Playstyle & Rotation
Instead of following a set pattern or rotation, Brewmaster is primarily a priority list, utilizing certain abilities over others based on the moment. We will go over the general priority list for both single target and AoE, along with how to properly utilize your defensives to live challenging encounters.
Single Target Damage Rotation
Brewmaster's single target is very straight forward. Your main goal is to keep your buffs up as much as possible, while making sure that you use your hard hitting abilities on cooldown. Regarding our Blackout Combo, it is most important to use it on Tiger Palm, as it does a lot of damage on single target. If you are at extremely high levels of stagger, it can be worth spending Blackout Combo on Breath of Fire, but this is very rare.
- Blackout Kick
- Tiger Palm if buffed by Blackout Combo
- Rising Sun Kick
- Keg Smash if you are at 2 charges
- Maintain Rushing Jade Wind (if talented)
- Maintain Charred Passions (if talented)
- Chi Burst
- Exploding Keg
- Keg Smash
- Tiger Palm
AoE Damage Rotation
Brewmaster's AoE is very similar to its single target. Unlike the single target rotation, however, where you want to spend every Blackout Combo on Tiger Palm, you want to make sure that you are also upkeeping the 10% damage reduction from Breath of Fire and Blackout Combo.
- Blackout Kick
- Tiger Palm if buffed by Blackout Combo
- Keg Smash if you are at 2 charges
- Chi Burst
- Exploding Keg
- Maintain Charred Passions (if talented)
- Rising Sun Kick if Master of Harmony
- Maintain Rushing Jade Wind (if talented)
- Keg Smash
- Breath of Fire
- Tiger Palm
Weapons of Order Burst
Your goal in the opener is to get 4 stacks of Weapons of Order as fast as possible and fit as many gcd's in the 4 stack window as you can. Ideally you save a Rising Sun Kick for the last 0.5 seconds of your Weapons of Order window to extend it the most you can. If you are running Rushing Jade Wind, make sure that you keep it up throughout the entire burst window.
- Keg Smash
- Breath of Fire
- Blackout Kick
- Weapons of Order
- Rising Sun Kick
- Tiger Palm
- Blackout Kick
- Tiger Palm
- Keg Smash x2
- Blackout Kick
- Tiger Palm
- Breath of Fire
- Celestial Brew if Master of Harmony
- Rising Sun Kick
- Blackout Kick
- Tiger Palm
- Chi Burst
- Exploding Keg
- Keg Smash
- Blackout Kick
- Tiger Palm
- Resume respective rotation
Defensive Priority List
While the damage that you deal is important, it is most important to keep yourself alive. A lot of dungeons and raid bosses have extremely hard hitting tank busters where you'll want to pop a big defensive accordingly. These defensives can also be used for when you are taking a lot of sustained damage, such as in a really large pull in mythic+.
- Fortifying Brew
- Defensive Trinket
- Diffuse Magic (vs magic damage)
- Dampen Harm (if talented)
- Celestial Brew
- Black Ox Brew (if talented)
- Zen Meditation (more discussed in the advanced section of the guide)
Bonus: How to Group Mobs Effectively
Without spending all of your energy on Spinning Crane Kick, you want to tag your first pack with Keg Smash and Breath of Fire. When you roll to the next pack, you want to Keg Smash again and Blackout Kick. Any other packs that you need to pull, you can use Provoke or Crackling Jade Lightning to get it to come in. Once it is in, then you can start your opener.