Feral bear, threat issues at higher gear level

[ForTehNguyen]

Been using the same tank rotation I've always been using even when I wasn't geared and its obvious as I geared up the rage generation is more difficult, even when using maul less. Starting to like my blood DK more for running guildies through, don't have those rage problems

[Tricksterjim]

What I have learned is that while our threat is kind of low, it is still ok. It is just lower then other tanks, but then again we did fine in BC when we could only swipe 3 targets in a frontal cone lol. It just takes a little more skill. Would I like some higher threat modifiers? Yes. But I am learning to get along without them.

I tend to beserk off the bat, because if that first mangle misses, I am going to lose threat. And even though I growl, DPS are too busy mashing buttons to stop for a second and I am going to lose it again. Mangle prevents that. After mangle runs its course, I start the above mentioned rotation.

In heroic dungeons I tend to mark a skull and devote most time to that. I tend to run with 2-3 of my friends and they know how to play. I don't worry about the stupid dps that can't kill skull, I let him die. Otherwise if I am tabbing to keep his target on my, my friends who pull redic dps are going to pull the primary target off me. Simple as that.

[Deleted]

Rotation wise other people have given you advice on doing it for more threat.
But what you can do aswell is, spec into King of the Jungle and Primal Madness. (Can't post links but you can armory Bananaface - Bloodfeather EU for the spec).

I found out that with really low hit and expertise that it's best to just macro berserk+enrage+barkskin and pop it at the start and mangle+maul spam untill beserking is done, it can bring me up to 90-100k tps at the start of the fight. After that I'm having barely any issues with threat unless it's a boss that doesn't hit me that often, but even than it's only our fury warrior who is pumping 50k tps who can get over me in the first minute of the fight. Let a paladin use salvation on that dps that is high on threat and it's fixed.
Rest of the fight I'm maintaining a priority rotation of: pulverize buff > mangle > lacerate (when possibly rage starved, FFF) and dumbing maul 99% of the times when it's off cd. It might not be the max tps rotation but I don't need it, this way i get slightly more SD procs (glyph of lacerate).

[Cracked]

LOL. Read taunt tooltip please. "Taunts the target to attack you, but has no effect if the target is already attacking you."

If you're relying on growl, taunt, etc to 'top off your threat' ...urdoinitrong.

I start pulls with FFF > Feral Charge > Mangle and Maul > Lac to 5 > Pulverize. After that threat is just peachy. I know some bears are having huge issues with threat right now, but even in heroic raids, this shouldn't be the case. The only places I have issues are 5 mans, where I'm rage starved.

Don't rely on growl for shit! it's merely an 'oh shit that mage is dumb and is attacking the wrong target I guess I'll save his life lol' move and nothing more.

That is not correct. The tooltip of this is misleading. Taunt still forces the target to attack you for 3 seconds, regardless of who it's attacking.

[Gavenrod]

Okay, a little explanation before getting into the details.

I'm currently in a 10 man guild with decent progress, a few heroic raids here and there and I've been having some problems with threat lately when clearing through normal modes at the end of the week. My average item level is at about 359 I think and my highest prio so far has clearly been survival for which I've only gemmed for stamina and some dodge to cover up the meta. I've also reforged all my gear to dodge which makes me land at about 1,5% hit and 0 expertise.

I know that the only issue with threat is within the first critical seconds of a fight, where you usually have tricks, md etc, which we currently have. Threat has never been a problem before except for the previous week. Our mage actually took aggro on atramedes at 45% (!) which made me a little confused and checked out my buffs. What I saw was that my vengeance didnt stack above 3-4k attack power and thus provided me almost no threat/dmg at all. I actually had the same problem on maloriak the week before, this time with noone overaggro though.

Is there anyone else having the same problem and what is your solution for this? Actually gem/reforge for expertise/hit or to just let your dps deal with it?

As you're getting plenty of threat at the beginning of the fight, just wait until whomever is approaching your threat threshold and burn your Enrage and Berserking cooldowns at the same time. Mangle spam in situations like these will absolutely guarantee that your threat is secure for the boss. If you're Pulverizing and blowing these cooldowns at the beginning of the fight, then you may wish to re-evaluate your opening rotation.

It's also very handy to keep a stack of Mighty Rage Potions at your fingertips if you ever have any problems with acquiring emergency rage.