Before I get to the point, to endeavor as much as possible to avoid unnecessary advice and toxic “L2P” responses, I just want to say that:
- I’m not the only Guardian Druid in the world who has this problem
- Single-target or raiding threat generation for Guardian Druids, including the use of Galactic Guardian, is off-topic
- Guardian Druids who have higher average iLvls all the time than their DPS party members’ iLvls, or even equal all the time, or who are sacrificing survivability for DPS in their gearing strategy and can afford to do this because they do not tackle challenging M+ content (content that drops higher iLvl gear than their average), for example, are off-topic
- I’m a main dungeon tank since vanilla
- I tank/tanked on all tanking classes, most active currently on Guardian, Vengeance & Warrior Protection
- I read guides on talents & action priorities from 3 different sources whenever I return to the game or when there’s a new patch
- I spend around 5 hours, sometimes more, setting up auras or whatever for said action priorities whenever I return to the game or after major changes
- I do not follow said guides blindly & do make a couple of changes or so when it makes educated sense, according to experience and trial & error at least
- I know what it is like to pull 5 mobs in a Mythic+ dungeon as a Vengeance Demon Hunter playing with DPS party members who are 10 iLvls above my DH (no, my forum DH is not my only DH), and I know what it is like to do the same exact thing as a Guardian Druid
- I use Plater with distinctive colors for good threat, losing aggro, and lost aggro, so I can see when I’m losing aggro and do my best to react appropriately
Now, with all that out of the way, I hasten to add that I really do not like to use Berserk or Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc for threat, and very much prefer to use it for defensive emergencies that may or may not include a need of extra threat.
Now, to describe my typical Guardian pull, I’d say that I try to pull off as many Moonfires as I can while approaching the mob group, and typically cannot pull off more than 2-3 Moonfires before I’m within melee range and it’s time to switch to AoE before my trigger-happy DPS party members take aggro from me. I immediately Thrash and depending on how things look at this point, I either Mangle or skip it to Swipe at least a couple of times before picking a mob to Mangle. Afterward, I prioritize Thrash above all else, then Mangle when threat colors on nameplates are okay, then refreshing at least 3 Moonfires, and finally Swipe.
And to finally, drive my point home … in spite of all what I mentioned above, it is embarrassingly, frustratingly, and stressfully easy for a Combusting Mage or an Eyebeaming Demon Hunter, for example, who is 5 to 10 iLvls above me to pull off aggro from me during the first 3 seconds of an AoE pull.
Now, one of the things that I anticipate may be said is: “Well, they’re 5 to 10 iLvls above you, so it makes sense that this happens.” And my response to this is, no, it doesn’t make sense, because this almost never happens on my Vengeance DH, so clearly, there’s a balancing issue here.
And I hasten to add — to Blizzard devs & decision-makers — that is it not acceptable or fun at all to resolve this balancing issue by nerfing Vengeance’s threat generation, for example, because tanks do NOT need their job made harder, more stressful, and miserable, especially when they’re spending a good chunk of their time keeping everyone’s PuG waiting times down by tanking in PuGs (which is in your best interest, Blizzard!), who often include a lot of players who are either downright toxic, moaning and spamming ellipses (…) at every mistake from another party member while EH is screaming their mistakes at me privately non-stop, or who are simply just clueless and making the tank’s job harder, by not interrupting distant casters (while they can & OmniCC says their ranged interrupt is available), and I hasten to add that even in this problem the Vengeance DH outshines the Guardian Druid because they can pop Sigil of Silence from range & bring those distant casters to the safer tanking spot where they are, so a Vengeance DH doesn’t need to rely all the time on his PuG party members having a clue, or making the tank’s job harder by running away from the tank & mob when they have aggro instead of going to the tank when they have aggro, and so on and so forth. In summary, tanks need their very stressful job, especially in PuGs, made significantly easier and less stressful, not made harder.
The tank is the hardest and most time-consuming role to find for a PuG most of the time for many reasons, and some of the issues I’m discussing in this thread constitute some of those reasons. So, yes, DHs do not need their threat generation nerfed; it is Guardian Druids who need their AoE threat generation boosted, at least moderately, by boosting the threat of Swipe, or reducing the damage and cooldown of Thrash, or some other solution, especially when the DPS party members’ average iLvls are a bit higher than the Guardian Druid’s iLvl.
