1. #1

    Question Leveling as Guardian, but want to end up Resto

    Hi there fellow Druids!

    So I hear that leveling as Guardian is the easiest route to take, so that's what I'm doing. But I want to ultimately end up as a HoT slinger once I get to 110. My question today is: are there a certain set of artifact traits that will help me with leveling as Guardian, and if so which ones?

    Outside of those I'll most likely put all my AP into the resto artifact.

    Is my thinking correct, or should I just put all my AP in the resto staff?

    Thanks!

  2. #2
    I came here to ask the exact same question, looking for an answer as well. I also wanted to know if Feral or Guardian was quicker, because I also heard Guardian was better but wanted to check.

  3. #3
    With Guardian you can pull lots of things and won't have to really ever worry about dying, but you kill things more slowly. As Feral you kill things more quickly but you'll want to be more careful with what and how much you pull. That's really the basic difference.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Voisier View Post
    Tbh i'd just use the AP on your Resto weapon if you are pretty much gonna discard the Guardian wep. Although world quests are a lot easier and faster as guardian. I threw about 16 or so traits into my guardian wep and only use it for WQ.
    Can I ask which traits you used?

    I saw another guide about leveling resto with balance or feral affinity. I think I might give that a try too.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by mudien View Post
    Hi there fellow Druids!

    So I hear that leveling as Guardian is the easiest route to take, so that's what I'm doing. But I want to ultimately end up as a HoT slinger once I get to 110. My question today is: are there a certain set of artifact traits that will help me with leveling as Guardian, and if so which ones?

    Outside of those I'll most likely put all my AP into the resto artifact.

    Is my thinking correct, or should I just put all my AP in the resto staff?

    Thanks!
    There are 2 ways to go at things really:

    1) You don't put any points in your guardian weapon and just level without spending points

    2) You put ~6500 AP in your guardian weapon which gives you 13 traits. This is relatively extremely cheap (Those first 13 traits cost nothing compared to anything beyond that, you won't even really get behind picking this up)

    I personally advice to go with #2; and the main reason is that you'll want to use Guardian at lot at lvl 110 as well to do world quests and the like. Guardian is an extremely potent spec for questing. (especially in suramar).

    So getting 13 traits in Guardian is actually pretty straight forward, because what you want to pick up is the golden trait Embrace of the Nightmare. That golden trait turns your tanking cooldown into a huge DPS cooldown. With this alone you can pull like 15 mobs and just klll them all in 5 seconds flat. It's really good. Besides the other 2 golden traits are more for actual tanking than to help you quest/dps.

    So the way to get that trait and pick up the best traits is as follow:

    http://www.wowhead.com/artifact-calc...74BPAATwQFTYBA

    Iron Claws > Wildflesh > Perpetual Spring > Bloody Paws > Jagged Claws > Embrace of the Nightmare

    As you can see there is still 1 trait up for grabs.
    You can either go with 1/3 Vicious Bites, which increases your Mangle damage by 7%.
    Or Bear Hug with increase Gore trigger chance by 5%.

    I would personally go for Vicious Bites (at least that's what I did)

    You'll likely be level 110 already before you get to grab all 13 traits. But I strongly advice you to pick them all up anyway. As I said before, you'll need the guardian spec to do a lot of questing in suramar and for world quests.
    Guardian has very good time to kill as long as you aren't afraid to pull a lot of mobs. But even 1v1 it's a really good dps with the added benefit of having practically zero downtime and very little chance to die.
    Last edited by Nythiz; 2016-09-21 at 09:23 PM.

  6. #6
    I leveled as Balance, was not problem and burned through quickly. But once I hit 110 I switched to Guardian for most World Quest, it's a *lot* easier then. Don't worry too much about the weapon, the first levels are cheap enough.

    - - - Updated - - -

    I think I would prefer Bear Hug over 1x Vicious Bites (even though I took both by mistake), because Gore really helps to build some more rage, which in turn greatly helps to survive. Didn't cost me an arm and a leg to just get both and thus invest in 14 points total. Then I also invested 16 points in Balance and I am now at 17 points in Resto.

    To put this in perspective: A friend of mine who plays like 12h per day finished 21 points in his main weapon and today quickly got 13 level in his off-spec weapon. Quest in Guardian, put 13 points in the Guardian weapon. Really nothing to regret later on.

  7. #7
    Great advice on a question I've been wondering about as well.
    To round up the guardian leveling advice: What talents would you use?

    I leveled feral, and it's okay. Hate pulling more than one mob, though, and sarumar ia very harsh!

  8. #8
    Deleted
    Im only 107 now, but I asked a similar question about a week ago. Thread is called "Leveling as feral - struggeling" or something like that. Some great tips there, and also some "non informative discussion" between guys.

    Ive leveled as Feral, did not put any extra APs into the weapon, its been smooth after the ilvl 640 items was thrown away. Tried guardian for some quests, it was great for pulling everything you saw, but the ST damage was really low for me, might miss something. Mangle, THrash and Maul wasnt really enough. Maybe its in need of using CDs for single target. I will try it again, and ask some questions about it I guess, for some world quests later.

    My resto art is at about 11 points in and Ive got alot more in my bags right now, Im pretty sure it will be 13 points when I hit 110. And at that points you also get a 800 AP from questing so you should prob not be afraid to get some APs into your guardian/Balanced/feral weapon for some damage buff. It wont be a problem.

    Anyone, how do you do decent ST damage as Guard? Is it THrash, mangle and maul only?

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Nythiz View Post
    There are 2 ways to go at things really:

    1) You don't put any points in your guardian weapon and just level without spending points

    2) You put ~6500 AP in your guardian weapon which gives you 13 traits. This is relatively extremely cheap (Those first 13 traits cost nothing compared to anything beyond that, you won't even really get behind picking this up)

    I personally advice to go with #2; and the main reason is that you'll want to use Guardian at lot at lvl 110 as well to do world quests and the like. Guardian is an extremely potent spec for questing. (especially in suramar).

    So getting 13 traits in Guardian is actually pretty straight forward, because what you want to pick up is the golden trait Embrace of the Nightmare. That golden trait turns your tanking cooldown into a huge DPS cooldown. With this alone you can pull like 15 mobs and just klll them all in 5 seconds flat. It's really good. Besides the other 2 golden traits are more for actual tanking than to help you quest/dps.

    So the way to get that trait and pick up the best traits is as follow:

    Iron Claws > Wildflesh > Perpetual Spring > Bloody Paws > Jagged Claws > Embrace of the Nightmare

    As you can see there is still 1 trait up for grabs.
    You can either go with 1/3 Vicious Bites, which increases your Mangle damage by 7%.
    Or Bear Hug with increase Gore trigger chance by 5%.

    I would personally go for Vicious Bites (at least that's what I did)

    You'll likely be level 110 already before you get to grab all 13 traits. But I strongly advice you to pick them all up anyway. As I said before, you'll need the guardian spec to do a lot of questing in suramar and for world quests.
    Guardian has very good time to kill as long as you aren't afraid to pull a lot of mobs. But even 1v1 it's a really good dps with the added benefit of having practically zero downtime and very little chance to die.
    This was awesome, thank you!

  10. #10
    honestly if you just want to use guardian for leveling, I'd just take vicious bites and bear hug (first two available nodes), and then put the rest toward your resto artifact. It costs functionally nothing to get the first 13... but after those two the next ~10 won't really help you level faster either.

  11. #11
    Nythiz is absolutely correct. Use your first 13 Ranks to get Wildflesh > Perpetual Spring > Bloody Paws > Jagged Claws > Embrace of the Nightmare > Bear Hug. This will make you extremely effective at leveling and completing World Quests. Then you can put the rest into Resto. As for talents:

    Brambles (great against world trash)
    Gutteral Roars (lovely mobility boost)
    Feral Affinity (enables bearcat)
    Mass Entanglement (root packs while you get more packs, split packs, or escape safely)
    Galactic Guardian (highest sustained AOE DPS)
    Guardian of Elune (frenzied regen sustain)
    Lunar Beam (macro with Rage of the Sleeper)

    Take Remulos for even more sustain and AOE group kill. Rage of the Sleeper(EotN) + Lunar Beam + Barkskin + Remulos melts almost everything.
    Last edited by Iry; 2016-09-23 at 09:29 AM.

  12. #12
    I did a mix of bear, boomy, and tree for levelling.

    Once your bear gets embrace trait it rocks for crowded quest areas (lots of tightly packed mobs). Boomy is much faster if the mobs are not naturally laid out for mass-pulling. I don't like feral's playing style, so cannot comment on how that fits in the mix. Problem with the bear is that you will not get the AP for embrace until fairly late. You might be better off playing with a no-trait boomy artifact for a few levels and banking all your AP items until you unlock the bear claws.

    I run with no AP on my boomy scythe, it still works alright. The important part is to keep relics upgraded in all the ones you use. If you are good at wrapping up zones consider leaving the final quests that give relics for later. The rewards scale with level, so it is better to come back and grab them a level further up than to have them sitting in the bag waiting to be used.
    Also, lootspec swapping before turning in quests that award relics is always a good idea. Maybe a quest offers a mediocre upgrade for your current artifact (few ilvls and a worse bonus trait), but will award a relic type that you have an empty slot for in one of your other artifacts. +20 lvls can be a huge thing.
    Consider making a small note at your gaming station with a table of relic types for the different artifacts. The quest tooltips does not show you what an artifact does for a different artifact, but if two of them both have a blood slot any blood relic can be put in there. On a few occasions the quests would give a choice between two same-type relics for one artifact (which I already had and the other slot was empty), but changing lootspec to another spec would award me a different artifact type that could be used in the empty slot.
    The system appears to not really be tailored for multi-spec'ing through the levelling experience, so it takes a little extra hassle to optimise it.

    I also had no problems healing dungeons while levelling with a slightly gimped resto artifact. In my battlegroup healers have instant-queues and if you can handle the occasional ultra-squishy DH tank you will have no problem doing your class and profession quests in instances while levelling.

    Going full-resto and doing WQs in resto solo will have you pulling your nails off in short time. Might as well accept that you play a hybrid, slow down mainspec progression slightly and enjoy multiple specs for casual content.
    And if you are so worried about being 1 or 2 traits behind on resto mainspec because it might get you cut from being in a mythic raid group... wake up and accept that if you are still levelling at this point, those 2 traits will be the least of your problems in terms of catching up to the mythic first-movers

    And just to repeat it once more: You are playing the most awesome hybrid class in the game. Do not miss out on shifting between the specs depending on the content you do. It makes playing so much more enjoyable.

  13. #13
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by aziras View Post
    Going full-resto and doing WQs in resto solo will have you pulling your nails off in short time.

    Dunno, one of our healers leveled the whole way & does his world quests as resto. He's using Guardian affinity, and is able to switch out, hot himself up and back to bear in a few seconds. He says he has no problems with mass pulling & aoe dps.

  14. #14
    Bear with artifact power can already be too slow with DPS, so Resto likely is even slower. So while it surely works (sometimes even better with elite mobs), it's not exactly fast.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Weissrolf View Post
    Bear with artifact power can already be too slow with DPS, so Resto likely is even slower. So while it surely works (sometimes even better with elite mobs), it's not exactly fast.
    Bear is slower at killing individual mobs, sure. Its strength lies in pulling very VERY large packs of mobs and mowing them down all at once.

  16. #16
    You should pretty much always go to 13 in your offspecs regardless of your class, unless you're absolutely 100% sure you'll never play them. 6500 AP for 13 nodes is far too much to pass up.

  17. #17
    My main is resto with my alt being boomkin.

    I strictly leveled as Guardian and do all my world quests as Guardian. I haven't put any points at all into my Guardian tree and don't have any issues. I'm even using my resto gear for my guardian (except for 2 agility trinkets that i got during world quests).

    As long this is all you want to do, it shouldn't be a problem. If you plan to tank dungeons or raids, that'll be a different story.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Cheze View Post
    honestly if you just want to use guardian for leveling, I'd just take vicious bites and bear hug (first two available nodes), and then put the rest toward your resto artifact. It costs functionally nothing to get the first 13... but after those two the next ~10 won't really help you level faster either.
    Yes and no.

    I agree that for leveling you probably won't get much more damage out of the next few artifact traits you unlock.

    However, you'll need a spec to quest with at level 110. You won't just switch to resto full time and never look back. There is suramar you "need" to complete, there are world quests that "need" to be done, withered training runs that "need" to be run.
    Jagged Claws and Embrace of the Nightmare are the two MOST VALUABLE traits for offspec guardians. And since they're right at the end, you might as well pick them up while you level.

    And at that point the non-dps traits start counting too. You'll be very happy with that 15% extra Frenzied Regen healing when you're fighting elites with 10 million HP in a 2 minute fight as bear.
    That 50% slow when you trash will be really useful for mob control and for when you need to gtfo (We've all been in that situation where running beats fighting, and that slow is a huge help).

    Quote Originally Posted by murosfw View Post
    Dunno, one of our healers leveled the whole way & does his world quests as resto. He's using Guardian affinity, and is able to switch out, hot himself up and back to bear in a few seconds. He says he has no problems with mass pulling & aoe dps.
    Nobody is saying you can't do this. I have killed elites as resto and if you shift to heal up you can actually take on quite a lot.
    But why would you go through this trouble when you can go guardian, pull twice as much, cleave it down in 10-20 seconds where resto can take up to 2 minutes; and still come out with full or near full health?

    This is not about what possible options are, but rather what optimal options are. And the simple fact is that you gimp yourself as a resto druid if you quest/level with the resto spec.

    You don't even need to spend any artifact points in your offspec weapons to make those specs superior, because the toolkit alone makes them better.
    I personally strongly advice to still invest 13 points into those offspec weapons (especially balance and guardian; feral's good traits are partially out of reach, so 5-10 points here is plenty). Because you will STILL use those offspecs at level 110.

    Which offspec you take is totally up to you. (The following is completely my own opinion, although I feel it is shared among others)
    Balance is awesome in 1-2 target situations, but mediocre in larger groups. Mostly because you take too much damage and your AoE requires too much ramp up, causing you to get hammered; if you get a tank or there are other people around AoE is good too.
    Feral is very solid in single target situations (Moonkin has a slight edge when it comes to burst from moon spells and starsurge); better than moonkin in short AoE fights with Brutal Slash; though also vulnerable if overwhelmed.
    Guardian is decent in single target fights and gets exceptionally better the more mobs you pull.

    Guardian in my eyes has the edge (especially at end game) as you run less risk of getting overwhelmed and can tackle some of the hardest content (e.g. elites in suramar).
    Last edited by Nythiz; 2016-09-24 at 03:15 PM.

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