Brewmaster Guide updated for 5.1

Really not too much to update.

• Added discussion about Ascension.
• Removed bit about Black Ox Statue being bugged (that got fixed a while ago)
• Minor fixes/changes
• Completely reworked the stat weights: rather than summarize, here’s a cut/paste.

Gear, Stat Weights and Reforging

I was planning on doing a gear list: they take way too much time. Just check out wowhead‘s sorted list, and generally grab the highest ilvl stuff you can, excepting trinkets which need some more thought (TBD).

Stat weights are…complicated. Agility is clearly the best stat, but the importance of secondary stats varies dramatically depending on how effective Gift of the Ox is for you and the level of content you’re doing.

• Hit and Expertise increase chi generation and GotO procs. They also significantly increase DPS (much more than any other stat). If you’re tank swapping, though, Expertise becomes less good (since you can attack from the back when off-tanking, and still build up your Shuffle duration).
• Crit directly boosts Elusive Brew, which is great for “must-dodge” encounters, and makes GotOX/EH healing more effective.
• Haste is great for AoE encounters since it decreases the channeling time of Spinning Crane Kick (which directly translates into more GotOx orbs). In general, it increases your energy regen and indirectly helps accumulate Elusive Brew stacks and Shuffle uptime.
• Mastery is generally mediocre, but shines when you’re facing bosses while undergeared, similarly to armor/stamina. Really, though, if you’re going up against bosses that have a possibility of bursting you down, you should be stacking stamina, not mastery.
• Parry/dodge is kinda meh. It’s helpful, but I’d never consider stacking it in any situation.

• 5-mans or sharing gear with a windwalker set: Hit/Exp to 7.5% cap, then haste, then crit, though all the stats are very close in value. Here, you’ll want stats than can boost your DPS to power through trash. Reforge out of mastery/parry/dodge, in that order. Agility is worth almost exactly 2x the other stats in this scenario, so your choice on gems, really.
• Raiding, solo-tank fights: Same as above, though agi is no longer 2x as good as hit/exp/haste/crit so you’ll want to focus on gemming those stats.
• Raiding, tank-swapping: Agi drops in value dramatically, as does expertise. You now have agi slightly above haste and hit as your best stats, with crit and then expertise much farther behind. Basically, you’re stacking haste so you can get as many stacks of EB and super-long duration on Shuffle while you’re off-tanking, to then focus chi on Purifying Brew while on-tanking.