Guardian Druid Raid Guide (2024)

When to use this spec

This is the default loadout going into any boss unless specified otherwise. You have to adjust the class talent tree based on the utility needed for the encounter. To make your life easier, boss-specific talent loadouts are available in theRaidssection.

Gameplay Altering Talents

Discover all talents that significantly alter your gameplay within the Spec and Class Talent trees. This section gives a concise overview of these talents and their applications but for a more detailed look check out the Rotation andDeep Divesections below.

Spec Tree

• Dream of Cenarius
  • This proc makes it so your Regrowth can be cast in Bear Form and heals for 200% more. A Dream proc is very effective for healing yourself and others. You should be tracking this.
• Improved Survival Instincts
  • Grants you another charge of Survival Instincts giving you more cooldown opportunities.
• Innate Resolve
  • Grants you another charge of Frenzied Regeneration and increases the healing based on your missing health. This is both amazing for cooldown management and bonus healing.
• Infected Wounds
  • Makes it so your Mangle or Raze slows targets hit by 50%, an amazing utility tool.
• Tooth and Claw
  • Empowers your Raze or Maul to be way more valuable and act as a defensive cooldown.
• Thorns of Iron
  • Makes it so your Ironfur deals a burst of physical damage when used.
• After the Wildfire
  • A very strong heal around you whenever you spend 200 Rage, this is incredibly helpful to the whole group.
• Rend and Tear
  • Upkeeping your Thrash stacks now also has defensive value.
• Ursoc's Guidance
  • Huge Cooldown reduction for Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc especially when you spam spend Rage.
• Galactic Guardian
  • Keeping track of this buff and utilizing Moonfire with it is high value for damage and Rage generation.
• Twin Moonfire
  • Moonfire now hits 2 targets close to each other making multi-dotting easier and also way better. This tool helps when pulling or getting aggro on multiple mobs.

Class Tree

• Well-Honed Instincts
  • With a 120 second cooldown, you proc a Frenzied Regeneration when falling below 45% HP. What's important to note here is that this overwrites any current active Frenzied Regeneration and also can be overwritten by any newly applied Frenzied Regeneration.
    • Keeping track of the cooldown and not overlapping it is very important.

Phase 1

Add Tank

• When tanking the adds in P1 of the fight it is worth holding your Cooldowns on pull, so you have them when the adds spawn to keep aggro against your DPS players.
  • Especially holding Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc is big for aggro.
• In case your team has an Evoker call for Cauterizing Flame to cleanse Rending Bite when you reach too many stacks, oftentimes you dodge them so when you are unlucky, cleanse them.
• Since Boss mechanics don't hit while tanking the adds 50 yards away using defensives when tanking Earthweavers with their Burrowing Strike is a good thing to do. This stacks up quite fast and increases your damage taken a lot. Use defensives late into tanking these adds unless they die really fast.
  • Having a lot of Ironfur at the end of the casts is really nice and can help you survive.
• Make sure to always aim Tremors away from the ranged and melee players (preferably into the wall). Keep in mind the cast time, and dodge it yourself at the last second so you have a higher chance of stacking up multiple casts in the same position to create more space.
• Tooth and Claw applies on all targets when using Raze so it is a really strong defensive tool on these packs.
• Lastly, make sure to keep dragging the 2 spawning packs together and assign kicks or other stops while dragging when fighting the caster packs.
• Use Stampeding Roar to run from 1 add side to the other.

Boss Tank

• The most important thing is to know the path on how you want to break the eggs on this fight, make sure to know the tactic your guild is running!
• Mechanics like Wildfire and Icy Shroud can be quite annoying when tanking the boss since they overlap with Mortal Wounds oftentimes. For this use defensives during the overlaps.
• Making use of externals when tanking the boss Mortal Stoneclaws is super important since you want to stay healthy during the Mortal Wounds debuff.
  • Dropping low and trying to heal up with a -healing% debuff is really difficult. Make sure to pre-use defensives
• Pre-use Barkskin and/or Rage of the Sleeper for Mortal Stoneclaws to stay healthy and not drop too low rotate these 2 while also utilizing Frenzied Regeneration to stay topped before or remove Icy Shroud.

Phase 2

• During P2 both tanks are now on the boss and the damage the boss does ramps up every 30 seconds due to Broodkeeper's Fury.
• The key to this phase is alternating both tanks' defensives properly to deal with the newly added tank explosion mechanic of Stoneslam Detonation. It's applied after Mortal Stoneslam.
• In this phase Guardian Druid has it pretty rough since almost most of the damage intake is magical which you are weak against. Because of this every time right before Mortal Stoneslam you want to use the Cooldown/Externals listed below to survive the new explosion Stoneslam Detonation mechanic.
  • If you are feeling in danger or something went wrong with the defensives are is always the option to soak Stoneslam Detonation with the raid team. This is easy and can also be done most of the time unless there is a bad overlap with Wildfire
• Below is a timeline of P 2, with you tanking the first Tank mechanic.

• Lastly Frozen Shroud and Wildfire can do a decent amount of magic damage to you overall it's not too bad but keep it in mind when playing the fight and also considering your damage intake.

Special Tips and Tricks

• A DPS/healer player with an immunity can taunt right before Mortal Stoneslam takes all the deadly debuffs and just immunes them outside the raid group giving you and your tank partner more time to regenerate defensives.
• Using Blessing of Sacrifice can be quite dangerous for the paladin in this fight so make sure he is ready when you call for it.

Phase 1

• Electrified Jaws is the only tank mechanic in P1 and easy to handle, the damage is quite low the important part is the debuff after. Increasing your physical damage taken by 100% and giving you a magic DoT.
  • When taunting this debuff from each other it still lasts for the next melee swing meaning you take 1 swing with +100% damage taken for this be ready and press a defensive such as Barkskin or Rage of the Sleeper. Combining it with Tooth and Claw and some Ironfur should make this quite easy to play.
• Hurricane Wing is a bit annoying to deal with but quite easy.
  • First Hurricane Wing, use Skull Bash after getting pushed a bit.
  • Second Hurricane Wing, use Skull Bash and Wild Charge after getting pushed.
  • Third Hurricane Wing, use Skull Bash into Gateway into Wild Charge at the end.
  • Fourth Hurricane Wing, use Skull Bash and Wild Charge and if needed you go Cat and just Sprint.
• Volatile Current spawns Sparks that need to be dealt with as a Guardian Druid your toolkit is the following:
  • Skull Bash with it you can just kick 1 spark and remove 1 stack.
  • Incapacitating Roar removes 1 stack from all sparks around you and should be used every wave while having the most sparks in your range.
  • Typhoon if needed you can talent it, using it removes 1 stack from all sparks, in front of you.

Intermission 1

• In Intermission the main struggle is going to be picking up aggro from all the adds spawning when breaking the Shield of the Ruiners.
  • For this be ready to have Thrash ready and maybe even 1 or 2 stacks of Tooth and Claw with Raze so you can generate initial threat.
• Apart from that make use of Incapacitating Roar to disrupt Acolyte (Caster Adds).

Phase 2

• Electrified Jaws still exists with the same rules as P1.
• Hurricane Wing is nowTempest Wing not changing how simple you can handle it by just using Skull Bash. Using Wild Charge is a bit more annoying since you need to run out a bit before it becomes usable. Avoid nearby players while charging to the boss.
• Fulminating Charge is a non-tank mechanic but it can be quite nice to help out when possible, meaning if a DPS player is struggling to move out of the raid step into his circle (closest to him) take the debuff and "free" him.
  • Since the debuff is not meant for tanks the damage is quite low and easy to tank.
• Volatile Current still exists, and using all CC on this is the best thing you can do to help out your raid-team.

Intermission 2

• Agree on which tank takes which Stormfiend, one important note is they don't melee swing but use a ranged magical attack to hit their target meaning even if you are not in range of them and have aggro you get hit by their attack.
• During this Intermission the whole raid is busy and generally, there won't be much healing going towards the tanks so whenever you are tanking the Stormfiend and they are not casting anything consider pressing a defensive.
• Storm Break spawns adds from every Stormfiend, here you can make use of Ursol's Vortex when the small adds meet in the middle of the room to slow and grip them back if they escape.

Phase 3

• P3 is the most interesting phase for tanking since the boss casts Raging Storm and starts spawning Storm's Spite.
  • The main goal is to soak as many as possible as a tank to lessen the whole stacks on the raid group.
  • While not tanking the boss you should be walking around the boss soaking them.
  • Keep in mind this is a magical DoT, you are quite weak against this so be ready for the damage taken here.
• Thunderous Blast is the new tank mechanic, it's different from the other Phases now it is a frontal during which you need to use defensives to lessen the impact of the debuff damage on the raid after Thunderous Energy.
  • Make use of Barkskin and Rage of the Sleeper every single time you take this mechanic. Pre-use them to negate as much damage as possible.
  • Asking for Absorb Externals or Normal Externals and making use of any Absorb trinket in the game is powerful here and is recommended as Druid.
  • Also aiming it away from the raid or any players is important since if anyone but the tanks gets hit they blow up and probably cause a wipe.
• Thunderstruck Armor is the debuff after taking the explosion, similar to P1 and P2 you have this up for a few melee swings when taunting off your tank partner so be ready to use defensives such as Survival Instincts when taunting + have a good amount of Ironfur stacks rolling.
• Magnetic Charge is a new mechanic for non-tank players, it grips you to their position when the debuff runs out.
  • When you get gripped in you can make use of a nice Stampeding Roar to help the group reposition
• Fulminating Charge + Tempest Wing are same as P2.

Special Tips and Tricks

• Stampeding Roar is a really powerful tool in this fight make sure to use it if needed when moving around or how your raid assigned it.
• Tauren War Stomp can be useful on the Sparks in P1 and P2 is nice to have as a last resort but not super insane since its target capped.
• Playing higher Versatility on this fight can be quite nice since a lot of the damage taken in this fight is magical

Phase 1

• In this Phase its important to position the boss correctly for Echoing Fissure, most of the times in a corner far away from the broken wall you want to pass.
• Use Calamitous Strike to break walls, it is important to note that this ability knockbacks into the wall and far behind it so aim yourself correctly before it goes off.
  • On top of that your tank partner can taunt during the cast the target does not swap.
  • Watch out to not stop your knockback before breaking the wall.
  • After breaking the wall use Skull Bash or Wild Charge to make it back to the boss.

Phase 2

• In this phase, you have to drag the boss depending on your guild's strategy, same with which wall to break with Sunder Shadow
• Sunder Shadow knockbacks you a small amount and leaves an image of you behind while you can pass through walls. It is important to note here is that you always need to leave melee range to break walls often time this causes you to take quite a lot of damage while being unable to generate Rage.
  • So with this in mind just run behind the wall you desire to break and use Barkskin then be ready to either top yourself with Frenzied Regeneration or use it before to stay healthy for the hit.
  • Should there be a Volcanic Heart in the way make sure to also use Survival Instincts right before it goes off so you keep the damage reduction for the most amount of time.
• Don't underestimate the damage you can take walking away from the boss with Sunder Shadow especially when he follows it up with a Umbral Annihilation. It's all magic damage after all!
• When Corruption is cast avoid pressing Thrash to not cleave the mind controlled players.

Phase 3

• In P3 the boss positioning is relevant to which portals become available when Sunder Reality is cast, so position the boss properly.
• After Sunder Reality is cast portals open and adds spawn close to them. The problem here is aggro especially since the adds are gonna be spread out here. Make sure to have Thrash ready and look out for any potential Growl on distant mobs.
• During this, one of the 2 tanks also gets Calamitous Strike from the boss make sure to outplay the knockback with Skull Bash or Wild Charge to not break any walls.
  • On top of that, you now have a huge damage taken increase which can be quite dangerous while tanking the adds. Make sure to use defensives here or get a Blessing of Protection from a Paladin to cleanse the debuff.

Special Tips and Tricks

• In P3, position the boss close to the portals so the melee players can have full uptime while also being safe from Ebon Destruction.

Phase 1

• Burning Claws is the main mechanic for tanks in P1, Blazing Blast triggers at the end of the debuff making it crucial to keep defensives and absorbs through the entire duration.
  • While having this debuff while Scorching Bomb is going off puts even more magic damage debuffs on you.
  • You want to use your defensives at times when you have all the debuffs, for example, you start with Barkskin and Rage of the Sleeper and later on when you have debuff stacks + tanking the boss throw in a Survival Instincts.
• Moving the boss while Drifting Embers is going on is nice and can lead to melee players dodging the mechanic better.
• Always make sure to bait Searing Breath away from the ranged players unless your guild's strat says otherwise. What this means is just don't stand with your back towards the range camp.

Phase 2

• After playing the Intermission reposition the boss for Abyssal Breath. This means don't keep him too close to the edge but more towards the inner circle of the room.
• Abyssal Breath spawns a lot of adds, one of them is going to be a tank add, make sure to to pick it up. It casts Empty Strike increasing your damage taken.
• Keep an eye out for Cosmic Volley to help single kick it. Remember that Skull Bash charges you to the target so make sure to not charge into Desolate Blossom.
• With Incapacitating Roar you can AoE Stop Blasting Scream whenever needed.
• Void Claws is the new main tank mechanic in this phase, it does do a good amount of damage to you so make sure to have Barkskin for it when you get it and cast Frenzied Regeneration to stay healthy.
  • With this mechanic opposed to P1 you don't need to use defensives through the duration but toward the end when it explodes.
  • When the debuff expires it explodes, with this run out of the raid and don't hit anyone with this mechanic.
• Infinite Duress is a debuff on a non tank-player. This when dispelled triggers Dread a decent knockback that can sometimes be quite problematic to counter this just cast Skull Bash right after the dispel to charge back to the boss.

Solo Intermission

Doing the Solo Intermission as Guardian Druid is not recommended, but below is a way you could do it with the help of an immunity healer.

• If you are handling this part of the fight make sure to have Stampeding Roar and Barkskin ready before going into Intermission:
  • Before all players go in together make sure to request a Blessing of Protection to immune Destabilize.
    • If you don't have a Blessing of Protection ask for externals and press Survival Instincts + Frenzied Regeneration
  • After that you want to press Stampeding Roar to run against the pushback away from the boss.
  • While the Boss walk towards you he casts Infinite Duress and apply the debuff to you
  • Meet the Boss in the middle now he casts Cosmic Ascension run towards where he came from all the way to the edge
    • After Infinite Duress the healer you assigned to help you can come out from Emptiness Between Stars and meet you at the edge of the room
  • Wait for the cast to finish and the crystal Astral Formation to spawn under you.
    • At this point the healer should press immunity and dispell you the moment the crystal spawns
  • The Boss reappears and walks towards you be ready Barkskin since he is about to cast Void Slash

Here is a Timeline of how it should look if everything goes right:

Phase 3

• In P3 tanks have a unique job, the new Void Slash mechanic is a frontal cone that can't hit anyone but the current tank.
  • Most of the time 1 tank is taking 2 stacks of it and then going down into the Emptiness Between Stars since the explosion would kill the raid-team.
• Stand inside either Astral Formation or in one of the falling Motes of Oblivion to gain stacks of Oblivion.
• Every Cosmic Ascension is quite dangerous since the boss flies up and you have to break uptime run out and meet the boss who is ready to swing at you here it is recommended to have Barkskin and some Ironfur up.
• Scouring Eternity make sure to pre-position the Boss behind a crystal so you are safe from this mechanic.
• Embrace of Nothingness is the big soak mechanic on non-tank players if your tactic is to help and soak this make sure to press strong defensives such asSurvival Instincts.
• Infinite Duress again is present and can be outplayed by using Skull Bash to charge back to the boss.

Phase 1

Smolderon as a fight is very scripted and there is only 1 random factor that determines how the fight plays out.

After each Intermission World In Flames it is random which tank gets the first debuff.

Depending on if you get the first or second debuff the fight and how you play it changes a tiny bit so the following section is split to cover both scenarios.

First Overheated

• When getting the first Overheated debuff means you want to step away from the tanking position and your tank partner wants to taunt the boss to get Brand of Damnation on him.
• While your tanking partner is getting hit by the mechanic you have to look for a nice position to stand in and be ready to taunt the boss.
• During the cast of Brand of Damnation taunt the boss and don't be in the circle of the mechanic. Defensives are not needed here at all since you are just tanking the boss with his normal melee swings.
• After this, you are going to be taking on the 2. Brands of Damnation for the Phase.

SecondOverheated

• When your tank partner gets Overheated first you need to act fast since you need to have aggro of the boss. This means taunting the boss and getting ready to take Brand of Damnation.
  • Follow to steps below on how to handle Brand of Damnation.
• After coming back to the boss you have to get ready to receive the second Overheated of the fight. With this debuff, position yourself well and wait for your tank partner to take Brand of Damnation taunt the boss, and play it out until intermission starts.

Managing Brand of Damnation

• It's time to talk about Brand of Damnation how to use defensives and be ready for the hard part of the fight.
  • You always want to be ready for it with at least 1 charge of Frenzied Regeneration.
  • Right before the cast finishes you want to use any defensives lasting longer than 8 seconds since after the hit you receive 2 new debuffs, Cauterizing Wound and Searing Aftermath. Barkskin is the perfect choice for this.
  • Cauterizing Wound is a big healing absorb when removed it drops an exploding zone under you, to clear this after the mechanic hits you walk away from the stack of players a bit, and while doing so press Frenzied Regeneration.
  • After that Searing Aftermath is your next concern so you took the mechanic cleared your healing absorb and topped your HP. With that base while running out press Stampeding Roar and bring this debuff either behind or in front of the Raid team with the most possible distance between you and the players since it deals drop off damage.
  • Right before Searing Aftermath explodes make sure to be topped or press another Frenzied Regeneration since this does a lot of damage to you. If you are not topped or got hit by anything on the way consider using Survival Instincts.
  • After Searing Aftermath exploded get ready to walk back to the raid you want to pay attention to the Lava Geysers timer. Since this can be baited by tanks too, make your way back either close to Lava Pool or wait out the timer (usually a few seconds) and then walk back to the boss.

Intermission

• The intermission is the easiest part for tanks, the boss goes AFK and nothing really happens, make sure to pick up your 5 Ignited Essence to min-max your damage.
• Watch out when using Skull Bash or Wild Charge when getting back to the boss after the knockback from the intermission cast World In Flames if you charge too fast the balls spawn close or inside the boss making them almost impossible to pick up.
• Lingering Burn the debuff of the fire rings you want to try and avoid it as best as possible if you don't have anything spare to use since this does a lot of magic damage to you.

Managing Wild Mushrooms

• Wild Mushrooms are the main mechanic throughout the whole fight and are fairly easy if understood correctly.
• Basically the Boss casts Wild Mushrooms and summon 2 type of mushrooms 1 Poisonous Mushroom and 1 Blazing Mushroom
  • Both of them need to be soaked by 1 tank each, otherwise they explode and wipe the raid.
  • When soaked you receive a debuff making you take 500% more damage from the next mushroom of the same color for the next set.
  • With that in mind, it's quite simple what the goal is, soak 1 color -> soak the other color and repeat
  • At the start of the fight, you and your tank partner should decide who does which color first and from then on the rotation just flows naturally.
• Tips for the mushrooms
  • Cutting it too close to the edge of the mushroom might not work properly and make it explode on the Raid so make sure to take an extra step inside just to be safe.
  • The mushrooms are spawning quite fast after another so be ready to walk quickly to the next one. With Feline Swiftness you should have no problem getting from 1 to the other.
  • The damage of the mushrooms is not too high but soaking them plus some raid damage can be quite dangerous at times. Make sure to also use Barkskin and Frenzied Regeneration when starting the soaks.

Phase 1

• When players break Mass Entanglement small treants spawn, make sure to pick them up using Thrash.
• While sometimes treants can spawn further away from melee when players break their root, use Growl to get aggro or Moonfire to get them under the boss so they can be cleaved down.
• After Fire Beam make sure to move the boss to a further away position making it easy to dodge for the Raid.

Phase 2

• The only added mechanic in P2 is Flaming Germination which spawns Seed of Flame Here 2 things are important for tanks:
  • First, make sure to always keep the boss close to the dispel fire zones caused by Fiery Growth since the seeds can not spawn in the fire and so you can control the area where they spawn in a better way.
  • Try to always soak a seed right behind you when tanking the boss in the middle-ish so the boss stays in range for every player in the raid when the seeds are happening.

Phase 3

• In P3 all mechanics mentioned above are happening together, but the way to handle them stays the same.
• For the Boss movement consult with your guild and check what tactic you are running.

Special Tips and Tricks

• Using Stampeding Roar can be a good way to help the other tank during Wild Mushrooms. However, most of the time this is used to give the raid movement speed for Fire Beam.

Phase 1

• Same as Tindral a lot of specifics come down to the tactic your guild/Raid picks on this Boss so I am going to give more overall tips and tricks for the fight.
• Predator is a special tank mechanic that makes the boss leap after you and hit you with a melee swing. Nothing special, just keep in mind that if you run far away from him he leaps to you same when the boss goes away during certain boss abilities.
• Fyr'alath's Bite is the tank mechanic in P1 + 2 always make sure to aim it in a set direction and don't change this last second because in P2 you can't hit any Souls with it.
• P1 make sure to position the boss nicely for your melee players to still swing when placing the Dream Rend.
  • The direction the Boss faces is important for the placement of Dream Rend since the boss keeps turning while he is casting and the direction he faces when the cast finishes determines the position.
  • During the Dream Rend suck-in Stampeding Roar is extremely strong.
• Blaze during this mechanic since you are a tank, don't move around too much just tank it, and if anything move inside your line so you don't shift the position.

Intermission

• Everything here comes down to the tactic your guild uses and what WeakAura you follow. Generally, you can soak a ball of the opposite color once when pressing Barkskin + Rage of the Sleeper + Survival Instincts if needed.
  • This consumes all of your defensives so only do it when strictly necessary.

Phase 2

• Greater Firestorm spawns the 2 Colossus adds during the Shadowflame Devastation phase. Normally both tank's circles stack on top of each other so make sure to use Barkskin for this mechanic.
• Screaming Souls can be interrupted with Incapacitating Roar.

Phase 3

• In P3 the tanking is changing a bit making it a bit harder since you take more damage over time from the new tank buster Infernal Maw with the stacking debuff.
• Normally tanks hold a‍Corrupted Seedor‍Seed of Amirdrassil during P3.
  • Important to note is that Infernal Maw counts towards a mechanic that will explode the seed and wipe the raid so if you ever hold the seed and the tank mechanic is about to hit you drop it before.
• For cooldowns for every single Infernal Maw combo you can have Barkskin ready and should also use it.

Below you are presented a good list of farmable alternatives that are obtainable outside of WoW’s weekly lockout system. While replaced in time as you progress, these offer immediate character power.

#showtooltip Growl/cast [@mouseover,exists,harm][@target,exists,harm] Growl

/cast [@boss1] Growl

/cast [@boss2] Growl