Howdy,
I’m looking to tank some stuff on this here druid, because there aren’t many tanks. I’d like advice, please. The guides tend to be for max level.
I don’t have faerie fire feral yet, so if I don’t want to face pull stuff I’ll need to pop out of bear. When you do that, is the sequence: mark targets, cast faerie fire on something, switch to bear, enrage, attack stuff? I know enrage makes you a bit squishier, but not having rage means no threat. Does this seem right? I don’t want to make the healer’s job too difficult.
Do I need a threat meter? I think back in BC and WoTLK we always had Omen, but I generally raided as heals so threat wasn’t such a big issue. Fade was there. I’m not sure if it’ll even be possible to stay ahead on threat from reading the forums anyway.
For talents, I’ve been sticking in the feral tree, trying to get to faerie fire as quickly as possible (and I took the kitty run speed, cause questing). Would it be better to grab the talent that gives rage when you shift into bear before filling out the feral tree?
Thanks, cheers
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Nah pop enrage. Wars have similar abil so healers should be ready for it. As far as pulling, i personally wrath one, moonfire another, then if you have time rejuv then shift bear
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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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Ah, nice! Didn’t think of taking the time to cast 2 or 3 times. Get threat right away.
Thanks for the advice!
Leaving bear form does not trigger the GCD. So you can macro together
/cast Bear Form
/cast Fairy Fire
This will allow you to pop out of bear, while instantly casting FF. Also works for Barkskin, Rejuv, Regrowth, or even potions!
I strongly recommend you get Furor as your first 5 talents. It sets you back just a bit on the bear tree, but instantly gaining the rage is always worth it. Even allows you to power shift for insta rage
There are no worth while threat meters yet
Bonus Tip: start in caster for before pulling. Cast regrowth on self, then rejuv, FF your target, then pop into bear form. This is a three-fold aggro maker. You gain aggro from the healing you are doing to yourself, you are the initial puller, then with Furor you are now pre-loaded with rage. You won’t lose aggo
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That’s just for dungeon grinding 5/5 thick hide is amazing in raids. it makes 1 armor = 5.4 armor. So items like warden staff, ring of protection, mark of tyranny, smoking heart of the mountain worth gold.
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I hadn’t considered improved thorns. I guess it’s kind of passive threat, once you get things attacking you? I’ll give it a go
Once you get the max thorns it reflects 32 dmg per hit. Pulling a big pack see’s me at 200dps from thorns and auto attk. not even swiping yet.
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Sweet! I have no non-healing macros. I’ll try those out tonight. Yeah, furor is the thing I was wondering about. With shift macros that could be awesome. Different strat than casting on a couple mobs before going into bear. It’s good to have options.
I didn’t know that the hots count for aggro if the spell was cast pre-pull. That’s useful. Thanks much
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A Threat Meter is nice, but more for the dps than yourself.
I have been healing since I hit 50 (not by choice as I want to tank), but when i was 15-47 I tanked a bit. I’d normally cast a moonfire, go bear, and pick up with tab mauling. Honestly if you went 5/5 Ferocity and are now 5/5 Feral Instinct you can get Feral Charge at 20 which will help a ton.
For 15-25 don’t expect to always hold all the adds unless it’s just 3-4 mobs. Heals should know this and dps should be prepared to possibly pull aggro. Control what you can control. Don’t try to control it all. I did that in Vanilla and wiped a lot. Been a lot smoother when I just did what I could and let an OT warrior/rogue handle an add for a bit.
I’d personally go deep feral til 44 then go grab 5/ Furor and 2/2 Improved Rage. Although you could also get those two and the go back into the feral tree if you’re tanking a lot. I ended up soloing a good bit in my early 40s so didn’t need IR as much as Furor.
Just don’t get discouraged. And if people cry and yell at you shrug it off. You’re learning to tank as a bear in Classic. There’s a level of comfort you need to obtain before some of the “glaring” issues go away. Some things become second nature as you tank more. You’ll realize when that snap threat is more important and keeping an add off a healer is always priority over a dying dps.
Cheers!
Al
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Nice! And, yeah, I didn’t go into think hide yet cause I thought the threat would be more useful. Glad to know it was a good call for now
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For leveling it really comes down to what you want to do. And if you want to just tank then what Growlingbear said is perfect.
I heal and tank so HotW is a requirement for me.
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Stat Priority:
Armor - Sta - Agi - Str
Remember you are here to take hits, not Necessarily deal them out. Strength does give more AP But agility will give you AP Dodge and more armor.
Keep DPS gear for questing, and tank gear for tanking
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agi gives crit too! 20 agi = 1% dodge, 1crit%, 20 ap, like 30 armor
find “of the monkey” gear!
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Thanks for the advice. I did indeed go Ferocity - Feral Instinct, but I haven’t picked up feral charge. Do you mainly use it as an interrupt for casters?
And, yeah, I’ve been kind of worried about not being able to keep everything stuck to me. Good to know it might not be possible at first. I’ll do my best, though!
Don’t worry man once u get 2/2 savage fury you will have tons of rage, and will be able to spam swipe and still have rage. with that and thorns you’re gonna be an aggro machine. A normal pull to me in a dungeon looks like this : regrowth/rejuv, barkskin, DB form, enrage, charge, demo roar, maul skull, tab swipe till i get back to skull and maul again. nobody is pulling threat. when skul is dead maul x, then keep tab swiping. keep demo roar up when it falls off. and ferie fire the kill target.
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KK, I’ve been stacking a lot of agility. Not necessarily on purpose, but I have leatherworking and can make some pretty high agility gear. I’ll try and balance it out a bit with more stam. At this point I think the armor I get is just what I get, though. Good to know what to look for, in any case. And from Growlingbear’s post, agi is still pretty solid. I’ll just need balance a bit more.
Good to know strength is low, too. I’ve grabbed a bit of that. Good to know to not prioritize it
You really need to get Furor, STAT. Being able to Rejuv > FF/Moonfire >Bear form with instant 10 rage is super helpful in getting that initial snap threat. The mitigation stats in feral can wait, early on you have limited ability to cause a ton of threat gen so the extra rage at the start helps a ton.
EDIT: Early on agi will be just fine. Prioritize stam/armor if you have the choice, but agi will not hurt you. Youre a low level, you can’t min/max everything so stick with what works for you and adjust as you gain more talents/abilities
(I tanked t6 content as a bear druid in TBC if you’re doubting my credentials)
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keep that lw. and get a saltshaker later on and make cured rugged hides. They are worth alot of gold all throughout classic. alot of the T3 set take a bunch of cured rugg hides to make. so does alot of gear!
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Awesome! That should only be 7 levels or so away. I’m actually a level 23, even though the forums show 19.
Thanks for your pull/attack order. That’s really helpful to see