[Guardian] - Patch 5.4 Survival Guide

[Deleted]

That good, as long as its viable im not bothered if other classes are OP or anything.

I just don't like the way the Brew is going. Also never main'd a Druid so will be a nice change, I don't really like the heals that tanks have these days but it feels right as a Paladin or Druid having them, but the others don't feel right to me. Don't know why its just a little something that bugs me lol!

[Eranthe]

As a fellow mythic Blackhand killing bear, I can say that being a Guardian in mythic content was likely the least important factor in what could have inhibited our progression. Sure, there were quite a few annoyances (many of which are being addressed in 6.2 bear changes), but execution and personal responsibility of the raid as a whole are waaaaaaay more important and likely to hold back progression than the class of one of your tanks.

Kind of ironic, though, on mythic Blackhand I wasn't the siegemaker tank. However, Bristling Fur + Cenarion Ward being up for every smash (except P3) is pretty nice in itself. Not once did I ever think that me being Guardian was a bad thing, I honestly thought it was pretty useful for how we did the fight. As a whole, I think Guardian's strength in my case was the lack of needing external CD's for the mythic content for specific mechanics, freeing CD's up for the other tank or raid depending upon what was going on. The 6.2 changes are just going to make this even better.

In my case, it has always come down to personal preference, and I love playing my bear. While Guardians may not have the most robust toolkit compared to other tanks, I find pleasure in making it work and executing in such a fashion that my raid doesn't have to doubt why they brought a Guardian over another tank class.

what works and doesn't work in this game is generally kind of overblown. people take "guardian isn't perfect" to mean "guardian isn't viable". and a lot of player fixate on what others have had success in as opposed to what can be successful, given the right circumstances. my 2 cents.

[Exigent]

Grumble, grumble question. I'm 10/10H without the option of Mythic gear currently outside the cache. This week I received a Mythic Warforged Acidic Jaws.

I currently have Heroic Sorka's Nightshade Cowl with a Socket.

I'm pretty convinced that the Crit/Versatility is competitively useless compared to the Mastery/Multistrike (+Mastery gem) on my current helm, but is the 21 item level boost enough to over-power that?

Appreciate the input.

[Dreyen]

It's definitely not BiS, but the raw ilevel is definitely better. Remember that Agi is one of your most desired stats and stamina and multistrike is pretty much the same.. and vers is still decently good, although not as strong as master in terms of damage reduction.

Go with mythic warforged helm.

[Gothmog]

Seconded.

/10chars

[Exigent]

It's definitely not BiS, but the raw ilevel is definitely better. Remember that Agi is one of your most desired stats and stamina and multistrike is pretty much the same.. and vers is still decently good, although not as strong as master in terms of damage reduction.

Go with mythic warforged helm.

Thanks! I'll trust your opinion, though it's worth noting that if the item was Multistrike/Versatility I probably wouldn't even be questioning this. Unfortunately it's Crit/Vers, so a bit less appealing still. That said, you're right about the boost in agility and stamina. Thanks again!

[redfella]

Quick question from a new bear; I made 4 macros, one each for Mangle, Lacerate, Trash & Pulverize, normal keypress = normal cast, but when I hold down shift I also use Maul. I've only done Proving Grounds and a few HCs so far, but it seems like Rage Generates so fast that I'm basicly just holding down shift 24/7. Is this different in raid setting? Was wondering if I should just swap out the shift modifier so that when I do hold it, it wouldn't Maul, and basicly just forget about Maul by having it autocast with those 4 regular rotational abilities?

Seems like there would always be plenty rage to SD or FG even with that way.

So, would that be a bad bear move or something quite typical?

I do understand that I'd be spending T&C procs while not tanking, but I can always just not use the macro for a few seconds before a tank swap to bank 3 charges.

[exochaft]

Quick question from a new bear; I made 4 macros, one each for Mangle, Lacerate, Trash & Pulverize, normal keypress = normal cast, but when I hold down shift I also use Maul. I've only done Proving Grounds and a few HCs so far, but it seems like Rage Generates so fast that I'm basicly just holding down shift 24/7. Is this different in raid setting? Was wondering if I should just swap out the shift modifier so that when I do hold it, it wouldn't Maul, and basicly just forget about Maul by having it autocast with those 4 regular rotational abilities?

Seems like there would always be plenty rage to SD or FG even with that way.

So, would that be a bad bear move or something quite typical?

I do understand that I'd be spending T&C procs while not tanking, but I can always just not use the macro for a few seconds before a tank swap to bank 3 charges.

From my personal experience, either you're swimming in rage or you're starving for it. When I was doing mythic Blackhand last night, I found occasionally that I was holding off on Maul for extended periods of time because I needed to pool rage or I just wasn't critting with anything (although on the pull I couldn't get rid of it fast enough). That's a single-target fight for tanks, so we can't be Thrashing for large amounts of rage like we can in AoE situations, which solo/5-man content usually is.

I've always kept it a separate button, because it's not necessarily fire-and-forget and it's off the normal GCD of our other abilities. Oddly enough I tend to use Maul when my other abilities are in the middle of a GCD, just habit at this point. Also, Guardians don't have an excessive amount of offensive abilities, so it's generally not an issue to have a separate bind for Maul.

[redfella]

Would you say you use Maul more often than not?

[exochaft]

Would you say you use Maul more often than not?

When not actively tanking, it's pretty much on CD. When actively tanking, it slightly depends on the fight and gear, but I'd say roughly every 6-9 seconds on average if rage isn't an issue. 2pc set bonus will heavily affect how often you can Maul, as well.

[redfella]

Made some WeakAuras if anyone's interested, it includes a miniature rotation helper

WA String: http://pastebin.com/LbWpmAMW
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITsrg2FwAkY

[Xarthis2041]

Would you happen to have a way to your UI? I just started guardian tanking and I like it

[Deleted]

For those of you who have been on the PTR testing HFC, in which order would you rank each tank class and why? Just post your opinion

I'll be posting this to every tanking class' forum.

[CenariusTheForestLord]

Monks have been brought down a bit, druids up. Warriors will have more use because of tier set and class trinket fixing their issues atm.
I'd say
Monks > DK=druid=warrior > paladin


Monks will still be marginally better because of cheesability, and guard is still too strong. Dk will be really good for magic fights (and there are quite a lot), warrior is pretty bad equal to paladin but their tier and class trinket fix all of it, bringing them just as high as the others. Paladin is way back though, both in dps and survivability. They'll basically want at least 1 stamina trinket for every fight just to survive multiple hits.

[Hitmonchan]

In a single target situation, is Cat Form Berserk always better for DPS than Bear Form Berserk? I see many logs that open with it, I'm just not sure if it's only better during Heroism+potions or if it's always better.

[Dreyen]

Cat form berserk is better if you use HotW. HotW buffs your argility in catform by an additional 150% (so times 2.5). Using an agi pot, berserk and hotw gives you insane burst that rival dps spec players for the duration of the berserk. Preferable to use it on the pull with a lust. I heard it's also better if you put up a triple lacerate stack and a thrash before going cat and refreshing it (Energy keeps building when shifting in and out), but I never saw the math for that so I can't really confirm if it's worth losing some agi pot and trinket uptime on the pull... probably not.

[Ausr]

I'm making a transition to tanking as a bear. I was hoping the first post of this topic was constantly updated but it isn't. Would it be possible to ask for tips on just about everything from knowledgeable people?

[Juvencus]

I'm making a transition to tanking as a bear. I was hoping the first post of this topic was constantly updated but it isn't. Would it be possible to ask for tips on just about everything from knowledgeable people?

The new website on the block seems to be up to date. The guide is maintained by Arielle (among others), who also runs The Inconspicuous Bear

http://summonstone.com/druid/guardian/#summary

[Ausr]

The new website on the block seems to be up to date. The guide is maintained by Arielle (among others), who also runs The Inconspicuous Bear

http://summonstone.com/druid/guardian/#summary

Thank you very much. Was looking around the some of the other websites (EJ, here, etc) and just couldn't find any updated guides.

[xskarma]

The new website on the block seems to be up to date. The guide is maintained by Arielle (among others), who also runs The Inconspicuous Bear

http://summonstone.com/druid/guardian/#summary

I found these on my own while looking for resources (as I am more or less forcing myself to take over tanking duties in my guild) and found them very helpful as well.

It would be nice though if someone were willing to take up the mantle and write a Guardian guide for MMO-Champion. Having a guide this old is just detrimental and if no solution is found I think it's time we do away with it come 6.2. Hopefully we can replace it with a guide written by someone, but if not we can have a basic discussion thread for Guardian aimed at 6.2 content. There seems to be plenty of demand for a Guardian guide, though, so it would help a lot of people.

Again, if someone would be willing to write and maintain a Guardian guide for 6.2 please let me or Slippykins know so we can set things up for that.