Mists of Pandaria is around the corner and many of you probably didn't have the chance to play beta, so I decided to review information about the class, to bring you information about each specialisation along with a preview of useful items for your best monk leveling experience.

Resources

Resources vary depending on your chosen spec.

Brewmaster - Energy/Chi
Windwalker - Energy/Chi
Healer - Mana/Chi - as a healer in the Stance of Wise Serpent, you get mana instead of energy.

Note that it's always either/or. Abilities never cost both resources.

Stances

Monks have three stances, depending on their specialization.

Stance of the Sturdy Ox (Brewmaster) - Reduces damage taken by 25%, increases Energy regeneration by 30%, reduces the chance to be critically hit by 6%, increases your Stamina by 20% and allows you to Stagger damage.
Stagger - You shrug off physical attacks, causing 70% of the damage to happen instantly and the remaining 30% to be divided over 10 sec.

Stance of the Fierce Tiger (Windwalker) - Increases damage done by 20% and increases the amount of Chi generated by your Jab and Expel Harm abilities by 1.

Stance of the Wise Serpent (Mistweaver) - Increases healing done by 20%, replaces your Energy resource with Mana, grants hit and expertise equal to 50% Spirit gained from items or effects. Your attack power is equal to 200% of your spell power, and you no longer benefit from other sources of attack power. In addition, you also gain Eminence, causing you to heal the lowest nearby target within 20 yards for an amount equal to 50% of non-autoattack damage you deal.

Specializations

Brewmaster - the tanking specialization
A sturdy brawler who uses liquid fortification and unpredictable movement to avoid damage and protect allies.
Upon activating the spec, you are granted four abilities:

Blackout Kick http://mop.wowhead.com/spell=100784
Dizzying Haze http://mop.wowhead.com/spell=115180
Breath of Fire http://mop.wowhead.com/spell=115181

Guard http://mop.wowhead.com/spell=115295

The rotation varies depending on whether you're doing single target tanking or AoE tanking. Monks have a unique Mitigation system that allows them to let a DoT that staggers damage explode on a single tick.

As for Guard, you want to cast it every cooldown. You place a ward on yourself and this can immensely help your healer. When your statue's up, it will place another Guard on your friendly target.

Dizzying Haze is a great opener, Blackout Kick is used standardly to generate Chi and Breath of Fire is an AoE that leaves a debuff on its target while they're burning.

Windwalker - the dps specialization, very similar to a rogue.
A martial artist without peer who pummels foes with hands and fists.
Windwalker monks are similar to rogues, but some of their abilities are channeled, so at times, I found it a bit difficult to keep up not losing dps when tanks were moving bosses around chaotically.
Upon activating the spec, you are granted four abilities:

Jab http://mop.wowhead.com/spell=100780
Tiger Palm http://mop.wowhead.com/spell=100787
Blackout Kick http://mop.wowhead.com/spell=100784
Fists of Fury http://mop.wowhead.com/spell=113656

The rotation is simple. You use Jab to generate Chi, so you might want to press it twice to get 4 Chi, afterwards you use Rising Sun Kick, preferably, every 15 seconds, because it provides a 10% damage increase debuff for all afflicted targets as well as decreasing healing effectiveness.
When you're attacking multiple targets, you can use Fists of Fury, otherwise you go with Blackout Kick.
You usually use Tiger Palm when there's nothing else available to press as a filler. And start over with Jab so you generate Chi before the Rising Sun Kick's debuff wears off. Rinse and repeat.

For self healing there's Expel Harm - http://mop.wowhead.com/spell=115072 and other abilities depending on your talent choice that will be discussed below.

Mistweaver - the healing specialization

I have found a very nice compendium about monk healing over at Elitistjerks. Clicking here will redirect you to the article. It's a huge wall of text.

My experience with Mistweaver spec: Almost all abilities have no cast time and/or cooldown. The biggest issue will be mana management. Overall Blizzard did a very well job at designing the monk class, because it's unique in every way. Imagine Mistweaver as a hybrid of restoration shaman and discipline priest.

You'll be dropping Jade Serpent Statue on every trash pull and/or boss fight. It lasts long enough and has a fairly short cooldown.

For the rotation, there are several that can be used, depending on whether you're assigned to heal the tanks or you need to focus on AoE healing.

Single target healing (2 Chi)
1. Renewing Mist
2. Soothing Mists
3. Chi Burst / Chi Wave
4. Soothing Mists

AoE Healing #1 (4 Chi - Uplift based)
1. Renewing Mist
2. Thunder Focus Tea
3. Uplift
4. Soothing Mists
5. Uplift

AoE Healing #2 (4 Chi - Chi Burst based)
1. Renewing Mist
2. Chi Burst
3. Soothing Mists
4. Chi Burst

AoE Healing #3 (4 Chi - Zen Sphere based)
1. Renewing Mist
2. Zen Sphere
3. Soothing Mists
4. Zen Sphere (Explode)

Leveling: Everything you need to know

At level 20 you automatically learn this ability called Zen Pilgrimage: http://mop.wowhead.com/spell=126892
You are teleported to the Shrine of the Ox, in Kun-lai Summit. This is the Ebon Hold of Monks.
What I fould interesting here were the quests you are offered and how to use them well to get XP increase for a certain period of time.

What's of utmost importance is this buff which increases the experience gained from mobs and quest by up to 50% for an entire hour.
Enlightenment http://mop.wowhead.com/spell=130283
It's a quest reward from http://mop.wowhead.com/search?q=continue+your+training // Continue Your Training chain, and the best thing is to use this to your advantage while leveling from 86-7 - 90. Note that this buff stacks up to two times (hence 2hr. buff) and at level 90 you gain 3,000 mastery instead of the XP bonus.

If you happen to RaF your monk by granting him levels, make sure you kill 5 boars with +10% heirloom, so you have level 1 & 99%. Then grant levels and you'll have level 80 at 99%. If you are trying to get Realm First, forget about rolling a pandaren, the zone consumes to much of your time approx 1hr 20mins, roll an orc and change races when needed.

Heirlooms

If you don't use the RaF referral system to get an instant level 80 monk, these heirlooms will help you to make your way to level 80.
Head slot: http://www.wowhead.com/item=61937
Shoulder slot: http://www.wowhead.com/item=42952
Chest slot: http://www.wowhead.com/item=48689 + http://www.wowhead.com/spell=20025enchant
Cloak: http://www.wowhead.com/item=62039 + http://www.wowhead.com/spell=25083enchant
*added* Legs: http://mop.wowhead.com/item=62026 -- these become unlocked once your guild completes the "All professions to 600 achievement")
Weapon - Staff: http://mop.wowhead.com/item=79131 +http://www.wowhead.com/spell=27837 enchant
or 1H Weapon: http://www.wowhead.com/item=48716 x2 +http://www.wowhead.com/spell=23800 x2 enchant
Trinkets: http://www.wowhead.com/item=42991 x2
Ring: http://www.wowhead.com/item=50255

60 - 69 Leveling consumables
Potions: http://www.wowhead.com/item=22838
Elixirs: http://www.wowhead.com/item=31679
Flask: http://www.wowhead.com/item=22854
Other: http://www.wowhead.com/item=28421

70 - 79 Leveling consumables
Potions: http://www.wowhead.com/item=40211 + http://www.wowhead.com/item=33447
Flask: http://www.wowhead.com/item=46377
Food: http://www.wowhead.com/item=42999
Other: http://www.wowhead.com/item=62237 + http://www.wowhead.com/item=41611

80 - 85 Leveling consumables
Potions: http://www.wowhead.com/item=57191 + http://www.wowhead.com/item=58145
Flask: http://www.wowhead.com/item=58087
Food: http://www.wowhead.com/item=62669

Talent choices

Talents have become more of a personal choice in Mists of Pandaria. This means that you're no longer forced to choose boring talents in order to get to your desired ability. I've played Mistweaver the most and here are my talent choices along with a few explanations about which ability would be good to use in a certain situation. Again, you will be most likely switching talents before each and every fight depending on factors such as mobility (Do I have to move once per minute or do I stand in once spot?), situation (PvE vs PvP) and so on.

Mistweaver
LEVEL 15 Celerity - I've chosen this, because it works great with Chi Torpedo (90)
LEVEL 30 Chi Wave - is used mainly for dungeons whereas, Chi Burst is a very good choice for high-end raiding.
LEVEL 45 Power Strikes is neat for raiding while Chi Brew is nice for dungeons and PvP.
LEVEL 60 Leg Sweep - dungeons/raids, Deadly Reach - PvP
LEVEL 75 Healing Elixirs / Diffuse Magic -- the choice is rather subjective.
LEVEL 90 Chi Torpedo (Works great with Celerity) / Rushing Jade Wind is good for AoE healing, because it increases the healing of your spin kick by a certain percentage. The tiger ability is good for both tanking and dpsing. While tanking it taunts your target and as a Windwalker you'll want to have this and use it on every cooldown to maximise your damage output.

Glyphs

Prime glyphs are gone, it's just Major and Minor glyphs now.

Major modify your abilities in an interesting way, while minor add cosmetic changes only.

It's now really obvious which glyphs you pick. You really have little to no choice here. These were my glyphs in the Mistweaver spec.

Mistweaver
Major glyphs
Glyph of Zen Meditation
Glyph of Mana Tea
Glyph of Renewing Mists

Minor glyphs
Glyph of Water Roll
Glyph of Zen Flight
Glyph of Spirit Roll

Videos

For your better imagination, I've chosen a few videos that I recommend watching, because you'll figure out the mechanics as the wall of text is nice, but an image of it, is always better than just plain words.

Brewmaster Basics

Windwalker Monk doing a Scarlet Monastery Heroic dungeon

Mistweaver Healing (through new heroics)

I hope this guide will help you to level your monk. Leave your thoughts below.