PvE Guardian Druid Tank Stat Priority & Reforging

Guardian Druids in Mists of Pandaria should prioritize Stamina, Agility, Hit, and Expertise, followed by Critical Strike Chance, Haste, Dodge Chance, and Mastery to maximize their performance.

Stat Priority

1. Stamina
2. Hit
3. Expertise
4. Agility
5. Critical Strike Chance
6. Haste
7. Dodge Chance
8. Mastery

Stamina is the foremost stat that Guardian Druids should prioritize, as it directly increases your Health Pool and Effective Health Pool when considering the high Armor rating Bears benefit from! However, since Bear Form already increases your HP by 40% as a standard, you don’t want to go overboard at the expense of Agility and Critical Strike Chance. Vengeance is also directly tied to your HP, meaning that the more HP you have, the more Attack Power you gain!

Hit is a secondary stat that ensures your attacks land against higher-level mobs. You will need a 7.5% Hit Chance to never miss against level 93 bosses, with each 340 Hit granting a 1% Hit Chance.

Expertise is almost as important as Hit, ensuring attacks against higher-level mobs can’t be parried or dodged. You need 7.5% Expertise to ensure your attacks can’t be dodged and 15% Expertise to avoid being parried. 340 Expertise results in 1% Expertise. Since Guardian Druids generate Rage by landing hits with their Auto-Attacks, it is very important to reach as close as possible to 15% Expertise to ensure as much Rage Generation as possible.

Agility is a primary stat that increases Attack Power and Critical Strike Chance. Once you acquire items with stronger stats, you will want to migrate some of your Stamina to Agility. However, since Vengeance is overpowered, providing you with a lot of Attack Power, you will want to balance raw Agility and Critical Strike Chance until you reach the 79% soft Critical Strike Chance cap.

Critical Strike Chance is the best secondary stat that Guardian Druids can acquire, as it ties to multiple mechanics in their kit. It directly synergizes with Leader of the Pack, providing a steady self-sustain tool. It also ensures Rage Generation through the Primal Fury effect, landing you 15 Rage with each Critical Strike Chance from an Auto-Attack or Mangle. You will want to reach the 79% soft cap to ensure maximum efficiency, balancing raw Critical Strike Chance and Agility.

Haste is a stat that reduces the time between your attacks and the cooldown of your abilities. The Global Cooldown limit is 1.5 seconds, meaning Haste can’t reduce it further. However, you will want to stack as much Haste as possible without dampening Critical Strike Chance or Agility to ensure that your Mangle and Thrash cooldowns are reduced as much as possible.

Dodge Chance is a secondary stat that provides the main form of avoidance for Guardian Druids. Through the overhauled Savage Defense ability, you already have a 45% Dodge Chance, meaning that you don’t need to prioritize this stat. However, gaining more of this stat is beneficial once you gain enough Critical Strike Chance and Haste, even with the Diminishing Returns.

Mastery is a stat that increases the Armor bonus granted by the new Mastery: Nature’s Guardian effect. Theoretically, this stat can be very strong since it adds to your total EHP. In reality, Mastery is the weakest stat compared to the others, being the least important of your priorities.

Reforging

Reforging can only be performed on secondary stats! Guardian Druids should reforge any invaluable stats to Hit/Expertise until they hit the cap. They should then focus on reforging any non-valuable stat into Critical Strike Chance until the soft cap, followed by Haste. Guardian Druids should avoid reforging stats into Mastery if possible, as it is the weakest secondary stat.

1. Hit (7.5% Cap)
2. Expertise (15% Cap)
3. Critical Strike Chance (79% Soft Cap)
4. Haste

Below, you can see an example of the Reforge Interface!