Leveling a First Time Guardian Druid

[jonjonz 0]

Can anyone give me a general idea of the best way to use the limited skiils when trying to tank in dungeons between levels 15 and 60?

 

Or are there any bad habits to avoid etc. that are specific to Guardians?

 

I am leveling a my first Guardian Druid after doing a Holy Priest and a Assasination Rogue.  I found this site really helpful getting those two sorted out once they hit end game.

 

So far I am really enjoying the Guardian class (lvl 15 at the moment.)

 

Thanks,

[Tarazet 144]

By the time you get to level 40, you have almost everything that you will use in end game tanking.

 

- Thrash for snap threat and AoE damage. In WoD this ability is now infinitely spammable.

- Always use Mangle on cooldown to hit one target really hard and generate a lot of Rage. This should be done even in AoE fights; it is essential for your survival.

- Use Faerie Fire and Growl to keep mobs from eating the healer. Both very good ranged peel abilities. Growl is a taunt, so it has a cooldown; in WoD Faerie Fire now has no cooldown.

- Frenzied Regeneration to heal yourself. Don't be afraid of stepping on the healer's toes.

- Savage Defense - when leveling, it will mainly be useful against large packs of melee mobs. Don't expect to use it a lot before you start facing raid bosses.

- Lacerate will not be used often at first, but it is your filler when fighting anything less than large packs. At least keep it on one mob if they will live a while since it has a chance of resetting the cooldown on Mangle.

 

Some of the bad habits that Guardians specifically fall into:

 

- Not spending Rage. Know what your spenders are, what they do and when to use them. Your three spenders are Savage Defense, Frenzied Regeneration and Maul.

- Tying into the above: over-use of Maul as a Rage spender. Yes, it does a small amount of damage, but don't get into the habit of using it on every GCD. It is inferior as a survival tool to the other Rage spenders and doesn't hurt much.

- Not landing melee attacks on AoE packs. Sounds silly, but I encounter it a lot. Guardian's 360 degree Thrash makes it easy and tempting to go on autopilot, and forget to make sure you're also landing white attacks. Melee attacks are still a substantial source of Rage which is essential for your survival. Get into the habit of right-clicking a mob that you are facing.

 

For talents: I use and prefer Feline Swiftness, Renewal, Incarnation, Heart of the Wild (DoC if running a lot of dungeons), and Bristling Fur. This is personal preference and not what I recommend everyone to use; I simply prefer having extra tools to manage spike damage. And as for HotW, I'm a Troll, so I use Berserking + Berserk + HotW in Cat Form for some pretty impressive burst DPS on the opener; in my humble opinion, anything that helps down the boss faster is highly desirable, and my past raid leaders tended to agree with me.