Brewmaster Monk Tank Gear and Best in Slot — The War Within (11.0.7)

Although the bulk of your ideal pieces of gear will come from selecting items within the Great Vault every week, raiding Mythic Nerub-ar Palace, completing very high keys in Mythic+, or even acquiring items crafted by Professions using the Crafting Orders system and Spark of Omens, not all of this content will be feasible when first reaching max level in The War Within. Instead, your initial items will largely come from exploring the world and participating in Delves.

Fortunately, gearing as a Brewmaster is generally simple for most item slots: use the highest item-level gear you can get while trying to avoid unnecessary Haste. However, even an item that is 5 item levels higher with Haste will often still be an upgrade, so do not go entirely out of your way to avoid the stat. Rings are sometimes a different matter, as they do not contain Agility or Armor. However, unless you are trying to maximize your damage output, you can still safely equip a ring with a higher item level, no matter what its stats are. To learn about the rest of your stat priority, see our dedicated page for it.

When you are figuring out if an item is an upgrade, it is highly recommended to get in the practice of simulating it. You can only do this to compare gear offensively as a tank specialization, however; fortunately, if you are looking to improve your defenses, you can focus entirely on item level.

If you are unfamiliar with what simulations are or how to use them, our Simulation page can help you learn more. Otherwise, as mentioned earlier, you can safely prioritize item level.

Beyond the disclaimer above, please note that the following recommendations do not include items obtained from PvP. If you are interested in recommended crafted gear, please see the section dedicated to it below.

Continuing from previous seasons, The War Within retains the presence of currencies known as Valorstones and Harbinger Crests, both obtainable from practically all forms of content in the game. They can be used to upgrade gear up to Item Level 639, which is Mythic Raid Item Level. They can also upgrade Crafted Gear up to 636 as well.

For more information on the Gear Upgrades system, check out our dedicated page for it below.

With this system, remember that the cost to upgrade scales differs per slot but now also increases quickly as item levels go up.

Given the near-universal nature of gear upgrades, it can be difficult to figure out what items you should invest your limited amounts of Harbinger Crests in each week. As the decision will ultimately be based on what items you have been able to obtain, listed below are some guidelines and "wishlist" items to upgrade as soon as possible:

1. Weapons — this slot represents your single largest increase in damage as a Brewmaster. By upgrading it, you will also increase your self-healing capabilities.
2. Trinkets — specifically, the top options listed in the full trinket breakdown below based on what you can obtain.

3.

Best-in-Slot (BiS) Gear for Brewmaster Monks

Overall Season 1 BiS List Nerub-ar Palace BiS Gear Mythic+ BiS Gear

4.

Overall The War Within Season 1 Gear BiS List for Brewmaster Monks

This table contains loot from the Season 1 Mythic+ Dungeon pool, the Nerub-ar Palace raid, and recommended crafted gear. If you are purely striving for the absolute best options no matter the odds of obtaining everything, this is it; this list also assumes every item is at its highest possible item level of 636 or 639.

Slot	Item	Source
Head	Gatecrasher's Horns	The Silken Court Matrix Catalyst Great Vault
Neck	Silken Advisor's Favor	The Silken Court
Shoulders	Gatecrasher's Enduring Effigy	Rasha'nan Matrix Catalyst Great Vault
Cloak	Wings of Shattered Sorrow	Rasha'nan
Chest	Gatecrasher's Gi	Broodtwister Ovi'nax Matrix Catalyst Great Vault
Wrists	Sanguine Experiment's Bandages	Broodtwister Ovi'nax
Gloves	Rune-Branded Grasps (with Writhing Armor Banding and Algari Missive of the Quickblade)	Leatherworking (see note)
Belt	Adrenal Surge Clasp	Leatherworking
Legs	Gatecrasher's Kilt	Nexus Princess Ky'veza Matrix Catalyst Great Vault
Boots	Fleeting Massacre Footpads	Nexus Princess Ky'veza
Ring 1	Seal of the Poisoned Pact	Queen Ansurek
Ring 2	Cyrce's Circlet (note) Ritual Commander's Ring	Siren Isle The Necrotic Wake
Weapon (2h)	Harvester's Interdiction	Ara-Kara, City of Echoes
Weapons (Dual Wield)	Void Reaper's Warp Blade Zephyrous Sail Carver	Nexus Princess Ky'veza The Dawnbreaker
Trinkets	Mad Queen's Mandate (Damage) Void Reaper's Contract (Damage) Swarmlord's Authority (Defense) Silken Chain Weaver (Defense)	Queen Ansurek Nexus Princess Ky'veza Ulgrax the Devourer Delves

BiS Weapon Disclaimer: In Season 1, your best choice for a weapon is to use a 2h over dual-wielding. However, the best-in-slot dual-wield choices ( Void Reaper's Warp Blade and Zephyrous Sail Carver) is only marginally worse than the best two-handed choice ( Harvester's Interdiction) for damage. This includes the set bonus of the Void Reaper's Contract trinket being active. Equip whichever BiS setup you acquire first, defaulting to a two-handed option when you are choosing between gear of the same item level.

4.

Nerub-ar Palace Gear BiS List for Brewmaster Monks

This table exclusively contains loot from the Nerub-ar Palace raid. Although it is potentially easier to acquire, particularly pieces of your Tier Set, you will only have one chance to obtain gear per boss on each difficulty every week. In addition, there may be alternative items that are obtained elsewhere as part of your overall best-in-slot gear. However, these are the items from just the raid to look for.

Slot	Item	Source
Head	Gatecrasher's Horns	The Silken Court Matrix Catalyst Great Vault
Neck	Silken Advisor's Favor	The Silken Court
Shoulders	Gatecrasher's Enduring Effigy	Rasha'nan Matrix Catalyst Great Vault
Cloak	Wings of Shattered Sorrow	Rasha'nan
Chest	Gatecrasher's Gi	Broodtwister Ovi'nax Matrix Catalyst Great Vault
Wrists	Sanguine Experiment's Bandages	Broodtwister Ovi'nax
Gloves	Thousand-Scar Impalers	The Silken Court
Belt	Devourer's Taut Innards	Ulgrax the Devourer
Legs	Gatecrasher's Kilt	Nexus Princess Ky'veza Matrix Catalyst Great Vault
Boots	Fleeting Massacre Footpads	Nexus Princess Ky'veza
Ring 1	Seal of the Poisoned Pact	Queen Ansurek
Ring 2	Cyrce's Circlet (note)	Siren Isle
Weapon (2h)	Spire of Transfused Horrors	Broodtwister Ovi'nax
Weapons (Dual Wield)	Void Reaper's Warp Blade Bludgeons of Blistering Wind	Nexus Princess Ky'veza Rasha'nan
Trinkets	Foul Behemoth's Chelicera (Damage) Void Reaper's Contract (Damage) Swarmlord's Authority (Defense)	Ulgrax the Devourer Nexus Princess Ky'veza The Silken Court

4.

Mythic+ Gear BiS List for Brewmaster Monks

This table exclusively contains loot from the Season 1 Mythic+ Dungeon pool. These pieces can be "farmed" without any limits, so long as you have access to a keystone for the dungeon in question. However, they will not be obtainable at their highest item level unless obtained from the Great Vault. This means the items here may not always be your absolute best-in-slot choices.

For pieces of your Tier Set in particular, you will be reliant on either the Great Vault or Matrix Catalyst to acquire them. If making use of the Catalyst, you may use any relevant Mythic+ item to create the tier item.

Slot	Item	Source
Head	Gatecrasher's Horns	Matrix Catalyst Great Vault
Neck	Elder's Hemolymphal Periapt	City of Threads
Shoulders	Gatecrasher's Enduring Effigy	Matrix Catalyst Great Vault
Cloak	Azureborne Cloak	Grim Batol
Chest	Gatecrasher's Gi	Matrix Catalyst Great Vault
Wrists	Bands of the Undergrowth	Mists of Tirna Scithe
Gloves	Gorebound Stranglers	City of Threads
Belt	Shadow Congregant's Belt	The Dawnbreaker
Legs	Gatecrasher's Kilt	Matrix Catalyst Great Vault
Boots	Besieger's Deckstalkers	Siege of Boralus
Ring 1	Ritual Commander's Ring	The Necrotic Wake
Ring 2	Cyrce's Circlet (note)	Siren Isle
Weapon (2h)	Harvester's Interdiction	Ara-Kara, City of Echoes
Weapons (Dual Wield)	Zephyrous Sail Carver Bainbridge's Blackjack	The Dawnbreaker Siege of Boralus
Trinkets	Ara-Kara Sacbrood (Damage) Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj Skardyn's Grace (Defense)	Ara-Kara, City of Echoes The Dawnbreaker Grim Batol

Cyrce's Circlet is a new ring introduced in Patch 11.0.7 and linked to activities on Siren Isle. The ring has 3 unique sockets, which can each hold one type of special Singing Citrine obtainable on the isle. Each of the sockets has four citrines to choose from, for a total of 12, resulting in a lot of flexibility in deciding what to select.

An additional feature of this ring is that its item level (and the power of the socketed citrines) can be improved over time, resulting in one of your best-in-slot rings with proper citrines. Before that point, its strength relative to your current gear may be lower, so make sure to simulate your character regularly as you acquire and upgrade your circlet!

These are generally considered to be the best Singing Citrines, but it is highly recommended to sim yourself to figure out the best choices and combinations for your specific gear and the specific stones or other rings you already own:

• In Raid or single-target environments, you will want to make use of:
  • Thunderlord's Crackling Citrine (Thunder)
  • Undersea Overseer's Citrine (Sea)
  • Squall Sailor's Citrine (Wind)
• In Mythic+ or AoE, you will instead use:
  • Thunderlord's Crackling Citrine/ Stormbringer's Runed Citrine (Thunder)
  • Undersea Overseer's Citrine (Sea)
  • Squall Sailor's Citrine (Wind)

If you would like a little more defense in exchange for a small loss of damage, consider using Stormbringer's Runed Citrine, Fathomdweller's Runed Citrine, or Windsinger's Runed Citrine to gain extra secondary stats. Additionally, in group content consider making use of Legendary Skipper's Citrine in place of Squall Sailor's. Although the increased proc strength outweighs the moments when it triggers "unnecessary" bonuses, it can also randomly trigger Roaring War-Queen's Citrine. As this citrine has no effect when you are not grouped with other players, these procs lower the overall value of Legendary Skipper outside of Mythic+ or Raid content.

For more information on how to get Cyrce's Circlet, as well as acquiring all of the different Singing Citrines that you can possibly socket into it, check out our Cyrce's Circlet guide below!

When gearing, you have the option to utilize profession gear to a greater extent than ever before, including the ability to create powerful items at an item level of up to 636. However, acquiring items of suitable strength is limited by a unique reagent known as a Spark of Omens, of which you will only earn one every two weeks. Over time, you can utilize entire sets of crafted gear if you are willing to create them (with or without the help of the Crafting Orders system), but be warned that you cannot convert crafted gear into tier pieces at the Matrix Catalyst.

In addition to having customizable secondary stats, there are a variety of powerful optional effects that are either innately present on crafted gear or can be manually added with extra reagents. These bonuses are known as embellishments, and you may have up to two effects present on equipped crafted gear at a time.

Due to the flexibility of crafted gear, such as the ability to specify your secondary stats along with your potential embellishment, you have many options available for gear to be created depending on items you have been able to obtain from other content sources. In general, however, some items are more likely to be useful for all Brewmaster Monks, which are listed below for convenience. For any items where you are able to customize their secondaries, we recommend using an Algari Missive of the Quickblade to select Critical Strike and Versatility.

• Adrenal Surge Clasp — crafted by Leatherworkers, the Adrenal Surge Clasp is a tank-oriented belt with a unique built-in embellishment effect. While worn, taking damage has a chance to grant a large Agility buff while also temporarily reducing your Mastery by a small amount. Despite this downside, the bonuses to your offensive and defensive powers are noteworthy in AoE while still remaining reliably strong in single-target. Plus, this belt comes with Critical Strike and Versatility, which cannot otherwise be found on any Season 1 belts.
• Embellished Armor featuring a Writhing Armor Banding (AoE) or Elemental Focusing Lens (single-target) — made through Leatherworking, any armor piece can optionally include the Writhing Armor Banding embellishment, doubling the effects of your Adrenal Surge Clasp! Alternatively, you may instead include the Elemental Focusing Lens embellishment for slightly better damage in single-target, though be aware that you must have at least one socketed Khaz Algar gem for it to trigger. Consider adding a socket to your neck or ring-slot items with a Magnificent Jeweler's Setting if you have none and wish to use this embellishment effect.
  • Although these embellishment effects may be optimally crafted in the gloves or cape slots ( Rune-Branded Grasps/ Consecrated Cloak), your choice may be affected by what tier pieces you have acquired and whether or not you have obtained the very rare Wings of Shattered Sorrow cloak. So long as you have crafted in the bracer, boot, cloak, or glove slots, you will be gearing properly.
• Weapons, such as Everforged Longsword — made by Blacksmiths, crafted weapons can offer some of your biggest damage gains if you are unable to obtain any of the season's unique effect weapons at their higher item levels. Depending on your goals for a character, crafting a weapon may even make sense as your first choice and still feature one of the recommended embellishments ( Elemental Focusing Lens).

Season 1 of The War Within features a new set of Monk-themed gear to collect, known as the Gatecrasher's Fortitude set. Pieces of this armor can be earned from bosses in the Nerub-ar Palace raid, alongside any of the nine slots in the weekly Great Vault, and can also gradually be made at the Matrix Catalyst as a catchup system. This armor, when enough pieces of it are worn, unlocks two special bonuses for Brewmasters:

• Monk Brewmaster Season 1 2pc — Blackout Kick and Keg Smash deal 20% additional damage, and Shuffle also grants 3% damage reduction.
  • Shuffle should have 100% uptime when playing a Brewmaster, meaning a permanent 3% damage reduction is present with this bonus.
• Monk Brewmaster Season 1 4pc — Blackout Kick increases your damage dealt by 1% for 15 sec, stacking up to 3, and has a chance to reset the cooldown of Keg Smash and make its next cast cost no Energy.
  • The damage buff is shown through a buff called Flow of Battle
  • This reset chance is approximately 30%, and shown through the similarly-named Flow of Battle buff when it triggers.

As there are five total slots, but only four are needed to gain both equipment bonuses, we recommend that you consider ignoring the Gloves piece in favor of the remaining four. However, getting your set bonuses takes priority over getting the "correct" pieces, and in this season especially, all five remain very close in overall performance.

If you would like to learn more about these set bonuses and how they interact with your overall playstyle, we have dedicated a section of our rotation page to further discussing them.

Brewmaster Monks are unique in that they can opt for either a two-handed weapon or to dual-wield one-handed weapons. This results in a massive amount of potential choices to consider. Although you will often opt for whichever choice has the higher item level or more Weapon DPS, there is some nuance to bear in mind.

As you are acquiring weapons, you may have to, at times, decide between dual-wielding a weapon in each hand or equipping a single two-handed option. This decision may be a little more complicated than it first would seem, as there is a hidden buff — called Windwalker Monk Two-Hand Adjustment despite also affecting Brewmasters — which increases the damage of your abilities by 2% when dual-wielding. However, many of your abilities do not actually take a weapon in the off-hand into account for calculating their damage dealt!

What this all ends up meaning is that when dual-wielding, your autoattack damage is greater, but when using a two-handed weapon, your ability damage is higher instead. However, if both of your dual-wielded weapons are enchanted, then they more than make up this difference in ability damage. Of course, this assumes all three weapons involved are the same item level and have identical secondary stats.

To summarize: when deciding between dual-wield and 2h, you can safely choose either option if it results in a higher total item level or amount of secondary stats. If you would like to know the best offensive option for your current selection of weapons, then it is still recommended to simulate your character for the best item available.

Trinkets are a gear slot that can provide shifting value across different areas of content. They are also the easiest piece to alter how offensive or defensive-minded you wish to be. Because of this, you should keep many of the trinkets you obtain and be ready to swap them out when the situation calls for it.

Bloodmallet can also be used to see a comprehensive grouping of all available trinkets for Brewmaster Monks organized by their damage capabilities. If the source of the trinket is not listed on mouseover, then it only appears from world quests or events and will be difficult to acquire.

Finally, note that the items are listed in order of their approximate strength. If a trinket is not discussed here, then it is not worth seeking out or holding onto due to its lackluster effects compared to the alternatives.

Once you have obtained a piece of gear containing a prismatic socket or needing to be enchanted, you will need to know how to modify it. Details about these tweaks can be found on our dedicated gems, enchants, and consumables page.