Guardian Druid? Removed in Season 4?

I guess since I never went venthyr, the uhr issue hit me less in S4. I pretty much stayed NF or Kyrian as bear. I hate 3 minute CDs with no ability to reduce it. But with convoke or kindred, it helped with snap agro at the start of pulls a lot and I felt less anemic between incarn pulls. I mostly stayed NF because having that blink was so nice and was clutch a lot more than I’d care to admit.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt squishy as a bear, at least this expansion. Sure, DPS is in the gutters…but oh well.

BDK on the other hand, can feel real squishy if you mess up even the slightest. There were definitely more moments where I was like “Sure hope the healer is paying attention to my lack of RP right now” as I pulled 3 packs and forgot I didn’t have a CD ready for it. Now on the up side compared to bear, I felt the benefit of good play a lot more where my DK felt immortal almost every pull. It was common to be #2 or #3 on the healers healing list.

For me, last season, my Pally felt the squishiest. Sure, DPS was good. Tools were good. But there were definitely more times I reached for WoG and I didn’t have the HP or the proc ready, and its heal felt blah.

my DH, Warrior, and Monk barely got attention last season. I’m thinking I might give DH a run this time, or my monk. Not sure yet…see how I feel after getting my druid over the hump. I think my DK will sit mostly likely, since it really turned into HS spam fest.

Maul should be replaced with some kind of actual useful spender. I haye maul so much feels worthless to press in basically most situations.

Having taken the leap from Night Fae to Venthyr in S2 and S3, I definitely agree I do find that I miss Soulshape at times, particularly on things like Echelon.

I think that’s the part I like the most about BDK, there’s very little grey area, it’s either you’re doing things right and your health shows it or you did something wrong and you’re near or dead because of it. I feel when there is too much grey area you find yourself getting bored, there is no feeling of reward because it just all feels the same regardless.

Yep, and that’s primarily where I ventured away from Prot Pally and to BDK. It just felt like it lost its flavor from prior seasons and other tanks just felt better all around.

So here’s my take on Maul.

Guardian’s AM needs a similar treatment that BrM got with Shuffle. We can literally make the same argument for why Ironfur is really precisely the same as Ironskin Brew. We gain more armor so we can mitigate more physical damage than without it, just like ISB allowed the monk to stagger more damage than without it.

If IF was treated like ISB was and rolled into the rotation like Shuffle, our rage spender would then turn directly into Maul. This gives us a purpose to hit it in all scenarios, not just off-tanking. Furthermore, you could go as far as saying if you use it with 80 rage it hits all targets in front of you in a cone pattern, or perhaps with some proc or debuff set up you could make it do cleave damage. Or the damage Maul does is based on the rage spent.

But in either case, there is an argument to be made to innovate the Bear toolkit.

I was always kinda wanting a proper bleed from it maybe something where you maul a target then trash and it spreads (kinda like what warriors are gonna be able too do in df with rend and stomp). Just add a bit more too bears gameplay.

That’s what happened.

It does things now.

It’s damage is buffed.
It’s crit chance is buffed.
It’s cost reduced.
It gives passive DR
It gives ursoc shield.

Beefy mauls that reduce damage taken.

“Beef-maul”

And this is all 100% Optional

Now imagine, somewhere in the dream where IF gets reworked like Shuffle, how much fun would be that Maul mini-game combined with Lazer Bear light show… the dream!

If it procs it gives a dr from tooth and claw. Plus thats how mamy points too make it useful?

Thats how talents work
Dont like it?
Dont use it.

Dont sit there and complain saying its useless when it isnt.

Thats just the passive DR

Basically the same awesome leggo that was BIS for ALL of SL but with maul shields too. (which now hits like a train)

Im just saying it should be changed into a much more interactive ability. Something that actually effects more then a singular target maybe some upfront dmg along with a bleed that can be spread through swipe or thrash.
Just something that adds more to the spec itself inmultiple situations.

so like… Spell synergy?

k.

Maul is ST.

Do warriors complain about shield slam being ST in their forums?
Weird thing to be upset about, imo.

Thats a warrior, bro.

Warriors also have 3 spenders and shield slam is a gainer like mangle. Not exactaly a good comparison there.
I also said make maul do upfront bleed and have the ability to spread the bleed through something like swipe.
Oh btw again thats specifically single target. Bear in aoe is still not going to press maul. My solution here gives a reason too actually press it

Oh and btw warriors also get revenge as a spender aswell. An aoe spender…

FR
IF
Maul

1,2,3

(4 if you count rebirth :smile:)

Oxymoron.

Is it upfront or a dot?
LMAO

so… thrash?

k…
We have that.
It even stacks :astonished:

Its almost like this build is designed for raids… weird.
I remember someone saying this…

lol

They actually use it for free most of the time due to dodge/parry procs.

Regardless, I’m not sure what your point is here. Maul costing rage is one of guardians biggest gripes. This isnt the “gotcha” moment you think it is.

Guardians have thrash (aoe builder) and swipe (free)
Thats much better imo.

Now if only they’d make it so that Maul went back to “on next melee” instead of being on the GCD…

When Blizzard does it’s internal testing, and I really do hope they do at least some bare minimum of it, do their guardian druids use maul?

They seem to think it’s used, after all, and I’m not sure why.

I think they are painfully aware. Even pre Mop, maul was an after thought, mindlessly bound to every spell.

However, with the failed talent system from MoP, their recent attempt (tooth and claw) got pushed to the wayside for talents that are much superior ( rend and tear).

That’s no longer the case with DF trees, maul talents can be utilized without much sacrifice. You can run both. In fact, If UFR’s success in SL is any indication of how well this new build is going to play out, I’m guessing the beef maul build will no doubt be superior for ST tanking (raids).

Im saying make maul actually useful in aoe sheesh man. Thrash bleed may aswell not even exist they could litterally remove it and nobody would even notice, the thing does almost no dmg.
How about we actually get a bleed that is meaningful, and an actual aoe combo that isnt just swiping 3x and thrashing once or just only spamming trash during incarn, by being able to proliferate a bleed through a spender to multiple enemies, since maul is entirely useless in aoe.
Bear is one of the least rotationaly complex specs in the game and really ends up suffereing for its design.
It is getting sligtly better in df but still will just have problems that just wont be changed because bear is seen as the beginner tank so cant change the beginner tank.

Also cmon warriors spend rage on revenge quite often.

Any m+ log would disagree.

Boy, do I have a surprise for you!!!

Yulicilla, meet moonfire.

There is a whole slew of talents devoted to exactly what you’re looking for.

It’s called laser bear.

Lots of fun! You’ll like it.

You need to get over this pipe dream of making maul aoe. It’s not going to happen.

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I am so sick and tired of these sensationalism titled posts. Read the forums for 3 minutes and try to make your point in one of the 50 other chicken little threads. The chances are that after you read another thread for 3 posts you will discover that your POV is not new, original or well thought out.

On second thought, don’t take my advice. Guardian Druid has in fact been removed from Season 4 and Dragonflight.

2 Likes

You legit dont know what a spender is do you…

On mythic vigilant guardian my thrash dot did 600 dps and thats with venthyr pumping it up further. That is on a quite large aoe fight where i did around 13.5k dps in total.
It really isnt a relevant mechanic on bear.

Lmao!

That’s cute.

Kid straight up forgot about moonfire and he’s tryin to teach me how to suck eggs.

/eyeroll

Why are you crying about maul not being aoe and then linking raid encounters as an argument?

Like…. What?!

I was pretty clear here.

Heres a log…

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/DjMcYK3bFV6vyXGr#fight=2&type=damage-done&source=1

It tells a different story.

Go away.