Guardian Druid Gearing Guide

Season 2 Guardian Druid Tier Set Bonus:

• (2) Set Bonus: Each time you take damage you have a chance to activate Luck of the Draw, gaining Survival Instincts for 4s and 15% increased damage done for 8s
• (4) Set Bonus: After gaining Luck of the Draw your next 10 druid abilities cast another druid ability at 125% effectiveness

In Season 2 of The War Within Blizzard is trying out a new style of tier bonuses, where all specs within the same role share a similar bonus which is themed around the goblin patch. For tanks that bonus is Luck of the Draw, a short duration proc of a major defensive ability, which for Guardian is Survival Instincts. Looking at the 4 piece bonus, it is an entirely passive throughput boost that you won’t think about, so similar to the season 1 tier set this bonus has no impact on the Guardian druid playstyle.

The tables below aim to give you a general list of gear that is good for Guardian Druid, these lists are not a perfect replacement for simming your character.

NOTE: With the release of patch 11.0.7, you can do the quest chain on Siren’s Isle to obtain the Cyrce’s Circlet ring, which is a competitive option until you obtain similar ilvl rings in Season 2. We will discuss this ring in more detail in a later section.

• Overall
• Raiding
• Mythic+

In this section I’ll go into a bit more detail on very rare items from the raid as well as trinkets available this season, explaining in what situations you may want to use them. Note that I won’t be discussing every single trinket, just the most competitive or controversial ones.

Very Rare Loot

Test Pilot’s Go-Pack (Very Rare Cloak, Sprocketmonger Lockenstock) - This back comes with an on-use effect that gives you a large speed boost for 1s on a 2min CD. This effect is relatively minor and the stats aren’t ideal for Guardian, so you likely won’t seek this very rare drop.

Best-in-Slots (Very Rare 2H Mace, One-Armed Bandit) - Instead of having secondary stats this weapon has a random proc of secondaries giving roughly double the amount. This weapon also has a on-use effect to force this proc to happen on a 2min CD, which makes for a powerful combination when used alongside Incarnation, making it the best weapon available in this tier.

The Jastor Diamond (Very Rare Ring, Chrome King Gallywix) - A ring with an extremely powerful effect, giving you bonus stats based on the highest secondary of nearby players. While this doesn’t have great base stats for Guardian druid, if you’re able to get this at equal item level to other rings the bonus stats it provides definitely make it worth wearing.

Raid Trinkets

Reverb Radio (Rik Reverb) - A simple Agility and haste stat stick which builds in power over time before resetting after reaching max stacks. The proc rate on this trinket is quite high, making it a very reliable trinket that is good in all situations and content.

Scrapfield 9001 (Stix Bunkjunker) - One of the few defense oriented trinkets this patch, this one unfortunately falls a bit short as both the power of the effect is quite low and the threshold to proc it is quite high, meaning unless you aren’t taking any damage you won’t be able to make use of the haste proc upside and would rather use something like the previously mentioned Reverb Radio.

Mister Lock-N-Stalk (Sprocketmonger Lockenstock) - This is a pure damage trinket which you can swap between a single target or AoE effect, though in general I only recommend using this if you want some extra priority target damage, so you’ll want to keep it in ST mode. This deals solid damage in that situation but has no defensive upside, so you may not want to use it in all situations.

House of Cards (The One-Armed Bandit) - This on-use trinket syncs up nicely with Incarnation, making it a solid choice when it comes to damage output if you line them up. While this trinket does give Mastery as opposed to a better offensive stat, it gives A LOT of it which makes it a competitive option.

Zee’s Thug Hotline (Mug’Zee, Heads of Security) - Just a passive damage trinket with some fun flavor, nothing crazy powerful but a solid option. Technically this trinket gains value on shorter duration fights where Bloodlust uptime is higher, but even in those situations there are better damage options.

Eye of Kezan (Chrome King Gallywix) - A trinket that ramps up in power over time, making it the best option on long encounters or in dungeons where you can keep yourself in combat. Currently it takes over 4 minutes to build yourself up to max stacks which is quite a long time, but most likely worthwhile on encounters that last 5 minutes or more.

Chromebustible Bomb Suit (Chrome King Gallywix) - A haste trinket with a shield on-use effect, very similar to Swarmlord’s Authority from Season 1, this is looking to be the best defensive trinket available to Guardian druids next patch as it can be used as an extra defensive on its relatively short 1.5 minute cooldown.

Mythic+ Trinkets

Ravenous Honey Buzzer (Cinderbrew Meadery) - If you’re looking for an on-use damage option this is one of the best ones this season, however keep in mind that the bug that caused this trinket to over perform at the start of Season 1 has been fixed, so there are now some other better options if you’re looking for max damage.

Cinderbrew Stein (Cinderbrew Meadery) - Another defensive trinket, this one actually puts out shields and gives primary stat to both yourself and one other ally. Unfortunately the uptime on this trinket is a bit suspect, which when paired with the fact that this has no passive upside leads me to generally recommend a trinket that gives you more consistent value instead.

Remnant of Darkness (Darkflame Cleft) - This trinket is essentially a stat stick that replaced the secondaries with more primary stat, which in theory would be powerful except that the proc rate is a tad low and it requires you to be at 3 out of 5 stacks to be better than the passive stats on other primary stat trinkets. Because of this the trinket is overshadowed a bit, but a fine option for early in the season.

Signet of the Priory (Priory of the Sacred Flame) - The other big stat on-use trinket this season, this one has a slightly longer cooldown and gives less stats than House of Cards, however it gives you your highest secondary stat as opposed to Mastery and has a longer buff time, making it a nice pairing with Incarnation if you’re looking for damage output.

Tome of Light’s Devotion (Priory of the Sacred Flame) - This trinket swaps between giving passive armor with a magic shield proc and passive crit with a damage proc, and actually is one of the most powerful offensive options available to tanks this tier. It has an on-use effect on a 1.5 minute CD that immediately swaps what effect the trinket gives without hitting the 50 stack swap threshold, and if you use it such that you stay in the crit and damage proc effect as much as possible this can do upwards of 10% of your damage output. Importantly this on-use effect does not share a cooldown with other on-use weapons or trinkets, so it can be paired with another on-use trinket without much fuss.

Improvised Seaforium Pacemaker (Operation: Floodgate) - Another passive trinket option, this one instead offers a crit buff that procs every minute and can be extended by further crits, up to a max of 30s. Guardian tends to be pretty good at extending this buff even in single target situations thanks to all their DoTs, making it one of the best stat trinkets in this tier.

Noggenfogger Ultimate Deluxe (Delves) - As an honorable mention I wanted to include this delve trinket as it is the only one in my testing that has punched above its weight class, outperforming most trinkets in terms of damage output when at the same ilvl and even competing with some myth track trinkets despite maxing out on the hero track. I doubt this will be the overall best trinket, but it is quite strong if you get it early so keep on the lookout!

Funhouse Lens (Delves) - The 2nd and final delve trinket on this list, this one doesn’t punch above its ilvl, however it does offer an effect that outperforms similar trinkets like House of Cards and Signet of the Priory at the same ilvl since it guarantees either Crit or Haste while being on a 1.5min CD to allow for good line-ups with Incarnation casts.

Trinket Recommendations

• Raid - Tome of Light’s Devotion and Improvised Seaforium Pacemaker
• M+ Dungeons - Improvised Seaforium Pacemaker and either House of Cards or Signet of the Priory
• Defensive Option - Chromebustible Bomb Suit
• Situational - Eye of Kezan for boss encounters that are >6mins or in M+ dungeons where you are able to chain pull and maintain stacks

In The War Within you’re able to equip 2 pieces of Crafted “Embellished” gear pieces with special effects, of which there are a few good options for Guardian druids.

Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension (Weapon) - This embellishment gives you a stacking secondary stat buff while in combat that randomizes over time. This is also a nerubian embellishment, allowing you to double the effect if you wear another crafted piece embellished with a Writhing Armor Banding. The main downside here is that this takes 80 seconds to ramp up to its full value, causing it to be weaker on shorter encounters or in M+ when you break combat too often. This also causes you to lose 3 ilvls on your weapon long term, so while this is good at the start of the patch when you haven’t gotten a good weapon yet, once you get a weapon on the Myth track this embellishment loses a fair bit of value.

Adrenal Surge Clasp (Belt) - Another nerubian embellishment, this has a chance on being hit to grant some primary stat at the expense of some mastery, which is a trade-off Guardians are happy to make. That being said it does not proc off ability damage, meaning you need to actively be hit or have a DoT effect on you in order to proc it, which isn’t a problem in dungeons but can reduce the uptime in some raid encounters.

Elemental Focusing Lens (Flexible) - Gives your abilities a chance to deal a flat amount of magic damage depending on the gems you have socketed. This damage is relatively low but unlike Ascension it has no ramp up time, making it a better option for both shorter raid fights and M+ dungeons. It also scales decently with ilvl, making it a better option as the expansion progresses. Note that this embellishment will not function unless you have at least 1 gem socketed.

Writhing Armor Banding (Flexible) - When combined with one of the previously mentioned nerubian embellishments this doubles their effects, making it powerful when paired with them but useless without them.

Recommendations:

• Raid - Elemental Focusing Lens x2 on Bracers, Boots, Belt or Cape
• M+ Dungeons - Adrenal Surge Clasp + Writhing Armor Banding on Bracers, Boots or Cape

Corruption Enchants

Also with patch 11.1.5 players are able to unlock lesser and greater corruption enchants for their helmet through the revamped Horrific Visions system. For Guardian Druid I recommend the Greater Rune of Void Ritual, which gives your abilities a chance to increase all your secondary stats for 20s, meaning it has both offensive and defensive upside while most other corruption effects are strictly offensive, though again these bonuses are fairly small.

Puzzling Cartel Chips

Added in patch 11.1.5, these chips can be used to purchase raid gear including very rare items, weapons, and trinkets, as well as trinkets from M+ dungeons. You’ll only be able to earn 3 of these chips total, so here is a general priory of items you’ll want to purchase, keeping in mind this can change slightly depending on your current gear.

1. Best-in-Slots
2. Jastor Diamond
3. Trinket depending on your preferred content (see trinket recommendations above)

If you already have one or more of these items, you can spend remaining cartel chips on additional recommended trinkets.

Cyrce’s Circlet

New with patch 11.0.7, Cyrce’s Circlet is a ring earned from the Siren’s Isle that can be slotted with 3 unique gems to give it special abilities or increase its stats. When fully upgraded this ring is 658 ilvl, making it competitive with Hero track rings in Season 2.

In terms of which gems you should socket these are my current recommendations:

Damage:

• Thunder - Thunderlord’s Crackling Citrine
• Sea - Undersea Overseer’s Citrine or Fathomdweller’s Runed Citrine
• Wind - Legendary Skipper’s Citrine

Survivability:

• Thunder - Stormbringer’s Runed Citrine
• Sea - Fathomdweller’s Runed Citrine
• Wind - Windsinger’s Runed Citrine