Guardian in dungeons. Is this really all there is to it?

[Selerian]

I main'd guardian in Legion but started off BFA as a disc priest. After raiding this week and realizing we had a problem with tanking in my guild I decided to get back to it. So I leveled up my bear again and started gearing up, doing some mythic dungeons and m+.
I have to say I feel really disappointed with the playstyle of the spec. I'm just a meat shield, doing nothing but soaking dmg and draining my healer's mana. Granted this has always been the theme with Bears but at least in Legion our Artifact ability gave the spec some flavor. You could align cds and tear through big packs, you could avoid some clutch cc etc. Moreover, with thrash losing it's slow component, we can't even kite properly (another key tank skill taken away).
You just sit there taking loads of dmg, spamming IF, FR (fuck that gcd) and Barkskin, throwing in the occasional bash or typhoon to interrupt an ability and that's pretty much it.

My gear is not exceptional or optimal stat-wise (around 335) but I feel this is not a matter of gear but rather the playstyle being stripped down and limited to the absolute basics.

Am I missing something? Things do/will get better with gear or do I just have to accept the fact that dungeon runs as a guardian will be as fun as putting needles in my eyes?

PS: For raiding I'm guessing things should be ok cause it's more about the macro and the mechanics but in dungeons the playstyle felt really frustrating.

[Phabulous]

Guardian in dungeons. Is this really all there is to it?

Yes. Yes it is.

[Tyrilion]

Bear is in a bad place i was a feral/guardian all through legion and theyve killed both specs .. im just praying that all the feedback on the official forums is enough to get them to review theyre descisions.

[Mgemnusratsl]

People were complaining about legendary rng and they pruned spec . Blizzard..
I played 22/29 of mythic as tank first 3 weeks. It is not comfortable always button spamming rage pooling , trying to hold agro-threat all the time( reduced tank threat compared to legion)
I was planning to play mostly tank, but it may change to healer or Dps.

[JackWest]

Sadly, yes. I think Sco ranked them as worst tank for dungeons

[Deleted]

How the fuck did my BM hunter get stripped of so much but somehow ended up with more keys than before?

[Selerian]

Leveling a monk atm QQ

[Unholyground]

One of the biggest things that hurts us is lack of consistent self healing or damage mitigation that actually matters, Look at blood DK for example, they still have so much self healing they don't even need heals with small pulls, Guardians on the other hand always seem to need heals. First thing they need to do is reduce the base CD of FR to like 20/25 seconds and take it off GCD, then they need to make IF a flat damage reduction instead of this bullshit armor increase.

[Dazkareith]

sadly its true, i main a restoration/guardian Druid and i am felling a bit disappointed, really hope it gets better in the future

[Archibalde]

How the fuck did my BM hunter get stripped of so much but somehow ended up with more keys than before?

Because most of the stuff they took away was passive? You should only have one extra key to press.

Your pet gives you a new defensive cooldown when it's tenacity, so that's something to add to your bars. You also take Chimaera shot now but since you no longer have the Artifact's active skill that doesn't take any more key bindings. All the other optimal talents are passives, except Murder of Crows which you already used in Legion anyway.

[Daan]

Even my personal healer has decided to play her own way because my Guardian isn't good for M+ progression now. It's doable, for sure, but the Hero Class tanks are superior in everything by far again.

I don't want to be a superb dummy for raid bosses, I want to be a big ferocious bear that everyone is afraid of.

[ryklin]

the worst part is almost every mob in dungeons now just cast again if you typhoon, in legion there were at least somewhere you could use typhoon and an ability would go on cd
in bfa it feels like it's literally just the grubs in underrot

now all bears do is tank mobs and press skull bash and incap roar

at least moonfire is all of our damage now so our dps isn't too awful with all the kiting

yeah though the toughest I've tanked was a 7 motherload so far (avoid that place, it's fucking scarier than the 9 we did by miles) and I felt pretty garbage

[neiljwd]

There is a lack of healers in the game.
Feral and Balance are both sub-par, Guardian is lacking > Druids play healers.
Shadow is balls > Priests play healers.
Elemental is hurting > Shamans maybe play healers?

Anyone else feel like the current class 'balance' is a deliberate tactic by blizzard? Raid gear drops and people lock in to their current main, and only then blizz make the improvements to appease die hards who have stuck with a spec?

[BoomkinHell]

It's just a shit company that panders to "casuals" now. They fuck up every expansion and we just lap it up and pay money.

[ryklin]

bear tankiness isn't even that far behind (hell, I'd argue dk and dh are even squishier, and that pally is imo the current tankiest), but dps while kiting (especially with no infected wounds or bloody paws)

imo just give us the same treatment monks just got and give us a new aoe cc button, something like clash from mop monk would be pretty decent with the rest of our kit, or let fear roar not replace incap roar, that's basically exactly what monks got by making sweep baseline again

[Deicoy]

It's just a shit company that panders to "casuals" now. They fuck up every expansion and we just lap it up and pay money.

Bear has always been and will always be the new to tanking simple starter spec, this is nothing new this xpac.

People should know by now what they are signing up for.

[Rioo]

I don't mind the rotation too much, but miss RotS for all its uses. As this expansion seems to have a theme of class utility it would be nice to be able to use a bit more of our druid abilities in bear form. Dispel most of all. Or just give us our slow on Thrash back. With the nerfed balance affinity it would probably not be as strong anymore.

[Selerian]

Bear has always been and will always be the new to tanking simple starter spec, this is nothing new this xpac.

People should know by now what they are signing up for.

Being simple and being dumb are two very different things. In Legion bear tanking felt just fine (not talking numbers but the playstyle). Now it's the most braindead crap I've ever seen.

[BoomkinHell]

Taking abilities off the GCD was a casual move. It's universally hated among my guild raid groups. I dunno about the general public. Just feels terrible. We downed uldir twice this week and I'm still not used to Frenzied Regen being on the GCD. The GCD is just never up when I really want to use it.

[Vitinariy]

I found rotation to be bearable with bristling fur and pulverise taken together.
If you take brambles + rend and tear - then it's really braindead.

Plus I have no idea who designed the current incarnation of Maul. I almost never have excess rage to use it.