When was Guardian Druid at it's Peak? (Gameplay)

[Haywire5714]

I'm curious, since I don't know much about the history of this spec. In your experience, at which point in WoW's history was guardian (or feral I guess at some point) the most fun, complex or interesting gameplay wise?

[Polarthief]

Pretty much Legion. Guardian was always Dodge-based and a lot of fights (such as Horridon in ToT) had abilities that hit hard as a truck and was not dodge/parry/blockable, making Guardian relatively useless on any fight like that.

Finally, Guardian is now based on being a big ass wall of Armor and HP, also a lot of base DR such as Scintillating Moonlight, Thick Hide, Adaptive Fur, and Rend & Tear/Pulverize and is arguably one of the best tanks in the game at the moment.

[Volendrung]

Yeah, I've never enjoyed Guardian (both play-style and mechanically) as much as I did this expac.

[callipygoustp]

I remember them being fairly solid in WotLK mainly because my 10man raid team always had one.
(Definitely a feels more than reals anecdotal comment.)

[Nevcairiel]

I kind of liked the WoD Guardian as well, even if the healing/absorbing Guardian didn't really fit the Druid Fantasy. But in Legion, I really loved it. Big meat shield with a lot of armor and live, driven by proper rotational defensive buttons, instead of just offense+cooldowns.

Luckily our rotation was largely unimpacted by the artifact, so it remains mostly identical in BfA as well. Still going to miss Rage of the Sleeper though. It was a fun cooldown, both defensive and offensive, and as a bonus it made you CC immune for its duration too, which was fun in many fights.

[Ragnarohk]

Before Guardian was even a thing. Back when feral was tank/DPS. WotLK in my opinion (And feral DPS was at its prime back then too)

[NightZero88]

Before Guardian was even a thing. Back when feral was tank/DPS. WotLK in my opinion (And feral DPS was at its prime back then too)

I came to make this comment too. They were the most fun when you were the OT as a druid. You couldn't tank as well as the real tanks but you could DPS a lot better than them. I really enjoyed being OT when that was a thing then going kitty to do nearly as much DPS as the DPS guys.

[axxey]

Cata was a forgetable expansion but guardian/feral with associated set bonuses was insanely insanely good and fun to optimize.

During icecrown i had multiple top 10 bear dps parses with tank dying/DCing at start of fight and bear tanking in full ArPen feral dps gear/spec. Fun stuff.

[Toore]

The question wasnt how powerful but how complex and fun (latter being personal pref tbh) and of everything you say about guardian in Legion you cannot say its complex... Ill just say i stopped really playing it (a really neglected alt for OH gold mostly) long before NH... Most boring tank spec in Legion IMO (didnt really play it in other expansions - a little in WoD and also was simple and boring AF - maybe a little less then in Legion).
At least appreances and other visuals (disco bear!!!) make it up a little - altrough it gets old quite fast too

[Polarthief]

The question wasnt how powerful but how complex and fun (latter being personal pref tbh) and of everything you say about guardian in Legion you cannot say its complex... Ill just say i stopped really playing it (a really neglected alt for OH gold mostly) long before NH... Most boring tank spec in Legion IMO (didnt really play it in other expansions - a little in WoD and also was simple and boring AF - maybe a little less then in Legion).
At least appreances and other visuals (disco bear!!!) make it up a little - altrough it gets old quite fast too

Unless you count going into Cat Form to DPS, Bear was never interesting and complex. Lacerate was annoying as hell compared to Thrash. Savage Defense, or whatever it was called where you got +Dodge was the worst mechanic ever for active mitigation (HEY, DO YOU LIKE RNG? WHAT'S THAT? YOU DON'T?! WELL TOO BAD!). Faerie Fire (Bear) was just Moonfire but worse.

I honestly don't remember a single time where Bear was "interesting and complex", again, unless we're counting going into Cat Form to play Feral DPS when not needed as an active tank.

[kraid]

Woltk was pretty good but on par in other tanks, but here in legion is the best posible option.

[Volitar]

Legion was the best its ever been viability wise but Wrath Cata era was the most fun its ever been. BFA looks like a fucking potato without the artifact.

[Polarthief]

BFA looks like a fucking potato without the artifact.

So like 95% of other specs, including Druid's own Balance spec.

[RobertMugabe]

Definitely in Legion. They were always pretty strong and interesting (even in vanilla), but never were they the strongest tank by a big margin until Legion

[Gestopft]

Before Guardian was even a thing. Back when feral was tank/DPS. WotLK in my opinion (And feral DPS was at its prime back then too)

WotLK: when Bears had no way to move casters aside from LoS. And Swipe spam was so engaging. The combined Tank/Dps in one spec was nice, but Bear tanking was not particularly involved or engaging was back then.

[Kaeth]

Either WotLK when the true hybrid druid was still a thing, or now, when Guardian is a solid wall of tanky bear meat. If I had to choose between the two, I'd personally give Legion a slight edge on Wrath for the overall bear experience. I prefer -- at least nowadays -- being an unkillable juggernaut over having versatility.

[exochaft]

If we're talking fun/interesting/complex, it likely depends on the person. I came into this thread expecting a handful of people to say WotLK, as that was the pinnacle of bearcatting. While it did have its charm and power, I disliked always having to be an OT and never an MT, always the bridesmaid and never the bride so to speak. I think Feral/Guardian is better off afterwards since it finally allows us to feel like a full fledged tank and DPS roles. Currently Guardian is probably in a really good place as a tank.

My personal favorite time in terms of interesting bear play was actually MoP. I can't recall the name of the scaling mechanic since I haven't referred to it in forever (was it Vengeance? or was that the rename?)... but anyways, while it was broken in terms of insane tank damage output, I loved being able to proc free HT's that scaled well via DoC and strategically cast these strong heals on the raid or people in need. I also loved HotW from the aspect of how you could do some pretty clutch heals (HotW+Traq and/or Rejuv while in bear form) or strong DPS output for a certain amount of time. Honestly forget what the third choice was in that row of talents, however this row allowed us to be tanks but also provide some impactful utility.

[Mystikal]

That tier was Dream of Cenarius / Nature's Vigil / Heart of the Wild, if I recall correctly, and I really miss them on all specs.

[beerhug]

Faerie Fire (Bear) was just Moonfire but worse.

The glyph making Faerie Fire a range intrerupt was awsome. Would love to have a range intrerupt as a tank again, like DH and DK have.

[Kaliblaze]

WotLK: when Bears had no way to move casters aside from LoS.

Didn't faerie fire have a silence on it or am I going crazy?