"How to solo", a Monk dungeonning guide.

[CroyeTchor]

Hello and welcome again to this How to solo series of guides where I’ll give some explanations as to soloing dungeons for that sweet, sweet loot.

Last time I went over Death Knights and (logically ?) I chose to spend some time on Monks afterwards.

Just like last time I’ll explain the following :

• The basics of the class and what kind of playstyle you can adopt be they safer ones if you’re new to the class or more damage-focused builds once you get better gear and more experience, the pros and cons of the available specs and the viability of the class/specs
• Interesting starter gear pre-dungeons
• Which dungeons you will want to do for you BIS or other good pieces of gear
• Where will the danger come from in said dungeons.

This guide is a PvE focused guide although the gear component of it can serve for PvP purposes.

I will generally not be considering broken elements of the game like https://www.wowhead.com/item=178769/infinitely-divisible-ooze unless the class needs it for soloing which Monk does not.

As always you can log out and back in to lower the level of mobs in some instances, this guide will not be taking into consideration that effect.

A little bit of a disclaimer

While writing this now second guide, I thought to myself « Hey aren’t you giving the perfect guide to mindless farming ? ». So while I know this may be kinda useless I just wanted to say this : I don’t want this guide to be promoting a relentless farm for minor upgrades, taking hours upon hours of your life, potentially being unhealthy in any way to you.

I’m no boss of you, you can do whatever you want but I’d much rather know my guide serves as a solid base of understanding of the class for new players, perhaps a source of fun techiques for experienced players and just being a soild base to work off of.

I’m fairly sure that if you manage to get the gear from the instances I will mention later, you will be good enough at the class to not need this guide anymore and at that point you can will be just as qualified as I am if not much more so to toy around and experiment.

So to put it simply : I’d really like for y’all to choose good over better, if you want to devote yourself to long, tedious grinds at least make sure you’ve reached a decent enough understanding of the class to be sure it’s the one to do it on. And most importantly, don’t commit yourself too much to the game.

I wish you all the best and hopefully a good read.

With that out of the way let’s focus on Monks.


Part I : What does the class do ?
Just like DKs (and to be fair most classes) Monks have a superior specialization as far as soloing is concerned. Brewmaster is gonna be the optimal choice for our purposes here. Unlike DK though, soloing as any other spec will be unreliable at best without abusing broken elements. I’d make a case eventually with some very solid gear for Mistweaver since we have decent damage, strong healing and with a lot of versatility and the talent https://www.wowhead.com/spell=388664/calming-presence you can solo with decent effectiveness but this is far less reliable than Brewmaster.

Brewmaster’s kit is excellent. You have some excellent defensive attributes such as one of the highest health pool available at level 20, arguably the best damage mitigation tools behind Protection Warrior and rivalling Protection Paladin, an hard-hitting nuke, good, decent, some AoE, strong healing, the ability to constantly be hitting with some ability making the rotation really smooth and decent utility/mobility.

Brewmaster uses Energy for his abilities although some of them don’t require any. You will rarely run out of energy with enough haste so you really shouldn’t have too much issues here. The base rate of regeneration for Energy is

Side note : Mistweaver relies on Mana which can be an issue on longer fights since you are so reliant on healing but generally not that big a deal. Windwalker uses Energy and Chi which you build with some abilities to spend on harder hitting ones.

The global cooldown (GCD) of Brewmaster is 1 second. For those unaware the GCD is a small cooldown that triggers whenever you use an ability. It prevents you from being able to spam instant cast ablities which would turn WoW into a who-clicks-the-fastest game. The normal GCD being 1.5 seconds or lower depending on how many haste you have, 1 second GCDs are very good although quite rare. 1 second GCDs are not affected by haste so you won’t get any lower. This short GCD helps in the smooth feeling of BM’s rotation.

You start with 10% baseline crit as opposed to the more widespread 5% which is always nice.



Before mentionning any ability I want to mention https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115069/stagger and explain what it does. https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115069/stagger absorbs a percentage of the damage you take and transforms it into a 1 seconds DoT. The percentage is increased by your Agility and will range around 30-35% baseline. This amout is doubled by https://www.wowhead.com/spell=322120/shuffle which has 100% uptime since it is triggered by your main abilities. https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115069/stagger works a bit less effectively on magical attacks but it still delays around 55 to 60 % of those. The 55 to 60 number is in theory as in practice it feels more like 30-35% but oh well, still good enough.

While delaying damage sounds like a not-so-useful thing to do, we have ways to get rid of this DoT (hey this isn’t Shadowlands anymore !). I’ll explain those later but for now just know that delaying that much damage that you can reliably clear or at least clear a large portion of it means you virtually have an incredible damage reduction tool. It’s kinda like having a permanent https://www.wowhead.com/spell=190456/ignore-pain that costs nothing besides the occasionnal GCD spent on clearing it. I’ll refer to both https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115069/stagger and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=322120/shuffle a lot when talking about abilities so keep those informations in mind.

Your main abilities :

• https://www.wowhead.com/spell=100780/tiger-palm is your filler ability. It costs 25 energy and while it does not hit that hard it does reduce the cooldown of your Brews (well only https://www.wowhead.com/spell=119582/purifying-brew for our level) by one second which, while rarely a life-saver, can be useful. You will only use this ability when your other ones are on cooldown but it is a nice DPS boost so use it whenever it makes sense.
• https://www.wowhead.com/spell=121253/keg-smash is perhaps the coolest ability ever (I mean picture this : you venture down a vicious dragon’s lair with your closest friends, you’ve prepared for this for months and honed your battle skills beyond what you though possible. As you go deeper and deeper the air becomes wicked, filled with the promise of an cruel, if ever so brief, death to the flames of the beast. As you reach the lower room of the immense cavern, the humongouseness of the scaled threat overwhelms you with dread… then some drunk idiot picks up an empty -or at least somewhat empty- keg and throws it as hard as he can to the dragon. Goddamn that spell is amazing.). What it does is dealing AoE damage that is capped at 5 targets, slows the target(s) down by 20% for 15 seconds. It also grants 5 seconds of https://www.wowhead.com/spell=322120/shuffle and reduces the cooldown of https://www.wowhead.com/spell=119582/purifying-brew by 3 seconds. This ability costs 40 Energy and has an 8 seconds cooldown that is reduced by haste. The damage isn’t great but overall fairy decent considering its utility and the fact that it hits for AoE damage. It also has the benefiy of having a 15 meters range which is always nice.
• https://www.wowhead.com/spell=205523/blackout-kick deals a bit more damage than https://www.wowhead.com/spell=121253/keg-smash but deals it as single-target. This ability doesn’t cost Energy, has a short 4 seconds cooldown that is unnafected by haste and grants 3 seconds of https://www.wowhead.com/spell=322120/shuffle. This ability becomes much stronger with the https://www.wowhead.com/spell=387625/staggering-strikes talent. With this talent your https://www.wowhead.com/spell=205523/blackout-kick now clears some of your staggered damage, scaling with attack power but not versatility. This is your most reliable way to clear https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115069/stagger so you will most likely have this talent for soloing. This effect is what makes BM so sturdy so use this ability as often as you can.
• https://www.wowhead.com/spell=107428/rising-sun-kick is a nuke. Well to be fair it hits for less than a Shaman’s https://www.wowhead.com/spell=188196/lightning-bolt but Resto Shaman is broken as hell so let’s ignore that for now. This ability has a 10 seconds cooldown that is reduced by haste. By itself it is strong but the https://www.wowhead.com/spell=388809/fast-feet talent makes it the absolute face melter it is. Unless you need to clear some https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115069/stagger or heal, use this on cooldown as a priority. This is basically where your damage comes from.
• It’s a lesser main ability but https://www.wowhead.com/spell=101546/spinning-crane-kick will be your AoE filler. It is used the same way https://www.wowhead.com/spell=100780/tiger-palm is but for AoE scenarios. It does grants you a second of https://www.wowhead.com/spell=322120/shuffle every time it deals damage but to be fair you already have 100% uptime on that without using this ability so it’s kind of useless. It also makes your healing spheres go towards you but https://www.wowhead.com/spell=322101/expel-harm does that too. This ability does everything but every other abilities does it better anyways. Still your best AoE filler.

Other relevant abilities

• https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116670/vivify is your main healing spell. It costs 30 Energy and takes 1.5 seconds to cast (affected by haste). The https://www.wowhead.com/spell=388812/vivacious-vivification talent makes it cost 8 Energy and being instant cast once every 10 seconds as well as making it heal for 20% more. You will most likely pick this talent anyways so https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116670/vivify will generaly be an instant cast, almost free, powerful self-heal. This is a very strong spell.
• https://www.wowhead.com/spell=109132/roll allows you to quickly cover a short distance. It goes in whatever direction you go and can be very useful to quickly back out of a problematic situation. It has two charges and a 20 seconds cooldown. Nice mobility tool.
• https://www.wowhead.com/spell=322101/expel-harm is an instant cast heal that costs 15 Energy on a 15 seconds cooldown unnafected by haste that deals 10% of the healing done as AoE damage. The heal is so low that this spell by itself is rather useless. The real use of this spell is to gather your Healing Spheres which are generated when you pick some talents. This can replace https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116670/vivify in some cases but is more RNG reliant as a tradeoff to freeing some talent points on the Monk tree.
• https://www.wowhead.com/spell=119582/purifying-brew clears 50% of your https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115069/stagger on a 20 seconds cooldown affected by haste. Its cooldown is also reduces by https://www.wowhead.com/spell=100780/tiger-palm and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=121253/keg-smash which is nice. This spell is most useful when you get high amounts of Stagger. Try to use it before https://www.wowhead.com/spell=205523/blackout-kick if you have https://www.wowhead.com/spell=387625/staggering-strikes since it will be more effective this way.
• https://www.wowhead.com/spell=119381/leg-sweep is an instant cast AoE stun that lasts 3 seconds on a 1 minute cooldown. Solid ablity, basically a better https://www.wowhead.com/spell=20549/war-stomp since https://www.wowhead.com/spell=119381/leg-sweep also has the benefit to not be capped at 5 targets.
• https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115078/paralysis is a CC ability that incapacitate the target for 1 minute on a 45 seconds cooldown at the cost of 20 Energy. The effect will break on damage. You should be mindful to not break it via a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=121253/keg-smash or a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=101546/spinning-crane-kick but CCing on pull will generaly alleviate that problem. The ability has a 20 meters range so you can have the rest of the pack far enough to not break it. Generally useful if a pack gives you trouble but as you get better and obtain more gear you will rarely (I’d say never but it can happen) use it.
• https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116841/tigers-lust is incredible. It is a 70% movement speed increase for 6 seconds on a 30 seconds cooldown that also removes all roots and snares. To make a comparison https://www.wowhead.com/spell=2983/sprint grants the same movement speed increase for 2 extra seconds but has a 2 minutes cooldown (1 if talented) and does not remove roots and snares. The low cooldown makes it extra flexible and this spell is very useful when running dungeons. You can cast it on friendly targets but to be fair it’s never gonna be used that way. That said you can cast it on some NPCs so be aware of that if you don’t want to waste it.
• https://www.wowhead.com/spell=126892/zen-pilgrimage is like https://www.wowhead.com/spell=50977/death-gate but for the Peak of Serenity / Monk Order Hall. Unlike DK’s there is no runeforging to do here but this spell still allows you to reset instances easily. The process is : use the spell, reset the instance, use the spell again, welcome back to the nearest graveyard and a now fresh instance. It can save a lot of time. The spell takes 10 seconds (reduced by haste) to cast and has a 1 minute cooldown. Side note : if your internet/PC is ass just like mine, the login screen can last long enough for the cooldown to not be a problem. Work smarter, not harder.
• https://www.wowhead.com/spell=322109/touch-of-death deals damage to the target equals to your max HP. This can only be used against targets whose current HP is lower than yours. This works as a great https://www.wowhead.com/spell=163201/execute against bosses or a useful one-shot on a problematic mob in a pack. On bosses this can allow you to skip some possibly problematic mechanics such as https://www.wowhead.com/spell=8599/enrage so feel free to use it regularly.
• https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115546/provoke is your taunt ability. This is useful for pulling mobs from further away which helps to LoS them. This spell has a 30 meters range and an 8 seconds cooldown.
• https://www.wowhead.com/spell=117952/crackling-jade-lightning really has limited uses. The knockback isn’t worth the forced channel and the cast time / Energy cost / damage ratio is terrible. The only use for it is to maybe act as a secondary https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115546/provoke when it is on cooldown or to pull from slightly further away since https://www.wowhead.com/spell=117952/crackling-jade-lightning has a 40 meters range. Niche uses but can sometimes be useful.
• https://www.wowhead.com/spell=218164/detox cleans poisons and diseases from the target on an 8 seconds cooldown when it does so. This one is a talent so you won’t have it baselinebut it is so generally useful I can only advise you to pick it. There is a lot of poison effects in TBC dungeons and picking this talent also helps unlocking the next ability.
• https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116705/spear-hand-strike is an interrupt on a 15 seconds cooldown that prevents spells from the school of magic you interrupted to be cast for 3 seconds. It has a short range as it can only be used in melee. An interrupt is quite useful to have and the previous talent also has little to no opportunity cost so you can pick this one, you won’t regret it.
• https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115178/resuscitate ressurects a friendly target. For soloing purposes this ability is useless.
• https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115175/soothing-mist is an 8 seconds (affected by haste) channeled spell that heals you for a lot of health and allows for instant cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116670/vivify to be used during the channel. This is a talent and to be honest I wouldn’t pick it since we already have so much self-healing available anyways. That said if you feel like it could help you survive until you get a better grasp of the spec feel free to use it for a while.
• https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116095/disable is a 15 seconds 50% slow that costs 15 Energy and is refreshed by your melee attacks. This ability can be useful for kiting some mobs although most of the mobs you’d want to do that to are immune to it anyways. This is generally not worth the talent point.
• https://www.wowhead.com/spell=245013/brewmasters-balance increases both HP and Armor by 45%. Since this is a leather-wearing spec, your Armor still won’t be stellar but that makes it comparable to a mail-wearing class which is overall decent. The HP is very good though, amongst the very best at level 20 (fourth best behind DK, DH and Druids if memory serves). A very good passive.

Some other optionnal/useful talents

https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116847/rushing-jade-wind is an AoE DoT on a 6 seconds cooldown (reduced by haste) that you can (technically) keep up 100% of the time and costs nothing. This is a decent DPS boost although you already have enough button to push without needing to use this spell. This is slightly better in AoE scenarios but you need to forget https://www.wowhead.com/spell=387625/staggering-strikes to even get this talent. The survivability loss isn’t worth the small DPS increase, especially as keeping https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116847/rushing-jade-wind means you will have to prioritize it over other harder-hitting abilities which is far from optimal so you end up with an ability that doesn’t work at 100% of its capacity and forces you to take much more damage from your https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115069/stagger so I generally don’t consider this ability unless I’m geared enough. In that case survivability is less of a problem but even then the GCD loss and the unreliable uptime make this ability a not so big damage increase considering you could have used a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=100780/tiger-palm and have picked https://www.wowhead.com/spell=383695/hit-scheme which is a DPS boost that requires no extra button.

https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115175/soothing-mist is an 8 seconds (affected by haste) channeled spell that heals you for a lot of health and allows for instant cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116670/vivify to be used during the channel. This is a talent and to be honest I wouldn’t pick it since we already have so much self-healing available anyways. That said if you feel like it could help you survive until you get a better grasp of the spec feel free to use it for a while.

https://www.wowhead.com/spell=124502/gift-of-the-ox and/or https://www.wowhead.com/spell=400629/spirit-of-the-ox summon Healing Spheres that can be used with either https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115072/expel-harm or https://www.wowhead.com/spell=101546/spinning-crane-kick and heal for a solid amount. I personnaly prefer the spirit talent since I feel like it procs more often but I could very well be wrong. To be honest both talents are not that useful since https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116670/vivify and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=388812/vivacious-vivification should be enough mot of the time. I’d make a case for early gearing since, being weaker, the extra passive heal is more useful (or at least safer) than https://www.wowhead.com/spell=383695/hit-scheme but as you get stronger you can forget the Ox talents.

https://www.wowhead.com/spell=383695/hit-scheme makes your https://www.wowhead.com/spell=205523/blackout-kick increase the damage of your next https://www.wowhead.com/spell=121253/keg-smash by 10% stacking up to 4 times. This is your best choice on the Brewmaster tree since your 4 other talent points are pretty much non-negotiable. It is a reliable passive DPS increase since the short cooldown of https://www.wowhead.com/spell=205523/blackout-kick means you will have at least one, sometimes two stacks of the talent making it an effective 10% damage boost (sometimes more) to https://www.wowhead.com/spell=121253/keg-smash which you want to use anyways. I will go more in depth when I’ll talk about talent setups.

So that’s pretty much it. Just a quick mention to https://www.wowhead.com/spell=196730/special-delivery for which we do not have the tools to truly make work. I find the idea behind this talent quite funny (as in throwing your keg after drinking it) but it’s plain bad for our level.

Also as a bit of a tangent, why can’t we learn https://www.wowhead.com/spell=125883/zen-flight now that flying is available to everyone (well not 9 or below but damn). Screw this I’ll just walk to the inn, drunk-driving isn’t safe anyways.


Now for a brief explanation of the mastery : https://www.wowhead.com/spell=117906/mastery-elusive-brawler grants you a chance to dodge that increases every time you don’t dodge an attack or use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=205523/blackout-kick and resets every time you dodge an attack. The mastery also increase attack power. For a more in-depth analysis I’ll link this mastery guide https://xpoff.com/threads/wow-tww-a-mastery-breakdown.100333/ if you want more numbers.

How does that translate in combat ?

Your rotation will look something like this :

You can pull with https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115546/provoke or https://www.wowhead.com/spell=117952/crackling-jade-lightning if you want to LoS the mob(s) or https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115078/paralysisif you want to incapacitate a problematic mob. You can also start by using https://www.wowhead.com/spell=322109/touch-of-death which, instead of CCing a mob, will just delete it. The 3 minutes cooldown prevents you from using it at every pull but keep this ability in mind on pull.

You can also pull with https://www.wowhead.com/spell=121253/keg-smash since its 15 meters range allows for it to be casted a bit earlier, grantig more DPS if you don’t need a CC or a LoS.

Right after pulling use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=107428/rising-sun-kick to start its cooldown. This is your highest priority ability unless you need healing or to clear https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115069/stagger if it gets too high. Even in AoE scenarios its nuke potential makes it a priority.

After that you can use either https://www.wowhead.com/spell=205523/blackout-kick or https://www.wowhead.com/spell=121253/keg-smash although you should use the latter in an AoE situation. Using https://www.wowhead.com/spell=205523/blackout-kick first deals more damage in a single-target situation especially with https://www.wowhead.com/spell=383695/hit-scheme but using https://www.wowhead.com/spell=121253/keg-smash allows for your Energy regeneration to kick in as soon as possible. Using https://www.wowhead.com/spell=205523/blackout-kick first also wastes its https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115069/stagger clearing effect.

Honestly both ways are fine, I’d say use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=121253/keg-smash first when you don’t use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=383695/hit-scheme but you can do both and see no noticeable dfference.

During the fight however, you should prioritize https://www.wowhead.com/spell=205523/blackout-kick for both survivability and damage since even in AoE scenarios https://www.wowhead.com/spell=383695/hit-scheme will make up for a potential GCD delay on https://www.wowhead.com/spell=121253/keg-smash.

When all those three abilities are on cooldown you should use the appropriate filler : https://www.wowhead.com/spell=100780/tiger-palm for single-target and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=101546/spinning-crane-kick for AoE.

When your https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115069/stagger gets higher (generally whenerver it reaches yellow) use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=119582/purifying-brew to clear some of it (use it before https://www.wowhead.com/spell=205523/blackout-kick because the latter is a flat amount while the former is a percentage thus being more effective at higher amounts).

Heal yourself whenever needed with instant cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116670/vivify or eventually https://www.wowhead.com/spell=322101/expel-harm if you have Gift/Spirit of the Ox.

Brewmaster is fairly simple to pilot, you just need to know the priority of your abilities and to not waste your heals when you can avoid it.

As a quick recap your priority is : healing if needed => purify Stagger if needed => https://www.wowhead.com/spell=107428/rising-sun-kick => https://www.wowhead.com/spell=205523/blackout-kick => https://www.wowhead.com/spell=121253/keg-smash => https://www.wowhead.com/spell=100780/tiger-palm for single-target and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=101546/spinning-crane-kick for AoE.

You should always be clicking a button since you will always have (at least almost always) a button available to click to deal damage. If you have downtime as a BM Monk, you are either doing something wrong, doing everything very well and running out of Energy, or you have a poor internet connexion and you abilities have a 10 seconds delay (I feel you, whoever it concerns, I feel ya…).

There is no big defensive cooldown available at our level but to be honest you shouldn’t have any problem even in tougher encounters if you manage https://www.wowhead.com/spell=119582/purifying-brew.

Your talents

For general purposes a decently geared Monk should go with these talents : https://www.wowhead.com/talent-calc/monk/brewmaster/master-of-harmony/DAGAEUBQQADVQEAAA

This is the talent setup with the widest applications at our level.

That said Monk is perhaps the class with the most viable talents at level 20.

You can shift https://www.wowhead.com/spell=383695/hit-scheme for any of the Ox talents when you start for an easier time surviving.

You can forget https://www.wowhead.com/spell=388811/grace-of-the-crane and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=388812/vivacious-vivification for any of https://www.wowhead.com/spell=450520/bounding-agility, https://www.wowhead.com/spell=450553/jade-walk, https://www.wowhead.com/spell=388664/calming-presence or https://www.wowhead.com/spell=450432/pressure-points although your survivability will be severely hampered.

If you really don’t feel like you have enough heals you can drop https://www.wowhead.com/spell=218164/detox and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116705/spear-hand-strike (wouldn’t reccomend it but it can work).

If you want a slow drop https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116705/spear-hand-strike for https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116095/disable and run around the room.

And if you feel extra groovy you can forget https://www.wowhead.com/spell=387625/staggering-strikes to reach for https://www.wowhead.com/spell=451505/rushing-jade-wind.

So yeah lots of possibilities but I’d still advise you to stick to the first choices.

Your secondaries

When compared to the last guide’s subject, Brewmaster doesn’t rely that much on secondaries.

Well, to be fair you still love to have those but they don’t bring as much as they do to other classes.

Mastery, while not useless per se pales when compared to versatility which is much more reliable overall, granting a damage reduction being better than a chance to dodge (since dodge does not work on any attack) and the damage component of it is barely weaker than mastery’s. You also get extra healing from versa.

Haste is decent, I’d advise getting at least 10% to be 100% sure you don’t run out of Energy and to get shorter cooldowns which is mandatory for a smooth rotation but you have to take into consideration that : A) your heals are instantaneous thus unnafected by haste ; B) https://www.wowhead.com/spell=205523/blackout-kick which is probably the button you’ll click the most is also unnafected by haste and C) your GCD is not affected by haste either.

Try to find your sweet spot if you feel like you need more then go for it but as you play you’ll realize you don’t.

So what do we have left ? Crit and versa ? Yeah go nuts on these, both are very good.

Reaching 25% crit and a nice 15% versa should be relatively easy. If you get extra haste, try to tone it down, if you have some mastery leftover, keep it. At 25% crit and 15% versa, having some mastery reduces the impact of diminishing returns.

To put it simply, 1% extra versatility at 15% means you go from 115% damage to 116% damage which translates to a 0.87% damage increase (1/115 = 0.0087). Having 1% attack power from mastery will be a 1% boost however (or at least 1/108 = 0.925%) which is a bit more valuable especially since you wont need the extra survivability of versa at this point.

That said getting more crit isn’t bad by any means so once again, go with what you prefer.

So for a quick summary : try to be around 25-30% crit, 10% haste, 15% versa and any more secondaries you can get into mastery.

Part II : Pre-dungeon gearing
While you can get some weapons at the Peak of Serenity, they are inferior to what you can find elsewhere so I would not reccomend using these but I would advise getting them for the nice transmog. You can also get a belt from the quest https://www.wowhead.com/quest=31835/continue-your-training-master-kistane but it is ilvl 19 which is hilarious but made even better when the follow-up quest rewards you with an ilvl 48 head piece while another quest grants ilvl 79 belts. True nonsense, are those Monks drunk ? Oh wait…

So as every class, you should kill your relevant BfA rares since they have a high chance to proc a socket on slots that either won’t otherwise or only do so on some WoD rares that are a pain to farm.

I’ll like the awesome https://xpoff.com/threads/level-84-gear-from-bfa-rares.99155/ guide made by the no less awesome @Stim which contains all of those BfA rares and now also has rares from WoD to DF.

Some slots like legs, hands, feet and waist will be replaced later even if they proc a socket but it’s always good to have them as a starting point.

Other slots like weapons, back, rings and wrists can save you a lot of time and trinkets with sockets are unavailable as of now unless you have some GF’ed ones in which case congratulations on keeping those.

Doing BfA rares will still leave you missing the head, neck, shoulders and chest slots. You should grab yourself a neck piece from a DF rare since we can use https://www.wowhead.com/item=192994/tiered-medallion-setting on those for 3 socket slots. For now pick whatever you want but this slot is rather flexible and you can play around with several neck slots when it’ll come to polishing your secondaries. I’d still say the https://www.wowhead.com/item=200445/lucky-hunting-charm has our best secondaries but https://www.wowhead.com/item=200210/amnesia can do the trick just fine as well.

Now you have two routes that can be considered optimal :

Go straight for https://www.wowhead.com/item=200444/mantle-of-the-gatekeeper (or https://www.wowhead.com/item=200174/bonesigil-shoulderguards), https://www.wowhead.com/item=200442/basilisk-hide-jerkin and https://www.wowhead.com/item=200441/jhakans-horned-cowl while you’re in the Dragon Isles. This is the faster way to do it but you can also do it another way.

Doing the WoD intro questline rewards you with all those slots plus a pair of pants and a weapon, all having a chance to proc epic for some extra stats. While it is slower it also has the benefit of unlocking your garrison which, if you planned on doing it anyways, will save you some time later on.

About trinkets

Out of the trinkets you can get by killing BfA rares, I’d say https://www.wowhead.com/item=161113/incessantly-ticking-clock is perhaps the best one, having reliable procs. That said it does proc our two worst secondaries but it’s still nice. If you get any of those trinkets with a socket then consider it more or less BiS since the extra 4 agility from the socket you can put in will generally outweigh most other benefit of the majority of trinkets.

Other than that I’d give a mention to https://www.wowhead.com/item=158319/mydas-talisman which drops from Atal’Dazar and has a very solid damaging effect. https://www.wowhead.com/item=155881/harlans-loaded-dice is also very niceand drops from Freehold. None of those are really BiS but they are decent placeholders if you were to have them on an older character.

An easy (BiS ?) trinket to grab is https://www.wowhead.com/item=53597/toy-windmill and while I know I said I would not talk about broken elements (the lance it summons deals obscene damage as of writing this) it is just a very solid stat stick with 6 Agi, 6 Stamina and 8 crit.

I’d also consider https://www.wowhead.com/item=110017/enforcers-stun-grenade which is the godfather of versatility trinkets and can proc epic, going from 14/71 to 15/74.

I really like https://www.wowhead.com/item=13515/ramsteins-lightning-bolts though. It is a reliable AoE trinketthat does solid damage on a relatively short cooldown of 1 minute. It also has some crit so it isn’t useless the rest of the time. This one is a pain to farm though.

Another easy to get trinket is the https://www.wowhead.com/item=38081/scarab-of-isanoth which, with a proc (rare or epic) becomes a better https://www.wowhead.com/spell=33697/blood-fury with 7 agility. I really like this one. You can get it from quests in Dragonblight pretty quickly if memory serves.

https://www.wowhead.com/item=136978/ember-of-nullification has 7 Agility and 11 versatility. Its effect is to have a chance to silence mobs for 2 seconds when they hit you on a 20 seconds cooldown.

Any trinkets that synergies with critical hit deserves a mention so I’ll keep it short and just say that since you will have a lot of crit those trinkets will have a lot more value.

Overall I’d say https://www.wowhead.com/item=53597/toy-windmill (you can use it for its brokenness for now so go for it but trust me, you don’t need it) and https://www.wowhead.com/item=136978/ember-of-nullification are close enough to what I’d call a BiS set of trinkets.

You can start grinding for the WoD rares drops that can proc sockets for slots that usually don’t if you haven’t gotten those already by killing the BFA rares (Credit to @CigNus for https://xpoff.com/threads/apexis-rares-spreadsheet.97407/ ) :

https://www.wowhead.com/item=119349/craven-cowards-cloak and https://www.wowhead.com/item=119406/depthroots-forearm (if you want a 2H) for Brewmaster and Windwalker or https://www.wowhead.com/item=119414/yals-leafwrap-cloak, https://www.wowhead.com/item=119399/cudgel-of-the-son-of-goramal and https://www.wowhead.com/item=119379/torgoroths-soul-prism for Mistweaver.

A socketed https://www.wowhead.com/item=119406/depthroots-forearm will be BiS unless you had one of the BfA 2H with a socket proc.

Grab yourself a https://www.wowhead.com/item=113082/precious-bloodthorn-loop as it will be extremely useful to skip a lot of mobs in some instances. The damage it deals to you does trigger https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115069/stagger but does not seem to break the invisibility despite the DoT. If memory serves this was not always the case but as of now you can safely use it.

Should you dual-wield or go for a 2H weapon ?

Okay so to be fair the answer isn’t clear-cut.

While I would consider two https://www.wowhead.com/item=27846/claw-of-the-watcher with 4 Agility gems and https://www.wowhead.com/item=74725/enchant-weapon-elemental-force superior, the https://www.wowhead.com/spell=95471/mighty-agility enchant makes a socketed 2H (sadly we cannot use https://www.wowhead.com/item=27986/crow-wing-reaper)deal more damage at the cost of the elemental force enchant.

In terms of raw DPS I’m not sure which one is superior. When it comes to world mobs with an average 820*830 HP the 2H makes for faster kills. Dual-wielding is better on bosses than it is on these previously mentionned mobs since we can get more procs.

Now as a comparison, a 1 socket, enchanted 2H would grant 25 Agility. Two https://www.wowhead.com/item=27846/claw-of-the-watcher would grant 24 Agility and ele force. The thing is that Monks have a small damage buff when they use 2H. I don’t know how much it is but is sure as hell is noticeable when you hit stuff.

My gut feeling would be to say dual-wield is slighly better for bosses but a 2H is superior for weaker mobs. Now to be fair both are very much viable. That said dual-wielding is only viable with a double https://www.wowhead.com/item=27846/claw-of-the-watcher since otherwise a socketed 2H is just far superior.

So do whatever you want, chose what you think look best and have fun.

As per any class, feel free to grab some enchants, they’re not that tedious to get now that we have Warbands and they will be a great help to your gearing process. While you do not need them, they’re still a very nice time saver. If there is some enchants you struggle to get, save them for later when you’ll have a BiS piece but other than that go nuts.


Side note : You can get https://www.wowhead.com/item=89597/tiger-brew-of-adversity (Agi) or https://www.wowhead.com/item=89590/serpent-brew-of-adversity (Int) which are both foods that grant both 2 extra primary stat for 1 hour. They can be found by talking to https://www.wowhead.com/npc=66353/master-chang at the Peak of Serenity and I’d assume in the Monk Order Hall. These are extremely cheap (1 silver per 5) and while 2 extra primary is nothing spectacular the ease of access and the long duration makes them worth a mention.
Part III : The dungeons

What gear do we want ?

So I’ve compiled a more or less BIS list of gear for Brewmaster Monk. This list can serve as a decent baseline for you to tweak around according to your preferences. A lot of the gear is very much useful for Windwalker and Mistweaver anyways.

Slot	Item	Enchant (if possible)
Head	https://www.wowhead.com/item=28224/wastewalker-helm?bonus=6710, you should get a socket proc on it.	No
Neck	https://www.wowhead.com/item=200210/amnesia?bonus=6710 if you use two https://www.wowhead.com/item=27846/claw-of-the-watcher?bonus=6710 or https://www.wowhead.com/item=200445/lucky-hunting-charm?bonus=6710 if you use https://www.wowhead.com/item=119406/depthroots-forearm?bonus=6710	3 https://www.wowhead.com/item=192994/tiered-medallion-setting for triple sockets and Legion enchant (like https://www.wowhead.com/spell=190894/mark-of-the-hidden-satyr) or a Breath enchant (such as https://www.wowhead.com/spell=158892/breath-of-critical-strike) for +1 secondary.
Shoulder	https://www.wowhead.com/item=27434/mantle-of-perenolde?bonus=6710	https://www.wowhead.com/spell=61117/masters-inscription-of-the-axe, requires Northrend Inscription to work
Back	https://www.wowhead.com/item=119349/craven-cowards-cloak?bonus=6710	https://www.wowhead.com/spell=44582/minor-power, you can consider https://www.wowhead.com/spell=158889/gift-of-versatility but Minor Power is better.
Chest	https://www.wowhead.com/item=28202/moonglade-robe?bonus=6710	https://www.wowhead.com/spell=44623/super-stats
Bracers	https://www.wowhead.com/item=109869/bloodfeather-bracers?bonus=8810:4746	https://www.wowhead.com/spell=104391/greater-agility
Hands	https://www.wowhead.com/item=27531/wastewalker-gloves?bonus=6710	https://www.wowhead.com/spell=44529/major-agility or https://www.wowhead.com/spell=60668/crusher, the former grants some extra dodge since it’s Agility and the latter grants a bit more damage (+1 attack power)
Waist	https://www.wowhead.com/item=28124/liars-cord?bonus=6710, you can get an extra socket here.	https://www.wowhead.com/spell=54793/frag-belt, requires Northrend Engineering to work. The AoE is super nice since our toolkit kinda lacks some.
Legs	https://www.wowhead.com/item=27492/moonchild-leggings?bonus=6710	https://www.wowhead.com/spell=124559/primal-leg-reinforcements
Boots	https://www.wowhead.com/item=28339/boots-of-the-shifting-sands?bonus=6710	https://www.wowhead.com/spell=13890/minor-speed works all the time but has no stats, https://www.wowhead.com/spell=104409/blurred-speed does not work with https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116841/tigers-lust but grants 2 extra Agiity. I’d advise Blurred Speed.
Rings	- https://www.wowhead.com/beta/item=9447/electrocutioner-lagnut?bonus=6710:8810 - https://www.wowhead.com/item=178736/stitchfleshs-misplaced-signet?bonus=6710:8810	Gift(+1)/Pact(+2)/Accord(+4) depending on what is available to you. You can go either +crit or +versa but with the gear on this list go +crit. It’s possible to go +mastery but not too much better.
Trinkets	- https://www.wowhead.com/beta/item=53597/toy-windmill?bonus=6710 - https://www.wowhead.com/item=136978/ember-of-nullification?bonus=6710	No
Weapon(s)	https://www.wowhead.com/item=27846/claw-of-the-watcher?bonus=6710 for dual-wielding or a socketed https://www.wowhead.com/item=119406/depthroots-forearm?bonus=6710. I prefer dual Claw (and it’s easier to farm tbh) for the greater flexibility on enchants.	https://www.wowhead.com/spell=95471/mighty-agility for https://www.wowhead.com/item=119406/depthroots-forearm?bonus=6710. For https://www.wowhead.com/item=27846/claw-of-the-watcher?bonus=6710 you can go https://www.wowhead.com/spell=104430/elemental-force (generally better) but also https://www.wowhead.com/spell=44633/exceptional-agility or https://www.wowhead.com/spell=60707/superior-potency which makes dual-wield have numbers equivalent to a 2H. You can also play around proc enchants like https://www.wowhead.com/spell=159672/mark-of-the-frostwolf or https://www.wowhead.com/spell=74246/landslide.

Considering you dual-wield :

Overall, using 4 https://www.wowhead.com/spell=311863/deadly-jewel-cluster and 2 https://www.wowhead.com/spell=311859/versatile-jewel-cluster (I consider 2 slots taken by https://www.wowhead.com/spell=311867/straddling-jewel-doublet and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=311870/revitalizing-jewel-doublet but F2P get an extra +2 secondary) you reach speed cap with one or two speed-procced items and you get the secondary stats I mentionned earlier (around 25-30% crit, 10% haste, 15% versa and a varying amount of mastery depending of how you used your ring enchants).

By using a https://www.wowhead.com/item=32640/tense-unstable-diamond you can tone down your crit investments and get some Mastery which will be an upgrade at this point.

With all other socket slots filled with https://www.wowhead.com/item=28362/delicate-ornate-ruby you should reach around 230-235 Agility (and a bunch of extra attack power from enchants and mastery). Your https://www.wowhead.com/spell=107428/rising-sun-kick will send standard mobs to Outlands.

As a Monk, you’ll need to run 11 different instances (can be more if you want some different gear but since it will mostly be rings you shouldn’t have an issue).

Old Hillsbrads Foothills

https://www.wowhead.com/zone=2367/old-hillsbrad-foothills is the first dungeon I’d advise you to run since it is home to two of our objectives : https://www.wowhead.com/item=28224/wastewalker-helm?bonus=6710 and https://www.wowhead.com/item=27434/mantle-of-perenolde?bonus=6710.

There is no skip available in this instance so you’re gonna have to do a lot of fighting here since both drops are from the last boss.



Now for the mobs :

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17819/durnholde-sentry has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=15496/cleave which wont matter here and a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=9080/hamstring that can be a bit of an issue if the mob flees. That said you have a 20% speed reduction from https://www.wowhead.com/spell=121253/keg-smash and can use a CC to prevent any additionnal pulls. Since you have much less armor than DKs, this mob will be auto-attacking you for somewhere around 110-120 damage. That said your https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115069/stagger will make it so you actually recieve around 50 damage. Keep in mind this interaction, all the numbers I’ll mention are pre-Stagger (and without much versa) since I test with a poorly geared Monk and my https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115069/stagger is still fairly weak. Also keep in mind that you will dodge a lot making the damage you take much less impressive.

Now https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17820/durnholde-rifleman do hit a bit harder. Try to stay in melee range since they hit for around 110 damage as opposed to their 430 hits with a ranged weapon. They have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=31942/multi-shot that hits for around the same damage and a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115199/scatter-shot that disorients you for 4 seconds but breaks on damage. These are a bit more annoying but still very manageable as long as you don’t let them shoot at you.

Both these mobs can partol solo with a pet at their side : https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17840/durnholde-tracking-hound which can see through invisibility although that is not relevant for our purposes. They hit for around 60 damage but do hit a bit faster than other mobs and they have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=8269/frenzy but to be fair they don’t hit that hard, only have around 1500 HP and don’t run away at low health so don’t worry about them.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17833/durnholde-warden are basically priest NPCs. They cast an https://www.wowhead.com/spell=15586/heal that heal for around 1000-1100 HP which can be an issue if casted on a fleeing target (this has a long cast time so you can interrupt it easily), a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=15654/shadow-word-pain that hits 5 times over 15 seconds for around 15 damage per hit which is not a big deal and most importantly a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=22884/psychic-scream that is a 4 seconds fear effect. This mob’s auto-attacks deal around 100 damage so they don’t do much damage but their support spells are a nuisance. Make them your priority. You can https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115078/paralysis them if you want to be extra safe.

These are the only mobs you’ll meet up to the first boss. Their damage output is quite low so unless you get an unfortunate timing on a CC (a fleeing mob pulling another pack as you are CCed or pulling yourself in a Fear) and pull extra mobs you should be fine. Be mindful of the patrolling mobs since you don’t want a rifleman shooting you from behind. You even have the luxury of time here which makes this part of the dungeon the easiest by far.

When going to meet Thrall you will also meet https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17860/durnholde-veteran which have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=15582/backstab and a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=15581/sinister-strike. The sinister strike hits for around 300 damage and the auto-attacks for 45-60 (off-hand) and 85-100 (main hand). These mobs hit harder so try to kill them quickly.

After you’ve freed Thrall the escort will begin. You won’t have any break but your self-healing is so strong it should not be an issue.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18934/durnholde-mage will spawn in every of the four packs leading up to the next boss. These are your number one priority. They cast a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=12466/fireball that deals around 250-300 damage, an instant cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=15244/cone-of-cold that hit for around 80 damage and a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=13323/polymorph on Thrall (which is kind of helpful as it can allow you to gain a few seconds to eat since Thrall will be a sheep anyways). On top of that their auto-attacks are just as strong as the other mobs (around 100-110 per hit). You can https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115078/paralysis them if needed and keep in mind your https://www.wowhead.com/spell=119381/leg-sweep as it can save you here.

After the second boss you will escort Thrall in three parts to the final boss.

In the first part Thrall may aggro a few normal spiders or bears which I’m pretty sure he could solo anyways but hem ay also aggro some patrolling elites. Said elites will appear neutral to you but will attack Thrall on sight so you might as well take the lead and kill them as soon as you can.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17815/lordaeron-sentry and https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17814/lordaeron-watchman are more or less the same mobs, average HP, average damage, no real abilities and you will fight 3 of them per pack. No danger there. They flee at low health but since they can’t aggro more mobs it’s not an issue.

The second part will require you to fight 3 packs of 4 of the following mobs :

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18094/tarren-mill-lookout has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35511/serpent-sting that deals 20 damage per tick for 5 ticks over 15 seconds (100 damage total so not too hard hitting), a slow in https://www.wowhead.com/spell=17174/concussive-shot and auto-attacks for around 85 damage.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18093/tarren-mill-protector has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=56919/flash-heal (heals for around 500 health and can be interrupted), hits for around 130 damage on his auto-attacks and most importantly has a 5 seconds stun. When this stun is used, all other mobs will step away. These are your priority.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18092/tarren-mill-guardsman has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=16856/mortal-strike that reduces healing by 25% for 5 seconds and auto-attacks for around 65 damage. These are the lowest priority.

After these fights you will have some time to rest and then start the final escort which will be three packs of 3-4 infinite dragons :

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18170/infinite-slayer has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=16856/mortal-strike that deals around 300 damage and reduces your healing by 25% which is a pain when combined with https://www.wowhead.com/spell=31977/curse-of-infinity (see below) and auto-attacks for around 135-150 damage.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18171/infinite-defiler casts a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=15232/shadow-bolt that hits for around 400-500 damage which is huge to say the least. He will also cast a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=31977/curse-of-infinity which increases both your healing recieved and damage taken by 50 percent. This can be a pain to deal with and you realistically cannot avoid it unless you have some luck. Ths mob also auto-attacks but this is negilgible damage. These are a priority to kill as fast as you can.

Finally, https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18172/infinite-saboteur auto-attacks for around 165 damage. He has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=17234/shadow-shock that deals around 120 damage, a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=15496/cleave that deals about as much damage as the auto-attacks. He also has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=31976/shadow-shield but you won’t notice it.

These are tough packs to face seeing as their damage output is perhaps the highest of the dungeon (thanks a lot defilers). You also have virtually no break between pulls and the last boss will start attacking a few seconds after you killed all the packs.



The first boss is https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17848/lieutenant-drake. He will only spawn after you used all five bombs. He has around 15K HP and his auto-attacks deal around 200-250 damage.

He uses an https://www.wowhead.com/spell=329310/hamstring?dd=2 and a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=192224/mortal-strike?dd=2 that deals around 300 damage and reduces your healing for 5 seconds. It would be better not to cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116670/vivify when having this debuff but to be honest it barely matters.

He also has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=190411/whirlwind?dd=2 that deals around 250 damage. While I advised to run away on DKs, as a Monk you can just ignore it since you will clear most of the damage anywas. Spending one GCD on a heal is better than running away and maybe missing several GCDs and exposing yourself to his last ability : https://www.wowhead.com/spell=33792/exploding-shot?dd=2.

He can only use this when you are far away which should only happen when you get feared and he stops moving for his whirlwind. This ability hits hard (around 1000-1100 damage) and stuns you for 6 seconds. If that were to happen your https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115069/stagger will delay the majority of the damage and if you were to take a lot of damage you can just hit https://www.wowhead.com/spell=119582/purifying-brew into https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116670/vivify into https://www.wowhead.com/spell=119582/purifying-brew or just https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116670/vivify first and you’re all good.

Overall an easy fight. Very much tank-and-spank.



The second boss is https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17862/captain-skarloc. He has around 15K HP as well and his auto attacks hit for around 190-200 damage but since he uses a 1H the hits are a bit faster paced.

He will start the fight with two adds which you should burst down first as they do have heals or other annoying spells if left alive. The extra damage can be a pain too.

He casts https://www.wowhead.com/spell=32400/cleanse?dd=6 which cancels the slow effect of your https://www.wowhead.com/spell=121253/keg-smash and an https://www.wowhead.com/spell=343151/holy-light?dd=6 which heals for around 1200 HP. You can interrupt it but he can cast it again before your interrupt is off-cooldown.

Skarloc has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=17232/devotion-aura?dd=6 which increases his armor and an https://www.wowhead.com/spell=348467/holy-shield?dd=6 spell that increases his block chance and deals around 50 damage every time he blocks.

His most annoying spell is https://www.wowhead.com/spell=66863/hammer-of-justice?dd=6 which is a 5 seconds stun he should cast around 4-5 times in the encounter. This stun does take into consideration diminishing returns and will end up stunning you for less and less time.

For some reason this guy hangs for a few seconds when he should die which, while of minimal importance since he is quite easy, is interesting to note.



The third and final boss is https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18096/epoch-hunter. You might come out of the three previous encounters with the https://www.wowhead.com/spell=31977/curse-of-infinity debuff so be mindful of that.

Make sure your loot spec is Brewmaster as it allows for the smallest item pool the game can choose from this boss, thus increasing your chances to get a relevant item.

This boss auto-attacks for around 180-200 damage and can proc extra auto-attacks with https://www.wowhead.com/spell=19818/double-attack?dd=2 (aptly named ability dare I say).

He will cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=80380/sand-breath?dd=2 several times. This deal a little bit of arcane damage and reduces your auto-attack and movement speed for 10 seconds.

He also has https://www.wowhead.com/spell=31475/wing-buffet?dd=2 which is a knockback that deals a little damage.

Anecdotally, he casts https://www.wowhead.com/spell=33834/magic-disruption-aura?dd=2 which isn’t relevant to Brewmaster.

Finally he has https://www.wowhead.com/spell=31916/impending-death?dd=2 which is a fairly hard hitting DoT that is not a big deal (this spell can be a nuisance for non-healing classes since it can kill them after the fight ended but Monks are not affected as much).

And that concludes this dungeon. You may have to run it a lot (you will if you’re looking for something as BiS as you can get) so you will soon get the hang of it.

Side note : using the https://www.wowhead.com/spell=126892/zen-pilgrimage method to reset the instance will teleport you back in front of https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19934/zaladormu inside the Caverns of Time. Flying back to the instance is very quick from there. Running back in the instance is also decently fast since can mount so both options are valid here.

So where does the danger comes from ?

After the first boss you will be more or less always escorting Thrall and will have barely any break so try to maintain your focus.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18934/durnholde-mage deals big damage and you have no break between packs with the second boss right after.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18171/infinite-defiler hit even harder and put a nasty debuff on you.

There is a bunch of CC all over the instance.

Auchenai Crypts

I think doing https://www.wowhead.com/beta/zone=3790/auchenai-crypts second is better as it allows to immediatly get your weapons (unless you got a socketed 2H already or don’t plan on dual-wielding at all). That said the boss said weapons drop from, https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18371/shirrak-the-dead-watcher, can be rather tough at least for beginners. If you find yourself struggling too much you can delay this dungeon.

You can also get https://www.wowhead.com/item=27409/raven-heart-headdress which is a very good head piece that can be a solid placeholder until youget a socket proc on https://www.wowhead.com/item=28224/wastewalker-helm?bonus=6710.

You don’t need anything from the last boss so you can stop at Shirrak. Make sure your loot spec is Brewmaster.



All mobs can summon an Unliving mob : https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18501/unliving-stalker, https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18499/unliving-sorcerer, https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18498/unliving-soldier, https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18500/unliving-cleric and https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18503/phantasmal-possessor are all the possible summons. These mobs are generally a bit frailer and use abilities that slow, put a DoT, a root, interrupts (not a big deal for Brewmaster) or heal their allies. None of these mobs are really all that tough but they become a nuisance since they can spawn further away and attack you from afar. Don’t make them your priority, your AoE will chunk them nicely without having to focus them. That said keep in mind these mobs and don’t overpull.

For the part up to Shirrak which you will have to run several times you can skip some trash pretty easily with https://www.wowhead.com/item=113082/precious-bloodthorn-loop and reset by killing yourself from the bridge which is actually faster than doing so with https://www.wowhead.com/spell=126892/zen-pilgrimage.

The skip is very simple : run through the mobs and use the ring before the boss. It’s easier with speed enchants and SL speed gems so I would advise getting some of those (8 or 9 gems should be enough to reach speed cap). Use your instant cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116670/vivify when you reach below 30% health and use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=101546/spinning-crane-kick to have https://www.wowhead.com/spell=322120/shuffle active. There is no CC to stop you, as a tank you are immune to https://www.wowhead.com/spell=38767/daze and you have good mobility with https://www.wowhead.com/spell=109132/roll and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116841/tigers-lust so it should not be too much of an issue.

You can use the ring early if you feel too threatened, just before the boss (there is a pack of two to kill if you do that) or use it on the boss but you won’t have time to catch a break before engaging him. I personnaly do the last option since it works quite well but all options are doable. If you don’t have speed gems/enchants this may prove difficult but with some speed this is a breeze.

Now for the mobs (if you were to not have the invisibility ring or if it is on cooldown) :

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18493/auchenai-soulpriest is a spellcaster mob that can be annoying since it won’t go in melee range. This mobs casts a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=32860/shadow-bolt that deals around 200 damage and increases the shadow damage you take but also a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=32858/touch-of-the-forgotten that reduces the healing you get. CC this mob if needed. You can pull it and run away as it will force it to come towards you.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18495/auchenai-vindicator deals 130-150 damage with its auto-attacks. Really nothing special here.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18497/auchenai-monk has an interrupt which shouldn’t be an issue, a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=32849/cyclone-strike that knocks you back but is a bit buggy and does nothing sometimes and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=38168/spiritual-sight which has no interaction besides being stolen by a mage to see the spirits on the bridge. Maybe kill this one second since the knockback can be a bit annoying but to be fair it doesn’t hit that hard neither. Be mindful of the knockback on the bridge though as it can lead to a pretty surprising and quick death.



For the boss, https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18371/shirrak-the-dead-watcher can be an issue if you missmanage your instant cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116670/vivify but to be fair your damage mitgation is so good that you’re fairly flexible.

Shirrak has https://www.wowhead.com/spell=32264/inhibit-magic?dd=2 which makes your spells take a lot longer to cast. With instant cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116670/vivify every 10 seconds you should be fine.

The danger comes from https://www.wowhead.com/spell=144853/carnivorous-bite?dd=2 which is a stacking DoT that deals up to 350-450 damage every 3 seconds for 20 seconds. From testing it seems like you can dodge this spell which really negates the threat. Now to see how well Monk can handle maximum stacks I did try to wait for them to reach 5. One time they fell off since the boss wasn’t able to land one in 20 seconds and the second time my heals were enough to handle the damage anyways.

The auto-attacks of the boss hit for around 200 damage.

Honestly our high dodge, strong healing and decent damage all make this boss fairly easy.

So yeah, a short instance but I feel like https://www.wowhead.com/item=27846/claw-of-the-watcher never drops so you will have to run it a bunch.

So where does the danger comes from ?

Shirrak does a hefty chunk of damage so be careful and manage your heals.

There is a decent amount of patrolling mobs which can be ranged so you may pull extra mobs if you don’t skip and they won’t always come to melee range.

The Blood Furnace

This instance will drop your legs slot. You only need to go to the second boss which is nice. Be sure to set your loot spec to Brewmaster as it reduces the pool of items the boss can drop.

You can skip some packs with the invisibility ring, test for yourself but be careful as there isn’t a really safe spot to turn invisible. I personnaly like to use the ring to skip mobs between the first and second boss.

Now for the mobs :

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17370/laughing-skull-enforcer have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=15655/shield-slam that deals 15-20 damage and stuns you for 2 seconds. They auto-attack for 150-200 damage (hard hitters there) and have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=14516/strike that hit for 300 damage.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17397/shadowmoon-adept have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=11978/kick that lock the magic school for 6 seconds but you shouldn’t be affected by it, a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=3391/thrash that can trigger extra attacks and they auto-attack for 150-200 damage as well. They flee when at low health.

The adepts will have an https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17477/hellfire-imp with them which is quite frail but casts some https://www.wowhead.com/spell=15242/fireball that hit for around 200-220 damage. Kill them first as they don’t flee and have low HP.

Going upstairs you may aggro https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17491/laughing-skull-rogue that are stealthed. They have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34969/poison that deal 100 damage over 10 seconds and a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=6434/slice-and-dice which increases their attack speed. They also have a 3 seconds stun. They auto-attack for 60-70 (OH) and 120-150 (MH) and they do so quickly. These mobs hit very hard but your mastery does wonder against them. They are quite frail too (around 1200 health) and a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=107428/rising-sun-kick crit should put them to sleep.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17395/shadowmoon-summoner has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=15242/fireball that deals 220-250 damage, a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=18399/flamestrike that deals 9 (whoa) damage and can either https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30851/summon-felhound-manastalker or https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30853/summon-seductress. Both of the summoned mobs hit decently hard but are quite frail. You can interrupt the summoning anyways, I’d advise to do so near the end of the cast as they take fairly long to be casted. The summoners also auto-attack for around 180-200 damage. You should LoS them on pull and try to pull them alone as they can be troublesome to face otherwise.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17626/laughing-skull-legionnaire auto-attack for around 180-200 damage. They have an https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17626/laughing-skull-legionnaire that deals around 100 damage and knocks you back. They also https://www.wowhead.com/spell=8599/enrage at low health.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17371/shadowmoon-warlock auto-attack for around 160 damage, cast a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=12739/shadow-bolt for around 150-160 damage and a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=32197/corruption that deals 100 damage over 15 seconds. They have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=32197/corruption that is irrelevant for Brewmaster and can use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=33111/fel-power on Felguards but we don’t face any if we don’t go to the last boss. Perhaps the weakest mob we’ll find here.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17414/shadowmoon-technician can be extremely problematic. They auto-attack for 150 damage and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=40062/throw-dynamite that deal around 150 damage. They also have https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30846/throw-proximity-bomb which puts a mine on the floor that deals 400-450 damage. The issue comes from their 5 seconds https://www.wowhead.com/spell=6726/silence they sometimes cast. This can be an issue as it prevents you from healing. If you have one of the Ox talents you’re fine since the Healing Spheres can be used via https://www.wowhead.com/spell=101546/spinning-crane-kick but even then I’d advise to not overpull and kill those first. The mobs hit hard in this instance so a 5 seconds silence can lead to a quick death.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17624/laughing-skull-warden auto-attacks for 180-200 damage. They have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=81219/battle-shout. These aren’t an issue, kill them last.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17398/nascent-fel-orc has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=31900/stomp that knocks you back and deals around 75 damage, a 5 seconds stun that deals 60 damage and auto-attacks for 20-60 damage. This mob is frail and don’t hit hard, https://www.wowhead.com/spell=107428/rising-sun-kick into oblivion and be done with it.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17429/fel-orc-neophyte auto-attacks for 80 damage, has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=22120/charge and a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=8269/frenzy. Honestly, not a threat, kill those last.





Kill everyone in the room before engaging https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17381/the-maker. This boss’ HP is over 9000.

His auto-attacks are extremely strong, hitting for 320-350 damage, however he seems to miss a lot. This may just be RNG but of the 3 times I went at him on my monk he always missed a lot. This is a small sample, I know, but what is sure is that he hits hard.

He has https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30923/domination?dd=24 which is a mind control he does not use when solo (or at least not quickly enough for you to see it if he does) and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30925/exploding-beaker?dd=24 which is a knockback that deals, well, a lot of damage : around 700-1000 damage.

This boss is easy, has low HP so it doesn’t take long to kill but be aware that he hits hard so pay attention to your health so as to not be caught by a surprise https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30925/exploding-beaker?dd=24.



When reaching the second boss’ room, clear it all before triggering the encounter (done using the lever in the room, near the big door).

Activating the lever will free 4 waves of 3-4 Fel Orcs that will come to you one after the other. Kill the Nascent before the Neophyts to avoid some stuns and you’re golden.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17380/broggok is also very frail, having 8000 HP.

He does, however, hit like a John Deere 9RX 830.

Well to be fair his auto-attacks deal around 150 damage and he attacks slowly but…

He has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=432027/poison-bolt?dd=24 that deals 450-600 damage and puts a DoT that does 200-300 damage every 3 seconds for 9 seconds.

He also has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=37469/poison-cloud?dd=24 that deals over 100 damage repeatedly and extremely quickly. Don’t stand in it.

Finally Broggok has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30913/slime-spray?dd=24 that deal negligible damage.

So yeah, this is more or less the same deal as the first boss but frailer and harder-hitting.


Overall a decently easy instance, be aware that the mobs hit hard though so keep an eye on your health if you don’t want a bad surprise happening to you.

Side note : using the https://www.wowhead.com/spell=126892/zen-pilgrimage method to reset the instance will teleport you back to Thrallmar/Honor Hold (haven’t tested on Ally but I’d assume you go there if Horde goes to Thrallmar). Unequipping your items and dying to the Felguards ahead of you is faster.

So where does the danger comes from ?

Honestly the mobs here hit fairly hard and so do the bosses.

Other than that you do have a few patrolling mobs that may give you trouble if they aggro while you’re already in a fight and there is some CC to pay attention to.

The Shattered Halls

https://www.wowhead.com/zone=3714/the-shattered-halls will drop you your hands slot.

You will have to go all the way to the last boss. Set your loot spec to Mistweaver as it allows for less loot to be on the boss’ table.

While you can skip a few mobs with the invisibility ring, be aware that https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17669/rabid-warhound currently one-shot you, making large skips impossible.

There will be some big pulls. You should LoS the mobs to make them gather either way you will take a long time to kill them and the fight will be much harder. One of the early packs can be divided into two packs of 5 and 4 respectively but the mobs being pretty close make it tougher. This 9 mobs pack is very difficult if you don’t LoS the mobs but if you do it shouldn’t be an issue.

Now for the mobs :

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17420/shattered-hand-heathen has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30474/bloodthirst that deal 120 damage and makes his next 3 attacks heal him for 45 HP. He auto-attacks quickly for around 50(OH)/100(MH) and can https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30485/enrage. Try not to pull too much of those at once.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=16700/shattered-hand-legionnaire has a larger 3.2K HP as opposed to the average 2.4K. He has an https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30472/aura-of-discipline, an interrupt in https://www.wowhead.com/spell=15615/pummel and an https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30485/enrage. He auto-attacks for around 100-125 damage.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=16507/shattered-hand-sentry have an https://www.wowhead.com/spell=31553/hamstring and auto-attack for around 120 damage. Not a threat.

You will quickly face big packs and can easily overpull. You should keep in mind your CCs and use them for an easier time. Play with their line of sight.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=16523/shattered-hand-savage auto-attack for 60-120 damage (OH/MH), have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30470/slice-and-dice and an https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30485/enrage and can use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=36023/deathblow before dying which is a weak, short DoT.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=16594/shadowmoon-acolyte auto-attack for around 80 damage, cast a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=41374/mind-blast for 60-70 damage and a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30479/resist-shadow that isn’t relevant here. They also have a weak https://www.wowhead.com/spell=165718/power-word-shield and a heal. They aren’t a menace at all.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17694/shadowmoon-darkcaster has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=11990/rain-of-fire that deals 135 damage over 9 seconds, a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=12471/shadow-bolt that hits for around 200 damage and a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=12542/fear. They have a long reach with their spells so I would advise to use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115078/paralysis on them.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=16699/shattered-hand-reaver have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=15496/cleave, a knockback in https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30471/uppercut that deals some damage and can https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30485/enrage. Their auto-attacks hit for around 100-125 damage.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=16704/shattered-hand-sharpshooter can shoot you for around 60 damage, use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30481/incendiary-shot for 9 (ouch) damage and they auto-attack (melee) for 110 damage. Their only threat is https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30481/incendiary-shot that deals 50 damage and disorients you for 4 seconds. This effect breaks if you take damage.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17083/fel-orc-convert can be called during the fight. They are weak, frail and do nothing noteworth. Ignore and AoE them. They will stop spawning when you kill https://www.wowhead.com/npc=16700/shattered-hand-legionnaire.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=16593/shattered-hand-brawler auto-attack for 60/120 (OH/MH), hit relatively fast, can get extra hits from https://www.wowhead.com/spell=3391/thrash, have a 6 seconds https://www.wowhead.com/spell=36033/kick that shouldn’t be an issue and can use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=36020/curse-of-the-shattered-hand that makes you deal 5% extra damage and take 15% more in return. While that seems like a bad trade, nothing can really threaten you even with those 15% anyways (not counting the broken dogs) especially if you have some gear so this is kind of a free damage boost.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17670/shattered-hand-houndmaster can shoot you for 60-80 damage, have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34100/volley that deal 6 times 42 damage over 6 seconds, an https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30932/impaling-bolt for 150 damage and they melee for 100-120.

Important : https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17669/rabid-warhound is a problem. As of writing this, this mob is utterly broken and deals around 8K damage which, well, not even a Prot Warrior could take. To make matters worse there is always two of them when they are in a pack. I’m not sure you can dodge their hit, my small number of attempts always had me not dodging but I would be surprised if you couldn’t at all but that is unreliable at best. There is 2 strategies to deal with this mob. While you can bet on misses/dodges or https://www.wowhead.com/spell=107428/rising-sun-kick crits, I personnaly just use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115078/paralysis on one, https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115080/touch-of-death on the other and then either skip with my invisibility loop or keep the mob CC until https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115080/touch-of-death is off-cooldown. Chose either depending on if you want to use the ring to skip some mobs or maybe you can use the semi-AFK for 3 minutes to do something else but if you want to be as fast as possible use the ring. I hope they do correct this bug and if they do I’d assume they could still be a threat. They have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30636/furious-howl and a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30639/carnivorous-bite which can be a problematic ability because of its high damage. I don’t know if two of them would apply double DoT or just apply charges twice as fast since, well, they don’t need it right now so I am sorry to say that I can’t give you more information on them. You will meet several of these mobs across the instance which makes farming it a pain as of now. Since gloves can’t proc extra sockets I would advise you to get a pair of gloves and wait for the scaling to get fixed if you want to farm for tertiaries.

Edit : after further testing I managed to get myself hit with a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30639/carnivorous-bite without dying (which also confirms we can dodge their hits making our odd of killing one without https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115080/touch-of-death much higher) and the ability dealt 30 damage every 3 seconds for 15 seconds. I’d assume maximum stacks would deal over 100 damage which, while solid damage, isn’t as threatening as I expected. I’m not crazy enough to try and reach maximum stacks so that’s all I will provide y’all, sorry.

Before the first boss there is a small tunnel filled with oozes.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17356/creeping-ooze have https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30494/sticky-ooze which slows your attack and movement speed by 4% stacking up to 10 times and can be cleared by https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116841/tigers-lust, a weak 10 damage nature spell and auto-attacks for around 100 damage.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17357/creeping-oozeling has the same abilities as the ooze, barely any HP and auto-attack for 10-15 damage.

Just target the big slime with your single-target and you will AoE the small one without trying. You can safely overpull here but if you aren’t confident take it slow.

When going up the long hallway after the first boss, you will be hit by flaming arrows whose flames deal 500 damage. Don’t stand in them and you don’t take any damage.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17462/shattered-hand-zealot hit like a wet noodle and have 829 HP. Not a threat at all. They will spawn until you reach the end of the hallway. They do have an https://www.wowhead.com/spell=1715/hamstring but nothing else.

Two https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17427/shattered-hand-archer and a https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17461/shattered-hand-blood-guard will wait for you at the end of the hallway. They both hit for around 100-125 damage and the archers shouldn’t really be able to attack you from afar. There sill be four zealots alongside them but nothing too threatening.

Keep your https://www.wowhead.com/spell=322109/touch-of-death safe as there will be more https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17669/rabid-warhound to come. Don’t use the invisibility ring this time as isn’t safe here.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17464/shattered-hand-gladiator have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=16856/mortal-strike for 200 damage and a 25% healing reduction and auto-attack for around 100 damage. They shouldn’t be at full health when aggroing you making them easier.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17465/shattered-hand-centurion have 3.2K health, hit for 120-140 damage have a https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17465/shattered-hand-centurion and a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=15572/sunder-armor that does not actually reduces armor.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17671/shattered-hand-champion have 3.2K HP and auto-attack for 100-120 damage. They have a 5 seconds stun that deals 100-120 damage and is affected by diminishing returns, a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=32587/shield-block that will inflict 100 damage back to you (don’t mindlessly spam https://www.wowhead.com/spell=101546/spinning-crane-kick or this ability will quickly drain your HP) and an interrupt in https://www.wowhead.com/spell=11972/shield-bash.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17695/shattered-hand-assassin are invisible and will stun you when attacking you. Their auto-attacks hit for 40-50/80-100. They have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30992/backstab for 150 damage that they can only use when behind, a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=3408/crippling-poison and a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=8679/wound-poison. These make an invisibility ring skip impossible as long as the hounds are overtuned.

Be very careful in the last corridor as there is a lot of assassins waiting to stun you and 2 hounds patrolling.



https://www.wowhead.com/npc=16807/grand-warlock-nethekurse is the first boss. He has 22K HP.

Four https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17083/fel-orc-convert stand before him, you can ignore them, pull the boss and AoE them down as you fight the boss. You can also pull them without aggroing the boss but be mindful that killing them will then pull the boss.

Try to make sure your https://www.wowhead.com/spell=322109/touch-of-death is off-cooldown as it will be quite useful here.

Nethekurse auto-attacks for around 120 damage. He will spawn https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30496/lesser-shadow-fissure?dd=24 frequently during the fight. These deal damage when you stand in them so pay attention to that. They deal around 190 damage per second which can be an issue since our https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115069/stagger isn’t as effective against magic damage.

He will use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=47541/death-coil?dd=24 which is a 4 seconds fear that deals 220-240 damage and heals the boss back for the same amount.

He also has https://www.wowhead.com/spell=29832/shadow-cleave?dd=24 which deals 200 shadow damage and can be dodged.

Finally at 25% health he will use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=183559/dark-spin?dd=24 which is why your https://www.wowhead.com/spell=322109/touch-of-death will be so useful. What this ability does is cast a shitload of https://www.wowhead.com/spell=144246/shadow-bolt that hit for 220-250 damage and hit for around 150 damage in melee. As a melee spec you will have to take both and while you can take the damage and heal it off, it’s better not to play around for too long so try to burst him while paying attention to your HP and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115069/stagger levels.

This is overall a fairly tough boss and the only relevant thing he drops is a nice off-hand that drops only if your loot spec is Mistweaver.



The second boss is https://www.wowhead.com/npc=16809/warbringer-omrogg.

Don’t fight him. He is the key to a more efficient farm.

Let me explain :

If this boss is still alive when you pull Kargath, he will aggro and come to help the orcish warlord.

While that may sound like a terrible idea, I need to give you some context.

Resetting this instance is slow. The https://www.wowhead.com/spell=126892/zen-pilgrimage technique will send you back to Thrallmar/Honor Hold and there is no shortcut in the instance (like for instance in the Sethekk Halls). There is no lava/pit/whatever to kill yourself easily (like in the previously mentionned Auchenai Crypts).

So how do we die ? Well by having another boss hitting you, a boss from which, conveniently enough, does not drop anything valuable (besides a wrist transmog which is admitedly rather nice).

I tried keeping one of the hounds CC to then get one-shotted after the fight but with all the stuns going on in the corridor and the potential to just forget the CC, not see the hound coming to you, mssclicking or any other error while we are already fighting a boss -albeit an easy one but still- while we can’t ignore the possibility of these mobs being (hopefully) fixed making this nowhere near as effective).

So the O’mrogg strategy is the best one. While you could do that with the two champions guarding Kargath, their stun makes the fight much less enjoyable and much slower.

Try to be as low on HP as possible before using https://www.wowhead.com/spell=322109/touch-of-death on Kargath and quickly looting him. Don’t forget to loot him.

If you don’t feel like you can do this, give it a shot. I managed it on a poorly geared Monk so while it may take you an extra try at first, i twill make you save a lot of time later.

That said, the https://www.wowhead.com/spell=126892/zen-pilgrimage still i decently effective so if you really don’t want to do it (or want the wrists transmog) you can always do that but i twill be much slower.



O’mrogg has 24K HP (only relevant if you fight him alone) and auto-attacks for around 150 damage.

He has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=23931/thunderclap?dd=24 that deals 180-200 nature damage and reduces your attack and movement speed by 35% for 10 seconds.

He also has https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30599/burning-maul?dd=24 which deals around 160 fire damage and a 3 seconds https://www.wowhead.com/spell=65809/fear?dd=24.

Finally he has https://www.wowhead.com/spell=157981/blast-wave?dd=24 which deals some damage and slows you down.



And for our last boss (which technically won’t be the last one standing), https://www.wowhead.com/npc=16808/warchief-kargath-bladefist will be the one to -maybe one day- drop our precious gloves.

He has 27K HP, auto-attacks for 60-70/120-140 damage and has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=19818/double-attack?dd=6 that can trigger extra hits.

He also has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=138796/charge?dd=6 that can stun and a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=236386/blade-dance?dd=6 that deals 110-125 damage every time it hits you where he’ll spin around the room, making him much harder to hit, lasting a few seconds.

Finally he will summon adds that are mini-versions of the mobs of the instance. Try to make use of these adds to be low enough on health when Kargath dies to die quickly yourself. The adds flee when Kargath dies.


Dammit this dungeon was a pain to explain. I really hope my explanations were clean enough but to be fair the testing took me so long (especially around skips/broken hounds) that I’m sure I’ve missed a few things so by all means please do tell me if you find any.

So where does the danger comes from ?

The hounds. The damned hounds. We have no ranged spells (that deal actual damage) and besides crits/dodges or https://www.wowhead.com/spell=322109/touch-of-death we cannot handle that damage. Hopefully they will get fixed and then they shouldn’t be an issue.

The first boss can be problematic when he reaches 25% health as he deals a lot of damage.

There are big pulls in this instance so play with LoS and make use of your CC abilities.

You do have to manage your HP when fighting the last bosses for that quck death after the battle.

The Mechanar

We’re here for our chest slot. Having your loot spec set to Brewmaster will allow for the less items the boss can drop, increasing our odds.

Weirdly enough on Wowhead, Pathaleon (the last boss) also have https://www.wowhead.com/item=28202/moonglade-robe as a drop as well despite the item not showing in the dungeon journal. I’m not sure if it’s because the Heroic instance works differently of if it’s because in legacy mode you can pull the second boss to the last thus giving wrong data to Wowhead but either way I doubt two bosses can have the same loot (except WoD bosses technicaly). Unless I’m wrong -in which case please do inform me- don’t go to the last boss hoping for a drop.

At the entrance go right. It’s a bit faster although both ways work.

Now for the mobs :

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19166/tempest-forge-patroller are quite tanky with 4.1K HP, auto-attack for 100-120 damage and have two abilities : a 2 seconds stun that deal 50 damage in https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35011/knockdown and an https://www.wowhead.com/spell=382101/arcane-bolt that deals 150 arcane damage.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=20990/bloodwarder-physician auto-attacks for 90-100 damage. He has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=36348/bandage that heals for 58 HP every second for 8 seconds and is a channeled ability. You can interrupt that cast. He also has a 6 seconds sleep in https://www.wowhead.com/spell=36333/anesthetic which he does not seem to cast when solo and an https://www.wowhead.com/spell=38921/holy-shock that deals 150 holy damage.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19167/bloodwarder-slayer auto-attack for 100-120 damage. They have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35189/solar-strike that acts like a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=15708/mortal-strike. It deals around 350-370 damage and reduces healing by 50% for 6 seconds. They also have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=13736/whirlwind that deals 3 times 50 damage, an armor debuff that doesn’t work and a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=12531/chilling-touch debuff that reduces movement and attack speed by 40% for 6 seconds.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=20059/sunseeker-netherbinder auto-attack for around 80 damage. They summon arcane elemental and cast a 200 arcane single-target damage spell and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35261/arcane-nova which does 40-50 AoE damage and heals all close allies for 800 HP. These are a priority as they can be quite annoying. They are a bit frailer so you shouldn’t take too long to kill them.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19510/bloodwarder-centurion auto-attacks for 110-125 damage. They have an interrupt in https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19510/bloodwarder-centurion. They are not a threat.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19716/mechanar-tinkerer will spam cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35057/netherbomb which deals 100 arcane damage. They are rather frail so you might as well burst them down.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19713/mechanar-wrecker are your next priority in those packs. They auto-attack for 120-150 damage, use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35056/glob-of-machine-fluid for 300 nature damage and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35049/pound for 100 damage and a 5 seconds disorient that doesn’t break on damage.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=20988/sunseeker-engineer auto-attacks for around 120 damage, cast a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=36346/growth-ray that increases very slightly the damage of a nearby mob (they can cast it on mobs that aren’t even fighting making this spell extra-useless) and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=36341/super-shrink-ray which makes you smaller and does nothing else and finally a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=36345/death-ray that deals 180-200 damage. A really cool mob but sadly it does nothing. Kill it last whenever it comes up.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19735/tempest-forge-destroyer are very tanky with 10K HP. They auto-attack for 120-150 damage, have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35783/knockdown that deals 150 damage and stuns you for 2 seconds and will cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=36582/charged-fist that add an extra 200-300 arcane damage to their auto-attacks for a few seconds. Try to pull those alone.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19168/sunseeker-astromage auto-attack for 100-125 damage, cast a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35265/fire-shield that deal 110 fire damage every 3 seconds, a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=185820/scorch that deals 100-120 fire damage and a « Solar Scorch » (couldn’t find a link sorry) that deals 350-380 damage, knocks you back and puts a DoT that ticks four times for 50-75 damage each tick. They hurt. Be careful not to pull them as you kill the nearby destroyers.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19712/mechanar-driller auto-attack for 150 damage, cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35056/glob-of-machine-fluid for 300 nature damage and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35047/drill-armor which reduces your armor by 20% per stack up to 5 stacks and… wait… for once there is an armor debuff that works ? Damn. Well to be fair there is always tinkerers around which you should kill first anyways.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19231/mechanar-crusher auto-attacks for 130 damage, has the usual https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35056/glob-of-machine-fluid and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35055/the-claw which is a disarm. Hey we’re monks, we don’t need weapons right ? Wrong. https://www.wowhead.com/spell=100784/blackout-kick does require a weapon. That’s dumb but oh well, nothing else is affected by the disarm so there’s that.





https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19218/gatewatcher-gyro-kill has 15K HP and auto-attacks for 180-200 damage. He buffs himself with https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35322/shadow-power, uses https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35318/saw-blade for 220 damage and a DoT for 280 extra damage over 8 seconds. He also has the https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35311/stream-of-machine-fluid debuff.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19710/gatewatcher-iron-hand has 20K HP and auto-attacks for 160-190 damage. He has the same https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35322/shadow-power that increases its attacks speed by 100 for a few seconds and the https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35311/stream-of-machine-fluid debuff as Gyrokill. He has https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35326/hammer-punch that deals around 225 damage and stuns you for 6 seconds. His main ability however is a jackhammer effect (no link again I apologize) which deals rapid strikes for what seemed like over 10 seconds, each hit dealing around 200 damage. I haven’t been stunned into the jackhammer (if it can happen) but I’d assume it isn’t pleasant.

You have to kill those minibosses to continue into the instance.





https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19219/mechano-lord-capacitus is the first boss. Or at least the first non-miniboss I suppose. It has 20K HP.

The boss auto-attacks for 180 damage and casts https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35161/head-crack which reduces your stamina by around 60 (when I was under the effect of the spell I had 800 less HP so I don’t think the value is correct here).

This HP reduction is a big problem though as he will summon Nether Charges that deal 350-400 arcane damage (where https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115069/stagger is less effective) and those charges explode often.

He also has https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35159/reflective-damage-shield which deals 100 arcane damage back to you when you attack and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35158/reflective-magic-shield that reflects magic spells but Monks aren’t really affected by it.

Now I may be overstating it but this boss can be dangerous. If you aren’t careful, mitigate your Stagger and heals well enough you will be overwhelmed.

While he is perfectly doable with the talent spread I gave you earlier you can pick up an Ox talent here (since https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35158/reflective-magic-shield is useless here anyways) for extra safety. The HP reduction and big burst can be lethal.

Also keep in mind the charges keep exploding for a moment after the boss is killed.



https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19221/nethermancer-sepethrea has the same health pool as Capacitus. She auto-attacks for 120-150 damage though that is hardly her main source of damage.

This is another magic-heavy fight where https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115069/stagger is less effective so extra heals can be useful. Like for the first boss, you can pick up an Ox talent here (since https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35158/reflective-magic-shield is useless here anyways) for extra safety.

Sepethrea will summon two https://www.wowhead.com/npc=20481/raging-flames on pull. Those have both 13K HP so ignore them and kill the elf as when she die the elementals will too.

Sepethrea has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=45195/frost-attack?dd=2 that deals 220-250 frost damage and slows you down for 8 seconds by 25%.

She also https://www.wowhead.com/spell=65791/arcane-blast?dd=2 that deals 40 arcane damage and knocks you back. This can be pretty helpful to get away from the elementals for a moment, maybe cast a heal, the boss will go back in melee anyways.

Finally she casts https://www.wowhead.com/spell=29964/dragons-breath?dd=2 that deals 150 fire damage and is supposed to disorient. I didn’t got disoriented, maybe a bug, maybe luck, I don’t know so I warn you that she supposedly can disorient you.

For her elementals, they auto-attack for 60-80 fire damage sot hey do a surprising amount of damage and they cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=19695/inferno?dd=2 every so often where they stop moving and do AoE damage for 8 seconds before coming back to you. The AoE deals 170 damage every second and can crit for double damage. If you stand in it you face up to 170*8*2 = 2720 fire damage. Don’t stand in the fire.


And that’s pretty much is for The Mechanar. A shorter one -which is welcome after Shattered Halls- and finally some luck for me as on my second run for numbers checkning I got https://www.wowhead.com/item=28202/moonglade-robe which is the first time I get a drop on these guides which is rather unusual for my generaly insolent luck.

Oh well I kinda hate this place anyways, hope yours won’t take too long.

Side note : using the https://www.wowhead.com/spell=126892/zen-pilgrimage method to reset the instance will teleport you back to Cosmowrench. This is close enough to the instance to justify using it. That said you can also get naked and die to the mobs after the second boss. Up to you, both are valid though I’d say the die-and-respawn method may be a bit faster.

So where does the danger comes from ?

The bosses hit hard. You can avoid a lot of the damage on the second one by simply moving out of the fire but for the first you can’t really do that.

Some mobs hit very hard as well (https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19168/sunseeker-astromage and https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19735/tempest-forge-destroyer).

Mobs can be pretty close so you may accenditaly overpull.

The Botanica

https://www.wowhead.com/zone=3847/the-botanica will be where we get our feet slot.

We’ll have to go the fourth out of five bosses so it may take some time.

Your loot spec doesn’t matter unless you want to give a shot at a socket proc on https://www.wowhead.com/item=28348/moonglade-cowl from the second boss which you might as well do honestly. For maximum chances to get the cowl you must be set to Mistweaver. Doesn’t matter for the boots though.



Now for the mobs :

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17993/bloodwarder-protector auto-attack for around 100 damage and use a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=29765/crystal-strike for 500 arcane damage. They don’t use it that often though.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18405/tempest-forge-peacekeeper auto-attack for 90-100 damage and regularly use an https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34791/arcane-explosion for 200 arcane damage. They also have https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34793/arcane-blast that deals 50 arcane damage and knocks you back and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34785/arcane-volley that deals around 350 arcane damage. They have a bigger HP pool than average at 3.3K. These mobs patrol around so they might aggro accidentaly.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19633/bloodwarder-mender auto-attack for around 100 damage. They use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34809/holy-fury that increases the spellpower of his allies though not by a very significant amount, a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=289666/greater-heal (interruptable) that heals for 1200-1600 HP and a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=17194/mind-blast for 120 shadow damage. Not a big threat but can be an annoyance.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18419/bloodwarder-greenkeeper are a bit more dangerous. They auto-attack for around 100 damage but cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34798/greenkeepers-fury (interruptable) and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34797/nature-shock (instant cast) for both 330-360 nature damage. There is often two of them so both casting those spell rather quickly can be a problem.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18155/bloodfalcon have 1.6K HP and are quite numerous. They auto-attack for 70-80 damage, have https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34856/bloodburn for 50 damage and increases the arcane damage you take for 20 seconds and stacks (but for some reason neither this mob or the newt one do any arcane damage sooo… yeah). They also use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=18144/swoop that stuns for 2 seconds and deal 220 damage. Their number makes them dangerous, be careful to your HP as a poorly-timed stun can be ruinous.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17994/bloodwarder-falconer will be found alongside the falcons (makes sense so far) and auto-attacks for 110-130 damage. They use a slow in https://www.wowhead.com/spell=32908/wing-clip, have https://www.wowhead.com/spell=31567/deterrence that makes them dodge and parry your attacks, a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34879/multi-shot (though the mob comes to melee anyways) and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34852/call-of-the-falcon which has no effect when solo.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18404/bloodwarder-steward auto-attacks for 90-120 damage. This mob has one ability but it hurts. https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34821/arcane-flurry will launch four arcane missiles every second for 10 second. Each missile deals 135 arcane damage so in total 4*135*10 = 5400 arcane damage. Okay so with https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115069/stagger and a well-timed https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116670/vivify you can live that without issue. That said if you were to be caught off-guard while fighting one of the other mobs of the pack you could have an issue. If you want/can you can LoS this spell and watch the steward spin around doing nothing. You can also stun the mob to stop the ability. You cannot interrupt it with https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116705/spear-hand-strike however.

After the first boss you’ll encounter the following mobs :

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18422/sunseeker-botanist auto-attacks for 100-120 damage, has a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34361/regrowth that heals for 750 HP then ticks 5 times over 15 seconds for 46 HP per tick and a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34254/rejuvenate-plant that heals for 41 HP per second for 25 seconds (or 1025 HP). Finally these mobs can buff the nearby frayers via https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34350/natures-rage. They can patrol the area with Frayers.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18421/sunseeker-researcher auto-attack for 100-120 damage. They have a lot of spells. First is https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34355/poison-shield that grants a chance to apply https://www.wowhead.com/spell=16427/virulent-poison (75 damage DoT over 15 seconds) when hit, https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34352/mind-shock that deals 175 nature damage and slow casting and attack speed by 25% for 12 seconds, https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34353/frost-shock that deals 225 frost damage and slows you for 8 seconds and finally https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34354/flame-shock that deals 100 fire damage and leaves a 12 seconds DoT that deals 220 fire damage. A really fun mob with a diverse array of spells.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19486/sunseeker-chemist auto-attacks for 100 damage. This mob uses https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34358/vial-of-poison that deals 80 nature damage per second over 10 seconds. They also have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34359/fire-breath-potion for 150 fire damage.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19557/greater-frayer auto-attack for around 50 damage and use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34644/lash for 175 damage. They do double damage when buffed by the botanists though. They have around 1K HP so bursting them down doesn’t cost you much and saves you some damage.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18420/sunseeker-geomancer are a bit tankier with 3.3K HP and auto-attack for 100-120 damage. They cast an https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34170/arcane-explosion that deals 150-170 arcane damage and can be interrupted. Target them and AoE down the smaller frayers around. Not a big threat.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18587/frayer have four forms lasting 13 seconds each : https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34204/arcane-form, https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34203/fire-form, https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34202/frost-form and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34205/shadow-form. None of them are really relevant to Monks though (besides for stuff like bombs and trinkets). They have 400 HP and while they are numerous our https://www.wowhead.com/spell=101546/spinning-crane-kick should do a decent job at handling them. They auto-attack for 30-40 damage.

After the second boss you’ll encounter :

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19511/nethervine-inciter which auto-attack for 50-65/100-130, have a 3 seconds stun and a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34616/deadly-poison that deals 45 nature damage every 5 seconds for 1 minute. You may as well https://www.wowhead.com/spell=218164/detox it. Not a big threat although it can be targeted by https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34187/sunseeker-blessing.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19505/sunseeker-channeler auto-attack for 80-100. They can cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34187/sunseeker-blessing on their allies nearby, increasing their attack speed by 50% and their damage by 125% for 1 minute. They also have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34635/sunseeker-aura that deals around 800 arcane damage over 4 seconds. Two of these at once can melt your health rather quickly.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19508/sunseeker-herbalist have https://www.wowhead.com/spell=22127/entangling-roots that roots you for 6 seconds and deals 30 nature damage (removable via https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116841/tigers-lust). They auto-attack for 90-120 damage. Not a threat.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19509/sunseeker-harvester auto-attack for 50/100. They have https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34640/wilting-touch that basically makes you unable to crit. Not a menace.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19512/nethervine-reaper auto-attack for 90-110 damage, a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=15284/cleave for the same amount and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34626/pale-death that is a curse that reduces your Stamina by 35%. We can’t dispel it so be careful while you have it up.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19843/nethervine-trickster are stealthed around. They auto-attack for 50/100 and have https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34614/backstab for 180 damage. Not a threat.

After the third boss there will be :

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19598/mutate-fleshlasher which is rather frail at 580 HP and hits for around 100 damage and a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34351/vicious-bite for 170 damage which can be threatening when 3-4 of them are attacking you while elite mobs are punching your face. Burst them first.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19507/sunseeker-gene-splicer auto-attacks for 80-110 damage. They cast a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34642/death-decay (that look much less cool than DK’s one) hitting for around 300 shadow damage per second for 10 seconds. Walk out of it or you HP will quickly deplete.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19513/mutate-fear-shrieker have 1.9K HP and auto-attacks for 100 damage and can https://www.wowhead.com/spell=8599/enrage. They supposedly have a 4 seconds https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34259/fear though I did not get targeted by one of those.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19865/mutate-horror have 1.9K HP and auto-attacks for 100 damage and can https://www.wowhead.com/spell=8599/enrage.



When it comes to bosses you can skip them all. There is no need to do any of them to reach the final boss (though we do want the fourth one). That said they do drop some interesting loot, be that https://www.wowhead.com/item=28311/revenger, https://www.wowhead.com/item=28348/moonglade-cowl or https://www.wowhead.com/item=28325/dreamers-dragonstaff (though only https://www.wowhead.com/item=28348/moonglade-cowl is somewhat relevant as of now) and some nice transmogs. I’ll explain them but if you only care about https://www.wowhead.com/item=28339/boots-of-the-shifting-sands you can skip to https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17980/laj.



The first boss is https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17976/commander-sarannis. She has 18K HP. There is three packs of two protectors and one steward before the bridge she walks on. While pulling the boss shouldn’t aggro them (at least not the one that are further away) you should kill them for safety.

She auto-attacks for 120-150 damage and she auto-attacks fast. She can also proc extra attacks with https://www.wowhead.com/spell=19818/double-attack?dd=6.

She casts https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34794/arcane-resonance?dd=6 that increases the arcane damage you take by a lot for 30 seconds up to 3 stacks.

She also uses https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34799/arcane-devastation?dd=6 that deals damage based on the amount of https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34794/arcane-resonance?dd=6 up on you (450-1150 arcane damage) and clears your charges.

At 50% health she will summon four adds, three of them non-elite that use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34820/arcane-strike?dd=6 which, when at high resonance charges can deal 400-450 arcane damage. The last one is a https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19633/bloodwarder-mender which do use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34809/holy-fury?dd=6 on the boss and can heal her.

Keep an eye on your HP, don’t wait to heal if you have high resonance charges and burst the adds when they spawn and you should be good.



The second boss is https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17975/high-botanist-freywinn. I’d advise doing this one as the helmet he drops is a decent alternative if you do not want to run the Wastewalker 2-set and/or want extra versatility.

He has 20K HP and auto-attacks for 100-150 damage.

He will summon seedlings during the fight. https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19962/blue-seedling has a slow in https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34782/bind-feet?dd=24 (removable via https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116841/tigers-lust). https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19969/green-seedling uses https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34757/toxic-pollen?dd=24 for 70 nature damage. https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19964/red-seedling uses https://www.wowhead.com/spell=108853/fire-blast?dd=24 for 120-130 fire damage. Finally https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19958/white-seedling uses https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34752/freezing-touch?dd=24 which freezes you for 3 seconds.

All those seedlings have 125 HP and auto-attack for 30-40 damage. A simple https://www.wowhead.com/spell=330911/keg-smash or some https://www.wowhead.com/spell=101546/spinning-crane-kick will handle them very easily.

The boss will also transform and summond other adds. Transforming into his https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34551/tree-form?dd=24 will make him immune to damage and cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=740/tranquility?dd=24 to heal the summoned adds for 270 HP every two seconds and 100 HP to himself. The form lasts 45 seconds or until you’ve killed the adds (you won’t need 45 seconds for the adds).

Said adds are https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19953/frayer-protector which have 500 HP and auto-attack for 70-100 damage. Whenever the boss transforms he will summon three of these. Burst them down since the boss is immune to damage anyways and you need to do kill them quickly for them not to heal back. Less time in the form also means less heals for the boss

The transformation should happen at least twice.

Overall pretty easy, just keep killing whatever the boss spawns.



The third boss, https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17978/thorngrin-the-tender, is very easy to skip. He does not offer that great of a loot so I’d say ignore it (unless you want the mogs or a staff with much Stamina).

That said I’ll still give a quick explanation.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17978/thorngrin-the-tender has 13K HP and auto-attacks for 150-200 damage.

He uses https://www.wowhead.com/spell=1949/hellfire?dd=24 which hits for 220-250 fire damage every second for 6 seconds. While you can easily walk out of it, you can easily outheal this ability since he does not auto-attack while casting it. Just stay in and kick him in the groin. It’s better to lose a GCD on a heal than lose 4 trying to avoid barely-threateing damage.

He is supposed to https://www.wowhead.com/spell=184361/enrage?dd=24 though he did not do it for me (maybe luck idk) and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=22651/sacrifice?dd=24 which I assume he does not do of you’re solo.

A very very easy boss.



And finally what we’re here for : https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17980/laj.

This boss has 19K HP and auto-attacks for 170-300 damage while being able to proc extra hits via https://www.wowhead.com/spell=158176/thrash?dd=24.

You want to kill all the adds in the room as the boss will summon more adds which don’t despawn after the boss die and will end up making you aggro any unkilled add.

Laj will periodically change a magic resistance/debuff combo (for instance increasing arcane resistance at the cost of shadow resistance) though none of them really matter to Monks.

He will cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34697/allergic-reaction?dd=24 which is a disease that periodiaclly deals around 300 nature damage. This can be lethal when combined with the boss’ high auto-attack damage. Thankfully we have https://www.wowhead.com/spell=218164/detox so keep that in mind and use it.

Finally the boss will summon some adds : https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19919/thorn-lasher and https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19920/thorn-flayer, using respectively https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34714/thorn-missiles?dd=24 (33 damage every second for 5 seconds) and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=193473/mind-flay?dd=24 (30 damage per second for 4 seconds and a 50% slow) while hitting for 50-60 damage and having around 500 HP.

You can ignore the adds, burst the boss, and kill the adds after as they will not despawn.

This boss can be a bit harder thanks to its high damage but we have the tools to handle it.


Congrats on this instance, I hope those nice boots are now yours. Funnily enough while I don’t care for the Mechanar, I kinda like the Botanica. Eh, the Mechanar at least has nice boss fights.

Side note : To reset this instance you will want to run towards the last boss, he has a portal behind him. Ignore the boss (unless you want some transmog from him) and run through the portal. And ta-daa, it’s faster and less tedious than a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=126892/zen-pilgrimage or a death-and-respawn.

So where does the danger comes from ?

Try not to aggro the first boss if the packs are still alive. The mobs deal arcane damage that will make quick work of you with the boss’ debuff. Also keep in mind the debuff lasts 30 seconds so be careful not to start pulling again with the debuff up.

There is a few packs with high potential damage (those with https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19598/mutate-fleshlasher and https://www.wowhead.com/npc=19507/sunseeker-gene-splicer for instance) so manage your heals.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17980/laj deals some hefty damage, use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=218164/detox.

The Slave Pens

https://www.wowhead.com/zone=3717/the-slave-pens will drop your waist slot.

You’ll want to go to the second boss for it.

So there is a fairly easy way to skip every single trash pack in the instance though it requires decent gear and max speed (gems+enchants) to not die.

So basically you run to the boss with your invisibility ring but when you’re on the bridge you follow this video :

For your first time you should use the ring on the bridge, kill the mobs on it and then try the jump slowly without any mobs trying to murder you. Once you’ve gotten the gist of it you can jump and then turn invisible, saving you a little bit extra time though to be fair you may have to wait for the ring to recharge depending on how fast your loading screens are.

When doing this method you should use this talent setup : https://www.wowhead.com/talent-calc/monk/brewmaster/DAFAFFQQBACVUAAA

With extra healing from https://www.wowhead.com/spell=124507/gift-of-the-ox and extra mobility/slows with https://www.wowhead.com/spell=450520/bounding-agility and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=450335/crashing-momentum you can bypass trash a lot more efficiently. Feel free to use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115078/paralysis, https://www.wowhead.com/spell=119381/leg-sweep and spam your mobility abilities. Use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=101546/spinning-crane-kick, https://www.wowhead.com/spell=121253/keg-smash and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=100784/blackout-kick for https://www.wowhead.com/spell=322120/shuffle, https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115069/stagger clearing and gathering your Healing Spheres.

Now you may have to do the instance anyways be that because you don’t have your https://www.wowhead.com/item=113082/precious-bloodthorn-loop or it is on cooldown dur to a failed skip (happens more often than not) so I’ll explain the mobs anyways. The bridge skip is still very relevant so use it, it’s basically free time.



So now, onto the mobs :

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17817/greater-bogstrok are the first one you’ll meet. They use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35760/decayed-strength which decreases your strenght by 25 for 5 minutes (oh no !) and auto-attack for 150 damage.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17816/bogstrok will be found alongside the greater ones. They auto-attack for around 200 damage and use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=31551/piercing-jab which deals 250-300 damage and increases the physical damage you take by 15% for 20 seconds. Funnily enough the greater bogstroks are lesser threats than the standard ones. Kill these first.

There will be two packs of those patrolling just at the start of the instance and you can avoid them relatively easily without any invisibility.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17959/coilfang-slavehandler will have non-elite mobs aggro with him which generally stop attacking when you kill him. I don’t know it that’s a bug but running far enough made hm stop attacking me like an open-world mob would have. They auto-attack for 140-180 damage, have https://www.wowhead.com/spell=9080/hamstring that slows you and deals 30 damage and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=16172/head-crack that reduces your Stamina by one (whoa). They supposedly have https://www.wowhead.com/spell=6754/slap which is a 3 seconds stun though I haven’t been hit by it. If you want to use your https://www.wowhead.com/spell=322111/touch-of-death do it on those mobs as you’ll get the more value out of it by stopping the small adds as well.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17964/wastewalker-worker are the first. They have 830 HP, auto-attack for 20-30 damage and have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=13738/rend that deals 100 damage over 15 seconds. Not really a threat.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17963/wastewalker-slave are the second. They have 660 HP and cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=15497/frostbolt that slows you and deal around 120 Frost damage and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=32192/frost-nova that immobilize you for 5 seconds and deal around 60 frost damage. These do a bit more damage but die very quickly. They are annoying when you try to skip though.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17957/coilfang-champion auto-attack for 130-180 damage. They use a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=15284/cleave for around 180 damage and a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=16145/sunder-armor that does not work. They supposedly have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=19134/frightening-shout that is a 3 seconds fear but they don’t seem like they use it when solo.

You will quickly enter a big room that you’ll need to go through. Mobs are patrolling here so you can fairly easily skip almost everything here.

You will most likely have to face some https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17961/coilfang-enchantress. They cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=32173/entangling-roots that roots you and deal 30 nature damage over time, https://www.wowhead.com/spell=15234/lightning-bolt that deals 250-280 nature damage and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=32193/lightning-cloud that, while menacing looking, only deals 30-35 nature damage over 15 seconds. They auto-attack for 180-200 damage so overally they deal a fair amount of damage, kill them first.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17960/coilfang-soothsayer auto-attack for around 150 damage use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=387975/arcane-missiles that deal 5 times 50 arcane damage and can be interrupted and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=31555/decayed-intellect that reduces intellect by 25% for 20 seconds (oh no !). They also have https://www.wowhead.com/spell=30923/domination but don’t use it when solo and without a pet (so no danger for us Monks).

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17958/coilfang-defender auto-attack for 150-180 damage. They have a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=31554/spell-reflection that isn’t too thretening to Monks and a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=15655/shield-slam that deals 15 damage and stuns for 2 seconds.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17940/coilfang-technician auto-attacks for 70/140 damage, casts a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=16005/rain-of-fire that deals 70 fire damage every 3 seconds for 9 seconds. He will be channeling for 9 seconds and while you can interrupt it, don’t. He does less damage than he does auto-attacking.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17962/coilfang-collaborator auto-attacks for around 100 damage, uses https://www.wowhead.com/spell=33787/cripple which slows you by 50%, increases the time between auto-attacks by 100% and reduces your strength (on no !) by 50%. They also have https://www.wowhead.com/spell=8269/frenzy.





https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17941/mennu-the-betrayer is the first boss. If you were to fight him he does drop decent pants, a cool looking sword (for Misweaver) and a funny necklace (for BM/WW).

He has almost 20K HP and auto-attacks for around 130 damage.

He casts a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=36152/lightning-bolt that cannot be interrupted and deals 300-330 nature damage.

He wll summon totems during the fight :

https://www.wowhead.com/spell=31981/tainted-earthgrab-totem?dd=24 wil periodically root you for almost 10 seconds, removable via https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116841/tigers-lust.

https://www.wowhead.com/spell=34980/mennus-healing-ward?dd=24 which heals heam periodically for 700 HP, destroy this one as soon as you can.

https://www.wowhead.com/spell=31985/tainted-stoneskin-totem?dd=24 which reduced the damage the boss takes.

And finally https://www.wowhead.com/spell=31991/corrupted-nova-totem?dd=24 which deals 100 fire damage after some time or when destroyed. Don’t bother destroying it.

You can’t just AoE the totems so just tab-target them and auto-attack or https://www.wowhead.com/spell=100780/tiger-palm them. Try to destroy at least the healing and stoneskin ones and leave the fire one since it doesn’t really matter.

Overall very easy, not that much damage dealt to you, just destroy the totems do deal with him faster.



And finally https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17991/rokmar-the-crackler has 21K HP and auto-attacks for 240-280 damage though he thankfully doesn’t hit that fast.

He will use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=38772/grievous-wound?dd=24 that deals 130-140 damage every 2 seconds stopping when you’re healed back to full. Just use a https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116670/vivify and you’re good.

He casts https://www.wowhead.com/spell=31948/ensnaring-moss?dd=24 which slows you attack and casting speed by 50% for a few seconds but it barely affects monks. He also has https://www.wowhead.com/spell=35008/water-spit?dd=24 that deals 300 frost damage.

Finally at low health he will https://www.wowhead.com/spell=156861/frenzy?dd=24 and hit drastically faster for slighly more base damage on his hits. Just https://www.wowhead.com/spell=322109/touch-of-death him whenever you can.



That’s the Slave Pens. Very simple dungeon, very easy to farm with a simple skip (though you may have to practice the bridge skip a few times). While I not a fan of mindless farming and would be perfectly fine with a normal belt, this slot can proc an extra socket and the dungeon is very easy to farm. This is the one slot I’d advise you to put extra effort on since the time invested to reward ratio is quite good.

Side note : To reset this instance you really should just either run back (use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=109132/roll in the water to save time) or maybe get naked and get killed by the nearby mobs depending on your loading screen speed (run if slow, die if fast). Using the https://www.wowhead.com/spell=126892/zen-pilgrimage method teleports you outside Coilfang Reservoir by the side of the lake. Really inneficient.
So where does the danger comes from ?

Honestly no real danger here. The mobs do have hard-hitting auto-attacks but nothing too threatening.

You do have to be careful about the https://www.wowhead.com/npc=17963/wastewalker-slave when skipping since they have a slow.

I’d say the worst thing to happen would be to not heal yourself as you jump down the bridge and die from fall damage.

You may also want to walk (with the / key) to not fall from going too fast but remember to toggle running again when you jumps or you’ll just fiuuuuuuuuuuu-splash.

Bloodmaul Slag Mines

So if you’ve played during Dragonflight you don’t need this one being explained to you.

https://www.wowhead.com/zone=6874/bloodmaul-slag-mines is a WoD dungeon located in https://www.wowhead.com/zone=6720/frostfire-ridge.

We will only need to kill https://www.wowhead.com/npc=74787/slave-watcher-crushto for our wrists slot. We can skip everything with the invisibility ring and die to the lava after killing the boss for a fast reset. You may have a bit of downtime due to the ring’s 5 minutes cooldown but to be honest if you have any that means you would reach the instance cap anyways.

Now to be honest any WF+socket is workable since there isn’t a versa+crit wrists on this boss.

To be honest any other place that drops versa/haste or versa/crit would do the trick but this place drops loot every time you kill the boss with 50% of the time being wrists on this boss (the other 50% being pants). If you’re like me, as long as it has a socket proc it’s good and this boss is the fastest way to get that.

Also the WF version has 1 extra stamina so it’s good for BiS hunters. That said it can take a long time to drop since you aren’t guaranteed to get the secondaries you want.

Make sure your loot spec is Mistweaver as the boss can drop https://www.wowhead.com/item=110040/crushtos-neck-separator which isn’t that good nowadays anyways and messes with your wrists drops.



Now for the mobs :

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=83624/bloodmaul-enforcer has 8.4K HP and auto-attacks for 200-250 damage. They use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=151415/beatdown that deals 50-60 damage and reduces your armor by 10% and stacks (this one works). They also have https://www.wowhead.com/spell=151446/crush that deals 100 damage and stuns for 2.5 seconds. This one takes 2 seconds to cast and rumbles the ground where it’ll land so you can easlity move out of it.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=75193/bloodmaul-overseer has 7K HP ans auto-attacks for around 200 damage. They use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=151581/suppression-field whch leaves a purple area on the ground that silences you (cancelling your ability to cast heals). You can easily move out of it. They also have https://www.wowhead.com/spell=151697/subjugate which can mean death. It’s a 1.5 seconds interruptable cast that starts a 10 seconds channel during which you are stunned. Either https://www.wowhead.com/spell=151697/subjugate this mobs or interrupt the cast or stun him if your interrupt in on cooldown. This mobs stunning you while other ogres smash you with 200-250 damage hits is, as you can imagine, not a good feeling.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=75191/bloodmaul-slaver has 5.6K HP and auto-attack for around 170 damage. They use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=151965/slavers-rage which increases their damage by 15%, stacks, and has to time limit. They can very quickly start hitting for over 250 damage so be careful.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=75198/bloodmaul-geomancer have the same HP as the slavers. They will spam cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=164592/stone-bolt that deals 40 damage on a 2.5 seconds cast. They ocasionnaly will cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=164597/stone-bulwark on themselves or an ally, absorbing 225 damage and reducing damage taken by 35% while active. Not really an issue, one or two hits and it’s gone. If you were to interrupt them -you shouldn’t- they auto-attack for 150 damage.

Right before the boss you’ll meet a pack of https://www.wowhead.com/npc=75210/bloodmaul-warder and https://www.wowhead.com/npc=75272/bloodmaul-ogre-mage. Killing this pack will then aggro the two warders in the boss’ room.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=75210/bloodmaul-warder have 8.2K HP and auto-attack for around 150-200 damage. They use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=40505/cleave for 160 damage and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=151545/frightening-roar which is a 2 seconds cast that fears for 3 seconds. You can interrupt it so you might as well do it.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=75272/bloodmaul-ogre-mage have 6.6K HP. They spam cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=151558/lava-burst for 50 fire damage and cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=151548/blood-rage which increases attack and cast speed by 30% for 20 seconds. Not a threat. If you were to interrupt them -you shouldn’t- they auto-attack for 180 damage.



And finally https://www.wowhead.com/npc=74787/slave-watcher-crushto has a mammoth 41K HP and unlike bosses like https://www.wowhead.com/npc=18708/murmur or https://www.wowhead.com/npc=114263/odyn we have to burn it all down.

He auto-attacks for around 180-200 damage.

He uses https://www.wowhead.com/spell=153679/earth-crush?dd=24 which deals 150 damage and stuns for 2 seconds. The earth will rumble when he casts it and he takes 2 seconds to cast it. Move out of it.

He will often use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=150753/wild-slam?dd=24 that deals 180 damage and knocks you back which he will immediately follow by https://www.wowhead.com/spell=150745/crushing-leap?dd=24 which deals 80 damage and roots you for 8 seconds (removable via https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116841/tigers-lust).

He will often use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=150759/ferocious-yell?dd=24 which is a 2 seconds cast that deals weak damage to you and the miners (see just below) and makes the miners flee. It also increases his damage by 10% for 20 seconds which can stack.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=83725/captured-miner will jump into the fight, either helping or attacking you. They use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=150807/traumatic-strike?dd=24 which puts a debuff that increases damage taken by 5% for 6 seconds up to 15 stacks (I remember it being 10% on the boss, maybe I’m just mixing things up). They deal negligible damage but their debuff is very important.

Try to interrupt https://www.wowhead.com/spell=150759/ferocious-yell?dd=24 as much as you can to save your miners. The opposing miners are rather frail but our AoE isn’t that great so may want to target some of them with single-target if you get overwhelmed as the boss will start hurting with a few stacks of debuff on you.

And that’s pretty much it. I did not miss that place although to be fait to it, it is much more enjoyable when you don’t come here to farm.

Side note : using the https://www.wowhead.com/spell=126892/zen-pilgrimage method to reset the instance will teleport you back in front of the instance. While I think dying and respawning is a bit faster, both are very much valid, especially if you have downtown due to the ring’s cooldown anyways.

So where does the danger comes from ?

The mobs are very tanky, hit decently hard and have a lot of CC. Honestly it’s just fairly difficult though quite well-balanced. That said with a few run you’ll quickly have no issue at all especially with decent gear.

Black Rook Hold

Now to be fair you may not run this instance if you don’t want the trinket I aim for.

That said I’m still gonna explain it. It will be a shorter explanation though as it is the only slot that is not required by any means and I don’t want to spend too much time on it. Not all mobs will be explained here, only the more threatening ones.

https://www.wowhead.com/zone=7805/black-rook-hold is in the zone of Val’Sharah in the Broken Isles. You will have to do the Legion intro questline (skippable if you already did it) to access the dungeon.

You should have your loot spec set as Brewmaster to have the most chances to get the trinket. Also the first boss drops a kickass 2H that was added quite recently (no weapon dropped from Legion dungeons before since it was the expansion with artifact weapons) and I believe can drop from normal difficulty. Here’s the staff : https://www.wowhead.com/item=211513/howling-echoes.

Leading up to the first boss you will have two possible ways.

The first one leads to https://www.wowhead.com/npc=98521/lord-etheldrin-ravencrest and the seconds to https://www.wowhead.com/npc=98538/lady-velandras-ravencrest.

Beware of https://www.wowhead.com/npc=98366/ghostly-retainer as they use https://www.wowhead.com/fr/spell=200084/lame-de-l-âme which deals 150 shadow damage and then 50-60 extra shadow damage per second for 15 seconds. This spell stacks making it easily deal around 250 damage per second so make sure you CC/focus those NPCs.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=98368/ghostly-protector use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=200099/sacrifice-soul which reduces damage taken by a friendly target by 75% but increases his damage taken by 200%. Focus him when he uses it.

For the mini-bosses https://www.wowhead.com/npc=98538/lady-velandras-ravencrest does nothing special, just big damage but https://www.wowhead.com/npc=98521/lord-etheldrin-ravencrest has https://www.wowhead.com/spell=194966/soul-echoes which deal massive shadow damage by making you leave soul fragments behind you, exploding for 250-300 shadow damage. Just run around to avoid the damage. These mini-bosses are immune to CC. You can -and should- however CC the adds.

You will then find https://www.wowhead.com/npc=98542/amalgam-of-souls, the first boss. A bit of a personnal story here but Black Rook Hold was one of the first « modern » dungeons I soloed and I remember being amazed by this boss’ mechanics and aesthetics which I found extremely cool to say the least.

He has 25K HP, auto-attacks for around 200-220 damage, uses https://www.wowhead.com/spell=194966/soul-echoes (same thing as Etheldrin’s one), https://www.wowhead.com/spell=194966/soul-echoes which knocks you back and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=194956/reap-soul which deals a massive 800 shadow damage and increases the damage you take by 20% for 30 seconds. You can avoid all those abilities and should do so.

Using https://www.wowhead.com/spell=109132/roll to avoid https://www.wowhead.com/spell=194956/reap-soul makes the fight a lot easier.

You can’t really skip anything in the first part so keep your invisibility ring to skip some trash between the first and second boss.

After the first boss you’ll meet https://www.wowhead.com/npc=114516/rook-spiderling which use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=225909/soul-venom which is a stacking DoT that deals up to 350-400 shadow damage every 2 seconds. The spiders are numerous and chip you with 40-50 damage auto-attacks. These are dangerous, AoE them as quickly as possible.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=98243/soul-torn-champion have a 3 seconds stun in https://www.wowhead.com/spell=200261/bonebreaking-strike but it is easily avoidable.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=98280/risen-arcanist deal massive arcane damage. Burst them down.

You will need to kill https://www.wowhead.com/npc=98706/commander-shemdahsohn to progress in the dungeon. He will spawn with 4 adds. The mini-boss has the same https://www.wowhead.com/spell=200261/bonebreaking-strike as the champion but has nothing fancy otherwise. The 4 adds make for a troublesome pack so go to a nearby pillar and LoS the mobs by going around it as you DPS them.

And finally https://www.wowhead.com/npc=98696/illysanna-ravencrest will drop the https://www.wowhead.com/item=136978/ember-of-nullification.

She has 22K HP, auto-attacks for around 100 damage, will sometimes use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=197478/dark-rush which will leave puddles of fire (usually one since we are in melee) that deal 220 fire damage every 2 seconds, don’t stand in them.

She also uses https://www.wowhead.com/spell=197546/brutal-glaive that deals 140-150 damage ans leaves a 30 seconds DoT that deals 80 damage every 2 seconds and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=197418/vengeful-shear that deals a mammoth 850-950 damage.

When her purple bar (energy) goes to 100 she will jump to the extremity of the platform and start casting https://www.wowhead.com/spell=197696/eye-beams until her energy reaches 0. Those beams leave the same puddles of fire as https://www.wowhead.com/spell=197478/dark-rush except there is a lot more. She will also summon a https://www.wowhead.com/npc=114676/risen-vanguard with https://www.wowhead.com/spell=197974/bonecrushing-strike?dd=24. Weaken that son of a ghost and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=322109/touch-of-death him back to the grave. Then focus on the boss as you can still attack her during the phase. The simpler way to do it is to run around using https://www.wowhead.com/spell=121253/keg-smash and getting near for a https://www.wowhead.com/ptr/spell=107428/rising-sun-kick and maybe a https://www.wowhead.com/ptr/spell=100784/blackout-kick.


This is overall one of the hardest instances so far. The damage is very high and you can’t just roll your face on the keyboard like you can to some extent on most dungeons on this guide. To be fair I did not have very good gear while testing so you will probably have an easier time than I did but it won’t change the fact that you have to pay attention constantly to not get overwhelmed.

I really like this instance when it comes to tuning (and that first boss man, so cool).

If you’re lucky you may get a socket-procced https://www.wowhead.com/ptr-2/item=134490/ring-of-contempt which has 1 less versatility than https://www.wowhead.com/item=178736/stitchfleshs-misplaced-signet which, if you don’t mind it (I certainly don’t) can save you some time.

Side note : using the https://www.wowhead.com/spell=126892/zen-pilgrimage method to reset the instance will teleport you back in front of the instance. You can also die-and-reset to the mobs following the second boss. Both are viable.

Gnomeregan

For our first ring we’ll explore https://www.wowhead.com/zone=721/gnomeregan.

Just like the previous dungeon, I’ll make this explanation shorter since rings are a fairly flexible slot and to be honest since Gnomergan is an old dungeon the mobs have no real mechanics. That said https://www.wowhead.com/item=9447/electrocutioner-lagnut does deserve a special mention as it is one of the few items that were relevant since SL for everyone.

For Horde you have a teleport in Grom’gol.

You should set your loot spec to Mistweaver for the most chances at the ring.

The mobs’ auto-attack hit relatively hard (around 150-180 on average) and they are fairly tanky but since they have no mechanic to back it up, they’re not really threatening. That said you can accidentaly pull extra mobs fairly easily in which case this simple source of damage can become an issue.

You can easily skip with https://www.wowhead.com/item=113082/precious-bloodthorn-loop as there is a lot of safe places to use it.

While you don’t need to kill it you may aggro https://www.wowhead.com/npc=7079/viscous-fallout. He’s got 30K HP, basically no abilities and auto-attacks for 350-500 damage. While that sound like a lot your instant cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=116670/vivify every 10 seconds will keep you alive since, being its only real source of damage it’s pretty manageable.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=6235/electrocutioner-6000 also has 30K HP. This is another simple boss to understand, big HP, big damage, heal yourself when low. Okay to be fair there is interruptable abilities.

The boss auto-attacks for 250-350 damage. He casts https://www.wowhead.com/spell=11082/megavolt?dd=1 for 100 nature damage. You can interrupt it but you shouldn’t. Save your interrupt for the next spell.

https://www.wowhead.com/spell=8292/chain-bolt?dd=1 is a 2.5 seconds cast spell that deals 200-280 nature damage. It’s better to interrupt this one since it does more damage (and that’s pretty much the only real interaction with the boss).

And finally an instant cast https://www.wowhead.com/spell=11084/shock?dd=1 that deals 330 nature damage.

Look, I love Classic dungeons. But if I do so it’s for the layout, uniqueness and lore. Not for the difficult and interesting enemies.


Honestly a very easy dungeon, all you have to do is basically do your rotation and heal yourself whenever needed.

Now for resetting the instance you can just throw yourself out of the boss’ platform and while you’ll survive with around 20% HP, the mobs will be more than happy to finish you off. Use the teleporter to Grom’gol or the normal entrance, reset and go back at it.

Side note : using the https://www.wowhead.com/spell=126892/zen-pilgrimage method to reset the instance will teleport you back to New Tinkertown, near the dungeon’s entrance. It’s safe to do as there is no high level Alliance mob that can kill you for Horde. That said it’s extra run time with extra loading screens and the cooldown of the ability. Just kill yourself, it’s easier…

I should maybe rephrase that.

The Necrotic Wake

And finally, our last dungeon : https://www.wowhead.com/zone=12916/the-necrotic-wake.

You’ll need to do the SL intro questline up to the Bastion (the Maw is skippable if you’ve done it on another character). Now lucky us, the dungeon is in the Bastion so we don’t have to suffer through SL’s story.

And even better, we only need the first boss and he’s easy to get to.

Also -it never stops- most rings grant 21 secondary stats. This one grants 22. Nothing crazy but still nice.

But, to balance it out, we have to get to the Shadowlands. Almost makes me not want this ring.



The mobs don’t hit that hard but there is fairly big packs and a lot of patrolling mobs that will more than make up for it so be careful.

Be extra careful to https://www.wowhead.com/npc=166302/corpse-harvester as he has https://www.wowhead.com/spell=334748/drain-fluids which incapacitate you for 4 seconds. CC or https://www.wowhead.com/spell=322109/touch-of-death him.

Now for https://www.wowhead.com/npc=162691/blightbone. This boss has 25K HP and auto-attacks for around 150 damage.

This boss’ abilities hit hard though. https://www.wowhead.com/spell=320655/crunch deals 500-550 damage, https://www.wowhead.com/spell=320596/heaving-retch deals around 300 nature damage, puts a 12 seconds DoT that deals 300 extra nature damage and summons https://www.wowhead.com/npc=164702/carrion-worm that use https://www.wowhead.com/spell=320614/blood-gorge?dd=8 and explode for big DoTs.

Burst the worms whenever they appear.

Finally he uses https://www.wowhead.com/spell=320637/fetid-gas?dd=8 which makes you unable to use any ability. Move out of it. It takes some time to spread so you should be able to avoid it easily.

Overall this boss is a bit tough without decent gear but it’s perfectly doable.

To reset the instance it’s pretty easy. Run back. It’s very close and you can mount up.

As a perfectly unrelated note, some parts of the music remind me of the music of one of the 2000 decade’s X-men movie but I can’t quite put my finger on it.

Some Mistweaver/Windwalker gear and info

So to be honest Windwalker is pretty much the same as Brewmaster when it comes to gear except you may want some more haste and mastery at the cost of crit and versa. Some neat, easy to get items include https://www.wowhead.com/item=200448/abyssal-ward, https://www.wowhead.com/item=159462/footbomb-championship-ring, https://www.wowhead.com/item=137532/seal-of-saltheril and https://www.wowhead.com/item=160987/ring-of-incomplete-digestion. You won’t really be able to solo without ooze/SL healing gems.

About talents : https://www.wowhead.com/talent-calc/monk/windwalker/conduit-of-the-celestials/DAGAEUBQQAERQQQAAA should get the job done very well.

For Mistweaver you don’t get as much out of crit. You will be healing a lot since you are quite squishy and since our health pool isn’t that high in TWW a well-geared Mistweaver will mostly heal itself to full without a crit. It’s still good for DPS but I wouldn’t go for it. Mastery isn’t too great for healers in general but this one isn’t that bad. Overall your best stat is Versa and haste is very strong as it does affect our GCDs (unlike BM) and almost every single one of our spells besides https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115072/expel-harm (which is very strong for Mistweaver). Stack haste/versa and you’re golden. In the Wowhead talent tree https://www.wowhead.com/spell=388664/calming-presence only grants 3% damage reduction but in-game it’s 6% for Mistweaver. With some versa you take hits surprisingly well.

For talents I’d say https://www.wowhead.com/talent-calc/monk/mistweaver/conduit-of-the-celestials/DAEQUQRADVQQAAA is the best for soloing dungeons but you may be able to tweak it around for questing or general use.

Okay so congrats on soloing all those dungeons. To give you some context as to what is possible, I did all the testing with the gear on the Picture, without any enchant, gems, buffs or consumables and despite telling y’all to take some, I forgot the https://www.wowhead.com/item=89597/tiger-brew-of-adversity.

Part IV : Closing Tips and Viability


So for some closing thoughts.

For vets you don’t really need https://www.wowhead.com/item=173125/revitalizing-jewel-doublet though it is of course always helpful.

Brewmaster Monk is perhaps one of the easiest class to master (first or second to Protection Paladin). The rotation is very intuitive and your toolkit only really lacks a good ranged ability. You have decent damage but nothing crazy so don’t expect to burn the bosses the way a Shaman can, very strong healing that can be improved even further via talents and arguably the best defensive passive in https://www.wowhead.com/spell=115069/stagger.

Monks are also amongst the most versatile classes when it comes to talents as so many of them are useful and occasionnaly worth taking.

For soloing purposes Windwalked is unreliable at best and Mistweaver, while surprisingly solid, works fairly well. Brewmaster is head an shoulders ahead of both for this purpose.

As more of a side note : what do y’all think of the way I explained the last three dungeons ? While doing them I felt like the accuracy sacrifice was very much worth it to make the guide more digest. I’d like to know what y’all think as I don’t really mind doing either.



Is there any race that is more valuable than others ?



So out usual trifecta of Dwarf/Tauren/Night Elf are solid candidates for the usual reasons (perhaps the best PvE racials for soloing).

Any race with a CC racial is very good as it is a matchmade in heaven with Monks’ toolikit (HM Tauren and Kul’Tirans for vets, Pandaren for F2P).

Racials like https://www.wowhead.com/spell=20589/escape-artist or general mobility racials like https://www.wowhead.com/spell=69070/rocket-jump also pair well with the already strong mobility of Monks.

And a special mention to Blood Elves as https://www.wowhead.com/spell=28730/arcane-torrent is quite excellent on Monks.

And as always, play whatever you want, anything will work anyways. Any race can be a Monk so have fun with it.



And finally how viable is the class ?

As I said before, if we only took how easy the class is to play Monks would be top-tier. They are very reliable and you can get yourself out of sticky situations without relying on a big cooldown.

That said I do have a knock against them and it is their damage output. Our AoE is honestly miserable and our only truly hard hitting spell is on a relatively long cooldown. To be fair Monks still have respectable damage and https://www.wowhead.com/spell=322109/touch-of-death really does wonderful things but still, we’re a bit weak.



It’s a sturdy, reliable class that is honestly a blast to play. All specs somehow feel different enough despite sharing most of their spells and the tuning of the class is luckily very well done at our level.

You won’t struggle to achieve anything as a Monk, go ahead and show the world what a 180kg/400lbs tauren’s punch can do.



Well that was even longer than the last one. Hope that helped anyone wanting to give a shot at the class. I apologize for the numerous typos or other errors that I'm sure I've missed.

I did try to go even more in-depth on this one, is you have any feedback it is greatly appreciated.

I’m not gonna do another one anytime soon as I kinda want to do the anniversary event and I like to focus on these guides when I do them so I’d rather delay them that half-ass them.

So yeah that’s it. Hope it was useful to beginners and even for veteran players, there may be a thing or two to check out (the Shattered Halls skip wink wink).

Have a good day.