Earthwarden/Season2

[carebearboom]

Hey as I am leveling my Druid right now (currently lvl 63) and enjoy to go 1-2 hours of Alterac ever night i came up with a question.

While browsing wowhead i found earthwarden an everyone calling it "the" tank weapon to begin with.
But as far as i know the season 2 weapon could also be great for tanking: resilence , hit , huge stamina and damage for building aggro?

Or is the armor or the expertise rating too important?

It would be very friendly if u could explain why wich stat on these 2 weapons makes it desirable, and keep in mind that i'm a new char wanting to tank heroics a soon as possible.

thanks for reading

[Heijaangel]

I did get the Earthwarden on my druid because of the armor on it. It has 500 armor, in bear form thats about 2000 armor more.
And the defence is also a nice extra.

--edit--
here is a link that I used to gether my gear for tanking
http://www.wowwiki.com/BC_tanking_equipment_%28druid%29

[alvinhaze]

armor is very important for tanking druid
with 20000armor gear u can start tanking boss like King Maulgar (the king not the others adds) and Gruul
with 25k armor gear u can easy tank Leotheras, Void Reaver, Morogrim Tidewalker
with full T5 and good gear you reach 30k + armor
with T6 random pieces u can reach 35k armor (the cap vs boss is around 36k) and u can easy tank aenetheron, kazrogal, azgalor, supremus, gurthogg, mother sharaz and illidari council

all tank weapons for druid have 500 armor around
(wildfury greatstaff 500)
(pillar of ferocity 550)
(braxxis staff of slumber 550)
so if your feral weapon don't have armor, this means is not a tanking weapon :V

so, u MUST improve your armor if you want to tank in high lvl
stop thinking 'pvp items are good in pve' is not true!
a druid in pve need a few defense, more armor, more stamina and good dodge (with my druid i have 35500 armor, 18k hp and 48% dodge unbuffed, with BT/HS gear)

[Shäkaar]

so if your feral weapon don't have armor, this means is not a tanking weapon

this is not always true, with the wildfury greatstaff im reaching 30k+ ac in bearform
so without that 500 ac itll drop me down to below 30k, which i bring up with the new badge ring and agi

the new badge staff ( staff of the forest lord ) has more agi/stam/and ap
agi gives you AC,crit, and dodge stam gives you a better buffer.

so in short, i would either go with EW / WGs / or SotFL ( all enchanted with +35 agi ) but gear accordingly.

i personally reached 30k+ AC pre T5 so its not really difficult for us feral druids

[Elaphe]

So, im in T6+ gear, resto, but like to collect my feral gear, and tank on off raid days. I have some great gear mixed with crap gear (like 4 piece T6 Feral, and T4 Hat).

My question: I know I want ~35K+ armor, 405? def? (cant recall what you need to be maxed while spec'ed for tanking), and of course Dodge and Sta.

Ok, no really, heres the question: Is there an general consensus as to what order I should be concentrating on? I am sure I am def. capped ATM, and have about 22K fully buffed. Not sure of my agility.

Can you please give me good numbers for Stamina and Dodge if I wanted to tank in SWP? Again, this is assuming I get my armor to 35K and max def.

thanks in advance

[alvinhaze]

the defense cap is 415 vs boss (Boss is considered lvl73mob, the defense cap go down lvl by lvl, 410 vs lvl72 mob, 405 vs lvl71 400 vs lvl70) all this, if you have 3/3 talent in 'survival of the fittest' without this talent, you need much more defense to cap.
now, a good gear for tank Bosses in Sunwell plateau is around 35k armor, 45-50% dodge 415 defense and 22k + hp

Kalecgos is not a big problem for your gear
the real problem become Brutallus
i'm trying with my guild, and i have to revisit my gear for this boss
the big problem is when Brutallus cast 'stomp' on the tank, reducing his armor by 50%
this mean if you have 36k armor, you go down to 18k armor and you receive:
1 istant dmg from stomp cast of 5500 dmg
and the swing main+off
under stomp you get around 9-12k dmg from main hand and 5-7k from off hand
the swing is istantly done after the stomp, so, u can take a combo dmg of 5500+12000+7000
so, if you don't have more of 24k hp you are not healable
with more procbuffs like inspiration you can seriously icnrease your armor under the stomp, taking arounr 10000+6000dmg
so, if you have 22k more hp, you can tank it, and, if your healers are good, you don't die under stomp (stomp has 10sec duration)
for Brutallus i have to revisit my tank gear removing some agility and dodge for more stamina, because he seriously decrease your dodge chance up by 20-30%, so dodge is not the more important stat for this fight, you have to maximize your stamina, armor and cap your defense
a good thing is the armor buffs, cause the stom reduce by 50% ONLY the armor contribute from ITEMS, so if you have 30k armor by items, and 2000armor by ironshield potion, under stomp you have 15k armor + 2000 of the potion.

Staff of the forest lord is not a tank weapon, you cant comparize the AC from 52(+35)agility with the AC from 500armor
the bear form armor moltiplicator only take the effettive armor on items, and not the armor taken from agility
so with SotFL you have 87 agility, 87x2 and you have 174 AC in bear form
with any tank weapon with 500armor, you gain in bear form 2000armor
the druid avoidance is armor/dodge based, and if you want to tank someone big.. you can't ignore the real tak weapon 4 druid

if you have to tank any elemental mob (like flame of azzinoth in Illidan encounter) you no need no armor, in this case you can use Staff of Primal fury or SotFL with success, because the dodge taken from agility is lesser superior than Wildfury greatstaff's dodge and you can do more Threat with increased AP of the weapons

The pvp weapon like Merciless Gladiator Maul, o vengeful staff is NOT USEFUL to tank anything
because the pvp weapons have more critical strike rating, not agility, and critical strike don't give any dodge
and because this weapons don't have armor

i repeat: the druid avoidance is based on Armor and Dodge

[Nezoia]

Yes, the expertise is superb for Karazhan/Gruul tanking.

Alot of druid tanks underestimate the requirements for expertise/hit rating.
Don't bother with the S1 and S2 staves, and if you had access to S3 I doubth you'll be asking ;-)

I suggest you keep it untill you get Pillar of Ferocity (from Hyjal Summit), and use it as max-tps weapon, while using the Wildfury Greatstaff (from SSC) as max-avoidance weapon.

[Sans]

...

the real problem become Brutallus
i'm trying with my guild, and i have to revisit my gear for this boss
the big problem is when Brutallus cast 'stomp' on the tank, reducing his armor by 50%
this mean if you have 36k armor, you go down to 18k armor and you receive:
1 istant dmg from stomp cast of 5500 dmg
and the swing main+off
under stomp you get around 9-12k dmg from main hand and 5-7k from off hand
the swing is istantly done after the stomp, so, u can take a combo dmg of 5500+12000+7000
so, if you don't have more of 24k hp you are not healable
with more procbuffs like inspiration you can seriously icnrease your armor under the stomp, taking arounr 10000+6000dmg
so, if you have 22k more hp, you can tank it, and, if your healers are good, you don't die under stomp (stomp has 10sec duration)

...

From the Videos it seems as if others are using two tanks to switch when one of them gets the stomp ...

[mmff]

Earthwarden is the 2nd best tanking weapon in game for a druid.
500 armor, expertise and defense rating = win.

Remember to keep your defense over 415 if you're tanking boss level mobs.
Stack AGI and stam.
AGI > Stamina - Always, dont socket 12 stamina gems.
1 dodged attack > 2k extra health.

[torsdan]

Earthwarden is the 2nd best tanking weapon in game for a druid.
500 armor, expertise and defense rating = win.

Remember to keep your defense over 415 if you're tanking boss level mobs.
Stack AGI and stam.
AGI > Stamina - Always, dont socket 12 stamina gems.
1 dodged attack > 2k extra health.

Earthwarden is a very nice Tanking weapon for Ferals but it's NOT the 2nd best tanking weapon in the game. It's the best tanking weapon till you get to T5 content and get the Wildfury Greatstaff. Progression wise it breaks down like: Braxxis staff of Slumber, Earthwarden, Wildfury Greatstaff and then Pillar of Ferocity. Some Ferals may debate Pillar of Ferocity vs Wildfury but in the end Pillar is going to give you absolute top threat generation.

If you gear/gem correctly you should be able to drop in +15 stamina gems, use rings, trinkets, cloak and neck to up your Def (415) and get your avoidance over 40% (dodge). I used Earthwarden on my Druid back in the day but it was replaced with Wildfury (went Resto so don't use my Pillar or Wildfury, but now retired from raiding and leveling alts).

[Nezoia]

Some Ferals may debate Pillar of Ferocity vs Wildfury but in the end Pillar is going to give you absolute top threat generation.

Example:

Teron Gorefiend: Pillar of Ferocity (max threat generation).
Gurtogg Bloodboil: Wildfury Greatstaff (max avoidance)

There is not really a debate, only druids who can do 1500 tps and druids who can't

[Nezoia]

Is there feral druids out there in BT/MH who doesn't make 1.5k tps if it's needed?

Those with 100% avoidance gear, armor trinkets and absolutly no hit-rating / expertise at all.

And you know what... Pillar of Ferocity produce more TPS than Earthwarden :-)

[Ntrails]

Most ferals in the game cannot do close to 1500 TPS. Considering the OP question we can safely assume 1000tps is all he will need.

Resillience is an excellent way of being uncrittable.

My question is this - Sunwell aura seems, to my mind, to rape druids more than any other tanking class. Is dealing with this simply a case of stacking even more sta?

Unrelated. Highest feral buffed (bear form) HP?

[Nezoia]

Unrelated. Highest feral buffed (bear form) HP?

Dunno, I've been at 23.5k during a Kael'thas attempt, and that was in Tier5.

My question is this - Sunwell aura seems, to my mind, to rape druids more than any other tanking class. Is dealing with this simply a case of stacking even more sta?

No, it's due to the trash mobs completely ignoring your armor. Thus you need ALOT of stamina, AND dodge since dodge will pratical be *all* your mitigation.

Use Shifting Shadowsong Emeralds in every single socket, perhaps except agility+hit gems for obtaining +stamina/+agility socket-bonuses. 15stamina ain't worth it.
Dodge and Stamina never been more important than Sunwell. I feel pitty with the druids still using armor badges for it *shakes head*

So try obtain around 50% unbuffed dodge in bear form, with your mitigation kit on (I have 2 tank kits, 1 TPS , 1 Mitigation). It's not that hard , I'm at 43% with non-epic gems, and only 3 piece of T6.