Dreamgrove

Introduction/FAQ

This is a boss-by-boss guide to the Battle of Dazar’alor raid, specifically aimed at Guardian Druids. In the guide we will cover recommended talents, notable encounter info and tips and tricks for each boss in the raid.

Note that these suggestions are tailored towards a progression-oriented mindset — that is, the setups recommended will prioritize survivability first, while not trying to sacrifice too much DPS output in the process. These recommendations are aimed at players who are progressing these fights for the first time; once you are more comfortable with the encounters, you may elect to swap some of the more defensive options for offensive ones in order to improve your DPS output. It is always recommended to play safe during progression: staying alive is far more important than a few hundred DPS.

This guide assumes you know the basics of raiding, and the basics of tanking. You should know how not to stand in fire, how to face enemies away from your raid, and how to execute your rotation in order to keep your active mitigation up. Instead it will focus on pointing out important tank mechanics, how and when to tank swap, and any Guardian-specific utility you can use on that specific encounter.

Also note that this guide is a work in progress. Boss encounters and tuning often change during the first few weeks of progression (especially this tier, with limited testing and even more limited number of Guardians present during testing), and new strategies will be uncovered as the weeks go by. I will update this guide with relevant new information as it appears, and I welcome feedback, corrections, and suggestions in Discord.

These are not intended to be comprehensive encounter guides; if you want a more detailed look at each boss and its mechanics, check out TankNotes.

Where are the trinket recommendations?

There are a few notable trinkets in Battle of Dazar’alor. Specifically, the two to keep an eye on are the Diamond-Laced Refracting Prism and Bwonsamdi's Bargain. Both of these trinkets are fairly strong; Diamond-Laced Refracting Prism will be a good general-purpose overall damage reduction trinket, and Bwonsamdi's Bargain may see use in helping cheese or deal with specific mechanics. Additionally, with the increase in dungeon trinket drop item level, the usual suspects such as Lustrous Golden Plumage and Azerokk's Resonating Heart will be competitive as well.

As always, I recommend taking trinkets that are tailored to the specific encounter you are facing. If you need strong physical damage mitigation, a trinket that grants Agility will be preferred; if you’re up against magic damage, you may want an absorb trinket. For general purposes, I recommend Diamond-Laced Refracting Prism Lustrous Golden Plumage.

Side note: due to its item level cap of 355, Darkmoon Deck: Blockades is no longer competitive with mythic level drops in my opinion. If you are looking for a strong, cheap crafted trinket to pick up at a competitive item level, you should look into the Alchemy trinket Tidal Alchemist Stone.

What azerite traits are best for raiding?

For outer traits, you will want a setup that closely matches the following priority:

  1. One Layered Mane
  2. Three Twisted Claws
  3. One Bonded Souls

This may be difficult to obtain unless you have a lot of Titan Residuum to buy specific pieces off the vendor, but you should try and follow that priority to the best of your ability.

For more information and for middle/inner ring trait recommendations, refer to the Azerite Analysis.

Will Guardian be viable on every boss?

Yes, Guardian will be more than fine on every boss. There are even a few bosses specifically where Guardians may be preferred due to Stampeding Roar and Ursol's Vortex.

Should I catweave?

You may have noticed that I’ve noted on each boss page whether it is technically possible to catweave on the encounter. This takes into account the tank swap mechanic (or lack thereof), the damage profile, and the presence of any adds that need to be tanked, for each encounter to determine whether you can realistically perform a catweaving rotation while not tanking.

As mentioned above, I always recommend playing it safe when you are progressing a boss and that includes not catweaving. Catweaving significantly increases your risk of death if done improperly or without consideration for a fight’s mechanics and damage profile, and compromising the raid’s success for a slight DPS gain is not a good idea.

That being said, if you are extremely comfortable with an encounter and you are deep into farm on a boss, catweaving can introduce a bit of variety and complexity into the rotation that you may find interesting, as well as boost your DPS and help get kills faster.