Brewmaster Monk Hero Talent Showdown in The War Within - Master of Harmony vs. Shado-Pan

The War Within Posted 2024/08/12 at 8:09 AM by Sinzhu

Not sure what Hero Talents to play for your spec in The War Within? Check out all the released articles in the 'Hero Talent Showdown' series:
Hero Talent Showdowns in The War Within
Blood DK
Frost DK
Unholy DK
Havoc DH
Vengeance DH
Balance Druid

Feral Druid
Guardian Druid
Restoration Druid
Augmentation Evoker
Devastation Evoker
Preservation Evoker
Beast Mastery Hunter
Marksmanship Hunter
Survival Hunter
Arcane Mage
Fire Mage
Frost Mage
Brewmaster Monk
Mistweaver Monk
Windwalker Monk
Holy Paladin
Protection Paladin
Retribution Paladin
Discipline Priest
Holy Priest
Shadow Priest
Assassination Rogue
Outlaw Rogue
Subtlety Rogue
Elemental Shaman
Enhancement Shaman
Restoration Shaman
Affliction Warlock
Demonology Warlock
Destruction Warlock
Arms Warrior
Fury Warrior
Protection Warrior

For more information on Hero Talents coming in the War Within, check out our Hero Talents Overview.

The War Within Hero Talents Overview

Brewmaster Monk in the War WithinShado-PanMaster of HarmonyHero Talent Showdown: Shado-Pan vs. Master of Harmony Shado-PanMaster of HarmonyFlurry ChargeFlurry StrikesAspect of HarmonyBalanced Stratagem Shado-Pan

Strengths

Weaknesses

Flurry Charge300Flurry StrikeWisdom of the WallKeg SmashBlackout KickOne Versus ManyVigilant WatchMartial PrecisionVeteran's EyeEfficient TrainingKeg SmashTiger PalmWeapons of OrderPress the AdvantagedisPredictive TrainingVivacious VivificationProtect and Serve Master of Harmony

Strengths

Weaknesses

Aspect of HarmonyeffectiveCelestial BrewAspect of Harmonydamage-over-time effectClarity of PurposeWay of a Thousand StrikesPurified SpiritOverwhelming ForceRising Sun KickBlackout KickTiger PalmManifestationChi BurstalsoCelestial BrewEndless DraughtPurifying BrewStaggerStaggerMantra of PurityRollTiger's LustTiger's VigorRoar from the HeavensWhat's Changed? Shado-Panmy initial impressions of the treeFlurry ChargeProtect and ServeVivacious VivificationPredictive TrainingTiger PalmAugust 8thFlurry Strikes Master of Harmonyhas been the star of Brewmaster Hero TalentsexpandsCelestial BrewPurifying BreweffectiveVivifyAnd the Winner Is...

Class Fantasy & Visuals: Shado-Pan & Master of Harmony (Tie)
Rationale

When it comes to discussing the themes of these two hero trees, there's definitely a clear winner at first. The Shado-Pan have been around since the introduction of Monks in Mists of Pandaria, acting as the elite forces guarding the walls of the Vale against the Mantid threat. It's hard to beat the idea of a tree reflecting a fantasy that has been known to the Monk community for the better part of 12 years, with even the iconic Shado-Pan Helm being shown in its icon.

And yet...for such a fantastic idea, there is next to no visual flair to reflect this tree. Meanwhile, the Master of Harmony talents come with four visual effects, including a unique set of chi-based wings when activating Aspect of Harmony and small gale winds with every trigger of Overwhelming Force. Despite being a "new" take on classic Monk ideas of balance, Master of Harmony got all the attention in the graphics department, though you could argue that the stealthy Shado-Pan aren't trying to be flashy in the first place.

Fun & Rewarding Gameplay: Master of Harmony (Winner)
Rationale

The Master of Harmony talents feature a clear gameplay loop that you are in control of. You decide when to spend your vitality from Aspect of Harmony, can choose to further optimize small bursts of damage with the help of Balanced Stratagem, and can even assist others with Roar from the Heavens.

A Shado-Pan player, meanwhile, is at the mercy of their own rotation for triggering Flurry Strikes. It is not worthwhile to deviate from an Energy-spending ability just because it gets you closer to the magic number for triggering them. Nor is there even an in-game buff to reflect how much Energy you have spent. In its gameplay aspects, this tree exists entirely in the background.

Difficulty: Shado-Pan & Master of Harmony (Tie)
Rationale

Despite having a great amount of control over its gameplay, Master of Harmony's talents are also remarkably simple to play with. In any reasonable scenario, a Brewmaster Monk is already making use of Celestial Brew to assist in tanking, meaning that the greatest parts of the tree will trigger regardless. If anything, you will instead need to remember to make use of the ability in potentially low-damage scenarios to still activate Aspect of Harmony.

By comparison, the Shado-Pan tree has an even lower skill floor in executing its effects, with the main limitation coming from your own comfort with the standard Brewmaster Monk rotation. This is due to the low threshold for generating Flurry Charges, reaching the cap of 10 in seconds and instead waiting to reach the 300 Energy spent threshold to trigger them. However, there is a large and dangerous ceiling to this power. After all, there is a massive difference in damage dealt from triggering Flurry Strikes on one enemy versus many, particularly when the bonus Shadow damage effect of Wisdom of the Wall gets involved. As such, there is potentially room to slightly adjust your Energy spending once you have an intimate knowledge of an encounter and how close you are to a trigger. For most players, however, this will generally result in a net-loss of total damage; attempt to optimize these talents at your own risk.

Offensive Power: Shado-Pan & Master of Harmony (Tie)
Rationale

If damage is what you are after as a Brewmaster Monk, then Shado-Pan's talents should prove useful. By buffing all of your Energy spenders with Efficient Training and further increasing Physical damage with Martial Precision, Tiger Palm in particular can be combined with Blackout Combo to reach truly monstrous heights of single-target power. Not to mention, cooldown reduction on Weapons of Order translates to longer periods of time where enemies are debuffed to suffer 32% more damage from all of your abilities! Even though the Flurry Strikes themselves aren't particularly potent and Wisdom of the Wall's buffs are too random to play around, these improvements to the rest of your rotation makes a Shado-Pan Brewmaster a force to be reckoned with.

However, a Master of Harmony can also be quite the unstoppable force, with effectively 15% more damage on all abilities with the core Aspect of Harmony passive (since that's the percentage of damage dealt converted to vitality, largely limiting how much you can spend). In addition, Overwhelming Force's cleave effect still deals its extra damage to even your primary target, resulting in buffs to Tiger Palm, Blackout Kick, and Rising Sun Kick's single-target damage. This extra power on Tiger Palm can similarly be combined with Blackout Combo, though it won't quite reach the levels of Shado-Pan's talents. Fortunately, Master of Harmony also features a massive 50% buff to Chi Burst, which already hits incredibly hard, through Manifestation. Provided that you are careful to not activate Aspect of Harmony during your damage cooldowns--remember, you cannot build any extra vitality while in the spending state--a true Master of Harmony will easily stand toe-to-toe with a Shado-Pan player, and may even exceed them.

Defensiveness & Utility: Master of Harmony (Winner)
Rationale

Here, there is a clear favorite created by how these two sets of Hero Talents offer their defensive effects. For Masters of Harmony, these benefits apply to the main mitigation abilities of a Brewmaster and include a second charge of Celestial Brew, Purifying Brew removing 60% of Stagger instead of 50%, and even gaining an absorb against a small amount of future Stagger with every cast! There is also the opportunity to turn the core Aspect of Harmony passive into a more defensive one with Harmonic Gambit, allowing your stored vitality to heal you. Plus, there is even a small amount of group utility on offer, with Roar from the Heavens turning Tiger's Lust into a speed boost for three players instead of just one.

The Shado-Pan talents, in comparison, feature a more creative form of defense that revolves around your Mastery: Elusive Brawler and the seldom-used ability of Vivify. With the help of Predictive Training, a Brewmaster is able to maintain an extra 10% damage reduction at all times, so long as they continue to dodge at least once every 6 seconds. On the other hand, Protect and Serve can be combined with the newly-reworked Vivacious Vivification (and the help of Celestial Fortune) to heal yourself for potentially a third or more of your maximum health every 10 seconds, all for the low cost of only 8 Energy and a global cooldown. However, this is a global cooldown dedicated to healing, and also costs a resource that could instead be converted into more Shuffle uptime or cooldown reduction on Purifying Brew. Realistically, this means Predictive Training is the only source of defense in the Shado-Pan talents that can be frequently taken advantage of, and only in AoE environments.

Leveling: Shado-Pan (Winner)
Rationale

In this category, the defensive benefits of each tree reverse! This is due to how a leveling environment features plenty of large (but usually non-threatening) AoE pulls, with lots of travel time to recover in between. Because of this, the Shado-Pan tree's buffs to Vivify and consistent uptime on Predictive Training give it an extra edge, whereas the damage taken from enemies is often too low to really benefit from Master of Harmony's Endless Draught and Mantra of Purity.

Meanwhile, offensively, Shado-Pan's One Versus Many, Efficient Training, and Martial Precision all work to buff your biggest AoE skill (Keg Smash). Although Overwhelming Force's cleaving effect on your single-target abilities in Master of Harmony is nice, it cannot compete with the powerhouse of relentlessly Keg Smashing your foes. Even so, Manifestation's buff to Chi Burst keeps it plenty competitive if you have a strong preference for one tree over another.

Mythic+: Shado-Pan & Master of Harmony (Tie)
Rationale

To a degree, Mythic+ represents a lot of the same conditions of leveling, but with its damage intake and utility needs ramped up. This means that the unique strengths of Shado-Pan's rotational ability buffs and armor penetration give it a noteworthy advantage, along with consistent uptime on Predictive Training's damage reduction. After your first time triggering a set of 10 Flurry Strikes with Wisdom of the Wall's bonus Shadow damage effect, you'll truly understand their power potential. Otherwise, defensively, Protect and Serve's interactions with Vivacious Vivification can also find a place in dungeons, where there is generally less passive healing floating around. All in all, this means Shado-Pan becomes a fantastic choice at average key levels, while remaining a potent offensive choice at any key level.

Although this glowing endorsement of Shado-Pan may seem unfavorable for Master of Harmony's playstyle in Mythic+, the truth remains that this tree will similarly excel. Of course, its biggest appeal is in its more defensively-oriented nodes. Once you have reached keystone levels where there is sufficient damage intake, the extra Purifying power of Mantra of Purity, along with Endless Draught's second Celestial Brew charge, results in far greater control over your own survival. Plus, your damage output will still remain similar! Feel free to use these talents in key levels where you want to be more durable, and especially once you're in higher keys.

Raid: Master of Harmony (Winner)
Rationale

A raid environment is one that frequently incentivizes consistent survival for a tank player. After all, with potentially 30 players, there is rarely such thing as a true "damage check" that would require every bit of output from a tank specialization to overcome it, rather than better performance from DPS or the light damage of a healer. As such, Brewmasters should naturally gravitate to the extra defensive power found in Master of Harmony's talents, with little to no offensive tradeoffs in the process. In addition, due to the greater amount of healing present at a given time, tank damage intake can be much higher, further reinforcing the power of Mantra of Purity's extra Purifying Brew strength. This, on top of more Gift of the Ox healing occurring, results in further vitality storage as well, rounding out the tree's strengths nicely.

Shado-Pan's talents, on the other hand, do not translate as nicely to a raid. There is little reason to be using a global cooldown on Vivifying yourself when there are more external cooldowns available from healers, and you may not always be actively tanking to trigger Predictive Training's damage reduction. With that being said, the offensive nodes of this tree will still have their place. In particular, the combination of buffs to Energy spenders such as Tiger Palm may result in this tree remaining the stronger choice in single- or priority-target encounters.

Best Overall: Master of Harmony (Winner?)
Rationale

Overall, Brewmaster Monks have two of the more competitive sets of Hero Talents available, with each having their share of strengths and weaknesses. Players looking for a truly passive experience may find the limited interactivity of the Shado-Pan tree appealing, while those who want a little more control may prefer Master of Harmony. Of course, since Master of Harmony's core gameplay also occurs passively, its more broadly applicable (and felt) defensive bonuses give it some extra interest. The additional bonuses to Purifying Brew, alone, solidify its strength in any content where serious damage is being taken. Plus, there is some room for small optimizations if you seek them out, such as maximizing the damage bonus of Balanced Stratagem for Exploding Keg or not activating Celestial Brew when your damage cooldowns are active. In theory, it's an easy choice!

The main source of contention in choosing a definitive winner here comes from Blizzard's continuing tuning of these talents, with many of Shado-Pan's effects seeing substantial buffs as recently as August 8th. When an entire tree is seeing major tuning occurring this close to launch, despite the basic effects remaining the same, it is easy to imagine a scenario where one suddenly ends up noticeably better. Likewise, one bad balancing pass can ruin all interest. In particular, Shado-Pan currently can certainly see itself as the superior offensive tree, especially in Mythic+, while Master of Harmony remains more worthy for defense.

Regardless, one tree remains flashy and noticeable by having more discrete entries on the damage/healing meters, while the other mostly boosts what's already there in the background. One tree expands the gameplay of your main defensive loop, while the other incentivizes selecting unusual talent choices for its defenses. And one tree's effects can prove useful anywhere, while the other is at the mercy of good tuning. Ultimately, you will be able to complete any content you desire with either, but you should be willing to look for moments where one could prove more useful than the other.

Hero Talent Feedback Shado-Panvery recent tuning adjustmentsin my initial impressions of these talents

Flurry Strikes still have an identity crisis. While they no longer suffer from the disparity in generation between Windwalkers and Brewmasters, they now instead reach their cap of 10 within a few seconds, resulting in a long wait to spend 300 Energy and trigger them. There may as well be no stacks at all, and just a big burst of damage every time the Energy threshold is reached in this current design. Despite this, the random feeling of these bursts still persists, with a potentially massive swing in damage from a Brewmaster triggering them on a group of 10 enemies versus just one. This is especially true with Wisdom of the Wall's bonus Shadow damage on Flurry Strikes, which you will only have one chance to trigger over its buff duration.

The Monk Brewmaster 11.0 Class Set 4pc actively works against these Hero talents. While its buff to Keg Smash's damage is noteworthy, it doesn't mean anything for Flurry Charge generation since you're already capping in an instant regardless. Instead, the Energy cost reduction to the ability delays your triggers of Flurry Strikes, resulting in scenarios where players may consider cancelling the buff! While the easiest solution would be to prevent buff-cancelling on any aspects of Flurry Strikes or the set bonus, it still wouldn't feel good to a player.

While it is too late to truly adjust this, Shado-Pan's talents remain feeling like a Windwalker tree with Brewmaster effects bolted on. There exists no real utility for others, and its defensive powers are very hit-or-miss. Predictive Training is incredibly strong when reliably active, and useless when not. Nor is the alternative of Whirling Steel worth considering under any circumstances with its lengthy cooldown. For an order meant to defend others, the Shado-Pan seem to have focused entirely on self-reliance.

Master of HarmonyIts initial impressions

"Properly" using Aspect of Harmony remains unintuitive. You would think that spending your vitality to deal bonus damage would make more sense if you did it during Weapons of Order when an enemy is also receiving 32% more damage. Plus, the Coalescence capstone would further reward you with an extra 10% damage on top of that for even more vitality generation, right? Wrong. Instead, due to you not generating any vitality while Aspect of Harmony is active, you should instead focus on spending it exclusively outside your cooldowns. Indeed, if you want to take full advantage of Coalescence's bonus damage, you would want to potentially trigger Aspect of Harmony well ahead of your intended damage window, making sure to not use a second charge of Celestial Brew during the amp. Similarly to the Shado-Pan talents, this could be adjusted in a number of ways, but you can bet many players will not suspect they are missing out on plenty of extra vitality generation over time.

There remains a lack of real choice in the tree's nodes. Mantra of Tenacity should never be chosen over Mantra of Purity, and Purified Spirit's no-waste effect on vitality expenditure is too valuable to ever justify selecting Harmonic Gambit. Of course, I would similarly hate to see the stronger effects nerfed to create a choice, since they would need to be brought down to levels of being completely inconsequential. Similarly, however, I'm not sure the "weaker" choices can be brought up to a reasonable level to match the "stronger" ones. While this remains a problem, it is ultimately a very minor one in the grand scheme of the tree.

Base Brewmaster Monk Gameplay & TalentsChi WaveCelestial BrewAspect of HarmonyEndless DraughtShould You Play Brewmaster Monk in the War Within?yearsTiger's LustbestClashDeath GripSinzhuMonk class DiscordPeak of Serenitygrr woof woof barkHero Talent Guides for the War Within Launch

Blood DKFrost DKUnholy DK

Havoc DHVengeance DH

Balance DruidFeral DruidGuardian DruidRestoration Druid

Aug EvokerDevastation EvokerPreservation Evoker

BM HunterMM HunterSurvival Hunter

Arcane MageFire MageFrost Mage

Brewmaster MonkMistweaver MonkWindwalker Monk

Holy PaladinProtection PaladinRetribution Paladin

Discipline PriestHoly PriestShadow Priest

Assassination RogueOutlaw RogueSubtlety Rogue

Elemental ShamanEnhance ShamanRestoration Shaman

Affliction WarlockDemo WarlockDestro Warlock

Arms WarriorFury WarriorProtection Warrior

Comment by ChaosMonkeyI really like the Master of Harmony tree except for the signature ability of it :/Comment by ClinoclaseFinally getting Shado Pan flavor but with zero thematic visuals is so disappointingComment by FielaReally well written article, I appreciate the insight. I'm hoping that Blizz puts a stronger emphasis on the visuals of these hero talents. I want to feel some sort of difference between hero trees, even if in terms of gameplay there are minimum changes.Comment by ZamfixHero talents are a cool idea that should have never made it past an internal alpha. Cool idea and fantasy, bad game design. Let's face it, they're just more talents except with more restrictions on how you allocate the points (can't split points between the groups of talents). Should have just been a new cosmetic system.Comment by ChaosMonkeyHero talents are a cool idea that should have never made it past an internal alpha. Cool idea and fantasy, bad game design. Let's face it, they're just more talents except with more restrictions on how you allocate the points (can't split points between the groups of talents). Should have just been a new cosmetic system.Comment by kiruzHero talents are a cool idea that should have never made it past an internal alpha. Cool idea and fantasy, bad game design. Let's face it, they're just more talents except with more restrictions on how you allocate the points (can't split points between the groups of talents). Should have just been a new cosmetic system.Comment by ZamfixHero talents are a cool idea that should have never made it past an internal alpha. Cool idea and fantasy, bad game design. Let's face it, they're just more talents except with more restrictions on how you allocate the points (can't split points between the groups of talents). Should have just been a new cosmetic system.