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Talent Builds
Druid of the Claw (Mythic+)
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My general build recommendation for M+, the changes coming in Midnight have made Druid of the Claw much more consistent defensively while still maintaining its damage advantage over Elune’s Chosen, making it a much more competitive (and in my opinion, fun!) option.
Looking at the talents, you’ll notice I’ve selected Fluid Form and Persistence talent points despite not taking Wildpower Surge in the Druid of the Claw tree, and the reason for this is to make it easier (and safer) to shift into Cat Form and use Heart Of The Wild, which deals substantial single target damage and is very useful to finish off individual mobs or on boss encounters.
In terms of potential flex talents, in the class tree you’re fairly locked in, though you are able to gain a slight defensive boost in exchange for damage by moving Heart Of The Wild and Fluid Form into Perfectly-Honed Instincts or Forestwalk. You can also grab some more utility from Innervate or Symbiotic Relationship if you prefer.
When it comes to the spec tree you have a couple choices to make, as you need to pick 4 of the following 6 talents: Brambles, Reinforced Fur, Natural Resilience, Gift Of An Ancient Guardian, Ursoc's Endurance, and 1 point in Flashing Claws.
I’ve opted to not include Brambles and Reinforced Fur in my build, but if you want a bit more defense you can drop the point in Flashing Claws to pick up Reinforced Fur. Alternatively, for offense you can drop Natural Resilience and grab Brambles.
Elune’s Chosen (Mythic+)
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If you prefer to play Elune’s Chosen in M+ this is my recommend build, which gains a bit more defensive cooldown consistency thanks to CDR on Lunar Beam, though this comes at the expensive of your damage output and potential strength outside your cooldown windows since you’ll be gaining less value from Ursoc's Fury and will not have the Dreadful Wound debuff active.
Note that the talents linked here use the same class and spec tree points as the previously mentioned Druid of the Claw M+ build, so refer to that for information on flexible nodes.
Druid of the Claw (Raid)
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When it comes to raiding both hero trees are within 4-5% of each other so feel free to play whichever you prefer, but my standard build recommends Druid of the Claw without catweaving since those benefits have been drastically reduced going into Midnight. If you want to use Elune’s Chosen you’ll use the same build just with the hero tree swapped.
In terms of flexible points in the class tree, you are able to freely change between Typhoon, Mass Entanglement, and Ursol's Vortex depending on the needs of the encounter, plus you’re able to grab both of those nodes if needed by dropping a point in Matted Fur. In the capstone area I recommend taking Fluid Form to save yourself a couple globals when using Heart Of The Wild, then from there you have the ability to drop Innervate or Improved Stampeding Roar which can be used on either Symbiotic Relationship, Perfectly-Honed Instincts or Lycara's Inspiration.
As for the spec tree, you have quite a few options in the middle area of the tree where I’ve assumed you’re playing a single target build, but you can easily grab Raze by dropping either Brambles or Reinforced Fur, depending on if you want to be more defensive or offensive. On top of that, if you’re going for pure damage you can swap Reinforced Fur for Bristling Fur to give you some extra rage generation.
When it comes to the capstone area, your main choice is between Red Moon and Twin Moonfire, where the former excels in single target damage scenarios but is a bit more complex to juggle, while the latter is much more straightforward and gains a ton of value when there is more than one target.
If you instead want to go a more defensive route, you’re able to drop both points in Fury Of Nature to pick up Ursoc's Fury and Natural Resilience, which is a bit of a damage loss but gives you a lot more personal shielding.
Class Talents
In this section, I’ll zoom in on a few notable talents in the class tree, discussing specifics on how exactly they work and when their effects are most valuable.
Moonkin Form
While this isn’t a form you want to be in long-term, there are a couple of niche benefits to having access to it. First, it allows you to use the Flap ability, allowing you to mitigate otherwise lethal falls and traverse wider than usual gaps in terrain, which sometimes helps with things like skips in M+.
The other benefit is it grants you an AoE damage effect from Heart Of The Wild, which isn’t a massive DPS increase but still does a hefty hit that is worth pressing if you can safely do so. At the same time, taking this point does require slightly different pathing at the start of the tree, meaning you’ll need to sacrifice some more generally useful talents to pick it up.
Starlight Conduit
Despite this appearing like something unrelated to Guardian druid, the damage increase to Starsurge this node provides does increase the output of the Starsurges created by the Elune’s Chosen talent Star Cascade, making this a very slight damage increase for that hero tree specifically.
This is fairly out of the way though, meaning it’s unlikely you’d pick it up in a M+ build, but it remains an option for a more offensive Elune’s Chosen raid build.
Lingering Healing
Another talent that seems like it's aimed at another spec, this node actually does provide a very small self-healing boost thanks to synergies with both Dream Of Cenarius and Reinvigoration in the spec tree. Even so, the value of this point is currently quite low, so I don’t expect it to see much use with current tuning.
Symbiotic Relationship
This interesting node gives Guardian access to some more focused off-healing, allowing you to funnel it into a specific player of your choice. That being said, the healing it does is fairly small, even with changes made to make Dream Of Cenarius more accessible and frequent, and it often does a substantial amount of overhealing.
Despite that, it can still be strong against bosses that deal constant, heavy group damage, so it’s something you can tech into to relieve some stress from your healer.
Forestwalk
Previously a fairly weak single point talent, this was expanded into a two-point node with boosted effects, which, when paired with the rework to Dream of Cenarius (discussed in the spec talents section) move it to a decent option in situations where you are consistently taking damage to make use of the healing buff it provides.
You will also need to have free capstone talent points, so this isn’t a guaranteed pickup, but it’ll likely see fair use in more defensive M+ builds.
Fluid Form
This talent is fairly niche, however it is extremely powerful when catweaving as a Druid of the Claw, as it allows you to save all your shifting globals by using abilities to instantly shift without wasting them.
This is particularly good for spending your Wildpower Surge empowerment and getting back into Bear Form quickly, but it also allows you to easily weave Rake into your regular rotation, adding an extra bleed to your arsenal. With the changes to Heart Of The Wild in Midnight, this talent gains a little bit more value, as it allows you to quickly shift into Cat Form, use the 2min CD, then shift back into Bear Form ASAP.
Heart Of The Wild
A talent that is seeing a substantial rework going into Midnight, moving from a 40s passive boost on a 5min CD to an instant effect based on your form on a 2min CD, very reminiscent of Convoke The Spirits.
Current tuning of the damage effects is quite good, so I expect this will be quite popular in raids as well as more offensive M+ builds, though keep in mind that if you are doing content where you are unable to consistently shift forms safely to use this effect, it likely isn’t worth the talent point.
As for what the effects do, if hit in bear or human form you’ll cast an empowered Wild Growth on 5 nearby targets (shifting you out of Bear Form in the process), if you’re in Cat Form it does a large single target hit and bleed that grants 5 combo points, and if you’re in moonkin form it applies a DoT to all enemies within 40yds.
This means that in raid or on dungeon bosses, you’ll likely want to use the Cat Form version, in larger pulls, you’ll want to use the moonkin version, and if you need a bit of healing in a pinch, you can use the human/bear version.
Spec Talents
Similar to the previous section, let’s now dive into the notable talents in the spec tree that may need more explanation than their tooltips provide and discuss in what situations they excel.
Persistence
Formerly a part of the Druid of the Claw tree, this node has been generalized and put in the spec tree, allowing you to maintain your durability when shifting into cat, moonkin, or human form. This has some decent synergy if you’re trying to use Heart Of The Wild, as it means you won’t immediately die upon shifting, though there is still some risk.
The main use of this talent, though, is in a raid environment when planning to catweave, as Druid of the Claw does incentivize you to shift as soon as you hit 6 stacks of Wildpower Surge, regardless of whether you’re tanking or not. Notably, this is a talent that is directly competing with Front Of The Pack, which means you are now giving up a slight bit of utility when opting to catweave.
Dream Of Cenarius
This talent received a rework going into Midnight, where it now stacks up to 4 times, allowing you to bank multiple empowered Regrowths, plus the proc rate was changed to remove the fairly substantial 20s ICD, allowing for more frequent use. What this means is that Guardian has gained a significant amount of controlled off-healing in this expansion, allowing them to feel more impactful when it comes to helping their group or even just healing themselves.
Be careful as pressing Regrowth without a proc will shift you out of Bear Form, which can be quite dangerous. These changes also make a previous weak option like Forestwalk much stronger, where you’ll now consider taking it in certain situations (see class talents for more info).
Natural Resilience
Newly added in Midnight, this defensive talent allows Guardian to turn Frenzied Regeneration overhealing, something the spell is notorious for, into something that can actually be used in an absorb shield.
While you won’t be taking this node in every situation, it’s looking like a strong defensive choice in both M+ as well as raid encounters where you are always tanking something, especially if you are investing in the Apex nodes.
Ursol's Warding
A popular point in The War Within thanks to the pathing it allowed, this node has moved off to the side of the tree with the rework, making it a much more niche option. The damage reduction it provides is fairly low, generally sitting between 5-8% against magic damage specifically, but with it only costing a single point in Midnight, this makes it a decent choice if you are in a situation where you are taking high amounts of magic damage consistently.
Twin Moonfire and Galactic Guardian
These talents have been a classic combo for Guardian for many years, synergizing together to spread your Moonfire in AoE situations while also generating rage passively. How this works is that, in situations where there is a 2nd target nearby, the automatic Moonfire created by a Galactic Guardian proc triggers a 2nd cast from Twin Moonfire on that nearby target, which consumes the “on next Moonfire cast” buff provided by Galactic Guardian, granting you additional damage and rage.
Note that this does not work on a single target since Twin Moonfire requires one other mob in order to trigger, so while this is extremely strong in 2+ target situations, you gain no significant benefit in pure single target.
Red Moon and Galactic Guardian
The first of the new capstone talents, this ability replaces Moonfire with a 30s CD DoT which you can extend with Mangle and gain additional burst damage from a different Galactic Guardian effect, where you’ll now gain stacks of Lunar Wrath with each proc that you can consume with spenders during Red Moon for bonus arcane damage.
This creates a burstier playstyle where you’re pooling resources and incentivized to line up things like Lunar Beam and Incarnation in order to maximize your damage output during this short window, which can be dangerous on encounters where timing your defensives is relevant.
Another important note, since this node competes directly with Twin Moonfire, you’re unable to gain the benefits of that node in combination with Galactic Guardian. Because of this I think it’s unlikely you’ll see this talent get much use outside of pure single target situations.
Outside of that, Galactic Guardian will still maintain Moonfire on your target with a very high uptime thanks to the automatic casts on a proc, so talents like Scintillating Moonlight and Moon Guardian still have value even if you’re spec’d into Red Moon.
Harnessed Rage
Another talent added in Midnight, this adds some additional thought to your gameplay in terms of when to use spenders, as it rewards you with double Gore proc rate when using Maul, Raze, or Ravage above 80 rage. The 2nd charge of Mangle it provides also means that Gore procs will have less wasted CDR, increasing the overall number of Mangle casts in a given encounter.
Most of the value from this talent comes from the additional CDR, so in general you won’t actually try and play around 80 rage as the proc rate increase for Gore is not worth the potential missed globals or procs.
Sundering Roar
The final new Midnight talent we’ll be discussing, this 1min CD has an interesting effect allowing Thrash to stack 5 additional times, which has solid synergy with the commonly taken Rend And Tear talent.
The main problem here is that the duration of the buff is only 12s long, so unless you’re in Incarnation or get lucky with procs of Flashing Claws or Waking Nightmare, you aren’t actually going to be able to benefit from the increased Thrash stacks for very long if at all, making this a point you’re unlikely to take at the moment.
Apex Talents
On top of the changes to the regular talents in the spec tree, there is, of course, the brand new Apex talents, which players are able to pick up by using capstone talent points. For Guardian, these nodes are called Wild Guardian, and they have the following effects based on point investment:
First Node - After casting Berserk / Incarnation, it turns into Wild Guardian. When used, this causes the next 2 casts of Ironfur, Maul/Raze/Ravage, and Frenzied Regeneration to be echoed at 50% effectiveness.
Second / Third Node - Mastery increased by 3%/6% and Maul / Raze / Ravage deals an additional 20%/40% nature damage over 12s.
Fourth Node - When you cast Wild Guardian, you gain 2 charges of Dream Of Cenarius. Echoes are now cast at 300% effectiveness, and each echo triggers 2 additional times over 8s.
Starting with the initial point, this transforms Incarnation after you press it into a new button that you are free to use anytime before Incarnation comes off cooldown, meaning you have the flexibility to pair them together for damage, or you can separate them to help fill defensive gaps.
Either way, this point on its own is actually quite weak, meaning you would never consider investing only a single point.
Moving on to the second and third points, this is where the bulk of the Apex talent power comes from, not only granting a large passive boost to Mastery but also adding the Vicious Brambles effect to your main offensive spender, drastically increasing its overall output. If damage is all you care about, these 2 nodes are some of the most valuable points in the entire Guardian tree.
That brings us to the fourth and final talent, which enhances the Wild Guardian active provided by the first point, causing it to also grant you 2 charges of Dream Of Cenarius for some additional healing. The increased effectiveness and echo triggers equates to the cooldown becoming 18 times as powerful with this point, a massive increase both offensively and defensively which also has synergy with things like Ravage, Killing Blow, and Natural Resilience.
Hero Talents
Elune’s Chosen
This hero tree focuses on amplifying the arcane abilities of Guardian Druid, so if you’re a fan of the laser bear playstyle, you’ll be a big fan of Elune’s Chosen. This tree turns Lunar Beam into a very powerful cooldown, drastically increasing the output thanks to Boundless Moonlight, Penumbral Swell and The Eternal Moon, while also allowing you to reduce the cooldown with the Lunation choice node.
On top of this, you can also turn Thrash into an arcane ability with Lunar Calling, allowing it to synergize with other hero and spec talents that amplify arcane damage, while Star Cascade adds a bit more single target benefit by giving it a chance to fire off Starsurges. The Light Of Elune talent is also very impactful, allowing your Moonfires to call down Fury Of Elune, which also benefits from the other bonuses in the tree and gives a nice boost to rage generation.
As of now, the choice nodes in this tree are fairly locked in, with The Light Of Elune and Lunation being selected in all situations, whereas your choice between Moondust and Elune's Grace is more situational but relatively low impact.
Overall, this spec tree feels very smooth to play, gives Guardian an additional short CD with significant offensive and defensive potential, plus it has more rage generation than Druid of the Claw. That being said, offensively this tree does fall behind both in AoE and single target situations, which may lead to it being the less popular choice.
Druid of the Claw
Contrasting Elune’s Chosen, this hero tree instead puts an emphasis on bleeds and physical attacks, giving your auto attacks a chance to transform Maul/Raze into Ravage, a powerful AoE attack that debuffs mobs hit with Dreadful Wound, which you can then extend thanks to Aggravate Wounds.
One of the big changes to this hero tree in Midnight is adjustments to the proc rate of Ravage, which is now a much higher baseline and further increased by the new Limb From Limb node, but lower in Incarnation, with significant nerfs to the Claw Rampage capstone.
In general, I think these changes lead to a much healthier hero spec, making it feel much more consistent in terms of both offense and defense, instead of feeling like it’s “all-in” during your Incarnation window.
When it comes to choice nodes, there’s a bit more in terms of options here, though there’s still a lock-in choice with Strike For The Heart, which is competing against a node that empowers Sundering Roar, a talent you are unlikely to pick. One of the more interesting choices is between Ruthless Aggression and Killing Strikes.
The former increases your overall number of Ravage procs, while the latter gives you a stronger buff when using Ravage and guarantees procs upon entering combat, making it especially valuable in Mythic+ situations where you are not chain pulling. Generally, I’d recommend Ruthless Aggression, especially in raid, but if played around you can get a lot of value out of Killing Strikes in M+.
The final choice node is related to catweaving, where you’re able to ignore it and gain some passive benefits with Empowered Shapeshifting, or you can opt in and take Wildpower Surge instead.
Regardless of your choice, you will still get some defensive bonuses while shapeshifted from Wildshape Mastery, though this has been reduced in Midnight and split into the Persistence spec tree talent.
As for catweaving itself, it’s a fairly simplified version, only shifting into Cat Form every 6 casts of Mangle to apply an empowered Rip, though there’s also a small benefit to occasionally maintaining Rake since you do gain additional bleed damage from Exacerbating Wounds. All of this becomes much easier and more beneficial when you have the Fluid Form class tree talent, making it mandatory anytime you plan to catweave.