Bear aoe suggestions

[Mystile]

After reading many, many topics about bear aoe threat being bad, I have come up with a few suggestions. And for the record, I do agree that bear aoe threat is lacking, but I also think it does it's job as "holds threat off the healer, but not a dps that is attacking the wrong target." Once again, I am not saying we do not have the capacity to aoe tank, but that our aoe ability is vastly inferior to the other tanking classes.

Adding in a new prime glyph of swipe; increases swipe damage by 10% (either passive or 10% addition on a bleeding target, which was going to be added into the Feral Instinct talent during beta).

Changing the current glyph of thorns; usable in bear and cat form (it could cost rage or energy, but mana would be ideal since outside of pvp feral mana has zero impact on anything besides rebirth and max mana for innervate).

My last suggestion would be to simply adjust the threat modifiers on the attacks a little, nothing drastic.

[Arielle]

I don't think 10% is significant enough considering how low it is right now.

I still like the idea of Berserk proccing Mangle and Thrash, and having the two share a CD.

[Mystile]

I like the idea of mangle and thrash sharing a cool down, it would be very similar to paladin tanking in that sense.

[xotrem]

Some would probably disagree with me, but as a whole I think no tanking class has a great AoE ability anymore, not like in Wrath at least. Pally consencrate has a huge CD now. You melee ability can hit 3 targets, but Consencrate would hit everything. D&D for DK's still works pretty well and in my opinion DK's have passed pallies in terms of AoE tanking where used to pallies used to be tops. Maybe it is part of the effort by Blizz to make CC more needed, by nerfing AoE tanking in general.

[xiza]

our aoe tanking is fine, we just have to press a few more buttons instead of swipe spamming the whole time.
but what still needs to be modified is the dmg output of swipe/thrash WITHOUT any vengeance stacks.. it hits for nothing, the mobs laugh and throw their boogers at me :<

[Mystile]

Some would probably disagree with me, but as a whole I think no tanking class has a great AoE ability anymore, not like in Wrath at least. Pally consencrate has a huge CD now. You melee ability can hit 3 targets, but Consencrate would hit everything. D&D for DK's still works pretty well and in my opinion DK's have passed pallies in terms of AoE tanking where used to pallies used to be tops. Maybe it is part of the effort by Blizz to make CC more needed, by nerfing AoE tanking in general.

I agree all tanks have bad aoe, but I have a druid (my main, half epics), a warrior (in almost equal gear), and a paladin (mostly 333-346) and I definitely have an easier time aoe tanking on both characters over my druid, though all three get the job done.

[Shinshiva]

bear aoe isn't bad, there's no real need for hardout aoe in the game at all till we out-gear heroics, and then it won't matter coz out aoe threat will be through the roof due to gear.
there are a few bosses out there; maloriak comes to mind but we're much much better for interrupts on boss in comparison to other tanks ability to pick up the adds.
other than that, it's just baddies just doing what they have always done: be bad.

tip" start with swipe, hit thrash straight after, tab target lacerate/mangle/maul. easy peasy lemon squeezy.

[bigjenk]

I have been saying that thorns usable in bear form would help solve a lot. As someone who leveled a feral tank after 4.01 it was an absolute headache to tank aoe until 81 and a fresh rolled 60 dk does more aoe threat then a level 75 druid.

[Thunderpants]

I tank on my DK, Warrior and Druid and I find the DK it much easier holding aoe threat with DK than with with the other 2.Warrior is slitghlty easier but Druid is definitly more work on lots of mobs.

[Deleo]

Paladins and DKs have it much easier on AoE pulls. They nerfed bear's single target damage, which I think was fine or at least par with paladins, but didn't do anything with our AoE.

[stacker55]

I agree all tanks have bad aoe, but I have a druid (my main, half epics), a warrior (in almost equal gear), and a paladin (mostly 333-346) and I definitely have an easier time aoe tanking on both characters over my druid, though all three get the job done.

all tanks have bad aoe? you say this and yet you own a prot warrior... i dont understand

my prot warrior in 4 epics and rest 346 gear does 20-22k DPS on trash pulls in 5 mans. This is easily accomplished by spamming buttons and keeping thunderclap/shockwave on cooldown

[Kpoof]

All classes except bears can hold against a Frost DK AoEing. Now tell me that bears don't need better AoE.

[Jaerin]

Bear AE isn't bad. It's just not as easy that you can't swipe spam.

You actually have to worry about when you hit swipe/thrash to make sure they land. You also should be tabbing around putting lacerates on single targets.

Sorry AE spam threat is gone and good riddance.

[Mystile]

all tanks have bad aoe? you say this and yet you own a prot warrior... i dont understand

my prot warrior in 4 epics and rest 346 gear does 20-22k DPS on trash pulls in 5 mans. This is easily accomplished by spamming buttons and keeping thunderclap/shockwave on cooldown

I can pull 20k+ on trash with my bear as well, it's called berserk. On a typical pull on my warrior will pull 10-12k (depending on how many mobs I have on me, of course) and on the same pull my druid might do 9k.

You have to take into consideration warriors have far more aoe tools than bears as well, in fact all tanks do. They have cleave, rend spread, thunderclap, and shockwave. Paladin have hammer of the righteous, consecrate, holy wrath (terrible damage, but still aoe), and avenger shield (three target). Death knight has diseases, blood boil, and death and decay. From this list you can clearly see bears are missing a third aoe ability, which is why I opt for thorns glyph change.

Sorry AE spam threat is gone and good riddance.

Please re-read the topic and post again, that is not the topic at hand.

[Wojtek]

Bears already have a 3rd aoe, it's called glyphed maul.

Bears are fine. Stop dumbing down my class.

[Mystile]

Bears already have a 3rd aoe, it's called glyphed maul.

You're right, glyphed maul is amazing (sarcasm) for aoe threat, that 2-3k hit 4-6k crit on a secondary target keeps up really well with cleave (I have had over 20k cleave crits, yes, on all three targets, not to mention the deep wounds from the crits). The only spell that I can think of that is remotely close to GLYPHED maul is Death Knight heart strike, which is just naturally built into the spell.

Bears are fine, but need better tuning on aoe when in comparison to other tanks.

[dwezul]

To the replies of mangle and thrash should share a CD: lolwut? why on earth would you want your best single target and your best multi-target attack to share a CD? Not only that, but the berserk proc is from bleed effects on a target, ie the bleed from your thrash. no way in hell would that get implemented.

While I agree bear aoe is nowhere near as strong as any other tanks, it really doesnt need to be. If it's a bunch of little adds youre picking up, they should die fast enough that it doesnt really matter if that frost dk pulls 1 or 2 off of you, and if its you tanking 2 or 3 big mobs, the only way someone will be pulling off you is if theyre attacking the wrong target.

An aoe buff would be like ice cream: I dont need it at all, but theres also no way I'm turning down free ice cream

[Mystile]

To the replies of mangle and thrash should share a CD: lolwut? why on earth would you want your best single target and your best multi-target attack to share a CD? Not only that, but the berserk proc is from bleed effects on a target, ie the bleed from your thrash. no way in hell would that get implemented.

You mean like paladin with crusader strike and hammer of righteousness? http://www.wowhead.com/spell=50334 <- this link definitely says lacerate bleeds reset the cd and not bleed effects in general, which would have little change if thrash and mangle shared a cool down. If anything it would promote lacerating multiple targets to try and get thrash cd to reset (which is what I am forced to do at the moment to mangle multiple targets for "aoe threat"). The obvious issue here is using a single target spell to "aoe tank".

[Richmond]

Unlike many, i have never had AoE threat problems since the expansion if i'm honest.

The one idea i do like is being able to cast thorns in Bear form, that'd be wicked

[Jon]

Bear AoE is horrible when compared to other tank classes... it doesn't matter if it is "good enough", there's no justification for this large gap.

It's only going to get worse in the next patch, while Swipe and Trash were not touched, the nerfs to other bear abilities also weaken our AoE tanking since bears have to switch targets more often and throw mauls, mangles and lacerates around to keep threat on multiple mobs.

Buffing Swipe and Trash is the simplest and the best solution.