Guardian Druid Patch 9.2 Changes Analysis and Tier Set Thoughts

This page will go over how the changes in Patch 9.2, Eternity's End, will affect Guardian Druid, specifically how the changes might impact its playstyle, best Legendary choices, Covenants, and the like. If you are simply interested in what the current changes are for Druids in Patch 9.2 in general, you can instead read our full list of changes to the entire Druid class on our dedicated page below. For an additional list of content coming with Patch 9.2, you can also check out our Patch 9.2 Overview page.

At the moment, Guardian Druids have not yet received any changes to the specialization's core kit. However, some of the additional content that will be arriving in 9.2 will likely change your gameplay slightly.

As with the specialization itself, there have been no direct Talent changes made in PvE or PvP for Guardian.

Within the new Sepulcher of the First Ones raid that will be coming in Patch 9.2, every class will once again earn pieces of a gear set that is uniquely class-themed with its own two- and four-piece bonuses for every specialization. For Guardian Druids, these set bonuses are:

• Guardian Druid 2-Piece — Casting Barkskin causes you to Berserk for 4 seconds.
• Guardian Druid 4-Piece — While Berserked, you radiate (17.29% of Attack Power) Cosmic damage to nearby enemies and heal yourself for (25.8% of Attack Power) every second. Deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets.

The most recent change to the tier set bonus nerfed the damage and healing by 35% and reduced the damage it deals on more than 5 targets.

The Guardian Druid 2-Piece is fantastic. It fixes many of our initial threat issues, particularly in Mythic+, while also increasing our defensive capability by lowering the cooldown of Frenzied Regeneration more often. There is also some pretty interesting synergy with Legendaries that have not been used often. Legacy of the Sleeper, for example, can grant you 4 seconds of crowd control immunity with each Barkskin cast which may have some huge value in the upcoming raid.

The Guardian Druid 4-Piece is quite a significant amount of damage and also helps improve our threat, DPS, and self-sustain. It scales with all secondaries and damage increases.

Overall, these set bonuses definitely hit the mark on where Guardian was lacking in the area of initial threat issues and while they do not particularly change your rotation significantly, they are very welcomed bonuses heading into the Sepulcher of the First Ones raid and season 3 of Mythic+.

Although there has currently been no changes to Covenant abilities or Soulbinds for Guardian, it should be pointed out that as of Patch 9.1.5 players may freely switch between Covenants provided they have obtained the Renowned achievement on any character of their account. The only requirement for this achievement is that you must reach Renown level 80 with any Covenant. This has opened up a lot of flexibility for Guardian Druids, allowing them to effectively choose the best Covenant for any situation, though the choice for maximizing damage will still largely come to either Night Fae, Venthyr or Kyrian.

In addition, Conduits are unlocking their final few ranks, though this will not alter gameplay in any substantial way.

Recall that in Patch 9.1, every class received a Legendary Power that was unique to each Covenant. For Druids, these Powers were:

• Kyrian — Kindred Affinity — You and your Kindred Spirit each gain a bonus secondary stat based on their Covenant. This bonus is doubled while the bond is Empowered.
• Necrolord — Unbridled Swarm — Adaptive Swarm has a 60% chance to split into two Swarms each time it jumps.
• Night Fae — Celestial Spirits — Convoke the Spirits' cooldown is reduced by 50% and its duration is reduced by 25%. Convoke the Spirits has an increased chance to use an exceptional spell or ability.
• Venthyr — Sinful Hysteria — Each time Ravenous Frenzy is applied its duration is increased by 0.1 seconds (was 0.2 seconds). Additionally, Ravenous Frenzy lingers and will not overcome you for 3 seconds after it ends. (was 5 seconds).

However, new in Patch 9.2 is the ability to eventually use a second Legendary Power, provided it is your Covenant-specific effect. This means that a Kyrian Guardian could make use of both Kindred Affinity and Ursoc's Fury Remembered. In addition, this ability will be tied to a new Legendary Power that automatically switches to match your current Covenant, further encouraging the flexibility of freely changing Covenants that was introduced in Patch 9.1.5.

The core Legendaries for Guardian Druid are already so strong that gaining any of the Covenant-specific ones is a great boost in power.

Kyrian Guardian Druids benefit the most out of the 4 Covenants from the addition of double Legendaries. Kindred Affinity is a powerful Legendary by itself, yet losing such strong Legendaries such as Draught of Deep Focus, Ursoc's Fury Remembered, or The Natural Order's Will felt particularly punishing in certain scenarios. This issue has now become completely resolved with the ability to wear 2 Legendaries; this will make Kyrian an amazing Covenant choice come 9.2.

Venthyr was another Covenant with an extremely strong Legendary in Sinful Hysteria. Even though this received a slight nerf in the patch it is still very powerful. Being able to use Ursoc's Fury Remembered or Legacy of the Sleeper alongside Sinful Hysteria will lead to a huge power spike every 3 minutes or so. This will continue to be a covenant choice that excels in an AoE-centric environment.

Night Fae gains less than Kyrian and Venthyr as Celestial Spirits is a rather mediocre Legendary for us. However, it is still decent defensively and will be excellent for encounters where you are primarily using your Convoke the Spirits to heal your raid, fights where Starfall is exceptionally strong, or encounters where you find yourself desperately needing more defensive cooldowns.

Necrolord gains the least out of the 4 Covenants as Unbridled Swarm is quite an underwhelming Legendary and has not seen use in any content. This one could really use a buff to bring Necrolord up to the other 3 covenants for Guardian Druid. The main issue is that the Adaptive Swarm bounces are not particularly intelligent and often end up merging at bad times or consuming each other and therefore wasting stacks or losing swarms completely.