Gear
Tier Set
- 2p - Rage you spend during Rage of the Sleeper fuel the growth of Dream Thorns, which wreath you in their protection after Rage of the Sleeper expires, absorbing 25% of damage dealt to you while the thorns remain.
- 4p - Each 40 Rage you spend while Rage of the Sleeper is active extends its duration by 1s, up to 5s. Your Dream Thorns become Blazing Thorns, causing 100% of damage absorbed to be reflected at the attacker.
Offensively and defensively this bonus is a bit of a downgrade from our Abberus tier set, though with gear going up 39ilvl this patch you will still choose to wear it in all scenarios. Taking a look at the bonus itself, essentially it incentivizes you to pool rage to at least 80 before using Rage of the Sleeper, which in turn would allow you to increase the duration by 50% while also gaining a decently sized shield. Note that the shield itself has a 45s duration and is capped at 100% of your max health plus modifiers such as versatility.
In terms of overall strength this ends up being decent in M+ but struggles a bit in raid, due to a combination of lower rage generation in ST scenarios and the potential to lose value due to things like environmentally sourced damage instances not being reflected, or even having the 2p shield expire entirely due to tank downtime. On top of this, there is currently a large counter synergy with this tier set and the Tooth and Claw talent, where mauls or razes buffed by this proc do not contribute to either the 2p shield or the 4p Rage of the Sleeper extension since they cause them to cost no rage.
Overall the tier set certainly feels frustrating in raid content, but I think a couple fixes could be made to make it feel better to play with. First, allow Tooth and Claw buffed mauls or razes contribute to the 2p and 4p as if they cost the standard 40 rage, fixing the counter synergy that currently exists. Second, cause the shield to detonate for any remaining damage upon expiration, fixing the potential for you to lose damage value if you aren’t tanking something long enough to break your shield. While these 2 changes won’t make this bonus as powerful as the Abberus one, they will make it feel a lot better to play with.
Embellished Gear
In Dragonflight you’re able to equip 2 pieces of Crafted “Embellished” Gear, and for Guardian druids there are a few standout options.
Elemental Lariat (neck) - At the beginning of the patch when you have no sockets this will be underwhelming, however once you build them up over the course of the patch this will likely be a very competitive embellishment considering a lot of the flat damage procs have been nerfed going into patch 10.2. Note that this selects the lower secondary of elemental gems only, so as an example if you’re using Energized Ysemerald it will proc versatility.
Toxic Thorn Footwraps (boots) - The top damage option in season 2, this is seeing significant nerfs in patch 10.2, potentially knocking it out of the top embellishment spot for Guardian druids. This item also comes with the minor downside of reducing your stamina slightly, but overall you won’t notice this cost. Also note that some of your damage procs will turn into healing procs due to your own healing abilities, resulting in a slight damage decrease compared to if you did no healing whatsoever.
Toxified Armor Patch (any armor slot) - Available to be put on any slot, this amps the value of Toxic Thorn Footwraps when used together. While running the boots isn’t guaranteed, if you do end up using them you will likely pair them with one of these armor patches.
Infurious Footwraps of Indemnity (boots) - These PvP boots have a Sephuz-like effect, granting you 10s of an agility buff whenever you successfully interrupt, dispel, or CC an enemy on a 30s CD. In M+ situations or just in general when you’re able to get this proc as close to on CD as possible this is a decent option that provides a nice mix of damage and durability, however during pulls or boss fights where you cannot proc it you essentially are playing down an embellishment.
Undulating Sporecloak (cape) - This embellishment is getting an adjustment with patch 10.2, with the absorb proc and HoT effect being massively reduced, in exchange for you gaining passive versatility while above 70% health. Unfortunately the relatively low value of these effects post-nerf make it an unattractive option.
Ideal Setup: Toxic Thorn Footwraps + Toxified Armor Patch on Bracers
Trinkets and Very Rare Items
Rashon, the Immortal Blaze (Fyrakk) - 2H Polearm with a passive shadowflame damage proc. This is currently the highest damage option available for Guardians this patch, where even the heroic version is better than any other weapon, however it comes with the downside of dealing some damage to yourself.
Borrowed Time (DotI:Murozond’s Rise) - 2H Polearm with timestrike. A solid option for non-raiders or if you don’t want to deal with the self-damage from Rashon, the timestrike on this weapon is a nice boost in both AoE and ST.
Ouroboreal Necklet (Volcoross) - Very rare neck that grants a fire shield when dealing nature damage and a nature shield when dealing fire damage on a 1min CD. Overall this is a pretty minor gain since it isn’t a general absorb and not super impactful.
Fyrakk’s Tainted Rageheart (Fyrakk) - Very rare trinket with a 1.5min on-use that provides a decent sized shield as well as damage increasing per target hit, up to 5. On top of this, the trinket also just does passive damage while in combat, making it a very powerful option in M+.
Augury of the Primal Flame (Fyrakk) - Very rare trinket, this proc deals a very high amount of damage in both ST and AoE, currently looking to be one of the top pure damage options available.
Cataclysmic Signet Brand (Smolderon) - Another proc trinket, similar to the Elementium Pocket Anvil this trinket will get better in situations where you’re in combat long enough to stack it up, however it will decay quickly out of combat which will significantly hurt its value in some M+ dungeons. Regardless, this looks like a very strong raid damage option currently, just beware of the self-damage that occurs while above 5 stacks.
Gift of the Ursine Vengeance (Council of Dreams) - This passive trinket is looking like a top M+ option as the retaliation effect scales well with target count, plus it gives a ton of primary stat overall which is always very strong both offensively and defensively.
Pip’s Emerald Friendship Badge (Council of Dreams) - Passive stat trinket that has a proc for additional stats and rotates between Mastery, Versatility, and Crit. This is a fine trinket for all situations, but likely won’t be the best at anything.
Coiled Serpent Idol (Volcoross) - Passive trinket with a flat damage proc of serpents that deals a bunch of additional damage if their target dies. In theory this can do a lot of damage in M+ scenarios but you’re kind of at the mercy of RNG with proc timing.
Ember of Nullification (Black Rook Hold) - Passive versatility stat stick with a silence effect that doesn’t really do much. Decent option but nothing special.
Oakheart’s Gnarled Root (Darkheart Thicket) - Passive trinket with a flat damage proc on casting a spell, which for Guardians only counts moonfire. Despite only having a single spell to proc this ability, this trinket is dealing a ton of damage, particularly in single target scenarios. Note that this is not a Guardian spec trinket, so for it to show up in your end of dungeon or vault loot you need to change your loot spec to Balance.
Writhing Heart of Darkness (Darkheart Thicket) - Stacking damage decrease you apply to targets you crit, assuming you have full uptime on a mob this is relatively easy to maintain at max stacks, making it a solid defensive option if you are taking a high quantity of smaller damage events, though it loses points for not having primary stat.
Nightmare Egg (Darkheart Thicket) - Agi trinket with a ramping haste proc, overall okay but random stat procs are never super valuable for tanks unless they are extremely overbudgeted.
Mirror of Fractured Tomorrows (DotI:Murozond’s Rise) - 3min CD trinket that gives a ton of your highest secondary, you can line this up with every other cast of incarn for solid damage output, though the raid trinkets will likely outperform it in this regard.
Witherbark’s Branch (Everbloom) - Agi trinket with a 2min on-use that gives a ton of mastery. Technically this trinket can be gamed to make the mastery proc last ~28s, however this is unrealistic especially for a tank player, but insane amount of mastery this trinket provides is quite powerful even without the massively increased duration making this a decent general option.
Porcelain Crab (Throne of the Tides) - Agi trinket with a mastery and avoidance proc, nothing crazy here this is just an okay choice.
Accelerating Sandglass (DotI:Galakrond’s Fall) - Agi trinket where you build stacks of a haste buff for 20s then use them up to deal a flat amount of damage before building them up once again. Overall this trinket is decent, more consistent than some of the random proc trinkets, but there are still better options out there.
Prophetic Stonescales (Dawn of the Infinite) - Added in patch 10.1.5, this is the only cheat death trinket currently available to tanks, and despite the 8min CD it is quite powerful in extremely high M+ keys where 1 small mistake could mean death. Will likely have a very high use rate for 0.1% title level keys but loses value in lower keys when you aren’t in as much danger.
Trinket Setups
- Ideal Raid Setup - Oakheart’s Gnarled Root + Cataclysmic Signet Brand
- Ideal M+ Setup - Fyrakk’s Tainted Rageheart + Gift of the Ursine Vengeance
- Alternative Offensive Options - Augury of the Primal Flame or Coiled Serpent Idol
- Alternative Defensive Options - Prophetic Stonescales