Guardian Druid Leveling Guide from 1 to 80 — The War Within (11.0.5)

Guardian Druid, thanks to being a tanking spec, our leveling options are plentiful. If you would like to spam dungeons to level, tank queues are often the fastest. If you would like to level solo, grouping up targets and AoEing them down works perfectly for us. We are also fantastic in a group, as DPS love to have someone gather and tank the mobs for them.

The best gearing while levelling is quick and easy upgrades with the highest item level possible; stats are not relevant, and the gear will be swiftly replaced as you go through the levels, so try not to go too out of your way for a single piece of gear while levelling.

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

You are first able to choose talents at level 10. Choosing Guardian automatically grants you the Thrash ability.

Below is a list of high-impact talents that are extremely valuable while levelling, the earliest level at which you can talent into them and their effect. You can also opt to take certain talents at later levels if there are things that you are more interested in acquiring earlier. That is the fun part of talent trees! There is also an example tree to preview with all the talents mentioned.

• Level 13 — Gore — Adds a chance for your Mangle to reset.
• Level 16 — Feline Swiftness — increases your movement speed by 15%, great for faster levelling.
• Level 17 — Berserk — your main damage-increasing cooldown. Reduces the cooldown of Thrash, Mangle and Growl by 50%.
• Level 18 — Ironfur — your active mitigation spell, increasing your armor, which will reduce Physical damage taken.
• Level 26 — Skull Bash — charge to a mob and instantly interrupt their spell casting. It can also be used as a handy charge if you ever get knocked back.
• Level 31 — Tooth and Claw — this causes auto attacks to have a chance to empower your next Maul cost no rage, deal 40% increased damage and reduce the damage the target deals to you.
• Level 33 — Fury of Nature — boosts your Arcane damage by 20%. Primarily for more Moonfire damage.
• Level 37 — Soul of the Forest — Mangle generates 5 more Rage and deals 25% more damage.
• Level 45 — After the Wildfire — every 200 rage you spend will heal you and others around you. This is a huge boost to the sustain of you and your group members.
• Level 51 — Galactic Guardian — your damage has a 5% chance to proc a Moonfire on the mob and empower your next Moonfire cast by 300%. This is a huge damage boost and will be game-changing once acquired.
• Level 53 — Twin Moonfire — this increases Moonfire damage and causes it to hit a second target nearby.
• Level 55 — Elune's Favored — increases Arcane damage done by a further 10%, and you now heal for 30% of Arcane damage done. This is a massive increase for self-sustain.
• Level 57 — Circle of Life and Death causes your damage over time effects to deal their damage faster. Another large damage increase, increasing Moonfire and Thrash tick speed by 25%.
• Level 63 — Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc — transforms your Berserk into a superior ability, lasting longer and granting you an extra 30% health while active.
• Level 64 — Heart of the Wild — increases the effectiveness of your non-bear spells by 30%. This means 30% more Moonfire damage while active as it is considered a balance spell.
• Level 65 — Rage of the Sleeper — Reduces the damage you take by 25%, increases the damage you deal by 15%, grants you 25% leech, and reflects damage back at attackers.
• Level 67 — Ursoc's Guidance — reduces the cooldown on your Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc based on Rage spent. Good for getting those strong cooldowns up more frequently.
• Level 70 — Hero Talents! — Boundless Moonlight
• Level 71 — Lunar Insight— Increases Moonfire damage.
• Level 72 — Atmospheric Exposure — Enemies damaged by Lunar Beam or Fury of Elune take increased damage from you.
• Level 73 — The Light of Elune — Moonfire has a chance to call down a Fury of Elune beam.
• Level 74 — The Eternal Moon — Lunar Beam increases Mastery, deals more damage and lasts longer. Fury of Elune also generates more Rage and deals more damage.
• Level 75 — Moon Guardian — Free Moonfire's from Galactic Guardian generate 5 additional rage.
• Level 76 — Lunar Amplification — Each non-Arcane damaging ability you use increases the damage of your next Arcane damaging ability.
• Level 77 — Stellar Command — Increases damage of Lunar Beam and Fury of Elune.
• Level 78 — Glistening Fur — Bear Form reduces Arcane damage taken by 6% and other magic types by 3%.
• Level 79 — Moondust — Slows enemies affected by Moonfire by 20%.
• Level 80 — Lunation — Arcane abilities reduce the cooldown of Lunar Beam by 3 seconds.

Due to Guardian being unlocked as a talent specialization at Level 10, you should make use of the abilities provided to you in the intro quests until you are presented with the option.

1. Buff yourself with Mark of the Wild.
2. Enter Bear Form.
3. Maintain Moonfire on the target.
4. Use Barkskin on cooldown.
5. Use Berserk on cooldown, ideally against multiple enemies.
6. Cast Thrash on cooldown.
7. Cast Mangle on cooldown on 4 targets or fewer.
8. Fill downtime with Swipe.
9. Spend Rage offensively against a single target with Maul.
10. Spend Rage defensively with Ironfur.
11. Use Frenzied Regeneration if your health gets below 50%.
12. Make sure to always be in Bear Form while in combat.

Congratulations on reaching Level 80! Now that you have hit Level 80, we recommend looking at our Easy mode page and Talents section to learn how to play at max level.