Guardian Druid Tank Mythic+ Tips — Shadowlands 9.2.5
In this guide, you will find tips and advice to tackle Mythic+ dungeons with your Guardian Druid in World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.2.5.
Guardian Druid in Mythic+
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+.
Guardian Druid Mythic+ Rotation
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.
Covenant Abilities and When to Use Them
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Guardian Druid Utility
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.
Mythic+ Talents for Guardian Druids
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 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
25 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
30 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
35 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
40 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
45 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
50 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Legendary powers for Guardian Druid
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.
Best Covenants for Guardian Druid in Mythic+
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.
Trinkets and Gearing for Guardian Druids in Mythic+
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.
The Importance of Kiting
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.
Shadowlands Season 3: Encrypted
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
Legion Timewalking Affix: Infernal
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.
Changelog
- 31 May 2022: Page reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
- 21 Feb. 2022: Page reviewed and approved for the launch of Patch 9.2.
- 01 Nov. 2021: Updated for Patch 9.1.5.
- 28 Jun. 2021: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.1.
- 09 Mar. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 06 Dec. 2020: Page updated for Season 1 of Shadowlands.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
More Druid Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Pumps who has played since Vanilla and has tanked in Honestly, the #1 Oceanic raiding guild, since Mists of Pandaria. He also played in the first MDI Mythic+ Dungeon Tournament, where his team placed second. His mindset on tanking has always been taking the utility and damage one can bring to the raid to the next level. He was the #1 Rank DPS Guardian Druid for 5 tiers in a row and top the 1-6 for the last 12 tiers, playing Guardian Druid, Brewmaster Monk and Protection Warrior mainly based on what is the strongest for progression at the time. You can find him on discord — Pumps#0734 — and on Twitch.
- Awesome Hard Mode 4 Ahn'Qiraj Season of Mastery World First Clear Video
- Anduin as the Lich King (AI-Generated Art Piece)
- Wrath of the Lich King Classic Beta Invite Wave Went Out
- Patch 9.2.5 Hotfixes: June 24th - Class Tuning
- Upcoming Class Tuning: June 28th
- Will Dragonflight Release in November 2022?
- Dragonflight Pre-Order Pet Double the Size of the Player Character
- Naxxramas New Season of Mastery Features Teased