How do Guardians compare lately?

Classes Druid
1

I tried looking through the forums on guardian posts (and icy veins isn’t working. Think the wifi here is blocking it for some reason) and the last I see is from well over a year ago. Well, I’ve not played retail in longer than that! But alas, I was curious about coming back and kind of wanting to figure out what I’ll attempt to do while I finish a 15 hour shift in my final weeks at my job \o/

So, are they still godawful or has there been some patches to make it so that they’re actually playable? If so what changes have been made?

2

I don’t do much of PVE, but honestly pvp Bear has been sooooo much fun. Outlasting everyone.

5 Likes
3

They’re playable now, but not especially good. No clear strength and several clear weaknesses, but good enough that you can derp your way through a 10.

Raids it doesn’t matter all that much because the tank is rarely the breaking point.

4

They aren’t particularly fun in PvE. just spam swipe when mangle/thrash is off cooldown

5

Simply put, and this pretty much holds true to every spec in the game, unless you are in a world’s top 20 guild and are doing the hardest content WoW has to offer on a regular basis, you are free to play whatever you want and will be totally fine in whatever content you enjoy. Guardian Druids are 100% just fine for like 90% of the people who play this game because 90% of people who play WoW arent in a top 20 guild and arent only doing the hardest possible content. So, tl;dr, play whatever you want, you’ll be fine

2 Likes
6

That’s a very disingenuous view that doesn’t actually reflect how the game works. There’s way more than 20 guilds that do top-end content when it’s current. Over a thousand guilds got Cutting Edge Jaina. Over a thousand guilds have killed Mythic Queen’s Court and are probably on track to Cutting Edge Azshara.

There’s a massive population of more ‘middle class’ raiding guilds and ‘middle class’ people who do higher keys, but aren’t in the top 20 worlds.

But for people who DON’T raid, and DON’T do high M+, those people only see the ‘world first race’ and don’t see what the rest of the high-end players are doing for the months that follow - which is 99% of the high-end playerbase.

In reality, there is a huge difference between tanks, if you’re doing difficult content. But more than that, Guardian doesn’t SUDDENLY become worse than other tanks at a +15 key. Guardian is ALWAYS worse than other tanks, it’s just that for people who only do easy-mode content, the enemies you fight are so trivial that you barely need a tank at all, so people don’t even notice.

In reality:
*Brewmaster is GOD MODE for raids, and has been all expansion.
Here’s tank representation on Mythic Queen’s Court the past week, for example:
924 Monks
270 Death Knights
196 Paladins
177 Warriors
94 Druids
49 Demon Hunters
How do Druids look to you, given that disparity in usage?

*Is it doable if you’re a really good player?
Sure.

*Is a Brewmaster ALWAYS better? Absolutely the Brewmaster is always better. Ditto for Paladin, DK, or Warrior.

*M+ high keys show similar disparity, just with Warriors much closer to the top because of their higher tank DPS. Total 20+ tank population this season:
Monk: 708
Warrior: 682
Paladin: 342
Demon Hunter: 178
Death Knight: 132
Druid: 117

That’s the reality of bears; they’re bottom for M+ and almost at the bottom for raids. Unless you’re doing trivial content that a Rogue or maybe even a Priest could tank, in which case it doesn’t make any difference which tank you’re using, or even using a tank at all.

2 Likes
7

In my guild we have a bear working on ashara atm. Does fine. Like someone else said that’s not the breaking point. In fact stampeding roar is really helpful for decrees.

Just like feral guardians biggest problem is with perception and representation.

3 Likes
8

And I’m tanking Mythic Za’qul and doing “fine”. But in both cases the team would be infinitely better off with a Brewmaster.

The problem is that there are vastly superior options that make things much easier. The perceptions are absolutely correct.

The best players in the game aren’t stupid. Druid tanks are under-represented because the other tanks are way better. Except vengeance.

9

So unless you are playing a meta class its gtfo to you?

2 Likes
10

It’s not a question of ‘meta’. Four of the classes are way more represented than the last 2. That’s a problem with the last 2.

When 2/3 of the classes are way ahead of the others, that’s not 2/3 of the classes being ‘meta’. That’s 1/3 of the classes being underpowered.

11

but the numbers you put just before has more monks that the rest combined so the gap isnt where you are saying it is.

1 Like
12

Oh, Brewmaster Monks are absolutely ABSURD, no question about it. But DK/Paladin/Warrior still outnumber bears 2- and 3-to-1.

13

Why are the numbers of what everyone else is doing so important to you? Does everyone else pay your $15 a month to play WoW?

No one has told you that other tanks arent objectively better, no one is arguing that point, what we are arguing is the way youre making it sound as if because something else may produce better results in certain situations that means that playing what you want immediately goes out the window. That functionality is paramount over fun. And I’m sorry but i just don’t and won’t agree with that

2 Likes
14

Can confirm.

Also want to point out that Paladin is on par with Warrior in nearly every way. Warrior was wildly OP and thus FOTM for a while. Tons of people rerolled warrior and then they got nerfed back to normal levels. While still strong, their higher representation is due to their previous FOTM status, essences not being account wide, and them still be an absolute solid tank.

That said, guardian is just bottom of the heap in all regards. Can’t speak for PvP but for PvE, roll something else.

15

A bear or any other tank is good enough for any content that 99% of people who read this will every try to do. Just like feral is good enough and enhance shaman and holy priest and survival Hunter etc.

2 Likes
16

No, he was answering my question as it was presented.

how do they compare.

If I return to tanking I don’t want to go “Hey, take me, I’m playing a far less than optimal class to do it”

1 Like
17

No argument on this. My point is that the tank’s survivability is rarely the part that breaks you in a raid. I mean, we tanked Orgozoa with two DHs of all things, and they weren’t what made that fight rough for us. Mobility is usually the bigger sticking point. BrM is meta for people walking in the door – and it never really gets less good, just that the reason it’s meta is to push things at lower gear levels.

In M+, the difference is much, much more stark. A bear will be fighting uphill from the get go.

18

Also things like how Mythic Orgozoa is 2-tankable by 2 Monks, and ONLY by 2 Monks, allowing those raids to bring an extra DPS and 21-man the boss. :wink:

19

Yeah that’s a bit broken, lol. But then 3-tank fights aren’t exactly the norm.

20

Which wasn’t the question. Also a Rogue could tank 99% of the content that most people ever try to do, but that doesn’t mean they’re a ‘viable’ tank.

Just because lots of people choose to ONLY do faceroll content where NOTHING matters doesn’t mean that every class is a viable tank, even though any class can tank faceroll content.

And even on faceroll content, a Guardian tank will ALWAYS be better than a Rogue tank, and a Brewmaster or Warrior tank will ALWAYS be better than the Guardian.

As I said before: Class imbalance doesn’t suddenly “kick in” at a certain level of difficulty. It’s always there.