Legion Guardian Guide by Pumps
Hey mates, brief introduction for me. Armory Guild WCL YouTube Druid Discord Tank Discord
Welcome to my Legion Guardian Guide, Originally wrote the guide in a more in depth google doc link here. Converting some things to mmoc format was less than ideal.
My name is Sam and i live in Australia, my Druid's name is Pumps, I am an officer/raid leader in the guild, Honestly. I also write most of our boss strats for prog.
I have been playing WoW since BC launch and haven't missed a raid tier since. Maining Guardian Druid since MoP but i also play all the tanks as needed.
Raiding at varying levels from world top 10 to world top 400. Currently a more relaxed world top 10-30.
I am on US - Frostmourne, a now Oceanic realm, even though there were dark days of 00+ ping always, it is now firmly the home of the majority of the top oceanic players.
My guide will mostly prioritize top tier progression raiding and is heavily subject to change at the start of any raid tier, as new builds/strats/changes come to fruition.
Why are you writing this far too long guide?
MMOC has been a solid source of info for almost all the classes for a fair while now and poor Guardian druids have missed out on that benefit with the last guide being a little outdated now, Also year long farm boredom helps.
7.2.5 TLDR - Credit to Faide
What Changed from WoD to Legion
Bears are currently in a great place even coming from the previous tier where we excelled in most aspects, as with most of other tanks our AoE dps is really high and our pure bear single target is middle of the pack, this is mainly because our rotation is aoe centric eg; using Swipe and Thrash single target. The rotation has not changed much and should be quite simple to pick up if you have played any form of Druid tank in the past.
Overall with our High Health pool due to our new Mastery (which increases our Health and Healing taken) and solid Active Mit (100%+ uptime) we are looking to be quite smooth sponge tanks, excelling especially on more magic oriented fights.
Active Mitigation
Savage Defense - is gone completely and we now have 2 new Active mit spells;
Ironfur - Increases Armor by 65% for 6 seconds, multiple uses stack.
Frenzied Regen - has changed to a 2 (3 with traits) charge system of Heals you for 50% of all damage taken in the last 5 sec over 3 sec, minimum 5% of maximum health.
Damaging Abilities
Mangle - Hasn't changed that much, it's cooldown is reduced by haste and there is a new passive called 'Gore' which is a 15% chance on Thrash/Swipe/Moonfire to reset the CD on mangle and make it generate 4 extra rage.
Thrash - now has a cooldown and can be stacked up to 3 times like the old lacerate.
Swipe - Is back boys, now our new filler spell, has no CD and costs no rage.
Moonfire - Able to be cast in Bear form now and therefore an integral part of our new rotation.
Maul - 7.2.5 Now on the GCD but is our hardest hitting ability, costs 45 rage.
Lacerate - Removed/semi baked into Thrash
Defensive Cooldowns
Barkskin - Similar to WoD but now has a slightly longer cooldown at 90 seconds baseline.
Survival Instincts - Got the same treatment as barkskin, still 2 charges but slightly longer cooldown at 4minutes each baseline.
Artifact Ability
Rage of the Sleeper - Unleashes the rage of Ursoc for 10 sec, preventing 25% of all damage you take and reflecting (250% of Attack power) Nature damage back at your attackers.
The thorns is incredibly powerful on mobs with fast attacks or certain spells that proc it rapidly, can easily be the top of your damage breakdown.
In combination with the major trait Embrace of the Nightmare, is easily one of our best CDs offensively and defensively in a large amount of situations.
Try not to get too triggered when you pop it and then they get chain stunned
Other noteworthy changes
Incapacitating Roar baseline, it's not great.
Rebirth can be cast in Bear form
Lost most of our baseline heals, just keeping Healing Touch.
Can no longer have Mighty bash and Typhoon at the same time.
Lost Berserk as a cooldown, now baked into the Incarnation talent.
Maul no longer has any defensive benefit with the removal of Tooth and claw.
Resolve is removed for all tanks.
Shapeshift CD - Powershifting
One of the more annoying lesser known changes is that power shifting is gone, powershifting was a macro that changed your form into the same form, so you cast bear form again and instead of putting you into human form it immediately changes you back to bear.
This was primarily for pvp but had extra rage gen power in pve.
However in Legion all shapeshifting has a 1 second GCD now so shifting in and out of bear for us now loses 2 full GCDs out and back in.
Abilities
Offensive
Mangle - Mangle the target for 387% Physical damage. Deals 20% additional damage against bleeding targets.
High damage, generates 5 rage.
Swipe - Swipe nearby enemies, inflicting Physical damage.
Our filler spell, a swipe in an aoe 360 degrees around you, deals medium damage. Doesn't generate rage on it's own but in combination with GG can get quite a lot from the moonfire procs in large packs.
Thrash - Thrash all nearby enemies, dealing immediate physical damage and periodic bleed damage.
Higher damage than swipe and mangle with thrash relics, but with a CD, the immediate damage is the bulk of the damage at the moment. Maintaining thrash stacks quite a lot easier than the old lacerate single target stacks.
Moonfire - A quick beam of lunar light burns the enemy for (100% of Spell power) Arcane damage and then an additional (440% of Spell power) Arcane damage over 16 sec. Usable while in Bear Form.
A nice ranged DoT, semi replaces the role of faerie fire in the past in terms of attacking from ranged.
Maul - Maul the target for 750% Physical damage.
Our only offensive rage spender, now on the GCD as of 7.2.5, do not spam this if you are new, only use it to avoid hitting rage cap or it will eat all the rage you can generate and you will have none to use defensively.
Our hardest hitting ability now after 7.2.5.
Defensive / AM
Ironfur - Increases armor by 65% for 6 sec. Multiple uses of this ability may overlap.
Our Physical Active Mitigation spell, what most of your rage is going to be spent on while tanking any real physical damage because unlike other AMs you can never use too much of this due to it's ability to stack.
Frenzied Regen - Heals you for 50% of all damage taken in the last 5 sec over 3 sec, minimum 5% of maximum health.
All of our self heals outside of talents/gear.
Rather underwhelming in most low damage situations, feels almost wasteful or negligible in 5 mans but really shines in higher damage taken situations like raids or large burstier pulls.
Cooldowns
Barkskin - Your skin becomes as tough as bark, reducing all damage you take by 20% and preventing damage from delaying your spellcasts. Lasts 12 sec.
Our small CD but lasts quite a long duration, almost a 30% uptime when combined with Survival of the Fittest and traits. Used whenever you are tanking any real damage mostly.
Survival Instincts - Reduces all damage you take by 50% for 6 sec. Max 2 charges.
Our big CD, the 2 charges makes it excellent in more single or quick succession nuke burst situations.
Says max 2 charges there is a legendary that gives you a 3rd. Again quite good synergy with Survival of the Fittest.
Rage of the Sleeper - Unleashes the rage of Ursoc for 10 sec, preventing 25% of all damage you take and reflecting (250% of Attack power) Nature damage back at your attackers.
While the artifact is not actually an ability it definitely deserves a large mention as you cannot play the spec properly without it.
In combination with the major trait Embrace of the Nightmare, is easily one of best CDs in the game offensively and defensively in a large amount of situations.
Utility
Druid utility is quite lacking currently and is definitely the weakest part of the class with our only real utility spell being stampeding roar most experienced guardians might have a giggle at this category.
Stampeding Roar - Lets loose a wild roar, increasing the movement speed of all friendly players within 10 yards by 60% for 8 sec.
While a great mobility tool for the raid being a little rarer with Roar only being Guardian and Feral it does come at the cost of a whole row of talents.
Rebirth - Returns the spirit to the body, restoring a dead target to life with 60% health and 20% mana. Castable in combat.
Basic battle res, good in 5 mans okay in raids although be wary ressing people in melee range in front of the boss, can be dangerous.
Incapacitating Roar - Invokes the spirit of Ursol to roar, incapacitating all enemies within 10 yards for 3 sec. Any damage caused will remove the effect. Usable in all shapeshift forms.
The best utility tool we have in dungeons at the moment, it's only value is interrupting casts for a millisecond, most mobs will immediately start casting again.
Gets some ok value in a few dungeons where the mobs ability goes on CD after they cast it; eg BRH, Nelths
Passives
Gore - Using Thrash, Swipe or Moonfire has a 15% chance to rest the cooldown on Mangle and cause it to generate 4 Rage.
Thick Hide - Reduces all damage taken by 6%.
Talents
Summary of Preferences and Why;
Level 15
Brambles - Sharp brambles protect you, absorbing and reflecting up to (Attack power * 0.24) damage from each attack.
Only dps talent, in situations where tankiness is not that relevant, this is the clear winner. Using Barkskin off CD for max dps
Bristling Fur - Bristle your fur, causing you to generate Rage based on damage taken for 8 sec.
Highest amount of rage gen when used well and has it's place but there is a point where Blood Frenzy is more rage which makes this talent overall the least appealing, dungeon wise.
Can be a little shit single target if you dodge multiple swings the rage gen is small, my go to rage talent now.
Blood Frenzy - Thrash also generates 2 Rage each time it deals damage.
Decent rage gen especially with any significant aoe. Bristling Fur pulls ahead in terms of rage gained once you start taking significant damage. eg; not easy dungeons
Level 30
Guttural Roars -Increases the radius of Stampeding Roar by 200%, the radius of Incapacitating Roar by 100%, and reduces the cooldown of Stampeding Roar by 50%.
Easily the number 1 talent atm, even if the raid doesn't need your roars the other two are just too underwhelming.
Intimidating Roar - [I]Replaces disorienting roar, doesnt break on damage. Now roots instead of fears in 7.2/I]
Wild Charge - Charge to an enemy, immobilizing them for 4 sec. (has different effects in each different form)
Will likely have a niche on a fight or 2 where you charge back after large knockback.
Level 45
Balance Affinity - Passive: Increases the range of all of your abilities by 5 yards. Moonkin Form spells Starsurge Lunar Strike Solar Wrath Sunfire.
My pick most of the time in 5 mans, Extra 5 yards on all your abilities is very nice for dungeons and some raid encounters, damage in boomkin form quite undertuned.
Feral Affinity - Passive: Increases your movement speed by 15%. Cat form spells: Shred, Rip, Rake and Ferocious Bite.
Movement speed often underrated, currently the highest dps affinity with Catweaving rotation.
Resto Affinity - Passive: Heals you for 3% of your maximum health every 5 sec. If you are at full health, a random nearby injured ally will be healed instead. Resto spells gained; Rejuvenation, Swiftmend and Healing Touch.
The healing output on spells like swiftmend/rejuv is quite decent and the passive gets constant value.
Level 60
Mighty Bash - Invokes the spirit of Ursoc to stun the target for 5 sec. Usable in all shapeshift forms.
I heavily prefer the Typhoon niche in most situations due to the amount of stuns in the game and DR.
Mass Entangle - Roots the target in place for 30 sec and spreads to additional nearby enemies. Damage may interrupt the effect. Usable in all shapeshift forms
Super niche, it's been used once or twice in the past eg; Iron maidens. May have its time to shine again.
Typhoon - Strikes targets within 15 yards in front of you with a violent Typhoon, knocking them back and dazing them for 6 sec. Usable in all shapeshift forms.
This is my go to 99% of the time, good interrupt/repositioning and a nice typhoon + sprint away combo is the ultimate defense.
Level 75
Soul of the Forest - Mangle generates 5 more Rage and deals 25% more damage.
An alternate to GG single target in terms of rage gen, falls behind when there is more than 1 mob.
Incarnation - An improved Bear Form that reduces the cooldown on all melee damage abilities and Growl to 1.5 sec, Increases armor by 15% and causes Mangle to hit up to 3 targets. Lasts 30 seconds.
Highest dps once you get the Embrace of the Nightmare trait if used optimally, also makes taunt and thrash 1.5s CD so great for picking up lots of adds.
Galactic Guardian - Your damage has a 7% chance to trigger a free automatic Moonfire on that target. When this occurs, the next Moonfire you cast generates 8 Rage and deal 300% extra initial damage.
Best for most scenarios, easy to use. Solid rage gen on multiple targets.
Since 7.1, now a dps gain to use over swipe single target and 2 targets but swipe > ggmoonfire if 3+ targets. Works great with balance shoulders.
Level 90
Earthwarden - When you deal direct damage with Thrash, you gain a charge of Earthwarden, reducing the damage of the next auto attack you take by 30%. Earthwarden may have up to 3 charges.
Pretty average talent all round havent found a use for it yet this xpac.
Guardian of Elune - Mangle increases the duration of your next Ironfur or Mark of Ursol by 2 sec, or the healing of your next Frenzied Regeneration by 20%.
On Average the best talent due to always getting good value.
Survival of the Fittest - Reduces the cooldowns of Barkskin and Survival Instincts by 33%.
Best dps talent with Brambles because the other 2 talents don't affect dps at all, mainly good for when you need defensives up sooner for more specific boss mechanic timings.
Level 100
Rend and Tear - While in Bear Form, Thrash also increases your damage dealt to the target, and reduces your damage taken from the target by 2% per application of Thrash.
Was switching between this and Lunar beam until i got the legendary legs, both feel quite good, with the 2 extra thrash stack legendary legs this will likely continue to be the best talent single target.
Lunar Beam -Summons a beam of lunar light at your location, dealing [(100% of Attack power) * 8] Arcane damage and healing you for [(300% of Attack power) * 8] over 8 sec.
Comboing with Embrace of the Nightmare lines up perfectly and deals quite a lot of damage and heals a ton for 10 seconds, works decently with new legendary cape.
Pulverize - A devastating blow that consumes 2 stacks of your Thrash on the target to deal 850% Physical damage, and reduces all damage you take by 9% for 20 sec.
Only consuming 2 stacks makes it quite good as you can reapply 1 stack straight after using pulv, with the 7.1.5 buff this has quite strong DPS and defensive potential being better than Rend and Tear without the legs.
Rotation, Stat Priorities and Enchants
Stats
Mastery - Increases total Health and healing taken as well as Attack power.
Vers - Increases all damage and healing done and reduces damage taken.
Haste - Lowers CD on Thrash and FR, slightly more rage gen from auto attacks.
Crit - Increases Crit chance and converts % of crit into dodge.
Stat Priority
This stuff is probably going to change a little at the start of the tier but for now i am running;
Defensive stat prio - Vers ≥ Mastery > Haste > Crit
Pure Bear Dps stat prio - Haste > Crit ≥ Vers > Mastery
Catweave stat prio - Crit ≥ Vers > Haste > Mastery
Enchants
Cloak - +200 Agility
Ring - +200 Vers
Neck - Currently the only enchant with a choice.
Defensively Best - Mark of the Heavy Hide - Chance to proc 3000 armor for 10 seconds.
Offensively Best - Mark of the Hidden Satyr - Chance to summon a Satyr which will fire a nightmare bolt at your target for fire damage. Averages 1-3% of your damage on a fight.
Mark of the Trained Soldier - +600 Flat mastery, no proc.
Mark of the Claw - Chance to proc 1000 Haste and Crit for 6 seconds. - good for aoe
Mark of the Distant Army - Chance to summon a rain of arrows upon your target.
Aslo available in 7.15 are new cheaper neck enchants; these have no real value outside of just being a cheaper alternative.
Mark of the Deadly - +200 Crit
Mark of the Versatile - +200 Versatility
Mark of the Quick - +200 Haste
Mark of the Master - +200 Mastery
Potions
Agi > Vers for dps in WoD potions
Potion of the Old War - Use: Summons a pair of ghostly fallen warriors that will echo your melee attacks and abilities.
- Highest DPS potion for bear at the moment if used optimally.
Potion of Prolonged Power - Use: Increase Agi + Stam by 2500 for 60 seconds. 60s CD. Great pot for 5 mans and aoe currently due to insane uptime. Replaced wod pots for aoe.
Potion of Deadly Grace - Use: Grants your attacks a chance to unleash a bolt of energy at your target. Lasts 25s
Unbending Potion - Use: Increases your bonus armor by 3500 for 25 sec.
Quite solid defensively, but no longer has any Offensive benefit eg pre potting at the start of a fight.
Rotation
Bears have currently quite a simple rotation offensively.
1. Moonfire 100% uptime
2. Mangle off CD
3. Thrash 100% uptime and use off CD
4. Moonfire with GG proc > Swipe if 2 targets or less.
5. Maul
6. Swipe as filler, Swipe > Mangle if 3+ Targets.
General single target opener something like Moonfire while running in > Mangle > Thrash > Swipe
You are of course a tank still but active mit is quite straightforward atm;
1. Ironfur if you are tanking physical damage
2. CDs as you need, Rots/Skin/SI
Most intricacies are fight dependant eg; when to use active mit or cds appropriately like RotS/Incarnation.
General tank rule of thumb is use everything at your disposal to stay alive even if it means not having a CD later on in the fight that you think you need, you will be surprised how often you get through things with less CD's than expected. If you die while still having things up that could've saved you then you are playing sub optimally for your raid.
Artifact Routes, Legendaries and Netherlight Crucible
Claws of Ursoc's 3 relic slots are Fire, Blood and Life. The 3rd slot which is locked is Life, which you unlock through the Druid Campaign in your class hall, currently takes about 10 days or so to complete.
All Routes are heavily dependant on how much AP you can acquire in a certain amount of time pre raid.
Which route to go will depend on how much we can actually acquire and where we stand defensively, meaning how much defense can we sacrifice to maximize damage without sacrificing our survivability too much.
If 27 traits is easily achievable before or early into raid the most likely route will be the top route to EotN. Currently looking like you will have around 20 traits in the first tier.
My current Artifact pathing, leaving Mauler until last only edit possibly getting all 3 Mangle traits before Bear Hug.
More in-depth Artifact trait stuff including Relic boss drop list
7.2 Artifact Traits Pathing
After 35 traits i will be getting traits in this following order; - note: this is primarily a top end raiding dps focused route
Fortitude of the Cenarion Circle - Increases damage by 10%, Armor by 12%, and Stamina by 10%.
Jagged Claws - 10% Thrash damage
Scintillating Moonlight - Moonfire reduces damage dealt to you by 1%(per rank) from that target
Fleshknitting - Frenzied Regen gains 1 additional charge
Pawsitive Outlook - Thrash has a 15% chance to trigger another Thrash
Vicious Bites - 7% Mangle damage
Ursoc's Endurance - Increase duration of Barkskin/Ironfur + Mark of Ursol by .5s
Reinforced Fur - 4% increased Armor on Ironfur.
Wildflesh - 5% increased Frenzied Regen Healing
Bestial Fortitude - 1% Stamina
Perpetual Spring - 3% CD Reduction on Barkskin
Mauler - 3% Maul crit
Sharpened Instincts - 3% extra damage reduction on Survival Instincts
Concordance of the Legionfall - Your abilities have a chance to trigger Concordance of the Legionfall, increasing your vers by X per rank.
Relics
Leaving most of that stuff to the google doc, hard to transition it without making it super long.
TL;DR Thrash offensively and Ursoc's Endurance Relics defensively, the best by far.
Netherlight Crucible
Thrash+Mangle Relics with;
Tier1 - Shadowbind/Torment the Weak/Chaotic Darkness >
Tier2 -Secure in the Light/Infusion of Light >
Tier3 -Shocklight/Dark Sorrows/Murderous Intent >
Tier4 - The rest
Focusing primarily from a dps standpoint, but the heal from shadowbind and chaotic darkness are quite strong.
Legendaries
Neck - Prydaz, Xavriac's Magnum Opus - Every 30 seconds you gain an absorb shield for 15% of your max health for 30 seconds. This effect can only occur once every 30 seconds.
Solid defensive legendary since 7.1.5.
Wrist - Luffa Wrappings - Increase the damage and radius of Thrash by 25%.
Great for 5 mans or burstier add fights where you don't get max thrash stacks or they don't fall off.
Legs - Elize's Everlasting Encasement - Thrash can stack up to 2 more times.
The interaction with Rend + Tear and the decent secondaries makes this great when you can get it consistently stacked high eg; raids.
Ring - Sephuz's Secret - Successfully applying a loss of control effect to an enemy, interrupting or dispelling grants you 70% increased movement speed and 25% haste for 10 seconds. 30s CD
Great for faster 5 mans where the legs don't get to stack up, similar to the belt.
Chest - Ekowraith, Creator of Worlds - Increase the effect of Astral Influence, Feline Swiftness, Thick Hide and Ysera's Gift by 75%.
Works on Thick Hide passive granting flat 4.5% damage taken reduction and also whatever affinity you use. Resto 2.25% hp per 5s , Balance 3.75 yards extra range and Feral 11.25% movespeed.
Wasit - Cinidaria, the Symbiote - Your attacks cause an additional 30% damage as Physical to enemies above 90% health and leech 100% of the damage back.
Decent secondaries, a little underrated, good for 5 mans and burstier add content. Cheese potential on bosses or adds that stay above 90% or have multiple high hp phases. Leech great for necrotic as it ignores necrotic.
Feet - Skysec's Hold - Frenzied Regen heals you for an additional 12% of your maximum health over 5 seconds.
Great secondaries, While the FR effect is often overheal in hard hitting raids, better for weaker content and more open world / 5 mans. Can be quite solid defensively.
Ring - Dual Determination - Survival Instincts gains 1 additional charge and recharges 15% faster.
Great for bosses with more set time hard hitting mechanics and mythic+, average secondaries. Synergizes well with Survival of the fittest. Great for prog.
Head - Oakheart's Puny Quods -Barksin Instantly grants 45 rage plus an additional 15 rage over 3 seconds.
Great stats, very mediocre legendary bonus.
Trinket - Archimonde's Hatred Reborn -Use: Gain an absorb shield for 30% of your max health for 10 seconds. When the shield is consumed or expires, 75% of the damage absorbedis dealt to nearby enemies, split evenly. 75s CD.
Decent dps value and a solid absorb on a short timer.
Cloak - Fury of Nature - While in Bear Form, you deal 30% increased Nature and Arcane damage, and are healed for 30% of all Nature and Arcane damage done.
Pretty decent in combination with the Balance shoulders (Lady and the Child) as an alternative to thrash bracers. Healing while small still adds up to a relevant amount.
Ring - Soul of the Archdruid - Gains the Soul of the Forest talent.
Pretty solid rage gen and a decent dps increase, stats qutie low on the ring but the talent is decent, overall good legendary.
Shoulders - Lady and the Child - Moonfire deals 20% increased damage and also hits another nearby enemy within 20 yards of the target
Balanced Legendary - but works great with GG + Fury of Nature the legendary cloak, healing + damage aspects both heavily impacted ontop of extra rage gen from GG, overall the most enjoyable build for me to play currently and the highest single target build.
How i rate the legendaries from an overall standpoint, mainly a more dps oriented point of view.
1 Luffa Wrappings
2 Fury of Nature
3 Lady and the Child
4 Ekowraith, Creator of Worlds
5 Cinidaria, the Symbiote
6 Soul of the Archdruid
7 Sephuz's Secret
8 Elize's Everlasting Encasement
9 Archimonde's Hatred Reborn
10 Prydaz, Xavriac's Magnum Opus
11 Skysec's Hold
12 Dual Determination
13 Oakheart's Puny Quods
Closing statements
Thanks for reading mates, if you made it this far you are truly dedicated to being the Guardian of your raid.
Leaving a few things like BiS lists and Boss specific strats to the google doc which i will be maintaining up to date to try to keep this already too long guide a little shorter. Feel free to whisper or PM me any unanswered questions or inaccuracies, i'm sure there will be a few things that need editing.
Acronyms and Slang
RotS Rage of the Sleeper
EotN Embrace of the Nightmare
AF Adaptive Fur
GF Gory Fur
GCD Global Cooldown
FR Frenzied Regen
BS or Skin Barkskin
SI Survival Instincts
SR or Roar Stampeding Roar
GG Galactic Guardian
SotF Soul of the Forest
BF Bristling Fur
GoE Guardian of Elune
Inc Incarnation
DoT Damage over Time
IF Ironfur
Changelist; last update - d/m/y - 6 / 10 / 2017
- 26/8 published guide
-11/9 Updated some Stats related notes eg; Vers ≥ Mastery
-3/10 Updated things from gdoc to here, eg; Enchants/Pots
-16/10 Updated more from gdoc; mainly ability descriptions
-26/10 updated notes from patch 7.1 - Thick Hide nerf + GG change
-29/10 updated notes from patch 7.1 - Potion of Prolonged power + GG moonfire rotational priority.
-29/11 updated Nighthold BiS list in google doc.
-30/12 Updated Guide for patch 7.1.5 - 7.1.5 TLDR - Credit to Vorem
-16/1 Updated Enchants
-25/3 Updated Guide for patch 7.2 - 7.2 TLDR - Credit to Vorem
-6/4 Updated 7.2 Artifact Pathing
-18/6 Updated Guide for patch 7.2.5 - notably just maul changes and new legos
-6/10 Updated Guide for Netherlight Crucible, added LatC build and reorganized legendary ranking list
7.2.5 TLDR - Credit to Faide