Guardian Druid Tank Rotation & Cooldowns

Tank Rotation & Cooldowns

A general priority guide for Guardian Druid abilities and cooldowns. Helpful for understanding the spec's fundamentals and getting comfortable with core synergies. Updated for the latest patch in World of Warcraft: Midnight (12.0.1).

Single Target

Ensure Mark Of The Wild is active and you are in Bear Form before engaging.

Maintain on primary target
Maintain 3-5 stacks
Use on cooldown
Use on cooldown
Spend Rage offensively
Spend Rage defensively
Use if health is low
Use with Galactic Guardian procs
Use if no other abilities are available

Maintain Moonfire and Thrash stacks, prioritize Mangle and Thrash on cooldown, and manage Rage with Maul or Ironfur based on the situation.

AoE

Maintain on primary target
Maintain 3-5 stacks
Use on cooldown
Use on cooldown
Spend Rage offensively
Spend Rage defensively
Use if health is low
Use with Galactic Guardian procs
Use if no other abilities are available

AoE rotation mirrors single-target: maintain Moonfire and Thrash, prioritize Mangle, and manage Rage with Maul or Ironfur.

Cooldowns

Use frequently to smooth damage intake
Use for burst damage and survivability
Use for major damage reduction during dangerous moments
Use for group healing or extra DPS in Cat Form
Use situationally for utility or healing

Use Barkskin often, Incarnation Guardian Of Ursoc for burst, and Survival Instincts for heavy damage phases. Lunar Beam and Heart Of The Wild provide situational utility.

New to Class? Try Assisted Rotation

Patch 11.1.7 introduced new features that make it eaiser to pick and play new characters. These new settings can be enabled from settings » gameplay enhancements:

Single-Button Assistant
Assisted Highlight
Cooldown Manager

If you are new to World of Warcraft or a certain class, enabling Assisted Highlight and Cooldown Manager can help you learn which abilities to prioritize and use.

While the Single-Button Assistant can be a much easier and more accessible way to play the game, it does come with a slight performance hit due to a small GCD penalty, as you will have to wait 25% longer in between spells and abilities.

To see which specs are best with the Single-Button Assistant feature, you can check out our DPS Rankings which uses SimC to sim every class using this feature.