we are doing ZA Bear-mount runs regularly … we have 8 mounts so far, and plan on getting one for every member of the 25 man raid team.

so here is the problem … on the Dragonhawk boss, when the eggs hatch, we hatch one entire side at the same time. so that means about 8-10 dragonhawks flying straight for our healers (due to healing agro). the Pally tanks just use consecrate, and no problem … we round them up and AoE them down, rinse and repeat. i REALLY believe that a Druid tank should be able to do it as well.

so here is what i would like help with, and something i think would help many druid tanks. a macro that targets the mob with the most health, and swipes.

i’m picturing something like:

/tar mob>health
/cast swipe

i would probably throw in a lacerate on my own … but essentially for the Dragonhawk fight i would just point my bear nose down the bridge to the nest, and begin mashing my macro button with the occasional swipe and mangle. then as the bombs go away i would back over to the boss while continuing to mash … then tell the Locks to seed up the boss and we should be good.

Advanced Tanking Strategies
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Blackhawk Healer Down – So you’ve got your group in a pickle and the healer is down. What can you do? The Blackhawk Healer Down trick. Hopefully, there are only one or two mobs out of crowd control measures. The first mob is most likely attacking you; the other (possibly broken sheep or fear) just “1shotted” your healer and is going for its next victim. This is pretty common scenario; so let’s assume that’s the case. Deal with the first mob by Bashing him, this gives you four seconds of freedom. Next use Cyclone on the second mob, then with your last second or two of Bash on the first mob, cast Rebirth on your healer and switch back to Bear Form. Follow up with Frenzied Regeneration to fix the life you lost during your maneuvering, and to give the healer a chance to catch up on healing. Be sure to reacquire agro from that second mob before it happens again!

The Finger Four – You’re the baddest mofo tank ever but it’s hard for you to hold agro on more than four mobs. But it can be done, and without Hurricane. Why not use Hurricane you say? Well, because once the initial agro is lost on that mob from your Hurricane, it will go for someone else in the group. Perfect example – There’s a pull in Heroic Slave Pens (very easy Heroic btw) near the end of the instance that has one Soothsayer (ie: dominate person), one caster, and two Champions (ie: fear). Normally I run the whole instance without or very little crowd control. When we get to this pull it becomes a problem if you Hurricane the group. Soothsayer will dominate your healer or caster, and the two Champions will fear you away and most likely switch targets from you, to one of your casters. So to fix this, before we pull said targets, inform your group not to unleash until they see the first Lacerate on the Soothsayer. Next, stand as far away as possible to cast Cyclone on the Champion (set him as your focus), but still not in agro range of the group. Then cast Regrowth on yourself and Rejuvenation. The first target, the Soothsayer, will be Starfired. While the Starfire cast is in progress, switch to the second target, the focused Champion. As soon as Starfire goes off, cast Cyclone on the Champion. Then switch targets to the third target while slowly falling back; Moonfire that target. It doesn’t matter who gets selected; as you’re going to Moonfire every target but the Cycloned Champion. Switch to the final target, at this point the first one should be on you but don’t panic; Moonfire that final target and then switch to Bear Form. Frenzied Regeneration to fix the life you lost, and to help the healer catch up. Switch to the Cycloned (you did set it as focus right?) Champion and cast Fairy Fire on him. Now all four mobs are on you and even if you get feared by the first Champion the dots from the Moonfires, and your Rejuvenation/Regrowth spells will ensure that the enemies will stay on you. Lacerate the Soothsayer and let your team unleash all h3ll.

The Barely Counterspell – Bear Form has a Counterspell. I can hear it now “What the %@#% are you smoking?” It’s true though. Let’s go through another example. Heroic Slave Pens there are a few mobs named “Technician something” and that mob cast an AOE similar to the Warlocks AOE (for the life of me I’m forgetting the name of that spell). You can Bash the enemy mob, but Bash is your “Healer Saver” if taunt gets resisted or whatever. We don’t want to waste Bash needlessly! Instead turn 180* away from the mob and run away. Yep I said it, run away. The caster will not move during his cast; eventually you’ll be at a range were you’ll be able to CHAAARRRGEEEE!!! Charge provides a one second interrupt which will stop all spell casts.

#showtooltip Lacerate
/clearfocus [modifier:alt][target=focus,dead][target=focus,help][target=focus,noexists]
/focus [target=focus,noexists]
/cast [target=focus]Lacerate

#showtooltip Swipe
/clearfocus [modifier:alt][target=focus,dead][target=focus,help][target=focus,noexists]
/focus [target=focus,noexists]
/cast [target=focus]Swipe