Guardian Druid Tank Mythic+ Tips — Shadowlands 9.2.5

While not necessarily "meta" yet, Guardian Druid is definitely one of the strongest tanks in Mythic+, in Season 3 of Shadowlands. Our defensive capabilities are almost unmatched, and our unique utility tools such as Soothe, Remove Corruption and Rebirth are all extremely valuable within the Shadowlands dungeons. Offensively, our tier set bonuses are also very strong in Mythic+.

The single target and multi-target rotations do not change in Mythic+ content. For more information about the Guardian Druid rotation, refer to the Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities page.

1. Night Fae — Convoke the Spirits has a couple of unique uses; for the highest damage you should shift into Moonkin Form and cast Sunfire before casting Convoke the Spirits, which will generate huge amounts of threat, as when you shift back into Bear you will almost always have a buff of Starfall, which does massive AoE damage. Alternatively, you can shift out of any form before casting Convoke the Spirits if your group requires large amounts of healing and you are safe to do so. You may also just cast in Bear form if you are in danger of dying or looking for more of a personal survival boost.
2. Venthyr — Ravenous Frenzy is best used in combination with Berserk or Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc, as it will drastically boost the power of these abilities and the cooldown syncs up perfectly.
3. Kyrian — Kindred Spirits should generally be used off cooldown on your highest DPS player or a DPS who is going to use cooldowns while it is active on them.
4. Necrolord — Adaptive Swarm is generally best to be used off cooldown, as it is quite short and stacks up to 5 times if it is already active on the target you are trying to cast it on. Alternatively, you can cast it on yourself right before casting Frenzied Regeneration, as it will boost the healing from this massively.

• Ursol's Vortex conjures a ground zone for 10 seconds that will slow all enemies affected by 50%. It will also pull them to the center after the first time they attempt to leave the circle. It is an extremely powerful tool for kiting, especially during Necrotic weeks.
• Incapacitating Roar disorients nearby enemies that are not immune to being crowd-controlled. Use this as a mass interrupt, or as a quick crowd control to help you put distance between yourself and the enemy to catch up on healing.
• Remove Corruption removes all harmful curse and poison debuffs from the target. Many dungeons apply these types of effects, and being able to dispel them is a great piece of utility.
• Soothe will remove all enrage effects on a single enemy. In particular, this works against the Raging affix, making it a very powerful tool in Mythic+.
• Entangling Roots can be used to root patrolling enemies to prevent them from entering combat with you, or to skip them entirely. Casting it will cancel Bear Form however, so do not cast it while you are actively tanking.
• Hibernate can be used similarly to Entangling Roots, but it can also be used as a hard crowd control against attacking beasts and dragonkin to prevent them from casting spells or auto attacking nearby players.
• Skull Bash interrupts spell casts, and prevents spells from the same school from being cast again for 4 seconds. Skull Bash has a 13 yard range, and casting it from out of melee range will cause you to charge into melee range to interrupt. Note that although the charge animation has travel time, the interrupt happens as soon as you use the spell.
• Rebirth resurrects dead allies in combat. This costs 30 Rage, but it can be especially useful if your healer dies during an encounter.
• Regrowth is a single target heal. Casting it will cancel Bear Form, but it can be used between pulls to help the healer top people off or get rid of Grievous.
• Stampeding Roar is mainly used for short bursts of movement speed indoors or during combat. It is generally used for kiting or going from one pack to the next, but is also useful for speeding your friends out of dangerous ground mechanics.
• Restoration Affinity, unlocks spells that can provide huge amounts of healing to both you and your group. Fantastic for affixes such as Grievous and Bursting.
• Wild Growth, unlocked through Restoration Affinity, is a group-wide heal over time. Like Swiftmend, Wild Growth cancels Bear Form when cast. Use it to assist your healer between pulls or during periods of heavy group damage, when you are not actively tanking.

Below are the suggested talents for Mythic+. These talents are recommended for all affixes and keystone levels. For more information on particular talents and when to use them, refer to Talents and Builds page linked below.

Level	Choices
15	✓ Brambles	✓ Blood Frenzy	✗ Bristling Fur
25	✗ Tiger Dash	✓ Renewal	? Wild Charge
30	✓ Balance Affinity	✗ Feral Affinity	? Restoration Affinity
35	✓ Mighty Bash	? Mass Entanglement	✓ Heart of the Wild
40	✗ Soul of the Forest	✓ Galactic Guardian	✓ Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc
45	✓ Earthwarden	? Survival of the Fittest	✗ Guardian of Elune
50	✓ Rend and Tear	✗ Tooth and Claw	✗ Pulverize

Ursoc's Fury Remembered is an amazing Legendary for Mythic+, boosting both our offensive and defensive capabilities by a significant margin. This is a really enjoyable Legendary to play with, and you will definitely be impressing your group with the huge healing numbers you are able to sustain with this.

Legacy of the Sleeper is a great choice once you are capable of wearing two Legendaries and have acquired the Guardian Druid 4-Piece tier set bonuses. It boosts your damage significantly overall and the leech and CC immunity is very valuable in Mythic+.

The Natural Order's Will is another choice if you are struggling in high Tyrannical keys where you are finding those bosses are a bit tougher without a strong single-target defensive Legendary.

While the two above are preferable Legendaries for Mythic+ there are plenty of other effects out there. For more in-depth information about Legendaries take a look at our Legendary page.

All 4 covenant choices for Guardian Druid are extremely close, and there is no single "best" choice. Each will have different strengths and weaknesses depending on dungeon/pull type/key level and your group personally. This is fantastic news! Blizzard's excellent covenant balance means you can pick whatever covenant you feel the most comfortable on and not be at a disadvantage.

However, generally either Night Fae, Venthyr or Kyrian are considered the top picks for Mythic+ in general as Necrolord has a weaker Covenant ability for AoE.

If you wish to know more about Covenants, take a look at our Covenant guide. It will go over all 4 of them explaining their strengths and weaknesses.

When choosing the optimal trinkets and gear for Mythic+, you first have to choose whether you want to focus on a defensive setup, an offensive setup, or a balance of the two. This will depend on the level of key you are doing and the gear of your group. Generally, we suggest using one large healing/defensive trinket and one offensive trinket for better threat management. For an in-depth analysis of the best gear for the right situations, check out our BiS Gear page below.

In higher level Mythic+, it is extremely common to kite mobs when you and your healer start to run out of cooldowns; this gives your healer a chance to catch back up and a chance for both of your personal cooldowns to come back up. Kiting is usually a very small damage loss for your DPS but, if you have the option, it can be a good idea to communicate to them that you are going to kite so they do not drop any strong ground abilities and waste large amounts of damage.

Remember to try not to turn your back to enemies while you are kiting, as you cannot dodge from behind and it can cause you to quickly take massive amounts of damage.

The special affix for Shadowlands Season 3 is Encrypted. There are three unique Automa-themed relics spread throughout the trash in the dungeon. Once killed they will spawn a mob based on which relic was killed first. When this mob is killed your group will gain a buff for a short period of time. Below is a list of the 3 relic mobs and the buffs they grant:

• Urh Dismantler — Decrypted Urh Cypher
• Wo Drifter — Decrypted Wo Cypher
• Vy Interceptor — Decrypted Vy Cypher

During Legion Timewalking Events introduced in Patch 9.1.5, you are given the option to experience a number of Legion Mythic+ dungeons which also include the unique Infernal affix. This affix adds three Legion Beacons placed near specific bosses of each dungeon that will spawn a commander along with waves of additional enemies from the Burning Legion when activated. Each commander brings with it a set of unique abilities and reinforcements to fight.