I would also state that the shared tree needs some shifting around not just for guardian, but druids in general.I would like to see skullbash autoshift to bear/cat form based on spec (bear for guardian, cat for the others) and be moved to where wild charge is currently, with wild charge being moved one row up and getting connections to the two talents above it.
Bring back Ursoc.Merc the heifer.
Incredible write-up with lots of excellent feedback! I'd love to see some more changes to help our furry bear buddies continue to rise, after all who doesn't like seeing a strong stoic bear out in the wild!
Wahhhhhhh. We aren't as good as SL where druids were unkillable and could kill in .5 seconds on a GCD. Wahhhhhh. No, druids dont get to complain.
No, no, pls no weaving, never ever. Bury it and let it rot and be forgotten. The most valuable recipe of lasting success of any spec is having a strong and simple core gameplay + basic tools + valuable niche. Deviate from it and the very next major game rework will drop you in the abyss.
Thanks for writing this. I love my bear tank but it is absolutely in a sorry place right now. The comparison of talent section of this made me laugh when you took heart of the wild and put it next to Avatar. Yikes. As much as I love my bear, the truth is it’s only fun to play until about 21 key level. Anything past that and I feel like I’m trolling the group. My pally tank at 20 ilvl lower is more sustainable, has more utility, and I feel wayyy more comfy going into a higher key at 400 ilvl on pally tank than I do on my nearly maxed out 418 bear with mythic incarnate, mythic decoration of flame, etc etc. It is sad, bear needs help.
based.
Great write up and I agree. Another thing they could do is bring back the big hp scaling that we had back in tbc and wotlk. That would provide some buffer for healers to bring us back up on big trash packs. Also frenzied regen heals for a ton. But it's mostly overhealing unless you're group is all dead, or you are rubber banding hp. A large hp increase would help with this interaction as well imo. Let frenzied regen actually effectively heal instead of just being an oh crap my healer or group is dead button. Also take it off the gcd, for sure.
Finally one of the big bears can say it! Blizzard needs to change something, it's more than frustrating. I've been playing Bear since Legion and have always been true to the class, but Dragonflight is more than difficult to play high keys. The talent tree is really a joke, even Blizzard's rework brought next to nothing! Except that the talents that were newly brought in had to be fixed or buffed! I was already thinking about rerolling on Krieger, but I don't want to simply give up the advance I have with the bear... At the moment it's more frustration than pleasure! I don't even want to log in anymore, honestly now
Guardian Druids have had so many cool things added and then taken away.I agree with the article that our mastery should be more powerful. Bears we’re always about BIG HP, and BIG +HEALING. Why does our mastery only increase our hp by 5-10% now adays?The Druid Tree is completely lacklustre because the majority of the tree is just choosing your off spec affinity, with very little that can be useful to your main spec. As a guardian Druid most of the talents can’t be used if you are in bear form. Why? Why do I have to pick up cat abilities or moonkin abilities in order to get to something useful? It’s crazy. Most of those skills should just be baseline, or simply bring back a multiple choice affinity mode that lets you select a set of off skills like you did before. The whole Druid shapeshifter mechanic needs a rethink imo. Especially for Guardian. On the guardian tree, all the good talents are stacked heavily at the bottom. Galactic Guardian, Rage of the Sleeper, Incarnation, Convoke, Raze, Ursoc’s Fury. Even Pulverizd and Blood Frenzy (this used to be a lvl 15 talent.. all it does is give you more rage in AoE!)I love my Guardian Druid, but it is a shame that my guild would be better off if I was anything else.
Imagine if Mark of Ursol get back ... but noo too stronk :DAlso if you want to buff ironfur and promote that spamy gameplay maybe give additional damage reduction per ironfur stack .
Please. My spec. She's very sick.
Agree with almost everything said. My recommendation for an "easy quick fix" while larger changes are thought out/tested is: Combine bottom two beserk nodes into the top node at 50% effectiveness. Incarnation now also doubles the effectiveness of all beserk effects. Galactic Guardian and Ursocs Fury move up to replace the removed beserk nodes in the tree. Mastery's effect buffed by 75-125% depending on balancing. (Sounds like a lot until you realize my 408 ilvl bear gets just 7% extra HP from mastery) These changes wouldn't turn bears into gods or even dislodge Warriors from the top of the tree, but I think it would put bear in soild contention with DH, Monk, and Prot Pally, which would be a nice place to sit until everything else gets figured out. My biggest fear is that the Dev team is now taking the view "we already gave bears their huge rework. Yeah it didn't work out and arguably made them universally weaker, but after 6 years at the bottom the community is dying out anyway. We've got to spend all our time on Ret Pally now, and by extension Prot and Holy since we're changing the class tree. We can get back to bears in 10.2 if there are any left."What I propose is a very easy, very simple fix that wouldn't take a lot of time to sim and test. I'd be much happier with that fix today than hope of a real rework that really fixes the problems at some infinitely future date that the current PTR shows no signs of ever arriving.
Great post man, its good to see that there are people out there caring about the spec, taking the time to compare analyze n stuff. An idea that came to my head when u said that we need Raid utility and the HP pool suggestion is maybe they can take that PvP talent (Den Mother i think it is), and let it affects us too, having 15% higher HP on melee group should be a nice addition to some raid compositions and/or boss encounters. They SHOULD buff the $%^& out of our HP pool, it would solve a lot of problems and give us back the identity of being the biggest sponge tank. Right now we dont have an identity like Warrior (Inmune to damage), DK (Unkillable if played correctly), Paladin (Lord of Utility), Monk (Historical best raid tank), DH (Historical M+ Tank). I know Druids have the identity to be "Versatile" but half of the specs are versatile rn and they have their strongest point. Having 15% HP on melees + After the Wildfire could give us some kind of protector of melee title or some !@#$ like that. If not, make us the highest dps tank without the risk of being fked by the average tankbuster. We may not have utility but at least give us consistency, give us something to differentiate us from the other tanks. Personal Wishlist in order of importance:1.HP/Mastery Buff2. FRegen out of GCD 3. Fuse Berserk Persistance with Base Berserk4. Weaving (Should be a minor dps increase so that people aren't "forced" to play that way, keep bear dmg as it is rn, but let us gain something if we decide to put some rake n rips)5. HP/Mastery Buff, $%^& its really a good and simple solution hotfix it rn.
Give me symbiosis please. And a huge hp pool. And no global for thrash during incarn
Nah keep bears like they are. You might not recall how brokenly OP your class was. But I'm sure you might recall how Honestly got Blueprynt is CE on KJ, you seem to have had to 3 tank the fight for him. remember how strong mark of Ursol was on Krosus, do you recall Sco swapping from his BrM for mobility in ToV to his Bear for Guarm because bear could solo tank that fight to his pala on Helya for offhealing. What about CoEN where bear was the only tank with enough HP to survive Thrashbite the Scornful. Lets not talk about the mage tower were bears would skull bash out of stealth at the start of the fight and remove the void zone. Lets not recall the fact that the prot pally mage tower had more than twice the hp of the bear magetower but you yourself kept up with Blueprynts ST dps on Mythic Krosus. How many bears got their skin before the main tank from FatSharkYes got the prot paladin Magetower skin. Bears in Legion were the most oppressive tank meta, and you were nerfed going into the launch of the game, they should keep the state of guardian druid the way it is, not to mention the other 3 specs perform perfectly fine. very common to see both Feral and Boomkin in the high M+ scene and rdruid is the 2nd best healer, and is only really out-shined be prevoker on Rasz. plus they bring the same utility. what other class has multiple competitive specs currently I'm sure there are a few classes without as many options given to druid players.