New to 80 and Bear tanking- Gear,Gemming Enchants

[Alea]

Hello there folks,

So I have my druid just dinged 80

I brought her up in plans of Moonkin spec and dpsing, but find more and more people want tanks, My pally out gears 5 mans and pre-uldar, so its my chance to enjoy tanking without constant drinking.

Druids, on the other hand, are a whole new ball game when it comes to gear, spec and requirements. I would love it if someone had some time to help guide me in the right direction. It would be greatly appreciated. I have some issues in seeing the difference from what makes good cat gear and which is better for Bear.

I have read the following information

Druids require no defense from gear until hitting 50% dodge. Then deminishing returns on Dodge make defense a better stat.

Top Four Stats are

Armour
agility
Stam
Dodge <--defense at 50%

Dodge question. Do I want 50% dodge in caster form or Bear form? On the armoury right now shows 23% dodge in caster form, but in bear i am over 30% thats why I ask.

So here is my toons link The World of Warcraft Armory

She is mostly in Blues with crafted and some naxx gear from this past week. Currently she is for the most part ungemmed and unenchanted as the gear is new and I am deciding on what to do. I am not a huge fan of melee dps I have my Pally and ret when I have the need, so I am looking for straight bear tanking optimized gear, gems ect.

Here are my questions: Coming from a Pally tanking position is hard to wrap my head around all this, although the question may seem answered I just need confirmation that I have the ideas right

What is the cap I want to shoot for for expertise? I know Bears need alot but what amount are we talking? Is it ever a wasted stat? I am guessing it is never gemmed for? (due to the fact there seems to be alot on gear)

Is there minium hit I want to have? do I want to gem for it to reach a miniumum? Currently with what I have it is less then 2%, does that matter or???

Since I do not need defense yet, do I replace cloak neck rings, with items with agility stam?

Trinkets get stam and dodge? or more dps drinkets like mirror of truth?

For gear, Haste has been said to be a wasted stat for Bear, do I ignore gear with haste, is there gear without haste that is better iteamized? or will I always find it on even the best gear for a Bear? (i ask becuase most stuff I have now has some haste, so am I just picking the wrong items?)

I do not have a meta socket headpiece yet, what meta when I do? Do I ignore socket bonus and stack 16+ Agility and 24+ Stam gems or use hybrids with dodge, agility and/or stam to meet the socket colours? <besides when meeting meta requirements>

The biggest question is what do I enchant my weapon with?

I lvled right through recently and have never done BC heroics with her. Do I want to go back for a BC idol or is there one I can get in Northrend that is better?

I apologize for writing a book here, but I have found it hard to find clear answers to these questions, when trying to pick out bear information mixed with Cat information. If you have few moments to help me clarify these question it would be most greatfully apreciated.

[Sylvaneart]

Well to start welcome to the furry side. Best place to reasearch spec and style
Of Teeth and Claws
It is now a gaming blog but his Bear and cat guides are still there and should be read.
Best tool to gem and spec
Rawr - Home

Now lets go down the line. I am going to assume you are planning on gearing in heroics before jumping to Naxx. Your 1st question 50% dodge would be in bear form not caster.
A goog starter stat to remember is 30/30/30 30k health/30Karmor/30%dodge buffed. With the nerfs you wont see 30K armor for a while. go for 27-28.

Expertise cap is debateable. At your current lower gear you are dodge by 47 and under parry by by 190. I would not gem or enchant for this.

Hit is a threat thing. No hit no threat. On the other hand if you miss you cant be parried. EXP>hit

Replacing cloak and such was next question. Yes you need no def until 50% and your not close.

I would go with stam dodge on trinkets. Allways carry others in case it is a lower damage fight and you need mad threat. Also new Savage Defense block is based off your AP.

Dont ignore haste gear. Just ignore the haste on the gear. If it has better AGI and STAm and lots of haste. take it the AGI and STAM are your concerns.

Meta has 2 choices. I like the Austere Earthsiege 2% base armor and 32 Stam. The other escapes me right now. As far as what to Gem for as i look at you in armory would be to ignor sockets and go +24 stam all the way. For the 1 red you need for diamond go with purple +stam+dodge

Weapon enchant is Mongoose

Your road map
Head - Shroud of Darkness H-VH/ Mask of the Watcher H-OCC
Neck - Titanium Earthgaurd craftable / Chained Military Gorget Hero Emblems
Shoulders are good
Chest - Good / Polar Vest craftable
Wrists - Bindings of the Tunneler H-UK / Advasnced tooled-Leather Bands H-HOL
Hands - Good
Waist - Good / Polar Cord
Legs - Great / Gore Hide Legguards H-Gun
Feet - Jormscale craftable / Polar boots craftable / Slag Footgaurds H-HOL
Rings - Many dps rings have better bear survival than the ones you have. Get Titanium Earthguard and ring of earthen might made
Trinkets - get badge trink and Essence of gossamer from H-AN
Wepon - Staff from H-UK
Idol - Have your friends take you through kara for 20 badges and get Idol of terror from island.
cloak - Durable Nerubhise craftable


Enchants
Head - revered Argent Crusade
Sholders - good
cloack - Major agi
Chest - Super health or +10 stats if you rich
Wrists - good
hands - Heavy Borean Armor kit
Legs - good
Feet - Great fort

Your stats now
HP 26794
Arm 26499
Dodge 33.4%
Tot mit 80%

Get gear and enchants and you change to
HP 34064
Arm 27764
Dodge 38.1%
Tot Mit82%
This is all unbuffed
for buff take elixer of prot
and agility
eat Agility food
With your GotW and LofP

You go to
HP 34654
ARM 28748
Dodge39.58%
Tot Mit 82.93%

You can tank Naxx 10 with that.

[Alea]

Your road map
Head - Shroud of Darkness H-VH/ Mask of the Watcher H-OCC
Neck - Titanium Earthgaurd craftable / Chained Military Gorget Hero Emblems
Shoulders are good
Chest - Good / Polar Vest craftable
Wrists - Bindings of the Tunneler H-UK / Advasnced tooled-Leather Bands H-HOL
Hands - Good
Waist - Good / Polar Cord
Legs - Great / Gore Hide Legguards H-Gun
Feet - Jormscale craftable / Polar boots craftable / Slag Footgaurds H-HOL
Rings - Many dps rings have better bear survival than the ones you have. Get Titanium Earthguard and ring of earthen might made
Trinkets - get badge trink and Essence of gossamer from H-AN
Wepon - Staff from H-UK
Idol - Have your friends take you through kara for 20 badges and get Idol of terror from island.
cloak - Durable Nerubhise craftable

Thank you for all the wonderful information.

I did have some question on a few choices.

First being why you would choose Enraged Feral Staff - Item - World of Warcraft over The World of Warcraft Armory when I already have this staff? with 103 Agil 1800+AP is it really worth switch to the UK one for a little more Armour and Stam?

As well switching out to the Frost resist Gear. Yes they have boat loads of Stam and gem slots, but I question the loss of other stats. (agility, expertise mainly)

I value the information and suggestions you have made here, a little more clarification would be greatly appreciated on these few points if you care?

[Sylvaneart]

whoops my bad on the staff i had my filtering wrong on that. Keep it. The frost gear. Get it. You will have to have it in naxx. Frost gear in heroics, the amount of stam creates a HP pool bigger than the amount of damage you will avoid. Would you like to take a 20k hit with a HP pool of 30k or take a 24k hit with an HP pool of 40K. That is the logic behind it. If you have a good group of healers that havn't been assleep in naxx this last month becouse they are over geared and they do proactive instead of reactive healing go with the lower stam. But if you are pugging and not sure what kind of healer your going to get then stack the stam. I always carry 3 sets of gear. DPS gear, Threat set, and Mitigation set. When i am cat spec with dps gear i top out around 5.5K. When I am in threat gear/bear spec people cant pull off me but i am at 41K HP, 45% dodge with a total mitigation of 82%. Bad or slow healers can have problems in Ulduar 10 or naxx 25. In my total Mitigation set i can top out 63K HP 45% dodge and 84% mitigation. This allows for more mistakes by healers or fightsd taking longer becouse DPS stood in the goo. But my threat is lower by alot. I can't AOE tank like this with my guilds top DPSers. There are some fights were I will equip DPS trinkets and some DPS gear becouse i know i need mad threat. Usually aginst patch I dodge enough of his attacks(and use barkskin whenever possible) that my healers have no problems. I just have to set the DPS cap as high as possible. The DPS trinks and sometimes a ring are great for max TPS.

Added:
An example of your belt say good and mentioning the polar cord was a this or that thing not a switch to that.

[Alea]

whoops my bad on the staff i had my filtering wrong on that. Keep it. The frost gear. Get it. You will have to have it in naxx. Frost gear in heroics, the amount of stam creates a HP pool bigger than the amount of damage you will avoid. Would you like to take a 20k hit with a HP pool of 30k or take a 24k hit with an HP pool of 40K. That is the logic behind it. If you have a good group of healers that havn't been assleep in naxx this last month becouse they are over geared and they do proactive instead of reactive healing go with the lower stam. But if you are pugging and not sure what kind of healer your going to get then stack the stam. I always carry 3 sets of gear. DPS gear, Threat set, and Mitigation set. When i am cat spec with dps gear i top out around 5.5K. When I am in threat gear/bear spec people cant pull off me but i am at 41K HP, 45% dodge with a total mitigation of 82%. Bad or slow healers can have problems in Ulduar 10 or naxx 25. In my total Mitigation set i can top out 63K HP 45% dodge and 84% mitigation. This allows for more mistakes by healers or fightsd taking longer becouse DPS stood in the goo. But my threat is lower by alot. I can't AOE tank like this with my guilds top DPSers. There are some fights were I will equip DPS trinkets and some DPS gear becouse i know i need mad threat. Usually aginst patch I dodge enough of his attacks(and use barkskin whenever possible) that my healers have no problems. I just have to set the DPS cap as high as possible. The DPS trinks and sometimes a ring are great for max TPS.

Added:
An example of your belt say good and mentioning the polar cord was a this or that thing not a switch to that.

Ok I see what your saying now. Not that I gear I have now is bad but Getting a EH set is a life saver on some of the hard hitting bosses in naxx..(yeah if you can say that after being hit in Uldar lol) Or needed to compensate on a raid where Healers might not be the level you are used to. Basically one is not better then the other they are just used in different settings.

Thank for the clarification. And really all the information you shared!

[Rakydae]

Seeing this topic, I didn't think it would be a good idea to make a topic about pretty much the same subject, so here goes:

I've been tanking quite some Hcs lately, and been doing pretty well. I was wondering if it is a good idea to equip PvP gear as tanking gear (since it has loads of stamina and agility), since i've already collected several pieces of which i think are better than Hc drops.

I also wonder wether I should gem/enchant the way i'm doing atm (haven't bothered to enchant everything yet, not honored with Sons of Hodir etc).

One last question i have, is what stats should i aim at for tanking naxx10? there aren't a lot of great upgrades in Hcs for me anymore (trinket, staff and ring), and my HP is coming along nicely as well

World of Warcaft Armory

Thanks in advance ^^

[Sylvaneart]

OK lets see what we got here. I hate to say this. I REALLY hate to say this but PVP stuff is good for tanking. For a Bear. It could be one of your best mitigation sets. The crit and agi will be good for keeping your SD up and the stam is a no brainer. I just hate to PVP in order to PVE. I think it is a flaw. Im looking at your armory right now and it has pve gear. Your staff is the best pre naxx heroic drop keep it and get mongoose. You have the 2 trinkets you need. Good helm and enchant. Neck is good. If you have the money get the JC one with a +24 stam gem. Sholders are good and your pvp enchant isnt bad at all. Back is good get mighty agi on it. chest is ok. Get polar, crystal-infused from H-NEX or darkheart from Knights. Which ever get +10 stats or super health. Awsome wrists enchant with stam. Hands are good but use heavy borean kit. Also look for hands in H-UP or H-HOL. Belt is good. Legs are fine just look for ones out of H-GUN. Feet great get greater fort. Rings are good but you should try for JC ring if you have money. Your gear is good just change those enchants and you can OT naxx10 now and MT it once you are familiar with it.

[Astemus]

Bears are one of the few that can really make use of PVP gear for PVE. I hit up WG every chance I got to get the tokens for the chest. You can totally skip most of naxx if you grind up enough PVP gear.

[tcodhavok]

Hey guys, I hope I'm posting this in the right spot. I've been reading a bunch on the site ( a lot I don't understand still ) but I think I've been gearing correctly for Naxx and was hoping someone would be able to look me over. I'm trying to gear for Naxx10 and VoA10 ( successfully MT'd OS10 ). Am I going in the right direction as far as dodge vs. stam? Any advice would be helpful.

The World of Warcraft Armory

Thanks in advance!

[stealthstyle]

hey
i was reading this tread couse i would like too make my druid a tank
i allready have boomkin/resto gear and topping the meters in guild.
so it gets boring ...
i have 4/5 hatefull set + hatefull ring
the chest from WG = deadly
all the rest is deadly(neck/ring/back/wrist/waist)
with the staff from kell thuzad cba about the name (something with plaguehound)

i was wondering what items could be viable for tanking and witch i shoud replace by gear from hc's !
i am not asking for you too burn your brean on this and go looking everything up etc... couse that would make me feel ... well bad

just a simple list of what you can think of right away "without spending too much time on me)
( ofc i'll have too get the idol from quel danas since there is none in dalanar QQ blizzard )

also if its possible if you can give an example of an item that would drop in naxx 10 that would be good for druid tanks
couse all i ever saw that dropped (leather) is rogue/cat gear !

i haven't seen a good leather with imba stam/dodge in a LOOONG time ( TBC )

except for the ring from VH heroic i think

i have allready been OT at gluth(naxx10) with a pvp spec+pvp gear
and the healer ( 1 holy pala ) could keep me up
the mt died however and i ended up doing some bubble/taunt tricks too CR him XD but thats a diff story

i do believe it wasn't easy for the healer but if i can do that with 8 stacks of his debuff ( 80%less healing received) i do hope i don't need ALOT of new gear
couse i'm also gearing a blood dk tank and i have been burning my brains out in hc's for 2 weeks now

looking forward too a reply

i would be ever so gratefull

greets maarten alias stealthstyle




edit: i now have 34%dodge 27k armor and 31k hp unbuffed with hitcap and 20expertise ( trying too work on that one, i even have the 15 expertise glove/bracers enchants)

would i be able too tank a heroic with that ?

greets stealthstyle

[Thoraxar]

i know this question is asked a lot around here but i'll ask it anyway ^^.
I got a lvl 80 feral/bala druid (just changed from resto/bala) and i would love to know what the best enchants are for on my gear, i would also like to know what the best beginning gear is to tank with (raids and hc's).
I've tried everything with the gear i have atm http://armory.wow-europe.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Stormrage&n=Thoraxar
but i can't seem to get my hp above 30K unbuffed i don't have the money to buy enchants etc. yet atm same goes for gems. Also some people tell me i should get the mongoose enchant on my weapon others tell me to get blood draining (btw what the hell does mongoose do and what does blood draining do).

If u guys could give me some pointers it would be much appreciated ^^

Thx in advance XD

[Niian]

i know this question is asked a lot around here but i'll ask it anyway ^^.
I got a lvl 80 feral/bala druid (just changed from resto/bala) and i would love to know what the best enchants are for on my gear, i would also like to know what the best beginning gear is to tank with (raids and hc's).
I've tried everything with the gear i have atm http://armory.wow-europe.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Stormrage&n=Thoraxar
but i can't seem to get my hp above 30K unbuffed i don't have the money to buy enchants etc. yet atm same goes for gems. Also some people tell me i should get the mongoose enchant on my weapon others tell me to get blood draining (btw what the hell does mongoose do and what does blood draining do).

If u guys could give me some pointers it would be much appreciated ^^

Thx in advance XD

I believe it would be best to start your own thread, rather than asking in an ancient thread that has already been answered (however no answer has been marked as best).

[geros]

Holy thread necromancy batman.

If you don't have the money to enchant or gem your gear it seems kind of silly to have us tell you how to enchant it I suppose.

First off, your talent spec needs work. Ignoring primal precision and taking 2/5 naturalist for MSS is pretty silly for either a cat or a bear. 5/5 naturalist and 2/2 PP are basically mandatory points in either cat or bear.

http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f200/...uid-guide.html is a link to a guide to help straighten out your talents/glyphs.

You want to get a helm with a meta gem and put an Austere Earthsiege diamond. You then place the Revered Argent Crusade enchant on it. Moongoose is a better weapon enchant under most any circumstance than blood draining. You want the greater inscription of the gladiator on your shoulders, agility to cloak, +10 stats on chest, major agility on gloves, place a belt buckle in your belt, and either tusker's vitality or +22 stam on boots. You need to replace your ring with +parry on it and replace the beserker card with a greatness card.

[Thoraxar]

Holy thread necromancy batman.

If you don't have the money to enchant or gem your gear it seems kind of silly to have us tell you how to enchant it I suppose.

First off, your talent spec needs work. Ignoring primal precision and taking 2/5 naturalist for MSS is pretty silly for either a cat or a bear. 5/5 naturalist and 2/2 PP are basically mandatory points in either cat or bear.

http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f200/...uid-guide.html is a link to a guide to help straighten out your talents/glyphs.

You want to get a helm with a meta gem and put an Austere Earthsiege diamond. You then place the Revered Argent Crusade enchant on it. Moongoose is a better weapon enchant under most any circumstance than blood draining. You want the greater inscription of the gladiator on your shoulders, agility to cloak, +10 stats on chest, major agility on gloves, place a belt buckle in your belt, and either tusker's vitality or +22 stam on boots. You need to replace your ring with +parry on it and replace the beserker card with a greatness card.

Well i did some asking around and people told me to get this as starting gear,
Spiked battleguard choker
Belt of the twilight assassin
Gloves of the blind stalker
Crown of the wayward vanquisher
breastplate of the wayward vanquisher
Idol of corruptor
signet of the impregnable fortress
Clutch of fortification
platinum mesh cloak
footpads of silence
heart of iron
the black heart
Marrowstrike

as for the enchants people are all telling me to get the same enchants u listed here. and i don't have the money atm to get those enchants but i am working on that so thx 4 listing them anywayzz XD
i would love to know your opinions about this and tell me if u think there are better items to begin with.

Thx for helping out ^^

[Viridios]

For the spec, I suggest dropping down to 3/5 Furor and dropping Imp. Mangle so you can take 2/2 Imp. MotW [+2% all stats] and Naturalist [+6% damage above what you have right now].

As for Mongoose - it's an enchant that will sometimes proc for an agi bonus. Agi improves crit, armor and dodge. The other option - blood draining - gives you a heal for a maximum of 2.2k (with crit) every time you go under 35% health. Woo, a heal similar to LoTP procs!

...

I just wish they'd give Druids something better from the new expansion.

[felhoof]

To be fair, they gave druids mongoose this patch - before this, we couldn't even use that.

[Darksend]

To be fair, they gave druids mongoose this expansion- before this, we couldn't even use that.