It still isn't clicking for me. Feral dps has burst for the people trying to kill you and restro is nearly immortal with unlimited shifts and heals. Does thick hide really knock down incoming damage that much? I'm assuming guardian is similiar in mana hogging that feral dps is. 4 or 5 shifts to hit rejuv and I might get locked out of shapeshifting with no mana.
The thick hide effect for -12% physical and -25% magical damage reduction doesn't have THAT much of an effect, but once you get into bearform you'll have a good 55-60% armor, which will definitely make you non-burstable by melee. Ambush will hit barely anything on you, so if you're with a good healer, melees can barely dent you. Add it up yourself; 59% armor (what I got on my 19 twink), -12% physical, ~8% extra resilience from heirlooms... It really is a tank spec, like it should be
With the stun, downing healers and other dps isn't impossible either, if needed.
You're correct with the mana consumption though, and it can get a bit tedious. But being a druid, I'm sure it will be rather easy to kite enemy Offence to get out of combat for a few seconds, and out of combat your mana regen is as huge as restos
Also, this is another reason why you are a lot better off running around with a healer; it saves your precious mana on those cheap shapeshifts, instead of spamming that really expensive and ineffective rejuvenation on yourself. With a good healer, I hardly even run run OOM. I haven't been using mana enchant in chest a lot simply because I haven't needed it, but for some situations it can be a lifesaver (running around alone / a lot of pressure or CC so you have to powershift on every GCD), also manapots are good to have in bags if you're having problems with your mana consumption. Again, haven't had to use any of those yet either, once I learned to not throw rejuvs around
Great spec when teamed up with a healer, I say go for it if you're even slightly interested.
Soz for bit of a wall of text & bad writing skills; caffeine OD
