[Druid] Bear Discussion

[Amirya]

When I tank, I ignore the adds and pray that my dps/heals are smart enough to bring them to me.

Usually happens, but sometimes, I get the retard pugger that runs the other way.

[Skye1013]

When I tank, I ignore the adds and pray that my dps/heals are smart enough to bring them to me.

Usually happens, but sometimes, I get the retard pugger that runs the other way.

This has the added benefit of "dealing with stupid" since the puggers that run away generally die . It's like the Darwinism of WoW.

[Koatanga]

Frustraded with my bear's lack of pack-holding uberness when enrage is down, I have been leveling a DK tank. Now, she's only mid-70s, so balance is obviously out of whack, and she's dressed in full BoA gear, but OMG the difference in aggro is amazing.

I can roll my face on 2 buttons to maintain AoE threat. It's retardedly simple compared to the bear.

Bears have uber-mega AoE damage/threat once every 3 minutes (enrage + mangle), and lol AoE in between. I wonder what they can do to normalise that a bit.

I still have not used my bear on heroics. I have so many problems managing the adds pretty much any fight that has adds that I am positive I would kill my healer repeatedly. The hallway in Stonecore after the worm boss, where you have the wandering packs of fast-moving adds, I shudder to think about. There will be ass-pulls and wipes.

In normals it's not optimal but it's ok, because adds and ass-pulls are generally not so lethal. In heroics it's just going to be painful.

How about they remove the channel requirement for Hurricane for Feral druids?

[semp]

I am about to start working on my feral gear for my druid to be able to tank heroics for insta queues, but this thread makes me wonder if I should continue down this path. I played bear tank all of T7-10 and while my aoe threat then was amazing, it was manageable with swipe and tab/mangles and maul. Is that no longer sufficient? Maybe making mangle hit a secondary target at reduced threat similar to heart strike for DKs would be a good upgrade to aoe threat.

[bldavis]

Thrash is a decent threat move for those small packs
and in 4.1, swipe is on 3sec cd again

as long as we have a massive weapon to hit with, our aoe should be ok
all that will happen is we will be more reliant on cc then other tanks as our aoe is limited to 3 targets and we have no aoe circle (D&D,Cons,TClap)

[Levantine]

our aoe is limited to 3 targets, AoE circle -> Thunderclap

[bldavis]

i was thinking of cleave on a warrior
/tar self
/facepalm

[Levantine]

You also compared Thunderclap to a ground AoE like Cons and DnD.

[Aanar]

I have a paly tank, dk tank, and druid tank that I've all taken through several heroics. More groups than not are pretty good about focusing on skull first, then x, but a lot of groups still have that one dps that just wails on whatever they want. It seems like the pal and dk have an easier time dealing with this.

I think it's more than just the weaker threat from aoe moves. I miss things like shield toss, death grip, and strangulate (4 sec silence) that let me pull in a stray caster from range.

[bldavis]

too many tank alts

brain asplosion emminent

[Aanar]

True enough. I have more fun playing around with a variety of chars than focusing on any one too much, so what can I say? When my warrior finishes his last two levels, he'll be my 7th level 85 char

[cerwillis]

OK, my bear Mistawillis is 81 and ready for some criticism. Don't worry, he has thick skin (He's a bear). I recently dropped some stam gems for agi and to add a little expertise, and things seem to be going quite well for him.

ST rotation: FFF - mangle - lacx3 - pulv - mangle - lac - maul - mangle - John f-in Madden. (prio Mangle with a 3 stack of Pulv up).

I'll need to build a new AoE rotation as I just got Thrash, but before I've more or less tabbed around doing the ST rotation with Swipes every 3 seconds, and trying to keep Pulverize up.

I have a POWA for Pulverize w/ timer and one for the CD of Mangle.

Anyhow, any advice on things I'm doing wrong (or right) would be appreciated.

[bldavis]

True enough. I have more fun playing around with a variety of chars than focusing on any one too much, so what can I say? When my warrior finishes his last two levels, he'll be my 7th level 85 char

same with my dk...she hit 84 last night and i think im going to push her to 85 today
that will give me 6 on SC and one on Drenden


huh?
ya i have heard about altoholics anonymous...
no i wont go! i dont have a problem! i swear!

[bldavis]

OK, my bear Mistawillis is 81 and ready for some criticism. Don't worry, he has thick skin (He's a bear). I recently dropped some stam gems for agi and to add a little expertise, and things seem to be going quite well for him.

ST rotation: FFF - mangle - lacx3 - pulv - mangle - lac - maul - mangle - John f-in Madden. (prio Mangle with a 3 stack of Pulv up).

I'll need to build a new AoE rotation as I just got Thrash, but before I've more or less tabbed around doing the ST rotation with Swipes every 3 seconds, and trying to keep Pulverize up.

I have a POWA for Pulverize w/ timer and one for the CD of Mangle.

Anyhow, any advice on things I'm doing wrong (or right) would be appreciated.

you spec looks ok, when you start doing heroics i would suggest getting the magic damage reduc in resto

single tar rotation is pretty much spot on, it is alot of JFM
basically though its FFF to pull Mangle>Pulv(3 lac stack)>Lac(to 3)>Maul

when you get a burn phase(or pretty much just before you use berserk on a boss fight) get your pulv up
as for aoe, i dont worry about pulv, as it is just a higher crit chance, and stackin agil mostly you should have plenty of crit to get at least one or 5 off a typical pack

i use thrash-swipe-maul-swipe-maul-thrash-swipe-maul...etc.
maybe tab targeting a little to spread the maul love

if i get a chance ill take a ss of my ui in fight
i use PowerAuras with timers on mangle cd, and lac stack count
i prob should (and have planned to) make one for pulv time but i am too lazy and i just spam 3lc->pulv

[cerwillis]

Thanks for the quick response. I'm having a good time with this guy, I hope to have him in shape to do some easymode raids when 4.2 comes out. I ran a ToT without issue last night and got him a Porcelain Crab, and then added ~200 pts to his skinning.