[EN] Guardian Druid 5.4.8 Tanking Guide

[Frostfang]

"Block? We do that with our face!"



Table of Content:

-Introduction-
-Races and their racials-
-Abilities-
-Talents-
-Glyphs-
-Stats-
-Pull and rotation-
-Geming and professions-
-Enchants-
-Useful Macros-
-Addons-
-Symbiosis-
-Closing Word-






Introduction

Hello everyone. Since the patch 5.0.4 Blizzard introduced system of Active Mitigation (will discuss more on that later). What this means, is that you decide how you spend your resources, on mitigation or more damage. I say, is it too much to ask for both? Ever since TBC Druid tank was climbing his way to the top, and right now, i think thats where we are. In this guide ill try to cover as much thing as i can, and help you master your guardian druid. Ill try to keep this guide as clean as possible so you dont have trouble finding info you are looking for.



Races and their racials
So you want to play a guardian druid? Lets start by picking your race.

Night Elves
-Shadowmeld Even though Shadowmeld is not that useful for tanks, it sure has its moments. If you are tanking bunch of adds, and you need to drop aggro in order to survive you can just Shadowmeld. Note that you must stand still so you dont cancel Shadowmeld effect.
-Quickness Quickness was the reason why Night Elves were so good Tanks. But with Active Mitigation system, and Dodge Diminishing Return it lost its value.
-Nature Resistance Reduces damage taken from nature spells.

Worgens
-Viciousness 1% increased Critical Strike Chance isnt much, but still, it can be very useful since our Main Stat is Crit.
-Darkflight Druids already got Dash and Stampeding Roar but in situations when you cant leave your Bear Form and you still need some speed increase, Darkflight comes in very handy.
-Aberration Reduces Shadow and Nature damage taken.

Taurens
-War Stomp Can be useful when tanking big pack of mobs which can be stunned.
-Endurance Some extra HPs is always nice.
-Nature Resistance Reduces damage taken from nature spells.

Trolls
-Berserking Since we generate rage from our melee attacks, more melee attacks means more rage regeneration.
-Da Voodoo Shuffle Can be useful on certain encounters.
-Regeneration (wowhead link) 10% isnt much, but for a tank, still very nice passive ability .

Discussion: If you are not limited by faction, i say go Tauren. Stamina + AoE Stun is awesome. If you wanna play Alliance, Worgens Viciousness + Aberration is the better pick in my opinion. I also think that you should play what ever race you like, since these racials are just small difference between races.

Back to Top

Abilities
I will split this section into three categories, offensive, defensive and utility abilities.

Offensive

Mangle generates 5 Rage when used (or 6.5 if you have the talent Soul of the Forest)

Lacerate still stacks 3 times but now has a 3 seconds cd. Its ticks has 25% chance of refreshing cd on Mangle so keep at least 1 stack always on your target.

Faerie Fire now grants 3 stacks of the armor debuff but it only lasts for 30 seconds. Keep it on a target at all times.

Swipe works very nicely with Thrash, but since is does less dmg than Faerie Fire and it doesnt refresh your cd on Mangle you should not use it on single target.

Thrash causes a ticking dot debuff and Weakened Blows debuff. Since its ticks have 25% chance of refreshing CD on Mangle keep it on all targets.

Maul now costs 30 rage. Back in Cataclysm Maul was macroed to all our abilities, but now we have to take care of our rage so use it when you're not actively tanking or to apply Tooth and Claw effect.

Berserk remained the same. There is not really much to say about it. I recommend using it on after pulls to ensure agrro.

Defensive

Savage Defense is what it is. Nothing much to say about it. This will be your main "Active Mitigation" ability.

Frenzied Regeneration now costs up to 60 Rage. If less than 60 Rage is consumed, you will be healed for an amount proportional to the maximum. This is the ability you use to handle damage that is not on the combat table (Magic, Bleeds, etc.). No longer increases your maximum health.

Barkskin remained same, except its on a 30 seconds cooldown.

Survival Instincts I really dont have anything to say about it. Description says it all.

Might of Ursoc is druids version of warrior's Last Stand, its pretty nice for long high damage income phases.

Dont keep your defensive cooldowns for too long, else you will find yourself not using them at all. Use them to help your healers.

Utility

Skull Bash standard interupt, keep it somewhere close, you can never know when you might need it.

Rebirth now resurrects your target with 60% health baseline, instead of 20%.

Stampeding Roar is probably the best druid utility ability, use to help your team dodge AoE or connect with the rest of the team.

Back to Top

Talents
Level 15 - Movement

The choice here is between Feline Swiftness or Wild Charge. It really depends on the fight and personal preference. If you have to do alot of kiting pick Feline Swiftness else just roll with Wild Charge.

Level 30 - Healing

I'd say all 3 talents are pretty good and has its place. Ysera's Gift gives incredible sustained throughput that can not only heal yourself, but injured members of your raid. The amount healed depends on your maximum healths, so the more healths you have the bigger ticks will be. Cenarion Ward slightly falls behind, but somewhere in the future will have its place. Renewal paired with Might of Ursoc is also nice.

Level 45 - Kiting

Faerie Swarm allows you to permanently keep 2 targets slowed, making it incredibly useful for kiting. Typhoon is the talent that sees the most use in raid/dungeon content by a huge margin. Mass Entanglement has no target limit so you can use it when there's big pack of adds that needs to be kited

Level 60 - Effectiveness

Incarnation: Son of Ursoc gives great burst Rage generation and DPS also for the duration your Taunt has 1.5s cd. On the other hand Soul of the Forest provides more consistent Rage generation over time, while giving you about the same amount of damage. Both talents are awesome options, but i would still pick Incarnation: Son of Ursoc . I recommend SotF for new Guardians, and Incarnation for more advanced users or if there's a specific use for it. I find Force of Nature absolutely useless for Guardians.

Level 75 - Crowd Control

Has little or no effect on most raid encounters, just pick which ever you like.

Level 90 - Hybridity

Nature's Vigil is recommended for new guardians, since it gives slight healing and dps increase and its easy to use. I also recommend using it in 25m raids since benefit of other 2 talents is very small in big raids. Dream of Cenarius provides really good healing, but at a cost of slight dps loss since Healing Touch is on a global cooldown. Since your Healing Touch will be criting often, healing done by proper usage of this talent is admirable. If you use it smart, its probably the best talent. Heart of the Wild is a really good burst dps/healing talent, since using it to its full potential requires switching to Intelect weapons, i recommend this talent for more advanced players.

Back to Top

Glyphs

So the Prime Glyphs got removed from the game with Mist of Pandaria. Now we have only slots for 3 Major and 3 Minor Glyphs.
I will list glyphs which you can possibly use as a Guardian Druid:

Glyph of Survival Instincts
Glyph of Might of Ursoc
Glyph of Stampeding Roar
Glyph of Fae Silence
Glyph of Maul
Glyph of Rebirth

It really depends on the raid encounter, so you can dance around those. Also pretend Glyph of Frenzied Regeneration is removed from the game.

Back to Top

Stats
Before i go into start priority i will try to explain first few things of matter which i get asked alot ingame:

Auto Attacks generate around 10 Rage per attack that deals damage(hit that land). Your base auto-attack speed is 2.5 seconds. If it Crits Auto-Attack will generate 15 Rage.

Weapon Damage is actually pretty important. All base weapon damage has been doubled, which is good for abilities that scale with it such as Mangle.

Agility was always our best stat. However Agility will no longer significantly directly affect a mitigation ability like it did with the Cataclysm version of Savage Defense, even tho Frenzied Regeneration scales with Attack Power. At max level 1 Agility = 2 Attack Power, 1259 Agility = Critical Strike chance.

Critical Strike is not directly contributing to mitigation or survival. Instead it gives you more choices. That is done with Primal Fury. By having more rage, you decide weather you dodge, heal, or deal additional damage. As a "side effect" it also increases critical strike chance of your healing spells like Healing Touch.

Haste is one of the most underrated stats when it comes to Guardian Druids. Haste not only increases your Auto Attacks rate, but also increases frequency of Tooth and Claw procs and it lowers GCD on spells. For Guardians this is mostly about Faerie Fire, since our melee abilities are on strict 1.5 seconds CD.

Hit cap is 7.5%. By having hit cap, you ensure your melee attacks always land. If you miss you dont get rage, if you dont get rage you dont mitigate any damage, if you dont mitigate any damage you die, math is pretty simple.

Mastery is change with Mist of Pandaria. It now increases your armor. 1 mastery point grants 2% bonus armor.

Vengeance is the attack power buff that tanks get when they take damage in PvE. Whenever you take damage, you gain 1.5% of that unmitigated damage as Attack Power. It doesnt matter if you dodge, parry, block or absorb it will still count as if you didnt.

Stamina not only increases your health pool. By having more stamina you also increase your vengeance cap. However if you reach that cap you will be dead. Having more stamina will certainly increase your survival.

Dodge remained unchanged since Cataclysm. However the amount of Dodge gained per point of rating has been decreased. Overall is gives better damage reduction than mastery, but since our active mitigation is far more efficient, you should not be seeking this actively as a secondary stat.

Mitigation and Diminishing returns is not to be confused with pvp diminishing returns. What this means is, for example: The more Dodge rating you have, less dodge points you will get per rating, until it comes to zero. This is the reason we have stat caps.

That being said, we should aim for best RPS (rage per second)
Hit (7.5) > Crit (soft cap 76%, hard cap 79%) > Haste > Stamina > Mastery > Expertise

I think i explained already why we go like this. This way you ensure max rage generation per second which means, better mitigation, more damage and more healing. The way its set on Freakz, everything scales with SoO gear, so crit cap will be difficult if not impossible to achieve, but you should aim for it. The reason why i put Expertise on the last place is because i dont think it works on our server as it should. Even tho i almost have no expertise my hits are rarely dodged, parried or blocked.

Back to Top

Pull and rotation

So this is what i like to do.

On a single target:
You start your pull timer, at 9-10 seconds you jump into bear form and pop Enrage, which will give you 40 starting rage. I start my pull with Faerie Fire, Wild Charge in, 1x Mangle, Savage Defense, Thrash, pop Berserk and spam Mangle to ensure your agrro. After that you should follow a priority list
Mangle(when ever is off CD)>Savage Defense>Keep Thrash Debuffs up>Lacerate> Faerie Fire>Maul

Try not to pull with Growl unless you are afraid of loosing agrro soon after pull. When you Growl you generate 200% of threat for 3 seconds. Also please note, that Berserk and Incarnation: Son of Ursoc can also be used as defensive cooldowns. While those are up, you generate more rage, and you can use Frenzied Regeneration more frequent.

On multiple targets:
Preparation is same, at 9-10 seconds you jump into bear form and pop Enrage, which will give you 40 starting rage. Wild Charge in, 1x Mangle, Savage Defense, Thrash but now you pop Incarnation: Son of Ursoc and start spamming Swipe while keeping Thrash Debuffs up.

Your auto attacks should generate enough rage for Savage Defense, if not feel free to throw in Mangle or 2.

Back to Top

Geming and professions

Meta: you got some choices to make. Indomitable Primal Diamond is the best choice. If you cant get it, Austere Primal Diamond or Destructive Primal Diamond. Its your choice both are good.
Red:Deadly Vermilion Onyx
Blue: Piercing Wild Jade or if you dont need hit Jagged Wild Jade
Yellow: Smooth Sun's Radiance

Look what you socket bonuses are, you dont have to always aim for them. If your socket bonus is dodge just ignore it and put Smooth Sun's Radiance etc

As for the professions, i dont think i have to explain them fully, so ill just put them in order:

Blacksmithing
Skining
Leatherworking
Jewelcrafting
Engeneering
Inscription
Enchanting

Back to Top

Enchants

-Head enchant has been removed from the game.

-Shoulders - Greater Tiger Claw Inscription or Greater Ox Horn Inscription

-Back- Superior Critical Strike or Accuracy or Greater Protection

-Chest- Glorious Stats or Superior Stamina

-Bracers-Greater Agility

-Gloves-Greater Haste

-Belt- Living Steel Belt Buckle

-Legs- Shadowleather Leg Armor or Ironscale Leg Armor

-Boots- Blurred Speed or Greater Haste

-Weapon- Dancing Steel
Note: After you have reached crit cap, you can swap to Windsong to go over cap.

Back to Top

Useful Macros

These are some of the macros i use.

If you have a paladin in group who thinks he's funny

Code:

#showtooltip /cast Mangle /cancelaura Hand of Protection /startattack

Code:

/cast [@mouseover] Rebirth

Code:

/cast [@mouseover] Healing Touch

It will get you in a fastest available form

Code:

#showtooltip /cast [swimming] Aquatic Form; [indoors] Cat Form; [combat] Travel Form; [flyable] Swift Flight Form; [nocombat, harm] Travel Form

Back to Top

Addons

They arent "Guardian only" but still nice to have them.

Chatter
Bartender4
TellMeWhen
Tidy Plates it was eyeopener for me, use it!
Bagnon
Deadly Boss Mods
AtlasLoot
Omen
Recount
Miks Scrolling Battle Text

Back to Top

Symbiosis

So with Mists of Pandaria we got this cool new spell which grants us other classes' abilities. Spell we get only depend on our spec. We get spell that increase our dps and spells that reduce our damage taken.

Death Knight - Bone Shield Best defensive option.

Hunter - Frost Crap Situational, can be useful for kiting.

Mage - Frost Armor Frost Trap is better.

Monk - Elusive Brew We already have so much dodge.

Paladin - Consecration Pretty good dps increase.

Priest - Fear Ward Useless

Rogue - Feint This can be amazing spell if used correctly. If you're new with guardians just avoid this.

Shaman - Lightning Shield Awesome dps spell on aoe fights, such as Horridon door tanking.

Warlock - Life Tap The only use is see is to pregather rage when you're not taking damage.

Warrior - Spell Reflection Situational, can be useful

So the best options are DK,Rogue for defensive, and Paladin and Shaman offensive.

Back to Top

Guardian Druid Tanking Guide

[Frostfang]

Closing Word

So i get asked alot: What is the best tank? What Class?

-The best tank is the one who knows his class well, knows the encounter and is always trying to improve his gameplay. Blizzard balanced tanking well on this patch. What im trying to say, you can no longer be better than somebody else just because of your pick on character creation screen. Freakz has done great job fixing classes, what ever class you pick, you will able to do any encounter you wish, its just about how you play it.

So this is my Guardian Druid PVE Guide for the patch 5.4. Guide is not just copy paste from some other website it is 99% written by me. Some information i have discovered on my own, some i have gather along the way from other sources. I have kept it short and light to read, so you dont fall a sleep while reading it. I will keep updating this guide if i see the need for it. Im open for any discussion. Feel free to ask any questions. Also, i would recommend you to check 2 videos i posted here

Back to Top

Althaea

Spoiler:

Guardian Druid Tanking Guide

[Evydence]

I can move your guide here ( forum.wow-freakz.com/Engleza-f535.html ) if you want, so anyone who is interested in this kind of subject can find this more easy there.




If you gonna hit the king you're better kill the king

[Frostfang]

I think im done now, you can move it where it needs to be now, altho i would like it to stay here in druid section if possible.

Guardian Druid Tanking Guide

[brckan89]

Good one, now lets make a resto drood one, cuz so many fail in that

[Frostfang]

We already have restoration druid guide, you can find it here

Guardian Druid Tanking Guide

[Burebysta]

Moved to English Guides... I understand that you want it to be @Druid but let's not make the forum messy. Added @website on Tutorial Pages

[Frostfang]

Guide updated:

Added Enchants and Navigation Links.

Guardian Druid Tanking Guide

[Fiury]

@Forstfang , Can you post BIS items ? please ...

Discord: Fiury#4432

[Gogumen]

Great