Guardian Druid Tank Guide — The War Within (11.0.5)

Guardian Druid is a sturdy tank that manages damage intake with strong passive reductions, a large health pool, increased healing from Mastery, and a stackable active mitigation with Ironfur. They are an excellent sponge tank. Once you have acquired enough gear, they are mostly self-sufficient with a unique playstyle, unlike any class. They bring some utility to raid and Mythic+ groups as a tank and very high DPS.

Guardian Druid tends to excel against encounters where most incoming damage is Physical or Melee damage.

This guide focuses specifically on Guardian Druid. As such, the more general aspects of tanking will not be covered here. If you would like to learn more about tanking in general, we recommend you read our tanking guide.

Strengths

• High Single-Target damage in Raid.
• High AoE/Mythic+ damage.
• Large health pool and short cooldowns allow for stable damage intake.
• Stackable, no-cooldown active mitigation in Ironfur.
• Flexible hybrid off-healing capabilities through the Resto spells, After the Wildfire and Dream of Cenarius.
• Good raid utility in Rebirth, Stampeding Roar and Mark of the Wild.

Weaknesses

• Relatively low initial threat output as most of our damage is a DoT.
• Lack of accessible CC options in tree.
• Talent tree lacks flexibility.
• Lack of Unique tank Utility.

Guardian has seen some small changes to the class tree, which has made it easier for us to acquire spells such as Remove Corruption and Feline Swiftness. Alongside these quality-of-life perks, we have lost access to Moonkin Form (and therefore Flap and Wild Charge disengage). Finally, and most importantly, Astral Influence has been changed to only work on spells, this can feel quite jarring if you are a long-time Bear player and have become accustomed to the bonus range. Guardian was also hit by the global tank nerf, which notably reduced the healing of our Frenzied Regeneration significantly.

Guardian has not received any significant changes heading into this small patch. Only minor fixes that should not affect gameplay or builds.

• The Ravage proc now lasts 20 seconds up from 15 seconds.
• Arcane spells cast by Convoke the Spirits will now trigger Lunation.
• Lunar Beam no longer triggers Lunation to reduce the cooldown of Lunar Beam.
• Flashing Claws extra Thrash procs now trigger Lunation.

Guardian is currently one of TWW's highest damage tank specs. We are an extremely sturdy tank that can deal consistent AoE and single-target damage and have great self-sustainability. We also bring multiple utility spells like Stampeding Roar and Mark of the Wild, or group healing tools like Dream of Cenarius or After the Wildfire. We are fantastic in Raids, Mythic+ and PvP alike.

Before you begin leveling, you may want to take a quick look at our Addons page, as setting up your UI before you begin will allow you to get more comfortable with where things are and improve your gameplay significantly. Levelling as a tank has several advantages, including the number of mobs you can comfortably pull and survive, thanks to your powerful defensive capabilities. Levelling as a tank is also great in a group. All your party members will appreciate your ability to tag and collect mobs quickly. It can also be a fantastic way to learn your rotational abilities and get more comfortable with the spec. Playing a tank may be daunting initially, but you can see our leveling guide below if you seek a better understanding of leveling as a Guardian Druid.

Being one of the tank specializations, your main goal, first and foremost, is to stay alive and to ensure that you have aggro on all of the enemies so that they are not on your weaker party/raid members. To tank efficiently as a Guardian Druid, your goal is to spread as many Moonfires as possible, then generate as much Rage with spells like Mangle and Thrash. This Rage can be spent defensively, with Ironfur and Frenzied Regeneration, or offensively, with Maul. You can learn about all the various Guardian spells that will be at your disposal by reading the Spell Summary page.

To get a quick rundown of how the class works in practice, look into the Easy Mode guide below. This page will go over everything you need to know to play the class.

If you are already slightly familiar with what Guardian Druids can do, you may benefit from our more in-depth breakdown of Talents and the Rotation linked below. This will cover everything you need to play Guardian Druid optimally.

There are quite a few different things to consider when looking at how to gear, and it can be overwhelming at the beginning. To start with, you can take a look at our Best in Slot guide, which is linked below. This will go over the best gear available from Mythic+ and Raid content.

Understanding what stats to go for on your gear is integral to knowing which gear will be good for you or not. The same goes for other gear improvements like enchants, consumables, and gems. Fortunately, we have pages dedicated to all of that information to assist in finding what is the best for you.

Once you have made it to the maximum possible level, you can begin your journey into the main end-game activities, Raiding, Mythic+, and PvP. Starting with Mythic+ is a good choice, as you only need 5 players, and it can be done anytime. Progressing into raids, you will likely need to find a guild, especially if you want to do Mythic raid content. It can be daunting starting to play a tank as it is a pivotal role with lots of societal pressure applied, but the best way to learn is to read up as much as possible and then just start playing.

For PvP, however, you will likely find more success as Resto/Balance or Feral, although Guardian does have some viability, especially in Rated Battlegrounds. For whichever end-game content you are focusing on, if not all three, we have guides to assist you in performing at your very best.

After you have become more comfortable playing as a Guardian Druid, you may benefit from browsing our pages on common mistakes or frequently asked questions by people who also play Guardian. Not everything will be immediately clear to everyone. Hopefully, these pages can clear up any confusion or misconceptions quickly, allowing you to improve further and progress.