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it (read more Guardian Druid Tank Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities in Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.0.1
Table of Contents
General Information
On this page, we list your Guardian Druid core abilities and how they should be used together (rotation) in World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth 8.0.1. We also explain when to use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtleties that you will need to know if you want to excel at playing a Guardian Druid.
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. Single Target Rotation for Guardian Druids
The single target rotation for a Guardian Druid is based on a priority system, and its goal is to keep your damage over time effects ticking and to use your strong, Rage-generating abilities on cooldown.
- Keep
Moonfire ticking. - Use
Thrash if your target does not have 3 stacks of the
bleed yet. - Use
Pulverize at 3 stacks of Thrash to
maintain the buff, if talented. Ideally, this replaces a 
Swipe
cast. - Use
Mangle. - Use Thrash.
- Use Moonfire with a
Galactic Guardian proc, if
talented. - Use
Maul to dump Rage, if you do not need the Rage for
Ironfur or 
Frenzied Regeneration. - Use Swipe.
If you are at risk of capping Rage within the next cast and you are not
going to spend it on 
Ironfur or 
Frenzied Regeneration,
Maul becomes the top priority for the next cast to prevent wasting
Rage.
Optimal use of 
Pulverize involves casting it between the
Thrash cast that put your target at 3 stacks of the bleed,
and the next Thrash cast so that you can begin building stacks again right away.
It is ideal to wait as long as possible between these two casts before casting
Pulverize, to allow Thash to tick at maximum stacks for a longer period of time.
Additionally, it is ideal to replace what would have been a 
Swipe
cast so as not to miss out on casts of your more powerful spells. If this is not
possible, it is better to replace a 
Moonfire or delay your next
Thrash than to delay a 
Mangle cast. Pulling this
off requires you to look ahead to your next several casts and identify when the
best time to Pulverize will be. Note that this execution is purely for increased
damage output — defensively it makes no difference whether you perform
these optimizations, or if you only Pulverize every 20 seconds to maintain the
buff.
If you are talented into 
Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc, you will
prioritize Mangle at all times for Rage generation, or on up to 3
targets for damage output. On 4 or more targets, Thrash
deals more damage per cast. Using Maul to dump excess Rage is a
damage increase on up to 3 targets. It is also worth maintaining
Moonfire on one target during Incarnation, keeping in mind that you
should refresh Moonfire just before you enter Incarnation so that you only need
to refresh it once during the cooldown.
2. Multiple Target Rotation for Guardian Druids
Defensively, the rotation does not significantly change as the Rage you generate does not depend on the number of targets.
Offensively you will use a similar priority, except at certain numbers of targets you will begin to leave certain spells out of the rotation.
- Keep Moonfire ticking on up to 2 targets.
- Use Thrash.
- Use Pulverize at 3 stacks of Thrash on up
to 2 targets, if talented.
- Use Mangle on up to 4 targets.
- Use Moonfire with a Galactic Guardian on up to 3
targets.
- Use Maul to dump Rage on up to 3 targets, if you do not need
the Rage for Ironfur or Frenzied Regeneration.
- Use Swipe.
This means that on 4+ targets, your rotation will consist exclusively of
Thrash and Swipe.
3. Active Mitigation for Guardian Druids
As a Guardian Druid, you have one ability that acts as active mitigation:
Ironfur. In addition to this, you have a self-heal
Frenzied Regeneration. While Frenzied Regeneration is not strictly
considered "active mitigation", it is nevertheless a core part of your
rotational toolkit and you will make frequent use of it.
3.1. Ironfur
Ironfur increases your Armor by 75% of your Agility for 7
seconds. Multiple applications of Ironfur may overlap and stack their Armor
increases, but their durations will not stack. For example, if you use Ironfur,
and then use it again 3 seconds later, you will have 2 applications of Ironfur
for 4 seconds, granting you 150% of your Agility as Armor. After 4 seconds, the
first application will have expired, leaving you with 75% of your Agility as
Armor for 3 more seconds. Agility buffs and procs increase the amount of Armor
you gain from Ironfur.
Armor is extremely effective at reducing Physical damage intake, and as a
result, having at least 1 stack of Ironfur up as often as possible
is recommended. Additionally, you will occasionally want to pool your Rage in
order to put up multiple stacks of Ironfur for a short period of time to deal
with a spike in damage. There is a hard limit to how much Armor can reduce your
incoming damage by, at 85%. This is unlikely to be reachable with any real
consistency outside of 
Bristling Fur, but it is worth noting.
Armor does not normally reduce Bleed damage (typically this is
presented in-game as a "Physical DoT") or Magic damage, although there are
exceptions to these rules which appear on a case-by-case basis. When faced with
Bleed or Magic damage, you will find Ironfur ineffective, and should
instead use your defensive cooldowns to reduce the damage, or a well-timed
Frenzied Regeneration to heal yourself. Keep in mind that if you are
tanking a boss, you are almost always taking auto-attacks in addition to other
damage sources. Auto-attacks are Physical and as such it is still worth
maintaining Ironfur on most encounters.
Finally, always consider your situation carefully before deciding to
use Ironfur. Since it is proactive in nature, no matter how low
on health you have been brought, using it if there is no new incoming damage
is pointless.
3.2. Frenzied Regeneration
Frenzied Regeneration heals you for 24% of your maximum health,
in the form of a 3-second HoT. It costs 10 Rage and has a maximum of 2 charges
with a 36 second recharge time (reduced by Haste).
Frenzied Regeneration can be used both proactively and reactively,
either to top yourself off in anticipation of incoming damage or in response to
being brought to low health after a big hit.
A key element of using Frenzied Regeneration effectively is
ensuring that you do not inadvertently cause overhealing, both for you and for
your healers. To do this you will need to anticipate how much damage you are
likely to take in the next 3 seconds, and compare it to how much healing you
are likely to receive. Since your self-healing is very limited, making good use
of each charge is critical.
Another consideration when using Frenzied Regeneration is the
recharge timer. It may be tempting to Frenzied Regeneration every time you are
brought moderately low, but doing this could leave you empty for a truly
dangerous moment. Try and save at least one charge of Frenzied Regeneration for
periods where you may not receive the assistance of your healers (if they are
busy healing the rest of the raid, for example).
4. Taunting
Growl is your main taunting ability. Growl forces the target to
attack you for 3 seconds. During those 3 seconds, you generate additional Threat
against that target. Growl has an 8 second cooldown, but can be reduced to 1.5
seconds during Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc.
Guardians have no additional taunting mechanisms.
5. Cooldowns for Guardian Druids
As a Guardian Druid, you have two important baseline cooldowns.
Barkskin reduces all damage you take by 20% for 12 seconds, on
a 90 second cooldown. Barkskin is usable will stunned, incapacitated, or asleep.
This will be your first line of defense against dangerous spike damage, as well
as your primary way of reducing magic damage, or simply as risk mitigation to
smooth your damage intake for your healers. It has a short cooldown, so use it
liberally!
Survival Instincts reduces all damage you take by 50% for 6
seconds. Survival Instincts has 2 charges and a 4 minute recharge time. This is
your major defensive reduction, to be used against lethal spike damage or
"tankbuster" mechanics. Its short duration and long cooldown means it should
be used sparingly.
More details about how to best use your cooldowns, and about the cooldowns you can gain from your talents, can be found in our detailed cooldown section.
6. Optional Read: Mastering Your Guardian Druid
Tanking as a Guardian Druid is fairly straightforward; the information provided above is sufficient to perform at a reasonable level of proficiency. However, there are several more advanced topics that you should understand in order to fully master your character.
6.1. Rage Generation
Guardian Druid's primary resource is Rage.
The Rage bar has a maximum capacity of 100, and is empty by default. Rage decays quickly out of combat. In combat, Rage does not decay.
Rage is generated in the following ways:
- Activating
Bear Form grants you 20 Rage (leaving Bear Form
empties the Rage bar). - Auto-attacks generate 4 Rage.
- Being auto-attacked generates 3 Rage (can only occur once every second).
- Mangle generates 8 Rage (+4 with a
Gore proc and
+5 with 
Soul of the Forest). - Thrash generates 5 Rage.
- Moonfire with a Galactic Guardian proc generates 8
Rage.
Bristling Fur generates 1 Rage per % of max health taken in
damage while active.
Blood Frenzy generates 2 Rage every time a
Thrash bleed ticks on any target (Thrash ticks once every
3 seconds, reduced by haste).
6.2. Mastery: Nature's Guardian
Your Mastery is 
Mastery: Nature's Guardian. It increases your maximum
health and healing received, as well as your Attack Power. The exact increase
amount depends on how much Mastery you have. For every 1 Mastery, you gain 0.5%
increased health and healing, and 1% increased Attack Power. Guardians start
with 8 Mastery baseline.
Notably, the increased healing component of
Mastery: Nature's Guardian does not increase the healing from
Frenzied Regeneration or 
Restoration Affinity, although
it does affect the two spells in that both heals scale with maximum health,
which is increased by Mastery.
6.3. Gore Procs
Your Thrash, Swipe, Maul, and
Moonfire have a 15% chance to trigger 
Gore, which resets
the cooldown of Mangle, and causes it to generate an additional 4
Rage. Making quick use of Gore procs is essential to ensuring that they
are not overwritten by new procs and the Rage wasted.
6.4. Detailed Cooldown Usage for Guardian Druids
Guardian Druid is a primarily proactive tank. You must be prepared with active mitigation and defensive cooldowns before you take damage. This is in contrast to reactive tanks, who first take the damage and then react to it by healing themselves up.
As such, preparation plays a large part in tanking effectively. Wise use of cooldowns and coordination with your healers is critical, and can be the difference between a boss kill and a wipe. The best way to prepare for an encounter is to look at the damage profile of the fight (either from a log, or by reading the Dungeon Journal) and plan out what cooldowns you'll use, when you'll use them, and whether any gaps need to be covered by healer external defensives.
You have two baseline defensive cooldowns, as well as a few more that you can talent into. In general, unless you are sure you will die otherwise, it is not advised to overlap your defensive cooldowns as it is often overkill and wasteful to spend them that way.
6.4.1. Barkskin
Barkskin is the go-to cooldown when damage starts ramping up or
when there is magic damage that you cannot otherwise mitigate, or just as a
general damage reducer to take some of the burden off of your healers. A 20%
damage reduction may sound small, but it lasts for quite a while and is on a
fairly short cooldown, so be sure to use it frequently. Guardians have a lot of
health and passive mitigation, and the amount of damage you can prevent with
liberal use of Barkskin may surprise you. Keep in mind Barkskin can be used
while in most forms of crowd control and in most shapeshift forms, in case you
find yourself caught out of 
Bear Form or unable to move out of a
mechanic.
6.4.2. Survival Instincts
Survival Instincts is best used pre-emptively. This means that you
should use Survival Instincts before taking a large amount of damage (generally
a boss mechanic). Additionally, you can use it to prolong your survival if your
healers are dead or incapacitated. Unless your strategy requires you to use both
charges at specific times, you can get away with making frequent use of at least
1 charge.
Except for in emergencies, do not wait until you are already low on health to use Survival Instincts, as it is usually too late to save you at that point.
6.5. Abilities and Cooldowns from Talents
6.5.1. Tier 1 Talents
If you have the 
Brambles talent, you are more likely concerned
about damage output rather than survivability, meaning that you want to use
Barkskin as often as possible, preferably when tanking multiple
mobs.
If you have talented Bristling Fur, you want to use it before you
take a large amount of damage to gain Rage quickly. Try and avoid overlapping it
with other cooldowns if you can avoid it (as long as you won't die otherwise,
of course), as you will take less damage and therefore generate less Rage.
Make sure you are also spending the Rage you gain before you cap, so it does not
go to waste.
The formula for Bristling Fur is rather simple:
- BristlingFurRage = 100 * Damage / ExpectedMaxHealth
Basically: If you take 30% of your maximum health in damage, you generate 30 Rage. If you take 65% of your maximum health in damage, you generate 65 Rage.
If you have taken the 
Blood Frenzy talent, simply make sure your
Thrash bleed never falls off any target. If you are
following the rotation outlined above, this should rarely be an issue, if
ever.
6.5.2. Tier 5 Talents
Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc is mainly used as an offensive burst
AoE cooldown, however it can also be used to boost Rage generation.
Alternatively, it can be taken when you need to make extensive use of
Growl, for example if you are having trouble holding threat on
multiple enemies. Remember that Mangle hits up to 3 enemies while
this cooldown is active. Your Rage generation is significantly increased during
Incarnation, so keep an eye on your Rage bar so you do not cap out and waste
Rage.
6.5.3. Tier 6 Talents
When using 
Guardian of Elune, you want to make sure that, if
possible, every Frenzied Regeneration and Ironfur cast you
have is empowered by Guardian of Elune. Against a single incoming nuke,
it is obviously fine to get a non-Guardian of Elune powered Ironfur, as its
duration will not be a factor (especially if there is a tank swap after the
nuke).
6.5.4. Tier 7 Talents
If you are talented into 
Lunar Beam, you want to use it as often
as possible, ideally when it can hit a large group of enemies at once. You can
also use it as an emergency self-heal in a pinch.
6.6. Catweaving
Catweaving is a playstyle where you shift back and forth between
Cat Form and Bear Form while not actively tanking, in
order to squeeze extra damage out of the Feral abilities you gain when talenting
into 
Feral Affinity. Catweaving is an advanced topic and
significantly complicates the rotation. It is not recommended for those who are
just picking up Guardian Druid, or when you are learning a new fight. That being
said, when done correctly, it is a significant DPS increase over staying in Bear
Form on single target, and with a bit of caution it can be done with a low risk
factor.
Catweaving does not work on every encounter. It requires there to be frequent
periods where you are not tanking or taking damage, since you have far less
health and damage mitigation in Cat Form. If you are unsure if
catweaving is possible on a fight, it is always better to play it safe and stay
in Bear Form. It should go without saying that catweaving is 100%
focused on dealing damage, and does not compromise for survivability
whatsoever.
First, we must discuss resources in Cat Form, because they are
significantly different from Rage in Bear Form. You have two
resources in Cat Form — Energy, and Combo Points. Energy is used to cast
all of your abilities in Cat Form. You begin with 100 Energy (the maximum amount
you can have) and as you spend it, it regenerates at a rate of 10 Energy per
second, increased by Haste. Combo points are a secondary resource that you build
and spend through your rotation. You can generate up to 5 Combo Points using
your generator spells 
Rake and 
Shred, and you can spend
those Combo Points on finisher spells like 
Rip and
Ferocious Bite. Finishers will always consume all Combo Points, and
the more they consume the more damage they deal when cast. Energy regenerates
while you are out of Cat Form, including while you are in Bear Form, which is
what enables catweaving in the first place.
The primary goal of catweaving is to apply your powerful Feral bleeds
Rake and Rip to the target. In order to do this, you
will need to build Combo Points while in Cat Form using
Shred and Rake until you have 5, and then spend them on either
Rip, or Ferocious Bite if Rip is already ticking. However, you are
limited by how much Energy you can spend in Cat Form at any given time, and
once you run out of Energy you want to shift into Bear Form to
continue using your powerful Guardian spells while waiting for your Energy to
regenerate. Typically you will be able to cast 3 spells before you are out of
energy. This process of shifting into Cat Form, spending your Energy, then
shifting back into Bear Form is known as a "cat cycle".
Cat cycles will typically begin when you cannot cast anything but
Swipe in Bear Form. That is, your more powerful Guardian
spells ( Mangle, Thrash, Maul, and
Galactic Guardian-empowered Moonfire) are either on
cooldown or unavailable. It is at this point when it is worth shifting into
Cat Form to spend Energy. While in Cat Form, the priority is as
follows:
- Cast
Rip if you are at 5 Combo Points and Rip is either not
ticking, or will fall off before you have another chance to re-apply it. - Cast
Ferocious Bite if you are at 5 Combo Points. - Cast
Rake if Rake is either not ticking, or will fall off before
you have another chance to re-apply it. - Cast
Shred.
Make sure that you do not begin a cat cycle that you cannot finish before you
have to resume tanking, as that time is usually better spent pooling Rage for
Ironfur.
Note that if your target is below 25% health and a Rip is
currently ticking, it is worth dropping your normal rotation and shifting into
Cat Form to cast a 1 Combo Point Ferocious Bite to refresh
the duration on the active Rip before shifting back into
Bear Form.
When you are catweaving, you want to start the fight in Cat Form,
in 
Prowl. Your co-tank will pull the boss and you will immediately
begin a cat cycle from stealth. This is because applying Rake from
stealth empowers it, causing it to deal 100% more damage. If possible, you
should let this Rake tick all the way to completion, as you will lose any
remaining empowered ticks if you overwrite it.
Here are the recommended talents for catweaving. Rows that do not affect performance are omitted, and should be treated as personal preference:
- Level 15:
Brambles - Level 45:
Feral Affinity - Level 75: Galactic Guardian
- Level 90:
Survival of the Fittest - Level 100:
Rend and Tear
7. Changelog
- 15 Aug. 2018: Added section for catweaving in execute.
- 13 Aug. 2018: Updated for Battle for Azeroth launch.
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