(WoW) Guide: Druid - Rawrbear!
I have a fondness for feral bear tanks. Elyssa was probably our main tank through most of Burning Crusade. I always marvelled at that big ol' health pool and wished I could do that with Sashayla. As I don't play a druid, I never really learned all the details involved, but I knew they were different. After all, they run into the fray shapeshifted, but wearing leather. Shields? Pfft. Not for them. Bear tanking has changed a fair bit since then, but they're still meant to be able to stand up in front of the massive bosses and suck up all that wonderful damage that would squish the rest of the party in an instant.
Build
Gah! Hitting something of a roadblock right off. Most of the concise discussion on bear builds I can find are pre-3.1, and they changed some things with that patch. Druid web presences still seem a bit undecided on what's best. But I'll scrape together what I can here...
It appears a decent base talent build might appear thusly with a flesh-out main tank build like this.
I wish I could go into the why of everything, but that'd take me forever. I'm more than willing to dig up info on "why this talent over this one" sort of situations, if desired. A few notes:
- Survival of the Fittest: This talent almost makes feral tanking what it is all on its own. The attribute increase is nice, the armor increase when in bear form is nice, and the reduction of melee crit? That's the reason right there that druids don't have to concern themselves with Defense Rating like other tanks do.
- Infected Wounds: This slows boss attacks, which is very good. But it doesn't stack with similar effects that some other classes have, so if you're always with a Thunderclapping warrior or a paladin using Judgements of the Just (which seems unlikely, as a deep Prot talent), you might disregard it entirely.
- Feral Aggression: This is another issue of overlap. Reducing attack power is good, but the effect doesn't stack with other similar abilities.
- Improved Mangle: Because of the cooldown on Mangle and the Global Cooldown timer of (in almost all cases) 1.5 seconds, it's generally best to take no points in this or all three. Taking one or two points isn't enough to bump Mangle up one cooldown in the rotation.
- Improved Mark of the Wild: Seems to be regarded more highly than it used to simply for the self-increasing of attributes that was added.
Gear
I've always been intrigued by feral gearing. Playing tankadin has instilled in me a sense of "if it doesn't have defense or avoidance, it's not for tanks." But druid tanks have an unusual amount of overlap with rogues - a strictly offensive class. That's both good and bad, though.
Strangely, I've found almost nothing about "minimums" for bear tanks. For plate tanks, there's generally a minimum Defense needed to avoid crits, for most DPS classes, there's a Hit Rating cap they really want to be at. For bears, I'm just not seeing any "hard" numbers like that.
So... stats to look for include Stamina, Agility, Dodge, Expertise and now Critical Strike (due to Savage Defense). Unlike other tanks, druids get no benefit from Parry or Block. Defense doesn't hurt, but generally doesn't help as much as straight Dodge. Priority looks to be Stamina (yay, health!) > Agility (helps mitigation/avoidance and threat) > other stuff.
Major Glyphs: Frenzied Regeneration (makes healing you work better), Survival Instincts (more health - if temporary), then Growl or Maul, depending on which effect you favor.
Elly's Gear Analysis (thinking pre-Naxx here)
- Headguard of Retaliation: Solid. There are rare drops in heroic Oculus and heroic Violet Hold that are a step up in item level and have sockets. If willing to acquire 40 Wintergrasp marks, the Titan-Forged Leather Helm of Triumph is quite good. Revered with Argent Crusade, so get that Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector enchant.
- Titanium Earthguard Chain: You're pretty much set there as far as the item. From what I've read, a +sta/+agi gem would be more benefit than +sta/+AP, though.
- Trollwoven Spaulders: Solid. Whenever exalted with Sons of Hodir, upgrade to the Greater inscription, but there's no real item upgrades before raiding.
- Ice Striker's Cloak: That's the DPS variant. For tanking purposes, the Durable Nerubhide Cape (also crafted) with a Major Agility enchant should be better.
- Exotic Leather Tunic: Not bad. Running heroics for 80 emblems to buy the tier 7 Heroes' Dreamwalker Raiments is ideal. The Crystal-Infused Tunic from heroic Nexus would be a step up in the meantime, in spite of the hit to stamina in base stats. The +stats enchants do seem the way to go.
- King's Square Bracers: Hmmm... having to really read and compare on this one. I'm tempted to just point at the epic Dragonfriend Bracers from exalted Wyrmrest Accord, but two different sources claim higher value from the rare Bindings of the Tunneler that drop in heroic Utgarde Keep (not to be confused with Pinnacle).
- Handwraps of Preserved History: These used to be the best in-slot, being way overbudgetted. That's been "fixed," though. Still, they're probably good enough to last until the Heroes' gloves for 60 emblems. The Charged-Bolt Grips from heroic Halls of Lightning may be a minor upgrade in the meantime. It looks like Major Agility may be a slightly better enchant tank-wise, but this is said to be a pretty flexible slot.
- Trollwoven Girdle: The Sharp-Barbed Leather Belt from heroic Utgarde Keep might be a very slight upgrade, but isn't worth any major effort over, they're so close.
- Chain Gang Leggings: There are a few possibilities, but they seem minor. Gored Hide Legguards from heroic Gundrak and Ravenous Leggings of the Furbolg from heroic Utgarde Pinnacle seem to be a little better. Annoyingly, the PVP-oriented Savage Gladiator's Dragonhide Legguards seem the best to strive for outside raiding - for 60,000 honor or 45 emblems of heroism.
- Black Chitinguard Boots: Well... Boots of the Neverending Path are buyable at exalted Argent Crusade. Slag Footguards drop in heroic Halls of Lightning and, though only rare, seem to be a bit better. Or there's the Titan-forged Boots of Triumph for 15 Wintergrasp marks.
- Rings: Keep the Earthguard Ring. Hang onto the Impact Band for DPS, but when tanking a solid replacement would be the Keystone Great-Ring in heroic Drak'tharon Keep. It's a tanking ring with Armor and Dodge instead of Defense - natural bear stuff right there, even if the armor doesn't mean as much as it used to.
- Trinkets: ... are situational. You know about the Essence of Gossamer in heroic Azjol'Nerub as a stamina trinket. The Valor Medal of the First War is a good Dodge trinket for 40 emblems of heroism. Probably the single-best trinket for a bear tank in this situation, though, is a +Agility version of the Darkmoon Card: Greatness. Ouch. It seems that particular deck gives a card that's good for almost everyone.
- Titansteel Destroyer: It's kinda sad for me to say, but the Enraged Feral Staff from heroic Utgarde Keep seems to be better, even though it's only rare and has a lower feral attack power bonus. It seems the tradeoff of Strength for Agility is enough to tip the scales.
- Idol of Perspicacious Attacks: This is a sad, overlooked slot for most classes, it seems. The Idol of Terror is a Burning Crusade idol for 20 badges of justice that seems to be rated a little better for it's Agility proc, which thus aids in avoidance, but I'd probably just hang onto the IoPA for the little bit of threat increase.
Rotation
Like a lot of classes these days, it seems more a priority system than rotation. If you have ability X off cooldown, use it, otherwise move on to the next...
Mangle > Faerie Fire > Lacerate (unless over 6k AP and lacerate stack is at > 5 seconds, then Swipe) > Maul
I wouldn't have thought FF would be in there like that, but apparently its damage is based on AP and it does more average threat than Lacerate or Swipe, even though it's based on spell hit/crit.
Tactics
Berserk is a suggested opener to fights when possible, unless there is a fear effect to save it for. This appears to be in order to keep Mangle off cooldown more than for the multiple-target benefit, though that helps too with groups.
Barkskin is good for extra protection during damage spikes. If there's no such things forthcoming, though, it's good to use when you can.
Swipe works in a 360-degree area now. Rawr!
It's also worth pointing out that bear (tanking) and cat (melee DPS) builds share a good bit of overlap. Thus, a feral druid can shapeshift and fill either role reasonably. Reasonably, but not ideally. There are some talents that only apply to one or the other, and a cat-form druid will probably favor Attack Power/Strength over the Stamina that a bear-form druid needs.
Resources/Further Reading:
http://thedailydruid.com/druid-resource-page/feral-bear-tank-druid-resource-page/
Pre-3.1 build analysis http://teethandclaws.blogspot.com/2008/12/level-80-feral-raiding-spec.html
3.1 builds http://mother-bear.blogspot.com/2009/04/community-spotlight-tentative-feral.html
http://wowthinktank.blogspot.com/2009/04/druid-bear-faq-for-31.html
http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t36681-feral_bear_megathread/
http://www.wow.com/2009/02/10/shifting-perspectives-gearing-your-feral-bear-druid-at-80/
http://wowthinktank.blogspot.com/2008/10/druid-bear-item-list-and-rep-list-for.html
Mewf. What a mouthful. Something to do with my morning, though. ;) I hope it helps and shall try to field/research any questions as necessary.
Build
Gah! Hitting something of a roadblock right off. Most of the concise discussion on bear builds I can find are pre-3.1, and they changed some things with that patch. Druid web presences still seem a bit undecided on what's best. But I'll scrape together what I can here...
It appears a decent base talent build might appear thusly with a flesh-out main tank build like this.
I wish I could go into the why of everything, but that'd take me forever. I'm more than willing to dig up info on "why this talent over this one" sort of situations, if desired. A few notes:
- Survival of the Fittest: This talent almost makes feral tanking what it is all on its own. The attribute increase is nice, the armor increase when in bear form is nice, and the reduction of melee crit? That's the reason right there that druids don't have to concern themselves with Defense Rating like other tanks do.
- Infected Wounds: This slows boss attacks, which is very good. But it doesn't stack with similar effects that some other classes have, so if you're always with a Thunderclapping warrior or a paladin using Judgements of the Just (which seems unlikely, as a deep Prot talent), you might disregard it entirely.
- Feral Aggression: This is another issue of overlap. Reducing attack power is good, but the effect doesn't stack with other similar abilities.
- Improved Mangle: Because of the cooldown on Mangle and the Global Cooldown timer of (in almost all cases) 1.5 seconds, it's generally best to take no points in this or all three. Taking one or two points isn't enough to bump Mangle up one cooldown in the rotation.
- Improved Mark of the Wild: Seems to be regarded more highly than it used to simply for the self-increasing of attributes that was added.
Gear
I've always been intrigued by feral gearing. Playing tankadin has instilled in me a sense of "if it doesn't have defense or avoidance, it's not for tanks." But druid tanks have an unusual amount of overlap with rogues - a strictly offensive class. That's both good and bad, though.
Strangely, I've found almost nothing about "minimums" for bear tanks. For plate tanks, there's generally a minimum Defense needed to avoid crits, for most DPS classes, there's a Hit Rating cap they really want to be at. For bears, I'm just not seeing any "hard" numbers like that.
So... stats to look for include Stamina, Agility, Dodge, Expertise and now Critical Strike (due to Savage Defense). Unlike other tanks, druids get no benefit from Parry or Block. Defense doesn't hurt, but generally doesn't help as much as straight Dodge. Priority looks to be Stamina (yay, health!) > Agility (helps mitigation/avoidance and threat) > other stuff.
Major Glyphs: Frenzied Regeneration (makes healing you work better), Survival Instincts (more health - if temporary), then Growl or Maul, depending on which effect you favor.
Elly's Gear Analysis (thinking pre-Naxx here)
- Headguard of Retaliation: Solid. There are rare drops in heroic Oculus and heroic Violet Hold that are a step up in item level and have sockets. If willing to acquire 40 Wintergrasp marks, the Titan-Forged Leather Helm of Triumph is quite good. Revered with Argent Crusade, so get that Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector enchant.
- Titanium Earthguard Chain: You're pretty much set there as far as the item. From what I've read, a +sta/+agi gem would be more benefit than +sta/+AP, though.
- Trollwoven Spaulders: Solid. Whenever exalted with Sons of Hodir, upgrade to the Greater inscription, but there's no real item upgrades before raiding.
- Ice Striker's Cloak: That's the DPS variant. For tanking purposes, the Durable Nerubhide Cape (also crafted) with a Major Agility enchant should be better.
- Exotic Leather Tunic: Not bad. Running heroics for 80 emblems to buy the tier 7 Heroes' Dreamwalker Raiments is ideal. The Crystal-Infused Tunic from heroic Nexus would be a step up in the meantime, in spite of the hit to stamina in base stats. The +stats enchants do seem the way to go.
- King's Square Bracers: Hmmm... having to really read and compare on this one. I'm tempted to just point at the epic Dragonfriend Bracers from exalted Wyrmrest Accord, but two different sources claim higher value from the rare Bindings of the Tunneler that drop in heroic Utgarde Keep (not to be confused with Pinnacle).
- Handwraps of Preserved History: These used to be the best in-slot, being way overbudgetted. That's been "fixed," though. Still, they're probably good enough to last until the Heroes' gloves for 60 emblems. The Charged-Bolt Grips from heroic Halls of Lightning may be a minor upgrade in the meantime. It looks like Major Agility may be a slightly better enchant tank-wise, but this is said to be a pretty flexible slot.
- Trollwoven Girdle: The Sharp-Barbed Leather Belt from heroic Utgarde Keep might be a very slight upgrade, but isn't worth any major effort over, they're so close.
- Chain Gang Leggings: There are a few possibilities, but they seem minor. Gored Hide Legguards from heroic Gundrak and Ravenous Leggings of the Furbolg from heroic Utgarde Pinnacle seem to be a little better. Annoyingly, the PVP-oriented Savage Gladiator's Dragonhide Legguards seem the best to strive for outside raiding - for 60,000 honor or 45 emblems of heroism.
- Black Chitinguard Boots: Well... Boots of the Neverending Path are buyable at exalted Argent Crusade. Slag Footguards drop in heroic Halls of Lightning and, though only rare, seem to be a bit better. Or there's the Titan-forged Boots of Triumph for 15 Wintergrasp marks.
- Rings: Keep the Earthguard Ring. Hang onto the Impact Band for DPS, but when tanking a solid replacement would be the Keystone Great-Ring in heroic Drak'tharon Keep. It's a tanking ring with Armor and Dodge instead of Defense - natural bear stuff right there, even if the armor doesn't mean as much as it used to.
- Trinkets: ... are situational. You know about the Essence of Gossamer in heroic Azjol'Nerub as a stamina trinket. The Valor Medal of the First War is a good Dodge trinket for 40 emblems of heroism. Probably the single-best trinket for a bear tank in this situation, though, is a +Agility version of the Darkmoon Card: Greatness. Ouch. It seems that particular deck gives a card that's good for almost everyone.
- Titansteel Destroyer: It's kinda sad for me to say, but the Enraged Feral Staff from heroic Utgarde Keep seems to be better, even though it's only rare and has a lower feral attack power bonus. It seems the tradeoff of Strength for Agility is enough to tip the scales.
- Idol of Perspicacious Attacks: This is a sad, overlooked slot for most classes, it seems. The Idol of Terror is a Burning Crusade idol for 20 badges of justice that seems to be rated a little better for it's Agility proc, which thus aids in avoidance, but I'd probably just hang onto the IoPA for the little bit of threat increase.
Rotation
Like a lot of classes these days, it seems more a priority system than rotation. If you have ability X off cooldown, use it, otherwise move on to the next...
Mangle > Faerie Fire > Lacerate (unless over 6k AP and lacerate stack is at > 5 seconds, then Swipe) > Maul
I wouldn't have thought FF would be in there like that, but apparently its damage is based on AP and it does more average threat than Lacerate or Swipe, even though it's based on spell hit/crit.
Tactics
Berserk is a suggested opener to fights when possible, unless there is a fear effect to save it for. This appears to be in order to keep Mangle off cooldown more than for the multiple-target benefit, though that helps too with groups.
Barkskin is good for extra protection during damage spikes. If there's no such things forthcoming, though, it's good to use when you can.
Swipe works in a 360-degree area now. Rawr!
It's also worth pointing out that bear (tanking) and cat (melee DPS) builds share a good bit of overlap. Thus, a feral druid can shapeshift and fill either role reasonably. Reasonably, but not ideally. There are some talents that only apply to one or the other, and a cat-form druid will probably favor Attack Power/Strength over the Stamina that a bear-form druid needs.
Resources/Further Reading:
http://thedailydruid.com/druid-resource-page/feral-bear-tank-druid-resource-page/
Pre-3.1 build analysis http://teethandclaws.blogspot.com/2008/12/level-80-feral-raiding-spec.html
3.1 builds http://mother-bear.blogspot.com/2009/04/community-spotlight-tentative-feral.html
http://wowthinktank.blogspot.com/2009/04/druid-bear-faq-for-31.html
http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t36681-feral_bear_megathread/
http://www.wow.com/2009/02/10/shifting-perspectives-gearing-your-feral-bear-druid-at-80/
http://wowthinktank.blogspot.com/2008/10/druid-bear-item-list-and-rep-list-for.html
Mewf. What a mouthful. Something to do with my morning, though. ;) I hope it helps and shall try to field/research any questions as necessary.
Mmmm.... That all looks good, hon, and pretty much what I'd found, too. Thank you, hon
ReplyDeleteAny important points I overlooked?
ReplyDeleteNope. Not really seeing anything missed. Feral Tanking Stuff is hard to find solid info on that doesn't contradict itself. o.o
ReplyDeleteFor all the sources I found, one would think there's be something more concise. ... Or maybe because there's nothing concise, I found a lot of different sources. @.@
ReplyDeleteOne would think so... But they keep screwing with the feral tanking mechanics... Almost every patch, they change how one of the major rotation abilities works or how the actual tanking abilities work... Makes it hard to even make a proper rotation, much less a solid build...
ReplyDelete