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I personally play a warrior tank, but my guildmate is playing a bear tank with the expansion and is running in to a lot of concerns with gearing post 3.0 patch. Any good suggestions from some of you Beta bears or PTR folks about good druid tanking gear?
He is a new 70 tank that is live ready for Kara front half but when he copied his character to the PTR his armor dropped like a rock.
Thanks
I was Main tanking Kara last night with ease on my druid, all of the old gear still applies, and the clefthoof set is still pretty good(although the defense is pretty much useless now it gives good stam and some dodge), my armor went from ~25k or so to ~17k buffed but i havent noticed a difference in damage taken really due to the new dodge talents.
With the Crit reduction talents and armor nerf ive forgone some of the traditional tanking gear for expertise and dodge rating.
Expertise isnt something to be overlooked as a bear tank either. Its extremely easy for us to hit the cap with Earthwarden + brooch of deftness and the 10 expertise talent and one other piece of expertise gear (i currently wear some gloves)
Ill post my Armory link later when maintenence is done but until then i can make a few suggestions.
Commendation (if at all possible just get this. the stamina is huge even if you dont drop below 35%hp)
Pocketwatch (still worth it in terms of avoidance in my point of view, i chose this over the +45 stam trinkets from brewfest when it came time for me, and yes it is in kara but pretty much anyone should be able to do moroes)
Grips of Deftness - I shyed away from traditional tanking gloves and actually prefer these over my t4 gloves because of the expertise, and with the gear changes these are actually great for tanking since the green armor values dont apply.
Heavy clefthoof Chest - is still pretty good until you get your hands on either a traditional rogue chest like the Chestguard of the Conniver or your T4 Chest/Badge Chest , Primalstrike is another valid option more threat oriented but it should do well enough for tanking.
Legs - not sure what to grab for these but clefthoof should still be viable due to high stam+dodge until you can get t4/badge legs. Alternatively the warp splinter legs from botanica should function quite well if needed.
Boots - Heavy clefthoof or depending on your server/if youre lw you can grab the pattern for Boots of Natural Grace and craft them. I got the pattern for ~70g and crafted the boots for about 130g so 200g for boots that last you until Black temple or equivalent gear is pretty good.
Belt - The Epic Belt from Heroic Ramps is really good or you can always grab the Primalstrike belt if youre LW
Weapon - Earthwarden. Simple - Run CE dungeons and do all the CE quests its an amazing weapon until you get into SSC or Hyjal.
Idol - 20 badges Idol of Terror, i personally still find this to be the best tanking idol ingame.
Bracers - Umberhowls from the Quests out in shadowmoon are still pretty good, you can always grab pvp bracers or primalstrike as well.
Neck - Brooch of Deftness. Hands down is my choice, its just my play style though, it helps stop some of the annoying parries that you get and also reduces the need for hit slightly. Also this has a very large amount of stamina. You could still get the 25 badge tanking necklace if you want, its still rather good in terms of avoidance but i just find that expertise helps more.
Head and shoulders - Pvp items are the easiest to get here, personally im working on getting the Hydross shoulders for the expertise boost since i only have 1 point in our expertise talent but if i wasnt getting them I would be shooting for S2 shoulders. Stylin Purple Hat is also very good for starting tanks.
Rings - Delicate Eternium Rings are great for tanking now that defense is irrelevant. Also the Violet Signet from kara is excellent because of the armor. Both are easy to obtain.
I was kinda wondering the same thing about bear tanks. I have been trying to figure out how to get my stam higher without using tons of PvP gear, the only piece of PvP gear I currently use is my Merciless Gladiators ones. Since defense isn't really needed anymore, should I just stack stam and dodge? I haven't tanked anything since 3.0 since I've kinda been stuck raiding on my warlock. I know I can basically be uncrittable through talents. Just not sure what to do
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hikashi
dont
pvp gear still has green armor and is still the best for gearing up
Well, I currently have 4/5 t4 with my merc shoulders, bands of the swift paw, the crafted boots out of BT, earthwarden, the belt out of heroic ramps, moroes pocketwatch and necklace of the juggernaut
yea 4t4 is the one exception to using full pvp gear. get rid of that neck ASAP and buy the hit/expertise badge neck. i use it over the one from sunwell. when i need the hit its that good, earthwarden is amazing because of the huge amount of expertise.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hikashi
moroes is not that good anymore depending on how high your dodge is the use is diminished so fast, badge of tenacity, shard of contempt, and commendation are all far superior
well, right now my dodge % is at 37% almost 38%, thx for the tips :)
what's a good defense rating for bears now? I know it used to be 416 to be uncrittable but since we can basically become uncrittable off of a couple talents I'm not sure what my defense should be at.
your level x 5
so 350 defense is defense cap now for bear tanks?
has always been the defense for your level,
it's just you don't need additional defense because of your talents.
Just curious as to how the druid tanking gear works now i Currently sit at around 40% dodge 18k hp and 26k armour unbuffed, pre patch 18k hp 40% dodge and 31k armour is the armour reduction bad for us or does it make us more viable for tanking bosses? And is our old looking for gear upgrades the same get to armour cap after u reach 15k hp and 35% dodge? or just stack str8 stam and dodge now? worried me seing my armour drop that much