Which would be better for a bear? part 2

**Terra** · #1 10-06-2009, 01:34 PM

This thread really has multiple questions...

First, feral bear is my offspec and I'm still fairly new to it. So I'm not going to be taking trophies for a while to get the ilvl 245 T9 gear, but the ilvl 232 gear is easy. I'm getting between 60 and 80 emblems of triumph a week.

I currently have 70 emblems of triumph. I already have the emblem of triumph tank ring and feral idol. Thanks to Emblems of Conquest I have the T8.5 Head and T8.5 Chest.

Let's talk about head first. Should I use Stormrage Helm - Item - World of Warcraft knowing that it will break my T 8.5 bonus and I am unlikely to get another piece to make my 2 set bonus should I wear it or wait?

Now let's talk T9. I'll assume I will leave my head and chest intact for now (but I'm open to suggestion). Here's my pieces in the other tier slots:

Hands: Gloves of the Stonereaper - Item - World of Warcraft
Legs: Proto-hide Leggings - Item - World of Warcraft
Shoulders: Treacherous Shoulderpads - Item - World of Warcraft

I've been eyeing Duskstalker Shoulderpads - Items - Sigrie as well and I've been thinking get those shoulders and then the hangs and legs. Or I could wait on the shoulders and get both the legs and the hands this week to get the T9 2 piece bonus.

Thoughts?

**geros** · #2 10-06-2009, 01:38 PM

You might be so lucky as to have felhoof/kalon reply in the thread, but in the meantime you may want to check out his blog and gear rankings located here:
ThinkTank

Back in July/August he went very in depth on all the ToC badge items. The first thing you should nab is the tanking ring more than likely.

**Terra** · #3 10-06-2009, 01:44 PM

Yep.. have the ring and the idol already. I'll check out that thread.

felhoof · #4 10-06-2009, 02:01 PM

First off, you want the Idol of the Corruptor. It's better than the Idol of Mutilation for bears.

Second, the set bonus for T8 doesn't matter in the slightest for bears. Stormrage is a great helm, made even moreso by the fact that it has expertise on it. Don't feel bad about putting it on at all, though you may want to hide helm; it looks pretty stupid with T8/T9 gear.

The T9 bonus is also equally laughable for bears until 4-piece, and even that's not worth the cost of an entire tier of gear. The Duskstalker Pauldrons are great and probably your biggest upgrade. They'll last a while, especially if you're not doing anything that'll give you trophies. I'm assuming you're doing 10-man ToC stuff too; if that's the case, there are plenty of upgrades to your legs and hands there. I'd save your badges for buying crusader orbs to get Knightbane Carapace and Bracers of Swift death.

Also, don't forget about buying Death-Warmed belt via Runed orbs/emblems of conquest and Footpads of Silence the same way. Runed orbs should be cheap and/or you should be swimming in conquest badges.

ETA: here's the specific ranking for emblem purchases:
ThinkTank: [Druid, 3.2] Emblem gear for bears

**Terra** · #5 10-06-2009, 03:15 PM

I'm doing content that gets trophies, but Feral is my offspec and I'm gonna let people get trophies for main specs before I take for off (my main spec if balance and we use 2 piece t8 2 piece t9 and I'm all set there). So ilvl 245 gear is likely to start flowing my way because the people that would take gear as main spec are pretty well taken care of more or less for leather gear.

I've got the Idol of the Corruptor so I'll swap that back in.. thanks for the advise. I've seen contradictory opinions on that. Why is it better?

I've got the Death-Warmed belt and Footpads of Silence already.

Okay, so my plan of action tonight is to drop my Twisted Visage as my main weapon and put in Fordragon Blades, put on the bullwinkle helm and kiss my 2 piece T8 goodbye, and buy the Duststalker Shoulderpads.

I should be able to get the Knightbane Carapace and Bracers of Swift Death fairly soon... most guildies have gotten their Crusader Orb wrists by now and there should be some available for offspecs very soon or I can buy them w/ Emblems of Triumph. By the time I could afford to buy Crusader Orbs to make Knightbane Carapace, trophies will probably start going to off-specs so I'll probably end up going with the ilvl 245 Tier gear by then.

In the meantime, I think I made a mistake in gemming out full stam gems (except 1 agility gem to activate my meta). I'm going to rethink my gemming and put more agility gems in. My dodge is a little over 38% w/ no buffs right now and just shy of 40k health w/ no buffs (about 52k with) so I think I can afford dropping some stam gems for the more agility. Tonight I'll log off in my feral spec/gear and post an armory here and see if you have any other advice for me. Thanks for what you've given so far.

felhoof · #6 10-06-2009, 03:34 PM

Corrupter is better because...actually, I'll just post the link to the article i wrote prior:
ThinkTank: [Druid, 3.2] Don't get Idol of Mutilation for bears!

Knightbane carapace is better than T9.245 no matter what, so it won't be a waste; that being said, I'd go for the bracers first on the triumph path. If the 245 gear is going to be flowing your way anyway, hope for heroic ToC 10 loot - but the bracers are still a hard-to-find piece off of Anubarak. The shoulders are as good as anything other than the 258 piece (and oddly the hardmode Iron Council piece) so they'll last you a while.

As to stam vs. agility, it's really up to what you're doing and why, but I'm a firm advocate in doing as much stam as you can. Druids get more health per point of stamina than any other class, by a long margin; no one else gets the benefits that druids do. 52k is okay, but if you're planning on doing any hard 10 ToCs, more is likely a bit better. And it'll only become moreso come Icecrown.

**Terra** · #7 10-06-2009, 03:39 PM

I've tanked 10 man ToC regular with no problems. I did Jaraxxuss last night on ToC 10 Heroic (but only because one of our tanks had to leave and the only person we had to replace was DPS). I think w/ the gear changes I'm making tonight I should gain a sizeable amount of stamina. Not gonna change gems out just yet....

We aren't downing Anub-Arak in 10 man ToC Heroic yet (expect to get him this week) but we're doing the other 4 without fail. Thanks for the link on the idol..

I just read it.. is the idol swap trick valid in live WoW or was the addendum in effect making it moot?

felhoof · #8 10-06-2009, 03:43 PM

The idol swap doesn't work any more, sadly; they've changed it so that all idols share a cooldown that gets triggered on equip. It did for a bit, and it was fun if unwieldy and bad for threat.

In any case, yeah - 10 man ToC will be fine. 10 man ToC hard mode might be tougher for you, especially Anub'arak and Gormok. For me, the only reason I have agility in any slots is because those are shared pieces that I also use when doing cat dps. If that were not the case, I'd go stamina.

**Terra** · #9 10-06-2009, 03:45 PM

Yeah if I want to DPS, I go boomkin as I have strong DPS there. If I'm feral I'm nothing but bear so I don't care about cat. I'll leave the stam gems be. Thanks again.

**Terra** · #10 10-06-2009, 05:42 PM

Alright.. implemented your advice.... feedback?

The World of Warcraft Armory

owlcapwn · #11 10-06-2009, 08:53 PM

Source: Terra
Alright.. implemented your advice.... feedback?

The World of Warcraft Armory

heres some advice quit worrying, since tanking is you offspec i assume your not mting and of the hardmodes and you can tank any of the normal modes with any set of feral gear

**Terra** · #12 10-06-2009, 11:17 PM

I'm not worried.. just seeking to understand feral druids better. I have a pally and a warrior tank as well and I like to do everything I can at my best, even if it's offspec or alt. I will be tanking 10 man toc Heroic on this druid most likely more often going forward. I might even be called on to tank on my pally (an alt). We have 1 group doing it successfully right now and we want to split to 2 groups and eventually 3. This likely puts me in a tanking role on at least 1 of the groups if not 2.

When it comes to Gormok and Twins, both tanks have to perform equally as well for it to work.

owlcapwn · #13 10-07-2009, 06:48 AM

Source: Terra
I'm not worried.. just seeking to understand feral druids better. I have a pally and a warrior tank as well and I like to do everything I can at my best, even if it's offspec or alt. I will be tanking 10 man toc Heroic on this druid most likely more often going forward. I might even be called on to tank on my pally (an alt). We have 1 group doing it successfully right now and we want to split to 2 groups and eventually 3. This likely puts me in a tanking role on at least 1 of the groups if not 2.

When it comes to Gormok and Twins, both tanks have to perform equally as well for it to work.

well theres not alot of loot for toc if your really interested in tanking just use your trophys for feral and for the non tier pieces just take anything 245 physical leather and gem 30 stam and the 245 tank pieces and youll be set. I think there only one of each piece for ilvl 245 leather so there really not many choices to be made other than weapons

heres my armory The World of Warcraft Armory

was logged out in cat should be updated to bear soon

**geros** · #14 10-07-2009, 07:34 AM

I personally prefer to play to the strong EH and enchant my shoulders with the Greater Inscription of the Gladiator - Item - World of Warcraft rather than using the sons of hodir shoulder enchants. That's mostly a matter of personal preference though.

**Terra** · #15 10-07-2009, 07:52 AM

Thanks Owl... I think I prefer being a little more targeted in my upgrades than just grabbing anything that is physical DPS leather. Sometimes upgrades really aren't upgrades.

Felhoof, after reviewing the multiple links you've provided, I think the biggest problem with my current set is not enough expertise and too much hit. As I understand it the minimum target is 26. I have 25. Is Primal Precision not reflected on the character sheet; thus putting me above the soft cap minimum and therefore I shouldn't worry about it much, or do I need to look into getting an expertise enchant/gem to help out? This is probably a moot point, because when I've tanked against our highest aggro pullers in ToC, they tell me they don't have to hold back too much when I'm tanking, even on fights where they are focused on a single target rather than switching to snobolds or spiders or whatnot.... Plus when we did a fun speed run of Naxx, I was eating the hateful strikes on Patchwerk and was only marginally behind our regular 25 man main tank on aggro.

**Terra** · #16 10-07-2009, 07:54 AM

Source: geros
I personally prefer to play to the strong EH and enchant my shoulders with the Greater Inscription of the Gladiator - Item - World of Warcraft rather than using the sons of hodir shoulder enchants. That's mostly a matter of personal preference though.

ah dang it.. you're gonna make me pvp aren't you? I hate pvp... -lol-... alright I'll get that done.

felhoof · #17 10-07-2009, 08:51 AM

well theres not alot of loot for toc if your really interested in tanking just use your trophys for feral and for the non tier pieces just take anything 245 physical leather and gem 30 stam and the 245 tank pieces and youll be set. I think there only one of each piece for ilvl 245 leather so there really not many choices to be made other than weapons

There are a fair amount of choices. The tier pieces are actually not the best for bears in many of the slots, and the hard mode 10 man gear is better than them quite often. Plus there are weapon, jewelry, cloak choices...it's not super complex, but there is some degree of complication.

Terra, primal precision is on the character sheet (this is easily seen by simply unequipping everything and looking). You don't have to worry about getting to 26 expertise skill, and I'd never advise gemming for it - but it is a good benchmark to hit simply because it's the best threat stat by a huge margin until that point. If threat isn't a concern, don't worry about it.

I would advise that if you're not planning on going cat with this, don't bother with agi. Agi in the fordragon blades isn't as good as it could be. The only other advise is that you really need to upgrade that second ring; try at the very least to get Mark of the Relentless (from heroic ToC) or Keystone Great-Ring (from heroic Drak'tharon keep). Try and work on getting better trinkets, too; Black Heart is much stronger than double direbrew trinkets unless you absolutely need nothing but stamina for most things, DM:G is better all around for more basic things, and there are a lot of good trinkets to be found in Ulduar and ToC.

**Terra** · #18 10-07-2009, 09:04 AM

I have agility on Fordragon Blades as the 1 red gem in order to activate my meta. If it weren't for that it would have been stamina. Do you have a different suggestion on where to put it my 1 red (or orange or purple) gem?

Yeah I've been trying to get Black Heart. I've been to ToC regular off and on for 2 weeks now and have horrible luck. We usually only get about 5 clears before it's time to join up for a raid somewhere. I've been considering the Emblem of Triumph trinket too. I can't really afford (right now) the cash to get DM:G (they go for about 2k on my server), but if I get to the point where I have spare cash for it and I haven't got a trink by then, I'll look into getting it.

felhoof · #19 10-07-2009, 11:10 AM

Sell crusader orbs

That's an easy way to get cash, and you might as well cash in now while you can. If you use the 45 triumph badges you'd spend on the glyph to buy three orbs, you can probably make 2k right from that. That being said, I'm not sure that DM:G is worth it over Glyph, and in general I'd rather have glyph.

Death-warmed belt would be a better socket choice; you can get 6 agi from that socket. Footpads of silence are another better choice.

**geros** · #20 10-07-2009, 12:10 PM

Source: Terra
ah dang it.. you're gonna make me pvp aren't you? I hate pvp... -lol-... alright I'll get that done.

Just farm heroics when you have WG and turn the shards into 10k honor