[Druid] Where are all the Bear Tanks, ya'll?!

[Doogiehowser]

Go to the post where it says "This is so getting nerfed..." or something like that.

I think he has all the buffs and has proc'd his health multipliers, but he has 82k health. That's just crazy.

[Splug]

Hrm, ok. I finally remembered to check our druid's in-combat health yesterday and he's at about 50.5k to my 51.6k, but I don't think he's leaning on polar gear either. So yeah, the numbers during survival instincts are going to clock in higher than what I see during Vampiric Blood (~61k). I hadn't thought about stacking trinket health with VB though, I may need to track down a pair of those just to post an epeen shot with 70k and change (with a subsequent 14k death strike heal). The armor and passive mitigation you have listed are both higher than death knights see as well (well, if I ever leave frost presence. Still clinging to my 29.7k pre-nerf until switch out and back... when it should drop to about 26k). But the avoidance difference is quite significant as well. I believe I'm at the low end of the deathknight spectrum with 55% combined avoidance. So all in all, not horribly different; just passive avoidance and a stronger 1-minuter versus passive DR.

Thanks for the numbers Vesper; satisfies some curiousity. =)

-Splug

[uke]

I clicked the link for that blog. It would seem people are displeased with NE kitty skins.

FWIW, I think the redone cat/bear forms for both races look nice. I think that the people QQ'ing were expecting fully armor clad bears and kittys with lazer cannons attached to their heads while glowing sparkling lights.

In other words, those people are stupid, and it's wise to ignore them.

[Doogiehowser]

kittys with lazer cannons attached to their heads while glowing sparkling lights.

Meow....

[Cuthbert]

Hey guys!

I'm glad to see this thread has really picked up since i last posted it.
I'm also happy to hear there are other people out there who play and enjoy their Druid Tanks.

Since posting i managed to hit 80, grab some nice gear ( Crafted,Badges,Heroics and even a bit of naxx10 and 25) and tank naxx10 and heroics.

I gotta say, Tanking on bear is a BLAST!!
i was wondering about the Polar Set, i can get my greedy paws on it, but how do you make up for all the hit/expetise/avoidance? even with the right gems and enchants it'll never get even close to what you have with your normal gear...how do you manage to keep up threat like that? and is the lack of avoidance worth it?

Anyway, i'll post my toon in a few days or so, and will let you guys know how it goes, my mission is to start tanking Ulduar 10/25 in 1-2 weeks. at the rate i'm gearing this guy up, it could happen!


See ya!

[Levantine]

You don't. Polar gear is for epeen flexing with your HP. You will lose a butt ton of threat and avoidance, but having the option for a ROFLSTAMINA set is always handy on things that may hit hard.

[Cuthbert]

Also, what Sons Of Hodir shoulder enchant would you suggest using? the dps sort of the defensive ones?
Reason i ask is, Defense is mostly useless for Bears, the dodge is nice i suppose but is it worth perhaps using the DPS one for the extra threat instead?


Cheers

[Levantine]

Defense is most definitely not nearly useless for bears.

[Cuthbert]

Sorry, but how do you figure that?

We are crit immune from our talents, and defense by itself adds very little avoidance with miss/dodge...

If i am wrong here please do correct me.

i currently have around 420 defense
This makes me wonder if i should get the WA rep cloak which has +str and defense on it , and replace with a agility dps cloak.


Also, i got myself a lovely staff from 25naxx tonight, should i go ahead and slap a Mongoose on that puppy or something else?

Thanks!

[iwillpunishu]

Go for the defense dodge enchant, as lev said defense is not useless, it just isnt as good as other stats. If you need extra threat get it elsewhere imo. Sometimes if I'm lacking I strap on a couple of kitty items, and I'm fine. I use my polar sometimes, I would recommend all 4 pieces if you can afford it. You wont be using them all the time, but its nice to be able to stam stack if needed. I tanked three drakes in all my polar gear as an example. Your threat and avoidance will blow, so dont use them if you need those things for a certain fight. I definately recommend something like outfitter. You will be using alot of combinations of gear...I think I have like 8 different outfits I use.

[Cuthbert]

Okay, will do.


One more question, what good Bear Bracers are out there? and Boots? ( i mean in 10 or 25man )



C'ya!

[Levantine]

Footwraps of Vile Deceit don't seem too bad. An of course there's the Polar Boots.

As far as wrists go, Thrusting Bands just scream Bear to me.

Those are HNaxx drops (Cept Polar, of course)

wowhead.com is a great tool to search for drops, y'know.

[iwillpunishu]

I linked this guys website on page 1 he is very good......... This is a complete list of Bear gear and where to get it.

http://wowthinktank.blogspot.com/2009/0 ... sting.html

[moduspwnens]

The very day I hit 80 on my Druid, I got all the Frost Resist gear crafted (including the ring). There are several other pieces you can get made (LW cloak, LW shoulders) and the rest can probably be filled in with offset pieces from the AH. Since you're a Druid, people will see your health in that Frost Resist gear and assume you're a good tank (more importantly: not leave the group).

As far as mechanics, it seems to be kind of the opposite of Paladins. Well, let me explain. If you want to tank multiple mobs on a Paladin, you Consecrate and pound your single target threat into the mob the rogues and such are on. On a Druid, you have to be spamming Swipe. Swipe is nice now, though. It used to be sketchy, but you'll very much enjoy that you never have a "Ugh, I just dropped a Consecrate in the wrong place and now I'm out of luck for 8 seconds" moment.

It took me a few tries to pick up standard multi-mob tanking, but it's basically: Mangle the main mob as you pull the group, then keep queueing Maul and spam Swipe. That's more than enough single target threat while maintaining fairly strong AoE threat.

EDIT: I put Blood Draining on my Durid staff, but some use Mongoose.

[alayire]

by the time you get the rep with Sons of Hodir you can use the lvl 70 Pvp shoulder enchant 30 stam 15 resilience.
it's quite good and easy to get.

anyways as far as defence goes, it still boosts your avoidance even if by smaller amounts then the other stats. you shouldn't pick defence over agi or dodge, but when there is nothing better to chose from .... there's no sin in using it.
you will see lots of bears using defence rings/necks because there are very very few such items that have large quantities of stamina and/or defensive stats like agi/armor/dodge and don't have defence on them since those slots are shared with the rest of the tanks.