Mark of Ursol Vs. Ironfur - When to use?

[Deleted]

Hey, I am a versatile Druid Player (main heal) and try to maintain perfection on all of my speccs. Though feral and Balance have given me some understanding trouble this Expansion.

Now as a Guardian I still have some edges that need finetuning. The biggest question for me is, when do People favor Mark of Ursol over Ironfur?

Simply saying "Whenever the Encounter is Magic heavy" is not enough for me. I already try to minimize damage of various Encounters by trying a different combination of the two temp. buffs, but I'm not sure if I pinpoint it properly, which leads me to my next question

The second question is: Is there any way to tell from dungeon compendium if a spell is physical or magical? I played a lot of pokemon, so I became quite paranoid of seperating physical/magical attacks (spells). If EVERY Spell is magical, that solves some problems for me. But some spells/attacks seem physical and can only be reduced by armor (like shadowslashes or whatever else sounds physical).

TL;DR: Does WoW seperate spells into physical/magical damage or are spells in general magic damage (i.e. Mark of Ursol reduces their inc. damage)? Is there a guide for optimal Mark of Ursol and Ironfur usage?

[CallMeGrey]

What I always do is check skada after fights to see how much of the damage is coming from "attacks" - it's usually 70%+. So, of course, I prioritize Ironfur. It's usually easy to see if a mob is continually casting spells - then I switch to MoU.

It's just good to see you using active mitigation. I have the unfortunate luck of seeing way to many guardians using Maul, and not using AM (less than 10% uptime). And I usually play a healer, so...

[Morg]

I use ironfur in most situations because it's generally physical then one magic hit followed by more physical. I use Mark when there's prolonged magic damage, a huge hit or when something is chain casting that's about it.

Also Maul is fine in most situations except in high mythic + because everyone outgears it by now it's also great for skittish

[Protozoa7]

With current rage gen you should be able to maintain 1 stack of IF for an encounter and have enough rage to pop another IF or MoU based on what damage spike is going to happen at any given time.

To answer your 2nd question even though some bosses have magic attacks they are mitigated by AM so IF works for those. Run instances that you arent familiar with to get a feel for each boss and how to best deal with its abilities.

[Nevcairiel]

Raid Bosses are typically not "magic heavy" (exceptions apply), as they keep hitting you in melee either way, but more typically you have single bursts of magic spells, and in those situations you would pop MoU to mitigate their damage specifically - not keep up MoU baseline. So in short, it depends very much on the fight.

Of course there are bosses that cast constantly on you instead of meleeing you, in which case you would exchange baseline IF for MoU, but those bosses are rare.

[exochaft]

One thing you must realize when it comes to choices of Ironfur vs Mark of Ursol is that any ability that does an active mitigation check only recognizes Ironfur. For example, first boss in VotW: when he casts Shadowblade, you need to use Ironfur to prevent him from gaining an absorb shield even though the damage to mitigate is shadow. Also, last boss in Nelth's Lair does the one-two combo of Landslide -> Molten Crash: If you don't use Ironfur during Molten Crash (which is nature damage), you'll take extra damage and get knocked back a second time.

Beyond this, just takes practice to figure out when to use what, and checking the combat log and/or dungeon journal helps when determining what type of damage an ability is. Sometimes abilities may not deal the damage type that might seem intuitive. Most of the time, you can get away with just using Ironfur as Frenzied Regen healing after a bit magic hit can be more effective. If you're pushing content that stresses your gear, such as high mythic+, you may have to start actually using Mark of Ursol to prevent getting one-shot or getting to a dangerously low level of health.

In terms of encounters where I'll religiously use Mark of Ursol a great deal more than Ironfur, it's only in 5man content where the bulk of the damage is magic (like Shade of Medivh or Ivanyr). Only places in raid is typical "breath" mechanics that may require Mark of Ursol, otherwise Ironfur is king.

[Deleted]

Okay, thanks for the responses. So I guess there is no clear indicator to see from the dungeon compendium if a boss' abilities are Magic/physical damage that can be negated in a specific way.

In that case I am right on track.

[boz0]

You can also use an addon that shows the damage you've taken in the last X seconds with a different color for magical and physical.
I'm using FrenziedRegenerationHelper for that : https://mods.curse.com/addons/wow/fr...nerationhelper

It will give you a fair idea of what kind of damage you're taking depending on the major boss/mobs abilities.

[Nerxyrall]

Okay, thanks for the responses. So I guess there is no clear indicator to see from the dungeon compendium if a boss' abilities are Magic/physical damage that can be negated in a specific way.

In that case I am right on track.

You have to look in the kompendium what the abilities specifically say. im very certain that you can see if its magical or physical. Just the "you need active mmitigation aka ironfur allthough its (for example) natur damage"-part isnt clear.

[Deleted]

You have to look in the kompendium what the abilities specifically say. im very certain that you can see if its magical or physical. Just the "you need active mmitigation aka ironfur allthough its (for example) natur damage"-part isnt clear.

Okay, that's what I was curious about. So it is like the Pokemon attack System where some are physical and others are special when they should be physical and vice versa (or how it used to be atleast).

[Nerxyrall]

Okay, that's what I was curious about. So it is like the Pokemon attack System where some are physical and others are special when they should be physical and vice versa (or how it used to be atleast).

No idea about pokemon, too long ago^^
But yeah, you can look at (nearly) every ability from (nearly) every boss and see what it says there. Physical or magical (normaly natur , shadwo , fire etc).

I´m personally try to have at least one stack of irojnfur up all the time (if an ability needs active mitigation to negate it (at least partially) and then have enough rage to use ursol if a breath or anything like that comes.
But it is highly dependant on the boss/mob. Sometimes the breath is so weak that another stack of ironfur would be much more beneficial.

[Hanede]

Not the best solution, but once you have the Adaptive Fur golden trait, you can just check when it activates and realize you're taking magical damage from a certain boss/trash pack, and remember to use Mark of Ursol there in the future.

[sponge5307]

What I always do is check skada after fights to see how much of the damage is coming from "attacks" - it's usually 70%+. So, of course, I prioritize Ironfur. It's usually easy to see if a mob is continually casting spells - then I switch to MoU.

It's just good to see you using active mitigation. I have the unfortunate luck of seeing way to many guardians using Maul, and not using AM (less than 10% uptime). And I usually play a healer, so...

I only do heroics so far and most of the time Ironfur since there aren't too many mobs that does magical damage. I also tend to kill caster first in mobs (caster are harder to deal with so I tend to kill them faster).

I don't even have Maul on my hot bar lol. I really see no point in having Maul at all......