks would be designed to take more damage over the course of a fight, but more fluidly. This is true. However, avoidance toolkits are not all equal, and ours is the best in the game.

Monks have as much as 28% passive avoidance via Dizzying Haze, Swift Reflexes and Shuffle, and we gain 30% dodge when using Elusive Brew – 58% avoidance from our kit alone. Dizzying Haze does not affect bosses, giving us only 25% passive avoidance against bosses, but the debuff is still useful for add fights.

[top] Elusive Brew

Every time you land a white crit, you gain charges of Elusive Brew. The number of charges generated depends upon weapon speed.
You gain charges equal to (1.5 * WeaponSpeed / 2.6) for 1H weapons and (3.0 * WeaponSpeed / 3.6) for 2H weapons
In Tier 14 we have only three weapon speeds available: 2.6 1h weapons, 3.3 staves and 3.6 polearms.

Weapon Speed	Minimum Charges per crit	Maximum Charges per crit
2.6 (1h)	1 (50%)	2 (50%)
3.3 (Staff)	2 (25%)	3 (75%)
3.6 (Polearm)	3 (100%)

Elusive Brew uptime is a function of crit chance and haste, and its effectiveness is ultimately determined by the user. Elusive Brew has a laundry list of useful applications. It lets us live through certain-death mechanics such as Dread Thrash, gives us far and away the highest total avoidance, provides tremendous survivability in AoE tanking situations and generally provides good overall damage avoidance throughout the course of a fight. It is also a solid low-health cooldown that can save your life when you have no other cooldowns left.

The only clear “wrong” ways to use Elusive Brew are never using it or using when you are not being attacked. Hitting it on cooldown is a pretty close contender on that list as well.

The conservative rule is to hit it whenever you have 6 or more stacks of Elusive Brew, but you do not always need to wait that long to pop it. Being able to quickly read and react to a shifting battlefield is one of the most important attributes a tank can possess, and Elusive Brew is a powerful reactionary tool that can easily provide two or three dodges in a row during crunch time.

The strength of Elusive Brew is that it is avoidance on demand, meaning that you should use it when you need it most, not just whenever it is up. Monks excel in situations where we are forced to pool avoidance (forced tank swaps, full stops mid-fight). Being able to come out of a Will of the Emperor combo with 15-25 seconds of 80%+ avoidance is incredible. Taking a real raid example: compare my performance on my guild's first Heroic Will of the Emperor kill with my off-tank (Death Knight), I took nearly 55k damage more per melee swing than he did, but I parried 35 attacks and dodged 53. In comparison, he parried 24 and dodged only 5.

Unlike Shield Block and Savage Defense, which are gated by recharge time, Elusive Brew's only gating mechanic is gear. This means that EB receives a dramatic increase in potency under buffs like Heroism, trinket procs, agility potions, etc.

Here is a spreadsheet I made to demonstrate the relationship between Haste and Crit with regards to increasing avoidance through EB:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...5NEdxQWc#gid=0

One final tidbit, I prefer not to Purify while under Elusive Brew unless it's a Heavy Stagger. By using EB you are virtually ensuring that you will not take two hits back to back (less than a 1 in 25 chance to eat consecutive swings while using EB). Consequently, if you are hit while using EB, it will most realistically occur after a gap of several seconds of no attacks striking. This can often cause the Stagger to recalculate downward, doing less damage per second. This is not an ironclad rule, just a good general strategy. EB and Purify are two methods of accomplishing a very similar goal.

Overlapping EB and Purify is like stabbing a man to death, then shooting his corpse fifteen times just to be sure. It's effective, but a bit excessive.

[top] Effective Health vs. Damage Reduction

Effective Health and Damage Reduction are two methods of measuring similarly important concepts.

Effective Health is, simply, the amount of incoming damage you are able to take without dying, and should be compared to unmitigated damage taken. Damage Reduction is the amount that you reduce or avoid that incoming damage. Avoidance is damage reduction. Mitigation is damage reduction.

By increasing your damage reduction, you increase your effective health. The simple formula for determining EH is (Current Health / (1 - % damage reduction)).

Mastery increases our Effective Health by redirecting a greater amount of damage taken from physical damage events. It does not provide any damage reduction unless we use Purifying Brew. Even then, Mastery only provides damage reduction if PB is subsequently used to remove more damage than it would without that Mastery. This is not difficult, but it is a requirement for Mastery to actually provide damage reduction.

Effective Health is a valuable thing. It is a measure of our ability to survive large bursts of damage or periods without healing, and it is useful in understanding how we should gear and prioritize our cooldowns.

[top] Cooldown Usage

Cooldowns	Description
Guard (with Power Guard)	Shields the caster for 16367 + 226.7% of AP
Fortifying Brew	20% damage reduction, 20% Stagger increase, 20% health increase
Dampen Harm	The next 3 hits over 20% of the Monk's total health do 50% damage
Diffuse Magic	6 seconds, 90% spell damage reduction
Zen Meditation	8 seconds, 90% damage reduction, channeled, 5 charges, breaks when attacked

[top] Guard

Guard is the primary Monk cooldown, and is basically Power Word: Shield on steroids. Guard scales heavily off of AP, meaning that it should never be used without a large amount of Vengeance to buff it up. An average raid Guard (I average 110k AP with Vengeance) will be on the order of 250k damage absorption. Guard also increases self-healing by 30% while it is up, and it works with everything (even GotOx orbs). There are plenty of ways to use Guard, and it is valuable as a self-healing increase to ensure you are at full health for a large strike or as a low-health lifesaver.

Let's take a typical tanking scenario: I take a big hit and drop to 25% health. I cast Guard and quickly Expel Harm while grabbing a few GotOxes. I am healed back to 50% health and have a 250k+ shield. Crisis averted, healers can get me back to safety. Let's try another: I am tanking Heroic Blade Lord Ta'yak. He is going to hit me with Overwhelming Assault in less than 3 seconds. I have 50% health, Guard is off cooldown, I have six seconds of Shuffle, a 200k Stagger, 2 Chi and just hit Keg Smash. I Guard, Expel Harm, Purify, Dampen Harm and grab a GotOx before the Overwhelming Assault and come through it handily.

One of the biggest mistakes novice Monks can make is trying to use Guard on cooldown. Hitting Guard on the pull is another common mistake. You should be prioritizing early Chi for getting Shuffle up and running. Take a few more hits, build some Vengeance and then Guard when you will get more out of it. Tracking your AP will help you get the most out of Guards. Track your AP.

Before moving on from Guard, your Black Ox Statue will cast Guard on a raid member every time you do 1600% of AP in damage. This equates to a tremendous amount of damage absorbed over the course of a fight. Always have Black Ox Statue down when fighting.

[top] Fortifying Brew

Fortifying Brew is a weird bird. It is the Monk Shield Wall, kind of, but it's also the Monk Last Stand. FB grants 20% damage reduction, a 20% increase to Stagger value and a 20% increase to health for 20 seconds. An odd ability, it nonetheless provides a substantial decrease to physical damage taken for the duration. For spells it is not nearly as useful.
Because of our mediocre health values, the health increase from this spell is not even close to as valuable as the damage reduction and increased stagger values, but every bit counts when tanking. You may expect to purify more during Fortifying Brew, but the damage reduction will cut the incoming Stagger value by quite a bit, yielding only about a 5% increase to Stagger.

[top] Dampen Harm and Diffuse Magic

We are in the weird position of having two tank cooldowns in our talent tree. Fortunately, they are both excellent. Dampen Harm causes the next three attacks within 45 seconds that deal 20% or more of the Monk's total health to only do 50% damage. For burst damage, this is the true Monk Shield Wall. This skill helps us excel absorbing large strikes (e.g., Overwhelming Assault on Blade Lord Tay'ak). The fatal flaw in this skill is that it has no value whatsoever against a rapid-fire stream of small strikes (e.g., The Stone Guard). The cooldown begins as soon as the spell is cast.

The other defensive cooldown talent, Diffuse Magic, gives us 90% magic damage reduction for 6 seconds and dispels all magic debuffs on the Monk. The latter has little implication in raids. This spell is the clearly spell-focused counterpart to Dampen Harm, and is useful in situations in which you will take a large number of smaller magic damage hits in a short period of time (Elegon breath), will take purely magic damage and have no need to mitigate large physical hits (Lei Shi), or will take a hit of magic damage so large that 50% damage reduction is not enough (Algalon?). We haven't experienced the latter in a long time.

So, to compare, Dampen Harm should be your primary cooldown for taking large, predictable spikes of damage and can also help take some of the bite out of a hard-hitting boss, Diffuse Magic will utterly nullify six seconds of spell damage, and Fortifying Brew is strongest against a steady stream of physical damage.

[top] Zen Meditation

Zen Meditation is very much like the Monk Army of the Dead. It provides 90% damage reduction for up to 8 seconds, but since it breaks as soon as your are hit with a melee attack, it will rarely see a full channel (not bad since you cannot Keg Smash while channeling). It will redirect 5 spell casts on raid members to you during its effect and will end prematurely if all 5 casts are consumed. Use this to nullify a single large hit or a burst of magic damage (e.g., Gara'jal Shadowy Attack, Elegon Breath). Highly useful on Lei Shi.

[top] Special Mentions

Avert Harm is our raid cooldown, and it is really strong under the right circumstances. For 6 seconds, the Monk diverts 20% of all damage taken by raid members within 10 yards to themselves. This damage can be Staggered. The effect will end prematurely if the Monk drops below 10% health. This ability has a long cooldown for a short duration and an extremely limiting range of only 10 yards. That said, it is an absurdly strong cooldown for stacking fights with large amounts of unavoidable raid damage (Ultraxion, Chimaeron, parts of The Spirit Kings). You should always line up a personal cooldown (Zen Meditation is a great choice) and be ready to Purify at least once during any properly-timed Avert Harm.

Grapple Weapon can only be used in one fight for this tier that I have found (Wind Lord Mel'jarak), but it is an 8 second disarm that also provides a 5% damage reduction buff for the duration. Not bad.

Nimble Brew is our cool new 5.2 addition. It removes stuns, roots, fears, horrifies and reduces their durations by 60% if they are reapplied within 6 seconds. It has a 2 minute cooldown. It's most definitely a pvp addition, but it has some use in raiding. Some.

[top] Self-Healing

Monks have two major self-heals that will save your life over and over again if used correctly.

Self-Heal	Scaling
Gift of the Ox	4926 + 50.52% of AP
Expel Harm	(251.7% of Mainhand Min DPS + 125.8% of Offhand Min DPS + 63.6% of AP - 7) to (251.7% of Mainhand Max DPS + 125.8% of Offhand Max DPS + 63.6% of AP + 7)

[top] Gift of the Ox

All successful attacks have a chance to summon a healing sphere to your side, and can only you can see and use the sphere. Just like with Guard, spheres are much more valuable when your AP is high.

The proc chance on special attacks is 10%, and the proc chance on autoattacks is (.051852 * Weaponspeed) for 1h's and (.06 * Weaponspeed for 2h's).

Weapon Speed	GotOx proc chance
2.6 (1h)	13.5%
3.3 (Staff)	19.8%
3.6 (Polearm)	21.6%

The best way to use Gift of the Ox is to grab a sphere after you take a hit, and to leave a few in case you get chunked. If you have 2-3 Gift of the Ox spheres to your right, taking two steps to the right after a large hit is equivalent to popping a Healthstone. While you should make an effort not to overheal with GotOx, the worst thing you can do is leave them unused. They are free healing, just waiting for you to wiggle left and right after taking hits. Do not waste them.

[top] SCK and GotOx

Spinning Crane Kick will blanket the ground in Gift of the Ox orbs. Monks have a tendency to be spiky in AoE tanking without a cooldown up, and GotOx can help out healers a great deal. GotOx orbs take a few seconds to materialize, so be mindful of rushing through them while SCK'ing. Always make use of your ability to spawn absurd amount of free heals in AoE. SCK precludes autoattacking, meaning that overuse will result in a drought of Elusive Brew. Be prudent.

[top] Expel Harm

Expel Harm was changed with 5.1 to be removed from cooldown when the Monk drops below 35% in addition to having no cooldown when used while under 35%. Truly awesome. Expel Harm now has no punishment when used above 35% health, and as a result should be used in place of Jab whenever it will not overheal. This ability should never be wasted as overhealing (yours or your healers), but can be used to generate a Chi when out of melee range. Below 35% health is when this ability really shines. It still has a large enough cost that it can't ever become spammable, but two quick Expel Harms after taking a large chunk of damage can send your health rocketing back to safe values.

If you have experience playing DK, treat EH like Death Strike and you should be gravy.

[top] Healing Sphere

Healing Spheres are GotOx that cost 40 Energy and can be used by other players. Generally speaking, I have very little use for Healing Spheres. In some high-vengeance situations I have found them useful for healing my offtank (I set spheres for my offtank after a taunt swap during Horridon enrage) or for setting a heal in advance for myself in a burst damage scenario (ex: During Megaera, I set a Healing Sphere for myself during rampage so that I can eat it during a breath). The use is limited, but Healing Spheres scale extremely well with Vengeance and can save lives in the right scenarios. If you are looking to optimize, set three Spheres for yourself before pulling.

[top] Mobility

Ability Name	Description	Cooldown
Roll	Quickly travel a short distance	20 second recharge, 2 charges
Transcendence	Severs the Monk's Body and Spirit at current location	45 seconds
Transcendence: Transfer	Body and Spirit switch locations	25 seconds
Clash	The Monk and the target charge at each other, meeting halfway and stunning enemies within 6 yards for 4 seconds	35 seconds
Provoke	You mock the target, causing them to rush towards you with a 50% increased movement speed.	8 seconds

Monks are absurdly mobile. Our mobility and Dizzying Haze (A spammable, ranged, AoE, high-threat, no-damage snare? Holy crap.) make us really, really strong kiters. The time has not arisen for us to test our mettle, but when it does, we are the frontrunner for kiting adds to the moon and back.

[top] Roll

Roll moves roughly 10 yards in whatever direction you are currently moving (even backward, looks hilarious) and takes about a second. Roll is completely unaffected by movement slows. You have no control of your character while rolling (off-gcd abilities will not function, e.g., Provoke). Roll does not work like Blink, meaning that you can Roll off of ledges or over 1 centimeter-high bumps in the ground. Roll does work like jumping, meaning that if you Roll out of a mechanic at the last possible moment, your body is still at the location you began your roll until you have recovered your character at the end of the roll. This means that split-second Rolls out of mechanics like Devastating Combo will usually not work.

[top] Transcendence

For the first cast, Transcendence works similarly to a Warlock's Demonic Circle, but because your spirit is not in a fixed location like the summoned Demonic Circle, it gets weird on subsequent Transfers. A really cool concept and I suspect (hope) we will see a Twin Emperors-style fight later in the expansion in which this ability will really shine, but for now, it only has minor applications in a few encounters (it helped in learning Elegon and in phase 2 of Blade Lord Tay'ak).

[top] Clash

Clash functions like Death Grip, not Charge, so casting it on targets immune to Death Grip will have no effect other than putting the ability on cooldown. Clashing a target affected by a crowd control will result in you running halfway to it while it remains stationary.
The AoE stun is quite useful and can cut a great deal of incoming damage while AoE tanking. For best results when Clashing into a group of mobs, select the target furthest away and aim to finish the Clash in the middle of the group. If using as a CC while AoE tanking, target the mob furthest to one side, take two steps in the opposite diration and Clash to AoE stun the whole group.

[top] Provoke

Not too much to mention here. Our taunt is special because it causes the mob to gain 50% movement speed. This is obviously useful for moving mobs quickly and will also work on untauntable enemies. It can also be dangerous, be wise.

[top] Talent Assessment

Our talent preferences shift based upon fights. I will do what I can to explain the situations in which each option excels.

[top] Level 15 Talents – Mobility

I said that Monks are mobile.

	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.	Celerity is a great choice for lazy people. Best when you need a lot of short bursts of movement during a fight.
	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.	Tiger's Lust provides better movement in crunch time than Celerity or Momentum. Yes, using it requires more work than either of the passive roll improvements, but active improvements are more powerful than passive effects - this is no exception. You can cast TL on other players in your raid to give them a boost. For example: on Protectors of the Endless, I cast TL on my offtank during Kaolan phase 3 when he is running from Expel Corruption.
	Momentum Everytime you Roll or Chi Torpedo, your movement speed is increased by 25% for 10 sec. Stacks up to 2 times.	Momentum is better than Celerity when you need to move a large distance, but is inferior to Tiger's Lust. Momentum is by no means bad, but it's stacked up against two options that are more useful in the majority of circumstances.

[top] Level 30 Talents – Healing

To preface: none of these talents get much use as a Brewmaster, but they are a decent aid to healers if you are riding high on resources and your raid is taking significant damage.

	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.	Chi Wave does a decent amount of healing in a short window, and since it is a smart heal, it is seldom wasted. Chi Wave hits 8 times in total and can jump directly between the Monk and the boss repeatedly, which has saved my life on more than one occasion. This my go-to spell in this tier. It's the best option for self-healing in crunch time, typically providing a six-figure instant self-heal. Nice, but we won't be embarrassing DK's and Pallies on the strength of Chi Wave alone.
	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.	Zen Sphere values were nerfed into oblivion during beta and will never recover. While Monk damage breakdowns are suited to HoTs, Zen Sphere HoT healing is insignificant at low health, the situation in which we need to self-heal the most. With being able to cast ZS on two targets, it is much more suited to MW Monks (doubt it), than Brewmasters. When we need to self-heal, we want burst healing, not a pitiful dot. The explosion when we get low is a nice addition.
	Chi Burst You summon a torrent of Chi energy and hurl it at the target, 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.	Chi Burst may make seem like the best option for Brewmasters due to the final line in the description, but the problem with using Chi Burst is that stops at its target and is not usable while moving. The potency of Chi Burst is high, but cooldown is extremely long. The values on Chi Burst are such that it is great for burst healing if you have positioning that allows it, but using Chi Burst on a target other than the boss is a bit unwieldy - even if you use a focus target macro on a healer at the back of the raid, you are reliant upon the target being positioned such that you can throw the Chi Burst through the majority of the raid. Chi Burst provides great, infrequent burst healing and is good for immobile stack and burn fights like Ultraxion so long as you are able to throw the Burst through the entire raid.

[top] Level 45 Talents – Chi Generation

I go into greater detail further down, but suffice it to say that this is a complex mathematical conundrum dependent upon fight length and haste values.

	Power Strikes Every 20 sec, you gain Power Strikes, causing your next Jab, 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.	Power Strikes is the best option for undergeared Monks. At present, if you Jab when at 3 Chi, you will not generate a Chi Sphere. This has been reported and may be a bug. As for timing, it appears to reappear 20 seconds after you last gained the buff, not after you last cast Jab, making timing Jab usage to the proc not critical. Power Strikes provides more Chi per encounter than Ascension for players under roughly 7000 Haste. It is also dramatically more valuable than Ascension in Challenge Modes due to gear downscaling.
	Ascension Increases your maximum Chi by 1, your maximum mana by 15%, and your energy regen by 15%.	Ascension will provide considerably more energy throughout the fight. This directly translates into more Jabs and more opportunities to use Expel Harm. Unlike the other talents in the tier, Ascension scales with gear and buffs, so Haste procs and Heroism greatly increase the value of Ascension. I recommend switching to Ascension if you have at least 7000 haste. Between 6-7k Haste, the decision between Power Strikes and Ascension is based upon personal preference and fight length. Many Monks run Ascension below 6k Haste, and while this is technically not optimal for Chi generation, it is more convenient and comfortable than PS.
	Chi Brew Instantly restores all of your Chi. 90 second cooldown.	Chi Brew provides decidedly less Chi per fight than the alternatives, but will give 4 Chi on demand for emergencies. I'm not a proponent of Chi Brew, but it has uses.

[top] Level 60 Talents – Crowd Control

Leg Sweep is the best choice most of the time. Ring of Peace and Charging Ox Wave definitely have their uses.

	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 3 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.	Ring of Peace is pvp-focused, but it has uses in pve, namely situations in which you can disarm a group of small adds. I find it particularly useful on fights such as Horridon and Megaera, encounters in which you want to cc a group of adds that are not in melee range. Charging Ox Wave can do this as well, but Ring of Peace has additional value due to not sharing a DR with stuns.
	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.	Charging Ox Wave looks cool, and is on a shorter cooldown with a shorter duration than Leg Sweep. The stun wave is somewhat thin, but it is 30 yards long. It is good when you need to stun a group of adds at range, such as kiting bats on Tortos.
	Leg Sweep You knock down all enemies within 5 yards, effectively stunning them for 5 sec. 45 second cooldown.	Leg Sweep has a deceptively short range. Other than that, it is awesome when you need AoE CC.

[top] Level 75 Talents – Defensive Cooldowns

I recommend Dampen Harm over Diffuse Magic unless facing a magic-heavy boss.

	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.	Healing Elixirs causes Purifying Brew, Elusive Brew, Fortifying Brew and Nimble Brew to occasionally give a 15% heal. Do not sacrifice a massive tank cooldown for a small heal. Bosses will kill you. You will deserve to die.
	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.	Dampen Harm is the right choice 90% of the time and should be your primary cooldown for mitigating large hits of damage. The cooldown begins as soon as the spell is cast.
	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.	Diffuse Magic will utterly nullify huge sources of magic damage. Use it on magic-heavy fights.

[top] Level 90 Talents – Damage

I recommend Xuen, the White Tiger for single target or cleave fights and Rushing Jade Wind for heavy AoE.

	Rushing Jade Wind You summon a whirling tornado that travels 0 yards in front of you, dealing (5,540 + 82.5% of AP) Nature damage to all targets in its path and increasing damage taken by your Spinning Crane Kick by 30% for 8 sec. Grants 6 seconds of Shuffle. 30 second cooldown.	Rushing Jade Wind is effectively an AoE Blackout Kick that ignores armor. It will deal a considerable amount of damage on heavy AoE fights and provide a sizable increase to SCK damage for 8 seconds. Pool your energy to drop multiple SCK's after a Rushing Jade Wind and you will put out some serious AoE damage.
	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 6 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. Xuen will also taunt the target, forcing it to attack him.	Xuen, the White Tiger is a pure dps cooldown. Inexplicably, he will taunt non-bosses. It is annoying. I hope for a glyph in the future. That said, he does extremely good damage. Overall, not bad.
	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.	Chi Torpedo has value in one scenario: extremely heavy raid damage during boss downtime, such as Megaera Rampages. If you take Chi Torpedo, use Celerity.

[top] Glyph Discussion

None of our glyphs are essential. I've tried to order them by importance, but this is not gospel.

[top] Why Glyph of Guard is Not Good for Self-Healing

Glyph of Guard is definitely useful for encounters that feature a substantial amount of spell damage, such as Lei Shi or Megaera. Back in Beta, a fair number of Monks attempted to justify using Glyph of Guard for physical damage encounters, so that they could keep Guard up nearly 100% of the time and reap the benefits of a constant 30% healing increase. This is a significant mistake.

Let's first quickly consider the uses of Guard:

• Provides massive Effective Health to survive burst damage.
• Provides a cushion of health when we fail to avoid numerous autos in a row and are in danger of being struck down.
• Provides our only sub-60-second cooldown damage reduction against spells.
• Increases our self-healing.

Using Glyph of Guard completely negates its ability to protect us from autoattacks and physical burst damage.

Let's do math!
Since Guard is worth a 30% increase to healing, in order for the increased healing of Glyphed Guard to be worth the lost absorption value of unglyphed Guard, you need to heal 1/.3 = 333.33% more damage than Guard would have absorbed in order reach an even trade. This does not accommodate for damage you would have healed while an unglyphed Guard was still active.

Let's get practical!
With Power Guard, Guard is worth 226.7% of AP, and grants 30% increased self-healing.
During the 30 seconds of a Guard, you can heal yourself with 2 Expel Harms, 2 Chi Waves and ~6.3 GotOx.
Expel Harm is worth 63.6% of AP, Chi Wave is worth 45% of AP per bounce, and GotOx is worth 50.52% of AP per orb.

For now let's assume that Shield and Heals are equal (they aren't, shielding is much better) and compare the amount of damage reduction I receive with and without glyphing Guard. For the sake of argument, let's assume I use EH and CW on cooldown, three bounces of each Chi Wave hit me and I eat 80% of the GotOx. Let's also assume that I never use Guard to increase my self-healing when it is unglyphed, and always do when it is glyphed, even though this is idiotic.

Unglyphed self-healing per 30 seconds:
2.267 + 2 * .636 + 6 * .45 + .8 * 6.3 * .5052 = 878.52% of AP self-healing
Glyphed self-healing per 30 seconds:
1.3 * (2 * .636 + 6 * .45 +.8 * 6.3 * .5052) = 847.37% of AP self-healing

As I said before, assuming I never receive a self-healing increase from unglyphed Guard is idiotic. I frequently use a Guard -> EH and GotOx grab to get out of sticky situations.
Let's use some logs to take unglyphed Guard uptime into account when considering self-healing.
Details for Llarold - 28-05 19:11 - Royal Militia - World of Logs
Horridon - 10 Guard casts, 79 seconds uptime, Average duration: 7.9 seconds.
Council of Elders - 11 Guard casts, 93 seconds uptime, Average duration: 8.5 seconds.
Durumu - 10 Guard casts, 101 seconds uptime, Average duration: 10.1 seconds.
Primordius - 10 Guard casts, 61 seconds uptime, Average duration: 6.1 seconds.
My average Guard uptime for these four fights was 8.15 seconds. At 8.15 / 30 = 27.2% uptime, let's take that into consideration with my unglyphed self-healing. 27.2% of a 30% increase is an 8.16% increase.

Unglyphed self-healing per 30 seconds:
2.267 + 1.0816 * (2 * .636 + 6 * .45 + .8 * 6.3 * .5052) = 931.71% of AP self-healing

Compare that to the glyphed self-healing value, and it's not even close. Add in that shields are more useful than healing (you can't be healed if you're dead thanks to an unshielded boss skill or auto), and the case for using Glyph of Guard against fights that aren't heavy on magic damage is untenable. Now, for fights that will consistently consume the entire Guard with spell damage, it's a fine choice, but then it's only worth taking for the 10% increase to its value, not the thought that it will last as a self-healing increase for 30 seconds. Using Glyph of Guard to sacrifice the shield for a self-healing increase is always the wrong decision.

[top] Important Glyphs

Glyph	Usefulness
Fortifying Brew	Reduces the Last Stand value of the ability and increases the Shield Wall component. This is a fair trade. Our health values are low to begin with and we have a fantastic low-health toolkit via Expel Harm and Guard. A stronger damage reduction cooldown does more for us than the health increase we sacrifice for it.
Enduring Healing Sphere	GotOx orbs only last 20 seconds by default, but they will scale with this glyph to last 3 minutes and 20 seconds. Useful for tank swap fights or any situation in which you will coat the ground with GotOx but don't have an immediate use for them. This glyph has become a lot more useful in t15 with the number of movement-based encounters in which we may blanket an area in GotOx, leave for a while, then come back (Lei Shen, Megaera, parts of Iron Qon).
Spinning Crane Kick	Great glyph when you have to SCK. I recommend it in those encounters.
Guard	This has obvious value on fights like Megaera that feature magic damage all fight long. It also will not save you from melee hits at low health. I recommend this glyph only for the most spell-heavy fights. Using this glyph for increased healing is foolish.
Zen Meditation	Makes ZM more useful in AoE damage situations, or when taking magic damage while not in melee range (Blade Lord Ta'yak phase 2). I like this glyph a lot, and wish it were just baseline.

[top] Situational Glyphs

Glyph	Usefulness
Breath of Fire	Turns a niche AoE dps ability into a CC as well. Not bad in 5-man instances or in situations in which you are capable of crowd controlling a number of targets. Pretty marginal usefulness in raids.
Leer of the Ox	It can be useful for juggling a target for a few seconds, but since it will get your statue killed easily, I don't recommend it too highly.
Stoneskin	Great glyph if you encounter a fight in which you are afflicted by a powerful bleed. Useless otherwise.
Touch of Death	Really useful in fights in which you need to quickly kill an add every 3.5 minutes. Highly niche, but helpful for Energy Charges on Elegon.
Transcendence	50 yard Transcendence is nice for situations in which you want to Transfer a huge distance. Those do not arise often.

[top] Tanking Priority

Black Ox Statue – Always have Black Ox Statue down. Always. Always. Always. Start with it down and recast if you have to move out of range.

[top] How to spend your GCD's

1. Keg Smash on cooldown – Do not let Keg Smash sit on CD.
2. Blackout Kick if Shuffle is not up/will fall off in less than 2 seconds.
3. Tiger Palm if Tiger Power/Power Guard buff are not active.
4. Blackout Kick at full Chi.
5. Jab at Energy > 80 to avoid capping.
6. Blackout Kick at 3 Chi (4 with Ascendance), to avoid capping with Keg Smash.
7. Tiger Palm to fill.

Thanks to Tiger Palm, you should have zero free gcd's during a fight. You should never, ever be unable to use Keg Smash because you got too greedy Jabbing. You are safe to use Jab if Current Energy – 40 + Remaining Keg Smash CD (sec) * Energy per Second > 40. Basically, do not Jab within three seconds of Keg Smash coming off cooldown unless you are going to energy cap.
If the raid needs healing, you can replace Tiger Palm with a talent heal. The global will be a dps gain over Tiger Palm, so you can do this on cooldown for dps, but I wouldn't unless I needed a heal. Chi Wave is the optimal choice for dps and hps, and the easiest choice for healing.
In AoE, you can replace Jab with SCK if Keg Smash is at least 3 seconds from coming off cooldown. SCK completely locks you out of all other abilities while it is active, so be careful when you use it. You are safe to replace Blackout Kick with Breath of Fire if you will not let Shuffle fall off (6+ seconds of Shuffle remaining). I highly recommend appending the following to at least one of your important skills (interrupt, Expel Harm, Purifying Brew):

[top] How to use Purifying Brew

Purifying Brew requires decisiveness. Your stagger loses 10% of its value every second, so in order to Purify the maximum possible damage, you must Purify before the first tick of a recalculated stagger occurs.
That said, overuse of Purifying Brew can result in considerably more damage taken than underuse due to loss of Shuffle. Consequently, I only cast Purifying Brew when I can reasonably expect that I will not lose Shuffle as a result (Shuffle > 2 sec, 2+ Chi).
Here is my priority:

1. Purify Heavy Stagger – Urgent!
2. Purify Stagger > 40% of my health (if Shuffle > 6 sec or Chi > 2)
3. Purify Medium Stagger before a predictable burst of damage to ensure I am topped (if Shuffle > 6 sec or Chi > 2)
4. Purify Medium Stagger if below 70% health (if Shuffle > 6 sec or Chi > 2)

I also make a point to have Chi prepared to PB as soon as a large, predictable strike of physical damage lands (Talon Rake on Ji-Kun, Triple Puncture on Horridon, etc.).

[top] Parsing as a Tank

Since switching to Death Knight in Cataclysm, I have become overwhelmingly convinced of the value and even necessity of tank damage output (I had tanked as Warrior since Vanilla until then, so...). With the changes to Vengeance in 5.0, clever tanks have been capable of absolutely destroying damage meters on fights that allow exploitation of Vengeance.
Monks have an extremely powerful toolkit for exploiting Vengeance, courtesy of Dampen Harm and Stagger. The Brewmaster damage kit is designed to excel on cleave fights, but we are competitive in single target and AoE if played well.

The primary rule of exploiting Vengeance is simple (it's also the Tank equivalent of heresy): Take unnecessary damage.
There are two obvious qualifications to this rule: Do not get yourself killed (duh) and do not do this without letting your healers know first. This should go without saying, but this is not acceptable behavior for progression raiding. Do this to make re-clearing interesting.

There are many, many ways to take unnecessary damage, so be creative. The simplest way to accomplish this is to simply sit down and take a crit. While this should not affect Vengeance, currently it does appear to result in increased Vengeance gain. Another example from this tier would be to take decapitate on Lei Shen and continue to tank him with the 100% damage taken increase debuff, using EB to avoid autoattacks coming in during that time. You gain Vengeance from avoided autoattacks, so using EB is never a dps loss. Your cup shall overflow over with Vengeance by this point, and your group can then stack up with you and continue the fight as normal.

The Brewmaster DPS rotation has only a few differences from the proper tanking rotation. For starters, you should not spend Chi on any spells other than Blackout Kick or Breath of Fire (AoE only). I still Purify Heavy Stagger and use Guard in case of emergencies, but both are a dps loss. Using Guard to live through unnecessary damage that would otherwise kill you is a dps increase. Stagger ticks do not contribute to Vengeance. Vengeance is calculated based upon the pre-mitigation, pre-absorption attack.

Keep Shuffle up - Shuffle is a passive dps increase due to Swift Reflexes.
Replace Jab with Expel Harm on cooldown.
Use level 90 talents on cooldown.
Fill with Spinning Crane Kick as much as possible without delaying Keg Smash (AoE).
Keep Breath of Fire up as as much as possible without losing Shuffle uptime (AoE).

[top] Stat Priority

Stat values do not exist in a vacuum. Gaining more of one stat affects the values of others. Consequently, I cannot provide stat weights that are accurate at any gear level. What I can do is provide some useful numbers and expound upon general value and gearing decisions from there.
The following values are taken from Venyasure's excellent spreadsheet and assume a reasonable balance of Haste, Hit, Expertise, Agility, Crit and Mastery.

I checked them against Mr. Robot (eh) and they held up. I recalculated, setting Agi = 1.

Stat	Adjusted Tank Agility Value
Agility	1
Hit	.595
Expertise	.586
Haste	.583
Crit	.579
Parry	.458
Armor	.423
Dodge	.417
Mastery	.285
Attack Power	.171

I highly recommend you use the Spreadsheet on your own for more accurate values, but I can still make some very obvious value judgments from the numbers above.
Agility is far and away our strongest damage reduction stat, point for point. However, since it is budgeted at only 50% of secondary stats for gemming, we can clearly see that Expertise and Hit are our primary gemming goals, followed hotly by Haste and Crit. Parry and Dodge have low value to Brewmasters, and Stamina has no value to us whatsoever as a damage reduction statistic. While it provides us with greater effective health, we already have a phenomenal toolkit for taking large hits and scale poorly with Stamina, with Dampen Harm's value being detrimentally affected in some situations by acquiring more.

We are a low-health, offensively-oriented tank that eschews the traditional tank stat priority in order to actively mitigate, avoid, and eliminate incoming damage.

Less important, but more fun, let's consider our damage stat priorities.

Stat	Adjusted DPS Agility Value
Hit	1.27
Expertise	1.23
Agility	1
Crit	.640
Attack Power	.329
Haste	.223
Parry	.0776

Unsurprisingly, hit and expertise capping are tremendous dps increases, and should undoubtedly be our initial gemming and gearing priority.

[top] Stat Values

Just for general use, here is a table of stat ratings (values are for 1%):

Stat	Value
Agility (Crit)	808.33
Agility (Dodge)	1394.3
Crit Rating	600
Haste Rating	425
Expertise Rating	340
Hit Rating	340
Dodge Rating	900
Parry Rating	900

[top] Expertise Hard-Capping and Hit Chance

Examining the values of Hit and Expertise as damage reduction and output stats, there is no question that we must reach the caps.
Many players still adhere to the old method of reaching the expertise soft cap and going no further. For tanks, the concept of an Expertise soft cap is a relic of a bygone era perpetuated by people who have not ascertained a full understanding of the new boss Parry paradigm.
Boss mobs now have a 7.5% chance to parry, dodge and be missed. This means tanks have a 22.5% chance for our attacks not to land upon a boss.
Expertise Rating does not affect chance to Parry until chance to Dodge has been entirely removed. You do not get double value out of “pre-soft cap” Expertise.

340 Hit Rating or Expertise grant 1% Hit or 1% Expertise.

The first 2550 Expertise Rating removes the 7.5% chance to Dodge, and reaching 5100 Expertise Rating removes the 7.5% chance to Parry. Acquiring 2550 Hit Rating removes 7.5% chance to miss. If you are a Draenei, you only need 2210 Hit Rating to reach the Hit cap. If you are an Orc, Human, etc., then you only need 4760 Expertise Rating to reach the Expertise cap if you are using the appropriate weapons.
What this means is that unlike in the past, Expertise does not perform at double efficacy prior to reaching the supposed soft-cap. Think of Expertise after the dodge cap as though it were another statistic: Tankspertise.
Monks should aim to cap their Tankspertise. It is a Chi generation increase, it is a GotOx procrate increase, it is a dps increase, and it makes Chi generation more consistent, which is important while tanking.

[top] Critical Strike

600 Critical Strike Rating = 1% chance to Crit.
Crit is a powerful stat for Monks. After capping Expertise and Hit, I and the majority of Monks would agree that it is our most powerful defensive stat, and it is unequivocally our most powerful offensive stat. 1% chance to Crit is worth roughly 3 times as much EB generation as 1% Haste. It is also worth roughly 3 times as much damage as 1% Haste.

Critical Strike is our strongest damage reduction, damage output and self-healing stat, but it is also our most unreliable. Having more of it will reduce the unreliability somewhat, but while heavy Crit is definitely the strongest overall build, it comes with a tradeoff.

[top] Haste

450 Haste Rating = 1% increase to Haste.
If specced into Ascension, Haste is the statistic that results in the highest Chi generation increase - without Ascension it is second to Expertise. The amount of Haste a Monk needs is largely personal preference, but 8k is pretty much the ceiling. Any Haste beyond 8k is largely unnecessary. The Chi generation values of Haste and Expertise are extremely close, shifting gearing priority from one to the other results in only a .6% change in Chi generation. While the Chi generation difference is nominal, the play style difference of stacking Haste instead of capping Expertise and vice-versa is significant, and I recommend the gearing strategy of capping Expertise. Haste stacking is mathematically comparable for Chi generation and excels in some areas where Expertise-capping is wasteful (e.g., tanking adds), but it results in a pretty large loss in damage and GotOx orbs, and I do not recommend it.

Since 5.2, the value of Chi and Haste has proven lower than it had prior, and many monks in 25-man raiding aim for 4k (or lower) Haste and acquire Mastery or Crit in its place. This is an issue of personal preference, however given the disparity in autoattack damage between 10 and 25-man raiding, I definitely see the logic behind prioritizing Mastery in 25-H progression tanking.

The problem with simply attempting to maximize Chi generation is that it really provides minimal benefit to the player now that none of our heals cost Chi. With zero Haste, we can maintain full uptime on Shuffle and decent use of Guard and PB, and the tier 15 4-piece reduces our need for Haste to PB even further. There are other things to consider, such as while critical strike increases our overall healing value more than Haste, point for point, Haste is the only stat that increases our quantity of heals. This can be just as important as healing values, and often times moreso, especially when using Healing Sphere during spiky progression fights (I used a lot on Megaera).

Haste is our middle-of-the-road stat. It increases our healing, damage and damage reduction, but not as effectively as Crit. It is more reliable, and if you are still learning the ropes, Haste is undeniably the "safety net" of stats, as no other stat will help you recover from your mistakes as effectively as Haste.

[top] Mastery

960 Mastery Rating = 1% increase to Stagger damage ratio
Monk Mastery is an odd stat. Because it operates on percentage values, it is decidedly more valuable in 25 man than in 10 man raiding. On its own, Mastery provides no actual damage reduction, only damage redistribution. Redistributing damage is a good thing, a really good thing. It evens out spikes, which makes you easier to heal. This allows healers to not use as many mana-inefficient heals and makes the roles of healing and tanking less stressful overall.

A greater discussion that has arisen of late has been the relative value of Mastery between 10 and 25 man raids. I assembled a table on page 17, post 253 of this thread detailing the disparity in autoattack and physical ability damage between 10 and 25 man heroic raiding. I am convinced that Mastery's value is substantially lower in 10 man than in 25 man. This does not mean it is not worth stacking in 10, but what I established in a post on page 18 is that I am consistently responsible for 35-40% of my healing during progression, and that I am invariably my #1 healer. This is consistent with my entire experience playing a Monk, and Haste and Crit improve self-healing whereas Mastery does not. In 25 mans, a Brewmaster is not remotely as responsible for their healing values as in 10 mans. When considered along with the disparity in damage values, Mastery is much more useful for a 25 man Brewmaster.

You can find a good discussion of the value of Mastery as a form of Effective Health on page 11 of this thread. In summary, Mastery improves effective health more than Stamina, point for point, is cheaper to itemize than Stamina and has increasing returns. This means that the more Mastery you have, the more valuable it is. The one drawback is that Mastery does absolutely nothing for spell damage, making it useless in heavy spell damage fights.

Mastery is the most reliable stat in our arsenal, and it is valuable for unavoidable physical burst damage (Madness of Deathwing Impale, for example). It does absolutely nothing for our healing or damage output, and only increases our damage reduction if we Purify correctly. It increases our health pool relative to boss damage, nothing more. It is incredibly valuable for a specific, but common, purpose.

[top] Elixirs vs. Flasks

The value of Armor as a damage reduction statistic is roughly 40% as valuable as Agility.
Mantid Elixir provides 2250 Armor (2730 for Alchemists), and can be used with Elixir of Perfection/Weaponry/Rapids for 750 Hit/Expertise/Haste (990 as Alch).

Compare to 1000 Agility from Flask of Spring Blossoms (1320 as Alch).

Using numbers from above: At 1391 Adjusted Tanking Agility Points (1720.8 for Alch), Elixirs are clearly superior to Flasks for tanking.
Again, from above: Elixirs clock in at 952 Adjusted Damage Agility Points (1257 for Alch), Agility flasks are slightly ahead for dps.

Use a combo of Elixirs for progression and an Agi Flask for farming and parsing.

[top] 2h or Dual Wield?

Dual wielding will provide slightly less Elusive Brew generation, although it will be more consistent. I recommend 2h if you are choosing between equal items. If you are not, take whichever is mathematically the best weapon setup you have available, regardless of 1h/2h.

[top] Tier 15

Our Tier 15 set is Fire-Charm Armor.

Set Bonus	Description
2-piece bonus	After Elusive Brew expires, the amount of damage you Stagger is increased by 12%. This effect lasts 1 sec per stack of Elusive Brew consumed.
4-piece bonus	Each time you take damage from Stagger, you have a 10% chance to make your next Purifying Brew cost no Chi.

The stat bonuses on our Tier 15 are really good, and the socket bonuses are Dodge and Stamina, for some unknown reason. I do not recommend trying to match the sockets for our craptastic bonuses.

Our set bonuses are pretty great. Like with Tier 14, Tier 15's 2-piece interacts with Elusive Brew, meaning the value of 2-piece is again dependent upon your Crit chance and makes Crit a slightly more valuable avoidance stat. Good bonus, no question, and it rewards using EB more frequently. Useless against spell damage.

The value of 4-piece is also solid. In the best-case scenario for this bonus' value, you will take 1 tick of Stagger every single second of the fight. This is not even remotely probable, but again, best case. In that best case, you would generate 1 free PB every 10 seconds, equating to 1/10 Chi/Second. 40 Energy = 1 Chi (Jab), so 1/10 Chi/Second * 40 Energy/Chi = 4 Energy/Second. That's a lot. A whole lot, and it doesn't cause issues with energy capping. It's also an insane best case scenario that won't occur, but let's say it's half right, and you take a tick of Stagger half the seconds of a fight, meaning you take 20 seconds to generate a free Chi. That's still 1/20 Chi/Second, and generates 1/20 * 40 = 2 Energy/Second. It's good.
It does have some limitations. It's useless on spell damage fights, just like the 2-piece, and it basically precludes itself. By that, I mean that getting a proc and using it removes Stagger, meaning that until you are struck again, you have no chance of generating any more procs. As long as you are tanking, that shouldn't be a problem. This is the final issue with the bonus, it's way less valuable on tank swap fights.
Overall, really good set bonuses.

[top] Professions

Profession	Bonus
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

Let's start with the frontrunners:
Blacksmithing is the single best profession, hands-down. 320 Agility is worth less than 640 secondary stats for a Monk, and you can choose which stats you need. No question, the best. Be a Blacksmith.

Engineering is quite good. Despite being equivalent to +320 Agi over the course of a fight (which would make it even with other professions), the on-demand nature of the glove tinker allows for situational use, which means the value can rocket upward. I would much rather have 10 sec of 1920 Agi after a taunt switch or a Devastating Combo than 320 useless Agility the whole time I'm not being pummeled. Bonus points for Rocket Boosts. You also get a mediocre starting trinket, a cool starting/transmog helm, and you can use the Auction House in Vale of Eternal Blossoms.

Alchemy is slightly ahead of the rest of professions for damage reduction and is even for dps. The difference in the increased armor and Hit/Exp/Haste is slightly ahead of 320 Agility (about 345 Adjusted Tank Agi). You also get a mediocre starting trinket. You get an extra hour on Elixir duration. During progression, they will be cleared by wipes before they expire. An extra hour on flasks for re-clears is nice.

I do not recommend other professions for Monk, but here are a couple that deserve special mention for being overrated:

Leatherworking gives a Stamina to bracers option that is really attractive to other tank classes. We aren't DK's, so stick with offensive stats. While you are at it, go BS and Engy or Alch instead.

Jewelcrafting design in this expansion is truly confounding. They appear to have designed the Serpent's Eyes before making the decision to double the value of secondary stat gems, and somehow in the iterative design process never returned to the value of secondary stat Serpent's Eyes. I have no idea how this has continued to slip through the cracks for almost six months now. Disgraceful. As it is, you have to drop 320 secondary stat gems for 320 Agility gems. They are worth using if you are a JC, but you should not be one. Just bad.

[top] Races

There are two really great options for Monk race, Night Elves and Pandaren. Other than that, everything is pretty mediocre. Trolls are far and away the best damage race for beast bosses. For everything else, Horde should definitely play Pandaren. Alliance have a pretty close choice between Pandaren and Night Elves.

Pandaren – Best Damage Race overall, Best Horde Tank Race
Monks from both factions can be Pandaren. You gain double value from food buffs, and should eat 300 Agility food for progression without exception. 300 Agility is worth 600 secondary stat rating with regards to gems. The 1% Expertise or Hit provided by other races is only worth 340 rating. Clear-cut victor, even using +250 Agi food (please don't). Provides reduced fall damage and a 2 minute CD Gouge. Male Pandaren also look amazing. Don't argue with me.

Alliance
Night Elf – Best Alliance Tank Race
2% dodge increase, worth 1770 dodge rating (738 adjusted tank agility). Mathematically the best tanking race, no question. Sorry. Here is what's worth noting, Dodge is only useful against autoattacks. In the current tier, every boss uses a variety of spells and abilities that cannot be dodged. As such, the value of Dodge is considerably less in practice than it is on paper. Even at half value, Night Elf is worth 369 adjusted tank agility. It's definitely competitive with Pandaren as far as tanking goes, but it can't compete on damage output. It's your choice, but I certainly won't be playing a Night Elf.

Dwarf
1% expertise if dual-wielding maces. Always use the best weapon you have available, but ideally you should be using a 2h staff or polearm as a Brewmaster, making this pretty useless. Stoneform is a small defensive cooldown. Not bad, though.

Draenei
1% Hit is nice and always useful. Gift of the Naaru is pretty mediocre, but Monks can always make use of more self-healing. Every bit counts.

Human
1% expertise if you are dual-wielding swords or maces. Again, not great unless playing in non-ideal conditions. Rep gain increase is awesome, but useless in combat, and Every Man for Himself is really good when it's not completely useless (very rare in pve).

Gnome
1% expertise if dual-wielding swords. See above. We don't get hit with many snares in raids, and we have Tiger's Lust if we do. Escape Artist is marginally useful for a Brewmaster.

Horde
Orc
4514 AP for 15 seconds on a 2 minute cooldown, 1% expertise if dual-wielding axes and 15% stun duration reduction all adds up to a really mediocre race. Among the riffraff of Horde-only races, they are solid.

Troll – Special Mention, Best Damage Race against Beasts
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. Not bad, not great. If fighting a Beast boss, Troll gains a 5% damage increase, which is absolute insanity. Must-play race against Beast bosses, decent otherwise.

Blood Elf
2 second silence and 1 Chi every 2 minutes - .33 Energy per second. Actually not a bad EpS gain, but it doesn't scale with Ascension or Sturdy Ox Stance, so not great. Probably wonderful for PvP, I wouldn't know.

Undead
20% chance on autoattacks and spell casts to deal 12654 to 14706 damage to the target and heal for 100% of damage done. Interesting idea, does not scale with gear at all and by personal testing has a 15 second ICD. If it procced as soon as it came off ICD, this would account for about 55k damage and healing every minute. Every bit counts, but this is not significant or controllable.

Tauren
The 5% base increase (~7400 health) is not bad, but since we really don't value health, it's not great, either. War Stomp is a poor man's Leg Sweep that shares the same DR, so it's not great.

[top] How to Read a Brewmaster Parse

So, this is a new section that will be getting updated and expanded over the course of time.

When reading a Brewmaster parse, there are a number of things to consider before thinking about abilities, so let's go over them.

[top] Uptime

Uptime is crucial to reading a parse. It completely affects how we understand the parse in its entirety.
There are several elements of uptime to consider:

• Time on target - This is important for evaluating our offensive ability usage, which in turn affects our defensive skill usage (via Chi generation).[/*]
• Boss time on you - This is important for determining the effectiveness of your defensive abilities, assessing your damage taken and examining healing taken (especially self-healing). This is a particularly complex concept to consider for fights with taunt swaps or adds.
• Movement - Movement is The Great Complicator. It affects your ability to self-heal via GotOx, it affects your healers' ability to function and it can have a large effect upon your time on target.
• Buff uptime - This is a factor of preceding elements, and pertains primarily to Shuffle and Elusive Brew (t15 2pc, also).

[top] Avoidance

Avoidance needs to be considered with respect to the boss' uptime on you, Shuffle and Elusive Brew uptime and your base avoidance chance when fully buffed. Adds complicate this considerably. Using SCK precludes EB generation, but significantly increases GotOx creation. EB is also worth considerably more avoided attacks while tanking AoE. Note that I do not say it is worth "more," as avoiding three boss attacks may be worth more damage reduced than avoiding thirty add autos - it just depends upon the fight.

The keys to consider when comparing the disparity between potential and actual avoidance are the amount of wasted Elusive Brew procs, the amount of wasted Elusive Brew uptime and downtime on Shuffle. Ideally these should all be zero. They won't. Elusive Brew gets wasted a lot on two-tank, one-target encounters, and bosses that regularly stop to cast spells at the raid will waste EB uptime. Movement or substantial downtime fights can create small issues with Shuffle uptime, as well as more serious issues with EB uptime and procs being wasted.

[top] Self-Healing

Chi Wave, Expel Harm, GotOx and Guard are the primary heals to consider, although damage removed from the group via Avert Harm (found under damage taken by spell), Black Ox Statue Guards, Healing Spheres, and very rarely Chi Torpedo are worth examining as well. Black Ox Statue will generally be your biggest heal, and we have very little control over it. Its tendency to chain-gun shields into a single target has mostly been fixed.

Expel Harm is probably the most important heal to consider. While it has a 15 second cooldown and should not be used to overheal (since it won't do damage based on overhealing), it can potentially be used more than X (X = fight length in sec / 15 sec) times per encounter due to Desperate Measures.

For damage purposes, Chi Wave should ideally be used X times per encounter, although waiting to use it after it comes off of cooldown in order to use the first bounce as a self-heal is reasonable.

There are a few ways to use Guard. For encounters that feature a very consistent spike of damage, such as Ji-Kun's Talon Rakes or Durumu's Hard Stares, Guard is great to precast and cut that damage down, so that it either winds up all in the shield, or only cuts slightly into your health pool. For encounters that don't feature a regular spike like that, you have two ways to use Guard. You can try to max its usage, aiming for Y (Y = fight length in sec / 30 sec) uses per encounter, or you can use it upon being spiked. I find a mix of the two to be the best way to handle Guard. I don't like using it at full health, as it negates the impact of any HoTs or Beacon healing I receive until it has been entirely eaten away, but I also want to use Guard as much as possible during an encounter. Average Guard value is just as important to consider as the number of Guards used, as well.

GotOx usage is an highly effective measure of a Monk's skill and situational awareness. To copy the table from way up above, the proc chance for autoattacks with a given weapon type is as follows (specials have a 10% chance to proc GotOx regardless of weapon):

Weapon Speed	GotOx proc chance
2.6 (1h)	13.5%
3.3 (Staff)	19.8%
3.6 (Polearm)	21.6%

Using this table, the number of autoattacks and specials landed in the encounter, you should be able to reasonably estimate the number of GotOx generated during the fight, and you can then compare this with the amount of GotOx used. Overhealing is inevitable with GotOx, but important to consider. Movement and boss time on target are especially important when considering the effective use of GotOx. On some cursory personal research, I have found that around 65-70% of the potential GotOx procrate is probably the upper bound for realistic use in a stationary fight. For movement-based fights, this can take a steep dive.

[top] A Long-Winded Treatise on Chi Generation Talents

Chi Generation is a fundamental element of Monk tanking. It provides avoidance and mitigation through keeping Shuffle up, gives us the ability to nullify damage through Purifying Brew, allows us to use Guard and is used in our healing talents (do not underestimate Chi Wave).

Five variables determine a Monk's Chi generation over the course of a fight. Expertise, Hit, Haste (and Heroism), level 45 talents, and fight length.

[top] Brewmaster Chi Generation Talent Rehash

Power Strikes — 1 Chi every 20 seconds
Pros:

• Provides the highest Chi generation at low haste values

Cons:

• Does not scale with gear or buffs.
• Must be consumed precisely on cooldown in order to be more valuable than Ascension.
• Poor play/latency can result in wasted Chi (Jabbing with 3 Chi as the buff comes back up), making it less valuable than Ascension.
• Weak in AoE situations where you should fill with SCK instead of Jab.

Ascension — +15% Energy regen, +1 Maximum Chi
Pros:

• Scales with gear, Heroism and haste buffs (Windsong, Trinkets) and equals/outperforms Power Strikes in overall Chi Generation at Haste values around 7-8k (dependent upon fight length).
• Increased maximum Chi pool is more forgiving on capping Chi.

Cons:

• Inferior Chi generation with low-haste builds or undergeared players.
• Increased regen causes more issues with energy capping.
• Without Heroism, requires 9016 Haste Rating to equal Power Strikes' Chi Generation.
• Heroism in the execute phase of a fight will likely result in wasted Shuffle uptime at the end of the fight.

Chi Brew — 4 Chi every 90 seconds
Pros:

• Provides instant Chi generation for emergencies.
• Allows the most direct control over Chi generation of the three talents

Cons:

• Does not scale with gear or buffs.
• Lowest Chi generation per fight.

There is an exact value of Haste at which Ascension outstrips Power Strikes for Chi generation. Unfortunately, this value is dependent upon fight length, which is obviously difficult to determine. Consequently, I recommend Power Strikes until around 7000-7500 Haste, at which point I would switch to Ascension. Ascension is decidedly stronger than Power Strikes on short fights and fights that last around 11-12 minutes and allow a second Heroism.
The additional Energy regen from Ascension allows for more ready use of Expel Harm in emergency situations. The increase is slight, but in tanking, every tiny advantage matters. It also results in less free globals for Tiger Palm. The effect that will have on damage output is miniscule, but I didn't want to leave it out.

By taking Chi Brew, you sacrifice considerable Chi per fight in order to have 4 Chi for emergencies. I believe having more Chi throughout the fight and managing it correctly will more effectively prevent you from entering the danger zone than Chi Brew will allow you to pull yourself out of that zone of danger. If you choose to use Chi Brew, it allows you to get off a quick Guard, re-stack Shuffle or Purify when you have no Chi and cannot Keg Smash in the next global to generate the Chi you need.

No gearing and playstyle recommendation should ever be made without supporting math, so here we go.

Chi Generation Mathematical Breakdown
This is long and horrible, but it is necessary to validate my prior claims.
I will begin by assuming 5100 Expertise Rating and 2550 Hit Rating, so that no abilities can be dodged, parried or miss. I have crunched numbers with less than hit/exp caps. It's inferior for Chi generation and a lot of work to model energy regeneration from misses. Please don't make me do it again.

ET: Total Energy per fight
E = Energy regeneration per second — Base = 11, multiply by Haste
L = Fight length (in seconds)
AS = 1.15 if Ascension is taken, 1 if it is not
ET = [100 + E * AS * (L – 40) + 1.3 * AS * E * 40] — (L < 640 seconds)
ET = [100 + E * AS * (L – 80) + 1.3 * AS * E * 80] — (L ≥ 640 seconds)
ET = [100 + E * AS * L] - (If no Heroism)

KS: Number of Keg Smashes per fight
KS = [L / 8]

EJ: Remaining Energy for Jabs
EJ = ET – (40 * KS)

J: Total Number of Jabs
J = [EJ / 40]

CT: Total Chi Generated
PS = 1 if Power Strikes is taken, 0 if not
CB = 4 if Chi Brew is taken, 0 if not
CT = 2 * KS + J + (PS * [L / 20]) + (CB * [L / 90])

The two variables we can manipulate are Fight Length and Haste. Let's run through a few examples of the former first.
Now, let's take a few examples of fight lengths from raids past and present.
Ultraxion and Gara'jal are sub-6 minute fights. The majority of boss fights fall within the range of 5-6 minutes, so this is the most important scenario to consider. Let's assume that a typical short fight lasts 5 minutes for the sake of simplicity, so L = 300 sec.

We occasionally encounter fights that get close to the 10-minute mark. I will call on The Spirit Kings and Yor'sahj the Unsleeping as examples. For the sake of simplicity, let's assume our medium-length fight lasts 9 minutes, so L = 540 sec.

We very infrequently are faced with a fight that breaks the 10:40 mark and allows a double Heroism, but they are typically exceedingly hard fights, usually final instance bosses such as Yogg-Saron, Madness of Deathwing, etc. Consequently, they are still important to consider.
Let's assume a long fight lasts 13 minutes, so L = 780 sec.

We have to make a few assumptions regarding Haste values. Now, in the Brewmaster discussion thread Venyasure posited that the Haste value at which Ascension exceeds Power Strikes is 9016 Haste. I assert that while his math is excellent (better than any of mine – to be sure), he forgets to include Heroism, which causes the value of Haste
required to make Ascension exceed Power Strikes fluctuate based upon fight length and invalidates the assertion that the Power Strikes v. Ascension conundrum has a single, static value of haste in all cases at which one exceeds the other.

1% Haste is equal to 425.19 Haste Rating, so 9016 Haste is 21.2% Haste, or 13.33 Energy per second.
Let's use this as the upper bound, and use a few lower values for comparison and context. For simplicity (always keep math simple), let's use 12.66 Energy per second (15.1% Haste – 6420 Haste Rating) and 13 Energy per second (18.2% Haste – 7738 Haste Rating) as arbitrary values.

Short Fight – 5 Minutes

Talent Chosen	12.66 EpS (6420 Haste)	13.0 EpS (7738 Haste)	13.33 EpS (9016 Haste)
Power Strikes	153 Chi	155 Chi	158 Chi
Ascension	153 Chi	156 Chi	159 Chi
Chi Brew	150 Chi	152 Chi	155 Chi

Medium Fight – 9 Minutes

Talent Chosen	12.66 EpS (6420 Haste)	13.0 EpS (7738 Haste)	13.33 EpS (9016 Haste)
Power Strikes	271 Chi	275 Chi	280 Chi
Ascension	270 Chi	275 Chi	281 Chi
Chi Brew	268 Chi	272Chi	277 Chi

Long Fight – 13 Minutes

Talent Chosen	12.66 EpS (6420 Haste)	13.0 EpS (7738 Haste)	13.33 EpS (9016 Haste)
Power Strikes	392 Chi	399 Chi	406 Chi
Ascension	392 Chi	399 Chi	407 Chi
Chi Brew	385 Chi	392 Chi	399 Chi

Ascension is even/superior from ~6420 Haste Rating for short and long fights, and from ~7738 Haste for medium length fights. The differences in Chi generation under perfectly ideal conditions appear very slight, but once human errors and lag (downtime on bosses, etc.) are factored into the equation, the differences in the strength of the two talents are amplified.
Since an average fight is roughly 5-6 minutes in length, 7k Haste is a conservative estimate for the minimum value needed for Ascension to compete with Power Strikes on Chi generation.

[top] Additional Information

[top] Brewmaster Spreadsheet

An excellent Monk spreadsheet which Venyasure has posted in the neighboring Brewmaster Discussion thread.

[top] Brewmaster Simulator

Another tool courtesy of Venyasure. Set up similarly to the spreadsheet, this tool is intended to simulate an entire fight (akin to Simcraft for Brewmaster Monks). Graciously posted in the neighboring Brewmaster Discussion thread and used without permission.

[top] Essential Addons

Brewmaster Tao
Provides a Stagger tracking bar that shows the total value and percentage of health being staggered. Also tracks Power Strikes' internal cooldown, or at least tries. Truly an indispensable addon.

Comergy
Fantastic and customizable energy bar addon. Does not work for Monks unless you update the .lua file in the main folder. This is easy to do. Download the modified lua here and replace the Comergy.lua file in the Wow/interface/addons/Comergy folder.

Weak Auras
I feel this addon is absolutely necessary for playing any class in this game at a high level, and Monk is no exception. Proper use of Weak Auras will elevate your game.

[top] Weak Auraville

Brewmaster Auras – Trackers for Stagger, Keg Smash and Elusive Brew
General Monking Auras – Trackers for Tiger Palm, a Chi Bar and a color-coded Energy bar I disabled after finding a fix for Comergy
Sunnier's Art of War has some excellent WeakAuras, including a Stagger tracker.

[top] Macros

Selfcast/mouseover Tiger's Lust:
Purifying Brew/Chi Wave – Unmodded for PB, alt-mod for self-healing

[top] Thanks

• Many thanks to Venyasure for his excellent spreadsheet.
• Abundant thanks to Tyvi for setting the standard for tank threads and promoting good tank philosophy.
• Special thanks to my healers for putting up with my DPS-lust.
• Minimal thanks to my guild for not sucking.
• All remaining unspent thanks to Blizzard for creating an excellent game and an excellent class.

[top] Changelog

6/15/2013: Refined some of my stat discussion, added a segment on crit, added a few t16 set bonus preview comments.[/b]
5/31/2013: Added a section decrying using Glyph of Guard as a constant self-healing increase.
5/28/2013: A couple fixes, added avoidance spreadsheet and started a new section on reading parses.
5/21/2013: 5.3 patch added, small corrections made.
5/20/2013: Added a small stat rating table.
5/17/2013: Small error fix.
5/10/2013: Minor number addition to GotOx 2h v. D/W.
4/30/2013: Fixed a tiny oversight that has been in since the beginning.
4/26/2013: Inconsequential wording fix.
4/23/2013: Little updates hither and thither.
4/20/2013: 4/20 edition. Screw Hitler! Initial 5.2 crap removed, EH vs. DR section added. Added Healing Sphere section. Other tidbits altered.
4/2/2013: Updated the "How to Spend GCD's" section.
3/29/2013: Fixed a laziness typo, added some talent stuff.
3/8/2013: Fixed a transposition error in the Long-Winded Treatise and corrected a broken link.
3/6/2013: Killing 5.2 preview crap and adding a "What Changed?" section as well as updating the sexy, sexy body of the text with new information.
2/13/2013: Added an overview for upcoming patch 5.2. Two weeks.
1/26/2013: Added brief Haste/Expertise discussion overview.
1/17/2013: Added new stupid patch notes. Nerfs can suck it.
1/13/2013: Updated Troll racial information.
1/9/2013: Added new PTR information, Black Ox Statue error fixed and added Venyasure's simulator.
1/6/2013: Made several minor legibility tweaks.
1/4/2013: Added a link to Sunnier's Weak Aura page and added Enduring Healing Sphere to the list of situational useful glyphs.
1/2/2013: Added some SCK tidbits. Added section on Provoke (under Mobility for now).
12/23/2012: Oversight correction, wording alteration, fixed a formatting error.
12/22/2012: Uploaded.

Good catch on EB gearing and sitting down, complete oversights on my part. As for Chi Wave, any downplaying its value on my part is completely unintended.

I think your final statement about needing Stamina and Mastery for H-25 Shek'zeer, et. al., very strongly exemplifies one of my basic thoughts on the class. Monk scaling with gear is extremely high, probably the best of any tank class. This makes sense because we gear and play very much like a pure dps. As a result, when we are not well-geared (beginning of an expansion/tier), this puts us in the unenviable position of having to deviate from our best practices for damage reduction by acquiring Stamina in order to stay alive.

If you want a really striking example of how bad our low-gear scaling is, take a Monk into a challenge mode, then immediately afterward take a DK into the same challenge mode. It is night and day, and the blame rests solely on our low starting health and armor.

Appreciate the positive feedback and would love for someone mathematically gifted to help me in streamlining section 13.

I think section 13 looks OK in general - As long as its clear that stat values change depending on your current gear and people shouldnt "blindly" trust the tables presented, even if they are close to truth. Values of haste for example change a bit depending whether you are running ascendance or not (and values of ascendance can change depending on how much SCK/EH you use).

And about t14 4-set bonus.
-Works for yourself for 20% increase in absorbtion size.
-Works for the increased self heals during guard, 30->36%.
-Works for shields summoned by statue.

I am not backed up by any viable math, just my experience, but I hope that counts.

Though as it is a popular fact that reducing total damage taken and doing some damage on top of that is a good thing to do, any tanks' primary task is to survive by himself. I've been on few top 5 logs at the beginning of MSV raids while I was blindly following TDR priorities, but I kept dying much more often than our second tank, who's honestly not even close to being called skilled. After discovering that fact I decided to set myself a threshold of zero healing survival. I aimed for 4 hits with nothing but Shuffle on. That took some offensive stam gemming at the beginning, but right now I find it more effective to reach it through stacking mastery, since I can actually avoid all the damage from stagger by PBing. Ok, all the serious damage. Currently I have 10% mastery (4 base+6 from gear) unbuffed and without elixirs - and i still want more.
If the fight is magic-heavy (Lei Shi, Elegon), I put on my stam trinkets; if there are huge bursts of physical damage (Meljarak and Shek'zeer would be good instances of that), I put on my passive mastery trinkets; for fights that don't absolutely demand me going for either one of those (Gara'Jal, Garalon), I put on my agility/damage trinkets. Trinkets and consumables swapping is a really good way of preparing yourself for new challenge without crippling your performance on previous ones.
One might say that my obsession with damage smoothing causes me to take more damage after all. That's true, but let's recall Cata. Who were the best tanks? Paladins. Not because they took least damage, but because it came predictably. With low mastery you might face unlucky streaks in dodging damage. Even if you won't get healed, it will cause your healer to switch to mana intensive heals which wastes all the mana you conserved through your TDR-style play. However, high mastery is really useless if you don't make enough Chi for Shuffle, PBs and Guards. I currently sit at 8% hit+exp and 12,5 energy per second unbuffed with power strikes and I manage to keep up my Shuffle, maintain ZS HoT on me (it doesn't overheal much since I don't PB light stagger) and Guard on cooldown - that's done through usage of cooldowns that reduces the required amount of PBs and through taking advantage of lulz in DTPS.

Now some feedback.
1. I believe Dizzying Haze doesn't work on bosses. That's why you don't get the DoT from Breath, by the way. You can check logs for Brewmasters on Stone Guards. Highest dps parses are from monks that tank both dogs, so they get hit frequently, still there are zero melee misses in the log from any of the dogs, no Dizzying Haze debuff applied through Keg Smashing and no ticks from Breath (which happen if the target has Haze on them).
2. Your way of using Guard is viable, but not the only viable. After Vengeance ramp-up nerf (let's say our thanks to tanks abusing their Ardent Defender on Spirit Kings, whoever that class might be ) you don't get that much Vengeance from a single damaging attack, so it makes sense to use it BEFORE that one and utilize the healing bonus to top yourself for that one. Also, it's worth mentioning that Glyph of Guard used to increase Statue's Guard (i don't recall testing it recently).
3. The amount of staggered damage does not increase too much during FB. With glyphed version of it one would jump from 50 to 70 stagger percentage, which is 40% increase, but total damage taken will be reduced by 25%, so that's just 1.4*0,75=1,05 => 5% increase in Stagger damage.
4. I figured out I had to switch off my stam gear for my blue WW gear for Garalon due to one funny fact that is there on the DH tooltip, but many tanks don't pay attention to it until they encounter the same problem: bosses' attacks do not do sufficient damage to proc DH. Out of curiosity and boredom I checked stam consumables+stam trinkets - and I didn't spend a single charge of DH through the course of fight. So, don't do that, don't go too crazy about effective health.
5. You should mention charges on Zen. There are abilities that consume charges. Most important instance - Lei Shi. She will not break your Zen, but she will spend 5 charges quite fast.
6. On fights where it might be essential to use Avert Harm, you should line it up with Zen. For instance, AH will kill you on heroic Ta'yak if you try to pop it for Unseen Strike: you get the damage from the raid, then you get your share of damage that kills you. However, on fights where you don't risk being one-shotted, you can use it with just Guard and GotOx spheres.
7. SCK is great for generating GotOx spheres, but you cannot consume them while you are still spinning. Yep, SCK cripples you: you cannot self heal, you cannot interrupt spells or push your OHSH-buttons and worst of all you cannot even pick up GotOx spheres. Try gathering some, hitting SCK and moving on top of them - spheres will not be consumed until you stop spinning. They are pretty much reverse Sparks from Heroic Will - they take some to start doing their work. And, it is not mentioned in talents section that PS is a poor talent for AoE-heavy fights where it is more beneficial to keep spinning for better damage/raid guards. You can still fit some in, lining jabs, kegs and TPs with picking up the spheres, though.
8. EH behaves funny sometimes. If you keep ping-ponging up and down through 35% threshold and constantly putting EH on cooldown, you might not see EH's cooldown reset for some subsequent drops in health. I believe it has sort of a ICD on number of times you reset it going up and down, but I did not encounter the bug too often to be worried about it. I think last time I saw it, it was our progression kill of normal Sha, lol Another worthy note is that it makes sense not to use on cooldown. From my DK experience: you might heal more by hitting it on CD, but it makes more sense to hit it when neither your heal, nor your healers' heals will overheal. Turn on your battle text and hit EH whenever you encounter a streak of hits that you consider dangerous. For me that would be 3 hits. For Pisshands it might be 2, if he doesn't have that much effective health. This way you always can pull your HP back to safe zone without making your heals switch to ineffective healing. Really, don't use it if it's just one meaningless hit - let HoTs and weak heals do their work.
9. Worth mentioning: Transcendence could be used to evade some bosses. Until recent nerfs, it made perfect sense to reset Spirit Kings whenever the next one was not Subetai.
10. Roll is useful when you are slowed for whatever the reason, but still need to move quickly. Say, your DPS failed at killing Courage in time, so hope for the best and roll if hopes were not enough. Also, rolling backwards and Clashing moves you about where you stood before, so no annoying repositioning for DPS.
On a side note: Protectors are one-tankable in normal, even in Elite. But that's an off-topic statement.
11. Some creatures are immune to Leer taunt. I guess, it's the same restriction as for Earth Elemental or AotD.
12. Monks' elixir anyone? The name speaks for itself, y'know It's battle elixir, so you can use it with Mantid.
13. Hero loses some of its defensive value if it's used for final burn. You'll just end up having some residual uptime on Shuffle after the fight ends, so you probably should use your healing tier more often in such cases. Excess Shuffle uptime = poorly spent Chi.

Despite high number of additions/corrections, I am very enthusiastic about your work. I always thought BMs need a guide with more stress on practice than theory and you did put a lot of information together, which is invaluable for beginners.

I would just like to say awesome work with the guide!

I myself picked up a few tricks I hadn’t thought of. And just strengthen that I have been doing the right thing since the start.

Some comments regarding lower level raiding, (my guild just got MV normal down a few weeks ago) which would be good for people just starting out monk tanking.
- Chi burst can be a quite good heal for the raid when its used at good vengeance, throwing around 100k healing is amazing; I often use it when tank switching to give the healers some help with the start dmg.
- Don’t despair when your healers have a hard time healing you when starting out, my healer had to learn how I take damage. And healing gets easier with every gear upgrade.

Could there be a limit on spheres then? I clearly recall stepping on my spheres a good minute after Meljarak fight began, but still forced to wait until they got sucked in (and there were many - good share of them should have disappeared, no?). It's either SCK or rapid sphere refreshing given finite limit on their number.
I also recalled some other points this night:
1. When it's absolutely necessary, you can switch your stance to Tiger to DPS. Usually, that's either an all-in burn when enrage is a few seconds away and you're not tanking or early burn when you have some time to do damage before switching stance. Switching stances wipes your Chi to 1 point and wipes your Shuffle, so mind that and switch to Ox Stance in advance to stack your shuffle back for the latter scenario.
2. SCK still cripples BMs even if I made an ass of myself with spheres. You stop your auto-attack during SCK, so for fights with extended AoE phases you generate less EB stacks. Taking a glance at Meljarak Normal: Kuroiwolf is dealing with adds at the beginning, so he's spinning a lot and uptime on his EB is poor, to say the least. It goes up dramatically after he stops spinning. Still, there's a good way to cope with that - make a short break inbetween SCKs. Be it Keg Smash, TP or just half a second of waiting, give yourself some time to land that autoattack unless you're drowning in energy. For a fights with short periods of AoE do not bother. On Elegon's transition p3 to p1 you might find yourself tanking the adds (don't, if you can; if your raid knows how to use threat wipes, Tricks and Misdirects, you can kite the guys around throwing some kegs at first and then stunlock them afterwards). However, this AoE should not last more than 15 seconds, so it's not a big deal at all.
3. Ah, recalled. With all the mobility and saves you have, you can win some time even after the boss enrages. On One-Big-Nuke encounters you can hit your Zen for that hit. I survived both Elegon's and Garalon's enrage casts (which didn't help me much on neither, since Elegon killed me like second afterwards and Garalon simply despawns a second after the jump). If it's a matter of a second, you should spend it on enrage to win some time, since losing dps time by using it earlier is generally a bad idea. For Run-Fast-Hit-Hard-type enrages you can exploit your mobility. Simply start rolling backwards half a second before the boss enrages, then use your transcendance to get to the other side of the room and hit all of your defensives. If your fellow raiders keep track of who's next on threat table, you can call out Chimaeron tactic. This actually helped me twice - we managed to kill H Spirit Kings by winning enough time to get the crazy guy to Cowardice phase and I won some time on Protectors Normal Elite kill.

Slight correction on racials:

For all monk specs, the Blood Elf racial Arcane Torrent gives 1 chi, not energy or mana. So it's effectively 1 jab/40 energy every 120 seconds, or 0.33333 (repeating, of course) energy/second.

I've seen that too somewhere, but i wasn't willing to give up my Ox stance thus resetting my Chi and Shuffle but i recall being fourth BM dps-wise on our first WoE kill and all three guys ahead of me were: a) asian b) using tiger stance. I don't know which factor had a greater influence

I made a habit to switch to tiger every time another tank taunts, nice to see that it's even a dps increase single target. It's just impossible to keep up your rotation otherwise on fights like lei shi and empress etc. where i am at 120k+ vengeance i'd have the boss back on me in 2 attacks and risk a wipe (lei shi it's not that rare that i push 200-250k). Tank dps matters nowadays and it's just a waste of time to stop for 2-5 seconds to let the other tank get a lead.

The one benefit to staying in tank stance for tank swaps is to stack shuffle, so you can use your chi for other things when you're actively tanking.

Does anyone have experience running two monk tanks in 10mans and more specifically, can you do some special tactics with Statue shields? Since login problems messed our raid up we did 10man and this part from empress intrigued me...

Expression Editor - 30-12 16:46 - Netukka failing - World of Logs

You can see that I put over million damage absorb shields on 7 out of 8 non tanks in the raid. Obviously all bosses cant have phases like empress adds where you get crazy vengeance and do aoe dps, but with dual brewmasters you could regularly shield the whole raid with Guards. Maybe skip like amber shaper explosions with having them up or something?

Also Xuen dying because it taunts stuff is really fucking stupid. I wish blizz just be removed it or a glyph added to remove it.