Comments on: Modern Bear Tanking 1: Specs and Rotations

By: fikasz

fikasz — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 08:38:33 +0000

I love this article and comments made to it. I personally use maul macroed with mangle, lacerate, and swipe as some of the ppl above. I don see the point of macroing barkskin to every attack. I have it macroed with enrage if i need to get some rage while in contact with mobs – i know strange but happens, especialy when i use maul macros in HCs and have barkskin with all my oh shit button abilities, trinkets, bottles, healthstones to make it a realy powerfull shit button.

I realy enjoy your blog and it helped me with loads of problems at begining of my tanking.

By: Jack

Jack — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 15:01:16 +0000

@ Stormguard

I use this macroand it works well for me.

/startattack
/castsequence reset=Combat\Target Mangle (Bear), Swipe (Bear), Lacerate, Faerie Fire (Feral)
/cast Maul

This is pretty similar to my heroic tanking macro, just kind of a one button spam, which is good because it gets the job done when mindlessly farmin for badges :-D. However I would add a “!” before Maul (example: /cast !Maul) because it prevents you from toggling Maul on and off with each button mash which leads to more consistent use. Although now that I am thinking about it maybe your macro is better simply because it will not use as much rage…will test it out…

Also to the OHCRAP!!1!!1 macros that include Barkskin (example provided by Augurs above) I find that I get much better use by either macro-ing Barkskin with a more commonly used attack or bound close to a common attack/spell (I have it bound as Shift+2, Demo Roar is just 2) is a better way to go. This is more of a personal preference though, but I found my tanking got easier when I removed it from my “OhCrap” macro and used it on every CD.

Again B3 love the blog!

By: Stormguard

Stormguard — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 08:52:54 +0000

I use this macroand it works well for me.

/startattack
/castsequence reset=Combat\Target Mangle (Bear), Swipe (Bear), Lacerate, Faerie Fire (Feral)
/cast Maul

By: Zemphira

Zemphira — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:01:07 +0000

Great site! I’d just like to ask if these talents are still valid as of patch 3.3.1. I’m assuming they are since I didn’t really see any changes for feral druids, but as a new tank, I’d like to be sure I’m specc’ed correctly. Thanks =]

By: Vostro

Vostro — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 21:10:51 +0000

SO, as of 3.2 ( 3.3 upcoming soon ) What is the Bear tank hit cap?

By: Disgostu

Disgostu — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:16:01 +0000

Hey first of all great site, discovered it when i came out of wow retirement in August i needed to know the new hit cap at lvl 80, fillied with useful info for feral druids and good oppinions. Secondly neither of these builds is great in my oppinion, when your with a well geared raid in toc you will need to push hard to hold agro at the cost of the dps having to slow down due to the inability these specs have to dps, i stick with 0/55/16 build, remove the points from feral agression and infected wounds, put them into master shapeshifter to get the physical damage increase.
Also mangle as a tanking glyph, pointless, get maul, frenzied regen and survival instincts, you should be using mangle much more often than 18seconds as its another way of getting threat.
At present i’m siting on 39k hp, 29k armor, 41%dodge, 5696att pwr and a 40%crit, also unlike most druids stacking stamina gems in every slot i’d rather try make use of the gem slot bonus, have alot of agility for the increased armor, dodge, attpwr and crit espicially since the tier 9 set has alot of yellow gem slots, i use +10agility/haste gems in yellow slots, +30stam in blue, and in red slots i use a collection of +20agility, +20expertise, +10expertise+15stamina & +10agility+15stamina. Final thought don’t overlook haste its not just for dps and healers, i’ve found it improves tps greatly.

Actually another final thought for the previous comment, mongoose enchant its gotta be, no substitute, if not even for the big crits or increased tps you’ll be getting when tanking all those whelps in onyxia, then its for all the dodge and reduced damage you’ll have when they are trying to spank you, mongoose is much more than just crit for a bear tank!!
[url]http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Bloodfeather&n=Disgostu[/url]

By: randomguyhere

randomguyhere — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:57:22 +0000

sry guess it wasnt a year ago, but it seems like it so far

By: randomguyhere

randomguyhere — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:55:05 +0000

hey, i was reading this article about a year ago when i was making my tank set and trying to build a better rotation and found that its really easy to get the hit cap now, my character is sitting about 1% over the hit cap due to gear and is also at the point where my targets can no longer dodge my attacks, and i just wana say that once you reach that point getting the Maul glyph is worth it for tanking multiple mobs because you’ll start critting both targets for 2-4k building huge threat along with spamming swipe (i have them macrod together) and in a scenario where you do not have a decent AoE tank like say a bad paladin or some thing its worth being hit capped and having that glyph, although i have used the other glyph mentioned (cant remember what its called at the moment) and it is nice if you aren’t hit capped cuz you can miss your mangle which screws with some DPS and your threat a bit.

But with that aside my question is if the Mongoose enchant is worth it, and i mean i have been using that and Accuracy (i dont need the hit on it to stay hit capped) to see which is better, and i know right off the bat people will be saying mongoose for the dodge, but my question is since there is a DR on our dodge why not go for more crit to keep savage defense up more, because i was noticing that as you get into longer fights that the savage defense absorbs alot of damage, some times full swings from trash mobs. Just so you get a sense of my stats i have about 40% crit and dodge (give or take a tenth or two), and about 40-41k hp in bear no buffs and 5.1k attack power. but i just wanted to know from some one more experienced than me if the 25 extra crit off that enchant was worth keeping or if i should go for mongoose again.

By: Morphster of Aggramar

Morphster of Aggramar — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:56:44 +0000

@ Cougaria: Check out http://www.wow.com/2009/02/10/shifting-perspectives-gearing-your-feral-bear-druid-at-80/ Some of it is a little outdated but it’s a great starting point for gear and enchants. As for rotations I usually pull with a faire fire, and if it’s a mob of 3 or less: maul mangle maul lacerate etc. If it’s a mob of 4 or more: maul mangle maul swipe maul swipe maul swipe until back down to 3 or less. Just keep an eye out for losing agro on the mobs. If one gets pulled off switch targets to the mob in question, taunt, maul mangle, and back to maul swipes. If you lose more than one do your aoe taunt. As long as you’re at least throwing up a skull before you pull you shouldn’t much need your aoe taunt. Learning a rotation only goes so far though, so don’t be afraid to experiment and see what works for you. Practice practice practice :) Good luck.

By: cougaria

cougaria — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:32:25 +0000

I for one was sent to this blog from a guild leader on the moonguard server. I went to black water raiders server and the guild I started with there needed heals so I changed to resto for them. I’m dual spec’d balance. But due to a change in guilds (Im so glad I did) they are allowing me to go back to feral and I’m building a tank. So I love the advise here. So now I’m feral tank/boom and looking for all kinds of advice on end game raiding for feral tank. Gear, rotations, tree etc. Thanks for all that is posted here. Anyone have any suggestions for me?