The much-maligned bearkitty spec

[Kreth]

I know it's a spec in bad repute among a lot of raiders, but I run a combined bearkitty spec (one spec for bear and kitty, and I just swap gear). I enjoy it, and the groups I usually raid with love having a viable emergencytank (I gem agi, so I have as much mitigation and avoidance in bear with dps gear on as I have with tank gear- just lower stam). Have saved raids from wipes many times.

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...dmoore&n=kreth

From the kitty side, I'm gimping my dps by not having Master Shapeshifter, by gemming agi instead of arpen (though this might change with T10), and by having to share glyphs with bear.

From the bear side, I can get almost everything I need, except infected wounds.

Anyway, I'd like peoples' input on exactly how much I might be gimping my kittydps, and on whether you see any possible improvements to the spec. Depending, I may make my second spec kitty-only or resto.

[bavarcarus]

4% crit and the viability of ferocious bite, I guess you don't lose much. I'd ditch the maul glyph and get the rip or shred one. You probably need the mangle glyph since you're not taking imp mangle, assuming there's no trauma/manglebot with you. I'm not good enough with theorycraft to say how much dps you're losing with the hybrid spec/glyphs.

[Sunshine]

Glyphs are probably the hardest part now, since they're so specific...

I was thinking that depending what you're tanking and whether or not you have a manglebot, you may want to drop Thick Hide for Imp Mangle. It's about 4k armor loss (roughly?) for more threat / ease of keeping mangle on the target... but kind of blasphemous to tank without it.

For glyphs, I'd probably go with SR, rip/shred, and SI.

[bavarcarus]

actually he could probably take the points out of the swipe talent if he's expecting to just be an emergency tank, that'd give 3 points for mangle.

edit: oh I missed one, you should dump the aquatic form gyph for challenging roar glyph.

[Kreth]

Thanks for the responses so far- I guess I should specify, I tank my guild's 10mans and either tank or dps a regular 25man run. Generally more bear than kitty, but a decent amount of kitty too. I'm hesitant to drop the swipe talent or the maul glyph since I lean on them pretty heavily for aoe threat. Will probably swap in the CR glyph.

The glyph tradeoffs do suck... the combined spec would be so good if not for this.

[axxey]

Glyphs are stupid cheap, very easy to carry stacks and swap around fight by fight.

I've done hybrid tank spec everything up to Anub hard where i respeced full tank/full cat feral(respec every week again now).

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#0ZxGGsfrzcekccuqkbA0zV

Primarily tank spec, changed glyphs and gear a lot depending on what doing that fight.(shoulders, head, legs, have double set each tier different chants). Picks up the very essential shredding attacks and king of the jungle, 1 point Imp leader for regen(i never drop under 1 any spec, being oom unable to shift sucks).

Lacks master shifter 4% crit and predatory instincts, i didn't have a consistant mangle bot at the time so put 1 point in imp mangle for energy.
You could sac Infected wounds for predatory instincts and make do with DK frost fever i guess.

NEVER bite.

[Crazhr]

I think most people know it works and have been done alot. I just dont see why you would do it with dual spec being so cheap? Yes as an emergency tank you might work but for any hard boss if the tank dies its a wipe. The days where an off tank could just pick up the boss and it be no problem is simply over.

[Cheezee]

Buy dual spec. Blizzard put it in the game for this reason.

[Stabbymidget]

I don't really belong in this forum, but shhh!
If you can shift into bear and survive long enough for a combat res and buffs on the actual mt, then its worth it, that right there is a silly wipe avoided/more learning time on a progress boss.
Hell, if I'm too lazy to watch my threat and end up third on omen, I'll *always* try and Evasion tank just in case people think of a battle res.

[axxey]

I think most people know it works and have been done alot. I just dont see why you would do it with dual spec being so cheap? Yes as an emergency tank you might work but for any hard boss if the tank dies its a wipe. The days where an off tank could just pick up the boss and it be no problem is simply over.

There's a LOT of fights where there's no need for an additional tank for a lot of the fight, having the utility to be able to dps effectively is great.
Beasts, Jarax, faction champs, deathwhisper etc.... Any fight where there's adds some of the time and boss the rest of the time, they can be picked up by a tank speced agi cat while still being viable boss dps.

Any fight that starts progression as a dps race it's good use of a druid, they are the perfect offtank.

When you can respec in the middle of combat let me know.

[Wildanimal]

Buy dual spec. Blizzard put it in the game for this reason.

I couldn't use my dual spec because I was Resto in my other spec. I was hybrid Tank spec Druid. I was able to OT most of Ulduar without problem. My cat Dps WAS gimped at about 5k... but it was well worth it for the raid. I would switch out a few glyphs for fights when no OT was needed. Being hybrid spec was much better for dailies and soloing also. I saw it as a trade off for threat instead of a bit of avoidance. no big really.

Wildanimal
Auchindoun US

[Ceara]

The days where an off tank could just pick up the boss and it be no problem is simply over.

That depends on how good your healers and off tank are, it can definately still be done.

On numerous occasions I have taunted the boss when the MT goes down and thrown up shield wall for healers to get their bearings. Its not an easy thing to do, and it doesn't always work, but it's not impossible.

[Alski]

The days where an off tank could just pick up the boss and it be no problem is simply over.

I dont know about your guild but i have saved many a wipe going into bear form. In my dps gear/spec i have about 36k health raid buffed and thats generally enough to see out the remainder of the boss if needed.
The most recent time i needed to do it was on a Icehowl in 25man ToTGC, 1 tank had died just before icehowl and our second tank went squish when icehowl was ~50-60% and i successfully tank it between the next 2 crashes we had to get the kill. each head but almost killed be but the healers picked up their game.

[bavarcarus]

I'm rather surprised in totgc25 that a dps bear could survive icehowl when a tank could not, healers must have really been slacking.

[Alski]

I'm rather surprised in totgc25 that a dps bear could survive icehowl when a tank could not, healers must have really been slacking.

Must of been the case cause prot pallys don't just drop dead these days.

[Aùssa02]

I never ever accepted that blizz wanted us to keep kitty and bear apart when speccing, so i have always been running with a kitty/bear spec and it works wonders id have to say

http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-ta...&gn=Solidarity

is my spec, i would NEVER suggest taking SI glyph over maul since you are really just WAY TOO dependant on your multi hitting maul for aoe fights
i pick imp mangle over Predatory Instincts as i still tank the most of the time, i don't feel a need for having infected wounds as we always have either a frost dk dps or a war tank with thunderclap for heroics, i bet i don't need it with my gear level :P

But i read somewhere here that i shouldn't be using FB in a spec like this while dpsing.. how come really? i can't see it as a real dps loss when i have over think its 8 secs left on both SR and Rip? ofc im not doing as much damage with it as a real kitty dps, but i do deal quite abit dmg (12k crits aren't rare for me in raid enviroment) so please explain that to me

1/3 imp mangle.. id say just don't go with imp mangle or go it fully, half arsing it isn't doing any good really.. its been theorycrafting about it since it went live, and results may vary but.. bottomline is it is either all 3 points or none at all

i have managed to save some wipes and raid not going either by having my OS being resto i can fill any spot in a raid as long as i keep up my gear for it
as i see it, only downside by doing this is actually that you will have trouble when rolling on gear in pugs, but that is just pugs.. (won fury of the five flights when it were still top notch dps trinket in a run i tanked, were called a ninja afterwards.. i didn't knew the ML so stupid >_< )

[Deleted]

It's fine for casual raiding, sure. If that's what you're doing and that spec is fun for you, then that's awesome!

However, it's a basic truth that a "proper" bear spec will be better at tanking, same as as "proper" kitty spec would be better at dps.

It might not be much of a differece, granted, but just think of those 1% wipes and you see where the difference could really matter.

[Gahouf!]

Buy dual spec. Blizzard put it in the game for this reason.

With a bearkitty spec and a resto spec you can perform all the roles in a random Heroic. Presto, instant invite!

[Aùssa02]

It's fine for casual raiding, sure. If that's what you're doing and that spec is fun for you, then that's awesome!

However, it's a basic LIE that a "proper" bear spec will be better at tanking, but it is a truth that a "proper" kitty spec would be better at dps.

Sorry i fixed it for ya ^^

in a raid, i need nothing for tanking that i am not getting in a hybrid kitty/bearspec ALOT classes can now give the Infected Wounds debuff and you will most likely have it from another class, i always do have it atleast and that is the ONLY thing i miss from a "proper" bear spec :P

[Vrachara]

Well, yes, of course you can aim the spec towards a bear and just pick up a few talents for kitty in space of the debuffs your raid gives you. But you're relying on your raid there (let me see you get Infected Wounds equivalent while you're tanking Dreadscale with the raid burning down Acidmaw) and the talents you are putting in for cat stuff could instead be used towards more things for the bear (like you're picking up KotJ instead of Master Shapeshifter f. ex. while the second is clearly more useful as a bear).

They're not huge differences, but considering the whole bearkitty spec argument is "5% of the time, I'll save my raid from wiping", consider the fact that in the other 95% cases, you're responsible for all the 5% wipes by providing less output on what you're supposed to be doing. Fact is, even without that spec, a cat specced Druid can easily go bear, pop all 3 cooldowns and survive long enough for the raid to res a real tank or finish off the last few % of a boss. I have done that myself a lot of times and even survived far further than my cooldown duration with a bit of luck and healer focus.