Monk
Brewmaster
Playstyle
Melee tank built around Stagger — a mechanic that converts incoming damage into a manageable damage-over-time effect, purified reactively with Purifying Brew. Weaves Keg Smash, Tiger Palm, and Spinning Crane Kick to both deal damage and strengthen Stagger while maintaining Shuffle uptime. Midnight smoothed out some of Stagger's historically confusing learning curve.
Frequently cited as the benchmark for raid survivability — exceptionally consistent mitigation and strong self-healing
Season 2 Tier Set
Guile of the Monkey King
Breath of Fire ignites your next Keg Smash, causing it to explode on contact, dealing additional Flamestrike damage to its primary target and reduced damage to additional targets.
Ignited Keg Smashes cause enemies struck to take 8% increased damage from your Physical abilities, and leave a patch of flames on the ground, dealing Fire damage each second for 5 seconds.
+ The Good
Frequently cited as the benchmark for raid survivability — exceptionally consistent mitigation and strong self-healing
Best-in-class mobility from Roll and Transcendence
Class-wide Mystic Touch physical-damage debuff
− The Bad
Stagger bleed damage needs steady healer attention
Slightly below-average ability damage
A large keybind list — lots of cooldowns and utility spells competing for bar space
One of the smaller health pools among tanks, which stings more against sustained magic/DoT damage
Pick My Main ratings
Raid buffs
Utility
Hero talents
Flurry Strikes trigger automatically off Keg Smash, and every dodge chips away at incoming damage via Predictive Training. Tends to edge ahead on raw damage without much optimization needed, and fits Mythic+'s defensive demands well.
Gives Purifying Brew a stronger purify (60% vs. the default 50%) plus forward-looking Stagger protection, and a second charge of Celestial Infusion. Generally the safer pick when survival is the priority, though Shado-Pan can pull ahead in smaller pulls.