Question for Guardians

[select20]

Are you happy withh your class is atm?

I'm rolling a new Horde toon just to unlock some race. I've mained Alliance DK's, Paladins and Warriors (in that order) for years. I haven't played a Guardian since Wrath. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go with a Warrior or Guardian for my Horde. If the general concensus is that Guardians are happy, or at least semi happy, I'll go with Guardian. But if Guardian veterans aren't happy, then I'd just go with a warrior.

[Omedon]

I am choosing to lead shadowlands (having a choice of 35 alts) with a guardian druid for many reasons, some based on alignment with covenants, but just as many because I, as a casual player of all tank specs (all specs really but I prefer tank specs), am extremely happy with the state of guardian druids.

Now again, my opinion is that of a mostly open world/"trinity agnostic" gameplay type. I play tanks because they're unstoppable soloing and world quest machines, not for M+ or raiding which are not in my interest, but for overall ease of use and functional enjoyment in what few dungeons I do run, I enjoy the guardian immensely.

[select20]

I am choosing to lead shadowlands (having a choice of 35 alts) with a guardian druid for many reasons, some based on alignment with covenants, but just as many because I, as a casual player of all tank specs (all specs really but I prefer tank specs), am extremely happy with the state of guardian druids.

Now again, my opinion is that of a mostly open world/"trinity agnostic" gameplay type. I play tanks because they're unstoppable soloing and world quest machines, not for M+ or raiding which are not in my interest, but for overall ease of use and functional enjoyment in what few dungeons I do run, I enjoy the guardian immensely.

Nice thanks for that info.

I am the same. I have played Tanks exclusively since Wrath. I never could get into the BrM style, and haven't given DH's a chance really.

[Tyze]

Guardian seems like a forgotten spec coming into Shadowlands, so much feedback so little changes.

[Raugnaut]

Atm, the only issue Guardian has, in BfA, is a lack of CCs/Slows in the kit. Though with Ursol's Vortex becoming baseline in SL, that issue is somewhat alleviated.

[Sergar]

Guardian is a solid B tier tank in BFA and while they still could use another talent pass they look really, really good in SL. Legendaries look great, soulbinds look solid, covenants are fine although only one of them is really good this balance pass and Incarnation is probably the strongest defensive CD in the game while being probably one of the best tank offensive CDs.

[Raugnaut]

Honestly it comes down to Shadowlands luck of the draw. Blizzard has shown over the past few expansions that they take a very long time to balance tanks.

In BFA Druid was horrendous during the first patch, and was buffed 3 times (while Brewmaster was nerfed twice) to get to a place where they are still worse than Brewmaster, but ok, in the last patch.

In Legion, Druid was ridiculously, tremendously overpowered in first patch, and was nerfed in every subsequent patch, only to be... still very good in the last patch.

- - - Updated - - -



Vortex is pretty weak. You're better off just getting a dps who can slow stuff. Vortex works in certain situations, but it's not flexible enough to be reliable, and if it's not reliable, it's meh.

That's why I said it's somewhat alleviated. Enough to drop Necrotic stacks anyway.

[select20]

Thanks for the replies and insight. I will definitely make for unlocking the Ztrolls to make my Guardian. It will be fun learning a new tank after playing the three I mentioned for the past 8 or 9 years.

[Mystikal]

Atm, the only issue Guardian has, in BfA, is a lack of CCs/Slows in the kit. Though with Ursol's Vortex becoming baseline in SL, that issue is somewhat alleviated.

Vortex isn't going baseline, it will be part of Restoration Affinity. So, sadly, the problem isn't totally alleviated.

[Mrbleedinggums]

I'm just glad that our Legion artifact ability will be coming back somewhat, same with Ursoc's Vortex. I really loved Guardian in Legion and felt it too lackluster in BFA (though I still played it). I hope that with the legendaries buffing some talents or playstyle choices that it'll once again be my favorite tank spec.

[siyX-]

Lots of misinformation in this thread. Firstly we are losing the Vortex/Typhoon combo as Vortex is being removed as a baseline ability and attached the the Resto Affinity talent, and super conveniently Typhoon is attached the Balance Affinity talent on the same row, so as of 9.0 they are mutually exclusive and you cannot have both. Add to this that we still do not get a slow of any kind back (still the only tank without one) and our kiting ability is worse off than it has been since 8.1. Wild Charge should be baseline, Renewal makes no sense competing with movement talents on that row, and Lunar Beam needs to be removed entirely. The legendary effects are mostly okay, though our Conduits are not. How can anyone thing Mangle buffing Maul damage is an acceptable potency Conduit when you look at the effects that Warriors and Paladins got for their ability synergy.

Bears will be solidly middle of the pack. They are shaping up to be top tier defensively, but low damage unless we get a better potency conduit, or some insane tuning. The biggest problem in my opinion will be the same as it was in BFA: community perception. Bear has been at least competitive since 8.1, but the idea that Guardians are rodent tier (as they were when the expansion dropped) never really went away.

It is also not a very interesting spec, but this part is more subjective. I have fun playing mine as I have more brainpower to think about the meta parts of tanking outside which buttons to push, but that doesn’t mean the spec couldn’t use some flavour. This goes back to the ability synergy which we have none of, and it doesn’t have any decision making depth.

[Venziir]

My druid has been Guardian since Cataclysm I think. It's not the most fun spec, though it's solid and simple.

[Yhcti]

The only tank to time a 31 that isn't an Asian BiS geared team is a Guardian Druid. 'nuff said.

[Reclusion]

I'm definitely excited for Guardian Druid in Shadowlands. I came back to BFA around 2 months ago and been really enjoying it. Although I've only done a +14, I'm enjoying the amount of cooldowns we have and pretty comfortable doing keys like this with average gear and corruptions. Kinda wish we kept Typhoon by default and I'd love to have Mark of Ursol back for Magical mitigation as I feel this will bring Guardians up pretty high based on the magical damage in Shadowlands dungeons.

[Daan]

Even in SL Guardian has the same playstyle and core mechanics like back in Legion. The loss of artifact traits and legendary effects without any replacement has made the Guardian weak and boring in BfA. Frenzied Regeneration on GCD is still meh. The only good thing in SL is that Guardian will get the artefact ability back with a legendary, but in latest SL rankings Guardian is still the worst tank.

[Djuntas]

We were apparently the best tank in Legion, and the worst in BFA....So.

[Raugnaut]

We were apparently the best tank in Legion, and the worst in BFA....So.

Eh, not really the worst. Vengeance was the worst until they got uber-buffed - And, as mentioned, the top M+ group had a Bear tank it, and nobody else in the West has gotten a +31, so there's something to Bear tanks.

[Daan]

And, as mentioned, the top M+ group had a Bear tank it, and nobody else in the West has gotten a +31, so there's something to Bear tanks.

Tomoboar is simply a Prot Warrior in a bear costume *scnr*

Jokes apart, I don't know his "secret recipe", but he's a very, very good guy.

[Djuntas]

Eh, not really the worst. Vengeance was the worst until they got uber-buffed - And, as mentioned, the top M+ group had a Bear tank it, and nobody else in the West has gotten a +31, so there's something to Bear tanks.

Oh man xd havent keept up, so they did that now. I figured none would get a 30 before pre-patch. Well, its fun to see single players pushing class.

[Extremities]

1 thing i wish they would do to Guardian Druids is revert the change to Frenzied Regen and make it a rage cost ability with no cooldown. This whole 36 second CD bullsnit per charge has got to be the dumbest thing they've done to Bears. They have by far the worst reliable self healing of any tank which makes tanking keys a mess. Every other tank with self healing can at least help out their healers.