Brewmaster Monk Leveling Guide from 1 to 90 — Midnight Season 1

As a tank specialization, Brewmaster Monks excel at gathering up large numbers of enemies and dealing large amounts of AoE damage as they easily survive the onslaught of attacks with the help of Stagger. This makes them ideal for questing both solo or with a friend in particular, as they are able to rapidly move between groups of foes, keeping attention with skills like Rushing Jade Wind and Keg Smash, while their partner takes care of defeating them. If you are questing solo, this can still be done, but it may take a little longer due to your relatively low damage output. If you are concerned about needing a healer during leveling, the Recuperate ability can be used to repeatedly heal yourself out of combat and recover after a large pull.

Brewmaster Monk is also an excellent choice for gaining experience through dungeon queues and quests. Tank players are always in high demand, resulting in nearly instant queue times. Fortunately, due to leveling quests increasing in level as you do, this means you can repeatedly join queues while traveling to and from questing areas without any disruptions to your overall experience gain!

If this is your first character, or you simply want to find out more about leveling in WoW in general, we have additional resources below just for you!

During leveling, item level is even more important than normal on your Brewmaster. You should always pick the item with a higher level, with the possible exceptions of jewelry and trinkets. For these slots, you may wish to select the item that is providing more Critical Strike or Versatility. On trinkets, you have the opportunity to experiment with various effects, so pick whatever you desire if it is reasonably close to your item level.

If using Heirloom items, we recommend using those with Critical Strike in particular, as this will improve both your damage and your defense; ultimately anything with Agility will work though! More information on Heirloom items can be found on our dedicated guide.

There are a number of optional consumables that can be gathered and used to help speed up your leveling. There is no need to go overboard on hoarding too many, as you will only need to level each character once, and many of the items listed here quickly become less enticing once you have reached max level and enter tougher content.

To be as prepared as possible, look to acquire at least some of the following items and enchants:

• Charged Phial of Alacrity (Level 61+) — This is a tradeable consumable from the Dragonflight expansion that increases your speed stat for 30 minutes, which will also persist through death. For players that already have high item level gear at Level 80, leveling is frequently about traveling quickly rather than defeating enemies any faster than they already can.
• Exquisitely Eviscerated Muscle (Level 75+) — A food item from The War Within, this tradeable dish similarly grants a bonus to movement speed for an hour, but is lost on death.
• Sanguithorn Tea (Level 80+) — A new consumable in Midnight, this and other teas gives a "Relaxed" buff rather than "Well Fed", allowing you to have both at once. However, these teas only work outside of instances. Consume this or another tea for an additional movement speed bonus for an hour that is similarly lost on death.
• Elusive Blasphemite — If your gear has plenty of sockets, make use of this algari diamond and one of each of The War Within's gem colors for a percentage-based speed increase.
• Enchant Boots - Scout's March/ Enchant Chest - Stormrider's Agility/ Enchant Bracer - Chant of Armored Speed/ Enchant Cloak - Chant of Burrowing Rapidity (Level 70+) — These four enchants are a smaller source of movement speed than other consumables, but if you will be wearing the same pieces of armor throughout leveling their effects can add up over time.
• Gunshoes — One of the more unusual consumables, this tradeable item from Legion Engineering (thanks to Engineering) allows you to move faster than ground mount speed for a long duration and even enables movement over water, but breaks upon taking damage and cannot be activated while in combat. If in an area where you cannot mount, consider it your fastest movement tool.
• Shimmerscale Diving Suit/ Shimmerscale Diving Helmet — Though it is rare to need them, these two tradeable consumables from Battle for Azeroth can be paired together to grant you underwater breathing and greatly increased swim speed that is faster than an aquatic mount.
• Goblin Glider Kit — Although you are able to eventually negate fall damage with the help of Lighter Than Air, this consumable allows you to also travel through the air from great heights if you are unable to mount. Consider pairing one with a Darkmoon Cannon or Falling Flame!

Talents are additional effects and abilities that can give you access to more tools in your spellbook. They are unlocked on a regular basis as you level.

You will unlock your first talent point once you reach Level 10.

Your talent setup should be as follows with each talent point as you unlock them. Note that these recommendations may differ from what is shown in our main guide for a maximum-level player.

If you are just starting your journey into Midnight, we have a Level 80 import string for you. You can follow the point-by-point allocation of the below tree once you start gaining levels in Midnight.

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

From Level 1, your lone ability is Tiger Palm.

1. (Optional): Tag an enemy with Crackling Jade Lightning to have it move toward you, provided you immediately cancel the ability after casting.
2. (Optional): Use Provoke to force an enemy to run to you or briefly "tag" them with Crackling Jade Lightning, provided you immediately cancel its cast afterward.
3. (Optional): Use Provoke to force an enemy to run to you (at high speed if Hasty Provocation is talented) or briefly "tag" them with Crackling Jade Lightning, provided you immediately cancel its cast afterward.
4. (Optional): Use Provoke to force an enemy to run to you or briefly "tag" them with Crackling Jade Lightning, provided you immediately cancel its cast afterward. If you are using Summon Black Ox Statue, place it near multiple enemies to get all of their attention at once.
5. Use Rushing Jade Wind before directly engaging your targets. If Special Delivery is talented instead, you will passively deal damage from using "Brew" abilities.
6. (Optional): Use Touch of Death to instantly kill the target if it is usable. Recommended for tougher enemies or for quest bosses.
7. Cast Keg Smash as your opening ability when entering combat and on cooldown afterward. This includes any resets of the ability from your Apex talent of Bring Me Another. If you have talented into Chi Wave instead of Chi Burst, this will also cause it to activate.
8. Cast Blackout Kick whenever it is available.
9. Cast Breath of Fire on enemies hit by Keg Smash and reduce the damage they deal to you. Since the cooldown will reset every time you cast Keg Smash, you can wait to press it if more important abilities like Blackout Kick are available instead.
10. Throw Exploding Keg at your enemies to deal a massive burst of damage. If talented instead of Fuel on the Fire, you can also reactivate the ability to trigger Empty the Cellar for additional damage.
11. Cast Chi Burst, if talented, on cooldown to deal more damage and heal yourself.
12. Refresh your Rushing Jade Wind.
13. Cast Tiger Palm as a filler, but do not go below 40 Energy.
14. Cast Tiger Palm as a filler if fighting one target, but do not go below 40 Energy. With Blackout Combo talented, you will always want to spend its buff on this ability.
15. Cast Spinning Crane Kick as a filler time if fighting multiple targets, but do not go below 40 Energy. With Blackout Combo talented, you will only use this ability to assist in gathering enemies.
16. Cast Expel Harm as necessary to offset your damage taken.
17. Cast Expel Harm if you are in need of healing and to gather your Healing Spheres from Gift of the Ox/ Spirit of the Ox.
18. In an emergency, you may instantly cast Vivify once per cast of Keg Smash due to Vivacious Vivification. This is largely to be used for convenience during leveling.

• Maintain Shuffle by continuing to cast Blackout Kick and Keg Smash on cooldown to smooth out your damage taken.
• Cast Purifying Brew largely on cooldown when actively fighting an enemy and suffering damage from Stagger, but save one charge for emergencies.
• Cast Celestial Infusion, mostly on cooldown, to shield yourself against some incoming damage.

To avoid this summary becoming overly long, only key rotational abilities from talents and leveling bonuses unique to Brewmaster Monks will be shown. To see every ability, please visit the Spell Summary of the main guide.

• At Level 10, your Tiger Palm and Spinning Crane Kick now cost 25 Energy each rather than 50 and 40.
• Also at Level 10, your Blackout Kick has its cooldown increased to 4 seconds from 3.
• Finally, at Level 10, you unlock access to the Mastery stat and your Mastery: Elusive Brawler. This gives you a chance to dodge attacks that increases until you successfully dodge. It also increases your Attack Power.
• At Level 11, you unlock Keg Smash. This is your primary ability as a Brewmaster, and will grant 5 seconds of Shuffle when used.
• At Level 10, you unlock Stagger, which acts as your unique defensive tool. A portion of all Physical damage you receive will instead be turned into a 10-second damage-over-time effect.
• At Level 13, you unlock Shuffle. This passive effect will cause Blackout Kick to temporarily increase the amount of damage you Stagger.
• At Level 17, you unlock Rushing Jade Wind. This ability provides a consistent, low amount of damage to enemies around you and also helps fill out your rotation. By the time you reach maximum level, however, you will eventually swap to its passive alternative of Special Delivery.
• At Level 19, you unlock Purifying Brew. This ability acts as your main way to reduce the amount of damage you are taking from the Stagger effect, and its cooldown is reduced by using Keg Smash and Tiger Palm.
• Also at Level 19, you unlock the Brewmaster's Balance Passive, which increases your total Armor by 55% and Stamina by 45%.
• At Level 23, you unlock Spirit of the Ox, occasionally spawning Healing Spheres when casting Blackout Kick. Then, at Level 25 you will also start generating them from taking damage with Gift of the Ox.
• At Level 27, you unlock Celestial Infusion, allowing you to temporarily create a shield that absorbs a portion of all damage received over a long duration. Its cooldown is reduced by using Keg Smash and Tiger Palm. You may also select Celestial Brew if you want a shorter shield that instead absorbs all damage while active.
• At Level 29, you unlock Breath of Fire, a rotational ability that debuffs enemies you have hit with Keg Smash and reduces the damage they deal to you.
• At Level 43, you unlock Expel Harm Rank 2, reducing its cooldown by 10 seconds and causing it to also automatically pick up any Healing Spheres from Gift of the Ox/ Spirit of the Ox that are present.
• At Level 46, you unlock Celestial Fortune, gaining a chance to increase all healing received by 70%, based on your Critical Strike.
• At Level 52, you unlock Touch of Death Rank 3, which causes it to also remove Stagger.
• At Level 71, you can begin to unlock Hero Talents, which are an additional set of thematic effects to further expand your power. For Brewmasters, you may choose between the Shado-Pan and Master of Harmony trees, though we recommend utilizing the Shado-Pan tree while leveling due to its potent AoE damage and passive damage reduction.
• Starting at Level 81, you can unlock your Apex talent of Bring Me Another, which modifies your Keg Smash ability to provide additional damage and healing over time.

If you are willing to utilize War Mode, the following PvP talents are recommended during leveling or for other open-world content. There may be times when you would like to use other options and are encouraged to experiment! PvP talents can be freely changed at any time.

Your first PvP talent slot will unlock at Level 20, your second at Level 30, and the final at Level 40.

• Double Barrel will allow you to frequently increase the damage of your Keg Smash and also allow it to stun everything it hits. It can also be used in a macro to make it effectively a passive benefit.
• Niuzao's Essence acts as a stronger version of the Swift Art talent, allowing you to remove all snare effects every time you cast Purifying Brew, Celestial Brew/ Celestial Infusion, or Roll. With leveling involving a lot of moving around, it is all the more important to be able to travel at full speed without any number of enemy debuffs hindering you.
• Eerie Fermentation will passively give you additional movement speed and magic damage reduction no matter how little Stagger you have.