So Guardian druids used to be known as big meaty tanks, Huge HP pool and the likes. Though recently i feel like i got less HP then other tanks
so why not make Guardian druids a new concept.
Reflect Druid.
My idea is basicly based on Thorns from Diablo, Brambles that we currently have and Rage of the Sleeper we used to have.
Instead of the current Mastery (increased health and healing recieved) why not make it every 1% in there is 0.5% damage absorbed and reflected.
It’s not flashed out yet and no idea if it would be fun but just wanted to start an discussing what the future might be like for guardian druids.
So … Infernal armor demonhunter?
Well, one ability hardly makes a reflect tank, hence why i threw some old ability in there, plus a mastery change, to see what could happen. Because atm you get more health. So much fun 
Instead of thinking in solutions…
First try and explain why so many people think bears are boring to play?
Slowly paced and monotonous sums it up nicely if you ask me ^^.
I enjoy my bear quite a bit, what i miss most is some DPS cooldown, and yes i know we can spec to incarn for that, but i dont wanna to choose between dps coldoown and bugest dps increase passive…
To OP : druids still has most hp, vdh in meta got more… But thats just CD, BDK got more if they stack health in combat (or at least thats how it used to be when i played) but still in “overal” we got most, not by much but… U know, more will be fine 
And instead of reflect guardian, i would like some kind of boost to mastery, while our HP is technicly best, is far from “hp tank” (look at legion where one tank had 10m and druid 15+ thats difference to me) and give us some dmg from our HP maybe? ( i love anima essence yes )
What the Druid is missing is a clear-cut niche that he brings in his group.
Speaking from as a M+ content player, I play 3 tanks, Paladin, DK and obviously Druid.
The 2 first seasons of BFA I only played Druid. In season 2 I managed to do +17s with my Druid when his community perception what at its worse and the Guardian’s performance was lacking.
After a break, I returned for season 3 and nowadays playing 3 tanks, as mentioned above. At the moment tank performance is much closer than what it was last season. There is an obvious meta but the situation is much less dire than before.
So performance isn’t much of an issue anymore, all the tanks I play feel playable and mildly competitive, but what sets them apart is the niche they bring into their group, with the Druid glaring lacking one.
Blizzard needs to revisit Guardians next expansion and give us a fully fledged spec with a core identity other than, “you are the tank with the most health”.
That’s what I’m getting at, performance is fine atm as i have no problem in mythic+ or raiding. We just mess that little thing that would make us feel a bit more unique other that being a health sponge.
2 Likes
Little things… like making frenzied regeneration more impactfull…
And taking ironfur and frenzied with into catform…
And having some more catchovers from affinities? Like having the silence from ballance in bear form? Or being able to use a heal in bear form from the regeneration spec…
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Well regeneration is fine, would be better if it was off the Gcd. but guardian does feel like it has alot of downtime vs 1 target, or multiple targets if you’re not running Galactic Guardian.
Multiple target for me its fine ( even tho i play galactic) but that single target is pretty boring, even if im lucky with gore and do few mangles in row, it lacks something.
Would be nice to put FR off GCD, and also give us charge, for real i miss it so much
Frenzied regen is consitently my top healing in raids and m+.
It was incredibly overpowered in Legion i remember, due to it being just like what Dk’s Deathstrike is now (Healing based on % health taken within last 4~ sec)
That combined with Earthwarden, Brambles, Tanky essences and trinkets. and self sustain is at an acceptable level in both Raids and m+.
Although it isn’t a lot, playing Pulverize/Bristling Fur/Guardian of Elune, in St raid encounters really makes the rotation and overall gameplay a lot more enjoyable.
Yea might be, my problem is that i play m+ mostly, and i cant realy focus on st target talents for whole run… My point is, gameplay should be smooth no matter of talents, there should be some better talents for different situations as it is now, but with certain talenta class feels whole, while with some it lacks something, and time to time u have to take those talents and lack something in gameplay
Bear talent choices for m+ are definitely lack luster in keeping interest in the player, compared to other specs. Felt like it sharing as it re ignited some enjoyment for me in the spec again.
while guarding is boring to play, it is not why people don’t play it.
Pretty sure it is because of weakness against magic dmg.
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As it stands at the moment, only DKs, Paladins and Monks can effectively deal with Magic damage, while Warriors, DHs and Guardians lag behind, but Null Dynamo helps with that too. While DKs are the kings of magic damage mitigation you don’t see lots of them around in M+ these days, because they are a weak tank compared to others in keys. So when talking about M+, magic damage is not the issue
In this season Guardians are a very strong M+ tank standing in the mid or upper mid of the pack, only lagging behind because he lacks a clearcut niche.
The holy triad of M+ for tanks is, general tankiness, damage and utility. Guardian has good tankiness, top damage but lacks in utility compared to others, thats why he lags behind.
dhs have tons selfheal and -10% magic dmg
warris have at least spell reflect
druid has only frenzy regen
And it still not enough for both classes to be considered better at dealing with magic damage than guardians. They are in the same tier with them when it comes to dealing with magic damage.
Problem is, Druid theme is not respected.
As you said, we should be the superhuge health pool tanks (and I love that), but both out health pool and our mastery are boring af.
I think Guardian deserve some rework here and there.
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More HP will definitely help… If i have to be HP tank, i wanna see difference and not be that HP tank with 30k more…