[Feral Bear] Help me out on Stats, please...

[sherck]

I am cornfused...

Doing a quick WoWHead search, it appears that there is no more Strengh leather above old Vanillia/TBC gear and that is is all Agility leather.

However, Wowwiki specifically indicates that Druid attack power is derived in bear from Strength. Quite a few other sites (most dating from early to mid 2009) also talk about Bears using strength.

I assume that there was a change and that Bears now use only Agility to determine their attack power?

Also, I found almost zero WoTLK leather than had either Defense or Dodge on it (at least in the pre-raid, rare, 187-200 item level). I know Bear's don't need Defense to get Crit immune but is there still Defense and Dodge on gear in order to advance those rating or is it all based off of Agility?

Stat Priority I saw =
1) Get Expertise to 132
2) Get Hit to 262
3) Stack full Stamina
4) ArmPen > Haste > AP > Crit

Look about right ?

Cheers,

[blakk]

strength does give you ap but agility gives more threat plus crit for savage defense. for threat you want expertise and hit but you'll end up gemming stam everywhere and enchanting for eh a ton.

[fuzzygeek]

I think most of the strength language is due to sharing rings, necks, and cloaks with other tanks. Strength still gives an AP bonus.

[sherck]

strength does give you ap but agility gives more threat plus crit for savage defense. for threat you want expertise and hit but you'll end up gemming stam everywhere and enchanting for eh a ton.

Yeah, I saw the standard 1x Nightmare Tear to activiate your Meta (Austere Earthseige) and all the rest being Solid for stam. So only Agility and Stam on the leather gear along with some mix of Expertise, Hit, Haste, ArmPen and Crit? Sounds like DPS gear.

I think most of the strength language is due to sharing rings, necks, and cloaks with other tanks. Strength still gives an AP bonus.

So, the only place you will find Dodge and Defense and Strength on Bear gear is on the cloaks/neck/rings and possibly weapon?

Cheers,

[blakk]

yes you basically use the same gear as feral dps and rogues. you just gem and gear it differently. that's why being feral feels like cheating. you can take your old gear and make it the other spec by regemming and reenchanting for the other side of feral. only difference is gems, enchants, trinkets, cloaks, and jewelry

[sherck]

Okay, I have been working on a "for sure" just hit 80 Feral Tank set and am pretty happy will all the available gear (all of it crafted, BoE or quested) but am having problem with one of the slots.

Trinkets.

I can get a Darkmoon Card: Greatness as one of the trinket slots but cannot find another quested tank trinket ANYWHERE in WoTLK. I need a 2nd trinket to start tanking heroics/reg ToC and get access to some of those drops.

Any advice?

For FYI, this is what I am thinking for my "just hit 80" tanking spec. Note, this is my 2nd spec as I will be going resto primary so I am not spending the cash initially to craft the 245 craftable gear.

Head = Headguard of Retaliation (Quested - Vengeance Be Mine!)
Neck = Titanium Earthguard Chain (Crafted)
Shoulders = Trollwoven Spaulders (Crafted)
Back = Durable Nerubhide Cape (Crafted)
Chest = Exotic Leather Tunic (Quested - Junk in my Trunk)
Wrists = Drake-Champion's Bracers (BoE on AH)
Hands = Handwraps of Preserved History (Quested - A Royal Escort)
Waist = Trollwoven Girdle (Crafted)
Legs = Chain Gang Legguards (BoE on AH)
Feet = Footpads of Silence (Crafted)
Weapon = Staff of the Sorrowful Chieftain (Quested - Ragemane's Flipper)
Ring = Titanium Earthguard Ring (Crafted)
Ring = Titanium Impact Ring (Crafted)
Trinket = Darkmoon Card: Greatness (Crafted)
Trinket = ???
Idol = Idol of Perspicacious Attacks (30x Venture Coins)

Cheers,

[blakk]

I can't think of any tank trinkets before heroics.

[Grehn|Skipjack]

I can't think of any tank trinkets before heroics.

This, pretty much. I used the Adamantine Figurine and Commendation of Kael'Thas on my Paladin until I got the Seal of the Pantheon from Reg HoL and the +Sta Eng trinket.

Sherck, if you want a hand, I'm willing to bet Teratree, Urax, Gossard, and Myself are willing to run your druid through H MgT for a shot at the Commendation. =D

[Vorianloken]

Unless I'm mistaken the Footpads are i226? And if you are going for one i226 item then why not go for the i226 belt as well? And as for tank trinkets, the only tank trinket I can recall is the def/on-use-armor trinket from loken in normal HoL but def is useless for a bear (or next to).

I would just suggest picking up a DPS trinket like Chuchu's, Fezzik's pocketwatch, Medallion of Heroism or some other.

[Kelaan]

the only tank trinket I can recall is the def/on-use-armor trinket from loken in normal HoL but def is useless for a bear (or next to).

I don't know about that. I'd say it's half as useful. Bears can still use chances to have attacks miss or be dodged.

The early tanking trinkets I can think of are ones that have dodge, stam, or other defensive stats. That said, the BoA ones that self-heal might still be handy as stopgaps.

The profession-craftable trinkets at 80 are good:
Sonic Booster (Eng)
Figurine: Monarch Crab (JC)
Indestructible Alchemist's stone (Alch)


I tried to compare all the pre-80 ones I thought were applicable (not counting Hit/AP/Expertise ones -- those can be useful!):
http://www.wowhead.com/compare?items=27891;34473;28528;28579;40767;37220;44063;44323
Unfortunately wowhead seems to not want to display it. Sorry.

Romulo's Poison Vial looks like it has no CD, and can proc like crazy on Swipe spam. I'm going to have to see if I can pick one of those up.

[amh]

Will you be spending money on the JC-craftables? If so, you might want to consider buying at least the 245 bracers instead of the dps-ring. Seeing them down to 1000 gold these days. Not sure how much the ring would cost you, but it used to be quite a bit. Also, how much of a hurry are you in? Both those rings will/can be replaced from badges (I realize you're spending these on resto-gear first) and ToC5.

What's your view on pvp? The various pvp-boots are quite good (by good, I mean they don't suck terribly itemization-wise, just a little), and you get them up to ilvl 245 without breaking a sweat (doing arenas). Costs around 40k honor if I remember correctly. If you don't plan on pvping as resto, you might as well spend leftover honor on the various pieces that are available. They're all heavy on stamina, provide the same amount of armor as their ilvl-equivalent tier-pieces, and won't cut into your badge-income.

[Vorianloken]

IDK though. I would definitely not pick up a trinket that is half as useful to me or three-fourths.

[katraya]

Yay, thanks for doing all my work for me!


52 more levels to go.

[Kelaan]

IDK though. I would definitely not pick up a trinket that is half as useful to me or three-fourths.

I wouldn't go out of the way for it, but (crappy) defense and a ++health or ++armor on-use is significantly better than a crit, hit, or AP trinket. It's not a final solution, but rather something to wear until you get Ick's thumb and the black heart, for example.

[Chicken]

Figurine: Monarch Crab (JC)

JC also has Figurine: Ruby Hare, which makes it a pretty solid choice in my opinion for a starting tank. It's a very easy way of getting two solid stamina trinkets. And it's also a profession that's overall quite useful for how adaptable it's bonuses are.