Guardian Druid 6.2

[Guest Ryecoke]

Question on DPS, should I be letting lacerate tick (and waiting to pulverize just to keep the buff up)? or just spamming pulverize as much as possible?

[Vlad 411]

Question on DPS, should I be letting lacerate tick (and waiting to pulverize just to keep the buff up)? or just spamming pulverize as much as possible?

You Pulverize as soon as you can. Mangle and Lacerate until you get Lacerate to 3 stacks, and then consume it.

[Guest Tynstar]

I noticed that Agility is mentioned neither in the stat priorities given in the "Basics" section nor in the "Getting a deeper understanding" section.

1. Does that mean I simply ignore Agility when choosing/comparing items and look for Stamina only?
    
2. If so, wouldn't that be equivalent of saying "if item level is higher, it's an upgrade" (which is the rule given over at wowhead)?
    
3. How do I know which items are "suited" to a Guardian Druid in general? Previously, I simply looked for Agility, and ignored items that provided e.g. Strength.

[Guest Wishes]

I love  Berserk but use it only when shit realy hits the fan as the added healing via  Frenzied Regeneration and  Dream of Cenarius +  Healing Touch can keep me up with my cooldowns and potions to finish the boss off when for some reason my  Rebirth  for some reason is not available to resurrect the healer. In raids, it would have probably alot less of a purpose.

I tried out  Force of Nature and I'm realy sorry I overlooked it until now.

For raids it probably won't be of much use, but still could save lives, even if the Treant can survive just 2-5 hits.

The loss from  Soul of the Forest can be felt pretty hard, but in HC dungeons at high burts mobs or mobs with anoying abilities I can just throw in a treant to tank it for me. They are damn strong and barely ever they die even on bosses. I can split tank on most pulls when my dps are too lazy to sheep/hex and they easily can hold ads on bosses. 

Just always  Growl and  Faerie Fire before droping a  Force of Nature on the minion as they need a starting threat to work with.
I run with a disc priest who likes to dps when healing is not needed, so at many bosses he can contribute up to 5k dps depending on how well I can avoid dmg and self heal.  It's kinda funny that   Force of Nature  can taunt some bosses in HCs and tank them exclusively while you are beating the crap out of it(generaly after boss looses 50% it's hard to get 15% total aggro before treants next taunt - around every 4-6 secs gotta count it).

Please, never use Treants them on mobs that have directional AOE, it's not a wise thing to do.

Also it's worth mentioning that sometimes the monster starts backing away from the Treant, especialy the large one. This could move the monster in the middle of casters or into another group of npc.

 

I'm realy wondering how well these bastards will do in Challenge modes, because I can now after pull just mangle + trash and drop a treant on the most dmging direct attack bastard and step away to mitigate alot of the incoming dmg and AOEs from dps can still attack the monster compared to sheep/sap/hex.
 

 

[Guest Codger]

1. Why is 'Soul of the Forest' recommended for Guardians?  I don't see anything in the description about rage generation.  The description is "Increases the damage bonus from Lunar and Solar Empowerment by an additional 15%'. 

[Sonywara 0]

 

1. Why is 'Soul of the Forest' recommended for Guardians?  I don't see anything in the description about rage generation.  The description is "Increases the damage bonus from Lunar and Solar Empowerment by an additional 15%'. 

 

 

Change to guardian spec and you can see the correct one with 15% more damage and 5 more rage for mangle.

 

 

Somebody can give me a link to the calculation of damage to heal of leech? I'm interested to how much leech needed for a 10% of damage to heal and another question is the leech stat heal from periodic damages or onli from autoattacks and direct damage skills?

Edited November 30, 2014 by Sonywara

[Krazyito 521]

Leech healing is from all healing and damage that you do.

[Krazyito 521]

I noticed that Agility is mentioned neither in the stat priorities given in the "Basics" section nor in the "Getting a deeper understanding" section.

• Does that mean I simply ignore Agility when choosing/comparing items and look for Stamina only?

   

• If so, wouldn't that be equivalent of saying "if item level is higher, it's an upgrade" (which is the rule given over at wowhead)?

   

• How do I know which items are "suited" to a Guardian Druid in general? Previously, I simply looked for Agility, and ignored items that provided e.g. Strength.

Agility is a stat you don't have a choice in. Always go for Agility. (although now all leather items ha e goth Agility and int on them, so it doesn't matter)

And next just go for highest item level + sockets. Usually it's going to outweigh alot of other choices. Next you should try to go for a mix of mastery, crit, and multi strike.

[Aertherius 0]

I'm assuming the guide is well thought out, but I would like to know more about the reasons behind it. Going through my questions in the order which the topics appear in the guide:

 

Is it really better to use Lacerate in an AoE rotation? Thrash gives 1 rage every time it does damage, means it gives 1 rage, an additional 8 rage if it's a crit, for every target it hits - instantly.

 

The stats priorities are confusing me. Why is Versatility ranked so highly, and multistrike, crit and haste are considered worst? Usually versatility is a pretty weak attribute.

I mean Multistrike scales with Ursa Major, crit increases our rage generation by a lot (and since Frenzied Regeneration has no cooldown we shouldn't rage cap in a real fight either) and haste gives Tooth and Claw procs and reduces the cooldown on both Maul and Mangle.

Also, altough it was mentioned already, Agility is missing from the list. I understand that Agility, Stamina and Armor are usually gained automatically, but trinkets differ in this regard. Is Stamina more important than Agility or vice versa?

[Guest Hakuna Matata]

#showtooltip
/cast [nostance] Bear Form; [stance:1/2/3] Bear Form; 
/cast [stance:4, swimming] Aquatic Form; [stance:4, outdoors] Travel Form;[stance:4 indoors] Cat Form

 

Is another helpful macro that I found on the WoW druid forums, posted by a Savat from Dark Iron. It will shift you into bear form if you're not in it,aquatic form if you're swimming, if tapped while outside and in bear form it will change you into travel form, and if tapped while inside in bear form it switches you into cat form. It is essentially an all around form switcher.

[Guest Nookie]

 

 

The stats priorities are confusing me. Why is Versatility ranked so highly, and multistrike, crit and haste are considered worst? Usually versatility is a pretty weak attribute.

 

funny you should say that, I think the stats prios are told as flat out numbers and not what they " can do if ". 

Versatility = dmg decrease and atk power increase ( if im not mistaken )

Crit = " if i have more crit then i get more rage, more rage means i can do this this this and this more often " etc

 

Its hard to explain but i think that's why they rank those stats highest prio because they see the base benefit. Since reforging has gone its tough to focus on one stat since you get what you are given and its gg. i was given a 655 chest on wednesday night ( agi,stam, bonus armor, versa,haste ) i got another chest from HC 2 days later with ( agi, stam, mastery, crit ) Same item name but 2 random enchants. 

[Guest Little farter]

Why is agility not on the stat priority list? Agility increases damage and so it will increase aggro. So having agility would be preferable to a stat that provides no benefit.

[madar 2]

Is it really better to use Lacerate in an AoE rotation? Thrash gives 1 rage every time it does damage, means it gives 1 rage, an additional 8 rage if it's a crit, for every target it hits - instantly.

 

The stats priorities are confusing me. Why is Versatility ranked so highly, and multistrike, crit and haste are considered worst? Usually versatility is a pretty weak attribute.

I mean Multistrike scales with Ursa Major, crit increases our rage generation by a lot (and since Frenzied Regeneration has no cooldown we shouldn't rage cap in a real fight either) and haste gives Tooth and Claw procs and reduces the cooldown on both Maul and Mangle.

Also, altough it was mentioned already, Agility is missing from the list. I understand that Agility, Stamina and Armor are usually gained automatically, but trinkets differ in this regard. Is Stamina more important than Agility or vice versa?

 

The AE rotation for me is situation dependant. The 3 Lacerate and a Pulverize can be useful, but in dungeons sometimes the mobs are dead already when you done with the stacking. In raid, usually you have enough rage to use savage defense without spamming Thrash, and the Pulverize is very useful here.

 

Versatility lowering your damage taken, and not only the physical like the dodge or armor or mastery. However, its not the best stat, but still better than the others i think. Yes, in theory you can use the plus rage to heal yourself, but in practice i found difficult to use the normal tanking rotation and simultaneously use two rage spending ability (savage defense AND frenzy regen). In a usual raid environment i don't have to care with my healing constantly, only in specific situations.

 

Agility is the worst stat imo, they nerfed to the ground. It gives attack power, and nothing else. It's just a damage meter stat, anything is better than this.

Edited December 15, 2014 by madar

[Guest MacrosBlu]

When fighting The Butcher in Highmaul the Tier 7 talent Guardian of Elune is extremely useful as it can negate any damage you take from his The cleaver bleed, the reduced Cooldown means it's able to be used every time without it your dodge ability is still good but refreshes too slowly for consistency, not sure if this is enough to offset the 15%dmg reduction from pulverise though

[Guest Meowmix]

Why mastery instead of armour enchant on weapon?

[Guest Rëza]

Hey Icy Veins,

 

Thanks for all the direction and hard work you guys put into your guides.

 

The one thing I would like clarification on is regarding Diminishing returns on Stats priorities. Are there any that I should be aware of, or is this now a moot point with stats like Hit and Expertise gone from gear/gems?

 

I would just like to know if there is such a thing as having too much of a specific stat in the priorities you listed.

 

Thanks.

[Vlad 411]

Hey Icy Veins,

 

Thanks for all the direction and hard work you guys put into your guides.

 

The one thing I would like clarification on is regarding Diminishing returns on Stats priorities. Are there any that I should be aware of, or is this now a moot point with stats like Hit and Expertise gone from gear/gems?

 

I would just like to know if there is such a thing as having too much of a specific stat in the priorities you listed.

 

Thanks.

No, not really. If this was ever the case, the top players would be hitting it first (since they have the best gear), and by the time "normal" people get there it would be mentioned in the guides.

[Guest Bullimaya]

So I would strongly reccomend adding the following to macro's.

 

#showtooltip

/startattack

/cast Lacerate()

/cast !Maul

 

 

#showtooltip

/startattack

/cast Mangle()

/cast !Maul

 

 

#showtooltip

/startattack

/cast Thrash()

/cast !Maul

 

 

[Tehrock 0]

What exactly is the resoning in recommending Heart of the Wild? It only effect cat form and caster form, and I don't see any point in being in either of those forms to take advantage of it. Cat form abilities as guardian spec do way less damage than those of bear form, so really the only reason to be in cat form is if you're in a raid that already has two tanks and you don't want to pull aggro off them, but then why do you not have a second spec?

 

Also, not sure why Glyph of Barkskin is not mentioned as a major glyph since it seems more viable than some of the other options.

 

And finally, the cooldown reduction on Glyph of Survival Instincs is only 40 seconds, not 60, making this glyph far less useful.

 

Seems another revision of this article is needed.

[Tehrock 0]

7. Tier 6 Talents↑top

Tier 6 talents offer a choice between 3 talents that improve your ability to act as a hybrid.

•  Heart of the Wild is a 6-minute cooldown that greatly improves your ability to deal melee damage in  Cat Form, heal, and cast spells for 45 seconds.
  • When in  Cat Form, you gain a massive increase in Agility.
  • Your healing and damaging spells are more effective, can be cast in  Bear Form and  Cat Form, and cost no Mana.

 

There is a big mistake here.... The agility boost is for BEAR FORM, not Cat Form....

Ah, so this is a tooltip error in the game? I was wondering why this was suggested as a talent.

[Tehrock 0]

7. Tier 6 Talents↑top

Tier 6 talents offer a choice between 3 talents that improve your ability to act as a hybrid.

•  Heart of the Wild is a 6-minute cooldown that greatly improves your ability to deal melee damage in  Cat Form, heal, and cast spells for 45 seconds.
  • When in  Cat Form, you gain a massive increase in Agility.
  • Your healing and damaging spells are more effective, can be cast in  Bear Form and  Cat Form, and cost no Mana.

 

There is a big mistake here.... The agility boost is for BEAR FORM, not Cat Form....

I just tested it, and it does NOT give agility in bear form, only cat form.  So I'm really not sure why it is even suggested.

[Paloro 39]

The only way you can perform more damage with your attacks in bear form outside of HotW cat, is if you have a massive amount of vengeance.

 

Generally, you should be taking this talent and letting your other tank pull off the bat while you do damage for the duration of the cd.

[Vlad 411]

What exactly is the resoning in recommending Heart of the Wild? It only effect cat form and caster form, and I don't see any point in being in either of those forms to take advantage of it. Cat form abilities as guardian spec do way less damage than those of bear form, so really the only reason to be in cat form is if you're in a raid that already has two tanks and you don't want to pull aggro off them, but then why do you not have a second spec?

 

Also, not sure why Glyph of Barkskin is not mentioned as a major glyph since it seems more viable than some of the other options.

 

And finally, the cooldown reduction on Glyph of Survival Instincs is only 40 seconds, not 60, making this glyph far less useful.

 

Seems another revision of this article is needed.

I would argue that the guide does not really "recommend" Heart of the Wild. It certainly doesn't recommend it for survival. As for DPS, yes, it is a DPS increase to go Cat form with HotW active instead of just attacking in Bear (especially if you aren't actively tanking the boss). There are many situations where this is useful in raiding.

 

Regarding Glyph of Barkskin, it does absolutely nothing beneficial for a Guardian Druide in PvE, since Bear Form guarantees that you cannot be critically hit by a boss.

 

I've fixed the tooltip error for Glyph of Survival Instincts, thanks :)

[Guest Beary]

Why is it recommended to use other shoulders than the other tier shoulders?  They have mastery and multistrike, two of the best stats.  Brf is obviously our multistrike raid due to the items that drop out of it, and have found myself that rolling multistrike (more than just the 10% suggested in guide) feels better.  I guess I can handle self healing/mitigation and can focus more on dps too though due to ability of healers if nothing else.  I was just wanting clarification why we'd be aiming for a mastery crit shoulder when we can get all pieces with mastery multi.  I'm currently using the 4 piece w/o helm and using iron maidens helm (mastery multi).  I also have Mythic Warforged multi/mastery gloves to swap out to if I get the helm tier.  These feel the best to swap out as they have no mastery and helm has most added mastery (with the other choice being between haste/crit).  I mean even currently Askmrrobot is going with multistrike > mastery.

[Guest Casa]

Please correct the implied 10% breakpoint with multistrike, it keeps coming up in forums threads using this guide as the source. There's nothing special about 10% multistrike or any other amount. Other than that, this guide is excellent.