Guardian Druid Tank Spec, Builds, and Talents — 12.0.5

Over the course of Season 1 in Midnight, Guardian has had a variety of different playstyles due to consistently large tuning in recent patch changes. While there are a lot of potential options available on the tree, our current recommendations are as follows.

• Single Target - Following 12.0.5 changes, both Elune's Chosen and Druid of the Claw are extremely even in Single Target across all Season 1 encounters. Druid of the Claw offers a slightly burstier profile while Elune's Chosen offers more sustained damage with mildly better defensive profile.
• AoE - Following 12.0.5 changes, Elune's Chosen is now better at all keystone levels. While Druid of the Claw can be competitive at lower keystone levels, we recommend playing Elune's Chosen in all scenarios, due to it's simpler nature and more flexible profile.

In pure single target scenarios, both hero talent trees are extremely even. However, Elune's Chosen deals more consistent cleave damage. Due to this, we recommend playing it on all boss fights this tier, as the majority have some form of cleave.

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The builds listed above are popular recommendations, covering various different loadouts suited to each style of endgame content. Each Talent Build will have it's own rotation, and can also be manipulated further for specific types of content and to better benefit your group.

Combat Information

Rotations and Mythic+

Want to dive deeper? These guides will teach you how to utilize our Talent Builds in endgame content!

RotationMythic+

1. Wild Guardian
2. Wild Guardian
3. Wild Guardian

The Apex talents for Guardian Druid revolve heavily around Maul, essentially adding a 12 second DoT that you can maintain permanently by casting Maul at least once every 12 seconds. This doesn't really affect or change our rotation at all, as we generally have plenty of excess rage that we are already dumping into Maul.

It also has some mild defensive benefit once every 2-3 minutes when you cast Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc, your next two casts of Ironfur and Frenzied Regeneration echo over 8 seconds. This is relatively minor, but good to be wary of so you don't waste casts of Frenzied Regeneration during that 8 second window.

Both of our Hero Talent Trees are fantastic and viable in both Mythic+ and Raid alike. Starting at Level 71, Guardian Druid will gain access to Druid of the Claw and Elune's Chosen.

Druid of the Claw revolves heavily around the Maul replacement, Ravage, which is an extremely hard hitting ability that leaves a big DoT. Thematically, Druid of the Claw aims to buff our physical and bleed damage. It excels on pulls in Mythic+ where you have Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc available, as a heavy majority of it's damage is tied to cooldowns and the new Apex talents. It also can deal incredibly high single-target damage to bosses, which makes it ideal for Raiding.

Elune's Chosen has the power of Lunar Beam on an extremely short cooldown in Mythic+. This ability is often up at the start of a pull, which helps generate aggro quickly and keeps you relatively safe while you start to ramp. Elune's Chosen also scales incredibly well the more targets you pull, as your Moonfire's spread rapidly and your self healing ramps quickly with both Ursoc's Fury and Elune's Favored.

The Battle for Azeroth expansion introduced a new system called "War Mode." Opting into War Mode makes you eligible for open-world PvP but also grants you the following benefits:

• World Quests at a maximum level have 10-30% increased rewards.
• You gain 10-30% increased experience while leveling.
• Allows you to earn Conquest Points towards weekly gear rewards.
• Grants you the use of PvP talents in the open-world.

With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended that you enable the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at maximum level. However, you will make yourself eligible for open-world PvP, and the possibility of being "ganked" while leveling or doing World Quests exists.

Below are the recommended PvP talents for leveling and doing PvE content. You will get a choice of one general PvP talent and three spec-specific talents.

1. Overrun is a powerful charge with a stun, and the knockback it triggers provides a large mobility boost.
2. Emerald Slumber Enter a deep sleep for 8 seconds that makes all other cooldowns recover 400% faster.
3. Demoralizing Roar reduces damage enemies deal to you by 20% for 10 seconds.
4. Alpha Challenge replaces Growl, an ability that historically has no function in solo content. In exchange, you (and your allies) deal increased damage to the target you taunt.
5. Malorne's Swiftness increases your Travel Form movement speed by 20% and prevents you from being slowed below 100% movement speed. This improves your mobility and will reduce travel time, which is important while leveling.

The remaining PvP talents may have limited or niche applications in leveling or open-world PvE content, but they do not provide the overall benefit of the recommended list above. The rest of the PvP talents do not contribute meaningfully to leveling or open world PvE.

Pumps

Guide Author

Follow Pumps

This guide has been written by Pumps who has played since Vanilla and has tanked in Honestly, the #1 Oceanic raiding guild, since Mists of Pandaria. He also played in the first MDI Mythic+ dungeon tournament, where his team placed second. His mindset on tanking has always been about taking the utility and damage one can bring to the raid to the next level. He was the #1 Rank DPS Guardian Druid for 5 tiers in a row and top the 1-6 for the last 12 tiers, playing Guardian Druid, Brewmaster Monk and Protection Warrior based on which is the strongest for progression at the time. You can find him on discord — pumps. — and on Twitch.