Guardian Druid Tank Simulations — The War Within Pre-Patch

Simulation programs such as SimulationCraft (and its web-based front end Raidbots) are beneficial programs for World of Warcraft players. They can suggest what talents to use, what gear you have is best for you, or what stats to prioritize. With the addition of Titanforging on gear, "simming" has become more and more widespread throughout the WoW community.

Does this work for tanks? The answer is yes and no. You can simulate DPS gains for most tanks currently to a reasonable degree. This will have similar rules to simming damage-dealing specs. The difference for tanks is that you cannot simulate for survivability. There are several factors and metrics for tanking; different situations will weigh things differently. So the short version of this answer is you can simulate for DPS gains; however, ignore the survival side of simulations, as there are too many factors that come into play to get an accurate depiction of what constitutes a survivability upgrade from simulations. Often it is easier to weigh up the defensive versus offensive value on a piece-by-piece basis and then decide whether your raid or group requires more damage or more self-sustain. Another great way is to read tooltips, which scale dynamically, and try things out on the training dummies in town.

Combat Logs are a recording of all actions in a dungeon or raid, then formatted in an easy-to-read way. Websites such as Warcraft Logs serve as a directory where you can upload your logs or examine those of other players. You can use logs of yourself, or others of your class and specialization, to help improve your play.

WoW Analyzer is an exceptionally powerful and easy-to-use tool for analyzing a combat log. Even if you are inexperienced with combat logs, WoW Analyzer will quickly provide various suggestions to improve your play, including stat weights.

To get the best results, we recommend using combat logs, the discord communities, and programs like WoW Analyzer together to make the best choices for talents and gear.