Introduction to the Guardian Druid

Guardian Druid is a sturdy tank that manages damage intake through having strong passive reductions, a large health pool, increased healing received from Mastery, and a stackable active mitigation. They are an excellent sponge tank and once you have acquired enough gear they are mostly self-sufficient with a unique playstyle unlike any class. They bring good utility to raid and Mythic+ groups as a tank.

Guardian is in a very competitive state in both raids and dungeons. Their defensive power has been boosted quite significantly by the amount of Agility and secondary stats we will be acquiring, increasing Armor gained from Ironfur IconIronfur greatly and raising our dodge to levels above 50% passively, making Druid one of the most stable and fun to play tanks in the game

Below you will find a beginners guide to the Guardian Druid, you can click on highlighted abilities, for a more in depth description of them.


Strengths and Weaknesses of the Guardian Druid

Strengths

  • Strong passive damage reductions
  • High Health pool for stable damage intake
  • Stackable, no-cooldown active mitigation in Ironfur Icon Ironfur

Weaknesses

  • Has to sacrifice significant amounts of survivability to be competitive
  • Weak self-sustain leads to a heavy reliance on healers
  • Poor magic damage mitigation

Talents

LevelChoices
15Brambles Brambles Blood Frenzy Blood FrenzyBristling Fur Bristling Fur
30Tiger Dash Tiger DashUrsol's Vortex Ursol’s VortexWild Charge Wild Charge
45Balance Affinity Balance AffinityFeral Affinity Feral AffinityRestoration Affinity Restoration Affinity
60Mighty Bash Mighty BashMass Entanglement Mass Entanglement Typhoon Typhoon
75Soul of the Forest Soul of the ForestGalactic Guardian Galactic GuardianIncarnation: Guardian of Ursoc Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc
90Earthwarden EarthwardenSurvival of the Fittest Survival of the FittestGuardian of Elune Guardian of Elune
100Rend and Tear Rend and TearLunar Beam Lunar BeamPulverize Pulverize

Rotation of the Guardian Druid

The basic rotation of the Guardian Druid is as follows:

  • Use Thrash Icon Thrash if your target does not have 3 stacks of the bleed yet

You can use the recommended Addon ConRo for help with your rotation, it can be found in our Addons Guide here


Survival Cooldowns

  • Barkskin Icon Barkskin reduces all damage you take by 20% for 12 seconds, on a 90 second cooldown. Barkskin is usable while stunned, incapacitated, or asleep.
  • Survival Instincts Icon Survival Instincts reduces all damage you take by 50% for 6 seconds. Survival Instincts has 2 charges and a 4 minute recharge time.

Stat Priority

The stat priority for the Guardian Druid is

  1. Armor/Agility/Stamina
  2. Versatility
  3. Mastery
  4. Haste
  5. Critical Strike.