[Guardian] - Patch 5.4 Survival Guide

[Arielle]

The 4pc is very good, yes.

Would I drop 502s for 483s? Probably not. For 496s? Yes. Think of it as an increase to your survivability as you would any other stat. If you're not having problems staying alive, then why reduce your DPS?

[dennisdkramer]

Keep in mind that even if you're "going for" a given stat build - crit, in this case - that doesn't necessarily make a piece without that stat ineffective. As Arielle points out, the 4pc is quite good. Its especially good on any fight where you're tanking for short enough windows (and where it is prudent based on the spread of incoming damage) to keep 100% SD uptime.

One thing that is obvious but often forgotten is the additional armor on higher ilvl gear. It should be easily calculatable based on the stat differences in gear whether you would want to downgrade for the bonus or not. My initial impression just from glancing over the gear is that, as Arielle says, once you have the required pieces to get the 4 piece bonus, you will want to downgrade to 496s. Additionally, if for example you get one 483 piece it is probably still worth it to use to completely the set, although it gets pretty close at that point.

Sidenote - LOL @ the 2pc wow that is awful

[Williee]

Ya since the 2p is horrible, I've been passing all the tier pieces to the mages and dk since they will get a big boost from 2p compare to me. Also, since a lot of fights had shorter enrages and needed higher dps, we try to push for their 4p since its a big dps increase for most classes.
I've been sitting on mostly 502 MSV pieces since they beat most pieces until 4p tier or 509+ pieces.

Thank you for the insight, I tend to see "CRIT RATING" and I end up choosing pieces with crit versus a piece without it. For example, Galleon neck piece, [Hellrider's Choker] versus H Spirit Kings [Amulet of the Hidden Kings]. I chose Hellrider's choker.

[Elunedra]

so i was wondering, is NE still the best tanking race for allience or is that 1% crit from worgens now better?

[Sonnillon]

What is your opinion on Troll Guardians? As I like the troll race bit more than the Tauren is there any advantages why should I keep Tauren or should I go Troll? Thunderstomp+1% against nature damage is nice when you are a tauren. Same time berserking+natural health regen is also a good thing when you play Troll tank. Any ideas? (My OS is feral)

[Arielle]

What is your opinion on Troll Guardians? As I like the troll race bit more than the Tauren is there any advantages why should I keep Tauren or should I go Troll? Thunderstomp+1% against nature damage is nice when you are a tauren. Same time berserking+natural health regen is also a good thing when you play Troll tank. Any ideas? (My OS is feral)

Do whatever you want really.

[Williee]

Grr cannot get a searing words to drop and win the roll
Might need to turn to relic of xuen instead ~.~

I like troll racial for more rage regen, but they don't look as manly in humanoid :|

[dennisdkramer]

What is your opinion on Troll Guardians? As I like the troll race bit more than the Tauren is there any advantages why should I keep Tauren or should I go Troll? Thunderstomp+1% against nature damage is nice when you are a tauren. Same time berserking+natural health regen is also a good thing when you play Troll tank. Any ideas? (My OS is feral)

For guardian, troll is nearly worthless, for feral, tauren is completely worthless
(in pve)

Both of the bonuses are pretty much negligible, play whichever you like. Troll has the benefit of being able to macro berserking into berserk so you never have to think about it

---------- Post added 2012-11-20 at 02:38 AM ----------

Grr cannot get a searing words to drop and win the roll
Might need to turn to relic of xuen instead ~.~

I like troll racial for more rage regen, but they don't look as manly in humanoid :|

I've seen searing words drop twice on my mage, once on my DK, twice on my paladin and ZERO times on my druid... what is up with that trinket haha

[Elunedra]

i want a human druid tho

[Williee]

I want a panda druid!

[Kioga]

I want a panda druid!

lol I want a bear that turns into a bear! Actually yes I do.

[Williee]

This idea came through me, I wonder if treants melee attack providing the guardian some rage just like how hunter pets melee can provide the hunter focus return can possibly make treants a thought of choice for guardians. Makes me sad, we don't even want to use that ability
I <3 hotw the most, brings back memory of bear catting but its more bear cat wrathing.

[Arielle]

This idea came through me, I wonder if treants melee attack providing the guardian some rage just like how hunter pets melee can provide the hunter focus return can possibly make treants a thought of choice for guardians.

It could work. You'd have to remove their ability to taunt things so they don't instantly die.

I actually kind of like the idea of a short CD vs long CD option in that sense.

SotF also needs a huge buff.

[Elunedra]

i have had the idea to give guardium druid the feral treeants if used on a boss where they cant taunt, becase i absolutely love thme in herorics but they fail so much in raids
making them yeild rage is also a good idea.

it could be that if thier taunts gets immune, they it gives some rage to the druid instead

[Deleted]

Great guide. I recently went from resto to guardian 2 days ago (did my first raid last night) so there is alot to learn up. I have been searching the net for some answers tho to a couple of questions, so any advice is appreciated.
1) In a tank swap fight (say swapping every 60 secs), what is the theoritical time I could have 100% uptime on SD assuming no RPS issues. I think I could have SD up constantly for 42 secs but could be well off base
2) What is the best aoe rotation with Incarnation up, I was spamming Thrash when it was up and it was Windlord fight (solo tank with the boss and 6 adds), but should i have been swiping instead?

[Arielle]

1) In a tank swap fight (say swapping every 60 secs), what is the theoritical time I could have 100% uptime on SD assuming no RPS issues. I think I could have SD up constantly for 42 secs but could be well off base

Correct.

2) What is the best aoe rotation with Incarnation up, I was spamming Thrash when it was up and it was Windlord fight (solo tank with the boss and 6 adds), but should i have been swiping instead?

Depends on the number of things you're hitting. For Wind Lord specifically I'm reasonably certain it's better DPS to Swipe if Thrash is up and Berserk is not being used.

I plan to do a bit more math on DPS soon though.

[Deleted]

Thanks for the answers (and a great guide - really helped me prepare for the raid), I did the math for the constant SD uptime, and it came out at 42secs, and that just seemed too good to be true. I am happy this is right though

[Deleted]

Great guide. I recently went from resto to guardian 2 days ago (did my first raid last night) so there is alot to learn up. I have been searching the net for some answers tho to a couple of questions, so any advice is appreciated.
1) In a tank swap fight (say swapping every 60 secs), what is the theoritical time I could have 100% uptime on SD assuming no RPS issues. I think I could have SD up constantly for 42 secs but could be well off base
2) What is the best aoe rotation with Incarnation up, I was spamming Thrash when it was up and it was Windlord fight (solo tank with the boss and 6 adds), but should i have been swiping instead?

I solo tank Heroic Wind Lord as well and even though I try to keep up SD as much as possible, I find myself using FR a lot more. With Incarnation and NV up, I make sure Thrash is up but then I Swipe for max dps. I'm not going full Crit, it's a mix of Crit and Stam for me, while I'm ofc Hit and Expertise capped. But on a fight like Heroic Wind Lord, I did 380k DPS and 50k HPS the way I'm gemmed and the way I use FR over SD for instance. So I kinda think it's also about your preferred play style - on some of the bosses at least.

[Seelean]

/run SetCVar("autoUnshift",0)
/cast nature's swiftness
/cast healing touch
/run SetCVar("autoUnshift",1)

How come this macro does not work for me?
I copied and paste the exact macro listed above, and in game when I click my keybind it only says the actions listed above and does not actual perform them?
Can anyone help me on this thanks?

[dennisdkramer]

How come this macro does not work for me?
I copied and paste the exact macro listed above, and in game when I click my keybind it only says the actions listed above and does not actual perform them?
Can anyone help me on this thanks?

You either missed the slash or added a space at the beginning of the line