[Guardian] Best use of Lifeblood?

[Reckles]

So, I've got a druid and he's my gathering alt, cause druids are amazing at that. I come from a fury warrior background but somehow started to fall in love with Bear tanking; it's really intuitive to me.

Anyways, my question is, how do you best use the Lifeblood talent from herbalism as a Guardian? I understand that it's largely considered the worst profession choice, but since it's what I'll be working with, how should I incorporate the large haste boost into my rotation for best results? Thanks!


P.S. I never ever use Bear Hug. Should I be?

[Arielle]

Might as well just use it on CD really, or you can hold it for the heal (as small as it is).

[Raugnaut]

For Bear Hug, its useful if you need a stun and want to do some extra damage- since it hits for about 100k+, its pretty useful for soloing/dungeons, but due to the root, not so useful for raiding.

Lifeblood is a minor haste CD- it grants you about 8%ish haste as a bear. You will notice very little difference when you use it or not, so just use it on CD. The heal, which is about 5% of health, is also fairly minor, and while it could save you, probably won't.

[Tarazet]

So, I've got a druid and he's my gathering alt, cause druids are amazing at that. I come from a fury warrior background but somehow started to fall in love with Bear tanking; it's really intuitive to me.

Anyways, my question is, how do you best use the Lifeblood talent from herbalism as a Guardian? I understand that it's largely considered the worst profession choice, but since it's what I'll be working with, how should I incorporate the large haste boost into my rotation for best results? Thanks!


P.S. I never ever use Bear Hug. Should I be?

Bear Hug is rarely useful in raiding environments, so you can safely take it off your main bar. If the stun doesn't work, the ability does no damage.

Regarding Lifeblood, the main use of Haste is as a DPS stat, since it increases melee speed and our paw strikes hit hard. But it also speeds up Rage generation, gives you more T&C procs, and grants a tiny but measurable amount of extra self-healing from melee crits via Leader of the Pack, so it isn't wasted. However, we much prefer to have it on our gear as opposed to in the form of a cooldown that gives us X extra haste points, because we get a multiplier when Haste is on our gear. (However, percentage-based boosts like Berserking and Bloodlust are still awesome.) So even using two JC Haste gems would be better than what you get from Lifeblood. But two JC Crit or Stamina gems would be far better.

If you don't want to reroll your profession, I would say just macro Lifeblood to Enrage and use that button on cooldown.

[Reckles]

Wow, wasn't really expecting a unanimous "use on CD," but more than that, I appreciate the in depth explanations as to why. Thanks guys!

[Blencathra]

I have Lifeblood macro'ed to both Enrage and Incarnation. Seems to work quite well as a minor rage generation/DPS bonus.