Druid AOE tanking

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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So I’m level 42, and I had the inkling to level a feral druid. I want to tank/dps at endgame. I’m aware there’s a stigma around feral tanks, but I’m willing to put in the effort to get the gear/consumables.

My issue is I’ve had problems holding onto aggro when their is 4+ targets in dungeons. I put thorns on myself, Charge in, use demo roar, followed by tab targeting and swipe spam. It’s sufficient most of the time, but I can’t hold aggro against warriors AOE, or mages who spam AE. Would engineering help me with threat? I’ve considered taking alchemy too. My only issue with engineering is i can’t use bombs in feral form.

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Yo, I’ve done a fair bit of druid tanking in vanilla. Thought i’d post some thoughts.

First, you’ve got the right idea. Tab and swipe (and demo roar if needed) on aoe packs. Use 1 or 2 swipes then maul instead if 3 mobs and tab maul on 2 or less. Use taunt on things that get pulled off.

You won’t be able to hold aggro on a great fury warrior or mage. You aren’t supposed to. You use taunt when they pull and keep going. They are the ones who manage threat, you just keep crap off the healer. This will change a bit when you get to raid tanking (you’ll have more rage) but not by alot.

Engi can help. You don’t need to throw bombs in forms. Start with a starfire on the main target, then throw a bomb, then shift and tank when they reach you, if you think aggro will be an issue. I typically only used bombs on large aoe packs for easy threat.

You just focus on protecting the healer and maxing your TPS. If they still pull, they are either awesome dps or crap at managing threat (or both).

Good luck and have fun :).

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No.

You cant use bombs in bear form. Pop out of form and get chunked…Also, what are you going to do? Spend 20g extra per run to throw bombs on cd?

Warrior aggro is mostly because they are clueless chodes, spamming heroic strike (high threat) and charging in before you or at minimum before you have established threat. Most dps could care less about their pwn threat and refuse to modify their rotation to stay below you. In vanilla, warriors were not top dps this early, because they had to hold back their rotation due to the inherent threat of some of their abilities. But in classic…the players are so bad that they dont care, they would rather max dps and pull aggro and let the healer and tank deal with the outcome.

Dps have a responsibility to not pull aggro. You would never know it, because 95% of them suck and they really dont care. Accidents happen, crits happen, misses happen, thats what taunt is for, but it is not your responsibility to have to repeatedly regain aggro off dps with a retail mind set of going 100% out from the get go.

Threat is the responsibility of everyone.

Its just that most of the people playing totally suck.

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In 5 man dungeons yes that is true about dps warriors. They need to absolutely watch out and be mindful of agro at all times.

In raids, a good tank will taunt asap if a warrior pulls off of them and sometimes it is unavoidable - the Molten Giants in MC do a knockback that lowers tank threat so one of those mobs will beat on a Fury warrior at times. A bad tank will let it happen and blame the Fury warrior for not watching his threat, despite that mob’s own mechanic causing the loss of agro…

There are tons of bad tanks out there along with bad dps. Bad tanks get a pass when they shouldn’t in raids since the whole raid depends on them.

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Maul is your biggest threat generator , I’d try demo roar into tab mauling and then swiping .

The talent for 5 rage on crit really helps as well so you can use your abilities more .

Even prehealing before charging in for healing aggro may help .

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if you plan on doing just the dungeon grind take 5/5 ferocity, 5/5 feral instinct, 1/1 charge, 3/3 sharpened claws, 2/2 primal fury, 3/3 pred strikes, 2/2 savage fury, 1/1 ferie fire, then Go get improved thorns in balance 3/3 the 75% more thorns damage is epic for the current AOE meta.

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whisper the healer… tell them the DPS is being agressive and pulling off you. and to let them learn the hard way.

tell the DPS to please give you a second to get some aggro on 4+ mobs.

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That’s not an issue with you, that’s an issue with idiotic dps.

Of which there seems to be NO shortage of.

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You can tell them ON EVERY PULL and they still won’t wait.

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I think there are macros you can use that will let you use stuff like potions etc and pop right back into form

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I hated tanking during leveling, but now that im 60 with almost full pre-bis for tanking I love it.

I usually: Cast regrowth/reju on myself. Cast the rage generation spell, charge, do 1-2 swipe then I start mauling enemies/occasionnal swipe. I usually have no problem holding aggro. People just gotta wait 2sec before going ham so that mobs can actually hit you so you can cast these 1-2 swipe at the start.