Need help with Druid Tanking.

[Krow]

I have become very interested in tanking with my pally and druid. Any information regarding rotation, stats and gearing would be very welcome. If there is another web site to look at, again I would be grateful for the information.

This is my current armory info: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...3mbster/simple

Thanks in advance.

[sifuedition]

Bears want agility above all. Then, you want more agility. After that, you can think about getting more agility.

Seriously though, bears are in a unique position as tanks that they can use the primary stat for their best tanking stat (the others don't rely on strength, for example). Agility provides threat, armor, dodge and crit, which is necessary to proc savage defense, which is the bear version of block.

Mastery is also a nice druid stat where agility is not an option.

The last part of druid gearing goes back to the savage defense. Because savage defense procs on crits, that means you need to hit yor target to get your "block". To that end, expertise is a solid druid tanking stat and hit is not terrible. Because you cannot reforge to agility, druid reforges typically go to dodge.

Rotation is a priority system:
Mangle
At least one stack of lacerate to attempt to proc free mangles
Thrash
Pulverise with three stacks of lacerate
Lacerate

Swipe and maul can be used rage permitting.

Make sure you are keeping up farie fire, which actually does damage as a bear and nice threat. Also make sure you are keeping up demo roar. Barkskin only has a 1 minute cd so use it often.

Other resources:
http://theincbear.com/
http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t127444-...3_dragon_soul/

Pretty sure there are others because I have searched this before. Bear information tends to be harder to find than the other tanks.

[Krow]

Thanks sifuedition for the information..just completed a LFR 25 man as druid tank...and was a little different in many ways to the mechanics of pally tanking.

I now have my 4 item bonus which is nice. I have a great deal to learn and look forward to checking out those webby sites for more information on "what dodge/armor caps if any to reach."

[Theotherone]

While we're on the subject of bears, this is the armory to my newest 85 (it's about a month old, give or take); do you think I should reforge into some hit or expertise?

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...fgray/advanced

[Aggathon]

Do druids still get armor from agi? I thought no one got armor from agi any more.

[sifuedition]

Good question Agg. I was pretty sure they did but that was based on an addon I use that compares stats of items in the tooltips. Had a piece that listed an armor increase at the same item level and just assumed it was the extra agi that did that. Of course, that could be that the addon was not updated properly because I didn't compare the paper doll. I'll have to do that tonight.

[sifuedition]

While we're on the subject of bears, this is the armory to my newest 85 (it's about a month old, give or take); do you think I should reforge into some hit or expertise?

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...fgray/advanced

Personally, I would just check on your savage defense uptimes. I don't know that there is a specific number to shoot for on those stats or even on SD uptime. If you feel your uptime needs some help though, expertise is worth double what hit is until 26 and then they are about even. I wouldn't expect that you will get expertise that high, but, there it is. High expertise seems like it should help some with spike damage since sd uptime should mean more shields. Also, I typically reforge dodge but I notice that you reforge a lot of mastery. With extra mastery, expertise and hit should compliment that since you will have SD more often and due to mastery, for larger shields. Personally, my bear doesn't feel spikey MOST of the time. I have had odd moments when a healer said, "Whoa, you suddenly took a lot of damage" but that is pretty rare.

[Tengenstein]

I'm fairly sure they don't get armour from agility.

[sifuedition]

From:
http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t114069-...clysm_release/

Agility increases your attack power, chance to crit, and chance to dodge. It does not provide armor anymore.

Nice catch Agg, sorry about the mis-information there.

[Theotherone]

Thanks. I'm just starting to tank on this toon so it's a learning experience; it will take some time to get used to and to get a feel for it.

[Krow]

Its just great to see many discussions regarding druid tanking....My armor is at 50,000 and I have 28 expertise and 7.78% hit. Just need my dodge increased but I guess new gear items and reforging will help with that. I must just tell you all about my experience in LFR yesterday. I was following the LFR tank tactics for dummies video and using those tactics in the 25 man LFR...we where on 6th boss...and a rogue kept spamming me that I was a terrble tank. I have no idea what he was talking about..perhaps he was not understanding the tactics..we downed the boss and indeed the final boss....oh yes he was kicked from the raid...I do find the constant negative comments very demotivating as I am doing my best to watch all the videos and learn.

[sifuedition]

Your expertise and hit sound way too high. You really don't want to reach the caps for those as a tank.

My comments about those being decent tank stats has to do with them being useless for all other tanks. For bears, they actually do contribute to survival. However, the amount they contribute is not enough to spend that much combat rating on them.

Haste is the one stat that you absolutely don't want but will sometimes have on your gear. This is always a stat you want to reforge.
Hit is the next lowest priority.
Expertise/Crit/Mastery all depend on your exact gear you are wearing. I have seen theorycrafting threads that showed at very specific gear levels, expertise was the best survival stat for a bear...but those were VERY specific to that exact gear set.
Generally, expertise is the next lowest priority.
Crit would be the next stat to reforge away from.
Generally you will not want to ever reforge away from mastery.
Dodge is not found on most (any?) leather gear now but is a great bear stat.

There are two general schools of reforging that I have seen. Maximizing mastery or maximizing dodge. Personally, I went with maximizing dodge while never reforging away mastery. This just seems to be the most common gearing I have seen.

[Fetzie]

As a druid you don't really have much choice in the matter of expertise and hit, as you are essentially tanking in dps gear. I don't think it is really possible to get under 6% hit and 20 expertise. More often than not I just use my cat gear.

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...amota/advanced

Is my druid, in cat gear. I'll try and remember to log out in tank gear some time this evening, but no promises

[Tengenstein]

Get used to those comments, tanks always get the deep end of the shit. DPS can't move out of fire; Tanks fault, Helaer not able to heal DPS through the fire: Tanks fault. Tank dies becuase DPS where in the fire and the healers wasted all their mana trying to keep them alive? Tanks fault.

That's not to say it isn't the the tanks fault ever. DPS tend to get mounthy anytime you don't let them maximise their DPS, and generally its a good idea to let them do that, where you keeping the bosses ass in fire? where you keeping the mobs close enough that the raid can cleave? where you facing the mobs into the raid and getting the dps cleaved?

[Aggathon]

Just FYI, nothing cleaves in LFR that I'm aware of.

[sifuedition]

@ Fetzie

Understandable point.

This looks to be his druid:
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...bster/advanced

That was why I was commenting that he is using too much of his ratings on those stats.

[Fetzie]

The adds at P1 Gunship cleave (for about zero damage).
Zon'ozz psychic beam can be considered a cleave (and that can even do some damage!)

That was why I was commenting that he is using too much of his ratings on those stats.

28 expertise and 7.7% hit isn't too bad...

At one point I had melee hit cap and nearly 40 expertise on my druid ^.^ And that was AFTER reforging it away.

[Aggathon]

ok, I didn't know the pyschic cleave even went off in LFR, okay so on Zon'ozz make sure the boss is facing away from the raid, other than that... =P.

[Quinafoi]

Its just great to see many discussions regarding druid tanking....My armor is at 50,000 and I have 28 expertise and 7.78% hit. Just need my dodge increased but I guess new gear items and reforging will help with that. I must just tell you all about my experience in LFR yesterday. I was following the LFR tank tactics for dummies video and using those tactics in the 25 man LFR...we where on 6th boss...and a rogue kept spamming me that I was a terrble tank. I have no idea what he was talking about..perhaps he was not understanding the tactics..we downed the boss and indeed the final boss....oh yes he was kicked from the raid...I do find the constant negative comments very demotivating as I am doing my best to watch all the videos and learn.

You're missing out on quite a bit of Agility.

Shoulder Enchant should be the Agility enchant.
Leg armor kit should be the Agility one.
Helm enchant should be the Agility one.
You need two yellow gems to activate your meta and have four currently, two of which are in red sockets which could be more Agility.
Your colorless socket on your relic should have an Agility only gem in it.
Your boot enchant could be the Agility and Minor Speed instead of Stamina and Minor Speed.
(I'm only focusing on decisions you already made, not unenchanted items.)

You shouldn't reforge anything into hit. Everything should be reforged into Dodge Rating. If you need more hit or expertise for some reason, you simply choose not to reforge out of it as much. In fact after Haste, Hit is typically the stat you choose to Reforge into Dodge Rating.

I'm not sure if anyone really got to this point yet, but melee attacks being a single roll system means that increasing your hit does not increase your critical strikes, it increases the cap on your critical strikes. Until such time as you are capped on critical strike, increased hit won't actually result in increased proc of savage defense.

[Martie]

I'm not sure if anyone really got to this point yet, but melee attacks being a single roll system means that increasing your hit does not increase your critical strikes, it increases the cap on your critical strikes. Until such time as you are capped on critical strike, increased hit won't actually result in increased proc of savage defense.

Yellow attacks aren't on a single roll system, though.