Guardian Druid Rotation Guide - Midnight Pre-Patch

Por Pumps Actualizado: 18/01/2026

Guardian Druid Rotation in The War Within

Avoid Rage Waste - Rage should be spent intentionally. Spender Priority is Arremetida arrasadora ➜ Magullar ➜ Pelaje férreo. Aiming to maintain at least 1 stack of Ironfur defensively.

Keep Abilities on Cooldown - Cast Destrozar and Vapulear on cooldown. When unavailable, cast fillers. Filler Priority is Magullar ➜ Fuego lunar ➜ Flagelo.

Utilize Procs and CDs - Encarnación: Guardián de Ursoc is cast on cooldown, roughly every 120 seconds. Track procs such as Guardián galáctico.

Hero Talent Choices The current recommendations in are:

Situation

Hero Talent

Link

Single Target

Druid of the Claw

Delves/Open World

Elune's Chosen

Best Guardian Druid Rotation
For all forms of content, Guardian follows a simple priority list of what spells to cast. Below, we break down the main priority lists for Guardian Druids: Single-Target Rotation, AoE Rotation, and your Opener sequence.

Use the ✘ markers next to selected builds and talents to populate the priority list.

Options

Harnessed Rage
Red Moon
Killing Blow
Ravage

Cast Luna roja on cooldown. This replaces Fuego lunar.
Maintain 100% uptime on Fuego lunar.
Cast Despedazar as often as possible to avoid wasting procs.
Cast Vapulear off cooldown.
Cast Destrozar off cooldown.
Cast Rabia/Encarnación: Guardián de Ursoc.
Cast Haz lunar to increase our Mastery and damage.
If talented Ira dominada, aim to cast Magullar above 80 rage at most times.
If talented Golpe de gracia, aim to cast Magullar above 60 rage at most times.
Dump as much Rage as you can generate into Magullar.
Utilize procs of Guardián galáctico by casting Fuego lunar.
Cast Pelaje férreo to avoid Rage capping and reduce Physical damage taken, if necessary.
Cast Regeneración frenética if your Health dips low.
Cast Flagelo or Fuego lunar if you have empty GCDs.

Use the ✘ markers next to selected builds and talents to populate the priority list.

Options

Harnessed Rage
Killing Blow
Ravage

Priority

Maintain 100% uptime on Fuego lunar on your main target.
Cast Despedazar as often as possible to avoid wasting procs.
Cast Vapulear off cooldown.
Cast Destrozar off cooldown unless flooded with Rage.
Cast Rabia/Encarnación: Guardián de Ursoc
Cast Haz lunar to increase our Mastery and damage.
Dump as much Rage as you can generate into Arremetida arrasadora.
If talented Ira dominada, aim to cast Arremetida arrasadora above 80 rage at most times.
If talented Golpe de gracia, aim to cast Arremetida arrasadora above 60 rage at most times.
Cast Pelaje férreo to avoid Rage capping and reduce Physical damage taken, if necessary.
Cast Regeneración frenética if your Health dips low.
Only use your Guardián galáctico procs if the buff is about to expire.
Cast Flagelo or Fuego lunar if you have empty GCDs.

Our opener is fairly straightforward and consistent. The goal is to get all of our DoTs (Fuego lunar and Vapulear) rolling immediately and then start using our bigger cooldowns, followed by our regular rotation.

Use the ✘ markers next to talent selections to populate the priority list.

Talents

Harnessed Rage
Red Moon
Killing Blow
Ravage

Sequence

Cast Luna roja on cooldown. This replaces Fuego lunar.
Cast Fuego lunar on the way into melee.
Cast Vapulear as soon as you enter melee range.
Cast Rabia/Encarnación: Guardián de Ursoc
Cast Vapulear again to apply more debuff stacks.
Cast Destrozar.
Cast Despedazar as often as possible to avoid wasting procs.
Cast Vapulear again to apply more debuff stacks and generate more Rage.
Cast Haz lunar to increase our Mastery and damage.
If talented Ira dominada, aim to cast Magullar above 80 rage at most times.
If talented Golpe de gracia, aim to cast Magullar above 60 rage at most times.
Begin to dump as much Rage as you can generate into Magullar.
Cast Vapulear again to apply more debuff stacks and maintain debuff.
Cast Pelaje férreo to avoid Rage capping and reduce Physical damage taken, if necessary.
Cast Regeneración frenética if your Health dips low.
Cast Flagelo or Fuego lunar if you have empty GCDs.
Proceed onto the normal priority list

Opener Tips

Ensuring that you are in Forma de oso and fully buffed is a fantastic first step.
If you are the main tank in a raid, open with Bramido.
Our initial damage taken on a pull can often be an issue, hence Piel de corteza is a great tool to use on pull.

Pre-Combat Check

Before any combat, do these things first. This applies to raids, dungeons, delves, or even open-world content.

Single Button Rotation Assistant Losses for Guardian Druid

For Guardian Druids, the Rotation Assist performs a heavily simplified rotation, which has many issues and creates an enormous DPS loss. It also does not take into account that you are a Tank, which means your job first and foremost is to maintain aggro and survive. It is a new tool that is surely going to see some improvement in the future. While this can be a handy learning tool for some players, we don't recommend using it due to its lack of deterministic capabilities.

Rotation Assist Losses for Guardian Druid

When using the Rotation Assist, you can expect the following losses when compared to performing your rotation perfectly:

Assisted Highlight: About ~30% DPS Loss
Single-Button Assistant: About ~40% DPS Loss

Guardian Druid Cooldowns Not Used by Rotation Assist

Defensive cooldowns are not managed by the rotation assist, and it will not be able to predict when it's a good time to use them based on incoming damage. This is another strong reason not to follow this rotation assistant blindly. Understanding when and where to use your cooldowns is one of the biggest factors for tanking success.

When using both Assisted Highlight and Single-Button Assistant, you will still need to use the following cooldowns manually. You can scroll down to the Cooldown section of this guide to learn more about when to use them.

Guardian Druid Major Cooldown Usage

While this buff is active, you want to try to get as many casts of Vapulear and Destrozar off as possible, while also spending your Rage on Magullar, Arremetida arrasadora, or Pelaje férreo to avoid capping Rage.

You should aim to use as many Magullars/Arremetida arrasadoras as possible during the buff window, as it is a large damage boost. It also grants us a considerable health boost and can be one of our better defensive cooldowns.

Can be used in Cat form for some extra DPS or normal form for group healing.

A 50% damage reduction on a fairly long cooldown. This is our biggest damage reduction cooldown and should be used sparingly for dangerous periods during a pull or encounter.

An extremely short cooldown that should be used as frequently as possible to smooth overall damage intake. Rarely, you can hold it for a short time to align with bigger damage spikes.

Guardian Druid Cooldown Interaction

Guardian Druid has a small selection of cooldowns with varying durations and timers. In ideal circumstances, such as when you have a full understanding of the encounter, you should be able to time or hold certain cooldowns to pair with others as they become available again. Do this only if you won't lose any cooldown uses during the encounter. If you don't understand how to time your cooldowns properly, then use them off cooldown when available.

Advanced Guardian Druid Tips

Catweaving / Ripweaving

Disclaimer: Catweaving is currently (Midnight Pre-Patch) a minor single-target DPS increase when used in combination with Druid of the Claw.

Combined with the Druid of the Claw Hero Talent tree and the new Forma fluida talent, Catweaving has become a relevant tactic again.

Catweaving is an advanced playstyle and is not recommended for players who are new to the spec or when learning new encounters. If you are ever unsure about your ability to survive while Catweaving, it is better to play it safe and not Catweave.

Catweaving's viability is something that comes and goes for Guardian depending on tuning. Currently, as of Midnight Pre-Patch, Catweaving is only a single-target DPS increase with Druid of the Claw in combination with the following talents: Destripar, Arañazo, Llamada del druida anciano, Forma fluida, and Oleada de poder salvaje.

As a concept, Catweaving refers to talenting into Destripar and Arañazo and using Forma felina spells to deal extra damage. When executed correctly, you can significantly increase DPS on single-target for relatively little risk. Some fights are more dangerous for Catweaving than others. In many fights, it may not be possible to Catweave at all.

The basic idea behind Catweaving is to utilize the Oleada de poder salvaje talent. When this reaches 6 stacks, Wildpower Surge grants massive bonus damage to Destripar and negates the need to generate Combo Points by granting you 5 Combo Points instantly when you shift to Forma felina. This makes this iteration of Catweaving significantly easier to execute than anything in the past, and also much safer due to the Maestría de la forma salvaje talent.

Arañazo is primarily used to skip the GCD from shifting into Forma felina with the Forma fluida talent. You will similarly skip the GCD from shifting back to Forma de oso by casting Destrozar while in Forma felina.

Choosing what to cast in your Cat cycles is very simple. Keep your Bleeds ticking first and foremost, and fill other globals with the non-Bleed alternatives.

When your Oleada de poder salvaje is at 6 stacks:
If Destripar is not ticking, in pandemic, or will it fall off before your next chance to refresh it:
Cast Destripar.

If not:

Cast Mordedura feroz.

If it is time to shift to Forma felina:

If Arañazo is not ticking, in pandemic, or will it fall off before your next chance to refresh it:
Cast Arañazo.

If not:

Cast Triturar.

Here’s an example of what a Catweaving opener might look like, starting from Bear Form, leading up to your first 6 stacks of Oleada de poder salvaje.

Our Guardian Druid guides are always updated with the latest information from in-game experience, simulations, and logs. Make sure to check our changelog for this page by clicking on View Changelog in the Quick Facts column or on the book icon at the top of the page. If you are interested in more in-depth Guardian Druid guides for , make sure to browse the Navigation Bar below, along with our list of Related Guides just beneath the Table of Contents.

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Comentarios

Comentario de mazungu

Thanks for this nice post! How much dmg % would you say catweaving gives you? I don't seem to see it often but it sounds really fun to me.

Comentario de docesam2

Should i refresh thrash BEFORE the DOT expire? or i should wait for the DOT to expire then reapply it?

Comentario de pj4ever1989

Hello Pumps,

You write that: "Forma de alma The usefulness of this ability is quite average, still requiring us to shift back into bear form afterwards.".

This is technically not true, as your form is retained. You just need to have a macro to cancel Soulshape and you will be back in Bearform without any extra GCD lost (apart from the actual blink). This also works for all other forms.

Example: Be in Bear form, use Soul Shape, use Macro "/cancelaura Soulshape", You are now in Bearform again :).

Cheers, and thanks for the write-up!

Comentario de Reyxina

Hibernate can be cast inside Bear Form! Also there is some Antorus references that is weird, maybe putting some Castle Nathria uses?

Comentario de Sharpes

I'm confused. What's the best use of Heart of the Wild talent? Any macro recommendations for it?

Comentario de Sybal

I was reading recently on Guardian and came across a terrific spreadsheet of best places/times to convoke/weave in mythic+. I for the life of me cannot find it now. Does anyone know what im speaking of and can you direct me towards it? Of note, I believe it was put together by a female player.

Comentario de LainiWeiz

No mention of Ironfur under Defensive Abilities...okay then.

Comentario de TheFallen87

No mention of Raze?

Comentario de Syrlin

Ravage should be included as an option in the AoE rotation for using the Druid of the Claw hero talent build.

Guardian Druid Rotation Guide - Midnight Pre-Patch

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