[Guardian] - Patch 5.4 Survival Guide

[Axon14]

It's not useful on every fight, that's for certain. However there are very, very few useful Major glyphs in the first place. Stampeding Roar is pretty much a must-have, but you switch the other two in and out. Maul is one of the ones you'll pick up from time-to-time.

Gotcha. I figured it was just something of a placeholder.

[Axon14]

Thanks guys, very helpful for my papabear skills. I changed out a ton of stuff this morning. I think I might change my 160crit/120 stam to 320 crit, but we'll see. First I want to see how this build works out.

[Deleted]

it may be a stupid question, but I'd like to improve my guardian, that's why I'm here
armory: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...aiara/advanced
I would appreciate any advice. I'm currently tanking HoF in 10N and LFR, but need better gear for the later raids so I can be maintank one oday
currently I'm using a mitigation-based build.. is it advisable to go for a crit-build with gear at ilvl 488? what benefits my guild more?
thanks

[Arielle]

There's no reason to not use a standard RPS build for normal modes. It's more fun, and better for normal modes as you not only "handle" more damage (via T&C or FR) but do more DPS as well. Especially at lower gear levels.

Once you get into higher item levels with enough passive RPS to handle the necessary damage then we will start adding more Mastery, at least for normals. But that doesn't happen in T15.

The only time you really need to worry about micromanaging your gems beyond straight RPS is when you're doing current-tier heroic content.

[Deleted]

The only time you really need to worry about micromanaging your gems beyond straight RPS is when you're doing current-tier heroic content.

I suppose I'll never see heroic content, but that's fine for me

so basically it would be better to go for a rps build than a mitigation build, even at my low ilvl?

[Navoan]

Seeking advice is the first step Some don't even bother!

Some real ground rules for going with a RPS build. Hitcap 7.5%, never go over it (you're currently 7.82%) and Expertise 7.5% (when you have higher iLev I would highly suggest hardcapping at 15%), one thing to note about Exp below the cap is even if you 'run-over' the 7.5% mark the stats aren't wasted as you'll start to parry less often as apposed to ensuring you are never dodged.

I would highly suggest you get the 522iLev trinket from VP (hit+Agi proc). It will cover a hefty part of your Hit needs and reforges well into another stat if/when needed, the proc is very good too.

Atm I would say you are considering Stamina to be much better than it actually is. Stamina is a buffer between how often you can get hit without recieving healing. The need for EH (Effective Health) goes down as your mitigation gets higher and with the content you are doing (HoF normal and raid finders) you aren't really going to need massive amounts of health. As such, I would advise you to change some enchants from Sta to agi/crit, this depends on what you feel comfortable with, as long as you're not dying to 2-3 melee swings (i.e. from full health to dead within 4-5 secs under normal circumstances) you should be fine to drop Sta.

Crit on cloak, agi/crit on shoulders, agi/crit on legs, drop the Sta in your gems, instead get crit/hit, crit/exp or pure crit. If you're doing with a RPS build you'll prioritize Crit over mastery, so drop the mastery gems too. Don't worry about Sta socket bonuses at all tbh. If it's cheap enough for you (I have no idea of your gold reserves) get the Relic of Zulon or whatever (Agi Darkmoon card) to replace your Balebrew Charm. Get Agi on rings. Exp on gloves. Dancing Steel (if you can afford it?) on weapon.

Again, this comes down to how much health you feel comfortable with, but a 'noob' mistake these days is to over estimate how much health you actually need. For example, I tanked all t14 HCs without a single bit of extra sta (apart from chest enchant and the Sta meta, which I don't even use these days). Ok our circumstances are different, I had healers I knew I could depend on etc, but at the same time you're doing content at a much more relaxed pace so you shouldn't be afraid

Any questions, just ask.

P.s. if you read my reply a couple of posts ago, see what I said about the Frenzied Regen glyph, i.e. it's bad (mostly...).

[Arielle]

it's bad (mostly...).

No, it's actually just 100% terrible unless you have enough RPS to maintain it at 100% uptime after SD/T&C. Even then it relies on other people healing you which is never really a good thing. Try and keep yourself alive as much as humanly possible.

[Deleted]

thanks Navoan and Arielle
I started to change my gems and enchants last night and will 'complete' it this evening and I'll keep in mind your advice
actually until now I thought the Frenzied Regen glyph was pretty good as in most situations I could afford it (rage-wise) to keep it up. but when you say it might be better to keep myself alive (aka removing the glyph), I think at least I'll try that as well.
also I don't feel very squishy at the moment, so less stamina might work too, but I'll ask our healers about that before dropping too much of it (by replacing it).
my gold reserves might be a problem, but I'm currently farming VP to get ilvl522 equip anyways, so thanks for telling me what to buy first also I'm trying to farm rep to learn the important enchants myself, the mats for them shouldn't be a problem.

[Motoma]

On an unrelated note, the DPS Meta gem is hillarious as Guardian!

[Deleted]

ye it is insane dps gain for a meta gem

[Deleted]

So guardians shouldn't bother with the tanking one?

[Deleted]

If you are doing normal raiding I'd pick the dps meta but for heroics the tanking meta is really nice.

[Dalinos]

Good evening guys!

Lots of nice discussion going on here, so I thought I'd hop in

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...linos/advanced

So, the story is as follows. My guild raided 10man from the beginning of MOP, but we recently switched to 25man. Got to 1/13HC on the 3rd (or 4th?) reset, and decided to switch.

Anyhow, as a 10man tank, I was going for full crit and agi in terms of gems/enchants, for the known reasons. I was running at ~670k HP unbuffed, with 54% crit and hit cap/expertise hard-cap.

However! When switching to 25man, and going into bosses like Tortos and Ji-Kun, I felt the damage. Like, literally, I felt it hard. My raid buffed 730k HP was nothing for Ji-Kun's 680k Talon Strike. Same for Tortos and his snapping bite, he also does like 600k.

So, I switched all my DPS-oriented enchants to pure stam (cloak, shoulder, leg, glove, rings), and all my gems to more stamina-focused versions.

Since then, damage intake has been less bursty, rage generation has decreased (not much, but enough to get noticed), and damage has gone down as well (again, not by a large factor).

Concerning my hit/exp caps, putting a gem that has either 160hit or 160exp will overcap me, in both cases. Hence, what I plan to do is wait for 5.3, and upgrade pieces of gear with VP, in order to cap them without wasting stat points.

Thoughts/suggestions? Should I stick to this build for 25man Normal farm/25man heroic progress? Should I convert some gems? Some enchants? If so, why?

Any help is appreciated!

[exochaft]

Thoughts/suggestions? Should I stick to this build for 25man Normal farm/25man heroic progress? Should I convert some gems? Some enchants? If so, why?

Any help is appreciated!

It all comes down to personal preference and your raid group, honestly. If you feel you have enough HP/armor to survive big spikes of damage, start adjusting your stats for DPS/RPS (and vice versa). Sometimes healers are on the ball and can heal a Guardian with less effective health, sometimes they cannot. While some responsibility rests on the healers, I feel that a tank should do everything in their power to make healers' lives as comfortable as possible.

I will say that having good RPS is still pretty paramount if you have to choose between more HP/armor that you might not need and more rage to use your abilities more effectively. Good/clever use of SD/FR/T&C can help reduce the need of extra HP/armor... it's for those situations where none of these tools can guarantee your safety that you'll want more armor/stamina. Also, having extra armor/stam can allow you to use cooldowns less often to take big hits, opting for a FR to instantly heal yourself up after the hit.

Specifically in terms of gems/enchants, what you have should be perfectly fine. While situational, I find that using Glyph of Survival Instincts can be very useful for "tank-killer" mechanics on some encounters, and I personally haven't found a good use for glyphing Might of Ursoc... perhaps you're using it for H Horridon's last phase, but if it works for you, no need to change it.

[GatorAJ]

I just killed H Ji-Kun 10 for the first time Wednesday, and I swapped my LW agi wrist and leg enchants for the stam ones, as well as swapped my two agi trinkets for a Niuzao and a Liquid Courage. I felt dirty doing so, lost some rage gen and damage, but it kept me from having to pray I wouldn't be one shot.

[Motoma]

I just killed H Ji-Kun 10 for the first time Wednesday, and I swapped my LW agi wrist and leg enchants for the stam ones, as well as swapped my two agi trinkets for a Niuzao and a Liquid Courage. I felt dirty doing so, lost some rage gen and damage, but it kept me from having to pray I wouldn't be one shot.

Barkskin stack 1, SI stack 2. Barkskin stack 1, Ursoc stack 2. Repeat till boss dies, make sure to have a FR ready for the second stack 2.

[Aoshi]

Hi hi hi,

Here I am again back, after few months. In the begin of MoP they wanted me for reserve offtank. But I never offtanked.
Now it seems I've to offtank now since other tank won't coming back, and I'd like to prepare for my guardian. But I'm new right now with Guardian.
That's why I think I need some advice from your skilled guardians druid.

This is my tanking gear right now. (Notice: this is still my OS, my main is Boomkin)
Is my gemming/enchants/reforge good? Is my talents right?

I'm not sure, I've read the guide on the first post, but still I'm feeling I'm missing some abilities in my actionbar. My actionbar

I've tried some HC Dungeon, but seems my DPS is very low for my gear (about 30K dps). I really don't know if that's low or not.
Thank you for giving me some tips.

[rated]

You're below the hit cap. The hit cap is 7.50% (2550 hit rating). You're at 1.88% (640 hit rating). When it comes to expertise I like to either go for 7.50% soft cap or 15% hard cap. Not anything inbetween. Get rid of the frenzied regen glyph. It sucks. Use the stampede roar glyph (one that increases it to 40 yards).

Get rid of the Colossus enchant. It sucks more than a a cheap hooker. Use windsong or dancing steel instead.

I don't know what to say about you're UI. Did you screen shot your boomkin spec in that pic ? I'm looking for lacerate...mangle...swipe...thrash. It's not there.

As for your DPS...30k DPS is extremely low. We're talking cata DPS. What are you doing exactly for AoE and single target ?

[Aoshi]

Hi,

I'm sorry, I took the wrong pic: This one is the right pic

[Arkhu]

Aoshi, I don't see Berserk on your bar. This is an excellent CD to use in conjunction with Nature's Vigil especially for situations with predictable high incoming damage (think Megaera's breath, Ji'Kun's talon rake, etc.). Also, your level 30 talent should be either Cenarion Ward or Renewal. I prefer CW, but Renewal probably isn't a bad choice. When you get into raiding, you will want to stock up on a ton of Potion of the Mountains for another great physical damage reduction CD.

Hope this helps. If you have any more questions, ask away. These forums, the Guardian thread in particular, are especially helpful.