Comments on: A Bear Tank gear list you can trust!

By: Jetstter

Jetstter — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:13:31 +0000

And you would be right.

The day 3.0.8 came out, I remove everything that had str, defense and dodge, and replaced it with every thing that had agility.

I know alot of druids stack up on Stam only, I stack on Agility. Why ?

1. Because Agility gives us armor, ap, dodge and crit. All stats we really need. In 3.1, we will need alot of crit for that shield to be up.

2. Agility rings/necks usally have more Total AP, hit and expertise, the other 2 missing stats that we need for tanking. (don’t for get that 1 STR = 2 AP, notice that you get way more AP with Agility gear)

Please note, that right now, haste doesn’t do anything for us (well, for the moment anyway, i saw a blue post saying they may change that in the future)

For gems: Blue = + 24 Stam only.
Red = + 16 Agility only
Yellow = Anything with Agility/Stam in orange or Green. Depends on what you need (do not take anything with resilience or haste)
(dont forget to add a Eternal Belt Buckle to that waiste, and I recommend putting a +24 stam on that)
Enchants Priority 1 Agility
2 Stam
3 AP
Mongoose is still the best option for our staffs.
(dont get any Threat enchants, just get more AP, more AP = More Threat)

Best Trinket: Darkmoon Greatness Card with agility.

By: Apocalypse

Apocalypse — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:17:33 +0000

What I don’t get on that list is the persistent high emphasis on high armor gear and gear with defense instead of pieces that give you agility – or even strength.

The Blue Staff from UK for example was awesome for druids until 3.0.8. but now I really dont see at all why the purple from VH is only rated close to that. I just dont see why additional armor would be THAT helpful – given the very high mitigation we already have with our current armor. Having 1k more but loosing 1-1.5% Dodge as a tradeoff does not seem worthwhile to me.

By: Rahl

Rahl — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:05:50 +0000

Ohh thanks for the help by the way 8)

By: Rahl

Rahl — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:05:32 +0000

Im not sure if the 350 armour on the neck is worth losing that dodge and extra crit from agi tbh, esp as necks don’t multiply and if you gem Impact Choker with agi thats over a 1% chance to dodge that you gain.

However the 1.25 % chance to dodge form the durable nerubhide is allot better than the % of dodge gained form the agi on the Ice Striker’s cloak…

I wonder how stat ratings will vary come 3.1 and our shield based on crit.

By: Pete

Pete — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:48:18 +0000

Nerubhide has 49 dodge rating, whereas the Ice Striker’s has 24 agility. According to http://thebigbearbutt.com/2008/11/19/feral-druid-level-80-hit-expertise-and-dodge/ ,

At level 80; 41.6667 Agility = 1% Dodge.
At level 80; 39.34798813 Dodge Rating = 1% Dodge.

Those are pretty much within rounding error of one another, so let’s say that for 1 agi = 1 dodge. Therefore the nerubhide has more dodge. Likewise on the necklaces, the agility is pretty much as good as the defence for dodge, but the Earthguard has armour on it.

(This is all excessively complicated, I’m very glad I can rely on wowhead and ratingbuster to work it all out!)

There’s definitely a place for increasing AP and especially hit; I’m finding with my heroic set (no raid gear) that mitigation and stamina aren’t a problem but if I get someone in the party with naxx25 gear then keeping up with their threat can be.

By: Rahl

Rahl — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:35:01 +0000

I would like to as a question about gearing.
In your prevous lists and on Alisons i think that the wrong items have been chosen as best in slot.

Cloaks, rings, and necks seem to favout the ones that have Sta + Str and Defence rating.

Things such as Titanium Earthguard Chain and Durable Nerubhide Cape.

What i dont understand is why they are better than the neck and back that offer Sta + Agi and AP

As we are defense capped (We cant be critically hit) why go with something that boosts your defense rating.
Sure it adds to your dodge, but not as well as Agi does.

Surely IceStrikers Cloak and Titanium Impact Choker are better as the Agi will give us better dodge rating and the AP on the items is better than what the Str would give us on your recommended gear.

I know you said gearing can be a personal choice im just wondering why you have chosen one over another so that hopefully i can improve my choice selection process..

By: Bludgeoness

Bludgeoness — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:11:10 +0000

The polar pieces still rock even at the end of naxx ten. I have 5/5 T7.10 and even if I equip all of the polar gear I still get the 4 piece set bonus. At first I thought the 4 piece (another 3 seconds to barkskin) was a little lackluster but some blogger commented that if you use barkskin whenever it is up, it mitigates about 1% more damage over the course of a fight, You’d be hard pressed to find a single upgrade that could give you that (their quote). I generally dont use the polar pieces, except for the boots unless I need high stam, I lose a little dodge, but I gain in armor and stam. Most importantly though, I lose out in terms of threat, We’ve been doing the ‘Momma said knock you out’ achievement on the grand widow. That’s where you dont cancel her enrage by killing an add near her. Basically, you leave all the adds off-tanked, then keep her away from them, and when she enrages, she stays that way for the rest of the fight. Even with 44.8k hp, ~35% dodge, ~34k armor it can get a little sketchy if your healers slack for a second. I also used this same set to MT sarth 1D, my healer got bored…..

Also, it’s good to have the polar set ready for the sapphiron fight, your healers will love you.

By: Felkan

Felkan — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:58:55 +0000

I wanted to comment about her Polar comment. The chest and boots are really nice because you can gem them. Sure, I’d rather than the T7 pieces, but until I get those, I’m sticking with the Polar chest and feet. For one thing the mats are stupid cheap and are a “guaranteed” drop. Which makes it sort of silly not to get them. Then you can save your badges for rings, neck, trinkets, etc. Get the T7 chest (from badges) later…