Comments on: Intro to the basics of Bear Mechanics

By: Eldoroth

Eldoroth — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 20:09:50 +0000

Hi there:

I’d like to translate this post into Spanish and publish it in my guild’s public forum so that everyone that wants to start with a bear can read it. I am simply requesting your permision to do it. You’ll get all the credit, of course, and will be referenced as clearly as I can.

Thanks in advance, I’ll check for your answer.

By: Q

Sun, 16 May 2010 16:44:22 +0000

@ Kranzol

“Beside the scope of a Bear’s 101 on Tanking, I’d say that if you have to choose between to almost equally weapons, take the slower one. It hit’s harder for the first maul (which is your first attack when in range, if you right clicked your target) and consumes less rage during fight”

WRONG. Sorry, but your attack speed is normalized in bear form. The base damage of the weapon is converted into attack power for use in feral forms. A 1.6 and a 3.6 will still both swing at 2.5 (ignoring haste) in bear form. Therefore, you should completely IGNORE the weapon speed when comparing items for use as a feral bear.

The same is true for cats, except that their base swing speed is 1.0, rather than 2.5.

By: Spawnofmoose

Spawnofmoose — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:59:28 +0000

Personally, I’m having an issue with aoe tanking. Namely on Ony, and anything else that involves >4 targets at any given time.

Is it just me, or is swipe a terrible aggro generator? Everyone makes me tank whelps (assuming no DK) but I can’t hold aggro on them in the 3 sec I’m given before AoE happens…

I’m I broken or gearing wrong? Spawnofmoose, Staghelm (wow-heroes should have my tank spec/gear saved)

By: Morphster of Aggramar

Morphster of Aggramar — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:53:33 +0000

@ energica: The reason you haven’t found out the dodge cap is there isn’t one per se. A good rule of thumb is to get around 40% dodge. Dodge only counters physical attacks so having more hp helps in magic heavy fights. Consequently you should always gem for stamina unless the socket bonus is at least +6 agility or stamina, and then use a gem with + stam and +agility both.

By: energica

energica — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 18:48:28 +0000

Great site. One question that I have not found the answer. What is dodge cap? for heroics, toc, and icc? I am at over 50% but my hp is lower than most bears. do i need to drop some agi or dodge for stam?

Also on the casters in FoS specificly the 4 with 1 shade. I mark the shade and let dps hit him since he resets aggro anyway. This gives me time to gather the casters and bash on or 2 if dps is low. After getting some threat and a few yells from the healer I pick the shade back up. The rest of the time is runnin around keeping the casters focused on me. Personally I think the trash in FoS is harder than the bosses! lol

I have a moto. If the tank dies blame the healer, if the healer dies blame the tank, if dps dies … tell them not to tank!

By: Harr

Harr — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:05:59 +0000

Okay, answered my own questions with about 50 posts over at elitistjerks.com and mmo-champion.com. Thanks again for posting this! :)

By: Harr

Harr — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:54:54 +0000

Hey there. I love your blog and this post in particular is very good, and undoubtedly very useful for bears out there. However, I wanted to verify something. I had read up on wowwiki.com about dodge , and the only thing it says is that mobs can dodge attacks from behind them, so I’d assumed that was the case with my toon, as well. I also suspect that might be true, as I’ve tanked some bosses with my big bear butt-first before (such as the boss in ToC 5-man who blinds anyone looking at him periodically), and didn’t notice any more damage than front-wise. Can you verify that it’s true that player character’s cannot dodge attacks from behind them (ideally, by providing a source)?

By: caliokiegirl

caliokiegirl — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:31:49 +0000

Thank you so much for the tanking guide. My main is a feral druid, and there is so little information out there for us. I have scoured almost every website looking for any little tips. This is so helpful. She is a level 60, and just starting to get into the more difficult zones and dungeons. I feel better at seeing that some of my problems are common problems. I look forward to using some of these tips, and I have a disc priest as an alt, so I got some tips for her as well. I look forward to reading more of your blogs BBB.

By: Jey

Jey — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:04:29 +0000

Someone said that they were having trouble on spread out caster mobs. One way to deal with this if you have no silences is to not stand beside one mob but to instead stand in the middle of the mobs. What I mean is that instead of trying to hit your main target with maul just stand within 8 yards of your targets and only swipe.

Secondly I have seen a large number of people talk about the maul glyph. The maul glyph is REALLY good for heroics but it starts to lose it’s flair in raids when you have another tank to help with the aoe pulls. I believe that for raiders you should have glyph of survival instinct for the extra health in the oh crap moment as well as glyph of frenzied regeneration for an additional 20% healing when frenzied regen is active which goes excellent with the glyph of SI when they are used together and the third glyph is glyph of growling because a missed taunt is NEVER good and this one glyph pretty much stops your growl from missing.

PS. I really like what this post is trying to do.

By: Deandre - Dalaran

Deandre - Dalaran — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:52:20 +0000

Innervate. Innervate. Innervate. You can’t use it safely in combat, but between fights it will make your healers worship your fuzzy-butt…if they notice it.