So, I’m finishing my leveling run with my bear, fallen in love with drooods, and to me maul just seems too much rage for what it gives. At least at this moment I feel like my rage is better spent on ironfur or on frenzy. I plan on mainly running mythics and as of right now I’m just not seeing the use… Any bears using this a lot?
No.
Maul is only useful when not tanking, or when something is at so low health that Maul will kill it, and it’s the last thing that will die.
What you’re seeing is the end result of a very long and very bad series of design decisions and changes that have resulted in Guardian perhaps the worst spec in the game. Maul used to do something. It doesn’t, anymore.
At various times, Maul used to be off the GCD, it used to do respectable damage, it used to reduce the damage done to you by your target. It doesn’t do any of those things anymore. It’s a useless button.
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I thought so as far as maul goes. How’s our viability in mythic content, or raiding?
We’re the worst tank in the game, period. No question. Play something else.
We’re also getting heavily nerfed in Shadowlands.
Can it be done? Sure. I’m 11/12 and tanking Mythic N’zoth. I’ve gotten Cutting Edge on every raid this expansion. But every single raid I wish I was playing a Brewmaster instead. And so does my raid team. I should have switched ages ago, but I’ll be switching for Shadowlands for sure. (Brewmasters are, incredibly, getting buffed in Shadowlands.)
I do have a 120 brewmaster lol, but I really liked playing a guardian. I haven’t looked at shadowlands yet. What nerfs are coming and out of curiosity why?
My write-up of Shadowlands nerfs is in the Alpha forums, here:
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/feedback-druid-class-changes/490706/13?u=tewa-hyjal
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thanks I’ll have a read. sad cause face tanking is fun. I’ll prob have to go balance then on this toon and tank with my warrior or monk.
Edit: I guess Icy veins messed up saying it was viable. It also makes sense why method has no guide for it like they pretty much do every other tank.
Couple things to keep in mind:
- If your goal is to play a Druid, first and foremost, and sometimes tank, then you should play the Druid. For full-time tanks, though, where the goal is to tank, Druid isn’t the best choice.
- The Icy-Veins guide was written by Pumps, who is an amazing player from one of the best guilds in the world. But keep in mind that Pumps is all about parsing for high damage, and sometimes makes some strange suggestions, like Worldvein Resonance as a major essence (which is just… well, let’s say it’s not done by very many Guardian druids). Also keep in mind that even Pumps, who mained a bear in Legion, has been using his Brewmaster for progression this entire expansion, and just goes in to get a kill on his bear after his guild has killed the boss.
Thank Christ for that!
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wow. Why do you say that?
So what is the recommended major and minor essences for a bear?
I’m not hard-core by any means. But, it would be nice to maybe kick it up to at least a mythic 10. I’m guildless atm so raids aren’t an option for me, though I prefer them to mythic. I hate pugs. So, mythic seems to be the best solution for me to gear up in.
Maul is definitely worth it for bears, as long as your survivability isn’t a problem. Don’t let Tewa scare you away, he’s kind of known for being disgruntled. (No offense, Tewa)
I use maul on all content I do, up to about mythic +9.
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If youre looking for an easy way to gear up, you might want to consider the visions of n’zoth. They are quite easy for druids. If youre able to complete a 4 and 5mask run, thats a guaranteed 465 and 470 ilvl item each week. They are also guaranteed to have a corruption effect.
Also… back the the topic at hand. Maul is not useless while tanking, despite what Tewa will have you believe. For bosses with high spell damage and weak melee, Ironfur wont do squat (aside from granting agility through traits).
If youre able to maintain 1 stack of IF for damage output, the rest of your rage can easily be spent on maul.
Tewas insufferable disdain for druids will not be missed.
I wish him all the best over at the monk forums.
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I do enjoy some challenges and the ability to push a bit. I just prefer raids to mythics, I prefer to be a bit chill if I can, but haven’t raided seriously since wrath.
Maul is ok while doing Quests. It’s also acceptable when doing single target content easier than what you usually do, if if you have zero Layered Mane Azerite Traits. I’m firmly in the “Maul is Useless” camp, though.
Bear overall is actually quite good. It’s a very easy spec to learn, which helps you focus more on the encounters. Some people just like to identify only the weaknesses and just rail on those incessantly.
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Youre going to have to do better than that.
Explain yourself.
Why do you feel this way?
Because someone else told you?
Not good enough.
Shadow of Zul in kings rest for example.
High spell damage. An excelent time to use maul, as Iron fur doesnt help you against Shadow Barrage.
He is just one of many encounters in which armor wont save you.
but… “Maul is Useless”
Please.
I think what he means is that it could be more useful than it currently is. All it does is damage and you need an azerite trait to make it slightly more useful. (I’m not a huge fan of that azerite trait personally.) The damage it does is decent I suppose, but it’s nothing to write home about.
I pretty much only do m+. On the single target situations where Ironfur provides no mitigation, Maul would replace a swipe. If you’re using two Layered Mane Traits, you lose 8 seconds of 600+ agi for that one maul. My argument is the minimal damage gain you may get by replacing a few swipes with mauls through the entire dungeon isn’t worth the clutter on your action bar. For Zul, it’s better to be at full rage when he dies so you have 1-2 stacks of fur on last boss pull.
Maul would be a gain in bosses where there is no physical damage at all and you don’t need to have rage capped for the next pull. Last boss of ML is a good example of this.
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You just skipped right over that part then?
I will admit to a very bad habit. Right now, while leveling, I have ironfur simply macroed into swipe, thrash, and mangle. But I’m not generating, at this point, even without ironfur macroed, enough rage to keep up ironfur and leave anything open for maul. But, I know having it macroed is a lazy, bad habit. lol. I know that eventually I’ll have to break it.
Edit: I do love the simplicity of it. It does lend itself to allowing for great awareness of what’s going on.
p.s how bad is macroing ironfur?
Don’t macro ironfur. You wanna have control over when you use ironfur especially to get multiple stacks at once for a big damage spike. As far as you using maul and Ironfur, you’re right its tough to use both right now with the amount of rage we have. You usually have to choose one or the other. I have 2 guardians wrath traits though and that makes it so every time you maul your next ironfur is reduced by 15 rage. It stacks as long as you don’t use ironfur in between mauls. So having that trait makes maul much more desirable.
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