Before I get started...

[Zolon]

Recently, my guild has had a need for me to step back into the realm of tanking on my Druid (I normally play a mage). I used to tank SSC/TK back in BC, and did a bit of Naxx25 tanking.

Anyway. Long story short, I've started gearing up my Druid (Valdrinis on Moon Guard for curious minds) and I wanted to make sure that I'm doing the right thing when it came to gems and enchants. Is the Druid tanking guide still reliable for enchants? From what I understand, stacking stamina 100% seems to be the way to go now. I used to stack agility for insane dodge numbers, is that no longer viable/logical? Or was I on crack in the first place? :P It used to work for me in SSC. I haven't finished gemming/enchanting him, most of my stuff isn't fully enchanted yet, but I'm going to be getting it done soon.

So, any tips/suggestions/confirmations? Stack stam yes/no? What's the best weapon enchant now?

Thanks,
--Z

[Sunshine]

Stack stam exclusively? No. Will you need a lot of it? Probably, if you're going to be tanking new content especially. Generally I like to advise a mix of stam and agi/stam gems. Basically, get "enough" hp for whatever you're tanking, and then get agi after that.

As far as enchants, the list in the bear guide looks good. The best weapon enchant is Mongoose, although sometimes a second weapon with Blood Draining is nice to have.

[tanked]

is that sunshine from daggerspine?

on topic: agi stam & pure stam seem to be the way to go. a druid tank friend of mine goes pure stam and he is "ok"

[Sunshine]

is that sunshine from daggerspine?

Nope. My character name is actually something totally different.

[Zolon]

Thanks, I'll experiment with it and see what I can do. I got off my butt yesterday and got some enchants and new pieces, and gemmed them up.

Now... Mongoose, like, BC mongoose is still the most effective enchant? I've been tossing up the 110 AP enchant so far because I figured that would be ineffective.

[Ormula]

For ICC, you'll want to stack stam. The amount of avoidance you get from agility just doesn't counter-act the fact that bosses in ICC hit harder and faster. A bigger life pool is going to be what saves you when Festergut starts doing 90% increased damage, not doge-dodge-dodge-one shot.

[Zolon]

For ICC, you'll want to stack stam. The amount of avoidance you get from agility just doesn't counter-act the fact that bosses in ICC hit harder and faster. A bigger life pool is going to be what saves you when Festergut starts doing 90% increased damage, not doge-dodge-dodge-one shot.

Heh, I've actually already seen that. And it was more like "Dodge-18k-18k-18k-6kfailheal-dodge-18k-dead"

[Sunshine]

Now... Mongoose, like, BC mongoose is still the most effective enchant? I've been tossing up the 110 AP enchant so far because I figured that would be ineffective.

Yep, mongoose like BC mongoose. It's actually the best enchant for both bear and cat (although cat depends on gear) right now. I believe the PPM is less at 80 than it was at 70, but it's still up ~30% of the time. 120 agi + haste proc is just great for some armor/dodge/SD/threat.

Since the SD modifier is 25% of AP, it just isn't worth the investment to use AP gear/gems/enchants.

Heh, I've actually already seen that. And it was more like "Dodge-18k-18k-18k-6kfailheal-dodge-18k-dead"

Yep. I'd recommend at least 50k hp for ICC 10 and 55k hp for ICC 25 fully buffed/flasked (or up to ~10k more than that, if it makes you more comfortable). If you're just doing the first 4 bosses, about 5k less hp than that is fine; it's only when you get to Festergut and beyond that they really start hitting hard. With any gems left after the threshold you pick (which is not likely to be many), go for whatever avoidance you can.

[Richmond]

For ICC, you'll want to stack stam. The amount of avoidance you get from agility just doesn't counter-act the fact that bosses in ICC hit harder and faster. A bigger life pool is going to be what saves you when Festergut starts doing 90% increased damage, not doge-dodge-dodge-one shot.

Please dont listen to this guy, he's obviously a stam stacker.

Go with Sunshines advice, he usually hits everthing right on the head. 50K HP in 10 mans is more than enough. 55k In 25 is about right. Like he also said, any more than that isnt a bad thing, we're just looking at that as a minimum.

Unbuffed in bear form, if your sat below 25% Dodge with the ICC radiance then i wouldn't recommend gemming for pure stamina. Find a happy medium with 10 Agi + 15 Stam gems. Thats what i'm aiming for anyway.

[plee]

droods go all dodge cuz ur healer gonna go oom if you all only have stam cuz you just get hulk smashed too much

if you get shammy healer though you good cuz they can heal pro even if you not defense has 540. and they have totem to ground spells which helps against caster mobs!

so if you dont have shammy healer: get dodges

if you have shammy healer: go stam

[getefix]

droods go all dodge cuz ur healer gonna go oom if you all only have stam cuz you just get hulk smashed too much

if you get shammy healer though you good cuz they can heal pro even if you not defense has 540. and they have totem to ground spells which helps against caster mobs!

so if you dont have shammy healer: get dodges

if you have shammy healer: go stam

nothing to see here

[Zolon]

*Stares at above* Cough, yeah.. So far, we haven't had mana issues in the healer department.

I seem to be up at around 30% dodge with Icewell Radiance actively. I'll go back and get the materials for Mongoose then, thanks for the advice. Also, thanks a lot for the threshold numbers. That gives me something to aim for. Any last suggestions? Hit/Expertise worries at all? So far I'm seeing it come with most high-end gear anyway, but, still.

[Richmond]

*Stares at above* Cough, yeah.. So far, we haven't had mana issues in the healer department.

I seem to be up at around 30% dodge with Icewell Radiance actively. I'll go back and get the materials for Mongoose then, thanks for the advice. Also, thanks a lot for the threshold numbers. That gives me something to aim for. Any last suggestions? Hit/Expertise worries at all? So far I'm seeing it come with most high-end gear anyway, but, still.

Erm, my only advice would to never gem for it. Never.

Alot of the Ilvl 251 and above is drenched in Expertise. You'd only need 2 pieces + Primal Precision to reach the soft cap, anything above is obviously a bonus. (T10 legs have a good deal of it)

Hit? I picked up my T10 head slot last night and lost 82 hit and i'm still sat at just about 300 rating, i always try to keep about 50 above the cap just incase my next upgrade is lacking +hit. Even if i dipped below 267 then i'd just eat the Hit/Stam food. But generally, from what i've seen, hit isnt a problem anymore, you'll probably find you have an abundence of it soon.

[arel00]

I believe the PPM is less at 80 than it was at 70, but it's still up ~30% of the time. 120 agi + haste proc is just great for some armor/dodge/SD/threat.

Actually it's not. It's 1PPM, pre-haste, pre-specials. Which brings it up to roughly 2.5-3PPM for the average Bear, and makes it a 70% uptime.

[Sunshine]

Actually it's not. It's 1PPM, pre-haste, pre-specials. Which brings it up to roughly 2.5-3PPM for the average Bear, and makes it a 70% uptime.

Yeah, I thought it had been 1.2ppm at 70. I can't really remember, and it doesn't really matter, though.