Guardian
Like their feral brothers and sisters, guardian druids attune themselves to nature through the animal kingdom. They commune with the wild to understand how life perseveres through adversity. They know that the creatures who survive are often those built to best protect themselves and their kin. In this, the guardian druid finds a deep and harmonious value in the steadfast—all the while recognizing that sturdiness requires an aggressive stance when danger comes near.
Taking the form of a great bear, the guardian druid becomes a massive wall of fur, claw, tooth, and rage, aided by the forces of nature, standing between allies and any opposing threats.
"Taking the form of a great bear, the guardian druid becomes a massive wall of fur, claw, tooth, and rage, aided by the forces of nature, standing between allies and any opposing threats"
Gameplay
Powerful themes fuel the Guardian Druid, but the gameplay falls short of delivering on them. In particular, Guardian Druids have had a strong emphasis on avoidance, dodging attacks more than almost any other tank, with abilities accentuating that. However, this doesn’t mesh well with the image of the tough and sturdy bear. We want Guardian Druids to survive through their sheer tenacity, thick hide, massive resilience, and strong regeneration. To this end, we’ve redesigned several parts of the Druid combat ability toolkit to instead focus on those core defensive ideas—health, armor, mitigation, and regeneration—while deemphasizing dodge.
Here’s a basic look at the core combat abilities for Guardian Druids:
- Mangle
- Melee Range, Instant, 6 sec cooldown
- Mangle the target for strong Physical damage, reducing the target’s movement speed by 50% for 12 sec. Deals 20% additional damage against bleeding targets.
- Generates 5 Rage.
- Lacerate
- Melee Range, Instant, 3 sec cooldown
- Lacerates the enemy target, dealing moderate Bleed damage and an additional moderate Bleed damage over 15 sec. Stacks up to 3 times.
- Lacerate has a 25% chance to reset the cooldown on Mangle.
- Thrash
- Instant, 6 sec cooldown
- Strikes all enemy targets within 8 yards, dealing minor Bleed damage and applying Lacerate for an additional moderate Bleed damage over 15 sec.
- Moonfire
- 40 yd range, Instant
- A quick beam of lunar light burns the enemy for minor Arcane damage and then an additional strong Arcane damage over 12 sec.
- Usable while in Bear Form.
- Defensive
- Ironfur
- 40 Rage, Instant
- Increases armor by 100% for 6 sec.
- Multiple uses of this ability may overlap.
- Mark of Ursol
- 40 Rage, Instant
- Reduces magical damage taken by 30% for 6 sec.
- Frenzied Regeneration
- 10 Rage, Instant, 20 sec recharge (2 charges)
- Heals you for 100% of all damage taken in the last 6 sec over 6 sec (minimum 5% of maximum health).
- Mastery: Nature’s Guardian
- Increases your maximum health and healing received by 40% (with Mastery from typical gear).
- Also increases your attack power by 20% (with Mastery from typical gear).
Additionally, to give you an idea of how some talents may build upon this, here’s an example of one of their Guardian-specific talents:
- Rend and Tear
- Passive
- Your Lacerate bleed now also reduces the target's damage done to you, and increases damage you do to the target, by 3% per stack.