Guardian Druid Tank Spec, Builds, and Talents — Shadowlands 9.2
On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Guardian Druid in World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.2. We also have default talent lists for various types of content, such as raiding or Mythic+. If you play with Warmode on, we have your PvP talents covered as well.
If you were looking for TBC Classic content, please refer to our TBC Classic Feral Tank Druid talents.
This page will cover all of the talents and passives available to Guardian Druids; each of them has a unique impact on how the spec is played. To see how these choices fit optimally into your playstyle, take a look at our Rotation section linked below.
Talent Choices for Guardian Druid
Level | Choices | ||
---|---|---|---|
15 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
25 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
30 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
35 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
40 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
45 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
50 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Talents can be freely changed when out of combat and in a rested XP area
(such as an inn or a capital city). Moreover, Tome of the Still Mind and
Codex of the Still Mind can be used to temporarily allow players to change
talents anywhere, as long as they are out of combat.
Talent Cheat Sheets for Guardian Druid
It is highly recommended to adjust your talents based on individual scenarios for optimal results, but the talent suggestions listed below will work fantastic for overall performance.
Raid Encounters
This build is a great starting point for Raids, however, certain fights might require a different set-up to be completely optimal.
- Level 15:
Brambles
- Level 25:
Renewal
- Level 30:
Balance Affinity
- Level 35:
Heart of the Wild
- Level 40:
Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc
- Level 45:
Earthwarden
- Level 50:
Rend and Tear
Mythic+
- Level 15:
Blood Frenzy
- Level 25:
Renewal
- Level 30:
Balance Affinity
- Level 35:
Heart of the Wild
- Level 40:
Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc
- Level 45:
Earthwarden
- Level 50:
Rend and Tear
We have a section dedicated specifically to Mythic+, with all the tips and tricks you will need, as well as the best talent and set-up choices, linked below.
Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents for Guardian Druids
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Brambles is a passive effect that causes all attacks made against you to have an amount of their damage absorbed and reflected back to the attacker. Moreover, if you choose Brambles, while
Barkskin is active, you pulse a small amount of Nature damage to all nearby enemies every second.
Blood Frenzy causes
Thrash to generate 2 Rage each time it ticks. Notably, the direct damage portion of Thrash does not generate Rage.
Bristling Fur allows you to generate Rage from damage you take. While it is active: for every 1% of your maximum health that you take in damage, you gain 1 rage.
For Rage generation, Bristling Fur is easily the strongest option,
and should be the default choice for most challenging encounters. It gives you
a third defensive cooldown to complement the toolkit, and in some cases can be
stronger than
Barkskin given the right circumstances. The on-demand Rage
generation gives you Rage when you need it most, and lets you effectively "pool"
your Rage beyond the limited size of your Rage bar, and then rapidly stack up
Ironfurs while Bristling Fur is active to deal with big Physical
damage spikes.
Blood Frenzy is a decent passive alternative, and works well on
sustained cleave/AoE fights such as Mythic+. This talent relies on longer fight
durations for most of its value, due to
Thrash's low tick
frequency.
Additionally it lacks the element of control that its alternative,
Bristling Fur, gives. Blood Frenzy's value increases with Haste, as
Haste increases the speed at which the Thrash bleed ticks.
Brambles cannot really be considered a defensive option, as the
absorb portion of the talent is very small compared to the Rage generation of
the alternatives on this row. It is, however, the strongest talent in terms of
damage output, and so is a viable option if survivability is not a concern.
Tier 2 (Level 25) Talents for Guardian Druids
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Tiger Dash replaces
Dash with a 45-second cooldown, 200% movement speed sprint that decays over 5 seconds when activated.
Renewal instantly heals you for 30% of your maximum health.
Wild Charge is a mobility spell that changes behavior based on which Form you use the spell in. In
Bear Form, it charges you toward an enemy and roots them in place for 4 seconds.
You have two mobility options and a survivability choice on this row.
In general, Wild Charge provides the most flexibility as a
movement option, and should be your default choice. It adds a mobility spell
into your toolkit without replacing an existing one, unlike
Tiger Dash. However, Tiger Dash provides the most burst movement
potential of the row, allowing you to cover a large distance in a very short
amount of time, and with a reasonably low cooldown. This will boil down to what
fits the needs of the encounter more.
As for Renewal, it is a fantastic choice for situations
where you do not require the mobility provided by
Wild Charge.
The bonus heal can often be crucial to surviving and having an added cooldown
to rotate in our toolkit is always good.
Tier 3 (Level 30) Talents for Guardian Druids
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Balance Affinity grants you the
Astral Influence passive ability, which increases the range of all your abilities by 3 yards. Additionally, you gain access to the Balance-spec abilities
Moonkin Form,
Starsurge,
Starfire,
Wrath, and
Sunfire.
Feral Affinity grants you the
Feline Swiftness passive ability, which increases your movement speed by 15%. Additionally, you gain access to the Feral-spec abilities
Rake,
Rip,
Ferocious Bite, and your energy regeneration is increased by 35%.
Restoration Affinity grants you the
Ysera's Gift passive ability, which heals you (or a nearby ally, if you are at full health yourself) for 3% of your maximum health every 5 seconds. Additionally, you gain access to the Restoration-spec abilities
Rejuvenation,
Wild Growth, and
Swiftmend. Note that the while the tooltip may say 1.5% of maximum health for Guardians, it actually heals for 3% of maximum health in game.
For most situations, Balance Affinity is the go-to
talent.
It excels in AoE fights where taking this will allow you to hit more targets
and also increases your
Moonfire damage during
Heart of the Wild,
even in
Bear Form.
Restoration Affinity provides excellent utility for keeping yourself
and your group alive in dungeons, and allows you to perform off-role duties
during downtime in raid encounters.
A Swiftmend crit can heal for nearly your entire out-of-bear health
Feral Affinity is an obvious choice if you ever find
yourself wanting a little bit more movement speed against a certain encounter.
It also enables the ability to shift into
Cat Form and deal
additional damage through the Feral abilities, commonly referred to as
"catweaving".
Tier 4 (Level 35) Talents for Guardian Druids
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Mighty Bash is an active ability with a 60-second cooldown, which stuns the target for 4 seconds. It is usable in all shapeshift forms.
Mass Entanglement is an active ability with a 30-second cooldown, which roots the target and all enemies within 15 yards of them in place for 30 seconds. Damage done to rooted targets may break the effect. Mass Entanglement is usable in all shapeshift forms.
Heart of the Wild is an active ability with a 5-minute cooldown. It substantially increases your chosen Affinity's abilities.
The choice between these talents is very situational, as there are two crowd control abilities and 1 unique hybrid empowering ability.
In most situations, you will get the most use out of Heart of the Wild,
since it has a lot of use in Raids, where it can be used as a powerful
off-healing tool, or a large DPS cooldown with Feral or Balance affinity.
Mass Entanglement is a better version of
Entangling Roots,
as you can cast it while in
Bear Form and it can snare several enemies.
It breaks very easily on damage, but can be used to keep certain mobs from
reaching you.
Finally, Mighty Bash can be used to lock down a single target for
a short duration, or as an emergency interrupt.
Tier 5 (Level 40) Talents for Guardian Druids
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Soul of the Forest increases
Mangle's Rage generation by an additional 5 and damage by 25%.
Galactic Guardian gives your damaging abilities (including damage from trinkets, but excluding damage from
Moonfire and
Brambles reflect) a 5% chance to automatically cast a free Moonfire on the target. When this happens, the next Moonfire you cast (within 15 seconds) generates 8 Rage and deals 300% increased damage.
Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc is an active ability with a 3-minute cooldown. While it is active, your maximum health is increased by 30%, the cooldown of
Mangle,
Thrash,
Growl, and
Frenzied Regeneration is reduced by 50%, causes
Mangle to hit up to 3 targets, and reduces the Rage cost of
Ironfur by 50%.
Against a single target, Soul of the Forest provides good
rage generation and damage without impacting playstyle at all.
Galactic Guardian is generally the stronger sustained cleave/AoE
talent, both in terms of Rage generation and damage output.
Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc is recommended for heavy burst AoE
damage output. Defensively, this is now the best talent, as the huge 30% health
increase and cooldown reduction of
Frenzied Regeneration greatly
increases your survival capabilities.
Tier 6 (Level 45) Talents for Guardian Druids
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Earthwarden causes
Thrash to grant a stack of Earthwarden, which reduces the damage of the next melee attack by 30%. This can stack up to 3 times. Only the direct damage portion of Thrash can generate Earthwarden stacks, but stacks are generated for every target hit (if Thrash hits 3 targets, you gain 3 stacks of Earthwarden).
Guardian of Elune causes
Mangle to increase the duration of your next
Ironfur by 2 seconds, or the healing of your next
Frenzied Regeneration by 20%.
Survival of the Fittest reduces the cooldown of
Barkskin and
Survival Instincts by 33%. This gives Barkskin a 40 second cooldown, and Survival Instincts a 2 minute recharge time.
Earthwarden should be the default choice. The share of damage that
comes from melee attacks ranges from half to over 90% of all incoming damage, making
Earthwarden very valuable on most fights. In situations where you are able to
hit more targets with
Thrash than are actively hitting you
(such as in a council style fight), Earthwarden is unmatched in value.
Survival of the Fittest is another strong option whenever you need
additional uses of
Barkskin or
Survival Instincts
throughout a fight, or when the damage profile of the encounter does not suit
the other alternatives. This can be any time a boss has frequent spike damage
that either does not allow you to stack
Ironfur quickly enough, or
is Magic damage and therefore is not mitigated by
Ironfur or
Earthwarden.
Guardian of Elune is not competitive with the other talents on this
row.
Tier 7 (Level 50) Talents for Guardian Druids
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Rend and Tear increases the damage you deal to targets affected by
Thrash, and reduces the damage you take from those targets, by 2% per stack of Thrash.
Tooth and Claw makes your autoattacks have a 20% chance to empower your next Maul, stacking up to 2 times. Empowered Maul deals 40% increased damage and reduces the targets damage to you by 15% for 6 seconds.
Pulverize is an active ability that consumes 2 stacks of
Thrash on the target, reducing the damage they deal to you by 35% for 10 seconds.
For defensive purposes, Pulverize will often be the
strongest option for single-target encounters.
Rend and Tear is always a solid talent choice on this row for most
cases. While it is a smaller damage reduction than
Pulverize,
it is entirely passive and does not require any additional buttons to play
optimally. Rend and Tear is also the recommended talent for damage output on
sustained multi-target cleave.
Tooth and Claw has limited use. While it may be a significant
single-target DPS increase talent, the main benefit will be sustained single-target,
damage taken, rather than more bursty damage taken profiles, which will
better suit
Pulverize.
PvP Talents (War Mode)
Battle for Azeroth introduced a new system called "War Mode". Opting into War Mode makes you eligible for open world PvP, but also grants you the following benefits:
- World Quests at maximum level have 10-30% increased rewards.
- You gain 10-30% increased experience while leveling.
- Allows you to earn Conquest Points towards weekly gear rewards.
- Grants you the use of PvP talents in the open world.
With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended that you enable the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at maximum level. However, you will make yourself eligible for open world PvP, and the possibility to be "ganked" while leveling or doing World Quests exists.
PvP Talents for Guardian Druids
Below, you will find the recommended PvP talents for leveling and doing PvE content. You will get a choice of 1 general PvP talent, and 3 spec specific talents.
General PvP Talents
Relentless is also a passive ability but it does not automatically remove crowd control abilities but instead reduces the duration.
Gladiator's Medallion is an on-use ability that removes all movement impairing effects and all loss of control effects.
Adaptation is likely your most passive choice since it will automatically remove loss of control effects over 5 seconds. It is recommended while leveling to take this PvP talent.
Guardian Druid PvP Talents
Sharpened Claws causes
Maul to grant a buff that increases
Thrash and
Swipe damage for 6 seconds.
Malorne's Swiftness increases your
Travel Form movement speed by 20% and prevents you from being slowed below 100% movement speed. This improves your mobility and will reduce travel time, which is important while leveling.
Alpha Challenge replaces
Growl, an ability that historically has no function in solo content. In exchange, you (and your allies) deal increased damage to the target you taunt.
Raging Frenzy causes your
Frenzied Regeneration to generate 60 Rage over its duration. This is occasionally useful for pulling large groups of enemies and putting up several stacks of
Ironfur.
Master Shapeshifter empowers your chosen Affinity talent. This is particularly strong when paired with
Feral Affinity as it can significantly improve the damage you deal.
Overrun is a powerful charge with a stun and the knockback it triggers provides a large mobility boost.
Of the remaining PvP talents, Demoralizing Roar,
and
Freedom of the Herd
may have limited or niche applications in leveling or open world PvE content,
but they do not provide the overall benefit of the recommended list above. The
rest of the PvP talents do not contribute meaningfully to leveling or open
world PvE.
While Guardian may have some fun open world PvP viability, if you are looking to do more serious PvP you may have better success with a non-tank spec.
Changelog
- 21 Feb. 2022: Page reviewed and approved for the launch of Patch 9.2.
- 01 Nov. 2021: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.1.5.
- 28 Jun. 2021: Reviewed and approved for Patch 9.1.
- 09 Mar. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 24 Nov. 2020: Removed Essence note.
- 23 Nov. 2020: Updated for shadowlands, removed BFA notes.
- 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.
- Free Character Moves from Firemaw
- Shadowlands 9.2 Season 3 Mythic+ DPS Log Rankings, Weeks 10 and 11
- Eyes of the Wolf Calia Menethil Quest in Patch 9.2.5
- Everything We Know About the Shrouded Affix in Shadowlands Season 4
- New Oribos Portals in Patch 9.2.5
- Patch 9.2.5 Build 43741: Achievement Changes
- Patch 9.2 and Burning Crusade Classic Hotfixes: May 17th
- Patch 9.2.5 PTR Development Notes: May 17th