Comments on: Tanking Test! Druid vs Paladin I

By: Pete

Pete — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:24:01 +0000

@Firecroch: Gameldar is right, it is NOT an interrupt. Meaning it does not apply an Interrupt effect. If it were it WOULD work on bosses. If you use MikScrolling or maybe other combat texts, you’ll see 2 affects showing up if a target is stun immune and un-interruptable when you bash, likewise with root-immune if you charge. However when you concussive blow (which I still call bash when I play my warrior) you’ll only see the one “Immune” pop up because, as previously mentioned, it is not an interrupt. The reason it functions as an interrupt on most trash is that it stuns them, therefore they are unable to finish casting. Hopefully that clears the air on a few things.

By: Dannu

Dannu — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:21:02 +0000

Love this post, BBB, and thank you. I started my druid with the intent to heal but quickly found how much I liked the tanking job. Since my main’s a mage, it’s an utterly different experience and I need just the kind of detailed specifics you regularly include, as well as the theory and practice thereof.

And obliquely, I like the action names for the bear too, but share some of the paladin’s pain. My Arcane mage casts Arcane Blast, Arcane Barrage, Arcane Missiles, and AreTheyDeadYetKane?

By: Pete

Pete — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:20:15 +0000

First @Kaethir: If you have hot AOE and hot single target, are you mauling your FFF target while spamming swipe? If so and still having trouble, most of my close friends know I won’t taunt off them anymore, lol, and it’s always a laugh.
Second @BBB: I love it, tanking as a bear in an instance with good players really is a joy. I have a whiskey and a cigar during the first 5 bosses of ICC, it’s great. And I agree with one of your posters about swiping while closing with a caster mob after hitting it with an FFF, and you can save your Charge if there’s an extra caster you want to mess with. But yeah, generally I grab the melee and bring them into at least swipe range of the caster mob(s) which is a 360* 8yd AOE and with a fat bear butt in the mix that’ll hold any # of casters in any pull in any post-vanilla dungeon if you position yourself between them!

By: Firecroch

Firecroch — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:00:19 +0000

@Gameldar – Conc Blow is indeed an interrupt but it doesn’t work on bosses, and neither does interrupt that comes from using Revenge or Shockwave. Shield Bash is the only interrupt that works on bosses.

My baby druid is planning on going Feral/Boomkin once I get dual spec so I’m very interested in bear tank related. Having a warrior tank I think is definitely a plus since rage mechanics are slightly familiar. Funny how all my alts are spec’d to take advantage of the short LFG time. lol

By: Rustafur

Rustafur — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:45:14 +0000

Great topic BBB! I am new to the tanking game in general (I’ve had a hunter for a long while) and big round bear butt is what I chose for my first endeavor into this facet of the game. I’ve been following your blog for a few months now, and it’s always been a very entertaining and informative narrative with each new post. I can’t wait to see what you have to say when you give your final comparisons with two classes -I only expect about approximately a 3% skew in favoring the bear tank ;) . I love taking something that is not particularity the best at a certain task (I don’t think anyone who is into min/maxing would put the feral tanks at the top of their lists) and excelling with it. That’s why I chose the Druid for my stab at tanking… but I’ve also had my share of second guessing since starting down the feral tank path; whether or not I should have rolled a pally instead. But I’m loving every minute of my feral tanking runs! My big black bouncing bear butt and Sprite Darter companion are having a great time! But, still, there’s always that nagging voice that tells me “what if…” So I’m awaiting your follow up posts with baited breath!

Oh, and thank you so much for posting your specific tips on pulling those multi-caster groups in FoS. I’ve had so much trouble with those, and the groups in PoS… ugh… damn warlocks! I can’t wait to try the technique out for myself! Thanks!

By: Bear Pelt

Bear Pelt — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:29:54 +0000

Hehe, I feel ya on the range mob pulling. In most of the random PUGs I’ve been in, most *seem* to acknowledge that I’ve got to LOS the caster mobs and wait a bit. For Forge of Souls where there is not all that much room for LOSing, I find myself running from mob to mob like my tail’s on fire. Probably not the best thing, but it has worked out pretty alright so far as long as skull is taken down first and foremost. Bashing is pretty useful to gain some control of the situation, and thank Blizzard for FINALLY making swipe 360 degrees. It was an absolute horror to use the old version which only hit 3 targets in front of bears.

By: Gameldar

Gameldar — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:37:29 +0000

Thanks for this BBB – I’ve been very interested in the comparison of tanks recently since I’ve switched from Warrior tanking to Paladin tanking recently (and just posted a bit of a guide about it) – so I’m looking forward to seeing the other half as well. Still working on my baby druid for the comparison there but reading this actually shows me that there is a bigger difference between Warriors and Druids than I thought too.

I understand the comment about remembering Lacerate – it wasn’t till I was finishing off my post that I realised Concussion Blow isn’t an interrupt – explains a few missed interrupts trying to do Less Rabi on my Warrior.
.-= Gameldar´s last blog ..Pally tanking for Warriors =-.

By: bigbearbutt

bigbearbutt — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:07:26 +0000

Meh. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again… I’ve got it stuck in my head that Lacerate adds a slow. Don’t know where I got it from, every time I read it I remember… and as soon as I walk away, I forget again.

Old bears don’t learn new tricks easily. :)

By: Shintar

Shintar — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:36:11 +0000

Hm, curious what you'll have to say about the paladin! My last post was actually about this subject as well, though it was much shorter and I simply came to the (admittedly somewhat subjective) conclusion that druid tanking has very much fallen behind compared to paladin tanking. .-= Shintar´s last blog ..Druid vs. paladin tanking =-.

By: Caelean

Caelean — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:33:29 +0000

I think I have been confused about this as well, but Infected Wounds is on Mangle, Maul, and Shred.

Lacerate doesn’t have the slow effect.

So:

# A single target attack with a short cooldown, with a slow component, with a long cooldown kitchen sink ability available (3 target conditional modifier with immunity to fear, removes cooldown allowing it to be chain cast on the GCD).
# A single target instant cast DoT that generates extra threat.
# A dual target big whammy with a slow component