Adjusting to Guardian Druid changes

[Uludaq 0]

So after taking a look at the patch notes of my beloved Guardian Druid I guess we'll have to adjust so some significant changes.

- Rage Generation took an overall nerve.

- Ironfur took a double nerve. First by lower availability due to lower rage Generation and second by having its effect reduced from 100% armor to 80%.

- Another double nerve is Gory Fur, now lowering costs by 25% instead of 50%, paired with lower overall rage generation.

- Some talent changes that need ingame testing, like damage buff for Pulverize and the new Talent replacing displacer beast.

In total I find this to be a nerve for this spec, that is not evened out by 4% damage increase on many base skills - espeacially when reading, that the damage increase is a lot higher for many other classes/specs (that in some cases also needed it way more, but you get what I mean, I think).

I like the thought about more Focus on deciding whether to use ironfur or mark of ursol, since we won't be able to use it in quick succession anymore.

So how do my fellow Guardian Druids think about These changes? Did anyone experience it on the PTR and can give some comparison to the live version pre 7.1.5?

How noticable are the changes to our gameplay?

Edited January 10, 2017 by Uludaq

[bobifle 14]

I'm no guardian pro, I play it only when no tank is available. From what I've seen, and compared to my DH tank, the guardian was lacking any kind of interesting gameplay.

It was a mindless spam of 3 technics, which was very helpfull as I didn't want to go into details when tanking but honestly, tanking with was easy and still very effective.

I guess the nerf was required so we have some level of resource management, and some choice to make when spending rage into our mitigation. I know it's a nerf, but I have the feeling that the druid was kinda op compared to other tanks in the sense it requires very little management.

I sincerely hope I'm completely wrong  :o)

 

[Uludaq 0]

33 minutes ago, bobifle said:

I guess the nerf was required so we have some level of resource management

That was the same thought I had while writing my post. The Bear is very forgiving in his rotation and resource-usage, meaning the nerve spices the spec up a bit. Only thing I can hardly imagine is, how the "double nerves" will affect gameplay. We'll see. I think the changes can be easily adjusted to.

Didn't have the time to play PTR and I'm not sure if your post was a comparison of live versus PTR, so I'd appreciate another feedback as to how different playing "feels".

 

Just too curious right now to wait for tomorrow ;D

Edited January 10, 2017 by Uludaq

[Uludaq 0]

Link: Testing Video

Some guy named Beatmyface made an informative video about the changes.

[Soliluna 0]

Tanked some Mythic EN and some 10/11/12 Mythic+ (although with skittering it's difficult to test much). All in all the changes are great (unless being the top in everything without lifting a finger is your game), finally I have to think, just a little, while tanking.

Despite what it looks like on paper I'm having as little issue now as I was before, but now that Pulverize is worth taking and now that our rage generation requires us to plan ahead a bit (particularly in raids where we are using Bristling Fur) I am really enjoying myself. There is a consequence to my failures and it is felt - very quickly - if I'm not paying attention.

Whether or not we're balanced? I don't know, but as long as I can do the content I'm happy.