Guardian Druid Tank Spec, Builds, and Talents (Legion 7.3)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.3 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 4. Patch 7.2 Changes
  • 5. Contents
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
  • 5. Active Mitigation Abilities
  • 6. Cooldown Usage
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Main Resource
  • 3. Basic Abilities
  • 4. Important Procs
  • 5. Active Mitigation
  • 6. Cooldowns
  • 7. ChangeLog
• ×Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 3. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 4. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 5. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 6. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 7. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 8. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 9. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression
    • 1.1. Shared Path
    • 1.2. Adaptive Fur Versus Gory Fur
    • 1.3. Patch 7.2 Traits
  • 2. Relic Choice
    • 2.1. Single Target
      • 2.1.1. With Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc
      • 2.1.2. With Galactic Guardian
    • 2.2. AoE
      • 2.2.1. With Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc
      • 2.2.2. With Galactic Guardian
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths
  • 1. General Optimization Advice
  • 2. Tier 2 Upgrade Priority
    • 2.1. Single Target
      • 2.1.1. With Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc
      • 2.1.2. With Galactic Guardian
    • 2.2. AoE
      • 2.2.1. With Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc
      • 2.2.2. With Galactic Guardian
  • 3. Tier 3 Upgrade Priority
    • 3.1. Single Target
      • 3.1.1. With Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc
      • 3.1.2. With Galactic Guardian
    • 3.2. AoE
      • 3.2.1. With Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc
      • 3.2.2. With Galactic Guardian
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Single Target Rotation
  • 2. Multiple Target Rotation
    • 2.1. Against 2-3 Targets
    • 2.2. Against 4+ Targets
  • 3. Active Mitigation
    • 3.1. Ironfur
    • 3.2. Frenzied Regeneration
  • 4. Taunting
  • 5. Cooldowns
  • 6. Optional Read: Mastering Your Guardian Druid
    • 6.1. Rage Generation
    • 6.2. Mastery: Nature's Guardian
    • 6.3. Gore Procs
    • 6.4. Detailed Cooldown Usage
      • 6.4.1. Survival Instincts
      • 6.4.2. Barkskin
      • 6.4.3. Rage of the Sleeper
      • 6.4.4. Tier 1 Talents
      • 6.4.5. Tier 3 Talents
      • 6.4.6. Tier 5 Talents
      • 6.4.7. Tier 6 Talents
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
  • 2. Enchants
  • 3. Consumables
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Macros
    • 1.1. Generic Macros for Druids
      • 1.1.1. Rebirth
      • 1.1.2. Remove Corruption
    • 1.2. Specific Macros for Guardian Druids
      • 1.2.1. Hand of Protection Cancelaura Macro
      • 1.2.2. Useful Mouseover Macros
  • 2. Addons
    • 2.1. Generic Addons for Druids
      • 2.1.1. ElvUI
      • 2.1.2. Boss Mods: Deadly Boss Mods or Bigwigs
      • 2.1.3. GTFO
      • 2.1.4. Parrot or Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 2.1.5. Weak Auras
      • 2.1.6. DroodFocus
      • 2.1.7. Recount / Skada / Details!
      • 2.1.8. Grid and GridClickSets (Optional)
    • 2.2. Specific Addons for Guardian Druids
      • 2.2.1. Omen Threat Meter
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Tier 20 Set Bonuses
  • 2. Legendary Items
  • 3. Loot Competition
  • 4. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, we present the viable talent choices for Guardian Druids in World of Warcraft Legion 7.3. We detail what each of the talents do and in which situations they should be taken.

The other pages of our Guardian Druid guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Reviewer

This guide has been reviewed and approved by Justwait, a top tank who raids in Method. You can also watch his stream on Twitch and follow him on Twitter.

1. Talent Choices

Level	Choices
15	? Brambles	✔ Bristling Fur	? Blood Frenzy
30	✔ Guttural Roars	✘ Intimidating Roar	? Wild Charge
45	? Balance Affinity	? Feral Affinity	✔ Restoration Affinity
60	? Mighty Bash	? Mass Entanglement	? Typhoon
75	✘ Soul of the Forest	✔ Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc	✔ Galactic Guardian
90	✘ Earthwarden	✔ Guardian of Elune	? Survival of the Fittest
100	✔ Rend and Tear	? Lunar Beam	✔ Pulverize

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 Tranquil Mind and Codex of the Tranquil Mind can be used to temporarily allow players to change talents anywhere, as long as they are out of combat.

2. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents

? Brambles

✔ Bristling Fur

? Blood Frenzy

• 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.
• Bristling Fur is an active ability with a 40-second cooldown. For its 8-second duration, you gain Rage from damage taken.
• Blood Frenzy causes Thrash to generate 2 Rage each time it deals damage.

Bristling Fur is the best talent when it comes to Rage generation. This talent should be your standard choice for single target fights. This ability should only be used when you are taking damage, and since it has a 40-second cooldown you need to make sure that you are not wasting its potential.

Brambles is passive, making it easier to use, but it does not generate any Rage for you and therefore does not improve your active mitigation usage. The actual damage mitigation from Brambles is not impressive. We only recommend taking Brambles if you are not concerned with survivability and just want to improve your damage output.

Blood Frenzy is good for long term cleave/AoE situations. The passive Rage generation it provides is great in the long run. Check the advanced section to see when you should be picking Blood Frenzy.

3. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents

✔ Guttural Roars

✘ Intimidating Roar

? Wild Charge

• Guttural Roars increases the radius of Stampeding Roar by 200% and reduces its cooldown by 50%, and also increases the radius of Incapacitating Roar by 100%.
• Intimidating Roar replaces Incapacitating Roar. It is essentially almost identical, except that instead of the targets being incapacitated (which can be broken by damage), they will be rooted in place for 3 seconds.
• Wild Charge is an active ability that is off the global cooldown and which differs based on the shapeshift form you are in, as follows:
  • No shapeshift form: you fly to an ally's location.
  • Travel Form: you jump to an ally's location.
  • Moonkin Form: you leap backwards.
  • Bear Form: you charge an enemy, immobilising them for 4 seconds.
  • Cat Form: you leap behind an enemy, dazing them for 3 seconds.
  • Aquatic Form: your swim speed is increased by 150% for 5 seconds.

This tier provides you with 3 situational talents, and the choice will depend on your playstyle and the requirements of the encounter.

Guttural Roars will be your default choice, since it provides benefits not just for yourself but also for the entire raid, by buffing Stampeding Roar. Overall, this is very useful.

Intimidating Roar is typically not necessary since Incapacitating Roar alone can usually do the job. Wild Charge is useful if you need to quickly switch from one target to another, when they are far apart and you want to close the gap.

4. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents

? Balance Affinity

? Feral Affinity

✔ Restoration Affinity

• Balance Affinity grants you the Astral Influence passive ability, which increases the range of all your abilities by 5 yards. Additionally, you gain access to the Balance-spec abilities Moonkin Form, Starsurge, Lunar Strike, Solar 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 Shred, 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 1.5% of your maximum health every 5 seconds. Additionally, you gain access to the Restoration-spec abilities Rejuvenation, Healing Touch, Swiftmend.

All three talents in this tier are situationally viable. By default, you should be using Restoration Affinity, as this is the easiest to manage. The passive heal from Ysera's Gift can add up to a respectable amount of total healing over the course of an encounter. Rejuvenation and Healing Touch are almost never worth using, but shifting out of Bear Form to cast Swiftmend on an injured ally can be a good idea sometimes, if not actively tanking.

If the healing provided by Restoration Affinity is not needed, you will want to take Balance Affinity, the benefit of which is the 5-yard increase to the range of your abilities. Especially in dungeons, this talent can be a great choice.

Alternatively, if you are looking for added movement speed, you can choose Feral Affinity.

5. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents

? Mighty Bash

? Mass Entanglement

? Typhoon

• Mighty Bash is an active ability with a 50-second cooldown, which stuns the target for 5 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.
• Typhoon is an active ability with a 30-second cooldown. It knocks back all targets within 15-yards in a cone in front of you, dazing them for 6 seconds. It is usable in all shapeshift forms.

The choice between these talents is entirely situational and, in any case, it is unlikely to play any part in your performance.

Currently, you will get the most use out of Typhoon, since you can use it on a number of encounters.

Mass Entanglement can also have some uses, but unfortunately it breaks very quickly on damage, making it unreliable.

Finally, Mighty Bash is good if need to keep a target locked down.

6. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents

✘ Soul of the Forest

✔ Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc

✔ Galactic Guardian

• Soul of the Forest causes Mangle to generate 7 additional Rage and to deal 25% more damage.
• Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc is an active ability with a 3-minute cooldown. It does not trigger the global cooldown. For its duration, your armor is increased by 15%, the cooldown of all melee abilities and Growl is reduced to 1.5 seconds, and Mangle hits up to 3 targets.
• Galactic Guardian gives your damaging abilities a 7% 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.

For the best Rage generation against any number of targets, you should take Galactic Guardian. Keep in mind that this requires you to actively use Moonfire and not only refresh the DoT effect it provides, which changes your rotation. This talent is also extremely solid for AoE fights since you do not need to manually refresh Moonfire on most of the enemies.

If you are looking to deal burst damage and generate burst threat, you should be looking into Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc. Since your highest priority is to use Thrash as much as possible during its uptime, you are going to find yourself with lots of Rage as well, so make sure to spend it wisely.

Soul of the Forest is not currently recommended.

7. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents

✘ Earthwarden

✔ Guardian of Elune

? Survival of the Fittest

• Earthwarden grants you a charge of a buff that reduces the damage of the next attack made against you by 30%, each time you use Thrash. The buff can stack up to 3 times.
• 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%.

Guardian of Elune is the best choice in this tier, due to the increase in duration for Ironfur being extremely strong. Keep in mind that you have to use Mangle before using one of the spells affected by Guardian of Elune for it to apply; this is most important for the Frenzied Regeneration increase, as the bonus is massive.

Survival of the Fittest can be a good choice when the encounter presents you with regular high-damage special abilities, while Earthwarden is only really good against sustained damage (from auto attacks). Its strength quickly diminishes against special attacks, or when there are a lot of targets consuming the stacks faster than you can generate them.

8. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents

✔ Rend and Tear

? Lunar Beam

✔ Pulverize

• Rend and Tear increases your damage done to targets affected by Thrash, and reduces the damage you take from these same targets, by 2% for each stack of Thrash that is active on them.
• Lunar Beam is an active ability with a 75-second cooldown which summons a beam of light at your location for 8 seconds. Any enemies in the beam take Arcane damage every second, and you are healed every second while in the beam. Note that the beam's location is fixed, and does not follow you as you move.
• Pulverize is an active ability that consumes 2 stacks of Thrash on the target, dealing Physical damage to them in exchange, and reducing all damage you take by 9% for 20 seconds.

The best talent choice in this tier depends on the situation that you will face. Most of the time you will prefer using Pulverize, as it will provide the biggest damage reduction and damage increase when fighting up to 3-4 targets. Above that, and only if the targets will live long enough for Rend and Tear to stack up, you will want to use Rend and Tear. If you are using the legendary legs ( Elize's Everlasting Encasement), Rend and Tear will be closer to Pulverize if you can keep 5 stacks up on more than 1 target.

Lunar Beam can be useful in encounters where you need to burst down adds quickly.

9. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 12 Sep. 2017: Updated tier 5 talent discussion.
• 28 Aug. 2017: Changed Blood Frenzy (tier 1) from recommended to situational and updated Mass Entanglement's description.
• 07 Jul. 2017: Clarified that Soul of the Forest is now viable against a single target.
• 12 Jun. 2017: Slight rewrites to account for the removal of Mark of Ursol in patch 7.2.5.
• 22 Apr. 2017: Clarified that Wild Charge when in Travel Form causes you to jump to the location of an ally, and not to fly to them.
• 27 Mar. 2017: Updated Intimidating Roar description to account for changes made to it in Patch 7.2.
• 14 Feb. 2017: Updated description of Restoration Affinity to correctly reflect that it heals for 1.5% of maximum health per 5 seconds.
• 10 Jan. 2017: Updated the description of Soul of the Forest following the official patch note release.
• 09 Jan. 2017: Updated talent descriptions to account for Patch 7.1.5 and improved the tier 2, 5, 6, and 7 discussions.
• 16 Dec. 2016: Revised Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc as a situational (?) talent, and updated the description of Restoration Affinity.
• 25 Oct. 2016: Patch 7.1 changes.
  • Updated the description of Galactic Guardian (causes 10 Rage to be generated, down from 15, and increases the damage of the next Moonfire by 300%).
  • Added a mention that Incarnation is now off the global cooldown.
• 08 Oct. 2016: Slightly updated the discussion of the Guardian of Elune and Lunar Beam talents.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 20 Jul. 2016: Revised tier 1 and 5 talent discussions.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.