Comments on: Modern Bear Tanking 1: Specs and Rotations

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?

By: Solarflash

Solarflash — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:26:29 +0000

I realize this post is geared for newer tanks, so my input may not be appropriate, but:

For a raiding bear, I would strongly discourage the macro’ing of Barkskin. The theory of keeping it up as often as possible is good, but blizzard has moved sharply into the “Massive burst damage” on tanks business. Using barkskin at the “right” time is far more important than sparing your healers a bit of effort during the low damage points of a fight.

I would argue the difference between a good tank and a great tank, is learning to “un-macro” many of your abilities.

In addition, using Enrage at appropriate times will greatly benefit your TPS without jeopordizing your survivability. Remember, armor does nothing against incoming magic damage. Popping enrage with beserk while heroism/bloodlust is up, willl substantially help your TPS at a time when the DPS is catching up.

By: Ronon

Ronon — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:24:57 +0000

I use these macros also

Swipe:
#showtooltip Swipe (Bear)(Rank 8)
/cast Swipe (Bear)(Rank 8)
/cast !Maul(Rank 10)

Mangle:
#showtooltip Mangle (Bear)(Rank 5)
/cast Mangle (Bear)(Rank 5)
/cast !Maul(Rank 10)

Lacerate:
#showtooltip Lacerate
/cast Lacerate(Rank 3)
/cast !Maul(Rank 10)

Wondering about the barkskin addition. Would you add it like this..

Swipe:
#showtooltip Swipe (Bear)(Rank 8)
/cast barkskin
/cast Swipe (Bear)(Rank 8)
/cast !Maul(Rank 10)