Brewmaster Monk Best Covenants, Soulbinds, and Conduits — Dragonflight 10.2.5

Please be aware that as of the Dragonflight Pre-Patch and Dragonflight expansion, all Covenant abilities, Soulbinds, and Conduits will only function while within the Shadowlands. This page will temporarily remain as a reference.

This page assumes that you are already familiar with Covenants, Soulbinds, and Conduits. If that is not the case, we have a number of pages that can help you get up to speed:

• Covenants Guide, which explains what Covenants are, what perks they bring, and how you can join one;
• Monk Covenant Abilities, which lists all the abilities that Monks gain by joining each Covenant;
• How To Change Covenant?, which tells you how you can switch Covenant (rejoining a former Covenant will require you to perform a number of tasks to regain their trusts);
• General Soulbind Guide, which explains what Soulbinds are and how you can pledge yourself to them to open up their Soulbind tree;
• Monk Conduits, which lists all of the Conduits available to Monks.

If you desire the generic choice for most types of content, it is recommended to go with Kyrian as your Covenant and Forgelite Prime Mikanikos as your Soulbind. This choice can be considered a useful baseline, despite not necessarily being the "best" in every situation. As such, it is highly recommended to look at Choosing the Best Covenant For You to find what appeals most to you.

When interacting with the Soulbind system in particular, you will find that there is a lot of overlap among the Covenants in what powers your specialization has access to, with the primary exception of one Conduit for each that interacts with the Covenant's ability for your class.

1. Walk with the Ox
2. Covenant-exclusive Conduit — Strike with Clarity / Bone Marrow Hops / Way of the Fae / Imbued Reflections
3. Scalding Brew

1. Condensed Anima Sphere
2. Harm Denial
3. Fortifying Ingredients
4. Evasive Stride

1. Dizzying Tumble
2. Swift Transference
3. Tumbling Technique
4. Lingering Numbness

Note: Within this section Conduits will be roughly ordered in their usability from best to worst, but some overlap will likely occur. Remember that Conduits may also be swapped as often as you like from the Forge of Bonds located either in your Covenant's Sanctum or in Zereth Mortis.

Walk with the Ox causes Niuzao from Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox to deal increased damage with his Stomp. In addition, your abilities that give Shuffle duration — Blackout Kick, Keg Smash, and Spinning Crane Kick — also reduce the cooldown of Invoke Niuzao by 0.5 seconds. Spinning Crane Kick also offers a unique interaction with this Conduit, since it provides Shuffle on all four ticks of the ability. This results in 2 seconds of reduction rather than just 0.5! If correctly following the rotation priority, the cooldown of Invoke Niuzao will be roughly 40 seconds shorter than its baseline 3 minutes. However, depending on how often Spinning Crane Kick was used during this time, it can instead be reduced by 60 seconds or more.

Strike with Clarity improves your Weapons of Order ability, increasing its duration by 5 seconds and providing additional Mastery while it is active. Although the Mastery value is small, the added duration can be the difference in achieving an additional cast of Keg Smash during the cooldown and refreshing the damage debuff.

Bone Marrow Hops increases the damage or healing amount when an ability is replicated through Bonedust Brew. In addition, when it activates the cooldown on Bonedust Brew is reduced by 0.5 seconds, though it is capped to 2.5 seconds of reduction per use of Bonedust Brew. While the extra cooldown reduction is nice, increasing the damage and healing of an already highly-likely effect is even better.

Way of the Fae really allows Faeline Stomp to come into its own as an incredibly strong ability against multiple targets, but be aware the bonus damage caps out at 5 targets hit which is the same as the ability's own target cap.

Imbued Reflections offers a flat damage and healing increase to your Fallen Order spirits. Set it and forget it.

Scalding Brew allows your Keg Smash to deal increased damage to targets that are suffering from Breath of Fire's damage-over-time effect. While it sounds nice in theory, Breath of Fire is not always active on a target without the help of certain talents or Legendary Powers; this can reduce the strength of this Conduit. However, it is still competitive with the alternatives despite this and can occasionally end up superior.

Adaptive Armor Fragment is a unique Potency Conduit in that it is obtainable by all tank specializations from the World Bosses Mor'geth, Tormentor of the Damned and Antros; it can also be obtained as a reward for participating in activites related to Korthia. Its effects grant you a 15-second buff to your Primary Stat — Agility — when you receive healing from another player. This bonus has a 30-second cooldown between activations. As the amount of Agility provided by the effect is rather small and you are also completely reliant on other players to even trigger it, this Conduit may be safely ignored for the most part. It could still become relevant at higher item levels when not engaging in solo content, however.

Condensed Anima Sphere is an Endurance Conduit that can be obtained by every specialization from Mor'geth, Tormentor of the Damned, Antros, or from activities in Korthia. Its effect causes you to be healed for a small percentage of your Maximum Health upon taking any damage, but has a 10-second cooldown between activations. Although its healing per activation is small, this Conduit can be thought of as a noticeably better version of Evasive Stride since it will reliably trigger from any Stagger damage rather than just a small chance while within Heavy Stagger. It is easily one of most powerful Endurance Conduits over any longer period of combat.

Harm Denial fills a small role in providing you with additional self-healing. However, Harm Denial only applies to the baseline heal of Expel Harm and does not increase the healing of any Gift of the Ox spheres picked up by your cast. It also does not increase the damage of Expel Harm.

Fortifying Ingredients causes Fortifying Brew to also grant you an absorb for the duration of the cooldown — 15 seconds. As you are already quite sturdy from the baseline effects of Fortifying Brew and it having a long cooldown, this Conduit is not terribly useful for a Brewmaster compared to the other Monk specializations. It is still third-best nonetheless.

Evasive Stride's effect sounds nice at first. As long as you have Shuffle, there is a low chance that any damage taken from Stagger while you are in Heavy Stagger will instead heal you. However, the small amount of time you are in Heavy Stagger throughout the content of the Shadowlands, along with this supremely small chance to occur, results in the Conduit healing only once or twice throughout an entire Mythic+ dungeon or raid encounter. For now, avoid it entirely if you have access to any of the already-mentioned alternatives.

Celestial Effervescence increases some of your own healing, but only when Celestial Brew is active. Although you are largely safe from danger while your absorb holds, there is a strong chance you may be at low health and Heavy Stagger when you use the ability. Be aware, however, that its effects do not increase the healing of your Level 15 Talents, Gift of the Ox, or Healing Elixir. In addition Celestial Fortune will only be increased if it triggers from Expel Harm or Vivify during this time.

Grounding Breath increases the amount of healing done by Vivify and also adds a chance to refund its cost, but only works on Vivifies cast on yourself. As you cannot dodge while casting Vivify, it is almost never used and is not worth justifying the Conduit slot as a Brewmaster. It may be relevant in Torghast, however, when combined with the Corrosive Dosage Anima Power.

Dizzying Tumble has an effect that is actually strong enough to make it the best defensive Conduit for Brewmasters, despite being in the Finesse category! Contrary to the tooltip, after the stun from Leg Sweep ends, enemies that were stunned deal less damage to everything for 5 seconds. However, the target must have been stunned successfully to apply this effect. If they are stun-immune, such as a boss, then this Conduit will not do anything.

Swift Transference provides you with a movement speed buff for 5 seconds whenever you use Transcendence: Transfer. As Transcendence is often used as a way to help escape from danger, this extra speed helps with that goal.

Tumbling Technique causes Blackout Kick to have a chance to instantly grant you a charge of Roll. While this extra mobility is a nice reward for essentially playing correctly by keeping Blackout Kick on cooldown, the random chance of it occurring means that you should not plan your movement under the assumption it will activate when you really need it to. Instead, you should consider it a helpful bonus now and then.

Lingering Numbness allows Paralysis to apply a heavy snare to the target for 5 seconds when the effect times out or is broken. This is by no means a bad effect, but it is one that will be more useful in PvP where Brewmasters are less likely to be.

Conduit slots within your chosen Soulbind tree will eventually become enhanced at high levels of Renown. This bonus adds two extra ranks of power to their effects, which is equivalent to a bonus of 26 item levels! Note that this applies to the Conduit slot rather than the Conduits themselves and will be permanently unlocked row-by-row within a Soulbind, starting from the top Conduit rows and moving downward.

Due to this system being mostly passive, you should not have to worry too much about optimizing the position of your Conduits within your Soulbind as each row gradually becomes enhanced. The Soulbind recommendations in this guide have already been created with the best Conduit choices being placed as early as possible within the tree. This means that they will also be among the first of your Soulbinds' Conduit slots to become enhanced.

While it is tempting to follow whatever tools like Raidbots and SimulationCraft say offers the most damage or is being run by the "best of the best", it is incredibly important to note that all four Covenants can be used on your Brewmaster without being a burden in whatever content you choose to participate. All of the four Covenants are within an acceptable range of each other in damage for most scenarios, be it raiding at the Mythic level or completing Mythic+ keys of +15 or higher. Of course, Tanks in particular are likely going to have to consider more than just damage in their decision, and each Covenant offers a different variety of both defensive and utility options to be considered as well. Fortunately, provided you have reached Renown 80 and earned the Renowned achievement, you may freely swap between Covenants as often as you like.

With that being said, different Covenant abilities will cover different niches, and you may feel that some of the four choices more solidly fit into certain bits of content, detailed below:

1. Kyrian — Strongest in Raiding. A Convenient "hybrid" choice for PvE/PvP that is balanced in defense and offense, but its damage component requires time to build up. It also offers an extra health potion and access to other convenient non-combat utilities.
2. Necrolord — Equally best for Raiding. Marginally strongest defensive Covenant, but still very powerful in offense. Scales well with multiple targets, but can feel frantic to play with. It also provides an additional defensive cooldown and is the best Covenant in Torghast.
3. Night Fae — Has the potential to be strong for damage in Mythic+ and provides a large amount of offhealing for a group, though it is the only Covenant whose ability is capped to hit up to 5 targets at a time and can quickly fall behind in larger target counts. With the help of its Faeline Harmony Legendary Power, it can avoid falling too far behind the other Covenants. This Covenant also requires you to be able to regularly stand still for long periodsof time to maximize its potential, but it does offer an extra mobility cooldown.
4. Venthyr — The most passive choice, and slightly worse than the other three options overall for damage, but can offer decent burst damage and defense; the true strength of this Covenant is heavily reliant on the use of its Covenant-specific Legendary Power — Sinister Teachings. It also offers an extra movement cooldown.

Kyrian is a strong option for Brewmaster Monks. Both its class and signature abilities can be used in almost any form of content and may be ideal for Monks who wish to play all three specializations.

Weapons of Order is a 2-minute cooldown that immediately resets the cooldown of Keg Smash (or one charge of the ability with Stormstout's Last Keg ) when used. Then, for the next 30 seconds, your Mastery is increased by 10% and your Keg Smash will debuff the enemies it hits. This debuff increases the damage taken from you by 8% for 10 seconds and stacks up to 4 times. The combination of Mastery and increased damage over a long period of time results in Weapons of Order acting as a versatile offensive or defensive cooldown wherever it is used. However, since its damage debuff requires four casts of Keg Smash on a target to reach its maximum value, it can be less useful on targets that die quickly. Its 2-minute cooldown also does not allow it to naturally line up with a Brewmaster's other baseline, 3-minute cooldown: Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox. However, users of both Charred Passions and Walk with the Ox can bring these cooldowns together through the use of Spinning Crane Kick.

Summon Steward allows you to call your own personal companion who will immediately supply you with three Phial of Serenity every five minutes. When used, this Phial will restore 20% Health and remove most Poison, Curse, Disease, and Bleed effects on a 3-minute cooldown. This cooldown is also separate from traditional Health potions and Healthstones, though it can only be used once per boss encounter. Although Brewmasters are already able to remove poisons and diseases with Detox, the additional on-demand removal of especially dangerous Curses and Bleeds is a powerful piece of utility.

Beyond supplying you with Phial of Serenity, your Steward can also perform other optional services on a much longer cooldown including acting as a basic vendor — no repairs allowed — or allowing you to change talents. By participating in the Kyrian-exclusive Path of Ascension content, you can further unlock temporary access to a mailbox or your bank along with additional vendor items!

All three of the Soulbinds, Pelagos, Kleia, and Forgelite Prime Mikanikos, can have moments of being the best choice. In particular, Pelagos can be considered the most generic or "hybrid" option, Kleia can be thought of as being a bit more supportive to others, and Mikanikos acts as the most offensive choice.

Pelagos' effects primarily deal with the Mastery stat and, as such, is recommended as the default choice for a Kyrian Brewmaster. His Combat Meditation in particular provides an additional 350 Mastery — equivalent to 10% — during each use of Weapons of Order and can last for longer than the cooldown itself if extended. Meanwhile, Focusing Mantra will allow for more frequent usage of your Phial of Serenity in Mythic+ but it will not help in raid. Next, Let Go of the Past's extra magic damage reduction will be helpful against the damage that is most likely to kill a Brewmaster. From there, Better Together will provide you with a small amount of bonus Mastery that will be more or less permanent whenever you are playing in a group. Finally, his Newfound Resolve will provide you with a large amount of Stamina and Agility if you are able to continuously identify and face the small Doubt that will spawn on a regular basis.

If you are interested in being a more supportive type of tank, Kleia might be for you instead. Many of her traits, such as Valiant Strikes, Mentorship, and Resonant Accolades offer bonuses to allies rather than just yourself. In addition, many of Kleia's offerings will increase your Critical Strike, such as Pointed Courage, Spear of the Archon, and Light the Path. However, in exchange for these bonuses you will have to give up a Potency Conduit.

Forgelite Prime Mikanikos offers slightly more damage at the expense of a little less defense. His Soulbind is also one that will create the biggest impact on your playstyle. Bron's Call to Action will generate stacks toward summoning Bron from nearly any ability. This will result in Bron being summoned quite often; however, the small knockback he generates when appearing can sometimes be inconvenient. Similarly, Forgelite Filter can result in wasting your one possible use of Phial of Serenity, which is not ideal if you had a planned moment for it during a raid encounter. With that being said, Bron does provide a lot of additional damage when present. Likewise, Effusive Anima Accelerator can result in many more casts of Weapons of Order over time, and while Hammer of Genesis requires selecting another Endurance Conduit, it provides a lot of extra Haste in an AoE scenario.

Overall, Forgelite Prime Mikanikos may be considered if you want to deal slightly more damage overall and want a more interactive Kyrian experience. He may also prove useful if you wish to deal more damage through Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox and find the extra Mastery from Pelagos to be a hindrance to that goal.

If opting for Forgelite Prime Mikanikos, your ideal path will be as such:

Note that this recommendation is meant to favor single-target encounters. If you are instead bringing this Soulbind to Mythic+ or other AoE-heavy areas, switch to Hammer of Genesis and Reactive Retrofitting, adding the Fortifying Ingredients and Tumbling Technique Conduits in the process.

When instead using Pelagos, this will be your ideal path to take:

Be sure to swap your Conduit branch before Let Go of the Past to the Finesse choice and use Dizzying Tumble if you are up against targets that can be stunned by Leg Sweep!

Necrolords are a potent contender for Brewmaster Monks, especially those who enjoy juggling short burst windows of damage. It also acts as perhaps the best option for defensive-oriented Brewmasters, uniquely being the only Covenant that can both slightly increase the number of casts of Celestial Brew over time and offer an additional defensive cooldown.

Bonedust Brew is a 1-minute cooldown that allows you to coat all targets at a location with a special brew for 10 seconds that provides a 50% chance for any damage and healing done by you to replicate itself at 40% of the original strength, but this replication cannot critically strike. In addition, hitting a target affected by Bonedust Brew with Keg Smash or Tiger Palm reduces the cooldown of your other Brew abilities by an extra second. It is important to note that the 50% chance can apply to every tick of an ability like Breath of Fire's DoT component or Rushing Jade Wind as well as the healing from Celestial Fortune. However, a Keg Smash that echoes its effect does not trigger its natural 3 seconds of Brew reduction a second time. Finally, since Bonedust Brew is itself a Brew, Keg Smash and Tiger Palm also reduce the ability's own cooldown as well! This means that it can essentially be used every 25-30 seconds rather than its tooltip cooldown of 1 minute.

Fleshcraft acts as the other half of the Necrolord ability pair and has a 2-minute cooldown. Over a 3-second channel, you will build up an absorb capping out at 40% of your Maximum Health. Moving or using another ability will end the channel early, but fortunately you can still dodge during the channel! In addition, as Fleshcraft is an absorb, your Celestial Fortune will further increase its size based on your Critical Strike percentage. This makes it a powerful defensive cooldown in an emergency.

On top of its already-potent active effect, Fleshcraft also carries a passive as well. Walking by the corpse of an enemy you helped slay will reduce the cooldown of the ability by one second. The more carnage you make, the more safety you can create.

The Soulbinds available to Necrolord Brewmasters, Plague Deviser Marileth, Emeni, and Bonesmith Heirmir, might be considered a bit more situational than the options on other Covenants. All three of them offer some combination of offense and defense, but of the three, Marileth can be considered the strongest for damage with Emeni close behind. Heirmir is perhaps the most "hybrid" option, but ends up being not as useful as her alternatives.

Plague Deviser Marileth offers a number of powerful benefits, though many of them are conditional. Volatile Solvent, for example, offers a number of strong effects depending on the type of enemy corpse you consume with Fleshcraft's passive effect, but requires Fleshcraft to be on cooldown and plenty of enemies to slay. However, there are truly is a buff for every occasion if the right corpse appears. Likewise, Ultimate Form grants you a total of 12% regeneration of your Maximum Health, but requires you to fully channel Fleshcraft to receive most of it. Then, Ooz's Frictionless Coating and Undulating Maneuvers require you to fall below 50% health or remain above 80% to activate, respectively. Finally, Kevin's Oozeling amplifies your damage dealt to a target, but is only out for a short period after you cast Bonedust Brew. However, since his duration is based on the 1-minute cooldown of Bonedust Brew rather than what it is reduced to by your abilities, Kevin's Oozeling is active fairly often.

Emeni, meanwhile, provides a reliable amount of Agility provided with Lead by Example. As its duration is as long as Bonedust Brew's debuff, it will achieve the same amount of uptime as the ability and grant you both damage and slightly higher Stagger. Beyond that, much of her tree is filled with further utility like an extra Hearthstone from Hearth Kidneystone or movement speed when near enemies through Gristled Toes. She even provides a modest shield against magic damage with Resilient Stitching and turns Fleshcraft into a damaging ability with Pustule Eruption.

Bonesmith Heirmir is perhaps the most interesting Soulbind for a risk-and-reward playstyle. Her Serrated Spaulders will activate on every melee attack received with no cooldown as a source of extra damage, while her Runeforged Spurs will increase your movement speed while mounted if you are attacked on your mount. She also has a sort of martyr effect in the form of Forgeborne Reveries, which allows you to fight for up to 10 extra seconds after death. Be aware, however, that you may have a harder time maintaining threat against your enemies like this due to your 50% reduced damage dealt in this state. She should be strongly considered in a Mythic+ environment where these traits, along with her Carver's Eye and Mnemonic Equipment, allow her bonuses to be maximized

If opting for Plague Deviser Marileth, this your recommended Soulbind path:

When using Emeni, this will be your ideal path to take:

Night Fae is another practical choice for a Brewmaster Monk to be, and is potentially the strongest offensive option if facing small groups of targets.

Faeline Stomp creates a massive shockwave in front of you, damaging enemies and healing allies in a large cone on a 30-second cooldown. In addition, a faeline will spawn, starting underneath your character. Your Stagger amount will be 5% higher for 8 seconds against any enemies that are hit by this faeline. This Stagger bonus is identical to High Tolerance, but without the added Haste effect. Finally, while you are standing on the faeline you have created, any damaging ability has a 6% chance to immediately reset the cooldown of Faeline Stomp. Only one faeline can be active on the ground at a time, however. Sadly, this reset component adds some variance to how much damage you can deal, but in general if you are always able to stand on your faelines the average cooldown time will be roughly 16 seconds. Fortunately, the lines are large enough that even with some light movement it is possible to stay on top of them. As a result, Faeline Stomp is a potent increase in overall damage that can also enable a small amount of group healing. However, be aware that this is one of the few AoE abilities to still maintain a target cap of only 5.

Soulshape is the second Night Fae ability on a 1.3-minute cooldown that will teleport you forward 15 yards and place you into a shapeshift form for 12 seconds that provides 50% increased movespeed. While in this form, you may teleport forward another 15 yards every 4 seconds with Flicker, but using any other ability will immediately cancel your Soulshape. Two other benefits to Soulshape are that you can choose from a variety of unlockable animal forms to become, and that while in a rested area you may stay in Soulshape indefinitely. Although Brewmasters are already one of the more agile specializations, having another mobility tool is always welcome.

Night Fae players have no shortage of viable Soulbinds to choose from. Niya offers a great combination of offense and defense that can also be tailored to favor single-target or AoE damage, while Korayn provides a plethora of effects that only get stronger against more targets. Even Dreamweaver holds massive potential, but comes with the risk of a "beneficial" cheat-death effect.

Niya is often the best choice of Soulbind for a Night Fae Brewmaster. Her Grove Invigoration provides a healthy amount of Mastery and Maximum Health and the buff lasts for as long as the baseline cooldown of Faeline Stomp. However, its stacking effect works like a Druid's Ironfur, where each stack has its own independent 30-second timer. As a result, a Brewmaster will be sitting at roughly 13-15 stacks assuming average cooldown resets on Faeline Stomp with Faeline Harmony. These stacks can even be further empowered with the help of her Bonded Hearts trait! In addition, Niya's Tools: Burrs adds a lot of passive damage and even works on bosses, while Survivor's Rally provides a passive source of healing when you need it most. If it can be activated reliably, Niya's Tools: Poison can even reward you for successfully using Spear Hand Strike with a bonus DoT effect, though it comes at the cost of giving up a Potency Conduit.

Dreamweaver offers some nice stat bonuses as well, giving you and your allies Versatility with Social Butterfly and additional Haste when casting Faeline Stomp with Field of Blossoms. There is even the additional benefits of passive healing from Waking Dreams and bonus damage or healing to a target with Dream Delver. However, there is a nasty drawback in the form of Podtender, the first mandatory spot on the tree. Although its cheat death effect sounds useful at first, it suffers from some mechanical issues. While you are regenerating in the wildseed, you cannot take any actions, lose all threat, and you cannot cancel the effect to die early. Any one of these effects is dangerous for a Tank specialization; all three combined is a nightmare. Unless you know that you will not trigger Podtender, Dreamweaver's Soulbind must be avoided on a Brewmaster.

Korayn is a slightly more defensive Soulbind with some extra utility benefits focused on movespeed. Wild Hunt Tactics, for example, will grant increased movement speed and damage when hitting targets above 75% Health, while Horn of the Wild Hunt will give bonus movespeed to allies whenever you use Soulshape. There is also passive damage reduction from Face Your Foes and passive Leech from Hunt's Exhilaration, both of which will always be present for a Brewmaster. If you are in a mythic+ scenario or wish to focus a bit more on defense, Korayn makes for a nice alternative to Niya.

When using Niya, this will be your ideal path to take:

In AoE-heavy areas, consider swapping to Niya's Tools: Poison so that you can also make use of an extra Potency Conduit.

If you are instead using Korayn, your ideal Soulbind tree will be this:

You may wish to select Face Your Foes instead of First Strike if you wish to be a little more defensive. This will also allow you to select Scalding Brew as your third Potency Conduit.

While all four Covenant choices are viable as a Brewmaster Monk, Venthyr is generally the least useful if you wish to deal more damage. However, it still provides a strong source of burst and a lot of defense while offering a more passive choice for Brewmasters that do not want to add extra complexity to their playstyle.

Fallen Order is a 3-minute cooldown that will create a portal nearby. From this portal a Monk spirit will spawn every 3 seconds to aid you in combat and attack your current target for 6 seconds. The spirit will represent one of the three specializations players have — Ox (Brewmaster), Tiger (Windwalker), or Crane (Mistweaver) — with half of the spirits being Ox and the other half split evenly between the other two. Ox spirits in particular will last for 8 seconds rather than 6 and cast both Keg Smash and Breath of Fire. Each Ox spirit will also buff you with a Fallen Brew when they appear, shielding you for roughly 10% of your maximum health. Note that the Ox spirit is version of Keg Smash does not give you extra Brew cooldown reduction, but its Breath of Fire debuff does give you extra damage reduction. Tiger spirits, meanwhile, will only use Tiger Palm and Spinning Crane Kick while Crane spirits will only channel Soothing Mist. Overall, the large number of Keg Smash, Spinning Crane Kick, and autoattack casts during this time makes for a large amount of hands-free damage along with up to 20% extra damage reduction and absorbing a total of around 40% of your maximum health in damage. However, the long cooldown and random order the spirits spawn in creates a lot of variance that hinders this ability's strength.

Door of Shadows allows you to teleport to a location within a 35-yard range on a 1-minute cooldown. However, it has a 1.5-second cast time. What is interesting about this ability is that it does allow for teleporting to a ledge above you or beyond certain barriers, which can enable some fun possibilities. It can also be useful to help avoid certain mechanics in a raid or dungeon if given enough time to cast the ability.

The Venthyr Soulbinds offer a variety of tools, though usually at the cost of giving something up along the way or having somewhat niche usage. Among them, Nadjia the Mistblade may hold a lot of raw power within her traits, for example, but provides them at the cost of having to pick up three Finesse Conduits. Theotar the Mad Duke, meanwhile, can offer a large amount of secondary stats and healing, but will only do so at random times. Finally, General Draven is perhaps the strongest defensive Soulbind choice in the game without any serious drawbacks, but may even be considered unnecessary.

Nadjia the Mistblade is a Soulbind who offers her power at the cost of poor Conduit choices along the way. While she provides 3% Versatility through Dauntless Duelist, it comes at the cost of having to accept an extra Finesse Conduit and the trait only working on one enemy at a time. She also grants you a substantial Haste bonus on a regular basis through Thrill Seeker, which will also eventually increase your Critical Strike or Versatility through Fatal Flaw. She can also offer a small defensive bonus in Sinful Preservation, though it too comes at the cost of selecting a Finesse Conduit. Overall, the large amount of secondary stats Nadjia provides can make her a possible choice for a damage-oriented Venthyr.

Theotar the Mad Duke provides a similar type of trade-off decision-making as well. With Token of Appreciation, you could give those that heal you an extra absorb while also taking a path to gain another Potency Conduit, or you could choose to gain additional defense along the way to stronger potion effects with Refined Palate. However, if you are making use of the Sinister Teachings Legendary, then the clear winner is Wasteland Propriety due to its buff assuming that your Fallen Order is still a 3-minute cooldown. There is also the ability to gain a large amount of Mastery for a time with Soothing Shade, though you will have to stand within a circular area to benefit from it. This effect also will provide you with healing and damage reduction through It's Always Tea Time. He will even graciously gift you with 3% of Agility or any secondary stat with Party Favors. However, as this power is limited to a random stat for four hours at a time with a one hour cooldown to "reroll" your buff, you may not always want Theotar.

General Draven offers what may be the strongest Soulbind out of all four Covenants for a Brewmaster. His Service In Stone provides passive damage reduction when you are at low Health and need it the most while also giving you a martyr effect to damage and heal enemies/allies respectively if you should die. Move As One, meanwhile, gives you movement speed from any bonus movespeed effects your allies have received. This caps off with Hold Your Ground allowing you to have higher maximum Health and increased self-healing, including Celestial Fortune, if you are able to avoid moving too often. Likewise, Battlefield Presence and Regenerative Stone Skin further amplify your defensive potential as long as an enemy is around and you are receiving healing, respectively. This Soulbind is one that all players should consider taking if they need to play overly defensive.

If using Theotar the Mad Duke, your ideal Soulbind path will look like this:

When using General Draven, this will instead be your ideal path to take:

If in an AoE-heavy area such as Mythic+, you may wish to select Superior Tactics over Hold Your Ground, opting for Fortifying Ingredients as a third Endurance Conduit choice.