Druids and MT

[amorob]

would have to disagree with the inflicted wounds being labled simi useful. even as just ot you will have many situations where you are not in range of the other tank's slow spell, and not every raid will have dk dps. 20% slow on melee is still one of the best things you can do to a mob other then keep it off the healers.

Agreed. Infected wounds is only not taken by a Tank Spec (MT or OT) when someone else can apply the debuff.

[deathsclaw]

I am a tank druid and in fights such as patchwerk you would think i should take the OT roll so i could soak the bolts right. Well in bear form i do about 1800 DPS and if I OT that fight i basically have to auto attack to keep from taking main threat from a Warrior or palidan. Using all attacks i generate about 4k TPS and over take the MT in that fight. I have 38k buffed HP and have solo tanked patchwerk 10man from 60% before. (Because the MT got nuked by bolts when i took agro). Well it worked in that case but I just have problems slowing down in the OT roll. I do 90% of the MT in our guild as a bear and I'm very successful at doing it.

The goal of blizz has been to equalize the tanking classes. I think at end game levels that has been done. But I do feel the bears have an advantage over others with medium level gear. I don't consider myself in top level gear, i have 2 valor items and pretty much all other lv200 gear. Raid buffed i have ~38k HP, 41% dodge, 32k armor and 4800AP. At this level its very hard for me to take the OT roll just because i create so much threat.

This week in our 10man run we had the DPS of the living side on the harvester die at wave 19. The Warrior tank and Shammy healer stayed alive. We took the debuff to 9 stacks and then it reset to 1 (interesting), the gates opened at 30% and I asked the warrior to taunt, I Brezed another DPS and we finished the fight. I guess that is a testimate to why a druid should OT though, having the warrior take over made it so we could down that boss. Do note though interesting that the stats debuff reset after 9 stacks on the group.

[Solux]

Druids are excellent main tanks, as is EVERY other tanking class in the hands of a good player.

Tricky things about being a druid include:
Small gearing issues, especially at the moment while we're waiting for the next patch which changes which gear we want
The perception by the community that because we're awesome offtanks that's all we should do
Our AoE attack does not go 360º around us, it only has a 180º arc, so we need to position things a little more than other tanks do, if you're not used to this, it takes a little skill to get right, but can be used well to avoid breaking CC with Glyphed Mauls and Berserked Mangles,
Threat issues which we've had for a long time, where a MT in equivalent or less gear, where we're offtanking who doesn't know their class well and isn't going all out for threat is often overtaken by us, because our moves are almost all threat based.

What to do as a MT druid:
Pull mob to you, probably with Feral Ferie Fire, since it's not only a nice debuff, it also creates decent threat, Mangle & Maul, if possible,
Demo Roar to make life easier on your healers if you don't have a Warrior for the shout,
Swipe if needed,
Lacerate if you really feel you need the extra threat, or you're hurting for rage, in which case DON'T MAUL,

Then just keep Mangling and Mauling until dead, swiping where necessary and Lacerating if need be. Make sure you keep your debuffs up, of course, but that's not too difficult. It's a much easier rotation than say a Warrior tank to maintain, but we have far less emergency buttons.

To get gear: Check posts like http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t36963-f...aid_tank_gear/ or http://wowthinktank.blogspot.com/200...-list-for.html to show you good choices, but remember armor on non-leather pieces isn't going to be as valuable, but the comments at the end of that thread will show you which pieces will be better. Also, download the latest version of Rawr, to allow yourself to compare your own gear from http://www.codeplex.com/Rawr/Release...eleaseId=21408

For your talent points, a Druid MT probably needs something like this: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0ZxGGscrzceRcczVobA0z as a base. There's some free talent points there you can place according to your playstyle. It also takes raid buffs as a priority, so if you have things like the expertise to get 6.5% without talent points or the right warriors or other druids on your run to provide buffs for you, more points can be shuffled.

[blahblahnameblah]

Yes.
Druids can MT every boss in LK atm.
Like many of the previous posters I often (as occasionaly raid leader) put myself in the OT role because I know that I will still out dps the prot pally, DK or warrior tank... but I've tanked all bosses no problems at all.

Solux post is excellent.

Like deathsclaw states, OT on Patchwork means that you are mostly going to auto attack, which I agree is boring... but I also know that coming into that fight with 40K+ armor I will be a lot less healing intensive than any other tank (especially with barkskin up).

I generally will OT on KT for much the same reason, the guards that pop get a stacking Blood Tap buff that makes them do more damage (+15% damage) which a bear can deal with more easily than other tanks (in general) but of course any tank that knows what they are doing can fill any role.

Overall I would say that the most important skill any tank can have is situational awareness.
Knowing what to expect and being ready to react is the biggest key to good tanking.

[Solux]

Overall I would say that the most important skill any tank can have is situational awareness.
Knowing what to expect and being ready to react is the biggest key to good tanking.

Yes. A good tank is someone who does this, no matter which class they're from. Someone who reads the fight strategies beforehand and responds well to the Raid Leader is also incredibly useful.

[Geritixxi]

Like any tanking class, with a druid it's much more about SKILL than it is about the class.

Yesterday we had a feral druid with us in Naxx10, and he DPS'd while doing Kel'Thuzad. Then there was a bit of a fuckup, and both our tanks died. The druid shifted to bear and continued to tank both KT and both guardians until we finished. Yes, that's some OP tanking.

All tanks (Druid/Warrior/Paladin) can take the 2 adds and KT on normal without the biggest doubt... Actually I exp'ed that our Pala tank had easier times tanking all three, than just tanking adds
but tanking all three is notthing to do with OPness, its about know what you are doing, and use your CDs correct to help healers

Our AoE attack does not go 360º around us, it only has a 180º arc, so we need to position things a little more than other tanks do, if you're not used to this, it takes a little skill to get right, but can be used well to avoid breaking CC with Glyphed Mauls and Berserked Mangles,

That we need to "move" more to stay correctly ain't really bad tbh, cuz that may keep your mind on avoid getting your back against the tanked mobs/boss... Many "new" tanks are actually failing this, cuz they ain't think about you can't dodge or parry attacks coming from behind.
Druid HAS to move and get all in front for multiply tanking, so that ain't a bad thing tbh. All tanks will need to fit the moves 360 or not, to avoid getting hits from behind

[Degrador]

That we need to "move" more to stay correctly ain't really bad tbh, cuz that may keep your mind on avoid getting your back against the tanked mobs/boss... Many "new" tanks are actually failing this, cuz they ain't think about you can't dodge or parry attacks coming from behind.
Druid HAS to move and get all in front for multiply tanking, so that ain't a bad thing tbh. All tanks will need to fit the moves 360 or not, to avoid getting hits from behind

The key difference is that without a reliable AoE taunt (such as consecration / thunder clap / death and decay) if you end up with adds both in front and behind you then you have no easy way to pick them up (often leading to them running off to the healer in that time you're trying to position to get an attack on him), meanwhile the other tanks use these abilities and then position them after.

Still, the threat caused by Faerie Fire (Feral) has helped a lot for this - you can at least pick up one mob at range every 6 secs.

[dambros]

Thank you all for the replies I really appreciate it.

More than ever I feel like taking a druid on... it's amazing to see that little bear going for 50k hp and things like this.

Ouch, 1-80 is a long road, but it seems funny with a druid, at least I can aoe in bear!

Edit: I have been looking for a "godly" tank druid armory but the best I could find barely hit 500 def. Is 540 applicable to druids?

Thanks!

[Dooudad]

Thank you all for the replies I really appreciate it.

More than ever I feel like taking a druid on... it's amazing to see that little bear going for 50k hp and things like this.

Ouch, 1-80 is a long road, but it seems funny with a druid, at least I can aoe in bear!

Edit: I have been looking for a "godly" tank druid armory but the best I could find barely hit 500 def. Is 540 applicable to druids?

Thanks!

there is no need to get defence other then hey this item rocks and it has defence, we are crit capped via sotf tallent.

[Solux]

Yep, Survival of the Fittest gives us 6% anticrit, putting us over the 5.6% needed. Defence gives a tiny bit of dodge and some miss chance, but is generally inferior to dodge as increased tanking stats until very high levels of dodge and ranks below all other stats for consideration on tanking gear. Druids you see with it are wearing tanking pieces for other stats on them

[Dooudad]

81 dodge on an item gives you roughly 1% avoidance before dr, 35 agi will give you 1% dodge with sotf 3/3 and 10% kings before dr, and 39 dodge will give 1% defence will be important one day if you ever find your self haveing 2600 something agi, which at this time dosent look to happen before t15, which will have worse dodge to defence ratios)