Guardian Druid Tank Gear and Best in Slot — 12.1

With the Catalyst inheriting the secondary stats and special effects of the original item, players now have massive flexibility in acquiring tier pieces with ideal stats in all five slots. assuming that you are both raiding and running Mythic+ as necessary, catalyze the following gear:

• Helmet: Gaze of the Coiled Watcher from Ula'tek
• Shoulders: Somber Spaulders from Voidscar Arena
• Chest: War Trial Vestments from Den of Nalorakk
• Gloves: Gauntlets of Fevered Defense from Murder Row
• Legs: Coiled Hex Legguards from The Coiled Altar

The Great Vault has up to nine slots of items you can choose from every week, based on what content you have done on your character. This also impacts the item levels of each slot, with Mythic raid bosses awarding fully upgraded Myth track gear! However, this wide variety of potential item levels also makes it hard to provide blanket recommendations. In addition, players may instead select either a Nebulous Voidcore or Tokens of Merit that can be exchanged for a Miasmic Jewelbinder. The power of these alternatives should not be underestimated, even if they may feel a bit "boring" in comparison.

Although you should always simulate your options in a given vault's rewards (including the value of an extra socket on pieces you'll keep for the rest of the season), here is a basic priority to follow on selecting rewards:

1. (First Vault only) claim Tokens of Merit for a Miasmic Jewelbinder or a piece of your tier set if available.
2. If you will be raiding the Venomous Abyss on at least Heroic, select a Nebulous Voidcore to bonus roll items from Ula'tek. Do so until you have obtained at least a Heroic-track Abyssal Broodfiend's Bardiche.
3. Choose the highest reward track items that can complete your tier set.
4. Select the highest item level pieces with Haste, those from the best-in-slot lists below, or additional Nebulous Voidcores/ Miasmic Jewelbinders depending on your character's goals.

Any combination of 4 tier pieces works for Guardian Druid, as we want a balanced stat priority overall. Long-term you will ideally want to play a specific cantrip head piece ( Gaze of the Coiled Watcher) from Venomous Abyss.

With the Catalyst changes for Season 2, you also retain the secondary stats and any other potential passive effects like damage procs when catalyzing a set piece. This means we want to try and catalyze the items that ensure we get the best possible secondary stats on our gear, but if that is not possible, it is not a big deal either. It is better to have the set with slightly suboptimal stats and fix it later into the season, than missing out on the bonus for another week or two. Some optimal stat items to catalyze are:

• Helmet: Spare Speaker's Hood from Altar of Fangs
• Shoulders: Somber Spaulders from Voidscar Arena
• Chest: War Trial Vestments from Den of Nalorakk
• Gloves: Gauntlets of Fevered Defense from Murder Row
• Legs: Breeches of Deft Deals from Murder Row

If you have limited time to play the game, we recommend to farm the following dungeons:

• Altar of Fangs: Your best on-use dungeon trinket drops here: Vile Vial of Volatile Venom.
• Den of Nalorakk: Has the most amount of useful items.
• Temple of Sethraliss: Drops your best weapon.

Any combination of 4 tier pieces works for Guardian Druid, as we want a balanced stat priority overall.

With the Catalyst changes for Season 2, you also retain the secondary stats and any other potential passive effects like damage procs when catalyzing a set piece. This means we want to try and catalyze the items that ensure we get the best possible secondary stats on our gear, but if that is not possible, it is not a big deal either. It is better to have the set with slightly suboptimal stats and fix it later into the season, than missing out on the bonus for another week or two. Some optimal stat items to catalyze are:

• Helmet: Gaze of the Coiled Watcher from Ula'tek
• Shoulders: Frothing Venom Spaulders from Vashnik
• Chest: Vestment of the Awakening from Nek'zali
• Gloves: We want these from the token
• Legs: Coiled Hex Legguards from The Coiled Altar

If you need to submit a list of highly-important items to your raidleader, or simply want to focus on the most important bosses and items, we got you covered!

• Abyssal Broodfiend's Bardiche: This weapon drops from Ula'tek, the final boss of the Venomous Abyss, and is your BiS weapon. Only a few specializations can equip it, allowing you to potentially avoid crafting a weapon. What's more, when bonus rolled on Heroic with a Nebulous Voidcore, this item will drop in its Myth-track variant; on Mythic, it will instead be "elevated" with an additional 10 item levels.
• Aqirbane Reliquary: This necklace from Ula'tek is unique in many ways, being purely statted with Critical Strike, a second socket, and two cantrip effects that further empower your player.
• Voracious Heart of Ula'tek: A potent on-use trinket from Ula'tek that not only provides static Critical Strike, but also on-demand Agility and a bit of extra Physical damage.
• Zul'jin's Guillotine Technique: Relatively passive trinket but offers the most DPS for us out of all the trinkets available.