Guardian Druid Tank Easy Mode

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.3 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 4. Patch 7.2 Changes
  • 5. Contents
  • 6. ChangeLog
• ×Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
  • 5. Active Mitigation Abilities
  • 6. Cooldown Usage
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Main Resource
  • 3. Basic Abilities
  • 4. Important Procs
  • 5. Active Mitigation
  • 6. Cooldowns
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 3. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 4. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 5. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 6. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 7. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 8. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 9. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression
    • 1.1. Shared Path
    • 1.2. Adaptive Fur Versus Gory Fur
    • 1.3. Patch 7.2 Traits
  • 2. Relic Choice
    • 2.1. Single Target
      • 2.1.1. With Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc
      • 2.1.2. With Galactic Guardian
    • 2.2. AoE
      • 2.2.1. With Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc
      • 2.2.2. With Galactic Guardian
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths
  • 1. General Optimization Advice
  • 2. Tier 2 Upgrade Priority
    • 2.1. Single Target
      • 2.1.1. With Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc
      • 2.1.2. With Galactic Guardian
    • 2.2. AoE
      • 2.2.1. With Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc
      • 2.2.2. With Galactic Guardian
  • 3. Tier 3 Upgrade Priority
    • 3.1. Single Target
      • 3.1.1. With Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc
      • 3.1.2. With Galactic Guardian
    • 3.2. AoE
      • 3.2.1. With Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc
      • 3.2.2. With Galactic Guardian
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Single Target Rotation
  • 2. Multiple Target Rotation
    • 2.1. Against 2-3 Targets
    • 2.2. Against 4+ Targets
  • 3. Active Mitigation
    • 3.1. Ironfur
    • 3.2. Frenzied Regeneration
  • 4. Taunting
  • 5. Cooldowns
  • 6. Optional Read: Mastering Your Guardian Druid
    • 6.1. Rage Generation
    • 6.2. Mastery: Nature's Guardian
    • 6.3. Gore Procs
    • 6.4. Detailed Cooldown Usage
      • 6.4.1. Survival Instincts
      • 6.4.2. Barkskin
      • 6.4.3. Rage of the Sleeper
      • 6.4.4. Tier 1 Talents
      • 6.4.5. Tier 3 Talents
      • 6.4.6. Tier 5 Talents
      • 6.4.7. Tier 6 Talents
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
  • 2. Enchants
  • 3. Consumables
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Macros
    • 1.1. Generic Macros for Druids
      • 1.1.1. Rebirth
      • 1.1.2. Remove Corruption
    • 1.2. Specific Macros for Guardian Druids
      • 1.2.1. Hand of Protection Cancelaura Macro
      • 1.2.2. Useful Mouseover Macros
  • 2. Addons
    • 2.1. Generic Addons for Druids
      • 2.1.1. ElvUI
      • 2.1.2. Boss Mods: Deadly Boss Mods or Bigwigs
      • 2.1.3. GTFO
      • 2.1.4. Parrot or Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 2.1.5. Weak Auras
      • 2.1.6. DroodFocus
      • 2.1.7. Recount / Skada / Details!
      • 2.1.8. Grid and GridClickSets (Optional)
    • 2.2. Specific Addons for Guardian Druids
      • 2.2.1. Omen Threat Meter
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Tier 20 Set Bonuses
  • 2. Legendary Items
  • 3. Loot Competition
  • 4. ChangeLog

This page is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty, or simply want a more straightforward way to play their specialisation without being overwhelmed by the numerous subtleties and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.

1. The Basics

Guardian Druids have high health pools and active mitigation that can have a very high uptime (in Ironfur), which helps provide a stable damage intake. Combined with the ability to heal themselves ( Frenzied Regeneration), Guardian Druids are currently well suited to tanking in all situations.

Your main goal throughout fights will be to maximise your Rage generation, and then use this Rage on the various active mitigation abilities at your disposal in order to keep yourself alive.

2. Talent Choice

These are currently the best talent choices as a Guardian Druid.

• Level 15: Bristling Fur
• Level 30: Guttural Roars
• Level 45: Restoration Affinity
• Level 60: Typhoon
• Level 75: Galactic Guardian
• Level 90: Guardian of Elune
• Level 100: Pulverize (single target and cleaving) or Rend and Tear (AoE)

3. Stat Choice

Currently, you will want to prioritise secondary stats as follows:

1. Armor;
2. Versatility;
3. Mastery;
4. Haste;
5. Critical Strike.

4. Basic Rotation

The basic single target rotation as a Guardian Druid is based on the following priority.

1. Use Mangle on cooldown (its cooldown has a chance to be reset by Gore, so you need to watch out for this).
2. Use Moonfire if you have a Galactic Guardian proc (if you have chosen this talent).
3. Use Thrash on cooldown.
4. Apply and maintain Moonfire on the target.
5. Use Pulverize (if you have taken this talent), if you have 2+ stacks of Thrash on the target, in order to maintain the buff. Otherwise cast it at 5 stacks.
6. Use Maul.
   • Only use Maul when you do not need to use or pool Rage for your active mitigation and when you are at or close to maximum Rage.
7. Use Swipe.

Against 2-3 targets, Thrash is a higher priority than Mangle, while against 4+ targets you will also no longer want to maintain Moonfire on the enemies (aside from Galactic Guardian procs).

5. Active Mitigation Abilities

Your rotation is only there to generate Rage for you, which you should then invest into your active mitigation ability, Ironfur, as well as into Frenzied Regeneration for healing or Maul for damage.

When choosing to spend your Rage, you will have to consider if the damage you are taking is Physical or not; if it is, you should keep up Ironfur, and otherwise you may spend your rage on Maul to deal more damage and Frenzied Regeneration to heal yourself.

Whereas Ironfur is an ability that that should be used pro-actively, Frenzied Regeneration is reactive in nature. You should only use it after you have taken a lot of damage in the previous 5 seconds, since this will ensure that you are actually healed by it.

The best time to use Frenzied Regeneration is when you have sustained high damage, will sustain high damage again in the next couple of seconds, and your healers are not in a good position to heal you.

6. Cooldown Usage

As a Guardian Druid, you two important defensive cooldowns.

• Survival Instincts reduces all damage taken by 50% for 6 seconds. It has 2 charges, and a 4-minute recharge time. It is best used pre-emptively.
• Barkskin reduces all damage taken by 20% for 12 seconds, with a 90-second cooldown. Barkskin is off the global cooldown and it can be used while stunned, incapacitated, or asleep. It is essentially a weaker version of Survival Instincts, and should be used in the same way.

Aside from this, you can also use Rage of the Sleeper to reduce damage taken by 25% for 10 seconds, but you can also use this ability for the damage it deals, if you do not care about your survivability.

About Our Reviewer

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Justwait, a top tank who raids in Method. You can also watch his stream on Twitch and follow him on Twitter.

7. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 12 Sep. 2017: Updated Tier 5 talent suggestion.
• 28 Aug. 2017: Made a small update to tier 1 talents.
• 07 Jul. 2017: Updated the page to account for updates made to other parts of the guide (stats, rotation, and talents).
• 12 Jun. 2017: Updated the page to account for the removal of Mark of Ursol and for changes to Maul in Patch 7.2.5.
• 09 Jan. 2017: Updated the rotation to include Pulverize usage, and made a mention of choosing Pulverize as the tier 7 talent.
• 17 Dec. 2016: Added easy mode page.