Guardian Druid Tank Stat Priority - The War Within (11.0.2) (2024)

Last updated on Aug 21, 2024 at 18:20by Pumps37 comments

The stat priority for a Guardian Druid differs depending on whether you areaiming for survivability or damage output.

Regardless of what you are prioritizing, an item 10 or more item levels aboveanother will almost always be an upgrade due to the sheer increase in stats.

1. Item Level;
2. Armor/Agility/Stamina;
3. Haste;
4. Versatility;
5. Mastery;
6. Critical Strike.

Armor, Agility, and Stamina are grouped together because they typicallyappear together on gear, but any one of the "main" stats willbe stronger point-for-point than secondary stats.

It is important to note that all secondary stats are very close together invalue. This is a rough estimation, as your stat order might slightly differdepending on how much of each stat you currently have. Agility is also veryimportant for damage output and will often make the highest item level piecethe best one to choose. If you want a truly accurate evaluation of which statsare best for you, you should sim your character for stat weights.

1. Versatility = Haste = Critical Strike > Mastery.

Once you are reaching the highest item level gear, you may find yourselfbeing affected by diminishing returns or DR for short. This happens when youreach 30% of a specific stat and then begin to reduce the amount of that statyou gain by 10-50%, depending on how far you are over the DR cap. It isgenerally a good idea to balance your stats evenly as Guardian so you are notever in DR range, as all our stats are very close in strength.

Agility is your primary stat. It increases your Attack Power, grants you aa small amount of Dodge, and converts into Armor due to Ironfur.

Armor reduces the Physical damage you take. Guardians gain increased Armor(and Stamina) from Bear Form. It is important to note that "BonusArmor" (typically armor granted by trinket effects or enchants/potions) is notincreased by Bear Form.

Versatility reduces your damage taken, increases your damage and healingdone, and increases the size of your absorbs. Versatility is the most effectivestat for pure damage reduction, as well as having benefits to your damageoutput and boosting your self-healing abilities like Frenzied Regeneration.

Mastery ( Mastery: Nature's Guardian) increases your maximum healthand your healing received, which effectively functions like a damage reductionin practice (damage reductions increase the amount of damage you can take beforeyou die, just like health increases). It also increases your Attack Power andtherefore your damage, but it does not scale as well offensively as the otherstats.

Haste does many things for Guardian. It increases your melee attack speed,increases the rate at which Thrash and Moonfire(and Feral Affinity bleeds Rake and Rip) tick, reduces the global cooldown, and reduces the cooldown on Mangle, Thrash, and Frenzied Regeneration. All of this results in increased Ragegeneration and damage output, making Haste your best stat offensively and also adecent stat defensively.

Critical Strike, while being good for dealing damage, does not do muchdefensively. It does increase dodge chance, but that dodge chance is subjectto heavy diminishing returns and is generally an unreliable stat forsurvivability. Other stats increase your survivability far more reliably.

Most encounters have abilities that cannot bemitigated or avoided. Also, you need to have a decent amount of health, inorder to give yourself the chance to be healed before a subsequent attackkills you. As such, you need a minimum amount of Stamina. This amountwill, in most cases, simply come from the Stamina found innately on yourgear. Therefore, item level is the determining factor in keeping your healthpool growing.

All gems, enchants, and consumables are directly related to your stat priority, and you can find advice on this topic on the dedicated page linked below.