[Guardian] What you think about guardians in MoP?

[Lintu]

Hey, was just wondering that I have currently been leveling my Druid and was curious about how does Guardian work in MoP? Is it good for raid/dungeon tanking or should I just go with the flow and roll Resto? or some other?

I'am kinda confused in druid specs atm, because I've been playing my PvP warr from beginning of MoP.

Advises will be appreciated. Thx in advance!

[Karnudge]

This question gets asked a lot.

Guardians are great in MOP. All the tank specs do well, some a little better on certain fights, others better for different fights, but every tank spec works well in every single fight.

Being confused about druid specs is totally acceptable.
Feral and Boomkin both do just fine in PVE, with both of them towards the middle of the pack in regard to DPS.
Resto is a little wonky at this time, since their healing was nerfed, but the healing is going to be increased some, and the new wild mushroom idea is very interesting. That being said, Wild mushrooms for boomkin are still damn near useless.

As for PVP, every single druid is incredibly mobile. Guardians make arguably the best FC, but all 4 specs can handle it nicely. Boomkin can wreck people in a BG with multidot, SS procs, and starfall, and feral has incredible single target burst, which makes it great for arena, though the cyclone nerf will hurt their CC in arena. Resto's do ok healing, but are incredibly hard to pin down.

You can try going to theincbear.com for tips on how to gem/reforge. Just an FYI, the best guardians these days are stacking hit/exp and then crit, but that is of course once they have enough stam to survive a couple of hits.

[Lintu]

Thanks that was more than helpful So i think i am going to stick with guardian in PvE and feral in PvP

Is there anymore good sites for guardian/feral guides for live or 5.2 out yet?

And what would be good professions for guardian? I currently have LW/Skin but was wondering would LW/Inscription work better? Since now it can make that awesome Agi staff + stam shoulder encha.

[Karnudge]

The crit from skinning is perfect, for both those specs/situations.

[Arielle]

Is there anymore good sites for guardian/feral guides for live or 5.2 out yet?

http://theincbear.com

[Regen]

Thanks that was more than helpful So i think i am going to stick with guardian in PvE and feral in PvP

Is there anymore good sites for guardian/feral guides for live or 5.2 out yet?

And what would be good professions for guardian? I currently have LW/Skin but was wondering would LW/Inscription work better? Since now it can make that awesome Agi staff + stam shoulder encha.

The agi staff would take you 20 days of CDs (or using spirits) to make, by then you may be able to grab a better raid level weapon. The scribe shoulder enchant is decent though.

[Kujako]

Personally, I find Savage Defense too hard to use and find myself often just using Frenzied Regeneration since it lacks the minimum rage requirement.

[Motoma]

Personally, I find Savage Defense too hard to use and find myself often just using Frenzied Regeneration since it lacks the minimum rage requirement.

Please tell me you are joking.

[kaiadam]

Assuming 2 sec swings:

1 mil unmitigated hits = 200k vengeance after a while.

Assuming ~100k armor, 1 mil unmitigated hit = 325k hits.

Every 6 seconds, with 20% dodge, you would expect 2.4 hits for 780k damage.
Every 6 seconds, with 65% dodge, you would expect 1.05 hits for 340k damage
Every 6 seconds, with 70% dodge, you would expect 0.9 hits for 290k damage.

If you have 4pT14:
- savage defense saves 490k damage
- frenzied regen heals for 440k.

If you don't have 4pT14:
- savage defense saves 440k damage
- frenzied regen heals for 400k.

Those numbers look awfully close. Not to mention a lot of damage comes from non-melee attacks which further increases frenzied regen value vs savage defense.

It's mostly a damage prevention vs healing sort of thing as in most cases frenzied regen does more overall with slightly higher control.

[Dreyen]

Personally, I find Savage Defense too hard to use and find myself often just using Frenzied Regeneration since it lacks the minimum rage requirement.

?? If anything, frenzied regen is harder to use properly, you just mindlessly spam savage defense most of the time.

[bloodwulf]

Step one for Savage Defense. Create a weak aura (or power aura) to inform you when its up and when its down.
Step two Profit.

[Kujako]

Please tell me you are joking.

Joking less then I would like to be. It is a PITA to use Savage Defense without add on assistance. It would be nice if it had the Frenzied Regeneration property of being less effective but usable without the full 60 rage.

Almost done writing an addon that will flash an aura when I hit 60 rage and again in a different color when Savage Defense falls off. I'm lazy, but in a progressive manor.

[Lintu]

Just hitted 90 last night and here is my current avoidance:

ilvl: 435
armour: 14147
dodge: 8,46%
(I know those are awefully small numbers but remember I just got lvl 90 )

Personally, I find Savage Defense too hard to use and find myself often just using Frenzied Regeneration since it lacks the minimum rage requirement.

My gear is so low but still I could keep Savage Defense up for like 25 sec before even saw that RPS is far too low. I dunno if that is because low gear or is the problem between keyboard and chair

?? If anything, frenzied regen is harder to use properly, you just mindlessly spam savage defense most of the time.

Mindlessly is absolutely the right word for Savage Defense spam But i sort of can relate to Kujako and find myself often just using Frenzied Regeneration if i am feeling lazy to keep RPS up But mostly i keep Savage Defense up allmost all the time. And I believe that is the "right" way to go?

[Arielle]

Almost done writing an addon that will flash an aura when I hit 60 rage and again in a different color when Savage Defense falls off. I'm lazy, but in a progressive manor.

Pretty sure there's at least one Weak Auras script at TiB that will help you. Or just use Drood Focus.

[Kujako]

Pretty sure there's at least one Weak Auras script at TiB that will help you. Or just use Drood Focus.

I like to roll my own add-ons, not fond of the heavy handed ones that try to do more then I need. But that's just me.

[Arielle]

I like to roll my own add-ons, not fond of the heavy handed ones that try to do more then I need. But that's just me.

That's why everyone loves WeakAuras ^.^

[Scottyjscizzle]

Guardians are just as good as any of the other tanks, and for you being a new Druid it will likely be fun. Sadly as a older druid I didn't enjoy it as much as I did the old tree

[Kujako]

That's why everyone loves WeakAuras ^.^

Even that I find too "heavy". Frankly it's only a hand full of lines o' code to get a full screen texture flash when I'm at more then 60 rage. Took me a bit to find out how the LUA methods have changed since I last did such an add on, but in the end it's fairly straight forward. I also now have the events for when Savage Defense is applied, refreshed and lost so I can add alerts/flashes for those as well if I choose.

Textured frame,

-- Rage flash frame
local f = CreateFrame("Frame","rageFrame",WorldFrame);
f:SetFrameStrata("BACKGROUND");
f:SetClampedToScreen(true)
f:SetAllPoints(UIParent)
local t = f:CreateTexture(nil,"BACKGROUND");
t:SetTexture("Interface\\AddOns\\TankScripts\\Textures\\rage.tga");
t:SetAlpha(0.5);
t:SetBlendMode("ADD");
t:SetVertexColor(1, 0.1, 0.1);
t:SetAllPoints(frame);
f.texture = t;
f:SetPoint("CENTER",0,0);
f:Hide();

Then trap the UNIT_POWER event to start the flashing when over 60 rage and stop it when under or not in bear form.

    if (event=="UNIT_POWER") then
        if(UnitPowerType("player")==1 and TS_SAVAGE=="on") then
            if(UnitPower("player")>=60) then
                if (UIFrameIsFlashing(f)) then
                --    f.fadeInTime = 0.4;
                --    f.fadeOutTime = 0.6;
                --    f.flashInHoldTime = 1;
                else
                    UIFrameFlash(f, 0.5, 0.5, -1);
                end
            else
                if (UIFrameIsFlashing(f)) then
                    UIFrameFlashStop(f);
                end
            end
        else
            if (UIFrameIsFlashing(f)) then
                UIFrameFlashStop(f);
            end
        end
    end