Pulverize needs to be baseline, get rid of maul already
It's a shame that Guardian got shafted so hard after Legion. Instead of bringing other tanks UP to where our beasty bear tanks were, bears got gutted more than a boat full of fish at a market. Granted, Legion bears were obscenely strong, but they did not deserve the level of the nerfs they got in BfA. When I was learning to tank as a bear to earn my mage tower skin, I grew to love it. Bear tanking was the most fun I've had on any class as a tank. I still prefer it over other classes, and perform better with it than other classes when tanking, but it's such a hollow shell of its Legion days.Also, the major problem with ALL classes is that there's too many GCD issues. It's absolutely unreasonable, honestly. If all classes had like half of their abilities removed from the GCD (finishers, big cooldowns, etc), then everything would be significantly better. Nothing is as bad as warriors though, requiring four GCDs to get started, but bears sound almost as unfortunate. GCD changes are absolutely needed.
Read this article with hope and left with a hole. Pump you did very well to highlight the issues Guardian has. Hopefullly a lot of the abilities go baseline ( wild charge) and come off the GCD (Frenzied Regen) to name a few. All in all I'm still worried about Guardians, sure they can play the content but why do other tanks look to be doing that content easier and more efficient? Also no more bird form and roar :( was fun while it lasted.
Personally, I'd like to see Blizzard implement a change to Guardian Affinity that allows Bear Form access to cast Moonfire. Since Ironfur became baseline, Guardian Affinity only provides two spells (making it the weakest of the choices, providing only Frenzied Regeneration and Incapacitating Roar). Adding Moonfire back for Bear Form users who actively choose Guardian Affinity would be a great option, one with minimal impact on overall rotation and it still fits with the lore decision by Blizzard to confine Moonfire in Bear Form to the "Guardian"-only classification. For example, it is odd as a Feral Druid, who has talented into Lunar Inspiration (having already Moonfire as baseline in human form), to not be able to cast Moonfire in Bear Form, especially if they are talented into Guardian Affinity, as well. It is a quality of life change, one which I see as being appropriate to help elevate Guardian Affinity to match the other options in that talent row, and if the potency of Moonfire spamming while in Bear Form is too high, it would require some simple tuning to tie up the spell power output.I hope others see the reasoning in seeing this feature of Bear druids restored for those who actively choose Guardian Affinity. I would welcome any further thoughts on the subject. As a seasoned Druid main primarily specializing in Guardian for the last four expansions, I know the thrill and (excuse the pun) the rage at seeing abilities added, changed and/or removed, and frankly, what I proposed here seems - to me, at least - to be a small step which would restore some much needed vitality to Guardian Druid's representation in the Affinities.
why is wild charge a talent? its so lazy! that should an ability we auto-get. And bash? why is that even a talent? most talents look so unspectacular that they should just be abilities we already have in our spellbooks.
The Bear Community appreciates everything you do for us Pumps! Much Bear Love! <3
I would love to have Mark of the Wild back as a baseline Druid talent. I've played a Druid since Vanilla, and I've just felt naked without it.
I still don't understand why we lose so much hp, armor on mounts or in human form, while all other tanks have their same HP/Armor/tankiness all year round.I completely understand when we lose all that when we go catweave/bommyweave but we should get our hp/armor as a baseline for being in that spec.
I wasnt a fan of MoP/WoD's dodge type bears, but havign maul and FR on GCD is worse.every time you use 1 ur flow is brought to an immediate stall.imagine if warlocks had CB trigger GCD every cast.thats basically how it is for bears.
What I gather from all these "state of the class" previews is that Shadowlands is pretty much exactly like BfA in terms of gameplay, so only resto druids, mages, blood DKs and rogues can get groups for M+, only 3 or 4 classes can raid, and everyone else can go find another game, because they're not needed or wanted. Thank goodness I didn't preorder.
Tiger Dash is a fantastic talent to take to help you run away a lot. No, wait, they don't actually want tanks to do that, do they?
I'm not sure I understand why Heart of the wild is in the same row as a mass root and a stun. Doesn't make much sense.
Bears are so misunderstood. Specced right,with appropriate stat weights, they dominate. Simple rotation...or more time to execute mechanics exactly?No active magic mitigation is EASILY accounted for with appropriate Mastery, Frenzied Regeneration and adept knowledge of fights.Bears are currently the BEST tank. Suitable toolkit, sufficient survivability, outrageous versatility...ONE CATCH - You just have to KNOW how to play it, and WHY you're playing it...Bears are sitting on top of all M+ & Raids
I would like to see those changes:1. Infected wounds. The only tank without slow doesn't make any sense.2. Leader of the Pack. Add it back to feral toolkit and make a part of feral affinity. Kinda tired of playing for 2 years with resto affinity without any choice.3. Make wild charge baseline and put HoTW in this talent row instead.4. Delete lunar beam and make galactic guardian baseline. Or give faerie fire instead of both.5. Innervate.
Very happy to have such a complete review of Guardians in Shadowlands! I'm very excited for this expansion. I agree that Bears should have a particular identity or some caracteristics to make it unique. I always liked the fact that Guardians were always (even after the nerf of our PvP Talent that gave 15% more HP to everyone, including ourselves at the time) huge bags of HP. Our Mastery is literally a HP boost and that's something I like a lot. Now, with Incarnation, we will have 30% more HP which is very nice. It feels very nice to finally have an actual defensive AND offensive burst. Thank you for that great review, I really can't wait to play by bear :)
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