Resurrecting "Old" druid tank alt - Looking for a couple of tips

[krasgoth]

Hey guys. First off, the ghetto armory link:

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...ard&cn=Dauneth

Now, this is an alt I haven't really played in months and months. I jokingly kicked him around in icecrown once when the patch hit and got him a couple of items, but for the most part he's sat idle and useless for more than half a year, his last real use was in Ulduar.

Last night I just jammed a bunch of gems into his gear because I'm tired of his threat being absolutely abyssmal (obviously a lot of it comes with gear) and tanked ICC10 up to LK with no issue, that's not a big deal, I'm used to tanking it on my paladin anyways.

Now, I hold threat "ok", but it seems his damage is an absolute atrocity. It always has been on the bear, so I'm not sure if i'm doing something wrong, because I've never seen a change. It's the one thing I've never been able to do with any degree of success, is damage while tanking on my druid.

Is it gems? Any gem guide I've read says gemming Shifting in every slot is great, or just solid in blues, but it seems so bad. Should I be gemming straight up agility in every slot and making myself a giant dodge/crit sponge?

Is it my gear? I know my gear is dated and old on him due to neglect, but it doesn't seem that far behind...

Is it my rotation? It's not like there's much to do on a bear, Faerie Fire > MangleMaul > LascerateMaul x5 > Mangle /Maulswipe etcetc, you just run through the motions pretty much.

What's up?

[Deleted]

Your rotation is fine

about your gems I would go full agi or agi/sta if bonus is +6 sta. The reason is, that since they gave us 20% less dodge chance they also nerfed the boss dmg. Sta is still the best stat.

[krasgoth]

Your rotation is fine

about your gems I would go full agi or agi/sta if bonus is +6 sta. The reason is, that since they gave us 20% less dodge chance they also nerfed the boss dmg. Sta is still the best stat.

hnnnnrgghh. Stam is the best stat for overall tanking, I'm pretty survivable on every boss (and I think it'd be the same no matter what) but my biggest issue seems to be threat and putting out a proper amount of damage. Up until last night, I had +24 stam glubbed into every socket because I didn't really care about him, but I threw in about 2k worth of gems into his gear and it seemed to improve..... moderately. I wasn't getting thrashed by the other tank, at least

Still had troubles on a few pulls where divine storm , HoTR or whirlwind would just rip stuff right off of me even after a trio of swipes had gone off, taunt isn't a big deal to push, but I get irritated seeing "Changing target" when I'm tanking!

Swipe just seems.... lacking.

[Oajng]

I would say its just because you dont have 2pc T10, which improves your damage by a lot. Also, you dont have much Expertise. If I were you I'd try to get expertise capped so you dont get parried/dodged as often.

[Deleted]

swipe just seem... Lacking

if you got glyph of maul, macro'ed it with swipe and 2p tier10 your AoE problems should be gone :P

[hargi]

As far as the gemming goes, the days of Agility is gone.

Go full out with +30 Stamina gems, unless the socket bonus is 9 stamina or higher per gem. (Of course use a Nightmare's Tear / Shifting Dreadstone to unlock Metagem)

Get a back enchant.

Mongoose is strongly suggested as the main tanking enchant, due to increase of crit, haste, AP and Dodge instead of pure AP.

In most situations, the glyphs you want to use is SI (Survival Instincts), FR (Frenzied Regeneration) and either Growl or Maul. Maul for heroics etc, growl for fights where a missed taunt will make a large difference (LK, DBS, LDW etc)

Get 3/3 Thick Hide! This is a MUST have talent!
Get 5/5 Ferocity!!! If you lack damage/threth as you said, this is the bloody reason.

I'd suggest going with this specc: http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?drui...9,ONwHRO,11723, although there are some points which can/should be switched around depending on encounter and raid setup.

What else to say? You're somewhat high on hit, somewhat low on expertise.
Try to replace some of the agility gems.
Try to replace PvP gear asap, as the PvE versions of the gear tend to bring more expertise, agility, haste and crit, all important factors to improve you damage lack.

Hope this helped a little

[Tobyjohn]

if you got glyph of maul, macro'ed it with swipe and 2p tier10 your AoE problems should be gone :P

Swipe with 2pT10 is the the best thing that happened to druids since the new models! (simply because i can't remember all the other stuff)

[krasgoth]

Ok, I'll admit, 2 piece tier 10 looks sexy, I realize tier 8 is really outdated and I'll actually have to spend some emblems on stuff

I don't think Ferocity has anything to do with threat.. I've never had a problem with rage at all, it pretty much fills up 100% of the time.

I know I need to replace my crap (tier 8, low badge stuff, blue trinket, etc) with good stuff, and a lot of the expertise will come with gear too, so that's one thing I can do.

I'll just assume 2pc t10 will be the best for now. As for the staff and mongoose, I got it and enchanted it in the raid the other night, so I didn't have access to mongoose right away

[hoot80]

Is it my rotation? It's not like there's much to do on a bear, Faerie Fire > MangleMaul > LascerateMaul x5 > Mangle /Maulswipe etcetc, you just run through the motions pretty much.

I see a few things that stand out for threat generation:

First off drop those points in King of the Jungle because it is almost worthless until you get the 4 piece T10 bonus. The loss of armor is not worth the 10 second threat gain. Instead use Improved Mangle 3/3 as this combined with your MSS from resto will certainly give you more overall damage and threat. Also, this was mentioned already, but please do get 3/3 in Thick Hide. And depending on your role you can replace Growling with Mangle for additional threat (if you are an OT on fights that don't really require taunts to land 100% of the time). Maul should be replace with SI glyph as well unless you are just tanking trash and have a bunch of spare Glyphs to switch back to SI for boss fights.

Next your rotation...do not do Lacerate 5 straight times after the first Mangle. Yes you want to get Lacerate to 5 stacks quickly, but you are also losing the threat that you gain (and damage for that matter) of adding in one more Mangle after either 2 or 3 Lacerates. After 5 stacks of Lacerate are up pop Berserk and Mangle like crazy until you have to refresh Lacerate, then Mangle til Berserk drops. After that the priority list goes to Mangle > Faerie Fire > Lacerate (ONLY to keep 5 stacks going) > Swipe with Maul macroed to every attack obviously. You should be able to basically fit about two attacks between every Mangle if you are 3/3 Improved Mangle.

And the last thing is your expertise. If you are suffering on threat or just want to see more damage you need to get your expertise to a minimum of 26. At this point your only real options are to buy Ikfirus' Sack of Wonder or replace those Wrathful legs with T10 (hopefully the 264 versions if you get lucky in VoA).

Oh...and your 2 piece T8 bonus could easily be replaced with the 245 crafted chest (if you can't afford the Sack) and the 245 badge helm. The bonus isn't really that great if you are tanking a boss as they will provide more than enough rage for you to spam Maul on every CD and the 245 items will give you a full tier of additional stats over your current helm and chest.

[Deleted]

Bear rotation:

keep FFF up
keep mangle up
use maul in each GCD
use mangle whenever it's off CD
depending on the situation, use demo roar
keep lacerate at 5 stacks and don't let it drop

so, a fight can be like this:

FFF
mangle (maul)
lacerate (maul
lacerate (maul)
mangle (maul
lacerate (maul
lacerate (maul)
mangle (maul)

This is only what I do and my personal advice

[krasgoth]

Helpful Advice

Thanks, this is exactly what I was looking for.

First things up for replacing:

Bracers > Chest > Hat > Trinket > Everything else

I'll never see 4piece tier on this guy, he's my 3rd character I'll have ready and geared for ICC, apparently you can never have enough tanks to run it with because everyone's lazy!

I should have been more specific - Single Target my threat is passable and I never have any trouble with it, there's a little bit of gear discrepancy but overall, it really isn't even noticeable. My threat troubles come from aoe trash, which as people have already mentioned, two piece tier will help astoundingly with.

As for the gearing options, I was thinking of picking up the t9 helm for expertise and Wrathful bracers simply because bracers of swift death are so meh. Maybe I'll rummage around and make a 245 chest for him too, but most likely I'll use my frost badges on the chest first and hope for a drop from VoA for the 2nd piece.

Remember, 3rd alt, so he's not going to get a huge amount of playtime, but I do want to tweak him into perfection

[Sunshine]

Bracers of swift death are quite good -- best bracers in ToC-era, at least. They're also pretty cheap these days, from what I hear...

Spec suggestions have been good so far (take Thick Hide, drop points in KotJ if necessary). Ferocity isn't required; you should have rage without it. Imp mangle is nice to have, but it and MSS are kind of either/or -- either will give you enough threat, but taking both will usually gimp your spec in other ways. You can drop to 3/5 furor, and please, please take Infected Wounds!

Gear-wise, I'd suggest replacing that pvp trinket first, since it's completely useless. T9 and T10 bonuses are both nice to have (both 2- and 4-piece), and as mentioned earlier, the Sack of Wonder is fantastic, and the 245 crafted chest is also quite nice if you can't get your hands on the sack.

Beyond that, Mongoose on your weapon would be a nice change (for both tank and dps). Gemming-wise, use a mix of stam and agi/stam to achieve "enough" hp and then maximize avoidance. (And yes, nightmare tear and stam/def are both viable options for yellow slots where the stat bonus is worthwhile; e.g., T9 helm.)

[krasgoth]

Bracers of swift death are quite good -- best bracers in ToC-era, at least. They're also pretty cheap these days, from what I hear...

Spec suggestions have been good so far (take Thick Hide, drop points in KotJ if necessary). Ferocity isn't required; you should have rage without it. Imp mangle is nice to have, but it and MSS are kind of either/or -- either will give you enough threat, but taking both will usually gimp your spec in other ways. You can drop to 3/5 furor, and please, please take Infected Wounds!

Gear-wise, I'd suggest replacing that pvp trinket first, since it's completely useless. T9 and T10 bonuses are both nice to have (both 2- and 4-piece), and as mentioned earlier, the Sack of Wonder is fantastic, and the 245 crafted chest is also quite nice if you can't get your hands on the sack.

Beyond that, Mongoose on your weapon would be a nice change (for both tank and dps). Gemming-wise, use a mix of stam and agi/stam to achieve "enough" hp and then maximize avoidance. (And yes, nightmare tear and stam/def are both viable options for yellow slots where the stat bonus is worthwhile; e.g., T9 helm.)

Heh, the pvp trinket I equipped just to do a random bg last night, do ignore that And I don't really have 15k gold sitting around, so I think I'll just go with the crafted 245 or most likely the badge chest for that.

Hmm, never really thought about nightmare tear actually, silly me. I should be using it in yellow sockets, that's something I did miss. As far as infected wounds, I was debating it and probably should have it anyways (since I'll end up pvping for the arena feral staff since I'm a completionist) and once I get that staff, I'll throw mongoose on it.

As for the bracers of swift death... I'm undecided. Think I'd rather have the 2k gold from not buying the bracers of swift death and the extra 20 agility instead of ARP on the bracers.

I can deal with thick hide, and I can definitely drop furor points. Ferocity as we both mentioned earlier isn't really required, rage isn't my issue, having improved demo shout is much more beneficial.

[Sunshine]

Heh, the pvp trinket I equipped just to do a random bg last night, do ignore that And I don't really have 15k gold sitting around, so I think I'll just go with the crafted 245 or most likely the badge chest for that.
...
As for the bracers of swift death... I'm undecided. Think I'd rather have the 2k gold from not buying the bracers of swift death and the extra 20 agility instead of ARP on the bracers.

Ah, sounds good then. The pvp bracers should do just fine; I think bracers have been one of the harder slots to fill this expansion.

[Deleted]

Ah, sounds good then. The pvp bracers should do just fine; I think bracers have been one of the harder slots to fill this expansion.

i totaly agree. I was using the bracers from totc hc (ilvl 219) untill I for a few months ago got the crafted totc ones (ilvl 245). I was sooo happy that day ;D