Guardian Druid Frequently Asked Questions in Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.0.1

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 8.0.1 Changes for Guardian Druid
    • 2.1. Added/Removed Spells
    • 2.2. Changed Spells
  • 3. Contents
  • 4. Changelog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. Foreword
  • 2. The Basics of Guardian Druids
  • 3. Talent Choice for Guardian Druids
  • 4. Stat Choice
  • 5. Basic Rotation for Guardian Druids
  • 6. Active Mitigation Abilities for Guardian Druids
  • 7. Cooldown Usage for Guardian Druids
  • 8. Changelog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Main Resource of Guardian Druids
  • 3. Basic Abilities for Guardian Druids
  • 4. Important Procs for Guardian Druids
  • 5. Active Mitigation for Guardian Druids
  • 6. Cooldowns for Guardian Druids
  • 7. Additional Utility for Guardian Druids
  • 8. Changelog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices for Guardian Druid
  • 2. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents for Guardian Druids
  • 3. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents for Guardian Druids
  • 4. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents for Guardian Druids
  • 5. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents for Guardian Druids
  • 6. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents for Guardian Druids
  • 7. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents for Guardian Druids
  • 8. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents for Guardian Druids
  • 9. PvP Talents (War Mode)
    • 9.1. PvP Talents for Guardian Druids
      • 9.1.1. General PvP Talents
      • 9.1.2. Guardian Druid PvP Talents
  • 10. Changelog
• +Azerite Traits and Armor
  • 1. Choosing Azerite Gear as a Guardian Druid
  • 2. Choosing Azerite Traits as a Guardian Druid
    • 2.1. How to Use this List
    • 2.2. Outer Ring Traits for Guardian Druid
    • 2.3. S Tier
      • 2.3.1. A Tier
      • 2.3.2. B Tier
      • 2.3.3. C Tier
    • 2.4. Middle Ring Traits for Guardian Druid
      • 2.4.1. S Tier
      • 2.4.2. A Tier
      • 2.4.3. B Tier
      • 2.4.4. C Tier
    • 2.5. Inner Ring Traits for Guardian Druid
      • 2.5.1. S Tier
      • 2.5.2. A Tier
      • 2.5.3. B Tier
      • 2.5.4. C Tier
  • 3. Azerite Traits Details and Rotation Changes for Guardian Druid
  • 4. Azerite Gear
  • 5. Find Azerite Armor By Trait/Power
  • 6. Changelog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Single Target Rotation for Guardian Druids
  • 2. Multiple Target Rotation for Guardian Druids
  • 3. Active Mitigation for Guardian Druids
    • 3.1. Ironfur
    • 3.2. Frenzied Regeneration
  • 4. Taunting
  • 5. Cooldowns for Guardian Druids
  • 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 for Guardian Druids
      • 6.4.1. Barkskin
      • 6.4.2. Survival Instincts
    • 6.5. Abilities and Cooldowns from Talents
      • 6.5.1. Tier 1 Talents
      • 6.5.2. Tier 5 Talents
      • 6.5.3. Tier 6 Talents
      • 6.5.4. Tier 7 Talents
    • 6.6. Catweaving
  • 7. Changelog
• +Mythic+ Tips
  • 1. Guardian Druid in Mythic+
    • 1.1. Guardian Druid Mythic+ Rotation
    • 1.2. Guardian Druid Utility
    • 1.3. Mythic+ Talents for Guardian Druids
  • 2. Mythic+ Affixes
    • 2.1. Tier One Affixes
    • 2.2. Tier Two Affixes
    • 2.3. Tier Three Affixes
    • 2.4. Seasonal Affix
  • 3. Mythic+ Azerite Traits
  • 4. Changelog
• +Common and Worst Mistakes
  • 1. Casting Too Many Swipes
  • 2. Not Casting Enough
  • 3. Facing Away From Enemies
  • 4. Using Defensive Cooldowns Reactively
  • 5. Not Using Cooldowns Enough
  • 6. Using Frenzied Regeneration Inefficiently
  • 7. Thinking Damage Does Not Matter
  • 8. Changelog
• ×Frequently Asked Questions
  • 1. Frequently Asked Questions
    • 1.1. Should I Play Defensively or Offensively?
    • 1.2. Should I Catweave?
    • 1.3. What Piece is Better, X or Y?
  • 2. How Much of X Stat Should I Have?
  • 3. Can I Sim Myself?
  • 4. Changelog
• +Boss by Boss Strategies
  • 1. Introduction for Guardian Druid Boss Advice in Uldir
    • 1.1. Talent Cheatsheet
  • 2. Taloc
  • 3. M.O.T.H.E.R.
  • 4. Fetid Devourer
  • 5. Zek'voz, Herald of N'Zoth
  • 6. Vectis
  • 7. Zul, Reborn
  • 8. Mythrax the Unraveler
  • 9. G'huun
  • 10. Changelog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. The Basics of Stats for Guardian Druid
    • 1.1. Survivability
    • 1.2. Damage Output
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding of Guardian Druid Stats
  • 3. Changelog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems for Guardian Druids
  • 2. Enchants for Guardian Druids
  • 3. Consumables for Guardian Druids
  • 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. Blessing 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. Details!
      • 2.1.7. Grid and GridClickSets (Optional)
    • 2.2. Specific Addons for Guardian Druids
      • 2.2.1. Omen Threat Meter
      • 2.2.2. Tidy Plates: Threat Plates
• +Gear and Best in Slot
  • 1. Best in Slot List for Guardian Druids
  • 2. Azerite Gear for Guardian Druid
  • 3. Trinkets for Guardian Druids
  • 4. Changelog
• +Simulations
  • 1. Simulations for Tanks?
  • 2. Combat Logs
  • 3. Changelog

General Information

On this page, we list all of the frequently asked questions for a Guardian Druid in World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth 8.0.1.

The other pages of our Guardian Druid guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Author

This guide has been written by Faide, a Guardian Druid theorycrafter, moderator for the Dreamgrove Druid discord, and owner of Dreamgrove.gg, a Druid community website. He raids in Synergy on Bleeding Hollow US. You can follow him on Twitter.

1. Frequently Asked Questions

1.1. Should I Play Defensively or Offensively?

This is the main question most people will ask with tanking. The basic answer is that if you are doing progression or are on a character you do not feel comfortable playing offensively with, you should play defensively. As you start to get comfortable, you should start looking at DPS a bit more and play a more mixed style, where you start pushing DPS while slowly giving up survivability. Once you feel completely comfortable with the encounter and you will not hold your raid back, you can then go for DPS. This point is different for every person, as it depends on your group, your character, your gear, and your skill level.

1.2. Should I Catweave?

Similarly to "Should I play defensively or offensively", you should only catweave if you are extremely comfortable with both the spec and the encounter in question. Catweaving is extremely risky if done improperly or without considering the damage profile of a boss fight, and can very easily end up getting you or your co-tank killed. The DPS gain is not worth it if you introduce additional risk to the raid's success.

1.3. What Piece is Better, X or Y?

Generally speaking, if the item level difference between the new item and the old item is 5 item levels or less, you should use the stat priority to decide which piece to use. If the item level difference is 15 item levels or more, the new piece is practically always better.

Between these two thresholds, you will have to evaluate what stats you are giving up by replacing the old item. If the old item is very poorly itemized, and the new item very well itemized, you can replace them, but otherwise it is generally still not worth replacing.

Note that none of this applies to Azerite gear, trinkets, or rings, for which you will compare the effects (or the stat priority for rings).

It is difficult to give an answer, because what is an upgrade for you may not be an upgrade for someone else. In other words, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all answer, even when talking about 2 completely identical comparisons from you to another person. Everything in your gear has an effect on everything else.

This applies to gear, set bonuses, trinkets, legendaries, and even talents in certain situations.

The only exception to this rule is when a specific fight dictates a certain set of optimal talents, for example. If you are curious about what kind of setup to go for a specific fight, WarcraftLogs.com's rankings and statistics are a good place to see what others are doing.

2. How Much of X Stat Should I Have?

For the most part, there is no set "amount" of any stat that you should have. Nor are there stat goals or a particular distribution of stats that you want to go for. It is very common for people to overestimate the importance of having the "right" secondaries, when in reality, having a higher quantity of stats will almost always beat having "better" stats. Having 120 of your worst stat is often better than having 100 of your best stat, since the differences are not as big as many people think.

3. Can I Sim Myself?

Offensively, yes you can. SimulationCraft fully supports Guardian Druid DPS, and this is the recommended way to determine if an item, trait, or talent is an upgrade for your damage output.

Defensively, no. While there is sparse support for Guardian Druid survivability in SimulationCraft, the default configurations are not suitable for obtaining accurate information about your survivability. Additionally, simming tanks for defense is not advisable in general. There are simply too many factors and variables that go into accurately modelling a tanking situation, and there is no single metric that will tell you "this item or trait will make you more tanky." For example: something can reduce your overall damage taken, but not improve your ability to survive spike damage, two factors of tanking which will vary in importance depending on the encounter. You will be much better off following the recommendations of a guide with respect to defensive gearing than you will by following sims.

4. Changelog

• 11 Aug. 2018: Page added.

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