Guardian Druid 8.3

[Valks 2,375]

This thread is for comments about our Guardian Druid guide.

[Guest AnonyBear]

I would suggest tweaking this statement:

Hibernate is another long-term crowd control that puts the target to sleep for 40 seconds. Functionally speaking, for PvE content it is identical to Entangling Roots, except Hibernate only works on Beasts and Dragonkin.

Hibernate has a distinct advantage in PvE content over Entangling Roots, namely that the target of Hibernate loses all ability to do anything except stand there. A rooted target will still cast spells if able, and if any player wanders into melee range the rooted target will start to throw out melee hits if they are able to melee. Hibernate has a distinct disadvantage in that any damage at all to the hibernated target will break hibernate, while entangling roots will hold through some (but usually not much) damage.

Any player from the time when hibernate was last around would likely know all this, but I think it's worth being specific for the people for whom this is a new spell - it has been gone for years now.

[Faide 1]

Hey, thanks for the feedback! There are definitely some behavioural differences between the two, which I omitted. I focused primarily on the use case of using Entangling Roots in dungeons to root patrolling enemies in place in order to skip them. In that respect, Hibernate functions very similarly to Entangling Roots in purpose and result; both stop the target from moving for a long duration, and neither prevents an enemy from proximity aggroing (if a player gets too close to a CC'd mob, they will enter combat in both cases).

There are of course other uses (CCing particular enemies in a trash pack, for example) for which there are notable differences, as you pointed out. I will update the guide to reflect that. Thanks!

[DaltonIsPanda 18]

Now I'm debating using Luffa Wrappings and Elize's Everlasting Encasement or Lady and the Child and Fury of Nature for BfA leveling 

[Guest Shrom]

Just wanted to say : THANK YOU, this guide is very VERY an interesting one ! 

Feel free to not publish this useless comment as long as you transmit it to the author ?

[Valks 2,375]

On 7/25/2018 at 10:55 PM, DaltonIsPanda said:

Now I'm debating using Luffa Wrappings and Elize's Everlasting Encasement or Lady and the Child and Fury of Nature for BfA leveling 

Just as a heads up, the levelling guides will discuss things like this when they release ?

[Guest Moonguardian]

Hi, how do bear weight weapons? Are we stuck in using polearms now? Or can we still use fist and dagger types? If so, how do you compare it with a polearm type?

[Madnbad 0]

I don't believe stat priority to be correct at all. Lightning Reflexes means crit = dodge. How is dodge lower than haste on your priority?

[Valks 2,375]

On 8/17/2018 at 12:48 PM, Madnbad said:

I don't believe stat priority to be correct at all. Lightning Reflexes means crit = dodge. How is dodge lower than haste on your priority?

This is covered in the guide already, please read below:

Quote

Haste does many things for Guardian. It increases your melee attack speed, increases the rate at which  Thrashand  Moonfire (and  Feral Affinity bleeds  Rake and  Rip) tick, reduces the global cooldown, and reduces the cooldown on  Mangle,  Thrash, and  Frenzied Regeneration. All of this results in increased Rage generation and damage output, making Haste your best stat offensively and also a decent stat defensively.

Critical Strike, while being good for dealing damage, does not do much defensively. It does increase dodge chance, but that dodge chance is subject to heavy diminishing returns, and is generally an unreliable stat for survivability. Other stats increase your survivability far more reliably.

Hope this helps.

[Valks 2,375]

On 8/16/2018 at 6:22 AM, Guest Moonguardian said:

Hi, how do bear weight weapons? Are we stuck in using polearms now? Or can we still use fist and dagger types? If so, how do you compare it with a polearm type?

Guardian can't dual wield weapons normally. The artifact was an exception made for Legion, but you'll be using Polearms and Staves mainly now.

[Guest Drood Dood]

Is it ideal to stack azerite traits? Do they even stack at all? How do we know which ones do/don't? Say for example, Layered Mane.

[Valks 2,375]

On 8/24/2018 at 3:29 AM, Guest Drood Dood said:

Is it ideal to stack azerite traits? Do they even stack at all? How do we know which ones do/don't? Say for example, Layered Mane.

Normally, the rule is: if that part of the effect changes with item level, then that part stacks. If it doesn't, it normally won't.

[DaltonIsPanda 18]

So is having 3 layered manes a good idea?

[Faide 1]

15 hours ago, DaltonIsPanda said:

So is having 3 layered manes a good idea?

Not exactly. The problem with stacking Layered Mane is that a majority of the trait's value comes from the 10% chance to apply an additional Ironfur, which does not stack if you have more than one trait. Getting a second Layered Mane after you already have one will have significantly reduced value compared to getting the first. Generally you want one Layered Mane and not more.

Contrast this with Twisted Claws for example, where the majority of the value comes from the Agility you gain when you successfully apply a stack of the buff. That Agility does stack if you have more than one trait, which in turn makes the trait worth stacking.

[DaltonIsPanda 18]

2 hours ago, Faide said:

Not exactly. The problem with stacking Layered Mane is that a majority of the trait's value comes from the 10% chance to apply an additional Ironfur, which does not stack if you have more than one trait. Getting a second Layered Mane after you already have one will have significantly reduced value compared to getting the first. Generally you want one Layered Mane and not more.

Contrast this with Twisted Claws for example, where the majority of the value comes from the Agility you gain when you successfully apply a stack of the buff. That Agility does stack if you have more than one trait, which in turn makes the trait worth stacking.

That makes sense. I was under the assumption that the value of Layered Mane was more in the agility (and therefore armor) gain, which would stack.

So with the 3 S-Tier traits, it looks like Twisted Claws is the only one where stacking is viable (assuming the majority of the value of Guardian's Wrath comes from the Rage reduction).

[Guest Brollyson]

Ursoc's Endurance will now also proc off of Survival Instincts

[Guest Scatta - Kiljaeden]

AzeritePowerWeights Addon String for Guardian based off of this page. I did 5 for S, 4 for A, 3 for B, etc.

 

( AzeritePowerWeights:1:"Icy Veins Guardian":11:104: 100=2, 101=3, 112=5, 14=2, 15=4, 171=4, 18=4, 20=4, 219=2, 22=2, 241=5, 251=3, 359=2, 360=3, 361=5, 38=4, 43=4, 44=3, 459=2, 461=3, 467=3, 83=5, 84=5, 85=5, 86=4, 87=2, 89=5, 98=5, 99=4 )

[Guest Gnollface]

Is there an update to this thread comming? this is a VERY helpfull guide, and i used it alot while leveling... but now i have alot of traits that arent even on this list?!
like Bracing Chill and so on...

[Farynn 0]

Really nice Guide!

?

[Guest Utharkruna]

Excuse me if this has been pointed out someplace previously.
The Game UI for Guardian says that Restoration Affinity offers 1.5% Heal per 5 sec based on Stamina.
This forums site guide for Guardian Druid says its 3%

[jinsu2301 273]

On 1/16/2019 at 11:16 PM, Guest Utharkruna said:

Excuse me if this has been pointed out someplace previously.
The Game UI for Guardian says that Restoration Affinity offers 1.5% Heal per 5 sec based on Stamina.
This forums site guide for Guardian Druid says its 3%

The 1.5% is the correct value for Guardian. 

The reason the tooltip in the guide (and on every other website, including the official WoW Armory) says 3% is probably because there is some hidden modifier that only applies if the player is in Guardian spec, that's why it won't show outside of the game.

That said, the text portion of the guide states in the talent section the 3% value, that needs to be changed to 1.5%.

Edited January 19, 2019 by jinsu2301
I was wrong :)

[Faide 1]

On 1/17/2019 at 5:41 AM, jinsu2301 said:

The 1.5% is the correct value for Guardian. 

The reason the tooltip in the guide (and on every other website, including the official WoW Armory) says 3% is probably because there is some hidden modifier that only applies if the player is in Guardian spec, that's why it won't show outside of the game.

That said, the text portion of the guide states in the talent section the 3% value, that needs to be changed to 1.5%.

Hey! While it's true that in-game the tooltip for Restoration Affinity says it heals for 1.5% in Guardian, if you check the amount Ysera's Gift is healing for each tick in the combat logs, the numbers work out to 3% per tick. For example: my Druid has 281 480 maximum health. Ysera's Gift is healing me for ~8 444 (sometimes 8 445) per tick. (8444 / 281480) * 100 = 2.99%

This is mentioned in the description of the talent on the talents page: 

Quote

Note that the while the tooltip may say 1.5% of maximum health for Guardians, it actually heals for 3% of maximum health in game.

Now, I'm not sure whether it's intended to be 1.5% and is currently healing for too much, or if this is a tooltip bug and it's supposed to say it heals for 3%. All I know is that it says one thing, but does another!

[Guest Zal]

First off I would like to say that the Chest piece that is listed from Viq'Goth is from Siege of Boralus, NOT from Shrine of the Storm as it's listed :P  

 

 

[Guest kuzyia]

no one has updated for AzeritePowerWeights Addon

[Valks 2,375]

On 5/2/2019 at 1:35 PM, Guest kuzyia said:

no one has updated for AzeritePowerWeights Addon

Will speak to Faide about it and let you know, thanks!